LIFB OF GAJUJIALDI.
from CE1tona, sent out a detachment of cavalry to forage . On drawing
near that town, they fell into an ambuscade : two men were taken
prisoners and handed over to the Bishop, and Garibaldi demanded their
releue in vain. To save their lives, he thought it his duty to seize aome
monks at an adjacent monastery, and carry them off with him. But the
very clE1rgy who in the IDtramontane journals accused Garibaldi of
f«ding on tM flu! of ni1 enemie1, were well aware that they had only
generosity to expect at the hands of the Champion of Italy. The
GuerillE1ro's reprisals so little alarmed the Bishop of Chiusi, that he caused
the two prisoners to undergo infamous treatment, and then delivered
them to the Austrians. More than one general would not have hesitated
to take exemplary vengeance for snt'h an act, but what wu Garibaldi's
conduct P After keeping the monks prisoners for three days, he set them
all at liberty. Such was the atrocious conduct of this Chief of the
Brigands!
On at Montepulciano, the Guerillero, in a proclamation full of
energetic and generous sentiments, called on the Tuscan people to expel
the foreigners, and shake off for the second time the cruel yoke of the
Grand Duke. Offering the assistance of his legions, he set out for
Florence, the place selected u the focus of the insurrectionary
movemEmt. The enterprise was irresistibly perilous : in addition to
General. Stadion's corps, amounting to 5,000 men, and Duke Ernest's,
which '117as already in a position to attack the legionaries ; the garrison of
Florence, commanded by General d'Aspre in person, was not less than
8,000 men of all arms. To these forces, so considerable in themselves,
must be added the garrisons of Leghorn and the other cities, and the
Tuscan troope stationed in various parts of the country. Lastly, the
troops in occupation of the Romagnas, at least equal in number to those
in Tuac:any, by leaving weak in the most important towne,
might, in a few days, act in concert, or even join General d'Aspre. In
this wa;r, if the insurrection he was about to attempt wu unauccessfu1,
Garibaldi would have no hope of escape.
And the non-success was presumable. We han said that in the moun
tains the reactionary party, though weak, were aiding, with arms in their
hands, 1to prevent the overthrow of the re-established state of things.
there was a good spirit rife in the capital, people whispered to
each other that the nation had been weakened by recent int{!stine com
motions , rendered desponding by the misfortunes of Italy, and little pre
pared to rise in revolt ata moment of general prostration. To add to the
diacourltgement, the news from Hungary and Venice, received solely
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