Early on the morning of the 20th, Garibaldi's columns deployed from Merii to the attack, Malenchini and his division being destined to advance by the sea-shore, driving in the Neapolitan right, and carrying the village of St Marino to force the Palermo gate of the town. Garibaldi, with the main columns under Medici and Cosenz, advanced as far as Dunn's position on the cross-roads towards Pace, and then separating, pushed for Archi and St Pietro respectively, hoping to force the left and centre, and, concentrating on the Messina gate, carry the town in that direction. Towards seven the skirmishing became general, as the heads of various columns closed with the Neapolitan semicircle. Every man of Bosco's force was posted under the advantageous cover of house, wall, or embankmenttheir movements being entirely masked by the thick beds of Indian fig which here intersect the vineyards, and in many places form an impenetrable barrier. Our men dropped fast under this hidden fire, without any guide by which to return it, save the smoke of their adversaries' rifles; all, however, steadily advanced, threading their way amongst cane-brake, Indian-fig bushes, and vineyards as best they could. Colonel Peard and his revolving-rifle company pushed on towards the town by a by-road on the left, but was soon brought to a stand-still, and shortly afterwards the advance was entirely checked by the masses against which they were exposed. The check was, however, momentary; the Garibaldians were speedily reinforced; and the right and centre again advanced, headed by Garibaldi in person; who as usual was ever in the thickest of the fray, cigaret en bouche, and walking-stick in hand, cheering his guides and Genoese carbineers, his calm and benevolent features bearing their usual happy expression, as if he were on a day's excursion, rather than leading a death-struggle on which the fate of his country depended. Strongly built and of middle stature, this paladin of Italy is chiefly distinguished from his followers by his unassuming manner and aspect. Though dressed somewhat in sailor fashion,

with a red shirt, grey trousers, wideawake, and loose bandana flowing over his shoulders, his appearance is scrupulously clean and neat, and his manner gentlemanly and genial. There is something most winning and honest in his manner, and you are at once impressed with the conviction that you are face to face with a man whose word would be his bond, and upon whose guidance, either by sea or land, you would implicitly rely. No wonder, then, that his men advance again with such confidence, where perhaps routine troops would have hesitated. It is, indeed, hot work: Medici's horse has been killed under him; Cosenz has been hit in the neck; but the general still leads his guides under Missari, and the Genoese carbineers, who ever behave admirably. Suddenly a three-gun battery opened on them with mitraille at twenty paces; in this murderous discharge Garibaldi was slightly hurt, Missari's horse killed, Major Breda killed, Statella alone left standing on foot with a few men. At the same time Malenchini, who had driven the advanced Neapolitans back on St Marino, found it impossible to carry the hamlet-the road to it being completely swept by their battery; and the Garibaldians were again checked along the whole line. General Garibaldi merely gathered himself up for a fresh attack, and the reserve, consisting of the English_regiment, as it is termed, under Dunn, having arrived, one hundred and fifty men, with Major Wyndham, were sent to try and break through the line towards San Marino; and Dunn, with the remainder, about two hundred strong, was ordered by the General to advance and endeavour to carry the battery in flank; whilst Missari, Statella, and the remnant of their men, attempted the same movement in the opposite direction. Advancing under cover of a wall and ditch, Dunn led his men towards the battery, where he found, to his astonishment, Garibaldi joined in the fray. Dashing in after a momentary struggle with the infantry, the guns were carried, and in the act of being dragged off, when the Neapolitans opened out and made room for their cavalry, about one

hundred and twenty in number, to charge, and endeavour to retake the captured guns. Dunn's men, unaccustomed to fire, behaved admirably, though driven out of the battery, and their commander knocked down and galloped over by the cavalry, not, however, until he had shot their leader. Dividing themselves on either side the road, the Garibaldians placed their backs to the wall and Indian-fig bushes, and opened fire on the cavalry from either side. This was the struggle of the day, and very nearly cost Garibaldi his life, and with it the life of Italy. Afraid of advancing too far, and finding himself between two fires, the Neapolitan leader halted, and endeavoured to return; but Garibaldi, Missari, Statella, and a handful of guides, barred the way. Summoned by the Neapolitan officer to surrender, the hero of Varese merely replied by springing at his horse's bridle and cutting down the owner. Three or four troopers seconded their officer; one of them Garibaldi wounded; Missari killed two others, and shot the horse of a third; Statella killed another; and this murderous struggle concluded by Missari's killing a third with the fourth barrel of his revolver. The remnant of the cavalry now charged, backed, and escaped, leaving the guns in the hands of Garibaldi. Wyndham having been equally successful on the left, after some very sharp fighting, the whole line now advanced with the bayonet - ammunition getting very scarce; the Swiss and Bavarians stood for a moment, and then, following the example of their Neapolitan brethren, retired in confusion towards the town. On arriving at the houses in its vicinity, the castle guns opened on the assailants and covered the retreat; and as it was now noon, a halt was sounded, for the Garibaldians had been advancing since daybreak, and fighting under a Sicilian summer sun. Having secured the bridge, some extensive wood-stores and other buildings were broken open, and the troops placed under cover for a couple of hours' rest previous to assaulting the town, a few good riflemen alone being posted to check any advance on the

