professor forli was silent until he and frank had passed out through the gate of the castle, then he took a long breath.
“the air of freedom,” he said, “is no different from that i have breathed daily on the walls there, for well-nigh three years, and yet it seems different. it is a comfort that my prison lay in this fair spot, and not in some place where i could see but little beyond the walls. often and often have i thanked god that it was so, and that, even as a free man and with the world before me, i could see no more lovely scene than this. there was change, too: there was the passage of the ships; i used to wonder where each was sailing; and about the passengers, and how hopefully many of these were going abroad to strange countries in search of fortunes, and how few were returning with their hopes fully satisfied. i smiled sometimes to think of the struggle for wealth and advancement going on in the world round me, while i had no need to think of the future; but my needs, always, as you know, few and simple, were ministered to; and though cut off from converse with all around me, i had the best company in the world in my cell. how thankful i was that my memory was so good—that i could discourse with the great men of the world, could talk with plato and argue with demosthenes; could discuss old age with cicero, or travel with either homer or virgil; visit the inferno with dante, or the heavens with milton; knew by heart many of the masterpieces of shakespeare and goethe, and could laugh over the fun of terence and plutarch: it was a grand company.”
so the professor continued to talk until they reached the shore. frank was not called upon to speak. the professor was talking to himself rather than to him, continuing the habit of which the officer of the prison had spoken. as yet his brain was working in its old groove. once on the strand, he stood silently gazing for two or three minutes, then he passed his hand across his forehead, and with an evident effort broke the chain of his thoughts and turned to frank.
“strange talk, no doubt you are thinking, frank, for a man so suddenly and unexpectedly released from a living grave; but you see, lad, that the body can be emancipated more quickly than the mind from its bonds, and i am as one awaking from a deep sleep and still wondering whether it is i myself, and how i came to be here, and what has happened to me. i fear that it will be some time before i can quite shake off my dreams. now, lad, once more tell me about my wife and your mother. but no, you have told me that they are well. you have said naught of your father, save that he is not here. where is he? and how is he?”
“i can answer neither question, grandfather. he, like you, has been lost to us; he disappeared a few months after you did, and we were led to believe that he was killed.”
the professor was himself again in an instant. the mood that had dominated him was shaken off, and he was keen, sharp, and alert again, as frank remembered him.
“he is lost?” he repeated: “you heard that he was killed? how was it? tell me everything. in the early days of my imprisonment, when i thought of many things outside the walls of my gaol, one thing troubled me more than others. my wife had her daughter; no harm would come to her, save the first grief at my loss and the slow process of hope dying out. my daughter had everything that a woman could wish to make her happy; but your father, i knew him so well, he would not rest when the days passed and no news of me came—he would move heaven and earth to find me; and a man in this country who dares to enquire after a political prisoner incurs no small danger. is it so that he was missing? tell me all, and spare no detail; we have the rest of the day before us. we will sit down on this seat. now begin.”
frank told, at length, how, on the news of the professor’s disappearance, his father had interested the english government in the matter, and how to all enquiries made the government of naples had replied that they knew nothing whatever concerning his disappearance; and how, at last, he himself started with an order obtained from naples for him to search all the prisons of southern italy.
“it was just like him; it was noble and chivalrous,” the professor said; “but he should have known better. an englishman unacquainted with italy might have believed that with such an order he might safely search for one who he suspected was lying in a neapolitan prison, but your father should have known better. notice would assuredly be sent before he arrived; and had he come here, for example, i should a week before have been carried away up into the mountains, till he had gone. he would have been shown the register of prisoners, he would not have found my name among them, he would have been told that no such person as he described had ever been confined here,—it was hopeless. but go on with your story.”
frank told how his father had visited several prisons, and how he wrote letters, exposing their horrors, that had appeared in the english papers, and had created an immense impression throughout the country.
“it was mad of him,” the professor murmured; “noble, but mad.”
then frank told how the news came of his being carried off by brigands, of the steps that had been taken, of the evidence of the courier who saw him fall, and of some of his effects being found in the hut on the mountain when this was captured and the brigand chief killed, of the report given by one of the prisoners that his father had died and been buried shortly after he was taken there, and of the vain search that had been made for his body.
