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

42O
MILITAR Y LIFE.
two others kept back with their arms the relatives and neighbors.
Very often they were obliged to lift away the women
from the doorways where they blocked up the entrance with
their own bodies ;
had to struggle with, repulse them forcibly,
and finally drag them off.
After much labor, a large number of the sick were already
lodged in the new hospital, and two or three of the soldiers had
provided for their needs while waiting the arrival of assistance
from Caltanisetta, when the other half of the squad returned
to the town dragging by force a band of peasants whom they
had arrested in the country. Cangiano ran to meet them,
divided them into various groups, and had them led to their
different works. The newly arrived soldiers began to work
too ;
in a short time the bodies which were in the streets had
been buried, the streets cleared and cleaned ; they began to
go in turn to fetch the sick, and little by little, now by persuasion,
now by force, they succeeded in getting the greater part
into the hospital. On every side there was a continual coming
and going, a calling to one another, and a continuous hurry
of soldiers. The people, who began to gather, stood looking
at them from a distance, half suspiciously, half amazed ;
those scattered throughout the country came gradually nearer
the town to see what was going on. The first arrivals, no
longer seeing the bodies before the houses, took courage and
entered ; many began spontaneously to clear the streets of the
remaining filth others entered the houses
; ;
some crowded
around Cangiano, watching him with astonishment, not uttering
a word, still a trifle diffident, but quite prepared to tender
thanks for what had been done and to pray also. Cangiano,
though never ceasing to run here and there in order to encour-