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 giv