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

32 MILITARY LIFE.
oppressors We don't want ! oppression, down with those
muskets, give us a free "
passage out of the way All at once
!
the crowd turn their backs on the soldiers and take flight,
leaving the pavement
strewn with the fallen and invade in
less than a moment the side streets, cafe's, vestibules, and
courts of the neighboring
houses. The soldiers have lowered
their bayonets.
" "
Make way there ! Make way there !
they shriek, on
one side. From one of the side alleys comes the sound of
horses' tramp and the clinking of swords ;
it is a squad of cavalry
that is advancing ; the gleam of the first helmets is seen ;
a
troop of horses break through the crowd, which spring to the
right and left against the walls of the houses ; the squad
passes in the midst of profound silence ;
when it is almost by,
a voice or a hiss is heard here and there ; it has passed then
follow shouts, whistles, reproaches, and a shower of cabbageheads
and lemon-peel on to the last horses. The squad stops,
the last horses back a few paces, the crowd turns and clears
the street for a hundred steps.
In the nearest group
is heard from time to time a furious
outburst of oaths, a beating of sticks, a sharp cry, a feeble
moan, and then a long whisper followed by a timid silence.
"What has happened? What was it? Nothing, nothing;
they have driven a few inches of steel into the back of a public
guard." The crowds draw back on the right and left, and
a carabineer,
with bare head and both hands buried in his
hair, crosses the street tottering
and staggering like a drunken
man. " " "
What is the matter ? What have they done ? They
have given him a blow on the head."
" To the square To
!
the square ! "
suddenly shouts a powerful voice.
" To the