BEPPO THE CONSCRIPT. A Novel. BY T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE, AUTHOR OF "LA BEATA," ETC. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 1864. [The right of Translation is reserved.] 250. S. 13. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. NCE upon a time the narrow strip of territory shut in between the Apennine and the Adriatic to the south of Bologna and to the north of Ancona, was, as Byron has written of Venice, The pleasant place of all festivity, The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy. That small district, so niggardly squeezed in between the encroaching mountains and the sea, was once one of the high places not only of Italian but of European civilisation. It was there that VOL. I. 66 B |