The frontier which separates the two dominions is
now the same as it was on the eve of the declaration
of war. At Goito, at Monzambano, and in the other
villages of the extreme frontier, the Italian authorities
are still discharging their duties. Nothing is
changed in those places, were we to except that now
and then an Austrian cavalry party suddenly makes
its appearance, with the only object of watching the
movements of the Italian army. One of these
parties, formed by four squadrons of the Wurtemberg
hussar regiment, having advanced at six o’clock
this morning on the right bank of the Mincio, met
the fourth squadron of the Italian lancers of Foggia
and were beaten back, and compelled to retire in disorder
towards Goito and Rivolta. In this unequal encounter
the Italian lancers distinguished themselves very
much, made some Austrian hussars prisoners, and killed
a few more, amongst whom was an officer. The
same state of thing, prevails at Rivottella, a small
village on the shores of the Lake of Garda, about
four miles distant from the most advanced fortifications
of Peschiera. There, as elsewhere, some Austrian
parties advanced with the object of watching the movements
of the Garibaldians, who occupy the hilly ground,
which from Castiglione, Eseuta, and Cartel Venzago
stretches to Lonato, Salo, and Desenzano, and to the
mountain passes of Caffaro. In the last-named
place the Garibaldians came to blows with the Austrians
on the morning of the 28th, and the former got the
best of the fray. Had the fait d’armes
of the 24th, or the battle of Custozza, as Archduke
Albrecht calls it, been a great victory for the Austrians,
why should the imperial army remain in such inaction?
The only conclusion we must come to is simply this,
that the Austrian losses have been such as to induce
the commander-in-chief of the army to act prudently
on the defensive. We are now informed that the
charges of cavalry which the Austrian lancers and
the Hungarian hussars had to sustain near Villafranca
on the 24th with the Italian horsemen of the Aorta
and Alessandria regiments have been so fatal to the
former that a whole division of the Kaiser cavalry
must be reorganised before it can be brought into
the field main.
The regiment of Haller hussars and two of volunteer
uhlans were almost destroyed in that terrible charge.
To give you an idea of this cavalry encounter, it
is sufficient to say that Colonel Vandoni, at the head
of the Aorta regiment he commands, charged fourteen
times during the short period of four hours.
The volunteer uhlans of the Kaiser regiment had already
given up the idea of breaking through the square formed
by the battalion, in the centre of which stood Prince
Humbert of Savoy, when they were suddenly charged
and literally cut to pieces by the Alessandria light
cavalry, in spite of the long lances they carried.
This weapon and the loose uniform they wear makes
them resemble the Cossacks of the Don. There
is one circumstance, which, if I am not mistaken, has