II.

AWAY to the southward, some twenty miles
behind the hill-tops and the oak-woods the
little town of Foligno harboured the delegate,
the police directors, the spies, and the soldiers;
the thousand crowns journey-money so
generously bestowed, by the insurgent citizens having
carried them no further. Great, they knew,
would be the rage in Rome, and fierce the desire
for vengeance among the priests.

Meanwhile, brave little Perugia was very
unfavourably circumstanced for defending herself.
The population of eighteen thousand souls had
previously sent out the flower of its youth to
fight for the good cause in the plains of
Lombardy. Eight hundred volunteers from Perugia
had joined the forces of Victor Emmanuel. They
were fighting shoulder to shoulder with the
French Emperor's troops as his allies. But the
hopes of Italy were then high. If Perugia were
trampled in the dust, Italy was being delivered.
And the noble spirit of self-sacrifice which
prompted the Perugians scarcely to advert to the
defencelessness of their position (the fact is not
even alluded to in the statement of the
provisional government) is one striking specimen
of the community of feeling and true brotherhood
with which Italy has regarded this struggle,
every place having cheerfully accepted for the
sake of all whatever portion of the burden and
the work fell to her share.

The first attempts of the enemy which the
revolted city had to meet were underhand
temptations to treason. But unity of feeling
was too great, every man's heart was too truly
in the cause, and mutual confidence was too
complete, for any danger to arise from this source.
A well-known supporter of the Papal power,
one Cavaliere Sgariglia, was found in Perugia,
with private letters and public despatches from
the authorities at Foligno, endeavouring to
induce some of the provisional government to
secure private advantages to themselves by
betraying the popular cause. He was simply
admonished, and warned to quit the city within a
few hours. The Baron Danzetta, one of the
provisional government, received a letter from
Foligno with advantageous offers if he would
proclaim a counter-revolution in the Pope's
favour, and threats in case of his refusing to do
so. He immediately showed the letter to his
colleagues, who published it. The Papal
government have declared, since Europe has begun
to cry shame upon their conduct, that a
messenger was sent to Perugia from the Papal
authorities to endeavour, before proceeding to
extremities, to persuade the citizens to submit.
It is one of many falsehoods put forth upon
the subject. No messenger from the Pope's
government, and no message, ever reached them.
There was not even the ordinary summons to
surrender before force was proceeded to. A
certain advocate Lattanzi came to Perugia three
hours before the fight began, and visited the
members of the giunta, lamenting over the
impending calamities, but expressly declaring,
that he was not the bearer of any message from
the Pope's government, and admitting that
resistance was now inevitable. While these things
were going on—and it was well known that
similar tentatives were being made—so sure were
the Perugians of each other, and of the general
loyalty to the cause, that the secrecy of the
post was not once violated.

It is the honest boast of Perugia, that, during
a week of deep anxiety, while the city, was
altogether without police of any kind, the public
peace was broken by one single fact alone. The
gaolers of the city gaol, who were of course
creatures of the deposed delegate, had been
suffered to remain in the exercise of their
functions. These men, in the hope of throwing the
city into disorder, permitted the criminals in
their charge to escape. But the citizens, with
spontaneous promptitude hastening to prevent
the possibility of disturbance, soon succeeded in
recapturing and leading back to prison the whole
of them.

The first three or four days of freedom had
passed in Perugia when it was learned with
certainty that a force of two thousand two
hundred men was marching from Rome against the
city. It became necessary to ascertain what
means of defence the city could muster, and
whether it were the firm intention of the people
to commit themselves to the chances of a struggle.
The result of examination into the first question
was very far from encouraging. They had no
artillery. Eighty-three fowling-pieces were got
together, and the government was in possession
of thirty-nine military muskets. Ammunition,
moreover, was scarce, even for this number of
pieces. The government succeeded in obtaining
four hundred muskets, and proportionable
ammunition, from Florence. Men were far more
abundant than weapons. Notwithstanding the
absence of eight hundred of the best soldiers,
the citizens thronged to the lists opened for
volunteers for the defence. At the same time,
to test the general feeling, an address to
Victor Emmanuel was circulated, imploring him
to accept the dictatorship of the city. This
address received, in less than one day, the signatures
of two thousand substantial citizens, affixed,
while, as they well knew, the Papal soldiers
were on their march to Perugia; a number which,
as the members of the giunta truly remark in
their statement, may be fairly considered, when
the absentees, women, children, and illiterate
persons are deducted, to represent the vote of
the entire city.

With the miserable means at their disposal,
therefore, resistance was finally determined on,
and such plan as the desperate circumstances
of the case permitted, was arranged for defending
as best they might their circuit of six or
seven miles of very imperfectly defensible wall.
During the last four-and-twenty hours of the
week a dark rumour had been creeping about
the city that Perugia, if taken, was to be given
up to the soldiery for sack and pillage. The
report, however, was universally discredited.
Bad as the Pope's subjects knew his government
to be, it appeared to them incredible that such