"Let not my temporary absence cool your ardor for the holy cause that we defend.
"In separating myself from you, whom I love as the representatives of a sublime idea—the idea of Italian deliverance—I am excited and sad; but consolation comes in the certainty that I shall very soon be among you again, to aid you in finishing the work so gloriously begun.
"For you, as for me, the greatest of all possible misfortunes would be not to be present wherever there is fighting for Italy. Young men who have sworn to be faithful to Italy and to the chief who will lead you to victory, lay not down your arms; remain firm at your post—continue your exercises—persevere in the soldier's discipline.
"The truce will not last long; old diplomacy seems but little disposed to see things as they really are. Diplomacy still looks upon you as the handful of malcontents which she had been accustomed to despise. She does not know that in you there are the elements of a great nation, and that in your free and independent hearts there germinate the seeds of a world-wide revolution if our rights shall not be recognized, and if people will not allow us to be masters in our own home.
"We desire to invade no foreign soil; let us remain unmolested on our own. Whosoever attempts to gainsay this our determination will find that we will never be slaves, unless they succeed in crushing by force an entire people ready to die for liberty.
"But, even should we all fall, we shall bequeath to future generations a legacy of hatred and vengeance against foreign domination; the inheritance of each of our sons will be a rifle, and the consciousness of his rights; and by the blessing of God, the oppressor will never sleep soundly.
"Italians, I say again, do not lay down your arms; rally more closely than ever to your chiefs, and maintain the strictest discipline. Fellow-citizens, let not a man in Italy omit to contribute his mite to the national subscription; let not one fail to clean his gun, so as to be ready, perhaps to-morrow, to obtain by force that which to-day they hesitate to grant to our just rights.
"Garibaldi.
"Genoa, Nov. 23, 1859."
Garibaldi then proceeded to Turin, and took his seat as a member of the Sardinian Parliament, to which he had been elected two years before, as the representative of Nice, his native country.