e, both Moltke and Garibaldi counselled
turning the Quadrilateral in preference to a direct attack upon
fortresses which had been proved impregnable except with the assistance
of hunger, and at present they were better provisioned than in 1848. The
turning of the Quadrilateral meant the adoption of a route into Venetia
across the Po below Mantua. An objection not without gravity to that
route was the unfavourable nature of the ground which, being marshy, is
liable after heavy rains to become impassable. But against this
disadvantage had to be weighed the advantage of keeping out of the
mouse-trap, the fatality of which needed no new demonstration.

In Italy it is common to hear it said that it was necessary to station
a large army on the Mincio to bar the Archduke's path to Milan. But
apart from the rumoured existence of a promise to the French Emperor
not to invade Lombardy, it was unlikely that so good a general as the
Archduke would have taken his small army far from the security it
enjoyed among the four fortresses which, if the worst came to the
worst, assured him a safe line of retreat.

The plan adopted by La Marmora is vaguely said to have been that which
was prepared by the French and Sardinian staffs for use in 1859, had
the war been continued. But in what it really consisted is not to this
day placed beyond dispute. The army, roughly speaking, was divided
into halves; one (the larger) half under the King and La Marmora was
to operate on the Mincio; the other, under Cialdini, was to operate on
the lower Po. It is supposed that one of these portions was intended
to act as a blind to deceive the enemy as to the movements of the
other portion; the undecided question is, which was meant to be the
principal and which the accessory?

The volunteers were thrown against the precipices of the Tridentine
mountains, where a detachment of the regular army, well-armed and
properly supplied with artillery, would have been better suited for
the work. The Garibaldian headquarters was at Salo on the Lake of
Garda. Less than half of the 35,000 volunteers who appear upon paper,
were ever ready to be sent to the front. It was widely said that only
patriotism prevented Garibaldi from throwing up his command, so
dissatisfied was he with the conduct of affairs.

Prussia invaded Hanover and Saxony on the 16th of June, and declared
war with Austria on the 21st, one day after the Italian declaration of
war had been delivered to the