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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4498-0.txt b/4498-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..19a4408 --- /dev/null +++ b/4498-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1849 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 4498 *** + +MISCELLANEOUS PROSE + +By George Meredith + + + +CONTENTS: + +INTRODUCTION TO W. M. THACKERAY'S "THE FOUR GEORGES" + +A PAUSE IN THE STRIFE. + +CONCESSION TO THE CELT. + +LESLIE STEPHEN. + +LETTERS WRITTEN TO THE 'MORNING POST' FROM THE SEAT OF WAR IN ITALY. + + + + +INTRODUCTION TO W. M. THACKERAY'S "THE FOUR GEORGES" + +WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY was born at Calcutta, July 18, 1811, the only +child of Richmond and Anne Thackeray. He received the main part of his +education at the Charterhouse, as we know to our profit. Thence he +passed to Cambridge, remaining there from February 1829 to sometime in +1830. To judge by quotations and allusions, his favourite of the +classics was Horace, the chosen of the eighteenth century, and generally +the voice of its philosophy in a prosperous country. His voyage from +India gave him sight of Napoleon on the rocky island. In his young +manhood he made his bow reverentially to Goethe of Weimar; which did not +check his hand from setting its mark on the sickliness of Werther. + +He was built of an extremely impressionable nature and a commanding good +sense. He was in addition a calm observer, having 'the harvest of a +quiet eye.' Of this combination with the flood of subjects brought up to +judgement in his mind, came the prevalent humour, the enforced +disposition to satire, the singular critical drollery, notable in his +works. His parodies, even those pushed to burlesque, are an expression +of criticism and are more effective than the serious method, while they +rarely overstep the line of justness. The Novels by Eminent Hands do not +pervert the originals they exaggerate. 'Sieyes an abbe, now a ferocious +lifeguardsman,' stretches the face of the rollicking Irish novelist +without disfeaturing him; and the mysterious visitor to the palatial +mansion in Holywell Street indicates possibilities in the Oriental +imagination of the eminent statesman who stooped to conquer fact through +fiction. Thackeray's attitude in his great novels is that of the +composedly urbane lecturer, on a level with a select audience, assured of +interesting, above requirements to excite. The slow movement of the +narrative has a grace of style to charm like the dance of the Minuet de +la Cour: it is the limpidity of Addison flavoured with salt of a racy +vernacular; and such is the veri-similitude and the dialogue that they +might seem to be heard from the mouths of living speakers. When in this +way the characters of Vanity Fair had come to growth, their author was +rightly appreciated as one of the creators in our literature, he took at +once the place he will retain. With this great book and with Esmond and +The Newcomes, he gave a name eminent, singular, and beloved to English +fiction. + +Charges of cynicism are common against all satirists, Thackeray had to +bear with them. The social world he looked at did not show him heroes, +only here and there a plain good soul to whom he was affectionate in the +unhysterical way of an English father patting a son on the head. He +described his world as an accurate observer saw it, he could not be +dishonest. Not a page of his books reveals malevolence or a sneer at +humanity. He was driven to the satirical task by the scenes about him. +There must be the moralist in the satirist if satire is to strike. The +stroke is weakened and art violated when he comes to the front. But he +will always be pressing forward, and Thackeray restrained him as much as +could be done, in the manner of a good-humoured constable. Thackeray may +have appeared cynical to the devout by keeping him from a station in the +pulpit among congregations of the many convicted sinners. That the +moralist would have occupied it and thundered had he presented us with +the Fourth of the Georges we see when we read of his rejecting the +solicitations of so seductive a personage for the satiric rod. + +Himself one of the manliest, the kindliest of human creatures, it was the +love of his art that exposed him to misinterpretation. He did stout +service in his day. If the bad manners he scourged are now lessened to +some degree we pay a debt in remembering that we owe much to him, and if +what appears incurable remains with us, a continued reading of his works +will at least help to combat it. + + + + + + +A PAUSE IN THE STRIFE--1886 + +Our 'Eriniad,' or ballad epic of the enfranchisement of the sister island +is closing its first fytte for the singer, and with such result as those +Englishmen who have some knowledge of their fellows foresaw. There are +sufficient reasons why the Tories should always be able to keep together, +but let them have the credit of cohesiveness and subordination to +control. Though working for their own ends, they won the esteem of their +allies, which will count for them in the struggles to follow. Their +leaders appear to have seen what has not been distinctly perceptible to +the opposite party--that the break up of the Liberals means the defection +of the old Whigs in permanence, heralding the establishment of a powerful +force against Radicalism, with a capital cry to the country. They have +tactical astuteness. If they seem rather too proud of their victory, it +is merely because, as becomes them, they do not look ahead. To rejoice +in the gaining of a day, without having clear views of the morrow, is +puerile enough. Any Tory victory, it may be said, is little more than a +pause in the strife, unless when the Radical game is played 'to dish the +Whigs,' and the Tories are now fast bound down by their incorporation of +the latter to abstain from the violent springs and right-about-facings of +the Derby-Disraeli period. They are so heavily weighted by the new +combination that their Jack-in-the-box, Lord Randolph, will have to stand +like an ordinary sentinel on duty, and take the measurement of his +natural size. They must, on the supposition of their entry into office, +even to satisfy their own constituents, produce a scheme. Their majority +in the House will command it. + +To this extent, then, Mr. Gladstone has not been defeated. The question +set on fire by him will never be extinguished until the combustible +matter has gone to ashes. But personally he meets a sharp rebuff. The +Tories may well raise hurrahs over that. Radicals have to admit it, and +point to the grounds of it. Between a man's enemies and his friends +there comes out a rough painting of his character, not without a +resemblance to the final summary, albeit wanting in the justly delicate +historical touch to particular features. On the one side he is abused as +'the one-man power'; lauded on the other for his marvellous intuition of +the popular will. One can believe that he scarcely wishes to march +dictatorially, and full surely his Egyptian policy was from step to step +a misreading of the will of the English people. He went forth on this +campaign, with the finger of Egypt not ineffectively levelled against him +a second time. Nevertheless he does read his English; he has, too, the +fatal tendency to the bringing forth of Bills in the manner of Jove big +with Minerva. He perceived the necessity, and the issue of the +necessity; clearly defined what must come, and, with a higher motive than +the vanity with which his enemies charge him, though not with such high +counsel as Wisdom at his ear, fell to work on it alone, produced the +whole Bill alone, and then handed it to his Cabinet to digest, too much +in love with the thing he had laid and incubated to permit of any serious +dismemberment of its frame. Hence the disruption. He worked for the +future, produced a Bill for the future, and is wrecked in the present. +Probably he can work in no other way than from the impulse of his +enthusiasm, solitarily. It is a way of making men overweeningly in love +with their creations. The consequence is likely to be that Ireland will +get her full measure of justice to appease her cravings earlier than she +would have had as much from the United Liberal Cabinet, but at a cost +both to her and to England. Meanwhile we are to have a House of Commons +incapable of conducting public business; the tradesmen to whom the Times +addressed pathetic condolences on the loss of their season will lose more +than one; and we shall be made sensible that we have an enemy in our +midst, until a people, slow to think, have taken counsel of their native +generosity to put trust in the most generous race on earth. + + + + + + +CONCESSION TO THE CELT--1886 + +Things are quiet outside an ant-hill until the stick has been thrust into +it. Mr. Gladstone's Bill for helping to the wiser government of Ireland +has brought forth our busy citizens on the top-rubble in traversing +counterswarms, and whatever may be said against a Bill that deals roughly +with many sensitive interests, one asks whether anything less violently +impressive would have roused industrious England to take this question at +last into the mind, as a matter for settlement. The Liberal leader has +driven it home; and wantonly, in the way of a pedestrian demagogue, some +think; certainly to the discomposure of the comfortable and the myopely +busy, who prefer to live on with a disease in the frame rather than at +all be stirred. They can, we see, pronounce a positive electoral +negative; yet even they, after the eighty and odd years of our domestic +perplexity, in the presence of the eighty and odd members pledged for +Home Rule, have been moved to excited inquiries regarding measures--short +of the obnoxious Bill. How much we suffer from sniffing the vain incense +of that word practical, is contempt of prevision! Many of the measures +now being proposed responsively to the fretful cry for them, as a better +alternative to correction by force of arms, are sound and just. Ten +years back, or at a more recent period before Mr. Parnell's triumph in +the number of his followers, they would have formed a basis for the +appeasement of the troubled land. The institution of county boards, +the abolition of the detested Castle, something like the establishment of +a Royal residence in Dublin, would have begun the work well. Materially +and sentimentally, they were the right steps to take. They are now +proposed too late. They are regarded as petty concessions, insufficient +and vexatious. The lower and the higher elements in the population are +fused by the enthusiasm of men who find themselves marching in full body +on a road, under a flag, at the heels of a trusted leader; and they will +no longer be fed with sops. Petty concessions are signs of weakness to +the unsatisfied; they prick an appetite, they do not close breaches. If +our object is, as we hear it said, to appease the Irish, we shall have to +give them the Parliament their leader demands. It might once have been +much less; it may be worried into a raving, perhaps a desperate +wrestling, for still more. Nations pay Sibylline prices for want of +forethought. Mr. Parnell's terms are embodied in Mr. Gladstone's Bill, +to which he and his band have subscribed. The one point for him is the +statutory Parliament, so that Ireland may civilly govern herself; and +standing before the world as representative of his country, he addresses +an applausive audience when he cites the total failure of England to do +that business of government, as at least a logical reason for the claim. +England has confessedly failed; the world says it, the country admits it. +We have failed, and not because the so-called Saxon is incapable of +understanding the Celt, but owing to our system, suitable enough to us, +of rule by Party, which puts perpetually a shifting hand upon the reins, +and invites the clamour it has to allay. The Irish--the English too in +some degree--have been taught that roaring; in its various forms, is the +trick to open the ears of Ministers. We have encouraged by irritating +them to practise it, until it has become a habit, an hereditary +profession with them. Ministers in turn have defensively adopted the +arts of beguilement, varied by an exercise of the police. We grew +accustomed to periods of Irish fever. The exhaustion ensuing we named +tranquillity, and hoped that it would bear fruit. But we did not plant. +The Party in office directed its attention to what was uppermost and +urgent--to that which kicked them. Although we were living, by common +consent; with a disease in the frame, eruptive at intervals, a national +disfigurement always a danger, the Ministerial idea of arresting it for +the purpose of healing was confined, before the passing of Mr. +Gladstone's well-meant Land Bill, to the occasional despatch of +commissions; and, in fine, we behold through History the Irish malady +treated as a form of British constitutional gout. Parliament touched on +the Irish only when the Irish were active as a virus. Our later +alternations of cajolery and repression bear painful resemblance to the +nervous fit of rickety riders compounding with their destinations that +they may keep their seats. The cajolery was foolish, if an end was in +view; the repression inefficient. To repress efficiently we have to +stifle a conscience accusing us of old injustice, and forget that we are +sworn to freedom. The cries that we have been hearing for Cromwell or +for Bismarck prove the existence of an impatient faction in our midst +fitter to wear the collars of those masters whom they invoke than to drop +a vote into the ballot-box. As for the prominent politicians who have +displaced their rivals partly on the strength of an implied approbation +of those cries, we shall see how they illumine the councils of a +governing people. They are wiser than the barking dogs. Cromwell and +Bismarck are great names; but the harrying of Ireland did not settle it, +and to Germanize a Posen and call it peace will find echo only in the +German tongue. Posen is the error of a master-mind too much given to +hammer at obstacles. He has, however, the hammer. Can it be imagined in +English hands? The braver exemplar for grappling with monstrous +political tasks is Cavour, and he would not have hinted at the iron +method or the bayonet for a pacification. Cavour challenged debate; he +had faith in the active intellect, and that is the thing to be prayed for +by statesmen who would register permanent successes. The Irish, it is +true, do not conduct an argument coolly. Mr. Parnell and his eighty-five +have not met the Conservative leader and his following in the Commons +with the gravity of platonic disputants. But they have a logical +position, equivalent to the best of arguments. They are representatives, +they would say, of a country admittedly ill-governed by us; and they have +accepted the Bill of the defeated Minister as final. Its provisions are +their terms of peace. They offer in return for that boon to take the +burden we have groaned under off our hands. If we answer that we think +them insincere, we accuse these thrice accredited representatives of the +Irish people of being hypocrites and crafty conspirators; and numbers in +England, affected by the weapons they have used to get to their present +strength, do think it; forgetful that our obtuseness to their constant +appeals forced them into the extremer shifts of agitation. Yet it will +hardly be denied that these men love Ireland; and they have not shown +themselves by their acts to be insane. To suppose them conspiring for +separation indicates a suspicion that they have neither hearts nor heads. +For Ireland, separation is immediate ruin. It would prove a very short +sail for these conspirators before the ship went down. The vital +necessity of the Union for both, countries, obviously for the weaker of +the two, is known to them; and unless we resume our exasperation of the +wild fellow the Celt can be made by such a process, we have not rational +grounds for treating him, or treating with him, as a Bedlamite. He has +besides his passions shrewd sense; and his passions may be rightly +directed by benevolent attraction. This is language derided by the +victorious enemy; it speaks nevertheless what the world, and even +troubled America, thinks of the Irish Celt. More of it now on our side +of the Channel would be serviceable. The notion that he hates the +English comes of his fevered chafing against the harness of England, and +when subject to his fevers, he is unrestrained in his cries and deeds. +That pertains to the nature of him. Of course, if we have no belief in +the virtues of friendliness and confidence--none in regard to the +Irishman--we show him his footing, and we challenge the issue. For the +sole alternative is distinct antagonism, a form of war. Mr. Gladstone's +Bill has brought us to that definite line. Ireland having given her +adhesion to it, swearing that she does so in good faith, and will not +accept a smaller quantity, peace is only to be had by our placing trust +in the Irish; we trust them or we crush them. Intermediate ways are but +the prosecution of our ugly flounderings in Bogland; and dubious as we +see the choice on either side, a decisive step to right or left will not +show us to the world so bemired, to ourselves so miserably inefficient, +as we appear in this session of a new Parliament. With his eighty-five, +apart from external operations lawful or not, Mr. Parnell can act as a +sort of lumbricus in the House. Let journalists watch and chronicle +events: if Mr. Gladstone has humour, they will yet note a peculiar smile +on his closed mouth from time to time when the alien body within the +House, from which, for the sake of its dignity and ability to conduct its +affairs, he would have relieved it till the day of a warmer intelligence +between Irish and English, paralyzes our machinery business. An ably- +handled coherent body in the midst of the liquid groups will make it felt +that Ireland is a nation, naturally dependent though she must be. We +have to do with forces in politics, and the great majority of the Irish +Nationalists in Ireland has made them a force. + +No doubt Mr. Matthew Arnold is correct in his apprehensions of the +dangers we may fear from a Dublin House of Commons. The declarations +and novel or ultra theories might almost be written down beforehand. +I should, for my part, anticipate a greater danger in the familiar +attitude of the English metropolitan Press and public toward an +experiment they dislike and incline to dread:--the cynical comments, +the quotations between inverted commas, the commiserating shrug, cold +irony, raw banter, growl of menace, sharp snap, rounds of laughter. +Frenchmen of the Young Republic, not presently appreciated as offensive, +have had some of these careless trifles translated for them, and have +been stung. We favoured Germany with them now and then, before Germany +became the first power in Europe. Before America had displayed herself +as greatest among the giants that do not go to pieces, she had, as +Americans forgivingly remember, without mentioning, a series of flicks of +the whip. It is well to learn manners without having them imposed on us. +There are various ways for tripping the experiment. Nevertheless, when +the experiment is tried, considering that our welfare is involved in its +not failing, as we have failed, we should prepare to start it cordially, +cordially assist it. Thoughtful political minds regard the measure as a +backward step; yet conceiving but a prospect that a measure accepted by +Home Rulers will possibly enable the Irish and English to step together, +it seems better worth the venture than to pursue a course of prospectless +discord! Whatever we do or abstain from doing has now its evident +dangers, and this being imminent may appear the larger of them; but if +a weighing of the conditions dictates it, and conscience approves, the +wiser proceeding is to make trial of the untried. Our outlook was +preternaturally black, with enormous increase of dangers when the +originator of our species venturesomely arose from the posture of the +'quatre pattes'. We consider that we have not lost by his temerity. In +states of dubitation under impelling elements, the instinct pointing to +courageous action is, besides the manlier, conjecturably the right one. + + + + + + +LESLIE STEPHEN--1904 + +When that noble body of scholarly and cheerful pedestrians, the Sunday +Tramps, were on the march, with Leslie Stephen to lead them, there was +conversation which would have made the presence of a shorthand writer a +benefaction to the country. A pause to it came at the examination of the +leader's watch and Ordnance map under the western sun, and void was given +for the strike across country to catch the tail of a train offering +dinner in London, at the cost of a run through hedges, over ditches and +fellows, past proclamation against trespassers, under suspicion of being +taken for more serious depredators in flight. The chief of the Tramps +had a wonderful calculating eye in the observation of distances and the +nature of the land, as he proved by his discovery of untried passes in +the higher Alps, and he had no mercy for pursy followers. I have often +said of this life-long student and philosophical head that he had in him +the making of a great military captain. He would not have been opposed +to the profession of arms if he had been captured early for the service, +notwithstanding his abomination of bloodshed. He had a high, calm +courage, was unperturbed in a dubious position, and would confidently +take the way out of it which he conceived to be the better. We have not +to deplore that he was diverted from the ways of a soldier, though +England, as the country has been learning of late, cannot boast of many +in uniform who have capacity for leadership. His work in literature will +be reviewed by his lieutenant of Tramps, one of the ablest of writers!-- +[Frederic W. Maitland.]--The memory of it remains with us, as being the +profoundest and the most sober criticism we have had in our time. The +only sting in it was an inoffensive humorous irony that now and then +stole out for a roll over, like a furry cub, or the occasional ripple on +a lake in grey weather. We have nothing left that is like it. + +One might easily fall into the pit of panegyric by an enumeration of his +qualities, personal and literary. It would not be out of harmony with +the temper and characteristics of a mind so equable. He, the equable, +whether in condemnation or eulogy. Our loss of such a man is great, for +work was in his brain, and the hand was active till close upon the time +when his breathing ceased. The loss to his friends can be replaced only +by an imagination that conjures him up beside them. That will be no task +to those who have known him well enough to see his view of things as they +are, and revive his expression of it. With them he will live despite the +word farewell. + + + + + + + CORRESPONDENCE FROM THE SEAT OF WAR IN ITALY + + +LETTERS WRITTEN TO THE MORNING POST FROM THE SEAT OF WAR IN ITALY +FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT + +FERRARA, June 22, 1866. + +Before this letter reaches London the guns will have awakened both the +echo of the old river Po and the classical Mincio. The whole of the +troops, about 110,000 men, with which Cialdini intends to force the +passage of the first-named river are already massed along the right bank +of the Po, anxiously waiting that the last hour of to-morrow should +strike, and that the order for action should be given. The telegraph +will have already informed your readers that, according to the intimation +sent by General Lamarmora on Tuesday evening to the Austrian +headquarters, the three days fixed by the general's message before +beginning hostilities will expire at twelve p.m. of the 23rd of June. + +Cialdini's headquarters have been established in this city since +Wednesday morning, and the famous general, in whom the fourth corps he +commands, and the whole of the nation, has so much confidence, has +concentrated the whole of his forces within a comparatively narrow +compass, and is ready for action. I believe therefore that by to-morrow +the right bank of the Po will be connected with the mainland of the +Polesine by several pontoon bridges, which will enable Cialdini's corps +d'armee to cross the river, and, as everybody here hopes, to cross it in +spite of any defence the Austrians may make. + +On my way to this ancient city last evening I met General Cadogan and two +superior Prussian officers, who by this time must have joined Victor +Emmanuel's headquarters at Cremona; if not, they have been by this time +transferred elsewhere, more on the front, towards the line of the Mincio, +on which, according to appearance, the first, second, and third Italian +corps d'armee seem destined to operate. The English general and the two +Prussian officers above mentioned are to follow the king's staff, the +first as English commissioner, the superior in rank of the two others in +the same capacity. + +I have been told here that, before leaving Bologna, Cialdini held a +general council of the commanders of the seven divisions of which his +powerful corps d'armee is formed, and that he told them that, in spite of +the forces the enemy has massed on the left bank of the Po, between the +point which faces Stellata and Rovigo, the river must be crossed by his +troops, whatever might be the sacrifice this important operation +requires. Cialdini is a man who knows how to keep his word, and, for +this reason, I have no doubt he will do what he has already made up his +mind to accomplish. I am therefore confident that before two or three +days have elapsed, these 110,000 Italian troops, or a great part of them, +will have trod, for the Italians, the sacred land of Venetia. + +Once the river Po crossed by Cialdini's corps d'armee, he will boldly +enter the Polesine and make himself master of the road which leads by +Rovigo towards Este and Padua. A glance at the map will show your +readers how, at about twenty or thirty miles from the first-mentioned +town, a chain of hills, called the Colli Euganei, stretches itself from +the last spur of the Julian Alps, in the vicinity of Vicenza, gently +sloping down towards the sea. As this line affords good positions for +contesting the advance of an army crossing the Po at Lago Scuro, or at +any other point not far from it, it is to be supposed that the Austrians +will make a stand there, and I should not be surprised at all that +Cialdini's first battle, if accepted by the enemy, should take place +within that comparatively narrow ground which is within Montagnana, Este, +Terradura, Abano, and Padua. It is impossible to suppose that Cialdini's +corps d'armee, being so large, is destined to cross the Po only at one +point of the river below its course: it is extremely likely that part of +it should cross it at some point above, between Revere and Stellata, +where the river is in two or three instances only 450 metres wide. Were +the Italian general to be successful--protected as he will be by the +tremendous fire of the powerful artillery he disposes of--in these +twofold operations, the Austrians defending the line of the Colli Euganei +could be easily outflanked by the Italian troops, who would have crossed +the river below Lago Scuro. Of course these are mere suppositions, for +nobody, as you may imagine, except the king, Cialdini himself, Lamarmora, +Pettiti, and Menabrea, is acquainted with the plan of the forthcoming +campaign. There was a rumour at Cialdini's headquarters to-day that the +Austrians had gathered in great numbers in the Polesine, and especially +at Rovigo, a small town which they have strongly fortified of late, with +an apparent design to oppose the crossing of the Po, were Cialdini to +attempt it at or near Lago Scuro. There are about Rovigo large tracts of +marshes and fields cut by ditches and brooks, which, though owing to the +dryness of the season [they] cannot be, as it was generally believed two +weeks ago, easily inundated, yet might well aid the operations the +Austrians may undertake in order to check the advance of the Italian +fourth corps d'armee. The resistance to the undertaking of Cialdini may +be, on the part of the Austrians, very stout, but I am almost certain +that it will be overcome by the ardour of Italian troops, and by the +skill of their illustrious leader. + +As I told you above, the declaration of war was handed over to an +Austrian major for transmission to Count Stancowick, the Austrian +governor of Mantua, on the evening of the 19th, by Colonel Bariola, +sous-chef of the general staff, who was accompanied by the Duke Luigi +of Sant' Arpino, the husband of the amiable widow of Lord Burghersh. +The duke is the eldest son of Prince San Teodoro, one of the wealthiest +noblemen of Naples. In spite of his high position and of his family +ties, the Duke of Sant' Arpino, who is well known in London fashionable +society, entered as a volunteer in the Italian army, and was appointed +orderly officer to General Lamarmora. The choice of such a gentleman for +the mission I am speaking of was apparently made with intention, in