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

1 44 MlLI TA R Y LIFE,
face and shrivels the skin keeps on blowing.
" Heavens ! how
cold it is when one stands still! it makes one shiver." The
lanterns are all extinguished ;
an Egyptian darkness reigns.
Who knows in what confusion these rascals may be marching !
It 's
lucky for them that they cannot be seen."
After a half hour's silent march, some man begins
to distinguish
far, far away, a little trembling light, which disappears
now and then and reappears like a fire-fly. " What can it be ?
Let 's
go on, on, a little farther, another bit." The small light
disappears no longer
it seems
; larger and burns more brightly.
" "
Do you see it ?" It 's the lantern at the head of the regiment."
No, no, it 's a town." But what place
" " "
!
On, on,
on, we go. " Ah ! . . . You are right, it is a place." The rumor
spieads those dozing rouse themselves the ; ; sleepers wake ;
a
little whisper starts "
up. Heaven be praised ;
here are the
houses, the principal street, and we have entered."
The hour is late ;
the streets are almost deserted, the tread
of the regiment resounds distinctly in that solitude, and a
whispering is heard on the right and left in those dark and
crooked streets. Small ugly houses here and there, all closed
and barred, as if it were an abandoned village. But as we
proceed, to the left and right, on the ground-floor some little
doors half open so that we see the hearths gleaming inside, or the
head of some half-dressed woman stuck timidly out ;
the children
run to the threshhold, and in the upper stories now and then a
curtain is raised, a light shines through, and behind the windowpanes
appears a dark figure which looks down to see what this
unusual commotion means. . . . Ah !
that black figure
may have just sprung from the bed, where it was sleeping, and
it will -soon go back to resume delightfully its quiet, gentle