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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/13459-0.txt b/13459-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f1d9023 --- /dev/null +++ b/13459-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8246 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13459 *** + +This eBook was prepared by Carol Poster. + + + + + + +THE +WATERS OF EDERA + + + + +BY +O U I D A + +Author of +"Moths," "Under Two Flags," "The Silver Christ," Etc. + + + +London +T. FISHER UNWIN +Paternoster Square + +1900 + + + + + +THE WATERS OF EDERA + + +I + +It was a country of wide pastures, of moors covered with heath, of +rock-born streams and rivulets, of forest and hill and dale, sparsely +inhabited, with the sea to the eastward of it, unseen, and the +mountains everywhere visible always, and endlessly changing in +aspect. + +Herdsmen and shepherds wandered over it, and along its almost disused +roads pedlars and pack mules passed at times but rarely. Minerals and +marbles were under its turf, but none sought for them; pools and +lakes slept in it, undisturbed save by millions of water fowl and +their pursuers. The ruins of temples and palaces were overgrown by +its wild berries and wild flowers. The buffalo browsed where emperors +had feasted, and the bittern winged its slow flight over the fields +of forgotten battles. + +It was the season when the flocks are brought through this lonely +land, coming from the plains to the hills. Many of them passed on +their way thus along the course of the Edera water. The shepherds, +clothed in goatskin, with the hair worn outward, bearded, brown, +hirsute men, looking like savage satyrs, the flocks they drove before +them travel-worn, lame, heart-broken, the lambs and kids bleating +painfully. They cannot keep up with the pace of the flock, and, when +they fall behind, the shepherds slit their throats, roast their +bodies over an evening fire, or bake them under its ashes, and eat +them; if a town or village be near, the little corpses are sold in +it. Often a sheep dog or a puppy drops down in the same way, footsore +and worn out; then the shepherds do not tarry, but leave the +creatures to their fate, to die slowly of thirst and hunger. + +The good shepherd is a false phrase. No one is more brutal than a +shepherd. If he were not so he could not bear his life for a day. + +All that he does is brutal. He stones the flock where it would tarry +against his will. He mutilates the males, and drags the females away +from their sucking babes. He shears their fleeces every spring, +unheeding how the raw skin drops blood. He drives the halting, +footsore, crippled animals on by force over flint and slate and +parching dust. Sometimes he makes them travel twenty miles a day. + +For his pastime he sets the finest of his beasts to fight. This is +the feast day and holiday sport of all the shepherds; and they bet on +it, until all they have, which is but little, goes on the heads of +the rams; and one will wager his breeches, and another his skin +jacket, and another his comely wife, and the ram which is beaten, if +he have any life left in him, will be stabbed in the throat by his +owner: for he is considered to have disgraced the _branca_. + +This Sunday and Saints' day sport was going on a piece of grass land +in the district known as the Vale of Edera. + +On the turf, cleared of its heaths and ferns, there was a ring of +men, three of them shepherds, the rest peasants. In the midst of them +were the rams, two chosen beasts pitted against each other like two +pugilists. They advanced slowly at first, then more quickly, and yet +more quickly, till they met with a crash, their two foreheads, hard +as though carven in stone, coming in collision with a terrible force; +then each, staggered by the encounter, drew back, dizzy and bruised, +to recoil, and take breath, and gather fresh force, and so charge one +on the other in successive rounds until the weaker should succumb, +and, mangled and senseless, should arise no more. + +One of the rams was old, and one was young; some of the shepherds +said that the old one was more wary and more experienced, and would +have the advantage; in strength and height they were nearly equal, +but the old one had been in such duels before and the young one +never. The young one thought he had but to rush in, head downward, to +conquer; the old one knew that this was not enough to secure victory. +The young one was blind with ardour and impatience for the fray; the +old one was cool and shrewd and could parry and wait. + +After three rounds, the two combatants met in a final shock; the +elder ram butted furiously, the younger staggered and failed to +return the blow, his frontal bone was split, and he fell to the +ground; the elder struck him once, twice, thrice, amidst the +uproarious applause of his backers; a stream of blood poured from his +skull, which was pounded to splinters; a terrible convulsion shook +his body and his limbs; he stretched his tongue out as if he tried to +lap water; the men who had their money on him cursed him with every +curse they knew; they did not cut his throat, for they knew he was as +good as dead. + +"This is a vile thing you have done," said a little beggar girl who +had been passing, and had been arrested by the horrible fascination +of the combat, and forced against her will to stand and watch its +issue. The shepherds jeered; those who had backed the victor were +sponging his wounds beside a runlet of water which was close at hand; +those who had lost were flinging stones on the vanquished. The girl +knelt down by the dying ram to save him from the shower of stones; +she lifted his head gently upward, and tried to pour water through +his jaws from a little wooden cup which she had on her, and which she +had filled at the river. But he could not swallow; his beautiful +opaline eyes were covered with film, he gasped painfully, a foam of +blood on his lips and a stream of blood coursing down his face; a +quiver passed over him again; then his head rested lifeless on his +knees. She touched his shattered horns, his clotted wool, tenderly. + +"Why did you set him to fight?" she said with an indignation which +choked her voice. "It was vile. He was younger than the other, and +knew less." + +Those who had won laughed. Those who had lost cursed him again; he +had disgraced his _branca_. They would flay him, and put him in the +cauldron over the wood fire, and would curse him even whilst they +picked his bones for a white-livered spawn of cowards; a son of a +thrice-damned ewe. + +The girl knew that was what they do. She laid his battered head +gently down upon the turf, and poured the water out of her cup; her +eyes were blind with tears; she could not give him back his young +life, his zest in his pastoral pleasures, his joy in cropping the +herbage, his rude loves, his merry gambols, his sound sleep, his +odorous breath. + +He had died to amuse and excite the ugly passions of men, as, if he +had lived longer, he would, in the end, have died to satisfy their +ugly appetites. + +She looked at his corpse with compassion, the tears standing in her +eyes; then she turned away, and as she went saw that her poor ragged +clothes were splashed here and there with blood, and that her arms +and hands were red with blood: she had not thought of that before; +she had thought only of him. The shepherds did not notice her; they +were quarrelling violently in dispute over what had been lost and +won, thrusting their fingers in each other's faces, and defiling the +fair calm of the day with filthy oaths. + +The girl shrank away into the heather with the silent swiftness of a +hare; now that she had lost the stimulus of indignant pity she was +afraid of these brutes; if the whim entered into them they would be +as brutal to her as to their flock. + +Out of fear of them she did not descend at once to the river, but +pushed her way through the sweet-smelling, bee-haunted, cross-leaved +heaths; she could hear the sound of the water on her right all the +time as she went. She knew little of this country, but she had seen +the Edera, and had crossed it farther up its course on one of its +rough tree-bridges. + +When, as well as she could judge, she had got half a mile away from +the scene of the rams' combat, she changed her course and went to the +right, directed by the murmur of the river. It was slow walking +through the heath and gorse which grew above her head, and were +closely woven together, but in time she reached shelving ground, and +heard the song of the river louder on her ear. The heath ceased to +grow within a few yards of the stream and was replaced by various +water plants and acacia thickets; she slid down the banks between the +stems and alighted on her bare feet where the sand was soft and the +water-dock grew thick. She looked up and down the water; there was no +one in sight, nothing but the banks rosehued with the bloom of the +heather, and, beyond the opposite shore, in the distance, the tender +amethystine hues of the mountains. The water was generally low, +leaving the stretches of sand and of shingle visible, but it was +still deep in many parts. + +She stripped herself and went down into it, and washed the blood +which had by this time caked upon her flesh. It seemed a pity, she +thought, to sully with that dusky stain this pure, bright, shining +stream; but she had no other way to rid herself of it, and she had in +all the world no other clothes than these poor woollen rags. + +Her heart was still sore for the fate of the conquered ram; and her +eyes filled again with tears as she washed his blood off her in the +gay running current. But the water was soothing and fresh, the sun +shone on its bright surface; the comfrey and fig-wart blew in the +breeze, the heather smell filled the atmosphere. + +She was only a child, and her spirits rose, and she capered about in +the shallows, and flung the water over her head, and danced to her +own reflection in it, and forgot her sorrow. Then she washed her +petticoats as well as she could, having nothing but water alone, and +all the while she was as naked as a Naiad, and the sun smiled on her +brown, thin, childish body as it smiled on a stem of plaintain or on +the plumage of a coot. + +Then when she had washed her skirt she spread it out on the sand to +dry, and sat down beside it, for the heat to bake her limbs after her +long bath. There was no one, and there was nothing, in sight; if any +came near she could hide under the great dock leaves until such +should have passed. It was high noon, and the skirt of wool and the +skirt of hemp grew hot and steamed under the vertical rays; she was +soon as dry as the shingles from which the water had receded for +months. She sat with her hands clasped round her updrawn knees, and +her head grew heavy with the want of slumber, but she would not +sleep, though it was the hour of sleep. Some one might pass by and +steal her clothes, she thought, and how or when would she ever get +others? + +When the skirt was quite dried, the blood stains still showed on it; +they were no longer red, but looked like the marks from the sand. She +tied it on round her waist and her shirt over it, and wound an old +crimson sash round both. Then she took up her little bundle in which +were the wooden cup and a broken comb, and some pieces of hempen +cloth and a small loaf of maize bread, and went on along the water, +wading and hopping in it, as the water-wagtails did, jumping from +stone to stone, and sometimes sinking up to her knees in a hole. + +She had no idea where she would rest at night, or where she would get +anything to eat; but that reflection scarcely weighed on her; she +slept well enough under stacks or in outhouses, and she was used to +hunger. So long as no one meddled with her she was content. The +weather was fine and the country was quiet. Only she was sorry for +the dead ram. By this time they would have hung him up by his heels +to a tree, and have pulled the skin off his body. + +She was sorry; but she jumped along merrily in the water, as a +kingfisher does, and scarcely even wondered where its course would +lead her. + +At a bend in it she came to a spot where a young man was seated +amongst the bulrushes, watching his fishing net. + +"Aie!" she cried with a shrill cry of alarm, like a bird who sees a +fowler. She stopped short in her progress; the water at that moment +was up to her knees. With both hands she held up her petticoat to save +it from another wetting; her little bundle was balanced on her head, +the light shone in her great brown eyes. The youth turned and saw +her. + +She was a very young girl, thirteen at most; her small flat breasts +were those of a child, her narrow shoulders and her narrow loin spoke +of scanty food and privation of all kinds, and her arms and legs were +brown from the play of the sun on their nakedness; they were little +else than skin and bone, nerves and sinew, and looked like stakes of +wood. All the veins and muscles stood revealed as in anatomy, and her +face, which would have been a child's face, a nymph's face, with +level brows, a pure straight profile, and small close ears like +shells, was so fleshless and sunburnt that she looked almost like a +mummy. Her eyes had in them the surprise and sadness of those of a +weaning calf; and her hair, too abundant for such a small head, +would, had it not been so dusty and entangled, have been of a red +golden bronze, the hue of a chestnut which has just burst open its +green husk. + +"Who are you?" said the young man, looking at her in surprise. + +"I am Nerina," answered the child. + +"Where do you come from? What is your country?" + +She pointed vaguely to the south-west mountains, where the snow on +the upper ranges was still lying with bands of cloud resting on it. + +"From the Abruzzo?" + +She was silent. She did not know the mountains of her birthplace by +their names. + +"Who was your father?" he asked, with some impatience. + +"He was Black Fausto." + +"What did he do for a living?" + +"He went down with the fair season to the Roman plain." + +He understood: the man had no doubt been a labourer, one of those who +descend in bands from the villages of the Abruzzo heights to plough, +and mow, and sow, and reap, on the lands of the Castelli Romani; men +who work in droves, and are fed and stalled in droves, as cattle are, +who work all through the longest and hottest days in summer, and in +the worst storms of winter; men who are black by the sun, are half +naked, are lean and hairy and drip with continual sweat, but who take +faithfully back the small wage they receive to where their women and +children dwell in their mountain-villages. + +"He went, you say? Is he ill? Does he work no longer?" + +"He died last year." + +"Of what?" + +She gave a hopeless gesture. "Who knows? He came back with a wolf in +his belly, he said, always gnawing and griping, and he drank water +all day and all night, and his face burned, and his legs were cold, +and all of a sudden his jaw fell, and he spoke no more to us. There +are many of them who die like that after a hot season down in the +plains." + +He understood; hunger and heat, foul air in their sleeping places, +infusoria in the ditch and rain water, and excessive toil in the +extremes of heat and cold, make gaps in the ranks of these hired +bands every year as if a cannon had been fired into them. + +"Who takes care of you now?" he asked with pity, as for a homeless +bitch. + +"Nobody. There is nobody. They are all gone down into the earth." + +"But how do you live?" + +"I work when I can. I beg when I cannot. People let me sleep in the +stalls, or the barns, and give me bread." + +"That is a bad life for a girl." + +She shrugged her shoulders. + +"I did not make it." + +"And where are you going?" + +She opened her arms wide and swept the air with them. + +"Anywhere. Along the water, until I find something to do." + +"I cannot do much," she added, after a pause. "I am little, and no +one has taught me. But I can cut grass and card wool." + +"The grass season is short, and the wool season is far off. Why did +you not stay in your village?" + +She was mute. She did not know why she had left it, she had come away +down the mountainside on a wandering instinct, with a vague idea of +finding something better the farther she went: her father had always +come back with silver pieces in his pocket after his stay down there +in those lands which she had never seen, lying as they did down far +below under the golden haze of what seemed an immeasurable distance. + +"Are you not hungry?" said the fisher. + +"I am always hungry," she said, with some astonishment at so simple a +question. "I have been hungry ever since I can remember. We all were +up there. Sometimes even the grass was too dried up to eat. Father +used to bring home with him a sack of maize; it was better so long as +that lasted." + +"Are you hungry now?" + +"Of course." + +"Come to my house with me. We will feed you. Come. Have no fear. I am +Adone Alba, of the Terra Vergine, and my mother is a kind woman. She +will not grudge you a meal." + +The child laughed all over her thin, brown face. + +"That will be good," she said, and leapt up out of the water. + +"Poor soul! Poor soul!" thought the young man, with a profound sense +of pity. + +As the child sprang up out of the river, shaking the water off her as +a little terrier does, he saw that she must have been in great want +of food for a long time; her bones were almost through her skin. He +set his fishing pole more firmly in the ground, and left the net sunk +some half a yard below the surface; then he said to the little girl: + +"Come, come and break your fast. It has lasted long, I fear." + +Nerina only understood that she was to be fed; that was enough for +her. She trotted like a stray cur, beckoned by a benevolent hand, +behind him as he went, first through some heather and broom, then +over some grass, where huge olive trees grew, and then through corn +and vine lands, to an old farmhouse, made of timber and stone; large, +long, solid; built to resist robbers in days when robbers came in +armed gangs. There was a wild garden in front of it, full of cabbage +roses, lavender, myrtle, stocks and wallflowers. Over the arched door +a four-season rose-tree clambered. + +The house, ancient and spacious, with its high-pitched roof of ruddy +tiles, impressed Nerina with a sense of awe, almost of terror. She +remained hesitating on the garden path, where white and red stocks +were blossoming. + +"Mother," said Adone, "here is a hungry child. Give her, in your +kindness, some broth and bread." + +Clelia Alba came out into the entrance, and saw the little girl with +some displeasure. She was kind and charitable, but she did not love +beggars and vagabonds, and this half-naked female tatterdemalion +offended her sense of decency and probity, and her pride of sex. She +was herself a stately and handsome woman. + +"The child is famished," said Adone, seeing his mother's displeasure. + +"She shall eat then, but let her eat outside," said Clelia Alba, and +went back into the kitchen. + +Nerina waited by the threshold, timid and mute and humble, like a +lost dog; her eyes alone expressed overwhelming emotions: fear and +hope and one ungovernable appetite, hunger. + +Clelia Alba came out in a few minutes with a bowl of hot broth made +of herbs, and a large piece of maize-flour bread. + +"Take them," she said to her son. + +Adone took them from her, and gave them to the child. + +"Sit and eat here," he said, pointing to a stone settle by the wall +under the rose of four seasons. + +The hands of Nerina trembled with excitement, her eyes looked on +fire, her lips shook, her breath came feverishly and fast. The smell +of the soup made her feel beside herself. She said nothing, but +seized the food and began to drink the good herb-broth with thirsty +eagerness though the steam of it scorched her. + +Adone, with an instinct of compassion and delicacy, left her +unwatched and went within. + +"Where did you find that scarecrow?" asked his mother. + +"Down by the river. She has nobody and nothing. She comes from the +mountains." + +"There are poor folks enough in Ruscino without adding to them from +without," said Clelia Alba impatiently. "Mind she does not rob the +fowl-house before she slips sway." + +"She has honest eyes," said Adone. "I am sure she will do us no +harm." + +When he thought that she had been given time enough to finish her +food he went out; the child was stretched at full length on the stone +seat, and was already sound asleep, lying on her back; the empty bowl +was on the ground, of the bread there was no longer a crumb; she was +sleeping peacefully, profoundly, her thin hands crossed on her naked +brown bosom, on which some rose leaves had fallen from the rose on +the wall above. + +He looked at her in silence for a little while, then returned to his +mother. + +"She is tired. She sleeps. Let her rest." + +"It is unsafe." + +"How unsafe, mother? She is only a child." + +"She may have men behind her." + +"It is not likely." + +Adone could not say (for he had no idea himself) why he felt sure +that this miserable little waif would not abuse hospitality: "She is +a child," he answered rather stupidly, for children are often +treacherous and wicked, and he knew nothing of this one except what +she had chosen to tell of herself. + +"She may have men behind her," repeated his mother. + +"Such men as you are thinking of, mother, do not come to this valley +nowadays. Ulisse Ferrero was the last of them. Indeed, I think this +poor little creature is all alone in the world. Go and look at her. +You will see how forlorn and small she is." + +She went to the doorway and looked at the sleeping beggar; her eyes +softened as she gazed, the whole attitude and appearance of the child +were so miserable and so innocent, so helpless, and yet so tranquil, +that her maternal heart was touched; the waif slept on the stone +bench beside the door of strangers as though she were in some safe +and happy home. + +Clelia Alba looked down on her a few moments, then took the kerchief +off her hair, and laid it gently, without awakening the sleeper, over +the breast and the face of the child, on which flies were settling +and the sun was shining. + +Then she picked up the empty earthenware bowl, and went indoors +again. + +"I will go back to the river," said Adone. "I have left the net +there." + +His mother nodded assent. + +"You will not send this little foreigner away till I return?" he +asked. Every one was a foreigner who had not been born in the vale of +Edera. + +"No; not till you return." + +He went away through the sunshine and shadow of the olive-trees. He +knew that his mother never broke her word. But she thought as she +washed the bowl: "A little stray mongrel bitch like that may bite +badly some day. She must go. She is nothing now; but by and by she +may bite." + +Clelia Alba knew human nature, though she had never been out of sight +of the river Edera. She took her spinning-wheel and sat down by the +door. There was nothing urgent to do, and she could from the +threshold keep a watch on the little vagabond, and would be aware if +she awoke. All around was quiet. She could see up and down the +valley, beyond the thin, silvery foliage of the great olive-trees, +and across it to where the ruins of a great fortress towered in their +tragic helplessness. The sun shone upon her fields of young wheat, +her slopes of pasture. The cherry-trees and the pear-trees were in +bloom, her trellised vines running from tree to tree. Ragged-robin, +yellow crowsfoot, purple orchis, filled the grass, intermixed with +the blue of borage and the white and gold of the oxeye. She did not +note these things. Those fancies were for her son. Herself, she would +have preferred that there should be no flower in the grasses, for +before the cow was fed the flowers had to be picked out of the cut +grass, and had served no good end that she could perceive, for she +knew of no bees except the wild ones, whose honey no one ever tasted, +hidden from sight in hollow trees as it was. + +Nerina slept on in peace and without dreams. Now and then another +rose let fall some petals on her, or a bee buzzed above her, but her +repose remained undisturbed. + +The good food filled her, even in her sleep, with deep contentment, +and the brain, well nourished by the blood, was still. + +Clelia Alba felt her heart soften despite herself for this lonely +creature; though she was always suspicious of her, for she had never +known any good thing come down from the high mountains, but only +theft and arson and murder, and men banded together to solace their +poverty with crime. In her youth the great brigands of the Upper +Abruzzo had been names of terror in Ruscino, and in the hamlets lying +along the course of the Edera, and many a time a letter written in +blood had been fastened with a dagger to the door of church or +cottage, intimating the will of the unseen chief to the subjugated +population. Of late years less had been heard and seen of such men; +but they or their like were still heard and felt sometimes, up above +in lonely forests, or down where the moorland and macchia met, and +the water of Edera ran deep and lonely. In her girlhood, a father, a +son, and a grandson had been all killed on a lonely part of the +higher valley because they had dared to occupy a farm and a +water-mill after one of these hillmen had laid down the law that no +one was to live on the land or to set the waterwheel moving. + +That had been a good way off, indeed, and for many a year the Edera +had not seen the masked men, with their belts, crammed with arms and +gold, round their loins; but still, one never knew, she thought; +unbidden guests were oftener devils than angels. + +And it seemed to her that the child could not really be asleep all +this time in a strange place and the open air. At last she got up, +went again to the bench and drew her handkerchief aside, and looked +down on the sleeper; on the thin, narrow chest, the small, bony +hands, the tiny virginal nipples like wood strawberries. + +She saw that the slumber was real, the girl very young and more than +half-starved. "Let her forget while she can," she thought, and +covered her face again. "It is still early in the day." + +The bees hummed on; a low wind swept over a full-blown rose and shook +its loose leaves to the ground. The shadow from the ruined tower +began to touch the field which lay nearest the river, a sign that it +was two hours after noon. + + + + + + + +II + +The large square fresh-water fishing-net had sunk under the surface, +the canes which framed it were out of sight; only the great central +pole, which sustained the whole, and was planted in the ground of the +river-bank, remained visible as it bent and swayed but did not yield +or break. Such nets as this had been washed by the clear green waters +of the pools and torrents of the Edera ever since the days of +Etruscan gods and Latin augurs; religions had changed, but the river, +and the ways of the men of the river, had not altered. + +Adone did not touch it, for it was well where it was; he seated +himself on the bank ready to seize and hold it if its pole showed any +sign of yielding and giving way and heeling over into the stream. He +sat thus amongst the bulrushes for many an hour, on many a spring day +and summer night. Although fish were not numerous he never tired of +his vigil, lulled by the sound of the current as it splashed among +the stones and rippled through the rushes; a deeper music coming from +its higher reaches, where it fell over a ledge of rock and leapt like +a live thing into the air. And, indeed, what thing could be more +living than this fresh, pure, untroubled water, glad as a child, +swift as a swallow, singing for sport, as a happy boy sings, as it +ran down on its way from the hills? + +To the young man sitting now on its bank amidst the bulrushes it was +as living as himself, his playmate, friend, and master, all in one. +First of all things which he could remember were the brightness and +the coolness of it as it had laved his limbs in his childhood on +mid-summer noons, his mother's hands holding him safely as he waded +with rosy feet and uncertain steps along its pebbly bottom! How many +mornings, when he had grown to boyhood and to manhood, had he escaped +from the rays of the vertical sun into its acacia-shadowed pools; how +many moonlit, balmy nights had he bathed in its still reaches, the +liquid silver of its surface breaking up like molten metal as he +dived! How many hours of peace had he passed, as he was spending +this, waiting for the fish to float into his great net, whilst the +air and the water were alike so still that he could hear the little +voles stealing in and out amongst the reeds, and the water-thrush +pushing the pebbles on its sands in search for insects, though beast +and bird were both unseen by him! How many a time upon the dawn of a +holy-day had he washed and swam in its waters whilst the bells of the +old church in the village above had tolled in the softness of dusk! + +He thought of none of these memories distinctly, for he was young and +contented, and those who are satisfied with their lot live in their +present; but they all drifted vaguely through his mind as he sat by +the side of the river, as the memories of friends dear from infancy +drift through our waking dreams. + +He was in every way a son of the Edera, for he had been born almost +in the water itself; his mother had been washing linen with other +women at the ford when she had been taken with the pains of labour +two months before her time. Her companions had had no time or thought +to do more than to stretch her on the wet sand, with some hempen +sheets, which had not yet been thrown in the water, between her and +the ground; and the cries of her in her travail had echoed over the +stream and had startled the kingfishers in the osiers, and the wild +ducks in the marshes, and the tawny owls asleep in the belfry tower +of the village. But her pains had been brief though sharp, and her +son had first seen the light beside the water; a strong and healthy +child, none the worse for his too early advent, and the rough +river-women had dipped him in the shallows, where their linen and +their wooden beaters were, and had wrapped him up in a soiled woollen +shirt, and had laid him down with his face on his mother's young +breast, opening his shut unconscious mouth with their rough fingers, +and crying in his deaf ear, "Suck! and grow to be a man!" + +Clelia Alba was now a woman of forty-one years old, and he, her only +son, was twenty-four; they had named him Adone; the beautiful Greek +Adonais having passed into the number of the saints of the Latin +Church, by a transition so frequent in hagiology that its strangeness +is not remembered save by a scholar here and there. When he had been +born she had been a young creature of seventeen, with the wild grace +of a forest doe; with that nobility of beauty, that purity of +outline, and that harmony of structure, which still exist in those +Italians in whom the pure Italiote blood is undefiled by Jew or +Gentile. Now her abundant hair was white, and her features were +bronzed and lined by open-air work, and her hands of beautiful shape +were hard as horn through working in the fields. She looked an old +woman, and was thought so by others, and thought herself so: for +youth is soon over in these parts, and there is no half-way house +between youth and age for the peasant. + +Clelia Alba, moreover, had lost her youth earlier even than others: +lost it for ever when her husband at five-and-twenty years of age had +been killed by falling from an olive-tree of which the branch +sustaining him had cracked and broken under his weight. His neck had +been broken in the fall. She had been dancing and shouting with her +two-year-old child on the grassland not far off, romping and playing +ball with some dropped chestnuts; and when their play was over she +had lifted her boy on to her shoulder and run with him to find his +father. Under one of the great, gnarled, wide-spreading olives she +had seen him, lying asleep as she thought. + +"Oh, lazy one, awake! The sun is only two hours old!" she had cried +merrily, and the child on her shoulder had cooed and shouted in +imitation, "Wake--wake--wake!" and she, laughing, had cast a chestnut +she had carried in her hand upon the motionless figure. Then, as the +prostrate form did not stir, a sudden terror had seized her, and she +had set the baby down upon the grass and run to the olive-tree. There +she had seen that this was death, for when she had raised him his +head had dropped, and seemed to hang like a poppy broken in a blast +of wind, and his eyes had no sight, and his mouth had no breath. + +From that dread hour Clelia Alba had never laughed again. Her hair +grew white, and her youth went away from her for ever. + +She lived for the sake of her son, but she and joy had parted company +for ever. + +His death had made her sole ruler of the Terra Vergine; she had both +the knowledge and the strength necessary for culture of the land, and +she taught her boy to value and respect the soil. + +"As you treat the ground ill or well, so will your ground treat you," +she said to him. + + She always wore the costume of the province, which was similar to +that of the Abruzzo villages, and suited her cast of features and her +strong and haughty carriage. On feast-days she wore three strings of +fine pearls round her throat, and bracelets of massive gold and of +fine workmanship, so many in number that her arms were stiff with +them; they had been her mother's and grandmother's and +great-grandmother's, and had been in her dower. To sell or pawn them +under stress of need, had such occurred, would never have seemed to +any of her race to be possible. It would have seemed as sacrilegious +as to take the chalice off the church altar, and melt its silver and +jewels in the fire. When she should go to her grave these ornaments +would pass to Adone as heirlooms; none of her family were living. + +"Never talk of death, mother," he said, whenever she spoke of these +things. "Death is always listening; and if he hear his name he taps +the talker on the shoulder, just to show that he is there and must be +reckoned with." + +"Not so, my son!" replied Clelia Alba, with a sigh. "He has every +soul of us written down in his books from the time we are born; we +all have our hour to go and none of us can alter it." + +"I do not believe that," said Adone. "We kill ourselves oftentimes; +or we hasten our end, as drunkards do." + +"Did your father hasten his end?" said his mother. "Did not some one +break that olive branch? It was not the tree itself, though the +Ruscino folks would have it cut down because they called it a felon." + +"Was it not the devil?" said Adone. + +He believed in the devil, of course, as he had been taught to do; and +had he not as a child met the infernal effigy everywhere--in marble, +in stone, in wood, in colour, in the church and outside it, on +water-spout and lamp-iron, and even on the leaves of his primer? But +it seemed to him that the devil had "_troppo braccia_" given him, was +allowed too long a tether, too free a hand; if indeed he it were that +made everything go wrong, and Adone did not see who else it could be. +Here, in the vale of Edera, all the world believed in Satan as in +holy water, or in daily bread. + +Clelia Alba crossed herself hastily, for she was a pious woman. + +"We are talking blasphemy, my son," she said gravely. "Of course +there is the good God who orders the number of our days for each of +us, and is over us all." + +Adone was silent. To him it seemed doubtful. Did the good God kill +the pretty little children as the butcher in a city killed his lambs? +But he never contradicted or vexed his mother; he loved her with a +great and tender affection. He was less ignorant than she was, and +saw many things she could not see; he was, as it were, on a hilltop +and she down in a valley, but he had a profound respect for her; he +obeyed her implicitly, as if he were still a child, and he thought +the world held no woman equal to her. + +When he went back to his house that evening, with his great net on +his shoulder and swinging in one hand some fresh-water fish, he +looked at the stone bench, which was empty of all except some fallen +rose-leaves, and then anxiously, questioningly, in the face of his +mother. + +So he answered the regard. + +"The girl is gone to Gianna's custody," she said rather harshly. +"Gianna will give her her supper, and will let her sleep in the loft. +With the morning we will see what we can do for her, and how she can +be sped upon her way." + +Adone kissed her hands. + +"You are always good," he said simply. + +"I am weak," answered his mother, "I am weak, Adone; when you wish +anything I consent to it against my judgment." + +But she was not weak; or at least only weak in the way in which all +generous natures are so. + +On the morrow Nerina was not sped on her way. The old woman, Gianna, +thought well of her. + +"She is as clean as a stone in the water," she said; "she has +foul-smelling rags, but her flesh is clean. She woke at dawn, and +asked for something to do. She knows nought, but she is willing and +teachable. We can make her of use. She has nowhere to go. She is a +stray little puppy. Her people were miserable, but they seem to have +been pious folks. She has a cross pricked on her shoulder. She says +her mother did it when she was a babe to scare the devil off her. I +do not know what to say; she is a poor, forlorn little wretch; if you +like to keep her, I for my part will see to her. I am old: it is well +to do a good work before one dies." + +Gianna was an old woman, half house-servant, half farm-servant, +wholly friend; she had lived at the Terra Vergine all her life; big, +gaunt, and very strong, she could do the work of a man, although she +was over seventy years of age; burnt black by the sun, and with a +pile of grey hair like the hank of flax on her distaff, she was +feared by the whole district for her penetrating glance and her +untiring energy. When Gianna was satisfied the stars had changed +their courses, said the people, so rare was the event; therefore, +that this little wanderer contented her was at once a miracle and a +voucher indisputable. + +So the child remained there; but her presence troubled Adone's +mother, though Nerina was humble as a homeless dog, was noiseless and +seldom seen, was obedient, agile, and became useful in many manners, +and learned with equal eagerness the farm work taught her by Gianna, +and the doctrine taught her by Don Silverio, for she was intelligent +and willing in every way. Only Clelia Alba thought, "Perhaps Gianna's +good heart misleads her. Gianna is rough; but she has a heart as +tender at bottom as a ripe melon's flesh." + +Anyhow, she took her old servant's word and allowed the child to +remain. She could not bring herself to turn adrift a female thing to +stray about homeless and hungry, and end in some bottomless pit. The +child might be the devil's spawn. No one could be sure. But she had +eyes which looked up straight and true, and were as clear as the +river water where it flowed over pebbles in the shade. When the devil +is in a soul he always grins behind the eyes; he cannot help it; and +so you know him; thus, at least, they thought at Ruscino and in all +the vale of Edera; and the devil did not lurk in the eyes of Nerina. + +"Have I done right, reverend sir?" asked Clelia Alba of the Vicar of +Ruscino. + +"Oh, yes--yes--charity is always right," he answered, unwilling to +discourage her in her benevolence; but in his own mind he thought, +"The child is a child, but she will grow; she is brown, and starved, +and ugly now, but she will grow; she is a female thing and she will +grow, and I think she will be handsome later on; it would have been +more prudent to have put some money in her hand and some linen in her +wallet, and have let her pass on her way down the river. The saints +forbid that I should put aloes into the honey of their hearts; but +this child will grow." + +Clelia Alba perceived that he had his doubts as she had hers. But +they said nothing of them to each other. The issue would lie with +Time, whom men always depict as a mower, but who is also a sower, +too. However, for good or ill, she was there; and he knew that, +having once harboured her, they would never drive her adrift. Clelia +Alba was in every sense a good woman; a little hard at times, narrow +of sympathy, too much shut up in her maternal passion; but in the +main merciful and correct in judgment. + +"If the child were not good the river would not have given her to +us," said Adone to her; and believed it. + +"Good-day, my son," said the voice of the Vicar, Don Silverio +Frascara, behind him, where Adone worked in the fields. "Where did +you find that scarecrow whom your mother has shown me just now?" + +"She was in the river, most reverend, dancing along in it, as merry +as a princess." + +"But she is a skeleton!" + +"Almost." + +"And you know nothing of her?" + +"Nothing, sir." + +"You were more charitable than wise." + +"One cannot let a little female thing starve whilst one has bread in +the hutch. My mother is a virtuous woman. She will teach the child +virtue." + +"Let us hope so," said Don Silverio. "But all, my son, do not take +kindly to that lesson." + +"What will be, will be. The river brought her." + +He credited the river with a more than human sagacity. He held it in +awe and in reverence as a deity, as the Greeks of old held their +streams. It would have drowned the child, he thought, if she had been +an evil creature or of evil augury. But he did not say so, for he did +not care to provoke Don Silverio's fine fleeting ironical smile. + +A goatherd who passed some few days later with his flock on his way +to the mountains recognised the little girl. + +"You are Black Fausto's daughter," he said to her. "Is he dead? Eh, +well, we must all die. May his soul rest." + +To Gianna, who questioned him, he said, "Yes, he was a good soul. +Often have I seen him down in the Roman plains. He worked himself to +death. These gangs of labourers get poor pay. I saw him also in the +hills where this girl comes from, ever so high up, you seem to touch +the sky. I summered there two years ago; he had his womankind in a +cabin, and he took all that he got home to them. Aye, he was a good +soul. We can come away out of the heats, but they have to stay down +in them; for the reaping and the sowing are their chief gain, and +they get the fever into their blood, and the worms into their +bellies, and it kills them mostly before they are forty. You see, at +Ansalda, where he came from, it was snow eight months out of the +twelve, so the heats and the mists killed him: for the air you are +born in you want, and if you do not get it in time you sicken." + +"Like enough," said Gianna, who herself had never been out of sight +of the river Edera ever since she had been a babe in swaddling +clothes. "Tell me, gossip, was the child born in wedlock?" + +"Eh, eh!" said the goatherd grinning. "That I would not take on me +to say. But like enough, like enough; they are always ready to go +before the priest in those high hills." + +The little girl glided into her place humbly and naturally, with no +servility but with untiring willingness and thankfulness. It seemed +to her an amazing favour of heaven to live with these good people; to +have a roof over her head and food regularly every day. Up there in +her home, amongst the crags of Ansalda, she had never known what it +was not to have a daily hunger gnawing always in her entrails, and +making her writhe at night on her bed of dry leaves. In her thirteen +years of life she had never once had enough--no one ever had. A full +stomach had been a thing unknown. + +She began to grow, she began to put a little flesh on her bones; they +had cut her hair short, for it had been so rough, and it grew again +burnished and bright like copper; colour came into her cheeks and +lips; she seemed to spring upward, visibly, like a young cane. She +worked hard, but she worked willingly, and she was well nourished on +sound food, though it had little variety and was entirely vegetable; +and every day she went down and bathed in the river at the same place +where she had sat nude under the dock leaves whilst her skirt dried +in the sun. + +To her the Terra Vergine was Paradise itself; to be fed, to be +clothed, to have a mattress to sleep on, to work amongst the flowers +and the grass and the animals--it was all so beautiful, she thought +sometimes that she must be in heaven. + +She spoke little. Since she had been under this roof she had grown +ashamed of the squalor and starvation and wretchedness of her past +existence. She did not like to think of it even; it had been no fault +of hers, but she felt ashamed that she ever should have been that +little, filthy, unkempt, naked thing, grovelling on the clay floor, +and fighting for mouldy crusts with the other children on the rock of +Ansalda. + +"If I had only known when father was alive," she thought; but even if +she had known all she knew now, what could she have done? There had +been nothing to use, nothing to eat, nothing to wear, and the rain +and the snow and the wind had come in on them where they had lain +huddled together on their bed of rotten leaves. Now and then she said +something of that rude childhood of hers to Adone; she was afraid of +the women, but not of him; she trotted after him as the little white +curly dog Signorino trotted after Don Silverio. + +"Do not think of those dark days, little one," he said to her. "They +are gone by. Think of your parents and pray for their souls; but let +the rest go; you have all your life to live." + +"My mother was young when she died," said the child. "If she had had +food she would not have died. She said so. She kept on gnawing a bit +of rag which was soaked in water; you cheat hunger that way, you +know, but it does not fill you." + +"Pour soul! Poor soul!" said Adone, and he thought of the great +markets he had seen in the north, the droves of oxen, the piles of +fruits, the long lines of wine carts, the heaps of slaughtered game, +the countless shops with their electric light, the trains running one +after another all the nights and every night to feed the rich; and he +thought, as he had thought when a boy, that the devil had _troppo +braccio_, if any devil indeed there were beside man himself. + +Should there be anywhere on the face of the earth, young women, good +women, mothers of babes who died of sheer hunger like this mother of +Nerina's up yonder in the snows of the Abruzzo? He thought not; his +heart revolted at the vision of her, a living skeleton on her heap of +leaves. + +"Father brought all he had," continued the child, "but he could not +come back until after harvest, and when he came back she had been in +the ground two months and more. They put him in the same ditch when +his turn came; but she was no longer there, for they take up the +bones every three years and burn them. They say they must, else the +ditch would get too full." + +Adone shuddered. He knew that tens of thousands died so, and had died +so ever since the days of Phenicians and Gauls and Goths. But it +revolted him. The few gorged, the many famished--strange +disproportion! unkind and unfair balance! + +But what remedy was there? + +Adone had read some socialistic and communistic literature; but it +had not satisfied him; it had seemed to him vain, verbose, alluring, +but unreal, no better adapted to cure any real hunger than the soaked +rag of Nerina's mother. + + + + + +III + +The Valdedera is situated on the south of the Marches, on the +confines of what is now the territorial division of the +Abruzzo-Molese, and so lies between the Apennines and the Adriatic, +fanned by cool winds in summer from the eternal snow of the mountain +peaks, and invigorated in all seasons by breezes from the Adrian Sea. + +Ruscino, placed midway in the valley, is only a village to which no +traveller has for many years come, and of which no geographer ever +speaks; it is marked on the maps of military topographers, and is, of +course, inscribed on the fiscal rolls, but is now no more than a +village; though once, when the world was young, it was the Etruscan +Rusciae, and then the Latin Ruscinonis; and then, when the Papacy was +mighty, it was the militant principality of the fortified town of +Ruscino. But it was, when the parish of Don Silverio, an almost +uninhabited village; a pale, diminutive, shrunken relic of its heroic +self; and of it scarcely any man knows anything except the few men +who make their dwelling there; sons of the soil, who spring from its +marble dust and return to it. + +It had shrunk to a mere hamlet as far as its population was counted; +it shrank more and more with every census. There was but a handful of +poor people who, when gathered together in the great church, looked +no more than a few flies on a slab of marble. + +The oldest men and women of the place could recall the time when it +had been still of some importance as a posting place on the mountain +route between the markets of the coast and the western towns, when +its highway had been kept clean and clear through the woods for +public and private conveyance, and when the clatter of horses' hoofs +and merry notes of horns had roused the echoes of its stones. In that +first half of the century, too, they had lived fairly well, and wine +and fowls had cost next to nothing, and home-made loaves had been +always large enough to give a beggar or a stray dog a slice. But +these times had long been over; every one was hungry now, and every +one a beggar, by way of change, and to make things equal, as the +people said, with dreary mirth and helpless acquiescence in their +lot. Like most riverain people, they lived chiefly by the river, +cutting and selling its canes, its sallows, its osiers, its sedges, +catching its fish, digging its sand; but there were few buyers in +this depopulated district. + +Don Silverio Frascara, its vicar, had been sent thither as a +chastisement for his too sceptical and inquiring mind, his too +undisciplined temper. Nearly twenty years in this solitude had +chastened both; the fire had died out of his soul and the light out +of his eyes. His days were as monotonous as those of the blinded ass +set to turn the wine-press. All the steel of his spirit rusted, all +the brilliancy of his brain clouded; his life was like a fine rapier +which is left in a corner of a dusty attic and forgotten. + +In certain rare states of the atmosphere the gold cross on St. +Peter's is visible from some of the peaks of the Abruzzese Apennines. +It looks like a speck of light far, far away in the silver-green of +the western horizon. When one day he climbed to such an altitude and +saw it thus, his heart contracted with a sickly pain, for in Rome he +had dreamed many dreams; and in Rome, until his exile to the Vale of +Edera, he had been a preacher of noted eloquence, of brilliant +fascination, and of daring thought. + +There had been long cypress alleys which at sunset had glowed with +rose and gold, where he had in his few leisure hours builded up such +visions for the future as illumined the unknown years to the eyes of +an Ignatius, a Hildebrand, a Lacordaire, a Bossuet. On the place +where those grand avenues had stretched their green length in the +western light, and the seminarist had paced over the sward, there +were now long, dreary lines of brick and stone, the beaten dust of +roadways, the clang and smoke of engines: as the gardens had passed +away so had passed his ambitions and visions; as the cypresses had +been ground to powder in the steam mill, so was he crushed and +effaced under an inexorable fate. The Church, intolerant of +individuality, like all despotisms, had broken his spirit; like all +despotisms the tyranny had been blind. But he had been rebellious to +doctrine; she had bound him to her stake. + +He would have been a great prelate, perhaps even a great Pope; but he +would have been also a great reformer, so she stamped him down into +nothingness under her iron heel. And for almost a score of years she +had kept him in Ruscino, where he buried and baptized the old and new +creatures who squirmed in the dust, where any ordinary country priest +able to gabble through the ritual could have done as well as he. Some +few of the more liberal and learned dignitaries of the Church did +indeed think that it was waste of great powers, but he had the Sacred +College against him, and no one ventured to speak in his favour at +the Vatican. He had no pious women of rank to plead for him, no +millionaires and magnates to solicit his preferment. He was with time +forgotten as utterly as a folio is forgotten on a library shelf until +mildew eats its ink away and spiders nest between its leaves. He had +the thirty pounds a year which the State pays to such parish priests; +and he had nothing else. + +He was a tall and naturally stately man, but his form was bent by +that want of good food which is the chronic malady of many parts of +Italy. There was little to eat in Ruscino, and had there been more +there would have been no one who knew how to prepare it. Bread, +beans, a little oil, a little lard, herbs which grew wild, goat's +milk, cheese, and at times a few small river fish; these were all his +sustenance: his feasts and his fasts were much alike, and the little +wine he had he gave away to the sick and the aged. For this reason +his high stature was bent and his complexion was of the clear, yellow +pallor of old marbles; his profile was like the Caesarian outline on +a medallion, and his eyes were deep wells of impenetrable thought; +his finely cut lips rarely smiled, they had always upon them an +expression of bitterness, as though the apple of life in its eating +had been harsh and hard as a crab. + +His presbytery was close to his church, a dreary place with only a +few necessaries and many books within it, and his only servant was an +old man, lame and stupid, who served also as sacristan. + +It was a cure of souls which covered many miles but counted few +persons. Outside the old walls of Ruscino nearly all the land of vale +of Edera was untilled, and within them a few poverty-stricken people +dragged out their days uncared for by any one, only remembered by the +collectors of fiscal dues. "_They_ never forget," said the people. +"As soon as one is born, always and in every season, until one's +bones rattle down into the ditch of the dead, _they_ remember +always." + +The grasp of an invisible power took the crust off their bread, the +toll off their oil, off their bed of sacking, off their plate of +fish, and took their children when they grew to manhood and sent them +into strange lands and over strange seas; they felt the grip of that +hard hand as their forefathers had felt it under the Caesars, under +the Popes, under the feudal lords, under the foreign kings; they felt +it so now under the Casa Sabauda; the same, always the same; for the +manners and titles of the State may change, but its appetite never +lessens, and its greed never spares. For twice a thousand years their +blood had flowed and their earnings had been wrung out of them in the +name of the State, and nothing was changed in that respect; the few +lads they begot amongst them went to Africa, now as under Pompeius or +Scipio; and their corn sack was taken away from them under Depretis +or Crispi, as under the Borgia or the Malatesta; and their grape +skins soaked in water were taxed as wine, their salt for their +soup-pot was seized as contraband, unless it bore the government +stamp, and, if they dared say a word of resistance, there were the +manacles and the prison under Vittorio and Umberto as under Bourbon +or Bonaparte; for there are some things which are immutable as fate. +At long intervals, during the passing of ages, the poor stir, like +trodden worms, under this inexorable monotony of their treatment by +their rulers; and then baleful fires redden the sky, and blood runs +in the conduits, and the rich man trembles; but the cannon are +brought up at full gallop and it is soon over; there is nothing ever +really altered; the iron wheels only press the harder on the unhappy +worm, and there is nothing changed. + +Here at Ruscino there were tombs of nenfro which had overhung the +river for thirty centuries; but those tombs have never seen any other +thing than this, nor ever will, until the light and the warmth of the +sun shall be withdrawn for ever, and the earth shall remain alone +with her buried multitudes. + +There was only Don Silverio who thought of such a thing as this, a +scholar all alone amongst barbarians; for his heart ached for his +barbarians, though they bore him no love in return for his pity. They +would have liked better a gossiping, rotund, familiar, ignorant, +peasant priest, one of themselves, chirping formula comfortably over +skeleton corpses. + +In default of other interests he interested himself in this ancient +place, passing from neglect into oblivion, as his own life was doing. +There were Etruscan sepulchres and Pelasgic caves which had been +centuries earlier rifled of their objects of value, but still +otherwise remained untouched under the acacia woods by the river. +There were columns and terraces and foundations of marble which had +been there when the Latin city of Ruscinonis had flourished, from the +time of Augustus until its destruction by Theodoric. And nearest of +all these to him were the Longobardo church and the ancient houses +and the dismantled fortress and the ruined walls of what had been the +fief of the Toralba, the mediaeval fortified town of Ruscino. It +still kept this, its latest, name, but it kept little else. Thrice a +thousand centuries had rolled over it, eating it away as the sea eats +away a cliff. War and fire and time had had their will with it for so +long that dropped acorns and pine-pips had been allowed leisure to +sink between the stones, and sprout and bud and rise and spread, and +were now hoary and giant trees, of which the roots were sunk deep +into its ruins, its graves, its walls. + +It had been Etruscan, it had been Latin, it had been Longobardo, it +had been Borgian and Papal; through all these changes a fortified +city, then a castellated town, then a walled village; and a village +it now remained. It will never be more; before many generations pass +it will probably have become still less; a mere tumulus, a mere +honeycomb of buried tombs. It was now perishing, surely though +slowly, but in peace, with the grass growing on its temple stairs and +the woodbine winding round its broken columns. + +The trained and stored intellect of Don Silverio could set each +period of its story apart, and read all the vestiges remaining of +each. Ruscino was now to all others a mere poverty-stricken place, +brown and gaunt and sorrowful, scorching in the sun, with only the +river beneath it to keep it clean and alive. But to him it was as a +palimpsest of surpassing value and interest, which, sorely difficult +to decipher, held its treasures close from the profane and the +ignorant, but tempted and rewarded the scholar, like the lettering on +a Pompeian nuptial ring, the cyphers on a funeral urn of Herculaneum. +"After all, my lot might be worse than it is," he thought with +philosophy. "They might have sent me to a modern manufacturing town +in one of the Lombard provinces, or exiled me to some native +settlement in Eritrea." + +Here, at least, he had history and nature, and he enjoyed thousands +of hours undisturbed in which to read or write, or muse and ponder on +this chronicle of brick and stone, this buried mass of dead men's +labours and of dead men's dust. + +Doubtless, his manuscripts would lie unknown, unread; no man would +care for them; but the true scholar cares neither for public not +posterity; he lives for the work he loves; and if he knows that he +will have few readers in the future--maybe none--how many read +Grotius, or Boethius, or Chrysostom, or Jerome? + +Here, like a colony of ants, the generations had crowded one on +another, now swept away by the stamp of a conqueror's heel and now +succeeded by another toiling swarm, building anew each time out of +ruin, undaunted by the certainty of destruction, taught nothing by +the fate of their precursors. From the profound sense of despair +which the contemplation of the uselessness of human effort, and the +waste of human life, produces on the scholar's mind, it was a relief +to him to watch the gladness of its river, the buoyancy of its +currents, the foam of white blossom on its acacia and syringa +thickets, the gold sceptres and green lances of its iris-pseudacorus, +the sweep of the winds through its bulrushes and canebreaks, the +glory of colour in the blue stars of its veronica, the bright rosy +spikes of its epilobium. The river seemed always happy, even when the +great rainfall of autumn churned it into froth and the lightnings +illumined its ink-black pools. + +It was on the river that he had first made friends with Adone, then a +child of six, playing and splashing in the stream, on a midsummer +noon. Don Silverio also was bathing. Adone, a little nude figure, as +white as alabaster in the hot light, for he was very fair of skin, +sprang suddenly out of the water on to the turf above where his +breeches and shirt had been left; he was in haste, for he had heard +his mother calling to him from their fields; an adder started out of +a coil of bindweed and would itself round his ankle as he stooped for +his clothes. + +The priest, standing waist-deep in the river a few yards away, saw it +before the child did, and cried out to him: "Stand still till I come! +Be not afraid!" Adone understood, and, although trembling with terror +and loathing as he realised his danger, and felt the slimy clasp of +the snake, remained motionless as he was bidden to do. In a second of +time the priest had leaped through the water to his side, seized the +adder, and killed it. + +"Good boy," he said to the child. "If you had moved your foot the +creature would have bitten you." + +Adone's eyes filled with tears. + +"Thank you, sir; thank you for mother," he said very gently, for he +was a shy child, though courageous. + +The priest stroked his curls. + +"There is death in the grass very often. We should not fear death, +but neither should we run risk of it uselessly, especially when we +have a mother whom it would grieve. Come and bathe at this spot, at +this hour, to-morrow and every day, if you like. I will be here and +look after you, you are little to be alone." + +They were often together from that day onwards. + +The brutishness and greed of his flock oppressed him. He was sent +here to have care of their souls, but where were their souls? They +would all have sold them to the foul fiend for a mess of artichokes +fried in oil. In such a solitude as this he had been glad to be able +to teach and move the young malleable mind of Adone Alba; the only +one of them who seemed to have any mind at all. Adone also had a +voice as sweet as a nightingale in the syringa bushes in May; and it +pierced the gloom of the old naked gaunt church as a nightingale's +thrills through the dark hour before dawn. + +There was no other music in that choir except the children's or +youths' voices; there was nothing to make music with except those +flexible pipes of the boyish throats; and Don Silverio loved and +understood choral music; he had studied it in Rome. Adone never +refused to sing for him, and when the voice of adolescence had +replaced that of childhood, he would still stand no less docilely by +the old marble lectern, and wake the melodies of early masters from +the yellow pages. + +The church was as damp as a vault of the dead; cold even when the +dog-star reigned in the heavens. The brasses and bronzes were rusted +with moisture, and the marbles were black with the spores of mould; +rain dripped through the joints of the roof, and innumberable +sparrows made their nests there; the mosaics of the floor were green +from these droppings, and from those of the rain; the sun never +entered through any of the windows, which were yellow with age and +dust; but here, with a lantern for their only light, they solaced +each other with the song of the great choral masters. Only Adone, +although he never said or showed it, was glad when the huge key +groaned in the lock of the outer door, and he ran out into the +evening starlight, down the steep streets, across the bridge, and +felt the fresh river air blowing on him, and heard the swirling of +the water amongst the frost-stiffened canes, and saw far off in the +darkened fields the glimmer of a light--the light of home. + +That old home was the dearest thing on earth to the young man. He had +never been away from it but once, when the conscription called him. +In that time, which had been to him like a nightmare, the time of his +brief exile to the army, because he was the only son of a widow, he +had been sent to a northern city, one of commerce and noise and +crowded, breathless life; he had been cooped up in it like a panther +in a den, like a hawk in a cage. What he saw of the vices and +appetites of men, the pressure of greed and of gain, the harsh and +stupid tyranny of the few, the slavish and ignoble submission of the +many, the brutish bullying, the crouching obedience, the deadly +routine, the lewd licence of reaction--all filled him with disdain +and with disgust. When he returned to his valley he bathed in the +waters of Edera before he crossed his mother's threshold. + +"Make me clean as I was when I left you!" he cried, and took the +water in the hollow of his hands and kissed it. + +But no water flows on the earth, from land to sea, which can wholly +cleanse the soul as it cleanses the body. + +That brief time under arms he cursed as thousands of youths have +cursed it. Its hated stigma and pollution never wholly passed away. +It left a bitterness on his lips, a soil upon his memories. But how +sweet to him beyond expression, on his return, were the sound of the +rushing river in the silence of the night, the pure odours of the +blossoming beanfields, the clear dark sky with its radiant stars, the +sense of home, the peace of his own fields! + +"Mother, whether life for me shall be long or short, here its every +hour shall be spent!" he said, as he stood on his own ground and +looked through the olive-trees to the river, running swiftly and +strong beneath the moon. + +"Those are good words, my son," said Clelia Alba, and her hands +rested on his bowed head. + +He adored both the soil and the water of this place of his birth; no +toil upon either seemed to him hard or mean. All which seemed to him +to matter much in the life of a man was to be free, and he was so. In +that little kingdom of fertile soil and running stream no man could +bid him come and go, no law ruled his uprising and his down lying; he +had enough for his own wants and the wants of those about him, enough +for the needs of the body, and the mind here had not many needs; at +the Terra Vergine he was his own master, except so far as he +cheerfully deferred to his mother; and all which he put into the +earth he could take out of it for his own usage, though indeed the +fiscal authorities claimed well nigh one-half, rating his land at far +more than its worth. No doubt scientific agriculture might have made +it yield more than he did; but he was content to follow the ways of +old; he farmed as men did when the Sun-god was the farm slave of +Admetus. The hellebore and the violets grew at will in his furrows; +the clematis and the ivy climbed his figtrees; the fritillaria and +daphne grew in his pastures, and he never disturbed them, or scared +the starling and the magpie which fluttered in the wake of his wooden +plough. The land was good land, and gave him whatever he wanted; he +grudged nothing off it to bird, or beast, or leaf, or flower, or to +the hungry wayfarer who chanced to pass by his doors. In remote +places the old liberal, frank, open-handed hospitality of an earlier +time is still in Italy a practice as well as a tradition. + +The house was their own, and the earth gave them their bread, their +wine, their vegetables, their oil, hemp, and flax for their linen, +and herbs for their soup; of the olive-oil they had more than enough +for use, and the surplus was sold once a year in the nearest town, +San Beda, and served to meet the fiscal demands. They had rarely any +ready money, but no peasant in Italy ever expects, unless by some +luck at lotto, to have money in his pocket. + +He worked hard; at some seasons extremely hard; he hired labour +sometimes, but not often, for to pay for the hiring takes the profit +off the land. But he had been used to such work from childhood, and +it was never irksome to him; even though he rose in the dark, and +rarely went home to supper till the stars were shining. He had no +near neighbours except the poor folks in Ruscino. All surrounding him +was grass and moor and wood, called communal property, but in reality +belonging legally to no one; vast, still, fragrant leagues of +uninhabited country stretching away to the blue hills, home of the +fox and the hare and the boar, of the hawk and the woodpecker and the +bittern. + +Through those wilds he loved to wander alone; the sweet stillness of +a countryside which was uncontaminated by the residence of men +stilling the vague unrest of his youth, and the mountains towering in +the light lending to the scene the charm of the unknown. + +In days of storm or rain he read with Don Silverio or sang in the +church; on fine holy-days he roamed far afield in the lonely +heatherlands and woodlands which were watered by the Edera. He +carried a gun, for defence if need be, for there were boars and +wolves in these solitudes; but he never used it upon bird or beast. + +Like St. Francis of Assissi, both he and Don Silverio took more +pleasure in the life than in the death of fair winged things. + +"We are witness, twice in every year, of that great and inexplicable +miracle," the priest said often, "that passage of small, frail, +unguided creatures, over seas and continents, through tempests and +simoons, and with every man's hand against them, and death waiting to +take them upon every shore, by merciless and treacherous tricks, and +we think nought of it; we care nought for it; we spread the nets and +the gins--that is all. We are unworthy of all which makes the earth +beautiful--vilely unworthy!" + +One of the causes of his unpopularity in Ruscino was the inexorable +persistence with which he broke their gins, lifted their nets, +cleared off their birdlime, dispersed their watertraps, and forbade +the favourite night poaching by lanterns in the woods. More than once +they threatened his life, but he only smiled. + +"_Faccia pure_!" he said, "you will cut a knot which I did not tie, +and which I cannot myself undo." + +But they held him in too much awe to dare to touch him, and they knew +that again and again he went on bread and water himself to give his +wine to their sick, or his strip of meat to their old people. + +Moreover, they feared Adone. + +"If you touch a hair of Don Silverio's head, or the hem of his +cassock, I will burn Ruscino," said Adone to one of those who had +threatened his friend, "and you will all burn with it, for the river +will not help you; the river will turn to oil and make the flames +rage tenfold." + +The people were afraid as they heard him, for the wrath of the gentle +is terrible from its rarity. + +"For sure 'tis the dead Tor'alba as speak in him," they said with +fright under their breath, for there was a tale told in the district +that Adone Alba was descended from the old war-lords. + +The veterans of the village and the countryside remembered hearing +their fathers say that the family of the Terra Vergine were descended +from those great marquises who had reigned for centuries in that +Rocca which was now a grim, ivy-covered ruin on the north of the +Edera water. But more than this no one could say; no one could tell +how the warlike race had become mere tillers of the soil, or how +those who had measured out life and death up and down the course of +the valley had lost their power and possessions. There were vague +traditions of a terrible siege, following on a great battle in the +vale; that was all. + + + + + +IV + +The church in which Don Silverio officiated every morning and evening +for the benefit of a few old crones, had once been a Latin temple; it +had been built from the Corinthian pillars, the marble peristyle, the +rounded, open dome, like that of the Pantheon, of a pagan edifice; +and to these had been added a Longobardo belfry and chancel; pigeons +and doves roosted and nested in it, and within it was cold even in +midsummer, and dark always as a vault. It was dedicated to St. +Jerome, and was a world too wide for the shrunken band of believers +who came to worship in it; there was a high, dark altar said to have +been painted by Ribera, and nothing else that spoke in any way of +art, except the capitals of its pillars and the Roman mosaics of its +floor. + +The Longobardo bell-tower was of vast height and strength; within it +were various chambers, and these chambers had served through many +ages as muniment-rooms. There were innumerable documents of many +different epochs, almost all in Latin, a few in Greek. Don Silverio, +who was a fine classic as well as a learned archæologist, spent all +his lonely and cold winter evenings in the study of these early +chronicles, his oil lamp burning pale and low, his little white dog +lying on his knees. + +These manuscripts gave him great trouble, and were in many parts +almost unintelligible, in others almost effaced by damp, in others +again gnawed by rats and mice. But he was interested in his labours +and in his subject, and after several years of work on them, he was +able to make out a consecutive history of the Valdedera, and he was +satisfied that the peasant of the Terra Vergine had been directly +descended from the feudal-lords of Ruscino. That pittance of land by +the waterside under the shadow of the ruined citadel was all which +remained of the great fief of the youth in whose veins ran the blood +of men who had given princes, and popes, and cardinals, and captains +of condottieri, and patrons of art, and conquerors or revolted +provinces, to the Italy of old from the beginning of the thirteenth +century to the end of the sixteenth. For three hundred years the +Tor'alba had been lords there, owning all their eyes could reach from +mountain to sea; then after long siege the walled town and their +adjacent stronghold had fallen into the hands of hereditary foes +whose forces had been united against them. Fire and steel had done +their worst, and only a month-old child had escaped from the burning +Rocca, being saved in a boat laden with reeds at anchor in the river, +and hidden by a faithful vassal. The child had grown to manhood and +had lived to old age, leading a peasant's life on the banks of the +Edera; the name had been mutilated in common usage amongst those who +spoke only the dialect of the province, and for three more centuries +father and son had succeeded each other, working for their daily +bread where their ancestors had defied Borgia and Della Rovere, and +Feltrio, and Malatesta; the gaunt dark shade of the dismantled +citadel lying athwart their fields between them and the setting sun. + +Should he tell Adone this or not? + +Would the knowledge of his ancestry put a thorn in the boy's +contented heart? Would it act as a spur to higher things, or be +merely as the useless sting of a nettle? + +Who could say? + +Don Silverio remembered the gorgeous dreams of his own youth; and +what had been their issue? + +At fifty years old he was buried in a deserted village, never hearing +from year's end to year's end one word of friendship or phrase of +culture. + +Would it be well or would it be wrong to disturb that tranquil +acquiescence in a humble destiny? He could not decide. He dared not +take upon himself so much responsibility. "In doubt do nothing" has +been the axiom of many wise men. The remembrance of the maxim closed +his lips. He had himself been in early manhood passionately +ambitious; he was only a priest, but of priests are made the +Gregorio, the Bonifazio, the Leone of the Papal throne; to the dreams +of a seminarist nothing is impossible. But Adone had no such dreams; +he was as satisfied with his lot as any young steer which wants +nothing more than the fair, fresh fields of its birth. But one day as +he was sitting with the boy, then fifteen years old, on the south +bank of the Edera, the spirit moved him and he spake. It was the day +of San Benedetto, when the swallows come. The grass was full of pink +lychnis and yellow buttercups. A strong east wind was blowing from +the sea. A number of martins, true to the proverb, were circling +gaily above the stream. The water, reflecting the brilliant hues of +the heavens, was hurrying on its seaward way, swollen by recent rains +and hastened by a strong wind blowing from the eastern mountains. + +The lands of the Terra Vergine lay entirely on the south-east bank of +the river, and covered many acres, of which some was moorland still. +Almost opposite to it was the one-arched stone bridge, attributed to +Theodoric, and on the northern bank was the ruined Rocca, towering +above the trees which had grown up around it; whilst hidden by it and +by the remains of the fortifications was that which was now the mere +village of Ruscino. + +"Listen, Adone!" he said in his deep, melodious voice, grave and +sweet as a mass of Palestrina. "Listen, and I will tell you the tale +of yonder donjon and village, and of the valley of the Edera, so far +as I have been able to make it out for myself." + +According to the writers whose manuscripts he had discovered the town +of Ruscino, like Cremona, had existed before the siege of Troy, that +is, six hundred years before the foundation of Rome. Of this there +was no proof except tradition, but the ruins of the walls and the +tombs by the riverside and in the fields proved that it had been an +Etruscan city, and of some considerable extent and dignity, in those +remote ages. + +"The foundations of the Rocca," he continued, "were probably part of +a great stronghold raised by the Gauls, who undoubtedly conquered the +whole of this valley at the time when they settled themselves in what +is now the Marches, and founded Senegallia. It was visited by +Asdrubal, and burned by Alaric; then occupied by the Greek free +lances of Justinian; in the time of the Frankish victories, in common +with greater places, it was forced to swear allegiance to the first +papal Adrian. After that it had been counted as one of the fiefs +comprised in the possessions of the Pentapolis; and later on, when +the Saracens ravaged the shores of the Adriatic, they had come up the +Valdedera and pillaged and burned again. Gregory the Ninth gave the +valley to the family of its first feudal lords, the Tor'alba, in +recompense for military service, and they, out of the remains of the +Gallic, Etruscan, and Roman towns, rebuilt Ruscino and raised the +Rocca on the ruins of the castle of the Gauls. There, though at feud +many time with their foes, the Della Rovere, the Malatesta, and the +Dukes of Urbino, they held their own successfully, favoured usually +by Rome, and for three centuries grew in force and in possessions. +But they lost the favour of Rome by their haughtiness and +independence; and under pretext that they merited punishment, Cesare +Borgia brought troops of mercenaries against them, and after a fierce +conflict in the valley (the terrible battle of which the villagers +preserved the memory) the town was besieged and sacked. + +"After this battle, which must have taken place on yonder moor, to +the north-west, for the assailants had crossed the Apennines, the +Tor'alba and the remnant of men remaining to them retreated within +the walls of Ruscino. + +"The whole place and the citadel were burning, set on fire by order +of Borgia. The church alone was spared, and the dead men were as +thick as stones on the walls, and in the streets, and in the nave of +the church, and on the streets, and in the houses. This river was +choked with corpses, and dark with blood. The black smoke towered to +the sky in billows like a sea. The mercenaries swarmed over the +bastions and violated the women, and cut off their breasts and threw +their bodies down into the stream and their children after them. The +Lady of Tor'alba, valiant as Caterina Sforza, was the first slain. + +"The whole place was given up to flame and carnage, and the great +captains were as helpless as dead oxen. They were all slain amongst +their troopers and their vassals, and their bodies were burnt when +the fortress was fired. + +"Only one little child escaped the massacre, a month-old babe, son of +the Marquis of Tor'alba, who was hidden by a faithful servant amongst +the reeds of the Edera in a basket. This servant was the only male +who escaped slaughter. + +"The river rushes were more merciful than man, they kept the little +new-born lordling safe until his faithful vassal, under cover of the +night, when the assailants were drunk and stupid with licence +gratified, could take him to a poor woman to be suckled in a cottage +farther down the river. How he grew up I know not, but certain it is +that thirty years later one Federigo Tor'alba was living where you +live, and your house and land have never changed hands or title +since; only your name has been truncated, as often happens in the +speech of the people. How this land called the Terra Vergine was +first obtained I cannot say; the vassal may have saved some gold or +jewels which belonged to his masters, and have purchased these acres, +or the land may have been taken up and put gradually into cultivation +without any legal right to it; of this there is no explanation, no +record. But from that time the mighty lordship of Tor'alba has been +extinct, and scarcely exists now even in local tradition; although +their effigies are on their tombs, and the story of their reign can +be deciphered by any one who can read a sixteenth-century manuscript, +as you might do for yourself, my son, had you been diligent." + +Adone was silent. He had listened with attention, as he did to +everything which was said or read to him by Don Silverio. But he was +not astonished, because he had often heard, though vaguely, the +legend of his descent. + +"Of what use is it?" he said, as he sat moving the bright water with +his bare slim feet. "Nothing will bring it all back." + +"It should serve some great end," said Don Silverio, not knowing very +well what he meant or to what he desired to move the young man's +mind. "Nobility of blood should make the hands cleaner, the heart +higher, the aims finer." + +Adone had shrugged his shoulders. + +"We are all equal!" he answered. + +"We are not all equal," the priest said curtly. "There is not +equality in nature. Are there even two pebbles alike in the bed of +the river?" + +Don Silverio, for the first time in his life, could have willingly +let escape him some unholy word. It incensed him that he could not +arouse in the boy any of that interest and excitement which had moved +his own feelings so strongly as he had spent his spare evenings +poring over the crabbed characters and the dust-weighted vellum of +the charred and mutilated archives discovered by him in a secret +closet in the bell-tower of his church. With infinite toil, patience, +and ability he had deciphered the Latin of rolls, registers, letters, +chronicles, so damaged by water, fire, and the teeth of rats and +mice, that it required all an archæologist's ingenuity and devotion +to make out any sense from them. Summer days and winter nights had +found him poring over the enigma of these documents, and now, when he +had conquered and revealed their secret, he who was most concerned in +it was no more stirred by curiosity or pride than if he had been one +of the big tawny owls dwelling in the dusk of the belfry. + +Don Silverio was a learned man and a holy man, and should have +despised such vanities, but an historic past had great seduction for +him; a militant race fascinated him against his conscience, and +aristocracy allured him despite all his better judgement; it seemed +to him that if he had learned that he had come from a knightly _gens_ +such as this of the Tor'alba, he would have been more strongly moved +to self-glorification than would have become a servant of the Church. +He himself had no knowledge even of his own near parentage; he had +been a forsaken child, left one dark autumn night in the iron cradle +of the gates of a foundling hospital in Reggio Calabrese. His names +had been bestowed on him by the chaplain of the institution; and his +education had been given him by an old nobleman of the town, +attracted by his appearance and intelligence as a child. He was now +fifty years of age; and he had never known anything of kith and kin, +or of the mingled sweetness and importunity of any human tie. + +Adone sat silent, looking up at the fortress of his forefathers. He +was more moved than his words showed. + +"If we were lords of the land and the town and the people, we were +also lords of the river," was what he was thinking; and that thought +moved him to strong pride and pleasure, for he loved the river with a +great love, only equalled by that which he felt for his mother. + +"They were lords of the river?" he asked aloud. + +"Undoubtedly," answered the priest. "It was one of the highways of +the province from east to west and _vice versâ_ in that time; the +signoria of this Rocca took toll, kept the fords and bridges and +ferries; none could pass up and down under Ruscino without being seen +by the sentinels on the ramparts here. The Edera was different then; +more navigable, perhaps less beautiful. Rivers change like nations. +There have been landslips which have altered its course and made its +torrents. In some parts it is shallower, in others deeper. The woods +which enclosed its course then have been largely felled, though not +wholly. Sand has been dug from it incessantly, and rocks have fallen +across it. As you know, no boats or barges which draw any depth of +water can ascend or descend it now without being towed by horses; and +in some parts, as here, it is course, too precipitous in its fall for +even small boats to adventure themselves upon it: its shoals of +lilies can blossom unmolested where its surface is level. Yes; +undoubtedly, the lords of Ruscino were also lords of the Edera, from +its mouth to its source; and their river formed at once their +strongest defence and their weakest point. It was difficult +sufficiently to guard so many miles of water; above all because, as I +say, its course was so much clearer, and its depth so much greater, +that a flotilla of rafts or cutters could ascend it from its mouth as +far as this town in the Middle Ages; in fact, more than once, +corsairs from the Levant and from Morocco did so ascend it, and +though they were driven back by the culverins of the citadel, they +every time carried off to slavery some of the youths and maidens of +the plain." + +Adone gazed across the river to the moss-grown walls which had once +been fortifications still visible on the side of the hill, and to the +frowning donjon, the blackened towers, the ruined bastions, of what +had been once the Rocca, with the amber light and rosy clouds of the +unseen sun behind them. + +"Teach me Latin, your reverence," was all he said. + +"I have always offered to do so," said Don Silverio. + +Adone was again silent, swinging his slender brown feet in the water, +and looking always upward at the evening sky beyond the great round +shape of the dismantled fortress. + +He learned some Latin with much difficulty, studying hard in his +evening leisure in the winters, and with time he could decipher for +himself, with assistance from Don Silverio, the annals of the +Tor'alba; and he saw that it was as certain as anything grown over +with the lichens and cobwebs of time can be that he himself was the +last of the race. + +"Your father used to say something of the sort," his mother said; +"but he had only heard it piecemeal from old people, and never heard +enough to put the pieces together as you have done. 