The young officer who had announced the news stood in a corner. It appeared settled that the regiment to whom Boninsea, Cossa, the Major and Lieutenant Marchi belonged to would be leaving at dawn. The war would probably break out soon. In a matter of a few hours, or a few days. France had given up, and Mussolini wanted to take full advantage of that. The declaration of war would be greeted with statutory enthusiasm, but at that exact moment, since the final decision hadn’t yet been taken, they all felt guilty and anxious: just like death, war forced one to rethink life. The Major was the first among them to recover from this, and he was the first to start chatting; in fact, although he’d spent a great deal of time prior to that huddled up and worried in a corner, he now appeared to have re
