too. There are
high considerations of honour which no soldier or general would ever
think of putting aside for humanitarian or political reasons, and with
these considerations the Italian army is fully in accord since the 24th
June. The way, too, in which the Kaiser chose to give up the
long-contested point, by ignoring Italy and recognising France as a party
to the Venetian question, created great indignation amongst the Italians,
whose papers declare, one and all, that a fresh insult has been offered
to the country. This is the state of public opinion here, and unless the
greatest advantages are obtained by a premature armistice and a hurried
treaty of peace, it is likely to continue the same, not to the entire
security of public order in Italy. As a matter of course, all eyes are
turned towards Villa Pallavicini, two miles from here, where the king is
to decide upon either accepting or rejecting the French emperor's advice,
both of which decisions are fraught with considerable difficulties and no
little danger. The king will have sought the advice of his ministers,
besides which that of Prussia will have been asked and probably given.
The matter may be decided one way or the other in a very short time, or
may linger on for days to give time for public anxiety and fears to be
allayed and to calm down. In the meantime, it looks as if the king and
his generals had made up their mind not to accept the gift. An attack on
the Borgoforte tete-de-pont on the right side of the Po, began on 5th at
half-past three in the morning, under the immediate direction of General
Cialdini. The attacking corps was the Duke of Mignano's. All the day
yesterday the gun was heard at Torre Malamberti, as it was also this
morning between ten and eleven o'clock. Borgoforte is a fortress on the
left side of the Po, throwing a bridge across this river, the right end
of which is headed by a strong tete-de-pont, the object of the present
attack. This work may be said to belong to the quadrilateral, as it is
only an advanced part of the fortress of Mantua, which, resting upon its
rear, is connected to Borgoforte by a military road supported on the
Mantua side by the Pietolo fortress. The distance between Mantua and
Borgoforte is only eleven kilometres. The fete-de-poet is thrown upon the
Po; its structure is of recent date, and it consists of a central part
and of two wings, called Rocchetta and Bocca di Ganda respectively. The
lock here existing is e