Both sides now set to work on Italy. It was plain that all the sympathies of the Italian people were with France and England. The six grandsons of Garibaldi formed an Italian regiment and volunteered for fighting on the French lines. Two of them were killed, and at their funerals in Rome, nearly all the inhabitants of the city turned out and showed plainly that they too would like to be fighting on the side of France.
You will remember that Italy wanted very much to gain the provinces of Trentino and Istria, with the cities of Trent, Trieste (trï ĕs′te), Pola (pō′lä), and Fiume (fē ū′me), all inhabited by Italian people. The possession of these counties and cities by Austria had been the greatest source of trouble between the two nations. Italy now came out boldly, and demanded, as the price of her keeping out of the war, that Austria give to her this land inhabited by Italians. Germany urged Austria to do this, and sent as her special ambassador, to keep Italy from joining her enemies, Prince von Bulow, whose wife was an Italian lady, and who was very popular with the Italian statesmen.
For months, von Bulow argued and pleaded, first trying to induce Italy to accept a small part of the disputed territory and then, when he found this impossible, doing his best to induce Austria to give it all. Austria was stubborn. She did not take kindly to the plan of giving away her cities. She offered to cede some territory if Italy should wait until the end of the war.
This did not satisfy Italy. She was by no means certain that Austria and Germany were going to win the war and was even less sure that Austria would be willing, in case of her victory, to give up a foot of territory. It seemed to the Italian statesmen that it was “now or never” if Italy wished to get within her kingdom all of her own people. In the month of May 1915 Italy threw herself into the struggle by declaring war on Austria and entering an alliance with Russia, France, and England.
[Illustration: Russian peasants fleeing before the German army]
Meanwhile, the Russians were having difficulties. They had millions and millions of men, but not enough rifles to equip them all. They had plenty of food but very little ammunition for their cannon. Austria and Germany, on the other hand, had been manufacturing shot and shells in enormous quantities, and from the month of May, when the Russians had crossed the Carpathian Mountains and were threatening to pour down on Buda-Pest and Vienna, they drove them steadily back until the first of October, forcing them to retreat nearly three hundred miles.