Historical fiction; Italy -- History -- Revolution of 1848 -- Fiction; War stories
He dressed, and wrenched his knife from the door. Hearing the clatter of
a horse at the porch, he stopped as he was descending the stairs. A
German voice said, 'Sure enough, my jolly landlord, she's there, in Worms
--your Bormio. Found her at the big hotel: spoke not a syllable; stole
away, stole away. One chopin of wine! I'm off on four legs to the
captain. Those lads who are after her by Roveredo and Trent have bad
noses. "Poor nose--empty belly." Says the captain, "I stick at the
point of the cross-roads." Says I, "Herr Captain, I'm back to you first
of the lot." My business is to find the runaway lady-pretty Fraulein!
pretty Fraulein! lai-ai! There's money on her servant, too; he's a
disguised Excellency--a handsome boy; but he has cut himself loose, and
he go hang. Two birds for the pride of the thing; one for satisfaction--
I 'm satisfied. I've killed chamois in my time. Jacob, I am;
Baumwalder, I am; Feckelwitz, likewise; and the very devil for following
a track. Ach! the wine is good. You know the song?
"He who drinks wine, he may cry with a will,
Fortune is mine, may she stick to me still."
'I give it you in German--the language of song! my own, my native 'lai-ai-
lai-ai-la-la-lai-ai-i-ie!
"While stars still sit
On mountain tops,
I take my gun,
Kiss little one
On mother's breast.
Ai-iu-e!
My pipe is lit,
I climb the slopes,
I meet the dawn
A little one
On mother's breast.
Ai-aie: ta-ta-tai: iu-iu-iu-e!"
'Another chopin, my jolly landlord. What's that you're mumbling? About
the servant of my runaway young lady? He go hang! What----?'
Angelo struck his foot heavily on the stairs; the innkeeper coughed and
ran back, bowing to his guest. The chasseur cried, 'I 'll drink farther
on-wine between gaps!' A coin chinked on the steps in accompaniment to
the chasseur's departing gallop. 'Beast of a Tedesco,' the landlord
exclaimed as he picked up the money; 'they do the reckoning--not we.
If I had served him with the worth of this, I should have had the bottle
at my head. What a country ours is! We're ridden over, ridden over!'
Angelo compelled the landlord to sit with him while he ate like five
mountaineers. He left mere bones on the table. 'It's wonderful,' said
the innkeeper; 'you can't know what fear is.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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