order +to show the Austrians, that the Neapolitan nobility is as much interested +in the national movement as the middle and lower classes of the Kingdom, +once so fearfully misruled by the Bourbons. The Duke of Sant' Arpino is +not the only Neapolitan nobleman who has enlisted in the Italian army +since the war with Austria broke out. In order to show you the +importance which must be given to this pronunciamiento of the Neapolitan +noblemen, allow me to give you here a short list of the names of those of +them who have enlisted as private soldiers in the cavalry regiments of +the regular army: The Duke of Policastro; the Count of Savignano Guevara, +the eldest son of the Duke of Bovino; the Duke d'Ozia d'Angri, who had +emigrated in 1860, and returned to Naples six months ago; Marquis +Rivadebro Serra; Marquis Pisicelli, whose family had left Naples in 1860 +out of devotion to Francis II.; two Carraciolos, of the historical family +from which sprung the unfortunate Neapolitan admiral of this name, whose +head Lord Nelson would have done better not to have sacrificed to the +cruelty of Queen Caroline; Prince Carini, the representative of an +illustrious family of Sicily, a nephew of the Marquis del Vasto; and +Pescara, a descendant of that great general of Charles V., to whom the +proud Francis I. of France was obliged to surrender and give up his sword +at the battle of Pavia. Besides these Neapolitan noblemen who have +enlisted of late as privates, the Italian army now encamped on the banks +of the Po and of the Mincio may boast of two Colonnas, a prince of Somma, +two Barons Renzi, an Acquaviva, of the Duke of Atri, two Capece, two +Princes Buttera, etc. To return to the mission of Colonel Bariola and +the Duke of Sant' Arpino, I will add some details which were told me this +morning by a gentleman who left Cremona yesterday evening, and who had +them from a reliable source. The messenger of General Lamarmora had been +directed to proceed from Cremona to the small village of Le Grazie, +which, on the line of the Mincio, marks the Austrian and Italian +frontier. + +On the right bank of the Lake of Mantua, in the year 1340, stood a small +chapel containing a miraculous painting of the Madonna, called by the +people of the locality 'Santa Maria delle Grazie.' The boatmen and +fishermen of the Mincio, who had been, as they said, often saved from +certain death by the Madonna--as famous in those days as the modern Lady +of Rimini, celebrated for the startling feat of winking her eyes-- +determined to erect for her a more worthy abode. + +Hence arose the Santuario delle Grazie. Here, as at Loretto and other +holy localities of Italy, a fair is held, in which, amongst a great +number of worldly things, rosaries, holy images, and other miraculous +objects are sold, and astounding boons are said to be secured at the most +trifling expense. The Santuario della Madonna delle Grazie enjoying a +far-spread reputation, the dumb, deaf, blind, and halt-in short, people +afflicted with all sorts of infirmities--flock thither during the fair, +and are not wanting even on the other days of the year. The church of Le +Grazie is one of the most curious of Italy. Not that there is anything +remarkable in its architecture, for it is an Italian Gothic structure of +the simplest style. But the ornamental part of the interior is most +peculiar. The walls of the building are covered with a double row of wax +statues, of life size, representing a host of warriors, cardinals, +bishops, kings, and popes, who--as the story runs--pretended to have +received some wonderful grace during their earthly existence. Amongst +the grand array of illustrious personages, there are not a few humbler +individuals whose history is faithfully told (if you choose to credit it) +by the painted inscriptions below. There is even a convict, who, at the +moment of being hanged, implored succour of the all-powerful Madonna, +whereupon the beam of the gibbet instantly broke, and the worthy +individual was restored to society--a very doubtful benefit after all. +On Colonel Bariola and the Duke of Sant' Arpino arriving at this place, +which is only five miles distant from Mantua, their carriage was +naturally stopped by the commissaire of the Austrian police, whose duty +was to watch the frontier. Having told him that they had a despatch to +deliver either to the military governor of Mantua or to some officer sent +by him to receive it, the commissaire at once despatched a mounted +gendarme to Mantua. Two hours had scarcely elapsed when a carriage drove +into the village of Le Grazie, from which an Austrian major of infantry +alighted and hastened to a wooden hut where the two Italian officers were +waiting. Colonel Bariola, who was trained in the Austrian military +school of Viller Nashstad, and regularly left the Austrian service in +1848, acquainted the newly-arrived major with his mission, which was that +of delivering the sealed despatch to the general in command of Mantua and +receiving for it a regular receipt. The despatch was addressed to the +Archduke Albert, commander-in-chief of the Austrian army of the South, +care of the governor of Mantua. After the major had delivered the +receipt, the three messengers entered into a courteous conversation, +during which Colonel Bariola seized an opportunity of presenting the +duke, purposely laying stress on the fact of his belonging to one of the +most illustrious families of Naples. It happened that the Austrian major +had also been trained in the same school where Colonel Bariola was +brought up--a circumstance of which he was reminded by the Austrian +officer himself. Three hours had scarcely elapsed from the arrival of +the two Italian messengers of war at Le Grazie, on the Austrian frontier, +when they were already on their way back to the headquarters of Cremona, +where during the night the rumour was current that a telegram had been +received by Lamarmora from Verona, in which Archduke Albert accepted the +challenge. Victor Emmanuel, whom I saw at Bologna yesterday, arrived at +Cremona in the morning at two o'clock, but by this time his Majesty's +headquarters must have removed more towards the front, in the direction +of the Oglio. I should not be at all surprised were the Italian +headquarters to be established by to-morrow either at Piubega or +Gazzoldo, if not actually at Goito, a village, as you know, which marks +the Italian-Austrian frontier on the Mincio. The whole of the first, +second, and third Italian corps d'armee are by this time concentrated +within that comparatively narrow space which lies between the position of +Castiglione, Delle Stiviere, Lorrato, and Desenzano, on the Lake of +Garda, and Solferino on one side; Piubega, Gazzoldo, Sacca, Goito, and +Castellucchio on the other. Are these three corps d'armee to attack when +they hear the roar of Cialdini's artillery on the right bank of the Po? +Are they destined to force the passage of the Mincio either at Goito or +at Borghetto? or are they destined to invest Verona, storm Peschiera, +and lay siege to Mantua? This is more than I can tell you, for, I repeat +it, the intentions of the Italian leaders are enveloped in a veil which +nobody--the Austrians included--has as yet been able to penetrate. One +thing, however, is certain, and it is this, that as the clock of Victor +Emmanuel marks the last minute of the seventy-second hour fixed by the +declaration delivered at Le Grazie on Wednesday by Colonel Bariola to the +Austrian major, the fair land where Virgil was born and Tasso was +imprisoned will be enveloped by a thick cloud of the smoke of hundreds +and hundreds of cannon. Let us hope that God will be in favour of right +and justice, which, in this imminent and fierce struggle, is undoubtedly +on the Italian side. + + + +CREMONA, June 30, 1866. + +The telegraph will have already informed you of the concentration of the +Italian army, whose headquarters have since Tuesday been removed from +Redondesco to Piadena, the king having chosen the adjacent villa of +Cigognolo for his residence. The concentrating movements of the royal +army began on the morning of the 27th, i.e., three days after the bloody +fait d'armes of the 24th, which, narrated and commented on in different +manners according to the interests and passions of the narrators, still +remains for many people a mystery. At the end of this letter you will +see that I quote a short phrase with which an Austrian major, now +prisoner of war, portrayed the results of the fierce struggle fought +beyond the Mincio. This officer is one of the few survivors of a +regiment of Austrian volunteers, uhlans, two squadrons of which he +himself commanded. The declaration made by this officer was thoroughly +explicit, and conveys the exact idea of the valour displayed by the +Italians in that terrible fight. Those who incline to overrate the +advantages obtained by the Austrians on Sunday last must not forget that +if Lamarmora had thought proper to persist in holding the positions of +Valeggio, Volta, and Goito, the Austrians could not have prevented him. +It seems the Austrian general-in-chief shared this opinion, for, after +his army had carried with terrible sacrifices the positions of Monte +Vento and Custozza, it did not appear, nor indeed did the Austrians then +give any signs, that they intended to adopt a more active system of +warfare. It is the business of a commander to see that after a victory +the fruit of it should not be lost, and for this reason the enemy is +pursued and molested, and time is not left him for reorganization. +Nothing of this happened after the 24th--nothing has been done by the +Austrians to secure such results. The frontier which separates the two +dominions is now the same as it was on the eve of the declaration of war. +At Goito, at Monzambano, and in the other villages of the extreme +frontier, the Italian authorities are still discharging their duties. +Nothing is changed in those places, were we to except that now and then +an Austrian cavalry party suddenly makes its appearance, with the only +object of watching the movements of the Italian army. One of these +parties, formed by four squadrons of the Wurtemberg hussar regiment, +having advanced at six o'clock this morning on the right bank of the +Mincio, met the fourth squadron of the Italian lancers of Foggia and were +beaten back, and compelled to retire in disorder towards Goito and +Rivolta. In this unequal encounter the Italian lancers distinguished +themselves very much, made some Austrian hussars prisoners, and killed a +few more, amongst whom was an officer. The same state of thing, prevails +at Rivottella, a small village on the shores of the Lake of Garda, about +four miles distant from the most advanced fortifications of Peschiera. +There, as elsewhere, some Austrian parties advanced with the object of +watching the movements of the Garibaldians, who occupy the hilly ground, +which from Castiglione, Eseuta, and Cartel Venzago stretches to Lonato, +Salo, and Desenzano, and to the mountain passes of Caffaro. In the last- +named place the Garibaldians came to blows with the Austrians on the +morning of the 28th, and the former got the best of the fray. Had the +fait d'armes of the 24th, or the battle of Custozza, as Archduke Albrecht +calls it, been a great victory for the Austrians, why should the imperial +army remain in such inaction? The only conclusion we must come to is +simply this, that the Austrian losses have been such as to induce the +commander-in-chief of the army to act prudently on the defensive. We are +now informed that the charges of cavalry which the Austrian lancers and +the Hungarian hussars had to sustain near Villafranca on the 24th with +the Italian horsemen of the Aorta and Alessandria regiments have been so +fatal to the former that a whole division of the Kaiser cavalry must be +reorganised before it can be brought into the field main. + +The regiment of Haller hussars and two of volunteer uhlans were almost +destroyed in that terrible charge. To give you an idea of this cavalry +encounter, it is sufficient to say that Colonel Vandoni, at the head of +the Aorta regiment he commands, charged fourteen times during the short +period of four hours. The volunteer uhlans of the Kaiser regiment had +already given up the idea of breaking through the square formed by the +battalion, in the centre of which stood Prince Humbert of Savoy, when +they were suddenly charged and literally cut to pieces by the Alessandria +light cavalry, in spite of the long lances they carried. This weapon and +the loose uniform they wear makes them resemble the Cossacks of the Don. +There is one circumstance, which, if I am not mistaken, has not as yet +been published by the newspapers, and it is this. There was a fight on +the 25th on a place at the north of Roverbella, between the Italian +regiment of Novara cavalry and a regiment of Hungarian hussars, whose +name is not known. This regiment was so thoroughly routed by the +Italians that it was pursued as far as Villafranca, and had two squadrons +put hors de combat, whilst the Novara regiment only lost twenty-four +mounted men. I think it right to mention this, for it proves that, the +day after the bloody affair of the 24th, the Italian army had still a +regiment of cavalry operating at Villafranca, a village which lay at a +distance of fifteen kilometres from the Italian frontier. A report, which +is much accredited here, explains how the Italian army did not derive the +advantages it might have derived from the action of the 24th. It appears +that the orders issued from the Italian headquarters during the previous +night, and especially the verbal instructions given by Lamarmora and +Pettiti to the staff officers of the different army corps, were either +forgotten or misunderstood by those officers. Those sent to Durando, +the commander of the first corps, seem to have been as follows: That he +should have marched in the direction of Castelnuovo, without, however, +taking part in the action. Durando, it is generally stated, had strictly +adhered to the orders sent from the headquarters, but it seems that +General Cerale understood them too literally. Having been ordered to +march on Castelnuovo, and finding the village strongly held by the +Austrians, who received his division with a tremendous fire, he at once +engaged in the action instead of falling back on the reserve of the first +corps and waiting new instructions. If such was really the case, it is +evident that Cerale thought that the order to march which he had received +implied that he was to attack and get possession of Castelnuovo, had this +village, as it really was, already been occupied by the enemy. In +mentioning this fact I feel bound to observe that I write it under the +most complete reserve, for I should be sorry indeed to charge General +Cerale with having misunderstood such an important order. + +I see that one of your leading contemporaries believes that it would be +impossible for the king or Lamarmora to say what result they expected +from their ill-conceived and worse-executed attempt. The result they +expected is, I think, clear enough; they wanted to break through the +quadrilateral and make their junction with Cialdini, who was ready to +cross the Po during the night of the 24th. That the attempt was ill- +conceived and worse-executed, neither your contemporary nor the public at +large has, for the present, the right to conclude, for no one knows as +yet but imperfectly the details of the terrible fight. What is certain, +however, is that General Durando, perceiving that the Cerale division was +lost, did all that he could to help it. Failing in this he turned to his +two aides-de-camp and coolly said to them: + +'Now, gentlemen, it is time for you to retire, for I have a duty to +perform which is a strictly personal one--the duty of dying.' On saying +these words he galloped to the front and placed himself at about twenty +paces from a battalion of Austrian sharp-shooters which were ascending +the hill. In less than five minutes his horse was killed under him, and +he was wounded in the right hand. I scarcely need add that his aides-de- +camp did not flinch from sharing Durando's fate. They bravely followed +their general, and one, the Marquis Corbetta, was wounded in the leg; the +other, Count Esengrini, had his horse shot under him. I called on +Durando, who is now at Milan, the day before yesterday. Though a +stranger to him, he received me at once, and, speaking of the action of +the 24th, he only said: 'I have the satisfaction of having done my duty. +I wait tranquilly the judgement of history.' + +Assuming, for argument's sake, that General Cerale misunderstood the +orders he had received, and that, by precipitating his movement, he +dragged into the same mistake the whole of Durando's corps--assuming, +I say, this to be the right version, you can easily explain the fact that +neither of the two contending parties are as yet in a position clearly to +describe the action of the 24th. Why did neither the one nor the other +display and bring into action the whole forces they could have had at +their disposal? Why so many partial engagements at a great distance one +from the other? In a word, why that want of unity, which, in my opinion, +constituted the paramount characteristic of that bloody struggle? I may +be greatly mistaken, but I am of opinion that neither the Italian +general-in-chief nor the Austrian Archduke entertained on the night of +the 23rd the idea of delivering a battle on the 24th. There, and only +there, lies the whole mystery of the affair. The total want of unity of +action on the part of the Italians assured to the Austrians, not the +victory, but the chance of rendering impossible Lamarmora's attempt to +break through the quadrilateral. This no one can deny; but, on the other +hand, if the Italian army failed in attaining its object, the failure- +owing to the bravery displayed both by the soldiers and by the generals- +was far from being a disastrous or irreparable one. The Italians fought +from three o'clock in the morning until nine in the evening like lions, +showing to their enemies and to Europe that they know how to defend their +country, and that they are worthy of the noble enterprise they have +undertaken. + +But let me now register one of the striking episodes of that memorable +day. It was five o'clock p.m. when General Bixio, whose division held +an elevated position not far from Villafranca, was attacked by three +strong Austrian brigades, which had debouched at the same time from three +different roads, supported with numerous artillery. An officer of the +Austrian staff, waving a white handkerchief, was seen galloping towards +the front of Bixio's position, and, once in the presence of this general, +bade him surrender. Those who are not personally acquainted with Bixio +cannot form an idea of the impression this bold demand must have made on +him. I have been told that, on hearing the word 'surrender,' his face +turned suddenly pale, then flushed like purple, and darting at the +Austrian messenger, said, 'Major, if you dare to pronounce once more the +word surrender in my presence, I tell you--and Bixio always keeps his +word--that I will have you shot at once.' The Austrian officer had +scarcely reached the general who had sent him, than Bixio, rapidly moving +his division, fell with such impetuosity on the Austrian column, which +were ascending the hill, that they were thrown pellmell in the valley, +causing the greatest confusion amongst their reserve. Bixio himself led +his men, and with his aides-de-camp, Cavaliere Filippo Fermi, Count +Martini, and Colonel Malenchini, all Tuscans, actually charged the enemy. +I have been told that, on hearing this episode, Garibaldi said, 'I am not +at all surprised, for Bixio is the best general I have made.' Once the +enemy was repulsed, Bixio was ordered to manoeuvre so as to cover the +backward movement of the army, which was orderly and slowly retiring on +the Mincio. Assisted by the co-operation of the heavy cavalry, commanded +by General Count de Sonnaz, Bixio covered the retreat, and during the +night occupied Goito, a position which he held till the evening of the +27th. + +In consequence of the concentrating movement of the Italian army which I +have mentioned at the beginning of this letter, the fourth army corps +(Cialdini's) still holds the line of the Po. If I am rightly informed, +the decree for the formation of the fourth army corps was signed by the +king yesterday. This corps is that of Garibaldi, and is about 40,000 +strong. An officer who has just returned from Milan told me this morning +that he had had an opportunity of speaking with the Austrian prisoners +sent from Milan to the fortress of Finestrelle in Piedmont. Amongst them +was an officer of a uhlan regiment, who had all the appearance of +belonging to some aristocratic family of Austrian Poland. Having been +asked if he thought Austria had really gained the battle on the 24th, he +answered: 'I do not know if the illusions of the Austrian army go so far +as to induce it to believe it has obtained a victory--I do not believe +it. He who loves Austria cannot, however, wish she should obtain such +victories, for they are the victories of Pyrrhus! + +There is at Verona some element in the Austrian councils of war which we +don't understand, but which gives to their operations in this present +phase of the campaign just as uncertain and as vacillating a character as +it possessed during the campaign of 1859. On Friday they are still +beyond the Mincio, and on Saturday their small fleet on the Lake of Garda +steams up to Desenzano, and opens fire against this defenceless city and +her railway station, whilst two battalions of Tyrolese sharp-shooters +occupy the building. On Sunday they retire, but early yesterday they +cross the Mincio, at Goito and Monzambano, and begin to throw two bridges +over the same river, between the last-named place and the mills of Volta. +At the same time they erect batteries at Goito, Torrione, and Valeggio, +pushing their reconnoitring parties of hussars as far as Medole, +Castiglione delle Stiviere, and Montechiara, this last-named place being +only at a distance of twenty miles from Brescia. Before this news +reached me here this morning I was rather inclined to believe that they +were playing at hide-and-seek, in the hope that the leaders of the +Italian army should be tempted by the game and repeat, for the second +time, the too hasty attack on the quadrilateral. This news, which I have +from a reliable source, has, however, changed my former opinion, and I +begin to believe that the Austrian Archduke has really made up his mind +to come out from the strongholds of the quadrilateral, and intends +actually to begin war on the very battlefields where his imperial cousin +was beaten on the 24th June 1859. It may be that the partial disasters +sustained by Benedek in Germany have determined the Austrian Government +to order a more active system of war against Italy, or, as is generally +believed here, that the organisation of the commissariat was not perfect +enough with the army Archduke Albert commands to afford a more active and +offensive action. Be that as it may, the fact is that the news received +here from several parts of Upper Lombardy seems to indicate, on the part +of the Austrians, the intention of attacking their adversaries. + +Yesterday whilst the peaceable village of Gazzoldo--five Italian miles +from Goito--was still buried in the silence of night it was occupied by +400 hussars, to the great consternation of the people who were roused +from their sleep by the galloping of their unexpected visitors. The +sindaco, or mayor of the village, who is the chemist of the place, was, +I hear, forcibly taken from his house and compelled to escort the +Austrians on the road leading to Piubega and Redondesco. This worthy +magistrate, who was not apparently endowed with sufficient courage to +make at least half a hero, was so much frightened that he was taken ill, +and still is in a very precarious condition. These inroads are not +always accomplished with impunity, for last night, not far from +Guidizzuolo, two squadrons of Italian light cavalry--Cavalleggieri di +Lucca, if I am rightly informed--at a sudden turn of the road leading +from the last-named village to Cerlongo, found themselves almost face to +face with four squadrons of uhlans. The Italians, without numbering +their foes, set spurs to their horses and fell like thunder on the +Austrians, who, after a fight which lasted more than half an hour, were +put to flight, leaving on the ground fifteen men hors de combat, besides +twelve prisoners. + +Whilst skirmishing of this kind is going on in the flat ground of +Lombardy which lies between the Mincio and the Chiese, a more decisive +action has been adopted by the Austrian corps which is quartered in the +Italian Tyrol and Valtellina. A few days ago it was generally believed +that the mission of this corps was only to oppose Garibaldi should he try +to force those Alpine passes. But now we suddenly hear that the +Austrians are already masters of Caffaro, Bagolino, Riccomassino, and +Turano, which points they are fortifying. This fact explains the last +movements made by Garibaldi towards that direction. But whilst the +Austrians are massing their troops on the Tyrolese Alps the revolution is +spreading fast in the more southern mountains of the Friuli and Cadorre, +thus threatening the flank and rear of their army in Venetia. This +revolutionary movement may not have as yet assumed great proportions, +but as it is the effect of a plan proposed beforehand it might become +really imposing, more so as the ranks of those Italian patriots are daily +swollen by numerous deserters and refractory men of the Venetian +regiments of the Austrian army. + +Although the main body of the Austrians seems to be still concentrated +between Peschiera and Verona, I should not wonder if they crossed the +Mincio either to-day or to-morrow, with the object of occupying the +heights of Volta, Cavriana, and Solferino, which, both by their position +and by the nature of the ground, are in themselves so many fortresses. +Supposing that the Italian army should decide for action--and there is +every reason to believe that such will be the case--it is not unlikely +that, as we had already a second battle at Custozza, we may have a second +one at Solferino. + +That at the Italian headquarters something has been decided upon which +may hasten the forward movement of the army, I infer from the fact that +the foreign military commissioners at the Italian headquarters, who, +after the 24th June had gone to pass the leisure of their camp life at +Cremona, have suddenly made their appearance at Torre Malamberti, a villa +belonging to the Marquis Araldi, where Lamarmora's staff is quartered. +A still more important event is the presence of Baron Ricasoli, whom I +met yesterday evening on coming here. The President of the Council was +coming from Florence, and, after stopping a few hours at the villa of +Cicognolo, where Victor Emmanuel and the royal household are staying, +he drove to Torre Malamberti to confer with General Lamarmora and Count +Pettiti. The presence of the baron at headquarters is too important an +incident to be overlooked by people whose business is that of watching +the course of events in this country. And it should be borne in mind +that on his way to headquarters Baron Ricasoli stopped a few hours at +Bologna, where he had a long interview with Cialdini. Nor is this all; +for the most important fact I have to report to-day is, that whilst I am +writing (five o'clock a.m.) three corps of the Italian army are crossing +the Oglio at different points--all three acting together and ready for +any occurrence. This reconnaissance en force may, as you see, be turned +into a regular battle should the Austrians have crossed the Mincio with +the main body of their army during the course of last night. You see +that the air around me smells enough of powder to justify the expectation +of events which are likely to exercise a great influence over the cause +of right and justice--the cause of Italy. + + + +MARCARIA, July 3, Evening. + +Murray's guide will save me the trouble of telling you what this little +and dirty hole of Marcaria is like. The river Oglio runs due south, not +far from the village, and cuts the road which from Bozzolo leads to +Mantua. It is about seven miles from Castellucchio, a town which, since +the peace of Villafranca, marked the Italian frontier in Lower Lombardy. +Towards this last-named place marched this morning the eleventh division +of the Italians under the command of General Angioletti, only a month ago +Minister of the Marine in Lamarmora's Cabinet. Angioletti's division of +the second corps was, in the case of an attack, to be supported by the +fourth and eighth, which had crossed the Oglio at Gazzuolo four hours +before the eleventh had started from the place from which I am now +writing. Two other divisions also moved in an oblique line from the +upper course of the above-mentioned river, crossed it on a pontoon +bridge, and were directed to maintain their communications with +Angioletti's on the left, whilst the eighth and fourth would have formed +its right. These five divisions were the