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

AT TWENTY. 28$
about the house. It seemed like a hotel, a barracks, and an
insane asylum.
of twenty-two,
Fancy seven officers of twenty, seven orderlies
two Piedmontese, one Lombardian, one Tuscan,
and three Neapolitans ;
fourteen persons in seven rooms as large
as the shell of a chestnut, all in motion, from morning until
night, like so many lost souls. One went to " mount guard,"
another returned from picket duty, three came in from the drill,
two went out on provision duty, one snored until ten o'clock in
the morning, another rose at three in the night, and another
returned home at daybreak after the guard. The orderlies
arrived to carry dinner to the absent officers, the sappers to
bring the orders for the day, the ambulant vegetable-venders to
thrust in their wares at the door, the fruit-sellers to toss the
oranges in at the windows, the guitarists to sing
under the
balcony, and so on ad infinitum. On one side the windows
were scarcely two metres above the street, so that when any one
was in haste he simply went out through
house door was always open ;
around at their pleasure.
the window. The
the dogs walked in and wandered
There was not one moment of quiet.
The seven soldiers amused themselves by beating their
masters' cloaks all at the same time, and made such a noise
that people gathered
hear all
in the street. From the street one could
the sounds in the house, even to our conversation carried
on in a low voice. One of the seven, to make matters
worse, hired a piano, and two more were seized by the mania
for fencing with canes.
Besides which the house was so wretchedly
resonant, that when any one used his handkerchief all
the rooms echoed the sound, and from every bed there burst a
malediction. Then the rain fell in the dining-room. Yet, despite
these discomforts, and the pitiful poverty in the way of