Before the middle of September, General Cialdini had taken the town of Pesaro, and captured twelve hundred of the German troops, being a portion of those bands of foreign soldiers, against the keeping of which France and Piedmont had so long protested, and the retaining of which was the chief ground of the war. Orvieto was also taken. Fossombrone had risen in insurrection, as Pesaro had done before Cialdini's arrival; but Fossombrone, being unsupported, had been reduced to obedience, by such savage punishment as had been suffered by Perugia.
The "London Times" remarked, on receiving this news, and in reviewing the manifesto of Victor Emanuel:
"We freely admit that nothing but the extremity of the evil could justify the step which Sardinia has taken, but we think that step is justified. The evil would not cure itself. For all these reasons, we think the King of Sardinia is entitled to the sympathy of Englishmen in the war in which he has engaged. We wish him cordially success, and that his success may be rapid as well as decisive."
The war, in fact, was begun by the rulers and their hired butchers against the people, before the Sardinian troops crossed the frontier. The presence of those troops was also an insult to Italy, as their express object was to oppose the movement in the free territories. The same writer added the following remarks:
"Then there is the intolerable oppression of the Pope's government. The best proof of that oppression is the fact that the Pope dares not trust his own subjects with arms, but places himself, like Dionysius of Syracuse, in the hands of foreign mercenaries. The spectacle of a people kept down by such means is an outrage on the civilization of the age, and a danger and menace for all the rest of Italy. Till some government be established in the centre of Italy, which can be maintained without ten thousand French troops to garrison the capital, and five and twenty thousand foreign mercenaries to sack insurgent towns, it is in vain to hope for peace."
General Cialdini approached Ancona, and a naval squadron was to coöperate. The battle of Castelfidaro was fought on the 18th of September, when Lieut. General Cialdini was furiously attacked by General Lamoricière, with eleven thousand men and one hundred and forty cannon. Four thousand other papal troops made a sortie from Ancona, to support the latter. The contest was short but bloody. Many of the wounded papists used their daggers against the Piedmontese, who went to assist them. The results, said Cialdini's report, were as follows:
"The junction of Lamoricière's forces with Ancona has been prevented; we have taken six hundred prisoners, among whom are more than thirty officers, some of them of high rank; we have taken six guns, among others those given by Charles Albert to the Pope in 1848, one standard, and numerous ammunition wagons, etc. All the wounded, including General Pimodan, who led the attacking column, are in our hands, and a great number of killed."
General Cialdini conceded the honors of war to this corps, and officers and men were allowed to return to their homes.
General Lamoricière, accompanied by a few horsemen, fled from the field of battle on the 18th, and, following the road by the sea through the defiles of Conero, succeeded in reaching Ancona. All the prisoners and troops were indignant at his conduct. Nothing remained of Lamoricière's army except the troops shut up in Ancona; all the rest were in the hands of the royal troops, with the exception of two thousand men dispersed in the mountains. The Sardinian government offered to the English government to set all the Irish prisoners at liberty. The latter sent a courteous reply, leaving it entirely to the Sardinian government to take such resolutions as it might deem most suitable. The Sardinian government ordered the release of all Frenchmen taken prisoners from Lamoricière.
"The mercenary army of General Lamoricière (as the "London Times" remarked) was the last hope of the Pope. Lamoricière, whom the last accounts had described as seeking a junction with the Royalist Neapolitan troops, and threatening a southward movement upon the Garibaldians, had appeared suddenly before Ancona. Cialdini accepted the offered battle, and the event has been that the African general was totally and entirely routed. Those bands, from whom so much was expected, seem to be of no avail whatever against the Sardinian soldiers. This fire-eating and pious soldado, who had fulminated such dreadful threats, and who was known to have done such strong deeds among the Arabs, has really done nothing in Italy which might not have been done by one of the College of Cardinals. With eleven thousand men, and the vigorous aid of the garrison of Ancona, he has simply marched up to a signal defeat."