“and was this tale believed?” signor forli exclaimed, leaping to his feet. “no italian would for a moment have thought it true—at least, none who had the misfortune to be born under the neapolitan rule. surely my wife never believed it?”
“in her heart i know now that she did not,” frank said, “but she kept her doubts to herself for the sake of my mother. she thought that it was far better that she should believe that father was dead than that she should believe him buried in one of the foul prisons he had described.”
“she was right—she was right,” the professor said: “it was certainly better. and your mother—did she lose hope?”
“she told me that she would not allow herself to believe that he might still be alive, and i believe that she and the signora never said one word on the subject to each other until just before i started.” he then related how the courier had been brought over, how he had been installed in the house in cadogan place, and how no suspicion of his being a spy had been entertained until after the receipt of garibaldi’s letter, and how they were convinced at last that he had overheard all the arrangements made for his leaving for italy.
“and you are alive, frank, to tell me this! by what miracle did you escape from the net that was thrown around you?”
this part of the story was also told.
“it was well arranged and bravely carried through, frank. so you took up the mission which had cost your father either his life or his liberty? it was a great undertaking for a lad, and i wonder indeed that your mother, after the losses she had suffered, permitted you to enter upon it. well, contrary to all human anticipations, you have succeeded in one half of it, and you will, i trust, succeed in the other. what seemed hardly possible—that you should enter the castle of reggio as one of its conquerors, and so have free access to the secrets of its prison—has been accomplished; and if garibaldi succeeds in carrying his arms farther, and other prison doors are opened, we may yet find your father. what you have told me has explained what has hitherto been a puzzle to me: why i should have been treated as a special prisoner, and kept in solitary confinement. now i understand it. england had taken the matter up; and as the government of naples had denied all knowledge of me, it was necessary that neither any prisoner, who, perhaps, some day might be liberated, nor any prison official should know me, and be able to report my existence to the british representative. you may be sure that, had your father come here, and examined every prisoner and official, privately, he would have obtained no intelligence of me. giuseppe borani would not have been here, he would have been removed, and none would dream that he was the prisoner for whom search was made. and now tell me briefly about this expedition of garibaldi. is all europe at war, that he has managed to bring an army here?”
“first of all, grandfather, i must tell you what happened last year.”
he then related the incidents of the war of 1859, whereby france and sardinia united and wrested milan and lombardy from the austrians; the brilliant achievements of the garibaldians; the disappointment felt by italy at nice and a part of savoy being handed over to napoleon as the price of the services that he had rendered; how bologna and florence, palma, ferrara, forli, and ravenna, had all expelled their rulers and united themselves with sardinia; and how, garibaldi having been badly treated and his volunteers disbanded, he himself had retired disappointed and hurt to caprera.
then he related briefly the secret gathering of the expedition; the obstacles thrown in its way; its successful landing in sicily, and the events that had terminated with the expulsion of the neapolitan forces from the island.
“garibaldi began with but a thousand men,” he said in conclusion. “he is now at the head of twenty thousand, and it will grow every hour; for we have news of risings throughout southern calabria. if a thousand sufficed for the conquest of sicily, twenty thousand will surely be sufficient for that of the mainland. the easy capture of this place will strike terror into the enemy, and raise the enthusiasm of the troops and the calabrians to the utmost. garibaldi has but four thousand men with him now; but by this time to-morrow ten thousand at least will have crossed, and i think it is possible that we shall reach naples without having to fight another battle. at any rate, one pitched battle should be enough to free all southern italy. the papal states will come next, and then, as garibaldi hopes, venice; though this will be a far more serious affair, for the austrians are very different foes from the neapolitans, and have the advantage of tremendously strong fortifications, which could only be taken by siege operations with heavy artillery, and certainly could not be accomplished by troops like garibaldi’s.
“now about my father. supposing him to be alive, where do you think he would most probably be imprisoned?”
