allroom floor, taking care
to keep as close to that floor as possible, and pausing now and then
to make a careful scrutiny of the canvases that hung on the walls
above him. "That's probably an Allori," he would call to his
assistant. "Remember to take that down after it gets dark. The one
next to it is good too--looks like a Bordone, though I can't be
certain in this light. But don't bother about that picture over the
fire-place--it's only a copy and not worth saving. Let the Austrians
have it if they want it." And they told me that through it all he
never once lost his dignity or his monocle.

Another interesting figure who joined our little party in Gorizia was
a monk who had served as a regimental chaplain since the beginning of
the war. He was a broad-shouldered, brown-bearded fellow and, had it
not been for the scarlet cross on the breast of his uniform, I should
have taken him for a fine type of the Italian fighting man. I rather
suspect, though, that when the bugles pealed the signal for the
attack, he quite forgot that the wearers of the Red Cross are supposed
to be non-combatants. During the Austrian offensive in the Trentino,
an Italian army chaplain was awarded the gold medal for valor, the
highest military decoration, because he rallied the men of his
regiment after all the officers had fallen and led them in the
storming of an Austrian position held by a greatly superior force.
Another chaplain who had likewise assumed command of officerless
troops was awarded the silver medal for valor. As the duties of the
army chaplains are supposed to be confined to giving the men spiritual
advice, the doubt arose as to whether they were justified in actually
fighting, thus risking the loss of their character as non-combatants.
This puzzling question was, therefore, submitted to the Pope, who
decided that chaplains assuming command of troops who had lost their
officers in battle were merely discharging their duty, as they
encouraged the men to resist in self-defense. In addition to the
regimental chaplains there are, so I was told, thousands of priests
and monks serving in the ranks of the Italian armies. Whether, after
leading the exciting and adventurous life of a soldier, these men will
be content to resume the sandals and the woollen robe, and to go back
to the sheltered and monotonous existence of the monastic orders, I
very strongly doubt. In any event, their sympathies will have been
deepened and their outlook o