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
not as yet been published by the newspapers, and it