scorching midsummer sun, but the Italians
laboured under the additional drawback of having to fight fasting. In
his report, the Archduke Albrecht mentioned that the prisoners said
they had not tasted food for twenty-four hours. In the same report, he
did ample justice to the courage of the Italian soldiers.

As has been stated, the Archduke fought Custoza with not less,
probably with rather more, than 70,000 men. The force which La Marmora
placed in the field was actually inferior in number. The divisions of
Bixio and Prince Humbert were kept doing nothing all day at a stone's
throw from the scene of action. Of the whole 2nd _corps d'armee_ only
a trifling detachment ever reached the ground. Inexplicably little use
was made of the Italian cavalry.

This bungling had lost the battle, but the fact that on the morrow,
six divisions of the army of the Mincio were practically fresh, might
have suggested to a general of enterprise to try again, since it was
known that the Archduke had not a single new man to fall back on. And
there was Cialdini on the Po with his eight divisions that had not
been engaged at all. But, instead of adopting a spirited course, the
Italian authorities gave way to unreasoning panic. It appears,
unfortunately, that the King was the first to be overcome by this
moral vertigo. The long and fiercely discussed question of who
telegraphed to Cialdini: 'Irreparable disaster; cover the capital,'
seems to have been settled since that general's death in 1892. It is
now alleged that the telegram, the authorship of which was disowned by
La Marmora, was signed by the King's adjutant, Count Verasio di
Castiglione. Cialdini obeyed the order and fell back on Modena.
Whether he was bound to obey an almost anonymous communication signed
by an irresponsible officer is a moot point; it is reported that he
repented having done so to the last day of his life.

A great event now happened across the Alps; one of the decisive
battles of the world was lost and won on the 5th of July at Sadowa
near Koeniggraetz in Bohemia. The fate of Europe was shaped on that day
for decades, if not for centuries. Of the immediate results, the first
was the scattering to the wind of all calculations based upon a long
continuance of the war, the issue of which, as far as Prussia was
concerned, could not be regarded as doubtful. In respect to Italy,
Austria's first thought was to prevent her from taking a revenge for
Custoza. She attempted