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

DEAD ON THE FIELD OF BA TTLE. 363
" But they did not all rise !
" exclaimed the old man, covering
his face with his hands.
" Oh, I knew it !
"
"He was wounded in the side."
A moment of silence followed.
" Hardly had the cannon passed the crest, when the two
battalions of infantry broke out into a heavy
fire on the assaulting
column.
The cannon at the right was dragged thirty paces
forward. While they were dragging it (at this point the captain
rose to his feet), your brave son, stretched on the ground,
pressing one hand against the wound, shouted two or three
'
'
times :
Courage courage ! ! Then his voice failed him, he
made another sign with his hand . . ."
" " Oh, that 's
enough, captain ! cried the old man in a tearful
voice.
" Listen. Hardly had our cannon stopped, when the horses
from some other pieces that had fallen into the enemy's
hands came up ;
I ordered them to be attached immediately.
The lieutenant got out of his saddle, and superintended my
orders, standing before the right piece
with his back turned
toward the enemy the horses were
; already attached ;
he
was on the point of turning to say to me '
We are '
:
ready !
when suddenly he felt some one press his knee ;
saw. . . ."
he turned and
The old man sprang up in his bed, seized the
hand, and "
asked with a shout : Whom ?"
"Your son."
"
My son " ?
captain's right
" Your son, who, exhausted and dying, had dragged himself
there to take a last farewell of his cannon and comrades. . . .
All the cannoniers gathered around him ;
two seized him under