especial sense the head of the army. So much the better for him he comes out of the campaign so much stronger in the eye of France. But the condition of his ruling the army is that he shall also feed it, and we all know that a French army lives not by bread alone, but by glory. The Emperor must find work for the army; and be his intentions the best possible, he has shown distinctly enough during the present year, that he is not absolutely free to carry out his intentions. There is a brute force erected in France of which we must all beware, as we would beware of a mad bull. We must be prepared for it, because we know not which way it may turn, and whom it is going to attack; but neither need we be frightened at it, since the result of the present war may be taken as a measure of the French power. Louis Napoleon has gained advantages but not victories over the Austrians; he has lost for ever the ill-judged confidence with which the extreme Liberals throughout Europe seemed for a time inclined to repose in him; he has confessed his inability to contend against Austria backed by Germany; he has returned to France with a sense of irritation which will goad him on to another war, but also with a sense of his deficiencies which will suggest caution, which will compel him to make the most tremendous preparations for his next enterprise, and which will set his neighbours on the alert to be prepared likewise. One point we have not mentioned. He has turned his weakness to account by making peace with Francis Joseph on terms more favourable, according to the view of the Austrian monarch, than even his allies could have procured for him; and it is therefore presumed that Napoleon has, by a happy stroke, secured the alliance, or, at least, the neutrality of his enemy, in any future operations which it may seem advisable to pursue. Of this, we are by no means certain. A coalition of the three Emperors of Russia, Austria, and France-would be indeed dangerous to the peace of Europe, and it is quite possible. But an alliance between Frenchmen and Austrians must always be hollow. It will be strange indeed if the Emperor Francis Joseph break with Prussia and with England, in order to bolster up a delusive friendship with Louis Napoleon. All Europe now learns that the French Emperor is a firebrand in the West, and that no country is safe from French troops. There must be a lamentable want of foresight among our statesmen, if by a coalition. of the European powers favourable to peace, the French army does not find itself vapouring in front of an opposition which it is vain to withstand.

What Englishmen seem to be most afraid of is the invasion of England; and what foreigners seem to think the most threatening danger is an attack upon the Rhenish provinces. Both of these

dangers are upon the cards; but we confess that it is not in either of these directions that we look for the cloud of war. Louis Napoleon certainly will not enter upon the next war single handed, or with but a dwarf like the King of Sardinia at his side. He will not go into it except with the moral and the physical strength which a coalition will afford. But we extremely doubt whether he could form any coalition the primary object of which would be either the invasion of England or an attack upon the Rhine; and either of these enterprises is so vast, that it could scarcely be made a secondary object in any concerted plan of operations. Of the two, the invasion of England would seem to be politically the more likely, though strategically the more difficult; and we are not without hope that the Government, sufficiently alive to the danger, is actively engaged in placing our defences in such readiness as to convince the enemy that they stand but a poor chance on the shores of our island home. We would not speak lightly of the danger that threatens us in this way. There it is, and we know not how soon it may overtake us. Let us be prepared. Let us see if we cannot, by military training at home, and coalitions abroad, avert the possibility of such an event. But let us look to the real difficulty. What does Russia want, and why does she enter into a close compact with France? For what common object can we conceive the three Emperors, of Russia, France, and Austria, uniting their forces? There is but one-the dismemberment of the Turkish Empire, and the partition of the Mediterranean. At the Congress of Paris it was mainly through the apathy of Napoleon that the condition of Italy, which was made a subject of discussion by the Count Cavour, was ignored until, a few years later, he discovered that the time for discussion had at length arrived, and that his conclusions must be definitely enforced by the sword. So while in 1854 he had decreed against the Emperor Nicholas that the time of "the sick man" had not come, he may discover in a few months that his end is approaching, and that it may be as well to make a division of the spoil. What are the actual arrangements to which it is possible that the three Powers may agree, of course we cannot divine; and with Austria jealous for the right of way on the Danube, perhaps the triple alliance would have considerable difficulty in arriving at a satisfactory conclusion. However this be, England must keep her eye upon Egypt, the highway to India. She cannot afford to lose her hold upon the Mediterranean. The next move of France may be on the Rhenish frontier, or it may be to invade England; but the most likely point of attack is the Overland route the most probable object of Napoleon's ambition, the extension of French territory or of French influence along the African coast, from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Isthmus of Suez.

V.

THE PLAINS OF LOMBARDY THE BATTLE-GROUND OF NATIONS.

Ir is a melancholy fact that the richest and fairest spots on earth's surface are also those where human blood has been most frequently and lavishly shed. What waves of invasion have successively rolled over the fertile plains of Persia and Hindostan, the prolific valley of the Nile, the fruitful provinces of Asia Minor, Turkey, and Hungary! What battles, what sieges, what massacres, almost from the birth of history, have drenched their soil with gore! Andalusia, too-the garden of Spain-was for eight centuries the battle-ground of Christian and Moor, whose blood, according to the Spanish historians, was poured forth in 3700 battles. But, perhaps, no country has been more blessed by the gifts of God, or more cursed by the strife of man, than the wide and beautiful plains of Lombardy, guarded by Alp and Apennine, a very garden in fertility, watered by innumerable streams, and with a thousand towns and villages glittering like sails amidst a sea of verdure. It has been the battle-field of nations, from the time when Bellovesus, nearly six centuries before Christ, led his Celtic legions across the Alps, until yesterday, when the French and Austrian eagles were striving for supremacy. Romans and Cimbri, Goths and Romans, Lombards and Franks, Germans and Italians, French, Spaniards and Swiss, Austrians and French, have again and again met in deadly strife on these wide-spread plains, and have been successively swept down, in bloody swathes, by the scythe of the grim mower Death.

