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

THE
CAMP.
THERE is a beautiful, great, level, rectangular meadow, shut in
on the four sides by a ditch and a hedge, well covered with grass,
and studded with daisies. Beyond the ditch, on one side, a
thick clump of mulberries, oaks, thorn trees, and further on,
projecting above that mass, a gently sloping hill, green and low,
scattered with trees and small white houses.
Half way up the
slope, a group of higher and more city-like-looking houses, and
a high, light bell-tower ;
round about some bluish and reddish
palaces, flowery hillocks, long rows of pines, groups of willows,
sandy, winding avenues and here and there white statuettes
;
and sprays of water, hidden by the trees and bushes. In front
of that field, along the side opposite the grove, runs a broad,
raised road, which winds around the thickly planted trees, and
climbs the hillside to the village. A regiment has pitched its
tents in the meadow.
Let us place ourselves on the road and look at the camp.
Beginning at twenty paces from the ditch, to the opposite
boundary line of the field, there are eight long rows of tents,
in parallel lines, divided by a space of about ten paces. In
every row there are one hundred tents ;
three soldiers to each
tent ;
three hundred soldiers in one row ;
two thousand four
hundred, or little less, in all ;
in fact, an entire regiment. The
tents are neat and well stretched ;
the cords fastened to the
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