182 THE RISE OF ITALIAN FASCISM
partisans of d'Annunzio. He had been infuriated by Musso-
lini's condoning the Treaty of Rapallo, by the way in which
he had been left high and dry in December 1920, and by the
jfa# joining the electoral lists in May 1921, and he had
ordered his legionaries to quit the fasci. The congress of
legionaries, which met in September, declared itself firmly
opposed to fascism, which it accused of serving landown-
ing and plutocratic interests. D'Annunzio's definition of
fascism, c agrarian slavery', was on everybody's lips. At
the fascist congress in Rome, d'Annunzio and the Constitu-
tion of the Quarnero provided the theme of the opposition.
But even in Fiume, after d'Annunzio had left, the initiative
had passed to the local fasci. At the beginning of March
1922, a fascist deputy, Giunta, and his squads seized a
destroyer, sailed to Fiume and opened fire on the government
buildings, where Zanella, c the autonomist', was installed,
and drove him out. A provisional government was formed
under the fascist deputy, Giurati. Thus, in Fiume itself,
fascists and legionaries became less and less distinguishable
one from the other, and this tendency spread elsewhere in
Italy. Some of the legionaries remained with the fasci,
contrary to d'Annunzio's orders, preferring to swim with the
fastest current, and having no Vittoriale to retire to. The
distinction between fascists and legionaries was not clear,
and actually only affected those who were in personal con-
tact with the £ commandant'. The legionaries had been
attracted to Fiume by their taste for adventure, and fascism
offered them the chance of a life of war, often their only
chance of any sort of life. The more powerful the fascist
organization became the harder it was for the ex-legionary
to break away on an independent course, particularly as
many of his leaders were to be found, captive or suborned, in
the front ranks of the fascists.
It was d'Aimunzio's attitude towards the General Con-
federation of Labour which chiefly served to unite the
Fascist Party against him. He dreamed of playing one day
the role of poet-prophet-dictator in a national revolution
inspired by his Quarnero charter, and supported by all the
forces of progress, especially the world of labour. Labour
was to recover its dignity, now menaced by fascism, and