by France and England.

Both sides now set to work on Italy. It was plain that all the
sympathies of the Italian people were with France and England. The six
grandsons of Garibaldi formed an Italian regiment and volunteered for
fighting on the French lines. Two of them were killed, and at their
funerals in Rome, nearly all the inhabitants of the city turned out
and showed plainly that they too would like to be fighting on the side
of France.

You will remember that Italy wanted very much to gain the provinces of
Trentino and Istria, with the cities of Trent, Trieste (tri
es'te), Pola (po'lae), and Fiume (fe u'me), all inhabited by
Italian people. The possession of these counties and cities by Austria
had been the greatest source of trouble between the two nations. Italy
now came out boldly, and demanded, as the price of her keeping out of
the war, that Austria give to her this land inhabited by Italians.
Germany urged Austria to do this, and sent as her special ambassador,
to keep Italy from joining her enemies, Prince von Bulow, whose wife
was an Italian lady, and who was very popular with the Italian
statesmen.

For months, von Bulow argued and pleaded, first trying to induce Italy
to accept a small part of the disputed territory and then, when he
found this impossible, doing his best to induce Austria to give it
all. Austria was stubborn. She did not take kindly to the plan of
giving away her cities. She offered to cede some territory if Italy
should wait until the end of the war.

This did not satisfy Italy. She was by no means certain that Austria
and Germany were going to win the war and was even less sure that
Austria would be willing, in case of her victory, to give up a foot of
territory. It seemed to the Italian statesmen that it was "now or
never" if Italy wished to get within her kingdom all of her own
people. In the month of May 1915 Italy threw herself into the struggle
by declaring war on Austria and entering an alliance with Russia,
France, and England.

[Illustration: Russian peasants fleeing before the German army]

Meanwhile, the Russians were having difficulties. They had millions
and millions of men, but not enough rifles to equip them all. They had
plenty of food but very little ammunition for their cannon. Austria
and Germany, on the other hand, had been manufacturing shot and shells
in enormous quantities, and from the month of May, when the Russians
had crossed the Carpathian Mountains a