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In the mean time you must be our guest;" and he presented him to the Pacha of Damascus with some form. "You and I have bivouacked in the open air before this, and not in so bland a clime." Beneath the shade of the patriarchal sycamore, the general narrated to Lothair his adventures since they were fellow-combatants on the fatal field of Mentana.
Mentana had its epilogue in the debate in the French Corps Législatif, which lasted from the 2nd to the 5th of December. Jules Favre proposed a vote of censure on the Ministry for their Roman policy. The most distinguished speaker who followed him was Thiers, who said that though in opposition, he would support the Government tooth and nail in their defence of French interests at Rome.
With the love of the ideal republic in his heart, he shed his blood at Mentana for the great conservative principle, he fired his last shot for the same cause at the Porta Pia on the twentieth of September 1870; a month later he was fighting for France under the gallant Charette whether for France imperial, regal or republican he never paused to ask; he was wounded in fighting against the Commune, and decorated for painting the portrait of Gambetta, after which he returned to Rome, cursed politics and married the woman he loved, which was, on the whole, the wisest course he could have followed.
The Garibaldians massed themselves in large numbers as they retreated from various points upon Mentana, and though their weapons were inferior to those of their opponents their numbers made them still formidable. The Zouaves, gendarmes, and legionaries, however, pressed steadily though slowly onward. The only question was whether the daylight would last long enough.
The Garibaldians were, according to all accounts, not less than twelve thousand, and were known to be securely entrenched at Monte Rotondo and further protected by the strong outpost of Mentana, which lies nearly on the direct road from Rome to the former place.
After the withdrawal of the French troops in 1866, Garibaldi, with the connivance of the Italian government, in which Ratazzi, who had been obliged to leave his office, was again the ruling spirit, once more gathered a force for the capture of Rome ; but France interfered, and the advance of Garibaldi was checked at Mentana by French troops.
Meanwhile, a detachment of Zouaves managed to place themselves between Mentana and Monte Rotondo, and so intercepted the reinforcements which were hastening from the latter place to join the Garibaldians. At sight of this achievement, the bands, already much demoralized, were thrown into confusion. Night came, and, favoring their flight, changed it to a rout.
Begun by the masked, finished by the unmasked soldiers of France, Mentana was a French victory, and it was the last. The Garibaldian retreat continued through the night to Passo Corese on the Italian frontier. The silence of the Campagna was only broken by little gusts of a chilly wind off the Tiber; it seemed as if a spectral army moved without sound.
He engaged to use his influence in Italy to make it difficult for an Italian Government to take up arms for the victors of Mentana.
"Now tell us all about the war, And what they fought each other for?" What about Canossa? "What they fought each other for, I could not well make out. But everybody said" quoth he, "That 'twas a famous victory." What about Mentana or Castel-Fidardo? "What good came of it at last?" Quoth little Peterkin. "Why that I cannot tell," said he, "But 'twas a famous victory."
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