On Christmas Eve the Italian troops blockading Fiume suddenly attacked
the town. Signor d'Annunzio's legionaries offered a strenuous resistance and seem to have held their ground. After a truce on Christmas Day the fighting began again on Sunday, and there were many casualties. An Italian battleship bombarded the town. Signor d'Annunzio was wounded in the head by a splinter from an Italian shell. On Tuesday the Mayor of Fiume asked for an armistice on con- dition that the legionaries should evacuate the two small islands assigned to the Southern Slays and should surrender the Italian warships in the port. What the Italian people think of • thin painful affair may be judged from the -feet• that all the theatres (Awed their doors on Monday as a sign of mourning. Italians have not forgotten Aspromonte, where, in 1862, Garibaldi, while marching on Papal Rome, Was attacked and captured by Piedmontese troops at the orders of Rattazzi, who feared foreign complications. The parallel between Aspromonte and Fiume is not exact, for Garibaldi was wounded in an attempt to stop his men from firing on their fellow-Italians, whereas Signor d'Annunzio encouraged his men to fight. Yet the two episoclee are sufficiently alike to impress Italian patriots. Aspromonte caused Rattazzi's fall and increased Garibaldi's popularity.
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