zky had little more than seventy thousand
Austrians. A characteristic note of the times was the appointment of Poles
to command the Italian troops. Prince Chrzanovsky, who had fought under
Napoleon at Leipzig and Waterloo, and had subsequently commanded a Russian
division at Varna, was put in supreme command, seconded by Alexander La
Marmora. Another Pole, or half Pole, Ramorino, who had figured in the
unfortunate rising of 1833, commanded the legion of Lombardy. On March 12,
the pending termination of the truce was officially announced. At noon on
March 20, hostilities were to be resumed. The campaign that followed lasted
but five days. Radetzky, by his preliminary feint, made the Italians
believe that he would evacuate Lombardy as heretofore; but at the last
moment he quickly concentrated his five army corps at Pavia. At the stroke
of noon, on March 20, he threw his army across the Tessino on three
bridges. While the Italians believed that Radetzky was retreating on the
Adda, the Austrians were already bivouacking on the flank of the
Piedmontese army. Three bloody engagements at Mortara, Gambola and
Sforzesca, on March 21, ended in a retreat of the Italians all along the
line. Ramorino had received orders to move northward and to destroy the
bridges behind him. Out of accord with his countryman, Chrzanovsky, he
disobeyed his orders and lingered at Stradella. Radetzky flung his army in
between, and cut off the Italian line of retreat upon Turin and
Alessandria. It was then that Benedek, an Austrian colonel, distinguished
himself by leading his troops far in advance of the Austrian army, and
cutting his way through an Italian brigade, under the cover of night. At
midnight of March 21, Charles Albert had to order a general retreat on
Novara. There Chrzanovsky determined to make a stand with his main column
of about 50,000 men. Radetzky was in doubt whether the Italians had fallen
back on Novara or Vercelli. To make sure he sent his troops in either
direction. He himself remained at his headquarters, so as to be ready to
ride either way. The roar of artillery from Novara, on the morning of March
23, told him where the battle was to be fought. There General D'Aspre,
commanding the second Austrian army corps, undertook to win some laurels on
his own account by a bold attack on the superior position of the Italians.
As Charles Albert rode out of the gate of Novara he received the last
cheers of his devoted Bersaglieri. After a