government is collecting documents to illustrate
the behaviour of the invading army. Europe
will be astonished when she reads; the
robberies, the outrages, the exactions, the wanton
pillage, the greed, and the cruel injustice
of these freebooters have no parallel in her
modern history. The country invaded is, in
their opinion, a country to be sacked and bled to
death. The Austrian corporals compel to labour,
with blows of the stick, the unhappy peasants
whom they tear from their homes; if the
peasants make their escape, the soldiers take the
women and children. All the hospitals and
other charitable establishments are despoiled of
their bedding and linen; any funds they may
possess, which are the property of the poor, are
seized as a matter of course. The soldiers are
especially greedy after linen, cloth, and leather.
All the sheets they can lay hands on, are
converted into shirts. One small market-town was
ordered to supply a thousand pieces of linen per
day for six days. At the end of the second day,
after all that could be found had been got
together, there was no more left. The Croat
commandant sent for the syndic, handsomely
gave him, as a great favour, a written pass, and
told him that at Pavia or Milan he would
find all the linen that his fellow townsmen
might want, to replace that which had been stolen
from them—by paying for it. Several other
illustrations of the lawless spirit of the invaders
are already passing current with the stamp of
authenticity plainly marked upon them.

The municipality of Vigevano have to
construct, at their own expense, a wooden bridge
over the Ticino, which will cost twelve
thousand pounds. More than two thousand
workmen labour at the task, which, nevertheless,
does not progress fast enough for the
enemy's liking. They therefore notify to the
persons employed by the town that if they do
not set on a larger number of labourers, they (the
Oestreichers) will force the gentry of the
neighbourhood to work at the bridge with their own
hands.—At Vercelli, General Benedek (a
misprint for Turpin) imposed a contribution of
twenty thousand pounds. The Banker Levi
obtained an audience of the brigand chief, and told
him that if he were not allowed to go to Milan,
Vercelli could never raise so large a sum. They
gave him a passport, and he went to Milan and
obtained the cash from Banker Mylins.—At
Voghera, everything is ravaged. The fields and
meadows are trodden underfoot and destroyed;
the vines and mulberry-trees are rooted up. All
communication is intercepted. People dare not
even attempt to escape, for fear of having a
bullet sent to fetch them back.—At Tortona, a
mounted hussar rode up to a watchmaker's shop.
Politely clapping a pistol to the breast of the
lady of the house, he requested she would have
the goodness to cause a gold watch to be handed
over to him.—The Archbishop of Vercelli went
to meet the enemy, hoping to soften them by
the voice of religion and charity. As soon as
the Austrian commandant perceived him, he
stretched out his arms in token of respect.
There appeared grounds for hope. But, as
soon as the invaders entered the town they
began their requisitions by seizing the archbishop's
horses.—When an Austrian soldier thinks fit to
purchase any article, he insists on paying for it
with bits of paper, which are of equal value with
French assignats. The seller, rather than
receive such rubbish, prefers to make the hero a
present of his wares. But, the noble warrior
urges the legal (forced) currency of his notes and
his fragments of notes, and at the same time
exacts a considerable amount of cash in the
shape of change. He thus contrives to buy
whatever takes his fancy, and comes out of the
shop a richer man, in coin, than when he entered
it.—In the neighbourhood of Novara, an
Austrian subaltern went to a small farmer's house,
offering to sell him a handsome cow for eighty
francs. The farmer thought himself highly
fortunate, and paid the money down. A few
minutes afterwards, a party of soldiers came and
carried off the newly purchased cow. Perhaps
the farmer was rightly served, as he must have
known the cow was stolen.—Another farmer,
who had a pretty wife, was in great consternation
at receiving a second visit from one and
the same Austrian acquaintance. "Don't be
alarmed," said the magnanimous trooper, "it
isn't your wife I want. I am only come for
your geese and your capons."—If it were never
worse than that! The young wife of a deputy
well known at Turin is dead, in consequence of
the indescribable treatment which she received
from a band of these barbarians. The officers
who command such troops expect to be considered
and addressed as gentlemen! There is no
resistance on the part of the inhabitants, nor the
excitement of victory to excuse such horrors,
which are simply the preliminaries before a blow
is struck. When the blow is stricken, deeds
will be done which the human mind can scarcely
imagine. Hatred of the Austrian has become
an hereditary passion in the Lombardo-Venetian
breast. There are nearly forty years of
unceasing and accumulated insult and spoliation to
avenge. A grey-haired landed proprietor, whose
domain is close to Vigevano, and who was
fortunately absent from home at the moment of the
invasion, said, "I have neither cattle in my
stables, nor corn in my barns, nor trees on my
land. All that is left me is my wife, my children,
and—the soil." And then he added, "I should
not complain if I were sure that this was the
last time."

Statements have been, and will continue to be,
put forth, to prove that savage brigands are the
mildest and the most considerate of men. But,
also, there are reports so excessively inconsistent
and improbable, that all the affidavits in the
world cannot obtain credence for them. Moreover,
it is difficult for war and truth to travel far
in company together. We must often judge by
comparison, and deduce, from what is done there,
what is likely to be perpetrated here. An
invaded country cannot expect much forbearance,
when we know that at Milan—in what is called
the Austrian dominions, where the people are