avant garde of the main body of +the Italian army. I am not in a position to tell you the exact line the +army thus advancing from the Oglio has followed, but I have been told +that, in order to avoid the possibility of repeating the errors which +occurred in the action of the 24th, the three corps d'armee have been +directed to march in such a manner as to enable them to present a compact +mass should they meet the enemy. Contrary to all expectations, +Angioletti's division was allowed to enter and occupy Castellucchio +without firing a shot. As its vanguard reached the hamlet of Ospedaletto +it was informed that the Austrians had left Castellucchio during the +night, leaving a few hussars, who, in their turn, retired on Mantua as +soon as they saw the cavalry Angioletti had sent to reconnoitre both the +country and the borough of Castellucchio. + +News has just arrived here that General Angioletti has been able to push +his outposts as far as Rivolta on his left, and still farther forward on +his front towards Curtalone. Although the distance from Rivolta to Goito +is only five miles, Angioletti, I have been told, could not ascertain +whether the Austrians had crossed the Mincio in force. + +What part both Cialdini and Garibaldi will play in the great struggle +nobody can tell. It is certain, however, that these two popular leaders +will not be idle, and that a battle, if fought, will assume the +proportions of an almost unheard of slaughter. + + + +GENERAL HEADQUARTERS OF THE ITALIAN ARMY, +TORRE MALIMBERTI, July 7, 1866. + +Whilst the Austrian emperor throws himself at the feet of the ruler of +France--I was almost going to write the arbiter of Europe--Italy and its +brave army seem to reject disdainfully the idea of getting Venetia as a +gift of a neutral power. There cannot be any doubt as to the feeling in +existence since the announcement of the Austrian proposal by the Moniteur +being one of astonishment, and even indignation so far as Italy herself +is concerned. One hears nothing but expressions of this kind in whatever +Italian town he may be, and the Italian army is naturally anxious that +she should not be said to relinquish her task when Austrians speak of +having beaten her, without proving that she can beat them too. There are +high considerations of honour which no soldier or general would ever +think of putting aside for humanitarian or political reasons, and with +these considerations. the Italian army is fully in accord since the 24th +June. The way, too, in which the Kaiser chose to give up the long- +contested point, by ignoring Italy and recognising France as a party to +the Venetian question, created great indignation amongst the Italians, +whose papers declare, one and all, that a fresh insult has been offered +to the country. This is the state of public opinion here, and unless the +greatest advantages are obtained by a premature armistice and a hurried +treaty of peace, it is likely to continue the same, not to the entire +security of public order in Italy. As a matter of course, all eyes are +turned towards Villa Pallavicini, two miles from here, where the king is +to decide upon either accepting or rejecting the French emperor's advice, +both of which decisions are fraught with considerable difficulties and no +little danger. The king will have sought the advice of his ministers, +besides which that of Prussia will have been asked and probably given. +The matter may be decided one way or the other in a very short time, or +may linger on for days to give time for public anxiety and fears to be +allayed and to calm down. In the meantime, it looks as if the king and +his generals had made up their mind not to accept the gift. An attack on +the Borgoforte tete-de-pont on the right side of the Po, began on 5th at +half-past three in the morning, under the immediate direction of General +Cialdini. The attacking corps was the Duke of Mignano's. All the day +yesterday the gun was heard at Torre Malamberti, as it was also this +morning between ten and eleven o'clock. Borgoforte is a fortress on the +left side of the Po, throwing a bridge across this river, the right end +of which is headed by a strong tete-de-pont, the object of the present +attack. This work may be said to belong to the quadrilateral, as it is +only an advanced part of the fortress of Mantua, which, resting upon its +rear, is connected to Borgoforte by a military road supported on the +Mantua side by the Pietolo fortress. The distance between Mantua and +Borgoforte is only eleven kilometres. The fete-de-poet is thrown upon +the Po; its structure is of recent date, and it consists of a central +part and of two wings, called Rocchetta and Bocca di Ganda respectively. +The lock here existing is enclosed in the Rocchetta work. + +Since I wrote you my last letter Garibaldi has been obliged to desist +from the idea of getting possession of Bagolino, Sant' Antonio, and Monte +Suello, after a fight which lasted four hours, seeing that he had to deal +with an entire Austrian brigade, supported by uhlans, sharp-shooters +(almost a battalion) and twelve pieces of artillery. These positions +were subsequently abandoned by the enemy, and occupied by Garibaldi's +volunteers. In this affair the general received a slight wound in his +left leg, the nature of which, however, is so very trifling, that a few +days will be enough to enable him to resume active duties. It seems that +the arms of the Austrians proved to be much superior to those of the +Garibaldians, whose guns did very bad service. The loss of the latter +amounted to about 100 killed and 200 wounded, figures in which the +officers appear in great proportion, owing to their having been always at +the head of their men, fighting, charging, and encouraging their comrades +throughout. Captain Adjutant-Major Battino, formerly of the regular +army, died, struck by three bullets, while rushing on the Austrians with +the first regiment. On abandoning the Caffaro line, which they had +reoccupied after the Lodrone encounter--in consequence of which the +Garibaldians had to fall back because of the concentration following the +battle of Custozza--the Austrians have retired to the Lardara fortress, +between the Stabolfes and Tenara mountains, covering the route to Tione +and Trento, in the Italian Tyrol. The third regiment of volunteers +suffered most, as two of their companies had to bear the brunt of the +terrible Austrian fire kept up from formidable positions. Another fight +was taking place almost at the same time in the Val Camonico, i.e., north +of the Caffaro, and of Rocca d'Anfo, Garibaldi's point d'appui. This +encounter was sustained in the same proportions, the Italians losing one +of their bravest and best officers in the person of Major Castellini, +a Milanese, commander of the second battalion of Lombardian bersaglieri. +Although these and Major Caldesi's battalion had to fall back from Vezza, +a strong position was taken near Edalo, while in the rear a regiment kept +Breno safe. + +Although still at headquarters only two days ago, Baron Ricasoli has been +suddenly summoned by telegram from Florence, and, as I hear, has just +arrived. This is undoubtedly brought about by the new complications, +especially as, at a council of ministers presided over by the baron, a +vote, the nature of which is as yet unknown, was taken on the present +state of affairs. As you know very well in England, Italy has great +confidence in Ricasoli, whose conduct, always far from obsequious to the +French emperor, has pleased the nation. He is thought to be at this +moment the right man in the right place, and with the great acquaintance +he possesses of Italy and the Italians, and with the co-operation of such +an honest man as General Lamarmora, Italy may be pronounced safe, both +against friends and enemies. + +From what I saw this morning, coming back from the front, I presume that +something, and that something new perhaps, will be attempted to-morrow. +So far, the proposed armistice has had no effect upon the dispositions at +general headquarters, and did not stay the cannon's voice. In the middle +of rumours, of hopes and fears, Italy's wish to push on with the war has +as yet been adhered to by her trusted leaders. + + + + +HEADQUARTERS OF THE FIRST ARMY CORPS, +PIADENA, July 8, 1866. + +As I begin writing you, no doubt can be entertained that some movement is +not only in contemplation at headquarters, but is actually provided to +take place to-day, and that it will probably prove to be against the +Austrian positions at Borgoforte, on the left bank of the Po. Up to this +time the tete-de-pout on the right side of the river had only been +attacked by General the Duke of Mignano's guns. It would now, on the +contrary, be a matter of cutting the communications between Borgoforte +and Mantua, by occupying the lower part of the country around the latter +fortress, advancing upon the Valli Veronesi, and getting round the +quadrilateral into Venetia. While, then, waiting for further news to +tell us whether this plan has been carried into execution, and whether it +will be pursued, mindless of the existence of Mantua and Borgoforte on +its flanks, one great fact is already ascertained, that the armistice +proposed by the Emperor Napoleon has not been accepted, and that the war +is to be continued. The Austrians may shut themselves up in their +strongholds, or may even be so obliging as to leave the king the +uncontested possession of them by retreating in the same line as their +opponents advance; the pursuit, if not the struggle, the war, if not the +battle, will be carried on by the Italians. At Torre Malamberti, where +the general headquarters are, no end of general officers were to be seen +yesterday hurrying in all directions. I met the king, Generals Brignone, +Gavone, Valfre, and Menabrea within a few minutes of one another, and +Prince Amadeus, who has entirely recovered from his wound, had been +telegraphed for, and will arrive in Cremona to-day. No precise +information is to be obtained respecting the intentions of the Austrians, +but it is to be hoped for the Italian army, and for the credit of its +generals, that more will be known about them now than was known on the +eve of the famous 24th of June, and on its very morning. The heroism of +the Italians on that memorable day surpasses any possible idea that can +be formed, as it did also surpass all expectations of the country. Let +me relate you a few out of many heroic facts which only come to light +when an occasion is had of speaking with those who have been eyewitnesses +of them, as they are no object of magnified regimental--orders or, as +yet, of well-deserved honours. Italian soldiers seem to think that the +army only did its duty, and that, wherever Italians may fight, they will +always show equal valour and firmness. Captain Biraghi, of Milan, +belonging to the general staff, having in the midst of the battle +received an order from General Lamarmora for General Durando, was +proceeding with all possible speed towards the first army corps, which +was slowly retreating before the superior forces of the enemy and before +the greatly superior number of his guns, when, while under a perfect +shower of grape and canister, he was all of a sudden confronted by, an +Austrian officer of cavalry who had been lying in wait for the Italian +orderly. The Austrian fires his revolver at Biraghi; and wounds him in +the arm. Nothing daunted, Biraghi assails him and makes him turn tail; +then, following in pursuit, unsaddles him, but has his own horse shot +down under him. Biraghi disentangles himself, kills his antagonist, and +jumps upon the latter's horse. This, however, is thrown down also in a +moment by a cannon ball, so that the gallant captain has to go back on +foot, bleeding, and almost unable to walk. Talking of heroism, of +inimitable endurance, and strength of soul, what do you think of a man +who has his arm entirely carried away by a grenade, and yet keeps on his +horse, firm as a rock, and still directs his battery until hemorrhage-- +and hemorrhage alone--strikes him down at last, dead! Such was the case +with a Neapolitan--Major Abate, of the artillery--and his name is worth +the glory of a whole army, of a whole war; and may only find a fit +companion in that of an officer of the eighteenth battalion of +bersaglieri, who, dashing at an Austrian flag-bearer, wrenches the +standard out of his hands with his left one, has it clean cut away by an +Austrian officer standing near, and immediately grapples it with his +right, until his own soldiers carry him away with his trophy! Does not +this sound like Greek history repeated--does it not look as if the brave +men of old had been born again, and the old facts renewed to tell of +Italian heroism? Another bersagliere--a Tuscan, by name Orlandi Matteo, +belonging to that heroic fifth battalion which fought against entire +brigades, regiments, and battalions, losing 11 out of its 16 officers, +and about 300 out of its 600 men--Orlandi, was wounded already, when, +perceiving an Austrian flag, he makes a great effort, dashes at the +officer, kills him, takes the flag, and, almost dying, gives it over to +his lieutenant. He is now in a ward of the San Domenico Hospital in +Brescia, and all who have learnt of his bravery will earnestly hope that +he may survive to be pointed out as one of the many who covered +themselves with fame on that day. If it is sad to read of death +encountered in the field by so many a patriotic and brave soldiers, it is +sadder still to learn that not a few of them were barbarously killed by +the enemy, and killed, too, when they were harmless, for they lay wounded +on the ground. The Sicilian colonel, Stalella, a son-in-law of Senator +Castagnetto, and a courageous man amongst the most courageous of men; +was struck in the leg by a bullet, and thrown down from his horse while +exciting his men to repulse the Austrians, which in great masses were +pressing on his thinned column. Although retreating, the regiment sent +some of his men to take him away, but as soon as he had been put on a +stretcher [he] had to be put down, as ten or twelve uhlans were galloping +down, obliging the men to hide themselves in a bush. When the uhlans got +near the colonel, and when they had seen him lying down in agony, they +all planted their lances in his body. + +Is not this wanton cruelty--cruelty even unheard of cruelty that no +savage possesses? Still these are facts, and no one will ever dare to +deny them from Verona and Vienna, for they are known as much as it was +known and seen that the uhlans and many of the Austrian soldiers were +drunk when they began fighting, and that alighting from the trains they +were provided with their rations and with rum, and that they fought +without their haversacks. This is the truth, and nothing beyond it has +to the honour of the Italians been asserted, whether to the disgrace or +credit of their enemies; so that while denying that they ill-treat +Austrian prisoners, they are ready to state that theirs are well treated +in Verona, without thinking of slandering and calumniating as the Vienna +papers have done. + +This morning Prince Amadeus arrived in Cremona, where a most spontaneous +and hearty reception was given him by the population and the National +Guard. He proceeded at once by the shortest way to the headquarters, so +that his wish to be again at the front when something should be done has +been accomplished. This brave young man, and his worthy brother, Prince +Humbert, have won the applause of all Italy, which is justly proud of +counting her king and her princes amongst the foremost in the field. + +I have just learned from a most reliable source that the Austrians have +mined the bridge of Borghetto on the Mincio, so that, should it be blown +up, the only two, those of Goito and Borghetto, would be destroyed, and +the Italians obliged to make provisional ones instead. I also hear that +the Venetian towns are without any garrison, and that most probably all +the forces are massed on two lines, one from Peschiera to Custozza and +the other behind the Adige. + +You will probably know by this time that the garrison of Vienna had on +the 3rd been directed to Prague. The news we receive from Prussia is on +the whole encouraging, inasmuch as the greatly feared armistice has been +repulsed by King William. Some people here think that France will not be +too hard upon Italy for keeping her word with her ally, and that the +brunt of French anger or disapproval will have to be borne by Prussia. +This is the least she can expect, as you know! + +It is probable that by to-morrow I shall be able to write you more about +the Italo-Austrian war of 1866. + + + +GONZAGA, July 9, 1866. + +I write you from a villa, only a mile distant from Gonzaga, belonging to +the family of the Counts Arrivabene of Mantua. The owners have never +reentered it since 1848, and it is only the fortune of war which has +brought them to see their beautiful seat of the Aldegatta, never, it is +to be hoped for them, to be abandoned again. It is, as you see, 'Mutatum +ab illo.' Onward have gone, then, the exiled patriots! onward will go +the nation that owns them! The wish of every one who is compelled to +remain behind is that the army, that the volunteers, that the fleet, +should all cooperate, and that they should, one and all, land on Venetian +ground, to seek for a great battle, to give the army back the fame it +deserves, and to the country the honour it possesses. The king is called +upon to maintain the word nobly given to avenge Novara, and with it the +new Austrian insulting proposal. All, it is said, is ready. The army +has been said to be numerous; if to be numerous and brave, means to +deserve victory, let the Italian generals prove what Italian soldiers are +worthy of. If they will fight, the country will support them with the +boldest of resolutions--the country will accept a discussion whenever the +Government, having dispersed all fears, will proclaim that the war is to +be continued till victory is inscribed on Italy's shield. + +As I am not far from Borgoforte, I am able to learn more than the mere +cannon's voice can tell me, and so will give you some details of the +action against the tete-de-pont, which began, as I told you in one of my +former letters, on the 4th. In Gorgoforte there were about 1500 +Austrians, and, on the night from the 5th to the 6th, they kept up from +their four fortified works a sufficiently well-sustained fire, the object +of which was to prevent the enemy from posting his guns. This fire, +however, did not cause any damage, and the Italians were able to plant +their batteries. Early on the 6th, the firing began all along the line, +the Italian 16-pounders having been the first to open fire. The Italian +right was commanded by Colonel Mattei, the left by Colonel Bangoni, who +did excellent work, while the other wing was not so successful. The +heaviest guns had not yet arrived owing to one of those incidents always +sure to happen when least expected, so that the 40-pounders could not be +brought to bear against the forts until later in the day. The damage +done to the works was not great for the moment, but still the advantage +had been gained of feeling the strength of the enemy's positions and +finding the right way to attack them. The artillerymen worked with great +vigour, and were only obliged to desist by an unexpected order which +arrived about two p.m. from General Cialdini. The attack was, however, +resumed on the following day, and the condition of the Monteggiana and +Rochetta forts may be pronounced precarious. As a sign of the times, +and more especially of the just impatience which prevails in Italy about +the general direction of the army movements, it may not be without +importance to notice that the Italian press has begun to cry out against +the darkness in which everything is enveloped, while the time already +passed since the 24th June tells plainly of inaction. It is remarked +that the bitter gift made by Austria of the Venetian provinces, and the +suspicious offer of mediation by France, ought to have found Italy in +greatly different condition, both as regards her political and military +position. Italy is, on the contrary, in exactly the same state as when +the Archduke Albert telegraphed to Vienna that a great success had been +obtained over the Italian army. These are facts, and, however strong and +worthy of respect may be the reasons, there is no doubt that an +extraordinary delay in the resumption of hostilities has occurred, and +that at the present moment operations projected are perfectly mysterious. +Something is let out from time to time which only serves to make the +subsequent absence of news more and more puzzling. For the present the +first official relation of the unhappy fight of the 24th June is +published, and is accordingly anxiously scanned and closely studied. +It is a matter of general remark that no great military knowledge is +required to perceive that too great a reliance was placed upon supposed +facts, and that the indulgence of speculations and ideas caused the waste +of so much precious blood. The prudence characterising the subsequent +moves of the Austrians may have been caused by the effects of their +opponents' arrangements, but the Italian commanders ought to have avoided +the responsibility of giving the enemy the option to move. + +It is clear that to mend things the utterance of generous and patriotic +cries is not sufficient, and that it must be shown that the vigour of the +body is not at all surpassed by the vigour of the mind. It is also clear +that many lives might have been spared if there had been greater proofs +of intelligence on the part of those who directed the movement. + +The situation is still very serious. Such an armistice as General von +Gablenz could humiliate himself enough to ask from the Prussians has been +refused, but another which the Emperor of the French has advised them to +accept might ultimately become a fact. For Italy, the purely Venetian +question could then also be settled, while the Italian, the national +question, the question of right and honour which the army prizes so much, +would still remain to be solved. + + + +GONZAGA, July 12, 1866. + +Travelling is generally said to be troublesome, but travelling with and +through brigades, divisions, and army corps, I can certify to be more so +than is usually agreeable. It is not that Italian officers or Italian +soldiers are in any way disposed to throw obstacles in your way; but +they, unhappily for you, have with them the inevitable cars with the +inevitable carmen, both of which are enough to make your blood freeze, +though the barometer stands very high. What with their indolence, what +with their number and the dust they made, I really thought they would +drive me mad before I should reach Casalmaggiore on my way from Torre +Malamberti. I started from the former place at three a.m., with +beautiful weather, which, true to tradition, accompanied me all through +my journey. Passing through San Giovanni in Croce, to which the +headquarters of General Pianell had been transferred, I turned to the +right in the direction of the Po, and began to have an idea of the +wearisome sort of journey which I would have to make up to Casalmaggiore. +On both sides of the way some regiments belonging to the rear division +were still camped, and as I passed it was most interesting to see how +busy they were cooking their 'rancio,' polishing their arms, and making +the best of their time. The officers stood leisurely about gazing and +staring at me, supposing, as I thought, that I was travelling with some +part in the destiny of their country. Here and there some soldiers who +had just left the hospitals of Brescia and Milan made their way to their +corps and shook hands with their comrades, from whom only illness or the +fortune of war had made them part. They seemed glad to see their old +tent, their old drum, their old colour-sergeant, and also the flag they +had carried to the battle and had not at any price allowed to be taken. +I may state here, en passant, that as many as six flags were taken from +the enemy in the first part of the day of Custozza, and were subsequently +abandoned in the retreat, while of the Italians only one was lost to a +regiment for a few minutes, when it was quickly retaken. This fact ought +to be sufficient by itself to establish the bravery with which the +soldiers fought on the 24th, and the bravery with which they will fight +if, as they ardently wish; a new occasion is given to them. + +As long as I had only met troops, either marching or camping on the road, +all went well, but I soon found myself mixed with an interminable line of +cars and the like, forming the military and the civil train of the moving +army. Then it was that it needed as much patience to keep from jumping +out of one's carriage and from chastising the carrettieri, as they would +persist in not making room for one, and being as dumb to one's entreaties +as a stone. When you had finished with one you had to deal with another, +and you find them all as obstinate and as egotistical as they are from +one end of the world to the other, whether it be on the Casalmaggiore +road or in High Holborn. From time to time things seemed to proceed all +right, and you thought yourself free from further trouble, but you soon +found out your mistake, as an enormous ammunition car went smack into +your path, as one wheel got entangled with another, and as imperturbable +Signor Carrettiere evidently took delight at a fresh opportunity for +stoppage, inaction, indolence, and sleep. I soon came to the conclusion +that Italy would not be free when the Austrians had been driven away, for +that another and a more formidable foe--an enemy to society and comfort, +to men and horses, to mankind in general would have still to be beaten, +expelled, annihilated, in the shape of the carrettiere. If you employ +him, he robs you fifty times over; if you want him to drive quickly, he +is sure to keep the animal from going at all; if, worse than all, you +never think of him, or have just been plundered by him, he will not move +an inch to oblige you. Surely the cholera is not the only pestilence a +country may be visited with; and, should Cialdini ever go to Vienna, he +might revenge Novara and the Spielberg by taking with him the carrettieri +of the whole army. + +At last Casalmaggiore hove in sight, and, when good fortune and the +carmen permitted, I reached it. It was time! No iron-plated Jacob could +ever have resisted another two miles' journey in such company. At +Casalmaggiore I branched off. There were, happily, two roads, and not +the slightest reason or smallest argument were needed to make me choose +that which my cauchemar had not chosen. They were passing the river at +Casalmaggiore. I went, of course, for the same purpose, somewhere else. +Any place was good enough--so I thought, at least, then. New adventures, +new miseries awaited me--some carrettiere, or other, guessing that I was +no friend of his, nor of the whole set of them, had thrown the jattatura +on me. + +I alighted at the Colombina, after four hours' ride, to give the horses +time to rest a little. The Albergo della Colombina was a great +disappointment, for there was nothing there that could be eaten. +I decided upon waiting most patiently, but most unlike a few cavalry +officers, who, all covered with dust, and evidently as hungry and as +thirsty as they could be, began to swear to their hearts' content. In an +hour some eggs and some salame, a kind of sausage, were brought up, and +quickly disposed of. A young lieutenant of the thirtieth infantry +regiment of the Pisa brigade took his place opposite, and we were soon +engaged in conversation. He had been in the midst and worst part of the +battle of Custozza, and had escaped being taken prisoner by what seemed a +miracle. He told me how, when his regiment advanced on the Monte Croce +position, which he practically described to me as having the form of an +English pudding, they were fired upon by batteries both on their flanks +and front. The lieutenant added, however, rather contemptuously, that +they did not even bow before them, as the custom appears to be--that is, +to lie down, as the Austrians were firing very badly. The cross-fire +got, however, so tremendous that an order had to be given to keep down by +the road to avoid being annihilated. The assault was given, the whole +range of positions was taken, and kept too for hours, until the +infallible rule of three to one, backed by batteries, grape, and +canister, compelled them to retreat, which they did slowly and in order. +It was then that their brigade commander, Major General Rey de Villarey, +who, though a native of Mentone, had preferred remaining with his king +from going over to the French after the cession, turning to his son, who +was also his aide-de-camp, said in his dialect, 'Now, my son, we must die +both of us,' and with a touch of the spurs was soon in front of the line +and on the hill, where three bullets struck him almost at once dead. +The horse of his son falling while following, his life was spared. +My lieutenant at this moment was so overcome with hunger and fatigue that +he fell down, and was thought to be dead. He was not so, however, and +had