“there is no saying. that he is alive, i feel confident—unless, indeed, he died in prison from the effect of the wound given him when he was captured. that he did not die when in the hands of the brigands, we may take to be certain, for his grave must in that case have been discovered. he must have been handed over to a party of police sent to fetch him by previous agreement with the brigands, and would have been confined in some place considered especially secure from search. i should fancy that he is probably in naples itself,—there are several large prisons there. then there would be the advantage that, if the british government had insisted upon a commission of their own officers searching these prisons, he could be removed secretly from one to another, so that before the one in which he was confined could be examined, he would have been taken to another, which had been previously searched.
“his case was a more serious one than mine. although i was a naturalised british subject, i had gone of my own free will to italy, in the vain belief that i should be unmolested after so long an absence; and probably there would have been no stir in the matter had not your father taken it up so hotly, and by the influence he possessed obtained permission to search the dungeons. but, as i said, his case was a far more serious one. he went out backed by the influence of the british government; he was assisted by the british legation; he held the order of the neapolitan government for admission to all prisons. thus, had it been found that he had, in spite of their own so-called safe-conduct, been seized and imprisoned, the british fleet would have been in the bay of naples in a very short time—especially as his letters, as you tell me, created so much feeling throughout the country. therefore it would be an almost vital question for the government to maintain the story they had framed, and to conceal the fact that, all the time they were asserting that he had been captured and killed by the brigands, he was in one of their own prisons.
“i may say frankly that they would unhesitatingly have had him killed, perhaps starved to death in a cell, were it not that they would have put it in the power of some official or other to betray them: a discovery that would have meant the fall of the government, possibly the dethronement of the king. had he been an italian, he would assuredly have been murdered, for it would not have paid any prison official to betray them; whereas, being an englishman of distinction, in whose fate the british government had actively interested itself, any man who knew the facts could have obtained a reward of a very large amount indeed for giving information. that is the sole reason, frank, that leads me to believe that he may still be alive. he was doubtless imprisoned under another name, just as i was; but at least it would be known to the men that attended upon him that he was an englishman, and these could scarcely have avoided suspecting that he was the man about whom such a stir had taken place. the government had already incurred a tremendous risk by his seizure; but this would have been far greater had foul means been used to get rid of him in prison.
“in the former case, should by any extraordinary chance his existence have become known to the british legation, they would have framed some deliberate lie to account for their ignorance of his being captain percival. they might, for instance, assert that he had been taken prisoner in the mountains, with a party of brigands; that his assertions that he was an englishman had been wholly disbelieved, for he would naturally have spoken in italian, and his italian was so good that any assertions he made that he was an englishman would have been wholly discredited. that is merely a rough guess at the story they might have invented, for probably it would have been much more plausible; but, however plausible, it would not have received the slightest credit had it been found that he had been foully done to death.
“it is difficult, frank, when one is discussing the probable actions of men without heart, honour, or principle, and in deadly fear of discovery, to determine what course they would be likely to take in any particular circumstances. now, the first thing that i have to do is to cross to messina, and to telegraph and afterwards to write to my wife. can i telegraph?”
“yes, but not direct: the regular line is that which crosses the straits to this town and then goes up through italy. that, of course, we have not been able to use, and could not use it now. all messages have been sent by the line from cape passaro to malta, and thence through sardinia and corsica to spezzia. you can send a message by that. there will be no difficulty in getting a boat across the straits. you see the war-ships have steamed away. as soon as the castle was taken they found that their anchorage was within range of its guns. they fired a few shots into the town when the castle was bombarding it, and then retired. i believe that all through the men of the navy have been very reluctant to act against us, except, of course, at palermo.”
“then i will go at once. it is strange to me to be able to say i will go.”
“very well, grandfather. of course you have no money, but i can supply you with as much as you like. i have plenty of funds. i can’t say where you will find me when you come back, but you will only have to enquire where garibaldi himself is: i am sure to be with him.”
“i shall stay a couple of days there. after that hard pallet and prison fare i cannot resist the temptation of a comfortable bed, a well-furnished room, and a civilised meal, especially as i am not likely to find any of these things on the way to naples.”
“by the way, i should think you could telegraph from here,” frank said. “garibaldi sent off a message to messina directly the castle was taken.”
