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

138 MILITARY LIFE.
lighted with the straw of the tents, to take off the dampness
contracted in sleeping on the ground. Every thing else was
in darkness.
Suddenly a loud beating of drums is heard ;
then silence
follows. The companies face about, each in turn ;
the first
lines move, and the regiment starts. After passing a narrow
little bridge over the ditch which separates
the field from the
road, the lines close up, and a mass of lights are seen moving
now forward, now backward, according to the motion of the
crowd, and start up two by two, extend on the sides of the
straight road in a double line, and little by little sink in the
distance into
two luminous streaks which wind and undulate
like two great reins of fire shaken at the end of the column.
On they march, and for a short time is heard a subdued
chatting, which gradually dies away into profound silence,
broken only by the rough voices of the officers who grumble,
" " Order ! every time that, casting their sleepy eyes on the
soldiers nearest the lanterns, they discover a little falling
apart
or crowding in the lines. All the others are silent. Nothing
is audible but the dragging noise of the foot-falls, and the monotonous
clinking of the tin boxes, which keep time to the
measured tread.
As the silence increases, sleep (that tormenting and terrible
companion of nocturnal marches) begins to take possession of
all. Unfortunate he who is seized by No it former ! rest, nor
chat with friend, nor strong liquor, nor effort of will can conquer
it ;
he must give up to it entirely.
Look at that officer in the middle of the road.
He has been
struggling with sleep for more than an hour but now his ;
eyelids,
trembling and heavy, are closing irresistibly ;
his knees are