'What does it +matter either?' he used to say; and he said those great lords had +been cut-throats on the land and robbers on the river. For your +father's father had worn the red shirt in his youth, as I have told +you often, and thought but little of lords and princes." + +But Adone was different; the past allured him with the fascination +which it has for poets and scholars; he was neither of these, except +in a vague, unconscious way; but his imagination was strong and +fertile once aroused; the past, as suggested to him by the vicar, by +degrees became to him a living thing and nearer than the present, as +it is to scholars who are poets. He was neither scholar nor poet; but +he loved to muse upon that far-off time when his forefathers had been +lords of the land and of the water. + +He did not want the grandeur, he did not envy the power which they +had possessed; but he wished that, like them, he could own the Edera +from its rise in the hills to its fall into the sea. + +"Oh, dear river!" he sang to it tenderly, "I love you. I love you as +the dragon-flies do, as the wagtails do, as the water voles do; I am +you and you are me. When I lean over you and smile, you smile back to +me. You are beautiful in the night and the morning, when you mirror +the moon and play with the sunbeams, when you are angry under the +wind, and when you are at peace in the heat of the noon. You have +been purple with the blood of my people, and now you are green and +fresh as the leaves of the young vine. You have been black with +powder and battle, now you are fair with the hue of the sky and the +blue of the myosotis. You are the same river as you were a thousand +years ago, and yet you only come down to-day from the high hills, +young and strong, and ever renewing. What is the life of man beside +yours?" + +That was the ode which he sang in the dialect of the province, and +the stream washed his feet as he sang; and with his breath on his +long reed flute--the same flute as youths have made and used ever +since the days that Apollo reigned on Saracte--he copied the singing +of the river, which piped as it ran, like birds at dawn. + +But this was only at such times as daybreak or early night when he +was alone. + +There were but a few people within the ruined walls of Ruscino; most +of the houses were tenantless and tottering to their fall. A few old +bent men and weather-beaten women and naked children climbed its +steep lanes and slept under its red-brown roofs, bawled to each other +from its deep arched doorways to tell of death or birth, and gathered +dandelion leaves upon its ramparts to cure their shrunken and swollen +bladders. He knew them every one, he was familiar with and kind to +them; but he was aloof from them by temperament and thought, and he +showed them his soul no more than the night birds in the towers +showed their tawny breasts and eyes of topaz to the hungry and ragged +fowls which scratched amongst the dust and refuse on the stones in +the glare of day. + +"_Il Bel Adone_!" sighed matrons and the maidens of the scattered +farms and the old gloomy castellated granges which here and there, +leagues distant from one another, broke the green and silent monotony +of the vast historic country whose great woods sloped from hill to +plain. But to these, too, he was indifferent, though they had the +stern and solid beauty of the Latium women on their broad low brows, +their stately busts, their ox-like eyes, their shapely feet and +limbs; and often, joined to that, the red-gold hair and the fair skin +of the Adriatic type. As they bound the sheaves, and bore the +water-jars, and went in groups through the seeding grass to chapel, +or fountain, or shrine, they had the free, frank grace of an earlier +time; just such as these had carried the votive doves to the altars +of Venus and chanted by the waters of the Edera the worship of Isis +and her son. But to Adone they had no charm. What did he desire or +dream of? Himself he could not have said. Perhaps they were too warm; +it was certain that they left him cold. + +Sometimes he learned over the river and looked longingly into its +depths. + +"Show me the woman I shall love," he said to the water, but it +hastened on, glad, tumultuous, unheeding; and he only saw the +reflection of the white jonquils or of the golden sword rush on its +banks. + + + + + +V + +Fruits ripen quickly in these provinces, and children become women in +a summer hour; but with Nerina, through want and suffering and +hunger, physical growth had been slow, and she remained long a child +in many things and many ways. Only in her skill and strength for work +was she older than her actual age. + +She could hoe and reap and sow: she could row and steer the boat +amongst the shallows as well as any man; she could milk the cow, and +put the steers in the waggon; she could card hemp and flax, and weave +and spin either; she could carry heavy weights balanced on her head; +she was strong and healthy and never ill, and with it all she was +happy. Her large bright eyes were full of contentment, and her rosy +mouth often smiled out of the mere gladness of living. Her senses +were still asleep and her young soul wanted nothing more than life +gave her. + +"You can earn your bread anywhere now, little one," said Clelia Alba +to her one day, when she had been there three years. + +The girl shrank as under a blow; her brown and rosy face grew +colourless. "Do you wish me to go away?" she said humbly. + +"No, no," said Clelia, although that was what she did desire. "No, +not while I live. But should I die, you could not stay here with my +son." + +"Why?" said Nerina. She did not understand why. + +Clelia hesitated. + +"You ought to feel that yourself," she said harshly. "Young men and +young maids do not dwell together, unless" + +"Unless what?" asked Nerina. + +"You are a simpleton indeed, or you are shamming," thought Adone's +mother; but aloud she only said, "It is not in our usage." + +"But you will not die," said Nerina anxiously. "Why should you think +of dying, madonna? You are certainly old, but you are not so very, +very old." + +Clelia smiled. + +"You do not flatter, child. So much the better. Run away and drive in +those fowls. They are making havoc in the beanfield." + +She could not feel otherwise than tenderly towards this young +creature, always so obedient, so tractable, so contented, so +grateful; but she would willingly have placed her elsewhere could she +have done so with a clear conscience. + +"My son will never do ill by any creature under his roof," she +thought. "But still youth is youth; and the girl grows." + +"We must dower her and mate her; eh, your reverence?" she said to Don +Silverio when he passed by later in that day. + +"Willingly," he answered. "But to whom? To the owls or the cats at +Ruscino?" + +In himself he thought, "She is as straight and as slight as a +chestnut wand, but she is as strong. When you shall try to bend her +where she shall not want to go you will not succeed." + +For he knew the character of Nerina in the confessional better than +Clelia Alba judged of it in her house. + +"It was not wise to bring her here," he added aloud. "But having +committed that error it would be unfair to charge the child with the +painful payment of it. You are a just woman, my good friend; you must +see that." + +Clelia saw it clearly, for she never tried to trick her conscience. + +"Your reverence mistakes me," she answered. "I would not give her to +any but a good man and a good home." + +"They are not common," said Don Silverio. "Nor are they as easy to +find as flies in summer." + +What was the marriage of the poor for the woman? What did it bring? +What did it mean? The travail of child-bearing, the toil of the +fields, the hardship of constant want, the incessant clamour on her +ear of unsatisfied hunger, the painful rearing of sons whom the State +takes away from her as soon as they are of use, painful ending of +life on grudged crusts as a burden to others on a hearth no longer +her own. This, stripped of glamour, is the lot nine times out of ten +of the female peasant -- a creature of burden like the cow she yokes, +an animal valued only in her youth and her prime; in old age or in +sickness like the stricken and barren goat, who has nought but its +skin and its bones. + +Poor little Nerina! + +As he went home he saw her cutting fodder for a calf; she was +kneeling in a haze of rose colour made by the many blossoms of the +_orchis maculat_ which grew there. The morning light sparkled in the +wet grass. She got up as she saw him cross the field, dropped her +curtsey low with a smile, then resumed her work, the dew, the sun, +the sweet fresh scents shed on her like a benison. + +"Poor little soul," thought Don Silverio. "Poor little soul! Has +Adone no eyes?" + +Adone had eyes, but they saw other things than a little maiden in the +meadow-grass. + +To her he was a deity; she believed in him and worshipped him with +the strongest faith, as a little sister might have done. She would +have fought for him like a little mastiff; she would have suffered in +his service with rapture and pride; she was as vigilant for his +interests as if she were fidelity incarnated. She watched over all +that belonged to him, and the people of Ruscino feared her more than +they feared Pierino the watch-dog. Woe betided the hapless wight who +made free with the ripe olives, or the ripe grapes, with the fig or +the peach or the cherry which grew on Adone's lands; it seemed to +such marauders that she had a thousand eyes and lightning in her +feet. + +One day, when she had dealt such vigorous blows with a blackthorn +stick on the back of a lad who had tried to enter the fowl-house, +that he fell down and shrieked for pardon, Adone reproved her. +"Remember they are very poor, Nerina," he said to her. "So were your +own folks, you say." + +"I know they are poor," replied Nerina; she held to her opinions. +"But when they ask, you always give. Therefore it is vile to rob you. +Besides," she added, "if you go on and let them steal and steal till +you will have nothing left." + +Whatever she saw, whatever she heard, she told Adone; and he gave ear +to her because she was not a chatterer, but was usually of few words. +All her intelligence was spent in the defence and in the culture of +the Terra Vergine; she did not know her alphabet, and did not wish to +do so; but she had the quickest of ears, the keenest of eyes, the +brightest of brains. + +One morning she came running to him where he was cutting barley. + +"Adone! Adone!" she cried breathlessly, "there were strange men by +the river to-day." + +"Indeed," said Adone astonished, because strangers were never seen +there. Ruscino was near no highroad, and the river had long ceased to +be navigable. + +"They asked me questions, but I put my hands to my ears and shook my +head; they thought I was deaf." + +"What sort of men were they?" he asked with more attention, for there +were still those who lived by violence up in the forests which +overhung the valley of the Edera. + +"How do I know? They were clothed in long woollen bed-gowns, and they +had boots on their feet, and on their heads hats shaped like +kitchen-pans." + +Adone smiled. He saw men from a town, or country fellows who aped +such men, with a contempt which was born at once of that artistic +sense of fitness which was in him, and of his adherence to the +customs and habits of his province. The city-bred and city-clothed +man looked to him a grotesque and helpless creature, much sillier +than an ape. + +"That sounds like citizens or townsfolk. What did they say?" + +"I could not understand; but they spoke of the water, I think, for +they pointed to it and said a great deal which I did not understand, +and seemed to measure the banks, and took your punt and threw a chain +into the water in places." + +"Took castings? Used my punt? That is odd! I have never seen a +stranger in my life by the Edera. Were they anglers?" + +"No." + +"Or sportsmen?" + +"They had no guns." + +"How many were they?" + +"Three. They went away up the river talking." + +"Did they cross the bridge?" + +"No. They were not shepherds, or labourers, or priests," said Nerina. +To these classes of men her own acquaintance was confined. + +"Painters, perhaps?" said Adone; but no artists were ever seen there; +the existence even of the valley was scarcely known, except to +topographers. + +"What are painters?" said Nerina. + +"Men who sit and stare and then make splashes of colour." + +"No; they did not do that." + +"It is strange." + +He felt vaguely uneasy that any had come near the water; as a lover +dislikes the pressure of a crowd about his beloved in a street, so he +disliked the thought of foreign eyes resting on the Edera. That they +should have used his little punt, always left amongst the sedges, +seemed to him a most offensive and unpardonable action. + +He went to the spot where the intruders had been seen, but there was +no trace of them, except that the wet sand bore footprints of persons +who had, as she had said of them, worn boots. He followed these +footprints for some mile or more up the edge of the stream, but there +he lost them from sight; they had passed on to the grass of a level +place, and the dry turf, cropped by sheep to its roots, told no +tales. Near this place was a road used by cattle drivers and mules; +it crossed the heather for some thousand yards, then plunged into the +woods, and so went up over the hills to the town of Teramo, +thirty-five kilometres away. It was a narrow, rough, steep road, +wholly unfit for vehicles of any kind more tender than the rude +ox-treggia, slow as a snail, with rounds of a tree-trunk for its +wheels, and seldom used except by country folks. + +He would have asked Don Silverio if he had heard or seen anything of +any strangers, but the priest was away that day at one of the lonely +moorland cabins comprised in his parish of Ruscino, where an old man, +who had been a great sinner in his past, was at his last gasp, and +his sons and grandsons and great-grandchildren all left him to meet +his end as he might. + +It was a fine day, and they had their grain to get in, and even the +women were busy. They set a stoup of water by him, and put some in +his nostrils, and shut the door to keep out the flies. It was no use +to stay there they thought. If you helped a poor soul to give up the +ghost by a hand on his mouth, or an elbow in his stomach, you got +into trouble; it was safer to leave him alone when he was a-dying. + +Don Silverio had given the viaticum to the old man the night before, +not thinking he would outlive the night. He now found the door locked +and saw the place was deserted. He broke the door open with a few +kicks, and found the house empty save for the dying creature on the +sacks of leaves. + +"They would not wait! They would not wait -- hell take them!" said +the old man, with a groan, his bony hands fighting the air. + +"Hush, hush! the holy oil is on you," said Don Silverio. "They knew I +should be here." + +It was a charitable falsehood, but the brain of the old man was still +too awake to be deceived by it. + +"Why locked they the door, then? Hell take them! They are reaping in +the lower fields -- hell take them!" he repeated, his bony, toothless +jaws gnashing with each word. + +He was eighty-four years old; he had been long the terror of his +district and of his descendants, and they paid him out now that he +was powerless; they left him alone in that sun-baked cabin, and they +had carefully put his crutch out of reach, so that if any force +should return to his paralysed body he should be unable to move. + +It was the youngest of them, a little boy of seven years old, who had +thought to do that; the crutch had hit him so often. + +The day had been only beginning when Don Silverio had reached the +cabin, but he resolved to await there the return of the family; its +hours were many and long and cruel in the midsummer heat, in this +foetid place, where more than a score of men, women, and children of +all ages, slept and swarmed through every season, and where the +floors of beaten earth were paven with filth three millimetres thick. +The people were absent, but their ordure, their urine, their lice, +their saliva were left there after them, and the stench of all was +concentrated on this bed where the old man wrestled with death. + +Don Silverio stayed on in the sultry and pestilent steam which rose +up from the floor. Gnats and flies of all kinds buzzed in the heavy +air, or settled in black knots on the walls and the rafters. With a +bunch of dried maize-leaves he drove them off the old man's face and +hands and limbs, and ever and again at intervals gave the poor +creature a draught of water with a few drops in it from a phial of +cordial which he had brought with him. The hours passed, each seeming +longer than a day; at last the convulsive twitching of the jaws +ceased; the jaw had fallen, the dark cavern of the toothless mouth +yawned in a set grimace, the vitreous eyes were turned up into the +head: the old man was dead. But Don Silverio did not leave him; two +sows and a hog were in a stye which was open to the house; he knew +that they would come and gnaw the corpse if it were left to them; +they were almost starving, and grunted angrily. + +He spent so many vigils similar to this that the self-sacrifice +entailed in them never struck either him or those he served. + +When the great heat had passed he set the door wide open; the sun was +setting; a flood of light inundated the plain from the near mountains +on the west, where the Leonessa towered, to those shadowy green +clouds which far away in the east were the marshes before the sea. +Through the ruddy glory of the evening the family returned, dark +figures against the gold; brown women, half-nude men, footsore +children, their steps dragging reluctantly homeward. + +At the sight of the priest on the threshold they stopped and made +obeisance humbly in reverent salutation. + +"Is he dead, most reverend?" said the eldest of the brood, a man of +sixty, touching the ground with his forehead. + +"Your father is dead," said Don Silverio. + +The people were still; relieved to hear that all was over, yet +vaguely terrified, rather by his gaze than by his words. A woman wept +aloud out of fear. + +"We could net let the good grain spoil," said the eldest man, with +some shame in his voice. + +"Pray that your sons may deal otherwise with you when your turn shall +come," said Don Silverio; and then he went through them, unmoved by +their prayers and cries, and passed across the rough grass-land out +of sight. + +The oldest man, he who was now head of the house, remained prostrate +on the threshold and beat the dust with his hands and heels; he was +afraid to enter, afraid of that motionless, lifeless bag of bones of +which the last cry had been a curse at him. + +Don Silverio went on his way over the moors homeward, for he had no +means except his own limbs whereby to go his scattered parishioners. +When he reached the village and climbed its steep stones night had +long fallen and he was sorely tired. He entered by a door which was +never locked, and found an oil wick burning on his table, which was +set out with the brown crockery used for his frugal supper of cheese +and lettuce and bread. His old servant was abed. His little dog alone +was on the watch to welcome him. It was a poor, plain place, with +whitewashed walls and a few necessary articles of use; but it was +clean and sweet, its brick floors were sanded, and the night air blew +in from its open casement with the freshness from the river in it. +Its quiet was seldom disturbed except by the tolling of the bell for +the church services; and it was welcome to him after the toil and +heat and stench of the past day. + +"My lot might have been worse," he thought, as he broke his loaf; he +was disinclined to eat; the filthy odours of the cabin pursued him. + +He was used to have had a little weekly journal sent to him by the +post; which came at rare intervals on an ass's back to Ruscino, the +ass and his rider, with a meal sack half filled by the meagre +correspondence of the district, making the rounds of that part of the +province with an irregularity which seemed as natural to the +sufferers by it as to the postman himself. "He cannot be everywhere +at once," they said of him with indulgence. + +When he reached his home that evening the little news-sheet was lying +on his table beside the brown crockery, the cheese, lettuces, and +bread. He scarcely touched the food; he was saddened and sickened by +the day he had passed, although there had been nothing new in it, +nothing of which he had not been witness a hundred times in the +cabins of his parishioners. The little paper caught his eye, he took +it and opened it. It was but a meagre thing, tardy of news, costing +only two centimes, but it was the only publication which brought him +any intelligence of that outer world from which he was as much +separated as though he had been on a deserted isle in mid-ocean. + +By the pale light of the single wick he turned over its thin sheet to +distract his thoughts; there was war news in east and west, Church +news in his own diocese and elsewhere; news all ten days old and +more; political news also, scanty and timidly related. The name of +the stream running underneath the walls of Ruscino caught his regard; +a few lines were headed with it, and these lines said curtly: + +"_The project to divert the course of the Edera river will be brought +before the Chamber shortly; the Minister of Agriculture is considered +to favour the project_." + +He held the sheet nearer to the light and read the paragraph again, +and yet again. The words were clear and indisputable in their +meaning; they could not be misconstrued. There was but one river +Edera in the whole province, in the whole country; there could be no +doubt as to what river was meant; yet it seemed to him utterly +impossible that any such project could be conceived by any creature. +Divert the course of the Edera? He felt stupefied. He read the words +over and over again; then he read them aloud in the stillness of the +night, and his voice sounded strong in his own ears. + +"It must be a misprint; it must be a mistake for the Era of Volterra, +or the Esino, north of Ancona," he said to himself, and he went to +his book closet and brought out an old folio geography which he had +once bought for a few pence on a Roman bookstall, spread it open +before him, and read one by one the names of all the streams of the +peninsula, from the Dora Baltea to the Giarretta. There was no other +Edera river. Unless it were indeed a misprint altogether, the stream +which flowed under his church walls was the one which was named in +the news-sheet. + +"But it is impossible, it is impossible!" he said so loudly, that his +little dog awoke and climbed on his knee uneasily and in alarm. "What +could the people do? What could the village do, or the land or the +fisher folk? Are we to have drought added to hunger? Can they respect +nothing? The river belongs to the valley: to seize it, to appraise +it, to appropriate it, to make it away with it, would be as monstrous +as to steal his mother's milk from a yearling babe!" + +He shut the folio and pushed it away from him across the table. "If +this is true," he said to himself, "if, anyhow, this monstrous thing +be true, it will kill Adone!" + +In the morning he awoke from a short perturbed sleep with that heavy +sense of a vaguely remembered calamity which stirs in the awakening +brain like a worm in the unclosing flower. + +The morning-office over, he sought out the little news-sheet, to make +sure that he had read aright; his servant had folded it up and laid +it aside on a shelf, he unfolded it with a hand which trembled; the +same lines stared at him in the warm light of sunrise as in the faint +glimmer of the floating wick. The very curtness and coldness of the +announcement testified to its exactitude. He did not any longer doubt +its truth; but there were no details, no explanations: he pondered on +the possibilities of obtaining them; it was useless to seek them in +the village or the countryside, the people were as ignorant as sheep. + +Adone alone had intelligence, but he shrank from taking these tidings +to the youth, as he would have shrunk from doing him a physical hurt. +The news might be false or premature; many projects were discussed, +many schemes sketched out, many speculations set on foot which came +to nothing in the end: were this thing true, Adone would learn it all +too soon and read it on the wounded face of nature. Not at least +until he could himself be certain of its truth would he speak of it +to the young man whose fathers had been lords of the river. + +His duties over for the forenoon, he went up the three hundred stairs +of his bell-tower, to the wooden platform, between the +machicolations. It was a dizzy height, and both stairs and roof were +in ruins, but he went cautiously, and was familiar with the danger. +The owls which bred there were so used to him that they did not stir +in their siesta as he passed them. He stood aloft in the glare of +noonday, and looked down on the winding stream as it passed under the +ruined walls of Ruscino, and growing, as it flowed, clearer and +clearer, and wilder and wilder, as it rushed over stones and +boulders, foaming and shouting, rushed through the heather on its way +towards the Marches. Under Ruscino it had its brown mountain colour +still, but as it ran it grew green as emeralds, blue as sapphires, +silver and white and gray like a dove's wings; it was unsullied and +translucent; the white clouds were reflected on it. It went through a +country lonely, almost deserted, only at great distances from one +another was there a group of homesteads, a cluster of stacks, a +conical cabin in some places where the woods gave place to pasture; +here and there were the ruins of a temple, of a fortress, of some +great marble or granite tomb; but there was no living creature in +sight except a troop of buffaloes splashing in a pool. + +Don Silverio looked down on its course until his dazzled eyes lost it +from sight in the glory of light through which it sped, and his heart +sank, and he would fain have been a woman to have wept aloud. For he +saw that its beauty and its solitude were such as would likely enough +tempt the spoilers. He saw that it lay fair and defenceless as a +maiden on her bed. + +He dwelt out of the world now, but he had once dwelt in it; and the +world does not greatly change, it only grows more rapacious. He knew +that in this age there is only one law, to gain; only one duty, to +prosper: that nature is of no account, nor beauty either, nor repose, +nor ancient rights, nor any of the simple claims of normal justice. +He knew that if in the course of the river there would be gold for +capitalists, for engineers, for attorneys, for deputies, for +ministers, that then the waters of the Edera were in all probability +doomed. + +He descended the rotten stairs slowly, with a weight as of lead at +his heart. He did not any longer doubt the truth of what he had read. +Who, or what, shall withstand the curse of its time? + +"They have forgotten us so long," he thought, with bitterness in his +soul. "We have been left to bury our dead as we would, and to see the +children starve as they might; they remember us now, because we +possess something which they can snatch from us!" + +He did not doubt any more. He could only wait: wait and see in what +form and in what time the evil would come to them. Meantime, he said +to himself, he would not speak of it to Adone, and he burned the +news-sheet. Administrations alter frequently and unexpectedly, and +the money-changers, who are fostered by them, sometimes fall with +them, and their projects remain in the embryo of a mere prospectus. +There was that chance. + +He knew that, in the age he lived in, all things were estimated only +by their value to commerce or to speculation; that there was neither +space nor patience amongst men for what was, in their reckoning, +useless; that the conqueror was now but a trader in disguise; that +civilisation was but the shibboleth of traffic; that because trade +follows the flag, therefore to carry the flag afar, thousands of +young soldiers of every nationality are slaughtered annually in +poisonous climes and obscure warfare, because such is the _suprema +lex_ and will of the trader. If the waters of Edera would serve to +grind any grit for the mills of modern trade they would be taken into +bondage with many other gifts of nature as fair and as free as they +were. All creation groaned and travailed in pain that the great +cancer should spread. + +"It is not only ours," he remembered with a pang; on its way to and +from the Valdedera the river passed partially through two other +communes, and water belongs to the district in which it runs. True, +the country of each of these was like that of this valley, +depopulated and wild; but, however great a solitude any land may be, +it is still locally and administratively dependent on the chief town +of its commune. Ruscino and its valley were dependent on San Beda; +these two other communes were respectively under a little town of the +Abruzzo and under a seaport of the Adriatic. + +The interest of the valley of the Edera in its eponymous stream was a +large share; but it was not more than a share, in this gift of +nature. If it came to any question of conflicting interests, Ruscino +and the valley might very likely be powerless, and could only, in any +event, be represented by and through San Beda; a strongly +ecclesiastical and papal little place, and, therefore, without +influence with the ruling powers, and consequently viewed with an +evil eye by the Prefecture. + +He pondered anxiously on the matter for some days, then, arduous as +the journey was, he resolved to go to San Beda and inquire. + +The small mountain city was many miles away upon a promontory of +marble rocks, and its many spires and towers were visible only in +afternoon light from the valley of the Edera. It was as old as +Ruscino, a dull, dark, very ancient place with monasteries and +convents like huge fortresses and old palaces still fortified and +grim as death amongst them. A Cistercian monastery, which had been +chiefly built by the second Giulio, crowned a prominent cliff, which +dominated the town, and commanded a view of the whole of the valley +of the Edera, and, on the western horizon, of the Leonessa and her +tributary mountains and hills. + +He had not been there for five years; he went on foot, for there was +no other means of transit, and if there had been he would not have +wasted money on it; the way was long and irksome; for the latter +half, entirely up a steep mountain road. He started in the early +morning as soon as Mass had been celebrated, and it was four in the +afternoon before he had passed the gates of the town, and paid his +respects to the Bishop. He rested in the Certosa, of which the +superior was known to him; the monks, like the Bishop, had heard +nothing. So far as he could learn when he went into the streets no +one in the place had heard anything of the project to alter the +course of the river. He made the return journey by night, so as to +reach his church by daybreak, and was there in his place by the high +altar when the bell tolled at six o'clock, and the three or four old +people, who never missed an office, were kneeling on the stones. + +He had walked over forty miles, and had eaten nothing except some +bread and a piece of dried fish. But he always welcomed physical +fatigue; it served to send to sleep the restless intellect, the +gnawing regrets, the bitter sense of wasted powers and of useless +knowledge, which were his daily company. + +He had begged his friends, the friars, to obtain an interview with +the Syndic of Sand Beda, and interrogate him on the subject. Until he +should learn something positive he could not bring himself to speak +of the matter to Adone: but the fact of his unusual absence had too +much astonished his little community for the journey not to have been +the talk of Ruscino. Surprised and disturbed like others, Adone was +waiting for him in the sacristy after the first mass. + +"You have been away a whole day and night and never told me, +reverendissimo!" he cried in reproach and amazement. + +"I have yet to learn that you are my keeper," said Don Silverio with +a cold and caustic intonation. + +Adone coloured to the roots of his curling hair. + +"That is unkind, sir!" he said humbly; "I only meant that -- that --" + +"I know, I know!" said the priest impatiently, but with contrition. +"You meant only friendship and good-will; but there are times when +the best intentions irk one. I went to see the Prior of the Certosa, +and old friend; I had business in San Beda." + +Adone was silent, afraid that he had shown an unseemly curiosity; he +saw that Don Silverio was irritated and not at ease, and he hesitated +what words to choose. + +His friend relented, and blamed himself for being hurried by +disquietude into harshness. + +"Come and have a cup of coffee with me, my son," he said in his old, +kind tones. "I am going home to break my fast." + +But Adone was hurt and humiliated, and made excuse of field work, +which pressed by reason of the weather, and so he did not name to his +friend and councillor the visit of the three men to the river. + +Don Silverio went home and boiled his coffee; he always did this +himself; it was the only luxury he ever allowed himself, and he did +not indulge even in this very often. But for once the draught had +neither fragrance nor balm for him. He was overtired, weary in mind +as in body, and greatly dejected; even though nothing was known at +San Beda he felt convinced that what he had read was the truth. + +He knew but little of affairs of speculation, but he knew that it was +only in reason to suppose that such projects would be kept concealed, +as long as might be expedient, from those who would be known to be +hostile to them, in order to minimise the force of opposition. + + + + + +VI + +On the morning of the fourth day which followed on the priest's visit +to San Beda, about ten in the forenoon, Adone, with his two oxen, +Orlando and Rinaldo, were near the river on that part of his land +which was still natural moorland, and on which heather, and ling, and +broom, and wild roses, and bracken grew together. He had come to cut +a waggon load of furze, and had been at work there since eight +o'clock, when he had come out of the great porch of the church after +attending mass, for it was the twentieth of June, the name-day of Don +Silverio. + +Scarcely had that day dawned when Adone had risen and had gone across +the river to the presbytery, bearing with him a dozen eggs, two +flasks of his best wine, and a bunch of late-flowering roses. They +were his annual offerings on this day; he felt some trepidation as he +climbed the steep, stony, uneven street lest they should be rejected, +for he was conscious that three evenings before he had offended Don +Silverio, and had left the presbytery too abruptly. But his fears +were allayed as soon as he entered the house; the vicar was already +up and dressed, and was about to go to the church. At the young man's +first contrite words Don Silverio stopped him with a kind smile. + +"I was impatient and to blame," he said as he took the roses. "You +heap coals of fire on my head, my son, with your welcome gifts." + +Then together they had gone to the quaint old church of which the one +great bell was tolling. + +Mass over, Adone had gone home, broken his fast, taken off his velvet +jacket, his long scarlet waistcoat, and his silver-studded belt, and +put the oxen to the pole of the waggon. + +"Shall I come?" cried Nerina. + +"No," he answered. "Go and finish cutting the oats in the triangular +field." + +Always obedient, she went, her sickle swinging to her girdle. She was +sorry, but she never murmured. + +Adone had been at work amongst the furze two hours when old Pierino, +who always accompanied the oxen, got up, growled, and then barked. + +"What is it, old friend?" asked Adone, and left off his work and +listened. He heard voices by the waterside, and steps on the loose +shingle of its shrunken summer bed. He went out of the wild growth +round him and looked. There were four men standing and talking by the +water. They were doubtless the same persons as Nerina had seen, for +they were evidently men from a city and strangers. Disquietude and +offence took alarm in him at once. + +He conquered that shyness which was natural to him, and which was due +to the sensitiveness of his temperament and the solitude in which he +had been reared. + +"Excuse me, sirs," he said, as he advanced to them with his head +uncovered; "what is it you want with my river?" + +"Your river!" repeated the head of the group, and he smiled. "How is +it more yours than your fellows?" + +Adone advanced nearer. + +"The whole course of the water belonged to my ancestors," he +answered, "and this portion at least is mine now; you stand on my +ground; I ask you what is your errand?" + +He spoke with courtesy, but in a tone of authority which seemed to +the intruders imperious and irritating. But they controlled their +annoyance; they did not wish to offend this haughty young peasant. + +"To be owner of the water it is necessary to own both banks of it," +the stranger replied politely, but with some impatience. "The +opposite bank is communal property. Do not fear, however, whatever +your rights may be they will be carefully examined and considered." + +"By whom? They concern only myself." + +"None of our rights concern only ourselves. What are those which you +claim in special on the Edera water?" + +Adone was silent for a few moments; he was astonished and +embarrassed; he had never reflected on the legal side of his claim to +the river; he had grown up in love and union with it; such +affections, born with us at birth, are not analysed until they are +assailed. + +"You are strangers," he replied. "But what right do you question me? +I was born here. What is your errand?" + +"You must be Adone Alba?" said the person, as if spokesman for the +others. + +"I am." + +"And you own the land known as the Terra Vergine?" + +"I do." + +"You will hear from us in due time, then. Meantime" + +"Meantime you trespass on my ground. Leave it, sirs." + +The four strangers drew a few paces, and conferred together in a low +tone, consulting a sheaf of papers. Their council over, he who +appeared the most conspicuous in authority turned again to the young +man, who was watching them with a vague apprehension which he could +not explain to himself. + +"There is no question of trespass; the river-side is free to all," +said the stranger, with some contempt. "Courtesy would become you +better, Sir Adone." + +Adone coloured. He knew that courtesy was at all times wise, and +useful, and an obligation amongst men; but his anger was stronger +than his prudence and his vague alarm was yet stronger still. + +"Say your errand with the water," he replied imperiously. "Then I can +judge of it. No one, sirs, comes hither against my will." + +"You will hear from us in due time," answered the intruder. "And +believe me, young man, you may lose much, you cannot gain anything, +by rudeness and opposition." + +"Opposition to what?" + +The stranger turned his back upon him, rolled up his papers, spoke +again with his companions, and lifted from a large stone on which he +had placed it a case of surveyor's instruments. Adone went close up +to him. "Opposition to what? What is it you are doing here?" + +"We are not your servants," said the gentleman with impatience. "Do +not attempt any brawling I advise you; it will tell against you and +cannot serve you in any way." + +"The soil and the water are mine, and you meddle with them," said +Adone. "If you were honest men you would not be ashamed of what you +do, and would declare your errand. Brawling is not in my habit; but I +will drive my oxen over you. The land and the waters are mine." + +The chief of the group gave a disdainful, incredulous gesture, but +the others pulled him by the sleeve and argued with him in low tones +and a strange tongue, which Adone thought was German. The leader of +the group was a small man with a keen and mobile face and piercing +eyes; he did not yield easily to the persuasions of his companions; +he was disposed to be combative; he was offended by what seemed to +him the insults of a mere peasant. + +Adone went back to his oxen, standing dozing with drooped heads; he +gathered up the reins of rope and mounted the waggon, raising the +heads of the sleepy beasts. He held his goad in his hand; the golden +gorze was piled behind him; he was in full sunlight, his hair was +lifted by the breeze from his forehead; his face was flushed and set +and stern. They saw that he would keep his word and drive down on to +them, and make his oxen knock them down and the wheels grind their +bodies into pulp. They had no arms of any kind, they felt they had no +choice but to submit: and did so, with sore reluctance. + +"He looks like a young god," said one of them with an angry laugh. +"Mortals cannot fight against the gods." + +With discomfiture they retreated before him and went along the grassy +path northward, as Nerina had seen them do on the day of their first +arrival. + +So far Adone had conquered. + +But no joy or pride of a victor was with him. He stood and watched +them pass away with a heavy sense of impending ill upon him; the +river was flowing joyously, unconscious of its doom, but on him, +though he knew nothing, and conceived nothing, of the form which the +approaching evil would take, a great weight of anxiety descended. + +He got down from the waggon when he had seen them disappear, and +continued his uninterrupted work amongst the furze; and he remained +on the same spot long after the waggon was filled, lest in his +absence the intruders should return. Only when the sun set did he +turn the heads of the oxen homeward. + +He said nothing to the women, but when he had stalled and fed his +cattle he changed his leathern breeches and put a clean shirt on his +back, and went down the twilit fields and across the water to +Ruscino; he told his mother that he would sup with Don Silverio. + +When Adone entered the book-room his friend was seated at a deal +table laden with volumes and manuscripts, but he was neither writing +nor reading, nor had he lighted his lamp. The moonlight shone through +the vine climbing up and covering the narrow window. He looked up and +saw by Adone's countenance that something was wrong. + +"What are they coming for, sir, to the river?" said the young man as +he uncovered his head on the threshold of the chamber. Don Silverio +hesitated to reply; in the moonlight his features looked like a mask +of a dead man, it was so white and its lines so deep. + +"Why do they come to the river, these strangers?" repeated Adone. +"They would not say. They were on my land. I threatened to drive my +cattle over them. Then they went. But can you guess, sir, why they +come?" + +Don Silverio still hesitated. Adone repeated his question with more +insistence; he came up to the table and leaned his hands upon it, and +looked down on the face of his friend. + +"Why do they come?" he repeated a fourth time. "They must have some +reason. Surely you know?" + +"Listen, Adone, and control yourself," said Don Silverio. "I saw +something in a journal a few days ago which made me go to San Beda. +But there they knew nothing at all of what the newspaper had stated. +What I said startled and alarmed them. I begged the Prior to acquaint +me if he heard of any scheme affecting us. To-day, only, he has sent +a young monk over with a letter to me, for it was only yesterday that +he heard that there is a project in Rome to turn the river out of its +course, and use it for hydraulic power; to what purpose he does not +know. The townsfolk of San Beda are in entire sympathy with this +district and against the scheme, which will only benefit a foreign +syndicate. That is all I know, for it is all he knows; he took his +information direct from the syndic, Count Corradini. My boy, my dear +boy, control yourself!" + +Adone had dropped down on a chair, and leaning his elbow on the table +hid his face upon his hands. A tremor shook his frame from head to +foot. + +"I knew it was some deviltry," he muttered. "Oh, Lord! oh, Lord! +would that I had made the oxen trample them into thousand pieces! +They ought never to have left my field alive!" + +"Hush, hush!" said the priest sternly. "I cannot have such language +in my house. Compose yourself." + +Adone raised his head; his eyes were alight as with fire; his face +was darkly red. + +"What, sir! You tell me the river is to be taken away from us, and +you ask me to be calm! It is not in human nature to bear such a wrong +in peace. Take away the Edera! Take away the water! They had better +cut our throats. What! a poor wretch who steals a few grapes off a +vine, a few eggs from a hen roost, is called a thief and hounded to +the galleys, and such robbery as this is to be borne in silence +because the thieves wear broadcloth! It cannot be. It cannot be; I +swear it shall never be whilst I have life. The river is mine. We +reigned here three hundred years and more; you have told me so. It is +written on the parchments. I will hold my own." + +Don Silverio was silent; he was silent from remorse. He had told +Adone what, without him, Adone would have lived and died never +knowing or dreaming. He had thought only to stimulate the youth to +gentle conduct, honourable pride, perhaps to some higher use of his +abilities: no more than this. + +He had never seen the young man thus violent and vehement; he had +always found him tranquil to excess, difficult to rouse, slow to +anger, indeed almost incapable of it; partaking of the nature of the +calm and docile cattle with whom so much of his time was passed. But +under the spur of an intolerable menace the warrior's blood which +slumbered in Adone leapt to action; all at once the fierce temper of +the lords of Ruscino displayed its fire and its metal; it was not the +peasant of the Terra Vergine who was before him now, but the heir of +the seigneury of the Rocca. + +"It is not only what I told him of his race," he thought. "If he had +known nothing, none the less would the blood in his veins have +stirred and the past have moved him." + +Aloud he said: + +"My son, I feel for you from the depths of my soul. I feel with you +also. For if these foreigners take the river-water from us what will +become of my poor, desolate people, only too wretched already as they +are? You would not be alone in your desperation, Adone. But do not +let us take alarm too quickly. This measure is in gestation; but it +may never come to birth. Many such projects are discussed which from +one cause or another are not carried out; this one must pass through +many preliminary phases before it becomes fact. There must be surely +many vested rights which cannot with impunity be invaded. Take +courage. Have patience." + +He paused, for he saw that for the first time since they had known +each other, Adone was not listening to him. + +Adone was staring up at the moon which hung, golden and full, in the +dark blue sky, seeming framed in the leaves and coils of the vine. + +"The river is mine," he muttered. "The river and I are as brothers. +They shall kill me before they touch the water." + +"He will go mad or commit some great crime," thought his friend, +looking at him. "We must move every lever and strain every nerve, to +frustrate this scheme, to prevent this spoliation. But if the thieves +see money in it who shall stay their hands?" + +He rose and laid his hands on Adone's shoulders. + +"To-night you are in no fitting state for calm consideration of this +possible calamity. Go home, my son. Go to your room. Say nothing to +your mother. Pray and sleep. In the forenoon come to me and we will +speak of the measures which it may be possible to take to have this +matter examined and opposed. We are very poor; but still we are not +altogether helpless. Only, there must be no violence. You wrong +yourself and you weaken a good cause by such wild threats. +Good-night, my son. Go home." + +The long habit of obedience to his superior, and the instinctive +docility of his temper compelled Adone to submit; he drew a long, +deep breath and the blood faded from his face. + +Without a word he turned from the table and wept out of the +presbytery into the night and the white glory of the moonshine. + + + + + +VII + +Don Silverio drew to him his unfinished letter to the Prior; the +young monk who would take it back in the morning to San Beda was +already asleep in a little chamber above. But he could not write, he +was too perturbed and too anxious. Although he had spoken so calmly +he was full of carking care; both for the threatened evil in itself, +and for its effects upon his parishioners; and especially upon Adone. +He knew that in this age it is more difficult to check the devouring +monster of commercial covetousness than it ever was to stay the Bull +of Crete; and that for a poor and friendless community to oppose a +strong and wealthy band of speculators is indeed for the wooden lance +to shiver to atoms on the brazen shield. + +He left his writing table and extinguished his lamp. Bidding the +little dog lie still upon his chair, he went through the house to a +door which opened from it into the bell tower of his church and which +allowed him to go from the house to the church without passing out +into the street. He climbed the belfry stairs once more, lighting +himself at intervals by striking a wooden match; for through the +narrow loopholes in the walls the moonbeams did not penetrate. He +knew the way so well that he could have gone up and down those +rotting stairs even in total darkness, and he safely reached the +platform of the bell tower, though one halting step might have sent +him in that darkness head foremost to his death. + +He stood there, and gazed downwards on the moonlit landscape far +below, over the roofs and the walls of the village towards the open +fields and the river, with beyond that the wooded country and the +cultured land known as the Terra Vergine, and beyond those again the +moors, the marshes, and the mountains. The moonlight shone with +intense clearness on the waters of the Edera and on the stone +causeway of the old one-arched bridge. On the bridge there was a +figure moving slowly; he knew it to be that of Adone. Adone was going +home. + +He was relieved from the pressure of one immediate anxiety, but his +apprehensions for the future were great, both for the young man and +for the people of Ruscino and its surrounding country. To take away +their river was to deprive them of the little which they had to make +life tolerable and to supply the means of existence. Its winter +overflow nourished the fields which they owned around it, and the +only cornmill of the district worked by a huge wheel in its water. If +the river were turned out of its course above Ruscino the whole of +this part of the vale would be made desolate. + +Life was already hard for the human creatures in these fair scenes on +which he looked; without the river their lot would be intolerable. + +"Forbid it, O Lord! Forbid this monstrous wrong," he said, as he stood +with bared head under the starry skies. + +When the people of a remote place are smitten by a public power the +blow falls on them as unintelligible in its meaning, as invisible in +its agency, as a thunderbolt is to the cattle whom it slays in their +stalls. Even Don Silverio, with his classic culture and his +archæological learning, had little comprehension of the means and +methods by which these enterprises were combined and carried out; the +world of commerce and speculation is as aloof from the scholar and +the recluse as the rings of Saturn or the sun of Aldebaran. Its +mechanism, its intentions, its combinations, its manners of action, +its ways of expenditure, its intrigues with banks and governments: +all these, to men who dwell in rural solitudes, aloof from the babble +of crowds, are utterly unknown; the very language of the Bourses has +no more meaning to them than the jar of wheels or roar of steam. + +He stood and looked with a sinking heart on the quiet, moonlit +country, and the winding course of the water where it flowed, now +silvery in the light, now black in the gloom, passing rapidly through +the heather and the sallows under the gigantic masses of the Etruscan +walls. It seemed to him to the full as terrible as to Adone; but it +did not seem to him so utterly impossible, because he knew more of +the ways of men and of their unhesitating and immeasurable cruelty +whenever their greed was excited. If the fury of speculation saw +desirable prey in the rape of the Edera then the Edera was doomed, +like the daughter of Ædipus or the daughter of Jephtha. + +Adone had gone across the bridge, but he had remained by the +waterside. + +"Pray and sleep!" Don Silverio had said in his last words. But to +Adone it seemed that neither prayer nor sleep would ever come to him +again so long as this impending evil hung over him and the water of +Edera. + +He spent the first part of that summer night wandering aimlessly up +and down his own bank, blind to the beauty of the moonlight, deaf to +the songs of the nightingales, his mind filled with one thought. An +hour after midnight he went home and let himself into the silent +house by a small door which opened at the back, and which he used on +such rare occasions as he stayed out late. He struck a match and went +up to his room, and threw himself, dressed, upon his bed. His mother +was listening for his return, but she did not call to him. She knew +he was a man now, and must be left to his own will. + +"What ails Adone that he is not home?" had asked old Gianna. Clelia +Alba had been herself perturbed by his absence at that hour, but she +had answered:-- + +"What he likes to tell, he tells. Prying questions make false +tongues. I have never questioned him since he was breeched." + +"There are not many women like you," had said Gianna, partly in +admiration, half in impatience. + +"Adone is a boy for you and me," had replied his mother. "But for +himself and for all others he is a man. We must remember it." + +Gianna had muttered mumbled, rebellious words; he did not seem other +than a child to her; she had been one of those present at this birth +on the shining sands of the Edera. + +He could not sleep. He could only listen to the distant murmur of the +river. With dawn the women awoke. Nerina came running down the steep +stone stair and went to let out and feed her charges, the fowls. +Gianna went to the well in the court with her bronze pitcher and +pail. Clelia Alba cut great slices of bread at the kitchen table; and +hooked the cauldron of maize flour to the chain above the fire on the +kitchen hearth. He could not wait for their greetings, their +questions, the notice which his changed mien would surely attract. +For the first time in all his twenty-four years of life he went out +of the house without a word to his mother, and took his way to the +river again; for the first time he was neglectful of his cattle and +forgetful of the land. + +Nerina came in from the fowl-house with alarm on her face. + +"Madama Clelia!" she said timidly, "Adone has gone away without +feeding and watering the oxen. May I do it?" + +"Can you manage them, little one?" + +"Oh, yes; they love me." + +"Go then; but take care." + +"She is a good child!" said Gianna. "The beasts won't hurt her. They +know their friends." + +Clelia Alba, to whom her own and her son's dignity was dear, said +nothing of her own displeasure and surprise at Adone's absence. But +she was only the more distressed by it. Never, since he had been old +enough to work at all, had he been missing in the hours of labour. + +"I only pray," she thought, "that no woman may have hold of him." + +Adone hardly knew what he did; he was like a man who has had a blow +on the temple; his sight was troubled; his blood seemed to burn in +his brain. He wandered from habit through the field and down to the +river, to the spot where from his infancy he had been used to bathe. +He took off his clothes and waded into the water, which was cold as +snow after the night. The shock of the cold, and the sense of the +running current laving his limbs, restored him in a measure to +himself. He swam down the stream in the shadow of the early morning. +The air was full of the scent of dog-roses and flowering thyme; he +turned on his back and floated; between him and the sky a hawk +passed; the bell of the church was tolling for the diurnal mass. He +ran along in the sun, as it grew warm, to dry his skin by movement, +as his wont was. He was still stupefied by the fear which had fallen +upon him; but the water had cooled and braced him. + +He had forgotten his mother, the cattle, the labours awaiting him; +his whole mind was absorbed in this new horror sprung up in his path, +none knew from where, or by whom begotten. The happy, unconscious +stream ran singing at his feet as the nightingale sang in the acacia +thickets, its brown mountain water growing green and limpid as it +passed over submerged grass and silver sand. + +How could any thieves conspire to take it from the country in which +it was born? How could any dare to catch it, and imprison it, and put +it to vile uses? It was a living thing, a free thing, a precious +thing, more precious than jewel or gold. Both jewels and gold the law +protected. Could it not protect the Edera? + +"Something must be done," he said to himself. "But what?" + +He had not the faintest knowledge of what could or should be done; he +regretted that he had not written his mark with the horns and the +hoofs of his oxen on the foreign invaders; they might never again +fall into his power. + +He had never felt before such ferocious or cruel instincts as arose +in him now. Don Silverio seemed to him tame and lukewarm before this +monstrous conspiracy of strangers. He knew that a priest must not +give way to anger; yet it seemed to him that even a priest should be +roused to fury here; there was a wrath which was holy. + +When he was clothed he stood and looked down again at the gliding +stream. + +A feeble, cracked voice called to him from the opposite bank. + +"Adone, my lad, what is this tale?" + +The speaker was an old man of eighty odd years, a native of Ruscino, +one Patrizio Cambi, who was not yet too feeble to cut the rushes and +osiers, and maintained a widowed daughter and her young children by +that means. + +"What tale?" said Adone, unwilling to be roused from his own dark +thoughts. "What tale, Trizio?" + +"That they are going to meddle with the river," answered the old man. +"They can't do it, can they?" + +"What have you heard?" + +"That they are going to meddle with the river." + +"In what way?" + +"The Lord knows, or the devil. There was a waggon with four horses +came as near as it could get to us in the woods yonder by Ruffo's, +and the driver told Ruffo that the gentry he drove had come by road +from that town by the sea-- I forget its name-- in order to see the +river, this river, our river; and that he had brought another posse +of gentry two weeks or more on the same errand, and that they were +a-measuring and a-plumbing it, and that they were going to get +possession of its somehow or other, but Ruffo could not hear anything +more than that; and I supposed that you knew, because this part of it +is yours if it be any man's; this part of it that runs through the +Terra Vergine." + +"Yes, it is mine," answered Adone very slowly. "It is mine here, and +it was once ours from source to sea." + +"Aye, it is ours!" said old Trizio Cambi mistaking him. He was a man +once tall, but now bent nearly double; he had a harsh, wrinkled face, +brown as a hazel nut, and he was nearly a skeleton; but he had eyes +which were still fine and still had some fire in them. In his youth +he had been a Garibaldino. + +"It is ours," repeated Trizio. "At least if anything belongs to poor +folks. What say you, Adone?" + +"Much belongs to the poor, but others take it from them," said Adone. +"You have seen a hawk take a sparrow, Trizio. The poor count no more +than the sparrows." + +"But the water is the gift of God," said the old man. + +Adone did not answer. + +"What can we do?" said Trizio, wiping the dew off his sickle. "Who +knows aught of us? Who cares? If the rich folks want the river they +will take it, curse them!" + +Adone did not answer. He knew that it was so, all over the earth. + +"We shall know no more than birds tangled in a net," said Trizio. +"They will come and work their will." + +Adone rose up out of the grass. "I will go and see Ruffo," he said. +He was glad to do something. + +"Ruffo knows no more than that," said Trizio angrily. "The driver of +the horses knew no more." + +Adone paid him no need, but began to push his way through the thick +network of the interlaced heather. He thought that perhaps Ruffo, a +man who made wooden shoes, and hoops for casks, and shaped chestnut +poles for vines, might tell him more than had been told to old +Trizio; might at least be able to suggest from what quarter and in +what shape this calamity was rising, to burst over their valley as a +hailstorm broods above, then breaks, on helpless fields and +defenceless gardens, beating down without warning the birds and the +blossoms of spring. + +When he had been in Lombardy he had seen once a great steam-engine at +work, stripping a moorland of its natural growth and turning it into +ploughed land. He remembered how the huge machine with its stench of +oil and fire had forced its way through the furze and ferns and wild +roses and myrtle, and torn them up, and flung them on one side, and +scattered and trampled all the insect life, and all the bird life, +and all the hares, and field mice, and stoats, and hedgehogs, who +made their home there. "A fine sight," a man had said to him; and he +had answered, "A cursed wickedness." Was this what they would do to +the vale of Edera? If they took the river they could not spare the +land. He felt scared, bruised, terrified, like one of these poor +moorland hares. He remembered a poor stoat which, startled out of its +sleep, had turned and bitten one of the iron wheels of the machine, +and the wheel had gone over it and crushed it into a mass of blood +and fur. He was as furious and as helpless as the stoat had been. + +But when he had walked the four miles which separated the Terra +Vergine from the chestnut woods where the maker of wooden shoes +lived, he heard nothing else from Ruffo than this: that gentlemen had +come from Teramo to study the Edera water; they were going to turn it +aside and use it; more than that the man who had driven them had not +heard and could not explain. + +"There were four horses, and he had nothing to give them but water +and grass," said the cooper. "The gentry brought wine and food for +themselves. They came the day before yesterday and slept here. They +went away this morning. They paid me well, oh, very well. I did what +I could for them. It is five-and-thirty miles if one off Teramo, aye, +nearer forty. They followed the old posting road; but you know where +it enters the woods it is all overgrown, and gone to rack and ruin, +from want of use. In my grandfather's time it was a fine, well-kept +highway, with posthouses every ten miles, though a rare place for +robbery; but nowadays nobody wants it at all, for nobody comes or +goes. It will soon be blocked, so the driver says; it will soon be +quite choked up what with brambles, and rocks, and fallen trees, and +what not. He was black with rage, for he was obliged to go back as he +had come, and he said he had been cheated into the job." + +Adone listened wearily to the garrulous Ruffo, who emphasised each +phrase with a blow of his little hammer on a shoe. He had wasted all +his morning hours, and learned nothing. He felt like a man who is +lost in a strange and deserted country at night; he could find no +clue, could see no light. Perhaps if he went to the seaport town, +which was the Prefecture, he might hear something? + +But he had never left the valley of the Edera except for that brief +time which he had passed under arms in the north. He felt that he had +no means, no acquaintance, no knowledge, whereby he could penetrate +the mystery of this scheme. He did not even know the status of the +promoters, or the scope of their speculation. The Prefecture was +placed in a port on the Adriatic which had considerable trade to the +Dalmatian and Greek coasts, but he scarcely knew its name. If he went +there what could he do or learn? Would the stones speak, or the waves +tell that which he thirsted to know? What use was the martial blood +in his veins? He could not strike an invisible foe. + +"Don't go to meet trouble half way," said the man Ruffo, meaning +well. "I may have mistaken the driver. They cannot take hold of a +river, how should they? Water slips through your fingers. Where it +was set running in the beginning of the world, there it will go on +running till the crack of doom. Let them look; let them prate; they +can't take it." + +But Adone's reason would not allow him to be so consoled. + +He understood a little of what hydraulic science can compass; he knew +what canalisation meant, and its assistance to traffic and trade; he +had seen the waterworks on the Po, on the Adige, on the Mincio; he +had heard how the Velino had been enslaved for the steel foundry of +Terni, how the Nerino fed the ironworks of Narni; he had seen the +Adda captive at Lodi, and the lakes held in bond at Mantua; he had +read of the water drawn from Monte Amiata; and not very many miles +off him, in the Abruzzo, was that hapless Fuscino, which had been +emptied and dried up by rich meddlers of Rome. + +He knew also enough of the past to know how water had been forced to +serve the will and the wants of the Roman Consulate and the Roman +empire, of how the marble aqueducts had cast the shadow of their +arches over the land, and how the provinces had been tunnelled and +bridged and canalised and irrigated, during two thousand years, by +those whose bones were dust under the Latin soil. He could not wholly +cheat himself, as these unlettered men could do; he knew that if the +commerce which has succeeded the Caesars as ruler of the world +coveted the waters of Edera, the river was lost to the home of its +birth and to him. + +"How shall I tell my mother?" he asked himself as he walked back +through the fragrant and solitary country. He felt ashamed at his own +helplessness and ignorance. If courage could have availed anything he +would not have been wanting; but all that was needed here was a +worldly and technical knowledge, of which he possessed no more than +did the trout in the stream. + +As he neared his home, pushing his way laboriously through the +interlaced bracken and heaths which had never been cut for a score of +years, he saw approaching him the tall, slender form of Don Silverio, +moving slowly, for the heather was breast high, his little dog +barking at a startled wood-pigeon. + +"They are anxious about you at your house," Don Silverio said with +some sternness. "Is it well to cause your mother this disquietude?" + +"No, it is not well," replied Adone. "But how can I see her and not +tell her, and how can I tell her this thing?" + +"Women to bear trouble are braver than men," said the priest. "They +have more patience in pain than we. I have said something to her; but +we need not yet despair. We know nothing of any certainty. Sometimes +such schemes are abandoned at the last moment because too costly or +too unremunerative. Sometimes they drag on for half a lifetime; and +at the end nothing comes of them." + +"You have told my mother?" + +"I told her what troubles you, and made you leave your work undone. +The little girl was feeding the cattle." + +Adone coloured. He was conscious of the implied rebuke. + +"Sir," he said in a low tone, "if this accursed thing comes to pass +what will become of us? What I said in my haste last night I say in +cold reason to-day." + +"Then you are wrong, and you will turn a calamity into a curse. Men +often do so." + +"It is more than a calamity." + +"Perhaps. Would not some other grief be yet worse? If you were +stricken with blindness?" + +"No; I should still hear the river running." + +Don Silverio looked at him. He saw by the set, sleepless, reckless +look on his face that the young man was in no mood to be reached by +any argument, or to be susceptible to either rebuke or consolation. +The time might come when he would be so; but that time was far off he +feared. The evenness, the simplicity, the loneliness of Adone's +existence, made it open to impressions, and absorbed by them, as busy +and changeful lives never are; it was like the heather plants around +them, it would not bear transplanting; its birthplace would be its +tomb. + +"Let us go back to your mother," he said. "Why should you shun her? +What you feel she feels also. Why leave her alone?" + +"I will go home," said Adone. + +"Yes, come home. You must see that there is nothing to be done or to +be learned as yet. When they know anything fresh at San Beda they +will let me know. The Prior is a man of good faith." + +Adone turned on him almost savagely; his eyes were full of sullen +anger. + +"And I am to bear my days like this? Knowing nothing, hearing +nothing, doing nothing to protect the water that is as dear to me as +a brother, and the land which is my own? What will the land be +without the river? You forget, sir, you forget!" + +"No, I do not forget," said Don Silverio without offence. "But I ask +you to hear reason. What can you possibly do? Think you no man has +been wronged before you? Think you that you alone here will suffer? +The village will be ruined. Do you feel for yourself alone?" + +Adone seemed scarcely to hear. He was like a man in a fever who sees +one set of images and cannot see anything else. + +"Sir," he said suddenly, "why will you not go to Rome?" + +"To Rome?" echoed the priest in amazement. + +"There alone can the truth of this thing be learned," said Adone. "It +is to Rome that the promoters of this scheme must carry it; there to +be permitted or forbidden as the Government chooses. All these things +are brought about by bribes, by intrigues, by union. Without +authority from high office they cannot be done. We here do not even +know who are buying or selling us--" + +"No, we do not," said Don Silverio; and he thought, "When the +cart-horse is bought by the knacker what matter to him the name of +his purchaser or his price?" + +"Sir," said Adone, with passionate entreaty. "Do go to Rome. There +alone can the truth be learnt. You, a learned man, can find means to +meet learned people. I would go, I would have gone yesternight, but, +when I should get there, I know no more than a stray dog where to go +or from whom to inquire. They would see I am a country fellow. They +would shut the doors in my face. But you carry respect with you. No +one would dare to flout you. You could find ways and means to know +who moves this scheme, how far it is advanced, what chance there is +of our defeating it. Go, I beseech you, go!" + +"My son, you amaze me," said Don Silverio. "I? In Rome? I have not +stirred out of this district for eighteen years. I am nothing. I have +no voice. I have no weight. I am a poor rural vicar buried here for +punishment." + +He stopped abruptly, for no complaint of the injustice from which he +suffered had ever in those eighteen years escaped him. + +"Go, go," said Adone. "You carry respect with you. You are learned +and will know how to find those in power and how to speak to them. +Go, go! Have pity on all of us, your poor, helpless, menaced people." + +Don Silverio was silent. + +Was it now his duty to go into the haunts of men, as it had been his +duty to remain shut up in the walls of Ruscino? The idea appalled +him. + +Accomplished and self-possessed though he was, his fine mind and his +fine manners had not served wholly to protect him from that rust and +nervousness which come from the disuse of society and the absence of +intercourse with equals. + +It seemed to him impossible that he could again enter cities, recall +usages, seek out acquaintances, move in the stir of streets, and wait +in antechambers. + +That was the life of the world; he had done with it, forsworn it +utterly, both by order of his superiors and by willing +self-sacrifice. Yet he knew that Adone was right. It was only from +men of the world and amongst them, it was only in the great cities, +that it was possible to follow up the clue of such speculations as +now threatened the vale of Edera. + +The young man he knew could not do what was needed, and certainly +would get no hearing--a peasant of the Abruzzo border, who looked +like a figure of Giorgione's, and would probably be arrested as an +anarchist if he were to endeavour to enter any great house or public +office. But to go to Rome himself! To revisit the desecrated city! +This seemed to him a pilgrimage impossible except for the holiest +purpose. He felt as if the very stones of Trastevere would rise up +and laugh at him, a country priest with the moss and the mould of a +score of years passed in rural obscurity upon him. Moreover, to +revisit Rome would be to tear open wounds long healed. There his +studious youth had been passed, and there his ambitious dreams had +been dreamed. + +"I cannot go to Rome," he said abruptly. "Do not ask me, I cannot go +to Rome." + +"Then I will go," said Adone; "and if in no other way, I will force +myself into the king's palace and make him hear." + +"And his guards will seize you, and his judges will chain you up in a +solitary cell for life! Do not say such mad things. What could the +king reply, even if he listened, which he would not do? He would say +that these things were for ministers and prefects and surveyors and +engineers to judge of, not for him or you. Be reasonable, Adone; do +not speak or act like a fool. This is the first grief you have known +in your life, and you are distraught by it. That is natural enough, +my poor boy. But you exaggerate the danger. It must be far off as +yet. It is a mere project." + +"And I am to remain here, tilling the land in silence and inaction +until, one day without notice, I shall see a crowd of labourers at +work upon the river, and shall see appraisers measuring my fields! +You know that is how things are done. You know the poor are always +left in the dark until all is ripe for their robbery. Look you, sir, +if you go to Rome I will wait in such patience as I can for whatever +you may learn. But if you do not go, I go, and if I can do no better +I will take the king by the throat." + +"I have a mind to take you by the throat myself," said Don Silverio, +with an irritation which he found it hard to control. "Well, I will +think over what you wish, and if I find it possible, if I think it +justified, if I can afford the means, if I can obtain the permission, +for such a journey, I will go to Rome; for your sake, for your +mother's sake. I will let you know my decision later. Let us walk +homeward. The sun is low. At your house the three women must be +anxious." + +Adone accompanied him in silence through the heather, of which the +blossoming expanse was reddening in the light of the late afternoon +until the land looked a ruby ocean. They did not speak again until +they reached the confines of the Terra Vergine. + +Then Don Silverio took the path which went through the pasture to the +bridge, and Adone turned towards his own dwelling. + +"Spare your mother. Speak gently," said the elder man; the younger +man made a sign of assent and of obedience. + +"He will go to Rome," said Adone to himself, and almost he regretted +that he had urged the journey, for in his own veins the fever of +unrest and the sting of fierce passions were throbbing, and he panted +and pined for action. He was the heir of the lords of the river. + + + + + +VIII + +Like the cooper Ruffo, Clelia Alba had received the tidings with +incredulity, though aghast at the mere suggestion. + +"It is impossible," she said. She had seen the water there ever since +she had been a babe in swaddling clothes. + +"It is not possible," she said, "that any man could be profane enough +to alter the bed which heaven had given it." + +But she was sorely grieved to see the effect such a fear had upon +Adone. + +"I was afraid it was a woman," she thought; "but this thing, could it +be true, would be worse than any harlot or adulteress. If they took +away the river the land would perish. It lives by the river." + +"The river is our own as far as we touch it," she said aloud to her +son; "but it was the earth's before it was ours. To sever water from +the land it lives in were worse than to snatch a child from its +mother's womb." + +Adone did not tell her that water was no more sacred than land to the +modern contractor. She would learn that all to soon if the conspiracy +against the Edera succeeded. But he tried to learn from her what +legal rights they possessed to the stream: what had his father +thought? He knew well that his old hereditary claim to the Lordship +of Ruscino, however capable of proof, would be set aside as fantastic +and untenable; but their claim to the water through the holding of +Terra Vergine could surely not be set aside. + +"Your father never said aught about the water that I can remember," +she answered. "I think he would no more have thought it needful to +say it was his than to say that you were his son. It is certain we +are writ down in the district as owners of the ground; we pay taxes +for it; and the title of the water must be as one with that." + +"So say I; at least over what runs through our fields we, alone, have +any title, and for that title I will fight to the death," said Adone. +"River rights go with the land through which the river passes." + +"But, my son," she said with true wisdom, "your father would never +have allowed any danger to the water to make him faithless to the +land. If you let this threat, this dread, turn you away from your +work; if you let your fears make you neglect your field and your +olives, and your cattle and your vines, you will do more harm to +yourself than the worst enemy can do you. To leave a farm to itself +is to call down the vengeance of heaven. A week's abandonment undoes +the work of years. I and Gianna and the child do what we can, but we +are women, and Nerina is young." + +"No doubt you speak wisely, mother," replied Adone humbly. "But of +what use is it to dress and manure a vine, if the accursed phylloxera +be in its sap and at its root? What use is it to till these lands if +they be doomed to perish from thirst?" + +"Do your best," said his mother, "then the fault will not lie with +you, whatever happen." + +The counsel was sound; but to Adone all savour and hope were gone out +of his labour. When he saw the green gliding water shine through the +olive branches, and beyond the foliage of the walnut-trees, his arms +fell nerveless to his side, his throat swelled with sobs, which he +checked as they rose, but which were only the more bitter for +that--all the joy and the peace of his day's work were gone. + +It was but a small space of it to one whose ancestors had reigned +over the stream from its rise in the oak woods to its fall into the +sea; but he thought that no one could dispute or diminish or +disregard his exclusive possession of the Edera water where it ran +through his fields. They could not touch that, even if they seized it +lower down, where it ran through other communes. Were they to take it +above his land, above the bridge of Ruscino, its bed here would be +dried up, and his homestead and the village both be ruined. The +clear, intangible right which he meant to defend at any cost, in any +manner, was his right to have the river run untouched through his +fields. The documents which proved the rights of the great extinct +Seigneury might be useless, but the limited, shrunken right of the +peasant ownership was as unassailable as his mother's right to the +three strings of pearls; or so he believed. + +The rights of the Lords of Ruscino might be but shadows of far-off +things, things of tradition, of history, of romance, but the rights +of the peasant proprietors of the Terra Vergine must, he thought, be +respected if there were any justice upon earth, for they were plainly +writ down in the municipal registers of San Beda. To rouse others to +defend their equal rights in the same way, from the source of the +Edera to its union with the Adriatic, seemed to him the first effort +to be made. He was innocent enough to believe that it would suffice +to prove that its loss would be their ruin to obtain redress at once. + +Whilst Don Silverio was still hesitating as to what seemed to him +this momentous and painful journey to Rome his mind was made up by a +second letter received from the Superior of the Certosa at San Beda, +the friend to whom he had confided the task of inquiring as to the +project for the Edera. + +This letter was long, and in Latin. They were two classics, who liked +thus to refresh themselves and each other with epistles such as St. +Augustine or Tertullian might have penned. The letter was of elegant +scholarship, but its contents were unwelcome. It said that the Most +Honourable the Syndic of San Beda had enjoyed a conference with the +Prefect of the province, and it had therein transpired that the +project for the works upon the river Edera had been long well known +to the Prefect, and that such project was approved by the existing +Government, and therefore by all the Government officials, as was but +natural. It was not admitted that the Commune of San Beda had any +local interest or local right sufficiently strong to oppose the +project, as such a claim would amount to a monopoly, and no monopoly +could exist in a district through which a running river partially +passed, and barely one-fifth of the course of this stream lay through +that district known as the valley of the Edera. The entire +Circondario, except the valley, was believed to be in favour of the +project, which the Prefect informed the Syndic could not be otherwise +than most favourable to the general interests of the country at +large. + +"Therefore, most honoured and revered friend," wrote the Superior of +the Cistercians, "his most esteemed worship does not see his way to +himself suggest opposition to this course in our Town Council, or in +our Provincial Council, and the Most Worshipful the Assessors do not +either see theirs; it being, as you know, an equivocal and onerous +thing for either council to express or suggest in their assembly +views antagonistic to those of the Prefecture, so that I fear, most +honoured and reverend friend, it will not be in my power farther to +press this matter, and I fear also that your parish of Ruscino, being +isolated and sparsely populated, and its chief area uncultivated, +will be possessed of but one small voice in this matter, the +interests of the greater number being always in such a case +preferred." + +Don Silverio read the letter twice, its stately and correct Latinity +not serving to disguise the mean and harsh fact of its truly modern +logic. "Because we are few and poor and weak we have no rights!" he +said bitterly. "Because the water comes from others, and goes to +others, it is not ours whilst in our land!" + +He did not blame his friend at San Beda. + +Ecclesiastics existed only on sufferance, and any day the Certosa +might be closed if its inmates offended the ruling powers. But the +letter, nevertheless, lay like a stone on his heart. All the +harshness, the narrowness, the disregard of the interests of the +weak, the rude, rough, tyrannical pressing onward of the strong to +their own selfish aims, all the characteristics of the modern world +seemed to find voice in it and jeer at him. + +It was not for the first time in his life that he had pressed against +the iron gates of interest and formula and oppression, and only +bruised his breast and torn his hands. + +He had a little sum of money put by in case of illness and for his +burial; that was the only fund on which he could draw to take him to +Rome and keep him when there, and it was so small that it would be +soon exhausted. He passed the best part of the night doubting which +way his duty pointed. He fasted, prayed, and communed with his soul, +and at length it seemed to him as if a voice from without said to +him, "Take up your staff, and go." For the journey appalled him, and +where his inclination pointed he had taught himself to see error. He +shrank inexpressibly from going into the noise and glare and crowd of +men; he clung to his solitude as a timid animal to its lair; and +therefore he felt persuaded that he ought to leave Ruscino on his +errand, because it was so acutely painful to him. + +Whilst he should be gone Adone at least would do nothing rash; would +of course await the issue of his investigations. Time brings council, +and time, he hoped, would in this instance befriend him. He had +already obtained the necessary permission to leave his parish; he +then asked for a young friend from San Beda to take his place in the +village; left his little dog to the care of Nerina; took his small +hoard in a leathern bag strapped to his loins, and went on his way at +daybreak along the southwest portion of the valley, to cover on foot +the long distance which lay between him and the nearest place at +which a public vehicle went twice a week to a railway station; whence +he could take the train to Terni and so to Rome. + +Adone accompanied him the first half of the way, but they said little +to one another; their hearts were full. Adone could not forget the +rebuke given to him, and Don Silverio was too wise a man to lean +heavily on a sore and aching wound, or repeat counsels already given +and rejected. + +At the third milestone he stopped and begged, in a tone which was a +command, the young man to return home. + +"Do not leave your land for me," he said. "Every hour is of gold at +this season. Go back, my son! I pray that I may bring you peace." + +"Give me your blessing," said Adone meekly, and he knelt down in the +dust of the roadside. His friend gave it; then their hands met in +silent farewell. + +The sun had risen, and the cold clear air was yielding to its rays. +The young man reluctantly turned back, and left the priest to go +onward alone, a tall, dark figure in the morning light; the river +running between acacia thickets and rushes on his right. Before long +he was forced to leave the course of the stream, and ascend a rugged +and precipitous road which mounted southward and westward through oak +woods into the mountains between the Leonessa and Gran Sasso, until +it reached a shrunken, desolate village, with fine Etruscan and Roman +remains left to perish, and a miserable hostelry, with the miserable +diligences starting from it on alternate days, the only remains of +its former posting activity. There he arrived late in the evening, +and broke his fast on a basin of bean soup, then rested on a bench, +for he could not bring himself to enter the filthy bed which was +alone to be obtained, and spent the following morning examining the +ancient ruins, for the conveyance did not start until four o'clock in +the afternoon. When that hour came he made one of the travellers, all +country folks, who were packed close as pigeons in a crate in the +ramshackle, noisy, broken-down vehicle, which lumbered on its way +behind its lean and suffering horses, through woods and hills and +along mountain passes of a grandeur and a beauty on which the eyes of +educated travellers rarely looked. + +The journey by this conveyance occupied seven hours, and he was +obliged to wait five more at that village station which was the +nearest point at which he could meet the train which went from Terni +to Rome. Only parliamentary trains stop at such obscure places; and +this one seemed to him slower even than the diligence had been. It +was crammed with country lads going to the conscription levy in the +capital: some of them drunk, some of them noisy and quarrelsome, some +in tears, some silent and sullen, all of them sad company. The dusty, +stinking, sun-scorched waggons, open one to another, with the stench +of hot unwashed flesh, and the clouds of dust driven through the +unglazed windows, seemed to Don Silverio a hell of man's own making, +and in remembrance his empty quiet room, with its vine-hung window, +at Ruscino, seemed by comparison a lost heaven. + +To think that there were thousands of men who travelled thus, every +day of every year, in every country, many of them from no obligation +whatever, but from choice! + +"What lunatics, what raving idiots we should look to Plato or to +Socrates, could they see us!" he thought. Was what is called progress +anything else except increased insanity in human life? + +He leaned back in his corner, and bore the dust in his eyes and his +throat as best he might, and spoke a few kind words to the boys +nearest to him, and felt as if every bone in his body was broken as +the wooden and iron cage shook him from side to side. The train +stopped finally in that area of bricks and mortar and vulgarity and +confusion where once stood the Baths of Diocletian. It was late in +the night when he heard the name of Rome. + +No scholar can hear that name without emotion. On him it smote with a +keen personal pain, awakening innumerable memories, calling from +their graves innumerable dreams. + +He had left it a youth, filled with all the aspirations, the fire, +the courage, the faith, of a lofty and spiritual temper. He returned +to it a man aged before his time, worn, weary, crushed, spiritless, +with no future except death. + +He descended from the waggon with the crowd of jaded conscripts and +mingled with that common and cosmopolitan crowd which now defiles the +city of the Caesars. The fatigue of his body, and the cramped pain of +his aching spine, added to the moral and the mental suffering which +was upon him as he moved a stranger and alone along the new, +unfamiliar streets where, alone here and there, some giant ruin, some +stately arch, some marble form of god or prophet, recalled to him the +Urbs that he had known. + +But he remembered the mission on which he came; and he rebuked his +self-indulgence in mourning for his own broken fate. + +"I am a faithless servant and a feeble friend," he thought in +self-reproach. "Let me not weaken my poor remnant of strength in +egotism and repining. I come hither for Adone and the Edera. Let me +think of my errand only; not of myself, nor even of this desecrated +city." + + + + + + +IX + +It was now the season to plough the reapen fields, and he had always +taken pleasure in his straight furrows; as straight as though +measured by a rule on the level lands; and of the skill with which on +the hilly ground Orlando and Rinaldo moved so skillfully, turning in +so small a space, answering to every inflection of his voice, taking +such care not to break a twig of the fruit trees, or bend a shoot of +the vines, or graze a stem of the olives. + +"Good hearts, dear hearts, faithful friends and trusty servants!" he +murmured to the oxen. He leaned his bare arms on the great +fawn-coloured flanks of Orlando, and his forehead on his arms, which +grew wet with hidden tears. + +The cattle stood motionless, breathing loudly through their distended +nostrils, the yokes on their shoulders crinking, their hides +twitching under the torment of the flies. Nerina, who had been +washing linen in the Edera, approached through the olives; she +hesitated a few minutes, then put the linen down off her head on to +the grass, gathered some plumes of featherfew and ferns, and brushed +the flies off the necks of the oxen. Adone started, looked up in +displeasure at being thus surprised, then, seeing the intruder was +only the little girl, he sat down on the side of the plough, and made +believe to break his noon-day bread. + +"You have no wine," said the child. "Shall I run to the house for a +flask?" + +"No, my dear, no. If I am athirst there is water -- as yet there is +water!" he murmured bitterly, for the menace of this impending horror +began to grow on him with the fixity and obsession of a mania. + +Nerina continued to fan the cattle and drive off the flies from their +necks. She looked at him wistfully from behind the figures of the +stately animals. She was afraid of the sorrow which was in the air. +No one had told her what the evil was which hung over the Terra +Vergine; and she never asked questions. The two elder women never +took her into their confidence on any subject, and she had no +communication with the few people in Ruscino. She had seen that +something was wrong, but she could not guess what: something which +made Madonna Clelia's brows dark, and Gianna's temper bad, and Adone +himself weary and ill at ease. + +Seeing him sitting there, not eating, throwing his bread to some wild +pigeons which followed the plough, she plucked up courage to speak; +he was always kind to her, though he noticed her little. + +"What is it that ails you all?" she asked. "Tell me, Adone, I am not +a foolish thing to babble." + +He did not answer. What use were words? Deeds were wanted. + +"Adone, tell me," she said in a whisper; "what is this that seems to +lie like a stone on you all? Tell me why Don Silverio has gone away. +I will never tell again." + +There was a pathetic entreaty in the words which touched and roused +him; there was in it the sympathy which would not criticise or doubt, +and which is to the sore heart as balm and soothes it by its very +lack of reason. + +He told her; told her the little that he knew, the much that he +feared; he spent all the force of his emotion in the narrative. + +The child leaned against the great form of the ox and listened, not +interrupting by a word or cry. + +She did not rebuke him as Don Silverio had done, or reproach him as +did his mother; she only listened with a world of comprehension in +her eyes more eloquent than speech, not attempting to arrest the fury +of imprecation or the prophecies of vengeance which poured from his +lips. Hers was that undoubting, undivided, implicit faith which is so +dear to the wounded pride and impotent strength of a man in trouble +who is conscious that what he longs to do would not be approved by +law or sanctioned by religion. That faith spoke in her eyes, in her +absorbed attention, in the few breathless sentences which escaped +her; there was also on her youthful face a set, stern anger akin to +his own. + +"Could we not slay these men?" she said in a low, firm voice; she +came of a mountain race by whom life was esteemed little and revenge +honour. + +"We must not even say such a thing," said Adone bitterly, in whose +ears the rebuke of Don Silverio still rang. "In these days everything +is denied us, even speech. If we take our rights we are caged in +their prisons." + +"But what will you do, then?" + +"For the moment I wait to learn more. These things are done in the +dark, or at least in no light that we can see. To kill these men as +you wish, little one, would do nothing. Others of their kind would +fill their places. The seekers of gold are like ants. Slay thousands, +tens of thousands come on; if once the scent of gain be on the wind +it brings men in crowds from all parts, as the smell of carrion +brings meat-flies. If they think of seizing the Edera it is because +men of business will turn it into gold. The Edera gives us our grain, +our fruits, our health, our life; but if it will give money to the +foreigner, the foreigner will take it as he would take the stars and +coin them if he could. The brigand of the hills is caged or shot; the +brigand of the banks is allowed to fatten and die in the odour of +success. There are two measures." + +Nerina failed to understand, but her own mind was busy with what +seemed to her this monstrous injustice. + +"But why do they let them do it? They take and chain the men who rob +a traveller or a house." + +Adone cast his last atom of bread to the birds. + +"There are two measures," he answered. "Kill one, you go to the +galleys for life. Kill half a million, you are a hero in history, and +get in your own generation titles, and money, and applause." + +"Baruffo was a good man and my father's friend," Nerina said, +following her own thoughts. "Baruffo was in the oak woods always, far +below us, but he often brought us wine and game at night, and +sometimes money too. Baruffo was a good man. He was so kind. Twice my +father aided him to escape. But one night they seized him; there was +a whole troop of carabineers against him, they took him in a trap, +they could never have got him else, and I saw him brought down the +mountain road and I ran and kissed him before they could stop me; and +he never came back -- they kept him." + +"No doubt they kept him," said Adone bitterly. "Baruffo was a peasant +outlawed; if he had been a banker, or a minister, or a railway +contractor, he might have gone on thieving all his life, and met only +praise. They keep poor Baruffo safe in their accursed prisons, but +they will take care never to keep, or take even for a day, +law-breakers whose sins are far blacker than his, and whose victims +are multitudes." + +"If Baruffo were here he would help you," said Nerina. "He was such a +fine strong man and had no fear." + +Adone rose and put his hands on the handles of the plough. + +"Take up your linen, little one," he said to the girl, "and go home, +or my mother will be angry with you for wasting time." + +Nerina came close to him and her brown dog-like eyes looked up like a +dog's into his face. + +"Tell me what you do, Adone," she said beseechingly, "I will tell no +one. I was very little when Baruffo came and went to and fro in our +hut; but I had sense; I never spoke. Only when the guards had him I +kissed him, because then it did not matter what they knew; there was +no hope." + +"Yes, I will tell you," said Adone. "Maybe I shall end like Baruffo." + +Then he called on Orlando and Rinaldo by their names, and they +lowered their heads and strained at their collars, and with a mighty +wrench of their loins and shoulders they forced the share through the +heavy earth. + +Nerina stood still and looked after him as he passed along under the +vine-hung trees. + +"Baruffo may have done some wrong," she thought, "but Adone, he has +done none, he is as good as if he were a saint of God, and if he +should be obliged to do evil it will be no fault of his, but because +other men are wicked." + +Then she put the load of linen on her head, and went along the grassy +path homeward, and she saw the rosy gladioli, and the golden tansy, +by which she passed through tears. Yet she was glad because Adone had +trusted her; and because she now knew as much as the elder women in +his house, who had put no confidence in her. + + + + + +X + +"I SHALL not write," Don Silverio had said to Adone. "As soon as I +know anything for certain I shall return. Of that you may be sure." + +For he knew that letters took a week or more to find their slow way +to Ruscino, and he hoped to return in less than that time; having no +experience of "what hell it is in waiting to abide," and of the +endless doublings and goings to earth of that fox-like thing, a +modern speculation; he innocently believed that he would only have to +ask a question to have it answered. + +Day after day Adone mounted to the bell-tower roof, and gazed over +the country in vain. Day after day the little dog escaped from the +custody of Nerina, trotted over the bridge, pattered up the street, +and ran whining into his master's study. Every night the people of +Ruscino hung up a lantern on a loophole of the belfry, and another on +the parapet of the bridge, that their pastor might not miss his way +if he were coming on foot beside the river; and every night Adone +himself watched on the river bank or by the town wall, sleepless, +longing for, yet dreading that which he should hear. But more than a +week passed, and the priest did not return. The anxiety of Adone +consumed him like fire. He strove to dull his anxiety by incessant +work, but it was too acute to be soothed by physical fatigue. He +counted the days and the hours, and he could not sleep. The women +watched him in fear and silence; they dared ask nothing, lest they +should wound him. Only Nerina whispered to him once or twice in the +fields, "Where is he gone? When will he come back?" + +"God knows!" he answered. Every evening that he saw the sun set +beyond the purple line of the mountains which were heaped in their +masses of marble and snow between him and the Patrimonium Petrus, he +felt as if he could never bear another night. He could hear the +clear, fresh sound of the running river, and it seemed to him like +the voice of some friend crying aloud to him in peril. Whilst these +summer days and nights sped away what was being done to save it? He +felt like a coward; like one who stands by and sees a comrade +murdered. In his solitude and apprehension he began to lose all +self-control; he imagined impossible things; he began to see in his +waking dreams, as in a nightmare, the dead body of Don Silverio lying +with a knife in its breast in some cut-throat alley of Rome. For two +weeks passed, and there was no sign of his return, and no message +from him. + +The poor people of Ruscino also were troubled. Their vicar had never +left them before. They did not love him; he was too unlike them; but +they honoured him, they believed in him; he was always there in their +sickness and sorrow; they leaned on his greater strength in all their +penury and need; and he was poor like them, and stripped himself +still barer for their sakes. + +Through the young friar who had replaced him they had heard something +of the calamity which threatened to befall them through the Edera. It +was all dark to them; they could understand nothing. Why others +should want their river and why they should lose it, or in what +manner a stream could be turned from its natural course -- all these +things were to them incomprehensible. In the beginning of the world +it had been set running there. Who would be impious enough to meddle +with it? + +Whoever tried to do so would be smitten with the vengeance of Heaven. +Of that they were sure. Nevertheless, to hear the mention of such a +thing tormented them; and when they opened their doors at dawn they +looked out in terror lest the water should have been taken away in +the night. + +Their stupidity irritated Adone so greatly that he ceased altogether +to speak to them of the impending calamity. "They are stocks and +stones. They have not the sense of sheep nor the courage of goats," +he said, with the old scorn which his forefathers had felt for their +rustic vassals stirring in him. + +"I believe that they would dig sand and carry wood for the engineers +and the craftsmen who would build the dykes!" he said to his mother. + +Clelia Alba sighed. "My son, hunger is a hard master; it makes the +soul faint, the heart hard, the belly ravenous. We have never known +it. We cannot judge those who know nothing else." + +"Even hunger need not make one vile," he answered. + +But he did not disclose all his thoughts to his mother. + +He was so intolerant of these poor people of Ruscino because he +foresaw the hopelessness of forging their weak tempers into the metal +necessary for resistance. As well might he hope to change a +sword-rush of the river into a steel sabre for combat. Masaniello, +Rienzi, Garibaldi, had roused the peasantry and led them against +their foes; but the people they dealt with must, he thought, have +been made of different stuff than these timorous villagers, who could +not even be make to comprehend the magnitude of the wrong which was +plotted against them. + +"Tell them," he said to old Trizio: "tell them their wells will run +dry; their fish will rot on the dry bed of what was once the river; +their canes, their reeds and rushes, their osiers, will all fail +them; when they shall go out into their fields nothing which they sow +or plant will grow, because the land will be cracked and parched; +there will be no longer the runlets and rivulets to water the soil; +birds will die of thirst, and thousands of little river creatures +will be putrid carcasses in the sun; for the Edera, which is life and +joy and health to this part of the country, will be carried far away, +imprisoned in brick walls, drawn under ground, forced to labour like +a slave, put to vile uses, soiled and degraded. Cannot you tell them +this, and make them see?" + +The old man shook his white head. "They would never believe. It is +too hard for them. Where the river runs, there it will always be. So +they think." + +"They are dolts, they are mules, they are swine!" said Adone. "Nay, +may the poor beasts forgive me! The beasts cannot help themselves, +but men can if they choose." + +"Humph!" said Trizio doubtfully. "My lad, you have not seen men shot +down by the hundred. I have -- long ago, long ago." + +"There is no chance of their being shot," he said with contempt, +almost with regret. "All that is wanted of them are common sense, +union, protestation, comprehension of their rights." + +"Aye, you all begin with that," said the old Garabaldino. "But, my +lad, you do not end there, for it is just those things which are your +right