Rule of the Monk; Or, Rome in the Nineteenth CenturyGaribaldi, Giuseppe
History
Rule of the Monk; Or, Rome in the Nineteenth Century
Garibaldi, Giuseppe
Italian fiction -- Translations into English; Rome (Italy) -- History -- 1798-1870 -- Fiction
palace of the Prince of Piombino, a large castellated building, very
strong. We first took the court-yard, in which we found their cannon,
they defending story after story of the building until driven to the
third floor, when, seeing the smoke of a fire which had been lighted on
the ground-floor to bam them out, they surrendered, and the fight was
over.
In the night the greater number of the men escaped towards Rome; only
300 in the palace were taken prisoners, besides forty-two horses and two
pieces of cannon, 500 stand of arms, and all their materials of war.
The fight had lasted twenty-four hours--from eight one day to eight the
next--without a single instant's cessation of firing. It cost us
between 400 and 500 men, amongst whom were some of our bravest and best
officers. This was the first real struggle under the General.
We had one day's rest; but on the following night the enemy returned,
and attacked the railway station at about a mile distant from Monte
Rotondo, where, finding a number of our wounded, they bayoneted them in
their beds, one man having twenty-seven wounds in his body. The General
at once sent heavy reinforcements, and the enemy was driven back. Three
days after this we marched to the Zecchenella, a large farmhouse about a
mile distant from the Ponte de la Mentana, within about four miles and a
half from Rome. On our approach the enemy re-crossed the bridge, blowing
up one of the two bridges and mining the other. The Papal troops came
again on our side of the Teverone--a river which joins the Tiber a few
miles from Rome. They extended themselves as sharpshooters all along
our line, amusing themselves by firing at us until the evening, we
scarcely returning a shot, the General having ordered us not to do
so--our aim, since we were so few, being to draw the enemy into the open
country. In the night we lighted large fires, to let the people in Rome
know that we were near; but the movement which we expected in the city
did not take place, and we returned to Monte Rotondo the next day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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