Sabine women, on the eve of the bridal, when the
insatiate Romans tore them away and trampled them. The Indian corn was
yet green, but so tall that the tasselled tops showed how cunningly the
young ears were ripening. There were melons in the corn-rows, that a
week would have developed, but the soldiers dashed them open and sucked
the sweet water. They threw clubs at the hanging apples till the ground
was littered with them, and the hogs came afield to gorge; they slew the
hogs and divided the fresh pork among themselves. As I saw, in one
place, dozens of huge German cavalry-men, asleep upon bundles of wheat,
I recalled their Frankish forefathers, swarming down the Apennines, upon
Italy.

The air was so sultry during a part of the day, that one was constantly
athirst. But there was a belt of country, four miles or more in width,
where there seemed to be neither rills nor wells. Happily, the roads
were, in great part, enveloped in stately timber, and the shade was very
grateful to men and horses. The wounded still kept with us, and many
that were fevered. They did not complain with words; but their red eyes
and painful pace told all the story. If we came to rivulets, they used
to lie upon their bellies, along the margins, with their heads in the
flowing water. The nags were so stiff and hot, that, when they were
reined into creeks, they refused to go forward, and my brown animal once
dropped upon his knees, and quietly surveyed me, as I pitched upon my
hands, floundering in the pool. I remember a stone dairy, such as are
found upon Pennsylvania grazing farms, where I stopped to drink. It lay
up a lane, some distance from the road, and two enormous tulip poplar
trees sheltered and half-concealed it. A tiny creek ran through the
dairy, over cool granite slabs, and dozens of earthen milk-bowls lay in
the water, with the mould of the cream brimming at the surface. A pewter
drinking-mug hung to a peg at the side, and there were wooden spoons for
skimming, straining pails, and great ladles of gourd and cocoanut. A
cooler, tidier, trimmer dairy, I had not seen, and I stretched out my
body upon the dry slabs, to drink from one of the milk-bowls. The cream
was sweet, rich, and nourishing, and I was so absorbed directly, that I
did not heed the footfalls of a tall, broad, vigorous man, who said in a
quiet way, but with a deep, sonorous voice, and a decided Northern
twang--

"Friend, you might take the mug. Some of your comrades