which those above you will never hear of; and then up come the +cannon thundering, and when the smoke clears away there are your dead +-- and that is all you get." + +The voice of the old soldier was thin and cracked and feeble, but it +had a sound in it which chilled the hot blood of his hearer. + +Yet surely this was no revolutionary question, no socialistic theory, +no new alarming demand; it was only a claim old as the hills, only a +resolve to keep what the formation of the earth had given to this +province. + +As well blame a father for claiming his own child as blame him and +his neighbours for claiming their own river! + +They were tranquil and docile people, poor and patient, paying what +they were told to pay, letting the fiscal wolf gnaw and glut as it +chose unopposed, not loving their rulers indeed, but never moving or +speaking against them, accepting the snarl, the worry, the theft, the +greed, the malice of the State without questioning. + +Were they to stand by and see their river ruined, and do nothing, as +the helpless fishermen of Fuscino have accepted the ruin of their +lake? + +To all young men of courage and sensibility and enthusiasm the +vindication of a clear right seems an act so simple that it is only +through long and painful experience that they realize that there is +nothing under the sun which is so hard to compass, or which is met by +such strong antagonism. To Adone, whose nature was unspoilt by modern +influences, and whose world was comprised in the fields and moors +around Ruscino, it seemed incredible that such a title as that of his +native soil to the water of Edera could be made clear to those in +power without instant ratification of it. + +"Whether you do aught or naught it comes to the same thing," said the +old Garibaldino, who was wiser. "We did much; we spent our blood like +water, and what good has it been? For one devil we drove out before +our muskets, a thousand worse devils have entered since." + +"It is different," said Adone, impatient. "All we have to do is to +keep out the stranger. You had to drive him out. No politics or +doctrines come into our cause; all we mean, all we want, is to be +left alone, to remain as we are. That is all. It is simple and just." + +"Aye, it is simple; aye, it is just," said the old man; but he sucked +his pipe-stem grimly: he had never seen these arguments prosper; and +in his own youth he had cherished such mistakes himself, to his own +hindrance. + +Had he not sung in those glorious days of hope and faith, + + "Fratelli d'Italia! + L'Italia s'e desta!" + +In the night which followed on the fourteenth day of the Vicar's +absence, Adone, unable either to rest or to labour, went into his +cattle-stalls and fed and watered all the animals, then he crossed +the river and went along its north bank by the same path which he had +followed with Don Silverio two weeks earlier. He had passed to and +fro that path often since his friend's departure, for by it the +priest must return; there was no other way to and from the west. + +Rain had fallen in the night, and the river was buoyant, and the +grass sparkled, the mountains were of sapphire blue, and above the +shallows clouds of flies and gnats were fluttering, waterlilies were +blossoming where the water was still, and in the marshes buffaloes +pushed their dark forms amongst the nymphoea and the nuphar. + +He had no longer any eyes to see these things; he only strained his +sight to catch the first glimpse of a tired traveler. The landscape +here was level for many miles of moor and pasture and a human form +approaching could be seen from a great distance. It was such a dawn +as he had used to love beyond all other blessings of nature; but now +the buffaloes in the pools and swamps were not more blind to its +charm than he. + +The sun rose behind him out of the unseen Adrian waves, and a rosy +light spread itself over the earth; and at that moment he saw afar +off a dark form moving slowly. With a loud cry he sprang forward and +ran with the fleetness of a colt the hundred yards which were between +him and that familiar figure. + +"My son! my dear son!" cried Don Silverio, as Adone reached him and +fell on his knees on the scorched turf. + +"At last!" he murmured, choked with joy and fear. "Oh, where have you +been? We are half dead, your people and I. What tidings do you bring? +What comfort?" + +"Rise up, and remember that you are a man," said Don Silverio; and +the youth, gazing upwards keenly into his face, suddenly lost all +hope, seeing no ray of hope on that weary countenance. + +"You cannot save us?" he cried, with a scream like a wounded hare's. + +"I cannot, my dear son," answered Don Silverio. + +Adone dropped backward as if a bullet had struck him; his head smote +the dry ground; he had lost consciousness, his face was livid. + +Don Silverio raised him and dragged him into the shade of a bay-tree +and dashed water on him from the river. In a few minutes he was +roused and again conscious, but on his features there was a dazed, +stunned look. + +"You cannot save us?" he repeated. + +"Neither you nor I have millions," said Don Silverio with bitterness. +"It is with no other weapon that men can fight successfully now." + +Adone had risen to his feet; he was pale as a corpse, only the blood +was set in his forehead. + +"Is it true, then?" he muttered. "Do they mean to come here?" + +"Yes." + +"Who are they? Jews?" + +"Jews and Gentiles. There is no difference between those races now; +they have a common Credo -- greed; they adore one Jehovah -- gold. My +boy, I am very tired, and you are ill. Let us get home as quickly as +we can." + +"I am not ill. It was nothing. It is passed. Tell me the worst." + +"The worst, in a work, is that a foreign company, already established +for several years in this country, has obtained a faculty to turn +this water out if its course and use it as the motive power of an +electric railway and of an acetylene manufactory, and of other +enterprises." + +"And this cannot be undone?" + +"I fear not; they are rich and powerful. What are we? Let me get +home. There you shall hear all, and judge." + +Adone asked and said no more. He turned and went backward. His steps +were slow and unsteady, his head was hung down. The dry, hot air was +like fire around them; the sun, though still low, darted fierce rays +upon them, like spears thrown with a sure aim. He had not known how +much and how strongly he had hoped until now that he heard that there +was no hope left. + +Don Silverio, though he did not speak of himself, was faint with +fatigue; the return journey had tried him more cruelly than the +first, since on his way to Rome he had been sustained by the hope to +find the project abandoned, or at the least uncertain. He had spent +all his scanty earnings, so hardly and tediously collected through a +score of years, and he had brought back to his poor people, and to +the youth he loved, nothing except the confirmation of their worst +fears. It was with difficulty that he could drag his aching feet over +the burn grass back to his parish. + +When they reached the bridge they were on the village side of the +stream. Adone, with an effort, raised himself from the trance into +which he had fallen. + +"Forgive me, sir; you are overtired, you must rest. I will come to +you later." + +"No, no," said Don Silverio quickly, for he thought the youth in no +state to be alone. "I will wash and take a cup of coffee, then I will +tell you all. Wait in my book-room." + +They went together to his house. There was no one in the street or on +the walls except some children gathering dandelion leaves in the +ditch. They reached the priest's house unobserved; only the little +dog, who was making his diurnal search there, rushed out of the +entrance in a frenzy of rapture. + +"Poor little man! Dear Signorino!" murmured Don Silverio, and he took +the little creature in his arms. Then he opened the door of his +study. "Wait there," he said to Adone. "I will soon come downstairs. +I will only wash off the dust of this journey." + +Adone obeyed. + +The room was dusky, cool, silent; he sat down in it and waited; he +could hear the loud, uneven beating of his own heart in the +stillness. + +As he felt now, so, he thought, must feel men who have heard their +own death-sentence, and are thrust alone into a cell. + +If Don Silverio could do nothing, to whom could he turn? + +Could he induce the people to rise? It would be their ruin as well as +his, this rape of the river. Would they bear it as they bore +taxation, neglect, conscription, hunger? + +It was not half an hour, although it seemed to him half a day, which +passed before Don Silverio came down the stone stair, his little dog +running and leaping about him. He seated himself before Adone, by the +shuttered window, through which, by chinks and holes in the wood, +there came rays of light and tendrils of vine. + +Then detail by detail, with lucidity and brevity, he narrated all he +had heard and done in Rome, and which it was exceeding hard to bring +home to the comprehension of a mind wholly ignorant of such things. + +"When I reached Rome," he explained, "I was for some days in despair. +The deputy of San Beda was not at the Chamber. He was in Sicily. +Another deputy, a friend of the Prior at San Beda, to whom I had a +letter, was very ill with typhoid fever. I knew not where to turn. I +could not knock at the doors of strangers without credentials. Then I +remembered that one with whom I had been friends, great friends, when +we were both seminarists, had become a great man at the Vaticano. It +was scarcely possible that he, in his great elevation, would +recollect one unseen for a quarter of a century. But I took courage +and sent in my name. Imagine my surprise and emotion when I was +admitted at once to his presence, and was received by him with the +uttermost kindness. He assisted me in every way. He could not of +course move ostensibly in a matter of the government, himself, but he +gave me letters to those who could obtain me the information and the +interviews which I desired. He was goodness itself, and through him I +was even received by his Holiness. But from all those political and +financial people whom I saw I learned but the same thing. The matter +is far advanced, is beyond any alteration. The company is formed. The +concurrence of parliament is not to be, but has long been, given. The +ministry favours the project. They all repeated to me the same +formula: public works are to the public interest. They babbled +commonplaces. They spoke of great advantages to the province. I +pleaded as forcibly as I could in the interests of this valley, and I +opposed fact to formula. But my facts were not those which they +wanted; and they told me, politely but unmistakably, that a churchman +should not seek to interfere with civil matters. The promoters are +masters of the position. They are all of accord: the foreign bankers, +the Italian bankers; the foreign engineers, the Italian engineers; +the Technical office, the President of Council, the dicastero of +Hygiene, of Agriculture, of Public Works, all of them. Our poor +little valley seems to them a desirable prey; they have seized it, +they will keep it. They were all courteous enough. They are polite, +and even unwilling to cause what they call unnecessary friction. But +they will not give an inch. Their talons are in our flesh as an +eagle's in a lamb's. One thinks fondly that what a man possesses is +his own, be it land, house, stream--what not! But we mistake. There +is a thing stronger, higher, more powerful than any poor title of +property acquired by heritage, by purchase, or by labour. It is what +they call expropriation. You think the Edera cannot be touched: it +can be expropriated. You think the Terra Vergine cannot be touched: +it can be expropriated. Against expropriation no rights can stand. It +is the concentration and crystallisation of Theft legitamised by +Government; that is by Force. A vagrant may not take a sheaf of your +wheat, a fowl from your hen-house: if he do so, the law protects you +and punishes him. A syndicate of rich men, of powerful men, may take +the whole of your land, and the State will compel you to accept any +arbitrary price which it may choose to put upon your loss. According +as you are rich or poor yourself, so great or so small will be the +amount awarded to you. All the sub-prefects, all the syndics, all the +officials in this province, will be richly rewarded; the people +defrauded of the soil and the river will get what may be given them +by an enforced valuation. I have conversed with all kinds and +conditions of men; and I have heard only one statement in the mouths +of all: the matter is beyond all alteration. There is money in it; +the men whose trade is money will not let it go. My son, my dearest +son, be calm, be prudent. Violence can only injure yourself, and it +can save nothing." + +He had for the moment spoken as he had been speaking for the last two +weeks to men of education and of the world. + +He was recalled to the fact that his present auditor did not reason, +did not comprehend, only felt, and was drunk with his own force of +feeling. The look on Adone's face appalled him. + +The youth seemed almost to have no intelligence left, almost as if +all which had been said to him had reached neither his ear nor his +brain. + +Don Silverio had been in the world of men, and unconsciously he had +adopted their phraseology and their manner. To Adone, who had +expected some miracle, some rescue almost archangelic, some promise +of immediate and divine interposition, these calm and rational +statements conveyed scarcely any sense, so terrible was the +destruction of his hopes. All the trust and candour and sweetness of +his nature turned to gall. + +He listened, a sullen, savage darkness stealing over his countenance. + +"And our rights? Theirs? -- mine?" he said as Don Silverio paused. + +"For all rights taken away they will give legal compensation." + +"You dare repeat that, sir?" + +Don Silverio controlled his indignation with difficulty. + +"I dare do whatever I deem right to do. You should know that by this +time." + +"You think this right?" + +"I think it right to repeat exactly what has been said to me. I do +not of necessity approve because I repeat." + +"You know no compensation is possible!" + +"Morally, none. I speak of but what the law allows." + +"The law of pirates, of cut-throats!" + +"The law of the State, alas!" + +Adone laughed. His hearer had heard such laughter as that in +madhouses. + +"The State kills a soldier, and gives his family a hundred francs! +That is the compensation of the State. If they emptied their +treasuries, could they give the soldier back his life? If they +emptied their treasuries, could they give us back what they will take +from us?" + +"My dear son, do not doubt my sympathy. All my heart is with you. But +what can be done? Can a poor village, a poor commune, struggle with +any chance of success against a rich company and a government? Can a +stalk of wheat resist the sickle? Can an ear of wheat resist the +threshing-flail? I have told you the story of Don Quixote della +Mancha. Would you fight the empty air like him?" + +Adone did not reply. + +His beautiful face grew moody, dark, fierce; in his eyes flamed +passions which had no voice upon his lips; his white teeth ground +against one another. + +"Believe me, Adone," said his friend, "we are in evil days, when men +babble of liberty, and are so intent on the mere empty sound of their +lips that they perceive not the fetters on their wrists and feet. +There was never any time when there was so little freedom and so +little justice as in ours. Two gigantic dominions now rule the human +race; they are the armies and the moneymakers. Science serves them +turn by turn, and receives from each its wage. The historian Mommsen +has written that we are probably inferior both in intelligence and in +humanity, in prosperity and in civilisation, at the close of this +century to what the human race was under Severus Antonius; and it is +true." + +Adone did not seem to hear. What were these abstract reasonings to +him? All he cared for were his river and his fields. + +"I sought for an old friend of mine in Rome," said Don Silverio, +endeavouring to gain his attention and divert his thought, "one +Pamfilio Scoria. He was a learned scholar; he had possessed a small +competence and a house of his own, small too, but of admirable +architecture, a Quattrocentisto house. I could not find this house in +Rome. After long search I learned that it had been pulled down to +make a new street. Pamfilio Scoria had in vain tried to preserve his +rights. The city had turned him out and taken his property, paying +what it chose. His grief was so great to see it destroyed, and to be +turned adrift with his books and manuscripts, that he fell ill and +died not long afterwards. On the site of the house there is a +drinking-place kept by Germans; a street railway runs before it. This +kind of theft, of pillage, takes place every week. It is masked as +public utility. We are not alone sufferers from such a crime." + +Adone was still silent. + +His thoughts were not such as he could utter aloud in the priest's +presence; and he heard nothing that was said; he heard only little +Nerina's voice saying: "Could we not kill these men?" That flutelike +whisper seemed to him to sigh with the very voice of the river +itself. + +Don Silverio rose, his patience, great as it was, exhausted. + +"My son, as you do not give ear to me it is useless for me to speak. +I must go to my office. The friar from San Beda desires to return +this evening. I have done all I can. I have told you the facts as +they stand. Take courage, Be peaceable for your mother's sake and +restrain yourself for your own. It is a frightful calamity which +hangs over us all. But it is our duty to meet it like men." + +"Like men!" muttered Adone as he rose to his feet; had not the child +from the Abruzzo rocks a better sense of men's duty than this priest +so calm and wise? + +"Men resist," he said very low. + +"Men resist," repeated Don Silverio. "They resist when their +resistance serves any purpose, but when it can only serve to crush +them uselessly under a mass of iron they are not men if they resist, +but madmen." + +"Farewell, sir," said Adone. + +And with an obeisance he went out of the chamber. + +"Poor boy! Poor, passionate, dear youth!" thought Don Silverio as the +door closed. "He thinks me cold and without emotion; how little he +knows! He cannot suffer as I suffer for him and for my poor wretched +people. What will they do when they shall know? They will mourn like +starved sheep bleating in a field of stones, and I, their shepherd, +shall not have a blade of grass wherewith to comfort them!" + + + + + +XI + +Adone's sight was troubled as soon as he passed out of the dusky room +into the blaze of noonday sunshine. His eyes seemed filled with +blood. His brain was dizzy. That which had been his sheet-anchor in +all doubts and contrition, his faith in and his reverence for Don +Silverio, availed him nothing now. A blind sympathy with his most +violent instincts was the only thing which could now content or +console him. + +He was in that state to which all counsels of moderation appear but +so much treason and unkindness. As he went out of the priest's house +in that dazzling light, a hand caught his sleeve and that young +flutelike voice of which he had thought murmured to him -- + +"Adone! what tidings? What has he told you?" + +Nerina, having run across the bridge and up the street after the +little dog, had seen him and Don Silverio enter, and had waited for +Adone to come out of the house. + +Adone pushed her away. + +"Let me be!" he said impatiently. "It is all bad -- bad -- bad. Bad +as ill-blood. Bad as crime." + +She clung to his arm nevertheless. + +"Come into the church and tell me. No one cares as I do." + +"Poor little soul!" + +He let her draw him into the great porch of the church and thence +into the church itself; it was dark, as it always was, cold as an +autumn evening, damp even in the canicular heat. + +"No one will hear; tell me!" said the child. + +He told her. + +"And what are you to do?" she asked, her eyes dilated with horror. + +"According to him," said Adone bitterly, "I am to be meek and +helpless as the heifer which goes to the slaughter. Men must not +resist what the law permits." + +Nerina was mute. To dispute what Don Silverio said was like blasphemy +to her; she honoured him with all her soul, but she loved Adone. + +She loved the Edera water too; that fair green rippling water, on +whose bank she had sat naked under the dock leaves the day the two +rams had fought. That which was threatened was an unholy, wicked, +cruel robbery. Was it indeed necessary to yield to it in submission? + +She remembered a saying of Baruffo's: "If a man stand up to me I +leave him some coins in his pocket, some life in his body; but if he +crouch and cringe I stick him in the throat. He is a craven." + +The doctrine of Baruffo seemed to her the more sound. It warmed the +blood of the little Abruzzo-born maiden to recall it. In the high +mountains and forests the meeker virtues are not greatly honoured. + +She stood by Adone's side, knitting her brows under her auburn +curling locks, clenching her hands. + +"Is there _one_ who does this evil most of all?" she said at length. +"_One_ we could reach?" + +"You are a brave child, Nerina!" said Adone, and his words made her +proud. "I fear there is a crowd. Such men are like locusts; they come +in swarms. But the first man who touches the water--" + +"Shall sup of it and drown!" + +The little girl added the words with a fierce joy in her great bright +eyes. + +"Hush!" said Adone, "and get you homeward, and tell my mother that +Don Silverio has returned, and that I will come back to my work in a +little while. Tell her he says there is no hope." + +Nerina obeyed him instantly, her bare feet flying over the stones of +the street. He was left alone in the sombre church, with the great +winged angels of stone above his head. + +He was grateful for its gloom. He shrank from the light of the +morning. Every drop of blood in his body, and in his brain, and in +his limbs, seemed to him to turn to fire -- a fire which all the +waters of the Edera would never quench. + +How could they be accused of rebellion or wrong-doing because they +wanted to keep the water running in the channel which it had made for +itself in the very beginning of the world? + +The Edera was ancient as its neighbours, the Fiumicino which heard +the voice of Cæsar, or the Marecchia which was bridged by Augustus; +ancient as the fountain of Arethusa, as the lake of Diana Nemorensis. +What sacrilege could be more heinous than to chase it from its chosen +course? No Lucumon of Etruria, or Esarch of Ravenna, or Pope or Rome, +had ever dared to touch it. Revolutionists! they, who only sought to +preserve it? The revolutionists were those who with alien hands and +vampire's greed would seek to disturb its peace. + + + + + +XII + +All that day the people of Ruscino crowded round the Presbytery. + +"What of the Edera water, sir?" they asked him a hundred times in the +shrill cries of the women, in the rude bellow of the men, in the +high-pitched, dissonant clamour of angry speakers. And all the day +his patience and kindness were abused, and his nerves racked and +strained, in the effort to persuade them that the river which ran +beneath their walls was no more theirs than the stars which shone +above it. + +It was hopeless to bring home to their intelligence either the +invalidity of their claim, or the peril which would lie in their +opposition. + +"'Twas there in the beginning of time," they said. "There it must be +for our children's children." + +He talked nonsense, they thought; who should be able to stop a river +which was for ever running? The Edera water was carried in the womb +of the Leonessa: Leonessa gave it fresh birth every day. + +Yes! thought Don Silverio, as he walked by the river after sunset, +and watched its bright, impetuous current dash over the stones and +shingle whilst two kingfishers flashed along its surface. Yes, truly +Nature would pour it forth every day from her unfailing breast so +long as man did not do it outrage. But how long would that be? A +year, two years, three years, at most; then its place would know it +no more, and its song would be silent. The water-pipet would make its +nest no more in its sedges, and the blue porphyrion would woo his +mate no more on its bosom. As one of the rich men in Rome had said to +him with a cynical smile, "The river will be there always, only it +will be dry!" + +In the gloaming he went and spoke to Adone's mother. She was at her +spinning-wheel, but her hands moved mechanically; her face was dark +and her eyelids swollen. + +"My friend," he said, as he sat down on the bench beneath the +rose-tree, "I have brought you ill-tidings." + +"It is true then, sir?" + +"Alas!" + +"I do not believe it. God will not let it be." + +"Would that I could think so." + +"'Tis you, sir, who should think so, and not I." + +"My good Clelia," he said, with some impatience, "it is no use to +dream dreams. Try and persuade your son to accept the inevitable. My +words seem harsh. They are not so. But I dare not let you cherish +your illusions like this; blind yourself to fact, you expect some +supernatural intercession. They will take your river; they will take +your lands. Your house will be yours no more. If you do not go +peaceably they will have you turned out, as if you were a debtor. +This may take some time, for it will be done with all due legal +forms, but it will be done. They will pay you and your son some value +by appraisement, but they will take your land and your house and all +that is yours and his; I have seen the plans in Rome. Can you think +that I should invent this to torture you? There will be a process, a +sentence, an award; the money the law allots to you will be strictly +paid to you; but you will be driven away from the Terra Vergine. +Realise this. Try and keep your reason and save your son from +madness. Surely, where there is great love between two people, and +bonds of memory and mutual duty, and strong faith, there a home may +be made anywhere, even over seas?" + +Clelia Alba snapped with violence the thread she span. "They have +talked you over, sir," she said curtly. "When you went away you were +with us." + +"With you!" he echoed. "In heart, in pity, in sympathy, yes; never +could I be otherwise. But were I to see you struck with lightning, +should I save you by telling you that lightning did not kill? I did +not know that the enterprise was as mature as I found it to be when I +saw the promoters of it in Rome. But I know now that it has been long +in incubation; you must remember that every bend and ordnance maps; +every stream, however small, is known to the technical office, and +the engineers civil and military. I abhor the project. It is to me a +desecration, an infamy, a robbery; it will ruin the Valdedera from +every point of view; but we can do nothing; this is what I implore +you to realise. We are as helpless as one of your fowls when you cut +its throat. Violence can only hurry your son into the grip of the +law. His rights are morally as plain as yonder snow on those +mountains; but because they will buy his rights at what will be +publicly estimated as a fair price, the law will not allow him to +consider himself injured. My dear friend, you are a woman of sense +and foresight; try to see this thing as it is." + +"I will hear what Adone says, sir," replied Clelia Alba doggedly. "If +he bids me burn the house, I shall burn it." + +Don Silverio was heart-sick and impatient. What use was it to argue +with such minds as these? As well might he waste his words on the +trunks of the olives, on the oxen in their stalls. + +They were wronged. + +That the wrong done them was masked under specious pretences, and was +protected by all the plate armour of law and government, made the +outrage little the worse to them. The brigand from the hills who used +to harry their cattle and pillage their strong-box looked to them a +hero, a saint, a Christ, compared to these modern thieves who were +environed with all the defences and impunity which the law and the +State could give. When an earth-shock makes the soil under your feet +quiver, and gape, and mutter, you feel that unnatural forces are +being hurled against you, you feel that you are the mere sport and +jest of an unjust deity. This was what they felt now. + +"Nay," said Clelia Alba, "if the earth opened, and took us, it would +be kinder; it would bury us at least under our own rooftree." + +What use was it to speak to such people as these of the right of +expropriation granted by parliament, of the authority of a +_dicastero_, and of a prefecture, of the sophistries and arguments of +lawyers, of the adjudication of values, of the appraisement of +claims? They were wronged: and they came of a race and of a soil in +which the only fitting redresser of wrong was revenge. + +"Mother," cried Adone, "my father would not have given up his land as +meekly as a sheep yields up her life." + +"No," said Clelia Alba; "whether he came from those war-lords of old +I know not, but he would have fought as they fought." + + + + +XIII + +The autumn and winter passed without more being heard in the +Valdedera of the new invasion. The peasantry generally believed that +such silence was favourable to their wishes; but Don Silverio knew +that it was otherwise. The promoters of the work did not concern +themselves with the local population, they dealt with greater folks; +with those who administered the various communes, and who controlled +the valuation of the land through which the course of the Edera ran; +chiefly those well-born persons who constituted the provincial +council. A great deal of money would change hands, but it was +intended, by all through whose fingers those heavy sums would pass, +that as little of the money as possible should find its way to the +owners of the soil. A public work is like a fat hog; between the +slaughterers, the salesmen, the middlemen, and the consumers, little +falls to the original holder of the hog. The peasants of the +Valdedera were astonished that no one came to treat with them; but +they did not understand that they dwelt under a paternal government, +and the first care of a paternal government is to do everything for +its children which is likely to promise any profit to itself. + +The men of business whom Don Silverio had seen in Rome did not +trouble themselves with the rustic proprietors of either water or +land; they treated with the great officials of the department, with +the deputies, the prefects, and sub-prefects, the syndics and +assessors; so a perfect silence on the question reigned from the rise +of the river to its mouth, and many of the men said over their +wood-fires that they had been scared for nothing. The younger men, +however, and those who were under Adone's influence, were more wary; +they guessed that the matter was being matured without them; that +when the hog should be eaten, the smallest and rustiest flitch would +then be divided amongst them. Agents, such agents as were ministerial +instruments of these magnates in election time, went amongst the +scattered people and spoke to them of the great public utility of the +contemplated works, and made them dispirited and doubtful of the +value of their holdings, and uncertain of the legality of their +tenures. But these agents were cautious and chary of promises, for +they knew that in this district the temper of men was proud and hot +and revengeful; and they knew also that when these rural owners +should be brought into the courts to receive their price they would +be dealt with just as the great men chose. One by one, so that each +should be unsupported by his neighbours, the men of the valley were +summoned, now to this town, now to the other, and were deftly argued +with, and told that what was projected would be their salvation, and +assured that the delegates who would be sent in their name by their +provincial council to the capital would defend all their dearest +interests. + +The rich man, the man of business, the man of cities, may receive in +such transactions compensation, which is greatly to their advantage, +because traffic is their trade, because to buy and sell, and turn and +return, and roll the ball of gold so that it grows bigger every hour, +is their custom and interest. But the poor man, the rustic, the man +with the one ewe lamb, loses always, whether he assents to the sale +or has it forced upon him. These people of the valley might have a +little ready money given them on valuation, but it would be money +clipped and cropped by the avarice of intermediates until little of +it would remain, and they would be driven out to begin life anew; +away from their old rooftree and the fruits of long years of labour. + +From far and near men came to Ruscino to take counsel of its vicar; +his wisdom being esteemed and his intelligence known in the valley +beyond the confines of his parish: and what advice could he give +them? He could but tell them that it was useless to kick against the +pricks. He knew so well the cold, curt, inflexible official answer; +the empty, vapouring regrets, false, simpering, pharisaical; the +parrot-phrases of public interests, public considerations, public +welfare; the smile, the sneer, the self-complacent shrug of those who +know that only the people whom they profess to serve will suffer. To +him, as to them, it seemed a monstrous thing to take away the water +from its natural channel and force the men who lived on it and by it +to alter all their ways of life and see their birthplace changed into +a desert in order that aliens might make money. But he could not +counsel them to resist; no resistance was possible. It was like any +other tyranny of the State: like the fiscal brutality which sold up a +poor man's hayrick or clothing because he could not pay the poll-tax. +If the poor man resisted, if he fired his old fowling-piece, or used +his knife on the minions of the State, what use was such resistance? +He went to rot in prison. + +His calling, his conscience, his good sense, his obedience to law, +all alike compelled him to urge on them patience, submission, and +inaction before the provocation of a great wrong. He dared not even +let them see one tithe of the sympathy he felt, lest if he did so +they should draw from it an incentive to illegal action. + +The part which he was obliged to take in thus persuading the people +to be tranquil under injustice estranged him farther and farther from +Adone Alba, who found it a cowardice and a treachery, although he +dared not say so in words. Had he retained the coolness of reason the +youth would have known and acknowledged that in the position of Don +Silverio no other course would have been possible or decent. But +reason had long left him, and inaction and impulse alone remained. He +would not allow that a wrong might be condemned, and yet endured. To +him all endurance had in it the meanness of condonation. + +He ceased to have any faith in his friend and teacher; and gradually +grew more and more alienated from him; their intimate affection, +their frequent intercourse, their long walks and evening meeting were +over; and even as his spiritual director the vicar had no longer +power over him. Most of his actions and intentions were concealed; +except in the younger men of the district, who saw as he saw, he had +now no confidence in any one. The impending loss of the land and the +water turned all the sweetness of his nature to gall. He thought that +never in the history of the world had any wrong so black been done. +He, himself, flung broadcast the fires of burning incitation without +heeding or caring whither the flames might reach. Riots had been +successful before this: why not now? He was young enough and innocent +enough to believe in the divine right of a just cause. If that were +denied, what remained to the weak? + +If he could, he would have set the valley in flames from one end to +the other rather than have allowed the foreigners to seize it. Had +not his forefather perished in fire on yonder hill rather than cede +to the Borgia? + +Evening after evening he looked at the sun setting behind the Rocca +and felt the black rage in him gnaw at his heart like a vulture. + +They would offer him money for this dear earth, for this fair, +beloved stream! -- the mere thought choked him as a man who loved his +wife would be choked at the though of her dishonoured sale. + +Some were half persuaded that it would be a fine thing to get some +crisp banknotes in exchange for waste ground which yielded little, or +a cabin which was falling to pieces, or a strip of woodland which +gave them fuel, but not much more. But the majority were angry, +irreconcilable, furious to lose the water, full of their wrongs. +These were glad to find Adone Alba a spokesman and a leader: they +were tow which caught fire at his torch. They comprehended little, +but they knew that they were wronged; and they agreed with him that +the labourers who should come from over the border to meddle with +them should be made to rue it bitterly. + +The Italian goes over seas, indeed; huddled under the hatches of +emigrant ships; miserable, starved, confined; unable to move, scarce +able to breathe, like the unhappy beasts carried with him. But he +never goes willingly; he never wrenches himself from the soil without +torn nerves and aching heart; if he lives and makes a little money in +exile he comes back to the shadow of the village church, to the sound +of the village bell which he knew in his boyhood, to walk in the +lanes where he threw his wooden quoit as a lad, and to play dominoes +under the green bough of the winehouse where as a child he used to +watch his elders and envy them. + +Most of these people dwelling on the Edera water had not been five +miles away from the river in all their lives. The moorland birds and +beasts went farther afield than they. They had no interest in what +was beyond their own freehold; they did not even know or care whither +the water went, or whence it came. Where it was, they owned it. That +was enough for them. + +"Sir, what is it Adone does?" said Clelia Alba, one dusky and stormy +eve after vespers. "At nightfall out he goes; and never a word to me, +only 'Your blessing, mother,' he says, as if he might lose his life +where he goes. I thought at first it was some love matter, for he is +young; but it cannot be that, for he is too serious, and he goes +fully armed, with his father's pistols in his belt and his own long +dagger in his stocking. True, they go so to a love tryst, if it be a +dangerous one; if the woman be wedded; only I think it is not that, +for men in love are different. I think that he broods over some act." + +"Neither you nor I can do aught. He is of age to judge for himself," +said Don Silverio; "but, like you, I do not think a woman is the +cause of his absence." + +"Can you not speak to him, sir?" + +"I have spoken. It is useless. He is moved by a motive stronger than +any argument we can use. In a word, good Clelia, this coming seizure +of the water is suffering so great to him that he loses his reason. +He is trying to make the men of the commune see as he sees. He wants +to rouse them, to arm them. He might as well set the calves in your +stalls to butt the mountain granite." + +"Maybe, sir," said Clelia Alba, unwillingly; but her eye gleamed, and +her stern, proud face grew harder. "But he has the right to do it if +he can. If they touch the water they are thieves, worse than those +who came down from the hills in the years of my girlhood." + +"You would encourage him in insurrection, then?" + +"Nay, I would not do that; but neither would I blame him. Every man +has a right to defend his own. Neither his father nor mine, sir, were +cowards." + +"This is no question of cowardice. It is a question of common sense. +A few country lads cannot oppose a government. With what weapons can +they do so? Courage I honour; without it all active virtues are +supine; but it is not courage to attempt the impossible, to lead the +ignorant to death -- or worse." + +"Of that my son must judge, sir," said Adone's mother, inflexible to +argument. "I shall not set myself against him. He is master now. If +he bid me fire the place I shall do it. For four-and-twenty years he +obeyed me like a little child; never a murmur, never a frown. Now he +is his own master, and master of the land. I shall do as he tells me. +It is his turn now, and he is no fool, sir, Adone." + +"He is no fool; no. But he is beside himself. He is incapable of +judgment. His blood is on fire and fires his brain." + +"I think not, sir. He is quiet. He speaks little" + +"Because he meditates what will not bear speech. Were he violent I +should be less alarmed. He shuns me -- me -- his oldest friend." + +"Because no doubt, sir, he feels you are against him." + +"Against him! How can I, being what I am, be otherwise? Could you +expect me to foment insurrection, and what less than that can +opposition such as he intends become?" + +"You speak as you feel bound to speak, sir, no doubt." + +"But think of the end? Must not every action be weighed and +considered and judgment passed on it by what will be its issue? No +rising of our poor people can effect anything except their own +destruction. It is only a demagogue who would urge them on to it. +Adone is not a demagogue. He is a generous youth frantic from sorrow, +but helpless. Can you not see that?" + +"I do not see that he is helpless," said his mother with obstinacy. +"The thing that are about to do us is unjust. I would load a gun +myself against them, and if money be what is wanted I would give +Adone my pearls. He asks me for nothing, but when he does I will +strip myself to my shift to aid him." + +"It is a terrible madness!" cried Don Silverio. "What can your +fowling-piece or your necklace do against all the force these +speculators and contractors will employ? It is a great, a heinous +wrong which will be done to you; that no one can feel more strongly +than I. But there are wrongs to which we must submit when we are +weak; and, my good Clelia, against this we poor folks in the Vale of +Edera are as weak as the teal in the marshes against the swivel guns +of the sportsmen's punts." + +But he argued in vain; logic and persuasion are alike useless when +opposed to the rock of ignorance and obstinacy. She held him in deep +reverence; she brought her conscience to his judgment; she thought +him beyond ordinary humanity: but when he endeavoured to persuade her +that her son was wrong he failed. + +"Sir, you know that this crime against the river will ruin us," she +said doggedly. "Why then should you try to tie our hands? I do not +know what Adone does; his mind is hid from me, but if, as you say, he +wants a rising of our people, it is natural and just." + +When the mind of the peasant -- man or woman -- be made up in its +stubbornness, all learning, wisdom, experience, even fact, speak in +vain; it opposes to all proofs the passive resistance of a dogged +incredulity: to reason with it is as useless as to quarry stone with +a razor. + +Many and many a time had he given up in exhaustion and nausea his +endeavours to convince the rural mind of some simple fact, some clear +cause, some elementary principle. He knew that Clelia Alba would +never believe in the exile which would be her certain fate until the +armed and liveried creatures of the State should drive her from her +home by order of the State. He had seen in Rome that there was no +possible chance of opposing this enterprise against the Edera water. +It had been decided on by men of money who had the ear of ministers, +the precedence in ante-chambers, the means of success in political +departments and in commercial centres. A few scattered provincial +owners of land and labourers on land might as well try to oppose +these men as the meek steinbok in the mountain solitudes to escape +the expanding bullet of a prince's rifle. Yet he also saw how +impossible it was to expect a young man like Adone, with his lineage, +his temperament, his courage, and his mingling of ignorance and +knowledge, to accept the inevitable without combat. As well might he +be bidden to accept dishonour. + +The remorse in his soul was keen, inasmuch as without him Adone would +never have known of his descent from the lords of Ruscino, and never, +probably, have acquired that "little learning" which a poet of the +north has said is a dangerous thing. + +"Better," thought Don Silverio, with tormenting self-reproach, +"better have left him to his plough, to his scythe, to his +reaping-hook; better have left him in ignorance of the meaning of art +and of study; better have left him a mere peasant to beget peasants +like himself. Then he would have suffered less, and might possibly +have taken peaceably such compensation as the law would have allowed +him for the loss to his land, and have gone away to the West, as so +many go, leaving the soil they were born on to pass out of culture." + +Would Adone ever have done that? No; he would not; he was wedded to +the soil like the heaths that grew out of it. He might be violently +dragged away, but he would never live elsewhere; his heart had struck +its roots too deeply into the earth which nurtured him. + +"Why did you tell him of all the great men that lived?" Clelia Alba +had often said to him. "Why did you fill his soul with that hunger +which no bread that is baked can content? We, who work to live, have +no time to do aught except work, and sleep awhile to get strength for +more work; and so on, always the same, until age ties knots in our +sinews, and makes our blood thin and slow. What use is it to open +gates to him which he must never pass, to make his mind a tangled +skein that can never be undone? When you work hard you want to rest +in your resting hours, not to dream. Dreaming is no rest. He is +always dreaming, and now he dreams of blood and fire." + +Don Silverio's heart was with them, and by all the obligations of his +calling was forced to be against them. He was of a militant temper; +he would gladly have led them into action as did the martial priests +of old; but his sense, his duty, his conscience, all forbade him to +even show them such encouragement as would lie in sympathy. Had he +been rich he would have taken their cause into the tribunals and +contested this measure inch by inch, however hopelessly. But who +would plead for a poor parish, for a penniless priest? What payment +could he offer, he who could scarcely find the coins to fill his +salt-box or to mend his surplice? + +A great anxiety consumed him. He saw no way out of this calamity. The +people were wronged, grossly wronged, but how could they right that +wrong? Bloodshed would not alter it, or even cure it. What was +theirs, and the earth's, was to be taken from them; and how were they +to be persuaded that to defend their own would be a crime. + +"There is nothing, then, but for the people to lie down and let the +artillery roll over them!" said Adone once, with bitter emphasis. + +"And the drivers and the gunners are their own brothers, sons, +nephews, who will not check their gallop an instant for that fact; +for the worst thing about force is that it makes its human +instruments mere machines like the guns which they manoeuver," thought +Don Silverio, as he answered aloud: "No; I fear there will be nothing +else for them to do under any tyranny, until all the nations of the +earth shall cease to send their children to be made the janissaries +of the State. No alteration of existing dominions will be possible so +long as the Armies exist." + +Adone was silent; convinced against his will, and therefore convinced +without effect or adhesion. + +He dared not tell his friend of the passionate propaganda which he +had begun up and down the course of the Edera, striving to make these +stocks and stones stir, striving to make the blind see, the deaf +hear, the infirm rise and leap. + +"Let us go and make music," said the priest at last. "That will not +harm any one, and will do our own souls good. It is long since I +heard your voice." + +"It will be longer," thought Adone, as he answered: "Excuse me, sir; +I cannot think of any other thing than this great evil which hangs +over us. There is not one of our country people who does not curse +the scheme. They are frightened and stupid, but they are angry and +miserable. Those who are their spokesmen, or who ought to be, do not +say what they wish, do not care what they wish, do not ask what they +wish. They are the sons of the soil, but they count for nothing. If +they met to try and do anything for themselves, guards -- soldiery -- +would come from a distance, they say, and break up the meetings, and +carry those who should speak away to some prison. The Government +approves the theft of the water: that is to be enough." + +"Yet public meeting has been a right of the people on the Latin soil +ever since the Cæsars." + +"What matter right, what matter wrong? No one heeds either." + +"We must help ourselves." + +He spoke sullenly and under his breath. He did not dare to say more +clearly what was in his thoughts. + +"By brute force?" said Don Silverio. "That were madness. What would +be the number of the able-bodied men of all three communes? Let us +say two thousand; that is over the mark. What weapons would they +have? Old muskets, old fowling-pieces, and not many of those; their +scythes, their axes, their sticks. A single battalion would cut them +down as you mow grass. You have not seen rioters dispersed by trained +troops. I have. I have seen even twenty carabineers gallop down a +street full of armed citizens, the carabineers shooting right and +left without selection; and the street, before they had ridden two +hundred yards, was empty except for a few fallen bodies which the +horses trampled. You can never hope to succeed in these days with a +mere _jacquerie_. You might as well set your wheatsheaves up to +oppose a field battery." + +"Garibaldi," muttered Adone, "he had naught but raw levies!" + +"Garabaldi was an instinctive military genius, like Aguto, like +Ferruccio, like Gian delle Bande Neri, like all the great +Condottieri. But he would probably have rotted in the Spielberg, or +been shot in some fortress of the Quadrilateral, if he had not been +supported by that proclamation of Genoa and campaign of Lombardy, +which were Louis Napoleon's supreme errors in French policy." + +Adone was silent, stung by that sense of discomfiture and +mortification which comes upon those who feel their own inability to +carry on an argument. To him Garibaldi was superhuman, fabulous, far +away in the mists of an heroic past, as Ulysses to Greek youths. + +"You, sir, may preach patience," he said sullenly. "It is no doubt +your duty to preach it. But I cannot be patient. My heart would choke +in my throat." + +Don Silverio looked him straight in the face. + +"What is it you intend to do?" + +"I tell you that you can do nothing, my son." + +"How know you that, reverend? You are a priest, not a man." + +A faint red colour came over Don Silverio's colourless face. + +"One may be both," he said simply. "You are distraught, my son, by a +great calamity. Try and see yourself as other see you, and do not +lead the poor and ignorant into peril. Will the Edera waters be freer +because your neighbours and you are at the galleys? The men of gold, +who have the men of steel behind them, will be always stronger than +you." + +"God is over us all," said Adone. + +Don Silverio was silent. He could not refute that expression of +faith, but in his soul he could not share it; and Adone had said it, +less in faith than in obstinacy. He meant to rouse the country if he +could, let come what might of the rising. + +Who could tell the issue? A spark from a poor man's hearth had set a +city in flames before now. + +"How can you think me indifferent?" said Don Silverio. "Had I no +feeling for you should I not feel for myself? Almost certainly my +life will be doomed to end here. Think you that I shall see with +callousness the ruin of this fair landscape, which has been my chief +consolation through so many dreary years? You, who deem yourself so +wholly without hope, may find solace if you choose to take it. You +are young, you are free, all the tenderest ties of life can be yours +if you choose; if this home be destroyed you may make another where +you will. But I am bound here. I must obey; I must submit. I cannot +move; I cannot alter or renew my fate; and to me the destruction of +the beauty of the Edera valley will be the loss of the only pleasure +of my existence. Try and see with my eyes, Adone; it may help you to +bear your burden." + +But he might as well have spoken to the water itself, or to the +boulders of its rocks, or to the winds which swept its surface. + +"It is not yours," said Adone, almost brutally. "You were not born +here. You cannot know! Live elsewhere? My mother and I? Sooner a +thousand times would we drown in Edera!" + +The water was golden under the reflections of the sun as he spoke; +the great net was swaying in it, clear of the sword rush and iris; a +kingfisher like a jewel was threading its shallows; there was the +fresh smell of the heather and the wild tulips on the air. + +"You do not know what it is to love a thing! -- how should you? -- +you, a priest!" said Adone. + +Don Silverio did not reply. He went on down the course of the stream. + + + + + + +XIV + +One morning in early April Adone received a printed invitation to +attend in five days' time at the Municipality of San Beda to hear of +something which concerned him. It was brought by the little old +postman who went the rounds of the district once a week on his +donkey; the five days had already expired before the summons was +delivered. Adone's ruddy cheeks grew pale as he glanced over it; he +thrust it into the soil and drove his spade through it. The old man +waiting, in hopes to get a draught of wine, looked at him in dismay. + +"Is that a way to treat their Honours' commands?" he said aghast. + +Adone did not answer or raise his head; he went on with his digging; +he was turning and trenching the soil to plant potatoes; he flung +spadefuls of earth over the buried summons. + +"What's amiss with you, lad?" said the old fellow, who had known him +from his infancy. + +"Leave me," said Adone, with impatience. "Go to the house if you want +to drink and to bait your beast." + +"Thank ye," said the old man. "But you will go, won't you, Adone? It +fares ill with those who do not go." + +"Who told you to say that?" + +"Nobody; but I have lived a' many years, and I have carried those +printed papers a' many years, and I know that those who do not go +when they are called rue it. Their Honours don't let you flout them." + +"Their Honours be damned!" said Adone. "Go to the house." + +The little old man, sorely frightened, dropped his head, and pulling +his donkey by its bridle went away along the grass path under the +vines. + +Adone went on delving, but his strong hands shook with rage and +emotion as they grasped the handle of the spade. He knew as well as +if he had been told by a hundred people that he was called to treat +of the sale of the Terra Vergine. He forced himself to go on with his +forenoon's labour, but the dear familiar earth swam and spun before +his sight. + +"What?" he muttered to it, "I who love you am not your owner? I who +was born on you am not your lawful heir? I who have laboured on you +ever since I was old enough to use a tool at all am now in my manhood +to give you up to strangers? I will make you run red with blood +first!" + +It wanted then two hours of noon. When twelve strokes sounded from +across the river, tolled slowly by the old bronze bell of the church +tower, he went for the noonday meal and rest to the house. + +The old man was not longer there, but Clelia Alba said to him -- + +"Dario says they summon you to Dan Beda, and that you will not go?" + +"He said right." + +"But, my son," cried his mother, "go you must! These orders are not +to be shirked. Those who give them have the law behind them. You know +that." + +"They have the villainy of the law behind them: the only portion of +the law the people ever suffered to see." + +"But how can you know what it is about if you do not go?" + +"There is only one thing which it can be. One thing that I will not +hear." + +"You mean for the river -- for the land?" + +"What else?" + +Her face grew as stern as his own. "If that be so... Still you should +go, my son; you should go to hold your own." + +"I will hold my own," said Adone; and in his thoughts he added, "but +not by words." + +"What is the day of the month for which they call you?" asked his +mother. + +"The date is passed by three days. That is a little feat which +authority often plays upon the people." + +They went within. The meal was eaten in silence; the nut-brown eyes +of Nerina looked wistfully in their faces, but she asked nothing; she +guessed enough. + +Adone said nothing to Don Silverio of the summons, for he knew that +the priest would counsel strongly his attendance in person at San +Beda, even though the date was already passed. + +But the Vicar had heard of it from the postman, who confided to him +the fears he felt that Adone would neglect the summons, and so get +into trouble. He perceived at once the error which would be committed +if any sentence should be allowed to go by default through absence of +the person cited.. By such absence the absentee discredits himself; +whatsoever may be the justice of his cause, it is prejudiced at the +outset. But how to persuade of this truth a man so blind with pain +and rage and so dogged in self-will as Adone had become, Don Silverio +did not see. He shrank from renewing useless struggles and disputes +which led to no issue. He felt that Adone and he would only drift +farther and farther apart with every word they spoke. + +The young man viewed this thing through a red mist of hatred and +headstrong fury; it was impossible for his elder to admit that such +views were wise or pardonable, or due to anything more than the +heated visions evoked by a great wrong. + +That evening at sunset he saw the little girl Nerina at the river. +She had led the cows to the water, and they and she were standing +knee deep in the stream. The western light shone on their soft, +mottled, dun hides and on her ruddy brown hair and bright young face. +The bearded bulrushes were round them; the light played on the broad +leaves of the docks and the red spikes of great beds of willow-herb; +the water reflected the glowing sky, and close to its surface numbers +of newly-come swallows whirled and dipped and darted, chasing gnats, +whilst near at hand on a spray a little woodlark sang. + +The scene was fair, peaceful, full of placid and tender loveliness. + +"And all this is to be changed and ruined in order that some sons of +the mammon of unrighteousness may set up their mills to grind their +gold," he thought to himself as he passed over the stepping-stones, +which at this shallow place could be crossed dryfoot. + +"Where is Adone?" he called to the child. + +"He is gone down the river in the punt, most reverend." + +"And his mother?" + +"Is at the house, sir." + +Don Silvero went through the pastures under the great olives. When he +reached the path leading to the house he saw Clelia Alba seated +before the doorway spinning. The rose-tree displayed its first +crimson buds above her head; on the roof sparrows and starlings were +busy. + +Clelia Alba rose and dropped a low courtesy to him, then resumed her +work at the wheel. + +"You have heard, sir?" she said in a low tone. "They summons him to +San Beda." + +"Old Dario told me; but Adone will not go?" + +"No sir; he will never go." + +"He is in error." + +"I do not know sir. He is best judge of that." + +"I fear he is in no state of mind to judge calmly of anything. His +absence will go against him. Instead of an amicable settlement the +question will go to the tribunals, and if he be unrepresented there +he will be condemned _in contumacium_." + +"Amicable settlement?" repeated his mother, her fine face animated +and stern, and her deep dark eyes flashing. "Can you, sir, dare you, +sir, name such a thing? What they would do is robbery, vile robbery, +a thousand times worse than aught the men of night ever did when they +came down from the hills to harass our homesteads." + +"I do not say this otherwise; but the law is with those who harass +you now. We cannot alter the times, good Clelia; we must take them as +they are. Your son should go to San Beda and urge his rights, not +with violence but with firmness and lucidity; he should also provide +himself with an advocate, or he will be driven out of his home by +sheer force, and with some miserable sum as compensation." + +Clelia Alba's brown skin grew ashen grey, and its heavy lines +deepened. + +"You mean... that is possible?" + +"It is more than possible. It is certain. These things always end so. +My poor dear friend! do you not understand, even yet, that nothing +can save your homestead?" + +Clelia Alba leaned her elbows on her knees and bowed her face upon +her hands. She felt as women of her race had felt on some fair morn +when they had seen the skies redden with baleful fires, and the +glitter of steel corslets shine under the foliage, and had heard the +ripe corn crackle under the horses' hoofs, and had heard the +shrieking children scream, "The lances are coming, mother! Mother! +save us!" + +Those women had had no power to save homestead or child; they had +seen the pikes twist in the curling locks, and the daggers thrust in +the white young throats, and the flames soar to heaven, burning +rooftree and clearing stackyard, and they had possessed no power to +stay the steel or quench the torch. She was like them. + +She lifted her face up to the light. + +"He will kill them." + +"He may kill one man -- two men -- he will have blood on his hands. +What will that serve? I have told you again and again. This thing is +inevitable -- frightful, but inevitable, like war. In war do not +millions of innocent and helpless creatures suffer through no fault +of their own, no cause of their own, on account of some king's +caprice or statesman's blunder? You are just such victims here. +Nothing will preserve to you the Terra Vergine. My dear old friend, +have courage." + +"I cannot believe it, sir; I cannot credit it. The land is ours; this +little bit of the good and solid earth is ours; God will not let us +be robbed of it." + +"My friend! no miracles are wrought now. I have told you again and +again and again you must lose this place." + +"I will not believe it!" + +"Alas! I pray hat you may not be forced to believe; but I know that I +pray in vain. Tell me, you are certain that Adone will not answer +that summons?" + +"I am certain." + +"He is mad." + +"No, sir he is not mad. No more than I, his mother. We have faith in +Heaven." + +Don Silverio was silent. It was not for him to tell them that such +faith was a feeble staff. + +"I must not tarry," he said, and rose. "The night is near at hand. +Tell your son what I have said. My dear friend, I would almost as +soon stab you in the throat as say these things to you; but as you +value your son's sanity and safety make him realise this fact, which +you and he deny: the law will take your home from you, as it will +take the river from the province." + +"No, sir!" said Clelia Alba fiercely. "No, no, no! There is a God +above us!" + +Don Silverio bade her sadly farewell, and insisted no more. He went +through the odorous grasslands, where the primrose and wild hyacinth +grew so thickly and the olive branches were already laden with small +green berries, and his soul was uneasy, seeing how closed is the mind +of the peasant to argument or to persuasion. Often had he seen a poor +beetle pushing its ball of dirt up the side of a sandhill only to +fall back, and begin again, and again fall; for any truth to +endeavour to penetrate the brain of the rustic is as hard as for the +beetle to climb the sand. He was disinclined to seek the discomfiture +of another useless argument, but neither could he be content in his +conscience to let this matter wholly alone. + +Long and dreary as the journey was to San Beda, he undertook it +again, saying nothing to any one of his purpose. He hoped to be able +to put Adone's contumacy in a pardonable light before the Syndic, and +perhaps to plea his cause better than the boy could plead it for +himself. To Don Silverio he always seemed a boy still, and therefore +excusable in all his violence and extravagances. + +The day was fine and cool, and walking was easier and less exhausting +than it had been at the season of his first visit; moreover, his +journey to Rome had braced his nerves and sinews to exertion, and +restored to him the energy and self-possession which the long, +tedious, monotonous years of solitude in Ruscino had weakened. There +was a buoyant wind coming from the sea with rain in its track, and a +deep blue sky with grand clouds drifting past the ultramarine hues of +the Abruzzo range. The bare brown rocks grew dark as bronze, and the +forest-clothed hills were almost black in the shadows, as the +clustered towers and roofs of the little city came in sight. He went, +fatigued as he was, straight to the old ducal palace, which was now +used as the municipality, without even shaking the dust off his feet. + +"Say that I come for the affair of Adone Alba," he said to the first +persons he saw in the ante-room on the first floor. In the little +ecclesiastical town his calling commanded respect. They begged him to +sit own and rest, and in a few minutes returned to say that the most +illustrious the Count Corradini would receive him at once in his +private room; it was a day of general council, but the council would +not meet for an hour. The Syndic was a tall, spare, frail man, with a +patrician's face and an affable manner. He expressed himself in +courteous terms as flattered by the visit of the Vicar Ruscino, and +inquired if in any way he could be of the slightest service. + +"Of the very greatest, your Excellency," said Don Silverio. "I have +ventured to come hither on behalf of a young parishioner of mine, +Adone Alba, who, having received the summons of your Excellency only +yesterday, may, I trust, be excused for not having obeyed it on the +date named. He is unable to come to-day. May I offer myself for his +substitute as _amicus curie_!" + +"Certainly, certainly," said Corradini, relieved to meet an educated +man instead of the boor he had expected. "If the summons were delayed +by any fault of my officials, the delay must be inquired into. +Meanwhile, most reverend, have you instructions to conclude the +affair?" + +"As yet, I venture to remind your Excellency, we do not even know +what is the affair of which you speak." + +"Oh no; quite true. The matter is the sale of the land known under +the title of the Terra Vergine." + +"Thank Heaven I am here, and not Adone," thought Don Silverio. + +Aloud he answered, "What sale? The proprietor has heard of none." + +"He must have heard. It can be no news to you that the works about to +be made upon the river Edera will necessitate the purchase of the +land known as the Terra Vergine." + +Here the Syndic put on gold spectacles, drew towards him a black +portfolio filled by plans and papers, and began to move them about, +muttering, as he searched, little scraps of phrases out of each of +them. At last he turned over the sheets which concerned the land of +the Alba. + +"Terra Vergine -- Commune of Ruscino -- owners Alba from 1620 -- +family of good report -- regular taxpayers -- sixty hectares -- land +productive; value -- just so -- humph, humph, humph!" + +Then he laid down the documents and looked at Don Silverio from over +his spectacles. + +"I conclude, most reverend, that you come empowered by this young man +to treat with us?" + +"I venture, sir," replied Don Silverio respectfully, "to remind you +again that it is impossible I should be so empowered, since Adone +Alba was ignorant of the reason for which he was summoned here." + +Corradini shuffled his documents nervously with some irritation. + +"This conference, then, is a mere waste of time? I hold council +to-day --" + +"Pardon me, your Excellency," said Don Silverio blandly. "It will not +be a waste of time if you will allow me to lay before you certain +facts, and, first, to ask you one question: Who is, or are, the buyer +or buyers of this land?" + +The question was evidently unwelcome to the Syndic; it was direct, +which every Italian considers ill-bred, and it was awkward to answer. +He was troubled for personal reasons, and the calm and searching gaze +of the priest's dark eyes embarrassed him. After all, he thought, it +would have been better to deal with the boor himself. + +"Why do you ask that?" he said irritably. "You are aware that the +National Society for the Improvement of Land and the foreign company +of the Teramo-Tronto Electric Railway combine in these projected +works?" + +"To which of these two societies, then, is Adone Alba, or am I, as +his _locum tenens_, to address ourselves?" + +"To neither. This commune deals with you." + +"Why?" + +Count Corradini took off his glasses, put them on again, shifted the +papers and plans in his imposing portfolio. + +"May I ask again -- why?" said Don Silverio in the gentlest tones of +his beautiful voice. + +"Because, because," answered the Syndic irritably, "because the whole +affair is in treaty between our delegates and the companies. Public +societies do not deal with private individuals directly, but by +proxy." + +"Pardon my ignorance," said Don Silverio, "but why does the commune +desire to substitute itself for the owner?" + +"It is usual." + +"Ah! It is usual." + +Corradini did not like the repetition of his phrase, which would not +perhaps bear very close examination. He looked at his watch. + +"Excuse me, Reverend Father, but time presses." + +"Allow me to crave of your bounty a little more time, nevertheless. I +am not habituated to business, but I believe, if I understand your +worshipful self aright, the commune contemplates purchasing from the +individuals, with power and intent to sell to the companies." + +What an unmannerly ecclesiastic! thought Corradini; for indeed, put +thus bluntly and crudely what the commune, as represented by himself, +was doing did not look as entirely correct as could be desired. + +"I was in Rome, most illustrious," said Don Silverio, "in +connection with this matter some months ago?" + +"In Rome?" + +To hear this was unpleasant to the Syndic; it ha never occurred to +him that his rural, illiterate, and sparsely populated district would +have contained any person educated enough to think of inquiring in +Rome about this local matter. + +"To Rome! Why did you go to Rome?" + +"To acquire information concerning this scheme." + +"You are an owner of land?" + +"No, sir. I am a poor, very poor, priest." + +"It cannot concern you, then." + +"It concerns my people. Nothing which concerns them is alien to me." + +"Humph, humph! Most proper, most praiseworthy. But we have no time +for generalities. You came to treat of the Terra Vergine?" + +"Pardon me, sir; I came to hear why you summoned Adone Alba, one of +my flock." + +"Could he not have come himself? It had been but his duty." + +"He could not, sir; and, to say truth, he would not. He does not +intend to sell his land." + +"What!" + +Corradini half rose from his chair, leaning both hands on the table, +and staring though his glasses across the mass of portfolios and +papers at the priest. + +"He will have no choice allowed him," he said with great anger. "To +the interests of the State all minor interests must bend. What! a +mere peasant stand in the way of a great enterprise?" + +"You intend expropriation then?" + +The voice of Don Silverio was very calm and sweet, but his +countenance was stern. + +Corradini was irritated beyond measure. He did not desire to play +that great card so early in the game. + +"I do not say that," he muttered. "There must be parliamentary +sanction for any forced sale. I spoke in general terms. Private +interest must cede to public" + +"There is parliamentary sanction already given to the project for the +Valley of Edera," said Don Silverio, "expropriation included." + +Count Corradini threw himself back in his chair with an action +expressive at once of wrath and of impotence. He had an irritating +sense that this priest was master of the position, and knew much more +than he said. In reality Don Silverio knew very little, but he had +skill and tact enough to give a contrary impression to his auditor. +He followed up his advantage. + +"Expropriation is to be permitted to enforce sales on recalcitrant +landowners," he continued. "But that measure, even though conceded in +theory, will take time to translate into practice. I fear, sir, that +if it be ever put into execution we shall have trouble in your +commune. Your council has been over hasty in allying itself with +these speculators. You and they have not taken into account the +immense injury which will be done to the valley and to my own village +or town, call it as you will, of Ruscino. The people are quiet, +patient, meek, but they will not be so if they are robbed of the +water of the Edera. It is the source of all the little -- the very +little -- good which comes to them. So it is with Adone Alba. He has +been God-fearing, law-abiding, a good son, excellent in all +relations; but he will not recognise as law the seizure of his land. +Sir, you are the elected chief of this district; all these people +look to you for support in their emergency. What are these foreign +speculators to you that you should side with them? You say this +commune will purchase from its peasant proprietors in the interests +of these foreigners. Was it to do this that they elected you? Why +should the interests of the foreigners be upheld by you to the injury +of those of your own people? Speaking for my own parish, I can affirm +to you that, simple souls as they are, poor in the extreme, and +resigned to poverty, you will have trouble with them all if you take +it on you to enforce the usurpation of the Edera water." + +Count Corradini, still leaning back in his large leathern chair, +listened as if he were hypnotised; he was astounded, offended, +enraged, but he was fascinated by the low, rich, harmonious +modulations of the voice which addressed him, and by the sense of +mastery which the priest conveyed without by a single word asserting +it. + +"You would threaten me with public disorder?" he said feebly, and +with consciousness of feebleness. + +"No sir; I would adjure you, in God's name, not to provoke it." + +"It does not rest with me." + +He raised himself in his chair: his slender aristocratic hands played +nervously with the strings of the portfolio, his eyelids flickered, +and his eyes avoided those of his visitor. + +"I have no voice in this matter. You mistake." + +"Surely your Excellency speaks with the voice of all you electors?" + +"Of my administrative council, then? But they are all in favour of +the project; so is his Excellency the Prefect, so is the Deputy, so +is the Government. Can I take upon myself in my own slender +personality to oppose these?" + +"Yes, sir, because you are the mouthpiece of those who cannot speak +for themselves." + +"Euh! Euh! That may be true in a sense. But you mistake; my authority +is most limited. I have but two votes in Council. I am as wholly +convinced as you can be that some will suffer for the general good. +The individual is crushed by the crowd in these days. We are in a +period of immense and febrile development; of wholly unforeseen +expansion; we are surrounded by the miracles of science; we are +witnesses of an increase of intelligence which will lead to results +whereof no living man can dream; civilisation in its vast and +ineffable benevolence sometimes wounds, even as the light and heat of +the blessed sun --" + +"Pardon me, sir," said Don Soverio, "at any other moment it would be +my dearest privilege to listen to your eloquence. But time passes. I +came here on a practical errand. I desire to take back some definite +answer to Adone and Clelia Alba. Am I to understand from you that the +municipality, on behalf of these foreign companies, desires to +purchase his land, and even insists upon its right to do so?" + +The Syndic, accustomed to seek shelter from all plain speaking in the +cover of flowery periods such as those in which he had been arrested, +was driven from his usual refuge. He could not resume the noble and +enlightened discourse which had been thus recklessly cut in two. He +tied the strings of the portfolio into a bow, and undid them, and +tied them again. + +"I have received you, sir, _ex officio_," he replied after a long +silence. "You address me as if I possessed some special individual +power. I have none. I am but the mouthpiece, the representative of my +administrative council. You, a learned ecclesiastic, cannot want to +be taught what are the functions of a Syndic." + +"I am to understand then that I must address myself on behalf of my +people to the Prefect?" + +Corradini was silent. The last thing he desired was for this +importunate priest to see the Prefect. + +"I must go into council at once," he said, again looking at his +watch. "Could you return? Are you remaining here?" + +"Some hours, sir." + +"Will you dine with me at my house at three? You will give me much +pleasure, and the Countess Corradini will be charmed." + +"I am grateful for so much offered honour, but I have promised to +make my noonday meal with an old friend, the superior of the +Cistercians." + +"An excellent, a holy person," said Corradini, with a bend of his +head. "Be at my house, reverend sir, at five of the clock. I shall +then have spoken with the assessors of your errand, and it will be +dealt with probably in council." + +Don Silverio made a low bow, and left him free to go to his awaiting +councillors, who were already gathered round a long table covered by +green cloth, in a vaulted and stately chamber, stories from Greek +mythology carved on its oaken doors and stone cornices. + +"Pray excuse me, gentleman," said the courtly mayor to his assessors, +taking his seat on an old walnut-wood throne at the head of the +table. "I have been detained by this matter of the Valdedera. I fear +the people of that valley will show an ungrateful and refractory +temper. How hard it is to persuade the ignorant where their true +interests lie! But let us to business." + +"It will be a hard matter," said the Prior to Don Silverio as they +walked together in the little burial-ground of the monastery between +its lines of rose-trees and its lines of crosses, after the frugal +noonday meal had been eaten in the refrectory. "It will be a hard +matter. You will fail, I fear. The municipalities here smell money. +That is enough to make them welcome the invasion. What can you do +against the force of gold?" + +"Would it avail anything to see the Prefect?" + +"Nothing. He is cousin to the Minister of Agriculture, whose brother +is chairman of the Teramo-Fermo Company. We are governed solely by +what the French call _tripotage_." + +"What character does this Syndic bear?" + +"A good one. He is blameless in his domestic relation, an indulgent +landlord, a gentleman, respectful of religion, assiduous in his +duties; but he is in debt; his large estates produce little; he has +no other means. I would not take upon me to say that he would be +above a bribe." + +At five of the clock, as the Syndic had told him to do, Don Silverio +presented himself at the Palazzo Corradini. He was shown with much +deference by an old liveried servant into a fine apartment with +marble busts in niches in the walls, and antique bookcases of oak, +and doorhangings of Tuscan tapestry. The air of the place was cold, +and had the scent of a tomb. It was barely luminated by two bronze +lamps in which unshaded oil wicks burned. Corradini joined him there +in five minutes' time, and welcomed him to the house with grace and +warmth of courtesy. + +"What does he want of me?" thought Don Silverio, who had not been +often met in life by such sweet phrases. "Does he want me to be +blind?" + +"Dear and reverend sir," said the mayor, placing himself with his +back to the brass lamps, "tell me fully about this youth whom you +protect, who will not sell the Terra Vergine. Here we can speak at +our ease; yonder at the municipality, there may be always some +eavesdropper." + +"Most worshipful, what I said is matter well known to the whole +countryside; all the valley can bear witness to its truth," replied +Don Silverio, and he proceeded to set forth all that he knew of Adone +and Clelia Alba, and of their great love for their lands; he only did +not mention what he believed to be Adone's descent, because he feared +that it might sound fantastical or presumptuous. Nearly three hundred +years of peasant ownership and residence were surely titles enough +for consideration. + +"If land owned thus, and tilled thus by one family, can be taken away +from that family by Act of Parliament to please the greedy schemes of +strangers, why preserve the eighth commandment in the Decalogue? It +becomes absurd. There cannot be a more absolute ownership than this +of the Alba to the farm they live on and cultivate. So long as there +is any distinction at all between _meum et tuum_, how can its violent +seizure be by any possibility defended?" + +"There will be no violent seizure," said Corradini. "The young man +will be offered a good price; even, since you are interested in him, +a high price." + +"But he will take no price -- no price, if he were paid million; they +would not compensate for his loss." + +"He must be a very singular young man." + +"His character is singular, no doubt, in an age in which money is +esteemed the sole goal of existence, and discontent constitutes +philosophy. Adone Alba wants nothing but what he has; he only asks to +be left alone." + +"It is difficult to be left alone in a world full of other people! If +your hero wants a Thebaid, he can go and buy one in La Plata, or the +Argentine, with the price we shall give for his land." + +"We?" repeated Don Silverio with significant emphasis. + +Corradini reddened a little. "I only use the word because I am +greatly interested in the success of this enterprise, being convinced +of its general utility to the province. Being cognisant as I am of +the neighbourhood, I hoped I could prevent some friction." + +"The shares are, I believe, already on the market?" + +It was a harmless remark, yet it was a disagreeable one to the Syndic +of San Beda. + +"What would be the selling price of the Terra Vergine?" he said +abruptly. "It is valued at twelve thousand francs." + +"It is useless to discuss its price," replied Don Silverio, "and the +question is much wider than the limits of the Terra Vergine. In one +word, is the whole of the Valdedera to be ruined because a Minister +has a relation who desires to create an unnecessary railway?" + +"Ruined is a large word. These constructions appear to all, except +primitive and ignorant people, to be improvements, acquisitions, +benefits. In our province we are so aloof from all movement, so +remote in our seclusion, so moss-grown in our antiquity, so wedded to +the past, to old customs, old habits, old ways of act and thought, +that the modern world shocks us as impious, odious, and intolerable." + +"Sir," said Don Silverio with his most caustic smile, "if you are +here to sing the praises of modernity, allow me to withdraw from the +duet. I venture to ask you, as I asked you this morning, one plain +question. To whom is Adone Alba, to whom are my people of Ruscino, to +appeal against the sequestration?" + +"To no one. The Prefect approves; the Minister approves; the local +deputies approve; I and my municipal and provincial councils approve; +Parliament has approved and authorised. Who remain opposed? A few +small landowners and a mob of poor persons living in your village of +Ruscino and in similar places." + +"Who can create grave disorders and will do so." + +"Disorders, even insurrections, do not greatly alarm authority +nowadays; they are easily pressed since the invention of the +quick-firing guns. The army is always on the side of order." + +Don Silverio rose. + +"Most honourable Corradini! your views and mine are so far asunder +that no amount of discussion can assimilate them. Allow me to salute +you." + +"Wait one instant, reverence," said the Syndic. "May I ask how it is +that an ecclesiastic of your appearance and your intellect can have +been buried so long in such an owls' nest as Ruscino?" + +"Sir," replied Don Silverio very coldly, "ask my superiors: I am but +one of the least of the servants of the Church." + +"You might be one of her greatest servants, if influence --" + +"I abhor the word influence. It means a bribe too subtle to be +punished, too gilded to alarm." + +"Nay, sometimes it is but a word in season, a pressure in the right +place." + +"It means that which cannot serve the poor man without degrading +him." + +"But -- but -- if as a reward for duty, advancement cane to you?" + +"I fail to understand." + +"Let me speak frankly. With your superiority to them you must easily +rule the embryo rioters of the Valdedera. If, to your efforts it +should be owing that the population remain quiet, and that this Adone +Alba and others in a similar position come to me in an orderly manner +and a pliant spirit, I will engage that this service to us on your +part shall not be forgotten." + +He paused; but Don Silverio did not reply. + +"It is lamentable and unjust," continued the mayor, "that any one of +your evident mental powers and capacity for higher place should be +wasting your years and wasting your mind in a miserable solitude like +Ruscino. If you will aid us to a pacific cession of the Valdedera I +will take upon myself to promise that your translation to a higher +office shall be favoured by the Government-" + +He paused again, for he did not see upon Don Silverio's countenance +that flattered and rejoiced expression which he expected; there was +even upon it a look of scorn. He regretted that he had said so much. + +"I thank your Excellency for so benevolent an interest in my poor +personality," said Don Silverio. "But with the King's government I +have nothing to do. I am content in the place whereto I have been +called, and have no disposition to assist the speculations of foreign +companies. I have the honour to bid your Excellency good evening." + +He bowed low, and backed out of the apartment this time. Count +Corradini did not endeavour to detain him. + +When he got out into the air the strong mountain wind was blowing +roughly down the steep and narrow street. He felt it with pleasure +smite his cheeks and brows. + +"Truly only from nature can we find strength and health," he +murmured. "In the houses of men there are but fever and corruption, +and uncleanliness." + + + + + +XV + +To neglect no possible chance, he resolved to see the Prefect, if the +Prefect consented to see him. This great official dwelt in a seaport +city, whence he ruled the province, for such a period at least as his +star should be in the ascendant, that is, whilt his political group +should be in power. It was scarcely likely that a government official +would be accessible to any arguments which a poor country priest +could bring forward against a government project. Still, he resolved +to make the effort, for at the Prefect's name apprehension, keen and +quaking, had leapt into Count Corradini's faded eyes. + +From San Beda to the seaport city there stretched some forty miles of +distance; the first part a descent down the spurs of the Apennines, +the latter half through level sandy country, with pine woods here and +there. The first half he covered on foot, the second by the +parliamentary train, which drew its long black line snake-like and +slow, through the dunes and the stagnant waters. He had but a few +francs in his waistband, and could ill afford to expend those. + +When he reached his destination it was evening; too late for him to +present himself at the Prefecture with any chance of admittance. The +Prior at San Beda had given him a letter to the vicar of the church +of Sant Anselmo in the city, and by this gentleman he was received +and willingly lodged for the night. + +"A government project -- a project approved by ministers and +deputies?" said his host on hearing what was the errand on which he +came there. "As well, my brother, might you assail the Gran Sasse +d'Italia! There must be money in it, much money, for our Conscript +Fathers." + +"I suppose so," said Don Silverio, "but I cannot see where it is to +come from." + +"From the pockets of the taxpayers, my friend!" replied the incumbent +of Sant Anselmo, with a smile as of a man who knows the world he +lives in. "The country is honeycombed by enterprises undertaken +solely to this end -- to pass the money which rusts in the pockets of +fools into those of wise men who know how to make it run about and +multiply. In what other scope are all our betterments, our hygiene, +our useless railway lines, our monstrous new streets, all our +modernisation, put in the cauldron and kept boiling like a witch's +supper?" + +"I know, I know," said Don Silverio wearily. "The whole land is +overrun by _affaristi_, like red ants." + +"Do not slander the ants!" replied his host; "I would not offend the +name of any honest, hard-working little insect by giving it to the +men through whom this country is eaten up by selfish avarice and +unscrupulous speculation! But tell me, what do you hope for from our +revered Prefect?" + +"I hope nothing, but I wish to leave no stone unturned. Tell me of +him." + +"Of his Excellency, Giovacchino Gallo, senator, Grand Cross, and +whatnot? There is much to tell, though there is nothing which could +not be also told of many another gentleman in high place. It is the +usual story: the supple spine, the sharp eye, the greased foot. He +was a young lawyer, useful to deputies. He married a lovely woman +whom a prince had admired beyond him. He asked no questions; her +dower was large. To do him justice, he has always behaved very well +to her. He entered Parliament early, and there was useful also, to +existing institutions. He was instrumental in carrying many railway +and canal bills through the chamber. He has been always successful in +his undertakings, and he knows that nothing succeeds like success. I +am told that he and his wife are _persone gratissime_ at the +Quirinale, and that her jewels are extremely fine. When he was named +Senator two years ago the Press, especially the Press of the Right, +saluted his nomination as strengthening the Senate by the accession +to it of a person of impeccable virtue, of enlightened intellect, and +of a character cast in antique moulds of noble simplicity and Spartan +courage. You think, my brother, that this favourite of fortune is +likely to favour your plea for your parishioners?" + +"Dear and revered brother," replied Don Silverio, "I came hither +with no such illusions. If I had done, your biography of this +functionary would have dispelled them." + +Nevertheless, although without hope, at two o'clock of that day he +went to the audience which was granted him at the intervention of the +bishop of the city, obtained by means of the vicar of Sant Anselmo. + +The Prefecture was situated in a palace of sixteenth century +architecture, a noble and stately place of immense size, greatly +injured by telegraph and telephone wires stretching all round it, the +post-office and the tax offices being situated on the ground floor, +and the great central court daubed over with fresh paint and +whitewash. Some little soldiers in dingy uniforms, ill-cut and +ill-fitting, stood about gates and doors. On the first floor were the +apartments occupied by his Excellency. Don Silverio was kept waiting +for some time in a vestibule of fine proportions painted by +Diotisalvi, with a colossal marble group in its centre of the death +of Caesar. + +He looked at it wistfully. + +"Ah, Guilio!" he murmured, "what use were your conquests, what use +was your genius, the greatest perchance the world has ever seen? What +use? You were struck in the throat like a felled ox, and the land you +ruled lies bleeding at every pore!" + +In a quarter of an hour he was ushered through other large rooms into +one of great architectural beauty, where the Prefect was standing by +a writing-table. + +Giovacchino Gallo was a short, stout person with a large stomach, a +bald head, bright restless eyes, and a high, narrow forehead; his +face was florid, like the face of one to whom the pleasures of the +table are not alien. His address was courteous but distant, stiff, +and a little pompous; he evidently believed in himself as a great +person and only unbent to other greater persons, when he unbent so +vastly that he crawled. + +"What can I do for your Reverence?" he asked, as he seated himself +behind the writing-table and pointed to a chair. + +The words were polite but the tone was curt; it was officialism +crystallised. + +Don Silverio explained the purpose of his visit, and urged the +prayers of his people. + +"I am but the vicar of Ruscino," he said in explanation, "but in this +matter I plead for all the natives of the Valdedera. Your Excellency +is Governor of this province, in which the Edera takes its rise and +has its course. My people, and all those others who are not under my +ministry, but whose desires and supplications I represent, venture to +look to you for support in their greatest distress, and intercession +for them against this calamity." + +The face of the Prefect grew colder and sterner, his eyes got an +angry sparkle, his plump, rosy hands closed on a malachite +paper-knife; he wished the knife were of steel, and the people of the +Valdedera had but one head. + +"Are you aware, sir," he said impatiently, "that the matter of which +you speak has had the ratification of Parliament?" + +"But it has not had the ratification of the persons whom it most +concerns." + +"Do you supposed, then, when a great public work is to be +accomplished the promoters are to go hat in hand for permission to +every peasant resident on the area?" + +"A great public work seems to me a large expression: too large for +this case. The railway is not needed. The acetylene works are a +private speculation. I venture to recall to your Excellency that +these people, whom you would ignore, own the land, or, where they do +not own it, have many interests both in the land and the water." +"Pardon me, your Excellency, but that is a phrase: it is not a fact. +You could not, if you gave them millions, compensate them for the +seizure of their river and their lands. These belong to them and to +their descendants by natural right. They cannot be deprived of these +by Act of Parliament without gross injury and injustice." +"There must be suffering for the individual in all benefit of the +general!" + +"And doubtless, sir, when one is not the individual the suffering +appears immaterial!" + +"What an insolent priest!" thought Giovacchino Gallo, and struck the +paper-knife with anger on the table. + +"Take my own parishioners alone," pursued Don Silverio. "Their small +earnings depend entirely upon the Edera water; it gives them their +food, their bed, their occupation; it gives them health and strength; +it irrigates their little holdings, _extra murus_, on which they and +their families depend for grain and maize and rice. If you change +their river-bed into dry land they will starve. Are not your own +countrymen dearer to you than the members of a foreign syndicate?" + +"There will be work for them at the acetylene factory." + +"Are they not free men? Are they to be driven like slaves to a work +which would be hateful to them? These people are country born and +country bred. They labour in the open air, and have done so for +generations. Pardon me, your Excellency, but every year the King's +Government forces into exile thousands, tens of thousands, of our +hard working peasants with their families. The taxation of the land +and of all its products lays waste thousands of square miles in this +country. The country is being depleted and depopulated, and the best +of its manhood is being sent out of it by droves to Brazil, to La +Plata, to the Argentines, to anywhere and everywhere, where labour is +cheap and climate homicidal. The poor are packed on emigrant ships +and sent with less care than crated of fruit receive. They consent to +go because they are famished here. Is it well for a country to lose +its labouring classes, its frugal, willing, and hard-working manhood? +to pack them off across the oceans by contract with other states? The +Government has made a contract with a Pacific island for five +thousand Italians? Are they free men or are they slaves? Can your +Excellency call my people free who are allowed no voice against the +seizure of their own river, and to whom you offer an unwholesome and +indoor labour as compensation for the ruin of their lives? Now, they +are poor indeed, but they are contented; they keep body and soul +together, they live on their natal soil, they live as their fathers +lived. Is it just, is it right, is it wise to turn these people into +disaffection and despair by an act of tyranny and spoilation through +which the only gainers will be foreign speculators abroad and at home +the gamblers of the Bourses? Sir, I do not believe that the world +holds people more patient, more long-suffering, more pacific under +dire provocation, or more willing to subsist on the poorest and +hardest conditions than Italians are; is it right or just or wise to +take advantage of that national resignation to take from half a +province the natural aid and the natural beauty with which God +Himself has dowered it in the gift of the mountainborn stream? You +are powerful, sir, you have the ear of the Government; you will not +try to stop this infamous theft of the Edera water whilst there is +still time?" + +Don Silverio spoke with that eloquence and with that melody of voice +which few could bear unmoved; and even the dull ear and the hard +heart of the official who heard him were for one brief moment moved +as by the pathos of a song sung by some great tenor. + +But that moment was very brief. Over the face of Giovacchino Gallo a +look passed at once brutal and suspicious. "Curse this priest!" he +thought; "he will give us trouble." + +He rose, stiff, cold, pompous, with a frigid smile on his red, full, +_bon viveur's_ lips. + +"If you imagine that I should venture to attack, or even presume to +criticise, a matter which the Most Honourable the Minister of +Agriculture has in his wisdom approved and ratified, you must have a +strange conception of my fitness for my functions. As regards +yourself, Reverend Sir, I regret that you appear to forget that the +chief duty of your sacred office is to inculcate to your flock +unquestioning submission to Governmental decrees." + +"Is that your Excellency's last word?" + +"It is my first, and my last, word." + +Don Silverio bowed low. + +"You may regret it, sir," he said simply, and left the writing-table +and crossed the room. But as he approached the door the Prefect, +still standing, said, "Wait!" + +Gallo opened two or three drawers in his table, searched for some +papers, looked over them, leaving the priest always standing between +him and the door. Don Silverio was erect; his tall frail form had a +great majesty in it; his pallid features were stern. + +"Return a moment," said Gallo. + +"I can hear your Excellency where I am," replied Don Silverio, and +did not stir. + +"I have here reports from certain of my agents," said Gallo, +fingering his various papers, "that there is and has been for some +time a subversive movement amongst the sparse population of the +Valdedera." + +Don Silverio did not speak or stir. + +"It is an agrarian agitation," continued Gallo, "limited to its area, +with little probability of spreading, but it exists; there are +meetings by night, both open-air and secret meetings; the latter take +place now in one farmhouse, now in another. The leader of this +noxious and unlawful movement is one Adone Alba. He is of your +parish." + +He lifted his eyelids and flashed a quick, searching glance at the +priest. + +"He is of my parish," repeated Don Silverio, with no visible emotion. + +"You know of this agitation?" + +"If I did, sir, I should not say so. But I am not in the confidence +of Adone Alba." + +"Of course I do not ask you to reveal the secrets of the +confessional, but --" + +"Neither in the confessional nor out of it have I heard anything +whatever from him concerning any such matter as that of which you +speak." + +"He is a young man?" + +"Yes." + +"And the owner of the land known as the Terra Vergine?" + +"Yes." + +"And his land is comprised in that which will be taken by the +projected works?" + +"Yes." + +"Are you sure that he has not sent you here?" + +"My parishoners are not in the habit of 'sending' me anywhere. You +reverse our respective positions." + +"Humility is not one of your ecclesiastical virtues, Most Reverend." + +"It may be so." + +Gallo thrust his papers back into their drawer and locked it with a +sharp click. + +"You saw the Syndic of San Beda?" + +"I did." + +"Much what you say. Official language is always limited and learned +by rote." + +Gallo would willingly have thrown his bronze inkstand at the insolent +ecclesiastic; his temper was naturally choleric, though years of +sycophancy and State service had taught him to control it. + +"Well, Reverend Sir!" he said, with ill-concealed irritation, "this +conversation is, I see, useless. You protect and screen your people. +Perhaps I cannot blame you for that, but you will allow me to remind +you that it is my duty to see that the order and peace of this +district are not in any manner disturbed; and that any parish priest +if he fomented dissatisfaction or countenanced agitation in his +district, would be much more severely dealt with by me than any +civilian would be in the same circumstances. We tolerate and respect +the Church so long as she remains strictly within her own sphere, but +so long only." + +"We are all perfectly well aware of the conditions attached to the +_placet_ and the _exequatur_ at all times, and we are all conscious +that even the limited privileges of civilians are denied to us!" +replied Don Silverio. "I have the honour to wish your Excellency good +morning." + +He closed the door behind him. + +"Damnation!" said Giovacchino Gallo; "that is a strong man! Is Mother +Church blind that she lets such an one rust and rot in the miserable +parish of Ruscino?" + +When Don Silverio rejoined the Vicar of Sant Anselmo the latter asked +him anxiously how his errand had sped. + +"It was a waste of breath and words," he answered. "I might have +known that it would be so with any Government official." + +"But you might have put a spoke in Count Corradini's wheel. If you +had told Gallo that the other is trafficking --" + +"Why should I betray a man who received me in all good faith? And +what good would it have accomplished if I had done so?" + +And more weary than ever in mind and body he returned to Ruscino. + +As he had left the Prefect's presence that eminent person had rung +for his secretary. + +"Brandone, send me Sarelli." + +In a few moments Sarelli had appeared; he was the usher of the +Prefecture by appointment; by taste and in addition he was its chief +spy. He was a native of the city, and a person of considerable acumen +and excellent memory; he never needed to make memoranda -- there is +nothing so dangerous to an official as written notes. +"Sarelli, what are the reports concerning the vicar of Ruscino?" + +Sarelli stood respectfully at attention; he had been a +non-commissioned officer of artillery; and answered in rapid but +clear tones -- + +"Great ability -- great eloquence -- disliked by superiors; formerly +great preacher in Rome; supposed to be at Ruscino as castigation; +learned -- benevolent -- correct." + +"Humph!" said Gallo, disappointed. "Not likely then to cause trouble +or disorder? -- to necessitate painful measures?" + +Sarelli rapidly took his cue. + +"Hitherto, your Excellency, uniformly correct; except in one instance +--" + +"That instance?" + +"Your Excellency will have heard of Ulisse Ferrero, a great robber of +the lower Abruzzo Citeriore Primo?" + +"I have: continue." + +"Ulisse Ferrero was outlawed; his band had been killed or captured, +every one; he had lost his right arm; he hid for many years in the +lower woods of Abruzzo; he came down at night to the farmhouses, the +people gave him food and drink, and aided him --" + +"Their criminal habit always: continue." + +"Sometimes in one district, sometimes in another, he was often in the +_macchia_ of the Valdedera. The people of the district, and +especially of Ruscino, protected him. They thought him a saint, +because once when at the head of his band, which was then very +strong, he had come into Ruscino and done them no harm, but only +eaten and drunk, and left a handful of silver pieces to pay for what +he and his men had taken. So they protected him now, and oftentimes +for more than a year he came out of the _macchia_, and the villagers +gave him all they could, and he went up and down Ruscino as if he +were a king; and this lasted for several seasons, and, as we learned +afterwards, Don Silverio Frascara had cognisance of this fact, but +did nothing. When Ulisse Ferrero was at last captured (it is nine +years ago come November, and it was not in Ruscino but in the woods +above), and brought to trial, many witnesses were summoned, and +amongst them this Don Silverio; and the judge said to him, 'You had +knowledge that this man came oftentimes into you parish?' and Don +Silverio answered, 'I had.' 