he Grand Duke Leopold identified himself
with the Italian cause with more sincerity than was to be found at
Rome or Naples; still, the material aid that he could offer counted as
next to nothing.

There remained Piedmont and Charles Albert. Now was the time for the
army which he had created (for Charles Felix left no army worthy of
the name) to assert upon the Lombard fields the reason of its
existence. War with Austria was declared on the 23rd of March. It was
midnight; a vast crowd waited in silence in Piazza Castello. At last
the windows of the palace were opened, a sudden flood of light from
within illuminating the scene. Charles Albert stepped upon the balcony
between his two sons. He was even paler than usual, but a smile such
as no one had seen before was on his lips. He waved the long
proscribed tricolor slowly over the heads of the people.

The King said in his proclamation that 'God had placed Italy in a
position to provide for herself ('in grado di fare da se'). Hence the
often repeated phrase: 'L'Italia fara da se.' He told the Lombard
delegates, who met him at Pavia that he would not enter their capital,
which had shown such signal valour, till after he had won a victory.
He declared to all that his only aim was to complete the splendid work
of liberation so happily begun; questions of government would be
reserved for the conclusion of the war. Joy was the order of the day,
but the fatal mistakes of the campaign had already commenced; there
had been inexcusable delay in declaring war; if it was pardonable to
wait for the Milanese initiative, it was as inexpedient as it seemed
ungenerous to wait till the issue of the struggle at Milan was
decided. Then, after the declaration of war, considering that the
Sardinian Government must have seen its imminence for weeks, and
indeed for months, there was more time lost than ought to have been
the case in getting the troops under weigh. Still, at the opening of
the campaign, two grand possibilities were left. The first was
obviously to cut Radetsky off in his painful retreat, largely
performed along country by-roads, as he had to avoid the principal
cities which were already free. Had Charles Albert caught him up while
he was far from the Quadrilateral, the decisive blow would have been
struck, and the only man who could save Austria in Italy would have
been taken prisoner. Radetsky chose the route of Lodi and the lower
Brescian plains to Montechiaro, where the enca