Page 78 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

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76 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

party Zucchi was then supporting with all his energy and his name. Similar
fears had been expressed some days before by Guerrazzi, the Tuscan Minister
for Home Affairs, who not only had rejected the help offered by Garibaldi to
Tuscany’s provisional government and Democratic Party, but had also urged
his departure from Livorno and even addressed Pellegrino Rossi, minister of
Pius IX, to obtain a pass and the necessary aid so that Garibaldi’s soldiers
could go through Tuscany to Ravenna, and there embark for Venice, that was
posing a strenuous resistance to Austria.
The damage caused by Tuscany’s Democratic Party to the small group of
Garibaldi’s soldiers (they were less than a hundred men) was ameliorated by
the Democratic Party of Bologna. The leaders of this party, in fact, made it
possible for Garibaldi to be allowed to go to Bologna and confer with
General Zucchi; the latter, overwhelmed by the noble and sincere bearing of
the commander and perhaps also afraid of the people of Bologna who, after
giving Garibaldi a warm welcome, did not rest but continued their tumults
and demonstrations, hastened to grant Garibaldi a travel order obliging all
civil and military authorities to provide his legionnaires «food, housing and
transportation, as they would for the marching troops of the State», and
informed the pro-legate of Ravenna that Garibaldi would go there to embark
for Venice.
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On the 12 , Garibaldi went back to the «Filigare», from where the
morning after he set off with his men and, through Pianoro, Castel San
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Pietro, Imola, Faenza, reached Ravenna on the evening of November 18 .
Almost at the same time as Garibaldi’s soldiers arrived in the city, news
from Rome reached Ravenna, that would necessarily change all Garibaldi’s
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plans: on November 15 , Pellegrino Rossi had been killed on the stairs of
the Papal Chancellery; the people had opened fire against the Swiss Guards;
the Pope had been forced to accept Mamiani’s ministry. And the events had
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come to a head in the subsequent days: on November 21 , Pius IX had fled
to Gaeta; the Government Council, left in charge by the Pope, had been
rejected by the People; the Government had been entrusted to a Supreme
Council and the Constituent Assembly had been called. Could Garibaldi do
other than show interest in these sudden and dramatic events?
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On November 20 , he addressed a letter to his volunteers, ending with
the words: «Italy will not hesitate, until its banner is hoisted free and unit-
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ed on the Capitol». On the 23 , he merged his legionnaires, whose ranks