'You knew that he was an outlaw, in +rupture with justice?' 'I did,' he answered. Then the judge struck +his fist with anger on his desk. 'And you a priest, a guardian of +order, did not denounce him to the authorities?' Then Don Silverio, +your Excellency, quite quietly, but with a smile (I was there close +to him), had the audacity to answer the judge. 'I am a priest,' he +said 'and I study my breviary, but do not find in it any command +which authorises me to betray my fellow creatures.' That made a +terrible stir in the tribunal, you Excellency. They talked of +committing him to gaol for contempt of court and for collusion with +the outlaw. But it took place at San Beda, where they are all +_papalini_, as your Excellency knows, and nothing was done, sir." + +"That reply is verily like this priest!" thought Giovacchino Gallo. +"A man of ability, of intellect, of incorruptible temper, but a man +as like as not to encourage and excuse sedition." + +Aloud he said, "You may go, Sarelli. Good morning." + +"May I be allowed a word, sir?" + +"Speak." + +"May it not well be, sir, that Don Silverio's organisation or +suggestion is underneath this insurrectionary movement of the young +men in the Valdedera?" + +"It is possible; yes. See to it." + +"Your servant, sir." + +Sarelli withdrew, elated. He loved tracking, like a bloodhound, for +the sheer pleasure of the "cold foot chase." The official views both +layman and priest with contempt and aversion; both are equally his +prey, both equally his profit: he lives by them and on them, as the +galleruca does on the elm-tree, whose foliage it devours, but he +despises them because they are not officials, as the galleruca +doubtless, if it can think, despises the elm. + + + + +XVI + +Of course his absence could not be hidden from any in his parish. The +mere presence of the rector of an adjacent parish, who had taken his +duties, sufficed to reveal it. For so many years he had never stirred +out of Ruscino in winter cold or summer heat, that none of his people +could satisfactorily account to themselves for his now frequent +journeys. The more sagacious supposed that he was trying to get the +project for the river undone; but they did not all have so much faith +in him. Many had always been vaguely suspicious of him; he was so +wholly beyond their comprehension. They asked Adone what he knew, or, +if he knew nothing, what he thought. Adone put them aside with an +impatient, imperious gesture. "But you knew when he went to Rome?" +they persisted. Adone swung himself loose from them with a movement +of anger. It hurt him to speak of the master he had renounced, of the +friend he had forsaken. His conscience shrank from any distrust of +Don Silverio; yet his old faith was no more alive. He was going +rapidly down a steep descent, and in that downward rush he lost all +his higher instincts; he was becoming insensible to everything except +the thirst for action, for vengeance. + +To the man who lives in a natural state away from cities it appears +only virile and just to defend himself, to avenge himself, with the +weapons which nature and art have given him; he feels no satisfaction +in creeping and crawling through labyrinths of the law, and he cannot +see why he, the wronged, should be forced to spend, and wait, and +humbly pray, while the wrongdoer may go, in the end, unchastised. +Such a tribunal as St. Louis held under an oak-tree, or the Emperor +Akbar in a mango grove, would be intelligible to him; but the +procedure, the embarrassments, the sophistries, the whole machinery +of modern law are abhorrent to him. + +He yearned to be the Tell, the Massaniello, the Andreas Hofer, of his +province; but the apathy and supineness and timidity of his neighbors +tied his hands. He knew that they were not made of the stuff with +which a leader could hope to conquer. All his fiery appeals fell like +shooting stars, brilliant but useless; all his vehement excitations +did little more than scare the peasants whom he sought to rouse. A +few bold spirits like his own seconded his efforts and aided his +propaganda; but these were not numerous enough to leaven the inert +mass. + +His plan was primitive and simple: it was to oppose by continual +resistance every attempt which should be made to begin the projected +works upon the river; to destroy at night all which should be done in +the day, and so harass and intimidate the workmen who should be sent +there that they should, in fear and fatigue, give up their labours. +They would certainly be foreign workmen; that is, workmen from +another province; probably from the Puglie. It was said that three +hundred of them were coming that week from the Terra d'Otranto to +work above Ruscino. He reckoned that he and those he led would have +the advantage of local acquaintance with the land and water, and +could easily, having their own homes as base, carry on a guerrilla +warfare for any length of time. No doubt, he knew, the authorities +would send troops to the support of the labours, but he believed that +when the resolve of the district to oppose at all hazards any +interference with the Edera should be made clear, the Government +would not provoke an insurrection for the sake of favouring a foreign +syndicate. So far as he reasoned at all, he reasoned thus. + +But he forgot, or rather he did not know, that the lives of its +people, whether soldiers or civilians, matter very little to any +Government, and that its own vanity, which it calls dignity, and the +financial interests of its supporters, matter greatly; where the +Executive has been defied there it is inexorable and unscrupulous. + +Both up and down the river there was but one feeling of bitter rage +against the impending ruin of the water; there was but one piteous +cry of helpless desperation. But to weld this, which was mere +emotion, into that sterner passion of which resistance and revolt are +made, was a task beyond his powers. + +"No on will care for us; we are too feeble, we are too small," they +urged; they were willing to do anything were they sure it would +succeed, but -- + +"But who can be sure of anything under heaven?" replied Adone. "You +are never sure of your crops until the very last day they are reaped +and carried; yet you sow." + +Yes, they granted that; but sowing grain was a safe, familiar +labour; the idea of sowing lead and death alarmed them. Still there +were some, most of them those who were dwellers on the river, or +owners of land abutting on it, who were of more fiery temper, and +these thought as Adone thought, that never had a rural people juster +cause for rebellion; and these gathered around him in those meetings +by night of which information had reached the Prefecture, for there +are spies in every province. + +Adone had changed greatly; he had grown thin and almost gaunt; he had +lost his beautiful aspect of adolescence; his eyes had no longer +their clear and happy light; they were keen and fierce, and looked +out defiantly from under his level brows. + +He worked on his own land usually, by day, to stave off suspicion; +but by night he scoured the country up and down the stream wherever +he believed he could find proselytes or arms. He had no settled plan +of action; he had no defined project; his only idea was to resist, to +resist, to resist. Under a leader he would have been an invaluable +auxiliary, but he had not the knowledge whatever of stratagem, or +manoeuvre, or any of the manifold complications of guerrilla warfare. +His calm and dreamy life had not prepared him to be all at once a man +of action: action was alien alike to his temperament and to his +habits. All his heart, his blood, his imagination, were on fire; but +behind them there was not that genius of conception and command which +alone makes the successful chief of a popular cause. + +His mother said nothing to disturb or deter him on his course, but in +herself she was sorely afraid. She kept her lips shut because she +would have thought it unworthy to discourage him, and she could not +believe in his success, try how she might to compel her faith to +await miracles. + +Little Nerina alone gave him that unquestioning, blind belief which +is so dear to the soul of man. Nerina was convinced that at his call +the whole of the Valdedera would rise full-armed, and that no hostile +power on earth would dare to touch the water. To her any miracle +seemed possible. Whatever he ordered, she did. She had neither fear +nor hesitation. She would slip out of her room unheard, and speed +over the dark country on moonless nights on his errands; she would +seek for weapons and bring them in and distribute them; she would +take his messages to those on whom he could rely, and rouse to his +cause the hesitating and half-hearted by repetition of his words. Her +whole young life had caught fire at his; and her passionate loyalty +accepted without comprehending all he enjoined her or told to her. + +The danger which she ran and the concealment of which she was guilty, +never disturbed her for an instant. What Adone ordained was her law. +Had he not taken pity on her in her misery that day by the river? Was +she not to do anything and everything to serve him and save the +river? This was her sole creed; but it sufficed to fill her still +childish soul. If, with it, there were mingled a more intense and +more personal sentiment, she was unconscious of, and he indifferent +to, it. He sent her to do his bidding as he would have sent a boy, +because he recognised in her that zeal and fervent fidelity to a +trust of which he was not sure in others. + +Although she was a slender brown thing, like a nightingale, she was +strong, elastic, untiring; nothing seemed to fatigue her; she always +looked as fresh as the dew, as vigorous as a young cherry-tree. Her +big hazel eyes danced under their long lashes, and her pretty mouth +was like one of the four-season roses which bloomed on the house +wall. She was not thought much to look at in a province where the +fine Roman type is blended with the Venetian colouring in the beauty +of its women; but she had a charm and a grace of her own; wild and +rustic, like that of a spray of grass or a harvest mouse swinging on +a stalk of wheat. + +She was so lithe, so swift, so agile; so strong without effort, so +buoyant and content, that she carried with her the sense of her own +perfect health and happiness, as the east wind blowing up the Edera +water bore with it the scent of the sea. + +But of any physical charm in her Adone saw nothing. A great rage +filled his soul, and a black cloud seemed to float between him and +all else which was not the wrong done to him and his and the water of +Edera. Until he should have lifted off the land and the stream this +coming curse which threatened them, life held nothing for him which +could tempt or touch him. + +He used the girl for his own purposes and did not spare her; but +those purposes were only those of his self-imposed mission, and of +all which was youthful, alluring, feminine, in her he saw nothing: +she was to him no more than a lithe, swift, hardy filly would have +been which he should have ridden over the moors and pastures to its +death in pursuit of his end. He who had been always so tender of +heart had grown cruel; he would have flung corpse upon corpse into +the water if by such holocaust he could have reached his purpose. +What had drawn him to Nernia had been that flash of ferocity which he +had seen in her; that readiness to go to the bitter end in the sweet +right of vengeance; instincts which formed so singular a contrast to +the childish gaiety and the sunny goodwill of her normal disposition. + +He knew that nothing which could have been done to her would have +made her reveal any confidence placed in her. That she was often out +all the hours of the night on errands to the widely scattered +dwellings of the peasants did not prevent her coming at dawn into the +cattle stalls to feed and tend the beasts. + +And she was so dexterous, so sure, so silent; even the sharp eyes of +old Gianna never detected her nocturnal absence, even the shrewd +observation of Clelia Alba never detected any trace of fatigue in her +or any negligence in her tasks. She was always there when they needed +her, did all that she was used to do, was obedient to every word or +sign; they did not know that as she carried the water pails, or cut +the grass, or swept the bricks, or washed the linen, her heart sung +proudly within her a joyous song because she shared a secret -- a +perilous secret -- of which the elder woman knew nothing. Any night a +stray shot might strike her as she ran over the moors, or through the +heather; any night a false step might pitch her headlong into a +ravine or a pool; any night, returning through the shallows of the +ford, she might miss her footing and fall into one of the bottomless +holes that the river hid in its depths: but the danger of it only +endeared her errand the more to her; made her the prouder that she +was chosen for it. + +"I fear nothing," she said to him truthfully; "I fear only that you +should not be content." + +And as signal fires run from point to point, or hill to hill, so she +ran from one farmhouse to another, bearing the messages which +organised those gatherings whereof Giavacchino Gallo had the +knowledge. The men she summoned and spoke with were rough peasants, +for the most part, rude as the untanned skins they wore at their +work, but not one of them ever said a gross word or gave a lewd +glance to the child. + +She was _la bimba_ to them all; a brave little soul and honest; they +respected her as if she were one of their own children, or one of +their own sisters, and Nernia coming through the starlight, with an +old musket slung at her back, which Adone had taught her to use, and +her small, bronzed feet leaping over the ground like a young goat's, +was a figure which soon became familiar and welcome to the people. +She seemed to them like a harbinger of hope; she had few words, but +those words reverberated with courage and energy; she moved the +supine, she braced the timid; she brought the wavering firmness and +the nervous strength; she said what Adone had taught her to say, but +she put into it all her own immense faith in him, all her own +innocent and undoubting certainty that his cause was just and would +be blessed by heaven. + +The Edera water belonged to them. Would they let it be turned away +from their lands and given to strangers? + +As a little spaniel or beagle threshes a covert, obedient to his +master's will and working only to please him, so she scoured the +country-side and drove in, by persuasion, or appeal, or threat, all +those who would lend ear to her, to the midnight meetings on the +moors, or in the homesteads, where Adone harangued them, with +eloquence ever varied, on a theme which was never stale, because it +appealed at once to the hearts and to the interests of his hearers. + +But many of them, though fascinated, remained afraid. + +"When all is said, what can we do?" they muttered. "Authority has a +long arm." + +The people of the district talked under their breath of nothing else +than of this resistance which was being preached as a holy war by the +youth of Terra Vergine. They were secret and silent, made prudent by +many generations which had suffered from harsh measures and brutal +reprisals, but the league he proclaimed fascinated and possessed +them. Conspiracy has a seduction subtle and irresistible as gambling +for those who have once become its servants. It is potent as wine, +and colours the brain which it inflames. To these lowly, solitary +men, who knew nothing beyond their own fields and coppices and +wastelands, its excitement came like a magic philter to change the +monotony of their days. They were most of them wholly unlettered; +knew not their A B C; had only learned the law of the seasons, and +the earth, and the trees which grew, and the beasts which grazed; but +they had imagination; they had the blood of ancient races; they were +neither dolts not boors, though Adone in his wrath called them so. +They were fascinated by the call to rise and save their river. A +feeling, more local than patriotism, but more noble than interest, +moved them to share in his passionate hatred of the intruders, and to +hearken to his appeals to them to arm and rise as one man. + +But, on the other hand, long years of servitude and hardship had made +them timid as gallant dogs are made so by fasting or the whip. "What +are we?" some of them said to him. "We are no more than the +earthworms in the soil." For there is a pathetic humility in these +descendants of the ancient rulers of the world; it is a humility born +of hope deferred, of the sense of every change of masters, of +knowledge that the sun rises and sets upon their toil, as it did on +that of their fathers, as it will do on that of their children, and +will never see it lessened, nor see the fruits thereof given to +themselves or to their sons. It is a humility which is never ignoble, +but is infinitely, because hopelessly, sad. + +The river was their own, surely, yes; but, like so much else that was +their own, the State claimed it. + +"What can be more yours than the son you beget, the fruit of your +loins, the child for whom you have laboured through long years?" said +an old man to him once. "Yet the State, as soon as he is of use to +you, the State takes him, makes a beast of burden of him, kills his +youth and his manhood; sends him without a word to you, to be maimed +and slaughtered in Africa, his very place of death unknown to you; +his body -- the body you begat and which his mother bore in her womb +and nourished and cherished -- is devoured by the beasts of the +desert and the birds of the air. They take all; why shall they not +take the river also?" + +The glowing faith of Adone was flung, as the sunlit salt spray of the +ocean is cast on a cliff of basalt, against the barrier of that weary +and prostrate despair which the State dares to tell the poor is their +duty and their portion upon earth. + +But the younger men listened to him more readily, being less bent and +broken by long labour, and poor food, and many years of unanswered +prayers. Of these some had served their time in regiments, and aided +him to give some knowledge of drill and of the use of weapons to +those who agreed with him to dispute by force the claim of strangers +to the Edera water. + +These gatherings took place on waste lands or bare heaths, or in +clearings or hollows in the woods, and the tramp of feet and click of +weapons scared the affrighted fox and the astounded badger. They +dared not fire lest the sound should betray their whereabouts to some +unfriendly ear; but they went through all other military exercises as +far as it lay in their power to do so. + +The extreme loneliness of the Edera valley was in their favour. Once +in half a year, perhaps, half a troop of carabineers might ride +through the district, but this was only if there had been any notable +assassination or robbery; and of police there was none nearer than +the town of San Beda. + +It was to arrange these nightly exercises, and summon to or warn off +men from them, as might be expedient, that Nernia was usually sent +upon her nocturnal errands. One night when she had been bidden by +Adone to go to a certain hamlet in the woods to the north, the child, +as she was about to slip back the great steel bolts which fastened +the house door, saw a light upon the stairs which she had just +descended, and turning round, her hand upon the lock, saw Clelia +Alba. + +"Why are you out of your bed at this hour?" said the elder woman. Her +face was stern and dark. + +Nernia did not answer; her gay courage forsook her; she trembled. + +"Why?" asked Adone's mother. + +"I was going out," answered the child. Her voice shook. She was +clothed as usual in the daytime, but she had over her head a woollen +wrapper. She had not her musket, for she kept it in the hen-house, +and was accustomed to take it as she passed that place. + +"Going out! At the fourth hour of the night? Is that an answer for a +decent maiden?" + +Nernia was silent. + +"Go back to your room, and I will lock you in it; in the morning you +will account to me." + +Nernia recovered her self-possession, though she trembled still. + +"Pardon me, Madama Clelia," she said humbly, "I must go out." + +She did not look ashamed, and her small brown face had a resolute +expression. + +A great anguish seized and wrung the heart of Clelia Alba. She knew +that Adone was not in the house, Did he, the soul of purity and +honour, seduce a girl who dwelt under his own roof? -- carry on an +intrigue with a little beggar, to his own shame and the outrage of +his mother? Was this the true cause of his frequent absence, his many +nights abroad? Her dark brows contracted, her black eyes blazed. + +"Go to your room, wanton!" she said in tones of thunder. "In the +morning you will answer to me." + +But Nernia, who had before this slipped the bolt aside, and who +always kept her grasp upon the great key in the lock, suddenly turned +it, pushed the oak door open, and before the elder woman was +conscious of what she was doing, had dashed out into the air, and +slammed the door behind her. The rush of wind had blown out the lamp +in Clelia Alba's hand. + +When, after fumbling vainly for some minutes to find the door, and +bruising her hands against the wall and oaken chair, she at last +found it and thrust it open, the night without was moonless and +starless and stormy, and in its unillumined blackness she saw no +trace of the little girl. She went out on to the doorstep and +listened, but there was no sound. The wind was high; the perfume of +the stocks and wallflowers was strong; far away the sound of the +river rushing through the sedges was audible in the intense +stillness, an owl hooted, a nightjar sent forth its sweet, strange, +sighing note. Of Nernia there was no trace. Clelia Alba came within +and closed the door, and locked and bolted it. + +The old woman Gianna had come downstairs with a lighted rush candle +in her hand; she was scared and afraid. + +"What is it? What is it, madama?" + +Clelia Alba dropped down on the chair by the door. + +"It is -- it is -- that the beggar's spawn you would have me shelter +is the leman of my son; and he has dishonoured his house and mine." + +Gianna shook her grey head in solemn denial and disbelief. + +"Sior'a, Clelia, do not say such words or think such thoughts of your +son or of the child. She is as harmless as any flower that blows out +there in the garden, and he is a noble youth, though now, by the +wickedness of me, distraught and off his head. What makes you revile +them so?" + +"They are both out this night. Is not that enough?" + +Gianna was distressed; from her chamber above she had heard the words +which had passed between Adone's mother and Nernia, and knew the girl +was gone. + +"I would condemn others, but not Adone and the child," she returned. +"For sure they do not do right to have secrets from you, but they are +not such secrets as you think." + +"Enough!" said Clelia Alba sternly. "The morning will show who is +right. It suffices for me that the son of Valeria Albo, my son, has +forgot his duty to his mother and his respect for himself." + +Clelia Alba rose with effort from her chair, relighted her lamp at +the old woman's rush candle, and went slowly and heavily up the +stairs. She felt stunned and outraged. Her son! -- hers! -- to lie +out of nights with a little nameless vagrant! + +Gianna caught hold of her skirt. "Madama -- listen. I saw him born +that day by the Edera water, and I have seen him every day of his +life since till now. He would never do a base thing. Do not you, his +mother, disgrace him by thinking of it for an hour. This thing is +odd, is ugly, is strange, but wait to judge it --" + +Clelia Alba released her skirt from her old servant's grasp. + +"You mean well, but you are crazed. Get you gone." + +Gianna let go her hold and crept submissively down the stair. She set +her rushlight on the floor and sat down in the chair beside the door, +and told her beads with shaking fingers. One or other of them, she +thought, might come home either soon or late, for she did not believe +that any amorous intimacy was the reason that they were both out -- +God knew where -- in this windy, pitch-dark night. + +"But he does wrong, he does wrong," she thought. "He sends the child +on his errands perhaps, but he should remember a girl is like a +peach, you cannot handle it ever so gently but its bloom goes; and he +leaves us alone, two old women here, and we might have our throats +cut before we should be able to wake old Ettore in the stable." + +The night seemed long to her in the lone stone entrance, with the +owls hooting round the house, and the winds blowing loud and tearing +the tiles from the roof. Above, in her chamber, Adone's mother walked +to and fro all night sleepless. + + + + + +XVII + +Gianna before it was dawn went out in the hope that she might meet +Adone on his return, and be able to speak to him before he could see +his mother. She was also in extreme anxiety for Nerina, of whom she +had grown fond. She did not think the little girl would dare return +after the words of Clelia Alba. She knew the child was courageous, +but timid, like an otter or a swallow. + +She went to the edge of the river and waited; he must cross it to +come home; but whether he would cross higher up or lower down she +could not tell. There was the faint light which preceded the rising +of the sun. A great peace, a great freshness, were on the water and +the land. + +"Oh Lord, what fools we are!" thought the old woman. "The earth makes +itself anew for us with every dawn, and our own snarling, and +fretting, and mourning cloud it all over for us, and we only see our +own silly souls!" + +Soon, before the sun was rising, Adone came in sight, passing with +firm, accustomed step across the undressed trunks of trees which were +here thrown across the river to make a passage lower down the stream +than the bridge of Ruscino. He was walking with spirit and ease, his +head was erect, his belt was filled with arms, his eyes had sternness +and command in them; he came from one of the military drillings in +the woods, and had been content with it. Seeing old Gianna waiting +there he understood that something must have happened, and his first +fears were for his mother. + +"Is she ill?" he cried, as he reached the bank of his own land. + +"No; she is well in health," answered Gianna, "but she is sorely +grieved and deeply angered; she found the girl Nerina going out at +the dead of night." + +Adone changed colour. He was silent. Gianna came close to him. + +"The child and you both out all night, heaven knows where! What but +one thing can your mother think?" + +"If she thinks but one thing, that thing is false." + +"Maybe. I believe so myself, but, Sior' Clelia will not. Why do you +send the child out at such hours?" + +"What did she say to my mother?" + +"Nothing; only that she had to go." + +"Faithful little soul!" + +"Aye! And it is when little maids are faithful like this that men +ruin them. I do not want to speak without respect to you, Adone, for +I have eaten your bread and been sheltered by your roof through many +a year; but for whatever end you send that child out of nights, you +do a bad thing, a cruel thing, a thing unworthy of your stock; and if +I know Clelia Alba----and who should know her if not I?-- she will +never let Nerina enter her house again." + +Adone's face grew dark. + +"The house is mine. Nerina shall not be turned out of it." + +"Perhaps it is yours; but it is your mother's too, and you will +scarce turn out your mother for the sake of a little beggar-girl?" + +Adone was silent; he saw the dilemma; he knew his mother's nature; he +inherited it. + +"Go you," he said at last; "go you and tell her that the child went +out on my errands, indeed, but I have not seen her; there is no +collusion with her, and she is not and never will be _dama_ of mine." + +"I will take her no such message, for she would not listen. Go you; +say what you choose; perhaps she will credit you, perhaps she will +not. Anyhow, you are warned. As for me, I will go and search for +Nerina." + +"Do you mean she has not returned?" + +"Certainly she has not. She will no more dare to return than a kicked +dog. You forget she is a young thing, a creature of nothing; she +thinks herself no more than a pebble or a twig. Besides, your mother +called her a wanton. That is a word not soon washed out. She is +humble as a blade of grass, but she will resent that. You have made +much trouble with your rebellious work. You have done ill -- ill -- +ill!" + +Adone submitted mutely to the upbraiding; he knew he had done +selfishly, wrongfully, brutally, that which had seemed well to +himself with no consideration of others. + +"Get you gone and search for the child," he said at last. "I will go +myself to my mother." + +"It is the least you can do. But you must not forget the cattle. +Nerina is not there to see to them." + +She pushed past him and went on to the footbridge; but midway across +it she turned and called to him: "I lit the fire, and the coffee is +on it. Where am I to look for the child? In the heather? in the +woods? up in Ruscino? down in the lower valley? or may be at the +presbytery?" + +"Don Silverio is absent," Adone called back to her; and he passed on +under the olive-trees towards his home. Gianna paused on the bridge +and watched him till he was out of sight; then she went back herself +by another path which led to the stables. A thought had struck her: +Nerina was too devoted to the cattle to have let them suffer; +possible she was even now attending to them in their stalls. + +"She is a faithful little thing as he said!" the old servant +muttered. "Yes; and such as she are born to labour and to suffer, and +to eat the bread of bitterness." + +"Where is she, Pierino?" she said to the old white dog; he was lying +on the grass; if the girl were lost, she thought, Pierino would be +away somewhere looking for her. + +Gianna's heart was hard against Adone; in a dim way she understood +the hopes and the schemes which occupied him, but she could not +forgive him for sacrificing to them his mother and this friendless +child. It was so like a man, she said to herself, to tear along on +what he thought a road to glory, and never heed what he trampled down +as he went -- never heed any more than the mower heeds the daisies. + +In the cattle stalls she found the oxen and the cows already watered, +brushed, and content, with their pile of fresh grass beside them; +there was no sound in the stables but of their munching and +breathing, and now and then the rattle of the chains which linked +them to their mangers. + +"Maybe she is amongst the hay," thought Gianna, and painfully she +climbed the wide rungs of the ladder which led to the hay loft. +There, sure enough, was Nerina, sound asleep upon the fodder. She +looked very small, very young, very innocent. + +The old woman thought of the first day that she had seen the child +asleep on the stone bench by the porch; and her eyes grew dim. + +"Who knows where you will rest to-morrow?" she thought; and she went +backwards down the ladder noiselessly so as not to awaken a sleeper, +whose awaking might be so sorrowful. + +Gianna went back to the house and busied herself with her usual +tasks; she could hear the voices of Adone and Clelia Alba in the +chamber above; they sounded in altercation, but their words she could +not hear. + +It was at dawn that same day that Don Silverio returned from his +interviews with Count Corradini and Senatore Gallo. When he reached +Ruscino the little rector of the village in the woods had already +celebrated mass. Don Silverio cleansed himself from the dust of +travel, entered his church for his orisons, then broke his fast with +bread and a plate of lentils, and whilst the day was still young took +the long familiar way to the Terra Vergine. Whatever the interview +might cost in pain and estrangement he felt that he dared not lose an +hour in informing Adone of what was so dangerously known at the +Prefecture. + +"He will not kill me," he thought; "and if he did, it would not +matter much;-- except for you, my poor little man," he added to his +dog Signorino, who was running gleefully in his shadow. Gianna saw +him approaching as she looked from the kitchen window, and cried her +thanks to the saints with passionate gratitude. Then she went out and +met him. + +"Praise be to the Madonna that you have come back, reverendissimo!" +she cried. "There are sore trouble and disputes under our roof." + +"I grieve to hear that," he answered; and thought, "I fear I have +lost my power to cast oil on the troubled waters." + +He entered the great vaulted kitchen and sat down, for he was +physically weary, having walked twenty miles in the past night. + +"What you feel at liberty to tell me, let me hear," he said to the +old servant. + +Gianna told him in her picturesque, warmly-coloured phrase what had +passed between Sior' Clelia and the little girl in the night; and +what she had herself said to Adone at dawn; and how Nerina was lying +asleep in the hay-loft, being afraid, doubtless, to come up to the +house. + +Don Silverio listened with pain and indignation. + +"What is he about to risk a female child on such errands? And why is +his mother in such vehement haste to say cruel words and think unjust +and untrue things?" + +"They are unjust and untrue, sir, are they not?" said Gianna. "But it +looked ill, you see; a little creature going out in the middle of the +night, and to be sure she was but a vagrant when she came to us." + +"And now -- how does the matter stand? Has Adone convinced his mother +of the girl's innocence?" + +"Whew! That I cannot say, sir. They are upstairs; and their voices +were loud an hour ago. Now they are still. I had a mind to go up, but +I am afraid." + +"Go up; and send Adone to me." + +"He is perhaps asleep, sir; he came across the water at dawn." + +"If so, wake him. I must speak to him without delay." + +Gianna went and came down quickly. + +"He is gone out to work in the fields, sir. Madama told me so. If he +does not work, the land will go out of cultivation, sir." + +"He may have gone to Nerina?" + +"I do not think so, sir. But I will go back to the stable and see." + +"And beg Sior' Clelia to come down to me." + +He was left alone a few minutes in the great old stone chamber, with +its smell of dried herbs hanging from its rafters and of maize leaves +baking in the oven. + +The land would go out of cultivation -- yes! -- and the acetylene +factories would take the place of the fragrant garden, the olive +orchards, the corn lands, the pastures. He did not wonder that Adone +was roused to fury; but what fury would avail aught? What pain, what +despair, what tears, would stay the desecration for an hour? The +hatchet would hew it all down, and the steam plough would pass over +it all, and then the stone and the mortar, the bricks and the iron, +the engines, and the wheels, and the cauldrons, would be enthroned on +the ruined soil: the gods of a soulless age. + +"Oh, the pity of it! The pity of it!" thought Don Silverio, as the +blue sky shone through the grated window and against the blue sky a +rose branch swung and a swallow circled. + +"Your servant, Reverendissimo," said the voice of Clelia Alba, and +Don Silverio rose from his seat. + +"My friend," he said to her, "I find you in trouble, and I fear that +I shall add to it. But tell me first, what is this tale of Nerina?" + +"It is but this, sir; if Nerina enter here, I go." + +"You cannot be serious!" + +"If you think so, look at me." + +He did look at her; at her severe aquiline features, at her heavy +eyelids drooping over eyes of implacable wrath, at her firm mouth and +jaw, cold as if cut in marble. She was not a woman to trifle or to +waver; perhaps she was one who having received offence would never +forgive. + +"But it is monstrous!" he exclaimed; "you cannot turn adrift a little +friendless girl -- you cannot leave your own house, your dead +husband's house -- neither is possible -- you rave!" + +"It is my son's house. He will harbour whom he will. But if the girl +pass the doorstep I go. I am not too old to labour for myself." + +"My good woman -- my dear friend -- it is incredible! I see what you +believe, but I cannot pardon you for believing it. Even were it what +you choose to think -- which is not possible -- surely your duty to a +motherless and destitute girl of her tender years should counsel more +benevolence?" + +The face of Clelia Alba grew chillier and harder still. + +"Sir, leave me to judge of my own duties as the mother of Adone, and +the keeper of this house. He has told me that he is master here. I do +not deny it. He is over age. He can bring her here if he chooses, but +I go." + +"But you must know the child cannot live here with a young man!" + +"Why not?" said Clelia Alba, and a cruel smile passed over her face. +"It seems to me more decent than lying out in the fields together +night after night." + +"Silence!" said Don Silverio in that tone which awed the boldest. "Of +what avail is your own virtue if it make you thus harsh, thus +unbelieving, thus ready to condemn?" + +"I claim no more virtue than any clean-living woman should possess; +but Valerio Alba would not have brought his leman into my presence, +neither shall his son do so." + +"In your present mood, words are wasted on you. Go to your chamber, +Sior' Clelia, and entreat Heaven to soften your heart. There is +sorrow enough in store for you without your creating misery out of +suspicion and unbelief. This house will not long be either yours or +Adone's." + +He left the kitchen and went out into the air; Clelia Alba was too +proud, too dogged, in her obstinancy to endeavour to detain him or to +ask him what he meant. + +"Where is Adone?" he asked of the old labourer Ettore, who was +carrying manure in a great skip upon his back. + +"He is down by the five apple-trees, sir," answered Ettore. + +The five apple-trees were beautiful old trees, gnarled, moss-grown, +hoary, but still bearing abundant blossom; they grew in a field which +was that year being trenched for young vines, a hard, back-breaking +labour; the trenches were being cut obliquely, so as not to disturb +the apple-trees or injure some fine fig-trees which grew there. Adone +was at work, stripped to his shirt and hidden in the delved earth to +his shoulders. + +He looked up from the trench and lifted his hat as he saw the priest +enter the field; then he resumed his labour. + +"Come out of your ditch and hearken to me. I will not weary you with +many words." + +Adone, moved by long habit of obedience and deference, leapt with his +agile feet on to the border of the trench and stood there, silent, +sullen, ready to repel reproof with insolence. + +"Is it worthy of you to ruin the name of a girl of sixteen by sending +her on midnight errands to your fellow-rebels?" + +Don Silverio spoke bluntly; he spoke only on suspicion, but his tone +was that of a direct charge. + +Adone did not doubt for a moment that he was in possession of facts. + +"Has the girl played us false?" he said moodily. + +"I have not seen the girl," replied Don Silvero. "But it is a base +thing to do, to use that child for errands of which she cannot know +either the danger or the illegality. You misuse one whose youth and +helplessness should have been her greatest protection." + +"I had no one else that I could trust." + +"Pour little soul! You could trust her, so you abused her trust! No: +I do not believe you are her lover. I do not believe you care for her +more than for the clod of earth you stand on. But to my thinking that +makes what you have done worse; colder, more cruel, more calculating. +Had you seduced her, you would at least feel that you owed her +something. She has been a mere little runner and slave to you -- no +more. Surely your knowledge that she depends on you ought to have +sufficed to make her sacred?" + +Adone looked on the ground. His face was red with the dull flush of +shame. He knew that he merited all these words and more. + +"I will provide temporarily for her; and you will send her out no +more upon these errands," continued Don Silverio. "Perhaps, with +time, your mother may soften to her; but I doubt it." + +"The house is mine," said Adone sullenly. "She shall not keep Nerina +out of it." + +"You certainly cannot turn your mother away from her own hearth," +replied Don Silverio with contempt. "I tell you I will take the girl +to some place in Ruscino where she will be safe for the present time. +But I came to say another thing to you as well as this. I have been +away three days. I have seen the Prefect, Senatore Gallo. He has +informed me that your intentions, your actions, your plans and +coadjutors are known to him, and that he is aware that you are +conspiring to organise resistance and riot." + +A great shock struck Adone as he heard; he felt as if an electric +charge had passed through him. He had believed his secret to be as +absolutely unknown as the graves of the lucomone under the ivy by the +riverside. + +"How could he know?" he stammered. "Who is the traitor?" + +"That matters little," said Don Silverio. "What matters much is, that +all you do and desire to do is written down at the Prefecture." + +Adone was sceptical. He laughed harshly. + +"If so, sir, why do they not arrest me? That would be easy enough. I +do not hide." + +"Have you not ofttimes seen a birdcatcher spread his net? Does he +seize the first bird which approaches it? He is not so unwise. He +waits until all the feathered innocents are in the meshes: then he +fills his sack. That is how the Government acts always. It gives its +enemies full rope to hang themselves. It is cold of blood, and slow, +and sure." + +"You say this to scare me, to make me desist." + +"I say it because it is the truth; and if you were not a boy, blind +with rage and unreason, you would long since have known that such +actions as yours, in rousing or trying to rouse the peasants of the +Valdedera, must come to the ear of the authorities. Do not mistake. +They let you alone as yet, not because they love you or fear you; but +because they are too cunning and too wise to touch the pear before it +is ripe." + +Adone was silent. He was convinced; and many evil thoughts were black +within his brain. His first quarrel with a mother he adored had +intensified all the desperate ferocity awake in him. + +"You are as blind as a mole," said Don Silverio, "but you have not +the skill of the mole in constructing its hidden galleries. You +scatter your secrets broadcast as you scatter grain over your +ploughed field. You think it is enough to choose a moonless night for +you and your companions-in-arms to be seen by no living creature! +Does the stoat, does the wild cat, make such a mistake as that? If +you make war on the State, study the ways of your foe. Realise that +it has as many eyes, as many ears, as many feet as the pagan god; +that its arm is as long as its craft, that it has behind it +unscrupulous force and unlimited gold, and the support of all those +who only want to pursue their making of wealth in ease and in peace. +Do you imagine you can meet and beat such antagonists with a few +rusty muskets, a few beardless boys, a poor little girl like Nerina?" + +Don Silverio's voice was curt, imperious, sardonic; his sentences cut +like whips; then after a moment of silence his tone changed to an +infinite softness and sweetness of pleading and persuasion. + +"My son, my dear son! cease to live in this dream of impossible +issues. Wake to the brutality of fact, to nakedness of truth. You +have to suffer a great wrong; but will you be consoled for it by the +knowledge that you have led to the slaughter men whom you have known +from your infancy? It can but end in one way -- your conflict with +the power of the State. You, and those who have listened to you, will +be shot down without mercy, or flung into prison, or driven to lead +the life of tracked beasts in the woods. There is no other possible +end to the rising which you are trying to bring about. If you have no +pity for your mother, have pity on your comrades, for the women who +bore them, for the women who love them." + +Adone quivered with breathless fury as he heard. All the blackness of +his soul gathered into a storm of rage, burst forth in shameful doubt +and insult. He set his teeth, and his voice hissed through them, +losing all its natural music. + +"Sir, your clients are men in high places; mine are my miserable +brethren. You take the side of the rich and powerful; I take that of +the poor and the robbed. Maybe your reverence has deemed it your duty +to tell the authorities that which you say they have learned?" + +A knife through his breast-bone would have given a kindlier wound to +his hearer. Amazement under such an outrage was stronger in Don +Silverio than any other feeling for the first moment. Adone -- Adone! +-- his scholar, his beloved, his disciple! -- spoke to him thus! Then +an overwhelming disgust and scorn swept over him, and was stronger +than his pain. He could have stricken the ungrateful youth to the +earth. The muscles of his right arm swelled and throbbed; but, with +an intense effort, he controlled the impulse to avenge his insulted +honour. Without a word, and with one glance of reproach and of +disdain, he turned away and went through the morning shadows under +the drooping apple boughs. + +Adone, with his teeth set hard and his eyes filled with savage fire, +sprang down into the trench and resumed his work. + +He was impenitent. + +"He is mad! He knows not what he says!" thought the man whom he had +insulted. But though he strove to excuse the outrage it was like a +poisoned blade in his flesh. + +Adone could suspect him! Adone could believe him to be an informer! + +Was this all the recompense for eighteen years of unwearying +affection, patience, and tuition? Though the whole world had +witnessed against him, he would have sworn that Adone Alba would have +been faithful to him. + +"He is mad," he thought. "His first great wrong turns his blood to +poison. He will come to me weeping to-morrow." + +But he knew that what Adone had said to him, however repented of, +however washed away with tears, was one of those injuries which may +be forgiven, but can never be forgotten, by any living man. It would +yawn like a pit between them for ever. + + + + + +XVIII + +To this apple-tree field there was a high hedge of luxuriant elder +and ash, myrtle and field-roses. Behind this hedge old Gianna was +waiting for him; the tears were running down her face. She took the +skirt of his coat between her hands. "Wait, your reverence, wait! The +child is in the cattle stable." + +Don Silverio looked down on her a few moments without comprehension. +Then he remembered. + +"Is she there indeed? Poor little soul! She must not go to the +house." + +"She does not dream of it, sir. Only she cannot understand why +Madonna Clelia's anger is so terrible. What can I do -- oh, Lord!" + +"Keep her where she is for the present. I am going home. I will speak +with some of the women in Ruscino, and find her some temporary +shelter." + +"She will go to none, sir. She says she must be where she can serve +Adone. If she be shut up, she will escape and run into the woods. +Three years ago she was a wild thing; she will turn wild again." + +"Like enough! But we must do what we can. I am going home. I will +come or send to you in a few hours." + +Gianna reluctantly let him go. As he crossed the river he looked down +on the bright water, here green as emeralds, there brown as peat, +eddying round the old stone piers of the bridge, and an infinite +sorrow was on him. + +As a forest fire sweeps away under its rolling smoke and waves of +flame millions of obscure and harmless creatures, so the baneful +fires of men's greed and speculations came from afar and laid low +these harmless lives with neither thought of them or pity. + +Later in the day he sent word to Gianna to bring Nernia to the +presbytery. They both came, obedient. The child looked tired and had +lost her bright colour; but she had a resolute look on her face. + +"My poor little girl," he said gently to her, "Madonna Clelia is +angered against you. We will hope her anger will pass ere long. +Meanwhile you must not go to the house. You would not make ill-blood +between a mother and her son?" + +"No," said Nernia. + +"I have found a home for awhile for you, with old Alaida Manzi; you +know her; she is a good creature. I am very sorry for you, my child; +but you did wrong to be absent at night; above all not to go back to +your chamber when Clelia Alba bade you to do so." + +Nernia's face darkened. "I did no harm." + +"I am sure you did not mean to do any; but you disobeyed Madonna +Clelia." + +Nernia was silent. + +"You are a young girl; you must not roam the country at night. It is +most perilous. Decent maidens and women are never abroad after +moonrise." + +Nernia said nothing. + +"You will promise me never to go out at night again?" + +"I cannot promise that, sir." + +"Why?" + +"If I be wanted, I shall go." + +"If Adone Alba bid you -- is that your meaning?" + +Nernia was silent. + +"Do you think that it is fitting for you to have secrets from me, +your confessor?" + +Nernia was silent; her rosy mouth was closed firmly. It was very +terrible to have to displease and disobey Don Silverio; but she would +not speak, not if she should burn in everlasting flames for ever. + +"Take her away. Take her to Alaida," he said wearily to Gianna. + +"She only obeys Adone, sir," said the old woman. "All I can say +counts as naught." + +"Adone will send her on no more midnight errands, unless he be brute +and fool both. Take her away. Look to her, you and Alaida." + +"I will do what I can, sir," said Gianna humbly, and pushed the girl +out into the village street before her. + +Don Silverio sat down at his deal writing-table and wrote in his +fine, clear calligraphy a few lines: "_In the name of my holy office +I forbid you to risk the life and good name of the maiden Nernia on +your unlawful errands_." + +Then he signed and sealed the sheet, and sent it by his sacristan to +Adone. + +He received no answer. + +The night which followed was one of the most bitter in its +meditations that he had ever spent; and he had spent many cruel and +sleepless nights ere then. + +That Adone could for one fleeting moment have harboured so vile a +thought filled him with nausea and amaze. Betray them! He! -- who +would willingly have given up such years of life as might remain to +him could he by such a sacrifice have saved their river and their +valley from destruction. There was nothing short of vice or crime +which he would not have done to save the Edera water from its fate. +But it was utterly impossible to do anything. Even men of eminence +had often brought all their forces of wealth and argument against +similar enterprises, and had failed in their opposition. What could a +few score of peasants, and one poor ecclesiastic, do against all the +omnipotence of Parliament, of millionaires, of secretaries of State, +of speculators, of promoters, tenacious and forcible and ravenous as +the octopus? + +In those lonely night hours when the moonbeams shone on his bed and +the little white dog nestled itself close to his shoulder, he was +tortured also by the sense that it was his duty to arrest Adone and +the men of the Valdedera in their mad course, even at the price of +such treachery to them as Adone had dared to attribute to him. But if +that were his duty it must be the first duty which consciously he had +left undone! + +If he could only stop them on their headlong folly by betraying them +they must rush on to their doom! + +He saw no light, no hope, no assistance anywhere. These lads would +not be able to save a single branch of the river water, nor a +sword-rush on its banks, nor a moorhen in its shallows, nor a cluster +of myosotis upon its banks, and they would ruin themselves. + +The golden glory of the planet Venus shone between the budding +vine-leaves at his casement. + +"Are you not tire?" he said to the shining orb. "Are you not tired of +watching the endless cruelties and insanities on earth?" + + + + + +XIX + +The people of Ruscino went early to their beds; the light of the +oil-wicks of the Presbytery was always the only light in the village +half an hour after dark. Nerina went uncomplainingly to hers in the +dark stone house within the walls where she had been told that it was +her lot to dwell. She did not break her fast; she drank great +draughts of water; then, with no word except a brief good-night, she +went to the sacking filled with leaves which the old woman Alaida +pointed out for her occupancy. + +"She is soon reconciled," thought the old crone. "They have trained +her well." + +Relieved of all anxiety, she herself lay down in the dark and slept. +The girl seemed a good, quiet, tame little thing, and said her +paternosters as she should do. But Nerina did not sleep. She was +stifled in this little close room with its one shuttered window. She +who was used to sleeping with the fresh fragrant air of the dark +fields blowing over her in her loft, felt the sour, stagnant +atmosphere take her like a hand by the throat. + +As soon as she heard by the heavy breathing of the aged woman that +she was sunk in the congested slumber of old age, the child got up +noiselessly -- she had not undressed -- and stole out of the chamber, +taking the door key from the nail on which Alaida had hung it. A +short stone stair led down to the entrance. No one else was sleeping +in the house; all was dark, and she had not even a match or a +tinder-box; but she felt her way to the outer door, unlocked it, as +she had been used to unlock the door at the Terra Vergine, and in +another moment ran down the steep and stone street. She laughed as +the wind from the river blew against her lips, and brought her the +fragrance of Adone's fields. + +"I shall be in time!" she thought, as she ran down a short cut which +led, in a breakneck descent, over the slope of what had once been the +glacis of the fortress, beneath the Rocca to the bridge. + +The usual spot for the assembly of the malcontents was a grassy +hollow surrounded on all sides with woods, and called the tomb of +Asdrubal, from a mound of masonry which bore that name, although it +was utterly improbable that Asdrubal, who had been slain a hundred +miles to the northeast on the Marecchia water, should have been +buried in the Valdedera at all. But the place and the name were well +known in the district to hundreds of peasants, who knew no more who +or what Asdrubal had been than they knew the names of the stars which +form the constellation of Perseus. + +Adone had summoned his friends to be there by nightfall, and he was +passing from the confines of his own lands on to those of the open +moors when the child saw him. He was dressed in his working clothes, +but he was fully armed: his gun on his shoulder, his great pistols in +his sash, his dagger in his stocking. They were ancient arms; but +they had served in matters of life and death, and would so serve +again. On the three-edged blade of the sixteenth-century poignard was +a blood-stain more than a century old which nothing would efface. + +"Nerina!" he cried as the girl stopped him, and was more distressed +than pleased to see her there; he had not thought of her. + +In the moonlight, under the silvery olive foliage her little sunburnt +face and figure took a softer and more feminine grace. But Adone had +not sight for it. For him she was but a sturdy little pony, who would +trot till she dropped. + +He was cruel as those who are possessed by one intense and absorbing +purpose always are: he was cruel to Nerina as Garibaldi, in the days +of Ravenna, was cruel to Anita. + +But through that intense egotism which sees in all the world only its +own cause, its own end, its own misery, there touched him for one +instant an unselfish pity for the child of whom he had made so +mercilessly his servant and his slave. + +"Poor little girl! I have been hard to you, I have been cruel and +unfair," he said, as a vague sense of her infinite devotion to his +cause moved him as a man may be moved by a dog's fidelity. + +"You have been good to me," said Nerina; and from the bottom of her +heart she thought so. "I came to see if you wanted me," she added +humbly. + +"No, no. They think ill of you for going my errands. Poor child, I +have done you harm enough. I will not do you more." + +"You have done me only good." + +"What! When my mother has turned you out of the house!" + +"It is her right." + +"Let it be so for a moment. You shall come back. You are with old +Alaida?" + +"Yes." + +"How can you be out to-night?" + +"She sleeps heavily, and the lock is not hard." + +"You are a brave child." + +"Is there nothing to do to-night?" + +"No, dear." + +"Where do you go?" + +"To meet the men at the tomb of Asdrubal." + +"Who summoned them?" + +"I myself. You must be sad and sorry, child, and it is my fault." + +She checked a sob in her throat. "I am not far away, and old Alaida +is kind. Let me go on some errand to-night?" + +"No, my dear, I cannot." + +He recalled the words of the message which he had received from Don +Silverio that day. He knew the justice of this message, he knew that +it only forbade what all humanity, hospitality, manhood, and +compassion forbade to him. One terrible passion had warped his +nature, closed his heart, and invaded his reason to the exclusion of +all other thoughts or instincts; but he was not yet so lost to shame +as, now that he knew what he had done, to send out a female creature +into peril to do his bidding. + +"Tell me, then, tell me," pleaded Nerina, "when will anything be +done?" + +"Whenever the foreign labourers come to work on the water we shall +drive them away." + +"But if they will not go?" + +"Child, the river is deep; we know its ways and its soundings; they +do not." + +Her great bright eyes flashed fire: an unholy joy laughed in them. + +"We will baptize them over again!" she said; and all her face laughed +and sparkled in the moonlight. There was fierce mountain blood in her +veins; it grew hot at the thought of slaughter like the juice of +grapes warmed in an August noon. + +He laughed slow, savagely. "Their blood will be on their own heads!" + +He meant to drive them out, swamp them in the stream, choke them in +the sand, hunt them in the heather; make every man of them rue the +day that ever they came thither to meddle with the Edera water. + +"Curse them! Their blood will be on their own heads!" he said between +his teeth. He was thinking of the strange men who it was said would +be at work on the land and the water before the moon, young now, +should be in her last quarter; men hired by the hundreds, +day-labourers of the Romagna and the Puglie, leased by contract, +marshalled under overseers, different in nothing from slaves who +groan under the white man's lash in Africa. + +"Let me come with you to-night," she pleaded again. "I will hide in +the bushes. The men shall not see me." + +"No, no," he said sternly. "Get you back to your rest at Ruscino. I +did wrong, I did basely to use your ignorance and abuse your +obedience. Get you gone, and listen to your priest, not to me." + +The child, ever obedient, vanished through the olive boughs. Adone +went onward northward to his tryst: his soul was dark as night; it +enraged him to have been forced by his conscience and his honour to +obey the command of Don Silverio. + +But she did not go over the bridge to Ruscino. She waited a little +while then followed on his track. Gianna was right. She was a wild +bird. She had been caught and tamed for a time, but she was always +wild. The life which they had given her had been precious and sweet +to her, and she had learned willingly all its ways; but at the bottom +of her heart the love of liberty, the love of movement, the love of +air and sky and freedom were stronger than all else. She was of an +adventurous temper also, and brave like all Abruzzese, and she longed +to see one of those moonlit midnight meetings of armed men to which +she had escaped from Alaida's keeping, she could not have forced +herself to go back out of this clear, cool, radiant night into the +little, close, dark sleeping-chamber. No, not if Don Silverio himself +had stood in her path with the cross raised. She was like a year-old +lioness who smells blood. + +She knew the way to the tomb of Asdrubal, even in the darkness, as +well as he did. It was situated in a grassy hollow surrounded by +dense trees, some five miles or more from the Terra Vergine, on the +north bank of the river. The solitude was absolute, and the place +large enough to permit the assemblage of several scores of men. + +Adone went on, unconscious that he was followed; he went at a +swinging trot, easy and swift; the sinews of his lithe limbs were +strong as steel, and his rage, all aflame, lent lightning to his +feet. + +She allowed him to precede her by half a mile or more, for if he had +seen her his anger would have been great, and she feared it. She went +skipping and bounding along, where the path was clear, in all the joy +of liberty and rapture of the fresh night air. The hours spent in +Alaida's close house in the village had been as terrible to her as +his hours in a birdcatcher's hamper are to a wild bird. Up at Ansalda +she had always been out of doors, and at the Terra Vergine she had +gone under a roof only to eat and sleep. + +The moon, which was in the beginning of its first quarter, had passed +behind some heavy clouds; there was little light, for there were as +yet few stars visible, but that was not matter to her. She knew her +way as well as any mountain hare. + +The pungent odour of the heaths through which she went seemed to her +like a draught of wine, the strong sea breeze which was blowing bore +her up like wings. She forgot that she was once more a homeless waif, +as she had been that day when she had sat under the dock leaves by +the Edera water. He had told her she should go back; she believed +him: that was enough. Madonna Clelia would forgive, she felt sure, +for what harm had she done? All would be well; she would feed the +oxen again, and go again to the spring for water, and all would be as +it had been before -- her thoughts, her desires, went no farther than +that. So, with a light heart she followed him gaily, running where +there was open ground, pushing hard where the heather grew, going +always in the same path as Adone had done. + +All of a sudden she stopped short, in alarm. + +The night was still; the spring of the river was loud upon it, owls +hooted and chuckled, now and then a fox in the thickets barked. There +are many sounds in the open country at night; sounds of whirring +pinions, of stealthy feet, of shrill, lone cries, of breaking twigs, +of breaking ferns, of little rivulets unheard by day, of timid +creatures taking courage in the dark. But to these sounds she was +used; she could give a name to every one of them. She heard now what +was unfamiliar to her in these solitudes; she heard the footsteps of +men; and it seemed to her, all around her, as though in a moment of +time, the heath and bracken and furze grew alive to their tryst with +Adone? She did not think so, for she had never known the few men in +the village summon courage to join the armed meetings of the men of +the valley. She stopped and listened, as a pole-cat which was near +her did; the sounds were those of human beings, breathing, creeping, +moving under the heather. + +Suddenly she felt some presence close to her in the dark; she held +her breath; she shrank noiselessly between the plumes of heath. If +they were men of the country they would not hurt her, but if not -- +she was not sure. + +Near her was an open space where the wild growth had been recently +cut. The men debouched on to it from the undergrowth, there was a +faint light from the stars on that strip of rough grass; by it she +saw that they were soldiers, five in number. + +A great terror cowed her, like a hand of ice at her heart, a terror +not for herself, but for those away there, in the green hollow by the +three stone-pines. + +They were soldiers; yes, they were soldiers; the sounds she had heard +had been the crushing of the plants under their feet, the click of +their muskets as they moved; they were soldiers! Where had they come +from? There were no soldiers at Ruscino. + +The only time when she had ever seen soldiers had been when the +troopers had captured Baruffo. These were not troopers; they were +small men, on foot, linen-clad, moving stealthily, and as if in fear; +only the tubes of their muskets glistened in the light of the great +planets. + +She crouched down lower and lower, trying to enter the ground and +hide; she hoped they would go onward, and then she could run -- +faster than they -- and reach the hollow, and warn Adone and his +fellows. She had no doubt that they came to surprise the meeting; but +she hoped from their pauses and hesitating steps that they were +uncertain what way to take. + +"If you come to me to lead you -- aye! I will lead you! -- you will +not forget where I lead!" she said to herself, as she hid under the +heather; and her courage rose, for she saw a deed to be done. For +they were now very near to the place of meeting, and could have taken +the rebels like mice in a trap, if they had only known where they +were; but she, watching them stand still, and stare, and look up to +the stars, and then north, south, east, and west, saw that they did +not know, and that it might be possible to lead them away from the +spot by artifice, as the quail leads the sportsman away from the +place where her nest is hidden. + +As the thought took shape in her brain a sixth man, a sergeant who +commanded them, touched her with his foot, stooped, clutched her, and +pulled her upward. She did not try to escape. + +"What beast of night have we here?" he cried. "Spawn of devils, who +are you?" + +Nerina writhed under the grip of his iron fingers, but she still did +not try to escape. He cursed her, swore at her, shook her, crushed +her arm black and blue. She was sick with pain, but she was mute. + +"Who are you?" he shouted. + +"I come down from the mountains to work here in summer." + +"Can any of you speak her dialect?" cried the sergeant to his +privates: the sergeant was a man of Milan. + +One man answered, "I come from Paganica; it is much the same tongue +there as in these parts." + +"Ask her the way, then." + +The soldier obeyed. + +"What is the way to the Three Pines? -- to the tomb of Asdrubal?" + +"The way is long," said Nerina. + +"Do you know it?" + +"I know it." + +"Have you heard tell of it?" + +"Yes." + +"That men meet at night there?" + +"Yes." + +"Meet this night there?" + +"Yes." + +"You know where the tomb of Asdrubal is?" + +"Have I not told you?" + +The soldier repeated her answer translated to his sergeant; the +latter kept his grasp on her. + +"Ask her if she will take us there." + +The soldier asked her and translated her answer. + +"If we give her two gold pieces she will take us there." + +"Spawn of hell! I will give her nothing. But if she do not lead us +aright I will give her a bullet for her breakfast." + +The soldier translated to Nerina: "He will give you two gold pieces +if you guide us aright; and you need have no fear; we are honest men +and the king's servants." + +"I will guide the king's servants." + +"You are sure of the way?" + +"Is the homing pigeon sure of his?" + +"Let us be off," said the sergeant. "A bullet for her if she fail." + +He had little pleasure in trusting to this girl of the Abruzzo hills, +but he and his men were lost upon these moors, and might grope all +night, and miss the meeting, and fail to join his comrades and +surprise those who gathered at it. He reckoned upon fear as a sure +agent to keep her true, as it kept his conscripts under arms. + +"Bid him take his hand off me," said Nerina, "or I do not move." + +The private translated to his superior. "She prays of your mercy to +leave her free, or she cannot pass through the heather." + +The sergeant let her go unwillingly, but pushed her in front of him, +and levelled his revolver at her. + +"Tell her, if she try to get away, I fire." + +"Tell him I know that," said Nerina. + +She was not afraid, for a fierce, unholy joy was in her veins; she +could have sung, she could have laughed, she could have danced; she +held them in her power; they had come to ensnare Adone, and she had +got them in her power as if they were so many moles! + +They tied her hands behind her; she let them do it; she did not want +her hands. Then she began to push her way doggedly, with her head +down, to the south. The tomb of Asdrubal was due north; she could see +the pole star, and turned her back to it and went due south. + +Three miles or more southward there was a large _pollino_, or swamp +as L'Erba Molle, the wet grass; the grass was luxuriant, the flora +was varied and beautiful; in appearance it was a field, in reality it +was a morass; to all people of the Valdedera it was dreaded and +avoided, as quicksand are by the seashore. + +She went on as fast as the narrow path, winding in and out between +the undergrowth, permitted her to go; the armed soldiers, heavy laden +with their knapsacks and their boots, following her clumsily, and +with effort, uttering curses on their ill-luck and their sleepless +night. + +The stars were now larger and brighter; the darkness was lightened, +the river was running away from its southern birthplace in the hills +which lie like couched lions about the feet of the Gran Sasso. She +could hear its distant murmur. "They come to capture you," she said +to it, "and I will kill them. They shall choke and go down, down, +down -- " + +Her heart leapt within her; and she went with the loaded revolver +pointed at her from behind as though she went to her bridal-bed. + +"Where are you taking us, vile little bitch?" the sergeant cried, and +the soldier from Paganica translated: "Pretty little brown one, +whither do you go?" + +"I take you straight," said Nerina, "only you go to clumsily, for men +in these parts should not wear leather upon their feet." + +The soldiers sighed assent, and would willingly have gone barefoot, +and the sergeant swore in tones of thunder because he could not +understand what she said. + +Before long they came in sight of the Erba Molle; it looked like a +fair, peaceful pasture, with thousands of sword rushes golden upon +its surface. The light of the stars, which was now brilliant, shone +upon its verdure; there were great flocks of water-birds at roost +around it, and they rose with shrill cries and great noise of wings, +with a roar as though a tide were rising. + +Across it stretched a line of wooden piles which served as a rude +causeway to those who had the courage and the steadiness to leap from +one to another of them. It was not three times in a season that any +one dared to do so. Adone did so sometimes; and he had taught Nerina +how to make the passage. + +"Pass you after me, and set your feet where I set mine," said Nerina +to the little soldier of the Abruzzo, and she put down her foot on +the first pile, sunk almost invisible under the bright green slime, +where thousands of frogs were croaking. + +The soldier of the Abruzzo said to his superior, "She says we must +set our feet where she sets hers. We are quite near now to the tomb +of the barbarian." + +Nerina, with the light leap of a kid, bounded from pile to pile. They +thought she went on solid ground; on meadow grass. The sergeant and +his men crowded on to what they thought was pasture. In the uncertain +shadows and scarce dawning light, they did not see the row of +submerged timber. They sank like stones in the thick ooze; they were +sucked under to their knees, to their waists, to their shoulders, to +their mouths; the yielding grasses, the clutching slime, the tangled +weed, the bottomless mud, took hold of them; the water-birds shrieked +and beat their wings; the hideous clamour of dying men answered them. + +Nerina had reached the other side of the morass in safety, and her +mocking laughter rang upon their ears. + +"I have led you well!" she cried to them. "I have led you well, oh +servants of the king! -- oh swine! -- oh slaves! -- oh spies!-- oh +hunters and butchers of men!" + +And she danced on the edge of the field of death, and the light of +the great planets shone upon her face. + +Had she run onward at once the wood beyond she would have been saved. +That instant of triumph and mockery lost her. + +The sergeant had put his revolver in his teeth; he knew now that he +was a dead man; the slime was up to his chin, under his feet the +grass and the mud quaked, yielded, yawned like a grave. + +He drew his right arm out of the ooze, seized his revolver, and aimed +at the dancing, mocking, triumphant figure beyond the border of +golden sword rushes. With a supreme effort he fired; then he sank +under the mud and weed. + +The child dropped dead on the edge of the morass. + +One by one each soldier sank. Not one escaped. + +The water-birds came back from their upward flight and settled again +on the swamp. + +Underneath it all was still, save for the loud croaking of the frogs. + + + + + + +XX + +Don Silverio rose with the dawn of day, and entered his church at +five of the clock. There were but a few women gathered in the gaunt, +dark vastness of the nave. The morning was hot, and the scent of buds +and blossoms and fresh-cut grass came in from the fields over the +broken walls and into the ancient houses. + +When Mass was over, old Alaida crept over the mouldy mosaics timidly +to his side, and kneeled down on the stones. + +"Most reverend," she whispered, "'twas not my fault. I slept heavily; +she must have unlocked the door, for it was undone at dawn; her bed +is empty, she has not returned." + +"You speak of Nerina?" + +"Of Nerina, reverence. I did all I could. It was not my fault. She +was like a hawk in a cage." + +"I am grieved," he said; and he thought: "Is it Adone?" + +He feared so. + +"Is she not at the Terra Vergine?" he asked. Alaida shook her head. + +"No, reverend sir. I sent my grandchild to ask there. Gianna has not +seen her, and says the girl would never dare to go near Clelia Alba." + +"I am grieved," said Don Silverio again. + +He did not blame the old woman, as who, he thought, blames one who +could not tame an eaglet? + +He went back to the presbytery and broke his fast on a glass of +water, some bread, and some cresses from the river. + +He had sent for Gianna. In half an hour she came, distressed and +frightened. + +"Sir, I know not of her; I should not dare to harbour her, even in +the cattle-stall. Madonna Clelia would turn me adrift. When Madonna +Clelia has once spoken --" + +"Adone is at home?" + +"Alas! No, sir. He went out at nightfall; we have not seen him since. +He told me he went to a meeting of men at the Three Pines, at what +they call the Tomb of the Barbarian." + +Don Silverio was silent. + +"It is very grave," he said at last. + +"Aye, sir, grave indeed," said Gianna. "Would that it were love +between them, sir. Love is sweet and wholesome and kind, but there is +no such thing in Adone's heart. There it is only, alas! Blackness and +fire and hatred, sir; bloodlust against those who mean ill to the +river." + +"And his mother has lost all influence over him?" + +"All, sir. She is no more to him now than a bent stick. Yet, months +ago, she gave him her pearls and her bracelets, and he sold them in a +distant town to buy weapons." + +"Indeed? What madness!" + +"How else could the men have been armed, sir?" + +"Armed!" he repeated. "And of what use is it to arm? What use is it +for two hundred peasants to struggle against the whole forces of the +State? They will rot in prison; that is all that they will do." + +"Maybe yes, sir. Maybe no," said the old woman, with the obstinacy of +ignorance. "Some one must begin. They have no right to take the water +away, sir; no more right than to take the breast from the babe." + +Then, afraid of having said so much, she dropped her curtsey and went +out into the street. But in another moment she came back into the +study with a scared, blanched face, in which the wrinkles were +scarred deep like furrows in a field. + +"Sir -- sir!" she gasped, "there are the soldiery amongst us." + +Don Silverio rose in haste, put the little dog on his armchair, +closed the door of his study, and went down the narrow stone passage +which parted his bookroom from the entrance. The lofty doorway showed +him the stones of the familiar street, a buttress of his church, a +great branch of one of the self-sown ilex-trees, the glitter of the +arms and the white leather of the cross belts of a sentinel. The +shrill lamentations of the women seemed to rend the sunny air. He +shuddered as he heard. Coming up the street farther off were half a +troop of carabineers and a score of dragoons; the swords of the +latter were drawn, the former had their carbines levelled. The +villagers, screaming with terror, were closing their doors and +shutters in frantic haste; the door of the presbytery alone remained +open. Don Silverio went into the middle of the road and addressed the +officer who headed the carabineers. + +"May I ask to what my parish owes this visit?" + +"We owe no answer to you, reverend sir," said the lieutenant. + +The people were sobbing hysterically, catching their children in +their arms, calling to the Holy Mother to save them, kneeling down on +the sharp stones in the dust. Their priest felt ashamed of them. + +"My people," he called to them, "do not be afraid. Do not hide +yourselves. Do not kneel to these troopers. You have done no wrong." + +"I forbid you to address the crowd," said the officer. "Get you back +into your house." + +"What is my offence?" + +"You will learn in good time," said the commandant. "Get you into +your presbytery." + +"My place is with my people." + +The officer, impatient, struck him on the chest with the pommel of +his sword. + +Two carabineers thrust him back into the passage. + +"No law justifies your conduct," he said coldly, "or authorises you +to sever me from my flock." + +"The sabre is law here," said the lieutenant in command. + +"It is the only law known anywhere in this kingdom," said Don +Silverio. + +"Arrest him," said the officer. "He is creating disorder." + +The carabineers drove him into his study, and a brigadier began to +ransack his papers and drawers. + +He said nothing; the seizure of his manuscripts and documents was +indifferent to him, for there was nothing he had ever written which +would not bear the fullest light. But the insolent and arbitrary act +moved him to keen anxiety, because it showed that the military men +had licence to do their worst, at their will, and his anguish of +apprehension was for Adone. He could only hope and pray that Adone +had returned, and might be found tranquilly at work in the fields of +the Terra Vergine. But his fears were great. Unless more soldiery +were patrolling the district in all directions it was little likely, +he thought, that these men would conduct themselves thus in Ruscino; +he had no doubt that it was a concerted movement, directed by the +Prefect, and the General commanding the garrisons of the province, +and intended to net in one haul the malcontents of the Valdedera. + +From his study there was no view upon the street; he could hear the +wailing of women and screaming of children from the now closed +houses: that was all. + +"What is it your men do to my people?" he said sternly. + +The brigadier did not reply; he went on throwing papers into a trunk. + +"Where is your warrant for this search? We are not in a state of +siege?" asked Don Silverio. + +The man, with a significant gesture, drew his sabre up half way out +of its sheath; then let it fall again with a clash. He vouchsafed no +other answer. + +Some women's faces pressed in at the grating of the window which +looked on the little garden, scared, blanched, horrified, the white +head, and sunburnt features of Gianna foremost. + +"Reverendissimo!" they screamed as with one voice. "They are bringing +the lads in from the moors." + +And Gianna shrieked, "Adone! They have got Adone!" + +Don Silverio sprang to his feet. + +"Adone! Have you taken Adone Alba?" + +"The ringleader! By Bacchus! Yes," cried the brigadier, with a laugh. +"He will get thirty years at the galleys. Your flock does you honour, +Reverendissimo!" + +"Let me go to my flock," said Don Silverio; and some tone in his +voice, some gesture of his hand, had an authority in them which +compelled the carabineer to let him pass unopposed. + +He went down the stone passage to the archway of the open door. A +soldier stood sentinel there. The street was crowded with armed men. +The air was full of clangour and clamour; above all rose the shrill +screams of the women. + +"No one passes," said the sentinel, and he levelled the mouth of his +musket at Don Silverio's breast. + +"I pass," said the priest, and with his bare hand he grasped the +barrel of the musket and forced it upward. + +"I rule here, in the name of God," he said in a voice which rolled +down the street with majestic melody, dominating the screams, the +oaths, the hell of evil sound; and he went down the steps of his +house, and no man dared lay a hand on him. + +He could hear the trampling of horses and the jingling of spears and +scabbards; some lancers who had beaten the moors that night were +coming up the street. Half a company of soldiers of the line, +escorted by carabineers, came in from the country, climbing the steep +street, driving before them a rabble of young men, disarmed, wounded, +lame, with their hands tied behind them, the remnant of those who had +met at the tomb of Asdrubal in the night just passed. They had been +surprised, seized, surrounded by a wall of steel; some had answered +to their leader's call and had defended themselves, but these had +been few; most of them had thrown down their weapons and begged for +mercy when the cold steel of the soldiers was at their throats. Adone +had fought as though the shade of Asdrubal had passed into him; but +his friends had failed him; his enemies had outnumbered him a score +to one; he had been overpowered, disarmed, bound, dragged through his +native heather backward and upward to Ruscino, reaching the shadow of +the walls as the sun rose. + +The child lay dead by the stagnant pond, and the men she had led to +their death lay choked with the weeds and the slime; but of that he +knew naught. + +All he knew was that his cause was lost, his life forfeit, his last +hope dead. + +Only by his stature and his bearing could he be recognised. His +features were black from powder and gore; his right arm hung broken +by a shot; his clothing had been torn off him to his waist; he was +lame; but he alone still bore himself erect as he came on up the +village street. The others were huddled together in a fainting, +tottering, crazed mob; all were sick and swooning from the long +march, beaten when they paused by the buckles of belts and the flat +of sabres. + +Don Silverio saw that sight in front of his church, in the white, +clear light of early morning, and on the air there was a sickly +stench of sweat, of powder, of wounds, of dust. + +He went straight to the side of Adone. + +"My son, my son! I will come with you. They cannot refuse me that." + +But the soul of Adone was as a pit in which a thousand devils strove +for mastery. There was no light in it, no conscience, no gratitude, +no remorse. + +"Judas!" he cried aloud; and there was foam on his lips and there was +red blood in his eyes. "Judas! You betrayed us!" + +Then, as a young bull lowers his horns, he bent his head and bit +through and through to the bone the wrist of the soldier who held +him; in terror and pain the man shrieked and let go his hold; Adone's +arms remained bound behind him, but his limbs, though they dripped +blood, were free. + +He fronted the church, and that breach in the blocks of the Etruscan +wall through which Nerina had taken her path to the river a few hours +before. He knew every inch of the descent. Hundreds of times in his +boyhood had he run along the ruined wall and leaped in sport over the +huge stones, to spring with joyous shouts into the river below. + +As the soldier with a scream of agony let go his hold, he broke away +like a young lion released from the den. Before they could seize him +he had sprung over the wall, and was tearing down the slope; the +linesmen, rushing in swift pursuit behind him, stumbled, rolled down +the slippery grass, fell over the blocks of granite. He, sure of +foot, knowing the way from childhood, ran down the hill safely, +though blood poured from his wounds and blinded his sight, and a +sickness like the swooning of death dulled his brain. Beyond him and +below him was the river. He dashed into it like a hunted beast +swimming to sanctuary; he ran along in it, with its brightness and +coolness rippling against his parched throat. He stooped and kissed +it for the last time. + +"Take me! -- save me! -- comrade, brother, friend!" he cried aloud to +it with his last breath of life; and he plunged where it was deepest. + +Then the sky grew dark, and only the sound of the water was heard in +his ears. By the bridge its depth was great, and the current was +strong under the shade of the ruined keep. It swept his body onward +to the sea. + + + + + +XXI + +It was the beginning of winter when Don Silverio Frascara, having +been put upon his trial and no evidence of any sort having been +adduced against him, was declared innocent and set free, no +compensation or apology being offered to him. + +"Were it only military law it had been easy enough to find him +guilty," said Senator Giovacchino Gallo to the Syndic of San Beda, +and the Count Corradini warmly agreed with his Excellency that for +the sake of law, order, and public peace it would be well could the +military tribunals be always substituted for the civil; but alas! the +monarchy was not yet absolute! + +He had been detained many weeks and months at the city by the sea, +where the trial of the young men of the Valdedera had been held with +all the prolonged, tedious, and cruel delays common to the national +laws. Great efforts had been made to implicate him in the criminal +charges; but it had been found impossible to verify such suspicions; +every witness by others, and every action of his own, proved the +wisdom, the purity, and the excellence in counsel and example of his +whole life at Ruscino. The unhappy youths who had been taken with +arms in their hands were condemned for overt rebellion and conspiracy +against authority, and were sentenced, some to four, some to seven, +some to ten, and, a few who were considered the ringleaders, to +twenty-five years of cellular confinement. But against Don Silverio +it was found impossible even to make out the semblance of an +accusation, the testimony event of those hostile to him being +irresistibly in his favour in all ways. He had done his utmost to +defend the poor peasantry who had been misled by Adone to their own +undoing, and he had defended also the motives and the character of +the dead with an eloquence which moved to tears the public who heard +him, and touched even the hearts of stone of president and advocates; +and he had done this at his own imminent risk; for men of law can +never be brought to understand that comprehension is not collusion, +or that pity is not fellowship. + +But all his efforts failed to save the young men from the utmost +rigour of the law. The judge, agreeing with the State prosecutor, +declared that the most severe example was necessary to check once for +all by its terrors the tendency of the common people to resist the +State and its public works and decrees. Useful and patriotic +enterprises must not be impeded or wrecked because ignorance was +opposed to progress: thus said the King's advocate in an impassioned +oration which gained for him eventually emolument and preferment. The +rustics were sent in a body to the penitentiaries; and Don Silverio +was permitted to go home. + +Cold northern blasts blew from the upper Apennines, and piled the +snows upon the grey and yellow rocks of the Abruzzo heights, as he +crossed the valley of the Edera towards Ruscino. It seemed to him as +though a century had passed since he had left it. In the icy wind +which blew form the hills he shivered, for he had only one poor, thin +coat to cover him. His strength, naturally great, had given way under +the mental and physical sufferings of the last six months, although +no word of lament had ever escaped him. Like all generous natures he +rebuked himself for the sins of others. Incessantly he asked himself +-- might he not have saved Adone? + +As he came to the turn in the road which brought him within sight of +the river, he sat down on a stone and covered his eyes with his +hands. + +The sacristan had come to meet him, bringing the little dog, grown +thin, and sad, and old with sorrow. + +"I did all I could for him, but he would not be consoled," murmured +the old man. + +From the point which they had reached the course of the Edera, and +the lands of the Terra Vergine, were visible. With an effort, like +one who forces his will to look on a dead face, he uncovered his eyes +and looked downward. The olive-trees were still standing; where the +house had stood there was a black, charred, roofless shell; the +untilled fields lay bare beneath the frost. + +"Reverend sir," said the old man below his breath, "when Clelia Alba +knew that Adone was drowned she set fire to the house, and so +perished. They say she had promised her son." + +The wind from the north swept across the valley and drove the river +in yellow foam and black eddies through the dead sedges. Above +Ruscino the acacia thickets had been cut down, the herbage was +crushed under timber and iron and stone, the heather was trampled and +hacked, the sand and gravel were piled in heaps, the naked soil +yawned in places like fresh-dug graves; along the southern bank were +laid the metals of a light railway; on the lines of it were some +trucks filled with bricks; the wooden huts of the workmen covered a +dreary, dusty space; the water was still flowing, but on all the +scene were the soil, the disorder, the destruction, the vulgar +meanness and disfigurement which accompany modern labour, and affront +like a coarse bruise the gracious face of Nature. + +"There have been three hundred men from the Puglie at work," said the +sacristan. "They have stopped awhile now on account of the frost, but +as soon as the weather opens --" + +"Enough, enough!" murmured Don Silverio; and he rose, and holding the +little dog in his arms, went on down the familiar road. + +"His body has never been found?" he asked under his breath. + +The old man shook his head. + +"Nay, sir; what Edera takes it keeps. He dropped where he knew it was +deepest." + +As the vicar returned up the village street there was not a soul to +give him greeting except old Gianna, who kneeled weeping at his feet. +The people poured out of their doorways, but they said not a word of +welcome. The memory of Adone was an idolatry with them, and Adone had +said that their priest had betrayed them. One woman threw a stone at +Signorino. Don Silverio covered the little dog, and received the blow +on his own arm. + +"For twenty years I have had no thought but to serve these, my +people!" he thought; but he neither rebuked nor reproached them. + +The women as he passed them hissed at him; "Judas! Judas!" + +One man alone said: "Nay, 'tis a shame. Have you forgot what he did +in the cholera? 