enough life to hear, after the fight was over, the Austrian Jagers +pass by, and again retire to their original positions, where their +infantry was lying down, not dreaming for one moment of pursuing the +Italians. Four of his soldiers--all Neapolitans he heard coming in +search of him, while the bullets still hissed all round; and, as soon as +he made a sign to them, they approached, and took him on their shoulders +back to where was what remained of the regiment. It is highly creditable +to Italian unity to hear an old Piedmontese officer praise the levies of +the new provinces, and the lieutenant took delight in relating that +another Neapolitan was in the fight standing by him, and firing as fast +as he could, when a shell having burst near him, he disdainfully gave it +a look, and did not even seek to save himself from the jattatura. + +The gallant lieutenant had unfortunately to leave at last, and I was +deprived of many an interesting tale and of a brave man's company. I +started, therefore, for Viadana, where I purposed passing the Po, the +left bank of which the road was now following parallel with the stream. +At Viadana, however, I found no bridge, as the military had demolished +what existed only the day before, and so had to look out for in +formation. As I was going about under the porticoes which one meets in +almost all the villages in this neighbourhood, I was struck by the sight +of an ancient and beautiful piece of art--for so it was--a Venetian +mirror of Murano. It hung on the wall inside the village draper's shop, +and was readily shown me by the owner, who did not conceal the pride he +had in possessing it. It was one of those mirrors one rarely meets with +now, which were once so abundant in the old princes' castles and palaces. +It looked so deep and true, and the gilt frame was so light, and of such +a purity and elegance, that it needed all my resolution to keep from +buying it, though a bargain would not have been effected very easily. +The mirror, however, had to be abandoned, as Dosalo, the nearest point +for crossing the Po, was still seven miles distant. By this time the sun +was out in all its force, and the heat was by no means agreeable. Then +there was dust, too, as if the carrettieri had been passing in hundreds, +so that the heat was almost unbearable. At last the Dosalo ferry was +reached, the road leading to it was entered, and the carriage was, I +thought, to be at once embarked, when a drove of oxen were discovered to +have the precedence; and so I had to wait. This under such a sun, on a +shadeless beach, and with the prospect of having to stay there for two +hours at least, was by no means pleasant. It took three-quarters of an +hour to put the oxen in the boat, it took half an hour to get them on the +other shore, and another hour to have the ferry boat back. The panorama +from the beach was splendid, the Po appeared in all the mighty power of +his waters, and as you looked with the glass at oxen and trees on the +other shore, they appeared to be clothed in all the colours of the +rainbow, and as if belonging to another world. Several peasants were +waiting for the boat near me, talking about the war and the Austrians, +and swearing they would, if possible, annihilate some of the latter. I +gave them the glass to look with, and I imagined that they had never seen +one before, for they thought it highly wonderful to make out what the +time was at the Luzzara Tower, three miles in a straight line on the +other side. The revolver, too, was a subject of great admiration, and +they kept turning, feeling, and staring at it, as if they could not make +out which way the cartridges were put in. One of these peasants, +however, was doing the grand with the others, and once on the subject of +history related to all who would hear how he had been to St. Helena, +which was right in the middle of Moscow, where it was so very cold that +his nose had got to be as large as his head. The poor man was evidently +mixing one night's tale with that of the next one, a tale probably heard +from the old Sindaco, who is at the same time the schoolmaster, the +notary, and the highest municipal authority in the place. + +I started in the ferry boat with them at last. While crossing they got +to speak of the priests, and were all agreed, to put it in the mildest +way, in thinking extremely little of them, and only differed as to what +punishment they should like them to suffer. + +On the side where we landed lay heaps of ammunition casks for the corps +besieging Borgoforte. Others were conveyed upon cars by my friends the +carrettieri, of whom it was decreed I should not be quit for some time to +come. Entering Guastalla I found only a few artillery officers, +evidently in charge of what we had seen carried along the route. +Guastalla is a neat little town very proud of its statue of Duke Ferrante +Gonzaga, and the Croce Rossa is a neat little inn, which may be proud of +a smart young waiter, who actually discovered that, as I wanted to +proceed to Luzzara, a few miles on, I had better stop till next morning, +I did not take his advice, and was soon under the gate of Luzzara, a very +neat little place, once one of the many possessions where the Gonzagas +had a court, a palace, and a castle. The arms over the archway may still +be seen, and would not be worth any notice but for a remarkable work of +terracotta representing a crown of pines and pine leaves in a wonderful +state of preservation. The whole is so artistically arranged and so +natural, that one might believe it to be one of Luca della Robbia's +works. Luzzara has also a great tower, which I had seen in the distance +from Dosalo, and the only albergo in the place gives you an excellent +Italian dinner. The wine might please one of the greatest admirers of +sherry, and if you are not given feather beds, the beds are at least +clean like the rooms themselves. Here, as it was getting too dark, I +decided upon stopping, a decision which gave me occasion to see one of +the finest sunsets I ever saw. As I looked from the albergo I could see +a gradation of colours, from the purple red to the deepest of sea blue, +rising like an immense tent from the dark green of the trees and the +fields, here and there dotted with little white houses, with their red +roofs, while in front the Luzzara Tower rose majestically in the +twilight. As the hour got later the colours deepened, and the lower end +of the immense curtain gradually disappeared, while the stars and the +planets began shining high above. A peasant was singing in a field near +by, and the bells of a church were chiming in the distance. Both seemed +to harmonise wonderfully. It was a scene of great loveliness. + +At four a.m. I was up, and soon after on the road to Reggiolo, and then +to Gonzaga. Here the vegetation gets to be more luxuriant, and every +inch of ground contributes to the immense vastness of the whole. Nature +is here in full perfection, and as even the telegraphic wire hangs +leisurely down from tree to tree, instead of being stuck upon poles, you +feel that the romantic aspect of the place is too beautiful to be +encroached upon. All is peace, beauty, and happiness, all reveals to you +that you are in Italy. + +In Gonzaga, which only a few days ago belonged to the Austrians, the +Italian tricolour is out of every window. As the former masters retired +the new advanced; and when a detachment of Monferrato lancers entered the +old castle town the joy of the inhabitants seemed to be almost bordering +on delirium. The lancers soon left, however. The flag only remains. + + + +July 11. + +Cialdini began passing the Po on the 8th, and crossed at three points, +i.e., Carbonara, Carbonarola, and Follonica. Beginning at three o'clock +in the morning, he had finished crossing upon the two first pontoon +bridges towards midnight on the 9th. The bridge thrown up at Follonica +was still intact up to seven in the morning on the 10th, but the troops +and the military and the civil train that remained followed the Po +without crossing to Stellata, in the supposed direction of Ponte +Lagoscura. + +Yesterday guns were heard here at seven o'clock in the morning, and up to +eleven o'clock, in the direction of Legnano, towards, I think, the Adige. +The firing was lively, and of such a nature as to make one surmise that +battle had been given. Perhaps the Austrians have awaited Cialdini under +Legnano, or they have disputed the crossing of the Adige. Rovigo was +abandoned by the Austrians in the night of the 9th and 10th. They have +blown up the Rovigo and Boara fortresses, have destroyed the tete-de-pont +on the Adige, and burnt all bridges. They may now seek to keep by the +left side of this river up to Legnano, so as to get under the protection +of the quadrilateral, in which case, if Cialdini can cross the river in +time, the shock would be almost inevitable, and would be a reason for +yesterday's firing. They may also go by rail to Padua, when they would +have Cialdini between them and the quadrilateral. In any case, if this +general is quick, or if they are not too quick for him, according to +possible instructions, a collision is difficult to be avoided. + +Baron Ricasoli has left Florence for the camp, and all sorts of rumours +are afloat as to the present state of negotiations as they appear +unmistakably to exist. The opinions are, I think, divided in the high +councils of the Crown, and the country is still anxious to know the +result of this state of affairs. A splendid victory by Cialdini might at +this moment solve many a difficulty. As it is, the war is prosecuted +everywhere except by sea, for Garibaldi's forces are slowly advancing in +the Italian Tyrol, while the Austrians wait for them behind the walls of +Landaro and Ampola. The Garibaldians' advanced posts were, by the latest +news, near Darso. + +The news from Prussia is still contradictory; while the Italian press is +unanimous in asking with the country that Cialdini should advance, meet +the enemy, fight him, and rout him if possible. Italy's wishes are +entirely with him. + + + +NOALE, NEAR TREVISO, July 17, 1866. + +From Lusia I followed General Medici's division to Motta, where I left +it, not without regret, however, as better companions could not easily +be found, so kind were the officers and jovial the men. They are now +encamped around Padua, and will to-morrow march on Treviso, where the +Italian Light Horse have already arrived, if I judge so from their having +left Noale on the 15th. From the right I hear that the advanced posts +have proceeded as far as Mira on the Brenta, twenty kilometres from +Venice itself, and that the first army corps is to concentrate opposite +Chioggia. This corps has marched from Ferrara straight on to Rovigo, +which the forward movement of the fourth, or Cialdini's corps d'armee, +had left empty of soldiers. General Pianell has still charge of it, and +Major-General Cadalini, formerly at the head of the Siena brigade, +replaces him in the command of his former division. General Pianell has +under him the gallant Prince Amadeus, who has entirely recovered from his +chest wound, and of whom the brigade of Lombardian grenadiers is as proud +as ever. They could not wish for a more skilled commander, a better +superior officer, and a more valiant soldier. Thus the troops who fought +on the 24th June are kept in the second line, while the still fresh +divisions under Cialdini march first, as fast as they can. This, +however, is of no avail. The Italian outposts on the Piave have not yet +crossed it, for the reason that they must keep distances with their +regiments, but will do so as soon as these get nearer to the river. If +it was not that this is always done in regular warfare, they could beat +the country beyond the Piave for a good many miles without even seeing +the shadow of an Austrian. To the simple private, who does not know of +diplomatic imbroglios and of political considerations, this sudden +retreat means an almost as sudden retracing of steps, because he +remembers that this manoeuvre preceded both the attacks on Solferino and +on Custozza by the Austrians. To the officer, however, it means nothing +else than a fixed desire not to face the Italian army any more, and so it +is to him a source of disappointment and despondency. He cannot bear to +think that another battle is improbable, and may be excused if he is not +in the best of humour when on this subject. This is the case not only +with the officers but with the volunteers, who have left their homes and +the comfort of their domestic life, not to be paraded at reviews, but to +be sent against the enemy. There are hundreds of these in the regular +army-in the cavalry especially, and the Aosta Lancers and the regiment of +Guides are half composed of them. If you listen to them, there ought not +to be the slightest doubt or hesitation as to crossing the Isongo and +marching upon Vienna. May Heaven see their wishes accomplished, for, +unless crushed by sheer force, Italy is quite decided to carry war into +the enemy's country. + +The decisions of the French government are looked for here with great +anxiety, and not a few men are found who predict them to be unfavourable +to Italy. Still, it is hard for every one to believe that the French +emperor will carry things to extremities, and increase the many +difficulties Europe has already to contend with. + +To-day there was a rumour at the mess table that the Austrians had +abandoned Legnano, one of the four fortresses of the quadrilateral. I do +not put much faith in it at present, but it is not improbable, as we may +expect many strange things from the Vienna government. It would have +been much better for them, since Archduke Albert spoke in eulogistic +terms of the king, of his sons, and of his soldiers, while relating the +action of the 24th, to have treated with Italy direct, thus securing +peace, and perhaps friendship, from her. But the men who have ruled so +despotically for years over Italian subjects cannot reconcile themselves +to the idea that Italy has at last risen to be a nation, and they even +take slyly an opportunity to throw new insult into her face. You can +easily see that the old spirit is still struggling for empire; that the +old contempt is still trying to make light of Italians; and that the old +Metternich ideas are still fondly clung to. Does not this deserve +another lesson? Does not this need another Sadowa to quiet down for +ever? Yes; and it devolves upon Italy to do it. If so, let only +Cialdini's army alone, and the day may be nigh at hand when the king may +tell the country that the task has been accomplished. + +A talk on the present state of political affairs, and on the peculiar +position of Italy, is the only subject worth notice in a letter from the +camp. Everything else is at a standstill, and the movements of the fine +army Cialdini now disposes of, about 150,000 men, are no longer full of +interest. They may, perhaps, have some as regards an attack on Venice, +because Austrian soldiers are still garrisoning it, and will be obliged +to fight if they are assailed. It is hoped, if such is the case, that +the beautiful queen of the Adriatic will be spared a scene of +devastation, and that no new Haynau will be found to renew the deeds of +Brescia and Vicenza. + +The king has not yet arrived, and it seems probable he will not come for +some time, until indeed the day comes for Italian troops to make their +triumphal entry into the city of the Doges. + +The heat continues intense, and this explains the slowness in advancing. +As yet no sickness has appeared, and it must be hoped that the troops +will be healthy, as sickness tries the morale much more than half-a-dozen +Custozzas. + +P.S.--I had finished writing when an officer came rushing into the inn +where I am staying and told me that he had just heard that an Italian +patrol had met an Austrian one on the road out of the village, and routed +it. This may or may not be true, but it was must curious to see how +delighted every one was at the idea that they had found 'them' at last. +They did not care much about the result of the engagement, which, as I +said, was reported to have been favourable. All that they cared about +was that they were close to the enemy. One cannot despair of an army +which is animated with such spirits. You would think, from the joy which +brightens the face of the soldiers you meet now about, that a victory had +been announced for the Italian arms. + + + +DOLO, NEAR VENICE, July 20, 1866. + +I returned from Noale to Padua last evening, and late in the night I +received the intimation at my quarters that cannon was heard in the +direction of Venice. It was then black as in Dante's hell, and raining +and blowing with violence--one of those Italian storms which seem to +awake all the earthly and heavenly elements of creation. There was no +choice for it but to take to the saddle, and try to make for the front. +No one who has not tried it can fancy what work it is to find one's way +along a road on which a whole corps d'amee is marching with an enormous +materiel of war in a pitch dark night. This, however, is what your +special correspondent was obliged to do. Fortunately enough, I had +scarcely proceeded as far as Ponte di Brenta when I fell in with an +officer of Cialdini's staff, who was bound to the same destination, +namely, Dolo. As we proceeded along the road under a continuous shower +of rain, our eyes now and then dazzled by the bright serpent-like flashes +of the lightning, we fell in with some battalion or squadron, which +advanced carefully, as it was impossible for them as well as for us to +discriminate between the road and the ditches which flank it, for all the +landmarks, so familiar to our guides in the daytime, were in one dead +level of blackness. So it was that my companion and myself, after +stumbling into ditches and out of them, after knocking our horses' heads +against an ammunition car, or a party of soldiers sheltered under some +big tree, found ourselves, after three hours' ride, in this village of +Dolo. By this time the storm had greatly abated in its violence, and the +thunder was but faintly heard now and then at such a distance as to +enable us distinctly to hear the roar of the guns. Our horses could +scarcely get through the sticky black mud, into which the white +suffocating dust of the previous days had been turned by one night's +rain. We, however, made our way to the parsonage of the village, for we +had already made up our minds to ascend the steeple of the church to get +a view of the surrounding country and a better hearing of the guns if +possible. After a few words exchanged with the sexton--a staunch +Italian, as he told us he was--we went up the ladder of the church spire. +Once on the wooden platform, we could hear more distinctly the boom of +the guns, which sounded like the broadsides of a big vessel. Were they +the guns of Persano's long inactive fleet attacking some of Brondolo's or +Chioggia's advanced forts? Were the guns those of some Austrian man-of- +war which had engaged an Italian ironclad; or were they the +'Affondatore,' which left the Thames only a month ago, pitching into +Trieste? To tell the truth, although we patiently waited two long hours +on Dolo church spire, when both I and my companion descended we were not +in a position to solve either of these problems. We, however, thought +then, and still think, they were the guns of the Italian fleet which had +attacked an Austrian fort. + + + +CIVITA VECCHIA, July 22, 1866. + +Since the departure from this port of the old hospital ship 'Gregeois' +about a year ago, no French ship of war had been stationed at Civita +Vecchia; but on Wednesday morning the steam-sloop 'Catinat,' 180 men, +cast anchor in the harbour, and the commandant immediately on +disembarking took the train for Rome and placed himself in communication +with the French ambassador. I am not aware whether the Pontifical +government had applied for this vessel, or whether the sending it was a +spontaneous attention on the part of the French emperor, but, at any +rate, its arrival has proved a source of pleasure to His Holiness, as +there is no knowing what may happen In troublous times like the present, +and it is always good to have a retreat insured. + +Yesterday it was notified in this port, as well as at Naples, that +arrivals from Marseilles would be, until further notice, subjected to a +quarantine of fifteen days in consequence of cholera having made its +appearance at the latter place. A sailing vessel which arrived from +Marseilles in the course of the day had to disembark the merchandise it +brought for Civita Vecchia into barges off the lazaretto, where the +yellow flag was hoisted over them. This vessel left Marseilles five days +before the announcement of the quarantine, while the 'Prince Napoleon' of +Valery's Company, passenger and merchandise steamer, which left +Marseilles only one day before its announcement, was admitted this +morning to free pratique. Few travellers will come here by sea now. + + + +MARSEILLES, July 24. + +Accustomed as we have been of late in Italy to almost hourly bulletins of +the progress of hostilities, it is a trying condition to be suddenly +debarred of all intelligence by finding oneself on board a steamer for +thirty-six hours without touching at any port, as was my case in coming +here from Civita Vecchia on board the 'Prince Napoleon.' But, although +telegrams were wanting, discussions on the course of events were rife on +board among the passengers who had embarked at Naples and Civita Vecchia, +comprising a strong batch of French and Belgian priests returning from a +pilgrimage to Rome, well supplied with rosaries and chaplets blessed by +the Pope and facsimiles of the chains of St. Peter. Not much sympathy +for the Italian cause was shown by these gentlemen or the few French and +German travellers who, with three or four Neapolitans, formed the +quarterdeck society; and our Corsican captain took no pains to hide his +contempt at the dilatory proceedings of the Italian fleet at Ancona. We +know that the Prussian minister, M. d'Usedom, has been recently making +strenuous remonstrances at Ferrara against the slowness with which the +Italian naval and military forces were proceeding, while their allies, +the Prussians, were already near the gates of Vienna; and the +conversation of a Prussian gentleman on board our steamer, who was +connected with that embassy, plainly indicated the disappointment felt +at Berlin at the rather inefficacious nature of the diversion made in +Venetia, and on the coast of Istria by the army and navy of Victor +Emmanuel. He even attributed to his minister an expression not very +flattering either to the future prospects of Italy as resulting from her +alliance with Prussia, or to the fidelity of the latter in carrying out +the terms of it. I do not know whether this gentleman intended his +anecdote to be taken cum grano salis, but I certainly understood him to +say that he had deplored to the minister the want of vigour and the +absence of success accompanying the operations of the Italian allies of +Prussia, when His Excellency replied: 'C'est bien vrai. Ils nous ont +tromps; mais que voulez-vous y faire maintenant? Nous aurons le temps de +les faire egorger apres.' + +It is difficult to suppose that there should exist a preconceived +intention on the part of Prussia to repay the sacrifices hitherto made, +although without a very brilliant accompaniment of success, by the +Italian government in support of the alliance, by making her own separate +terms with Austria and leaving Italy subsequently exposed to the +vengeance of the latter, but such would certainly be the inference to be +drawn from the conversation just quoted. + +It was only on arriving in the port of Marseilles, however, that the full +enmity of most of my travelling companions towards Italy and the Italians +was manifested. A sailor, the first man who came on board before we +disembarked, was immediately pounced upon for news, and he gave it as +indeed nothing less than the destruction, more or less complete, of the +Italian fleet by that of the Austrians. At this astounding intelligence +the Prussian burst into a yell of indignation. 'Fools! blockheads! +miserables! Beaten at sea by an inferior force! Is that the way they +mean to reconquer Venice by dint of arms? If ever they do regain Venetia +it will be through the blood of our Brandenburghers and Pomeranians, and +not their own.' During this tirade a little old Belgian in black, with +the chain of St. Peter at his buttonhole by way of watchguard, capered +off to communicate the grateful news to a group of his ecclesiastical +fellow-travellers, shrieking out in ecstasy: + +'Rosses, Messieurs! Ces blagueurs d'Italiens ont ete rosses par mer, +comme ils avaient ete rosses par terre.' Whereupon the reverend +gentlemen congratulated each other with nods, and winks, and smiles, +and sundry fervent squeezes of the hand. The same demonstrations would +doubtless have been made by the Neapolitan passengers had they belonged +to the Bourbonic faction, but they happened to be honest traders with +cases of coral and lava for the Paris market, and therefore they merely +stood silent and aghast at the fatal news, with their eyes and mouths as +wide open as possible. I had no sooner got to my hotel than I inquired +for the latest Paris journal, when the France was handed me, and I +obtained confirmation in a certain degree of the disaster to the Italian +fleet narrated by the sailor, although not quite in the same formidable +proportions. + +Before quitting the subject of my fellow-passengers on board the 'Prince +Napoleon' I must mention an anecdote related to me, respecting the state +of brigandage, by a Russian or German gentleman, who told me he was +established at Naples. He was complaining of the dangers he had +occasionally encountered in crossing in a diligence from Naples to Foggia +on business; and then, speaking of the audacity of brigands in general, +he told me that last year he saw with his own eyes; in broad daylight, +two brigands walking about the streets of Naples with messages from +captured individuals to their relations, mentioning the sums which had +been demanded for their ransoms. They were unarmed, and in the common +peasants' dresses, and whenever they arrived at one of the houses to +which they were addressed for this purpose, they stopped and opened a +handkerchief which one of them carried in his hand, and took out an ear, +examining whether the ticket on it corresponded with the address of the +house or the name of the resident. There were six ears, all ticketed +with the names of the original owners in the handkerchief, which were +gradually dispensed to their families in Naples to stimulate: prompt +payment of the required ransoms. On my inquiring how it was that the +police took no notice of such barefaced operations, my informant told me +that, previous to the arrival of these brigand emissaries in town, the +chief always wrote to the police authorities warning them against +interfering with them, as the messengers were always followed by spies +in plain clothes belonging to the band who would immediately report any +molestation they might encounter in the discharge of their delicate +mission, and the infallible result of such molestation would be first +the putting to death of all the hostages held for ransom; and next, +the summary execution of several members of gendarmery and police force +captured in various skirmishes by the brigands, and held as prisoners of +war. + +Such audacity would seem incredible if we had not heard and read of so +many similar instances of late. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A very doubtful benefit +Americans forgivingly remember, without mentioning +As becomes them, they do not look ahead +Charges of cynicism are common against all satirists +Fourth of the Georges +Here and there a plain good soul to whom he was affectionate +Holy images, and other miraculous objects are sold +It is well to learn manners without having them imposed on us +Men overweeningly in love with their creations +Must be the moralist in the satirist if satire is to strike +Not a page of his books reveals malevolence or a sneer +Petty concessions are signs of weakness to the unsatisfied +Statesman who stooped to conquer fact through fiction +The social world he looked at did not show him heroes +The exhaustion ensuing we named tranquillity +Utterance of generous and patriotic cries is not sufficient +We trust them or we crush them +We grew accustomed to periods of Irish fever + + +[The End] + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 4498 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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We need your donations. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541 +Find out about how to make a donation at the bottom of this file. + + + +Title: Miscellaneous Prose + +Author: George Meredith + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +Release Date: September, 2003 [Etext #4498] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 5, 2002] + + +The Project Gutenberg Etext Miscellaneous Prose by George Meredith +*******This file should be named 4498.txt or 4498.zip******* + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep etexts in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +The "legal small print" and other information about this book +may now be found at the end of this file. Please read this +important information, as it gives you specific rights and +tells you about restrictions in how the file may be used. + + + + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + +MISCELLANEOUS PROSE + +By George Meredith + + + +CONTENTS: + +INTRODUCTION TO W. M. THACKERAY'S "THE FOUR GEORGES" + +A PAUSE IN THE STRIFE. + +CONCESSION TO THE CELT. + +LESLIE STEPHEN. + +LETTERS WRITTEN TO THE 'MORNING POST' FROM THE SEAT OF WAR IN ITALY. + + + + +INTRODUCTION TO W. M. THACKERAY'S "THE FOUR GEORGES" + +WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY was born at Calcutta, July 18, 1811, the only +child of Richmond and Anne Thackeray. He received the main part of his +education at the Charterhouse, as we know to our profit. Thence he +passed to Cambridge, remaining there from February 1829 to sometime in +1830. To judge by quotations and allusions, his favourite of the +classics was Horace, the chosen of the eighteenth century, and generally +the voice of its philosophy in a prosperous country. His voyage from +India gave him sight of Napoleon on the rocky island. In his young +manhood he made his bow reverentially to Goethe of Weimar; which did not +check his hand from setting its mark on the sickliness of Werther. + +He was built of an extremely impressionable nature and a commanding good +sense. He was in addition a calm observer, having 'the harvest of a +quiet eye.' Of this combination with the flood of subjects brought up to +judgement in his mind, came the prevalent humour, the enforced +disposition to satire, the singular critical drollery, notable in his +works. His parodies, even those pushed to burlesque, are an expression +of criticism and are more effective than the serious method, while they +rarely overstep the line of justness. The Novels by Eminent Hands do not +pervert the originals they exaggerate. 'Sieyes an abbe, now a ferocious +lifeguardsman,' stretches the face of the rollicking Irish novelist +without disfeaturing him; and the mysterious visitor to the palatial +mansion in Holywell Street indicates possibilities in the Oriental +imagination of the eminent statesman who stooped to conquer fact through +fiction. Thackeray's attitude in his great novels is that of the +composedly urbane lecturer, on a level with a select audience, assured of +interesting, above requirements to excite. The slow movement of the +narrative has a grace of style to charm like the dance of the Minuet de +la Cour: it is the limpidity of Addison flavoured with salt of a racy +vernacular; and such is the veri-similitude and the dialogue that they +might seem to be heard from the mouths of living speakers. When in this +way the characters of Vanity Fair had come to growth, their author was +rightly appreciated as one of the creators in our literature, he took at +once the place he will retain. With this great book and with Esmond and +The Newcomes, he gave a name eminent, singular, and beloved to English +fiction. + +Charges of cynicism are common against all satirists, Thackeray had to +bear with them. The social world he looked at did not show him heroes, +only here and there a plain good soul to whom he was affectionate in the +unhysterical way of an English father patting a son on the head. He +described his world as an accurate observer saw it, he could not be +dishonest. Not a page of his books reveals malevolence or a sneer at +humanity. He was driven to the satirical task by the scenes about him. +There must be the moralist in the satirist if satire is to strike. The +stroke is weakened and art violated when he comes to the front. But he +will always be pressing forward, and Thackeray restrained him as much as +could be done, in the manner of a good-humoured constable. Thackeray may +have appeared cynical to the devout by keeping him from a station in the +pulpit among congregations of the many convicted sinners. That the +moralist would have occupied it and thundered had he presented us with +the Fourth of the Georges we see when we read of his rejecting the +solicitations of so seductive a personage for the satiric rod. + +Himself one of the manliest, the kindliest of human creatures, it was the +love of his art that exposed him to misinterpretation. He did stout +service in his day. If the bad manners he scourged are now lessened to +some degree we pay a debt in remembering that we owe much to him, and if +what appears incurable remains with us, a continued reading of his works +will at least help to combat it. + + + + + + +A PAUSE IN THE STRIFE--1886 + +Our 'Eriniad,' or ballad epic of the enfranchisement of the sister island +is closing its first fytte for the singer, and with such result as those +Englishmen who have some knowledge of their fellows foresaw. There are +sufficient reasons why the Tories should always be able to keep together, +but let them have the credit of cohesiveness and subordination to +control. Though working for their own ends, they won the esteem of their +allies, which will count for them in the struggles to follow. Their +leaders appear to have seen what has not been distinctly perceptible to +the opposite party--that the break up of the Liberals means the defection +of the old Whigs in permanence, heralding the establishment of a powerful +force against Radicalism, with a capital cry to the country. They have +tactical astuteness. If they seem rather too proud of their victory, it +is merely because, as becomes them, they do not look ahead. To rejoice +in the gaining of a day, without having clear views of the morrow, is +puerile enough. Any Tory victory, it may be said, is little more than a +pause in the strife, unless when the Radical game is played 'to dish the +Whigs,' and the Tories are now fast bound down by their incorporation of +the latter to abstain from the violent springs and right-about-facings of +the Derby-Disraeli period. They are so heavily weighted by the new +combination that their Jack-in-the-box, Lord Randolph, will have to stand +like an ordinary sentinel on duty, and take the measurement of his +natural size. They must, on the supposition of their entry into office, +even to satisfy their own constituents, produce a scheme. Their majority +in the House will command it. + +To this extent, then, Mr. Gladstone has not been defeated. The question +set on fire by him will never be extinguished until the combustible +matter has gone to ashes. But personally he meets a sharp rebuff. The +Tories may well raise hurrahs over that. Radicals have to admit it, and +point to the grounds of it. Between a man's enemies and his friends +there comes out a rough painting of his character, not without a +resemblance to the final summary, albeit wanting in the justly delicate +historical touch to particular features. On the one side he is abused as +'the one-man power'; lauded on the other for his marvellous intuition of +the popular will. One can believe that he scarcely wishes to march +dictatorially, and full surely his Egyptian policy was from step to step +a misreading of the will of the English people. He went forth on this +campaign, with the finger of Egypt not ineffectively levelled against him +a second time. Nevertheless he does read his English; he has, too, the +fatal tendency to the bringing forth of Bills in the manner of Jove big +with Minerva. He perceived the necessity, and the issue of the +necessity; clearly defined what must come, and, with a higher motive than +the vanity with which his enemies charge him, though not with such high +counsel as Wisdom at his ear, fell to work on it alone, produced the +whole Bill alone, and then handed it to his Cabinet to digest, too much +in love with the thing he had laid and incubated to permit of any serious +dismemberment of its frame. Hence the disruption. He worked for the +future, produced a Bill for the future, and is wrecked in the present. +Probably he can work in no other way than from the impulse of his +enthusiasm, solitarily. It is a way of making men overweeningly in love +with their creations. The consequence is likely to be that Ireland will +get her full measure of justice to appease her cravings earlier than she +would have had as much from the United Liberal Cabinet, but at a cost +both to her and to England. Meanwhile we are to have a House of Commons +incapable of conducting public business; the tradesmen to whom the Times +addressed pathetic condolences on the loss of their season will lose more +than one; and we shall be made sensible that we have an enemy in our +midst, until a people, slow to think, have taken counsel of their native +generosity to put trust in the most generous race on earth. + + + + + + +CONCESSION TO THE CELT--1886 + +Things are quiet outside an ant-hill until the stick has been thrust into +it. Mr. Gladstone's Bill for helping to the wiser government of Ireland +has brought forth our busy citizens on the top-rubble in traversing +counterswarms, and whatever may be said against a Bill that deals roughly +with many sensitive interests, one asks whether anything less violently +impressive would have roused industrious England to take this question at +last into the mind, as a matter for settlement. The Liberal leader has +driven it home; and wantonly, in the way of a pedestrian demagogue, some +think; certainly to the discomposure of the comfortable and the myopely +busy, who prefer to live on with a disease in the frame rather than at +all be stirred. They can, we see, pronounce a positive electoral +negative; yet even they, after the eighty and odd years of our domestic +perplexity, in the presence of the eighty and odd members pledged for +Home Rule, have been moved to excited inquiries regarding measures--short +of the obnoxious Bill. How much we suffer from sniffing the vain incense +of that word practical, is contempt of prevision! Many of the measures +now being proposed responsively to the fretful cry for them, as a better +alternative to correction by force of arms, are sound and just. Ten +years back, or at a more recent period before Mr. Parnell's triumph in +the number of his followers, they would have formed a basis for the +appeasement of the troubled land. The institution of county boards, +the abolition of the detested Castle, something like the establishment of +a Royal residence in Dublin, would have begun the work well. Materially +and sentimentally, they were the right steps to take. They are now +proposed too late. They are regarded as petty concessions, insufficient +and vexatious. The lower and the higher elements in the population are +fused by the enthusiasm of men who find themselves marching in full body +on a road, under a flag, at the heels of a trusted leader; and they will +no longer be fed with sops. Petty concessions are signs of weakness to +the unsatisfied; they prick an appetite, they do not close breaches. If +our object is, as we hear it said, to appease the Irish, we shall have to +give them the Parliament their leader demands. It might once have been +much less; it may be worried into a raving, perhaps a desperate +wrestling, for still more. Nations pay Sibylline prices for want of +forethought. Mr. Parnell's terms are embodied in Mr. Gladstone's Bill, +to which he and his band have subscribed. The one point for him is the +statutory Parliament, so that Ireland may civilly govern herself; and +standing before the world as representative of his country, he addresses +an applausive audience when he cites the total failure of England to do +that business of government, as at least a logical reason for the claim. +England has confessedly failed; the world says it, the country admits it. +We have failed, and not because the so-called Saxon is incapable of +understanding the Celt, but owing to our system, suitable enough to us, +of rule by Party, which puts perpetually a shifting hand upon the reins, +and invites the clamour it has to allay. The Irish--the English too in +some degree--have been taught that roaring; in its various forms, is the +trick to open the ears of Ministers. We have encouraged by irritating +them to practise it, until it has become a habit, an hereditary +profession with them. Ministers in turn have defensively adopted the +arts of beguilement, varied by an exercise of the police. We grew +accustomed to periods of Irish fever. The exhaustion ensuing we named +tranquillity, and hoped that it would bear fruit. But we did not plant. +The Party in office directed its attention to what was uppermost and +urgent--to that which kicked them. Although we were living, by common +consent; with a disease in the frame, eruptive at intervals, a national +disfigurement always a danger, the Ministerial idea of arresting it for +the purpose of healing was confined, before the passing of Mr. +Gladstone's well-meant Land Bill, to the occasional despatch of +commissions; and, in fine, we behold through History the Irish malady +treated as a form of British constitutional gout. Parliament touched on +the Irish only when the Irish were active as a virus. Our later +alternations of cajolery and repression bear painful resemblance to the +nervous fit of rickety riders compounding with their destinations that +they may keep their seats. The cajolery was foolish, if an end was in +view; the repression inefficient. To repress efficiently we have to +stifle a conscience accusing us of old injustice, and forget that we are +sworn to freedom. The cries that we have been hearing for Cromwell or +for Bismarck prove the existence of an impatient faction in our midst +fitter to wear the collars of those masters whom they invoke than to drop +a vote into the ballot-box. As for the prominent politicians who have +displaced their rivals partly on the strength of an implied approbation +of those cries, we shall see how they illumine the councils of a +governing people. They are wiser than the barking dogs. Cromwell and +Bismarck are great names; but the harrying of Ireland did not settle it, +and to Germanize a Posen and call it peace will find echo only in the +German tongue. Posen is the error of a master-mind too much given to +hammer at obstacles. He has, however, the hammer. Can it be imagined in +English hands? The braver exemplar for grappling with monstrous +political tasks is Cavour, and he would not have hinted at the iron +method or the bayonet for a pacification. Cavour challenged debate; he +had faith in the active intellect, and that is the thing to be prayed for +by statesmen who would register permanent successes. The Irish, it is +true, do not conduct an argument coolly. Mr. Parnell and his eighty-five +have not met the Conservative leader and his following in the Commons +with the gravity of platonic disputants. But they have a logical +position, equivalent to the best of arguments. They are representatives, +they would say, of a country admittedly ill-governed by us; and they have +accepted the Bill of the defeated Minister as final. Its provisions are +their terms of peace. They offer in return for that boon to take the +burden we have groaned under off our hands. If we answer that we think +them insincere, we accuse these thrice accredited representatives of the +Irish people of being hypocrites and crafty conspirators; and numbers in +England, affected by the weapons they have used to get to their present +strength, do think it; forgetful that our obtuseness to their constant +appeals forced them into the extremer shifts of agitation. Yet it will +hardly be denied that these men love Ireland; and they have not shown +themselves by their acts to be insane. To suppose them conspiring for +separation indicates a suspicion that they have neither hearts nor heads. +For Ireland, separation is immediate ruin. It would prove a very short +sail for these conspirators before the ship went down. The vital +necessity of the Union for both, countries, obviously for the weaker of +the two, is known to them; and unless we resume our exasperation of the +wild fellow the Celt can be made by such a process, we have not rational +grounds for treating him, or treating with him, as a Bedlamite. He has +besides his passions shrewd sense; and his passions may be rightly +directed by benevolent attraction. This is language derided by the +victorious enemy; it speaks nevertheless what the world, and even +troubled America, thinks of the Irish Celt. More of it now on our side +of the Channel would be serviceable. The notion that he hates the +English comes of his fevered chafing against the harness of England, and +when subject to his fevers, he is unrestrained in his cries and deeds. +That pertains to the nature of him. Of course, if we have no belief in +the virtues of friendliness and confidence--none in regard to the +Irishman--we show him his footing, and we challenge the issue. For the +sole alternative is distinct antagonism, a form of war. Mr. Gladstone's +Bill has brought us to that definite line. Ireland having given her +adhesion to it, swearing that she does so in good faith, and will not +accept a smaller quantity, peace is only to be had by our placing trust +in the Irish; we trust them or we crush them. Intermediate ways are but +the prosecution of our ugly flounderings in Bogland; and dubious as we +see the choice on either side, a decisive step to right or left will not +show us to the world so bemired, to ourselves so miserably inefficient, +as we appear in this session of a new Parliament. With his eighty-five, +apart from external operations lawful or not, Mr. Parnell can act as a +sort of lumbricus in the House. Let journalists watch and chronicle +events: if Mr. Gladstone has humour, they will yet note a peculiar smile +on his closed mouth from time to time when the alien body within the +House, from which, for the sake of its dignity and ability to conduct its +affairs, he would have relieved it till the day of a warmer intelligence +between Irish and English, paralyzes our machinery business. An ably- +handled coherent body in the midst of the liquid groups will make it felt +that Ireland is a nation, naturally dependent though she must be. We +have to do with forces in politics, and the great majority of the Irish +Nationalists in Ireland has made them a force. + +No doubt Mr. Matthew Arnold is correct in his apprehensions of the +dangers we may fear from a Dublin House of Commons. The declarations +and novel or ultra theories might almost be written down beforehand. +I should, for my part, anticipate a greater danger in the familiar +attitude of the English metropolitan Press and public toward an +experiment they dislike and incline to dread:--the cynical comments, +the quotations between inverted commas, the commiserating shrug, cold +irony, raw banter, growl of menace, sharp snap, rounds of laughter. +Frenchmen of the Young Republic, not presently appreciated as offensive, +have had some of these careless trifles translated for them, and have +been stung. We favoured Germany with them now and then, before Germany +became the first power in Europe. Before America had displayed herself +as greatest among the giants that do not go to pieces, she had, as +Americans forgivingly remember, without mentioning, a series of flicks of +the whip. It is well to learn manners without having them imposed on us. +There are various ways for tripping the experiment. Nevertheless, when +the experiment is tried, considering that our welfare is involved in its +not failing, as we have failed, we should prepare to start it cordially, +cordially assist it. Thoughtful political minds regard the measure as a +backward step; yet conceiving but a prospect that a measure accepted by +Home Rulers will possibly enable the Irish and English to step together, +it seems better worth the venture than to pursue a course of prospectless +discord! Whatever we do or abstain from doing has now its evident +dangers, and this being imminent may appear the larger of them; but if +a weighing of the conditions dictates it, and conscience approves, the +wiser proceeding is to make trial of the untried. Our outlook was +preternaturally black, with enormous increase of dangers when the +originator of our species venturesomely arose from the posture of the +'quatre pattes'. We consider that we have not lost by his temerity. In +states of dubitation under impelling elements, the instinct pointing to +courageous action is, besides the manlier, conjecturably the right one. + + + + + + +LESLIE STEPHEN--1904 + +When that noble body of scholarly and cheerful pedestrians, the Sunday +Tramps, were on the march, with Leslie Stephen to lead them, there was +conversation which would have made the presence of a shorthand writer a +benefaction to the country. A pause to it came at the examination of the +leader's watch and Ordnance map under the western sun, and void was given +for the strike across country to catch the tail of a train offering +dinner in London, at the cost of a run through hedges, over ditches and +fellows, past proclamation against trespassers, under suspicion of being +taken for more serious depredators in flight. The chief of the Tramps +had a wonderful calculating eye in the observation of distances and the +nature of the land, as he proved by his discovery of untried passes in +the higher Alps, and he had no mercy for pursy followers. I have often +said of this life-long student and philosophical head that he had in him +the making of a great military captain. He would not have been opposed +to the profession of arms if he had been captured early for the service, +notwithstanding his abomination of bloodshed. He had a high, calm +courage, was unperturbed in a dubious position, and would confidently +take the way out of it which he conceived to be the better. We have not +to deplore that he was diverted from the ways of a soldier, though +England, as the country has been learning of late, cannot boast of many +in uniform who have capacity for leadership. His work in literature will +be reviewed by his lieutenant of Tramps, one of the ablest of writers!-- +[Frederic W. Maitland.]--The memory of it remains with us, as being the +profoundest and the most sober criticism we have had in our time. The +only sting in it was an inoffensive humorous irony that now and then +stole out for a roll over, like a furry cub, or the occasional ripple on +a lake in grey weather. We have nothing left that is like it. + +One might easily fall into the pit of panegyric by an enumeration of his +qualities, personal and literary. It would not be out of harmony with +the temper and characteristics of a mind so equable. He, the equable, +whether in condemnation or eulogy. Our loss of such a man is great, for +work was in his brain, and the hand was active till close upon the time +when his breathing ceased. The loss to his friends can be replaced only +by an imagination that conjures him up beside them. That will be no task +to those who have known him well enough to see his view of things as they +are, and revive his expression of it. With them he will live despite the +word farewell. + + + + + + + CORRESPONDENCE FROM THE SEAT OF WAR IN ITALY + + +LETTERS WRITTEN TO THE MORNING POST FROM THE SEAT OF WAR IN ITALY +FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT + +FERRARA, June 22, 1866. + +Before this letter reaches London the guns will have awakened both the +echo of the old river Po and the classical Mincio. The whole of the +troops, about 110,000 men, with which Cialdini intends to force the +passage of the first-named river are already massed along the right bank +of the Po, anxiously waiting that the last hour of to-morrow should +strike, and that the order for action should be given. The telegraph +will have already informed your readers that, according to the intimation +sent by General Lamarmora on Tuesday evening to the Austrian +headquarters, the three days fixed by the general's message before +beginning hostilities will expire at twelve p.m. of the 23rd of June. + +Cialdini's headquarters have been established in this city since +Wednesday morning, and the famous general, in whom the fourth corps he +commands, and the whole of the nation, has so much confidence, has +concentrated the whole of his forces within a comparatively narrow +compass, and is ready for action. I believe therefore that by to-morrow +the right bank of the Po will be connected with the mainland of the +Polesine by several pontoon bridges, which will enable Cialdini's corps +d'armee to cross the river, and, as everybody here hopes, to cross it in +spite of any defence the Austrians may make. + +On my way to this ancient city last evening I met General Cadogan and two +superior Prussian officers, who by this time must have joined Victor +Emmanuel's headquarters at Cremona; if not, they have been by this time +transferred elsewhere, more on the front, towards the line of the Mincio, +on which, according to appearance, the first, second, and third Italian +corps d'armee seem destined to operate. The English general and the two +Prussian officers above mentioned are to follow the king's staff, the +first as English commissioner, the superior in rank of the two others in +the same capacity. + +I have been told here that, before leaving Bologna, Cialdini held a +general council of the commanders of the seven divisions of which his +powerful corps d'armee is formed, and that he told them that, in spite of +the forces the enemy has massed on the left bank of the Po, between the +point which faces Stellata and Rovigo, the river must be crossed by his +troops, whatever might be the sacrifice this important operation +requires. Cialdini is a man who knows how to keep his word, and, for +this reason, I have no doubt he will do what he has already made up his +mind to accomplish. I am therefore confident that before two or three +days have elapsed, these 110,000 Italian troops, or a great part of them, +will have trod, for the Italians, the sacred land of Venetia. + +Once the river Po crossed by Cialdini's corps d'armee, he will boldly +enter the Polesine and make himself master of the road which leads by +Rovigo towards Este and Padua. A glance at the map will show your +readers how, at about twenty or thirty miles from the first-mentioned +town, a chain of hills, called the Colli Euganei, stretches itself from +the last spur of the Julian Alps, in the vicinity of Vicenza, gently +sloping down towards the sea. As this line affords good positions for +contesting the advance of an army crossing the Po at Lago Scuro, or at +any other point not far from it, it is to be supposed that the Austrians +will make a stand there, and I should not be surprised at all that +Cialdini's first battle, if accepted by the enemy, should take place +within that comparatively narrow ground which is within Montagnana, Este, +Terradura, Abano, and Padua. It is impossible to suppose that Cialdini's +corps d'armee, being so large, is destined to cross the Po only at one +point of the river below its course: it is extremely likely that part of +it should cross it at some point above, between Revere and Stellata, +where the river is in two or three instances only 450 metres wide. Were +the Italian general to be successful--protected as he will be by the +tremendous fire of the powerful artillery he disposes of--in these +twofold operations, the Austrians defending the line of the Colli Euganei +could be easily outflanked by the Italian troops, who would have crossed +the river below Lago Scuro. Of course these are mere suppositions, for +nobody, as you may imagine, except the king, Cialdini himself, Lamarmora, +Pettiti, and Menabrea, is acquainted with the plan of the forthcoming +campaign. There was a rumour at Cialdini's headquarters to-day that the +Austrians had gathered in great numbers in the Polesine, and especially +at Rovigo, a small town which they have strongly fortified of late, with +an apparent design to oppose the crossing of the Po, were Cialdini to +attempt it at or near Lago Scuro. There are about Rovigo large tracts of +marshes and fields cut by ditches and brooks, which, though owing to the +dryness of the season [they] cannot be, as it was generally believed two +weeks ago, easily inundated, yet might well aid the operations the +Austrians may undertake in order to check the advance of the Italian +fourth corps d'armee. The resistance to the undertaking of Cialdini may +be, on the part of the Austrians, very stout, but I am almost certain +that it will be overcome by the ardour of Italian troops, and by the +skill of their illustrious leader. + +As I told you above, the declaration of war was handed over to an +Austrian major for transmission to Count Stancowick, the Austrian +governor of Mantua, on the evening of the 19th, by Colonel Bariola, +sous-chef of the general staff, who was accompanied by the Duke Luigi +of Sant' Arpino, the husband of the amiable widow of Lord Burghersh. +The duke is the eldest son of Prince San Teodoro, one of the wealthiest +noblemen of Naples. In spite of his high position and of his family +ties, the Duke of Sant' Arpino, who is well known in London fashionable +society, entered as a volunteer in the Italian army, and was appointed +orderly officer to General Lamarmora. The choice of such a gentleman for +the mission