His conquest of Sicily now almost complete, Giuseppe Garibaldi had received suggestions from King Victor Emmanuel II that the Kingdom of Naples be allowed to reform and not be further invaded. Garibaldi, in a letter, asked "Allow me then, Sire, this time to disobey you" and that afterwards he would "lay at the feet of Your Majesty all the authority which circumstances had conferred upon me..." Garibaldi and his men crossed to the Kingdom of Naples on August 18, 1860. (By John Osborne)