On 21 July 1858, during a highly secret eight hour meeting conducted, incongruously, in a narrow two-seater carriage circling round and round the centre of a small French spa resort (and without even the presence of note-takers or other diplomatic support staff), the Sardinian head of government and the French dictator found common cause and came to a verbal agreement, on the basis of which war with Austria was provoked in March/April 1859. In military terms, it was a less uneven contest than might have been anticipated, since the Sardinian-Piedmontese army was joined by a well-equipped French army of approximately 170,000. In the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, this development was greeted with enthusiasm by republican and democratic activists impatient for a lifting of the burden of Austrian "influence". The Grand Duke's government was unable to prevent numbers of young Tuscan volunteers from heading north to join the Franco-Piedmontese forces. Leopold II came under seemingly irresistible pressure for Tuscany to join the war alongside the armies of the Sardinian-Piedmontese and their French allies. After several days of dithering, the Grand Duke complied with the growing demands on the city streets and on 27 April 1859 abdicated in favour of his son. In reality, father and son both fled to Austria, leaving Tuscany administered by , this time under the leadership of Ubaldino Peruzzi, and Alessandro Danzini. On 3 May 1859 the provisional government revoked Mordini's exile, opening the way for him to return to the family home at Barga.