The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-13 00:00:00

when the Italians, after some signal successes,
were driven from Custozza and Monte Croce by
an advance of the Austrian left and centre, and fled
in immense disorder. So say their peasants. " They
threw away their arms, their coats, their pantaloons,
even their shoes said one of our guides. " Yes, and
I am wearing a pair of their breeches and shoes,"
added the lad. They lost immense quantities of
material, and if the Austrians had pressed them
would have lost still more but that the latter had

had quite enough of the day's work was evident, for
- •

they threw up batteries at Custozza, Monte Croce,
and other points of the line and covered their front
with abattis. The centre column, as soon as the
enemy were made known to them so disagreeably,
formed in line of battle, while the right column at-
tacked Villafranca. The centre advanced straight
upon Custozza, and, after a fierce encounter, carried
it and Monte Croce, while the right was engaged with

the Austrian left and centre towards Villafranca.

But the column on the left seems to have been easily
checked at Santa Lucia by the Austrian right, and

to have done nothing to help the battle. It may
have been hampered by the fear of a flank move-

ment from Peschiera if it advanced too far, and, in
fact, the garrison did make a formidable diversion ;

but, looking at the ground, it appears very plain
that if the right column had forced its way to Gua-
stalla at the time the centre reached Custozza and
Monte Croce the Austrians must have been forced
to retire from Villafranca in imminent danger of
being decimated before they could reach the cover
of the works outside Verona, and that they would
have lost a battle and their communications at the
same time. The Archduke Albrecht fought with that
tenacity and persistence which so often restore the
fortunes of a battle and convert disaster into vic-
tory. From the hills behind Custozza he swept
Monte Croce with his artillery, held the column on
his right in check at Santa Lucia, and maintained a
resolute combat all day at Villafranca. In the
villages near at hand there was desperate fighting,
and in the courtyard of a house near us " I saw,"
said the lad, " where an Austrian and an Italian
lie dead together with their bayonets sticking
through each other's bellies." All the villagers tes-
tified to the bayonet charges and the effects of them,
and were unanimous in declaring that the Italians
carried Monte Croce and Custozza, advanced above
and beyond them, and had full grip of the Austrian
trian
w
centre ; and, looking at the ground again, saw,
if that was true, how very near they were to vic-
tory, and how much is due to the dogged obstinacy
of the Austrian soldier and the resolution of his
leader. The King and the Archduke occupied the
same house within the 24 hours, but at 1 o'clock on
the 24th of Juno his Imperial Highness must have
been in considerable danger of being beaten. There
is a fine old chateau belonging to a noble family of
Modena, close to Custozza, which has suffered not
a little from the battle, and from what was once the
boundary wall of an Italian garden there is a fine
view of the ground towards Villafranca. The brown
patches show where men's feet have trampled away
the very grass. There are hedgerows literally
whitened with cartridge papers, and following them
and the exploded caps, one can form a good
idea of the course of the fight and the severity
of ;it, for there are differences in the Italian
and the Austrian bullets, and the marks in the trees
tell their story respecting the side which fired
from that place or the other. Doors and walls are
pitted with bullet-marks, and the blackened ruins
here and there point out where houses were set on
fire by shell. The lines of cartridge paper advance
from the gardens of the villa through the villages
up to the hill over the church, where the graves lie
thick. This was the furthest point reached by the
Italians. The Archduke, towards the close of the
day, seeing their left column effectively blocked, and
their right unable to advance, although Villafranca
had been taken and retaken, received a last attack
from their centre with calmness, and at once ad-
vanced upon them towards Custozza. The Italians
broke and`fied. Custozza was won, and the date of
the 24th of June was added to the bitter memories
which fill the Italian heart. The loss of the Aus-
trians is said to have been under 3,000, that of the
Italians to have been 7,000 killed, wounded, and
I prisoners. Now, considering the forces engaged and
1 the length of the combat, there has seldom been a
battle with so small a loss ; but its results may be
L greater than those of many a thrice-bloodier field.
It was affecting to wanaer a-rioub °vet iaiv n.3.a.;
all so quiet and tranquil now, and mark where
German and Italian lay in common graves. The
peasantry had scattered the contents of the poor
fellows' knapsacks, and heaps of letters in German,
Italian, Hungarian, Polish, and Sclavonic tongues,
of various kinds, lay nestling in nooks where they
had been driven by the summer breeze, some pulped
by rain, others glued together by a warmer stream.
One which 1 picked up uninjured, and addressed to
an Italian soldier by his brother, was full of home
news and gossip and affection. It was in the usual
style. It came hoping to find Giacomo well, as it left
the writer and his parents at present, and regretted
that work was so bad and the harvest so late that
there was no money to spare except the amount for-
warded therewith, but that he would soon send his
dear brother more, and all the family would help as
much as they could. They hoped they would soon
have good news from him. He would be sorry to hear
that a certain cousin had been called to heaven, but
she should sin no more. La poverina had died. She
could not survive la sua disgrazia, but she had gone
from them penitent, and begged to be remembered
with a thousand prayers and tears and kisses to her
dearest and best friend Giacomo. Then there were
home messages and adieux ; and then another mus-
ing and wandering over the field. It was late in
the afternoon when our vetturino smacked his whip
in triumph under the gateway of the " Golden
Dove," as one returning from some great exploit.
It is very strange ; not a man in Verona knows any-
thing about the battle of Custozza except the land-
lord of the " Colombo d'Oro," and he has been an
Austrian officer ; but even he that night, in going
over the map and explaining it, preferred bad
French to his native Italian, and spoke in the lowest
of whispers, and all, as far as could be made out,
because there was an Austrian officer seated at an
adjacent table in the salle-h-manger. As already
stated I left Verona next day, on the morning of
the 6th of August, and I reached Botzen the same
afternoon, and travelling continuously night and
\
day arrived at Augsburg on the evening of the Bth
of August, whence I propose joining the Austrian
head-quarters at Gorz if I find the news that the
Archduke Albrecht has repaired there likely to be
1 wall founded.

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