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

THE CHOLERA OF 1867. 427
when a company of the 451)1 battalion of sharp-shooters> commanded
by Captain Ippolito Viola, arrived, and dispersed
crowd, which had begun to grow riotous.
the
But the most furious
instantly shut themselves up in the houses, and fired upon the
sharp-shooters, two of whom fell wounded, and the marshal was
nearly killed. Then the sharp-shooters, enraged
at this obstinate
resistance, broke in the doors of the houses, rushed in,
surprised the rebels with their weapons in their hands . . ,
and spared their lives. Thus ended the sedition of Longobucco.
in which, be it
noted, the most wicked deeds were committed
by the women.
In Ardore, a commune of Geraci,
there were six carabineers
and twenty-four soldiers of the 68th regiment of
infantry, commanded by Sub-lieutenant Gazzone. On the
morning of the 4th of September the people armed themselves
and gathered outside the town to the shout of " Death
"
to the "poisoners
! When they were sufficient in number,
they broke into the place. Gazzone, trusting to the sympathy
which the people had shown for him on more than one occasion,
moved quietly against the multitude, and tried to quiet
with a few kind words ;
he was answered by two balls in his
chest, which killed him instantly. I will refrain from telling
you
what was done to his body,
in order not to add horror to
horror. The soldiers, attacked so hastily, powerless to resist,
had barely time to take refuge in the carabineers' barracks, into
which three families by the name of Lo Schiavo, whom the populace
thought guilty of poisoning, and whose house had been
burned, had fled in the morning. An immense crowd gathered
in front of the barracks, and demanded that the poisoners
should be given irto their hands. The head of the families.
it