“then let us do so by all means.”
they went at once to the telegraph office, and from there the professor sent the following message: “dearest wife, frank has found and released me. am well and in good health. shall write fully this evening. shall accompany him and aid in his search for leonard. love to muriel.—forli.”
having handed this in, they went down to the shore again, and had no difficulty in hiring a boat. frank took twenty sovereigns from his belt.
“you will want all this, grandfather, for indeed you must have an entirely new fit-out.”
“i suppose i must. there has not been much wear-and-tear in clothes, but three years is a long time for a single suit to last, and i have lately had some uneasiness as to what i should do when these things no longer hung together; and i certainly felt a repugnance to asking for a prison suit. i must decidedly go and get some clothes fit to be seen in before i present myself at an hotel. no respectable house would take me in as i am.”
“will you have more, sir? i can let you have fifty if you would like it.”
“no, my boy, i don’t want to be encumbered with luggage. a suit besides that i shall wear, and a change of underclothes, will suffice. these can be carried in a small hand-bag, and whether we walk, or ride, i can take it with me.”
after seeing signor forli off, frank returned to the castle.
“where is the professor?” garibaldi asked, when he reported himself as ready for duty.
“i have just seen him off to messina, general. he is sorely in need of clothes, and he wants to write a long letter home, and he could scarcely find a quiet room where he could do so in reggio. he will rejoin us as we advance.”
“that is the wisest thing he could do; for although he looks wonderfully well, he can hardly be capable of standing much fatigue after taking no exercise for three years. he will have a great deal to learn as to what has taken place since he has been here, for i don’t suppose the prisoners heard a whisper of the great changes in northern italy.”
“i told him in a few words, sir, but i had no time to give him any details.”
at reggio twenty-six guns, five hundred muskets, and a large quantity of coal, ammunition, provisions, horses, and mules were captured. on the following morning, major nullo and the guides with a battalion were thrown out towards san giovanni. there was no other forward movement. the general was occupied in receiving deputations from many towns and villages, and there were arrangements to be made for the transport of such stores and ammunition as were likely to be required. the garibaldians had crossed in large numbers. cosenz and medici, with a considerable portion of their commands, were already over, and the former had gone up into the hills. the next morning garibaldi with two thousand men and six captured field-pieces moved forward. it was possible that they would meet with opposition at san giovanni, and they had scarcely started when a messenger arrived from nullo. believing from the reports of the countrymen that the neapolitans were retiring, he had ridden on with six of the guides, till to his astonishment, at a bridge crossing a ravine close to that town, he came upon two squadrons of neapolitan lancers. with great presence of mind, he and his men had drawn their revolvers and summoned the officers in command to surrender.
“surrender to whom?” the latter asked.
“to garibaldi: he is ready to attack at once, if you refuse.”
“i will take you to the general,” the officer said.
to him nullo repeated his command.
“i have no objection to confer with garibaldi himself,” the general said, “and will go with you to him.”
“i cannot take you,” nullo said: “my instructions are simply to demand your surrender; but i will go myself and inform him of your readiness to meet him. in the meantime, i demand that you withdraw your lancers from the bridge, which must be considered as the boundary between the two forces. you can leave two men on your side, and i will leave two on mine.”
to this the general agreed; and posting two of his men at the bridge, another was sent back to beg garibaldi to hurry up the troops. messengers went backward and forward between general melendis and garibaldi, who was marching forward with all haste. but, as the terms the latter laid down were that the troops should give up their arms and then be allowed to march away, no agreement was arrived at, and the neapolitans evacuated the town and took up a very strong position on the hill-side above it. they were two thousand five hundred strong, with five guns. in the evening garibaldi with two thousand men arrived near the place, and sending forward two companies to the bridge, made a circuit through the hills, and took up a position above and somewhat in rear of the neapolitans. a messenger was sent to cosenz, who was seventeen miles away, ordering him to start at once, and, if possible, arrive in the morning. a body of calabrian peasantry undertook to watch the enemy, and the garibaldians, wrapping themselves in their blankets, lay down for the night.
