Page:Cesare Battisti and the Trentino.djvu/43

 A few days after the execution of Cesare Battisti, a young Trentino lieutenant aviator, Baron Vittorio Emanuele a Prato, flying low over the Castello at Trento, amid a storm of bullets, let fall on the grave a huge wreath of flowers tied with a ribbon on which was the dedication: "To the martyr-hero, who will be glorified by redeemed Trento in the near future of our liberation."

The day of liberation was not yet near, but it came. Italy deserved it, and won it by her struggles, her sacrifices and her bravery without end.

At the battle of the Piave, begun on October 22nd, fifty-three Italian divisions, aided by three British divisions, two French divisions, one Czecho-Slovak division and one American regiment against seventy-three very efficient Austrian divisions, Italy victoriously occupied Trento on November 3rd, before the signing of the armistice.

A few days later, when King Victor Emanuel III, entered Trento, and received the local authorities in the city hall, he was approached by a young aspirant lieutenant in the Alpine Corps. The young man was Gigino Battisti, son of the martyr. The King embraced him as a beloved son. Later His Majesty gave to the memory of Cesare Battisti the highest reward for bravery, the golden medal.

Cesare Battisti has already attained immortality in the hearts of all Italians. His martyrdom represents the greatest moral defeat of Austria; on the other hand, it represents Italy's most sublime aspirations.

But the people of Trentino will always keenly feel his loss. He was an integral part of the country, which he knew in all its aspects; he had walked its rugged dales so often, he had studied it so well. Battisti alone knew how to reveal with the touch of a master the innermost and most lovable feelings of our mountaineers. He was a counsellor as well as a leader of men, and possessed the grit that knows no defeat. Nobody can recall a word of discouragement whose utterance adverse circumstances may have justified. Page forty-one