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

CARMELA. 149
two centimes apiece, dressed just as his fancy dictated, without
any annoyances, or superior officers, and as quiet and contented
as a man could well be. Only one thing
there was to trouble
him, and that, the thought that such a delightful life could only
last three months.
The town is on the sea-shore, and has a small harbor, near
which a postal steamer, plying between Tunis and Trapana,
stopped once in fifteen days. It was very rarely that any other
boats touched there. So rare indeed was this occurrence, that
the appearance of a ship headed in that direction was announced
to the town by the ringing of the church bell, and a
good portion of the population rushed to the shore, as they
would have done to some spectacle.
The appearance of the place is very modest, but gay and
smiling ; especially in the large square in its centre, which, as
in all villages, is to the populace what a court-yard would be
to the people living in the same house in a city. This square
is
joined to the shore by the principal street, which is
narrow, and a stone's-throw in length.
straight,
All the shops and public
offices are in the square. There are, or at least, there were,
at that time, two cafes : one frequented by the syndic and
other authorities and gentlemen ;
the other by
the common
The house occupied by the commander of the detach-
people.
ment was situated on the side of the square toward the sea, and
as the ground rises considerably from the shore to the centre
of the town, from the windows of his
room (there were two of
them) one could see the port, a long stretch of the shore,
the sea, and the distant mountains of Sicily.
The island is all volcanic mountains, and great, thick
resinous
groves.