Ten thousand of the dead covered the ground.
Neither party had taken a single standard or a single prisoner, an event
almost unparalleled in the history of battles. From the utter exhaustion
of both parties the strife ceased. The Sardinians and French, mangled
and bleeding, retired within the walls of Parma. The Austrians, equally
bruised and bloody, having lost their leader, retired to Reggio. Three
hundred and forty of the Austrian officers were either killed or
wounded.
The King of Sardinia was absent during this engagement, having gone to
Turin to visit his wife, who was sick. The morning after the battle,
however, he joined the army, and succeeded in cutting off an Austrian
division of twelve hundred men, whom he took prisoners. Both parties now
waited for a time to heal their wounds, repair their shattered weapons,
get rested and receive reinforcements. Ten thousand poor peasants, who
had not the slightest interest in the quarrel, had now met with a bloody
death, and other thousands were now to be brought forward and offered as
victims on this altar of kingly ambition. By the middle of July they
were again prepared to take the field. Both parties struggled with
almost superhuman energies in the work of mutual destruction; villages
were burned, cities stormed, fields crimsoned with blood and strewn with
the slain, while no decisive advantage was gained.
Pages:
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593