Three days earlier, 26th October, the small town of Monte Rotondo, five
leagues from Rome, was attacked by Garibaldi in person, attended by a band
of five thousand four hundred fighting men. Its garrison consisted of five
hundred men of the legion of Antibes. These few brave soldiers held their
ground for two days and repelled five attacks. They were compelled at last
to yield, having exhausted all their munitions of war. They retired, but
left Garibaldi so much weakened and disorganized by his inglorious victory
that he was unable for several days to advance. Thus, for the moment, did
the legion of Antibes save Rome.
(M110) Monte Rotondo, it is almost superfluous to relate, experienced the
fate of Bagnorea. Nothing comparable in point of atrocity had occurred
since the invasion of Italy by the barbarians. In justice to Garibaldi, it
must be said that he rebuked publicly by an order of the day, dated 28th
October, the “shameful excess” of his fellow-adventurers, and proceeded to
expurgate their ranks. But he could not hinder them from being what they
were, a mob of miscreants that the secret societies of the whole world had
discharged on the Pontifical State. He was not less astonished to meet
with so poor a welcome on the part of the people whom it was supposed he
came to deliver. His chief lieutenant, Bertani, bears witness to this
state of things, in the _Riforma_ of 18th November, 1867: “It must be
admitted,” said this writer, “that the people of the Roman States have no
idea of an Italy one and free. We have not been greeted or encouraged by a
single cry of rejoicing; nor have we obtained either any spontaneous
assistance, or even a word of consolation, from these brutified people.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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