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

408 MILITAR Y LIFE.
son " ? insisted the others threateningly. One of them took off
his fatigue cap, examined it and threw it on the ground another
pulled off his cravat. Out with the poison and the
!
;
" "
one who had seized him by the collar knocked his head against
the wall.
" I have nothing," replied the weak and supplicating
voice of the soldier.
" Oh, you have n't any thing, eh ? Now,
we will see for ourselves !
" snarled the ferocious creatures,
ancj, opening his coat and shirt they searched everywhere.
" Take off his belt," said one. They instantly seized his belt,
pulled him here and there to get it off, but they did not succeed,
and they shouted and cursed.
" Oh let me alone," implored
the poor soldier "let
; my belt alone." They loosened and
it,
threw it
away, and forced him to take off his coat, tormenting and
beating him, almost sticking the points of their knives into
him, shouting in his ears every kind of vituperation and
curse. The unfortunate man, who had barely enough strength
left to stand, let them do whatsoever they chose without making
further resistance, almost out of his senses, with his head
and arms hanging like those of a dead person ;
he murmured
from time to time in a weak voice " :
My bayonet I am
;
not poisoning any one ... let me alone . . .
give
me my things, my bayonet ! "
They certainly would have
killed him, but as good fortune willed it, a patrol passed, and
dashing precipitately forward they dispersed the mob just as
it
was on the point of shedding the unlucky fellow's blood.
This was one of the least painful affairs which took place,
for in Catania at least the soldiers' blood was not spilled,
which is more than can be said of other places. What must
the soldiers have felt in those !
days What must have been
their thoughts and conversations, in seeing
themselves so