They had, I think all of them, their muskets in their hands, but held them idly and with apparently no thought whatever of using them.

I felt confirmed in my opinion that they had no intention of doing so.
Arrived at the foot of the fortress wall, the foremost of the people began calling out to the soldiers, "_Abbasso l'Austria! Siete per Italia o per l'Austria ?_" I did not--and it is significant--hear any cries of "_Abbasso il Gran Duca!_" The soldiers, as far as I could see at that distance, appeared to be lazily laughing at the people.
One man called out "_Ecco un bel muro per fracassare il capo contro!_"-- "That is an excellent wall to break your heads against!" It was very plain that they had no intention of making any hostile demonstration against the crowd.

At the same time there was no sort of manifestation of any inclination to fraternise with the revolutionists.

They were simply waiting to see how matters would go; and under the circumstances they can hardly be severely blamed for doing so.

But there can be no doubt that, whichever way things might go, their view of the matter would be strongly influenced by the very decided opinion that that course would be best which should not imply the necessity for _doing_ anything.