The Sun.
London, England, 1848-08-05 00:00:00

/

=2171
defended by. 1,500, was in reality defended' oyilibyt-5
and thus points were given up which ought it.p tiave\besti;
Aa_goa
preserved.
Never since Amati strung the first violin did this
fiddle•making city suffer so much from plenitude of tem-
porary prosperity, as it does at present. I wish I could
print the look the waiter gave me last night, on alighting
at the principal inn, when I asked for a bed and dinner.
" A bed!" cried he, " when all have been occupied, even
to that of the master's, for the last three days." " And
a dinner," chimed in his companion, " when the last cut-
let has been devoured an hour since." How I contrived
to get a dinner and a bed, will be no secret for those
who have Si. to throw away. The streets are filled with
wounded or lame soldiers, straggling in parties of two
and three—by runaway Lombardian conscripts and vo-
lunteers, and by detachments of every regiment in the
service, trying to join their colours. Every moment a
cry is raised that the Tedeschi are coming, and a rush
takes place, or a forward movement occurs on it is
being said the King and a large force are at hand.
Many of the principal families have fled, and others are
preparing to follow their example. "Is it not hard,"
said the hairdresser to me to-day, " that the nobility are
all leaving us, and that we are compelled to remain ?"
" Put your curling-irons in the fire ; let your scissors be
well ground ; keep wide open the shop-door, and when
the Austrians come they will be good customers," was
my reply. "Ah ! Sir, you don't know them," was the
responsive groan. "Ah ! Sir, you don't know them,"
was the echo of two apprentices. The Lombardy colours
aro not seen; the Milanese cockades are hid away ; the
1 and the Fratelli keep their eyes fixed on the gate
to Milan or to the Po. There is something ludicrous in
the fallen importance of their gentry, who a week since
imagined that Eur Ope was dazzled at their rising re-
fulgence. They are now very tame indeed, and the
little experience they have of war, and its pleasures,
will, I think, take away all appetite for defending
Milan, should Radetzky bombard it. I thought the
Brescian were people of pluck, and determined to die
amid the ruins of the city ; but I am now told
their courage is something like that of Bob Acres, and
they mean to leave everything to the French, as they
have left it to the Piedmontese. I know not what to
say of the Cremonese, except that the ladies are very
handsome, and that it is a pity that grim-visaged war
should ever cause terror to their palpitating hearts.
The men seem well suited to playing on the fiddle, and
many of them I found at the camp were famous for
drawing the long bow. The weather is very hot—scald-
ing hot—but there is an abundant supply of ice ; and
as, in my opinion, we shall have no more fighting, and
that the war is over, I do not see why we should not
make ourselves comfortable.
The King and the two Princes were under fire in every
affair. Their undaunted courage is highly extolled by
every one I have spoken to.
CREMONA, JULY 28.—1 wrote to you from Brescia
this morning; I have just arrived, and as the post starts
for Milan in five minutes, I merely have time to announce
that fact, in order that you may see your correspondence
is in good order. I mean to join the King to-morrow
morning, wherever he may be. Ile has fallen back from
Goito, some say on Asola, others on Bussola; the former
at the other side of the Oglio; the other, south of the
Po. I find great alarm here, but I must defer till to-
morrow any other explanation.
According to the Paris Journal des Debats the
Italian cause still disposed of a considerable force.
The Piedmontese army, commanded by the KING,
amounted to 45,000 men, and the remainder was at
Pavia, Piacenza, Casal Maggiore, on the Po, to the
south of Bozzolo, in the duchies of Parma and
Modena, at Ferrara and Venice. The KING'S army
forms the right wing of the general defence. The
centre is established within five leagues of Milan, as
a corps of reserve, at the bridge of Cassano, a very
strong position on the Adds, where 15,000 Lombards
and Tuscans are stationed. The town of Brescia,
strongly entrenched and defended by a castle, is the
point d'appui of the left wing, composed of 10,000
men. 'Those forces amount together to 70,000 men.
Marshal Radetzky does not appear, to have more
then 50,000 or 60,000 men under his immediate
orders. The last levy decreed in Piedmont will
procure a reinforcement of 21,000 men, indepen-
dently of which 56 battalions of National Guards,
intended to form an army of reserve, are to be
mobilized. If Lombardy had made the same efforts
the whole of Venetia would now be free, and Verona
and Mantua in the possession of the Italians.—Times.

RAILWAY RETURNS

RAILWAY TRAFFIC.—The following are the Total Receipts of Italie
ways for the past week—that is to say, up to the date to which the
respective returns are made, together with the receipts of the san
week iu the previous year:

Week
ending

gl
o .14
C, 9
2 -P
o
c.)4

Last
week.