The right to the distinction of exercising staff-duties is, of course, only to be gained by stout competitorship in the Austrian service; but favour may do something for a young man even in that rigorous school of Arms.

He had to turn to Brescia on his way, and calculated that if luck should put good horses under him, he would enter Verona gates about sunset.

Meantime; there was Vittoria's letter to occupy him as he went.
We will leave him to his bronzing ride through the mulberries and the grapes, and the white and yellow and arid hues of the September plain, and make acquaintance with some of his comrades of that proud army which Vittoria thought would stand feebly against the pouring tide of Italian patriotism.
The fairest of the cities of the plain had long been a nest of foreign soldiery.

The life of its beauty was not more visible then than now.
Within the walls there are glimpses of it, that belong rather to the haunting spirit than to the life.

Military science has made a mailed giant of Verona, and a silent one, save upon occasion.