ni after the assault upon
Sano di Mezzodi. When his platoon charged he was the first to dash
from the trench giving courage to all who hesitated. Together they
made the mountains ring with the old Italian war cry, "Savoia! Italia!"

Enzo Valentini fell pierced by five pieces of shrapnel. They carried
him back to a grotto where the surgeons dressed his wounds.

A comrade says, "We laid him down on the litter in the grotto, among
the great rocks, under the dark vault of the sky, his face upturned to
the stars. He was exhausted, and asked for a drink, and fainted. Then
they carried him to the hospital and I never saw him again. I have
been told they carried him down Mount Mesola to the side of the little
lake he loved so well, 'his little lake,' and that he sleeps there in
death. But for his comrades he is still living in the glory of his
youth, there on the Alps, waving his cap with an edelweiss in it, and
crying, 'Savoia! Italia!'"

*******************

Wild wind! what do you bear--
A song of the men who fought and fell,
A tale of the strong to do and dare?
--Aye, and a tolling bell!

REDEEMED ITALY

Italy, since 1860 at least, has cherished the dream that sometime all
European territory with Italian-speaking inhabitants would be united
under Italian government. When the World War began Italy was supposed
to be an ally of Germany and Austria. She had agreed to fight with
them in case they were attacked--in a defensive war.

At first she did not enter the World War. She perceived from the very
beginning that Germany and Austria were the attackers and were not the
nations attacked. Her people began to understand what victory for the
Central Powers would mean and clamored for war on the side of the
Allies. Then the cry went up to redeem the lost Italian provinces held
by Austria and called "Italia Irredenta" or "Unredeemed Italy," and
Italy entered the war May 23, 1915.

At first she declared war upon Austria but not upon Germany. She made
no attempt to work in harmony with the Allies. It was a war of her own
upon Austria to regain the lost Italian provinces of the Trentino and
Trieste. Although she fought against tremendous obstacles in the
mountain passes with wonderful courage and success, her entrance into
the war was of assistance to the Allies only as it kept a certain
number of Austrian soldiers from the eastern and western fronts.

In 1916, the Italians captured Gorizia