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

424 MILITARY LIFE.
asm and affection. May these poor pages have the power of
making his name beloved and revered in the hearts of many,
as it is in mine !
Let us recall some other facts and names. The sub-lieutenant,
Livio Vivaldi, commanded a detachment of the 54th regiment
at Palazzo Adriano. The cholera spread there. The
syndic, physicians, chemists, and priests all fled ;
no one but
the poor remained. Vivaldi kept every thing in order, and
provided for all.
During the day, he visited the sick, hastened
the burials, had the place cleaned and disinfected, and at
night gave chase to the highwaymen who were scourging the
country. Once, on the evening of the tenth of July, while he
was distributing bread in the houses of the poor, he was informed
that a band of malefactors had gathered at a short distance
from the place. He ran to the barracks, took ten soldiers
with him, went out into the country, surprised the band,
attacked it,
was wounded, continued to fight, put
it to flight,
killed the head of it, arrested the others, returned to the town,
and the following morning took up again his office of physician
and almoner. And this was one instance among many.
At Gangi, in the province of Termini, the cholera broke out
toward the middle of June. Half the population fled. Those
who remained hid the dead, and shut themselves up in their
houses for fear of being poisoned. During the night of the
26th the boldest armed themselves and began rushing about
the country, firing blindly into the windows and doors, and
against any whom they happened to meet. The sharp-shooters
from Petralia Sottana gathered, and gave chase throughout
the night to the rioters, dispersed them with great diffi-