d.

Not so Brescia. Here, where love of liberty was an hereditary instinct
from the long connection of Brescia with free Venice, where hatred of
the stranger, planted by the ruthless soldiery of Gaston de Foix, had
but gone on maturing through three centuries, where the historical
title of 'Valiant,' coming down from a remote antiquity, was still no
fable; here, with a single mind, the inhabitants resolved upon as
desperate a resistance as was ever offered by one little town to a
great army.

The Austrian bombardment was begun by the Irish General,
Nugent-Lavall, who, dying in the midst of it, left all his fortune to
the heroic city which he was attacking. The Austrians, flushed with
their victory over Charles Albert's army of 80,000, were seized with
rage at the sight of their power defied by a town of less than half
that number of souls. But with that rage was mingled, even in the mind
of Haynau, an admiration not to be repressed.

Haynau who was sent to replace Nugent, was already known at Brescia,
where he had been appointed military governor after the resumption of
Austrian authority in 1848. In order to punish the 'persistent
opposition manifested to the legitimate Imperial and Royal
Government,' and as an example to the other towns, he had imposed on
the Brescian householders and the landed proprietors of the province a
fine of half a million francs.

He now returned, and what he did may be best read in his own report on
the operations. 'It was then,' he wrote, 'that began the most murderous
fight; a fight prolonged by the insurgents from barricade to barricade,
from house to house, with extraordinary obstinacy. I should never have
believed that so bad a cause could have been sustained with such
perseverance. In spite of this desperate defence, and although the
assault could only be effected in part, and with the help of cannons of
heavy calibre, our brave troops with heroic courage, but at the cost of
great losses, occupied a first line of houses; but as all my columns
could not penetrate into the town at the same time, I ordered the
suspension of the attack at nightfall, limiting myself to holding the
ground conquered. In spite of that, the combat continued late into the
night. On the 1st of April, in the earliest morning light, the tocsin
was heard ringing with more fury than ever, and the insurgents reopened
fire with an entirely new desperation. Considering the gravity of our
losses, as well as the obst