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

I
262 MILITARY LIFE.
breathlessly up. They gathered around him and overwhelmed
him with questions, while he, motionless, gasping,
with pallid face and glaring eyes, was gazing now at the prostrate
brigand, now at the bloody
knife which he .still held"
tightly clasped.
The patrol had been attacked at the same time by a band of
brigands, who fled as soon as they had discharged their guns,
and the soldiers followed them for some distance.
The wounded soldier was quite well within a few days.
The first time that the captain saw him, in passing
in front of
him at the review, he looked him firmly in the eye and said :
"
"Bravo !
Instantly thereafter his neighbor whispered in his
ear " : You say he has something against you
? He said
"
bravo !
"Oh, he felt obliged to do so," he replied, shaking
his head, smilingly.
Three months after that day the regiment was transferred
to Ascoli. A week had passed since their arrival, when
the colonel ordered that on the following day the regiment
should be in full uniform to assist at a military ceremony in
the principal square of the city. They were to decorate a soldier
with the medal for military valor.
" So soon ?
"
thought our captain, when he received the colonel's
order. He instantly ran to the quartermaster-sergeant's
room, and asked anxiously
:
" Have you heard the order ?
" "
Have you done every thing
? Every thing three days ago,"
replied the quartermaster-sergeant.
" Oh, that 's all right ;
let
us see. Give me paper, pen, and inkstand ;
I want to be quite
sure about it."
They seated themselves at the table, and the quartermastersergeant
began tracing on a scrap of paper some streets and