Pagina 395 di 3800

"Look, Prince," said another, who would have dearly liked to take

another pie but felt shy, and therefore pretended to be examining

the countryside-"See, our infantrymen have already got there.

Look there in the meadow behind the village, three of them are

dragging something. They'll ransack that castle," he remarked

with evident approval.

"So they will," said Nesvitski. "No, but what I should like,"

added he, munching a pie in his moist-lipped handsome mouth,

"would be to slip in over there."

He pointed with a smile to a turreted nunnery, and his eyes

narrowed and gleamed.

"That would be fine, gentlemen!"

The officers laughed.

"Just to flutter the nuns a bit. They say there are Italian girls

among them. On my word I'd give five years of my life for it!"

"They must be feeling dull, too," said one of the bolder

officers, laughing.

Meanwhile the staff officer standing in front pointed out

something to the general, who looked through his field glass.