"All those who came in this morning with Garibaldi are dead beat, having had no sleep last night, and plenty of work since. The general himself is reposing on the platform which surrounds the large fountain in the Piazza del Pretorio, where the committee is sitting _en permanence_. This committee, the same which carried on the whole movement from the beginning, has constituted itself as a provisional government, under the dictatorship of Garibaldi. It has appointed several special committees for the different branches of its operations, and provides as well as possible for the many wants which occur every moment. Considering the oppression under which the people have been, very little preparation could be made for the emergency, and everything has to be provided now under the pressure of the moment—arms, as far as possible, ammunition, provisions for the troops, hospital wants and arrangements, besides the great fact of satisfying every one who wants, or thinks he wants, something, and listening to every one who has something to say, or thinks he has. There is a great deal of good-will on the part of the committee, but I must say it is not so energetically seconded by the Palermitans as one could have expected from their enthusiasm. There is a semi-oriental _laissez aller_ about them, which only produces fits of activity scarcely equal to the moment. "At our first entrance into the town, there was a good deal of haste made about the barricades, but as the extension of the occupation constantly requires new barricades, there is some difficulty in keeping them up to the work; a great many _evvivas_, but all preferred to run about the streets to laying hand to the work. Even the ringing of the bells, the most demoralizing sound to an army in a populous town, can, in spite of all injunctions, be only kept up in fits and starts. It is the southern indolence, which soon gets the better of all good dispositions. "The town is illuminated, and presents, during the intervals of the bombardment, an animated appearance; but all the shops are still closed. The illumination, with the antique-shaped glass lamps suspended from the balconies, presents a very pretty effect, rather heightened by the shells flying through the clear sky." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER IX. "A nun of Sicily said to me: 'He must brother be to Saint Rosalie: For there's a wild brilliancy beams in his eyes, Sent down by his sister from Paradise.'" _Dall'Ongaro's lines on Garibaldi._ T. D.