394 SOLDIERS AND SAILORS and to withdraw his forces from his capital, where Garibaldi, with only a few of his staff, made his triumphal entry on September 7, i860. After a few days' rest Garibaldi followed the disheartened king to Capua, ob- tained new signal successes on the Volturno, at Santa Maria, and Caserta ; but would probably have been unable to accomplish the enterprise had not the Pied- montese, whose government had aided Garibaldi's expedition while pretending to oppose it, overrun the Marches, beaten Lamorici^re and the Papal forces at Cas- tel Fidardo, and, crossing the frontier and the Apennines, besieged and reduced the strong places of Capua and Gaeta Garibaldi, who, as a dictator, had with doubtful success endeavored to establish something like rule in the Two Sicilies, aware of the arduousness of a task which would have exceeded many wiser men's powers, met Victor Emmanuel at Naples, delivered the two kingdoms into his hands, and, declining all the proffered honors and emoluments for himself, took leave of his sovereign and embarked for the solitude of his rock-farm at Caprera. Rome alone now remained outside of the United Italian Kingdom, and Gari- baldi, raising bands of adventurers, made two or three attempts to capture it, but was repulsed by its French garrison, and it was not until 1870 that, the French troops being recalled to their own sorely distressed country, the union of Italy under Victor Emmanuel became an accomplished fact, though in the great liber- ator's absence. Garibaldi once more was seen in Rome, April, 1879. He was supposed to be proposing great purchases of arms, to be enlisting hosts of volun- teers, to be planning thorough reforms and preparing formidable expeditions against Austria. But Garibaldi, away from Caprera, could not fail to have his good as well as his evil angels about him. He saw the king ; he listened to General Medici, his own right arm in so many campaigns, and now first aide-de- camp to King Humbert, as he had before been to King Victor Emmanuel. He listened, while they showed him the folly of further war, and, though not con- vinced, he was silenced. Although too proud to acknowledge the absurdity of his schemes in words, he was too wise not to give them up in deeds. He with- drew from the vain popular acclamation ; shut his door against the crowd of his visitors, and although he announced his intention to take up his domicile in Rome, he pleaded indisposition as an excuse for inaction and retirement. Unfortun- ately there was only too much ground in the plea. The arthritic pains, of which symptoms had manifested themselves as early as during the Lombard campaign of 1849, had been seriously aggravated by his toils, and the sight of his helplessness in Rome as he hobbled up the steps of Montecitorio in 1874, was saddening to all beholders, and prepared his friends for that end which, however, was to be put off for several years. The fatigue of the voyage from Caprera in 1879, ^^^ ^^i^^ more the excitement of incessant calls, objectless conferences, and endless ex- hibitions soon entirely prostrated the hero, and before the backward spring had fully set in it beCame evident that Garibaldi's life could only be a lingering agony. His life, if life it may be called, and at all events his sufferings, were pro- longed yet a few years. He left home in the spring of 1881 on a mad scheme
