THE BATTLE OF SOLFERINO

Let us now describe the battle more in detail. By orders issued the night before the Sardinians were to march on Pozzolengo, Baraguay d'Hilliers on Solferino, MacMahon on Cavriana, Niel on Guidizzolo, Canrobert on Medole, and the Imperial Guard on Castiglione, the cavalry marching in the plain between Solferino and Medole. Setting out at 3 a.m., the French encountered no serious opposition till 5 a.m., when MacMahon perceived that the situation was becoming dangerous. He halted and remained inactive for two hours. About 7 a.m. MacMahon was informed that Niel had arrived before Medole, that as soon as he had taken that village he would concentrate on his left, and that Canrobert would do the same. MacMahon, therefore, at 8.30 a.m. took possession of Casa Marino, commanding the lower ground of Guidizzolo. He was opposed by a strong Austrian force coming from that place, which did not drive him back, but caused him considerable loss. He did not hear that Niel's corps was in a position to join him till 11 a.m., and he was then able to advance towards Solferino, where a vigorous battle had been proceeding for some time. It had thus taken six hours for the French right to change an order of march into an order of battle.

Early in the day the Emperor discerned from a height in the Retreat neighbourhood of Castiglione that a serious battle was proceed- of the ing. He determined to concentrate on his centre, and directed Austrians. his attack on Solferino and Cavriana, giving orders to Niel and Canrobert to move towards their left, and to the Sardinians to move towards their right. Baraguay d'Hilliers was now assaulting the strong position of Solferino, held by Stadion, the hill covered with cypresses, the graveyard and the castle dominated by the well-known tower, "The Spy of Italy." The place was in excellent condition for defence, and well supplied with artillery. The walls of the cemetery, defended by a flank of the cypresscovered hill, defied all efforts, and the Austrians were able to act energetically on the offensive. The struggle was terrific, and it was not till 3 in the afternoon that the French could hoist their victorious flags on the tower and the cypress hills. At last the Austrians were driven from Solferino, and an important point had been gained. Cavriana still remained to be taken-a village strengthened by ancient walls and by a castle. This was attacked at 4 in the afternoon after Solferino had been taken. MacMahon was able to assault the strong position from the other side and, in consequence of this double attack, the place fell about 4.30 p.m. Two hours later the Austrians began to retreat in all directions, and their centre was entirely in the hands of the French.

Napoleon
Negotiates
with
Austria.

Meeting
of the
Emperors.

Peace of

Notwithstanding this success, Niel was not able to take Guidizzolo, which the Austrians held till 7 in the evening, and Victor Emmanuel could not capture San Martino till sunset, when the capture of Solferino and Cavriana was already known. The Sardinians were able to hold the high ground they had captured, but lost 6,000 men, considerably more than their adversaries. At the battle the Emperor of the French occupied the quarters which the Emperor of Austria had occupied the night before. But there was no pursuit. On June 25th the headquarters of Francis Joseph were at Villafranca, and on June 27th at Verona, and on this day the French occupied the line of the Mincio. It is reckoned that in the battle the Austrians lost 21,500 men and the Allies 18,500, of whom 13,000 were French.

Two great battles had been won by the French, but it was not possible to march on to Vienna, nor even to storm the Quadrilateral. It would be necessary to blockade the four fortresses one by one. The French army rested from June 25th to July 5th, and on July 6th, without consulting the King of Italy, Napoleon sent Fleury to Francis Joseph, proposing a meeting of the two Emperors at Villafranca, and early in the morning of July 7th the offer was accepted. On July 8th an armistice was arranged at Villafranca to last till August 15th, and La Marmora telegraphed to Cavour the suspension of arms. Cavour hurried to the headquarters of the King on July 10th.

On the following day the interview between the two Emperors took place at Villafranca. Francis Joseph spontaneously offered the cession of Lombardy, without Mantua or Peschiera, and was also willing to cede Parma, provided that the sovereigns of Modena and Tuscany were allowed to keep their dominions. Napoleon proposed a confederation of Italian States under the presidency of the Pope. The interview lasted an hour; no one was present at it, and it is probable that nothing was committed to writing. The Emperor communicated the results of the interview to the King in the presence of Prince Napoleon. It is not precisely known how Victor Emmanuel received the news. There is no doubt that he was disappointed, that he knew he could not persuade the Emperor to further exertions, and that he expressed his gratitude for the acquisition of Lombardy, which was a solid gain.

By the preliminaries of the Peace of Villafranca the Emperor Villafranca of Austria ceded Lombardy to the Emperor of the French, who transferred it to the King of Italy. An Italian confederation, including Venetia, to which liberal institutions were promised, was to be formed, with the Pope at its head; Tuscany and Modena

CAVOUR'S RESIGNATION

were to return to their Dukes with a general amnesty; Parma was surrendered, but was afterwards retained on the recommendation of Russia. The Papal States were to have reforms, the Legations a separate administration. The articles were communicated to the King, who consented to them because he could not do otherwise.

