to Paris.  The mobilisation was conducted with rapidity; in spite of the snow, which lay deep on the Mont Cenis, the first corps, under Marshal Baraguay d’Hilliers, made a swift march over the Alps, and the foremost division entered Turin on the 30th of April.  The troops of Canrobert and Niel, who commanded the third and fourth corps, were sent by Toulon and Marseilles, while the generals themselves went on to Turin in advance.  MacMahon’s corps, which was the second, was on its way from Algiers.  The fifth corps, under the command of Prince Napoleon, was despatched at a later date to Tuscany, where it was kept in a state of inactivity, which suggested rather a political than a military mission.  General Regnault de Saint-Jean d’Angely commanded the Imperial Guard.  Napoleon III assumed the supreme command of the allied armies, with General Vaillant as head of the staff.

The condition of neither French nor Austrian army was satisfactory.  The former had more modern arms and a greater proportion of old soldiers, but it was generally thought that the French cavalry, so far superior to the Prussian in the war of 1870, was inferior to the Austrian in 1859.  The commissariat and ambulance arrangements of the French were disgraceful, though they had this advantage, that when there was food to be had the soldiers were allowed to eat it, while the Austrians were limited to half-a-pound of beef a day, and were only allowed to cook once in the twenty-four hours, which led to their having constantly to fight fasting.  In point of discipline, they were probably superior to the French, who fought, however, and this should always be remembered of them in Italy, with the best will in the world.  They carried about their pet monkeys and dogs, and were always good-humoured and in good spirits, even when wounded.  What would have been the effect on them of even a single defeat is a question which it is useless to discuss.

In Napoleon’s proclamation to the French people it was stated that the scope of the war was to give Italy to herself, not to make her change masters; the recompense of France would be to have upon her frontiers a friendly people which owed its independence to her.  As things stood there were but two alternatives:  Austria supreme as far as the Alps, or Italy free to the Adriatic.  On the 12th of May, the Imperial yacht, the Reine Hortense, steamed into the harbour of Genoa with the Emperor on board.  A splendid reception awaited him, and amongst the first to greet him was Cavour.  ‘You may well rejoice,’ said Napoleon, as he embraced the Sardinian statesman, ’for your plans are being realised.’