CHAPTER LI. THE MEMORY OF THE DEAD
Let our tale revert to yet more distant memories, while the name of"Italy" wakes the author's recollections. He is set thinking of thesad times when newly-liberated Rome was again enchained by the hands ofEuropean despotism, alarmed at the revival of the Mistress of the World,and at the terrible warning conveyed by the Roman Republic. Alas! itwas by the arms of another great Republic that her hopes were blighted.Napoleon, the secret enemy of all liberty, fleshed his weapons upon theRomans when he had committed the crime _lesanazione_, and betrayed thecredulous people of Paris, slaying them in their streets without regardto age or sex. May God, in his own time, deal with the assassin of the2d of December, and of the world's liberty!
After the defense of Rome, the Recluse, never despairing of the fete ofItaly, although left with but few followers, decided to take the field.But more is required than a handful of brave men when nations intend toliberate themselves, and what can an irregular band of intrepid youthsaccomplish against four armies?
It is true that in the present day national spirit is more awakened,and the handful of brave youths has grown to heroic proportions andhistorical deeds, but in those unhappy times the populace stood gazingstupefied and in silence at the relics of the defenders of Romewhile passing out on their way to the open country, regarding them asirretrievably lost. Not one of those men stood forward to increase ourranks. On the contrary, every morning discovered a quantity of arms uponthe ground of bivouac, which deserters had abandoned. Those arms wereplaced upon the mules and wagons which accompanied the column, so thatin time the column possessed more mules and wagons than men, and littleby little the hope of arousing that nation of sluggards vanished fromthe souls of the faithful and courageous survivors.
At San Marino, seeing there was no longer any hope or heart to fight,the order of the day was given "to dismiss the men to their homes." Thatorder was couched in the following terms: "Return to your homes, butremember that Italy must not remain a slave."
The larger number took the road to their dwellings, but some desertersfrom the Papal and Austrian troops, who, if taken prisoners would havebeen shot, remained to accompany their chief in his last attempt to freeVenice.
And here begins a still sadder and more painful history.
Anita, the Recluse's inseparable companion, would not, even under thesetrying circumstances, leave him. In vain did her husband endeavor topersuade her to remain at San Marino. Though pregnant, faint, and sick,arguments were of no avail: the courageous woman would heed no advice,and answered all by smilingly asking "if he wished to abandon her."
Surrounded by the Austrian troops, tracked by the Papal police, thattired remnant of the Roman army outstripped them all during a nightmarch, and arrived at the gates of Cesenatico at one o'clock in themorning, where an Austrian detachment kept guard.
"Fall on them and disarm them," exclaimed Garibaldi to the fewindividuals forming his retinue; and the Austrian soldiers, completelystupefied, allowed themselves to be disarmed. The authorities were thenawakened, and requested to supply food and _bragozzi_, or small barges,that the volunteers might embark.
It can not be denied that fortune has favored the Recluse in manyarduous enterprises, but at this time began for him a series ofadversities and misfortunes.
A northern cloud had spread itself over the Adriatic on this night, andbreaking into wind, had rendered the sea furious. The narrow mouth ofthe port of Cesenatico was one mass of foam. Great were the efforts madeto leave the port in the _bragozzi_, thirteen in number, weighed downas they were with people, and at day-break they succeeded. But at thiscrisis numerous Austrians entered Cesenatico.
Sail was made, for the wind had become favorable, and on the followingmorning four of the _bragozzi_, in one of which were Garibaldi andAnita, with Cicernachio, his two sons, and Ugo-Bassi, landed in the Focidel Po. Anita, carried in the arms of the man of her heart, was borne toshore in a dying condition. The occupants of the other nine _bragozzi_had given themselves up to the Austrian squadron, which had discoveredthe little crafts by the light of a full moon, and had rained bulletsand grapeshot upon them until they surrendered.
The shores where the four boats put in were swarming with the enemy'sexplorers, sent to trace the fugitives. Anita was lying a little way offthe shore, concealed in a corn-field, her head supported by the Recluse.Leggiero, a valiant major belonging to the island of Maddalena, who hadfollowed the General in South America, and returned to Italy with him,was their only companion. He lay peeping through the stalks, and verysoon discovered some of the cursed white curs in search of blood.Cicernachio, Bassi, and nine others, who by our advice had taken adifferent direction in order to escape the enemy, were all captured, andshot like dogs by the Austrians.
When the nine victims were taken, the Austrians compelled nine peasants,by force of blows, to dig nine holes in the sand, after which adischarge from the enemy's picket dispatched the unhappy heroes. Theyoungest, a son of a Roman tribune, only thirteen years of age, stillmoved after the fire, but a blow from the butt-end of an Austrian'smusket smashed in his skull, and thus brutally ended his young life.Bassi and his brother, Cicernachio, met with the same fate at Bologna.The foreigner and the priest made merry in that hour of slaughter overthe purest Italian blood; and the mitred master of Rome remounted hispolluted throne, having for a footstool the corpses of his compatriots.
Let this cold brutality, this savage butchery of their honestnoble-hearted compatriots live in the memory of Italians, and give theirconsciences no peace while they leave their magnificent city a prey tothe foreigner and to the vile priests, who use it as a den of infamy.
The Recluse, bearing his precious burden--that dear and faithfulwife--wandered sadly, with his companion, Leggiero, through the lagoonsof the lower Po, until he had closed her eyes, and wept over her coldcorpse tears of desperation. Onward he wandered then, through forestsand over mountains, ever pursued by the agents of the Pope and ofAustria. Fate, however, spared him, to suffer anew both danger andfatigue, and to reap some triumphs too. The tyrants of Italy again foundhim upon their tracks--those tracks indelibly stained by them with tearsand blood. Ill was it for them that he escaped until the day when they,in turn, took to flight, and, like cowards, left their tables spread forhim, while the carpets of their superb palaces bore the imprint of therough shoes of his Thousand.
Meanwhile, however, our tale has brought the Recluse to Venice towitness the liberty for which he had sighed so much. It was then thatthe lagunes, covered with gondolas, saluted the red shirt as the tokenof national redemption, and sad memories faded in the light of the joyand freedom of that Queen of the Adriatic.