'Tis long ago, but still --" + +But the women said: "He betrayed the poor lads. He brought the +soldiers. He sold the water." + +Under that outrage, his manhood and his dignity revived. + +He drew his tall form erect, and passed through the reviling crowd, +and gave them his blessing as he passed. + +Then he went within his church; and remained there alone. + +"He is gone to pray for the soul of Adone," said the sacristan. + +When he came out of the church and entered his house, the street was +empty; the people were afraid of what they had done and of their own +ingratitude. He crossed the threshold of the presbytery. The sere +vine veiled his study casement; in the silence he could hear the +sound of the Edera water; he sat down at his familiar table, with the +dog upon his knees. His eyes were wet, and his heart was sick; his +courage was broken. + +"How shall I bear my life here?" he thought. All which had made it of +value and lightened its solitude was gone. Even his people had turned +against him; suspicious, thankless, hostile. + +The old sacristan, standing doubtful and timid at the entrance of the +chamber, drew near and reverently touched his arm. + +"Sir -- here is a letter -- it came three days ago." + +Don Silverio stretched out his hand over the little dog's head, and +took it. + +He changed colour as he saw its seal and superscription. + +Rome had at last remembered him, and awakened to his value. + +At the latest Consistory he had been nominated to the Cardinalate. + + +THE END. + + + +NOTE + +As it may appear strange to the English reader that the Porpora +Romana should be given to a village priest, I may here say that, to +my knowledge, a country vicar was himself sweeping out his rural +church when he was informed of his nomination as Cardinal, and M. S. +de Mérode was only deacon when raised to that elevation. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Waters of Edera +by Louise de la Ramée, a.k.a. Ouida + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13459 *** diff --git a/13459-h/13459-h.htm b/13459-h/13459-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a5e895e --- /dev/null +++ b/13459-h/13459-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9884 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> +<meta content="pg2html (binary v0.16)" name="generator"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Waters of Edera, by Ouida +</title> +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + body { margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; } + p { text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + font-size: 100%; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { text-align: center; } + hr { width: 50%; } + hr.full { width: 100%; } + .foot { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 85%; } + .poem { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left; } + .poem .stanza { margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em; } + .poem p { margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; } + .poem p.i2 { margin-left: 1em; } + .poem p.i4 { margin-left: 2em; } + .poem p.i6 { margin-left: 3em; } + .poem p.i8 { margin-left: 4em; } + .poem p.i10 { margin-left: 5em; } + .toc { margin-left: 15%; font-size: 80%; margin-bottom: 0em;} + center { padding: 0.8em;} + // --> +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13459 ***</div> + +<div style="height: 8em;"><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h1> + THE<br> + WATERS OF EDERA +</h1> +<h1> + BY<br> + O U I D A +</h1> +<center> + Author of<br> + "Moths," "Under Two Flags," "The Silver Christ," Etc.<br><br> + London<br> + T. FISHER UNWIN<br> + Paternoster Square<br> + 1900 +</center> + + + + +<hr> +<a name="2H_4_0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + THE WATERS OF EDERA +</h2> +<h2> + I +</h2> +<p> + It was a country of wide pastures, of moors covered with heath, of + rock-born streams and rivulets, of forest and hill and dale, sparsely + inhabited, with the sea to the eastward of it, unseen, and the + mountains everywhere visible always, and endlessly changing in + aspect. +</p> +<p> + Herdsmen and shepherds wandered over it, and along its almost disused + roads pedlars and pack mules passed at times but rarely. Minerals and + marbles were under its turf, but none sought for them; pools and + lakes slept in it, undisturbed save by millions of water fowl and + their pursuers. The ruins of temples and palaces were overgrown by + its wild berries and wild flowers. The buffalo browsed where emperors + had feasted, and the bittern winged its slow flight over the fields + of forgotten battles. +</p> +<p> + It was the season when the flocks are brought through this lonely + land, coming from the plains to the hills. Many of them passed on + their way thus along the course of the Edera water. The shepherds, + clothed in goatskin, with the hair worn outward, bearded, brown, + hirsute men, looking like savage satyrs, the flocks they drove before + them travel-worn, lame, heart-broken, the lambs and kids bleating + painfully. They cannot keep up with the pace of the flock, and, when + they fall behind, the shepherds slit their throats, roast their + bodies over an evening fire, or bake them under its ashes, and eat + them; if a town or village be near, the little corpses are sold in + it. Often a sheep dog or a puppy drops down in the same way, footsore + and worn out; then the shepherds do not tarry, but leave the + creatures to their fate, to die slowly of thirst and hunger. +</p> +<p> + The good shepherd is a false phrase. No one is more brutal than a + shepherd. If he were not so he could not bear his life for a day. +</p> +<p> + All that he does is brutal. He stones the flock where it would tarry + against his will. He mutilates the males, and drags the females away + from their sucking babes. He shears their fleeces every spring, + unheeding how the raw skin drops blood. He drives the halting, + footsore, crippled animals on by force over flint and slate and + parching dust. Sometimes he makes them travel twenty miles a day. +</p> +<p> + For his pastime he sets the finest of his beasts to fight. This is + the feast day and holiday sport of all the shepherds; and they bet on + it, until all they have, which is but little, goes on the heads of + the rams; and one will wager his breeches, and another his skin + jacket, and another his comely wife, and the ram which is beaten, if + he have any life left in him, will be stabbed in the throat by his + owner: for he is considered to have disgraced the <i>branca</i>. +</p> +<p> + This Sunday and Saints' day sport was going on a piece of grass land + in the district known as the Vale of Edera. +</p> +<p> + On the turf, cleared of its heaths and ferns, there was a ring of + men, three of them shepherds, the rest peasants. In the midst of them + were the rams, two chosen beasts pitted against each other like two + pugilists. They advanced slowly at first, then more quickly, and yet + more quickly, till they met with a crash, their two foreheads, hard + as though carven in stone, coming in collision with a terrible force; + then each, staggered by the encounter, drew back, dizzy and bruised, + to recoil, and take breath, and gather fresh force, and so charge one + on the other in successive rounds until the weaker should succumb, + and, mangled and senseless, should arise no more. +</p> +<p> + One of the rams was old, and one was young; some of the shepherds + said that the old one was more wary and more experienced, and would + have the advantage; in strength and height they were nearly equal, + but the old one had been in such duels before and the young one + never. The young one thought he had but to rush in, head downward, to + conquer; the old one knew that this was not enough to secure victory. + The young one was blind with ardour and impatience for the fray; the + old one was cool and shrewd and could parry and wait. +</p> +<p> + After three rounds, the two combatants met in a final shock; the + elder ram butted furiously, the younger staggered and failed to + return the blow, his frontal bone was split, and he fell to the + ground; the elder struck him once, twice, thrice, amidst the + uproarious applause of his backers; a stream of blood poured from his + skull, which was pounded to splinters; a terrible convulsion shook + his body and his limbs; he stretched his tongue out as if he tried to + lap water; the men who had their money on him cursed him with every + curse they knew; they did not cut his throat, for they knew he was as + good as dead. +</p> +<p> + "This is a vile thing you have done," said a little beggar girl who + had been passing, and had been arrested by the horrible fascination + of the combat, and forced against her will to stand and watch its + issue. The shepherds jeered; those who had backed the victor were + sponging his wounds beside a runlet of water which was close at hand; + those who had lost were flinging stones on the vanquished. The girl + knelt down by the dying ram to save him from the shower of stones; + she lifted his head gently upward, and tried to pour water through + his jaws from a little wooden cup which she had on her, and which she + had filled at the river. But he could not swallow; his beautiful + opaline eyes were covered with film, he gasped painfully, a foam of + blood on his lips and a stream of blood coursing down his face; a + quiver passed over him again; then his head rested lifeless on his + knees. She touched his shattered horns, his clotted wool, tenderly. +</p> +<p> + "Why did you set him to fight?" she said with an indignation which + choked her voice. "It was vile. He was younger than the other, and + knew less." +</p> +<p> + Those who had won laughed. Those who had lost cursed him again; he + had disgraced his <i>branca</i>. They would flay him, and put him in the + cauldron over the wood fire, and would curse him even whilst they + picked his bones for a white-livered spawn of cowards; a son of a + thrice-damned ewe. +</p> +<p> + The girl knew that was what they do. She laid his battered head + gently down upon the turf, and poured the water out of her cup; her + eyes were blind with tears; she could not give him back his young + life, his zest in his pastoral pleasures, his joy in cropping the + herbage, his rude loves, his merry gambols, his sound sleep, his + odorous breath. +</p> +<p> + He had died to amuse and excite the ugly passions of men, as, if he + had lived longer, he would, in the end, have died to satisfy their + ugly appetites. +</p> +<p> + She looked at his corpse with compassion, the tears standing in her + eyes; then she turned away, and as she went saw that her poor ragged + clothes were splashed here and there with blood, and that her arms + and hands were red with blood: she had not thought of that before; + she had thought only of him. The shepherds did not notice her; they + were quarrelling violently in dispute over what had been lost and + won, thrusting their fingers in each other's faces, and defiling the + fair calm of the day with filthy oaths. +</p> +<p> + The girl shrank away into the heather with the silent swiftness of a + hare; now that she had lost the stimulus of indignant pity she was + afraid of these brutes; if the whim entered into them they would be + as brutal to her as to their flock. +</p> +<p> + Out of fear of them she did not descend at once to the river, but + pushed her way through the sweet-smelling, bee-haunted, cross-leaved + heaths; she could hear the sound of the water on her right all the + time as she went. She knew little of this country, but she had seen + the Edera, and had crossed it farther up its course on one of its + rough tree-bridges. +</p> +<p> + When, as well as she could judge, she had got half a mile away from + the scene of the rams' combat, she changed her course and went to the + right, directed by the murmur of the river. It was slow walking + through the heath and gorse which grew above her head, and were + closely woven together, but in time she reached shelving ground, and + heard the song of the river louder on her ear. The heath ceased to + grow within a few yards of the stream and was replaced by various + water plants and acacia thickets; she slid down the banks between the + stems and alighted on her bare feet where the sand was soft and the + water-dock grew thick. She looked up and down the water; there was no + one in sight, nothing but the banks rosehued with the bloom of the + heather, and, beyond the opposite shore, in the distance, the tender + amethystine hues of the mountains. The water was generally low, + leaving the stretches of sand and of shingle visible, but it was + still deep in many parts. +</p> +<p> + She stripped herself and went down into it, and washed the blood + which had by this time caked upon her flesh. It seemed a pity, she + thought, to sully with that dusky stain this pure, bright, shining + stream; but she had no other way to rid herself of it, and she had in + all the world no other clothes than these poor woollen rags. +</p> +<p> + Her heart was still sore for the fate of the conquered ram; and her + eyes filled again with tears as she washed his blood off her in the + gay running current. But the water was soothing and fresh, the sun + shone on its bright surface; the comfrey and fig-wart blew in the + breeze, the heather smell filled the atmosphere. +</p> +<p> + She was only a child, and her spirits rose, and she capered about in + the shallows, and flung the water over her head, and danced to her + own reflection in it, and forgot her sorrow. Then she washed her + petticoats as well as she could, having nothing but water alone, and + all the while she was as naked as a Naiad, and the sun smiled on her + brown, thin, childish body as it smiled on a stem of plaintain or on + the plumage of a coot. +</p> +<p> + Then when she had washed her skirt she spread it out on the sand to + dry, and sat down beside it, for the heat to bake her limbs after her + long bath. There was no one, and there was nothing, in sight; if any + came near she could hide under the great dock leaves until such + should have passed. It was high noon, and the skirt of wool and the + skirt of hemp grew hot and steamed under the vertical rays; she was + soon as dry as the shingles from which the water had receded for + months. She sat with her hands clasped round her updrawn knees, and + her head grew heavy with the want of slumber, but she would not + sleep, though it was the hour of sleep. Some one might pass by and + steal her clothes, she thought, and how or when would she ever get + others? +</p> +<p> + When the skirt was quite dried, the blood stains still showed on it; + they were no longer red, but looked like the marks from the sand. She + tied it on round her waist and her shirt over it, and wound an old + crimson sash round both. Then she took up her little bundle in which + were the wooden cup and a broken comb, and some pieces of hempen + cloth and a small loaf of maize bread, and went on along the water, + wading and hopping in it, as the water-wagtails did, jumping from + stone to stone, and sometimes sinking up to her knees in a hole. +</p> +<p> + She had no idea where she would rest at night, or where she would get + anything to eat; but that reflection scarcely weighed on her; she + slept well enough under stacks or in outhouses, and she was used to + hunger. So long as no one meddled with her she was content. The + weather was fine and the country was quiet. Only she was sorry for + the dead ram. By this time they would have hung him up by his heels + to a tree, and have pulled the skin off his body. +</p> +<p> + She was sorry; but she jumped along merrily in the water, as a + kingfisher does, and scarcely even wondered where its course would + lead her. +</p> +<p> + At a bend in it she came to a spot where a young man was seated + amongst the bulrushes, watching his fishing net. +</p> +<p> + "Aie!" she cried with a shrill cry of alarm, like a bird who sees a + fowler. She stopped short in her progress; the water at that moment + was up to her knees. With both hands she held up her petticoat to save + it from another wetting; her little bundle was balanced on her head, + the light shone in her great brown eyes. The youth turned and saw + her. +</p> +<p> + She was a very young girl, thirteen at most; her small flat breasts + were those of a child, her narrow shoulders and her narrow loin spoke + of scanty food and privation of all kinds, and her arms and legs were + brown from the play of the sun on their nakedness; they were little + else than skin and bone, nerves and sinew, and looked like stakes of + wood. All the veins and muscles stood revealed as in anatomy, and her + face, which would have been a child's face, a nymph's face, with + level brows, a pure straight profile, and small close ears like + shells, was so fleshless and sunburnt that she looked almost like a + mummy. Her eyes had in them the surprise and sadness of those of a + weaning calf; and her hair, too abundant for such a small head, + would, had it not been so dusty and entangled, have been of a red + golden bronze, the hue of a chestnut which has just burst open its + green husk. +</p> +<p> + "Who are you?" said the young man, looking at her in surprise. +</p> +<p> + "I am Nerina," answered the child. +</p> +<p> + "Where do you come from? What is your country?" +</p> +<p> + She pointed vaguely to the south-west mountains, where the snow on + the upper ranges was still lying with bands of cloud resting on it. +</p> +<p> + "From the Abruzzo?" +</p> +<p> + She was silent. She did not know the mountains of her birthplace by + their names. +</p> +<p> + "Who was your father?" he asked, with some impatience. +</p> +<p> + "He was Black Fausto." +</p> +<p> + "What did he do for a living?" +</p> +<p> + "He went down with the fair season to the Roman plain." +</p> +<p> + He understood: the man had no doubt been a labourer, one of those who + descend in bands from the villages of the Abruzzo heights to plough, + and mow, and sow, and reap, on the lands of the Castelli Romani; men + who work in droves, and are fed and stalled in droves, as cattle are, + who work all through the longest and hottest days in summer, and in + the worst storms of winter; men who are black by the sun, are half + naked, are lean and hairy and drip with continual sweat, but who take + faithfully back the small wage they receive to where their women and + children dwell in their mountain-villages. +</p> +<p> + "He went, you say? Is he ill? Does he work no longer?" +</p> +<p> + "He died last year." +</p> +<p> + "Of what?" +</p> +<p> + She gave a hopeless gesture. "Who knows? He came back with a wolf in + his belly, he said, always gnawing and griping, and he drank water + all day and all night, and his face burned, and his legs were cold, + and all of a sudden his jaw fell, and he spoke no more to us. There + are many of them who die like that after a hot season down in the + plains." +</p> +<p> + He understood; hunger and heat, foul air in their sleeping places, + infusoria in the ditch and rain water, and excessive toil in the + extremes of heat and cold, make gaps in the ranks of these hired + bands every year as if a cannon had been fired into them. +</p> +<p> + "Who takes care of you now?" he asked with pity, as for a homeless + bitch. +</p> +<p> + "Nobody. There is nobody. They are all gone down into the earth." +</p> +<p> + "But how do you live?" +</p> +<p> + "I work when I can. I beg when I cannot. People let me sleep in the + stalls, or the barns, and give me bread." +</p> +<p> + "That is a bad life for a girl." +</p> +<p> + She shrugged her shoulders. +</p> +<p> + "I did not make it." +</p> +<p> + "And where are you going?" +</p> +<p> + She opened her arms wide and swept the air with them. +</p> +<p> + "Anywhere. Along the water, until I find something to do." +</p> +<p> + "I cannot do much," she added, after a pause. "I am little, and no + one has taught me. But I can cut grass and card wool." +</p> +<p> + "The grass season is short, and the wool season is far off. Why did + you not stay in your village?" +</p> +<p> + She was mute. She did not know why she had left it, she had come away + down the mountainside on a wandering instinct, with a vague idea of + finding something better the farther she went: her father had always + come back with silver pieces in his pocket after his stay down there + in those lands which she had never seen, lying as they did down far + below under the golden haze of what seemed an immeasurable distance. +</p> +<p> + "Are you not hungry?" said the fisher. +</p> +<p> + "I am always hungry," she said, with some astonishment at so simple a + question. "I have been hungry ever since I can remember. We all were + up there. Sometimes even the grass was too dried up to eat. Father + used to bring home with him a sack of maize; it was better so long as + that lasted." +</p> +<p> + "Are you hungry now?" +</p> +<p> + "Of course." +</p> +<p> + "Come to my house with me. We will feed you. Come. Have no fear. I am + Adone Alba, of the Terra Vergine, and my mother is a kind woman. She + will not grudge you a meal." +</p> +<p> + The child laughed all over her thin, brown face. +</p> +<p> + "That will be good," she said, and leapt up out of the water. +</p> +<p> + "Poor soul! Poor soul!" thought the young man, with a profound sense + of pity. +</p> +<p> + As the child sprang up out of the river, shaking the water off her as + a little terrier does, he saw that she must have been in great want + of food for a long time; her bones were almost through her skin. He + set his fishing pole more firmly in the ground, and left the net sunk + some half a yard below the surface; then he said to the little girl: +</p> +<p> + "Come, come and break your fast. It has lasted long, I fear." +</p> +<p> + Nerina only understood that she was to be fed; that was enough for + her. She trotted like a stray cur, beckoned by a benevolent hand, + behind him as he went, first through some heather and broom, then + over some grass, where huge olive trees grew, and then through corn + and vine lands, to an old farmhouse, made of timber and stone; large, + long, solid; built to resist robbers in days when robbers came in + armed gangs. There was a wild garden in front of it, full of cabbage + roses, lavender, myrtle, stocks and wallflowers. Over the arched door + a four-season rose-tree clambered. +</p> +<p> + The house, ancient and spacious, with its high-pitched roof of ruddy + tiles, impressed Nerina with a sense of awe, almost of terror. She + remained hesitating on the garden path, where white and red stocks + were blossoming. +</p> +<p> + "Mother," said Adone, "here is a hungry child. Give her, in your + kindness, some broth and bread." +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba came out into the entrance, and saw the little girl with + some displeasure. She was kind and charitable, but she did not love + beggars and vagabonds, and this half-naked female tatterdemalion + offended her sense of decency and probity, and her pride of sex. She + was herself a stately and handsome woman. +</p> +<p> + "The child is famished," said Adone, seeing his mother's displeasure. +</p> +<p> + "She shall eat then, but let her eat outside," said Clelia Alba, and + went back into the kitchen. +</p> +<p> + Nerina waited by the threshold, timid and mute and humble, like a + lost dog; her eyes alone expressed overwhelming emotions: fear and + hope and one ungovernable appetite, hunger. +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba came out in a few minutes with a bowl of hot broth made + of herbs, and a large piece of maize-flour bread. +</p> +<p> + "Take them," she said to her son. +</p> +<p> + Adone took them from her, and gave them to the child. +</p> +<p> + "Sit and eat here," he said, pointing to a stone settle by the wall + under the rose of four seasons. +</p> +<p> + The hands of Nerina trembled with excitement, her eyes looked on + fire, her lips shook, her breath came feverishly and fast. The smell + of the soup made her feel beside herself. She said nothing, but + seized the food and began to drink the good herb-broth with thirsty + eagerness though the steam of it scorched her. +</p> +<p> + Adone, with an instinct of compassion and delicacy, left her + unwatched and went within. +</p> +<p> + "Where did you find that scarecrow?" asked his mother. +</p> +<p> + "Down by the river. She has nobody and nothing. She comes from the + mountains." +</p> +<p> + "There are poor folks enough in Ruscino without adding to them from + without," said Clelia Alba impatiently. "Mind she does not rob the + fowl-house before she slips sway." +</p> +<p> + "She has honest eyes," said Adone. "I am sure she will do us no + harm." +</p> +<p> + When he thought that she had been given time enough to finish her + food he went out; the child was stretched at full length on the stone + seat, and was already sound asleep, lying on her back; the empty bowl + was on the ground, of the bread there was no longer a crumb; she was + sleeping peacefully, profoundly, her thin hands crossed on her naked + brown bosom, on which some rose leaves had fallen from the rose on + the wall above. +</p> +<p> + He looked at her in silence for a little while, then returned to his + mother. +</p> +<p> + "She is tired. She sleeps. Let her rest." +</p> +<p> + "It is unsafe." +</p> +<p> + "How unsafe, mother? She is only a child." +</p> +<p> + "She may have men behind her." +</p> +<p> + "It is not likely." +</p> +<p> + Adone could not say (for he had no idea himself) why he felt sure + that this miserable little waif would not abuse hospitality: "She is + a child," he answered rather stupidly, for children are often + treacherous and wicked, and he knew nothing of this one except what + she had chosen to tell of herself. +</p> +<p> + "She may have men behind her," repeated his mother. +</p> +<p> + "Such men as you are thinking of, mother, do not come to this valley + nowadays. Ulisse Ferrero was the last of them. Indeed, I think this + poor little creature is all alone in the world. Go and look at her. + You will see how forlorn and small she is." +</p> +<p> + She went to the doorway and looked at the sleeping beggar; her eyes + softened as she gazed, the whole attitude and appearance of the child + were so miserable and so innocent, so helpless, and yet so tranquil, + that her maternal heart was touched; the waif slept on the stone + bench beside the door of strangers as though she were in some safe + and happy home. +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba looked down on her a few moments, then took the kerchief + off her hair, and laid it gently, without awakening the sleeper, over + the breast and the face of the child, on which flies were settling + and the sun was shining. +</p> +<p> + Then she picked up the empty earthenware bowl, and went indoors + again. +</p> +<p> + "I will go back to the river," said Adone. "I have left the net + there." +</p> +<p> + His mother nodded assent. +</p> +<p> + "You will not send this little foreigner away till I return?" he + asked. Every one was a foreigner who had not been born in the vale of + Edera. +</p> +<p> + "No; not till you return." +</p> +<p> + He went away through the sunshine and shadow of the olive-trees. He + knew that his mother never broke her word. But she thought as she + washed the bowl: "A little stray mongrel bitch like that may bite + badly some day. She must go. She is nothing now; but by and by she + may bite." +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba knew human nature, though she had never been out of sight + of the river Edera. She took her spinning-wheel and sat down by the + door. There was nothing urgent to do, and she could from the + threshold keep a watch on the little vagabond, and would be aware if + she awoke. All around was quiet. She could see up and down the + valley, beyond the thin, silvery foliage of the great olive-trees, + and across it to where the ruins of a great fortress towered in their + tragic helplessness. The sun shone upon her fields of young wheat, + her slopes of pasture. The cherry-trees and the pear-trees were in + bloom, her trellised vines running from tree to tree. Ragged-robin, + yellow crowsfoot, purple orchis, filled the grass, intermixed with + the blue of borage and the white and gold of the oxeye. She did not + note these things. Those fancies were for her son. Herself, she would + have preferred that there should be no flower in the grasses, for + before the cow was fed the flowers had to be picked out of the cut + grass, and had served no good end that she could perceive, for she + knew of no bees except the wild ones, whose honey no one ever tasted, + hidden from sight in hollow trees as it was. +</p> +<p> + Nerina slept on in peace and without dreams. Now and then another + rose let fall some petals on her, or a bee buzzed above her, but her + repose remained undisturbed. +</p> +<p> + The good food filled her, even in her sleep, with deep contentment, + and the brain, well nourished by the blood, was still. +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba felt her heart soften despite herself for this lonely + creature; though she was always suspicious of her, for she had never + known any good thing come down from the high mountains, but only + theft and arson and murder, and men banded together to solace their + poverty with crime. In her youth the great brigands of the Upper + Abruzzo had been names of terror in Ruscino, and in the hamlets lying + along the course of the Edera, and many a time a letter written in + blood had been fastened with a dagger to the door of church or + cottage, intimating the will of the unseen chief to the subjugated + population. Of late years less had been heard and seen of such men; + but they or their like were still heard and felt sometimes, up above + in lonely forests, or down where the moorland and macchia met, and + the water of Edera ran deep and lonely. In her girlhood, a father, a + son, and a grandson had been all killed on a lonely part of the + higher valley because they had dared to occupy a farm and a + water-mill after one of these hillmen had laid down the law that no + one was to live on the land or to set the waterwheel moving. +</p> +<p> + That had been a good way off, indeed, and for many a year the Edera + had not seen the masked men, with their belts, crammed with arms and + gold, round their loins; but still, one never knew, she thought; + unbidden guests were oftener devils than angels. +</p> +<p> + And it seemed to her that the child could not really be asleep all + this time in a strange place and the open air. At last she got up, + went again to the bench and drew her handkerchief aside, and looked + down on the sleeper; on the thin, narrow chest, the small, bony + hands, the tiny virginal nipples like wood strawberries. +</p> +<p> + She saw that the slumber was real, the girl very young and more than + half-starved. "Let her forget while she can," she thought, and + covered her face again. "It is still early in the day." +</p> +<p> + The bees hummed on; a low wind swept over a full-blown rose and shook + its loose leaves to the ground. The shadow from the ruined tower + began to touch the field which lay nearest the river, a sign that it + was two hours after noon. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + II +</h2> +<p> + The large square fresh-water fishing-net had sunk under the surface, + the canes which framed it were out of sight; only the great central + pole, which sustained the whole, and was planted in the ground of the + river-bank, remained visible as it bent and swayed but did not yield + or break. Such nets as this had been washed by the clear green waters + of the pools and torrents of the Edera ever since the days of + Etruscan gods and Latin augurs; religions had changed, but the river, + and the ways of the men of the river, had not altered. +</p> +<p> + Adone did not touch it, for it was well where it was; he seated + himself on the bank ready to seize and hold it if its pole showed any + sign of yielding and giving way and heeling over into the stream. He + sat thus amongst the bulrushes for many an hour, on many a spring day + and summer night. Although fish were not numerous he never tired of + his vigil, lulled by the sound of the current as it splashed among + the stones and rippled through the rushes; a deeper music coming from + its higher reaches, where it fell over a ledge of rock and leapt like + a live thing into the air. And, indeed, what thing could be more + living than this fresh, pure, untroubled water, glad as a child, + swift as a swallow, singing for sport, as a happy boy sings, as it + ran down on its way from the hills? +</p> +<p> + To the young man sitting now on its bank amidst the bulrushes it was + as living as himself, his playmate, friend, and master, all in one. + First of all things which he could remember were the brightness and + the coolness of it as it had laved his limbs in his childhood on + mid-summer noons, his mother's hands holding him safely as he waded + with rosy feet and uncertain steps along its pebbly bottom! How many + mornings, when he had grown to boyhood and to manhood, had he escaped + from the rays of the vertical sun into its acacia-shadowed pools; how + many moonlit, balmy nights had he bathed in its still reaches, the + liquid silver of its surface breaking up like molten metal as he + dived! How many hours of peace had he passed, as he was spending + this, waiting for the fish to float into his great net, whilst the + air and the water were alike so still that he could hear the little + voles stealing in and out amongst the reeds, and the water-thrush + pushing the pebbles on its sands in search for insects, though beast + and bird were both unseen by him! How many a time upon the dawn of a + holy-day had he washed and swam in its waters whilst the bells of the + old church in the village above had tolled in the softness of dusk! +</p> +<p> + He thought of none of these memories distinctly, for he was young and + contented, and those who are satisfied with their lot live in their + present; but they all drifted vaguely through his mind as he sat by + the side of the river, as the memories of friends dear from infancy + drift through our waking dreams. +</p> +<p> + He was in every way a son of the Edera, for he had been born almost + in the water itself; his mother had been washing linen with other + women at the ford when she had been taken with the pains of labour + two months before her time. Her companions had had no time or thought + to do more than to stretch her on the wet sand, with some hempen + sheets, which had not yet been thrown in the water, between her and + the ground; and the cries of her in her travail had echoed over the + stream and had startled the kingfishers in the osiers, and the wild + ducks in the marshes, and the tawny owls asleep in the belfry tower + of the village. But her pains had been brief though sharp, and her + son had first seen the light beside the water; a strong and healthy + child, none the worse for his too early advent, and the rough + river-women had dipped him in the shallows, where their linen and + their wooden beaters were, and had wrapped him up in a soiled woollen + shirt, and had laid him down with his face on his mother's young + breast, opening his shut unconscious mouth with their rough fingers, + and crying in his deaf ear, "Suck! and grow to be a man!" +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba was now a woman of forty-one years old, and he, her only + son, was twenty-four; they had named him Adone; the beautiful Greek + Adonais having passed into the number of the saints of the Latin + Church, by a transition so frequent in hagiology that its strangeness + is not remembered save by a scholar here and there. When he had been + born she had been a young creature of seventeen, with the wild grace + of a forest doe; with that nobility of beauty, that purity of + outline, and that harmony of structure, which still exist in those + Italians in whom the pure Italiote blood is undefiled by Jew or + Gentile. Now her abundant hair was white, and her features were + bronzed and lined by open-air work, and her hands of beautiful shape + were hard as horn through working in the fields. She looked an old + woman, and was thought so by others, and thought herself so: for + youth is soon over in these parts, and there is no half-way house + between youth and age for the peasant. +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba, moreover, had lost her youth earlier even than others: + lost it for ever when her husband at five-and-twenty years of age had + been killed by falling from an olive-tree of which the branch + sustaining him had cracked and broken under his weight. His neck had + been broken in the fall. She had been dancing and shouting with her + two-year-old child on the grassland not far off, romping and playing + ball with some dropped chestnuts; and when their play was over she + had lifted her boy on to her shoulder and run with him to find his + father. Under one of the great, gnarled, wide-spreading olives she + had seen him, lying asleep as she thought. +</p> +<p> + "Oh, lazy one, awake! The sun is only two hours old!" she had cried + merrily, and the child on her shoulder had cooed and shouted in + imitation, "Wake—wake—wake!" and she, laughing, had cast a chestnut + she had carried in her hand upon the motionless figure. Then, as the + prostrate form did not stir, a sudden terror had seized her, and she + had set the baby down upon the grass and run to the olive-tree. There + she had seen that this was death, for when she had raised him his + head had dropped, and seemed to hang like a poppy broken in a blast + of wind, and his eyes had no sight, and his mouth had no breath. +</p> +<p> + From that dread hour Clelia Alba had never laughed again. Her hair + grew white, and her youth went away from her for ever. +</p> +<p> + She lived for the sake of her son, but she and joy had parted company + for ever. +</p> +<p> + His death had made her sole ruler of the Terra Vergine; she had both + the knowledge and the strength necessary for culture of the land, and + she taught her boy to value and respect the soil. +</p> +<p> + "As you treat the ground ill or well, so will your ground treat you," + she said to him. +</p> + +<p> + She always wore the costume of the province, which was similar to + that of the Abruzzo villages, and suited her cast of features and her + strong and haughty carriage. On feast-days she wore three strings of + fine pearls round her throat, and bracelets of massive gold and of + fine workmanship, so many in number that her arms were stiff with + them; they had been her mother's and grandmother's and + great-grandmother's, and had been in her dower. To sell or pawn them + under stress of need, had such occurred, would never have seemed to + any of her race to be possible. It would have seemed as sacrilegious + as to take the chalice off the church altar, and melt its silver and + jewels in the fire. When she should go to her grave these ornaments + would pass to Adone as heirlooms; none of her family were living. +</> +<p> + "Never talk of death, mother," he said, whenever she spoke of these + things. "Death is always listening; and if he hear his name he taps + the talker on the shoulder, just to show that he is there and must be + reckoned with." +</p> +<p> + "Not so, my son!" replied Clelia Alba, with a sigh. "He has every + soul of us written down in his books from the time we are born; we + all have our hour to go and none of us can alter it." +</p> +<p> + "I do not believe that," said Adone. "We kill ourselves oftentimes; + or we hasten our end, as drunkards do." +</p> +<p> + "Did your father hasten his end?" said his mother. "Did not some one + break that olive branch? It was not the tree itself, though the + Ruscino folks would have it cut down because they called it a felon." +</p> +<p> + "Was it not the devil?" said Adone. +</p> +<p> + He believed in the devil, of course, as he had been taught to do; and + had he not as a child met the infernal effigy everywhere—in marble, + in stone, in wood, in colour, in the church and outside it, on + water-spout and lamp-iron, and even on the leaves of his primer? But + it seemed to him that the devil had "<i>troppo braccia</i>" given him, was + allowed too long a tether, too free a hand; if indeed he it were that + made everything go wrong, and Adone did not see who else it could be. + Here, in the vale of Edera, all the world believed in Satan as in + holy water, or in daily bread. +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba crossed herself hastily, for she was a pious woman. +</p> +<p> + "We are talking blasphemy, my son," she said gravely. "Of course + there is the good God who orders the number of our days for each of + us, and is over us all." +</p> +<p> + Adone was silent. To him it seemed doubtful. Did the good God kill + the pretty little children as the butcher in a city killed his lambs? + But he never contradicted or vexed his mother; he loved her with a + great and tender affection. He was less ignorant than she was, and + saw many things she could not see; he was, as it were, on a hilltop + and she down in a valley, but he had a profound respect for her; he + obeyed her implicitly, as if he were still a child, and he thought + the world held no woman equal to her. +</p> +<p> + When he went back to his house that evening, with his great net on + his shoulder and swinging in one hand some fresh-water fish, he + looked at the stone bench, which was empty of all except some fallen + rose-leaves, and then anxiously, questioningly, in the face of his + mother. +</p> +<p> + So he answered the regard. +</p> +<p> + "The girl is gone to Gianna's custody," she said rather harshly. + "Gianna will give her her supper, and will let her sleep in the loft. + With the morning we will see what we can do for her, and how she can + be sped upon her way." +</p> +<p> + Adone kissed her hands. +</p> +<p> + "You are always good," he said simply. +</p> +<p> + "I am weak," answered his mother, "I am weak, Adone; when you wish + anything I consent to it against my judgment." +</p> +<p> + But she was not weak; or at least only weak in the way in which all + generous natures are so. +</p> +<p> + On the morrow Nerina was not sped on her way. The old woman, Gianna, + thought well of her. +</p> +<p> + "She is as clean as a stone in the water," she said; "she has + foul-smelling rags, but her flesh is clean. She woke at dawn, and + asked for something to do. She knows nought, but she is willing and + teachable. We can make her of use. She has nowhere to go. She is a + stray little puppy. Her people were miserable, but they seem to have + been pious folks. She has a cross pricked on her shoulder. She says + her mother did it when she was a babe to scare the devil off her. I + do not know what to say; she is a poor, forlorn little wretch; if you + like to keep her, I for my part will see to her. I am old: it is well + to do a good work before one dies." +</p> +<p> + Gianna was an old woman, half house-servant, half farm-servant, + wholly friend; she had lived at the Terra Vergine all her life; big, + gaunt, and very strong, she could do the work of a man, although she + was over seventy years of age; burnt black by the sun, and with a + pile of grey hair like the hank of flax on her distaff, she was + feared by the whole district for her penetrating glance and her + untiring energy. When Gianna was satisfied the stars had changed + their courses, said the people, so rare was the event; therefore, + that this little wanderer contented her was at once a miracle and a + voucher indisputable. +</p> +<p> + So the child remained there; but her presence troubled Adone's + mother, though Nerina was humble as a homeless dog, was noiseless and + seldom seen, was obedient, agile, and became useful in many manners, + and learned with equal eagerness the farm work taught her by Gianna, + and the doctrine taught her by Don Silverio, for she was intelligent + and willing in every way. Only Clelia Alba thought, "Perhaps Gianna's + good heart misleads her. Gianna is rough; but she has a heart as + tender at bottom as a ripe melon's flesh." +</p> +<p> + Anyhow, she took her old servant's word and allowed the child to + remain. She could not bring herself to turn adrift a female thing to + stray about homeless and hungry, and end in some bottomless pit. The + child might be the devil's spawn. No one could be sure. But she had + eyes which looked up straight and true, and were as clear as the + river water where it flowed over pebbles in the shade. When the devil + is in a soul he always grins behind the eyes; he cannot help it; and + so you know him; thus, at least, they thought at Ruscino and in all + the vale of Edera; and the devil did not lurk in the eyes of Nerina. +</p> +<p> + "Have I done right, reverend sir?" asked Clelia Alba of the Vicar of + Ruscino. +</p> +<p> + "Oh, yes—yes—charity is always right," he answered, unwilling to + discourage her in her benevolence; but in his own mind he thought, + "The child is a child, but she will grow; she is brown, and starved, + and ugly now, but she will grow; she is a female thing and she will + grow, and I think she will be handsome later on; it would have been + more prudent to have put some money in her hand and some linen in her + wallet, and have let her pass on her way down the river. The saints + forbid that I should put aloes into the honey of their hearts; but + this child will grow." +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba perceived that he had his doubts as she had hers. But + they said nothing of them to each other. The issue would lie with + Time, whom men always depict as a mower, but who is also a sower, + too. However, for good or ill, she was there; and he knew that, + having once harboured her, they would never drive her adrift. Clelia + Alba was in every sense a good woman; a little hard at times, narrow + of sympathy, too much shut up in her maternal passion; but in the + main merciful and correct in judgment. +</p> +<p> + "If the child were not good the river would not have given her to + us," said Adone to her; and believed it. +</p> +<p> + "Good-day, my son," said the voice of the Vicar, Don Silverio + Frascara, behind him, where Adone worked in the fields. "Where did + you find that scarecrow whom your mother has shown me just now?" +</p> +<p> + "She was in the river, most reverend, dancing along in it, as merry + as a princess." +</p> +<p> + "But she is a skeleton!" +</p> +<p> + "Almost." +</p> +<p> + "And you know nothing of her?" +</p> +<p> + "Nothing, sir." +</p> +<p> + "You were more charitable than wise." +</p> +<p> + "One cannot let a little female thing starve whilst one has bread in + the hutch. My mother is a virtuous woman. She will teach the child + virtue." +</p> +<p> + "Let us hope so," said Don Silverio. "But all, my son, do not take + kindly to that lesson." +</p> +<p> + "What will be, will be. The river brought her." +</p> +<p> + He credited the river with a more than human sagacity. He held it in + awe and in reverence as a deity, as the Greeks of old held their + streams. It would have drowned the child, he thought, if she had been + an evil creature or of evil augury. But he did not say so, for he did + not care to provoke Don Silverio's fine fleeting ironical smile. +</p> +<p> + A goatherd who passed some few days later with his flock on his way + to the mountains recognised the little girl. +</p> +<p> + "You are Black Fausto's daughter," he said to her. "Is he dead? Eh, + well, we must all die. May his soul rest." +</p> +<p> + To Gianna, who questioned him, he said, "Yes, he was a good soul. + Often have I seen him down in the Roman plains. He worked himself to + death. These gangs of labourers get poor pay. I saw him also in the + hills where this girl comes from, ever so high up, you seem to touch + the sky. I summered there two years ago; he had his womankind in a + cabin, and he took all that he got home to them. Aye, he was a good + soul. We can come away out of the heats, but they have to stay down + in them; for the reaping and the sowing are their chief gain, and + they get the fever into their blood, and the worms into their + bellies, and it kills them mostly before they are forty. You see, at + Ansalda, where he came from, it was snow eight months out of the + twelve, so the heats and the mists killed him: for the air you are + born in you want, and if you do not get it in time you sicken." +</p> +<p> + "Like enough," said Gianna, who herself had never been out of sight + of the river Edera ever since she had been a babe in swaddling + clothes. "Tell me, gossip, was the child born in wedlock?" +</p> +<p> + "Eh, eh!" said the goatherd grinning. "That I would not take on me + to say. But like enough, like enough; they are always ready to go + before the priest in those high hills." +</p> +<p> + The little girl glided into her place humbly and naturally, with no + servility but with untiring willingness and thankfulness. It seemed + to her an amazing favour of heaven to live with these good people; to + have a roof over her head and food regularly every day. Up there in + her home, amongst the crags of Ansalda, she had never known what it + was not to have a daily hunger gnawing always in her entrails, and + making her writhe at night on her bed of dry leaves. In her thirteen + years of life she had never once had enough—no one ever had. A full + stomach had been a thing unknown. +</p> +<p> + She began to grow, she began to put a little flesh on her bones; they + had cut her hair short, for it had been so rough, and it grew again + burnished and bright like copper; colour came into her cheeks and + lips; she seemed to spring upward, visibly, like a young cane. She + worked hard, but she worked willingly, and she was well nourished on + sound food, though it had little variety and was entirely vegetable; + and every day she went down and bathed in the river at the same place + where she had sat nude under the dock leaves whilst her skirt dried + in the sun. +</p> +<p> + To her the Terra Vergine was Paradise itself; to be fed, to be + clothed, to have a mattress to sleep on, to work amongst the flowers + and the grass and the animals—it was all so beautiful, she thought + sometimes that she must be in heaven. +</p> +<p> + She spoke little. Since she had been under this roof she had grown + ashamed of the squalor and starvation and wretchedness of her past + existence. She did not like to think of it even; it had been no fault + of hers, but she felt ashamed that she ever should have been that + little, filthy, unkempt, naked thing, grovelling on the clay floor, + and fighting for mouldy crusts with the other children on the rock of + Ansalda. +</p> +<p> + "If I had only known when father was alive," she thought; but even if + she had known all she knew now, what could she have done? There had + been nothing to use, nothing to eat, nothing to wear, and the rain + and the snow and the wind had come in on them where they had lain + huddled together on their bed of rotten leaves. Now and then she said + something of that rude childhood of hers to Adone; she was afraid of + the women, but not of him; she trotted after him as the little white + curly dog Signorino trotted after Don Silverio. +</p> +<p> + "Do not think of those dark days, little one," he said to her. "They + are gone by. Think of your parents and pray for their souls; but let + the rest go; you have all your life to live." +</p> +<p> + "My mother was young when she died," said the child. "If she had had + food she would not have died. She said so. She kept on gnawing a bit + of rag which was soaked in water; you cheat hunger that way, you + know, but it does not fill you." +</p> +<p> + "Pour soul! Poor soul!" said Adone, and he thought of the great + markets he had seen in the north, the droves of oxen, the piles of + fruits, the long lines of wine carts, the heaps of slaughtered game, + the countless shops with their electric light, the trains running one + after another all the nights and every night to feed the rich; and he + thought, as he had thought when a boy, that the devil had <i>troppo + braccio</i>, if any devil indeed there were beside man himself. +</p> +<p> + Should there be anywhere on the face of the earth, young women, good + women, mothers of babes who died of sheer hunger like this mother of + Nerina's up yonder in the snows of the Abruzzo? He thought not; his + heart revolted at the vision of her, a living skeleton on her heap of + leaves. +</p> +<p> + "Father brought all he had," continued the child, "but he could not + come back until after harvest, and when he came back she had been in + the ground two months and more. They put him in the same ditch when + his turn came; but she was no longer there, for they take up the + bones every three years and burn them. They say they must, else the + ditch would get too full." +</p> +<p> + Adone shuddered. He knew that tens of thousands died so, and had died + so ever since the days of Phenicians and Gauls and Goths. But it + revolted him. The few gorged, the many famished—strange + disproportion! unkind and unfair balance! +</p> +<p> + But what remedy was there? +</p> +<p> + Adone had read some socialistic and communistic literature; but it + had not satisfied him; it had seemed to him vain, verbose, alluring, + but unreal, no better adapted to cure any real hunger than the soaked + rag of Nerina's mother. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0003"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + III +</h2> +<p> + The Valdedera is situated on the south of the Marches, on the + confines of what is now the territorial division of the + Abruzzo-Molese, and so lies between the Apennines and the Adriatic, + fanned by cool winds in summer from the eternal snow of the mountain + peaks, and invigorated in all seasons by breezes from the Adrian Sea. +</p> +<p> + Ruscino, placed midway in the valley, is only a village to which no + traveller has for many years come, and of which no geographer ever + speaks; it is marked on the maps of military topographers, and is, of + course, inscribed on the fiscal rolls, but is now no more than a + village; though once, when the world was young, it was the Etruscan + Rusciae, and then the Latin Ruscinonis; and then, when the Papacy was + mighty, it was the militant principality of the fortified town of + Ruscino. But it was, when the parish of Don Silverio, an almost + uninhabited village; a pale, diminutive, shrunken relic of its heroic + self; and of it scarcely any man knows anything except the few men + who make their dwelling there; sons of the soil, who spring from its + marble dust and return to it. +</p> +<p> + It had shrunk to a mere hamlet as far as its population was counted; + it shrank more and more with every census. There was but a handful of + poor people who, when gathered together in the great church, looked + no more than a few flies on a slab of marble. +</p> +<p> + The oldest men and women of the place could recall the time when it + had been still of some importance as a posting place on the mountain + route between the markets of the coast and the western towns, when + its highway had been kept clean and clear through the woods for + public and private conveyance, and when the clatter of horses' hoofs + and merry notes of horns had roused the echoes of its stones. In that + first half of the century, too, they had lived fairly well, and wine + and fowls had cost next to nothing, and home-made loaves had been + always large enough to give a beggar or a stray dog a slice. But + these times had long been over; every one was hungry now, and every + one a beggar, by way of change, and to make things equal, as the + people said, with dreary mirth and helpless acquiescence in their + lot. Like most riverain people, they lived chiefly by the river, + cutting and selling its canes, its sallows, its osiers, its sedges, + catching its fish, digging its sand; but there were few buyers in + this depopulated district. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio Frascara, its vicar, had been sent thither as a + chastisement for his too sceptical and inquiring mind, his too + undisciplined temper. Nearly twenty years in this solitude had + chastened both; the fire had died out of his soul and the light out + of his eyes. His days were as monotonous as those of the blinded ass + set to turn the wine-press. All the steel of his spirit rusted, all + the brilliancy of his brain clouded; his life was like a fine rapier + which is left in a corner of a dusty attic and forgotten. +</p> +<p> + In certain rare states of the atmosphere the gold cross on St. + Peter's is visible from some of the peaks of the Abruzzese Apennines. + It looks like a speck of light far, far away in the silver-green of + the western horizon. When one day he climbed to such an altitude and + saw it thus, his heart contracted with a sickly pain, for in Rome he + had dreamed many dreams; and in Rome, until his exile to the Vale of + Edera, he had been a preacher of noted eloquence, of brilliant + fascination, and of daring thought. +</p> +<p> + There had been long cypress alleys which at sunset had glowed with + rose and gold, where he had in his few leisure hours builded up such + visions for the future as illumined the unknown years to the eyes of + an Ignatius, a Hildebrand, a Lacordaire, a Bossuet. On the place + where those grand avenues had stretched their green length in the + western light, and the seminarist had paced over the sward, there + were now long, dreary lines of brick and stone, the beaten dust of + roadways, the clang and smoke of engines: as the gardens had passed + away so had passed his ambitions and visions; as the cypresses had + been ground to powder in the steam mill, so was he crushed and + effaced under an inexorable fate. The Church, intolerant of + individuality, like all despotisms, had broken his spirit; like all + despotisms the tyranny had been blind. But he had been rebellious to + doctrine; she had bound him to her stake. +</p> +<p> + He would have been a great prelate, perhaps even a great Pope; but he + would have been also a great reformer, so she stamped him down into + nothingness under her iron heel. And for almost a score of years she + had kept him in Ruscino, where he buried and baptized the old and new + creatures who squirmed in the dust, where any ordinary country priest + able to gabble through the ritual could have done as well as he. Some + few of the more liberal and learned dignitaries of the Church did + indeed think that it was waste of great powers, but he had the Sacred + College against him, and no one ventured to speak in his favour at + the Vatican. He had no pious women of rank to plead for him, no + millionaires and magnates to solicit his preferment. He was with time + forgotten as utterly as a folio is forgotten on a library shelf until + mildew eats its ink away and spiders nest between its leaves. He had + the thirty pounds a year which the State pays to such parish priests; + and he had nothing else. +</p> +<p> + He was a tall and naturally stately man, but his form was bent by + that want of good food which is the chronic malady of many parts of + Italy. There was little to eat in Ruscino, and had there been more + there would have been no one who knew how to prepare it. Bread, + beans, a little oil, a little lard, herbs which grew wild, goat's + milk, cheese, and at times a few small river fish; these were all his + sustenance: his feasts and his fasts were much alike, and the little + wine he had he gave away to the sick and the aged. For this reason + his high stature was bent and his complexion was of the clear, yellow + pallor of old marbles; his profile was like the Caesarian outline on + a medallion, and his eyes were deep wells of impenetrable thought; + his finely cut lips rarely smiled, they had always upon them an + expression of bitterness, as though the apple of life in its eating + had been harsh and hard as a crab. +</p> +<p> + His presbytery was close to his church, a dreary place with only a + few necessaries and many books within it, and his only servant was an + old man, lame and stupid, who served also as sacristan. +</p> +<p> + It was a cure of souls which covered many miles but counted few + persons. Outside the old walls of Ruscino nearly all the land of vale + of Edera was untilled, and within them a few poverty-stricken people + dragged out their days uncared for by any one, only remembered by the + collectors of fiscal dues. "<i>They</i> never forget," said the people. + "As soon as one is born, always and in every season, until one's + bones rattle down into the ditch of the dead, <i>they</i> remember + always." +</p> +<p> + The grasp of an invisible power took the crust off their bread, the + toll off their oil, off their bed of sacking, off their plate of + fish, and took their children when they grew to manhood and sent them + into strange lands and over strange seas; they felt the grip of that + hard hand as their forefathers had felt it under the Caesars, under + the Popes, under the feudal lords, under the foreign kings; they felt + it so now under the Casa Sabauda; the same, always the same; for the + manners and titles of the State may change, but its appetite never + lessens, and its greed never spares. For twice a thousand years their + blood had flowed and their earnings had been wrung out of them in the + name of the State, and nothing was changed in that respect; the few + lads they begot amongst them went to Africa, now as under Pompeius or + Scipio; and their corn sack was taken away from them under Depretis + or Crispi, as under the Borgia or the Malatesta; and their grape + skins soaked in water were taxed as wine, their salt for their + soup-pot was seized as contraband, unless it bore the government + stamp, and, if they dared say a word of resistance, there were the + manacles and the prison under Vittorio and Umberto as under Bourbon + or Bonaparte; for there are some things which are immutable as fate. + At long intervals, during the passing of ages, the poor stir, like + trodden worms, under this inexorable monotony of their treatment by + their rulers; and then baleful fires redden the sky, and blood runs + in the conduits, and the rich man trembles; but the cannon are + brought up at full gallop and it is soon over; there is nothing ever + really altered; the iron wheels only press the harder on the unhappy + worm, and there is nothing changed. +</p> +<p> + Here at Ruscino there were tombs of nenfro which had overhung the + river for thirty centuries; but those tombs have never seen any other + thing than this, nor ever will, until the light and the warmth of the + sun shall be withdrawn for ever, and the earth shall remain alone + with her buried multitudes. +</p> +<p> + There was only Don Silverio who thought of such a thing as this, a + scholar all alone amongst barbarians; for his heart ached for his + barbarians, though they bore him no love in return for his pity. They + would have liked better a gossiping, rotund, familiar, ignorant, + peasant priest, one of themselves, chirping formula comfortably over + skeleton corpses. +</p> +<p> + In default of other interests he interested himself in this ancient + place, passing from neglect into oblivion, as his own life was doing. + There were Etruscan sepulchres and Pelasgic caves which had been + centuries earlier rifled of their objects of value, but still + otherwise remained untouched under the acacia woods by the river. + There were columns and terraces and foundations of marble which had + been there when the Latin city of Ruscinonis had flourished, from the + time of Augustus until its destruction by Theodoric. And nearest of + all these to him were the Longobardo church and the ancient houses + and the dismantled fortress and the ruined walls of what had been the + fief of the Toralba, the mediaeval fortified town of Ruscino. It + still kept this, its latest, name, but it kept little else. Thrice a + thousand centuries had rolled over it, eating it away as the sea eats + away a cliff. War and fire and time had had their will with it for so + long that dropped acorns and pine-pips had been allowed leisure to + sink between the stones, and sprout and bud and rise and spread, and + were now hoary and giant trees, of which the roots were sunk deep + into its ruins, its graves, its walls. +</p> +<p> + It had been Etruscan, it had been Latin, it had been Longobardo, it + had been Borgian and Papal; through all these changes a fortified + city, then a castellated town, then a walled village; and a village + it now remained. It will never be more; before many generations pass + it will probably have become still less; a mere tumulus, a mere + honeycomb of buried tombs. It was now perishing, surely though + slowly, but in peace, with the grass growing on its temple stairs and + the woodbine winding round its broken columns. +</p> +<p> + The trained and stored intellect of Don Silverio could set each + period of its story apart, and read all the vestiges remaining of + each. Ruscino was now to all others a mere poverty-stricken place, + brown and gaunt and sorrowful, scorching in the sun, with only the + river beneath it to keep it clean and alive. But to him it was as a + palimpsest of surpassing value and interest, which, sorely difficult + to decipher, held its treasures close from the profane and the + ignorant, but tempted and rewarded the scholar, like the lettering on + a Pompeian nuptial ring, the cyphers on a funeral urn of Herculaneum. + "After all, my lot might be worse than it is," he thought with + philosophy. "They might have sent me to a modern manufacturing town + in one of the Lombard provinces, or exiled me to some native + settlement in Eritrea." +</p> +<p> + Here, at least, he had history and nature, and he enjoyed thousands + of hours undisturbed in which to read or write, or muse and ponder on + this chronicle of brick and stone, this buried mass of dead men's + labours and of dead men's dust. +</p> +<p> + Doubtless, his manuscripts would lie unknown, unread; no man would + care for them; but the true scholar cares neither for public not + posterity; he lives for the work he loves; and if he knows that he + will have few readers in the future—maybe none—how many read + Grotius, or Boethius, or Chrysostom, or Jerome? +</p> +<p> + Here, like a colony of ants, the generations had crowded one on + another, now swept away by the stamp of a conqueror's heel and now + succeeded by another toiling swarm, building anew each time out of + ruin, undaunted by the certainty of destruction, taught nothing by + the fate of their precursors. From the profound sense of despair + which the contemplation of the uselessness of human effort, and the + waste of human life, produces on the scholar's mind, it was a relief + to him to watch the gladness of its river, the buoyancy of its + currents, the foam of white blossom on its acacia and syringa + thickets, the gold sceptres and green lances of its iris-pseudacorus, + the sweep of the winds through its bulrushes and canebreaks, the + glory of colour in the blue stars of its veronica, the bright rosy + spikes of its epilobium. The river seemed always happy, even when the + great rainfall of autumn churned it into froth and the lightnings + illumined its ink-black pools. +</p> +<p> + It was on the river that he had first made friends with Adone, then a + child of six, playing and splashing in the stream, on a midsummer + noon. Don Silverio also was bathing. Adone, a little nude figure, as + white as alabaster in the hot light, for he was very fair of skin, + sprang suddenly out of the water on to the turf above where his + breeches and shirt had been left; he was in haste, for he had heard + his mother calling to him from their fields; an adder started out of + a coil of bindweed and would itself round his ankle as he stooped for + his clothes. +</p> +<p> + The priest, standing waist-deep in the river a few yards away, saw it + before the child did, and cried out to him: "Stand still till I come! + Be not afraid!" Adone understood, and, although trembling with terror + and loathing as he realised his danger, and felt the slimy clasp of + the snake, remained motionless as he was bidden to do. In a second of + time the priest had leaped through the water to his side, seized the + adder, and killed it. +</p> +<p> + "Good boy," he said to the child. "If you had moved your foot the + creature would have bitten you." +</p> +<p> + Adone's eyes filled with tears. +</p> +<p> + "Thank you, sir; thank you for mother," he said very gently, for he + was a shy child, though courageous. +</p> +<p> + The priest stroked his curls. +</p> +<p> + "There is death in the grass very often. We should not fear death, + but neither should we run risk of it uselessly, especially when we + have a mother whom it would grieve. Come and bathe at this spot, at + this hour, to-morrow and every day, if you like. I will be here and + look after you, you are little to be alone." +</p> +<p> + They were often together from that day onwards. +</p> +<p> + The brutishness and greed of his flock oppressed him. He was sent + here to have care of their souls, but where were their souls? They + would all have sold them to the foul fiend for a mess of artichokes + fried in oil. In such a solitude as this he had been glad to be able + to teach and move the young malleable mind of Adone Alba; the only + one of them who seemed to have any mind at all. Adone also had a + voice as sweet as a nightingale in the syringa bushes in May; and it + pierced the gloom of the old naked gaunt church as a nightingale's + thrills through the dark hour before dawn. +</p> +<p> + There was no other music in that choir except the children's or + youths' voices; there was nothing to make music with except those + flexible pipes of the boyish throats; and Don Silverio loved and + understood choral music; he had studied it in Rome. Adone never + refused to sing for him, and when the voice of adolescence had + replaced that of childhood, he would still stand no less docilely by + the old marble lectern, and wake the melodies of early masters from + the yellow pages. +</p> +<p> + The church was as damp as a vault of the dead; cold even when the + dog-star reigned in the heavens. The brasses and bronzes were rusted + with moisture, and the marbles were black with the spores of mould; + rain dripped through the joints of the roof, and innumberable + sparrows made their nests there; the mosaics of the floor were green + from these droppings, and from those of the rain; the sun never + entered through any of the windows, which were yellow with age and + dust; but here, with a lantern for their only light, they solaced + each other with the song of the great choral masters. Only Adone, + although he never said or showed it, was glad when the huge key + groaned in the lock of the outer door, and he ran out into the + evening starlight, down the steep streets, across the bridge, and + felt the fresh river air blowing on him, and heard the swirling of + the water amongst the frost-stiffened canes, and saw far off in the + darkened fields the glimmer of a light—the light of home. +</p> +<p> + That old home was the dearest thing on earth to the young man. He had + never been away from it but once, when the conscription called him. + In that time, which had been to him like a nightmare, the time of his + brief exile to the army, because he was the only son of a widow, he + had been sent to a northern city, one of commerce and noise and + crowded, breathless life; he had been cooped up in it like a panther + in a den, like a hawk in a cage. What he saw of the vices and + appetites of men, the pressure of greed and of gain, the harsh and + stupid tyranny of the few, the slavish and ignoble submission of the + many, the brutish bullying, the crouching obedience, the deadly + routine, the lewd licence of reaction—all filled him with disdain + and with disgust. When he returned to his valley he bathed in the + waters of Edera before he crossed his mother's threshold. +</p> +<p> + "Make me clean as I was when I left you!" he cried, and took the + water in the hollow of his hands and kissed it. +</p> +<p> + But no water flows on the earth, from land to sea, which can wholly + cleanse the soul as it cleanses the body. +</p> +<p> + That brief time under arms he cursed as thousands of youths have + cursed it. Its hated stigma and pollution never wholly passed away. + It left a bitterness on his lips, a soil upon his memories. But how + sweet to him beyond expression, on his return, were the sound of the + rushing river in the silence of the night, the pure odours of the + blossoming beanfields, the clear dark sky with its radiant stars, the + sense of home, the peace of his own fields! +</p> +<p> + "Mother, whether life for me shall be long or short, here its every + hour shall be spent!" he said, as he stood on his own ground and + looked through the olive-trees to the river, running swiftly and + strong beneath the moon. +</p> +<p> + "Those are good words, my son," said Clelia Alba, and her hands + rested on his bowed head. +</p> +<p> + He adored both the soil and the water of this place of his birth; no + toil upon either seemed to him hard or mean. All which seemed to him + to matter much in the life of a man was to be free, and he was so. In + that little kingdom of fertile soil and running stream no man could + bid him come and go, no law ruled his uprising and his down lying; he + had enough for his own wants and the wants of those about him, enough + for the needs of the body, and the mind here had not many needs; at + the Terra Vergine he was his own master, except so far as he + cheerfully deferred to his mother; and all which he put into the + earth he could take out of it for his own usage, though indeed the + fiscal authorities claimed well nigh one-half, rating his land at far + more than its worth. No doubt scientific agriculture might have made + it yield more than he did; but he was content to follow the ways of + old; he farmed as men did when the Sun-god was the farm slave of + Admetus. The hellebore and the violets grew at will in his furrows; + the clematis and the ivy climbed his figtrees; the fritillaria and + daphne grew in his pastures, and he never disturbed them, or scared + the starling and the magpie which fluttered in the wake of his wooden + plough. The land was good land, and gave him whatever he wanted; he + grudged nothing off it to bird, or beast, or leaf, or flower, or to + the hungry wayfarer who chanced to pass by his doors. In remote + places the old liberal, frank, open-handed hospitality of an earlier + time is still in Italy a practice as well as a tradition. +</p> +<p> + The house was their own, and the earth gave them their bread, their + wine, their vegetables, their oil, hemp, and flax for their linen, + and herbs for their soup; of the olive-oil they had more than enough + for use, and the surplus was sold once a year in the nearest town, + San Beda, and served to meet the fiscal demands. They had rarely any + ready money, but no peasant in Italy ever expects, unless by some + luck at lotto, to have money in his pocket. +</p> +<p> + He worked hard; at some seasons extremely hard; he hired labour + sometimes, but not often, for to pay for the hiring takes the profit + off the land. But he had been used to such work from childhood, and + it was never irksome to him; even though he rose in the dark, and + rarely went home to supper till the stars were shining. He had no + near neighbours except the poor folks in Ruscino. All surrounding him + was grass and moor and wood, called communal property, but in reality + belonging legally to no one; vast, still, fragrant leagues of + uninhabited country stretching away to the blue hills, home of the + fox and the hare and the boar, of the hawk and the woodpecker and the + bittern. +</p> +<p> + Through those wilds he loved to wander alone; the sweet stillness of + a countryside which was uncontaminated by the residence of men + stilling the vague unrest of his youth, and the mountains towering in + the light lending to the scene the charm of the unknown. +</p> +<p> + In days of storm or rain he read with Don Silverio or sang in the + church; on fine holy-days he roamed far afield in the lonely + heatherlands and woodlands which were watered by the Edera. He + carried a gun, for defence if need be, for there were boars and + wolves in these solitudes; but he never used it upon bird or beast. +</p> +<p> + Like St. Francis of Assissi, both he and Don Silverio took more + pleasure in the life than in the death of fair winged things. +</p> +<p> + "We are witness, twice in every year, of that great and inexplicable + miracle," the priest said often, "that passage of small, frail, + unguided creatures, over seas and continents, through tempests and + simoons, and with every man's hand against them, and death waiting to + take them upon every shore, by merciless and treacherous tricks, and + we think nought of it; we care nought for it; we spread the nets and + the gins—that is all. We are unworthy of all which makes the earth + beautiful—vilely unworthy!" +</p> +<p> + One of the causes of his unpopularity in Ruscino was the inexorable + persistence with which he broke their gins, lifted their nets, + cleared off their birdlime, dispersed their watertraps, and forbade + the favourite night poaching by lanterns in the woods. More than once + they threatened his life, but he only smiled. +</p> +<p> + "<i>Faccia pure</i>!" he said, "you will cut a knot which I did not tie, + and which I cannot myself undo." +</p> +<p> + But they held him in too much awe to dare to touch him, and they knew + that again and again he went on bread and water himself to give his + wine to their sick, or his strip of meat to their old people. +</p> +<p> + Moreover, they feared Adone. +</p> +<p> + "If you touch a hair of Don Silverio's head, or the hem of his + cassock, I will burn Ruscino," said Adone to one of those who had + threatened his friend, "and you will all burn with it, for the river + will not help you; the river will turn to oil and make the flames + rage tenfold." +</p> +<p> + The people were afraid as they heard him, for the wrath of the gentle + is terrible from its rarity. +</p> +<p> + "For sure 'tis the dead Tor'alba as speak in him," they said with + fright under their breath, for there was a tale told in the district + that Adone Alba was descended from the old war-lords. +</p> +<p> + The veterans of the village and the countryside remembered hearing + their fathers say that the family of the Terra Vergine were descended + from those great marquises who had reigned for centuries in that + Rocca which was now a grim, ivy-covered ruin on the north of the + Edera water. But more than this no one could say; no one could tell + how the warlike race had become mere tillers of the soil, or how + those who had measured out life and death up and down the course of + the valley had lost their power and possessions. There were vague + traditions of a terrible siege, following on a great battle in the + vale; that was all. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0004"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + IV +</h2> +<p> + The church in which Don Silverio officiated every morning and evening + for the benefit of a few old crones, had once been a Latin temple; it + had been built from the Corinthian pillars, the marble peristyle, the + rounded, open dome, like that of the Pantheon, of a pagan edifice; + and to these had been added a Longobardo belfry and chancel; pigeons + and doves roosted and nested in it, and within it was cold even in + midsummer, and dark always as a vault. It was dedicated to St. + Jerome, and was a world too wide for the shrunken band of believers + who came to worship in it; there was a high, dark altar said to have + been painted by Ribera, and nothing else that spoke in any way of + art, except the capitals of its pillars and the Roman mosaics of its + floor. +</p> +<p> + The Longobardo bell-tower was of vast height and strength; within it + were various chambers, and these chambers had served through many + ages as muniment-rooms. There were innumerable documents of many + different epochs, almost all in Latin, a few in Greek. Don Silverio, + who was a fine classic as well as a learned archæologist, spent all + his lonely and cold winter evenings in the study of these early + chronicles, his oil lamp burning pale and low, his little white dog + lying on his knees. +</p> +<p> + These manuscripts gave him great trouble, and were in many parts + almost unintelligible, in others almost effaced by damp, in others + again gnawed by rats and mice. But he was interested in his labours + and in his subject, and after several years of work on them, he was + able to make out a consecutive history of the Valdedera, and he was + satisfied that the peasant of the Terra Vergine had been directly + descended from the feudal-lords of Ruscino. That pittance of land by + the waterside under the shadow of the ruined citadel was all which + remained of the great fief of the youth in whose veins ran the blood + of men who had given princes, and popes, and cardinals, and captains + of condottieri, and patrons of art, and conquerors or revolted + provinces, to the Italy of old from the beginning of the thirteenth + century to the end of the sixteenth. For three hundred years the + Tor'alba had been lords there, owning all their eyes could reach from + mountain to sea; then after long siege the walled town and their + adjacent stronghold had fallen into the hands of hereditary foes + whose forces had been united against them. Fire and steel had done + their worst, and only a month-old child had escaped from the burning + Rocca, being saved in a boat laden with reeds at anchor in the river, + and hidden by a faithful vassal. The child had grown to manhood and + had lived to old age, leading a peasant's life on the banks of the + Edera; the name had been mutilated in common usage amongst those who + spoke only the dialect of the province, and for three more centuries + father and son had succeeded each other, working for their daily + bread where their ancestors had defied Borgia and Della Rovere, and + Feltrio, and Malatesta; the gaunt dark shade of the dismantled + citadel lying athwart their fields between them and the setting sun. +</p> +<p> + Should he tell Adone this or not? +</p> +<p> + Would the knowledge of his ancestry put a thorn in the boy's + contented heart? Would it act as a spur to higher things, or be + merely as the useless sting of a nettle? +</p> +<p> + Who could say? +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio remembered the gorgeous dreams of his own youth; and + what had been their issue? +</p> +<p> + At fifty years old he was buried in a deserted village, never hearing + from year's end to year's end one word of friendship or phrase of + culture. +</p> +<p> + Would it be well or would it be wrong to disturb that tranquil + acquiescence in a humble destiny? He could not decide. He dared not + take upon himself so much responsibility. "In doubt do nothing" has + been the axiom of many wise men. The remembrance of the maxim closed + his lips. He had himself been in early manhood passionately + ambitious; he was only a priest, but of priests are made the + Gregorio, the Bonifazio, the Leone of the Papal throne; to the dreams + of a seminarist nothing is impossible. But Adone had no such dreams; + he was as satisfied with his lot as any young steer which wants + nothing more than the fair, fresh fields of its birth. But one day as + he was sitting with the boy, then fifteen years old, on the south + bank of the Edera, the spirit moved him and he spake. It was the day + of San Benedetto, when the swallows come. The grass was full of pink + lychnis and yellow buttercups. A strong east wind was blowing from + the sea. A number of martins, true to the proverb, were circling + gaily above the stream. The water, reflecting the brilliant hues of + the heavens, was hurrying on its seaward way, swollen by recent rains + and hastened by a strong wind blowing from the eastern mountains. +</p> +<p> + The lands of the Terra Vergine lay entirely on the south-east bank of + the river, and covered many acres, of which some was moorland still. + Almost opposite to it was the one-arched stone bridge, attributed to + Theodoric, and on the northern bank was the ruined Rocca, towering + above the trees which had grown up around it; whilst hidden by it and + by the remains of the fortifications was that which was now the mere + village of Ruscino. +</p> +<p> + "Listen, Adone!" he said in his deep, melodious voice, grave and + sweet as a mass of Palestrina. "Listen, and I will tell you the tale + of yonder donjon and village, and of the valley of the Edera, so far + as I have been able to make it out for myself." +</p> +<p> + According to the writers whose manuscripts he had discovered the town + of Ruscino, like Cremona, had existed before the siege of Troy, that + is, six hundred years before the foundation of Rome. Of this there + was no proof except tradition, but the ruins of the walls and the + tombs by the riverside and in the fields proved that it had been an + Etruscan city, and of some considerable extent and dignity, in those + remote ages. +</p> +<p> + "The foundations of the Rocca," he continued, "were probably part of + a great stronghold raised by the Gauls, who undoubtedly conquered the + whole of this valley at the time when they settled themselves in what + is now the Marches, and founded Senegallia. It was visited by + Asdrubal, and burned by Alaric; then occupied by the Greek free + lances of Justinian; in the time of the Frankish victories, in common + with greater places, it was forced to swear allegiance to the first + papal Adrian. After that it had been counted as one of the fiefs + comprised in the possessions of the Pentapolis; and later on, when + the Saracens ravaged the shores of the Adriatic, they had come up the + Valdedera and pillaged and burned again. Gregory the Ninth gave the + valley to the family of its first feudal lords, the Tor'alba, in + recompense for military service, and they, out of the remains of the + Gallic, Etruscan, and Roman towns, rebuilt Ruscino and raised the + Rocca on the ruins of the castle of the Gauls. There, though at feud + many time with their foes, the Della Rovere, the Malatesta, and the + Dukes of Urbino, they held their own successfully, favoured usually + by Rome, and for three centuries grew in force and in possessions. + But they lost the favour of Rome by their haughtiness and + independence; and under pretext that they merited punishment, Cesare + Borgia brought troops of mercenaries against them, and after a fierce + conflict in the valley (the terrible battle of which the villagers + preserved the memory) the town was besieged and sacked. +</p> +<p> + "After this battle, which must have taken place on yonder moor, to + the north-west, for the assailants had crossed the Apennines, the + Tor'alba and the remnant of men remaining to them retreated within + the walls of Ruscino. +</p> +<p> + "The whole place and the citadel were burning, set on fire by order + of Borgia. The church alone was spared, and the dead men were as + thick as stones on the walls, and in the streets, and in the nave of + the church, and on the streets, and in the houses. This river was + choked with corpses, and dark with blood. The black smoke towered to + the sky in billows like a sea. The mercenaries swarmed over the + bastions and violated the women, and cut off their breasts and threw + their bodies down into the stream and their children after them. The + Lady of Tor'alba, valiant as Caterina Sforza, was the first slain. +</p> +<p> + "The whole place was given up to flame and carnage, and the great + captains were as helpless as dead oxen. They were all slain amongst + their troopers and their vassals, and their bodies were burnt when + the fortress was fired. +</p> +<p> + "Only one little child escaped the massacre, a month-old babe, son of + the Marquis of Tor'alba, who was hidden by a faithful servant amongst + the reeds of the Edera in a basket. This servant was the only male + who escaped slaughter. +</p> +<p> + "The river rushes were more merciful than man, they kept the little + new-born lordling safe until his faithful vassal, under cover of the + night, when the assailants were drunk and stupid with licence + gratified, could take him to a poor woman to be suckled in a cottage + farther down the river. How he grew up I know not, but certain it is + that thirty years later one Federigo Tor'alba was living where you + live, and your house and land have never changed hands or title + since; only your name has been truncated, as often happens in the + speech of the people. How this land called the Terra Vergine was + first obtained I cannot say; the vassal may have saved some gold or + jewels which belonged to his masters, and have purchased these acres, + or the land may have been taken up and put gradually into cultivation + without any legal right to it; of this there is no explanation, no + record. But from that time the mighty lordship of Tor'alba has been + extinct, and scarcely exists now even in local tradition; although + their effigies are on their tombs, and the story of their reign can + be deciphered by any one who can read a sixteenth-century manuscript, + as you might do for yourself, my son, had you been diligent." +</p> +<p> + Adone was silent. He had listened with attention, as he did to + everything which was said or read to him by Don Silverio. But he was + not astonished, because he had often heard, though vaguely, the + legend of his descent. +</p> +<p> + "Of what use is it?" he said, as he sat moving the bright water with + his bare slim feet. "Nothing will bring it all back." +</p> +<p> + "It should serve some great end," said Don Silverio, not knowing very + well what he meant or to what he desired to move the young man's + mind. "Nobility of blood should make the hands cleaner, the heart + higher, the aims finer." +</p> +<p> + Adone had shrugged his shoulders. +</p> +<p> + "We are all equal!" he answered. +</p> +<p> + "We are not all equal," the priest said curtly. "There is not + equality in nature. Are there even two pebbles alike in the bed of + the river?" +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio, for the first time in his life, could have willingly + let escape him some unholy word. It incensed him that he could not + arouse in the boy any of that interest and excitement which had moved + his own feelings so strongly as he had spent his spare evenings + poring over the crabbed characters and the dust-weighted vellum of + the charred and mutilated archives discovered by him in a secret + closet in the bell-tower of his church. With infinite toil, patience, + and ability he had deciphered the Latin of rolls, registers, letters, + chronicles, so damaged by water, fire, and the teeth of rats and + mice, that it required all an archæologist's ingenuity and devotion + to make out any sense from them. Summer days and winter nights had + found him poring over the enigma of these documents, and now, when he + had conquered and revealed their secret, he who was most concerned in + it was no more stirred by curiosity or pride than if he had been one + of the big tawny owls dwelling in the dusk of the belfry. