Dazed by the demand, and seeing only the victorious chief and not the smallness of his detachment, 4,000 Austrians surrendered to 1,200 French, or rather to the address and audacity of one master-mind.
Elated by this augury of further victory, the republicans prepared for the decisive blow.

Wuermser, though checked on August 3rd, had been so far reinforced from Mantua as still to indulge hopes of driving the French from Castiglione and cutting his way through to rescue Quosdanovich.

He was, indeed, in honour bound to make the attempt; for the engagement had been made, with the usual futility that dogged the Austrian councils, to reunite their forces and _fight the French on the 7th of August_.

These cast-iron plans were now adhered to in spite of their dislocation at the hands of Bonaparte and Augereau.

Wuermser's line stretched from near the village of Medole in a north-easterly direction across the high-road between Brescia and Mantua; while his right wing was posted in the hilly country around Solferino.