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

THE DISABLED SOLDIER, 239
paces from the enemy the bullet had broken two
; bones, the
tibia and the fibula ;
he had been carried to the hospital, and
they had amputated the leg a few inches below the knee.
After forty days, they gave him a wooden leg, a pair of
crutches, a passport, and, opening the doors of the hospital,
said :
" Go home, poor fellow, you have done your part."
Before turning homeward, he wrote to his mother to inform
her of his departure, and the day and hour of his arrival
; having written which he resolved to tell them of his misfortune,
but could not bring himself to do so. Numberless
times did he write the first words and instantly scratched them
out, almost frightened that they should have fallen from his
pen. But the letter had not gone before there came to his
mind all the possible consequences, in fact the inevitable and
terrible sorrow his pious fraud would cause he was troubled
;
that he had been silent on the subject of his misfortune, was
astonished that^he
had never thought what sadness might follow
his reticence in not telling the truth bravely ;
and going
over in imagination all that would happen at home upon his
appearance in this state, picturing the despair of his parents
at so unexpected and terrible a sight, and thinking of his
betrothed and friends, he dashed his hands into his hair in
utter despair, and began wept.
But it was too late.
He arrived in the city near his home the day before that when,
according to his letter, he ought to have been with his family.
He slept at an inn. The following morning betimes, helped by
the landlord, he climbed into the cart of
a miller which was to
pass the hill, placed his crutches by his side, seated himself
on two sacks of flour, the miller gave reins to the horse, and
they started.