pt to reach it. But as he raised his
sword to signal an advance, a young girl ran to his side and told him
of a path sheltered from the Austrian fire. This girl, Signorina
Abriani, whose name will go down in Italian history as one of the
first heroines of the war, guided the detachment safely. The Austrians
holding the villa were strongly intrenched, and they held out against
superior forces until late in the afternoon, when four shells crashed
into the building, bringing it down about their ears. The Italians had
brought up a battery on the opposite side of the Adige River and
opened fire at long range. The Austrians made good their retreat,
leaving all their ammunition and three dead. Later fifty-seven
Austrians were taken prisoners.

That night the Italian general took the precautions, usual on entering
a newly occupied town, of ordering that all the windows in town be
kept open and illuminated, and kept patrols about the town. The mayor
was reconfirmed, and his first act was to announce to the citizens
that "the royal military authorities, knowing the needs of the
inhabitants, have with affectionate solicitude and great generosity
placed 5,000 rations of bread and 2,000 of rice at the disposal of the
poor." Thus Ala became Italian.

The incidents of these first advances into Austrian territory were
reported in detail in Italy, and are set down here as typical of
events that accompanied the irruption of Italian troops over the
border into the country which once had been Italian and where, despite
more than a century of Austrian occupation, a large proportion of the
inhabitants in spirit was Italian still. Such reports spread through
Italy naturally increased enthusiasm for the restoration of the
"unredeemed" provinces.

Although, as a rule, the Austrians retired before the first Italian
advance into Trentino, they did not depart until they had left every
possible obstacle. Roads were barricaded, bridges destroyed, and mines
were laid, cleverly concealed on hillsides where it was intended their
explosion would overwhelm the Italians under masses of rock and earth.
But this was just what the Alpini and Bersaglieri had been trained to
anticipate. According to the official Italian accounts, their scouting
was so excellent that the wires connecting these mines with Austrian
hiding places were discovered and cut, and hardly a mine was exploded.
All this took place while the Austrians were drawing in their outposts
and