Italy.
* Vicenza. The A. A. Z. carries an Austrian letter from Verona on the capture of Vicenza, from which it once again emerges with what cheap bravery the Austrians fight in Italy: “At 12 o’clock on the 10th the attack on the town and on the Monte della Madonna which commands it was undertaken. The struggle for this position lasted long and cost many sacrifices. The enemy, recognising that possession of this height was decisive, had fortified it strongly; papal Swiss troops and the élite of the Crociati defended themselves there stubbornly until, after a six-hour engagement, pressed ever harder by the repeated storming of our troops, by the vigorous fire of the Congreve rockets, they withdrew into the town. The latter had been prepared for the most stubborn defence; more than 80 barricades, many batteries were supposed to come into action; street fighting was therefore out of the question; the artillery could, and had to, act alone here. The cannonade, the bomb and rocket fire lasted until 9 o’clock in the evening.” The heroic Austrians are always the same wherever they are. Street fighting is the last thing they think of. They prefer to station themselves far from the shot, behind safe entrenchments, and to fire the town in flames, as they have done with almost all the Italian towns. But for that they boast all the more after they have brought off this unbecoming feat of heroism by means of Congreve incendiary rockets, which no other nation has used since 1813 except the Austrians. The correspondent has just himself described the bravery of the Italians and the cowardly barbarism of the Austrians. But now, after they have victoriously marched into burned-down Vicenza—now he boasts: “The marching out (of the Italians) offered an amusing spectacle; such a hotchpotch, such a sample card of uniforms and fancy costumes will seldom be seen, any more than such packs of immature lads and dissolute wenches ... our loss is considerable.”—And this hotchpotch, this sample card, these packs of immature lads withstood a three-to-one superior, “well-disciplined”, “brave”, “laurel-covered” Austrian army for six hours! These immature lads seem to have ripened very quickly in the hot fire of the Austrian incendiary rockets, since the Austrians did not venture to try street fighting with them.
The Italian newspapers likewise bring reports on the capture of Vicenza that allow us to check the Austrian letters of the A. A. Z. According to the A. A. Z. the Italians lost 2,000–2,500 men; according to Italian newspapers only 500, which, given their entrenched position, is also much more probable. The attack began not at midday, as the A. A. Z. writes, but early in the morning. It was not until towards midday that the first barricade was lost. At that time the Austrian artillery began to deploy its full force. By 2 o’clock the Monte della Madonna was lost. Colonels Azeglio and Cialdini were wounded here. Over 50 cannon bombarded the town; four batteries stood on the mountain, yet the enemy could not force their way in, although they approached the barricades to within a few paces. The bombardment lasted fifteen hours; finally the besieged ran out of ammunition, and Durando obtained a most honourable capitulation. General d’Aspre was full of praise for the brave defence of Vicenza.
The Milanese government declares in its bulletin: “The fall of Vicenza is a great loss, but a replaceable one. The army of Charles Albert still holds its strong positions, which it could not abandon without first cutting the enemy’s communication with Tyrol. Verona will decide the war; the great battle will probably soon be decided on its plains. Once Verona is taken, all the Venetian towns are ours. It is a great misfortune that we have been deprived of the papal corps; but in a short time the loss will be made good by our regular and volunteer corps, which are preparing to go where the danger is greatest. The government feels the great duties which are imposed upon it just now; it will know how to fulfil them.” The Lombard government is right. The mighty feats of the Austrians against the open towns in the Adige plain are of absolutely no significance. In a few days the Italians will prove to them that such towns can be taken without incendiary rockets.
* Rovigo, June 16. The replacement for Durando’s troops, which have been withdrawn from the struggle, is already here. Today General Pepe issued an army order here, according to which in three days 2 dragoon regiments, one lancer regiment, nine battalions of infantry, two volunteer battalions, one battery of artillery, one company of sappers—the part of the Neapolitan army that has remained true to the Italian cause—are immediately to cross the Po and concentrate on Rovigo.
Naples, June 5. The local Sicilians have been ordered by their police commissioners to leave the city within three days. What a disgrace! (Contemporaneo.)
† From the Brenner, June 17. “Treviso is occupied by Welden, and without loss on our side. The garrison of 5,000 men has withdrawn under an unbelievably mild capitulation. That this was not granted out of Welden’s philanthropy will be believed by anyone who knows Welden. This, as well as Radetzky’s mild procedure at Vicenza, seems to have been prompted by higher instruction, and might give rise to the opinion that it is intended to keep the Venetian kingdom at peace, and therefore to let clemency towards the lost sons on their return to the paternal house prevail.”
Thus writes the A. A. Z. “Mild procedure” it calls the “twelve-hour stupefying bombardment” of Treviso (Army Report No. 10 of Archduke John), mild procedure the seven-hour bombardment of Padua, the fifteen-hour one of Vicenza! One town after another in the Venetian territory is fired in flames with Congreve rockets, and the paid Austrian Allgemeine speaks of “mildness and clemency”!
Padua. According to commercial letters from Milan of the 16th and according to the A. A. Z., the Austrians have marched in here. On this occasion the A. A. Z. has its Austrian Landstürmer write from Verona that Radetzky and Welden had “by a manoeuvre from May 30 to June 14 dispersed and annihilated the Neapolitan and Tuscan positions near Mantua—ten thousand men” (!) after which heroic feat the two great commanders could of course do nothing better than hastily withdraw to Vicenza and try their courage against Durando’s weak corps. That this “dispersal” and “annihilation” is a pure invention of the Landstürmer goes without saying.
Venice, June 13. The A. A. Z. writes: The government of Venice has turned to the French Republic and requested its intervention in the struggle with Austria. Thus, what Charles Albert has hitherto carefully avoided, Venice has done—hardly to the best advantage of its freedom.