eper, and suchlike: servants and
tradesmen he must seek to punish in some other way; and they also had
their appeal to his commanding officer. So went the decision of the
military tribunal, until the Styrian, having contrived to make Beppo
understand, by the agency of a single Italian verb, that he wanted a
blow, Beppo spun about and delivered a stinging smack on the Styrian's
cheek; which altered the view of the case, for, under peculiar
circumstances--supposing that he did not choose to cut him down--a
soldier might condescend to challenge his civilian inferiors: "in
our regiment," said the sergeants, meaning that they had relaxed the
stringency of their laws.

Beppo met his Styrian outside the city walls, and laid him flat. He
declined to fight a second; but it was represented to him, by the aid
of an interpreter, that the officers of the garrison were subjected to
successive challenges, and that the first trial of his skill might have
been nothing finer than luck; and besides, his adversary had a right
to call a champion. "We all do it," the soldiers assured him. "Now your
blood's up you're ready for a dozen of us;" which was less true of
a constitution that was quicker in expending its heat. He stood out
against a young fellow almost as limber as himself, much taller, and
longer in the reach, by whom he was quickly disabled with cuts on thigh
and head. Seeing this easy victory over him, the soldiers, previously
quite civil, cursed him for having got the better of their fallen
comrade, and went off discussing how he had done the trick, leaving him
to lie there. A peasant carried him to a small suburban inn, where
he remained several days oppressed horribly by a sense that he had
forgotten something. When he recollected what it was, he entrusted the
captain's letter to his landlady;--a good woman, but she chanced to
have a scamp of a husband, who snatched it from her and took it to his
market. Beppo supposed the letter to be on its Way to Pallauza, when it
was in General Schoneck's official desk; and soon after the breath of a
scandalous rumour began to circulate.

Captain Weisspriess had gone down to Camerlata, accompanied by a Colonel
Volpo, of an Austro-Italian regiment, and by Lieutenant Jenna. At
Camerlata a spectacled officer, Major Nagen, joined them. Weisspriess
was the less pleased with his company on hearing that he had come to
witness the meeting, in obedience to an express command of a person
who was in