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Liberal revolutions of 1848, (1856). In 1848 troops led by Garibaldi and Mazzini occupied the Vatican. On 24 November 1848, with the help of the Spanish, French and Bavarian ambassadors, Pope Pius IX, (1792-1878) fled Rome, taking refuge in the Neapolitan fortress of Gaeta in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. On 18 February 1849, after the declaration of the Roman Republic on 9 February, the Pope asked for military aid from Spain, France, Austria and Naples. The Spanish government under Narváez ordered General Córdoba to send troops as a matter of urgency. After disembarking in the port of Gaeta on 28 May 1849, Pius IX reviewed the troops and imparted his blessing. Pope Pius IX blesses the Spanish troops which come to his aid on the coast of Gaeta. From "Los Héroes y las Grandezas de la Tierra" (The Heroes and the Grandeurs of the Earth), Volume VIII, 1856.