On Wednesday, the 6th of June, the French army was spread out in battle array along the left bank of the Mincio, and everything led to the supposition that a new and immediate battle was in contemplation.  The Piedmontese were engaged in making preparations to invest Peschiera.  Napoleon’s headquarters were at Valleggio, those of the King at Monzambano.  By the evening a very few persons had picked up the information that Napoleon had sent a messenger to Verona.  Victor Emmanuel knew nothing of it, nor did any of the French generals except Marshal Vaillant, but such things leak out, and two or three individuals were aware of the journey to Verona, and spent that night in racking their brains as to what it might mean.  Next day at eleven o’clock General Fleury returned; the Austrian Emperor had accepted the armistice.  Further secrecy was impossible, and like lightning the news flashed through the world.

Cavour rushed from Turin to Desenzano, where he arrived the day before the final meeting between Napoleon and Francis Joseph.  He waited for a carnage in the little cafe in the piazza; no one guessed who it was, and conversation went on undisturbed:  it was full of curses on the French Emperor.  Mazzini, someone said, was right; this is the way the war was sure to end.  When a shabby conveyance had at length been found, the great statesman drove to Monzambano.  There, of course, his arrival did not escape notice, and all who saw him were horrified by the change that had come over his face.  Instead of the jovial, witty smile, there was a look of frantic rage and desperation.  What passed between him and his Sovereign is partly a matter of conjecture; the exact sense of the violent words into which his grief betrayed him is lost, in spite of the categorical versions of the interview which have been printed.  Even in a fit of madness he can hardly have spoken some of the words attributed to him.  That he advised the King to withdraw his army or to abdicate rather than agree to the peace which was being plotted behind his back, seems past doubting.  It is said that after attempting in vain to calm him, Victor Emmanuel brought the interview to a sudden close.  Cavour came out of the house flushed and exhausted, and drove back to Desenzano.  He had resigned office.

The King showed extraordinary self-control.  Bitter as the draught was, he saw that it must be drunk, and he was determined to drink it with dignity.  Probably no other Italian grasped as clearly as he did the real reason which actuated Napoleon; at any rate his chivalrous appreciation of the benefits already received, closed his lips to reproaches.  ‘Whatever may be the decision of your Majesty,’ he said to the Emperor on the eve of Villafranca, ’I shall feel an eternal gratitude for what you have done for the independence of Italy, and I beg you to believe that under all circumstances you may reckon on my complete fidelity.’