not a few humbler individuals whose history is faithfully
told (if you choose to credit it) by the painted inscriptions
below. There is even a convict, who, at the
moment of being hanged, implored succour of the all-powerful
Madonna, whereupon the beam of the gibbet instantly
broke, and the worthy individual was restored to society—a
very doubtful benefit after all. On Colonel Bariola
and the Duke of Sant’ Arpino arriving at this
place, which is only five miles distant from Mantua,
their carriage was naturally stopped by the commissaire
of the Austrian police, whose duty was to watch the
frontier. Having told him that they had a despatch
to deliver either to the military governor of Mantua
or to some officer sent by him to receive it, the
commissaire at once despatched a mounted gendarme
to Mantua. Two hours had scarcely elapsed when
a carriage drove into the village of Le Grazie, from
which an Austrian major of infantry alighted and hastened
to a wooden hut where the two Italian officers were
waiting. Colonel Bariola, who was trained in
the Austrian military school of Viller Nashstad, and
regularly left the Austrian service in 1848, acquainted
the newly-arrived major with his mission, which was
that of delivering the sealed despatch to the general
in command of Mantua and receiving for it a regular
receipt. The despatch was addressed to the Archduke
Albert, commander-in-chief of the Austrian army of
the South, care of the governor of Mantua. After
the major had delivered the receipt, the three messengers
entered into a courteous conversation, during which
Colonel Bariola seized an opportunity of presenting
the duke, purposely laying stress on the fact of his
belonging to one of the most illustrious families
of Naples. It happened that the Austrian major
had also been trained in the same school where Colonel
Bariola was brought up—a circumstance of
which he was reminded by the Austrian officer himself.
Three hours had scarcely elapsed from the arrival
of the two Italian messengers of war at Le Grazie,
on the Austrian frontier, when they were already on
their way back to the headquarters of Cremona, where
during the night the rumour was current that a telegram
had been received by Lamarmora from Verona, in which
Archduke Albert accepted the challenge. Victor
Emmanuel, whom I saw at Bologna yesterday, arrived
at Cremona in the morning at two o’clock, but
by this time his Majesty’s headquarters must
have removed more towards the front, in the direction
of the Oglio. I should not be at all surprised
were the Italian headquarters to be established by
to-morrow either at Piubega or Gazzoldo, if not actually
at Goito, a village, as you know, which marks the
Italian-Austrian frontier on the Mincio. The
whole of the first, second, and third Italian corps
d’armee are by this time concentrated within
that comparatively narrow space which lies between
the position of Castiglione, Delle Stiviere, Lorrato,
and Desenzano, on the Lake of Garda, and Solferino