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio was a learned man and a holy man, and should have + despised such vanities, but an historic past had great seduction for + him; a militant race fascinated him against his conscience, and + aristocracy allured him despite all his better judgement; it seemed + to him that if he had learned that he had come from a knightly <i>gens</i> + such as this of the Tor'alba, he would have been more strongly moved + to self-glorification than would have become a servant of the Church. + He himself had no knowledge even of his own near parentage; he had + been a forsaken child, left one dark autumn night in the iron cradle + of the gates of a foundling hospital in Reggio Calabrese. His names + had been bestowed on him by the chaplain of the institution; and his + education had been given him by an old nobleman of the town, + attracted by his appearance and intelligence as a child. He was now + fifty years of age; and he had never known anything of kith and kin, + or of the mingled sweetness and importunity of any human tie. +</p> +<p> + Adone sat silent, looking up at the fortress of his forefathers. He + was more moved than his words showed. +</p> +<p> + "If we were lords of the land and the town and the people, we were + also lords of the river," was what he was thinking; and that thought + moved him to strong pride and pleasure, for he loved the river with a + great love, only equalled by that which he felt for his mother. +</p> +<p> + "They were lords of the river?" he asked aloud. +</p> +<p> + "Undoubtedly," answered the priest. "It was one of the highways of + the province from east to west and <i>vice versâ</i> in that time; the + signoria of this Rocca took toll, kept the fords and bridges and + ferries; none could pass up and down under Ruscino without being seen + by the sentinels on the ramparts here. The Edera was different then; + more navigable, perhaps less beautiful. Rivers change like nations. + There have been landslips which have altered its course and made its + torrents. In some parts it is shallower, in others deeper. The woods + which enclosed its course then have been largely felled, though not + wholly. Sand has been dug from it incessantly, and rocks have fallen + across it. As you know, no boats or barges which draw any depth of + water can ascend or descend it now without being towed by horses; and + in some parts, as here, it is course, too precipitous in its fall for + even small boats to adventure themselves upon it: its shoals of + lilies can blossom unmolested where its surface is level. Yes; + undoubtedly, the lords of Ruscino were also lords of the Edera, from + its mouth to its source; and their river formed at once their + strongest defence and their weakest point. It was difficult + sufficiently to guard so many miles of water; above all because, as I + say, its course was so much clearer, and its depth so much greater, + that a flotilla of rafts or cutters could ascend it from its mouth as + far as this town in the Middle Ages; in fact, more than once, + corsairs from the Levant and from Morocco did so ascend it, and + though they were driven back by the culverins of the citadel, they + every time carried off to slavery some of the youths and maidens of + the plain." +</p> +<p> + Adone gazed across the river to the moss-grown walls which had once + been fortifications still visible on the side of the hill, and to the + frowning donjon, the blackened towers, the ruined bastions, of what + had been once the Rocca, with the amber light and rosy clouds of the + unseen sun behind them. +</p> +<p> + "Teach me Latin, your reverence," was all he said. +</p> +<p> + "I have always offered to do so," said Don Silverio. +</p> +<p> + Adone was again silent, swinging his slender brown feet in the water, + and looking always upward at the evening sky beyond the great round + shape of the dismantled fortress. +</p> +<p> + He learned some Latin with much difficulty, studying hard in his + evening leisure in the winters, and with time he could decipher for + himself, with assistance from Don Silverio, the annals of the + Tor'alba; and he saw that it was as certain as anything grown over + with the lichens and cobwebs of time can be that he himself was the + last of the race. +</p> +<p> + "Your father used to say something of the sort," his mother said; + "but he had only heard it piecemeal from old people, and never heard + enough to put the pieces together as you have done. 'What does it + matter either?' he used to say; and he said those great lords had + been cut-throats on the land and robbers on the river. For your + father's father had worn the red shirt in his youth, as I have told + you often, and thought but little of lords and princes." +</p> +<p> + But Adone was different; the past allured him with the fascination + which it has for poets and scholars; he was neither of these, except + in a vague, unconscious way; but his imagination was strong and + fertile once aroused; the past, as suggested to him by the vicar, by + degrees became to him a living thing and nearer than the present, as + it is to scholars who are poets. He was neither scholar nor poet; but + he loved to muse upon that far-off time when his forefathers had been + lords of the land and of the water. +</p> +<p> + He did not want the grandeur, he did not envy the power which they + had possessed; but he wished that, like them, he could own the Edera + from its rise in the hills to its fall into the sea. +</p> +<p> + "Oh, dear river!" he sang to it tenderly, "I love you. I love you as + the dragon-flies do, as the wagtails do, as the water voles do; I am + you and you are me. When I lean over you and smile, you smile back to + me. You are beautiful in the night and the morning, when you mirror + the moon and play with the sunbeams, when you are angry under the + wind, and when you are at peace in the heat of the noon. You have + been purple with the blood of my people, and now you are green and + fresh as the leaves of the young vine. You have been black with + powder and battle, now you are fair with the hue of the sky and the + blue of the myosotis. You are the same river as you were a thousand + years ago, and yet you only come down to-day from the high hills, + young and strong, and ever renewing. What is the life of man beside + yours?" +</p> +<p> + That was the ode which he sang in the dialect of the province, and + the stream washed his feet as he sang; and with his breath on his + long reed flute—the same flute as youths have made and used ever + since the days that Apollo reigned on Saracte—he copied the singing + of the river, which piped as it ran, like birds at dawn. +</p> +<p> + But this was only at such times as daybreak or early night when he + was alone. +</p> +<p> + There were but a few people within the ruined walls of Ruscino; most + of the houses were tenantless and tottering to their fall. A few old + bent men and weather-beaten women and naked children climbed its + steep lanes and slept under its red-brown roofs, bawled to each other + from its deep arched doorways to tell of death or birth, and gathered + dandelion leaves upon its ramparts to cure their shrunken and swollen + bladders. He knew them every one, he was familiar with and kind to + them; but he was aloof from them by temperament and thought, and he + showed them his soul no more than the night birds in the towers + showed their tawny breasts and eyes of topaz to the hungry and ragged + fowls which scratched amongst the dust and refuse on the stones in + the glare of day. +</p> +<p> + "<i>Il Bel Adone</i>!" sighed matrons and the maidens of the scattered + farms and the old gloomy castellated granges which here and there, + leagues distant from one another, broke the green and silent monotony + of the vast historic country whose great woods sloped from hill to + plain. But to these, too, he was indifferent, though they had the + stern and solid beauty of the Latium women on their broad low brows, + their stately busts, their ox-like eyes, their shapely feet and + limbs; and often, joined to that, the red-gold hair and the fair skin + of the Adriatic type. As they bound the sheaves, and bore the + water-jars, and went in groups through the seeding grass to chapel, + or fountain, or shrine, they had the free, frank grace of an earlier + time; just such as these had carried the votive doves to the altars + of Venus and chanted by the waters of the Edera the worship of Isis + and her son. But to Adone they had no charm. What did he desire or + dream of? Himself he could not have said. Perhaps they were too warm; + it was certain that they left him cold. +</p> +<p> + Sometimes he learned over the river and looked longingly into its + depths. +</p> +<p> + "Show me the woman I shall love," he said to the water, but it + hastened on, glad, tumultuous, unheeding; and he only saw the + reflection of the white jonquils or of the golden sword rush on its + banks. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0005"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + V +</h2> +<p> + Fruits ripen quickly in these provinces, and children become women in + a summer hour; but with Nerina, through want and suffering and + hunger, physical growth had been slow, and she remained long a child + in many things and many ways. Only in her skill and strength for work + was she older than her actual age. +</p> +<p> + She could hoe and reap and sow: she could row and steer the boat + amongst the shallows as well as any man; she could milk the cow, and + put the steers in the waggon; she could card hemp and flax, and weave + and spin either; she could carry heavy weights balanced on her head; + she was strong and healthy and never ill, and with it all she was + happy. Her large bright eyes were full of contentment, and her rosy + mouth often smiled out of the mere gladness of living. Her senses + were still asleep and her young soul wanted nothing more than life + gave her. +</p> +<p> + "You can earn your bread anywhere now, little one," said Clelia Alba + to her one day, when she had been there three years. +</p> +<p> + The girl shrank as under a blow; her brown and rosy face grew + colourless. "Do you wish me to go away?" she said humbly. +</p> +<p> + "No, no," said Clelia, although that was what she did desire. "No, + not while I live. But should I die, you could not stay here with my + son." +</p> +<p> + "Why?" said Nerina. She did not understand why. +</p> +<p> + Clelia hesitated. +</p> +<p> + "You ought to feel that yourself," she said harshly. "Young men and + young maids do not dwell together, unless" +</p> +<p> + "Unless what?" asked Nerina. +</p> +<p> + "You are a simpleton indeed, or you are shamming," thought Adone's + mother; but aloud she only said, "It is not in our usage." +</p> +<p> + "But you will not die," said Nerina anxiously. "Why should you think + of dying, madonna? You are certainly old, but you are not so very, + very old." +</p> +<p> + Clelia smiled. +</p> +<p> + "You do not flatter, child. So much the better. Run away and drive in + those fowls. They are making havoc in the beanfield." +</p> +<p> + She could not feel otherwise than tenderly towards this young + creature, always so obedient, so tractable, so contented, so + grateful; but she would willingly have placed her elsewhere could she + have done so with a clear conscience. +</p> +<p> + "My son will never do ill by any creature under his roof," she + thought. "But still youth is youth; and the girl grows." +</p> +<p> + "We must dower her and mate her; eh, your reverence?" she said to Don + Silverio when he passed by later in that day. +</p> +<p> + "Willingly," he answered. "But to whom? To the owls or the cats at + Ruscino?" +</p> +<p> + In himself he thought, "She is as straight and as slight as a + chestnut wand, but she is as strong. When you shall try to bend her + where she shall not want to go you will not succeed." +</p> +<p> + For he knew the character of Nerina in the confessional better than + Clelia Alba judged of it in her house. +</p> +<p> + "It was not wise to bring her here," he added aloud. "But having + committed that error it would be unfair to charge the child with the + painful payment of it. You are a just woman, my good friend; you must + see that." +</p> +<p> + Clelia saw it clearly, for she never tried to trick her conscience. +</p> +<p> + "Your reverence mistakes me," she answered. "I would not give her to + any but a good man and a good home." +</p> +<p> + "They are not common," said Don Silverio. "Nor are they as easy to + find as flies in summer." +</p> +<p> + What was the marriage of the poor for the woman? What did it bring? + What did it mean? The travail of child-bearing, the toil of the + fields, the hardship of constant want, the incessant clamour on her + ear of unsatisfied hunger, the painful rearing of sons whom the State + takes away from her as soon as they are of use, painful ending of + life on grudged crusts as a burden to others on a hearth no longer + her own. This, stripped of glamour, is the lot nine times out of ten + of the female peasant — a creature of burden like the cow she yokes, + an animal valued only in her youth and her prime; in old age or in + sickness like the stricken and barren goat, who has nought but its + skin and its bones. +</p> +<p> + Poor little Nerina! +</p> +<p> + As he went home he saw her cutting fodder for a calf; she was + kneeling in a haze of rose colour made by the many blossoms of the + <i>orchis maculat</i> which grew there. The morning light sparkled in the + wet grass. She got up as she saw him cross the field, dropped her + curtsey low with a smile, then resumed her work, the dew, the sun, + the sweet fresh scents shed on her like a benison. +</p> +<p> + "Poor little soul," thought Don Silverio. "Poor little soul! Has + Adone no eyes?" +</p> +<p> + Adone had eyes, but they saw other things than a little maiden in the + meadow-grass. +</p> +<p> + To her he was a deity; she believed in him and worshipped him with + the strongest faith, as a little sister might have done. She would + have fought for him like a little mastiff; she would have suffered in + his service with rapture and pride; she was as vigilant for his + interests as if she were fidelity incarnated. She watched over all + that belonged to him, and the people of Ruscino feared her more than + they feared Pierino the watch-dog. Woe betided the hapless wight who + made free with the ripe olives, or the ripe grapes, with the fig or + the peach or the cherry which grew on Adone's lands; it seemed to + such marauders that she had a thousand eyes and lightning in her + feet. +</p> +<p> + One day, when she had dealt such vigorous blows with a blackthorn + stick on the back of a lad who had tried to enter the fowl-house, + that he fell down and shrieked for pardon, Adone reproved her. + "Remember they are very poor, Nerina," he said to her. "So were your + own folks, you say." +</p> +<p> + "I know they are poor," replied Nerina; she held to her opinions. + "But when they ask, you always give. Therefore it is vile to rob you. + Besides," she added, "if you go on and let them steal and steal till + you will have nothing left." +</p> +<p> + Whatever she saw, whatever she heard, she told Adone; and he gave ear + to her because she was not a chatterer, but was usually of few words. + All her intelligence was spent in the defence and in the culture of + the Terra Vergine; she did not know her alphabet, and did not wish to + do so; but she had the quickest of ears, the keenest of eyes, the + brightest of brains. +</p> +<p> + One morning she came running to him where he was cutting barley. +</p> +<p> + "Adone! Adone!" she cried breathlessly, "there were strange men by + the river to-day." +</p> +<p> + "Indeed," said Adone astonished, because strangers were never seen + there. Ruscino was near no highroad, and the river had long ceased to + be navigable. +</p> +<p> + "They asked me questions, but I put my hands to my ears and shook my + head; they thought I was deaf." +</p> +<p> + "What sort of men were they?" he asked with more attention, for there + were still those who lived by violence up in the forests which + overhung the valley of the Edera. +</p> +<p> + "How do I know? They were clothed in long woollen bed-gowns, and they + had boots on their feet, and on their heads hats shaped like + kitchen-pans." +</p> +<p> + Adone smiled. He saw men from a town, or country fellows who aped + such men, with a contempt which was born at once of that artistic + sense of fitness which was in him, and of his adherence to the + customs and habits of his province. The city-bred and city-clothed + man looked to him a grotesque and helpless creature, much sillier + than an ape. +</p> +<p> + "That sounds like citizens or townsfolk. What did they say?" +</p> +<p> + "I could not understand; but they spoke of the water, I think, for + they pointed to it and said a great deal which I did not understand, + and seemed to measure the banks, and took your punt and threw a chain + into the water in places." +</p> +<p> + "Took castings? Used my punt? That is odd! I have never seen a + stranger in my life by the Edera. Were they anglers?" +</p> +<p> + "No." +</p> +<p> + "Or sportsmen?" +</p> +<p> + "They had no guns." +</p> +<p> + "How many were they?" +</p> +<p> + "Three. They went away up the river talking." +</p> +<p> + "Did they cross the bridge?" +</p> +<p> + "No. They were not shepherds, or labourers, or priests," said Nerina. + To these classes of men her own acquaintance was confined. +</p> +<p> + "Painters, perhaps?" said Adone; but no artists were ever seen there; + the existence even of the valley was scarcely known, except to + topographers. +</p> +<p> + "What are painters?" said Nerina. +</p> +<p> + "Men who sit and stare and then make splashes of colour." +</p> +<p> + "No; they did not do that." +</p> +<p> + "It is strange." +</p> +<p> + He felt vaguely uneasy that any had come near the water; as a lover + dislikes the pressure of a crowd about his beloved in a street, so he + disliked the thought of foreign eyes resting on the Edera. That they + should have used his little punt, always left amongst the sedges, + seemed to him a most offensive and unpardonable action. +</p> +<p> + He went to the spot where the intruders had been seen, but there was + no trace of them, except that the wet sand bore footprints of persons + who had, as she had said of them, worn boots. He followed these + footprints for some mile or more up the edge of the stream, but there + he lost them from sight; they had passed on to the grass of a level + place, and the dry turf, cropped by sheep to its roots, told no + tales. Near this place was a road used by cattle drivers and mules; + it crossed the heather for some thousand yards, then plunged into the + woods, and so went up over the hills to the town of Teramo, + thirty-five kilometres away. It was a narrow, rough, steep road, + wholly unfit for vehicles of any kind more tender than the rude + ox-treggia, slow as a snail, with rounds of a tree-trunk for its + wheels, and seldom used except by country folks. +</p> +<p> + He would have asked Don Silverio if he had heard or seen anything of + any strangers, but the priest was away that day at one of the lonely + moorland cabins comprised in his parish of Ruscino, where an old man, + who had been a great sinner in his past, was at his last gasp, and + his sons and grandsons and great-grandchildren all left him to meet + his end as he might. +</p> +<p> + It was a fine day, and they had their grain to get in, and even the + women were busy. They set a stoup of water by him, and put some in + his nostrils, and shut the door to keep out the flies. It was no use + to stay there they thought. If you helped a poor soul to give up the + ghost by a hand on his mouth, or an elbow in his stomach, you got + into trouble; it was safer to leave him alone when he was a-dying. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio had given the viaticum to the old man the night before, + not thinking he would outlive the night. He now found the door locked + and saw the place was deserted. He broke the door open with a few + kicks, and found the house empty save for the dying creature on the + sacks of leaves. +</p> +<p> + "They would not wait! They would not wait — hell take them!" said + the old man, with a groan, his bony hands fighting the air. +</p> +<p> + "Hush, hush! the holy oil is on you," said Don Silverio. "They knew I + should be here." +</p> +<p> + It was a charitable falsehood, but the brain of the old man was still + too awake to be deceived by it. +</p> +<p> + "Why locked they the door, then? Hell take them! They are reaping in + the lower fields — hell take them!" he repeated, his bony, toothless + jaws gnashing with each word. +</p> +<p> + He was eighty-four years old; he had been long the terror of his + district and of his descendants, and they paid him out now that he + was powerless; they left him alone in that sun-baked cabin, and they + had carefully put his crutch out of reach, so that if any force + should return to his paralysed body he should be unable to move. +</p> +<p> + It was the youngest of them, a little boy of seven years old, who had + thought to do that; the crutch had hit him so often. +</p> +<p> + The day had been only beginning when Don Silverio had reached the + cabin, but he resolved to await there the return of the family; its + hours were many and long and cruel in the midsummer heat, in this + foetid place, where more than a score of men, women, and children of + all ages, slept and swarmed through every season, and where the + floors of beaten earth were paven with filth three millimetres thick. + The people were absent, but their ordure, their urine, their lice, + their saliva were left there after them, and the stench of all was + concentrated on this bed where the old man wrestled with death. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio stayed on in the sultry and pestilent steam which rose + up from the floor. Gnats and flies of all kinds buzzed in the heavy + air, or settled in black knots on the walls and the rafters. With a + bunch of dried maize-leaves he drove them off the old man's face and + hands and limbs, and ever and again at intervals gave the poor + creature a draught of water with a few drops in it from a phial of + cordial which he had brought with him. The hours passed, each seeming + longer than a day; at last the convulsive twitching of the jaws + ceased; the jaw had fallen, the dark cavern of the toothless mouth + yawned in a set grimace, the vitreous eyes were turned up into the + head: the old man was dead. But Don Silverio did not leave him; two + sows and a hog were in a stye which was open to the house; he knew + that they would come and gnaw the corpse if it were left to them; + they were almost starving, and grunted angrily. +</p> +<p> + He spent so many vigils similar to this that the self-sacrifice + entailed in them never struck either him or those he served. +</p> +<p> + When the great heat had passed he set the door wide open; the sun was + setting; a flood of light inundated the plain from the near mountains + on the west, where the Leonessa towered, to those shadowy green + clouds which far away in the east were the marshes before the sea. + Through the ruddy glory of the evening the family returned, dark + figures against the gold; brown women, half-nude men, footsore + children, their steps dragging reluctantly homeward. +</p> +<p> + At the sight of the priest on the threshold they stopped and made + obeisance humbly in reverent salutation. +</p> +<p> + "Is he dead, most reverend?" said the eldest of the brood, a man of + sixty, touching the ground with his forehead. +</p> +<p> + "Your father is dead," said Don Silverio. +</p> +<p> + The people were still; relieved to hear that all was over, yet + vaguely terrified, rather by his gaze than by his words. A woman wept + aloud out of fear. +</p> +<p> + "We could net let the good grain spoil," said the eldest man, with + some shame in his voice. +</p> +<p> + "Pray that your sons may deal otherwise with you when your turn shall + come," said Don Silverio; and then he went through them, unmoved by + their prayers and cries, and passed across the rough grass-land out + of sight. +</p> +<p> + The oldest man, he who was now head of the house, remained prostrate + on the threshold and beat the dust with his hands and heels; he was + afraid to enter, afraid of that motionless, lifeless bag of bones of + which the last cry had been a curse at him. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio went on his way over the moors homeward, for he had no + means except his own limbs whereby to go his scattered parishioners. + When he reached the village and climbed its steep stones night had + long fallen and he was sorely tired. He entered by a door which was + never locked, and found an oil wick burning on his table, which was + set out with the brown crockery used for his frugal supper of cheese + and lettuce and bread. His old servant was abed. His little dog alone + was on the watch to welcome him. It was a poor, plain place, with + whitewashed walls and a few necessary articles of use; but it was + clean and sweet, its brick floors were sanded, and the night air blew + in from its open casement with the freshness from the river in it. + Its quiet was seldom disturbed except by the tolling of the bell for + the church services; and it was welcome to him after the toil and + heat and stench of the past day. +</p> +<p> + "My lot might have been worse," he thought, as he broke his loaf; he + was disinclined to eat; the filthy odours of the cabin pursued him. +</p> +<p> + He was used to have had a little weekly journal sent to him by the + post; which came at rare intervals on an ass's back to Ruscino, the + ass and his rider, with a meal sack half filled by the meagre + correspondence of the district, making the rounds of that part of the + province with an irregularity which seemed as natural to the + sufferers by it as to the postman himself. "He cannot be everywhere + at once," they said of him with indulgence. +</p> +<p> + When he reached his home that evening the little news-sheet was lying + on his table beside the brown crockery, the cheese, lettuces, and + bread. He scarcely touched the food; he was saddened and sickened by + the day he had passed, although there had been nothing new in it, + nothing of which he had not been witness a hundred times in the + cabins of his parishioners. The little paper caught his eye, he took + it and opened it. It was but a meagre thing, tardy of news, costing + only two centimes, but it was the only publication which brought him + any intelligence of that outer world from which he was as much + separated as though he had been on a deserted isle in mid-ocean. +</p> +<p> + By the pale light of the single wick he turned over its thin sheet to + distract his thoughts; there was war news in east and west, Church + news in his own diocese and elsewhere; news all ten days old and + more; political news also, scanty and timidly related. The name of + the stream running underneath the walls of Ruscino caught his regard; + a few lines were headed with it, and these lines said curtly: +</p> +<p> + "<i>The project to divert the course of the Edera river will be brought + before the Chamber shortly; the Minister of Agriculture is considered + to favour the project</i>." +</p> +<p> + He held the sheet nearer to the light and read the paragraph again, + and yet again. The words were clear and indisputable in their + meaning; they could not be misconstrued. There was but one river + Edera in the whole province, in the whole country; there could be no + doubt as to what river was meant; yet it seemed to him utterly + impossible that any such project could be conceived by any creature. + Divert the course of the Edera? He felt stupefied. He read the words + over and over again; then he read them aloud in the stillness of the + night, and his voice sounded strong in his own ears. +</p> +<p> + "It must be a misprint; it must be a mistake for the Era of Volterra, + or the Esino, north of Ancona," he said to himself, and he went to + his book closet and brought out an old folio geography which he had + once bought for a few pence on a Roman bookstall, spread it open + before him, and read one by one the names of all the streams of the + peninsula, from the Dora Baltea to the Giarretta. There was no other + Edera river. Unless it were indeed a misprint altogether, the stream + which flowed under his church walls was the one which was named in + the news-sheet. +</p> +<p> + "But it is impossible, it is impossible!" he said so loudly, that his + little dog awoke and climbed on his knee uneasily and in alarm. "What + could the people do? What could the village do, or the land or the + fisher folk? Are we to have drought added to hunger? Can they respect + nothing? The river belongs to the valley: to seize it, to appraise + it, to appropriate it, to make it away with it, would be as monstrous + as to steal his mother's milk from a yearling babe!" +</p> +<p> + He shut the folio and pushed it away from him across the table. "If + this is true," he said to himself, "if, anyhow, this monstrous thing + be true, it will kill Adone!" +</p> +<p> + In the morning he awoke from a short perturbed sleep with that heavy + sense of a vaguely remembered calamity which stirs in the awakening + brain like a worm in the unclosing flower. +</p> +<p> + The morning-office over, he sought out the little news-sheet, to make + sure that he had read aright; his servant had folded it up and laid + it aside on a shelf, he unfolded it with a hand which trembled; the + same lines stared at him in the warm light of sunrise as in the faint + glimmer of the floating wick. The very curtness and coldness of the + announcement testified to its exactitude. He did not any longer doubt + its truth; but there were no details, no explanations: he pondered on + the possibilities of obtaining them; it was useless to seek them in + the village or the countryside, the people were as ignorant as sheep. +</p> +<p> + Adone alone had intelligence, but he shrank from taking these tidings + to the youth, as he would have shrunk from doing him a physical hurt. + The news might be false or premature; many projects were discussed, + many schemes sketched out, many speculations set on foot which came + to nothing in the end: were this thing true, Adone would learn it all + too soon and read it on the wounded face of nature. Not at least + until he could himself be certain of its truth would he speak of it + to the young man whose fathers had been lords of the river. +</p> +<p> + His duties over for the forenoon, he went up the three hundred stairs + of his bell-tower, to the wooden platform, between the + machicolations. It was a dizzy height, and both stairs and roof were + in ruins, but he went cautiously, and was familiar with the danger. + The owls which bred there were so used to him that they did not stir + in their siesta as he passed them. He stood aloft in the glare of + noonday, and looked down on the winding stream as it passed under the + ruined walls of Ruscino, and growing, as it flowed, clearer and + clearer, and wilder and wilder, as it rushed over stones and + boulders, foaming and shouting, rushed through the heather on its way + towards the Marches. Under Ruscino it had its brown mountain colour + still, but as it ran it grew green as emeralds, blue as sapphires, + silver and white and gray like a dove's wings; it was unsullied and + translucent; the white clouds were reflected on it. It went through a + country lonely, almost deserted, only at great distances from one + another was there a group of homesteads, a cluster of stacks, a + conical cabin in some places where the woods gave place to pasture; + here and there were the ruins of a temple, of a fortress, of some + great marble or granite tomb; but there was no living creature in + sight except a troop of buffaloes splashing in a pool. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio looked down on its course until his dazzled eyes lost it + from sight in the glory of light through which it sped, and his heart + sank, and he would fain have been a woman to have wept aloud. For he + saw that its beauty and its solitude were such as would likely enough + tempt the spoilers. He saw that it lay fair and defenceless as a + maiden on her bed. +</p> +<p> + He dwelt out of the world now, but he had once dwelt in it; and the + world does not greatly change, it only grows more rapacious. He knew + that in this age there is only one law, to gain; only one duty, to + prosper: that nature is of no account, nor beauty either, nor repose, + nor ancient rights, nor any of the simple claims of normal justice. + He knew that if in the course of the river there would be gold for + capitalists, for engineers, for attorneys, for deputies, for + ministers, that then the waters of the Edera were in all probability + doomed. +</p> +<p> + He descended the rotten stairs slowly, with a weight as of lead at + his heart. He did not any longer doubt the truth of what he had read. + Who, or what, shall withstand the curse of its time? +</p> +<p> + "They have forgotten us so long," he thought, with bitterness in his + soul. "We have been left to bury our dead as we would, and to see the + children starve as they might; they remember us now, because we + possess something which they can snatch from us!" +</p> +<p> + He did not doubt any more. He could only wait: wait and see in what + form and in what time the evil would come to them. Meantime, he said + to himself, he would not speak of it to Adone, and he burned the + news-sheet. Administrations alter frequently and unexpectedly, and + the money-changers, who are fostered by them, sometimes fall with + them, and their projects remain in the embryo of a mere prospectus. + There was that chance. +</p> +<p> + He knew that, in the age he lived in, all things were estimated only + by their value to commerce or to speculation; that there was neither + space nor patience amongst men for what was, in their reckoning, + useless; that the conqueror was now but a trader in disguise; that + civilisation was but the shibboleth of traffic; that because trade + follows the flag, therefore to carry the flag afar, thousands of + young soldiers of every nationality are slaughtered annually in + poisonous climes and obscure warfare, because such is the <i>suprema + lex</i> and will of the trader. If the waters of Edera would serve to + grind any grit for the mills of modern trade they would be taken into + bondage with many other gifts of nature as fair and as free as they + were. All creation groaned and travailed in pain that the great + cancer should spread. +</p> +<p> + "It is not only ours," he remembered with a pang; on its way to and + from the Valdedera the river passed partially through two other + communes, and water belongs to the district in which it runs. True, + the country of each of these was like that of this valley, + depopulated and wild; but, however great a solitude any land may be, + it is still locally and administratively dependent on the chief town + of its commune. Ruscino and its valley were dependent on San Beda; + these two other communes were respectively under a little town of the + Abruzzo and under a seaport of the Adriatic. +</p> +<p> + The interest of the valley of the Edera in its eponymous stream was a + large share; but it was not more than a share, in this gift of + nature. If it came to any question of conflicting interests, Ruscino + and the valley might very likely be powerless, and could only, in any + event, be represented by and through San Beda; a strongly + ecclesiastical and papal little place, and, therefore, without + influence with the ruling powers, and consequently viewed with an + evil eye by the Prefecture. +</p> +<p> + He pondered anxiously on the matter for some days, then, arduous as + the journey was, he resolved to go to San Beda and inquire. +</p> +<p> + The small mountain city was many miles away upon a promontory of + marble rocks, and its many spires and towers were visible only in + afternoon light from the valley of the Edera. It was as old as + Ruscino, a dull, dark, very ancient place with monasteries and + convents like huge fortresses and old palaces still fortified and + grim as death amongst them. A Cistercian monastery, which had been + chiefly built by the second Giulio, crowned a prominent cliff, which + dominated the town, and commanded a view of the whole of the valley + of the Edera, and, on the western horizon, of the Leonessa and her + tributary mountains and hills. +</p> +<p> + He had not been there for five years; he went on foot, for there was + no other means of transit, and if there had been he would not have + wasted money on it; the way was long and irksome; for the latter + half, entirely up a steep mountain road. He started in the early + morning as soon as Mass had been celebrated, and it was four in the + afternoon before he had passed the gates of the town, and paid his + respects to the Bishop. He rested in the Certosa, of which the + superior was known to him; the monks, like the Bishop, had heard + nothing. So far as he could learn when he went into the streets no + one in the place had heard anything of the project to alter the + course of the river. He made the return journey by night, so as to + reach his church by daybreak, and was there in his place by the high + altar when the bell tolled at six o'clock, and the three or four old + people, who never missed an office, were kneeling on the stones. +</p> +<p> + He had walked over forty miles, and had eaten nothing except some + bread and a piece of dried fish. But he always welcomed physical + fatigue; it served to send to sleep the restless intellect, the + gnawing regrets, the bitter sense of wasted powers and of useless + knowledge, which were his daily company. +</p> +<p> + He had begged his friends, the friars, to obtain an interview with + the Syndic of Sand Beda, and interrogate him on the subject. Until he + should learn something positive he could not bring himself to speak + of the matter to Adone: but the fact of his unusual absence had too + much astonished his little community for the journey not to have been + the talk of Ruscino. Surprised and disturbed like others, Adone was + waiting for him in the sacristy after the first mass. +</p> +<p> + "You have been away a whole day and night and never told me, + reverendissimo!" he cried in reproach and amazement. +</p> +<p> + "I have yet to learn that you are my keeper," said Don Silverio with + a cold and caustic intonation. +</p> +<p> + Adone coloured to the roots of his curling hair. +</p> +<p> + "That is unkind, sir!" he said humbly; "I only meant that — that —" +</p> +<p> + "I know, I know!" said the priest impatiently, but with contrition. + "You meant only friendship and good-will; but there are times when + the best intentions irk one. I went to see the Prior of the Certosa, + and old friend; I had business in San Beda." +</p> +<p> + Adone was silent, afraid that he had shown an unseemly curiosity; he + saw that Don Silverio was irritated and not at ease, and he hesitated + what words to choose. +</p> +<p> + His friend relented, and blamed himself for being hurried by + disquietude into harshness. +</p> +<p> + "Come and have a cup of coffee with me, my son," he said in his old, + kind tones. "I am going home to break my fast." +</p> +<p> + But Adone was hurt and humiliated, and made excuse of field work, + which pressed by reason of the weather, and so he did not name to his + friend and councillor the visit of the three men to the river. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio went home and boiled his coffee; he always did this + himself; it was the only luxury he ever allowed himself, and he did + not indulge even in this very often. But for once the draught had + neither fragrance nor balm for him. He was overtired, weary in mind + as in body, and greatly dejected; even though nothing was known at + San Beda he felt convinced that what he had read was the truth. +</p> +<p> + He knew but little of affairs of speculation, but he knew that it was + only in reason to suppose that such projects would be kept concealed, + as long as might be expedient, from those who would be known to be + hostile to them, in order to minimise the force of opposition. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0006"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + VI +</h2> +<p> + On the morning of the fourth day which followed on the priest's visit + to San Beda, about ten in the forenoon, Adone, with his two oxen, + Orlando and Rinaldo, were near the river on that part of his land + which was still natural moorland, and on which heather, and ling, and + broom, and wild roses, and bracken grew together. He had come to cut + a waggon load of furze, and had been at work there since eight + o'clock, when he had come out of the great porch of the church after + attending mass, for it was the twentieth of June, the name-day of Don + Silverio. +</p> +<p> + Scarcely had that day dawned when Adone had risen and had gone across + the river to the presbytery, bearing with him a dozen eggs, two + flasks of his best wine, and a bunch of late-flowering roses. They + were his annual offerings on this day; he felt some trepidation as he + climbed the steep, stony, uneven street lest they should be rejected, + for he was conscious that three evenings before he had offended Don + Silverio, and had left the presbytery too abruptly. But his fears + were allayed as soon as he entered the house; the vicar was already + up and dressed, and was about to go to the church. At the young man's + first contrite words Don Silverio stopped him with a kind smile. +</p> +<p> + "I was impatient and to blame," he said as he took the roses. "You + heap coals of fire on my head, my son, with your welcome gifts." +</p> +<p> + Then together they had gone to the quaint old church of which the one + great bell was tolling. +</p> +<p> + Mass over, Adone had gone home, broken his fast, taken off his velvet + jacket, his long scarlet waistcoat, and his silver-studded belt, and + put the oxen to the pole of the waggon. +</p> +<p> + "Shall I come?" cried Nerina. +</p> +<p> + "No," he answered. "Go and finish cutting the oats in the triangular + field." +</p> +<p> + Always obedient, she went, her sickle swinging to her girdle. She was + sorry, but she never murmured. +</p> +<p> + Adone had been at work amongst the furze two hours when old Pierino, + who always accompanied the oxen, got up, growled, and then barked. +</p> +<p> + "What is it, old friend?" asked Adone, and left off his work and + listened. He heard voices by the waterside, and steps on the loose + shingle of its shrunken summer bed. He went out of the wild growth + round him and looked. There were four men standing and talking by the + water. They were doubtless the same persons as Nerina had seen, for + they were evidently men from a city and strangers. Disquietude and + offence took alarm in him at once. +</p> +<p> + He conquered that shyness which was natural to him, and which was due + to the sensitiveness of his temperament and the solitude in which he + had been reared. +</p> +<p> + "Excuse me, sirs," he said, as he advanced to them with his head + uncovered; "what is it you want with my river?" +</p> +<p> + "Your river!" repeated the head of the group, and he smiled. "How is + it more yours than your fellows?" +</p> +<p> + Adone advanced nearer. +</p> +<p> + "The whole course of the water belonged to my ancestors," he + answered, "and this portion at least is mine now; you stand on my + ground; I ask you what is your errand?" +</p> +<p> + He spoke with courtesy, but in a tone of authority which seemed to + the intruders imperious and irritating. But they controlled their + annoyance; they did not wish to offend this haughty young peasant. +</p> +<p> + "To be owner of the water it is necessary to own both banks of it," + the stranger replied politely, but with some impatience. "The + opposite bank is communal property. Do not fear, however, whatever + your rights may be they will be carefully examined and considered." +</p> +<p> + "By whom? They concern only myself." +</p> +<p> + "None of our rights concern only ourselves. What are those which you + claim in special on the Edera water?" +</p> +<p> + Adone was silent for a few moments; he was astonished and + embarrassed; he had never reflected on the legal side of his claim to + the river; he had grown up in love and union with it; such + affections, born with us at birth, are not analysed until they are + assailed. +</p> +<p> + "You are strangers," he replied. "But what right do you question me? + I was born here. What is your errand?" +</p> +<p> + "You must be Adone Alba?" said the person, as if spokesman for the + others. +</p> +<p> + "I am." +</p> +<p> + "And you own the land known as the Terra Vergine?" +</p> +<p> + "I do." +</p> +<p> + "You will hear from us in due time, then. Meantime" +</p> +<p> + "Meantime you trespass on my ground. Leave it, sirs." +</p> +<p> + The four strangers drew a few paces, and conferred together in a low + tone, consulting a sheaf of papers. Their council over, he who + appeared the most conspicuous in authority turned again to the young + man, who was watching them with a vague apprehension which he could + not explain to himself. +</p> +<p> + "There is no question of trespass; the river-side is free to all," + said the stranger, with some contempt. "Courtesy would become you + better, Sir Adone." +</p> +<p> + Adone coloured. He knew that courtesy was at all times wise, and + useful, and an obligation amongst men; but his anger was stronger + than his prudence and his vague alarm was yet stronger still. +</p> +<p> + "Say your errand with the water," he replied imperiously. "Then I can + judge of it. No one, sirs, comes hither against my will." +</p> +<p> + "You will hear from us in due time," answered the intruder. "And + believe me, young man, you may lose much, you cannot gain anything, + by rudeness and opposition." +</p> +<p> + "Opposition to what?" +</p> +<p> + The stranger turned his back upon him, rolled up his papers, spoke + again with his companions, and lifted from a large stone on which he + had placed it a case of surveyor's instruments. Adone went close up + to him. "Opposition to what? What is it you are doing here?" +</p> +<p> + "We are not your servants," said the gentleman with impatience. "Do + not attempt any brawling I advise you; it will tell against you and + cannot serve you in any way." +</p> +<p> + "The soil and the water are mine, and you meddle with them," said + Adone. "If you were honest men you would not be ashamed of what you + do, and would declare your errand. Brawling is not in my habit; but I + will drive my oxen over you. The land and the waters are mine." +</p> +<p> + The chief of the group gave a disdainful, incredulous gesture, but + the others pulled him by the sleeve and argued with him in low tones + and a strange tongue, which Adone thought was German. The leader of + the group was a small man with a keen and mobile face and piercing + eyes; he did not yield easily to the persuasions of his companions; + he was disposed to be combative; he was offended by what seemed to + him the insults of a mere peasant. +</p> +<p> + Adone went back to his oxen, standing dozing with drooped heads; he + gathered up the reins of rope and mounted the waggon, raising the + heads of the sleepy beasts. He held his goad in his hand; the golden + gorze was piled behind him; he was in full sunlight, his hair was + lifted by the breeze from his forehead; his face was flushed and set + and stern. They saw that he would keep his word and drive down on to + them, and make his oxen knock them down and the wheels grind their + bodies into pulp. They had no arms of any kind, they felt they had no + choice but to submit: and did so, with sore reluctance. +</p> +<p> + "He looks like a young god," said one of them with an angry laugh. + "Mortals cannot fight against the gods." +</p> +<p> + With discomfiture they retreated before him and went along the grassy + path northward, as Nerina had seen them do on the day of their first + arrival. +</p> +<p> + So far Adone had conquered. +</p> +<p> + But no joy or pride of a victor was with him. He stood and watched + them pass away with a heavy sense of impending ill upon him; the + river was flowing joyously, unconscious of its doom, but on him, + though he knew nothing, and conceived nothing, of the form which the + approaching evil would take, a great weight of anxiety descended. +</p> +<p> + He got down from the waggon when he had seen them disappear, and + continued his uninterrupted work amongst the furze; and he remained + on the same spot long after the waggon was filled, lest in his + absence the intruders should return. Only when the sun set did he + turn the heads of the oxen homeward. +</p> +<p> + He said nothing to the women, but when he had stalled and fed his + cattle he changed his leathern breeches and put a clean shirt on his + back, and went down the twilit fields and across the water to + Ruscino; he told his mother that he would sup with Don Silverio. +</p> +<p> + When Adone entered the book-room his friend was seated at a deal + table laden with volumes and manuscripts, but he was neither writing + nor reading, nor had he lighted his lamp. The moonlight shone through + the vine climbing up and covering the narrow window. He looked up and + saw by Adone's countenance that something was wrong. +</p> +<p> + "What are they coming for, sir, to the river?" said the young man as + he uncovered his head on the threshold of the chamber. Don Silverio + hesitated to reply; in the moonlight his features looked like a mask + of a dead man, it was so white and its lines so deep. +</p> +<p> + "Why do they come to the river, these strangers?" repeated Adone. + "They would not say. They were on my land. I threatened to drive my + cattle over them. Then they went. But can you guess, sir, why they + come?" +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio still hesitated. Adone repeated his question with more + insistence; he came up to the table and leaned his hands upon it, and + looked down on the face of his friend. +</p> +<p> + "Why do they come?" he repeated a fourth time. "They must have some + reason. Surely you know?" +</p> +<p> + "Listen, Adone, and control yourself," said Don Silverio. "I saw + something in a journal a few days ago which made me go to San Beda. + But there they knew nothing at all of what the newspaper had stated. + What I said startled and alarmed them. I begged the Prior to acquaint + me if he heard of any scheme affecting us. To-day, only, he has sent + a young monk over with a letter to me, for it was only yesterday that + he heard that there is a project in Rome to turn the river out of its + course, and use it for hydraulic power; to what purpose he does not + know. The townsfolk of San Beda are in entire sympathy with this + district and against the scheme, which will only benefit a foreign + syndicate. That is all I know, for it is all he knows; he took his + information direct from the syndic, Count Corradini. My boy, my dear + boy, control yourself!" +</p> +<p> + Adone had dropped down on a chair, and leaning his elbow on the table + hid his face upon his hands. A tremor shook his frame from head to + foot. +</p> +<p> + "I knew it was some deviltry," he muttered. "Oh, Lord! oh, Lord! + would that I had made the oxen trample them into thousand pieces! + They ought never to have left my field alive!" +</p> +<p> + "Hush, hush!" said the priest sternly. "I cannot have such language + in my house. Compose yourself." +</p> +<p> + Adone raised his head; his eyes were alight as with fire; his face + was darkly red. +</p> +<p> + "What, sir! You tell me the river is to be taken away from us, and + you ask me to be calm! It is not in human nature to bear such a wrong + in peace. Take away the Edera! Take away the water! They had better + cut our throats. What! a poor wretch who steals a few grapes off a + vine, a few eggs from a hen roost, is called a thief and hounded to + the galleys, and such robbery as this is to be borne in silence + because the thieves wear broadcloth! It cannot be. It cannot be; I + swear it shall never be whilst I have life. The river is mine. We + reigned here three hundred years and more; you have told me so. It is + written on the parchments. I will hold my own." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio was silent; he was silent from remorse. He had told + Adone what, without him, Adone would have lived and died never + knowing or dreaming. He had thought only to stimulate the youth to + gentle conduct, honourable pride, perhaps to some higher use of his + abilities: no more than this. +</p> +<p> + He had never seen the young man thus violent and vehement; he had + always found him tranquil to excess, difficult to rouse, slow to + anger, indeed almost incapable of it; partaking of the nature of the + calm and docile cattle with whom so much of his time was passed. But + under the spur of an intolerable menace the warrior's blood which + slumbered in Adone leapt to action; all at once the fierce temper of + the lords of Ruscino displayed its fire and its metal; it was not the + peasant of the Terra Vergine who was before him now, but the heir of + the seigneury of the Rocca. +</p> +<p> + "It is not only what I told him of his race," he thought. "If he had + known nothing, none the less would the blood in his veins have + stirred and the past have moved him." +</p> +<p> + Aloud he said: +</p> +<p> + "My son, I feel for you from the depths of my soul. I feel with you + also. For if these foreigners take the river-water from us what will + become of my poor, desolate people, only too wretched already as they + are? You would not be alone in your desperation, Adone. But do not + let us take alarm too quickly. This measure is in gestation; but it + may never come to birth. Many such projects are discussed which from + one cause or another are not carried out; this one must pass through + many preliminary phases before it becomes fact. There must be surely + many vested rights which cannot with impunity be invaded. Take + courage. Have patience." +</p> +<p> + He paused, for he saw that for the first time since they had known + each other, Adone was not listening to him. +</p> +<p> + Adone was staring up at the moon which hung, golden and full, in the + dark blue sky, seeming framed in the leaves and coils of the vine. +</p> +<p> + "The river is mine," he muttered. "The river and I are as brothers. + They shall kill me before they touch the water." +</p> +<p> + "He will go mad or commit some great crime," thought his friend, + looking at him. "We must move every lever and strain every nerve, to + frustrate this scheme, to prevent this spoliation. But if the thieves + see money in it who shall stay their hands?" +</p> +<p> + He rose and laid his hands on Adone's shoulders. +</p> +<p> + "To-night you are in no fitting state for calm consideration of this + possible calamity. Go home, my son. Go to your room. Say nothing to + your mother. Pray and sleep. In the forenoon come to me and we will + speak of the measures which it may be possible to take to have this + matter examined and opposed. We are very poor; but still we are not + altogether helpless. Only, there must be no violence. You wrong + yourself and you weaken a good cause by such wild threats. + Good-night, my son. Go home." +</p> +<p> + The long habit of obedience to his superior, and the instinctive + docility of his temper compelled Adone to submit; he drew a long, + deep breath and the blood faded from his face. +</p> +<p> + Without a word he turned from the table and wept out of the + presbytery into the night and the white glory of the moonshine. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0007"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + VII +</h2> +<p> + Don Silverio drew to him his unfinished letter to the Prior; the + young monk who would take it back in the morning to San Beda was + already asleep in a little chamber above. But he could not write, he + was too perturbed and too anxious. Although he had spoken so calmly + he was full of carking care; both for the threatened evil in itself, + and for its effects upon his parishioners; and especially upon Adone. + He knew that in this age it is more difficult to check the devouring + monster of commercial covetousness than it ever was to stay the Bull + of Crete; and that for a poor and friendless community to oppose a + strong and wealthy band of speculators is indeed for the wooden lance + to shiver to atoms on the brazen shield. +</p> +<p> + He left his writing table and extinguished his lamp. Bidding the + little dog lie still upon his chair, he went through the house to a + door which opened from it into the bell tower of his church and which + allowed him to go from the house to the church without passing out + into the street. He climbed the belfry stairs once more, lighting + himself at intervals by striking a wooden match; for through the + narrow loopholes in the walls the moonbeams did not penetrate. He + knew the way so well that he could have gone up and down those + rotting stairs even in total darkness, and he safely reached the + platform of the bell tower, though one halting step might have sent + him in that darkness head foremost to his death. +</p> +<p> + He stood there, and gazed downwards on the moonlit landscape far + below, over the roofs and the walls of the village towards the open + fields and the river, with beyond that the wooded country and the + cultured land known as the Terra Vergine, and beyond those again the + moors, the marshes, and the mountains. The moonlight shone with + intense clearness on the waters of the Edera and on the stone + causeway of the old one-arched bridge. On the bridge there was a + figure moving slowly; he knew it to be that of Adone. Adone was going + home. +</p> +<p> + He was relieved from the pressure of one immediate anxiety, but his + apprehensions for the future were great, both for the young man and + for the people of Ruscino and its surrounding country. To take away + their river was to deprive them of the little which they had to make + life tolerable and to supply the means of existence. Its winter + overflow nourished the fields which they owned around it, and the + only cornmill of the district worked by a huge wheel in its water. If + the river were turned out of its course above Ruscino the whole of + this part of the vale would be made desolate. +</p> +<p> + Life was already hard for the human creatures in these fair scenes on + which he looked; without the river their lot would be intolerable. +</p> +<p> + "Forbid it, O Lord! Forbid this monstrous wrong," he said, as he stood + with bared head under the starry skies. +</p> +<p> + When the people of a remote place are smitten by a public power the + blow falls on them as unintelligible in its meaning, as invisible in + its agency, as a thunderbolt is to the cattle whom it slays in their + stalls. Even Don Silverio, with his classic culture and his + archæological learning, had little comprehension of the means and + methods by which these enterprises were combined and carried out; the + world of commerce and speculation is as aloof from the scholar and + the recluse as the rings of Saturn or the sun of Aldebaran. Its + mechanism, its intentions, its combinations, its manners of action, + its ways of expenditure, its intrigues with banks and governments: + all these, to men who dwell in rural solitudes, aloof from the babble + of crowds, are utterly unknown; the very language of the Bourses has + no more meaning to them than the jar of wheels or roar of steam. +</p> +<p> + He stood and looked with a sinking heart on the quiet, moonlit + country, and the winding course of the water where it flowed, now + silvery in the light, now black in the gloom, passing rapidly through + the heather and the sallows under the gigantic masses of the Etruscan + walls. It seemed to him to the full as terrible as to Adone; but it + did not seem to him so utterly impossible, because he knew more of + the ways of men and of their unhesitating and immeasurable cruelty + whenever their greed was excited. If the fury of speculation saw + desirable prey in the rape of the Edera then the Edera was doomed, + like the daughter of Ædipus or the daughter of Jephtha. +</p> +<p> + Adone had gone across the bridge, but he had remained by the + waterside. +</p> +<p> + "Pray and sleep!" Don Silverio had said in his last words. But to + Adone it seemed that neither prayer nor sleep would ever come to him + again so long as this impending evil hung over him and the water of + Edera. +</p> +<p> + He spent the first part of that summer night wandering aimlessly up + and down his own bank, blind to the beauty of the moonlight, deaf to + the songs of the nightingales, his mind filled with one thought. An + hour after midnight he went home and let himself into the silent + house by a small door which opened at the back, and which he used on + such rare occasions as he stayed out late. He struck a match and went + up to his room, and threw himself, dressed, upon his bed. His mother + was listening for his return, but she did not call to him. She knew + he was a man now, and must be left to his own will. +</p> +<p> + "What ails Adone that he is not home?" had asked old Gianna. Clelia + Alba had been herself perturbed by his absence at that hour, but she + had answered:— +</p> +<p> + "What he likes to tell, he tells. Prying questions make false + tongues. I have never questioned him since he was breeched." +</p> +<p> + "There are not many women like you," had said Gianna, partly in + admiration, half in impatience. +</p> +<p> + "Adone is a boy for you and me," had replied his mother. "But for + himself and for all others he is a man. We must remember it." +</p> +<p> + Gianna had muttered mumbled, rebellious words; he did not seem other + than a child to her; she had been one of those present at this birth + on the shining sands of the Edera. +</p> +<p> + He could not sleep. He could only listen to the distant murmur of the + river. With dawn the women awoke. Nerina came running down the steep + stone stair and went to let out and feed her charges, the fowls. + Gianna went to the well in the court with her bronze pitcher and + pail. Clelia Alba cut great slices of bread at the kitchen table; and + hooked the cauldron of maize flour to the chain above the fire on the + kitchen hearth. He could not wait for their greetings, their + questions, the notice which his changed mien would surely attract. + For the first time in all his twenty-four years of life he went out + of the house without a word to his mother, and took his way to the + river again; for the first time he was neglectful of his cattle and + forgetful of the land. +</p> +<p> + Nerina came in from the fowl-house with alarm on her face. +</p> +<p> + "Madama Clelia!" she said timidly, "Adone has gone away without + feeding and watering the oxen. May I do it?" +</p> +<p> + "Can you manage them, little one?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh, yes; they love me." +</p> +<p> + "Go then; but take care." +</p> +<p> + "She is a good child!" said Gianna. "The beasts won't hurt her. They + know their friends." +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba, to whom her own and her son's dignity was dear, said + nothing of her own displeasure and surprise at Adone's absence. But + she was only the more distressed by it. Never, since he had been old + enough to work at all, had he been missing in the hours of labour. +</p> +<p> + "I only pray," she thought, "that no woman may have hold of him." +</p> +<p> + Adone hardly knew what he did; he was like a man who has had a blow + on the temple; his sight was troubled; his blood seemed to burn in + his brain. He wandered from habit through the field and down to the + river, to the spot where from his infancy he had been used to bathe. + He took off his clothes and waded into the water, which was cold as + snow after the night. The shock of the cold, and the sense of the + running current laving his limbs, restored him in a measure to + himself. He swam down the stream in the shadow of the early morning. + The air was full of the scent of dog-roses and flowering thyme; he + turned on his back and floated; between him and the sky a hawk + passed; the bell of the church was tolling for the diurnal mass. He + ran along in the sun, as it grew warm, to dry his skin by movement, + as his wont was. He was still stupefied by the fear which had fallen + upon him; but the water had cooled and braced him. +</p> +<p> + He had forgotten his mother, the cattle, the labours awaiting him; + his whole mind was absorbed in this new horror sprung up in his path, + none knew from where, or by whom begotten. The happy, unconscious + stream ran singing at his feet as the nightingale sang in the acacia + thickets, its brown mountain water growing green and limpid as it + passed over submerged grass and silver sand. +</p> +<p> + How could any thieves conspire to take it from the country in which + it was born? How could any dare to catch it, and imprison it, and put + it to vile uses? It was a living thing, a free thing, a precious + thing, more precious than jewel or gold. Both jewels and gold the law + protected. Could it not protect the Edera? +</p> +<p> + "Something must be done," he said to himself. "But what?" +</p> +<p> + He had not the faintest knowledge of what could or should be done; he + regretted that he had not written his mark with the horns and the + hoofs of his oxen on the foreign invaders; they might never again + fall into his power. +</p> +<p> + He had never felt before such ferocious or cruel instincts as arose + in him now. Don Silverio seemed to him tame and lukewarm before this + monstrous conspiracy of strangers. He knew that a priest must not + give way to anger; yet it seemed to him that even a priest should be + roused to fury here; there was a wrath which was holy. +</p> +<p> + When he was clothed he stood and looked down again at the gliding + stream. +</p> +<p> + A feeble, cracked voice called to him from the opposite bank. +</p> +<p> + "Adone, my lad, what is this tale?" +</p> +<p> + The speaker was an old man of eighty odd years, a native of Ruscino, + one Patrizio Cambi, who was not yet too feeble to cut the rushes and + osiers, and maintained a widowed daughter and her young children by + that means. +</p> +<p> + "What tale?" said Adone, unwilling to be roused from his own dark + thoughts. "What tale, Trizio?" +</p> +<p> + "That they are going to meddle with the river," answered the old man. + "They can't do it, can they?" +</p> +<p> + "What have you heard?" +</p> +<p> + "That they are going to meddle with the river." +</p> +<p> + "In what way?" +</p> +<p> + "The Lord knows, or the devil. There was a waggon with four horses + came as near as it could get to us in the woods yonder by Ruffo's, + and the driver told Ruffo that the gentry he drove had come by road + from that town by the sea— I forget its name— in order to see the + river, this river, our river; and that he had brought another posse + of gentry two weeks or more on the same errand, and that they were + a-measuring and a-plumbing it, and that they were going to get + possession of its somehow or other, but Ruffo could not hear anything + more than that; and I supposed that you knew, because this part of it + is yours if it be any man's; this part of it that runs through the + Terra Vergine." +</p> +<p> + "Yes, it is mine," answered Adone very slowly. "It is mine here, and + it was once ours from source to sea." +</p> +<p> + "Aye, it is ours!" said old Trizio Cambi mistaking him. He was a man + once tall, but now bent nearly double; he had a harsh, wrinkled face, + brown as a hazel nut, and he was nearly a skeleton; but he had eyes + which were still fine and still had some fire in them. In his youth + he had been a Garibaldino. +</p> +<p> + "It is ours," repeated Trizio. "At least if anything belongs to poor + folks. What say you, Adone?" +</p> +<p> + "Much belongs to the poor, but others take it from them," said Adone. + "You have seen a hawk take a sparrow, Trizio. The poor count no more + than the sparrows." +</p> +<p> + "But the water is the gift of God," said the old man. +</p> +<p> + Adone did not answer. +</p> +<p> + "What can we do?" said Trizio, wiping the dew off his sickle. "Who + knows aught of us? Who cares? If the rich folks want the river they + will take it, curse them!" +</p> +<p> + Adone did not answer. He knew that it was so, all over the earth. +</p> +<p> + "We shall know no more than birds tangled in a net," said Trizio. + "They will come and work their will." +</p> +<p> + Adone rose up out of the grass. "I will go and see Ruffo," he said. + He was glad to do something. +</p> +<p> + "Ruffo knows no more than that," said Trizio angrily. "The driver of + the horses knew no more." +</p> +<p> + Adone paid him no need, but began to push his way through the thick + network of the interlaced heather. He thought that perhaps Ruffo, a + man who made wooden shoes, and hoops for casks, and shaped chestnut + poles for vines, might tell him more than had been told to old + Trizio; might at least be able to suggest from what quarter and in + what shape this calamity was rising, to burst over their valley as a + hailstorm broods above, then breaks, on helpless fields and + defenceless gardens, beating down without warning the birds and the + blossoms of spring. +</p> +<p> + When he had been in Lombardy he had seen once a great steam-engine at + work, stripping a moorland of its natural growth and turning it into + ploughed land. He remembered how the huge machine with its stench of + oil and fire had forced its way through the furze and ferns and wild + roses and myrtle, and torn them up, and flung them on one side, and + scattered and trampled all the insect life, and all the bird life, + and all the hares, and field mice, and stoats, and hedgehogs, who + made their home there. "A fine sight," a man had said to him; and he + had answered, "A cursed wickedness." Was this what they would do to + the vale of Edera? If they took the river they could not spare the + land. He felt scared, bruised, terrified, like one of these poor + moorland hares. He remembered a poor stoat which, startled out of its + sleep, had turned and bitten one of the iron wheels of the machine, + and the wheel had gone over it and crushed it into a mass of blood + and fur. He was as furious and as helpless as the stoat had been. +</p> +<p> + But when he had walked the four miles which separated the Terra + Vergine from the chestnut woods where the maker of wooden shoes + lived, he heard nothing else from Ruffo than this: that gentlemen had + come from Teramo to study the Edera water; they were going to turn it + aside and use it; more than that the man who had driven them had not + heard and could not explain. +</p> +<p> + "There were four horses, and he had nothing to give them but water + and grass," said the cooper. "The gentry brought wine and food for + themselves. They came the day before yesterday and slept here. They + went away this morning. They paid me well, oh, very well. I did what + I could for them. It is five-and-thirty miles if one off Teramo, aye, + nearer forty. They followed the old posting road; but you know where + it enters the woods it is all overgrown, and gone to rack and ruin, + from want of use. In my grandfather's time it was a fine, well-kept + highway, with posthouses every ten miles, though a rare place for + robbery; but nowadays nobody wants it at all, for nobody comes or + goes. It will soon be blocked, so the driver says; it will soon be + quite choked up what with brambles, and rocks, and fallen trees, and + what not. He was black with rage, for he was obliged to go back as he + had come, and he said he had been cheated into the job." +</p> +<p> + Adone listened wearily to the garrulous Ruffo, who emphasised each + phrase with a blow of his little hammer on a shoe. He had wasted all + his morning hours, and learned nothing. He felt like a man who is + lost in a strange and deserted country at night; he could find no + clue, could see no light. Perhaps if he went to the seaport town, + which was the Prefecture, he might hear something? +</p> +<p> + But he had never left the valley of the Edera except for that brief + time which he had passed under arms in the north. He felt that he had + no means, no acquaintance, no knowledge, whereby he could penetrate + the mystery of this scheme. He did not even know the status of the + promoters, or the scope of their speculation. The Prefecture was + placed in a port on the Adriatic which had considerable trade to the + Dalmatian and Greek coasts, but he scarcely knew its name. If he went + there what could he do or learn? Would the stones speak, or the waves + tell that which he thirsted to know? What use was the martial blood + in his veins? He could not strike an invisible foe. +</p> +<p> + "Don't go to meet trouble half way," said the man Ruffo, meaning + well. "I may have mistaken the driver. They cannot take hold of a + river, how should they? Water slips through your fingers. Where it + was set running in the beginning of the world, there it will go on + running till the crack of doom. Let them look; let them prate; they + can't take it." +</p> +<p> + But Adone's reason would not allow him to be so consoled. +</p> +<p> + He understood a little of what hydraulic science can compass; he knew + what canalisation meant, and its assistance to traffic and trade; he + had seen the waterworks on the Po, on the Adige, on the Mincio; he + had heard how the Velino had been enslaved for the steel foundry of + Terni, how the Nerino fed the ironworks of Narni; he had seen the + Adda captive at Lodi, and the lakes held in bond at Mantua; he had + read of the water drawn from Monte Amiata; and not very many miles + off him, in the Abruzzo, was that hapless Fuscino, which had been + emptied and dried up by rich meddlers of Rome. +</p> +<p> + He knew also enough of the past to know how water had been forced to + serve the will and the wants of the Roman Consulate and the Roman + empire, of how the marble aqueducts had cast the shadow of their + arches over the land, and how the provinces had been tunnelled and + bridged and canalised and irrigated, during two thousand years, by + those whose bones were dust under the Latin soil. He could not wholly + cheat himself, as these unlettered men could do; he knew that if the + commerce which has succeeded the Caesars as ruler of the world + coveted the waters of Edera, the river was lost to the home of its + birth and to him. +</p> +<p> + "How shall I tell my mother?" he asked himself as he walked back + through the fragrant and solitary country. He felt ashamed at his own + helplessness and ignorance. If courage could have availed anything he + would not have been wanting; but all that was needed here was a + worldly and technical knowledge, of which he possessed no more than + did the trout in the stream. +</p> +<p> + As he neared his home, pushing his way laboriously through the + interlaced bracken and heaths which had never been cut for a score of + years, he saw approaching him the tall, slender form of Don Silverio, + moving slowly, for the heather was breast high, his little dog + barking at a startled wood-pigeon. +</p> +<p> + "They are anxious about you at your house," Don Silverio said with + some sternness. "Is it well to cause your mother this disquietude?" +</p> +<p> + "No, it is not well," replied Adone. "But how can I see her and not + tell her, and how can I tell her this thing?" +</p> +<p> + "Women to bear trouble are braver than men," said the priest. "They + have more patience in pain than we. I have said something to her; but + we need not yet despair. We know nothing of any certainty. Sometimes + such schemes are abandoned at the last moment because too costly or + too unremunerative. Sometimes they drag on for half a lifetime; and + at the end nothing comes of them." +</p> +<p> + "You have told my mother?" +</p> +<p> + "I told her what troubles you, and made you leave your work undone. + The little girl was feeding the cattle." +</p> +<p> + Adone coloured. He was conscious of the implied rebuke. +</p> +<p> + "Sir," he said in a low tone, "if this accursed thing comes to pass + what will become of us? What I said in my haste last night I say in + cold reason to-day." +</p> +<p> + "Then you are wrong, and you will turn a calamity into a curse. Men + often do so." +</p> +<p> + "It is more than a calamity." +</p> +<p> + "Perhaps. Would not some other grief be yet worse? If you were + stricken with blindness?" +</p> +<p> + "No; I should still hear the river running." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio looked at him. He saw by the set, sleepless, reckless + look on his face that the young man was in no mood to be reached by + any argument, or to be susceptible to either rebuke or consolation. + The time might come when he would be so; but that time was far off he + feared. The evenness, the simplicity, the loneliness of Adone's + existence, made it open to impressions, and absorbed by them, as busy + and changeful lives never are; it was like the heather plants around + them, it would not bear transplanting; its birthplace would be its + tomb. +</p> +<p> + "Let us go back to your mother," he said. "Why should you shun her? + What you feel she feels also. Why leave her alone?" +</p> +<p> + "I will go home," said Adone. +</p> +<p> + "Yes, come home. You must see that there is nothing to be done or to + be learned as yet. When they know anything fresh at San Beda they + will let me know. The Prior is a man of good faith." +</p> +<p> + Adone turned on him almost savagely; his eyes were full of sullen + anger. +</p> +<p> + "And I am to bear my days like this? Knowing nothing, hearing + nothing, doing nothing to protect the water that is as dear to me as + a brother, and the land which is my own? What will the land be + without the river? You forget, sir, you forget!" +</p> +<p> + "No, I do not forget," said Don Silverio without offence. "But I ask + you to hear reason. What can you possibly do? Think you no man has + been wronged before you? Think you that you alone here will suffer? + The village will be ruined. Do you feel for yourself alone?" +</p> +<p> + Adone seemed scarcely to hear. He was like a man in a fever who sees + one set of images and cannot see anything else. +</p> +<p> + "Sir," he said suddenly, "why will you not go to Rome?" +</p> +<p> + "To Rome?" echoed the priest in amazement. +</p> +<p> + "There alone can the truth of this thing be learned," said Adone. "It + is to Rome that the promoters of this scheme must carry it; there to + be permitted or forbidden as the Government chooses. All these things + are brought about by bribes, by intrigues, by union. Without + authority from high office they cannot be done. We here do not even + know who are buying or selling us—" +</p> +<p> + "No, we do not," said Don Silverio; and he thought, "When the + cart-horse is bought by the knacker what matter to him the name of + his purchaser or his price?" +</p> +<p> + "Sir," said Adone, with passionate entreaty. "Do go to Rome. There + alone can the truth be learnt. You, a learned man, can find means to + meet learned people. I would go, I would have gone yesternight, but, + when I should get there, I know no more than a stray dog where to go + or from whom to inquire. They would see I am a country fellow. They + would shut the doors in my face. But you carry respect with you. No + one would dare to flout you. You could find ways and means to know + who moves this scheme, how far it is advanced, what chance there is + of our defeating it. Go, I beseech you, go!" +</p> +<p> + "My son, you amaze me," said Don Silverio. "I? In Rome? I have not + stirred out of this district for eighteen years. I am nothing. I have + no voice. I have no weight. I am a poor rural vicar buried here for + punishment." +</p> +<p> + He stopped abruptly, for no complaint of the injustice from which he + suffered had ever in those eighteen years escaped him. +</p> +<p> + "Go, go," said Adone. "You carry respect with you. You are learned + and will know how to find those in power and how to speak to them. + Go, go! Have pity on all of us, your poor, helpless, menaced people." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio was silent. +</p> +<p> + Was it now his duty to go into the haunts of men, as it had been his + duty to remain shut up in the walls of Ruscino? The idea appalled + him. +</p> +<p> + Accomplished and self-possessed though he was, his fine mind and his + fine manners had not served wholly to protect him from that rust and + nervousness which come from the disuse of society and the absence of + intercourse with equals. +</p> +<p> + It seemed to him impossible that he could again enter cities, recall + usages, seek out acquaintances, move in the stir of streets, and wait + in antechambers. +</p> +<p> + That was the life of the world; he had done with it, forsworn it + utterly, both by order of his superiors and by willing + self-sacrifice. Yet he knew that Adone was right. It was only from + men of the world and amongst them, it was only in the great cities, + that it was possible to follow up the clue of such speculations as + now threatened the vale of Edera. +</p> +<p> + The young man he knew could not do what was needed, and certainly + would get no hearing—a peasant of the Abruzzo border, who looked + like a figure of Giorgione's, and would probably be arrested as an + anarchist if he were to endeavour to enter any great house or public + office. But to go to Rome himself! To revisit the desecrated city! + This seemed to him a pilgrimage impossible except for the holiest + purpose. He felt as if the very stones of Trastevere would rise up + and laugh at him, a country priest with the moss and the mould of a + score of years passed in rural obscurity upon him. Moreover, to + revisit Rome would be to tear open wounds long healed. There his + studious youth had been passed, and there his ambitious dreams had + been dreamed. +</p> +<p> + "I cannot go to Rome," he said abruptly. "Do not ask me, I cannot go + to Rome." +</p> +<p> + "Then I will go," said Adone; "and if in no other way, I will force + myself into the king's palace and make him hear." +</p> +<p> + "And his guards will seize you, and his judges will chain you up in a + solitary cell for life! Do not say such mad things. What could the + king reply, even if he listened, which he would not do? He would say + that these things were for ministers and prefects and surveyors and + engineers to judge of, not for him or you. Be reasonable, Adone; do + not speak or act like a fool. This is the first grief you have known + in your life, and you are distraught by it. That is natural enough, + my poor boy. But you exaggerate the danger. It must be far off as + yet. It is a mere project." +</p> +<p> + "And I am to remain here, tilling the land in silence and inaction + until, one day without notice, I shall see a crowd of labourers at + work upon the river, and shall see appraisers measuring my fields! + You know that is how things are done. You know the poor are always + left in the dark until all is ripe for their robbery. Look you, sir, + if you go to Rome I will wait in such patience as I can for whatever + you may learn. But if you do not go, I go, and if I can do no better + I will take the king by the throat." +</p> +<p> + "I have a mind to take you by the throat myself," said Don Silverio, + with an irritation which he found it hard to control. "Well, I will + think over what you wish, and if I find it possible, if I think it + justified, if I can afford the means, if I can obtain the permission, + for such a journey, I will go to Rome; for your sake, for your + mother's sake. I will let you know my decision later. Let us walk + homeward. The sun is low. At your house the three women must be + anxious." +</p> +<p> + Adone accompanied him in silence through the heather, of which the + blossoming expanse was reddening in the light of the late afternoon + until the land looked a ruby ocean. They did not speak again until + they reached the confines of the Terra Vergine. +</p> +<p> + Then Don Silverio took the path which went through the pasture to the + bridge, and Adone turned towards his own dwelling. +</p> +<p> + "Spare your mother. Speak gently," said the elder man; the younger + man made a sign of assent and of obedience. +</p> +<p> + "He will go to Rome," said Adone to himself, and almost he regretted + that he had urged the journey, for in his own veins the fever of + unrest and the sting of fierce passions were throbbing, and he panted + and pined for action. He was the heir of the lords of the river. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0008"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + VIII +</h2> +<p> + Like the cooper Ruffo, Clelia Alba had received the tidings with + incredulity, though aghast at the mere suggestion. +</p> +<p> + "It is impossible," she said. She had seen the water there ever since + she had been a babe in swaddling clothes. +</p> +<p> + "It is not possible," she said, "that any man could be profane enough + to alter the bed which heaven had given it." +</p> +<p> + But she was sorely grieved to see the effect such a fear had upon + Adone. +</p> +<p> + "I was afraid it was a woman," she thought; "but this thing, could it + be true, would be worse than any harlot or adulteress. If they took + away the river the land would perish. It lives by the river." +</p> +<p> + "The river is our own as far as we touch it," she said aloud to her + son; "but it was the earth's before it was ours. To sever water from + the land it lives in were worse than to snatch a child from its + mother's womb." +</p> +<p> + Adone did not tell her that water was no more sacred than land to the + modern contractor. She would learn that all to soon if the conspiracy + against the Edera succeeded. But he tried to learn from her what + legal rights they possessed to the stream: what had his father + thought? He knew well that his old hereditary claim to the Lordship + of Ruscino, however capable of proof, would be set aside as fantastic + and untenable; but their claim to the water through the holding of + Terra Vergine could surely not be set aside. +</p> +<p> + "Your father never said aught about the water that I can remember," + she answered. "I think he would no more have thought it needful to + say it was his than to say that you were his son. It is certain we + are writ down in the district as owners of the ground; we pay taxes + for it; and the title of the water must be as one with that." +</p> +<p> + "So say I; at least over what runs through our fields we, alone, have + any title, and for that title I will fight to the death," said Adone. + "River rights go with the land through which the river passes." +</p> +<p> + "But, my son," she said with true wisdom, "your father would never + have allowed any danger to the water to make him faithless to the + land. If you let this threat, this dread, turn you away from your + work; if you let your fears make you neglect your field and your + olives, and your cattle and your vines, you will do more harm to + yourself than the worst enemy can do you. To leave a farm to itself + is to call down the vengeance of heaven. A week's abandonment undoes + the work of years. I and Gianna and the child do what we can, but we + are women, and Nerina is young." +</p> +<p> + "No doubt you speak wisely, mother," replied Adone humbly. "But of + what use is it to dress and manure a vine, if the accursed phylloxera + be in its sap and at its root? What use is it to till these lands if + they be doomed to perish from thirst?" +</p> +<p> + "Do your best," said his mother, "then the fault will not lie with + you, whatever happen." +</p> +<p> + The counsel was sound; but to Adone all savour and hope were gone out + of his labour. When he saw the green gliding water shine through the + olive branches, and beyond the foliage of the walnut-trees, his arms + fell nerveless to his side, his throat swelled with sobs, which he + checked as they rose, but which were only the more bitter for + that—all the joy and the peace of his day's work were gone. +</p> +<p> + It was but a small space of it to one whose ancestors had reigned + over the stream from its rise in the oak woods to its fall into the + sea; but he thought that no one could dispute or diminish or + disregard his exclusive possession of the Edera water where it ran + through his fields. They could not touch that, even if they seized it + lower down, where it ran through other communes. Were they to take it + above his land, above the bridge of Ruscino, its bed here would be + dried up, and his homestead and the village both be ruined. The + clear, intangible right which he meant to defend at any cost, in any + manner, was his right to have the river run untouched through his + fields. The documents which proved the rights of the great extinct + Seigneury might be useless, but the limited, shrunken right of the + peasant ownership was as unassailable as his mother's right to the + three strings of pearls; or so he believed. +</p> +<p> + The rights of the Lords of Ruscino might be but shadows of far-off + things, things of tradition, of history, of romance, but the rights + of the peasant proprietors of the Terra Vergine must, he thought, be + respected if there were any justice upon earth, for they were plainly + writ down in the municipal registers of San Beda. To rouse others to + defend their equal rights in the same way, from the source of the + Edera to its union with the Adriatic, seemed to him the first effort + to be made. He was innocent enough to believe that it would suffice + to prove that its loss would be their ruin to obtain redress at once. +</p> +<p> + Whilst Don Silverio was still hesitating as to what seemed to him + this momentous and painful journey to Rome his mind was made up by a + second letter received from the Superior of the Certosa at San Beda, + the friend to whom he had confided the task of inquiring as to the + project for the Edera. +</p> +<p> + This letter was long, and in Latin. They were two classics, who liked + thus to refresh themselves and each other with epistles such as St. + Augustine or Tertullian might have penned. The letter was of elegant + scholarship, but its contents were unwelcome. It said that the Most + Honourable the Syndic of San Beda had enjoyed a conference with the + Prefect of the province, and it had therein transpired that the + project for the works upon the river Edera had been long well known + to the Prefect, and that such project was approved by the existing + Government, and therefore by all the Government officials, as was but + natural. It was not admitted that the Commune of San Beda had any + local interest or local right sufficiently strong to oppose the + project, as such a claim would amount to a monopoly, and no monopoly + could exist in a district through which a running river partially + passed, and barely one-fifth of the course of this stream lay through + that district known as the valley of the Edera. The entire + Circondario, except the valley, was believed to be in favour of the + project, which the Prefect informed the Syndic could not be otherwise + than most favourable to the general interests of the country at + large. +</p> +<p> + "Therefore, most honoured and revered friend," wrote the Superior of + the Cistercians, "his most esteemed worship does not see his way to + himself suggest opposition to this course in our Town Council, or in + our Provincial Council, and the Most Worshipful the Assessors do not + either see theirs; it being, as you know, an equivocal and onerous + thing for either council to express or suggest in their assembly + views antagonistic to those of the Prefecture, so that I fear, most + honoured and reverend friend, it will not be in my power farther to + press this matter, and I fear also that your parish of Ruscino, being + isolated and sparsely populated, and its chief area uncultivated, + will be possessed of but one small voice in this matter, the + interests of the greater number being always in such a case + preferred." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio read the letter twice, its stately and correct Latinity + not serving to disguise the mean and harsh fact of its truly modern + logic. "Because we are few and poor and weak we have no rights!" he + said bitterly. "Because the water comes from others, and goes to + others, it is not ours whilst in our land!" +</p> +<p> + He did not blame his friend at San Beda. +</p> +<p> + Ecclesiastics existed only on sufferance, and any day the Certosa + might be closed if its inmates offended the ruling powers. But the + letter, nevertheless, lay like a stone on his heart. All the + harshness, the narrowness, the disregard of the interests of the + weak, the rude, rough, tyrannical pressing onward of the strong to + their own selfish aims, all the characteristics of the modern world + seemed to find voice in it and jeer at him. +</p> +<p> + It was not for the first time in his life that he had pressed against + the iron gates of interest and formula and oppression, and only + bruised his breast and torn his hands. +</p> +<p> + He had a little sum of money put by in case of illness and for his + burial; that was the only fund on which he could draw to take him to + Rome and keep him when there, and it was so small that it would be + soon exhausted. He passed the best part of the night doubting which + way his duty pointed. He fasted, prayed, and communed with his soul, + and at length it seemed to him as if a voice from without said to + him, "Take up your staff, and go." For the journey appalled him, and + where his inclination pointed he had taught himself to see error. He + shrank inexpressibly from going into the noise and glare and crowd of + men; he clung to his solitude as a timid animal to its lair; and + therefore he felt persuaded that he ought to leave Ruscino on his + errand, because it was so acutely painful to him. +</p> +<p> + Whilst he should be gone Adone at least would do nothing rash; would + of course await the issue of his investigations. Time brings council, + and time, he hoped, would in this instance befriend him. He had + already obtained the necessary permission to leave his parish; he + then asked for a young friend from San Beda to take his place in the + village; left his little dog to the care of Nerina; took his small + hoard in a leathern bag strapped to his loins, and went on his way at + daybreak along the southwest portion of the valley, to cover on foot + the long distance which lay between him and the nearest place at + which a public vehicle went twice a week to a railway station; whence + he could take the train to Terni and so to Rome. +</p> +<p> + Adone accompanied him the first half of the way, but they said little + to one another; their hearts were full. Adone could not forget the + rebuke given to him, and Don Silverio was too wise a man to lean + heavily on a sore and aching wound, or repeat counsels already given + and rejected. +</p> +<p> + At the third milestone he stopped and begged, in a tone which was a + command, the young man to return home. +</p> +<p> + "Do not leave your land for me," he said. "Every hour is of gold at + this season. Go back, my son! I pray that I may bring you peace." +</p> +<p> + "Give me your blessing," said Adone meekly, and he knelt down in the + dust of the roadside. His friend gave it; then their hands met in + silent farewell. +</p> +<p> + The sun had risen, and the cold clear air was yielding to its rays. + The young man reluctantly turned back, and left the priest to go + onward alone, a tall, dark figure in the morning light; the river + running between acacia thickets and rushes on his right. Before long + he was forced to leave the course of the stream, and ascend a rugged + and precipitous road which mounted southward and westward through oak + woods into the mountains between the Leonessa and Gran Sasso, until + it reached a shrunken, desolate village, with fine Etruscan and Roman + remains left to perish, and a miserable hostelry, with the miserable + diligences starting from it on alternate days, the only remains of + its former posting activity. There he arrived late in the evening, + and broke his fast on a basin of bean soup, then rested on a bench, + for he could not bring himself to enter the filthy bed which was + alone to be obtained, and spent the following morning examining the + ancient ruins, for the conveyance did not start until four o'clock in + the afternoon. When that hour came he made one of the travellers, all + country folks, who were packed close as pigeons in a crate in the + ramshackle, noisy, broken-down vehicle, which lumbered on its way + behind its lean and suffering horses, through woods and hills and + along mountain passes of a grandeur and a beauty on which the eyes of + educated travellers rarely looked. +</p> +<p> + The journey by this conveyance occupied seven hours, and he was + obliged to wait five more at that village station which was the + nearest point at which he could meet the train which went from Terni + to Rome. Only parliamentary trains stop at such obscure places; and + this one seemed to him slower even than the diligence had been. It + was crammed with country lads going to the conscription levy in the + capital: some of them drunk, some of them noisy and quarrelsome, some + in tears, some silent and sullen, all of them sad company. The dusty, + stinking, sun-scorched waggons, open one to another, with the stench + of hot unwashed flesh, and the clouds of dust driven through the + unglazed windows, seemed to Don Silverio a hell of man's own making, + and in remembrance his empty quiet room, with its vine-hung window, + at Ruscino, seemed by comparison a lost heaven. +</p> +<p> + To think that there were thousands of men who travelled thus, every + day of every year, in every country, many of them from no obligation + whatever, but from choice! +</p> +<p> + "What lunatics, what raving idiots we should look to Plato or to + Socrates, could they see us!" he thought. Was what is called progress + anything else except increased insanity in human life? +</p> +<p> + He leaned back in his corner, and bore the dust in his eyes and his + throat as best he might, and spoke a few kind words to the boys + nearest to him, and felt as if every bone in his body was broken as + the wooden and iron cage shook him from side to side. The train + stopped finally in that area of bricks and mortar and vulgarity and + confusion where once stood the Baths of Diocletian. It was late in + the night when he heard the name of Rome. +</p> +<p> + No scholar can hear that name without emotion. On him it smote with a + keen personal pain, awakening innumerable memories, calling from + their graves innumerable dreams. +</p> +<p> + He had left it a youth, filled with all the aspirations, the fire, + the courage, the faith, of a lofty and spiritual temper. He returned + to it a man aged before his time, worn, weary, crushed, spiritless, + with no future except death. +</p> +<p> + He descended from the waggon with the crowd of jaded conscripts and + mingled with that common and cosmopolitan crowd which now defiles the + city of the Caesars. The fatigue of his body, and the cramped pain of + his aching spine, added to the moral and the mental suffering which + was upon him as he moved a stranger and alone along the new, + unfamiliar streets where, alone here and there, some giant ruin, some + stately arch, some marble form of god or prophet, recalled to him the + Urbs that he had known. +</p> +<p> + But he remembered the mission on which he came; and he rebuked his + self-indulgence in mourning for his own broken fate. +</p> +<p> + "I am a faithless servant and a feeble friend," he thought in + self-reproach. "Let me not weaken my poor remnant of strength in + egotism and repining. I come hither for Adone and the Edera. Let me + think of my errand only; not of myself, nor even of this desecrated + city." