Yet at this very time an insurrection was preparing of a far more dangerous character than the spasmodic outbursts in Messina and Calabria which had disturbed the repose, but scarcely endangered the throne, of Ferdinand's predecessors. The Sicilians and Neapolitans had now learned to act together, and planned a simultaneous rising in Calabria and Sicily. The revolutionists were to march upon the nearest fortified places, and eventually to seize Naples, where they were to proclaim the Unity of Italy. According as circumstances guided them, they were either to compel the King to accept the Constitution, to depose him in favour of his son, to choose a new dynasty, or, if necessary, to proclaim a Republic; but in any case they were to assert the unity and independence of Italy. Some hint of an approaching outbreak seems to have reached the ears of the King or his Ministers; for in August two artillery officers and some other citizens were arrested in Palermo. "But," says La Farina, the Sicilian historian, "nothing could be discovered, since the Sicilians knew better than any nation how to stand firm in preserving silence in all tortures: an ancient virtue not yet destroyed by modern corruption." The miserable local jealousies which had hindered the former struggles for liberty had for a time disappeared; but there was still in this conspiracy, as in every other, the natural division between the impetuous and the prudent, between the party of speedy action and the party of delay. And while the fiery spirits of Messina and Calabria were eager for an immediate rising, the citizens of the two capitals, Palermo and Naples, were in favour of slower action. At Messina, therefore, the first outbreak took place. On September 1 some officers met at an inn in that town to celebrate the promotion of one of their generals by a dinner. The conspirators seized this opportunity for an outbreak, and surrounded the inn as if from mere curiosity; but when sufficient numbers had gathered they suddenly unfurled the tricolour flag and raised the cries of "Viva Italia!" "Viva Pio Nono!" "Viva la Costituzione!" The officers at last became alarmed, and, rushing out, summoned the soldiers and ordered them to fire. They hesitated to obey, and listened to the appeal of the conspirators, who urged their common cause and the duty of Neapolitans and Sicilians to stand together against their common oppressor. Discipline, however, proved stronger than patriotism; the soldiers fired, and several Sicilians fell, amongst them Giovanni Grillo, the youth who had played the part of the birds in stopping the ears of the King's statues.