Miscellaneous Prose | Page 7

or a great part of them,
will have trod, for the Italians, the sacred land of Venetia.
Once the river Po crossed by Cialdini's corps d'armee, he will boldly
enter the Polesine and make himself master of the road which leads by
Rovigo towards Este and Padua. A glance at the map will show your
readers how, at about twenty or thirty miles from the first-mentioned
town, a chain of hills, called the Colli Euganei, stretches itself from the
last spur of the Julian Alps, in the vicinity of Vicenza, gently sloping
down towards the sea. As this line affords good positions for contesting
the advance of an army crossing the Po at Lago Scuro, or at any other
point not far from it, it is to be supposed that the Austrians will make a
stand there, and I should not be surprised at all that Cialdini's first battle,
if accepted by the enemy, should take place within that comparatively
narrow ground which is within Montagnana, Este, Terradura, Abano,
and Padua. It is impossible to suppose that Cialdini's corps d'armee,
being so large, is destined to cross the Po only at one point of the river
below its course: it is extremely likely that part of it should cross it at
some point above, between Revere and Stellata, where the river is in
two or three instances only 450 metres wide. Were the Italian general to
be successful--protected as he will be by the tremendous fire of the
powerful artillery he disposes of--in these twofold operations, the
Austrians defending the line of the Colli Euganei could be easily
outflanked by the Italian troops, who would have crossed the river
below Lago Scuro. Of course these are mere suppositions, for nobody,
as you may imagine, except the king, Cialdini himself, Lamarmora,
Pettiti, and Menabrea, is acquainted with the plan of the forthcoming
campaign. There was a rumour at Cialdini's headquarters to-day that
the Austrians had gathered in great numbers in the Polesine, and
especially at Rovigo, a small town which they have strongly fortified of
late, with an apparent design to oppose the crossing of the Po, were

Cialdini to attempt it at or near Lago Scuro. There are about Rovigo
large tracts of marshes and fields cut by ditches and brooks, which,
though owing to the dryness of the season [they] cannot be, as it was
generally believed two weeks ago, easily inundated, yet might well aid
the operations the Austrians may undertake in order to check the
advance of the Italian fourth corps d'armee. The resistance to the
undertaking of Cialdini may be, on the part of the Austrians, very stout,
but I am almost certain that it will be overcome by the ardour of Italian
troops, and by the skill of their illustrious leader.
As I told you above, the declaration of war was handed over to an
Austrian major for transmission to Count Stancowick, the Austrian
governor of Mantua, on the evening of the 19th, by Colonel Bariola,
sous-chef of the general staff, who was accompanied by the Duke Luigi
of Sant' Arpino, the husband of the amiable widow of Lord Burghersh.
The duke is the eldest son of Prince San Teodoro, one of the wealthiest
noblemen of Naples. In spite of his high position and of his family ties,
the Duke of Sant' Arpino, who is well known in London fashionable
society, entered as a volunteer in the Italian army, and was appointed
orderly officer to General Lamarmora. The choice of such a gentleman
for the mission I am speaking of was apparently made with intention, in
order to show the Austrians, that the Neapolitan nobility is as much
interested in the national movement as the middle and lower classes of
the Kingdom, once so fearfully misruled by the Bourbons. The Duke of
Sant' Arpino is not the only Neapolitan nobleman who has enlisted in
the Italian army since the war with Austria broke out. In order to show
you the importance which must be given to this pronunciamiento of the
Neapolitan noblemen, allow me to give you here a short list of the
names of those of them who have enlisted as private soldiers in the
cavalry regiments of the regular army: The Duke of Policastro; the
Count of Savignano Guevara, the eldest son of the Duke of Bovino; the
Duke d'Ozia d'Angri, who had emigrated in 1860, and returned to
Naples six months ago; Marquis Rivadebro Serra; Marquis Pisicelli,
whose family had left Naples in 1860 out of devotion to Francis II.; two
Carraciolos, of the historical family from which sprung the unfortunate
Neapolitan admiral of this name, whose head Lord Nelson would have
done better not to have sacrificed to the cruelty of Queen Caroline;
Prince Carini, the representative of an illustrious family of