“Suppose it should soon break out again?” suggested one of the old generals.
“Hum,” said the other, “I think the next war we shall have will be with Russia.”
“Must there always be a ‘next war’?” I interposed, but no one took any notice.
“With Italy first,” my father persisted; “we must at all events get back our Lombardy. Just such a march into Milan as we had in ’49 with Father Radetzky at our head. I should like to live to see that. It was on a sunny morning——”
“Oh,” I interrupted, “we all know the story of the entry into Milan.”
“And do you know also that of the brave Hupfauf?”
“I do; and I think it very revolting.”
“What do you understand of such things?”
“Let us hear it, Althaus; we do not know the story.”
My father did not wait to be asked twice.