reach his nineteenth year. More than ever, in that sad fantasy, does his soul go out toward his beloved Tony Wickye. A few days later, Friedrich is mortally wounded—horribly—in a skirmish. Every second is torture. In his agony he implores Tony Wickye to take his musket, and to shoot him, then and there, simply to end such sufferings. He knows that he cannot be healed. He would fain die by the beloved hand of Wickye. After a direful moral and sentimental battle with himself, and refusals to his friend, the tragic vow of their friendship conquers Tony. He obeys; the shot from his hand puts Friedrich Forst, out of misery.
Such are some of von Sternberg's military stories in the intersexual key. Reference to those of other sort will occur elsewhere in this volume.
A Citation from
De Amicis.
In the "Autobiography" of Edmondo De Amicis, where that charming Italian writer is describing his boyhood with its vivid sentimental undercurrents, he depicts his intense admiration for a comely young bersagliere, an episode not free from suggestions that the soldier had uranistic instincts. The narrative, however, may be read simply as a charming study of how a temperamental admiration for soldiers, and a sort of innocent boyish "flirtation" with one, can influence a sensitive lad's inner life for a time, and be more or less reciprocated by the friend of maturer age. De Amicis writes:
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