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0009"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + IX +</h2> +<p> + It was now the season to plough the reapen fields, and he had always + taken pleasure in his straight furrows; as straight as though + measured by a rule on the level lands; and of the skill with which on + the hilly ground Orlando and Rinaldo moved so skillfully, turning in + so small a space, answering to every inflection of his voice, taking + such care not to break a twig of the fruit trees, or bend a shoot of + the vines, or graze a stem of the olives. +</p> +<p> + "Good hearts, dear hearts, faithful friends and trusty servants!" he + murmured to the oxen. He leaned his bare arms on the great + fawn-coloured flanks of Orlando, and his forehead on his arms, which + grew wet with hidden tears. +</p> +<p> + The cattle stood motionless, breathing loudly through their distended + nostrils, the yokes on their shoulders crinking, their hides + twitching under the torment of the flies. Nerina, who had been + washing linen in the Edera, approached through the olives; she + hesitated a few minutes, then put the linen down off her head on to + the grass, gathered some plumes of featherfew and ferns, and brushed + the flies off the necks of the oxen. Adone started, looked up in + displeasure at being thus surprised, then, seeing the intruder was + only the little girl, he sat down on the side of the plough, and made + believe to break his noon-day bread. +</p> +<p> + "You have no wine," said the child. "Shall I run to the house for a + flask?" +</p> +<p> + "No, my dear, no. If I am athirst there is water — as yet there is + water!" he murmured bitterly, for the menace of this impending horror + began to grow on him with the fixity and obsession of a mania. +</p> +<p> + Nerina continued to fan the cattle and drive off the flies from their + necks. She looked at him wistfully from behind the figures of the + stately animals. She was afraid of the sorrow which was in the air. + No one had told her what the evil was which hung over the Terra + Vergine; and she never asked questions. The two elder women never + took her into their confidence on any subject, and she had no + communication with the few people in Ruscino. She had seen that + something was wrong, but she could not guess what: something which + made Madonna Clelia's brows dark, and Gianna's temper bad, and Adone + himself weary and ill at ease. +</p> +<p> + Seeing him sitting there, not eating, throwing his bread to some wild + pigeons which followed the plough, she plucked up courage to speak; + he was always kind to her, though he noticed her little. +</p> +<p> + "What is it that ails you all?" she asked. "Tell me, Adone, I am not + a foolish thing to babble." +</p> +<p> + He did not answer. What use were words? Deeds were wanted. +</p> +<p> + "Adone, tell me," she said in a whisper; "what is this that seems to + lie like a stone on you all? Tell me why Don Silverio has gone away. + I will never tell again." +</p> +<p> + There was a pathetic entreaty in the words which touched and roused + him; there was in it the sympathy which would not criticise or doubt, + and which is to the sore heart as balm and soothes it by its very + lack of reason. +</p> +<p> + He told her; told her the little that he knew, the much that he + feared; he spent all the force of his emotion in the narrative. +</p> +<p> + The child leaned against the great form of the ox and listened, not + interrupting by a word or cry. +</p> +<p> + She did not rebuke him as Don Silverio had done, or reproach him as + did his mother; she only listened with a world of comprehension in + her eyes more eloquent than speech, not attempting to arrest the fury + of imprecation or the prophecies of vengeance which poured from his + lips. Hers was that undoubting, undivided, implicit faith which is so + dear to the wounded pride and impotent strength of a man in trouble + who is conscious that what he longs to do would not be approved by + law or sanctioned by religion. That faith spoke in her eyes, in her + absorbed attention, in the few breathless sentences which escaped + her; there was also on her youthful face a set, stern anger akin to + his own. +</p> +<p> + "Could we not slay these men?" she said in a low, firm voice; she + came of a mountain race by whom life was esteemed little and revenge + honour. +</p> +<p> + "We must not even say such a thing," said Adone bitterly, in whose + ears the rebuke of Don Silverio still rang. "In these days everything + is denied us, even speech. If we take our rights we are caged in + their prisons." +</p> +<p> + "But what will you do, then?" +</p> +<p> + "For the moment I wait to learn more. These things are done in the + dark, or at least in no light that we can see. To kill these men as + you wish, little one, would do nothing. Others of their kind would + fill their places. The seekers of gold are like ants. Slay thousands, + tens of thousands come on; if once the scent of gain be on the wind + it brings men in crowds from all parts, as the smell of carrion + brings meat-flies. If they think of seizing the Edera it is because + men of business will turn it into gold. The Edera gives us our grain, + our fruits, our health, our life; but if it will give money to the + foreigner, the foreigner will take it as he would take the stars and + coin them if he could. The brigand of the hills is caged or shot; the + brigand of the banks is allowed to fatten and die in the odour of + success. There are two measures." +</p> +<p> + Nerina failed to understand, but her own mind was busy with what + seemed to her this monstrous injustice. +</p> +<p> + "But why do they let them do it? They take and chain the men who rob + a traveller or a house." +</p> +<p> + Adone cast his last atom of bread to the birds. +</p> +<p> + "There are two measures," he answered. "Kill one, you go to the + galleys for life. Kill half a million, you are a hero in history, and + get in your own generation titles, and money, and applause." +</p> +<p> + "Baruffo was a good man and my father's friend," Nerina said, + following her own thoughts. "Baruffo was in the oak woods always, far + below us, but he often brought us wine and game at night, and + sometimes money too. Baruffo was a good man. He was so kind. Twice my + father aided him to escape. But one night they seized him; there was + a whole troop of carabineers against him, they took him in a trap, + they could never have got him else, and I saw him brought down the + mountain road and I ran and kissed him before they could stop me; and + he never came back — they kept him." +</p> +<p> + "No doubt they kept him," said Adone bitterly. "Baruffo was a peasant + outlawed; if he had been a banker, or a minister, or a railway + contractor, he might have gone on thieving all his life, and met only + praise. They keep poor Baruffo safe in their accursed prisons, but + they will take care never to keep, or take even for a day, + law-breakers whose sins are far blacker than his, and whose victims + are multitudes." +</p> +<p> + "If Baruffo were here he would help you," said Nerina. "He was such a + fine strong man and had no fear." +</p> +<p> + Adone rose and put his hands on the handles of the plough. +</p> +<p> + "Take up your linen, little one," he said to the girl, "and go home, + or my mother will be angry with you for wasting time." +</p> +<p> + Nerina came close to him and her brown dog-like eyes looked up like a + dog's into his face. +</p> +<p> + "Tell me what you do, Adone," she said beseechingly, "I will tell no + one. I was very little when Baruffo came and went to and fro in our + hut; but I had sense; I never spoke. Only when the guards had him I + kissed him, because then it did not matter what they knew; there was + no hope." +</p> +<p> + "Yes, I will tell you," said Adone. "Maybe I shall end like Baruffo." +</p> +<p> + Then he called on Orlando and Rinaldo by their names, and they + lowered their heads and strained at their collars, and with a mighty + wrench of their loins and shoulders they forced the share through the + heavy earth. +</p> +<p> + Nerina stood still and looked after him as he passed along under the + vine-hung trees. +</p> +<p> + "Baruffo may have done some wrong," she thought, "but Adone, he has + done none, he is as good as if he were a saint of God, and if he + should be obliged to do evil it will be no fault of his, but because + other men are wicked." +</p> +<p> + Then she put the load of linen on her head, and went along the grassy + path homeward, and she saw the rosy gladioli, and the golden tansy, + by which she passed through tears. Yet she was glad because Adone had + trusted her; and because she now knew as much as the elder women in + his house, who had put no confidence in her. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0010"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + X +</h2> +<p> + "I SHALL not write," Don Silverio had said to Adone. "As soon as I + know anything for certain I shall return. Of that you may be sure." +</p> +<p> + For he knew that letters took a week or more to find their slow way + to Ruscino, and he hoped to return in less than that time; having no + experience of "what hell it is in waiting to abide," and of the + endless doublings and goings to earth of that fox-like thing, a + modern speculation; he innocently believed that he would only have to + ask a question to have it answered. +</p> +<p> + Day after day Adone mounted to the bell-tower roof, and gazed over + the country in vain. Day after day the little dog escaped from the + custody of Nerina, trotted over the bridge, pattered up the street, + and ran whining into his master's study. Every night the people of + Ruscino hung up a lantern on a loophole of the belfry, and another on + the parapet of the bridge, that their pastor might not miss his way + if he were coming on foot beside the river; and every night Adone + himself watched on the river bank or by the town wall, sleepless, + longing for, yet dreading that which he should hear. But more than a + week passed, and the priest did not return. The anxiety of Adone + consumed him like fire. He strove to dull his anxiety by incessant + work, but it was too acute to be soothed by physical fatigue. He + counted the days and the hours, and he could not sleep. The women + watched him in fear and silence; they dared ask nothing, lest they + should wound him. Only Nerina whispered to him once or twice in the + fields, "Where is he gone? When will he come back?" +</p> +<p> + "God knows!" he answered. Every evening that he saw the sun set + beyond the purple line of the mountains which were heaped in their + masses of marble and snow between him and the Patrimonium Petrus, he + felt as if he could never bear another night. He could hear the + clear, fresh sound of the running river, and it seemed to him like + the voice of some friend crying aloud to him in peril. Whilst these + summer days and nights sped away what was being done to save it? He + felt like a coward; like one who stands by and sees a comrade + murdered. In his solitude and apprehension he began to lose all + self-control; he imagined impossible things; he began to see in his + waking dreams, as in a nightmare, the dead body of Don Silverio lying + with a knife in its breast in some cut-throat alley of Rome. For two + weeks passed, and there was no sign of his return, and no message + from him. +</p> +<p> + The poor people of Ruscino also were troubled. Their vicar had never + left them before. They did not love him; he was too unlike them; but + they honoured him, they believed in him; he was always there in their + sickness and sorrow; they leaned on his greater strength in all their + penury and need; and he was poor like them, and stripped himself + still barer for their sakes. +</p> +<p> + Through the young friar who had replaced him they had heard something + of the calamity which threatened to befall them through the Edera. It + was all dark to them; they could understand nothing. Why others + should want their river and why they should lose it, or in what + manner a stream could be turned from its natural course — all these + things were to them incomprehensible. In the beginning of the world + it had been set running there. Who would be impious enough to meddle + with it? +</p> +<p> + Whoever tried to do so would be smitten with the vengeance of Heaven. + Of that they were sure. Nevertheless, to hear the mention of such a + thing tormented them; and when they opened their doors at dawn they + looked out in terror lest the water should have been taken away in + the night. +</p> +<p> + Their stupidity irritated Adone so greatly that he ceased altogether + to speak to them of the impending calamity. "They are stocks and + stones. They have not the sense of sheep nor the courage of goats," + he said, with the old scorn which his forefathers had felt for their + rustic vassals stirring in him. +</p> +<p> + "I believe that they would dig sand and carry wood for the engineers + and the craftsmen who would build the dykes!" he said to his mother. +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba sighed. "My son, hunger is a hard master; it makes the + soul faint, the heart hard, the belly ravenous. We have never known + it. We cannot judge those who know nothing else." +</p> +<p> + "Even hunger need not make one vile," he answered. +</p> +<p> + But he did not disclose all his thoughts to his mother. +</p> +<p> + He was so intolerant of these poor people of Ruscino because he + foresaw the hopelessness of forging their weak tempers into the metal + necessary for resistance. As well might he hope to change a + sword-rush of the river into a steel sabre for combat. Masaniello, + Rienzi, Garibaldi, had roused the peasantry and led them against + their foes; but the people they dealt with must, he thought, have + been made of different stuff than these timorous villagers, who could + not even be make to comprehend the magnitude of the wrong which was + plotted against them. +</p> +<p> + "Tell them," he said to old Trizio: "tell them their wells will run + dry; their fish will rot on the dry bed of what was once the river; + their canes, their reeds and rushes, their osiers, will all fail + them; when they shall go out into their fields nothing which they sow + or plant will grow, because the land will be cracked and parched; + there will be no longer the runlets and rivulets to water the soil; + birds will die of thirst, and thousands of little river creatures + will be putrid carcasses in the sun; for the Edera, which is life and + joy and health to this part of the country, will be carried far away, + imprisoned in brick walls, drawn under ground, forced to labour like + a slave, put to vile uses, soiled and degraded. Cannot you tell them + this, and make them see?" +</p> +<p> + The old man shook his white head. "They would never believe. It is + too hard for them. Where the river runs, there it will always be. So + they think." +</p> +<p> + "They are dolts, they are mules, they are swine!" said Adone. "Nay, + may the poor beasts forgive me! The beasts cannot help themselves, + but men can if they choose." +</p> +<p> + "Humph!" said Trizio doubtfully. "My lad, you have not seen men shot + down by the hundred. I have — long ago, long ago." +</p> +<p> + "There is no chance of their being shot," he said with contempt, + almost with regret. "All that is wanted of them are common sense, + union, protestation, comprehension of their rights." +</p> +<p> + "Aye, you all begin with that," said the old Garabaldino. "But, my + lad, you do not end there, for it is just those things which are your + right which those above you will never hear of; and then up come the + cannon thundering, and when the smoke clears away there are your dead + — and that is all you get." +</p> +<p> + The voice of the old soldier was thin and cracked and feeble, but it + had a sound in it which chilled the hot blood of his hearer. +</p> +<p> + Yet surely this was no revolutionary question, no socialistic theory, + no new alarming demand; it was only a claim old as the hills, only a + resolve to keep what the formation of the earth had given to this + province. +</p> +<p> + As well blame a father for claiming his own child as blame him and + his neighbours for claiming their own river! +</p> +<p> + They were tranquil and docile people, poor and patient, paying what + they were told to pay, letting the fiscal wolf gnaw and glut as it + chose unopposed, not loving their rulers indeed, but never moving or + speaking against them, accepting the snarl, the worry, the theft, the + greed, the malice of the State without questioning. +</p> +<p> + Were they to stand by and see their river ruined, and do nothing, as + the helpless fishermen of Fuscino have accepted the ruin of their + lake? +</p> +<p> + To all young men of courage and sensibility and enthusiasm the + vindication of a clear right seems an act so simple that it is only + through long and painful experience that they realize that there is + nothing under the sun which is so hard to compass, or which is met by + such strong antagonism. To Adone, whose nature was unspoilt by modern + influences, and whose world was comprised in the fields and moors + around Ruscino, it seemed incredible that such a title as that of his + native soil to the water of Edera could be made clear to those in + power without instant ratification of it. +</p> +<p> + "Whether you do aught or naught it comes to the same thing," said the + old Garibaldino, who was wiser. "We did much; we spent our blood like + water, and what good has it been? For one devil we drove out before + our muskets, a thousand worse devils have entered since." +</p> +<p> + "It is different," said Adone, impatient. "All we have to do is to + keep out the stranger. You had to drive him out. No politics or + doctrines come into our cause; all we mean, all we want, is to be + left alone, to remain as we are. That is all. It is simple and just." +</p> +<p> + "Aye, it is simple; aye, it is just," said the old man; but he sucked + his pipe-stem grimly: he had never seen these arguments prosper; and + in his own youth he had cherished such mistakes himself, to his own + hindrance. +</p> +<p> + Had he not sung in those glorious days of hope and faith, +</p> +<center> + "Fratelli d'Italia!<br> + L'Italia s'e desta!" +</center> +<p> + In the night which followed on the fourteenth day of the Vicar's + absence, Adone, unable either to rest or to labour, went into his + cattle-stalls and fed and watered all the animals, then he crossed + the river and went along its north bank by the same path which he had + followed with Don Silverio two weeks earlier. He had passed to and + fro that path often since his friend's departure, for by it the + priest must return; there was no other way to and from the west. +</p> +<p> + Rain had fallen in the night, and the river was buoyant, and the + grass sparkled, the mountains were of sapphire blue, and above the + shallows clouds of flies and gnats were fluttering, waterlilies were + blossoming where the water was still, and in the marshes buffaloes + pushed their dark forms amongst the nymphoea and the nuphar. +</p> +<p> + He had no longer any eyes to see these things; he only strained his + sight to catch the first glimpse of a tired traveler. The landscape + here was level for many miles of moor and pasture and a human form + approaching could be seen from a great distance. It was such a dawn + as he had used to love beyond all other blessings of nature; but now + the buffaloes in the pools and swamps were not more blind to its + charm than he. +</p> +<p> + The sun rose behind him out of the unseen Adrian waves, and a rosy + light spread itself over the earth; and at that moment he saw afar + off a dark form moving slowly. With a loud cry he sprang forward and + ran with the fleetness of a colt the hundred yards which were between + him and that familiar figure. +</p> +<p> + "My son! my dear son!" cried Don Silverio, as Adone reached him and + fell on his knees on the scorched turf. +</p> +<p> + "At last!" he murmured, choked with joy and fear. "Oh, where have you + been? We are half dead, your people and I. What tidings do you bring? + What comfort?" +</p> +<p> + "Rise up, and remember that you are a man," said Don Silverio; and + the youth, gazing upwards keenly into his face, suddenly lost all + hope, seeing no ray of hope on that weary countenance. +</p> +<p> + "You cannot save us?" he cried, with a scream like a wounded hare's. +</p> +<p> + "I cannot, my dear son," answered Don Silverio. +</p> +<p> + Adone dropped backward as if a bullet had struck him; his head smote + the dry ground; he had lost consciousness, his face was livid. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio raised him and dragged him into the shade of a bay-tree + and dashed water on him from the river. In a few minutes he was + roused and again conscious, but on his features there was a dazed, + stunned look. +</p> +<p> + "You cannot save us?" he repeated. +</p> +<p> + "Neither you nor I have millions," said Don Silverio with bitterness. + "It is with no other weapon that men can fight successfully now." +</p> +<p> + Adone had risen to his feet; he was pale as a corpse, only the blood + was set in his forehead. +</p> +<p> + "Is it true, then?" he muttered. "Do they mean to come here?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes." +</p> +<p> + "Who are they? Jews?" +</p> +<p> + "Jews and Gentiles. There is no difference between those races now; + they have a common Credo — greed; they adore one Jehovah — gold. My + boy, I am very tired, and you are ill. Let us get home as quickly as + we can." +</p> +<p> + "I am not ill. It was nothing. It is passed. Tell me the worst." +</p> +<p> + "The worst, in a work, is that a foreign company, already established + for several years in this country, has obtained a faculty to turn + this water out if its course and use it as the motive power of an + electric railway and of an acetylene manufactory, and of other + enterprises." +</p> +<p> + "And this cannot be undone?" +</p> +<p> + "I fear not; they are rich and powerful. What are we? Let me get + home. There you shall hear all, and judge." +</p> +<p> + Adone asked and said no more. He turned and went backward. His steps + were slow and unsteady, his head was hung down. The dry, hot air was + like fire around them; the sun, though still low, darted fierce rays + upon them, like spears thrown with a sure aim. He had not known how + much and how strongly he had hoped until now that he heard that there + was no hope left. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio, though he did not speak of himself, was faint with + fatigue; the return journey had tried him more cruelly than the + first, since on his way to Rome he had been sustained by the hope to + find the project abandoned, or at the least uncertain. He had spent + all his scanty earnings, so hardly and tediously collected through a + score of years, and he had brought back to his poor people, and to + the youth he loved, nothing except the confirmation of their worst + fears. It was with difficulty that he could drag his aching feet over + the burn grass back to his parish. +</p> +<p> + When they reached the bridge they were on the village side of the + stream. Adone, with an effort, raised himself from the trance into + which he had fallen. +</p> +<p> + "Forgive me, sir; you are overtired, you must rest. I will come to + you later." +</p> +<p> + "No, no," said Don Silverio quickly, for he thought the youth in no + state to be alone. "I will wash and take a cup of coffee, then I will + tell you all. Wait in my book-room." +</p> +<p> + They went together to his house. There was no one in the street or on + the walls except some children gathering dandelion leaves in the + ditch. They reached the priest's house unobserved; only the little + dog, who was making his diurnal search there, rushed out of the + entrance in a frenzy of rapture. +</p> +<p> + "Poor little man! Dear Signorino!" murmured Don Silverio, and he took + the little creature in his arms. Then he opened the door of his + study. "Wait there," he said to Adone. "I will soon come downstairs. + I will only wash off the dust of this journey." +</p> +<p> + Adone obeyed. +</p> +<p> + The room was dusky, cool, silent; he sat down in it and waited; he + could hear the loud, uneven beating of his own heart in the + stillness. +</p> +<p> + As he felt now, so, he thought, must feel men who have heard their + own death-sentence, and are thrust alone into a cell. +</p> +<p> + If Don Silverio could do nothing, to whom could he turn? +</p> +<p> + Could he induce the people to rise? It would be their ruin as well as + his, this rape of the river. Would they bear it as they bore + taxation, neglect, conscription, hunger? +</p> +<p> + It was not half an hour, although it seemed to him half a day, which + passed before Don Silverio came down the stone stair, his little dog + running and leaping about him. He seated himself before Adone, by the + shuttered window, through which, by chinks and holes in the wood, + there came rays of light and tendrils of vine. +</p> +<p> + Then detail by detail, with lucidity and brevity, he narrated all he + had heard and done in Rome, and which it was exceeding hard to bring + home to the comprehension of a mind wholly ignorant of such things. +</p> +<p> + "When I reached Rome," he explained, "I was for some days in despair. + The deputy of San Beda was not at the Chamber. He was in Sicily. + Another deputy, a friend of the Prior at San Beda, to whom I had a + letter, was very ill with typhoid fever. I knew not where to turn. I + could not knock at the doors of strangers without credentials. Then I + remembered that one with whom I had been friends, great friends, when + we were both seminarists, had become a great man at the Vaticano. It + was scarcely possible that he, in his great elevation, would + recollect one unseen for a quarter of a century. But I took courage + and sent in my name. Imagine my surprise and emotion when I was + admitted at once to his presence, and was received by him with the + uttermost kindness. He assisted me in every way. He could not of + course move ostensibly in a matter of the government, himself, but he + gave me letters to those who could obtain me the information and the + interviews which I desired. He was goodness itself, and through him I + was even received by his Holiness. But from all those political and + financial people whom I saw I learned but the same thing. The matter + is far advanced, is beyond any alteration. The company is formed. The + concurrence of parliament is not to be, but has long been, given. The + ministry favours the project. They all repeated to me the same + formula: public works are to the public interest. They babbled + commonplaces. They spoke of great advantages to the province. I + pleaded as forcibly as I could in the interests of this valley, and I + opposed fact to formula. But my facts were not those which they + wanted; and they told me, politely but unmistakably, that a churchman + should not seek to interfere with civil matters. The promoters are + masters of the position. They are all of accord: the foreign bankers, + the Italian bankers; the foreign engineers, the Italian engineers; + the Technical office, the President of Council, the dicastero of + Hygiene, of Agriculture, of Public Works, all of them. Our poor + little valley seems to them a desirable prey; they have seized it, + they will keep it. They were all courteous enough. They are polite, + and even unwilling to cause what they call unnecessary friction. But + they will not give an inch. Their talons are in our flesh as an + eagle's in a lamb's. One thinks fondly that what a man possesses is + his own, be it land, house, stream—what not! But we mistake. There + is a thing stronger, higher, more powerful than any poor title of + property acquired by heritage, by purchase, or by labour. It is what + they call expropriation. You think the Edera cannot be touched: it + can be expropriated. You think the Terra Vergine cannot be touched: + it can be expropriated. Against expropriation no rights can stand. It + is the concentration and crystallisation of Theft legitamised by + Government; that is by Force. A vagrant may not take a sheaf of your + wheat, a fowl from your hen-house: if he do so, the law protects you + and punishes him. A syndicate of rich men, of powerful men, may take + the whole of your land, and the State will compel you to accept any + arbitrary price which it may choose to put upon your loss. According + as you are rich or poor yourself, so great or so small will be the + amount awarded to you. All the sub-prefects, all the syndics, all the + officials in this province, will be richly rewarded; the people + defrauded of the soil and the river will get what may be given them + by an enforced valuation. I have conversed with all kinds and + conditions of men; and I have heard only one statement in the mouths + of all: the matter is beyond all alteration. There is money in it; + the men whose trade is money will not let it go. My son, my dearest + son, be calm, be prudent. Violence can only injure yourself, and it + can save nothing." +</p> +<p> + He had for the moment spoken as he had been speaking for the last two + weeks to men of education and of the world. +</p> +<p> + He was recalled to the fact that his present auditor did not reason, + did not comprehend, only felt, and was drunk with his own force of + feeling. The look on Adone's face appalled him. +</p> +<p> + The youth seemed almost to have no intelligence left, almost as if + all which had been said to him had reached neither his ear nor his + brain. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio had been in the world of men, and unconsciously he had + adopted their phraseology and their manner. To Adone, who had + expected some miracle, some rescue almost archangelic, some promise + of immediate and divine interposition, these calm and rational + statements conveyed scarcely any sense, so terrible was the + destruction of his hopes. All the trust and candour and sweetness of + his nature turned to gall. +</p> +<p> + He listened, a sullen, savage darkness stealing over his countenance. +</p> +<p> + "And our rights? Theirs? — mine?" he said as Don Silverio paused. +</p> +<p> + "For all rights taken away they will give legal compensation." +</p> +<p> + "You dare repeat that, sir?" +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio controlled his indignation with difficulty. +</p> +<p> + "I dare do whatever I deem right to do. You should know that by this + time." +</p> +<p> + "You think this right?" +</p> +<p> + "I think it right to repeat exactly what has been said to me. I do + not of necessity approve because I repeat." +</p> +<p> + "You know no compensation is possible!" +</p> +<p> + "Morally, none. I speak of but what the law allows." +</p> +<p> + "The law of pirates, of cut-throats!" +</p> +<p> + "The law of the State, alas!" +</p> +<p> + Adone laughed. His hearer had heard such laughter as that in + madhouses. +</p> +<p> + "The State kills a soldier, and gives his family a hundred francs! + That is the compensation of the State. If they emptied their + treasuries, could they give the soldier back his life? If they + emptied their treasuries, could they give us back what they will take + from us?" +</p> +<p> + "My dear son, do not doubt my sympathy. All my heart is with you. But + what can be done? Can a poor village, a poor commune, struggle with + any chance of success against a rich company and a government? Can a + stalk of wheat resist the sickle? Can an ear of wheat resist the + threshing-flail? I have told you the story of Don Quixote della + Mancha. Would you fight the empty air like him?" +</p> +<p> + Adone did not reply. +</p> +<p> + His beautiful face grew moody, dark, fierce; in his eyes flamed + passions which had no voice upon his lips; his white teeth ground + against one another. +</p> +<p> + "Believe me, Adone," said his friend, "we are in evil days, when men + babble of liberty, and are so intent on the mere empty sound of their + lips that they perceive not the fetters on their wrists and feet. + There was never any time when there was so little freedom and so + little justice as in ours. Two gigantic dominions now rule the human + race; they are the armies and the moneymakers. Science serves them + turn by turn, and receives from each its wage. The historian Mommsen + has written that we are probably inferior both in intelligence and in + humanity, in prosperity and in civilisation, at the close of this + century to what the human race was under Severus Antonius; and it is + true." +</p> +<p> + Adone did not seem to hear. What were these abstract reasonings to + him? All he cared for were his river and his fields. +</p> +<p> + "I sought for an old friend of mine in Rome," said Don Silverio, + endeavouring to gain his attention and divert his thought, "one + Pamfilio Scoria. He was a learned scholar; he had possessed a small + competence and a house of his own, small too, but of admirable + architecture, a Quattrocentisto house. I could not find this house in + Rome. After long search I learned that it had been pulled down to + make a new street. Pamfilio Scoria had in vain tried to preserve his + rights. The city had turned him out and taken his property, paying + what it chose. His grief was so great to see it destroyed, and to be + turned adrift with his books and manuscripts, that he fell ill and + died not long afterwards. On the site of the house there is a + drinking-place kept by Germans; a street railway runs before it. This + kind of theft, of pillage, takes place every week. It is masked as + public utility. We are not alone sufferers from such a crime." +</p> +<p> + Adone was still silent. +</p> +<p> + His thoughts were not such as he could utter aloud in the priest's + presence; and he heard nothing that was said; he heard only little + Nerina's voice saying: "Could we not kill these men?" That flutelike + whisper seemed to him to sigh with the very voice of the river + itself. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio rose, his patience, great as it was, exhausted. +</p> +<p> + "My son, as you do not give ear to me it is useless for me to speak. + I must go to my office. The friar from San Beda desires to return + this evening. I have done all I can. I have told you the facts as + they stand. Take courage, Be peaceable for your mother's sake and + restrain yourself for your own. It is a frightful calamity which + hangs over us all. But it is our duty to meet it like men." +</p> +<p> + "Like men!" muttered Adone as he rose to his feet; had not the child + from the Abruzzo rocks a better sense of men's duty than this priest + so calm and wise? +</p> +<p> + "Men resist," he said very low. +</p> +<p> + "Men resist," repeated Don Silverio. "They resist when their + resistance serves any purpose, but when it can only serve to crush + them uselessly under a mass of iron they are not men if they resist, + but madmen." +</p> +<p> + "Farewell, sir," said Adone. +</p> +<p> + And with an obeisance he went out of the chamber. +</p> +<p> + "Poor boy! Poor, passionate, dear youth!" thought Don Silverio as the + door closed. "He thinks me cold and without emotion; how little he + knows! He cannot suffer as I suffer for him and for my poor wretched + people. What will they do when they shall know? They will mourn like + starved sheep bleating in a field of stones, and I, their shepherd, + shall not have a blade of grass wherewith to comfort them!" +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0011"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XI +</h2> +<p> + Adone's sight was troubled as soon as he passed out of the dusky room + into the blaze of noonday sunshine. His eyes seemed filled with + blood. His brain was dizzy. That which had been his sheet-anchor in + all doubts and contrition, his faith in and his reverence for Don + Silverio, availed him nothing now. A blind sympathy with his most + violent instincts was the only thing which could now content or + console him. +</p> +<p> + He was in that state to which all counsels of moderation appear but + so much treason and unkindness. As he went out of the priest's house + in that dazzling light, a hand caught his sleeve and that young + flutelike voice of which he had thought murmured to him — +</p> +<p> + "Adone! what tidings? What has he told you?" +</p> +<p> + Nerina, having run across the bridge and up the street after the + little dog, had seen him and Don Silverio enter, and had waited for + Adone to come out of the house. +</p> +<p> + Adone pushed her away. +</p> +<p> + "Let me be!" he said impatiently. "It is all bad — bad — bad. Bad + as ill-blood. Bad as crime." +</p> +<p> + She clung to his arm nevertheless. +</p> +<p> + "Come into the church and tell me. No one cares as I do." +</p> +<p> + "Poor little soul!" +</p> +<p> + He let her draw him into the great porch of the church and thence + into the church itself; it was dark, as it always was, cold as an + autumn evening, damp even in the canicular heat. +</p> +<p> + "No one will hear; tell me!" said the child. +</p> +<p> + He told her. +</p> +<p> + "And what are you to do?" she asked, her eyes dilated with horror. +</p> +<p> + "According to him," said Adone bitterly, "I am to be meek and + helpless as the heifer which goes to the slaughter. Men must not + resist what the law permits." +</p> +<p> + Nerina was mute. To dispute what Don Silverio said was like blasphemy + to her; she honoured him with all her soul, but she loved Adone. +</p> +<p> + She loved the Edera water too; that fair green rippling water, on + whose bank she had sat naked under the dock leaves the day the two + rams had fought. That which was threatened was an unholy, wicked, + cruel robbery. Was it indeed necessary to yield to it in submission? +</p> +<p> + She remembered a saying of Baruffo's: "If a man stand up to me I + leave him some coins in his pocket, some life in his body; but if he + crouch and cringe I stick him in the throat. He is a craven." +</p> +<p> + The doctrine of Baruffo seemed to her the more sound. It warmed the + blood of the little Abruzzo-born maiden to recall it. In the high + mountains and forests the meeker virtues are not greatly honoured. +</p> +<p> + She stood by Adone's side, knitting her brows under her auburn + curling locks, clenching her hands. +</p> +<p> + "Is there <i>one</i> who does this evil most of all?" she said at length. + "<i>One</i> we could reach?" +</p> +<p> + "You are a brave child, Nerina!" said Adone, and his words made her + proud. "I fear there is a crowd. Such men are like locusts; they come + in swarms. But the first man who touches the water—" +</p> +<p> + "Shall sup of it and drown!" +</p> +<p> + The little girl added the words with a fierce joy in her great bright + eyes. +</p> +<p> + "Hush!" said Adone, "and get you homeward, and tell my mother that + Don Silverio has returned, and that I will come back to my work in a + little while. Tell her he says there is no hope." +</p> +<p> + Nerina obeyed him instantly, her bare feet flying over the stones of + the street. He was left alone in the sombre church, with the great + winged angels of stone above his head. +</p> +<p> + He was grateful for its gloom. He shrank from the light of the + morning. Every drop of blood in his body, and in his brain, and in + his limbs, seemed to him to turn to fire — a fire which all the + waters of the Edera would never quench. +</p> +<p> + How could they be accused of rebellion or wrong-doing because they + wanted to keep the water running in the channel which it had made for + itself in the very beginning of the world? +</p> +<p> + The Edera was ancient as its neighbours, the Fiumicino which heard + the voice of Cæsar, or the Marecchia which was bridged by Augustus; + ancient as the fountain of Arethusa, as the lake of Diana Nemorensis. + What sacrilege could be more heinous than to chase it from its chosen + course? No Lucumon of Etruria, or Esarch of Ravenna, or Pope or Rome, + had ever dared to touch it. Revolutionists! they, who only sought to + preserve it? The revolutionists were those who with alien hands and + vampire's greed would seek to disturb its peace. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0012"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XII +</h2> +<p> + All that day the people of Ruscino crowded round the Presbytery. +</p> +<p> + "What of the Edera water, sir?" they asked him a hundred times in the + shrill cries of the women, in the rude bellow of the men, in the + high-pitched, dissonant clamour of angry speakers. And all the day + his patience and kindness were abused, and his nerves racked and + strained, in the effort to persuade them that the river which ran + beneath their walls was no more theirs than the stars which shone + above it. +</p> +<p> + It was hopeless to bring home to their intelligence either the + invalidity of their claim, or the peril which would lie in their + opposition. +</p> +<p> + "'Twas there in the beginning of time," they said. "There it must be + for our children's children." +</p> +<p> + He talked nonsense, they thought; who should be able to stop a river + which was for ever running? The Edera water was carried in the womb + of the Leonessa: Leonessa gave it fresh birth every day. +</p> +<p> + Yes! thought Don Silverio, as he walked by the river after sunset, + and watched its bright, impetuous current dash over the stones and + shingle whilst two kingfishers flashed along its surface. Yes, truly + Nature would pour it forth every day from her unfailing breast so + long as man did not do it outrage. But how long would that be? A + year, two years, three years, at most; then its place would know it + no more, and its song would be silent. The water-pipet would make its + nest no more in its sedges, and the blue porphyrion would woo his + mate no more on its bosom. As one of the rich men in Rome had said to + him with a cynical smile, "The river will be there always, only it + will be dry!" +</p> +<p> + In the gloaming he went and spoke to Adone's mother. She was at her + spinning-wheel, but her hands moved mechanically; her face was dark + and her eyelids swollen. +</p> +<p> + "My friend," he said, as he sat down on the bench beneath the + rose-tree, "I have brought you ill-tidings." +</p> +<p> + "It is true then, sir?" +</p> +<p> + "Alas!" +</p> +<p> + "I do not believe it. God will not let it be." +</p> +<p> + "Would that I could think so." +</p> +<p> + "'Tis you, sir, who should think so, and not I." +</p> +<p> + "My good Clelia," he said, with some impatience, "it is no use to + dream dreams. Try and persuade your son to accept the inevitable. My + words seem harsh. They are not so. But I dare not let you cherish + your illusions like this; blind yourself to fact, you expect some + supernatural intercession. They will take your river; they will take + your lands. Your house will be yours no more. If you do not go + peaceably they will have you turned out, as if you were a debtor. + This may take some time, for it will be done with all due legal + forms, but it will be done. They will pay you and your son some value + by appraisement, but they will take your land and your house and all + that is yours and his; I have seen the plans in Rome. Can you think + that I should invent this to torture you? There will be a process, a + sentence, an award; the money the law allots to you will be strictly + paid to you; but you will be driven away from the Terra Vergine. + Realise this. Try and keep your reason and save your son from + madness. Surely, where there is great love between two people, and + bonds of memory and mutual duty, and strong faith, there a home may + be made anywhere, even over seas?" +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba snapped with violence the thread she span. "They have + talked you over, sir," she said curtly. "When you went away you were + with us." +</p> +<p> + "With you!" he echoed. "In heart, in pity, in sympathy, yes; never + could I be otherwise. But were I to see you struck with lightning, + should I save you by telling you that lightning did not kill? I did + not know that the enterprise was as mature as I found it to be when I + saw the promoters of it in Rome. But I know now that it has been long + in incubation; you must remember that every bend and ordnance maps; + every stream, however small, is known to the technical office, and + the engineers civil and military. I abhor the project. It is to me a + desecration, an infamy, a robbery; it will ruin the Valdedera from + every point of view; but we can do nothing; this is what I implore + you to realise. We are as helpless as one of your fowls when you cut + its throat. Violence can only hurry your son into the grip of the + law. His rights are morally as plain as yonder snow on those + mountains; but because they will buy his rights at what will be + publicly estimated as a fair price, the law will not allow him to + consider himself injured. My dear friend, you are a woman of sense + and foresight; try to see this thing as it is." +</p> +<p> + "I will hear what Adone says, sir," replied Clelia Alba doggedly. "If + he bids me burn the house, I shall burn it." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio was heart-sick and impatient. What use was it to argue + with such minds as these? As well might he waste his words on the + trunks of the olives, on the oxen in their stalls. +</p> +<p> + They were wronged. +</p> +<p> + That the wrong done them was masked under specious pretences, and was + protected by all the plate armour of law and government, made the + outrage little the worse to them. The brigand from the hills who used + to harry their cattle and pillage their strong-box looked to them a + hero, a saint, a Christ, compared to these modern thieves who were + environed with all the defences and impunity which the law and the + State could give. When an earth-shock makes the soil under your feet + quiver, and gape, and mutter, you feel that unnatural forces are + being hurled against you, you feel that you are the mere sport and + jest of an unjust deity. This was what they felt now. +</p> +<p> + "Nay," said Clelia Alba, "if the earth opened, and took us, it would + be kinder; it would bury us at least under our own rooftree." +</p> +<p> + What use was it to speak to such people as these of the right of + expropriation granted by parliament, of the authority of a + <i>dicastero</i>, and of a prefecture, of the sophistries and arguments of + lawyers, of the adjudication of values, of the appraisement of + claims? They were wronged: and they came of a race and of a soil in + which the only fitting redresser of wrong was revenge. +</p> +<p> + "Mother," cried Adone, "my father would not have given up his land as + meekly as a sheep yields up her life." +</p> +<p> + "No," said Clelia Alba; "whether he came from those war-lords of old + I know not, but he would have fought as they fought." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0013"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XIII +</h2> +<p> + The autumn and winter passed without more being heard in the + Valdedera of the new invasion. The peasantry generally believed that + such silence was favourable to their wishes; but Don Silverio knew + that it was otherwise. The promoters of the work did not concern + themselves with the local population, they dealt with greater folks; + with those who administered the various communes, and who controlled + the valuation of the land through which the course of the Edera ran; + chiefly those well-born persons who constituted the provincial + council. A great deal of money would change hands, but it was + intended, by all through whose fingers those heavy sums would pass, + that as little of the money as possible should find its way to the + owners of the soil. A public work is like a fat hog; between the + slaughterers, the salesmen, the middlemen, and the consumers, little + falls to the original holder of the hog. The peasants of the + Valdedera were astonished that no one came to treat with them; but + they did not understand that they dwelt under a paternal government, + and the first care of a paternal government is to do everything for + its children which is likely to promise any profit to itself. +</p> +<p> + The men of business whom Don Silverio had seen in Rome did not + trouble themselves with the rustic proprietors of either water or + land; they treated with the great officials of the department, with + the deputies, the prefects, and sub-prefects, the syndics and + assessors; so a perfect silence on the question reigned from the rise + of the river to its mouth, and many of the men said over their + wood-fires that they had been scared for nothing. The younger men, + however, and those who were under Adone's influence, were more wary; + they guessed that the matter was being matured without them; that + when the hog should be eaten, the smallest and rustiest flitch would + then be divided amongst them. Agents, such agents as were ministerial + instruments of these magnates in election time, went amongst the + scattered people and spoke to them of the great public utility of the + contemplated works, and made them dispirited and doubtful of the + value of their holdings, and uncertain of the legality of their + tenures. But these agents were cautious and chary of promises, for + they knew that in this district the temper of men was proud and hot + and revengeful; and they knew also that when these rural owners + should be brought into the courts to receive their price they would + be dealt with just as the great men chose. One by one, so that each + should be unsupported by his neighbours, the men of the valley were + summoned, now to this town, now to the other, and were deftly argued + with, and told that what was projected would be their salvation, and + assured that the delegates who would be sent in their name by their + provincial council to the capital would defend all their dearest + interests. +</p> +<p> + The rich man, the man of business, the man of cities, may receive in + such transactions compensation, which is greatly to their advantage, + because traffic is their trade, because to buy and sell, and turn and + return, and roll the ball of gold so that it grows bigger every hour, + is their custom and interest. But the poor man, the rustic, the man + with the one ewe lamb, loses always, whether he assents to the sale + or has it forced upon him. These people of the valley might have a + little ready money given them on valuation, but it would be money + clipped and cropped by the avarice of intermediates until little of + it would remain, and they would be driven out to begin life anew; + away from their old rooftree and the fruits of long years of labour. +</p> +<p> + From far and near men came to Ruscino to take counsel of its vicar; + his wisdom being esteemed and his intelligence known in the valley + beyond the confines of his parish: and what advice could he give + them? He could but tell them that it was useless to kick against the + pricks. He knew so well the cold, curt, inflexible official answer; + the empty, vapouring regrets, false, simpering, pharisaical; the + parrot-phrases of public interests, public considerations, public + welfare; the smile, the sneer, the self-complacent shrug of those who + know that only the people whom they profess to serve will suffer. To + him, as to them, it seemed a monstrous thing to take away the water + from its natural channel and force the men who lived on it and by it + to alter all their ways of life and see their birthplace changed into + a desert in order that aliens might make money. But he could not + counsel them to resist; no resistance was possible. It was like any + other tyranny of the State: like the fiscal brutality which sold up a + poor man's hayrick or clothing because he could not pay the poll-tax. + If the poor man resisted, if he fired his old fowling-piece, or used + his knife on the minions of the State, what use was such resistance? + He went to rot in prison. +</p> +<p> + His calling, his conscience, his good sense, his obedience to law, + all alike compelled him to urge on them patience, submission, and + inaction before the provocation of a great wrong. He dared not even + let them see one tithe of the sympathy he felt, lest if he did so + they should draw from it an incentive to illegal action. +</p> +<p> + The part which he was obliged to take in thus persuading the people + to be tranquil under injustice estranged him farther and farther from + Adone Alba, who found it a cowardice and a treachery, although he + dared not say so in words. Had he retained the coolness of reason the + youth would have known and acknowledged that in the position of Don + Silverio no other course would have been possible or decent. But + reason had long left him, and inaction and impulse alone remained. He + would not allow that a wrong might be condemned, and yet endured. To + him all endurance had in it the meanness of condonation. +</p> +<p> + He ceased to have any faith in his friend and teacher; and gradually + grew more and more alienated from him; their intimate affection, + their frequent intercourse, their long walks and evening meeting were + over; and even as his spiritual director the vicar had no longer + power over him. Most of his actions and intentions were concealed; + except in the younger men of the district, who saw as he saw, he had + now no confidence in any one. The impending loss of the land and the + water turned all the sweetness of his nature to gall. He thought that + never in the history of the world had any wrong so black been done. + He, himself, flung broadcast the fires of burning incitation without + heeding or caring whither the flames might reach. Riots had been + successful before this: why not now? He was young enough and innocent + enough to believe in the divine right of a just cause. If that were + denied, what remained to the weak? +</p> +<p> + If he could, he would have set the valley in flames from one end to + the other rather than have allowed the foreigners to seize it. Had + not his forefather perished in fire on yonder hill rather than cede + to the Borgia? +</p> +<p> + Evening after evening he looked at the sun setting behind the Rocca + and felt the black rage in him gnaw at his heart like a vulture. +</p> +<p> + They would offer him money for this dear earth, for this fair, + beloved stream! — the mere thought choked him as a man who loved his + wife would be choked at the though of her dishonoured sale. +</p> +<p> + Some were half persuaded that it would be a fine thing to get some + crisp banknotes in exchange for waste ground which yielded little, or + a cabin which was falling to pieces, or a strip of woodland which + gave them fuel, but not much more. But the majority were angry, + irreconcilable, furious to lose the water, full of their wrongs. + These were glad to find Adone Alba a spokesman and a leader: they + were tow which caught fire at his torch. They comprehended little, + but they knew that they were wronged; and they agreed with him that + the labourers who should come from over the border to meddle with + them should be made to rue it bitterly. +</p> +<p> + The Italian goes over seas, indeed; huddled under the hatches of + emigrant ships; miserable, starved, confined; unable to move, scarce + able to breathe, like the unhappy beasts carried with him. But he + never goes willingly; he never wrenches himself from the soil without + torn nerves and aching heart; if he lives and makes a little money in + exile he comes back to the shadow of the village church, to the sound + of the village bell which he knew in his boyhood, to walk in the + lanes where he threw his wooden quoit as a lad, and to play dominoes + under the green bough of the winehouse where as a child he used to + watch his elders and envy them. +</p> +<p> + Most of these people dwelling on the Edera water had not been five + miles away from the river in all their lives. The moorland birds and + beasts went farther afield than they. They had no interest in what + was beyond their own freehold; they did not even know or care whither + the water went, or whence it came. Where it was, they owned it. That + was enough for them. +</p> +<p> + "Sir, what is it Adone does?" said Clelia Alba, one dusky and stormy + eve after vespers. "At nightfall out he goes; and never a word to me, + only 'Your blessing, mother,' he says, as if he might lose his life + where he goes. I thought at first it was some love matter, for he is + young; but it cannot be that, for he is too serious, and he goes + fully armed, with his father's pistols in his belt and his own long + dagger in his stocking. True, they go so to a love tryst, if it be a + dangerous one; if the woman be wedded; only I think it is not that, + for men in love are different. I think that he broods over some act." +</p> +<p> + "Neither you nor I can do aught. He is of age to judge for himself," + said Don Silverio; "but, like you, I do not think a woman is the + cause of his absence." +</p> +<p> + "Can you not speak to him, sir?" +</p> +<p> + "I have spoken. It is useless. He is moved by a motive stronger than + any argument we can use. In a word, good Clelia, this coming seizure + of the water is suffering so great to him that he loses his reason. + He is trying to make the men of the commune see as he sees. He wants + to rouse them, to arm them. He might as well set the calves in your + stalls to butt the mountain granite." +</p> +<p> + "Maybe, sir," said Clelia Alba, unwillingly; but her eye gleamed, and + her stern, proud face grew harder. "But he has the right to do it if + he can. If they touch the water they are thieves, worse than those + who came down from the hills in the years of my girlhood." +</p> +<p> + "You would encourage him in insurrection, then?" +</p> +<p> + "Nay, I would not do that; but neither would I blame him. Every man + has a right to defend his own. Neither his father nor mine, sir, were + cowards." +</p> +<p> + "This is no question of cowardice. It is a question of common sense. + A few country lads cannot oppose a government. With what weapons can + they do so? Courage I honour; without it all active virtues are + supine; but it is not courage to attempt the impossible, to lead the + ignorant to death — or worse." +</p> +<p> + "Of that my son must judge, sir," said Adone's mother, inflexible to + argument. "I shall not set myself against him. He is master now. If + he bid me fire the place I shall do it. For four-and-twenty years he + obeyed me like a little child; never a murmur, never a frown. Now he + is his own master, and master of the land. I shall do as he tells me. + It is his turn now, and he is no fool, sir, Adone." +</p> +<p> + "He is no fool; no. But he is beside himself. He is incapable of + judgment. His blood is on fire and fires his brain." +</p> +<p> + "I think not, sir. He is quiet. He speaks little" +</p> +<p> + "Because he meditates what will not bear speech. Were he violent I + should be less alarmed. He shuns me — me — his oldest friend." +</p> +<p> + "Because no doubt, sir, he feels you are against him." +</p> +<p> + "Against him! How can I, being what I am, be otherwise? Could you + expect me to foment insurrection, and what less than that can + opposition such as he intends become?" +</p> +<p> + "You speak as you feel bound to speak, sir, no doubt." +</p> +<p> + "But think of the end? Must not every action be weighed and + considered and judgment passed on it by what will be its issue? No + rising of our poor people can effect anything except their own + destruction. It is only a demagogue who would urge them on to it. + Adone is not a demagogue. He is a generous youth frantic from sorrow, + but helpless. Can you not see that?" +</p> +<p> + "I do not see that he is helpless," said his mother with obstinacy. + "The thing that are about to do us is unjust. I would load a gun + myself against them, and if money be what is wanted I would give + Adone my pearls. He asks me for nothing, but when he does I will + strip myself to my shift to aid him." +</p> +<p> + "It is a terrible madness!" cried Don Silverio. "What can your + fowling-piece or your necklace do against all the force these + speculators and contractors will employ? It is a great, a heinous + wrong which will be done to you; that no one can feel more strongly + than I. But there are wrongs to which we must submit when we are + weak; and, my good Clelia, against this we poor folks in the Vale of + Edera are as weak as the teal in the marshes against the swivel guns + of the sportsmen's punts." +</p> +<p> + But he argued in vain; logic and persuasion are alike useless when + opposed to the rock of ignorance and obstinacy. She held him in deep + reverence; she brought her conscience to his judgment; she thought + him beyond ordinary humanity: but when he endeavoured to persuade her + that her son was wrong he failed. +</p> +<p> + "Sir, you know that this crime against the river will ruin us," she + said doggedly. "Why then should you try to tie our hands? I do not + know what Adone does; his mind is hid from me, but if, as you say, he + wants a rising of our people, it is natural and just." +</p> +<p> + When the mind of the peasant — man or woman — be made up in its + stubbornness, all learning, wisdom, experience, even fact, speak in + vain; it opposes to all proofs the passive resistance of a dogged + incredulity: to reason with it is as useless as to quarry stone with + a razor. +</p> +<p> + Many and many a time had he given up in exhaustion and nausea his + endeavours to convince the rural mind of some simple fact, some clear + cause, some elementary principle. He knew that Clelia Alba would + never believe in the exile which would be her certain fate until the + armed and liveried creatures of the State should drive her from her + home by order of the State. He had seen in Rome that there was no + possible chance of opposing this enterprise against the Edera water. + It had been decided on by men of money who had the ear of ministers, + the precedence in ante-chambers, the means of success in political + departments and in commercial centres. A few scattered provincial + owners of land and labourers on land might as well try to oppose + these men as the meek steinbok in the mountain solitudes to escape + the expanding bullet of a prince's rifle. Yet he also saw how + impossible it was to expect a young man like Adone, with his lineage, + his temperament, his courage, and his mingling of ignorance and + knowledge, to accept the inevitable without combat. As well might he + be bidden to accept dishonour. +</p> +<p> + The remorse in his soul was keen, inasmuch as without him Adone would + never have known of his descent from the lords of Ruscino, and never, + probably, have acquired that "little learning" which a poet of the + north has said is a dangerous thing. +</p> +<p> + "Better," thought Don Silverio, with tormenting self-reproach, + "better have left him to his plough, to his scythe, to his + reaping-hook; better have left him in ignorance of the meaning of art + and of study; better have left him a mere peasant to beget peasants + like himself. Then he would have suffered less, and might possibly + have taken peaceably such compensation as the law would have allowed + him for the loss to his land, and have gone away to the West, as so + many go, leaving the soil they were born on to pass out of culture." +</p> +<p> + Would Adone ever have done that? No; he would not; he was wedded to + the soil like the heaths that grew out of it. He might be violently + dragged away, but he would never live elsewhere; his heart had struck + its roots too deeply into the earth which nurtured him. +</p> +<p> + "Why did you tell him of all the great men that lived?" Clelia Alba + had often said to him. "Why did you fill his soul with that hunger + which no bread that is baked can content? We, who work to live, have + no time to do aught except work, and sleep awhile to get strength for + more work; and so on, always the same, until age ties knots in our + sinews, and makes our blood thin and slow. What use is it to open + gates to him which he must never pass, to make his mind a tangled + skein that can never be undone? When you work hard you want to rest + in your resting hours, not to dream. Dreaming is no rest. He is + always dreaming, and now he dreams of blood and fire." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio's heart was with them, and by all the obligations of his + calling was forced to be against them. He was of a militant temper; + he would gladly have led them into action as did the martial priests + of old; but his sense, his duty, his conscience, all forbade him to + even show them such encouragement as would lie in sympathy. Had he + been rich he would have taken their cause into the tribunals and + contested this measure inch by inch, however hopelessly. But who + would plead for a poor parish, for a penniless priest? What payment + could he offer, he who could scarcely find the coins to fill his + salt-box or to mend his surplice? +</p> +<p> + A great anxiety consumed him. He saw no way out of this calamity. The + people were wronged, grossly wronged, but how could they right that + wrong? Bloodshed would not alter it, or even cure it. What was + theirs, and the earth's, was to be taken from them; and how were they + to be persuaded that to defend their own would be a crime. +</p> +<p> + "There is nothing, then, but for the people to lie down and let the + artillery roll over them!" said Adone once, with bitter emphasis. +</p> +<p> + "And the drivers and the gunners are their own brothers, sons, + nephews, who will not check their gallop an instant for that fact; + for the worst thing about force is that it makes its human + instruments mere machines like the guns which they manoeuver," thought + Don Silverio, as he answered aloud: "No; I fear there will be nothing + else for them to do under any tyranny, until all the nations of the + earth shall cease to send their children to be made the janissaries + of the State. No alteration of existing dominions will be possible so + long as the Armies exist." +</p> +<p> + Adone was silent; convinced against his will, and therefore convinced + without effect or adhesion. +</p> +<p> + He dared not tell his friend of the passionate propaganda which he + had begun up and down the course of the Edera, striving to make these + stocks and stones stir, striving to make the blind see, the deaf + hear, the infirm rise and leap. +</p> +<p> + "Let us go and make music," said the priest at last. "That will not + harm any one, and will do our own souls good. It is long since I + heard your voice." +</p> +<p> + "It will be longer," thought Adone, as he answered: "Excuse me, sir; + I cannot think of any other thing than this great evil which hangs + over us. There is not one of our country people who does not curse + the scheme. They are frightened and stupid, but they are angry and + miserable. Those who are their spokesmen, or who ought to be, do not + say what they wish, do not care what they wish, do not ask what they + wish. They are the sons of the soil, but they count for nothing. If + they met to try and do anything for themselves, guards — soldiery — + would come from a distance, they say, and break up the meetings, and + carry those who should speak away to some prison. The Government + approves the theft of the water: that is to be enough." +</p> +<p> + "Yet public meeting has been a right of the people on the Latin soil + ever since the Cæsars." +</p> +<p> + "What matter right, what matter wrong? No one heeds either." +</p> +<p> + "We must help ourselves." +</p> +<p> + He spoke sullenly and under his breath. He did not dare to say more + clearly what was in his thoughts. +</p> +<p> + "By brute force?" said Don Silverio. "That were madness. What would + be the number of the able-bodied men of all three communes? Let us + say two thousand; that is over the mark. What weapons would they + have? Old muskets, old fowling-pieces, and not many of those; their + scythes, their axes, their sticks. A single battalion would cut them + down as you mow grass. You have not seen rioters dispersed by trained + troops. I have. I have seen even twenty carabineers gallop down a + street full of armed citizens, the carabineers shooting right and + left without selection; and the street, before they had ridden two + hundred yards, was empty except for a few fallen bodies which the + horses trampled. You can never hope to succeed in these days with a + mere <i>jacquerie</i>. You might as well set your wheatsheaves up to + oppose a field battery." +</p> +<p> + "Garibaldi," muttered Adone, "he had naught but raw levies!" +</p> +<p> + "Garabaldi was an instinctive military genius, like Aguto, like + Ferruccio, like Gian delle Bande Neri, like all the great + Condottieri. But he would probably have rotted in the Spielberg, or + been shot in some fortress of the Quadrilateral, if he had not been + supported by that proclamation of Genoa and campaign of Lombardy, + which were Louis Napoleon's supreme errors in French policy." +</p> +<p> + Adone was silent, stung by that sense of discomfiture and + mortification which comes upon those who feel their own inability to + carry on an argument. To him Garibaldi was superhuman, fabulous, far + away in the mists of an heroic past, as Ulysses to Greek youths. +</p> +<p> + "You, sir, may preach patience," he said sullenly. "It is no doubt + your duty to preach it. But I cannot be patient. My heart would choke + in my throat." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio looked him straight in the face. +</p> +<p> + "What is it you intend to do?" +</p> +<p> + "I tell you that you can do nothing, my son." +</p> +<p> + "How know you that, reverend? You are a priest, not a man." +</p> +<p> + A faint red colour came over Don Silverio's colourless face. +</p> +<p> + "One may be both," he said simply. "You are distraught, my son, by a + great calamity. Try and see yourself as other see you, and do not + lead the poor and ignorant into peril. Will the Edera waters be freer + because your neighbours and you are at the galleys? The men of gold, + who have the men of steel behind them, will be always stronger than + you." +</p> +<p> + "God is over us all," said Adone. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio was silent. He could not refute that expression of + faith, but in his soul he could not share it; and Adone had said it, + less in faith than in obstinacy. He meant to rouse the country if he + could, let come what might of the rising. +</p> +<p> + Who could tell the issue? A spark from a poor man's hearth had set a + city in flames before now. +</p> +<p> + "How can you think me indifferent?" said Don Silverio. "Had I no + feeling for you should I not feel for myself? Almost certainly my + life will be doomed to end here. Think you that I shall see with + callousness the ruin of this fair landscape, which has been my chief + consolation through so many dreary years? You, who deem yourself so + wholly without hope, may find solace if you choose to take it. You + are young, you are free, all the tenderest ties of life can be yours + if you choose; if this home be destroyed you may make another where + you will. But I am bound here. I must obey; I must submit. I cannot + move; I cannot alter or renew my fate; and to me the destruction of + the beauty of the Edera valley will be the loss of the only pleasure + of my existence. Try and see with my eyes, Adone; it may help you to + bear your burden." +</p> +<p> + But he might as well have spoken to the water itself, or to the + boulders of its rocks, or to the winds which swept its surface. +</p> +<p> + "It is not yours," said Adone, almost brutally. "You were not born + here. You cannot know! Live elsewhere? My mother and I? Sooner a + thousand times would we drown in Edera!" +</p> +<p> + The water was golden under the reflections of the sun as he spoke; + the great net was swaying in it, clear of the sword rush and iris; a + kingfisher like a jewel was threading its shallows; there was the + fresh smell of the heather and the wild tulips on the air. +</p> +<p> + "You do not know what it is to love a thing! — how should you? — + you, a priest!" said Adone. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio did not reply. He went on down the course of the stream. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0014"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XIV +</h2> +<p> + One morning in early April Adone received a printed invitation to + attend in five days' time at the Municipality of San Beda to hear of + something which concerned him. It was brought by the little old + postman who went the rounds of the district once a week on his + donkey; the five days had already expired before the summons was + delivered. Adone's ruddy cheeks grew pale as he glanced over it; he + thrust it into the soil and drove his spade through it. The old man + waiting, in hopes to get a draught of wine, looked at him in dismay. +</p> +<p> + "Is that a way to treat their Honours' commands?" he said aghast. +</p> +<p> + Adone did not answer or raise his head; he went on with his digging; + he was turning and trenching the soil to plant potatoes; he flung + spadefuls of earth over the buried summons. +</p> +<p> + "What's amiss with you, lad?" said the old fellow, who had known him + from his infancy. +</p> +<p> + "Leave me," said Adone, with impatience. "Go to the house if you want + to drink and to bait your beast." +</p> +<p> + "Thank ye," said the old man. "But you will go, won't you, Adone? It + fares ill with those who do not go." +</p> +<p> + "Who told you to say that?" +</p> +<p> + "Nobody; but I have lived a' many years, and I have carried those + printed papers a' many years, and I know that those who do not go + when they are called rue it. Their Honours don't let you flout them." +</p> +<p> + "Their Honours be damned!" said Adone. "Go to the house." +</p> +<p> + The little old man, sorely frightened, dropped his head, and pulling + his donkey by its bridle went away along the grass path under the + vines. +</p> +<p> + Adone went on delving, but his strong hands shook with rage and + emotion as they grasped the handle of the spade. He knew as well as + if he had been told by a hundred people that he was called to treat + of the sale of the Terra Vergine. He forced himself to go on with his + forenoon's labour, but the dear familiar earth swam and spun before + his sight. +</p> +<p> + "What?" he muttered to it, "I who love you am not your owner? I who + was born on you am not your lawful heir? I who have laboured on you + ever since I was old enough to use a tool at all am now in my manhood + to give you up to strangers? I will make you run red with blood + first!" +</p> +<p> + It wanted then two hours of noon. When twelve strokes sounded from + across the river, tolled slowly by the old bronze bell of the church + tower, he went for the noonday meal and rest to the house. +</p> +<p> + The old man was not longer there, but Clelia Alba said to him — +</p> +<p> + "Dario says they summon you to Dan Beda, and that you will not go?" +</p> +<p> + "He said right." +</p> +<p> + "But, my son," cried his mother, "go you must! These orders are not + to be shirked. Those who give them have the law behind them. You know + that." +</p> +<p> + "They have the villainy of the law behind them: the only portion of + the law the people ever suffered to see." +</p> +<p> + "But how can you know what it is about if you do not go?" +</p> +<p> + "There is only one thing which it can be. One thing that I will not + hear." +</p> +<p> + "You mean for the river — for the land?" +</p> +<p> + "What else?" +</p> +<p> + Her face grew as stern as his own. "If that be so... Still you should + go, my son; you should go to hold your own." +</p> +<p> + "I will hold my own," said Adone; and in his thoughts he added, "but + not by words." +</p> +<p> + "What is the day of the month for which they call you?" asked his + mother. +</p> +<p> + "The date is passed by three days. That is a little feat which + authority often plays upon the people." +</p> +<p> + They went within. The meal was eaten in silence; the nut-brown eyes + of Nerina looked wistfully in their faces, but she asked nothing; she + guessed enough. +</p> +<p> + Adone said nothing to Don Silverio of the summons, for he knew that + the priest would counsel strongly his attendance in person at San + Beda, even though the date was already passed. +</p> +<p> + But the Vicar had heard of it from the postman, who confided to him + the fears he felt that Adone would neglect the summons, and so get + into trouble. He perceived at once the error which would be committed + if any sentence should be allowed to go by default through absence of + the person cited.. By such absence the absentee discredits himself; + whatsoever may be the justice of his cause, it is prejudiced at the + outset. But how to persuade of this truth a man so blind with pain + and rage and so dogged in self-will as Adone had become, Don Silverio + did not see. He shrank from renewing useless struggles and disputes + which led to no issue. He felt that Adone and he would only drift + farther and farther apart with every word they spoke. +</p> +<p> + The young man viewed this thing through a red mist of hatred and + headstrong fury; it was impossible for his elder to admit that such + views were wise or pardonable, or due to anything more than the + heated visions evoked by a great wrong. +</p> +<p> + That evening at sunset he saw the little girl Nerina at the river. + She had led the cows to the water, and they and she were standing + knee deep in the stream. The western light shone on their soft, + mottled, dun hides and on her ruddy brown hair and bright young face. + The bearded bulrushes were round them; the light played on the broad + leaves of the docks and the red spikes of great beds of willow-herb; + the water reflected the glowing sky, and close to its surface numbers + of newly-come swallows whirled and dipped and darted, chasing gnats, + whilst near at hand on a spray a little woodlark sang. +</p> +<p> + The scene was fair, peaceful, full of placid and tender loveliness. +</p> +<p> + "And all this is to be changed and ruined in order that some sons of + the mammon of unrighteousness may set up their mills to grind their + gold," he thought to himself as he passed over the stepping-stones, + which at this shallow place could be crossed dryfoot. +</p> +<p> + "Where is Adone?" he called to the child. +</p> +<p> + "He is gone down the river in the punt, most reverend." +</p> +<p> + "And his mother?" +</p> +<p> + "Is at the house, sir." +</p> +<p> + Don Silvero went through the pastures under the great olives. When he + reached the path leading to the house he saw Clelia Alba seated + before the doorway spinning. The rose-tree displayed its first + crimson buds above her head; on the roof sparrows and starlings were + busy. +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba rose and dropped a low courtesy to him, then resumed her + work at the wheel. +</p> +<p> + "You have heard, sir?" she said in a low tone. "They summons him to + San Beda." +</p> +<p> + "Old Dario told me; but Adone will not go?" +</p> +<p> + "No sir; he will never go." +</p> +<p> + "He is in error." +</p> +<p> + "I do not know sir. He is best judge of that." +</p> +<p> + "I fear he is in no state of mind to judge calmly of anything. His + absence will go against him. Instead of an amicable settlement the + question will go to the tribunals, and if he be unrepresented there + he will be condemned <i>in contumacium</i>." +</p> +<p> + "Amicable settlement?" repeated his mother, her fine face animated + and stern, and her deep dark eyes flashing. "Can you, sir, dare you, + sir, name such a thing? What they would do is robbery, vile robbery, + a thousand times worse than aught the men of night ever did when they + came down from the hills to harass our homesteads." +</p> +<p> + "I do not say this otherwise; but the law is with those who harass + you now. We cannot alter the times, good Clelia; we must take them as + they are. Your son should go to San Beda and urge his rights, not + with violence but with firmness and lucidity; he should also provide + himself with an advocate, or he will be driven out of his home by + sheer force, and with some miserable sum as compensation." +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba's brown skin grew ashen grey, and its heavy lines + deepened. +</p> +<p> + "You mean... that is possible?" +</p> +<p> + "It is more than possible. It is certain. These things always end so. + My poor dear friend! do you not understand, even yet, that nothing + can save your homestead?" +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba leaned her elbows on her knees and bowed her face upon + her hands. She felt as women of her race had felt on some fair morn + when they had seen the skies redden with baleful fires, and the + glitter of steel corslets shine under the foliage, and had heard the + ripe corn crackle under the horses' hoofs, and had heard the + shrieking children scream, "The lances are coming, mother! Mother! + save us!" +</p> +<p> + Those women had had no power to save homestead or child; they had + seen the pikes twist in the curling locks, and the daggers thrust in + the white young throats, and the flames soar to heaven, burning + rooftree and clearing stackyard, and they had possessed no power to + stay the steel or quench the torch. She was like them. +</p> +<p> + She lifted her face up to the light. +</p> +<p> + "He will kill them." +</p> +<p> + "He may kill one man — two men — he will have blood on his hands. + What will that serve? I have told you again and again. This thing is + inevitable — frightful, but inevitable, like war. In war do not + millions of innocent and helpless creatures suffer through no fault + of their own, no cause of their own, on account of some king's + caprice or statesman's blunder? You are just such victims here. + Nothing will preserve to you the Terra Vergine. My dear old friend, + have courage." +</p> +<p> + "I cannot believe it, sir; I cannot credit it. The land is ours; this + little bit of the good and solid earth is ours; God will not let us + be robbed of it." +</p> +<p> + "My friend! no miracles are wrought now. I have told you again and + again and again you must lose this place." +</p> +<p> + "I will not believe it!" +</p> +<p> + "Alas! I pray hat you may not be forced to believe; but I know that I + pray in vain. Tell me, you are certain that Adone will not answer + that summons?" +</p> +<p> + "I am certain." +</p> +<p> + "He is mad." +</p> +<p> + "No, sir he is not mad. No more than I, his mother. We have faith in + Heaven." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio was silent. It was not for him to tell them that such + faith was a feeble staff. +</p> +<p> + "I must not tarry," he said, and rose. "The night is near at hand. + Tell your son what I have said. My dear friend, I would almost as + soon stab you in the throat as say these things to you; but as you + value your son's sanity and safety make him realise this fact, which + you and he deny: the law will take your home from you, as it will + take the river from the province." +</p> +<p> + "No, sir!" said Clelia Alba fiercely. "No, no, no! There is a God + above us!" +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio bade her sadly farewell, and insisted no more. He went + through the odorous grasslands, where the primrose and wild hyacinth + grew so thickly and the olive branches were already laden with small + green berries, and his soul was uneasy, seeing how closed is the mind + of the peasant to argument or to persuasion. Often had he seen a poor + beetle pushing its ball of dirt up the side of a sandhill only to + fall back, and begin again, and again fall; for any truth to + endeavour to penetrate the brain of the rustic is as hard as for the + beetle to climb the sand. He was disinclined to seek the discomfiture + of another useless argument, but neither could he be content in his + conscience to let this matter wholly alone. +</p> +<p> + Long and dreary as the journey was to San Beda, he undertook it + again, saying nothing to any one of his purpose. He hoped to be able + to put Adone's contumacy in a pardonable light before the Syndic, and + perhaps to plea his cause better than the boy could plead it for + himself. To Don Silverio he always seemed a boy still, and therefore + excusable in all his violence and extravagances. +</p> +<p> + The day was fine and cool, and walking was easier and less exhausting + than it had been at the season of his first visit; moreover, his + journey to Rome had braced his nerves and sinews to exertion, and + restored to him the energy and self-possession which the long, + tedious, monotonous years of solitude in Ruscino had weakened. There + was a buoyant wind coming from the sea with rain in its track, and a + deep blue sky with grand clouds drifting past the ultramarine hues of + the Abruzzo range. The bare brown rocks grew dark as bronze, and the + forest-clothed hills were almost black in the shadows, as the + clustered towers and roofs of the little city came in sight. He went, + fatigued as he was, straight to the old ducal palace, which was now + used as the municipality, without even shaking the dust off his feet. +</p> +<p> + "Say that I come for the affair of Adone Alba," he said to the first + persons he saw in the ante-room on the first floor. In the little + ecclesiastical town his calling commanded respect. They begged him to + sit own and rest, and in a few minutes returned to say that the most + illustrious the Count Corradini would receive him at once in his + private room; it was a day of general council, but the council would + not meet for an hour. The Syndic was a tall, spare, frail man, with a + patrician's face and an affable manner. He expressed himself in + courteous terms as flattered by the visit of the Vicar Ruscino, and + inquired if in any way he could be of the slightest service. +</p> +<p> + "Of the very greatest, your Excellency," said Don Silverio. "I have + ventured to come hither on behalf of a young parishioner of mine, + Adone Alba, who, having received the summons of your Excellency only + yesterday, may, I trust, be excused for not having obeyed it on the + date named. He is unable to come to-day. May I offer myself for his + substitute as <i>amicus curie</i>!" +</p> +<p> + "Certainly, certainly," said Corradini, relieved to meet an educated + man instead of the boor he had expected. "If the summons were delayed + by any fault of my officials, the delay must be inquired into. + Meanwhile, most reverend, have you instructions to conclude the + affair?" +</p> +<p> + "As yet, I venture to remind your Excellency, we do not even know + what is the affair of which you speak." +</p> +<p> + "Oh no; quite true. The matter is the sale of the land known under + the title of the Terra Vergine." +</p> +<p> + "Thank Heaven I am here, and not Adone," thought Don Silverio. +</p> +<p> + Aloud he answered, "What sale? The proprietor has heard of none." +</p> +<p> + "He must have heard. It can be no news to you that the works about to + be made upon the river Edera will necessitate the purchase of the + land known as the Terra Vergine." +</p> +<p> + Here the Syndic put on gold spectacles, drew towards him a black + portfolio filled by plans and papers, and began to move them about, + muttering, as he searched, little scraps of phrases out of each of + them. At last he turned over the sheets which concerned the land of + the Alba. +</p> +<p> + "Terra Vergine — Commune of Ruscino — owners Alba from 1620 — + family of good report — regular taxpayers — sixty hectares — land + productive; value — just so — humph, humph, humph!" +</p> +<p> + Then he laid down the documents and looked at Don Silverio from over + his spectacles. +</p> +<p> + "I conclude, most reverend, that you come empowered by this young man + to treat with us?" +</p> +<p> + "I venture, sir," replied Don Silverio respectfully, "to remind you + again that it is impossible I should be so empowered, since Adone + Alba was ignorant of the reason for which he was summoned here." +</p> +<p> + Corradini shuffled his documents nervously with some irritation. +</p> +<p> + "This conference, then, is a mere waste of time? I hold council + to-day —" +</p> +<p> + "Pardon me, your Excellency," said Don Silverio blandly. "It will not + be a waste of time if you will allow me to lay before you certain + facts, and, first, to ask you one question: Who is, or are, the buyer + or buyers of this land?" +</p> +<p> + The question was evidently unwelcome to the Syndic; it was direct, + which every Italian considers ill-bred, and it was awkward to answer. + He was troubled for personal reasons, and the calm and searching gaze + of the priest's dark eyes embarrassed him. After all, he thought, it + would have been better to deal with the boor himself. +</p> +<p> + "Why do you ask that?" he said irritably. "You are aware that the + National Society for the Improvement of Land and the foreign company + of the Teramo-Tronto Electric Railway combine in these projected + works?" +</p> +<p> + "To which of these two societies, then, is Adone Alba, or am I, as + his <i>locum tenens</i>, to address ourselves?" +</p> +<p> + "To neither. This commune deals with you." +</p> +<p> + "Why?" +</p> +<p> + Count Corradini took off his glasses, put them on again, shifted the + papers and plans in his imposing portfolio. +</p> +<p> + "May I ask again — why?" said Don Silverio in the gentlest tones of + his beautiful voice. +</p> +<p> + "Because, because," answered the Syndic irritably, "because the whole + affair is in treaty between our delegates and the companies. Public + societies do not deal with private individuals directly, but by + proxy." +</p> +<p> + "Pardon my ignorance," said Don Silverio, "but why does the commune + desire to substitute itself for the owner?" +</p> +<p> + "It is usual." +</p> +<p> + "Ah! It is usual." +</p> +<p> + Corradini did not like the repetition of his phrase, which would not + perhaps bear very close examination. He looked at his watch. +</p> +<p> + "Excuse me, Reverend Father, but time presses." +</p> +<p> + "Allow me to crave of your bounty a little more time, nevertheless. I + am not habituated to business, but I believe, if I understand your + worshipful self aright, the commune contemplates purchasing from the + individuals, with power and intent to sell to the companies." +</p> +<p> + What an unmannerly ecclesiastic! thought Corradini; for indeed, put + thus bluntly and crudely what the commune, as represented by himself, + was doing did not look as entirely correct as could be desired. +</p> +<p> + "I was in Rome, most illustrious," said Don Silverio, "in + connection with this matter some months ago?" +</p> +<p> + "In Rome?" +</p> +<p> + To hear this was unpleasant to the Syndic; it ha never occurred to + him that his rural, illiterate, and sparsely populated district would + have contained any person educated enough to think of inquiring in + Rome about this local matter. +</p> +<p> + "To Rome! Why did you go to Rome?" +</p> +<p> + "To acquire information concerning this scheme." +</p> +<p> + "You are an owner of land?" +</p> +<p> + "No, sir. I am a poor, very poor, priest." +</p> +<p> + "It cannot concern you, then." +</p> +<p> + "It concerns my people. Nothing which concerns them is alien to me." +</p> +<p> + "Humph, humph! Most proper, most praiseworthy. But we have no time + for generalities. You came to treat of the Terra Vergine?" +</p> +<p> + "Pardon me, sir; I came to hear why you summoned Adone Alba, one of + my flock." +</p> +<p> + "Could he not have come himself? It had been but his duty." +</p> +<p> + "He could not, sir; and, to say truth, he would not. He does not + intend to sell his land." +</p> +<p> + "What!" +</p> +<p> + Corradini half rose from his chair, leaning both hands on the table, + and staring though his glasses across the mass of portfolios and + papers at the priest. +</p> +<p> + "He will have no choice allowed him," he said with great anger. "To + the interests of the State all minor interests must bend. What! a + mere peasant stand in the way of a great enterprise?" +</p> +<p> + "You intend expropriation then?" +</p> +<p> + The voice of Don Silverio was very calm and sweet, but his + countenance was stern. +</p> +<p> + Corradini was irritated beyond measure. He did not desire to play + that great card so early in the game. +</p> +<p> + "I do not say that," he muttered. "There must be parliamentary + sanction for any forced sale. I spoke in general terms. Private + interest must cede to public" +</p> +<p> + "There is parliamentary sanction already given to the project for the + Valley of Edera," said Don Silverio, "expropriation included." +</p> +<p> + Count Corradini threw himself back in his chair with an action + expressive at once of wrath and of impotence. He had an irritating + sense that this priest was master of the position, and knew much more + than he said. In reality Don Silverio knew very little, but he had + skill and tact enough to give a contrary impression to his auditor. + He followed up his advantage. +</p> +<p> + "Expropriation is to be permitted to enforce sales on recalcitrant + landowners," he continued. "But that measure, even though conceded in + theory, will take time to translate into practice. I fear, sir, that + if it be ever put into execution we shall have trouble in your + commune. Your council has been over hasty in allying itself with + these speculators. You and they have not taken into account the + immense injury which will be done to the valley and to my own village + or town, call it as you will, of Ruscino. The people are quiet, + patient, meek, but they will not be so if they are robbed of the + water of the Edera. It is the source of all the little — the very + little — good which comes to them. So it is with Adone Alba. He has + been God-fearing, law-abiding, a good son, excellent in all + relations; but he will not recognise as law the seizure of his land. + Sir, you are the elected chief of this district; all these people + look to you for support in their emergency. What are these foreign + speculators to you that you should side with them? You say this + commune will purchase from its peasant proprietors in the interests + of these foreigners. Was it to do this that they elected you? Why + should the interests of the foreigners be upheld by you to the injury + of those of your own people? Speaking for my own parish, I can affirm + to you that, simple souls as they are, poor in the extreme, and + resigned to poverty, you will have trouble with them all if you take + it on you to enforce the usurpation of the Edera water." +</p> +<p> + Count Corradini, still leaning back in his large leathern chair, + listened as if he were hypnotised; he was astounded, offended, + enraged, but he was fascinated by the low, rich, harmonious + modulations of the voice which addressed him, and by the sense of + mastery which the priest conveyed without by a single word asserting + it. +</p> +<p> + "You would threaten me with public disorder?" he said feebly, and + with consciousness of feebleness. +</p> +<p> + "No sir; I would adjure you, in God's name, not to provoke it." +</p> +<p> + "It does not rest with me." +</p> +<p> + He raised himself in his chair: his slender aristocratic hands played + nervously with the strings of the portfolio, his eyelids flickered, + and his eyes avoided those of his visitor. +</p> +<p> + "I have no voice in this matter. You mistake." +</p> +<p> + "Surely your Excellency speaks with the voice of all you electors?" +</p> +<p> + "Of my administrative council, then? But they are all in favour of + the project; so is his Excellency the Prefect, so is the Deputy, so + is the Government. Can I take upon myself in my own slender + personality to oppose these?