ummoned
Piedmont to disband such of her regiments as were composed of Lombards and
Venetians, who were Austrian subjects. As this was refused, he declared
war. He fell into a second error. He assumed the offensive tardily, and
did not push forward rapidly to the point where the French army must
concentrate, before its concentration could be accomplished. He made a
third and more serious mistake, which proved ruinous. He withdrew from the
war after his first defeats when his army was beat, indeed, but neither
broken nor disorganized, when he still held the unconquered quadrilateral,
and when Prussia and Germany were arming to support him. In 1866 he was
equally imprudent in the war against Prussia, when a continuation of the
contest would have obliged France, whether willingly or otherwise, to
intervene, and would probably have saved both Austria and France.

Meanwhile, Napoleon felt that it was necessary to reassure the Catholics
of France. "We do not go to Italy," said he, boldly, but untruly, in his
proclamation of 3rd May, "in order to encourage disorder, nor to shake the
power of the Holy Father, whom we have replaced on his throne, but in
order to liberate him from the foreign pressure which weighs upon the
whole peninsula, and assist in founding order on legitimate interests that
will be satisfied." M. Rouland, the Minister of Public Worship, wrote to
the bishops, in order to inspire them with confidence as to the
consequences of the contest. "The Emperor," he said, hypocritically, "has
weighed the matter in the presence of God, and his well-known wisdom,
energy and loyalty will not be wanting, either to religion or the country.
The prince who has given to religion so many proofs of deference and
attachment, who, after the evil days of 1848, brought back the Holy Father
to the Vatican, is the firmest support of Catholic unity, and he desires
that the Chief of the Church shall be respected in all his rights as a
temporal sovereign. The prince, who saved France from the invasion of the
democracy, cannot accept either its doctrines or its domination in Italy."
These declarations, which promised so much, were joyfully accepted by the
Catholics. Events, however, soon made it appear how hollow they were. The
grand conspiracy, whilst it amused the friends of order and legality with
fine words and lying protestations, acted in such a way as to favor the
revolution and meet all its wishes. On the 27th of April, the Grand Duk