Admiral Persano in a letter designed for the Dictator's
reading:--

After such a splendid victory I do not see how
he can be prevented from crossing over to the
Continent. . . . We must let Garibaldi have his
way.

A second letter, which was confidential, contained the
words:--

Do not facilitate Garibaldi's passage to the
Continent, but rather seek to detain him as long as
possible by indirect means.

Cavour left no stone unturned in his efforts to deprive Gari-
baldi of the glory of delivering Naples as well as Sicily. He
despatched Persano, equipped with unlimited authority and
much money, and surrounded him with Sardinian and Nea-
politan agents; he even evolved a plan for making the Conte
di Siracusa, Francesco the Second's uncle, regent, preferring
his rule to Garibaldi's Dictatorship!

But all his efforts failed, and the uprising in Naples did not
take place. The King and the court left Naples on Septem-
ber 6, not because they feared the band of official conspirators,
but because Garibaldi was near at hand!

Unarmed, accompanied only by a few friends, and welcomed
with extraordinary rejoicings by the Neapolitans, who were
probably more amazed than conscious of the importance of
the event, Garibaldi had assumed the Dictatorship, not for
the 'Mazzinians,' but for Italy and for Victor Emmanuel, and
his first edict read as follows:--

The Dictator herewith decrees:

That all gun-boats and the vessels composing the
mercantile navy of the Kingdom of the Two
Sicilies, all arsenals and naval appurtenances, are
herewith incorporated with the fleet of the King of

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