sent an
envoy to summon the French commanding officer to surrender. When the
bandage was taken from his eyes, he was abashed to find himself in the
presence of Bonaparte, surrounded by the generals of his staff. The
young commander's eyes flashed fire at the seeming insult, and in
tones vibrating with well-simulated passion he threatened the envoy
with condign punishment for daring to give such a message to the
commander-in-chief at his headquarters in the midst of his army. Let
him and his men forthwith lay down their arms. Dazed by the demand,
and seeing only the victorious chief and not the smallness of his
detachment, 4,000 Austrians surrendered to 1,200 French, or rather to
the address and audacity of one master-mind.

Elated by this augury of further victory, the republicans prepared for
the decisive blow. Wuermser, though checked on August 3rd, had been so
far reinforced from Mantua as still to indulge hopes of driving the
French from Castiglione and cutting his way through to rescue
Quosdanovich. He was, indeed, in honour bound to make the attempt; for
the engagement had been made, with the usual futility that dogged the
Austrian councils, to reunite their forces and _fight the French on
the 7th of August_. These cast-iron plans were now adhered to in spite
of their dislocation at the hands of Bonaparte and Augereau. Wuermser's
line stretched from near the village of Medole in a north-easterly
direction across the high-road between Brescia and Mantua; while his
right wing was posted in the hilly country around Solferino. In fact,
his extreme right rested on the tower-crowned heights of Solferino,
where the forces of Austria two generations later maintained so
desperate a defence against the onset of Napoleon III. and his
liberating army.

Owing to the non-arrival of Mezaros' corps marching from Legnago,
Wuermser mustered scarcely twenty-five thousand men on his long line;
while the very opportune approach of part of Serurier's division,
under the lead of Fiorella, from the south, gave the French an
advantage even in numbers. Moreover, Fiorella's advance on the south
of Wuermser's weaker flank, that near Medole, threatened to turn it and
endanger the Austrian communications with Mantua. The Imperialists
seem to have been unaware of this danger; and their bad scouting here
as elsewhere was largely responsible for the issue of the day.
Wuermser's desire to stretch a helping hand to Quosdanovich near Lonato
and