CHAPTER LI.

THE BATTLE OF CUSTOZZA.

THIS entirely military chapter contains but few police tricks, and should not be written by an agent who is only at home amidst plots, conspiracies, tricks, deceit, and so forth. Nevertheless, while finishing the account of the last months spent in the service of His Imperial Majesty Francis Joseph, I cannot do otherwise than speak of the battle of Custozza, my departure from Venice, and the arrival of the French and Piedmontese Commissioners.

The Italian Government, too feeble to attack the quadrilateral, waited until Austria had come to blows with Prussia in Silesia. Then, and only then, in spite of her blustering, they massed the corps of the regular army.

The first corps, commanded by Durando, who was at Milan, advanced by Bergamo and Brescia, and

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drew up in echelons along the Mincio, from Peschiera to Treviano.

The second and third corps, which had their general quarters under the ramparts of Piacenza, were led by the King and Della Rocca.

The fourth corps, which was under the command of Cialdini, was massed along the Po from Mirandola to Ferrari.

His Highness the Archduke Albert, Commanderin-Chief of the Lombardo-Venetian Army, was staying quietly at his palace in Verona, contenting himself with gathering around the city about forty thousand men. The greater part of the Austrian forces were in Germany. The eighty thousand men who were in Venice were scattered in the fortresses of Peschiera, Mantua, and the towns of Padua, Vicenza, Trevise, Conegliano, Udino, etc.

Two days before the battle the Governor of Venice sent me to the Prince's head-quarters with a letter from Vienna. After having read this letter, which I have always thought contained something about me, the Prince asked me if I felt able to go to the Mincio, towards Vallegio, and find what the Italians were doing.

"Most willingly, your Highness," I replied.

Very well, then, go," said the Commander-inChief of the army which all Europe was to salute on the morrow as the victor at Custozza.

Monsieur Ziegler and I mounted horses and started off at full speed on the road to Villafranca, memorable for the interview between the two Emperors after the battle of Solferino (1859).

Half-way through the town we turned to the right as far as Vallegio, a village standing on a height, whence can be seen a portion of Lombardy. Before us, on the right, stretched General Durando's Army Corps, and opposite, between the Mincio, which flowed at our feet, and Treviano, was encamped Pianelli's division. A little to the left, lay the troops of the King and General Della Rocca. With the aid of our field glasses we were able to count the long files of soldiers.

We left our horses in the hands of a carabineer, then clambered down the steep cliffs to get a sight of the whole surface of the river. We saw to our surprise that the Italian engineers had thrown five bridges across, over which the troops had already begun to pass. With a single battery of artillery the Austrians could have prevented their passage.

Some said that the Archduke preferred waiting under the walls of Verona, that he might whip them more easily. Others affirmed that His Highness Prince Albert was waiting to be attacked on the Po, and not on the Mincio, where the Piedmontese had been beaten in 1848.

After watching a whole division march into Venetia, whither others would soon follow them, the Commissary and I mounted our horses again, and hastened at full speed to Verona, without once stopping.

His Highness was about to sit down at table when his aide-de-camp told him of our return.

"Tell them to come in here," said the Archduke. Seeing us covered with dust, "Sit down," said he, "and take some wine."

When he heard that the Mincio had been crossed by the Italians, he commanded his aide-de-camp to telegraph to the heads of the corps which were quartered at Padua, Trevise, and Vicenza to advance on Verona, and to summon all the Generals commanding in the town. Then he sat down tranquilly to his dinner, without showing the least emotion. When we had finished our bottle he had one hundred florins given to each of us, and told us that we might go.

The next day at seven o'clock the Archduke Albert left his palace with a brilliant staff, as on parade day, passed through the gate of Mantua, and took the road to Villafranca, where fifty thousand of his men were massed. The Piedmontese, to the number of ninety-three thousand, occupied an impregnable position at Vallegio, on the heights of Rivoli. At the first sound of the

cannon the Archduke Albert placed himself at the head of his army, marched forward, pierced the centre of the braggarts commanded by the gallant King, crushed Durando's right wing, then turned on the left wing, which he overthrew.

A few hours later the gallant King recrossed the Mincio somewhat more quickly than he had crossed it the first time, and left to the tender mercies of the Austrians eighteen thousand prisoners, seven thousand dead, and thirty thousand guns, with knapsacks, horses, ammunition, etc. On his side the hero of Caprera had six thousand volunteers killed and wounded, and had not succeeded in getting into the Tyrol. These were the results of the battle of Custozza, a veritable prelude to that of Lissa.

Unfortunately for the Court of Vienna, the incapacity and cowardice of the Generals commanding in Germany prevented their emulating the victories of Prince Albert and Admiral Tegethof. They were forced to offer peace, ceding Venetia to France. This last comedy played by Napoleon ended in a treaty of amnesty signed by Prussia, Austria, and Italy after a hundred thousand men had been massacred.

If these potentates had begun by signing before they fought, what blood, what tears would their subjects not have been spared!