in the arcade because it was typical of the best of Palladio's
work and our own Thomas Jefferson, studying it, had reproduced
it and Americanized it in some of the buildings of the University
of Virginia, buildings that have had a distinct influence upon
American architecture! A number of Palladio's other works we saw
that night, softened and glorified by the moonlight. And we saw
also an old French house, not twenty-five feet wide, but a gem of
French architecture erected before the discovery of America. Finally
we went back and stood by the statue of Palladio and listened to the
low rumble of the guns on the front and wondered what the Germans
would do with such a lovely thing as this Vicenza if by any chance
they ever took it. That day we had looked down from a mountain-top
upon an Austrian town lying peacefully in the valley below us
directly under the Italian guns. The guns of the Austrians and the
Italians were smashing away at each other from the mountain-tops
over and across the town.

"You could pulverize that town easily enough," Henry said to the
Italian who was taking the Americans through the trenches.

"Oh, yes," he answered. "But it's a beautiful little town! Why ruin
it?" His theory was that if the Italians took it they would want
it whole and would want the loyalty and respect of the people of
the town; if they did not take it, why smash a beautiful little
town just to be smashing?

The German theory, of course, is exactly opposite to this. They
would smash the town, if they were to take it, to put fear into the
hearts of the inhabitants and command obedience; and if they knew
they could not take it they would smash it to cripple the enemy that