Historical fiction; Italy -- History -- Revolution of 1848 -- Fiction; War stories
At an inn that they reached toward evening she saw the innkeeper shoot a
little ball of paper at an Italian corporal, who put his foot on it and
picked it up. The soldier subsequently passed through the ranks of his
comrades, gathering winks and grins. They were to have rested at the
inn, but Count Karl was warned by scouts, which was sufficient to make
Pericles cling to him in avoidance of the volunteers, of whom mainly he
was in terror. He looked ague-stricken. He would not listen to her, or
to reason in any shape. “I am on the sea--shall I trust a boat? I stick
to a ship,” he said. The soldiers marched till midnight. It was arranged
that the carriage should strike off for Schio at dawn. The soldiers
bivouacked on the slope of one of the low undulations falling to the
Vicentino plain. Vittoria spread her cloak, and lay under bare sky, not
suffering the woman to be ejected from the carriage. Hitherto Luigi had
avoided her. Under pretence of doubling Count Karl's cloak as a pillow
for her head, he whispered, “If the signorina hears shots let her lie on
the ground flat as a sheet.” The peacefulness surrounding her precluded
alarm. There was brilliant moonlight, and the host of stars, all dim;
and first they beckoned her up to come away from trouble, and then,
through long gazing, she had the fancy that they bent and swam about
her, making her feel that she lay in the hollows of a warm hushed sea.
She wished for her lover.
Men and officers were lying at a stone's-throw distant. The Tyrolese
had lit a fire for cooking purposes, by which four of them stood, and,
lifting hands, sang one of their mountain songs, that seemed to her to
spring like clear water into air, and fall wavering as a feather falls,
or the light about a stone in water. It lulled her to a half-sleep,
during which she fancied hearing a broad imitation of a cat's-call from
the mountains, that was answered out of the camp, and a talk of officers
arose in connection with the response, and subsided. The carriage was
in the shadows of the fire. In a little while Luigi and the driver began
putting the horses to, and she saw Count Karl and Weisspriess go up
to Luigi, who declared loudly that it was time. The woman inside was
aroused. Weisspriess helped to drag her out. Luigi kept making much
noise, and apologized for it by saying that he desired to awaken
his master, who was stretched in a secure circle among the Tyrolese.
Presently Vittoria beheld the woman's arms thrown out free; the next
minute they were around the body of Weisspriess, and a shrewd cry issued
from Count Karl. Shots rang from the outposts; the Tyrolese sprang to
arms; “Sandra!” was shouted by Pericles; and once more she heard the
'Venite fratelli!' of the bull's voice, and a stream of volunteers
dashed at the Tyrolese with sword and dagger and bayonet. The
Austro-Italians stood in a crescent line--the ominous form of incipient
military insubordination. Their officers stormed at them, and called for
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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