Trafika Europe 14 - Italian Piazza

Edgardo Franzosini

they changed their minds. The Garde did not have suff icient training. Above al l it did not have suff icient equipment: its single-shot ri f les were not up to the task. Therefore, what appeared at dawn before the gates of the zoo was a platoon of f i fty men from the Second Regiment of the Chasseurs à Pied, armed with Mauser repeater ri f les with f ixed bayonets. The soldiers were in high uni form: double- breasted, dark green jackets with a yel low cordon aff ixed to the shoulder, gray trousers with a thin yel low stripe down the side, and a shako topped by a crest of black feathers. No white gloves, only because gloves did not ease the task of loading the ri f le. So why sul ly the uni form they would have to put on a few days or a few hours later to repel the enemy assault? The soldiers spread out over the great entrance boulevard in orderly rows. They marched past the pavi l ion where, in peacetime, on Sundays in the late spring and summer, a band played the waltz, the polka, the marches, and they passed by to the Moorish bui lding where the monkeys were housed. “We’ l l save that for last,” said the captain who commanded the platoon. Perhaps they resembled man too closely, and it seemed awful to begin with them. So they began with the birds. The aviaries that housed them were opened cautiously to prevent any from escaping. In each aviary, which were tal l and spacious, two soldiers entered, whi le another

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