THE MARCH ON ROME 299
important emissary that it would be obliged if Mussolini
would state what were the political intentions of fascism
towards the Church.' The fascist reply * gave the most
loyal assurances '. Mussolini was therefore the favoured
candidate of the plutocracy, of the c liberals ', who preferred
him t6 the old politicians such as Salandra, and of the
Vatican. In a few hours5 time he was to have the backing
of the monarchy as well.
Salandra had postponed his reply to the king till the
following morning (Sunday the sgth), when, at 10 o'clock,
he went to the Quirinal, declined the task of forming the
new cabinet and said that Mussolini was the only man
capable of doing so. The king then asked De Vecchi to
telephone to Mussolini and ask him to come to Rome.
Mussolini's answer wras that he would not leave Milan until
he received a telegram from the king definitely charging
him to form a cabinet. General Cittadini, the king's A.D.C.,
sent the following telegram at once : e H.M. the King
requests you to come at once to Rome, and desires you to
form a cabinet.' Mussolini decided to leave for Rome by
a special train at about 3 p.m., but changed his rnind and
did not leave Milan until the evening on the 8 o'clock train.
During the crisis caused by the resignation of Facta's
cabinet, between the afternoon of the 27th and the morning
of the 2gth, the fascist officials had carried out the first
part of the plan whose final details had been settled in Naples
on the 24th. Power was to be handed over to the Quad-
rumvirate on the night of October 26, and the squads were
to mobilize secretly during the night of the 2 7th. Local
objectives were to be attained during the morning of the
2 8th and the three columns destined for Rome were to
begin their inarch. The fascist delegates who left Naples
between the 24th and the 26th took with them orders for
universal mobilization and instructions for local actions.
According to the original plan, practically all the fascist
forces were to go to the meeting places from which the
columns were to set out for thec march on Rome'. Mobiliza-
tion and local action were only the first stage of the march,
to which everything was subordinated. But between the