"The plain may be about twelve miles in its greatest length, and from four to five in its greatest width. Between the isolated Monte Pellegrino and the rest of the chain the plain runs up to La Favorita, over which a carriage road goes to Carini; on the opposite side of the plain, skirting the sea-shore runs the highroad to Messina, passing through Bazaria, and close to the ruins of Solento. These are the two easiest outlets of the plain. Everywhere else a continued chain of mountains seems to close all outlet. Nearest to La Favorita a bad mountain road leads in a straight line by San Martino to Carini. To the left of this road rises a rugged, magnificent mountain, looking like the worn side of an extinct crater; it protrudes somewhat into the plain, and throws out a high spur in the same direction as the main chain. This spur is Monreale, and you can see the famous convent and church, as well as the greatest part of the village. Over this plateau passes the high road to Trapani. Behind the spur and plateau of Monreale, the mountain forms a kind of amphitheatre on a colossal scale, the terraced cultivation helping to keep up the illusion. Where it ends, and the mountain begins again to protrude into the plain, you can see on the slopes two white villages; they are Parco and Madonna delle Grazie, over which a carriage road leads to the Piana del Greci and Corleone, two old Albanian colonies, established, like a good number in this part of Sicily by emigration after the death of Skandorbeg. Another spur runs out into the plain, and forms another amphitheatre, more rugged and picturesque than that of Monreale, and dominated by the Gebel Rosso. In the dip a rugged horse-path ascends, called the Passo della Mezzagna, leading down to the village of Misilmeri, situate on the only highroad into the interior and to Catania. The Gebel Rosso toward the sea and Cape Zaffarano, and in the lower depression is the highroad from Palermo to Catania. It runs almost parallel to the road on the sea-shore as far as Abate, and then cuts across to the south. From this description you will see that the Neapolitans, possessing the command of the sea, had all the advantages of a concentric position, especially with an enemy who was weak in artillery, and who was chiefly formidable in the mountains. A general concentration of their forces in the plain was clearly indicated, with the single exception of the plateau of Monreale, which is a position in itself, and commands the road from the interior for some distance. The disadvantage of him who attacked was considerably increased by the difficult nature of the mountains, which makes all lateral communication between the roads almost impossible, so that any change of the attack implied a great circuit. The Neapolitans, who had studied the thing for years, were fully aware of these advantages, and concentrated their forces in the plain, merely occupying the plateau of Monreale.
"Garibaldi could not unite his forces in time to arrive at Monreale before the Neapolitans had occupied it in great force, and when he arrived in the neighborhood of the position, four days after the victory of Calata Fimi, he saw that the taking of Monreale could only be effected with great loss. He therefore determined to change his plans. The first thing was to surround and watch all the outlets, and for this purpose the different squadri of the insurgents took up positions all round the chain of mountains which inclose the bay. It was one of the finest sights you could see when their fires blazed up at night, and mingled their red glare with the pale light of the moon. They were watched by the inhabitants like the holy fire by the Parsee, and the sole occupation during the last eight days or so seemed to be to observe and comment on their meaning. Now they seemed stronger on one peak, now more spread and continuous on the slope of another mountain, and on the hope kindled by these fires the uninitiated lived. Palermo was in a state of excitement and ferment impossible to describe, and strong enough to brave the state of siege which had been proclaimed. The Secret Committee, which had maintained itself in spite of the vigilance and suspicion of the police, always found means to communicate with Garibaldi, in spite of the military authorities. The committee was known to exist, and it circulated printed bulletins almost daily, but it was so organized that the police, although aware of its existence, could never discover the members. It was a kind of freemasonry, with different degrees of initiation. No one not a member knew more than one member. The houses where the meetings were held were continually changed, and all obeyed blindly.
"The committee informed Garibaldi that Palermo was ready to rise, but it imposed the condition that he should appear before the gates of the town. He accepted this condition, and made his plans accordingly. Seeing that he had come too late for Monreale, he left a party of the native insurgents to keep up the fires and engage the Neapolitans, while he took off the mass of the force, and, by an almost incredible march along the mountain chain, where the guns had to be carried by the men, he appeared all at once at Parco, on the road to Piana, on the 23d. As soon as the Neapolitans saw their mistake, they sent up in hot haste toward Parco whatever they could muster of forces without exposing their position in the town. They did not think them sufficient; for, after some skirmishing on that day, they withdrew again to their position on two lower plateaus, the Piana Borazzo and Santa Theresa. The next day, 24th, they got up some of the troops from Monreale, and thus strengthened, made another attack—the same I witnessed from on board ship. The purpose was gained; they had got another change. Garibaldi withdrew, leaving just a few of the bands behind. These latter did not wait long to follow, and the 'Regii,' as the soldiers are called, entered both Madonna delle Grazie and Parco the same afternoon, and pillaged and burned the place, according to time-honored custom, killing a number of the peaceful inhabitants, and publishing as usual next day, a splendid bulletin, announcing the defeat of the bands of Garibaldi, and promising their speedy subjection. Although Neapolitan bulletins are not much believed, yet there were many in the town whose hearts sank when they saw Garibaldi retire a second time.