before daybreak they were on their feet, and moved down the hill. the enemy opened fire with shell, but only two or three men fell, and the fire was not returned. on arrival at a spot where they were sheltered from the fire, garibaldi sent in a messenger with a flag of truce, renewing the offer of terms. the neapolitans shot the bearer of the flag as he approached them, but afterwards offered to treat. garibaldi, however, greatly angered at this violation of the laws of war, replied at first that he would now accept nothing but unconditional surrender. an armistice was however granted, to enable the general to communicate with general braganti. this afforded time, too, for cosenz to arrive from salerno, and for bixio, whose brigade had remained at reggio, to bring up some guns; these were posted so as to entirely cut the neapolitan line of retreat.
at five o’clock garibaldi sent an order to the neapolitans to lay down their arms within a quarter of an hour, or he would advance. their general, seeing that he could not now hope to be reinforced, and that he was completely surrounded, assented to the demand. his soldiers piled their arms and soon fraternised with the garibaldians, many of them showing unconcealed pleasure that they had not been called upon to oppose those who had come to free their country. the greater portion of them threw away their accoutrements, and even their caps, and then dispersed, a few starting to join the main force under viarli, the greater portion scattering to their homes. the fort by the water’s edge below the town had also surrendered.
this was an important capture, as it possessed several heavy guns; and these, with those of faro on the opposite shore, commanded the straits, consequently the neapolitan ships could not pass on their way up towards naples, but were forced to retire through the other end and to make their way entirely round the island, thus leaving the passage between messina and the mainland entirely open. at daybreak garibaldi started at the head of cosenz’s column for alta-fiumara, which the first party of garibaldians that landed had failed to capture. this, after a short parley, surrendered on the same terms as those granted the day before, and the men, throwing away their shakoes and knapsacks, started for their various homes. three miles farther, the castle of scylla surrendered, the national guard of the town having taken up arms and declared for garibaldi as soon as they heard that he was coming. bagnara had also been evacuated, viarli having withdrawn with his force and marched to monteleone.
a halt was made here. the strictest orders had been given by garibaldi against plundering or in any way giving cause for hostility among the peasantry. sentries were posted, and one of the soldiers found stealing grapes was shot—an example which prevented any repetition of the offence.
that evening frank, who was down on the shore, watching the men from messina being landed from several steamers, saw signor forli.
“it is lucky indeed that i was down here,” he said, “for every house in the town is full of troops, and you might have searched all night without finding me. it is quite useless to look for a bed now, and, indeed, the houses are so crowded that i had made up my mind to sleep here, and i should recommend you to do the same. i see you have got a blanket with you. it will be much cooler and more pleasant than indoors.”
“i will do so gladly, frank. it will be a fresh luxury for me to see the stars overhead as i lie, and the sand is quite as soft as any of these italians beds are likely to be.”
frank had indeed slept out every night since the garibaldians first landed. it saved the trouble of endeavouring to find accommodation, and enabled him to have a swim every morning to refresh him for his day’s work.
day after day the garibaldians marched on without encountering resistance. it was indeed a procession rather than a military advance. the country was lovely, the weather superb. at each village they were saluted by numbers of the country people, who had come down to greet them. they were all armed, and numbers of them joined the garibaldians. they were, for the most part, of fine physique, with handsome faces, and the women of this coast were famous for their beauty. the greek element was still predominant, and in many of the villages no other language was spoken. in the towns, the national guard were drawn up to receive their deliverers with all honour, and the inhabitants of all classes vied with each other in their hospitality. frank had been unable to buy a horse, but had succeeded in purchasing a donkey, on which the professor sat placidly smoking as they went along, with one marching column or another. cosenz’s division generally led the way, followed by those of medici and ebers, while bixio followed in the rear, his division having already had their share of glory in sicily and at reggio.
the main neapolitan army, retiring from monteleone, passed through each town only a few hours ahead of the garibaldians. the people reported that great insubordination existed among them. general braganti had been shot by his own men at bagnara; the other generals were accused by their men of treachery, and great numbers of these had deserted; and the garibaldians felt that if they could but overtake the retreating foe victory was certain. orders had been sent round by garibaldi to all the villagers that the men were to meet him at maida; and leaving the army at two o’clock in the morning, he, with a few of his staff, rode across the mountain to that town. the calabrians, eager to fight, had obeyed the order, but with some disappointment; for had they been left to themselves they would have occupied the terrible gorges through which the retreating neapolitans would have to pass, and taking their posts among inaccessible hills, would have almost annihilated them. but garibaldi was on all occasions most anxious to prevent bloodshed, and would never fight unless his foes forced him to do so; and it was for this reason that he had ordered the calabrians to meet him at maida, thereby preventing them from occupying the pass.