Many a grand and warlike figure, many a tale of suffering, and cruelty, and wrong, many a heroic action, present themselves to our view as we try to recall a few of the more important battles and episodes of battle of which these Lombard plains have been the theatre; and it may not be uninteresting, in the present crisis of their destiny, to glance at some of the more momentous struggles that have marked their past history.

On the 30th of July, one hundred and one years B.C., a desperate and bloody combat, and one productive of most important results, was fought on the dusty plains of Vercellæ. On one side

were Marius and Catulus at the head of the Roman legions, the defenders of civilization; on the other, the savage hordes of the Cimbri, the champions of barbarism. The former had little more than 50,000 men, while the Cimbric infantry were drawn up in a vast square, each side of which extended for more than a league, and the warriors of the front rank were joined together by cords passing through their belts, in order to prevent their line from being broken. Besides this enormous mass of infantry, there were 15,000 cavalry, whose steel breastplates, white and glittering shields, and plumed helmets, made a glorious show as they rode forth into the plain. The heat of the weather, and the clouds of dust raised by the shock of the hostile armies, fought for the Romans, who were trained to endurance, while their antagonists, bred in shady and frozen countries, and proof against the severest cold, could not bear the ardour of the Italian sun which shone full in their faces. In spite of this, however, they made a gallant resistance, and the strife was long and doubtful, though, in the end, the star of Rome triumphed. Bogorine, one of the bravest princes of the Cimbri, died sword in hand, and around him fell 90,000 of his followers and comrades; 60,000 were taken prisoners, and many killed themselves in despair. Even their women made a noble stand behind the waggons which formed the Cimbric camp, slaying those who fled, and, at length, when all resistance was hopeless, destroying their children and killing themselves. This victory rescued Italy from the grasp of the barbarians, and procured for Marius the title of "The Third Founder of Rome, in the beginning of the fifth century."

Nearly three hundred years after the destruction of the Cimbri, the German tribe of the Allemanni made an irruption into Italy, with 40,000 horse and 80,000 foot, and, at Placentia and Lombardy, inflicted so terrible a defeat on the Romans, under the Emperor Aurelian, that the dissolution of the empire was apprehended. That gallant leader, however, reanimated the courage of his troops, and defeated the Allemanni in two subsequent engagements, in the last of which, fought near Pavia, the Germans were almost exterminated.

In the beginning of the fourth century after Christ, Constantine the Great, during his campaign against his rival Maxentius, besieged Verona, then, as now, one of the strongest cities of Lombardy, and, in a bloody battle, which lasted during the close of day and through the whole night, defeated and killed Ruv.ers Pompeianus, the ablest general of Maxentius, who had come to the relief of the beleaguered city.

A hundred years later, Alaric, at the head of a number of German tribes, and of his confederates the Allemanni, poured

over the Alps into Italy. There he was encountered by Stilicho, the accomplished general of the weak Emperor Honorius, who, at Pollentia, twenty-five miles south-east of Turin, and at Verona, entirely defeated him. At Verona the Gothic king owed his escape solely to the fleetness of his horse. At this period the Goths had embraced Christianity; and, at Pollentia, Stilicho took advantage of their devotion to surprise them while engaged in celebrating Easter Sunday, entrusting the attack to Saul, a barbarian and pagan, but a veteran leader. The invaders were put to flight, their camp stormed, and Alaric's wife, who had impatiently claimed his promise of Roman jewels and patrician handmaids, was taken prisoner. Pollentia is about sixty miles from the plains where Marius so terribly defeated the Cimbri.

A sterner and a mightier presence succeeds that of AlaricAttila, surnamed the Scourge of God. A Gothic historian describes him as having a large head, a swarthy complexion, small, deepseated eyes, a flat nose, a few hairs in the place of a beard, broad shoulders, and a short square body, of nervous strength, though of disproportioned form. Yet, with all this ugliness, he possessed much majesty of demeanour, and an air which expressed the consciousness of superiority over the rest of mankind. Along with the terrible king of the Huns comes a nobler and more graceful shade that of his antagonist and conqueror Etius, thus depicted by a contemporary historian. "The graceful figure of Etius was not above the middle stature; but his manly limbs were admirably formed for strength, beauty, and agility, and he excelled in the martial exercises of managing a horse, drawing the bow, and darting the javelin. He could patiently endure the want of food and sleep, and his mind and body were alike capable of the most laborious efforts. He possessed the genuine courage that can despise not only dangers but injuries; and it was impossible either to corrupt, or deceive, or intimidate the firm integrity of his soul." About the middle of the fifth century Attila invaded Italy, sending, by his ministers, to the weak grandson of Theodosius at Ravenna, the haughty mandate, "Attila, my lord and thy lord, commands thee to provide a palace for his immediate reception." Attila's ravages wasted the rich plains of Lombardy. He stormed and sacked some of its principal towns, and received the submission and the gold of others. It is related of him, that when he took possession of the imperial palace at Milan, he was surprised and offended at the sight of a picture which represented the Cæsars seated on their thrones, and the princes of Scythia prostrate at their feet. Upon which, he commanded a painter to reverse the figures and the attitudes; and the emperors were delineated, on the same canvas, approaching in a suppliant

VOL. II.

M