Military life in Italy : sketches - Societa italiana di storia militare

92 MILITARY LIFE.
derstood, about the Italian cause, and quite anxious to make
friends with the "brave " officers of the Italian army,
sort of people, whose goodness of
excellent
heart showed in their faces,
and who every day, before taking leave, never neglected to repeat
most emphatically that with soldiers like ours the fortress
of Malghera could be taken with an assault of bayonets.
" " But believe us," we said, the thing is not as easy as it
" "
seems to you ! Oh," they replied, smiling with much dignity,
the dash of the Italian soldier . . ." And they
"
finished
the phrase with a gesture which signified : they could
perform many other miracles.
The conversation ended unfortunately by always falling upon
the battle of Custoza, regarding which these two gentlemen had
a most pitiless amount of curiosity.
" When you think of it, a retreat must be a very sad sight ! "
the counsellor was wont to remark, in a melancholy tone.
"
Listen," my good friend Albert replied to him one evening
(this Albert was one of the most impetuous and dramatic talkers
in the regiment); "it is a trial in comparison with which the
loss of our fondest hopes and the greatest disappointments of
our life are as nothing, and this is the sorrow that filled our
souls that evening. ... In the morning we were happy,
wild with joy, filled with an enthusiasm that brought tears
our eyes and made us break out into the maddest shouts, so
impatient were we for the battle, so sure of conquering;
and a few hours later behold the army so full of youth, life,
and daring, that army idolized by the country, the fruit of so
many sacrifices, the object of so much care, the
to
subject of so
much trepidation and so many hopes ;
a few hours later, conquered,
disordered, and wandering over the country like a dis-