g Fort Ampola,
reached the village of Bezzecca, where they were attacked by the
Austrians early on the 21st. Each side claimed that sanguinary day as
a victory; the Garibaldians remained masters of the ground, but the
Austrians, in retiring, took with them a large number of prisoners.
The losses of the volunteers on this and other occasions when they
were engaged were disproportionately heavy. They were spendthrift of
their lives, but in war, and especially in mountain warfare, caution
is as needful as courage, and in caution they were so deficient that
they were always being surprised. General Kuhn's numerically inferior
force of tried marksmen, supported by good artillery and favoured by
ground which may be described as one great natural fortification, had
succeeded up till now in holding the Trentino, but his position was
becoming critical, because while Garibaldi sought to approach Trento
from the west, Medici with 10,000 men detached from the main army at
Padua, was ascending the Venetian valleys that lead to the same
destination from the east. Kuhn was therefore on the point of being
taken between two fires when the armistice saved him.

These operations on the Tridentine frontier, though not without a real
importance, passed almost unnoticed in the excitement which attended
the first calamitous appearance of United Italy as a naval power.

When invited to assume the command of the Italian fleet, Admiral
Persano twice refused; it was only when the King pressed upon him a
third invitation that he weakly accepted a charge to which he felt
himself unequal. He had been living in retirement for some years, and
neither knew nor was known by most of the officers and men whom he was
now to command. The fleet under his orders comprised thirty-three
vessels, of which twelve were ironclads. The Austrian fleet numbered
twenty-seven ships, including seven ironclads. When the war broke out,
both fleets were far from ready for active service; but, while the
Austrian Admiral Tegethoff said nothing, but worked night and day at
Pola to make his ships and his men serviceable, Persano despatched
hourly lamentable reports to the Minister of Marine, without finding
the way to bring about a change for the better. He wasted time in
minutiae, and took into his head to paint all the Italian ships a
light grey, which was of the greatest use to the Austrians in the
battle of Lissa, as it enabled them to distinguish between them and
their o