Baron von Kellersperg reached Turin on the 23rd of April, bringing with him the Austrian ultimatum:  ’Disarmament within three days, or war.’  Cavour read the document, and then drew his watch out of his pocket.  It was half-past five in the afternoon.  At the same hour on the 26th, he gave Baron von Kellersperg the answer:  ’Sardinia having accepted the principle of a general disarmament, as formulated by England, with the adhesion of France, Prussia and Russia, the Sardinian Government has no other explanation to make.’  The retort was justified.  Austria, which now required Sardinia to disarm, had refused to disarm herself.  She must take the consequences.

The British Government made a last desperate effort to maintain peace, and the Austrians always said that this was their ruin, as it delayed the invasion of Piedmont for a week.  On the 29th appeared the Emperor Francis Joseph’s Declaration of War, and on the same day the first Austrian columns crossed the Ticino.  The Austrian commander-in-chief was Count Gyulai, who was in high favour with the aristocratic party, by which his appointment was suggested to, if not forced upon, the Emperor.  The latter, not altogether easy in his mind about Gyulai’s capabilities, commissioned General Hess, in whom he placed full confidence, to keep his eye on him.  Hess could not, however, do much more than take notes of one of the most remarkable and providential series of blunders ever committed by the commander of an army.

In spite of the delay which the Austrians ascribed to the English peace negotiations, there was time for them to destroy the Sardinian army before the French came up.  Gyulai had 100,000 men in the theatre of war, a number increased up to 200,000 during the campaign.  Both Sardinia and her ally mustered much fewer men than were spoken of at Plombieres.  The Piedmontese could dispose of 56,000 infantry, formed in five divisions, one division of cavalry numbering 4,000, and one brigade of volunteers, to which the name was given of ’Cacciatori delle Alpi.’  The enrolment of these was stopped when it had reached the small figure of 4,500 men, a figure that looks out of all proportion with the brilliant part they played.  The same influences which cut short the enrolment prevented Cavour from keeping his distinct promise to give Garibaldi, now invested with the official rank of major-general, 10,000 regulars, with a battery and a troop of horse.

The French army consisted of 128,000 men, including about 10,000 cavalry.  The Emperor’s Government had notified beforehand to Vienna that the passage of the Ticino by the Austrian troops would be considered equivalent to a declaration of war, and accordingly, on the 29th of April, diplomatic relations between the two Powers were broken off.  The French forces had been really on the move for more than a week—­ever since, in fact, by what the Marquis of Normanby called ’an unpardonable breach of confidence,’ the intention of Austria to invade Sardinia was communicated