Villafranca.

It is easy to blame Napoleon. There is no doubt he eagerly Cavour and desired that Italy should possess Venetia and the Quadrilateral, the Peace of but circumstances were too strong for him, and it was impossible to continue the war. How did Cavour receive the news? We will use the narrative of the Countess Martinengo Cesaresco, who was probably well informed, and is certainly wise and temperate. Cavour," she wrote, "rushed from Turin to Desenzano, where he arrived the day before the final meeting between Napoleon and Francis Joseph. He waited for a carriage in the little café in the piazza. No one guessed who it was, and conversation went on uninterrupted; it was full of sneers at the French Emperor. Mazzini, someone said, was right; this was the way the war was sure to end. When a shabby conveyance had at length been found, the great statesman drove to Monzambano. There, of course, his arrival did not escape notice, and all who saw him were horrified at the change that had come over his face. Instead of the jovial, witty smile, there was a look of frantic rage and desperation.

"What passed between him and his Sovereign is partly a matter of conjecture; the exact sense of the violent words into which grief betrayed him is lost, in spite of the categorical versions of the interview which have been printed. Even in a fit of madness he can hardly have spoken some of the words attributed to him. That he advised the King to withdraw his army and abdicate rather than agree to the treason which was being plotted behind his back seems past doubting. It is said that, after attempting in vain to calm him, Victor Emmanuel brought the interview to a sudden close.

"Cavour came out of the house flushed and exhausted, and Cavour's drove back to Desenzano: he had resigned office. Kossuth relates Resignation. that on July 14th Cavour said in his presence, to Pietri, the private secretary of Napoleon, that there was one thing in which a man can never compromise, and that was honour. Your Emperor has dishonoured me; he gave me his word that he would not desist till he had driven the Austrians out of Italy, and he took Savoy and Nice as a recompense. I persuaded my King to consent, to make the sacrifice, for Italy. My King, a good and honest man, consented, trusting to my word, and now the Emperor

Results of

carries off the recompense and leaves us in the lurch. Certainly— I say it not before you, but before God-this peace shall never be concluded, this treaty shall never be executed. I will make myself a conspirator, a revolutionary. No, this treaty shall never be executed. No, a thousand times no! Never, never!'"'

After all, what happened was probably for the best. Another the Peace. Solferino might have driven the Austrians from Italy and established a powerful kingdom in northern Italy; but it would have left the rest of the peninsula under the virtual government of the Dukes and established a confederation, which would have made the unity of Italy impossible. The Peace of Villafranca was really the salvation of Italy. Otherwise Italy would have remained under the influence of France, and the other Powers of Europe would have looked upon the new kingdom as the creation of that country. As it was, both Prussia and Great Britain began to consider the unity of Italy as coming within the range of practical politics. The restoration of Italy-advanced a step further in 1866, completed in 1870-was to await the consecration of other efforts, if it should become a fabric resting on natural forces, and of such a character as to endure the shocks of circumstance and time.

CHAPTER II

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA

THE Civil War in America between the Northern and Southern The Slavery States arose out of the question of slavery. It will, therefore, be Question. well to give a short history of this question from the time at which our narrative opens-the year 1815. At that date all the Eastern Middle States, excepting Delaware, were non-Slavery, or, as they were called in America, Free Soil. Slavery was prohibited in the North-West Territory, American citizens were forbidden to engage in the slave trade of foreign countries, subjects of foreign countries were prohibited from engaging in the American slave trade, and the importation of slaves into the United States was forbidden by law. Of the twenty-two States which, before 1820, composed the Union, eleven were slave-holding and eleven free, so that the two principles were equally represented in the Senate. In 1821 the State of Missouri was created, lying west of Mississippi, and being part of the Louisiana Reserve, in which slavery had been left an open question. Missouri had wished to be a slave State, but the Anti-Slavery party were determined that it should not be. A fierce struggle went on, and in 1820 the famous Missouri Compromise was effected, by which Missouri was admitted to be known as a slave-holding State, but in all the rest of the Louisiana Reserve slavery was "for ever prohibited." A few months previously Maine had been admitted as a free State, so that the balance in the Senate was preserved.

Movement.

Hostility to slavery as a moral and political wrong now spread Antiwidely and grew in intensity. A paper, called the Liberator, Slavery urging the abolition of slavery, was established at Boston by William Lloyd Garrison. Although violently attacked by the slave-holding States, Garrison gathered round him a band of abolitionists, and in 1832 founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society. The dissensions between the slave-holders and the abolitionists came to a head about the admission of Texas to the Union, which was finally settled in December, 1845. Texas, a slave-holding State, had been, first, part of the Mexican Confederation and then independent, and by its adherence to the Union slavery became illegal. The admission of Texas also led to a war