frank, as one of his aides-de-camp, rode with him, the professor preferring to move forward at the more comfortable pace of the marching column. ordering the calabrians to follow, garibaldi went on from maida to tyrola, situated on the backbone of the apennines, and commanding a view of the sea on either hand. arriving there, he found that the neapolitans were but a mile ahead. he therefore halted for an hour, and then rode seven miles farther to samprotro, where he saw the rearguard of the enemy not more than half a mile ahead. leaving a few armed peasants to watch them, garibaldi and his staff went quietly to bed. in the morning they again started in pursuit, at the head of two thousand calabrians. the peasants brought in news that the enemy had halted at a village seven miles ahead, and were endeavouring to obtain food. the calabrians, when they approached the place, were sent forward as skirmishers; the head of cosenz’s column was now but a short distance in the rear. colonel peard, who had ridden with garibaldi, was in advance, with three calabrians, when, at a turn of the road, he came upon seven thousand infantry, cavalry, and artillery, huddled together without any appearance of regularity.
he rode up at once to the nearest officers, and called upon them to surrender. they took him to ghio, their general, who, saying to peard that it was not customary to talk so loud before the soldiers, asked him to step aside; and on being told that he was surrounded, and had no choice between surrendering and being annihilated, he agreed at once to send an officer to garibaldi. while the officer was absent, the disposition of the troops manifested itself: many of them at once threw down their arms and accoutrements and started on the road, or made their way up the hill. in a few minutes the officer returned with garibaldi’s conditions, which were surrender and disarmament, when the troops would be allowed to leave, on their promise not to serve again. in an hour there was not a neapolitan left in the place; and the garibaldians, who had marched thirty miles that day, halted to allow the rest of the troops to come up.
there was, indeed, no further occasion for haste. it was morally certain that no battle would be fought before they reached naples. the neapolitan troops were hopelessly dispirited, and the greater part would gladly have thrown away their arms and returned to their homes; the minority, who were still faithful to their oath, were bitterly humiliated at the manner in which large bodies of men had surrendered without striking a blow, and at the way in which the main force fled, as hastily as if it had suffered a disgraceful defeat, at the approach of the garibaldians. already naples was almost in a state of insurrection; and in the other towns the whole populace had risen, and the neapolitan authorities were powerless.
“it is wonderful,” signor forli, who arrived on the following morning, said to frank, “that the calabrians should have remained passive for a couple of centuries under the rule of a people so much inferior to themselves. that sicily should do so, i am not surprised. its population is not to be compared in physique with these grand fellows. among the mountains of sicily, no doubt, there may be a finer type of people than those of the plains and sea-coast; but, as you have told me, although as pleased as a crowd of children at a new game, they did little to aid garibaldi to free them, and messina once taken, the number that enlisted with him was small indeed. here the population have joined to a man; and what splendid men they are! had they all risen together before, there would have been no need for a garibaldi. what could an army, however numerous, of the frivolous population of naples have done against them?
“there are hundreds of passes and ravines. we have ourselves marched through a score that might have been held by a handful of determined men against an army. i believe that it is the fear of cannon rather than of soldiers that has enabled a decaying power, like that of naples, to maintain its hold. cannon would be useful in a mountainous country for those who have to defend the passes, but it is of little avail to an invader: it is notorious that, even on the plains, vastly more men are killed by bullets than by shell. one thing that no doubt has kept the calabrians from rising, as a body, is that blood feuds exist among them, as in corsica. the number of crosses that you have seen by the roadside mark the number of the victims of these quarrels. each little village stands apart from the rest, and there has been no centre round which the country could gather. there has been, in fact, a community of interest, but no community of feeling; and the consequence is, risings have been always partial, and there has been nothing like one determined effort by all calabria to win its freedom.”