"They little knew the man with whom they had to do, nor did the Neapolitans either—although they ought to have remembered Velletri. It was reculer pour mieux sauter. In order the better to deceive the Neapolitans, he went back to Piana, and sent his artillery even farther back, while he himself, with his chosen band, made his way over the mountains again, and, while the Neapolitans followed his track to Piana, he had arrived yesterday morning at Misilmeri, on the highroad to Catania, where he had given rendezvous to all the chieftains or captains on that side of the mountain chain.
"I was sick of uncertain rumors, which alone were to be got at in town, and which would leave your readers in darkness about the true state of things. Besides knowing a little of the gallant general's tactics, I had a strong suspicion that something was impending which could be better seen from without than from inside the town, so I determined to see whether I could not get there. Some English and American officers had been out in that direction, and had seen one of the captains, a popular man of this place, called La Maza, so I determined likewise to have a trial. Some friends in the town indicated the way, and I set off in the carriage of one of them. The road to Messina, starting from the Marina and the Villa Giulia at the end of it, skirts the sea as far as Abate, where it unites with the highroad to Misilmeri and Catania. I was advised to take this last, as the least infested by soldiers. What with their confidence in their navy, and what with the stratagem of Garibaldi, the Neapolitans had paid little attention to this road and the southeasterly side in general. Two sentries before the corner of the Villa Giulia, and a post of a score of men a little further, in the octroi building, were all that were in the neighborhood of the town. Straggling houses continue for some distance up to a bridge leading over a little stream or torrent called Orveto, which flows into the sea about a quarter of a mile further on. All along these houses there is a chain of sentries, and in the vicinity of the bridge a post of perhaps eighty men who furnish these sentries.
"I passed them without an inquiry, and was free. There had been the Neapolitan steamers cruising about every day all along this coast; no necessity was therefore felt for any further precaution. I rolled along fast enough with my two Calabrese horses, and passed some American officers, probably bound for Solento. At the very gates of the town the people had joined the insurrection, but there was a kind of neutral ground between the two, which ended in a village beyond Abate, the name of which I cannot recollect. If the Regii were careless, the insurgents were not, and at the entrance of the village one of their armed men asked me for permission to be my guide, a thing which exactly suited me. As we drove through the village the people rushed forward, and trying to kiss my hands, asked me for arms. They were all ready to join, but had no arms, which did not prevent their raising shouts for Italy, Victor Emanuel, and Garibaldi. We had to gallop off in order not to be stopped at every step. A drive of half an hour or more in a gentle descent, with a lovely valley beneath, and beautiful mountain scenery in front, brought me to the town of Misilmeri, a wretched little place, altogether wanting in character. In the little square held out on one side the committee, which forms a kind of provisional government, and on the other, up some wooden steps fixed outside, was enthroned the chief of the staff of Garibaldi's expedition in primitive simplicity. Colonel Sirtori was just giving a pass to two young American officers from the United State's steamship Iroquois, without which no one was allowed to enter the camp. As he had likewise given them an officer as guide, I joined them, and up we sauntered toward the heights leading to the Gebel Rosso and the pass the Mezzagna. We had soon left behind us the few remaining houses, and the ruins of the feudal castle to the left, the white limestone walls of which had something in them which reminded you of a skeleton. The ground all about is planted with olive-trees, vines, and different sorts of grain, which all grow luxuriantly in spite of the stony nature of the place. The general had pitched his camp on a tolerably extensive plateau just above the ruins, looking down on one side toward the plain and the range which ends at Cape Zaffarana, while on the other the peaks of the Gebel Rosso and the pass of Mezzagna were visible across a depression in the ground, looking very much like an extinct crater, and now partially filled with water, owing to the copious rains which had fallen during the last few days. It was one of those panoramas which suggest naturally your pitching your tent there—that is, if you have one. The word tent is erased from the military dictionary of Garibaldi. However, a popular general has to yield at times to his soldiers, and so he could not prevent them from sticking into the ground four of the lances with which the squadron, who have no muskets, are armed, and from throwing over them a blanket. Under the tent you could see the guacha saddle arranged as a pillow, and the black sheepskin covering as a bed. As for every one else, there were the olive-trees affording shade, plenty of stones for pillows, and perhaps for every tenth man a cloak or blanket. All around were picketed the horses, most of them entire, and behaving accordingly. The general himself was not there when we arrived; he had taken one of his morning strolls, but in front of his tent there were all his trusty followers—Colonel Turr, the Hungarian, although still suffering from the