the decree for the formation of the fourth army corps was signed by the
king yesterday. This corps is that of Garibaldi, and is about 40,000
strong. An officer who has just returned from Milan told me this morning
that he had had an opportunity of speaking with the Austrian prisoners
sent from Milan to the fortress of Finestrelle in Piedmont. Amongst them
was an officer of a uhlan regiment, who had all the appearance of
belonging to some aristocratic family of Austrian Poland. Having been
asked if he thought Austria had really gained the battle on the 24th, he
answered: 'I do not know if the illusions of the Austrian army go so far
as to induce it to believe it has obtained a victory--I do not believe
it. He who loves Austria cannot, however, wish she should obtain such
victories, for they are the victories of Pyrrhus!

There is at Verona some element in the Austrian councils of war which we
don't understand, but which gives to their operations in this present
phase of the campaign just as uncertain and as vacillating a character as
it possessed during the campaign of 1859. On Friday they are still
beyond the Mincio, and on Saturday their small fleet on the Lake of Garda
steams up to Desenzano, and opens fire against this defenceless city and
her railway station, whilst two battalions of Tyrolese sharp-shooters
occupy the building. On Sunday they retire, but early yesterday they
cross the Mincio, at Goito and Monzambano, and begin to throw two bridges
over the same river, between the last-named place and the mills of Volta.
At the same time they erect batteries at Goito, Torrione, and Valeggio,
pushing their reconnoitring parties of hussars as far as Medole,
Castiglione delle Stiviere, and Montechiara, this last-named place being
only at a distance of twenty miles from Brescia. Before this news
reached me here this morning I was rather inclined to believe that they
were playing at hide-and-seek, in the hope that the leaders of the
Italian army should be tempted by the game and repeat, for the second