Victor Emmanuel III

The Night.

i will die cheering if i needs must die so shall my last breath write upon my lips viva italia when my spirit slips down the great darkness from the mountain sky and those who shall behold me where i lie shall murmur look you how his spirit dips from glory into glory the eclipse of death is vanquished lo his victory cry it seemed strange to hear this new song of victory ring out over the waters of the mediterranean sea at the darkest hour of the night and yet every human being aboard the lifeboat listened and was helped by it it was sonya who had persuaded the young italian to sing and his voice was very clear and very beautiful nona found herself listening with eyes half closed as she was worn out with anxiety and fatigue for at last all the other voices of fear bitterness and repining were stilled if without any particular sensation of fear nona had found herself aboard a small boat being rowed by sailors after the torpedoing of their vessel the afternoon before she had just been passing through what she believed was the longest and hardest night of her life and yet she remembered the night when she had gone with the russian army in their retreat across ruined villages and frozen fields for the mediterranean which had been so blue and friendly at the hour of their accident about sundown had changed as it frequently does suddenly the sky and sea had both darkened until they were no longer blue but black the sun had quickly vanished and afterwards a cold mist arose but until this occurred the passengers in the lifeboat with nona and sonya had made every effort to remain cheerful nona had suggested that in ancient days men and women often crossed the seas in galleys rowed by strong oarsmen so why not pretend they were captives being brought to rome under a guard of sailors actually she and molly drew one of the other red cross nurses and one with a real irish ancestry argued the question as to which of them was the captive princess but that they wished to show good courage for a little later when they had moved a safe distance from their ship but were still near enough to watch her go down molly collapsed and with true irish suddenness hid her face in the folds of sonya's coat however the torpedoed ship did not sink as soon as her officers had expected when she did each man and woman who saw her would like to have followed molly's example although most of them simply remained silent there was no more beautiful or perhaps tragic sight than the sinking of a great ship even at a considerable distance she could be seen to plunge struggle and then right herself as if she were human then just before the water closed above her it seemed as if she uttered a forsaken cry another misfortune of war dr latham exclaimed to nona but in an unsteady voice nona made no effort to reply At the last moment, Dr. Latham had come aboard their lifeboat.

There was one more seat to be filled, and it was well to have a few men aboard beside the sailors.

nevertheless it was not dr latham who took command but in an unconscious fashion it was sonya in the past year living with her russian friend nona davis had made the discovery that sonya was now and then apt to be difficult when things were going smoothly but showed her real courage and sweetness in misfortune you see she had led so strange a life when she was a little russian girl with a family of wealth and distinction she had been feted and adored the little sonya was a great beauty and would one day inherit great wealth then she had gone away to school where secretly she had come in contact with principles of life wholly new to her the belief that there should be no czar that russia should be free and that all men were brothers then sonya had read tolstoi's writings and had begun to study his principles of universal peace she had traveled in many lands still preaching her doctrine and had returned to russia during the war only to be exiled to siberia but when her reprieve came through an unexpected influence and sonya returned to the united states with the three red cross girls she seemed suddenly to have grown tired of all the sorrows and arduous work of her past life after she and nona had settled down in the exquisite peaceful old southern city of charleston sonya appeared to care only to rest and to read she had money enough to make herself and nona both comfortable in a quiet fashion

However, before the first real light in the sky, Carlo was fully awakened by the noise of the first guns of the Italian artillery firing from the rear.

They boomed and thundered and shrieked until all life became only a vast combination of impossible noises.

and all the senses only the one sense of hearing with such an awakening carlo had no return of the fear which had haunted him through the night in rigid silence he waited like all the other soldiers feeling himself only a human machine any instant a common command would come then just as if a finger had touched the trigger of his life he would spring forward to follow its bidding now the captain of his brigade passing along the line of his soldiers with his watch in hand whispered words of encouragement to his boys preparing them for their moment of action the boys from the first line of trenches ahead were already struggling up the steep hill while back in the mountains the austrian cannon was returning the cannonading crashing like the thunder among rip van winkle's hunted hills then when carlos's order to charge came climbing out of his hole he too gallantly ran forward up the long incline together with his companions truly there was a rain of bullets from the mountain top above, and now and then a piece of shrapnel bursting fell, digging a deep cave in the side of the hill.

However, the Italian airmen had located the enemy's lines in many days of flying over the Austrian entrenchments.