ble mind, that he sent great convoys of grain, and a large supply
of shot, shells and artillery from the arsenals of Milan into the
Sardinian camp. Charles Emanuel, dead to all sense of magnanimity,
rubbed his hands with delight in the successful perpetration of such
fraud, exclaiming, "_An virtus an dolos, quis ab hoste requirat_."

So cunningly was this stratagem carried on, that the emperor was not
undeceived until his own artillery, which he had sent to Charles
Emanuel, were thundering at the gates of the city of Milan, and the shot
and shells which he had so unsuspectingly furnished were mowing down the
imperial troops. So sudden was the attack, so unprepared was Austrian
Lombardy to meet it, that in twelve weeks the Sardinian troops overran
the whole territory, seized every city and magazine, with all their
treasures, leaving the fortress of Mantua alone in the possession of the
imperial troops. It was the policy of Louis XV. to attack Austria in the
remote portions of her widely-extended dominions, and to cut off
province by province. He also made special and successful efforts to
detach the interests of the German empire from those of Austria, so that
the princes of the empire might claim neutrality. It was against the
possessions of Charles VI., not against the independent States of the
empire, that Louis XV. urged war.

The storms of winter were now at hand, and both parties were compelled
to abandon the field until spring. But during the winter every nerve was
strained by the combatants in preparation for the strife which the
returning sun would introduce. The emperor established strong defenses
along the banks of the Rhine to prevent the passage of the French; he
also sent agents to all the princes of the empire to enlist them in his
cause, and succeeded, notwithstanding the remonstrances of many who
claimed neutrality, in obtaining a vote from a diet which he assembled,
for a large sum of money, and for an army of one hundred and twenty
thousand men.

The loss of Lombardy troubled Charles exceedingly, for it threatened the
loss of all his Italian possessions. Notwithstanding the severity of the
winter he sent to Mantua all the troops he could raise from his
hereditary domains; and ordered every possible effort to be made to be
prepared to undertake the offensive in the spring, and to drive the
Sardinians from Lombardy. In the beginning of May the emperor had
assembled within and around Mantua, sixty thous