I am speaking of was apparently made with intention, in order +to show the Austrians, that the Neapolitan nobility is as much interested +in the national movement as the middle and lower classes of the Kingdom, +once so fearfully misruled by the Bourbons. The Duke of Sant' Arpino is +not the only Neapolitan nobleman who has enlisted in the Italian army +since the war with Austria broke out. In order to show you the +importance which must be given to this pronunciamiento of the Neapolitan +noblemen, allow me to give you here a short list of the names of those of +them who have enlisted as private soldiers in the cavalry regiments of +the regular army: The Duke of Policastro; the Count of Savignano Guevara, +the eldest son of the Duke of Bovino; the Duke d'Ozia d'Angri, who had +emigrated in 1860, and returned to Naples six months ago; Marquis +Rivadebro Serra; Marquis Pisicelli, whose family had left Naples in 1860 +out of devotion to Francis II.; two Carraciolos, of the historical family +from which sprung the unfortunate Neapolitan admiral of this name, whose +head Lord Nelson would have done better not to have sacrificed to the +cruelty of Queen Caroline; Prince Carini, the representative of an +illustrious family of Sicily, a nephew of the Marquis del Vasto; and +Pescara, a descendant of that great general of Charles V., to whom the +proud Francis I. of France was obliged to surrender and give up his sword +at the battle of Pavia. Besides these Neapolitan noblemen who have +enlisted of late as privates, the Italian army now encamped on the banks +of the Po and of the Mincio may boast of two Colonnas, a prince of Somma, +two Barons Renzi, an Acquaviva, of the Duke of Atri, two Capece, two +Princes Buttera, etc. To return to the mission of Colonel Bariola and +the Duke of Sant' Arpino, I will add some details which were told me this +morning by a gentleman who left Cremona yesterday evening, and who had +them from a reliable source. The messenger of General Lamarmora had been +directed to proceed from Cremona to the small village of Le Grazie, +which, on the line of the Mincio, marks the Austrian and Italian +frontier. + +On the right bank of the Lake of Mantua, in the year 1340, stood a small +chapel containing a miraculous painting of the Madonna, called by the +people of the locality 'Santa Maria delle Grazie.' The boatmen and +fishermen of the Mincio, who had been, as they said, often saved from +certain death by the Madonna--as famous in those days as the modern Lady +of Rimini, celebrated for the startling feat of winking her eyes-- +determined to erect for her a more worthy abode. + +Hence arose the Santuario delle Grazie. Here, as at Loretto and other +holy localities of Italy, a fair is held, in which, amongst a great +number of worldly things, rosaries, holy images, and other miraculous +objects are sold, and astounding boons are said to be secured at the most +trifling expense. The Santuario della Madonna delle Grazie enjoying a +far-spread reputation, the dumb, deaf, blind, and halt-in short, people +afflicted with all sorts of infirmities--flock thither during the fair, +and are not wanting even on the other days of the year. The church of Le +Grazie is one of the most curious of Italy. Not that there is anything +remarkable in its architecture, for it is an Italian Gothic structure of +the simplest style. But the ornamental part of the interior is most +peculiar. The walls of the building are covered with a double row of wax +statues, of life size, representing a host of warriors, cardinals, +bishops, kings, and popes, who--as the story runs--pretended to have +received some wonderful grace during their earthly existence. Amongst +the grand array of illustrious personages, there are not a few humbler +individuals whose history is faithfully told (if you choose to credit it) +by the painted inscriptions below. There is even a convict, who, at the +moment of being hanged, implored succour of the all-powerful Madonna, +whereupon the beam of the gibbet instantly broke, and the worthy +individual was restored to society--a very doubtful benefit after all. +On Colonel Bariola and the Duke of Sant' Arpino arriving at this place, +which is only five miles distant from Mantua, their carriage was +naturally stopped by the commissaire of the Austrian police, whose duty +was to watch the frontier. Having told him that they had a despatch to +deliver either to the military governor of Mantua or to some officer sent +by him to receive it, the commissaire at once despatched a mounted +gendarme to Mantua. Two hours had scarcely elapsed when a carriage drove +into the village of Le Grazie, from which an Austrian major of infantry +alighted and hastened to a wooden hut where the two Italian officers were +waiting. Colonel Bariola, who was trained in the Austrian military +school of Viller Nashstad, and regularly left the Austrian service in +1848, acquainted the newly-arrived major with his mission, which was that +of delivering the sealed despatch to the general in command of Mantua and +receiving for it a regular receipt. The despatch was addressed to the +Archduke Albert, commander-in-chief of the Austrian army of the South, +care of the governor of Mantua. After the major had delivered the +receipt, the three messengers entered into a courteous conversation, +during which Colonel Bariola seized an opportunity of presenting the +duke, purposely laying stress on the fact of his belonging to one of the +most illustrious families of Naples. It happened that the Austrian major +had also been trained in the same school where Colonel Bariola was +brought up--a circumstance of which he was reminded by the Austrian +officer himself. Three hours had scarcely elapsed from the arrival of +the two Italian messengers of war at Le Grazie, on the Austrian frontier, +when they were already on their way back to the headquarters of Cremona, +where during the night the rumour was current that a telegram had been +received by Lamarmora from Verona, in which Archduke Albert accepted the +challenge. Victor Emmanuel, whom I saw at Bologna yesterday, arrived at +Cremona in the morning at two o'clock, but by this time his Majesty's +headquarters must have removed more towards the front, in the direction +of the Oglio. I should not be at all surprised were the Italian +headquarters to be established by to-morrow either at Piubega or +Gazzoldo, if not actually at Goito, a village, as you know, which marks +the Italian-Austrian frontier on the Mincio. The whole of the first, +second, and third Italian corps d'armee are by this time concentrated +within that comparatively narrow space which lies between the position of +Castiglione, Delle Stiviere, Lorrato, and Desenzano, on the Lake of +Garda, and Solferino on one side; Piubega, Gazzoldo, Sacca, Goito, and +Castellucchio on the other. Are these three corps d'armee to attack when +they hear the roar of Cialdini's artillery on the right bank of the Po? +Are they destined to force the passage of the Mincio either at Goito or +at Borghetto? or are they destined to invest Verona, storm Peschiera, +and lay siege to Mantua? This is more than I can tell you, for, I repeat +it, the intentions of the Italian leaders are enveloped in a veil which +nobody--the Austrians included--has as yet been able to penetrate. One +thing, however, is certain, and it is this, that as the clock of Victor +Emmanuel marks the last minute of the seventy-second hour fixed by the +declaration delivered at Le Grazie on Wednesday by Colonel Bariola to the +Austrian major, the fair land where Virgil was born and Tasso was +imprisoned will be enveloped by a thick cloud of the smoke of hundreds +and hundreds of cannon. Let us hope that God will be in favour of right +and justice, which, in this imminent and fierce struggle, is undoubtedly +on the Italian side. + + + +CREMONA, June 30, 1866. + +The telegraph will have already informed you of the concentration of the +Italian army, whose headquarters have since Tuesday been removed from +Redondesco to Piadena, the king having chosen the adjacent villa of +Cigognolo for his residence. The concentrating movements of the royal +army began on the morning of the 27th, i.e., three days after the bloody +fait d'armes of the 24th, which, narrated and commented on in different +manners according to the interests and passions of the narrators, still +remains for many people a mystery. At the end of this letter you will +see that I quote a short phrase with which an Austrian major, now +prisoner of war, portrayed the results of the fierce struggle fought +beyond the Mincio. This officer is one of the few survivors of a +regiment of Austrian volunteers, uhlans, two squadrons of which he +himself commanded. The declaration made by this officer was thoroughly +explicit, and conveys the exact idea of the valour displayed by the +Italians in that terrible fight. Those who incline to overrate the +advantages obtained by the Austrians on Sunday last must not forget that +if Lamarmora had thought proper to persist in holding the positions of +Valeggio, Volta, and Goito, the Austrians could not have prevented him. +It seems the Austrian general-in-chief shared this opinion, for, after +his army had carried with terrible sacrifices the positions of Monte +Vento and Custozza, it did not appear, nor indeed did the Austrians then +give any signs, that they intended to adopt a more active system of +warfare. It is the business of a commander to see that after a victory +the fruit of it should not be lost, and for this reason the enemy is +pursued and molested, and time is not left him for reorganization. +Nothing of this happened after the 24th--nothing has been done by the +Austrians to secure such results. The frontier which separates the two +dominions is now the same as it was on the eve of the declaration of war. +At Goito, at Monzambano, and in the other villages of the extreme +frontier, the Italian authorities are still discharging their duties. +Nothing is changed in those places, were we to except that now and then +an Austrian cavalry party suddenly makes its appearance, with the only +object of watching the movements of the Italian army. One of these +parties, formed by four squadrons of the Wurtemberg hussar regiment, +having advanced at six o'clock this morning on the right bank of the +Mincio, met the fourth squadron of the Italian lancers of Foggia and were +beaten back, and compelled to retire in disorder towards Goito and +Rivolta. In this unequal encounter the Italian lancers distinguished +themselves very much, made some Austrian hussars prisoners, and killed a +few more, amongst whom was an officer. The same state of thing, prevails +at Rivottella, a small village on the shores of the Lake of Garda, about +four miles distant from the most advanced fortifications of Peschiera. +There, as elsewhere, some Austrian parties advanced with the object of +watching the movements of the Garibaldians, who occupy the hilly ground, +which from Castiglione, Eseuta, and Cartel Venzago stretches to Lonato, +Salo, and Desenzano, and to the mountain passes of Caffaro. In the last- +named place the Garibaldians came to blows with the Austrians on the +morning of the 28th, and the former got the best of the fray. Had the +fait d'armes of the 24th, or the battle of Custozza, as Archduke Albrecht +calls it, been a great victory for the Austrians, why should the imperial +army remain in such inaction? The only conclusion we must come to is +simply this, that the Austrian losses have been such as to induce the +commander-in-chief of the army to act prudently on the defensive. We are +now informed that the charges of cavalry which the Austrian lancers and +the Hungarian hussars had to sustain near Villafranca on the 24th with +the Italian horsemen of the Aorta and Alessandria regiments have been so +fatal to the former that a whole division of the Kaiser cavalry must be +reorganised before it can be brought into the field main. + +The regiment of Haller hussars and two of volunteer uhlans were almost +destroyed in that terrible charge. To give you an idea of this cavalry +encounter, it is sufficient to say that Colonel Vandoni, at the head of +the Aorta regiment he commands, charged fourteen times during the short +period of four hours. The volunteer uhlans of the Kaiser regiment had +already given up the idea of breaking through the square formed by the +battalion, in the centre of which stood Prince Humbert of Savoy, when +they were suddenly charged and literally cut to pieces by the Alessandria +light cavalry, in spite of the long lances they carried. This weapon and +the loose uniform they wear makes them resemble the Cossacks of the Don. +There is one circumstance, which, if I am not mistaken, has not as yet +been published by the newspapers, and it is this. There was a fight on +the 25th on a place at the north of Roverbella, between the Italian +regiment of Novara cavalry and a regiment of Hungarian hussars, whose +name is not known. This regiment was so thoroughly routed by the +Italians that it was pursued as far as Villafranca, and had two squadrons +put hors de combat, whilst the Novara regiment only lost twenty-four +mounted men. I think it right to mention this, for it proves that, the +day after the bloody affair of the 24th, the Italian army had still a +regiment of cavalry operating at Villafranca, a village which lay at a +distance of fifteen kilometres from the Italian frontier. A report, which +is much accredited here, explains how the Italian army did not derive the +advantages it might have derived from the action of the 24th. It appears +that the orders issued from the Italian headquarters during the previous +night, and especially the verbal instructions given by Lamarmora and +Pettiti to the staff officers of the different army corps, were either +forgotten or misunderstood by those officers. Those sent to Durando, +the commander of the first corps, seem to have been as follows: That he +should have marched in the direction of Castelnuovo, without, however, +taking part in the action. Durando, it is generally stated, had strictly +adhered to the orders sent from the headquarters, but it seems that +General Cerale understood them too literally. Having been ordered to +march on Castelnuovo, and finding the village strongly held by the +Austrians, who received his division with a tremendous fire, he at once +engaged in the action instead of falling back on the reserve of the first +corps and waiting new instructions. If such was really the case, it is +evident that Cerale thought that the order to march which he had received +implied that he was to attack and get possession of Castelnuovo, had this +village, as it really was, already been occupied by the enemy. In +mentioning this fact I feel bound to observe that I write it under the +most complete reserve, for I should be sorry indeed to charge General +Cerale with having misunderstood such an important order. + +I see that one of your leading contemporaries believes that it would be +impossible for the king or Lamarmora to say what result they expected +from their ill-conceived and worse-executed attempt. The result they +expected is, I think, clear enough; they wanted to break through the +quadrilateral and make their junction with Cialdini, who was ready to +cross the Po during the night of the 24th. That the attempt was ill- +conceived and worse-executed, neither your contemporary nor the public at +large has, for the present, the right to conclude, for no one knows as +yet but imperfectly the details of the terrible fight. What is certain, +however, is that General Durando, perceiving that the Cerale division was +lost, did all that he could to help it. Failing in this he turned to his +two aides-de-camp and coolly said to them: + +'Now, gentlemen, it is time for you to retire, for I have a duty to +perform which is a strictly personal one--the duty of dying.' On saying +these words he galloped to the front and placed himself at about twenty +paces from a battalion of Austrian sharp-shooters which were ascending +the hill. In less than five minutes his horse was killed under him, and +he was wounded in the right hand. I scarcely need add that his aides-de- +camp did not flinch from sharing Durando's fate. They bravely followed +their general, and one, the Marquis Corbetta, was wounded in the leg; the +other, Count Esengrini, had his horse shot under him. I called on +Durando, who is now at Milan, the day before yesterday. Though a +stranger to him, he received me at once, and, speaking of the action of +the 24th, he only said: 'I have the satisfaction of having done my duty. +I wait tranquilly the judgement of history.' + +Assuming, for argument's sake, that General Cerale misunderstood the +orders he had received, and that, by precipitating his movement, he +dragged into the same mistake the whole of Durando's corps--assuming, +I say, this to be the right version, you can easily explain the fact that +neither of the two contending parties are as yet in a position clearly to +describe the action of the 24th. Why did neither the one nor the other +display and bring into action the whole forces they could have had at +their disposal? Why so many partial engagements at a great distance one +from the other? In a word, why that want of unity, which, in my opinion, +constituted the paramount characteristic of that bloody struggle? I may +be greatly mistaken, but I am of opinion that neither the Italian +general-in-chief nor the Austrian Archduke entertained on the night of +the 23rd the idea of delivering a battle on the 24th. There, and only +there, lies the whole mystery of the affair. The total want of unity of +action on the part of the Italians assured to the Austrians, not the +victory, but the chance of rendering impossible Lamarmora's attempt to +break through the quadrilateral. This no one can deny; but, on the other +hand, if the Italian army failed in attaining its object, the failure- +owing to the bravery displayed both by the soldiers and by the generals- +was far from being a disastrous or irreparable one. The Italians fought +from three o'clock in the morning until nine in the evening like lions, +showing to their enemies and to Europe that they know how to defend their +country, and that they are worthy of the noble enterprise they have +undertaken. + +But let me now register one of the striking episodes of that memorable +day. It was five o'clock p.m. when General Bixio, whose division held +an elevated position not far from Villafranca, was attacked by three +strong Austrian brigades, which had debouched at the same time from three +different roads, supported with numerous artillery. An officer of the +Austrian staff, waving a white handkerchief, was seen galloping towards +the front of Bixio's position, and, once in the presence of this general, +bade him surrender. Those who are not personally acquainted with Bixio +cannot form an idea of the impression this bold demand must have made on +him. I have been told that, on hearing the word 'surrender,' his face +turned suddenly pale, then flushed like purple, and darting at the +Austrian messenger, said, 'Major, if you dare to pronounce once more the +word surrender in my presence, I tell you--and Bixio always keeps his +word--that I will have you shot at once.' The Austrian officer had +scarcely reached the general who had sent him, than Bixio, rapidly moving +his division, fell with such impetuosity on the Austrian column, which +were ascending the hill, that they were thrown pellmell in the valley, +causing the greatest confusion amongst their reserve. Bixio himself led +his men, and with his aides-de-camp, Cavaliere Filippo Fermi, Count +Martini, and Colonel Malenchini, all Tuscans, actually charged the enemy. +I have been told that, on hearing this episode, Garibaldi said, 'I am not +at all surprised, for Bixio is the best general I have made.' Once the +enemy was repulsed, Bixio was ordered to manoeuvre so as to cover the +backward movement of the army, which was orderly and slowly retiring on +the Mincio. Assisted by the co-operation of the heavy cavalry, commanded +by General Count de Sonnaz, Bixio covered the retreat, and during the +night occupied Goito, a position which he held till the evening of the +27th. + +In consequence of the concentrating movement of the Italian army which I +have mentioned at the beginning of this letter, the fourth army corps +(Cialdini's) still holds the line of the Po. If I am rightly informed, +the decree for the formation of the fourth army corps was signed by the +king yesterday. This corps is that of Garibaldi, and is about 40,000 +strong. An officer who has just returned from Milan told me this morning +that he had had an opportunity of speaking with the Austrian prisoners +sent from Milan to the fortress of Finestrelle in Piedmont. Amongst them +was an officer of a uhlan regiment, who had all the appearance of +belonging to some aristocratic family of Austrian Poland. Having been +asked if he thought Austria had really gained the battle on the 24th, he +answered: 'I do not know if the illusions of the Austrian army go so far +as to induce it to believe it has obtained a victory--I do not believe +it. He who loves Austria cannot, however, wish she should obtain such +victories, for they are the victories of Pyrrhus! + +There is at Verona some element in the Austrian councils of war which we +don't understand, but which gives to their operations in this present +phase of the campaign just as uncertain and as vacillating a character as +it possessed during the campaign of 1859. On Friday they are still +beyond the Mincio, and on Saturday their small fleet on the Lake of Garda +steams up to Desenzano, and opens fire against this defenceless city and +her railway station, whilst two battalions of Tyrolese sharp-shooters +occupy the building. On Sunday they retire, but early yesterday they +cross the Mincio, at Goito and Monzambano, and begin to throw two bridges +over the same river, between the last-named place and the mills of Volta. +At the same time they erect batteries at Goito, Torrione, and Valeggio, +pushing their reconnoitring parties of hussars as far as Medole, +Castiglione delle Stiviere, and Montechiara, this last-named place being +only at a distance of twenty miles from Brescia. Before this news +reached me here this morning I was rather inclined to believe that they +were playing at hide-and-seek, in the hope that the leaders of the +Italian army should be tempted by the game and repeat, for the second +time, the too hasty attack on the quadrilateral. This news, which I have +from a reliable source, has, however, changed my former opinion, and I +begin to believe that the Austrian Archduke has really made up his mind +to come out from the strongholds of the quadrilateral, and intends +actually to begin war on the very battlefields where his imperial cousin +was beaten on the 24th June 1859. It may be that the partial disasters +sustained by Benedek in Germany have determined the Austrian Government +to order a more active system of war against Italy, or, as is generally +believed here, that the organisation of the commissariat was not perfect +enough with the army Archduke Albert commands to afford a more active and +offensive action. Be that as it may, the fact is that the news received +here from several parts of Upper Lombardy seems to indicate, on the part +of the Austrians, the intention of attacking their adversaries. + +Yesterday whilst the peaceable village of Gazzoldo--five Italian miles +from Goito--was still buried in the silence of night it was occupied by +400 hussars, to the great consternation of the people who were roused +from their sleep by the galloping of their unexpected visitors. The +sindaco, or mayor of the village, who is the chemist of the place, was, +I hear, forcibly taken from his house and compelled to escort the +Austrians on the road leading to Piubega and Redondesco. This worthy +magistrate, who was not apparently endowed with sufficient courage to +make at least half a hero, was so much frightened that he was taken ill, +and still is in a very precarious condition. These inroads are not +always accomplished with impunity, for last night, not far from +Guidizzuolo, two squadrons of Italian light cavalry--Cavalleggieri di +Lucca, if I am rightly informed--at a sudden turn of the road leading +from the last-named village to Cerlongo, found themselves almost face to +face with four squadrons of uhlans. The Italians, without numbering +their foes, set spurs to their horses and fell like thunder on the +Austrians, who, after a fight which lasted more than half an hour, were +put to flight, leaving on the ground fifteen men hors de combat, besides +twelve prisoners. + +Whilst skirmishing of this kind is going on in the flat ground of +Lombardy which lies between the Mincio and the Chiese, a more decisive +action has been adopted by the Austrian corps which is quartered in the +Italian Tyrol and Valtellina. A few days ago it was generally believed +that the mission of this corps was only to oppose Garibaldi should he try +to force those Alpine passes. But now we suddenly hear that the +Austrians are already masters of Caffaro, Bagolino, Riccomassino, and +Turano, which points they are fortifying. This fact explains the last +movements made by Garibaldi towards that direction. But whilst the +Austrians are massing their troops on the Tyrolese Alps the revolution is +spreading fast in the more southern mountains of the Friuli and Cadorre, +thus threatening the flank and rear of their army in Venetia. This +revolutionary movement may not have as yet assumed great proportions, +but as it is the effect of a plan proposed beforehand it might become +really imposing, more so as the ranks of those Italian patriots are daily +swollen by numerous deserters and refractory men of the Venetian +regiments of the Austrian army. + +Although the main body of the Austrians seems to be still concentrated +between Peschiera and Verona, I should not wonder if they crossed the +Mincio either to-day or to-morrow, with the object of occupying the +heights of Volta, Cavriana, and Solferino, which, both by their position +and by the nature of the ground, are in themselves so many fortresses. +Supposing that the Italian army should decide for action--and there is +every reason to believe that such will be the case--it is not unlikely +that, as we had already a second battle at Custozza, we may have a second +one at Solferino. + +That at the Italian headquarters something has been decided upon which +may hasten the forward movement of the army, I infer from the fact that +the foreign military commissioners at the Italian headquarters, who, +after the 24th June had gone to pass the leisure of their camp life at +Cremona, have suddenly made their appearance at Torre Malamberti, a villa +belonging to the Marquis Araldi, where Lamarmora's staff is quartered. +A still more important event is the presence of Baron Ricasoli, whom I +met yesterday evening on coming here. The President of the Council was +coming from Florence, and, after stopping a few hours at the villa of +Cicognolo, where Victor Emmanuel and the royal household are staying, +he drove to Torre Malamberti to confer with General Lamarmora and Count +Pettiti. The presence of the baron at headquarters is too important an +incident to be overlooked by people whose business is that of watching +the course of events in this country. And it should be borne in mind +that on his way to headquarters Baron Ricasoli stopped a few hours at +Bologna, where he had a long interview with Cialdini. Nor is this all; +for the most important fact I have to report to-day is, that whilst I am +writing (five o'clock a.m.) three corps of the Italian army are crossing +the Oglio at different points--all three acting together and ready for +any occurrence. This reconnaissance en force may, as you see, be turned +into a regular battle should the Austrians have crossed the Mincio with +the main body of their army during the course of last night. You see +that the air around me smells enough of powder to justify the expectation +of events which are likely to exercise a great influence over the cause +of right and justice--the cause of Italy. + + + +MARCARIA, July 3, Evening. + +Murray's guide will save me the trouble of telling you what this little +and dirty hole of Marcaria is like. The river Oglio runs due south, not +far from the village, and cuts the road which from Bozzolo leads to +Mantua. It is about seven miles from Castellucchio, a town which, since +the peace of Villafranca, marked the Italian frontier in Lower Lombardy. +Towards this last-named place marched this morning the eleventh division +of the Italians under the command of General Angioletti, only a month ago +Minister of the Marine in Lamarmora's Cabinet. Angioletti's division of +the second corps was, in the case of an attack, to be supported by the +fourth and eighth, which had crossed the Oglio at Gazzuolo four hours +before the eleventh had started from the place from which I am now +writing. Two other divisions also moved in an oblique line from the +upper course of the above-mentioned river, crossed it on a pontoon +bridge, and were directed to maintain their communications with +Angioletti's on the left, whilst the eighth and fourth would