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

62 MILITARY LIFE.
and said good-night, or secured the promise of a meeting for the
following day in a loud voice, so that all the boys round about
might hear it ;
and the next day we took a charming walk together
outside the city, and on reaching a solitary spot, begged our
friend to let us see his poniard ;
to which he replied that it was
forbidden, and we continued teasing him ;
he refusing, and
we saying
:
" Do me the favor for a moment only, only just one
moment"; until the poor corporal, after glancing around, drew
out the dagger from its sheath with a certain air of mystery,
and the sight of that beautiful, bare, gleaming blade sent a
shudder through our veins. Then we touched it lightly with
our ringer, asking
if it were sharp, and if one blow would kill
a man . . .
Oh, the friendship of a corporal is a great
thing for you That, among ! others, of always having in your
new cartridges, sometimes powder too,
pocket some beautiful
and, perhaps, even a beautiful cross of an old plate, or bruised
metal buttons, and even but these are fortunes which rarely
fall to one's lot. You may become the possessor of a couple
of bits of gold lace, a trifle worn perhaps, but always in such a
condition as to cut
a stupendous figure on the sleeves of your
house- jacket. And all the boys in the neighborhood will
respect you.
The idea which one has, as a child, of the superiority of soldiers
over other citizens, is
something really marvellous. There
can be no soldiers who are not prodigies of courage. There
are absolutely no soldiers who are weaker than the strongest
civilian. No one in the world can run like a sharp-shooter ;
the
handsomest beards in town belong to the sappers ;
there is
nothing more terrible on earth than an officer with an unsheathed
sword especially if it has just come from the hands