while purchasing fruit in the market? You
cannot tell, for the life of you. Casteggio (on
the high road from Genoa to Milan), Montebello,
and many other much-mentioned names, would
be dismissed by the unstrategetic tourist, who
has had his fill of better things, as country
towns unworthy of note.

Tortona is screened by magnificent chesnut-
trees. A river runs through a verdant valley, a
little capriciously, a little vagabondishly, here
nibbling a bit off a meadow, and there
leaving a bank of gravel and sand. The
banks are fringed with trembling willows and
upright poplars. Tortona, once fortified,
commanded the road from Alessandria to Piacenza.
Founded by Brennus, it was burnt by Frederick
Barbarossa, and sustained several memorable
sieges, now forgotten. At present it is an open
unfortified town, which has no other importance
in a military point of view than what it derives
from its bridge (of course), situated on the
Serivia—for all these troublesome streams have
names. When the Austrians retreated from
Tortona lately, they tried to blow up this bridge,
in order to arrest the march of the allied troops;
but, whether they were pressed for time, or
whether their mine was badly managed, the only
injury done was to a portion of the parapet,
which has since been repaired. Of course the
gates of Voghera also are overshadowed by
magnificent chesnut-trees. It is a town of
fourteen thousand inhabitants, is lighted with
gas, and has a bridge over the Staffora. Same
landscape as before; glorious country; a perfect
garden; a little river, in which the soldiers
perform their ablutions, and thick-foliaged beech-
trees, under which they repose half-dressed, without
repeating, as they ought, Virgil's " Tityre,
tu patulæ recubans sub tegmine fagi."

War gives life to what is otherwise dull,
when it does not deal death to what would
otherwise continue lively. Alessandria is generally
inclined to be most horribly dull. Note
that squares in Italy are called Piazzas. The
Covent-garden Piazza is a sad misnomer. The
Grand Piazza of Alessandria is a vast square, with
a double row of handsome trees running round it.
On the side opposite to the Strada Larga (Broad-
street) is the Royal Palace, an immense and
sombre edifice of brick and stone. When you
face the Palace, the large red building to the
right, with green shutters, is the Theatre.
Under the trees, a multitude of shopkeepers
have pitched their tents, for the sale of all sorts
of little necessaries, indispensable to people
going to the wars: such as paper, scissors,
cutlery, thread, needles, braces, brushes, combs,
and other useful travelling companions. The cafés
are thronged (temporarily) with customers, and
have made enough in a fortnight to keep them
a year. In the morning, the Piazza (temporarily)
is a market-place; at noon, it is a military
parade; in the evening, it is a rendezvous for all
the soldiers of all the French and Sardinian
troops. As at Casale, the churches are taken
possession of for the regiments of the service.
One is converted into a storehouse for hay;
another is full of tubs of coffee (ready roasted)
and boxes of sugar; another has its nave and
choir replenished with biscuit; another is a
manutention, or general depôt. When a hundred
and fifty thousand men are out campaigning
it is not a little that will keep them going. They
must have mountains of clothes, food, utensils,
carriages, and arms, which must be husbanded
carefully when there are projects of entering an
enemy's territory. Alessandria has a bridge
over the Tanaro.

Casale, reached by rail from Alessandria, has
been refortified in modern times, in accordance
with its military importance, and is situated on
the right bank of the Po, at the junction of the
roads from Milan and Piacenza, respectively, to
Turin. The right and the left banks of rivers are
distinguished by turning your back on their
source and facing the point where they discharge
themselves into the sea. Supposing the Thames
to be the river in question; you stand on
Westminster-bridge and look towards Margate:
Lambeth will be on the right bank, the city of
Westminster on the left. In the sixteenth and
seventeenth century, Casale was one of the
strongest fortresses in Europe, and the possession
of which, with that of Mantua and Pignerol,
gave the possession of Italy. It has stood many
sieges. Its fortifications were destroyed in
1696, at the peace of Ryswick. Casale has a
bridge over the Po. Vercelli is a town of no
more than twenty-one thousand inhabitants, with
a bridge over the Sesia. The reported brutality
of the Austrians during their occupation is
unfortunately no calumny. Besides the contributions
of war levied on the population, comprising
such articles as wheat, rice, meal, barley, hay,
straw, and so on, they were compelled to
perform manual labour; those who dared to show
signs of refusal were immediately maltreated by
the soldiery, who were complete masters of the
place. The inquiries made at Vercelli, after the
departure of the Austrians, have shown that
the amount of the requisitions they made, in
the course of their stay, is no less than a
couple of million francs, or eighty thousand
pounds. Gyulai took up his quarters in the
archiepiscopal palace of Vercelli; at his departure,
Napoleon III. succeeded him, occupying
the same apartments, eating at the same table,
and in all probability sleeping in the same bed.
It would be satisfactory to know which of the
two had the pleasanter dreams or the frightfuller
nightmares.

The battle, or rather the affair, of Montebello
(the first engagement of the present war, but the
second battle of the name, and which has already
conferred a ducal title), appears to have arisen
from a casual incident. Some National Guards
belonging to Casteggio had barricaded themselves
in the village, and so repulsed with fire-arms a
strong patrol of Austrians, who sent a column to
punish the refractory Piedmontese. The
Piedmontese cavalry then came up to help their
fellow-countrymen, who, attacked by an
infinitely superior force, were in turn supported by
the French division of General Forey. By an