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

2/6 MIL1TAR Y LIFE.
himself, which was partial only, and a goodness sui generis.
He spoke, in a sharp, hoarse voice, an Italian for which
he could have demanded with perfect right the patent of
invention.
" How does Florence please you ? " I asked, because he had
only arrived in town the day before.
"It 's not bad," he replied.
For a person who had only seen Cagliari and some small
cities in Northern Italy, the reply seemed a trifle severe to
me.
"Do you like Florence or Bergamo better?"
"I only arrived yesterday, and cannot judge yet."
When he went away I said " " Adieu : ; and he replied
:
"Adieu."
The following day he entered my service. During
the first
few days
I was several times on the point of losing my patience
and sending him back to his regiment. Had he contented
himself with understanding nothing, transeat ; but the trouble
was that his difficulty in understanding Italian, and the novelty
of every thing, made him half comprehend things and do every
thing wrong. If I should say that he took my razors to be
ground at Lemonnier's and my manuscripts to be printed at the
knife-grinder's that he carried a French novel to the shoemaker
and a pair of boots to a lady's house, no one would be-
;
lieve me
; because, in order to credit it, it would be necessary to
have seen
to what a point (beside undestanding badly) he carried
affairs, the mere misunderstanding not sufficing to account
for such huge blunders. But I cannot refrain from citing
some of the most marvellous of his exploits.
At eleven in the morning I sent him to buy ham for break-