THE MARCH ON ROME 303
office. When I told him that I was taking possession of
the prefecture in the name of the revolution which at
that moment was knocking at the gates of Rome, the
prefect, pale with emotion, replied that he accepted our
conditions and begged us with tears in his eyes to think
only of Italy. Knowing as I did his patriotic soul and
noble loyalty, I asked him to remain at his post and carry
on with his routine work. There was still an unknown
factor : the army. What were its orders ? Extreme
prudence was necessary, for the Jugo-Slavs had consider-
able forces on the frontier. Accompanied by my little
general staff I went to army headquarters. On the way
I met General Sanna, the commandant, in his car.
Directly he saw me he got out and came to meet me.
" Now I shall have you all shot/' he said with a would-be
serious air. " Do, excellency, but you will need more
than one firing squad.3' '
The conversation continued on these lines until finally, c his
heart won and the general came with us to the prefecture,
where we decided that the army should remain neutral,
unless orders to the contrary came from Rome \ In the
meantime the fascists occupied the general post office and
telephone exchange and cut all communications with the
peninsula. The whole of I stria passed under their control
and in Gorizia c relations between the civil and military
authorities and the leaders of the revolt were entirely
cordial \
During the 2 8th the fascists took over, unresisted, in
almost every town in the Po valley ; at Piacenza, where
the prefectc enthusiastically ordered that the fascists should
occupy every administrative office' ; Parma, and Ferrara,
where c in view of the correct attitude of the prefect who
had shown tact and understanding, the prefecture and the
police station were not occupied' ; Modena, Reggio
Emilia, Rovigo.
In Tuscany they took action as early as the 27th, which
threatened to start the movement too soon. For instance,
at Pisa the fascist executive had put up a notice announcing
the march on Rome, and at Siena fi handfuls of fascists had