The revolver, too, was a subject of great admiration, and
they kept turning, feeling, and staring at it, as if they could not make
out which way the cartridges were put in. One of these peasants,
however, was doing the grand with the others, and once on the subject of
history related to all who would hear how he had been to St. Helena,
which was right in the middle of Moscow, where it was so very cold that
his nose had got to be as large as his head. The poor man was evidently
mixing one night's tale with that of the next one, a tale probably heard
from the old Sindaco, who is at the same time the schoolmaster, the
notary, and the highest municipal authority in the place.
I started in the ferry boat with them at last. While crossing they got
to speak of the priests, and were all agreed, to put it in the mildest
way, in thinking extremely little of them, and only differed as to what
punishment they should like them to suffer.
On the side where we landed lay heaps of ammunition casks for the corps
besieging Borgoforte. Others were conveyed upon cars by my friends the
carrettieri, of whom it was decreed I should not be quit for some time to
come. Entering Guastalla I found only a few artillery officers,
evidently in charge of what we had seen carried along the route.
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