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

AT TWENTY. 2$$
certain cutthroat-looking hats. We went to sing, under the
windows of friends who had fallen asleep, songs for the occasion,
for which they generally thanked us with wash-basins or
garbage-boxes or to ; mysterious dens in the suburbs, to drink
punch among English and French sailors, to whom we represented
ourselves as journeymen varnishers and cabinet-makers,
en route to the East. What outbursts of laughter there were
with that crazy Boccetti, who, at two in the morning,
on returning
home through those deserted streets as dark as catacombs,
saw behind every blind he only a gleam of light,
"
Boccetti, my husband has returned don't
;
which meant :
"
come " "
up
! or : To-morrow at this hour !
And Cavagnetti,
who played the grand seigneur even in the dark, by throwing
handfuls of coppers to the dogs and the
;
pianist, who wished to
draw rifle-shots upon himself by shouting his superhuman
romances under the windows ! The nocturnal excursions were
generally undertaken after great dinners because we did
; give
dinners despite the " overdrawn accounts " of Maglietti. The
guests came half a dozen at a time. We could not write cards
"
of invitation like that in the Vie de Boheme : // y aura des
assiettes "/ but we managed things equally well. We lighted
stumps of candles, and placed on the bureaus and behind
vases of flowers heads of lettuce, arranging upon the walls
decorations made from cudgels and birch trees. Those Avho
arrived last made themselves comfortable on the beds, in
Roman style, drank their wine out of coffee cups without handles,
and wiped their mouths on newspapers. Some arranged
their little spreads on one side, on a military box set upright ;
others without any compliments went straight to the kitchen to
pilfer from the saucepans. All talked at once ;
and often a