Unification of Germany and Italy 575 conscience and the traditions of my forefathers, find strength to maintain civil liberty and my authority, for the exercise of which I owe an account only to God and to my people. . . . The spirit of Garibaldi is clearly seen in his own ac- count, here much condensed, of his departure for Sicily with his thousand warriors, and of his capture of Naples. Once more, Sicily, it was thine to awaken sleepers, to drag them from the lethargy in which the stupefying poison of diplomatists and doctrinaires had sunk them, — slumber- ers who, clad in armor not their own, confided to others the safety of their country, thus keeping her dependent and degraded. Austria is powerful, her armies are numerous ; several for- midable neighbors are opposed, on account of petty dynastic aims, to the resurrection of Italy. The Bourbon x has one hundred thousand soldiers. Yet what matter ? The hearts of twenty-five millions throb and tremble with the love of their country. . . . O noble Thousand!. In these days of shame and misery I love to remember you. Turning to you, the mind feels itself rise above this mephitic atmosphere of robbery and intrigue, relieved to remember that, though the majority of your gallant band have scattered their bones over the battle- fields of liberty, there yet remain enough to represent you, ever ready to prove to your insolent detractors that all are not traitors and cowards — all are not shameless self-seekers, in this land of tyrants and slaves 1 Yet sail on, sail on fearlessly, " Piemonte " and " Lom- bardo," — noble vessels, manned by the noblest of crews. History will remember your illustrious names in spite of calumny. Sail on, sail on ; ye bear the Thousand who in later days will become a million, — in that day when the blindfolded masses shall understand that the priest is an impostor and tyrannies a monstrous anachronism. How glorious were thy Thousand, O Italy, fighting against the 481. Gari- baldi de- scribes his Sicilian expedition and the capture of Naples (September- October, i860). (From his Memoirs.) Garibaldi's dislike of Church and monarchy. 1 I.e. the king of Naples.