part of the enemy. Here an incident occurred which deserves to be mentioned, as showing the singular character of Garibaldi. Finding his shirt dirty and soiled from his personal struggles, he took it off, washed it in the brook hard by, and hung it up on the bushes, ate his lunch of bread, fruit, and water, smoked his cigar barebacked, and, wrapt in thought, sat apparently contemplating the drying of his garment: thus, in the field and bivouac, sharing danger and hardship with the humblest of his followers. Directly his shirt was dry, he went on board the Tukeri, formerly Veloce, lying in the bay on the western side of the peninsula, and personally directed her fire on the fortress and retiring masses. Having succeeded in drawing the fire on the steamer, and diverted the attention of the troops, he landed, and led the assault on the town. At two o'clock the attack became general; Medici advanced by the beach, on the western side; Cosenz towards the Messina gate; and Wyndham, followed by Malenchini, rushed at the gate leading to Palermo. A harassing fire was kept up by the Neapolitans from the houses and behind the boats on the beach, and shot and shell from the castle showered in on the Garibaldians; and it was not until the Pavia company had wormed their way into some gardens, turning the Neapolitan left, that good progress was made. The wall, which nearly surrounds the town on the land side, though nearly thirty feet high, offered but little difficulty, owing to the many apertures in it. Medici's men again bore the brunt of the fighting, and behaved right well, in spite of their heavy losses. Some of the houses were gallantly contested; but the Neapolitans fought like beaten troops, and were evidently bent on gradually retiring to the castle, their retreat being covered by a heavy fire of shot and shell from the fortress, in spite of which the heroic Garibaldians gradually advanced from position to position, driving back the troops until, about four o'clock, they worked their way up to the entrance of the castle. In the mean time some of Medici's men and Peard's company, following the

Marina on the western side of the peninsula, gained the heights to seaward of the castle, and established themselves near an old windmill, which completely overlooked the northern works of Melazzo, and rapidly with their rifles drove the garrison out of that quarter. Nothing more could now be done for the want of heavy guns, as, from the height of its walls, and singularly strong natural position, the castle could not be escaladed. Barricades were thrown up in all the immediate approaches towards the town, in readiness to repel any sortie, and officers and men, alike worn out and weary, lay down on their posts for the night-Garibaldi, with his head on a saddle, under the portico of a church in the centre of the Marina. Their successes, however, had been dearly bought, no less than 750 Garibaldians were hors de combat, and of these over 150 killed; Medici's and Cosenz's columns and the reserve bearing by far the greater portion, so that it may be said that out of the 4000 actually engaged, when you have deducted the 600 men under Malenchini, who was driven back in the early part of the day with moderate loss, the remainder lost upwards of a fifth hors de combat, which, considering the number of hours they were engaged, tells they met with no ordinary resistance. As for the Neapolitans, so strong and so well covered were their various positions, strengthened by loopholes and bar ricades, that they did not lose more than 150 in all. More than once the fate of Italy was doubtful, until the happy advance of the reserves, under Dunn and Wyndham, the one on the right and the other on the left, turned the tide of the day; and to the pluck and judgment of these two officers, together with the admirable conduct of the Piedmontese sous officers, by whom their regiment was officered, to say nothing of the singularly steady conduct of the Palermitans, may be attributed the success of Garibaldi's hardest fought battle in Italy; and it was generally stated that Bosco's troops fought better than the Austrians had ever done in Lombardy against the Cacciatori delle Alpi.

