Aspromonte is recalled as the site of a confrontation between Colonel Pallavicino’s soldiers and a force gathered around Giuseppe Garibaldi. In Pallavicino’s account, the clash exposes the tensions beneath Italian unification: military obedience, competing visions of national action, and the uncertain unity of the new Kingdom of Italy.

The Clash at Aspromonte

At a later ball, Pallavicino tells Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, that in August he faced a few hundred of Garibaldi’s followers at Aspromonte. He describes them as a mixed group, including both fanatics and professional agitators. Carrying written orders, he says he had little choice but to command his men to fire; he also admits that the orders accorded with his own feelings about the confrontation.

The firing wounded Garibaldi in the foot. Pallavicino recalls finding him beneath a chestnut tree, suffering physically and emotionally, and describes the encounter as difficult to bear because he had just ordered fire against him. Afterward, Pallavicino made a conspicuous gesture of respect, genuflecting and kissing Garibaldi’s hand. He reports that Garibaldi shook his hand warmly and thanked him.

Pallavicino’s Account of the Consequences

Pallavicino presents the shooting not simply as an act against Garibaldi but as a way of separating him from followers whom he considers inept and politically dangerous. He says that, as his Bersaglieri disarmed Garibaldi’s men, they cursed Garibaldi himself—the one who had personally suffered—because they feared losing the charismatic figure who had concealed their intrigues. In Pallavicino’s view, the shots helped Garibaldi by bringing the failings of those around him into sharper focus.

He also argues that refusing to fire could have brought French and Austrian intervention, with consequences that might have undone the Kingdom of Italy. These claims are presented as Pallavicino’s retrospective interpretation, not as an independent account of the battle. His account binds obedience and personal conviction together: he acted under written orders, yet says he was relieved that the orders matched his judgment.

A Site of Unsettled Unity

Aspromonte’s significance in the novel extends beyond the exchange of fire. Pallavicino remembers the episode as a moment when the survival of the new kingdom, Garibaldi’s leadership, and the aims of Garibaldi’s followers seemed to pull in different directions. His report of Garibaldi’s thanks reverses the expected meaning of the encounter: the wounded man’s response turns an act of violence into an expression of respect and, in Pallavicino’s telling, a service to the cause Garibaldi embodied.

The conversation then broadens from Aspromonte to the country’s continuing divisions. Pallavicino warns that political disunity persists after unification and predicts that red-shirt movements will return in changing forms. The mountain clash thus serves as a compact image of the novel’s larger uncertainty: national unity has been achieved, but its stability and meaning remain contested.