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

MILITARY LIFE.
A MIDSUMMER MARCH.
IT was a beautiful day in August not a cloud was to be
;
seen,
nor was there a breath of wind stirring ;
the air was still and
burning.
The road along which the regiment was marching was
broad, straight, long, and seemingly endless,
and covered with
a very fine dust, which rose in clouds, forcing itself into the eyes,
mouth, and under one's clothes, and whitening the beard and
hair. On the right and left of the road were neither trees, bushes,
not a palm's breadth of shade, nor a drop of water. The
country was dry, bare, and deserted ;
in the few houses scattered
here and there, reigned such absolute silence that they
seemed abandoned. We could not rest our eyes on the road,
the walls, or on the fields, the sun beat so strongly on them all.
We walked on with drooping head and half-closed eyes. In
short, a beautiful August day, but a very terrible one for a
march.
The regiment had been moving
for more than an hour.
Despite the dust and suffocating heat, the soldiers were still as
fresh and gay as at the moment of their departure. Two files
marched on the right and two on the left of the road, and from