Nothing occurred during the four

following days, save that Bosco seemed to imagine that he could dictate his own terms to Garibaldi, who steadily refused anything but an unconditional surrender, the garrison being hermetically sealed, and too disheartened to attempt a sortie; besides, provisions were not abundant, and they were suffering much from the badness of the water. Mines were therefore driven under the main entrance of the castle, and the garrison summoned to an unconditional surrender at six P.M. on the 24th; on the afternoon of which day Bosco found his expected relief, in the arrival of five Neapolitan steam frigates, who threatened to bombard the town if the troops were not allowed to march out with their arms and remaining field battery, leaving behind the heavy guns and stores. To these terms Garibaldi was obliged to consent, from motives of humanity, as well as from the utter impossibility of replying to their fire. The garrison were accordingly embarked for Naples and Messina, the Neapolitan men-of-war performing again in this case the part for which they seem especially created; namely, that of removing their army to a place of safety after it has been well thrashed. The great guns and stores found in the fort were of course invaluable to Garibaldi, as well as the horses of the cavalry, and the ninety-four mules belonging to the field batteries; but the Neapolitans had the indecency to spike eighteen of the guns, and lay a train to the principal magazine, leaving a lighted match in it, which was luckily discovered in time. Bosco denied all knowledge of these transactions. Of the value of this denial the reader must form his own estimate. The day after the fight, numerous reinforcements began to arrive from Palermo, which soon swelled the numbers of the Garibaldians to 10,000, and Medici was sent forward with the columns in the direction of Messina to check any advance in that quarter, and with a view of commencing operations against that town. Medici soon established himself in that neighbourhood, but kept the main body of his men at Jesso and Spadafora. Convinced of the utter impossibility of longer opposing Gari

baldi in Sicily, and knowing the odium that the repetition of the atrocious bombardment of Palermo would entail on him in Europe, King Bomba decided upon trying to induce foreign powers to aid him by pretending to have left Sicily free to select her own form of government. On the 24th Marshal Clary, commanding-in-chief in the island, received orders to commence the evacuation of Sicily, and to place himself in communication with the Filibuster, as they once had the imbecility to term him. The towns of Messina, Syracuse, and Augusta, were to be delivered up as soon as the troops could be withdrawn, and the far-famed citadel of Messina, and its surrounding fortifications, as soon as the disarmament could be completed! Such were the fruits of the fall of Melazzo, a battle in which the only Sicilian officer engaged was Bosco, and he was fighting against his own countrymen; a fact, however, not more remarkable than that the subscription throughout this fertile island in aid of Garibaldi has only amounted to £5000, and that he and his son had to pay for the hire of the horses during the first month they were in the island, and that, with the exception of the Marquis Fardella, and a few other honourable exceptions, no well-to-do Sicilian has joined the army. The pusillanimous and unpatriotic part taken by the majority in the destruction of the Bourbon dominion is pitiable. They have no idea of risking the varnish of their patent leather boots beyond the Caffes of the Toledo, or their precious persons beyond an evening's drive on the Marina or English garden; as for personal or pecuniary sacrifice, they will make none. Not a single house in Palermo would receive a wounded Garibaldian after its fall, save Rayuso of the Trinacria Hotel; and the precious moments which are to give new life to Italy, are frittered away over ices and cigars that would sicken any but a Sicilian. The evacuation of Messina being completed, and a convention entered into between Medici and Governor-General Clary,

that the town, under all circumstances, was to be respected, unless an attack was made on the citadel from that side, the Garibaldian forces under_Medici marched into Messina on July 27th. It seemed at first a city of the dead, for the majority of the inhabitants had fled, carrying with them their goods and property. The Dictator soon hastened up with the main body of his army; and having been subsequently reinforced by Eber's and Bixio's columns from the south, as well as daily arrivals from Palermo, an army of upwards of 20,000 men is now at his disposal in Messina and its vicinity. Batteries are being thrown up at the Faro, and vast preparations made for crossing into Calabria; but whether Garibaldi will make a campaign in that country, or, collecting his steamers, make a swoop at Naples, time only can show; but come what may in that direction, Sicily being now free, must be ere long annexed to the dominions of Victor Emmanuel. The crowd of adventurers swarming here from all parts of Europe, the appearance of that bird of evil omen, Joseph Mazzini,—the rapacity of the Sicilians, who all conceive that they are to receive lucrative public employment, together with their constant intrigue to upset the various ministries that have been formed, all tends to show that they are utterly unfit for self-government, and a state of anarchy must ensue if they are left to themselves, when Garibaldi leaves the island. But into whatsoever hands Sicily may fall, for years it must be rigorously governed, before its motley and debased inhabitants can be expected to respect life or property, much less become fit to be citizens of a representative community. Here may be witnessed the withering influence of generations of servitude and vassalage upon the two classes into which the community of Sicily may be divided-namely, the aristocracy and the working classes: the one is ignorant and emasculated with dissipation, and the other degraded and demoralised to a degree without a parallel in Europe.