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

100 MILITARY LIFE.
powerful shout burst from the
thousand mouths of the multitude
;
the carriage passed, and the soldiers turned back. . . .
But the entire aspect of the camp was instantly changed ;
faith
and hope seemed revived ;
no one entered the tents ;
on all
sides there rose and lasted until evening a tumult full of gaiety
and life. The bands played marches again ;
the dear old friends
of our enthusiasms and our hearts experienced for a moment
the sublime intoxication of the days before. 'Oh we will
fight still !
'
we said ;
'
we will fight still !
" "
Who was in that carriage
? asked Carluccio, with intense
' "
curiosity.
" The king."
IX.
Finally Carluccio got up, and the came day the physician
held the following conversation with us :
"
My dear gentlemen, I feel bound to tell you that this boy
ought to return home. He is cured but the
; slightest overexertion
may prove fatal. Perhaps if peace
is declared within
a few days, we shall turn our backs on Venice, go to Ferrara,
from Ferrara, heaven only knows where ;
we shall be obliged
to accept the trifle of a fifteen or twenty days' march, and even
more, and it is impossible that this boy should follow us ;
he
needs quiet and repose, and not to march seven hours a day,
and sleep on the ground.
This is not the life for a boy who is
convalescent ;
therefore. . . . You must provide something
else."
And he left us. We thought the subject over for some
time, but no matter how much we tried to get away from what
the physician had said, we could find no good reason for oppos-