And the crowd, persistently silent, opened to let them pass.

But they had hardly left the square before a great disturbance broke out.
A man named Giorgio Pellegrino came out of his house with a gun and
crossed the square, shouting, "To your arms!"

He knew that Captain Trenta Capelli commanding the Cosenza garrison was
just then in Pizzo, and he was going to warn him.

The cry "To arms!" had more effect on the crowd than the cry "Long live
Joachim!"

Every Calabrian possesses a gun, and each one ran to fetch his, and when
Trenta Capelli and Giorgio Pellegrino came back to the square they found
nearly two hundred armed men there.

They placed themselves at the head of the column, and hastened forward in
pursuit of the king; they came up with him about ten minutes from the
square, where the bridge is nowadays. Seeing them, Murat stopped and
waited for them.

Trenta Capelli advanced, sword in hand, towards the king.

"Sir," said the latter, "will you exchange your captain's epaulettes for
a general's? Cry 'Long live Joachim!' and follow me with these brave
fellows to Monteleone."

"Sire," said Trenta Capelli, "we are the faithful subjects of King
Ferdinand, and we come to fight you, and not to bear you company. Give
yourself up, if you would prevent bloodshed."