Gay
young French girls exulted at the idea of seeing "Italy's fair skies."
They were not particularly fair here; the weather was rough and cloudy,
in keeping with abysms and mountain precipices. But late at night the
journey over Mont Cenis was wonderful. High up on the mountain the
moonlight gleamed on the mountain lake. And the way was dominated, from
one rocky summit, by the castle of Bramans with its seven imposing
forts.
The locomotive stopped for an hour, for want of water. We were thus
obliged to sleep at the little Italian town of Susa (in a glorious
valley under Mont Cenis), the train to Turin having left three hours
before. Susa was the first Italian town I saw. When the train came in
next morning to the station at Turin, a crowd of Italian soldiers, who
were standing there, shouted: "The Prussians for ever!" and winked at
me. "What are they shouting for?" I asked a young Turin fellow with whom
I had had some long conversations. "It is an ovation to you," he
replied. "People are delighted at the victory of the Prussians, and they
think you are a Prussian, because of your fair moustache and beard."
XXXVI.
An overwhelming impression was produced upon me by the monuments of
Turin, the River Po, and the lovely glee-singing in the streets. For the
first time, I saw colonnades, with heavy curtains to the street, serve
as pavements, with balconies above them.
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