have formed +its right. These five divisions were the avant garde of the main body of +the Italian army. I am not in a position to tell you the exact line the +army thus advancing from the Oglio has followed, but I have been told +that, in order to avoid the possibility of repeating the errors which +occurred in the action of the 24th, the three corps d'armee have been +directed to march in such a manner as to enable them to present a compact +mass should they meet the enemy. Contrary to all expectations, +Angioletti's division was allowed to enter and occupy Castellucchio +without firing a shot. As its vanguard reached the hamlet of Ospedaletto +it was informed that the Austrians had left Castellucchio during the +night, leaving a few hussars, who, in their turn, retired on Mantua as +soon as they saw the cavalry Angioletti had sent to reconnoitre both the +country and the borough of Castellucchio. + +News has just arrived here that General Angioletti has been able to push +his outposts as far as Rivolta on his left, and still farther forward on +his front towards Curtalone. Although the distance from Rivolta to Goito +is only five miles, Angioletti, I have been told, could not ascertain +whether the Austrians had crossed the Mincio in force. + +What part both Cialdini and Garibaldi will play in the great struggle +nobody can tell. It is certain, however, that these two popular leaders +will not be idle, and that a battle, if fought, will assume the +proportions of an almost unheard of slaughter. + + + +GENERAL HEADQUARTERS OF THE ITALIAN ARMY, +TORRE MALIMBERTI, July 7, 1866. + +Whilst the Austrian emperor throws himself at the feet of the ruler of +France--I was almost going to write the arbiter of Europe--Italy and its +brave army seem to reject disdainfully the idea of getting Venetia as a +gift of a neutral power. There cannot be any doubt as to the feeling in +existence since the announcement of the Austrian proposal by the Moniteur +being one of astonishment, and even indignation so far as Italy herself +is concerned. One hears nothing but expressions of this kind in whatever +Italian town he may be, and the Italian army is naturally anxious that +she should not be said to relinquish her task when Austrians speak of +having beaten her, without proving that she can beat them too. There are +high considerations of honour which no soldier or general would ever +think of putting aside for humanitarian or political reasons, and with +these considerations. the Italian army is fully in accord since the 24th +June. The way, too, in which the Kaiser chose to give up the long- +contested point, by ignoring Italy and recognising France as a party to +the Venetian question, created great indignation amongst the Italians, +whose papers declare, one and all, that a fresh insult has been offered +to the country. This is the state of public opinion here, and unless the +greatest advantages are obtained by a premature armistice and a hurried +treaty of peace, it is likely to continue the same, not to the entire +security of public order in Italy. As a matter of course, all eyes are +turned towards Villa Pallavicini, two miles from here, where the king is +to decide upon either accepting or rejecting the French emperor's advice, +both of which decisions are fraught with considerable difficulties and no +little danger. The king will have sought the advice of his ministers, +besides which that of Prussia will have been asked and probably given. +The matter may be decided one way or the other in a very short time, or +may linger on for days to give time for public anxiety and fears to be +allayed and to calm down. In the meantime, it looks as if the king and +his generals had made up their mind not to accept the gift. An attack on +the Borgoforte tete-de-pont on the right side of the Po, began on 5th at +half-past three in the morning, under the immediate direction of General +Cialdini. The attacking corps was the Duke of Mignano's. All the day +yesterday the gun was heard at Torre Malamberti, as it was also this +morning between ten and eleven o'clock. Borgoforte is a fortress on the +left side of the Po, throwing a bridge across this river, the right end +of which is headed by a strong tete-de-pont, the object of the present +attack. This work may be said to belong to the quadrilateral, as it is +only an advanced part of the fortress of Mantua, which, resting upon its +rear, is connected to Borgoforte by a military road supported on the +Mantua side by the Pietolo fortress. The distance between Mantua and +Borgoforte is only eleven kilometres. The fete-de-poet is thrown upon +the Po; its structure is of recent date, and it consists of a central +part and of two wings, called Rocchetta and Bocca di Ganda respectively. +The lock here existing is enclosed in the Rocchetta work. + +Since I wrote you my last letter Garibaldi has been obliged to desist +from the idea of getting possession of Bagolino, Sant' Antonio, and Monte +Suello, after a fight which lasted four hours, seeing that he had to deal +with an entire Austrian brigade, supported by uhlans, sharp-shooters +(almost a battalion) and twelve pieces of artillery. These positions +were subsequently abandoned by the enemy, and occupied by Garibaldi's +volunteers. In this affair the general received a slight wound in his +left leg, the nature of which, however, is so very trifling, that a few +days will be enough to enable him to resume active duties. It seems that +the arms of the Austrians proved to be much superior to those of the +Garibaldians, whose guns did very bad service. The loss of the latter +amounted to about 100 killed and 200 wounded, figures in which the +officers appear in great proportion, owing to their having been always at +the head of their men, fighting, charging, and encouraging their comrades +throughout. Captain Adjutant-Major Battino, formerly of the regular +army, died, struck by three bullets, while rushing on the Austrians with +the first regiment. On abandoning the Caffaro line, which they had +reoccupied after the Lodrone encounter--in consequence of which the +Garibaldians had to fall back because of the concentration following the +battle of Custozza--the Austrians have retired to the Lardara fortress, +between the Stabolfes and Tenara mountains, covering the route to Tione +and Trento, in the Italian Tyrol. The third regiment of volunteers +suffered most, as two of their companies had to bear the brunt of the +terrible Austrian fire kept up from formidable positions. Another fight +was taking place almost at the same time in the Val Camonico, i.e., north +of the Caffaro, and of Rocca d'Anfo, Garibaldi's point d'appui. This +encounter was sustained in the same proportions, the Italians losing one +of their bravest and best officers in the person of Major Castellini, +a Milanese, commander of the second battalion of Lombardian bersaglieri. +Although these and Major Caldesi's battalion had to fall back from Vezza, +a strong position was taken near Edalo, while in the rear a regiment kept +Breno safe. + +Although still at headquarters only two days ago, Baron Ricasoli has been +suddenly summoned by telegram from Florence, and, as I hear, has just +arrived. This is undoubtedly brought about by the new complications, +especially as, at a council of ministers presided over by the baron, a +vote, the nature of which is as yet unknown, was taken on the present +state of affairs. As you know very well in England, Italy has great +confidence in Ricasoli, whose conduct, always far from obsequious to the +French emperor, has pleased the nation. He is thought to be at this +moment the right man in the right place, and with the great acquaintance +he possesses of Italy and the Italians, and with the co-operation of such +an honest man as General Lamarmora, Italy may be pronounced safe, both +against friends and enemies. + +From what I saw this morning, coming back from the front, I presume that +something, and that something new perhaps, will be attempted to-morrow. +So far, the proposed armistice has had no effect upon the dispositions at +general headquarters, and did not stay the cannon's voice. In the middle +of rumours, of hopes and fears, Italy's wish to push on with the war has +as yet been adhered to by her trusted leaders. + + + + +HEADQUARTERS OF THE FIRST ARMY CORPS, +PIADENA, July 8, 1866. + +As I begin writing you, no doubt can be entertained that some movement is +not only in contemplation at headquarters, but is actually provided to +take place to-day, and that it will probably prove to be against the +Austrian positions at Borgoforte, on the left bank of the Po. Up to this +time the tete-de-pout on the right side of the river had only been +attacked by General the Duke of Mignano's guns. It would now, on the +contrary, be a matter of cutting the communications between Borgoforte +and Mantua, by occupying the lower part of the country around the latter +fortress, advancing upon the Valli Veronesi, and getting round the +quadrilateral into Venetia. While, then, waiting for further news to +tell us whether this plan has been carried into execution, and whether it +will be pursued, mindless of the existence of Mantua and Borgoforte on +its flanks, one great fact is already ascertained, that the armistice +proposed by the Emperor Napoleon has not been accepted, and that the war +is to be continued. The Austrians may shut themselves up in their +strongholds, or may even be so obliging as to leave the king the +uncontested possession of them by retreating in the same line as their +opponents advance; the pursuit, if not the struggle, the war, if not the +battle, will be carried on by the Italians. At Torre Malamberti, where +the general headquarters are, no end of general officers were to be seen +yesterday hurrying in all directions. I met the king, Generals Brignone, +Gavone, Valfre, and Menabrea within a few minutes of one another, and +Prince Amadeus, who has entirely recovered from his wound, had been +telegraphed for, and will arrive in Cremona to-day. No precise +information is to be obtained respecting the intentions of the Austrians, +but it is to be hoped for the Italian army, and for the credit of its +generals, that more will be known about them now than was known on the +eve of the famous 24th of June, and on its very morning. The heroism of +the Italians on that memorable day surpasses any possible idea that can +be formed, as it did also surpass all expectations of the country. Let +me relate you a few out of many heroic facts which only come to light +when an occasion is had of speaking with those who have been eyewitnesses +of them, as they are no object of magnified regimental--orders or, as +yet, of well-deserved honours. Italian soldiers seem to think that the +army only did its duty, and that, wherever Italians may fight, they will +always show equal valour and firmness. Captain Biraghi, of Milan, +belonging to the general staff, having in the midst of the battle +received an order from General Lamarmora for General Durando, was +proceeding with all possible speed towards the first army corps, which +was slowly retreating before the superior forces of the enemy and before +the greatly superior number of his guns, when, while under a perfect +shower of grape and canister, he was all of a sudden confronted by, an +Austrian officer of cavalry who had been lying in wait for the Italian +orderly. The Austrian fires his revolver at Biraghi; and wounds him in +the arm. Nothing daunted, Biraghi assails him and makes him turn tail; +then, following in pursuit, unsaddles him, but has his own horse shot +down under him. Biraghi disentangles himself, kills his antagonist, and +jumps upon the latter's horse. This, however, is thrown down also in a +moment by a cannon ball, so that the gallant captain has to go back on +foot, bleeding, and almost unable to walk. Talking of heroism, of +inimitable endurance, and strength of soul, what do you think of a man +who has his arm entirely carried away by a grenade, and yet keeps on his +horse, firm as a rock, and still directs his battery until hemorrhage-- +and hemorrhage alone--strikes him down at last, dead! Such was the case +with a Neapolitan--Major Abate, of the artillery--and his name is worth +the glory of a whole army, of a whole war; and may only find a fit +companion in that of an officer of the eighteenth battalion of +bersaglieri, who, dashing at an Austrian flag-bearer, wrenches the +standard out of his hands with his left one, has it clean cut away by an +Austrian officer standing near, and immediately grapples it with his +right, until his own soldiers carry him away with his trophy! Does not +this sound like Greek history repeated--does it not look as if the brave +men of old had been born again, and the old facts renewed to tell of +Italian heroism? Another bersagliere--a Tuscan, by name Orlandi Matteo, +belonging to that heroic fifth battalion which fought against entire +brigades, regiments, and battalions, losing 11 out of its 16 officers, +and about 300 out of its 600 men--Orlandi, was wounded already, when, +perceiving an Austrian flag, he makes a great effort, dashes at the +officer, kills him, takes the flag, and, almost dying, gives it over to +his lieutenant. He is now in a ward of the San Domenico Hospital in +Brescia, and all who have learnt of his bravery will earnestly hope that +he may survive to be pointed out as one of the many who covered +themselves with fame on that day. If it is sad to read of death +encountered in the field by so many a patriotic and brave soldiers, it is +sadder still to learn that not a few of them were barbarously killed by +the enemy, and killed, too, when they were harmless, for they lay wounded +on the ground. The Sicilian colonel, Stalella, a son-in-law of Senator +Castagnetto, and a courageous man amongst the most courageous of men; +was struck in the leg by a bullet, and thrown down from his horse while +exciting his men to repulse the Austrians, which in great masses were +pressing on his thinned column. Although retreating, the regiment sent +some of his men to take him away, but as soon as he had been put on a +stretcher [he] had to be put down, as ten or twelve uhlans were galloping +down, obliging the men to hide themselves in a bush. When the uhlans got +near the colonel, and when they had seen him lying down in agony, they +all planted their lances in his body. + +Is not this wanton cruelty--cruelty even unheard of cruelty that no +savage possesses? Still these are facts, and no one will ever dare to +deny them from Verona and Vienna, for they are known as much as it was +known and seen that the uhlans and many of the Austrian soldiers were +drunk when they began fighting, and that alighting from the trains they +were provided with their rations and with rum, and that they fought +without their haversacks. This is the truth, and nothing beyond it has +to the honour of the Italians been asserted, whether to the disgrace or +credit of their enemies; so that while denying that they ill-treat +Austrian prisoners, they are ready to state that theirs are well treated +in Verona, without thinking of slandering and calumniating as the Vienna +papers have done. + +This morning Prince Amadeus arrived in Cremona, where a most spontaneous +and hearty reception was given him by the population and the National +Guard. He proceeded at once by the shortest way to the headquarters, so +that his wish to be again at the front when something should be done has +been accomplished. This brave young man, and his worthy brother, Prince +Humbert, have won the applause of all Italy, which is justly proud of +counting her king and her princes amongst the foremost in the field. + +I have just learned from a most reliable source that the Austrians have +mined the bridge of Borghetto on the Mincio, so that, should it be blown +up, the only two, those of Goito and Borghetto, would be destroyed, and +the Italians obliged to make provisional ones instead. I also hear that +the Venetian towns are without any garrison, and that most probably all +the forces are massed on two lines, one from Peschiera to Custozza and +the other behind the Adige. + +You will probably know by this time that the garrison of Vienna had on +the 3rd been directed to Prague. The news we receive from Prussia is on +the whole encouraging, inasmuch as the greatly feared armistice has been +repulsed by King William. Some people here think that France will not be +too hard upon Italy for keeping her word with her ally, and that the +brunt of French anger or disapproval will have to be borne by Prussia. +This is the least she can expect, as you know! + +It is probable that by to-morrow I shall be able to write you more about +the Italo-Austrian war of 1866. + + + +GONZAGA, July 9, 1866. + +I write you from a villa, only a mile distant from Gonzaga, belonging to +the family of the Counts Arrivabene of Mantua. The owners have never +reentered it since 1848, and it is only the fortune of war which has +brought them to see their beautiful seat of the Aldegatta, never, it is +to be hoped for them, to be abandoned again. It is, as you see, 'Mutatum +ab illo.' Onward have gone, then, the exiled patriots! onward will go +the nation that owns them! The wish of every one who is compelled to +remain behind is that the army, that the volunteers, that the fleet, +should all cooperate, and that they should, one and all, land on Venetian +ground, to seek for a great battle, to give the army back the fame it +deserves, and to the country the honour it possesses. The king is called +upon to maintain the word nobly given to avenge Novara, and with it the +new Austrian insulting proposal. All, it is said, is ready. The army +has been said to be numerous; if to be numerous and brave, means to +deserve victory, let the Italian generals prove what Italian soldiers are +worthy of. If they will fight, the country will support them with the +boldest of resolutions--the country will accept a discussion whenever the +Government, having dispersed all fears, will proclaim that the war is to +be continued till victory is inscribed on Italy's shield. + +As I am not far from Borgoforte, I am able to learn more than the mere +cannon's voice can tell me, and so will give you some details of the +action against the tete-de-pont, which began, as I told you in one of my +former letters, on the 4th. In Gorgoforte there were about 1500 +Austrians, and, on the night from the 5th to the 6th, they kept up from +their four fortified works a sufficiently well-sustained fire, the object +of which was to prevent the enemy from posting his guns. This fire, +however, did not cause any damage, and the Italians were able to plant +their batteries. Early on the 6th, the firing began all along the line, +the Italian 16-pounders having been the first to open fire. The Italian +right was commanded by Colonel Mattei, the left by Colonel Bangoni, who +did excellent work, while the other wing was not so successful. The +heaviest guns had not yet arrived owing to one of those incidents always +sure to happen when least expected, so that the 40-pounders could not be +brought to bear against the forts until later in the day. The damage +done to the works was not great for the moment, but still the advantage +had been gained of feeling the strength of the enemy's positions and +finding the right way to attack them. The artillerymen worked with great +vigour, and were only obliged to desist by an unexpected order which +arrived about two p.m. from General Cialdini. The attack was, however, +resumed on the following day, and the condition of the Monteggiana and +Rochetta forts may be pronounced precarious. As a sign of the times, +and more especially of the just impatience which prevails in Italy about +the general direction of the army movements, it may not be without +importance to notice that the Italian press has begun to cry out against +the darkness in which everything is enveloped, while the time already +passed since the 24th June tells plainly of inaction. It is remarked +that the bitter gift made by Austria of the Venetian provinces, and the +suspicious offer of mediation by France, ought to have found Italy in +greatly different condition, both as regards her political and military +position. Italy is, on the contrary, in exactly the same state as when +the Archduke Albert telegraphed to Vienna that a great success had been +obtained over the Italian army. These are facts, and, however strong and +worthy of respect may be the reasons, there is no doubt that an +extraordinary delay in the resumption of hostilities has occurred, and +that at the present moment operations projected are perfectly mysterious. +Something is let out from time to time which only serves to make the +subsequent absence of news more and more puzzling. For the present the +first official relation of the unhappy fight of the 24th June is +published, and is accordingly anxiously scanned and closely studied. +It is a matter of general remark that no great military knowledge is +required to perceive that too great a reliance was placed upon supposed +facts, and that the indulgence of speculations and ideas caused the waste +of so much precious blood. The prudence characterising the subsequent +moves of the Austrians may have been caused by the effects of their +opponents' arrangements, but the Italian commanders ought to have avoided +the responsibility of giving the enemy the option to move. + +It is clear that to mend things the utterance of generous and patriotic +cries is not sufficient, and that it must be shown that the vigour of the +body is not at all surpassed by the vigour of the mind. It is also clear +that many lives might have been spared if there had been greater proofs +of intelligence on the part of those who directed the movement. + +The situation is still very serious. Such an armistice as General von +Gablenz could humiliate himself enough to ask from the Prussians has been +refused, but another which the Emperor of the French has advised them to +accept might ultimately become a fact. For Italy, the purely Venetian +question could then also be settled, while the Italian, the national +question, the question of right and honour which the army prizes so much, +would still remain to be solved. + + + +GONZAGA, July 12, 1866. + +Travelling is generally said to be troublesome, but travelling with and +through brigades, divisions, and army corps, I can certify to be more so +than is usually agreeable. It is not that Italian officers or Italian +soldiers are in any way disposed to throw obstacles in your way; but +they, unhappily for you, have with them the inevitable cars with the +inevitable carmen, both of which are enough to make your blood freeze, +though the barometer stands very high. What with their indolence, what +with their number and the dust they made, I really thought they would +drive me mad before I should reach Casalmaggiore on my way from Torre +Malamberti. I started from the former place at three a.m., with +beautiful weather, which, true to tradition, accompanied me all through +my journey. Passing through San Giovanni in Croce, to which the +headquarters of General Pianell had been transferred, I turned to the +right in the direction of the Po, and began to have an idea of the +wearisome sort of journey which I would have to make up to Casalmaggiore. +On both sides of the way some regiments belonging to the rear division +were still camped, and as I passed it was most interesting to see how +busy they were cooking their 'rancio,' polishing their arms, and making +the best of their time. The officers stood leisurely about gazing and +staring at me, supposing, as I thought, that I was travelling with some +part in the destiny of their country. Here and there some soldiers who +had just left the hospitals of Brescia and Milan made their way to their +corps and shook hands with their comrades, from whom only illness or the +fortune of war had made them part. They seemed glad to see their old +tent, their old drum, their old colour-sergeant, and also the flag they +had carried to the battle and had not at any price allowed to be taken. +I may state here, en passant, that as many as six flags were taken from +the enemy in the first part of the day of Custozza, and were subsequently +abandoned in the retreat, while of the Italians only one was lost to a +regiment for a few minutes, when it was quickly retaken. This fact ought +to be sufficient by itself to establish the bravery with which the +soldiers fought on the 24th, and the bravery with which they will fight +if, as they ardently wish; a new occasion is given to them. + +As long as I had only met troops, either marching or camping on the road, +all went well, but I soon found myself mixed with an interminable line of +cars and the like, forming the military and the civil train of the moving +army. Then it was that it needed as much patience to keep from jumping +out of one's carriage and from chastising the carrettieri, as they would +persist in not making room for one, and being as dumb to one's entreaties +as a stone. When you had finished with one you had to deal with another, +and you find them all as obstinate and as egotistical as they are from +one end of the world to the other, whether it be on the Casalmaggiore +road or in High Holborn. From time to time things seemed to proceed all +right, and you thought yourself free from further trouble, but you soon +found out your mistake, as an enormous ammunition car went smack into +your path, as one wheel got entangled with another, and as imperturbable +Signor Carrettiere evidently took delight at a fresh opportunity for +stoppage, inaction, indolence, and sleep. I soon came to the conclusion +that Italy would not be free when the Austrians had been driven away, for +that another and a more formidable foe--an enemy to society and comfort, +to men and horses, to mankind in general would have still to be beaten, +expelled, annihilated, in the shape of the carrettiere. If you employ +him, he robs you fifty times over; if you want him to drive quickly, he +is sure to keep the animal from going at all; if, worse than all, you +never think of him, or have just been plundered by him, he will not move +an inch to oblige you. Surely the cholera is not the only pestilence a +country may be visited with; and, should Cialdini ever go to Vienna, he +might revenge Novara and the Spielberg by taking with him the carrettieri +of the whole army. + +At last Casalmaggiore hove in sight, and, when good fortune and the +carmen permitted, I reached it. It was time! No iron-plated Jacob could +ever have resisted another two miles' journey in such company. At +Casalmaggiore I branched off. There were, happily, two roads, and not +the slightest reason or smallest argument were needed to make me choose +that which my cauchemar had not chosen. They were passing the river at +Casalmaggiore. I went, of course, for the same purpose, somewhere else. +Any place was good enough--so I thought, at least, then. New adventures, +new miseries awaited me--some carrettiere, or other, guessing that I was +no friend of his, nor of the whole set of them, had thrown the jattatura +on me. + +I alighted at the Colombina, after four hours' ride, to give the horses +time to rest a little. The Albergo della Colombina was a great +disappointment, for there was nothing there that could be eaten. +I decided upon waiting most patiently, but most unlike a few cavalry +officers, who, all covered with dust, and evidently as hungry and as +thirsty as they could be, began to swear to their hearts' content. In an +hour some eggs and some salame, a kind of sausage, were brought up, and +quickly disposed of. A young lieutenant of the thirtieth infantry +regiment of the Pisa brigade took his place opposite, and we were soon +engaged in conversation. He had been in the midst and worst part of the +battle of Custozza, and had escaped being taken prisoner by what seemed a +miracle. He told me how, when his regiment advanced on the Monte Croce +position, which he practically described to me as having the form of an +English pudding, they were fired upon by batteries both on their flanks +and front. The lieutenant added, however, rather contemptuously, that +they did not even bow before them, as the custom appears to be--that is, +to lie down, as the Austrians were firing very badly. The cross-fire +got, however, so tremendous that an order had to be given to keep down by +the road to avoid being annihilated. The assault was given, the whole +range of positions was taken, and kept too for hours, until the +infallible rule of three to one, backed by batteries, grape, and +canister, compelled them to retreat, which they did slowly and in order. +It was then that their brigade commander, Major General Rey de Villarey, +who, though a native of Mentone, had preferred remaining with his king +from going over to the French after the cession, turning to his son, who +was also his aide-de-camp, said in his dialect, 'Now, my son, we must die +both of us,' and with a touch of the spurs was soon in front of the line +and on the hill, where three bullets struck him almost at once dead. +The horse of his son falling while following, his life was spared. +My lieutenant at this moment was so overcome with hunger and fatigue that +he fell down, and was