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

A MEDAL. 259
half-closed eyes, twisting his mouth and sticking out his underlip.
Then there were always that surly glance and gloomy
face.
One evening, on the parade ground, while they were drilling,
a major reproved the captain in a loud voice the latter ;
glanced
hastily around at his soldiers ;
the soldier laughed. " Canaille! "'
he shouted, blind with rage, and coming' up to him planted
both fists in his face. The soldier paled, turned toward his
neighbor and said " Some : day or other (adding a few words
in an undertone) ... or I am not an Abruzzese." Hardly
had he entered the barracks and reached his bed when he
threw his bowl and knapsack against the wall. The captain
appeared unexpectedly, saw "
him, and shouted :
Sergeant,
put him under arrest," and disappeared. The soldier seized
the sheet with his teeth and beat his head with his fists.
Three or four comrades dashed upon him, seized and held
him, saying : " What is the matter with you ? What are you
doing ? Are you going mad ? " Then he came to himself, and
said in a low voice, with a gloomy smile : " Yes. . . I am
going mad, and you will see one of these days what madmen
have the courage to do."
There is a part of the valley of the Tronto, the narrowest
portion, in which the ridges rise on both sides to a great height,
and forming gulleys, precipices, and dark, deep ravines, stretch
out their rocky arms almost to the river banks. The valley
at that point presents a sad and gloomy appearance. Between
the water and these extreme projections, the ground is all gravel,
big stones and enormous rocks precipitated down from the top
of the ridges ;
and from the edge upward, there is a labyrinth