strongly advise your withdrawing the garrison from the latter place
without delay, or they will be cut off.' This was despatched to
General Ulloa, whom rumour reported to have been just made minister of
war, and was signed in the name of one of his personal friends. The
rumour was false; but the telegram, of course, reached the desired
quarter, and the name attached removed all doubt of its genuineness.
It was hardly sent off when a despatch came from the real war
minister, asking the telegraph clerk if news had been received of the
division Caldarelli? To this Peard answered that General Caldarelli
and his division had gone over to Garibaldi yesterday, and now formed
part of the national army. Similar information was sent to General
Scotti at Salerno. Finally, the Syndic of Salerno was asked if he had
seen anything of the Garibaldian expeditions by sea?

Satisfied with his work, Colonel Peard, who knew that there were
Neapolitan troops within four miles of Eboli, and who did not think
that things looked entirely reassuring, decided to beat a somewhat
precipitous retreat. He told the Syndic that he was going to
reconnoitre in the direction of Salerno, and that his departure must
be kept a dead secret, but as soon as he was out of the town he turned
the horses' heads backwards towards the Garibaldian lines. He was
still accompanied by Commander Forbes, to whom, during their midnight
drive, he related his performance on the telegraph wires. 'What on
earth is the good of all this?' said Forbes; 'you don't imagine they
will be fools enough to believe it?' 'You will see,' answered the
colonel, 'it will frighten them to death, and to-morrow they will
evacuate Salerno.' And, in fact, at four o'clock in the morning the
evacuation was begun in obedience to telegraphic orders from Naples.

The 30,000 men recalled from Salerno and the adjacent districts