The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-07-27


tearing down the street, spuring their horses into
a dead run over the pavement. Shutters were
closed doors bolted, and Sandman flags pulled in
with good deal more alacrity than they had been
hung out the day before. Everybody who had a
cart and horse mounted it and started.
saw Zouave who bad been limping through
the street not moment before, seize horse which
stood at the entrance of stable yard, without
saddle, bride or even halter, leap his back, and
holding by the name, kick and halloo him into a
Keen gallop down the street. Every body was
running for dear life We went with the crowd
until we cleared the town and reached the high
road to Lonato. French officer, whom l recog-
nlsed as one had seen in command of the guard of
the wounded, came dashing along en- grand galop
called out to him he rushed past, "Are the Aus
TRANS here7" ''On du,' was his only reply. Follow
ing close to his heels came of the large wagons
belonging to the imperial suite and in it young
man to whom had seen the surgeons of the i'm
peral household especially deerential the day be-
lore Next came an open chaise, with two civilians,
one OF whom was lashing the horse and the other
hghting off the soldiers who trying their best
to climb up behind. -i
By this time we had stopped running and fallen
into lesurely walk; the men in the chaise were
touehlngly sympathetic, and consolingly shouted to
US that we were certainly lost, as the Austrian
dragons were slashing their wav right and left
directly in our rear. This decided us to quit run
mng altogether, as it was quite hopeless to run
away from pursuing cavalry. This relaxation of
our pace produced cooler view of tAe whole affair;
and we were already beginning to its farcical
character, when our cowardly coachman came puff
ing and blowing behind us, his face swelling with
fear, and red with heat. He raised his ewes and
clasped his hands in pity as he passed u.s. and soon
turned off from the road and buried his stalwart
form in field of wheat This quite reconcied us
to the desperate state of things and laughing at
his sorrows, we entirely forgot our own
Reasoning the case moreover, as we walked along
we thought it just possible that corps of Austrian
horse might have dashed in from Peschiera to res
cue the prisoners, of whom there were G OOO in
aOVthiup ,ad
impossible The whole body of fugitives upon our
road was out of sight, but long cloud of dust on
the road to Montechiaro showed that in that direc-
tion the panic was undated As we had agreed to
meet "Malakoff" on his return from Brescia at
MontechiarO, we struck into the cross roads lead
ing through the farms and country districts and
after couple of hours brisk walking reached that
place. We found it in the very height of the fever
and it with a good deal of difficulty that we
prevailed upon the landlord of the inn to open his
doors and give us possession of the rooms we had
previously engaged.
This was certainly the most remarkable instance
OF pure panic | ever saw-and the most striking
feature OF it the rapditv with which it tincreas
ed in force and volume as it rolled along We
heard afterwards that it produced the most serious
results when it overlook the trains of wounded on
the road tn Brescia. They were tumbled beadlonp
from the carts into the roadside, and many of them
were run over by the artillery wagons, as they were
utterly concealed from sight by the dense clouds of
dust which hung over the road. OF its results at
Brescia our regular correspondent, who was on the
spot, will give detailed account. l have since
tried very hard to find out how it originated, bu
with only Indifferent success.
At first were told that a squadron of Pied
mOntese cavalry, who were promenading the coun
try in the direction of Castiglione, had been mis-
taken for Austrans. But an officer in the camp of
Gen. Canrobert which we visited the next day
upon the farthest extreme of the field of battlefield
us that it came from fUe Austrian soldiers who had
concealed themselves in the bushes after the fight
and now came in to surrender. They were said to
have stated that the Austrian army were rapidly
coming in full force, and would soon be in nos
session of Castiglione. In that camp no alarm seems
to have been created; but when the rumor reached
the ammunition train, mile so in the rear, it
set then scampering off in the manner | have re-
hearsed. They ran their horses all the way to
Brescia, some seventeen miles, and reached there
at about three o'clock. Why they did not commu-
nicate the alarm to the corps of Chasseurs d Afruue
through which they passed, or why their officers
did not pause for further inquiry are among the
mysteries of a stampede.
On reaching Brescia, as as they found out
that their alarm was groundless, they returned;
but as they were separated from their camp, they
were entirely without provisions of any kind and
reached Castigione on Sunday at noon both horses
and men completely exhausted. Several of the
former, indeed, had fallen in the traces and been
left behind on the road. As came out of the inn
where had been lunchng We saw three arti-
lerymen sitting upon the sidewalk-their horses
standing near-and all completely worn out
They told of the flight, and said they had eaten
nothing whatever since they left their camp on the
morning of the previous day, and that neither they
nor their horses could go a step further. They
had no money; nobody had offered them ANYTHING
to eat and it is not French soldiers habit ever to
ask favor from any one. We gave them money
enough to procure some food and they soon after
started on to join their corps.
do not suppose the French papers will say much
about this affair." and have therefore been more
particular in mentioning it. Soldiers certainly
are only men, and when not under the immediate
control of their officers, doubtless subject to all
the ordinary weaknesses of humanity. But it is
not credtable to the officers of the French army
that they should have permitted so idle fright to
produce such serious results-especialIy that they
themselves should have shared in the panic and led
injury was done, and many of the wounded sol
diers lost their lives by it. observe that the au-
thorities of the town of Brescia have published
notice calling all those who lost valuable arti-
ces in consequence of the alarm to apply for their