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

3O4
MILITARY LIFE.
streets. At the point where the music and soldiers re-entered
the barracks there were hand-shakings, applause, hurrahs, and
" "
the cries : Till to-morrow ! till to-morrow all
!
seemed soldiers. There I felt thee, Piedmont !
They
II.
How much better we all were in those days !
The expectation of that solemn war by which liberty
was to be vindicated and the country restored to a people
so illustrious and beloved, who had suffered so much ;
the
knowledge that even the people of the poorer classes felt that
it was a just and holy war ;
the sight of those poor fellows from
the country, rough, ignorant of every thing, who had come
to serve as soldiers with so much good-will and heart, and take
part so quickly, if not in the enthusiasm, at least in the common
gaiety ;
the report that the same thing was taking place
everywhere ; that everywhere young men of every condition
went by the hundreds to enlist ;
that the fathers and mothers
themselves accompanied them, and the people greeted and
blessed them, and in that marvellous unanimity of hopes and
good wishes political discords were readjusted, and only one
single cry was to be heard ;
all this filled people's souls with a
calmness and joy so full, so intense, that it seemed a veritable
happinesss. Every evil passion fled from the heart ;
old
offenses were pardoned, old rancors stilled ; people sought or
found in their enemies their mutual friends, and they placed
a stone on the past. That ever-presen-t thought, that deep
affection which occupied us continually, gave us an energy
and a vigorous and unusual vitality which made itself
felt by
our tone, looks, actions, and steps.
What joviality, what affec-