shot in his arm, received in last year's campaign, yet always ready where there is danger; Colonel Bixio, another trusty follower and well-known officer of the Cacciatori delle Alpi; Colonel Carini, the bravest of Sicilians, likewise an officer of that corps, besides a number of others, all brave like him, among them Garibaldi's young son, with a shot wound in his wrist, received at Calata Fimi, and the son of Daniel Manin, wounded in the thigh. There was the ex-priest Guzmaroli, a Romagnole, who has vowed the most enthusiastic worship to his hero, and follows him like his shadow, providing for his comforts, and watching his person in the moment of danger. There was a small cluster of guides, most of them of good Lombard families, meant to serve on horseback, but now on foot, and the foremost in the battle. Not the least remarkable among all these figures was the Sicilian monk, Frate Pantaleone—jolly, like the picture of a monk of the middle ages, but full of fire and patriotism, and as brave as any of the others. He had joined the force at Salemi, and did his best to encourage and comfort them. Several among the leading men from Palermo and its vicinity were likewise present among them, with several priests and monks, who are among the most sincere and energetic promoters of the movement. They were a strange sight, indeed, in this by no means very Catholic army; but I assure you their behavior has been such that the wildest among these youths honor and respect them, and in them their order.
"Well, all this motley crowd, increased now by the two young American naval men, and soon after joined by three British naval officers, was collected around a common nucleus—a smoking kettle, with the larger part of a calf in it, and a liberal allowance of onions, a basket with heaps of fresh bread, and a barrel containing Marsala. Every one helped himself in the most communistic manner, using fingers and knife, and drinking out of the solitary tin pot. It is only in this irregular warfare that you see these scenes in their greatest perfection. The long marches and countermarches, rains, fights, and sleeping on the ground, had made almost every one worthy to figure in a picture by Murillo, with all those grand Sicilian mountains, not unlike those of Greece, forming a background such as no picture can reproduce."
GARIBALDI IN COUNCIL.
"Soon after my arrival, Garibaldi made his appearance, and received his foreign visitors with that charming, quiet simplicity which characterizes him, lending himself with great complaisance to the invariably recurring demands of autographs, and answering the numerous questions which were naturally put to him. It was only after the departure of his guests that the general resumed business. The question debated was nothing more nor less than to venture on a coup de main on Palermo the same night. There was no doubt, all the information went to show, that the Neapolitans had taken the bait thrown out for them—that they had taken a feigned retreat for a defeat, and the sending back of the guns toward the interior as a sign of discouragement. As to the flank movement to Misilmeri, they seemed to have no idea of it, for men come from Piani stated that they were in force in that place. Another considerable body of men was at Parco, and on the road beyond it. In Monreale, the reports spoke likewise of several thousand. In fact, the approaches to these two last-named places, called the Piana di Borazzo and the Theresa, both of which are close to the Palazzo Reale, in the southwest part of the town, were the points of concentration, while the outlets from the southerly and the southeasterly parts of the town were comparatively undefended. Former events had forced the Neapolitans to pay attention to the topography of the town, so as to remain masters of it in case of a popular rising. This was not very easy in such a town as Palermo, which, like a true southern town, forms a labyrinth of small and tortuous streets, flanked by high houses all provided with balconies. This was a serious drawback for the troops in a street fight. The Neapolitans did their best to repair the disadvantage. There are two streets, evidently of Spanish origin, which form the main arteries of the town. The first, called Via di Toledo, starting from the Marina at Porta Felice, traverses the town in a straight line from northeast to southwest, passing close to the Cathedral of Santa Rosalia, and ending at the Piazza Reale, the largest square of Palermo, on the opposite side of the town from which the roads start to Monreale and Parco. Besides the royal palace, supposed to be on the site of the old palace of the Emirs of Sicily, there are several large public buildings which line the square, the Archivescovado forming one corner, and the large convent of St. Elizabetha the other. The ground rises gently toward this part, which commands the whole town. At right angles to the Via di Toledo runs another street equally straight, the Strada Moquerada, which, starting from the Porto San Antonino, and traversing the whole town, leads out the road to La Favorita and to the Mole. The two intersect each other right in the centre of the town, where the octagonal place is called the Piazzi Bologni. The lower half of the town, from the sea to this place, had been almost abandoned, or rather committed to the tender care of the shipping and the Castello, which occupies a projecting height on the seashore, near the northeasterly corner of the town. A few posts at the gates of the town on this side, rather points of observation than of action, and a company or so in the building of the Finanze, situated in this part of the town, were all that remained of troops on that side.