ay, when I did a great climb above Bezzecca to carry
out a front line reconnaissance, and arrived limp and perspiring to
lunch at the Headquarters of an Italian Artillery Group, high, high up,
looking out upon a glorious and astounding view. And in the afternoon I
took my first ride on a _teleferica,_ or aerial railway, slung along a
steel rope across the deeps, seated on a sort of large wooden tea tray,
some six feet long and two and a half across, with a metal rim some six
inches high running round the edge. I was quite prepared to be sick or
at least giddy. But I was pleasantly disappointed. My journey took about
a quarter of an hour; walking it would have taken about three hours of
very stiff climbing. The motion is quite steady, except for a slight
jolt as one passes each standard, and, provided one sits still and
doesn't shift one's centre of gravity from side to side, there is no
wobbling of the tea tray. And looking down from time to time I saw tree
tops far below me, and men and mules on mountain tracks as black specks
walking.

* * * * *

There were various theories to account for our being sent to the
Trentino. One was that an Austrian attack was feared there, another that
an Italian attack was intended, but that the intention was afterwards
abandoned, a third that the whole thing was a feint to puzzle the
Austrians. But in any case we did not remain there long. By the
beginning of August we were back on the Plateau. On the return journey,
which was again by road all the way, we were given three days' rest at
Desenzano and I was able to spend half a day in Verona.

CHAPTER XXXIV

SIRMIONE AND SOLFERINO

"Leave is a privilege and not a right," according to a hack quotation
from the King's Regulations. This quotation has done good service in the
mouth of more than one Under Secretary of State for War, heading off
tiresome questioners in the British House of Commons. Leave was a very
rare privilege for the British Forces in Italy. In France, taking a
rough average of all ranks and periods, British troops got leave once a
year. In my Battery in Italy, the majority were without leave home for
nineteen months. How much longer they would have had to wait, if the war
had not conveniently come to an end in the nineteenth month of their
Italian service, I do not know. Even in Italy, of course, the privilege
was extended somewhat more freely to junior regimental officers and much