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

190 MILITARY LIFE*
" I will begin, and first of all, let me give you an idea of the
ground. Give attention. We will suppose that this is a chain
of the Alps that first line
; up
" Topography ? oh, for pity sake "
!
hill . . ."
" You do not wish it ?
Well, then, I will explain myself in
another way ; it will be better so. Let us suppose, then, that
we are out in the open country, one beautiful, clear, quiet summer
morning. Let us suppose that, beginning
here under our
feet, the ground rises gradually, until it forms a lovely broad,
high hill in regular curves, whose top stands out against the
horizon, about half an hour's walk from us. It is a beautiful
green hill, sprinkled half way down with hedges, trees, and
long rows of grape-vines, ploughed with ditches, and traversed
in every direction by paths and low walls of heaped-up stones,
such as mark the limits of farms :
here, a bit of ground covered
with grass and plants ; there, broken and reddish, covered with
stones ; here, an easy bit ; there, suddenly steep and barren. Do
you see " it ?
"Yes."
"
Well, suppose one thing more : that a good part of the hill,
from the top down, is entirely free from trees and houses, bare
and clean, where the sun beats in such a way that every furrow,
bush, and person would be visible, if there were any people.
You see a person, let us suppose, as tall as this, so that you can
tell whether it is a man or woman. Are you laughing ? I tell
you this to give you an idea of the distance."
"Yes, I understand."
"
Well, then, that morning we were at the foot of a hill like
the one I have described, and were waiting. Here, there, to
the right and left,
in the distance, behind the trees and bushes,
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