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

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MILITARY LIFE.
falling to bits, of which only the white of the past remained,
were back
among the ovens and kettles, breaking upon their
knees the piles of branches, brushwood, etc., for the kitchen ;
and on every side rose shouts and cries, songs, and continuous,
and diffused sounds.
How many beautiful pictures for an artist !
There, at the end of the camp, in the middle of the opposite
side from the road, the sutler has placed his three wagons in the
form of three sides of a trapezium, the opening toward the camp ;
he has stretched a pieced but torn tent between two side wagons ;
has set up two or three tables, and three black and rickety
benches ;
has placed a wardrobe door over the two tallest casks
and made a counter of it ; put the biggest cask behind it and
lodged his wife there has stretched between two
;
wheel-spokes
a well-greased cord, and suspended therefrom some long, black,
crusty things, which are supposed to be eatable sausages,
and which can be enjoyed without danger of death ; then, in
order
to excite the soldiers' appetite, he has exposed to view a
couple of baskets of fresh vegetables, a great plate of plucked
and rather gamy fowls, a huge piece of raw meat, a row of
bottles and badly washed glasses, cigars pregnant with oil,
and
sheets of letter-paper perfumed by anchovies ;
then has shouted :
" Come on, boys
! Here you can eat till
you burst ! "
Which,
by the way, is a highly probable
statement. The benches are
all full ;
the tables covered with bottles ;
the men are playing
at mora, singing, shouting, disputing, and making a racket ;
the glasses jingle from time to time, and strike each other,
and the sutler turns around. What are they doing over
there ? An officer appears, there is a profound silence he dis-
;
appears, and the revelry begins again.
Meanwhile, in the open