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

THE CHOLERA OF 1867. 383-
soldiers suffered, and how that kind of life rendered almost
useless the great care which was imposed upon
all in the cleanliness
of the barracks, choice
of food, and many other precautions
imposed upon them by their superiors, and diligently carried
out under their surveillance.
But these services were certainly the least burdensome,
because, if not always, at least ordinarily, they were performed
by each soldier at certain brief, but regularly established
intervals, so that they went forward to meet all fatigues
and perils with their minds fully prepared for them.
The harder services were those imposed upon them from
time to time by the unexpected outbreaks of the people, in
the dead of the night, sometimes simultaneously at different
points in the same place. A handful of soldiers were obliged
to sally forth against an armed multitude a hundred times
greater than they, who beat furiously on the barrack-doors,
flung stones at the windows, and threatened to set fire to the
house, while "
shouting ; Death to the poisoners
! death to the
assassins cf the people ! "
together with every other kind of
vituperation.
These furious cries resounded suddenly through
the silent dormitories ;
the soldiers sprang
beds, dressed in haste ;
the officers gathered,
startled from their
seized their
weapons, and dashed furiously down the stairs to charge the
crowd. The crowd opened, scattered, turned, and formed
again, shouting, whistling, throwing stones, and the soldiers
charged them again ;
once more they dispersed ;
and this went
on for hours, all through the night, sometimes throughout
the following morning. When the mobs consisted of a few
people, the soldiers came out unarmed, tried to pacify them
by kind words, and all their powers of PSjaj^askm ;
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