thought to be dead. He was not so, however, and +had enough life to hear, after the fight was over, the Austrian Jagers +pass by, and again retire to their original positions, where their +infantry was lying down, not dreaming for one moment of pursuing the +Italians. Four of his soldiers--all Neapolitans he heard coming in +search of him, while the bullets still hissed all round; and, as soon as +he made a sign to them, they approached, and took him on their shoulders +back to where was what remained of the regiment. It is highly creditable +to Italian unity to hear an old Piedmontese officer praise the levies of +the new provinces, and the lieutenant took delight in relating that +another Neapolitan was in the fight standing by him, and firing as fast +as he could, when a shell having burst near him, he disdainfully gave it +a look, and did not even seek to save himself from the jattatura. + +The gallant lieutenant had unfortunately to leave at last, and I was +deprived of many an interesting tale and of a brave man's company. I +started, therefore, for Viadana, where I purposed passing the Po, the +left bank of which the road was now following parallel with the stream. +At Viadana, however, I found no bridge, as the military had demolished +what existed only the day before, and so had to look out for in +formation. As I was going about under the porticoes which one meets in +almost all the villages in this neighbourhood, I was struck by the sight +of an ancient and beautiful piece of art--for so it was--a Venetian +mirror of Murano. It hung on the wall inside the village draper's shop, +and was readily shown me by the owner, who did not conceal the pride he +had in possessing it. It was one of those mirrors one rarely meets with +now, which were once so abundant in the old princes' castles and palaces. +It looked so deep and true, and the gilt frame was so light, and of such +a purity and elegance, that it needed all my resolution to keep from +buying it, though a bargain would not have been effected very easily. +The mirror, however, had to be abandoned, as Dosalo, the nearest point +for crossing the Po, was still seven miles distant. By this time the sun +was out in all its force, and the heat was by no means agreeable. Then +there was dust, too, as if the carrettieri had been passing in hundreds, +so that the heat was almost unbearable. At last the Dosalo ferry was +reached, the road leading to it was entered, and the carriage was, I +thought, to be at once embarked, when a drove of oxen were discovered to +have the precedence; and so I had to wait. This under such a sun, on a +shadeless beach, and with the prospect of having to stay there for two +hours at least, was by no means pleasant. It took three-quarters of an +hour to put the oxen in the boat, it took half an hour to get them on the +other shore, and another hour to have the ferry boat back. The panorama +from the beach was splendid, the Po appeared in all the mighty power of +his waters, and as you looked with the glass at oxen and trees on the +other shore, they appeared to be clothed in all the colours of the +rainbow, and as if belonging to another world. Several peasants were +waiting for the boat near me, talking about the war and the Austrians, +and swearing they would, if possible, annihilate some of the latter. I +gave them the glass to look with, and I imagined that they had never seen +one before, for they thought it highly wonderful to make out what the +time was at the Luzzara Tower, three miles in a straight line on the +other side. The revolver, too, was a subject of great admiration, and +they kept turning, feeling, and staring at it, as if they could not make +out which way the cartridges were put in. One of these peasants, +however, was doing the grand with the others, and once on the subject of +history related to all who would hear how he had been to St. Helena, +which was right in the middle of Moscow, where it was so very cold that +his nose had got to be as large as his head. The poor man was evidently +mixing one night's tale with that of the next one, a tale probably heard +from the old Sindaco, who is at the same time the schoolmaster, the +notary, and the highest municipal authority in the place. + +I started in the ferry boat with them at last. While crossing they got +to speak of the priests, and were all agreed, to put it in the mildest +way, in thinking extremely little of them, and only differed as to what +punishment they should like them to suffer. + +On the side where we landed lay heaps of ammunition casks for the corps +besieging Borgoforte. Others were conveyed upon cars by my friends the +carrettieri, of whom it was decreed I should not be quit for some time to +come. Entering Guastalla I found only a few artillery officers, +evidently in charge of what we had seen carried along the route. +Guastalla is a neat little town very proud of its statue of Duke Ferrante +Gonzaga, and the Croce Rossa is a neat little inn, which may be proud of +a smart young waiter, who actually discovered that, as I wanted to +proceed to Luzzara, a few miles on, I had better stop till next morning, +I did not take his advice, and was soon under the gate of Luzzara, a very +neat little place, once one of the many possessions where the Gonzagas +had a court, a palace, and a castle. The arms over the archway may still +be seen, and would not be worth any notice but for a remarkable work of +terracotta representing a crown of pines and pine leaves in a wonderful +state of preservation. The whole is so artistically arranged and so +natural, that one might believe it to be one of Luca della Robbia's +works. Luzzara has also a great tower, which I had seen in the distance +from Dosalo, and the only albergo in the place gives you an excellent +Italian dinner. The wine might please one of the greatest admirers of +sherry, and if you are not given feather beds, the beds are at least +clean like the rooms themselves. Here, as it was getting too dark, I +decided upon stopping, a decision which gave me occasion to see one of +the finest sunsets I ever saw. As I looked from the albergo I could see +a gradation of colours, from the purple red to the deepest of sea blue, +rising like an immense tent from the dark green of the trees and the +fields, here and there dotted with little white houses, with their red +roofs, while in front the Luzzara Tower rose majestically in the +twilight. As the hour got later the colours deepened, and the lower end +of the immense curtain gradually disappeared, while the stars and the +planets began shining high above. A peasant was singing in a field near +by, and the bells of a church were chiming in the distance. Both seemed +to harmonise wonderfully. It was a scene of great loveliness. + +At four a.m. I was up, and soon after on the road to Reggiolo, and then +to Gonzaga. Here the vegetation gets to be more luxuriant, and every +inch of ground contributes to the immense vastness of the whole. Nature +is here in full perfection, and as even the telegraphic wire hangs +leisurely down from tree to tree, instead of being stuck upon poles, you +feel that the romantic aspect of the place is too beautiful to be +encroached upon. All is peace, beauty, and happiness, all reveals to you +that you are in Italy. + +In Gonzaga, which only a few days ago belonged to the Austrians, the +Italian tricolour is out of every window. As the former masters retired +the new advanced; and when a detachment of Monferrato lancers entered the +old castle town the joy of the inhabitants seemed to be almost bordering +on delirium. The lancers soon left, however. The flag only remains. + + + +July 11. + +Cialdini began passing the Po on the 8th, and crossed at three points, +i.e., Carbonara, Carbonarola, and Follonica. Beginning at three o'clock +in the morning, he had finished crossing upon the two first pontoon +bridges towards midnight on the 9th. The bridge thrown up at Follonica +was still intact up to seven in the morning on the 10th, but the troops +and the military and the civil train that remained followed the Po +without crossing to Stellata, in the supposed direction of Ponte +Lagoscura. + +Yesterday guns were heard here at seven o'clock in the morning, and up to +eleven o'clock, in the direction of Legnano, towards, I think, the Adige. +The firing was lively, and of such a nature as to make one surmise that +battle had been given. Perhaps the Austrians have awaited Cialdini under +Legnano, or they have disputed the crossing of the Adige. Rovigo was +abandoned by the Austrians in the night of the 9th and 10th. They have +blown up the Rovigo and Boara fortresses, have destroyed the tete-de-pont +on the Adige, and burnt all bridges. They may now seek to keep by the +left side of this river up to Legnano, so as to get under the protection +of the quadrilateral, in which case, if Cialdini can cross the river in +time, the shock would be almost inevitable, and would be a reason for +yesterday's firing. They may also go by rail to Padua, when they would +have Cialdini between them and the quadrilateral. In any case, if this +general is quick, or if they are not too quick for him, according to +possible instructions, a collision is difficult to be avoided. + +Baron Ricasoli has left Florence for the camp, and all sorts of rumours +are afloat as to the present state of negotiations as they appear +unmistakably to exist. The opinions are, I think, divided in the high +councils of the Crown, and the country is still anxious to know the +result of this state of affairs. A splendid victory by Cialdini might at +this moment solve many a difficulty. As it is, the war is prosecuted +everywhere except by sea, for Garibaldi's forces are slowly advancing in +the Italian Tyrol, while the Austrians wait for them behind the walls of +Landaro and Ampola. The Garibaldians' advanced posts were, by the latest +news, near Darso. + +The news from Prussia is still contradictory; while the Italian press is +unanimous in asking with the country that Cialdini should advance, meet +the enemy, fight him, and rout him if possible. Italy's wishes are +entirely with him. + + + +NOALE, NEAR TREVISO, July 17, 1866. + +From Lusia I followed General Medici's division to Motta, where I left +it, not without regret, however, as better companions could not easily +be found, so kind were the officers and jovial the men. They are now +encamped around Padua, and will to-morrow march on Treviso, where the +Italian Light Horse have already arrived, if I judge so from their having +left Noale on the 15th. From the right I hear that the advanced posts +have proceeded as far as Mira on the Brenta, twenty kilometres from +Venice itself, and that the first army corps is to concentrate opposite +Chioggia. This corps has marched from Ferrara straight on to Rovigo, +which the forward movement of the fourth, or Cialdini's corps d'armee, +had left empty of soldiers. General Pianell has still charge of it, and +Major-General Cadalini, formerly at the head of the Siena brigade, +replaces him in the command of his former division. General Pianell has +under him the gallant Prince Amadeus, who has entirely recovered from his +chest wound, and of whom the brigade of Lombardian grenadiers is as proud +as ever. They could not wish for a more skilled commander, a better +superior officer, and a more valiant soldier. Thus the troops who fought +on the 24th June are kept in the second line, while the still fresh +divisions under Cialdini march first, as fast as they can. This, +however, is of no avail. The Italian outposts on the Piave have not yet +crossed it, for the reason that they must keep distances with their +regiments, but will do so as soon as these get nearer to the river. If +it was not that this is always done in regular warfare, they could beat +the country beyond the Piave for a good many miles without even seeing +the shadow of an Austrian. To the simple private, who does not know of +diplomatic imbroglios and of political considerations, this sudden +retreat means an almost as sudden retracing of steps, because he +remembers that this manoeuvre preceded both the attacks on Solferino and +on Custozza by the Austrians. To the officer, however, it means nothing +else than a fixed desire not to face the Italian army any more, and so it +is to him a source of disappointment and despondency. He cannot bear to +think that another battle is improbable, and may be excused if he is not +in the best of humour when on this subject. This is the case not only +with the officers but with the volunteers, who have left their homes and +the comfort of their domestic life, not to be paraded at reviews, but to +be sent against the enemy. There are hundreds of these in the regular +army-in the cavalry especially, and the Aosta Lancers and the regiment of +Guides are half composed of them. If you listen to them, there ought not +to be the slightest doubt or hesitation as to crossing the Isongo and +marching upon Vienna. May Heaven see their wishes accomplished, for, +unless crushed by sheer force, Italy is quite decided to carry war into +the enemy's country. + +The decisions of the French government are looked for here with great +anxiety, and not a few men are found who predict them to be unfavourable +to Italy. Still, it is hard for every one to believe that the French +emperor will carry things to extremities, and increase the many +difficulties Europe has already to contend with. + +To-day there was a rumour at the mess table that the Austrians had +abandoned Legnano, one of the four fortresses of the quadrilateral. I do +not put much faith in it at present, but it is not improbable, as we may +expect many strange things from the Vienna government. It would have +been much better for them, since Archduke Albert spoke in eulogistic +terms of the king, of his sons, and of his soldiers, while relating the +action of the 24th, to have treated with Italy direct, thus securing +peace, and perhaps friendship, from her. But the men who have ruled so +despotically for years over Italian subjects cannot reconcile themselves +to the idea that Italy has at last risen to be a nation, and they even +take slyly an opportunity to throw new insult into her face. You can +easily see that the old spirit is still struggling for empire; that the +old contempt is still trying to make light of Italians; and that the old +Metternich ideas are still fondly clung to. Does not this deserve +another lesson? Does not this need another Sadowa to quiet down for +ever? Yes; and it devolves upon Italy to do it. If so, let only +Cialdini's army alone, and the day may be nigh at hand when the king may +tell the country that the task has been accomplished. + +A talk on the present state of political affairs, and on the peculiar +position of Italy, is the only subject worth notice in a letter from the +camp. Everything else is at a standstill, and the movements of the fine +army Cialdini now disposes of, about 150,000 men, are no longer full of +interest. They may, perhaps, have some as regards an attack on Venice, +because Austrian soldiers are still garrisoning it, and will be obliged +to fight if they are assailed. It is hoped, if such is the case, that +the beautiful queen of the Adriatic will be spared a scene of +devastation, and that no new Haynau will be found to renew the deeds of +Brescia and Vicenza. + +The king has not yet arrived, and it seems probable he will not come for +some time, until indeed the day comes for Italian troops to make their +triumphal entry into the city of the Doges. + +The heat continues intense, and this explains the slowness in advancing. +As yet no sickness has appeared, and it must be hoped that the troops +will be healthy, as sickness tries the morale much more than half-a-dozen +Custozzas. + +P.S.--I had finished writing when an officer came rushing into the inn +where I am staying and told me that he had just heard that an Italian +patrol had met an Austrian one on the road out of the village, and routed +it. This may or may not be true, but it was must curious to see how +delighted every one was at the idea that they had found 'them' at last. +They did not care much about the result of the engagement, which, as I +said, was reported to have been favourable. All that they cared about +was that they were close to the enemy. One cannot despair of an army +which is animated with such spirits. You would think, from the joy which +brightens the face of the soldiers you meet now about, that a victory had +been announced for the Italian arms. + + + +DOLO, NEAR VENICE, July 20, 1866. + +I returned from Noale to Padua last evening, and late in the night I +received the intimation at my quarters that cannon was heard in the +direction of Venice. It was then black as in Dante's hell, and raining +and blowing with violence--one of those Italian storms which seem to +awake all the earthly and heavenly elements of creation. There was no +choice for it but to take to the saddle, and try to make for the front. +No one who has not tried it can fancy what work it is to find one's way +along a road on which a whole corps d'amee is marching with an enormous +materiel of war in a pitch dark night. This, however, is what your +special correspondent was obliged to do. Fortunately enough, I had +scarcely proceeded as far as Ponte di Brenta when I fell in with an +officer of Cialdini's staff, who was bound to the same destination, +namely, Dolo. As we proceeded along the road under a continuous shower +of rain, our eyes now and then dazzled by the bright serpent-like flashes +of the lightning, we fell in with some battalion or squadron, which +advanced carefully, as it was impossible for them as well as for us to +discriminate between the road and the ditches which flank it, for all the +landmarks, so familiar to our guides in the daytime, were in one dead +level of blackness. So it was that my companion and myself, after +stumbling into ditches and out of them, after knocking our horses' heads +against an ammunition car, or a party of soldiers sheltered under some +big tree, found ourselves, after three hours' ride, in this village of +Dolo. By this time the storm had greatly abated in its violence, and the +thunder was but faintly heard now and then at such a distance as to +enable us distinctly to hear the roar of the guns. Our horses could +scarcely get through the sticky black mud, into which the white +suffocating dust of the previous days had been turned by one night's +rain. We, however, made our way to the parsonage of the village, for we +had already made up our minds to ascend the steeple of the church to get +a view of the surrounding country and a better hearing of the guns if +possible. After a few words exchanged with the sexton--a staunch +Italian, as he told us he was--we went up the ladder of the church spire. +Once on the wooden platform, we could hear more distinctly the boom of +the guns, which sounded like the broadsides of a big vessel. Were they +the guns of Persano's long inactive fleet attacking some of Brondolo's or +Chioggia's advanced forts? Were the guns those of some Austrian man-of- +war which had engaged an Italian ironclad; or were they the +'Affondatore,' which left the Thames only a month ago, pitching into +Trieste? To tell the truth, although we patiently waited two long hours +on Dolo church spire, when both I and my companion descended we were not +in a position to solve either of these problems. We, however, thought +then, and still think, they were the guns of the Italian fleet which had +attacked an Austrian fort. + + + +CIVITA VECCHIA, July 22, 1866. + +Since the departure from this port of the old hospital ship 'Gregeois' +about a year ago, no French ship of war had been stationed at Civita +Vecchia; but on Wednesday morning the steam-sloop 'Catinat,' 180 men, +cast anchor in the harbour, and the commandant immediately on +disembarking took the train for Rome and placed himself in communication +with the French ambassador. I am not aware whether the Pontifical +government had applied for this vessel, or whether the sending it was a +spontaneous attention on the part of the French emperor, but, at any +rate, its arrival has proved a source of pleasure to His Holiness, as +there is no knowing what may happen In troublous times like the present, +and it is always good to have a retreat insured. + +Yesterday it was notified in this port, as well as at Naples, that +arrivals from Marseilles would be, until further notice, subjected to a +quarantine of fifteen days in consequence of cholera having made its +appearance at the latter place. A sailing vessel which arrived from +Marseilles in the course of the day had to disembark the merchandise it +brought for Civita Vecchia into barges off the lazaretto, where the +yellow flag was hoisted over them. This vessel left Marseilles five days +before the announcement of the quarantine, while the 'Prince Napoleon' of +Valery's Company, passenger and merchandise steamer, which left +Marseilles only one day before its announcement, was admitted this +morning to free pratique. Few travellers will come here by sea now. + + + +MARSEILLES, July 24. + +Accustomed as we have been of late in Italy to almost hourly bulletins of +the progress of hostilities, it is a trying condition to be suddenly +debarred of all intelligence by finding oneself on board a steamer for +thirty-six hours without touching at any port, as was my case in coming +here from Civita Vecchia on board the 'Prince Napoleon.' But, although +telegrams were wanting, discussions on the course of events were rife on +board among the passengers who had embarked at Naples and Civita Vecchia, +comprising a strong batch of French and Belgian priests returning from a +pilgrimage to Rome, well supplied with rosaries and chaplets blessed by +the Pope and facsimiles of the chains of St. Peter. Not much sympathy +for the Italian cause was shown by these gentlemen or the few French and +German travellers who, with three or four Neapolitans, formed the +quarterdeck society; and our Corsican captain took no pains to hide his +contempt at the dilatory proceedings of the Italian fleet at Ancona. We +know that the Prussian minister, M. d'Usedom, has been recently making +strenuous remonstrances at Ferrara against the slowness with which the +Italian naval and military forces were proceeding, while their allies, +the Prussians, were already near the gates of Vienna; and the +conversation of a Prussian gentleman on board our steamer, who was +connected with that embassy, plainly indicated the disappointment felt +at Berlin at the rather inefficacious nature of the diversion made in +Venetia, and on the coast of Istria by the army and navy of Victor +Emmanuel. He even attributed to his minister an expression not very +flattering either to the future prospects of Italy as resulting from her +alliance with Prussia, or to the fidelity of the latter in carrying out +the terms of it. I do not know whether this gentleman intended his +anecdote to be taken cum grano salis, but I certainly understood him to +say that he had deplored to the minister the want of vigour and the +absence of success accompanying the operations of the Italian allies of +Prussia, when His Excellency replied: 'C'est bien vrai. Ils nous ont +tromps; mais que voulez-vous y faire maintenant? Nous aurons le temps de +les faire egorger apres.' + +It is difficult to suppose that there should exist a preconceived +intention on the part of Prussia to repay the sacrifices hitherto made, +although without a very brilliant accompaniment of success, by the +Italian government in support of the alliance, by making her own separate +terms with Austria and leaving Italy subsequently exposed to the +vengeance of the latter, but such would certainly be the inference to be +drawn from the conversation just quoted. + +It was only on arriving in the port of Marseilles, however, that the full +enmity of most of my travelling companions towards Italy and the Italians +was manifested. A sailor, the first man who came on board before we +disembarked, was immediately pounced upon for news, and he gave it as +indeed nothing less than the destruction, more or less complete, of the +Italian fleet by that of the Austrians. At this astounding intelligence +the Prussian burst into a yell of indignation. 'Fools! blockheads! +miserables! Beaten at sea by an inferior force! Is that the way they +mean to reconquer Venice by dint of arms? If ever they do regain Venetia +it will be through the blood of our Brandenburghers and Pomeranians, and +not their own.' During this tirade a little old Belgian in black, with +the chain of St. Peter at his buttonhole by way of watchguard, capered +off to communicate the grateful news to a group of his ecclesiastical +fellow-travellers, shrieking out in ecstasy: + +'Rosses, Messieurs! Ces blagueurs d'Italiens ont ete rosses par mer, +comme ils avaient ete rosses par terre.' Whereupon the reverend +gentlemen congratulated each other with nods, and winks, and smiles, +and sundry fervent squeezes of the hand. The same demonstrations would +doubtless have been made by the Neapolitan passengers had they belonged +to the Bourbonic faction, but they happened to be honest traders with +cases of coral and lava for the Paris market, and therefore they merely +stood silent and aghast at the fatal news, with their eyes and mouths as +wide open as possible. I had no sooner got to my hotel than I inquired +for the latest Paris journal, when the France was handed me, and I +obtained confirmation in a certain degree of the disaster to the Italian +fleet narrated by the sailor, although not quite in the same formidable +proportions. + +Before quitting the subject of my fellow-passengers on board the 'Prince +Napoleon' I must mention an anecdote related to me, respecting the state +of brigandage, by a Russian or German gentleman, who told me he was +established at Naples. He was complaining of the dangers he had +occasionally encountered in crossing in a diligence from Naples to Foggia +on business; and then, speaking of the audacity of brigands in general, +he told me that last year he saw with his own eyes; in broad daylight, +two brigands walking about the streets of Naples with messages from +captured individuals to their relations, mentioning the sums which had +been demanded for their ransoms. They were unarmed, and in the common +peasants' dresses, and whenever they arrived at one of the houses to +which they were addressed for this purpose, they stopped and opened a +handkerchief which one of them carried in his hand, and took out an ear, +examining whether the ticket on it corresponded with the address of the +house or the name of the resident. There were six ears, all ticketed +with the names of the original owners in the handkerchief, which were +gradually dispensed to their families in Naples to stimulate: prompt +payment of the required ransoms. On my inquiring how it was that the +police took no notice of such barefaced operations, my informant told me +that, previous to the arrival of these brigand emissaries in town, the +chief always wrote to the police authorities warning them against +interfering with them, as the messengers were always followed by spies +in plain clothes belonging to the band who would immediately report any +molestation they might encounter in the discharge of their delicate +mission, and the infallible result of such molestation would be first +the putting to death of all the hostages held for ransom; and next, +the summary execution of several members of gendarmery and police force +captured in various skirmishes by the brigands, and held as prisoners of +war. + +Such audacity would seem incredible if we had not heard and read of so +many similar instances of late. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A very doubtful benefit +Americans forgivingly remember, without mentioning +As becomes them, they do not look ahead +Charges of cynicism are common against all satirists +Fourth of the Georges +Here and there a plain good soul to whom he was affectionate +Holy images, and other miraculous objects are sold +It is well to learn manners without having them imposed on us +Men overweeningly in love with their creations +Must be the moralist in the satirist if satire is to strike +Not a page of his books reveals malevolence or a sneer +Petty concessions are signs of weakness to the unsatisfied +Statesman who stooped to conquer fact through fiction +The social world he looked at did not show him heroes +The exhaustion ensuing we named tranquillity +Utterance of generous and patriotic cries is not sufficient +We trust them or we crush them +We grew accustomed to periods of Irish fever + + +[The End] + + + + +********************************************************************** +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Miscellaneous Prose, by George Meredith +*********This file should be named gn04v10.txt or gn04v10.zip********* + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, gn04v11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, gn04v10a.txt + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + +More information about this book is at the top of this file. + +We are now trying to release all our etexts one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. 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