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes, sir, because you are the mouthpiece of those who cannot speak + for themselves." +</p> +<p> + "Euh! Euh! That may be true in a sense. But you mistake; my authority + is most limited. I have but two votes in Council. I am as wholly + convinced as you can be that some will suffer for the general good. + The individual is crushed by the crowd in these days. We are in a + period of immense and febrile development; of wholly unforeseen + expansion; we are surrounded by the miracles of science; we are + witnesses of an increase of intelligence which will lead to results + whereof no living man can dream; civilisation in its vast and + ineffable benevolence sometimes wounds, even as the light and heat of + the blessed sun —" +</p> +<p> + "Pardon me, sir," said Don Soverio, "at any other moment it would be + my dearest privilege to listen to your eloquence. But time passes. I + came here on a practical errand. I desire to take back some definite + answer to Adone and Clelia Alba. Am I to understand from you that the + municipality, on behalf of these foreign companies, desires to + purchase his land, and even insists upon its right to do so?" +</p> +<p> + The Syndic, accustomed to seek shelter from all plain speaking in the + cover of flowery periods such as those in which he had been arrested, + was driven from his usual refuge. He could not resume the noble and + enlightened discourse which had been thus recklessly cut in two. He + tied the strings of the portfolio into a bow, and undid them, and + tied them again. +</p> +<p> + "I have received you, sir, <i>ex officio</i>," he replied after a long + silence. "You address me as if I possessed some special individual + power. I have none. I am but the mouthpiece, the representative of my + administrative council. You, a learned ecclesiastic, cannot want to + be taught what are the functions of a Syndic." +</p> +<p> + "I am to understand then that I must address myself on behalf of my + people to the Prefect?" +</p> +<p> + Corradini was silent. The last thing he desired was for this + importunate priest to see the Prefect. +</p> +<p> + "I must go into council at once," he said, again looking at his + watch. "Could you return? Are you remaining here?" +</p> +<p> + "Some hours, sir." +</p> +<p> + "Will you dine with me at my house at three? You will give me much + pleasure, and the Countess Corradini will be charmed." +</p> +<p> + "I am grateful for so much offered honour, but I have promised to + make my noonday meal with an old friend, the superior of the + Cistercians." +</p> +<p> + "An excellent, a holy person," said Corradini, with a bend of his + head. "Be at my house, reverend sir, at five of the clock. I shall + then have spoken with the assessors of your errand, and it will be + dealt with probably in council." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio made a low bow, and left him free to go to his awaiting + councillors, who were already gathered round a long table covered by + green cloth, in a vaulted and stately chamber, stories from Greek + mythology carved on its oaken doors and stone cornices. +</p> +<p> + "Pray excuse me, gentleman," said the courtly mayor to his assessors, + taking his seat on an old walnut-wood throne at the head of the + table. "I have been detained by this matter of the Valdedera. I fear + the people of that valley will show an ungrateful and refractory + temper. How hard it is to persuade the ignorant where their true + interests lie! But let us to business." +</p> +<p> + "It will be a hard matter," said the Prior to Don Silverio as they + walked together in the little burial-ground of the monastery between + its lines of rose-trees and its lines of crosses, after the frugal + noonday meal had been eaten in the refrectory. "It will be a hard + matter. You will fail, I fear. The municipalities here smell money. + That is enough to make them welcome the invasion. What can you do + against the force of gold?" +</p> +<p> + "Would it avail anything to see the Prefect?" +</p> +<p> + "Nothing. He is cousin to the Minister of Agriculture, whose brother + is chairman of the Teramo-Fermo Company. We are governed solely by + what the French call <i>tripotage</i>." +</p> +<p> + "What character does this Syndic bear?" +</p> +<p> + "A good one. He is blameless in his domestic relation, an indulgent + landlord, a gentleman, respectful of religion, assiduous in his + duties; but he is in debt; his large estates produce little; he has + no other means. I would not take upon me to say that he would be + above a bribe." +</p> +<p> + At five of the clock, as the Syndic had told him to do, Don Silverio + presented himself at the Palazzo Corradini. He was shown with much + deference by an old liveried servant into a fine apartment with + marble busts in niches in the walls, and antique bookcases of oak, + and doorhangings of Tuscan tapestry. The air of the place was cold, + and had the scent of a tomb. It was barely luminated by two bronze + lamps in which unshaded oil wicks burned. Corradini joined him there + in five minutes' time, and welcomed him to the house with grace and + warmth of courtesy. +</p> +<p> + "What does he want of me?" thought Don Silverio, who had not been + often met in life by such sweet phrases. "Does he want me to be + blind?" +</p> +<p> + "Dear and reverend sir," said the mayor, placing himself with his + back to the brass lamps, "tell me fully about this youth whom you + protect, who will not sell the Terra Vergine. Here we can speak at + our ease; yonder at the municipality, there may be always some + eavesdropper." +</p> +<p> + "Most worshipful, what I said is matter well known to the whole + countryside; all the valley can bear witness to its truth," replied + Don Silverio, and he proceeded to set forth all that he knew of Adone + and Clelia Alba, and of their great love for their lands; he only did + not mention what he believed to be Adone's descent, because he feared + that it might sound fantastical or presumptuous. Nearly three hundred + years of peasant ownership and residence were surely titles enough + for consideration. +</p> +<p> + "If land owned thus, and tilled thus by one family, can be taken away + from that family by Act of Parliament to please the greedy schemes of + strangers, why preserve the eighth commandment in the Decalogue? It + becomes absurd. There cannot be a more absolute ownership than this + of the Alba to the farm they live on and cultivate. So long as there + is any distinction at all between <i>meum et tuum</i>, how can its violent + seizure be by any possibility defended?" +</p> +<p> + "There will be no violent seizure," said Corradini. "The young man + will be offered a good price; even, since you are interested in him, + a high price." +</p> +<p> + "But he will take no price — no price, if he were paid million; they + would not compensate for his loss." +</p> +<p> + "He must be a very singular young man." +</p> +<p> + "His character is singular, no doubt, in an age in which money is + esteemed the sole goal of existence, and discontent constitutes + philosophy. Adone Alba wants nothing but what he has; he only asks to + be left alone." +</p> +<p> + "It is difficult to be left alone in a world full of other people! If + your hero wants a Thebaid, he can go and buy one in La Plata, or the + Argentine, with the price we shall give for his land." +</p> +<p> + "We?" repeated Don Silverio with significant emphasis. +</p> +<p> + Corradini reddened a little. "I only use the word because I am + greatly interested in the success of this enterprise, being convinced + of its general utility to the province. Being cognisant as I am of + the neighbourhood, I hoped I could prevent some friction." +</p> +<p> + "The shares are, I believe, already on the market?" +</p> +<p> + It was a harmless remark, yet it was a disagreeable one to the Syndic + of San Beda. +</p> +<p> + "What would be the selling price of the Terra Vergine?" he said + abruptly. "It is valued at twelve thousand francs." +</p> +<p> + "It is useless to discuss its price," replied Don Silverio, "and the + question is much wider than the limits of the Terra Vergine. In one + word, is the whole of the Valdedera to be ruined because a Minister + has a relation who desires to create an unnecessary railway?" +</p> +<p> + "Ruined is a large word. These constructions appear to all, except + primitive and ignorant people, to be improvements, acquisitions, + benefits. In our province we are so aloof from all movement, so + remote in our seclusion, so moss-grown in our antiquity, so wedded to + the past, to old customs, old habits, old ways of act and thought, + that the modern world shocks us as impious, odious, and intolerable." +</p> +<p> + "Sir," said Don Silverio with his most caustic smile, "if you are + here to sing the praises of modernity, allow me to withdraw from the + duet. I venture to ask you, as I asked you this morning, one plain + question. To whom is Adone Alba, to whom are my people of Ruscino, to + appeal against the sequestration?" +</p> +<p> + "To no one. The Prefect approves; the Minister approves; the local + deputies approve; I and my municipal and provincial councils approve; + Parliament has approved and authorised. Who remain opposed? A few + small landowners and a mob of poor persons living in your village of + Ruscino and in similar places." +</p> +<p> + "Who can create grave disorders and will do so." +</p> +<p> + "Disorders, even insurrections, do not greatly alarm authority + nowadays; they are easily pressed since the invention of the + quick-firing guns. The army is always on the side of order." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio rose. +</p> +<p> + "Most honourable Corradini! your views and mine are so far asunder + that no amount of discussion can assimilate them. Allow me to salute + you." +</p> +<p> + "Wait one instant, reverence," said the Syndic. "May I ask how it is + that an ecclesiastic of your appearance and your intellect can have + been buried so long in such an owls' nest as Ruscino?" +</p> +<p> + "Sir," replied Don Silverio very coldly, "ask my superiors: I am but + one of the least of the servants of the Church." +</p> +<p> + "You might be one of her greatest servants, if influence —" +</p> +<p> + "I abhor the word influence. It means a bribe too subtle to be + punished, too gilded to alarm." +</p> +<p> + "Nay, sometimes it is but a word in season, a pressure in the right + place." +</p> +<p> + "It means that which cannot serve the poor man without degrading + him." +</p> +<p> + "But — but — if as a reward for duty, advancement cane to you?" +</p> +<p> + "I fail to understand." +</p> +<p> + "Let me speak frankly. With your superiority to them you must easily + rule the embryo rioters of the Valdedera. If, to your efforts it + should be owing that the population remain quiet, and that this Adone + Alba and others in a similar position come to me in an orderly manner + and a pliant spirit, I will engage that this service to us on your + part shall not be forgotten." +</p> +<p> + He paused; but Don Silverio did not reply. +</p> +<p> + "It is lamentable and unjust," continued the mayor, "that any one of + your evident mental powers and capacity for higher place should be + wasting your years and wasting your mind in a miserable solitude like + Ruscino. If you will aid us to a pacific cession of the Valdedera I + will take upon myself to promise that your translation to a higher + office shall be favoured by the Government-" +</p> +<p> + He paused again, for he did not see upon Don Silverio's countenance + that flattered and rejoiced expression which he expected; there was + even upon it a look of scorn. He regretted that he had said so much. +</p> +<p> + "I thank your Excellency for so benevolent an interest in my poor + personality," said Don Silverio. "But with the King's government I + have nothing to do. I am content in the place whereto I have been + called, and have no disposition to assist the speculations of foreign + companies. I have the honour to bid your Excellency good evening." +</p> +<p> + He bowed low, and backed out of the apartment this time. Count + Corradini did not endeavour to detain him. +</p> +<p> + When he got out into the air the strong mountain wind was blowing + roughly down the steep and narrow street. He felt it with pleasure + smite his cheeks and brows. +</p> +<p> + "Truly only from nature can we find strength and health," he + murmured. "In the houses of men there are but fever and corruption, + and uncleanliness." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0015"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XV +</h2> +<p> + To neglect no possible chance, he resolved to see the Prefect, if the + Prefect consented to see him. This great official dwelt in a seaport + city, whence he ruled the province, for such a period at least as his + star should be in the ascendant, that is, whilt his political group + should be in power. It was scarcely likely that a government official + would be accessible to any arguments which a poor country priest + could bring forward against a government project. Still, he resolved + to make the effort, for at the Prefect's name apprehension, keen and + quaking, had leapt into Count Corradini's faded eyes. +</p> +<p> + From San Beda to the seaport city there stretched some forty miles of + distance; the first part a descent down the spurs of the Apennines, + the latter half through level sandy country, with pine woods here and + there. The first half he covered on foot, the second by the + parliamentary train, which drew its long black line snake-like and + slow, through the dunes and the stagnant waters. He had but a few + francs in his waistband, and could ill afford to expend those. +</p> +<p> + When he reached his destination it was evening; too late for him to + present himself at the Prefecture with any chance of admittance. The + Prior at San Beda had given him a letter to the vicar of the church + of Sant Anselmo in the city, and by this gentleman he was received + and willingly lodged for the night. +</p> +<p> + "A government project — a project approved by ministers and + deputies?" said his host on hearing what was the errand on which he + came there. "As well, my brother, might you assail the Gran Sasse + d'Italia! There must be money in it, much money, for our Conscript + Fathers." +</p> +<p> + "I suppose so," said Don Silverio, "but I cannot see where it is to + come from." +</p> +<p> + "From the pockets of the taxpayers, my friend!" replied the incumbent + of Sant Anselmo, with a smile as of a man who knows the world he + lives in. "The country is honeycombed by enterprises undertaken + solely to this end — to pass the money which rusts in the pockets of + fools into those of wise men who know how to make it run about and + multiply. In what other scope are all our betterments, our hygiene, + our useless railway lines, our monstrous new streets, all our + modernisation, put in the cauldron and kept boiling like a witch's + supper?" +</p> +<p> + "I know, I know," said Don Silverio wearily. "The whole land is + overrun by <i>affaristi</i>, like red ants." +</p> +<p> + "Do not slander the ants!" replied his host; "I would not offend the + name of any honest, hard-working little insect by giving it to the + men through whom this country is eaten up by selfish avarice and + unscrupulous speculation! But tell me, what do you hope for from our + revered Prefect?" +</p> +<p> + "I hope nothing, but I wish to leave no stone unturned. Tell me of + him." +</p> +<p> + "Of his Excellency, Giovacchino Gallo, senator, Grand Cross, and + whatnot? There is much to tell, though there is nothing which could + not be also told of many another gentleman in high place. It is the + usual story: the supple spine, the sharp eye, the greased foot. He + was a young lawyer, useful to deputies. He married a lovely woman + whom a prince had admired beyond him. He asked no questions; her + dower was large. To do him justice, he has always behaved very well + to her. He entered Parliament early, and there was useful also, to + existing institutions. He was instrumental in carrying many railway + and canal bills through the chamber. He has been always successful in + his undertakings, and he knows that nothing succeeds like success. I + am told that he and his wife are <i>persone gratissime</i> at the + Quirinale, and that her jewels are extremely fine. When he was named + Senator two years ago the Press, especially the Press of the Right, + saluted his nomination as strengthening the Senate by the accession + to it of a person of impeccable virtue, of enlightened intellect, and + of a character cast in antique moulds of noble simplicity and Spartan + courage. You think, my brother, that this favourite of fortune is + likely to favour your plea for your parishioners?" +</p> +<p> + "Dear and revered brother," replied Don Silverio, "I came hither + with no such illusions. If I had done, your biography of this + functionary would have dispelled them." +</p> +<p> + Nevertheless, although without hope, at two o'clock of that day he + went to the audience which was granted him at the intervention of the + bishop of the city, obtained by means of the vicar of Sant Anselmo. +</p> +<p> + The Prefecture was situated in a palace of sixteenth century + architecture, a noble and stately place of immense size, greatly + injured by telegraph and telephone wires stretching all round it, the + post-office and the tax offices being situated on the ground floor, + and the great central court daubed over with fresh paint and + whitewash. Some little soldiers in dingy uniforms, ill-cut and + ill-fitting, stood about gates and doors. On the first floor were the + apartments occupied by his Excellency. Don Silverio was kept waiting + for some time in a vestibule of fine proportions painted by + Diotisalvi, with a colossal marble group in its centre of the death + of Caesar. +</p> +<p> + He looked at it wistfully. +</p> +<p> + "Ah, Guilio!" he murmured, "what use were your conquests, what use + was your genius, the greatest perchance the world has ever seen? What + use? You were struck in the throat like a felled ox, and the land you + ruled lies bleeding at every pore!" +</p> +<p> + In a quarter of an hour he was ushered through other large rooms into + one of great architectural beauty, where the Prefect was standing by + a writing-table. +</p> +<p> + Giovacchino Gallo was a short, stout person with a large stomach, a + bald head, bright restless eyes, and a high, narrow forehead; his + face was florid, like the face of one to whom the pleasures of the + table are not alien. His address was courteous but distant, stiff, + and a little pompous; he evidently believed in himself as a great + person and only unbent to other greater persons, when he unbent so + vastly that he crawled. +</p> +<p> + "What can I do for your Reverence?" he asked, as he seated himself + behind the writing-table and pointed to a chair. +</p> +<p> + The words were polite but the tone was curt; it was officialism + crystallised. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio explained the purpose of his visit, and urged the + prayers of his people. +</p> +<p> + "I am but the vicar of Ruscino," he said in explanation, "but in this + matter I plead for all the natives of the Valdedera. Your Excellency + is Governor of this province, in which the Edera takes its rise and + has its course. My people, and all those others who are not under my + ministry, but whose desires and supplications I represent, venture to + look to you for support in their greatest distress, and intercession + for them against this calamity." +</p> +<p> + The face of the Prefect grew colder and sterner, his eyes got an + angry sparkle, his plump, rosy hands closed on a malachite + paper-knife; he wished the knife were of steel, and the people of the + Valdedera had but one head. +</p> +<p> + "Are you aware, sir," he said impatiently, "that the matter of which + you speak has had the ratification of Parliament?" +</p> +<p> + "But it has not had the ratification of the persons whom it most + concerns." +</p> +<p> + "Do you supposed, then, when a great public work is to be + accomplished the promoters are to go hat in hand for permission to + every peasant resident on the area?" +</p> +<p> + "A great public work seems to me a large expression: too large for + this case. The railway is not needed. The acetylene works are a + private speculation. I venture to recall to your Excellency that + these people, whom you would ignore, own the land, or, where they do + not own it, have many interests both in the land and the water." + "Pardon me, your Excellency, but that is a phrase: it is not a fact. + You could not, if you gave them millions, compensate them for the + seizure of their river and their lands. These belong to them and to + their descendants by natural right. They cannot be deprived of these + by Act of Parliament without gross injury and injustice." + "There must be suffering for the individual in all benefit of the + general!" +</p> +<p> + "And doubtless, sir, when one is not the individual the suffering + appears immaterial!" +</p> +<p> + "What an insolent priest!" thought Giovacchino Gallo, and struck the + paper-knife with anger on the table. +</p> +<p> + "Take my own parishioners alone," pursued Don Silverio. "Their small + earnings depend entirely upon the Edera water; it gives them their + food, their bed, their occupation; it gives them health and strength; + it irrigates their little holdings, <i>extra murus</i>, on which they and + their families depend for grain and maize and rice. If you change + their river-bed into dry land they will starve. Are not your own + countrymen dearer to you than the members of a foreign syndicate?" +</p> +<p> + "There will be work for them at the acetylene factory." +</p> +<p> + "Are they not free men? Are they to be driven like slaves to a work + which would be hateful to them? These people are country born and + country bred. They labour in the open air, and have done so for + generations. Pardon me, your Excellency, but every year the King's + Government forces into exile thousands, tens of thousands, of our + hard working peasants with their families. The taxation of the land + and of all its products lays waste thousands of square miles in this + country. The country is being depleted and depopulated, and the best + of its manhood is being sent out of it by droves to Brazil, to La + Plata, to the Argentines, to anywhere and everywhere, where labour is + cheap and climate homicidal. The poor are packed on emigrant ships + and sent with less care than crated of fruit receive. They consent to + go because they are famished here. Is it well for a country to lose + its labouring classes, its frugal, willing, and hard-working manhood? + to pack them off across the oceans by contract with other states? The + Government has made a contract with a Pacific island for five + thousand Italians? Are they free men or are they slaves? Can your + Excellency call my people free who are allowed no voice against the + seizure of their own river, and to whom you offer an unwholesome and + indoor labour as compensation for the ruin of their lives? Now, they + are poor indeed, but they are contented; they keep body and soul + together, they live on their natal soil, they live as their fathers + lived. Is it just, is it right, is it wise to turn these people into + disaffection and despair by an act of tyranny and spoilation through + which the only gainers will be foreign speculators abroad and at home + the gamblers of the Bourses? Sir, I do not believe that the world + holds people more patient, more long-suffering, more pacific under + dire provocation, or more willing to subsist on the poorest and + hardest conditions than Italians are; is it right or just or wise to + take advantage of that national resignation to take from half a + province the natural aid and the natural beauty with which God + Himself has dowered it in the gift of the mountainborn stream? You + are powerful, sir, you have the ear of the Government; you will not + try to stop this infamous theft of the Edera water whilst there is + still time?" +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio spoke with that eloquence and with that melody of voice + which few could bear unmoved; and even the dull ear and the hard + heart of the official who heard him were for one brief moment moved + as by the pathos of a song sung by some great tenor. +</p> +<p> + But that moment was very brief. Over the face of Giovacchino Gallo a + look passed at once brutal and suspicious. "Curse this priest!" he + thought; "he will give us trouble." +</p> +<p> + He rose, stiff, cold, pompous, with a frigid smile on his red, full, + <i>bon viveur's</i> lips. +</p> +<p> + "If you imagine that I should venture to attack, or even presume to + criticise, a matter which the Most Honourable the Minister of + Agriculture has in his wisdom approved and ratified, you must have a + strange conception of my fitness for my functions. As regards + yourself, Reverend Sir, I regret that you appear to forget that the + chief duty of your sacred office is to inculcate to your flock + unquestioning submission to Governmental decrees." +</p> +<p> + "Is that your Excellency's last word?" +</p> +<p> + "It is my first, and my last, word." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio bowed low. +</p> +<p> + "You may regret it, sir," he said simply, and left the writing-table + and crossed the room. But as he approached the door the Prefect, + still standing, said, "Wait!" +</p> +<p> + Gallo opened two or three drawers in his table, searched for some + papers, looked over them, leaving the priest always standing between + him and the door. Don Silverio was erect; his tall frail form had a + great majesty in it; his pallid features were stern. +</p> +<p> + "Return a moment," said Gallo. +</p> +<p> + "I can hear your Excellency where I am," replied Don Silverio, and + did not stir. +</p> +<p> + "I have here reports from certain of my agents," said Gallo, + fingering his various papers, "that there is and has been for some + time a subversive movement amongst the sparse population of the + Valdedera." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio did not speak or stir. +</p> +<p> + "It is an agrarian agitation," continued Gallo, "limited to its area, + with little probability of spreading, but it exists; there are + meetings by night, both open-air and secret meetings; the latter take + place now in one farmhouse, now in another. The leader of this + noxious and unlawful movement is one Adone Alba. He is of your + parish." +</p> +<p> + He lifted his eyelids and flashed a quick, searching glance at the + priest. +</p> +<p> + "He is of my parish," repeated Don Silverio, with no visible emotion. +</p> +<p> + "You know of this agitation?" +</p> +<p> + "If I did, sir, I should not say so. But I am not in the confidence + of Adone Alba." +</p> +<p> + "Of course I do not ask you to reveal the secrets of the + confessional, but —" +</p> +<p> + "Neither in the confessional nor out of it have I heard anything + whatever from him concerning any such matter as that of which you + speak." +</p> +<p> + "He is a young man?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes." +</p> +<p> + "And the owner of the land known as the Terra Vergine?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes." +</p> +<p> + "And his land is comprised in that which will be taken by the + projected works?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes." +</p> +<p> + "Are you sure that he has not sent you here?" +</p> +<p> + "My parishoners are not in the habit of 'sending' me anywhere. You + reverse our respective positions." +</p> +<p> + "Humility is not one of your ecclesiastical virtues, Most Reverend." +</p> +<p> + "It may be so." +</p> +<p> + Gallo thrust his papers back into their drawer and locked it with a + sharp click. +</p> +<p> + "You saw the Syndic of San Beda?" +</p> +<p> + "I did." +</p> +<p> + "Much what you say. Official language is always limited and learned + by rote." +</p> +<p> + Gallo would willingly have thrown his bronze inkstand at the insolent + ecclesiastic; his temper was naturally choleric, though years of + sycophancy and State service had taught him to control it. +</p> +<p> + "Well, Reverend Sir!" he said, with ill-concealed irritation, "this + conversation is, I see, useless. You protect and screen your people. + Perhaps I cannot blame you for that, but you will allow me to remind + you that it is my duty to see that the order and peace of this + district are not in any manner disturbed; and that any parish priest + if he fomented dissatisfaction or countenanced agitation in his + district, would be much more severely dealt with by me than any + civilian would be in the same circumstances. We tolerate and respect + the Church so long as she remains strictly within her own sphere, but + so long only." +</p> +<p> + "We are all perfectly well aware of the conditions attached to the + <i>placet</i> and the <i>exequatur</i> at all times, and we are all conscious + that even the limited privileges of civilians are denied to us!" + replied Don Silverio. "I have the honour to wish your Excellency good + morning." +</p> +<p> + He closed the door behind him. +</p> +<p> + "Damnation!" said Giovacchino Gallo; "that is a strong man! Is Mother + Church blind that she lets such an one rust and rot in the miserable + parish of Ruscino?" +</p> +<p> + When Don Silverio rejoined the Vicar of Sant Anselmo the latter asked + him anxiously how his errand had sped. +</p> +<p> + "It was a waste of breath and words," he answered. "I might have + known that it would be so with any Government official." +</p> +<p> + "But you might have put a spoke in Count Corradini's wheel. If you + had told Gallo that the other is trafficking —" +</p> +<p> + "Why should I betray a man who received me in all good faith? And + what good would it have accomplished if I had done so?" +</p> +<p> + And more weary than ever in mind and body he returned to Ruscino. +</p> +<p> + As he had left the Prefect's presence that eminent person had rung + for his secretary. +</p> +<p> + "Brandone, send me Sarelli." +</p> +<p> + In a few moments Sarelli had appeared; he was the usher of the + Prefecture by appointment; by taste and in addition he was its chief + spy. He was a native of the city, and a person of considerable acumen + and excellent memory; he never needed to make memoranda — there is + nothing so dangerous to an official as written notes. + "Sarelli, what are the reports concerning the vicar of Ruscino?" +</p> +<p> + Sarelli stood respectfully at attention; he had been a + non-commissioned officer of artillery; and answered in rapid but + clear tones — +</p> +<p> + "Great ability — great eloquence — disliked by superiors; formerly + great preacher in Rome; supposed to be at Ruscino as castigation; + learned — benevolent — correct." +</p> +<p> + "Humph!" said Gallo, disappointed. "Not likely then to cause trouble + or disorder? — to necessitate painful measures?" +</p> +<p> + Sarelli rapidly took his cue. +</p> +<p> + "Hitherto, your Excellency, uniformly correct; except in one instance + —" +</p> +<p> + "That instance?" +</p> +<p> + "Your Excellency will have heard of Ulisse Ferrero, a great robber of + the lower Abruzzo Citeriore Primo?" +</p> +<p> + "I have: continue." +</p> +<p> + "Ulisse Ferrero was outlawed; his band had been killed or captured, + every one; he had lost his right arm; he hid for many years in the + lower woods of Abruzzo; he came down at night to the farmhouses, the + people gave him food and drink, and aided him —" +</p> +<p> + "Their criminal habit always: continue." +</p> +<p> + "Sometimes in one district, sometimes in another, he was often in the + <i>macchia</i> of the Valdedera. The people of the district, and + especially of Ruscino, protected him. They thought him a saint, + because once when at the head of his band, which was then very + strong, he had come into Ruscino and done them no harm, but only + eaten and drunk, and left a handful of silver pieces to pay for what + he and his men had taken. So they protected him now, and oftentimes + for more than a year he came out of the <i>macchia</i>, and the villagers + gave him all they could, and he went up and down Ruscino as if he + were a king; and this lasted for several seasons, and, as we learned + afterwards, Don Silverio Frascara had cognisance of this fact, but + did nothing. When Ulisse Ferrero was at last captured (it is nine + years ago come November, and it was not in Ruscino but in the woods + above), and brought to trial, many witnesses were summoned, and + amongst them this Don Silverio; and the judge said to him, 'You had + knowledge that this man came oftentimes into you parish?' and Don + Silverio answered, 'I had.' 'You knew that he was an outlaw, in + rupture with justice?' 'I did,' he answered. Then the judge struck + his fist with anger on his desk. 'And you a priest, a guardian of + order, did not denounce him to the authorities?' Then Don Silverio, + your Excellency, quite quietly, but with a smile (I was there close + to him), had the audacity to answer the judge. 'I am a priest,' he + said 'and I study my breviary, but do not find in it any command + which authorises me to betray my fellow creatures.' That made a + terrible stir in the tribunal, you Excellency. They talked of + committing him to gaol for contempt of court and for collusion with + the outlaw. But it took place at San Beda, where they are all + <i>papalini</i>, as your Excellency knows, and nothing was done, sir." +</p> +<p> + "That reply is verily like this priest!" thought Giovacchino Gallo. + "A man of ability, of intellect, of incorruptible temper, but a man + as like as not to encourage and excuse sedition." +</p> +<p> + Aloud he said, "You may go, Sarelli. Good morning." +</p> +<p> + "May I be allowed a word, sir?" +</p> +<p> + "Speak." +</p> +<p> + "May it not well be, sir, that Don Silverio's organisation or + suggestion is underneath this insurrectionary movement of the young + men in the Valdedera?" +</p> +<p> + "It is possible; yes. See to it." +</p> +<p> + "Your servant, sir." +</p> +<p> + Sarelli withdrew, elated. He loved tracking, like a bloodhound, for + the sheer pleasure of the "cold foot chase." The official views both + layman and priest with contempt and aversion; both are equally his + prey, both equally his profit: he lives by them and on them, as the + galleruca does on the elm-tree, whose foliage it devours, but he + despises them because they are not officials, as the galleruca + doubtless, if it can think, despises the elm. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0016"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XVI +</h2> +<p> + Of course his absence could not be hidden from any in his parish. The + mere presence of the rector of an adjacent parish, who had taken his + duties, sufficed to reveal it. For so many years he had never stirred + out of Ruscino in winter cold or summer heat, that none of his people + could satisfactorily account to themselves for his now frequent + journeys. The more sagacious supposed that he was trying to get the + project for the river undone; but they did not all have so much faith + in him. Many had always been vaguely suspicious of him; he was so + wholly beyond their comprehension. They asked Adone what he knew, or, + if he knew nothing, what he thought. Adone put them aside with an + impatient, imperious gesture. "But you knew when he went to Rome?" + they persisted. Adone swung himself loose from them with a movement + of anger. It hurt him to speak of the master he had renounced, of the + friend he had forsaken. His conscience shrank from any distrust of + Don Silverio; yet his old faith was no more alive. He was going + rapidly down a steep descent, and in that downward rush he lost all + his higher instincts; he was becoming insensible to everything except + the thirst for action, for vengeance. +</p> +<p> + To the man who lives in a natural state away from cities it appears + only virile and just to defend himself, to avenge himself, with the + weapons which nature and art have given him; he feels no satisfaction + in creeping and crawling through labyrinths of the law, and he cannot + see why he, the wronged, should be forced to spend, and wait, and + humbly pray, while the wrongdoer may go, in the end, unchastised. + Such a tribunal as St. Louis held under an oak-tree, or the Emperor + Akbar in a mango grove, would be intelligible to him; but the + procedure, the embarrassments, the sophistries, the whole machinery + of modern law are abhorrent to him. +</p> +<p> + He yearned to be the Tell, the Massaniello, the Andreas Hofer, of his + province; but the apathy and supineness and timidity of his neighbors + tied his hands. He knew that they were not made of the stuff with + which a leader could hope to conquer. All his fiery appeals fell like + shooting stars, brilliant but useless; all his vehement excitations + did little more than scare the peasants whom he sought to rouse. A + few bold spirits like his own seconded his efforts and aided his + propaganda; but these were not numerous enough to leaven the inert + mass. +</p> +<p> + His plan was primitive and simple: it was to oppose by continual + resistance every attempt which should be made to begin the projected + works upon the river; to destroy at night all which should be done in + the day, and so harass and intimidate the workmen who should be sent + there that they should, in fear and fatigue, give up their labours. + They would certainly be foreign workmen; that is, workmen from + another province; probably from the Puglie. It was said that three + hundred of them were coming that week from the Terra d'Otranto to + work above Ruscino. He reckoned that he and those he led would have + the advantage of local acquaintance with the land and water, and + could easily, having their own homes as base, carry on a guerrilla + warfare for any length of time. No doubt, he knew, the authorities + would send troops to the support of the labours, but he believed that + when the resolve of the district to oppose at all hazards any + interference with the Edera should be made clear, the Government + would not provoke an insurrection for the sake of favouring a foreign + syndicate. So far as he reasoned at all, he reasoned thus. +</p> +<p> + But he forgot, or rather he did not know, that the lives of its + people, whether soldiers or civilians, matter very little to any + Government, and that its own vanity, which it calls dignity, and the + financial interests of its supporters, matter greatly; where the + Executive has been defied there it is inexorable and unscrupulous. +</p> +<p> + Both up and down the river there was but one feeling of bitter rage + against the impending ruin of the water; there was but one piteous + cry of helpless desperation. But to weld this, which was mere + emotion, into that sterner passion of which resistance and revolt are + made, was a task beyond his powers. +</p> +<p> + "No on will care for us; we are too feeble, we are too small," they + urged; they were willing to do anything were they sure it would + succeed, but — +</p> +<p> + "But who can be sure of anything under heaven?" replied Adone. "You + are never sure of your crops until the very last day they are reaped + and carried; yet you sow." +</p> +<p> + Yes, they granted that; but sowing grain was a safe, familiar + labour; the idea of sowing lead and death alarmed them. Still there + were some, most of them those who were dwellers on the river, or + owners of land abutting on it, who were of more fiery temper, and + these thought as Adone thought, that never had a rural people juster + cause for rebellion; and these gathered around him in those meetings + by night of which information had reached the Prefecture, for there + are spies in every province. +</p> +<p> + Adone had changed greatly; he had grown thin and almost gaunt; he had + lost his beautiful aspect of adolescence; his eyes had no longer + their clear and happy light; they were keen and fierce, and looked + out defiantly from under his level brows. +</p> +<p> + He worked on his own land usually, by day, to stave off suspicion; + but by night he scoured the country up and down the stream wherever + he believed he could find proselytes or arms. He had no settled plan + of action; he had no defined project; his only idea was to resist, to + resist, to resist. Under a leader he would have been an invaluable + auxiliary, but he had not the knowledge whatever of stratagem, or + manoeuvre, or any of the manifold complications of guerrilla warfare. + His calm and dreamy life had not prepared him to be all at once a man + of action: action was alien alike to his temperament and to his + habits. All his heart, his blood, his imagination, were on fire; but + behind them there was not that genius of conception and command which + alone makes the successful chief of a popular cause. +</p> +<p> + His mother said nothing to disturb or deter him on his course, but in + herself she was sorely afraid. She kept her lips shut because she + would have thought it unworthy to discourage him, and she could not + believe in his success, try how she might to compel her faith to + await miracles. +</p> +<p> + Little Nerina alone gave him that unquestioning, blind belief which + is so dear to the soul of man. Nerina was convinced that at his call + the whole of the Valdedera would rise full-armed, and that no hostile + power on earth would dare to touch the water. To her any miracle + seemed possible. Whatever he ordered, she did. She had neither fear + nor hesitation. She would slip out of her room unheard, and speed + over the dark country on moonless nights on his errands; she would + seek for weapons and bring them in and distribute them; she would + take his messages to those on whom he could rely, and rouse to his + cause the hesitating and half-hearted by repetition of his words. Her + whole young life had caught fire at his; and her passionate loyalty + accepted without comprehending all he enjoined her or told to her. +</p> +<p> + The danger which she ran and the concealment of which she was guilty, + never disturbed her for an instant. What Adone ordained was her law. + Had he not taken pity on her in her misery that day by the river? Was + she not to do anything and everything to serve him and save the + river? This was her sole creed; but it sufficed to fill her still + childish soul. If, with it, there were mingled a more intense and + more personal sentiment, she was unconscious of, and he indifferent + to, it. He sent her to do his bidding as he would have sent a boy, + because he recognised in her that zeal and fervent fidelity to a + trust of which he was not sure in others. +</p> +<p> + Although she was a slender brown thing, like a nightingale, she was + strong, elastic, untiring; nothing seemed to fatigue her; she always + looked as fresh as the dew, as vigorous as a young cherry-tree. Her + big hazel eyes danced under their long lashes, and her pretty mouth + was like one of the four-season roses which bloomed on the house + wall. She was not thought much to look at in a province where the + fine Roman type is blended with the Venetian colouring in the beauty + of its women; but she had a charm and a grace of her own; wild and + rustic, like that of a spray of grass or a harvest mouse swinging on + a stalk of wheat. +</p> +<p> + She was so lithe, so swift, so agile; so strong without effort, so + buoyant and content, that she carried with her the sense of her own + perfect health and happiness, as the east wind blowing up the Edera + water bore with it the scent of the sea. +</p> +<p> + But of any physical charm in her Adone saw nothing. A great rage + filled his soul, and a black cloud seemed to float between him and + all else which was not the wrong done to him and his and the water of + Edera. Until he should have lifted off the land and the stream this + coming curse which threatened them, life held nothing for him which + could tempt or touch him. +</p> +<p> + He used the girl for his own purposes and did not spare her; but + those purposes were only those of his self-imposed mission, and of + all which was youthful, alluring, feminine, in her he saw nothing: + she was to him no more than a lithe, swift, hardy filly would have + been which he should have ridden over the moors and pastures to its + death in pursuit of his end. He who had been always so tender of + heart had grown cruel; he would have flung corpse upon corpse into + the water if by such holocaust he could have reached his purpose. + What had drawn him to Nernia had been that flash of ferocity which he + had seen in her; that readiness to go to the bitter end in the sweet + right of vengeance; instincts which formed so singular a contrast to + the childish gaiety and the sunny goodwill of her normal disposition. +</p> +<p> + He knew that nothing which could have been done to her would have + made her reveal any confidence placed in her. That she was often out + all the hours of the night on errands to the widely scattered + dwellings of the peasants did not prevent her coming at dawn into the + cattle stalls to feed and tend the beasts. +</p> +<p> + And she was so dexterous, so sure, so silent; even the sharp eyes of + old Gianna never detected her nocturnal absence, even the shrewd + observation of Clelia Alba never detected any trace of fatigue in her + or any negligence in her tasks. She was always there when they needed + her, did all that she was used to do, was obedient to every word or + sign; they did not know that as she carried the water pails, or cut + the grass, or swept the bricks, or washed the linen, her heart sung + proudly within her a joyous song because she shared a secret — a + perilous secret — of which the elder woman knew nothing. Any night a + stray shot might strike her as she ran over the moors, or through the + heather; any night a false step might pitch her headlong into a + ravine or a pool; any night, returning through the shallows of the + ford, she might miss her footing and fall into one of the bottomless + holes that the river hid in its depths: but the danger of it only + endeared her errand the more to her; made her the prouder that she + was chosen for it. +</p> +<p> + "I fear nothing," she said to him truthfully; "I fear only that you + should not be content." +</p> +<p> + And as signal fires run from point to point, or hill to hill, so she + ran from one farmhouse to another, bearing the messages which + organised those gatherings whereof Giavacchino Gallo had the + knowledge. The men she summoned and spoke with were rough peasants, + for the most part, rude as the untanned skins they wore at their + work, but not one of them ever said a gross word or gave a lewd + glance to the child. +</p> +<p> + She was <i>la bimba</i> to them all; a brave little soul and honest; they + respected her as if she were one of their own children, or one of + their own sisters, and Nernia coming through the starlight, with an + old musket slung at her back, which Adone had taught her to use, and + her small, bronzed feet leaping over the ground like a young goat's, + was a figure which soon became familiar and welcome to the people. + She seemed to them like a harbinger of hope; she had few words, but + those words reverberated with courage and energy; she moved the + supine, she braced the timid; she brought the wavering firmness and + the nervous strength; she said what Adone had taught her to say, but + she put into it all her own immense faith in him, all her own + innocent and undoubting certainty that his cause was just and would + be blessed by heaven. +</p> +<p> + The Edera water belonged to them. Would they let it be turned away + from their lands and given to strangers? +</p> +<p> + As a little spaniel or beagle threshes a covert, obedient to his + master's will and working only to please him, so she scoured the + country-side and drove in, by persuasion, or appeal, or threat, all + those who would lend ear to her, to the midnight meetings on the + moors, or in the homesteads, where Adone harangued them, with + eloquence ever varied, on a theme which was never stale, because it + appealed at once to the hearts and to the interests of his hearers. +</p> +<p> + But many of them, though fascinated, remained afraid. +</p> +<p> + "When all is said, what can we do?" they muttered. "Authority has a + long arm." +</p> +<p> + The people of the district talked under their breath of nothing else + than of this resistance which was being preached as a holy war by the + youth of Terra Vergine. They were secret and silent, made prudent by + many generations which had suffered from harsh measures and brutal + reprisals, but the league he proclaimed fascinated and possessed + them. Conspiracy has a seduction subtle and irresistible as gambling + for those who have once become its servants. It is potent as wine, + and colours the brain which it inflames. To these lowly, solitary + men, who knew nothing beyond their own fields and coppices and + wastelands, its excitement came like a magic philter to change the + monotony of their days. They were most of them wholly unlettered; + knew not their A B C; had only learned the law of the seasons, and + the earth, and the trees which grew, and the beasts which grazed; but + they had imagination; they had the blood of ancient races; they were + neither dolts not boors, though Adone in his wrath called them so. + They were fascinated by the call to rise and save their river. A + feeling, more local than patriotism, but more noble than interest, + moved them to share in his passionate hatred of the intruders, and to + hearken to his appeals to them to arm and rise as one man. +</p> +<p> + But, on the other hand, long years of servitude and hardship had made + them timid as gallant dogs are made so by fasting or the whip. "What + are we?" some of them said to him. "We are no more than the + earthworms in the soil." For there is a pathetic humility in these + descendants of the ancient rulers of the world; it is a humility born + of hope deferred, of the sense of every change of masters, of + knowledge that the sun rises and sets upon their toil, as it did on + that of their fathers, as it will do on that of their children, and + will never see it lessened, nor see the fruits thereof given to + themselves or to their sons. It is a humility which is never ignoble, + but is infinitely, because hopelessly, sad. +</p> +<p> + The river was their own, surely, yes; but, like so much else that was + their own, the State claimed it. +</p> +<p> + "What can be more yours than the son you beget, the fruit of your + loins, the child for whom you have laboured through long years?" said + an old man to him once. "Yet the State, as soon as he is of use to + you, the State takes him, makes a beast of burden of him, kills his + youth and his manhood; sends him without a word to you, to be maimed + and slaughtered in Africa, his very place of death unknown to you; + his body — the body you begat and which his mother bore in her womb + and nourished and cherished — is devoured by the beasts of the + desert and the birds of the air. They take all; why shall they not + take the river also?" +</p> +<p> + The glowing faith of Adone was flung, as the sunlit salt spray of the + ocean is cast on a cliff of basalt, against the barrier of that weary + and prostrate despair which the State dares to tell the poor is their + duty and their portion upon earth. +</p> +<p> + But the younger men listened to him more readily, being less bent and + broken by long labour, and poor food, and many years of unanswered + prayers. Of these some had served their time in regiments, and aided + him to give some knowledge of drill and of the use of weapons to + those who agreed with him to dispute by force the claim of strangers + to the Edera water. +</p> +<p> + These gatherings took place on waste lands or bare heaths, or in + clearings or hollows in the woods, and the tramp of feet and click of + weapons scared the affrighted fox and the astounded badger. They + dared not fire lest the sound should betray their whereabouts to some + unfriendly ear; but they went through all other military exercises as + far as it lay in their power to do so. +</p> +<p> + The extreme loneliness of the Edera valley was in their favour. Once + in half a year, perhaps, half a troop of carabineers might ride + through the district, but this was only if there had been any notable + assassination or robbery; and of police there was none nearer than + the town of San Beda. +</p> +<p> + It was to arrange these nightly exercises, and summon to or warn off + men from them, as might be expedient, that Nernia was usually sent + upon her nocturnal errands. One night when she had been bidden by + Adone to go to a certain hamlet in the woods to the north, the child, + as she was about to slip back the great steel bolts which fastened + the house door, saw a light upon the stairs which she had just + descended, and turning round, her hand upon the lock, saw Clelia + Alba. +</p> +<p> + "Why are you out of your bed at this hour?" said the elder woman. Her + face was stern and dark. +</p> +<p> + Nernia did not answer; her gay courage forsook her; she trembled. +</p> +<p> + "Why?" asked Adone's mother. +</p> +<p> + "I was going out," answered the child. Her voice shook. She was + clothed as usual in the daytime, but she had over her head a woollen + wrapper. She had not her musket, for she kept it in the hen-house, + and was accustomed to take it as she passed that place. +</p> +<p> + "Going out! At the fourth hour of the night? Is that an answer for a + decent maiden?" +</p> +<p> + Nernia was silent. +</p> +<p> + "Go back to your room, and I will lock you in it; in the morning you + will account to me." +</p> +<p> + Nernia recovered her self-possession, though she trembled still. +</p> +<p> + "Pardon me, Madama Clelia," she said humbly, "I must go out." +</p> +<p> + She did not look ashamed, and her small brown face had a resolute + expression. +</p> +<p> + A great anguish seized and wrung the heart of Clelia Alba. She knew + that Adone was not in the house, Did he, the soul of purity and + honour, seduce a girl who dwelt under his own roof? — carry on an + intrigue with a little beggar, to his own shame and the outrage of + his mother? Was this the true cause of his frequent absence, his many + nights abroad? Her dark brows contracted, her black eyes blazed. +</p> +<p> + "Go to your room, wanton!" she said in tones of thunder. "In the + morning you will answer to me." +</p> +<p> + But Nernia, who had before this slipped the bolt aside, and who + always kept her grasp upon the great key in the lock, suddenly turned + it, pushed the oak door open, and before the elder woman was + conscious of what she was doing, had dashed out into the air, and + slammed the door behind her. The rush of wind had blown out the lamp + in Clelia Alba's hand. +</p> +<p> + When, after fumbling vainly for some minutes to find the door, and + bruising her hands against the wall and oaken chair, she at last + found it and thrust it open, the night without was moonless and + starless and stormy, and in its unillumined blackness she saw no + trace of the little girl. She went out on to the doorstep and + listened, but there was no sound. The wind was high; the perfume of + the stocks and wallflowers was strong; far away the sound of the + river rushing through the sedges was audible in the intense + stillness, an owl hooted, a nightjar sent forth its sweet, strange, + sighing note. Of Nernia there was no trace. Clelia Alba came within + and closed the door, and locked and bolted it. +</p> +<p> + The old woman Gianna had come downstairs with a lighted rush candle + in her hand; she was scared and afraid. +</p> +<p> + "What is it? What is it, madama?" +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba dropped down on the chair by the door. +</p> +<p> + "It is — it is — that the beggar's spawn you would have me shelter + is the leman of my son; and he has dishonoured his house and mine." +</p> +<p> + Gianna shook her grey head in solemn denial and disbelief. +</p> +<p> + "Sior'a, Clelia, do not say such words or think such thoughts of your + son or of the child. She is as harmless as any flower that blows out + there in the garden, and he is a noble youth, though now, by the + wickedness of me, distraught and off his head. What makes you revile + them so?" +</p> +<p> + "They are both out this night. Is not that enough?" +</p> +<p> + Gianna was distressed; from her chamber above she had heard the words + which had passed between Adone's mother and Nernia, and knew the girl + was gone. +</p> +<p> + "I would condemn others, but not Adone and the child," she returned. + "For sure they do not do right to have secrets from you, but they are + not such secrets as you think." +</p> +<p> + "Enough!" said Clelia Alba sternly. "The morning will show who is + right. It suffices for me that the son of Valeria Albo, my son, has + forgot his duty to his mother and his respect for himself." +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba rose with effort from her chair, relighted her lamp at + the old woman's rush candle, and went slowly and heavily up the + stairs. She felt stunned and outraged. Her son! — hers! — to lie + out of nights with a little nameless vagrant! +</p> +<p> + Gianna caught hold of her skirt. "Madama — listen. I saw him born + that day by the Edera water, and I have seen him every day of his + life since till now. He would never do a base thing. Do not you, his + mother, disgrace him by thinking of it for an hour. This thing is + odd, is ugly, is strange, but wait to judge it —" +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba released her skirt from her old servant's grasp. +</p> +<p> + "You mean well, but you are crazed. Get you gone." +</p> +<p> + Gianna let go her hold and crept submissively down the stair. She set + her rushlight on the floor and sat down in the chair beside the door, + and told her beads with shaking fingers. One or other of them, she + thought, might come home either soon or late, for she did not believe + that any amorous intimacy was the reason that they were both out — + God knew where — in this windy, pitch-dark night. +</p> +<p> + "But he does wrong, he does wrong," she thought. "He sends the child + on his errands perhaps, but he should remember a girl is like a + peach, you cannot handle it ever so gently but its bloom goes; and he + leaves us alone, two old women here, and we might have our throats + cut before we should be able to wake old Ettore in the stable." +</p> +<p> + The night seemed long to her in the lone stone entrance, with the + owls hooting round the house, and the winds blowing loud and tearing + the tiles from the roof. Above, in her chamber, Adone's mother walked + to and fro all night sleepless. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0017"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XVII +</h2> +<p> + Gianna before it was dawn went out in the hope that she might meet + Adone on his return, and be able to speak to him before he could see + his mother. She was also in extreme anxiety for Nerina, of whom she + had grown fond. She did not think the little girl would dare return + after the words of Clelia Alba. She knew the child was courageous, + but timid, like an otter or a swallow. +</p> +<p> + She went to the edge of the river and waited; he must cross it to + come home; but whether he would cross higher up or lower down she + could not tell. There was the faint light which preceded the rising + of the sun. A great peace, a great freshness, were on the water and + the land. +</p> +<p> + "Oh Lord, what fools we are!" thought the old woman. "The earth makes + itself anew for us with every dawn, and our own snarling, and + fretting, and mourning cloud it all over for us, and we only see our + own silly souls!" +</p> +<p> + Soon, before the sun was rising, Adone came in sight, passing with + firm, accustomed step across the undressed trunks of trees which were + here thrown across the river to make a passage lower down the stream + than the bridge of Ruscino. He was walking with spirit and ease, his + head was erect, his belt was filled with arms, his eyes had sternness + and command in them; he came from one of the military drillings in + the woods, and had been content with it. Seeing old Gianna waiting + there he understood that something must have happened, and his first + fears were for his mother. +</p> +<p> + "Is she ill?" he cried, as he reached the bank of his own land. +</p> +<p> + "No; she is well in health," answered Gianna, "but she is sorely + grieved and deeply angered; she found the girl Nerina going out at + the dead of night." +</p> +<p> + Adone changed colour. He was silent. Gianna came close to him. +</p> +<p> + "The child and you both out all night, heaven knows where! What but + one thing can your mother think?" +</p> +<p> + "If she thinks but one thing, that thing is false." +</p> +<p> + "Maybe. I believe so myself, but, Sior' Clelia will not. Why do you + send the child out at such hours?" +</p> +<p> + "What did she say to my mother?" +</p> +<p> + "Nothing; only that she had to go." +</p> +<p> + "Faithful little soul!" +</p> +<p> + "Aye! And it is when little maids are faithful like this that men + ruin them. I do not want to speak without respect to you, Adone, for + I have eaten your bread and been sheltered by your roof through many + a year; but for whatever end you send that child out of nights, you + do a bad thing, a cruel thing, a thing unworthy of your stock; and if + I know Clelia Alba——and who should know her if not I?— she will + never let Nerina enter her house again." +</p> +<p> + Adone's face grew dark. +</p> +<p> + "The house is mine. Nerina shall not be turned out of it." +</p> +<p> + "Perhaps it is yours; but it is your mother's too, and you will + scarce turn out your mother for the sake of a little beggar-girl?" +</p> +<p> + Adone was silent; he saw the dilemma; he knew his mother's nature; he + inherited it. +</p> +<p> + "Go you," he said at last; "go you and tell her that the child went + out on my errands, indeed, but I have not seen her; there is no + collusion with her, and she is not and never will be <i>dama</i> of mine." +</p> +<p> + "I will take her no such message, for she would not listen. Go you; + say what you choose; perhaps she will credit you, perhaps she will + not. Anyhow, you are warned. As for me, I will go and search for + Nerina." +</p> +<p> + "Do you mean she has not returned?" +</p> +<p> + "Certainly she has not. She will no more dare to return than a kicked + dog. You forget she is a young thing, a creature of nothing; she + thinks herself no more than a pebble or a twig. Besides, your mother + called her a wanton. That is a word not soon washed out. She is + humble as a blade of grass, but she will resent that. You have made + much trouble with your rebellious work. You have done ill — ill — + ill!" +</p> +<p> + Adone submitted mutely to the upbraiding; he knew he had done + selfishly, wrongfully, brutally, that which had seemed well to + himself with no consideration of others. +</p> +<p> + "Get you gone and search for the child," he said at last. "I will go + myself to my mother." +</p> +<p> + "It is the least you can do. But you must not forget the cattle. + Nerina is not there to see to them." +</p> +<p> + She pushed past him and went on to the footbridge; but midway across + it she turned and called to him: "I lit the fire, and the coffee is + on it. Where am I to look for the child? In the heather? in the + woods? up in Ruscino? down in the lower valley? or may be at the + presbytery?" +</p> +<p> + "Don Silverio is absent," Adone called back to her; and he passed on + under the olive-trees towards his home. Gianna paused on the bridge + and watched him till he was out of sight; then she went back herself + by another path which led to the stables. A thought had struck her: + Nerina was too devoted to the cattle to have let them suffer; + possible she was even now attending to them in their stalls. +</p> +<p> + "She is a faithful little thing as he said!" the old servant + muttered. "Yes; and such as she are born to labour and to suffer, and + to eat the bread of bitterness." +</p> +<p> + "Where is she, Pierino?" she said to the old white dog; he was lying + on the grass; if the girl were lost, she thought, Pierino would be + away somewhere looking for her. +</p> +<p> + Gianna's heart was hard against Adone; in a dim way she understood + the hopes and the schemes which occupied him, but she could not + forgive him for sacrificing to them his mother and this friendless + child. It was so like a man, she said to herself, to tear along on + what he thought a road to glory, and never heed what he trampled down + as he went — never heed any more than the mower heeds the daisies. +</p> +<p> + In the cattle stalls she found the oxen and the cows already watered, + brushed, and content, with their pile of fresh grass beside them; + there was no sound in the stables but of their munching and + breathing, and now and then the rattle of the chains which linked + them to their mangers. +</p> +<p> + "Maybe she is amongst the hay," thought Gianna, and painfully she + climbed the wide rungs of the ladder which led to the hay loft. + There, sure enough, was Nerina, sound asleep upon the fodder. She + looked very small, very young, very innocent. +</p> +<p> + The old woman thought of the first day that she had seen the child + asleep on the stone bench by the porch; and her eyes grew dim. +</p> +<p> + "Who knows where you will rest to-morrow?" she thought; and she went + backwards down the ladder noiselessly so as not to awaken a sleeper, + whose awaking might be so sorrowful. +</p> +<p> + Gianna went back to the house and busied herself with her usual + tasks; she could hear the voices of Adone and Clelia Alba in the + chamber above; they sounded in altercation, but their words she could + not hear. +</p> +<p> + It was at dawn that same day that Don Silverio returned from his + interviews with Count Corradini and Senatore Gallo. When he reached + Ruscino the little rector of the village in the woods had already + celebrated mass. Don Silverio cleansed himself from the dust of + travel, entered his church for his orisons, then broke his fast with + bread and a plate of lentils, and whilst the day was still young took + the long familiar way to the Terra Vergine. Whatever the interview + might cost in pain and estrangement he felt that he dared not lose an + hour in informing Adone of what was so dangerously known at the + Prefecture. +</p> +<p> + "He will not kill me," he thought; "and if he did, it would not + matter much;— except for you, my poor little man," he added to his + dog Signorino, who was running gleefully in his shadow. Gianna saw + him approaching as she looked from the kitchen window, and cried her + thanks to the saints with passionate gratitude. Then she went out and + met him. +</p> +<p> + "Praise be to the Madonna that you have come back, reverendissimo!" + she cried. "There are sore trouble and disputes under our roof." +</p> +<p> + "I grieve to hear that," he answered; and thought, "I fear I have + lost my power to cast oil on the troubled waters." +</p> +<p> + He entered the great vaulted kitchen and sat down, for he was + physically weary, having walked twenty miles in the past night. +</p> +<p> + "What you feel at liberty to tell me, let me hear," he said to the + old servant. +</p> +<p> + Gianna told him in her picturesque, warmly-coloured phrase what had + passed between Sior' Clelia and the little girl in the night; and + what she had herself said to Adone at dawn; and how Nerina was lying + asleep in the hay-loft, being afraid, doubtless, to come up to the + house. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio listened with pain and indignation. +</p> +<p> + "What is he about to risk a female child on such errands? And why is + his mother in such vehement haste to say cruel words and think unjust + and untrue things?" +</p> +<p> + "They are unjust and untrue, sir, are they not?" said Gianna. "But it + looked ill, you see; a little creature going out in the middle of the + night, and to be sure she was but a vagrant when she came to us." +</p> +<p> + "And now — how does the matter stand? Has Adone convinced his mother + of the girl's innocence?" +</p> +<p> + "Whew! That I cannot say, sir. They are upstairs; and their voices + were loud an hour ago. Now they are still. I had a mind to go up, but + I am afraid." +</p> +<p> + "Go up; and send Adone to me." +</p> +<p> + "He is perhaps asleep, sir; he came across the water at dawn." +</p> +<p> + "If so, wake him. I must speak to him without delay." +</p> +<p> + Gianna went and came down quickly. +</p> +<p> + "He is gone out to work in the fields, sir. Madama told me so. If he + does not work, the land will go out of cultivation, sir." +</p> +<p> + "He may have gone to Nerina?" +</p> +<p> + "I do not think so, sir. But I will go back to the stable and see." +</p> +<p> + "And beg Sior' Clelia to come down to me." +</p> +<p> + He was left alone a few minutes in the great old stone chamber, with + its smell of dried herbs hanging from its rafters and of maize leaves + baking in the oven. +</p> +<p> + The land would go out of cultivation — yes! — and the acetylene + factories would take the place of the fragrant garden, the olive + orchards, the corn lands, the pastures. He did not wonder that Adone + was roused to fury; but what fury would avail aught? What pain, what + despair, what tears, would stay the desecration for an hour? The + hatchet would hew it all down, and the steam plough would pass over + it all, and then the stone and the mortar, the bricks and the iron, + the engines, and the wheels, and the cauldrons, would be enthroned on + the ruined soil: the gods of a soulless age. +</p> +<p> + "Oh, the pity of it! The pity of it!" thought Don Silverio, as the + blue sky shone through the grated window and against the blue sky a + rose branch swung and a swallow circled. +</p> +<p> + "Your servant, Reverendissimo," said the voice of Clelia Alba, and + Don Silverio rose from his seat. +</p> +<p> + "My friend," he said to her, "I find you in trouble, and I fear that + I shall add to it. But tell me first, what is this tale of Nerina?" +</p> +<p> + "It is but this, sir; if Nerina enter here, I go." +</p> +<p> + "You cannot be serious!" +</p> +<p> + "If you think so, look at me." +</p> +<p> + He did look at her; at her severe aquiline features, at her heavy + eyelids drooping over eyes of implacable wrath, at her firm mouth and + jaw, cold as if cut in marble. She was not a woman to trifle or to + waver; perhaps she was one who having received offence would never + forgive. +</p> +<p> + "But it is monstrous!" he exclaimed; "you cannot turn adrift a little + friendless girl — you cannot leave your own house, your dead + husband's house — neither is possible — you rave!" +</p> +<p> + "It is my son's house. He will harbour whom he will. But if the girl + pass the doorstep I go. I am not too old to labour for myself." +</p> +<p> + "My good woman — my dear friend — it is incredible! I see what you + believe, but I cannot pardon you for believing it. Even were it what + you choose to think — which is not possible — surely your duty to a + motherless and destitute girl of her tender years should counsel more + benevolence?" +</p> +<p> + The face of Clelia Alba grew chillier and harder still. +</p> +<p> + "Sir, leave me to judge of my own duties as the mother of Adone, and + the keeper of this house. He has told me that he is master here. I do + not deny it. He is over age. He can bring her here if he chooses, but + I go." +</p> +<p> + "But you must know the child cannot live here with a young man!" +</p> +<p> + "Why not?" said Clelia Alba, and a cruel smile passed over her face. + "It seems to me more decent than lying out in the fields together + night after night." +</p> +<p> + "Silence!" said Don Silverio in that tone which awed the boldest. "Of + what avail is your own virtue if it make you thus harsh, thus + unbelieving, thus ready to condemn?" +</p> +<p> + "I claim no more virtue than any clean-living woman should possess; + but Valerio Alba would not have brought his leman into my presence, + neither shall his son do so." +</p> +<p> + "In your present mood, words are wasted on you. Go to your chamber, + Sior' Clelia, and entreat Heaven to soften your heart. There is + sorrow enough in store for you without your creating misery out of + suspicion and unbelief. This house will not long be either yours or + Adone's." +</p> +<p> + He left the kitchen and went out into the air; Clelia Alba was too + proud, too dogged, in her obstinancy to endeavour to detain him or to + ask him what he meant. +</p> +<p> + "Where is Adone?" he asked of the old labourer Ettore, who was + carrying manure in a great skip upon his back. +</p> +<p> + "He is down by the five apple-trees, sir," answered Ettore. +</p> +<p> + The five apple-trees were beautiful old trees, gnarled, moss-grown, + hoary, but still bearing abundant blossom; they grew in a field which + was that year being trenched for young vines, a hard, back-breaking + labour; the trenches were being cut obliquely, so as not to disturb + the apple-trees or injure some fine fig-trees which grew there. Adone + was at work, stripped to his shirt and hidden in the delved earth to + his shoulders. +</p> +<p> + He looked up from the trench and lifted his hat as he saw the priest + enter the field; then he resumed his labour. +</p> +<p> + "Come out of your ditch and hearken to me. I will not weary you with + many words." +</p> +<p> + Adone, moved by long habit of obedience and deference, leapt with his + agile feet on to the border of the trench and stood there, silent, + sullen, ready to repel reproof with insolence. +</p> +<p> + "Is it worthy of you to ruin the name of a girl of sixteen by sending + her on midnight errands to your fellow-rebels?" +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio spoke bluntly; he spoke only on suspicion, but his tone + was that of a direct charge. +</p> +<p> + Adone did not doubt for a moment that he was in possession of facts. +</p> +<p> + "Has the girl played us false?" he said moodily. +</p> +<p> + "I have not seen the girl," replied Don Silvero. "But it is a base + thing to do, to use that child for errands of which she cannot know + either the danger or the illegality. You misuse one whose youth and + helplessness should have been her greatest protection." +</p> +<p> + "I had no one else that I could trust." +</p> +<p> + "Pour little soul! You could trust her, so you abused her trust! No: + I do not believe you are her lover. I do not believe you care for her + more than for the clod of earth you stand on. But to my thinking that + makes what you have done worse; colder, more cruel, more calculating. + Had you seduced her, you would at least feel that you owed her + something. She has been a mere little runner and slave to you — no + more. Surely your knowledge that she depends on you ought to have + sufficed to make her sacred?" +</p> +<p> + Adone looked on the ground. His face was red with the dull flush of + shame. He knew that he merited all these words and more. +</p> +<p> + "I will provide temporarily for her; and you will send her out no + more upon these errands," continued Don Silverio. "Perhaps, with + time, your mother may soften to her; but I doubt it." +</p> +<p> + "The house is mine," said Adone sullenly. "She shall not keep Nerina + out of it." +</p> +<p> + "You certainly cannot turn your mother away from her own hearth," + replied Don Silverio with contempt. "I tell you I will take the girl + to some place in Ruscino where she will be safe for the present time. + But I came to say another thing to you as well as this. I have been + away three days. I have seen the Prefect, Senatore Gallo. He has + informed me that your intentions, your actions, your plans and + coadjutors are known to him, and that he is aware that you are + conspiring to organise resistance and riot." +</p> +<p> + A great shock struck Adone as he heard; he felt as if an electric + charge had passed through him. He had believed his secret to be as + absolutely unknown as the graves of the lucomone under the ivy by the + riverside. +</p> +<p> + "How could he know?" he stammered. "Who is the traitor?" +</p> +<p> + "That matters little," said Don Silverio. "What matters much is, that + all you do and desire to do is written down at the Prefecture." +</p> +<p> + Adone was sceptical. He laughed harshly. +</p> +<p> + "If so, sir, why do they not arrest me? That would be easy enough. I + do not hide." +</p> +<p> + "Have you not ofttimes seen a birdcatcher spread his net? Does he + seize the first bird which approaches it? He is not so unwise. He + waits until all the feathered innocents are in the meshes: then he + fills his sack. That is how the Government acts always. It gives its + enemies full rope to hang themselves. It is cold of blood, and slow, + and sure." +</p> +<p> + "You say this to scare me, to make me desist." +</p> +<p> + "I say it because it is the truth; and if you were not a boy, blind + with rage and unreason, you would long since have known that such + actions as yours, in rousing or trying to rouse the peasants of the + Valdedera, must come to the ear of the authorities. Do not mistake. + They let you alone as yet, not because they love you or fear you; but + because they are too cunning and too wise to touch the pear before it + is ripe." +</p> +<p> + Adone was silent. He was convinced; and many evil thoughts were black + within his brain. His first quarrel with a mother he adored had + intensified all the desperate ferocity awake in him. +</p> +<p> + "You are as blind as a mole," said Don Silverio, "but you have not + the skill of the mole in constructing its hidden galleries. You + scatter your secrets broadcast as you scatter grain over your + ploughed field. You think it is enough to choose a moonless night for + you and your companions-in-arms to be seen by no living creature! + Does the stoat, does the wild cat, make such a mistake as that? If + you make war on the State, study the ways of your foe. Realise that + it has as many eyes, as many ears, as many feet as the pagan god; + that its arm is as long as its craft, that it has behind it + unscrupulous force and unlimited gold, and the support of all those + who only want to pursue their making of wealth in ease and in peace. + Do you imagine you can meet and beat such antagonists with a few + rusty muskets, a few beardless boys, a poor little girl like Nerina?" +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio's voice was curt, imperious, sardonic; his sentences cut + like whips; then after a moment of silence his tone changed to an + infinite softness and sweetness of pleading and persuasion. +</p> +<p> + "My son, my dear son! cease to live in this dream of impossible + issues. Wake to the brutality of fact, to nakedness of truth. You + have to suffer a great wrong; but will you be consoled for it by the + knowledge that you have led to the slaughter men whom you have known + from your infancy? It can but end in one way — your conflict with + the power of the State. You, and those who have listened to you, will + be shot down without mercy, or flung into prison, or driven to lead + the life of tracked beasts in the woods. There is no other possible + end to the rising which you are trying to bring about. If you have no + pity for your mother, have pity on your comrades, for the women who + bore them, for the women who love them." +</p> +<p> + Adone quivered with breathless fury as he heard. All the blackness of + his soul gathered into a storm of rage, burst forth in shameful doubt + and insult. He set his teeth, and his voice hissed through them, + losing all its natural music. +</p> +<p> + "Sir, your clients are men in high places; mine are my miserable + brethren. You take the side of the rich and powerful; I take that of + the poor and the robbed. Maybe your reverence has deemed it your duty + to tell the authorities that which you say they have learned?" +</p> +<p> + A knife through his breast-bone would have given a kindlier wound to + his hearer. Amazement under such an outrage was stronger in Don + Silverio than any other feeling for the first moment. Adone — Adone! + — his scholar, his beloved, his disciple! — spoke to him thus! Then + an overwhelming disgust and scorn swept over him, and was stronger + than his pain. He could have stricken the ungrateful youth to the + earth. The muscles of his right arm swelled and throbbed; but, with + an intense effort, he controlled the impulse to avenge his insulted + honour. Without a word, and with one glance of reproach and of + disdain, he turned away and went through the morning shadows under + the drooping apple boughs. +</p> +<p> + Adone, with his teeth set hard and his eyes filled with savage fire, + sprang down into the trench and resumed his work. +</p> +<p> + He was impenitent. +</p> +<p> + "He is mad! He knows not what he says!" thought the man whom he had + insulted. But though he strove to excuse the outrage it was like a + poisoned blade in his flesh. +</p> +<p> + Adone could suspect him! Adone could believe him to be an informer! +</p> +<p> + Was this all the recompense for eighteen years of unwearying + affection, patience, and tuition? Though the whole world had + witnessed against him, he would have sworn that Adone Alba would have + been faithful to him. +</p> +<p> + "He is mad," he thought. "His first great wrong turns his blood to + poison. He will come to me weeping to-morrow." +</p> +<p> + But he knew that what Adone had said to him, however repented of, + however washed away with tears, was one of those injuries which may + be forgiven, but can never be forgotten, by any living man. It would + yawn like a pit between them for ever. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0018"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XVIII +</h2> +<p> + To this apple-tree field there was a high hedge of luxuriant elder + and ash, myrtle and field-roses. Behind this hedge old Gianna was + waiting for him; the tears were running down her face. She took the + skirt of his coat between her hands. "Wait, your reverence, wait! The + child is in the cattle stable." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio looked down on her a few moments without comprehension. + Then he remembered. +</p> +<p> + "Is she there indeed? Poor little soul! She must not go to the + house." +</p> +<p> + "She does not dream of it, sir. Only she cannot understand why + Madonna Clelia's anger is so terrible. What can I do — oh, Lord!" +</p> +<p> + "Keep her where she is for the present. I am going home. I will speak + with some of the women in Ruscino, and find her some temporary + shelter." +</p> +<p> + "She will go to none, sir. She says she must be where she can serve + Adone. If she be shut up, she will escape and run into the woods. + Three years ago she was a wild thing; she will turn wild again." +</p> +<p> + "Like enough! But we must do what we can. I am going home. I will + come or send to you in a few hours." +</p> +<p> + Gianna reluctantly let him go. As he crossed the river he looked down + on the bright water, here green as emeralds, there brown as peat, + eddying round the old stone piers of the bridge, and an infinite + sorrow was on him. +</p> +<p> + As a forest fire sweeps away under its rolling smoke and waves of + flame millions of obscure and harmless creatures, so the baneful + fires of men's greed and speculations came from afar and laid low + these harmless lives with neither thought of them or pity. +</p> +<p> + Later in the day he sent word to Gianna to bring Nernia to the + presbytery. They both came, obedient. The child looked tired and had + lost her bright colour; but she had a resolute look on her face. +</p> +<p> + "My poor little girl," he said gently to her, "Madonna Clelia is + angered against you. We will hope her anger will pass ere long. + Meanwhile you must not go to the house. You would not make ill-blood + between a mother and her son?" +</p> +<p> + "No," said Nernia. +</p> +<p> + "I have found a home for awhile for you, with old Alaida Manzi; you + know her; she is a good creature. I am very sorry for you, my child; + but you did wrong to be absent at night; above all not to go back to + your chamber when Clelia Alba bade you to do so." +</p> +<p> + Nernia's face darkened. "I did no harm." +</p> +<p> + "I am sure you did not mean to do any; but you disobeyed Madonna + Clelia." +</p> +<p> + Nernia was silent. +</p> +<p> + "You are a young girl; you must not roam the country at night. It is + most perilous. Decent maidens and women are never abroad after + moonrise." +</p> +<p> + Nernia said nothing. +</p> +<p> + "You will promise me never to go out at night again?" +</p> +<p> + "I cannot promise that, sir." +</p> +<p> + "Why?" +</p> +<p> + "If I be wanted, I shall go." +</p> +<p> + "If Adone Alba bid you — is that your meaning?" +</p> +<p> + Nernia was silent. +</p> +<p> + "Do you think that it is fitting for you to have secrets from me, + your confessor?" +</p> +<p> + Nernia was silent; her rosy mouth was closed firmly. It was very + terrible to have to displease and disobey Don Silverio; but she would + not speak, not if she should burn in everlasting flames for ever. +</p> +<p> + "Take her away. Take her to Alaida," he said wearily to Gianna. +</p> +<p> + "She only obeys Adone, sir," said the old woman. "All I can say + counts as naught." +</p> +<p> + "Adone will send her on no more midnight errands, unless he be brute + and fool both. Take her away. Look to her, you and Alaida." +</p> +<p> + "I will do what I can, sir," said Gianna humbly, and pushed the girl + out into the village street before her. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio sat down at his deal writing-table and wrote in his + fine, clear calligraphy a few lines: "<i>In the name of my holy office + I forbid you to risk the life and good name of the maiden Nernia on + your unlawful errands</i>." +</p> +<p> + Then he signed and sealed the sheet, and sent it by his sacristan to + Adone. +</p> +<p> + He received no answer. +</p> +<p> + The night which followed was one of the most bitter in its + meditations that he had ever spent; and he had spent many cruel and + sleepless nights ere then. +</p> +<p> + That Adone could for one fleeting moment have harboured so vile a + thought filled him with nausea and amaze. Betray them! He! — who + would willingly have given up such years of life as might remain to + him could he by such a sacrifice have saved their river and their + valley from destruction. There was nothing short of vice or crime + which he would not have done to save the Edera water from its fate. + But it was utterly impossible to do anything. Even men of eminence + had often brought all their forces of wealth and argument against + similar enterprises, and had failed in their opposition. What could a + few score of peasants, and one poor ecclesiastic, do against all the + omnipotence of Parliament, of millionaires, of secretaries of State, + of speculators, of promoters, tenacious and forcible and ravenous as + the octopus? +</p> +<p> + In those lonely night hours when the moonbeams shone on his bed and + the little white dog nestled itself close to his shoulder, he was + tortured also by the sense that it was his duty to arrest Adone and + the men of the Valdedera in their mad course, even at the price of + such treachery to them as Adone had dared to attribute to him. But if + that were his duty it must be the first duty which consciously he had + left undone! +</p> +<p> + If he could only stop them on their headlong folly by betraying them + they must rush on to their doom! +</p> +<p> + He saw no light, no hope, no assistance anywhere. These lads would + not be able to save a single branch of the river water, nor a + sword-rush on its banks, nor a moorhen in its shallows, nor a cluster + of myosotis upon its banks, and they would ruin themselves. +</p> +<p> + The golden glory of the planet Venus shone between the budding + vine-leaves at his casement. +</p> +<p> + "Are you not tire?" he said to the shining orb. "Are you not tired of + watching the endless cruelties and insanities on earth?" +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0019"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XIX +</h2> +<p> + The people of Ruscino went early to their beds; the light of the + oil-wicks of the Presbytery was always the only light in the village + half an hour after dark. Nerina went uncomplainingly to hers in the + dark stone house within the walls where she had been told that it was + her lot to dwell. She did not break her fast; she drank great + draughts of water; then, with no word except a brief good-night, she + went to the sacking filled with leaves which the old woman Alaida + pointed out for her occupancy. +</p> +<p> + "She is soon reconciled," thought the old crone. "They have trained + her well." +</p> +<p> + Relieved of all anxiety, she herself lay down in the dark and slept. + The girl seemed a good, quiet, tame little thing, and said her + paternosters as she should do. But Nerina did not sleep. She was + stifled in this little close room with its one shuttered window. She + who was used to sleeping with the fresh fragrant air of the dark + fields blowing over her in her loft, felt the sour, stagnant + atmosphere take her like a hand by the throat. +</p> +<p> + As soon as she heard by the heavy breathing of the aged woman that + she was sunk in the congested slumber of old age, the child got up + noiselessly — she had not undressed — and stole out of the chamber, + taking the door key from the nail on which Alaida had hung it. A + short stone stair led down to the entrance. No one else was sleeping + in the house; all was dark, and she had not even a match or a + tinder-box; but she felt her way to the outer door, unlocked it, as + she had been used to unlock the door at the Terra Vergine, and in + another moment ran down the steep and stone street. She laughed as + the wind from the river blew against her lips, and brought her the + fragrance of Adone's fields. +</p> +<p> + "I shall be in time!" she thought, as she ran down a short cut which + led, in a breakneck descent, over the slope of what had once been the + glacis of the fortress, beneath the Rocca to the bridge. +</p> +<p> + The usual spot for the assembly of the malcontents was a grassy + hollow surrounded on all sides with woods, and called the tomb of + Asdrubal, from a mound of masonry which bore that name, although it + was utterly improbable that Asdrubal, who had been slain a hundred + miles to the northeast on the Marecchia water, should have been + buried in the Valdedera at all. But the place and the name were well + known in the district to hundreds of peasants, who knew no more who + or what Asdrubal had been than they knew the names of the stars which + form the constellation of Perseus. +</p> +<p> + Adone had summoned his friends to be there by nightfall, and he was + passing from the confines of his own lands on to those of the open + moors when the child saw him. He was dressed in his working clothes, + but he was fully armed: his gun on his shoulder, his great pistols in + his sash, his dagger in his stocking. They were ancient arms; but + they had served in matters of life and death, and would so serve + again. On the three-edged blade of the sixteenth-century poignard was + a blood-stain more than a century old which nothing would efface. +</p> +<p> + "Nerina!" he cried as the girl stopped him, and was more distressed + than pleased to see her there; he had not thought of her. +</p> +<p> + In the moonlight, under the silvery olive foliage her little sunburnt + face and figure took a softer and more feminine grace. But Adone had + not sight for it. For him she was but a sturdy little pony, who would + trot till she dropped. +</p> +<p> + He was cruel as those who are possessed by one intense and absorbing + purpose always are: he was cruel to Nerina as Garibaldi, in the days + of Ravenna, was cruel to Anita. +</p> +<p> + But through that intense egotism which sees in all the world only its + own cause, its own end, its own misery, there touched him for one + instant an unselfish pity for the child of whom he had made so + mercilessly his servant and his slave. +</p> +<p> + "Poor little girl! I have been hard to you, I have been cruel and + unfair," he said, as a vague sense of her infinite devotion to his + cause moved him as a man may be moved by a dog's fidelity. +</p> +<p> + "You have been good to me," said Nerina; and from the bottom of her + heart she thought so. "I came to see if you wanted me," she added + humbly. +</p> +<p> + "No, no. They think ill of you for going my errands. Poor child, I + have done you harm enough. I will not do you more." +</p> +<p> + "You have done me only good." +</p> +<p> + "What! When my mother has turned you out of the house!" +</p> +<p> + "It is her right." +</p> +<p> + "Let it be so for a moment. You shall come back. You are with old + Alaida?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes." +</p> +<p> + "How can you be out to-night?" +</p> +<p> + "She sleeps heavily, and the lock is not hard." +</p> +<p> + "You are a brave child." +</p> +<p> + "Is there nothing to do to-night?" +</p> +<p> + "No, dear." +</p> +<p> + "Where do you go?" +</p> +<p> + "To meet the men at the tomb of Asdrubal." +</p> +<p> + "Who summoned them?" +</p> +<p> + "I myself. You must be sad and sorry, child, and it is my fault." +</p> +<p> + She checked a sob in her throat. "I am not far away, and old Alaida + is kind. Let me go on some errand to-night?" +</p> +<p> + "No, my dear, I cannot." +</p> +<p> + He recalled the words of the message which he had received from Don + Silverio that day. He knew the justice of this message, he knew that + it only forbade what all humanity, hospitality, manhood, and + compassion forbade to him. One terrible passion had warped his + nature, closed his heart, and invaded his reason to the exclusion of + all other thoughts or instincts; but he was not yet so lost to shame + as, now that he knew what he had done, to send out a female creature + into peril to do his bidding. +</p> +<p> + "Tell me, then, tell me," pleaded Nerina, "when will anything be + done?" +</p> +<p> + "Whenever the foreign labourers come to work on the water we shall + drive them away." +</p> +<p> + "But if they will not go?" +</p> +<p> + "Child, the river is deep; we know its ways and its soundings; they + do not." +</p> +<p> + Her great bright eyes flashed fire: an unholy joy laughed in them. +</p> +<p> + "We will baptize them over again!" she said; and all her face laughed + and sparkled in the moonlight. There was fierce mountain blood in her + veins; it grew hot at the thought of slaughter like the juice of + grapes warmed in an August noon. +</p> +<p> + He laughed slow, savagely. "Their blood will be on their own heads!" +</p> +<p> + He meant to drive them out, swamp them in the stream, choke them in + the sand, hunt them in the heather; make every man of them rue the + day that ever they came thither to meddle with the Edera water. +</p> +<p> + "Curse them! Their blood will be on their own heads!" he said between + his teeth. He was thinking of the strange men who it was said would + be at work on the land and the water before the moon, young now, + should be in her last quarter; men hired by the hundreds, + day-labourers of the Romagna and the Puglie, leased by contract, + marshalled under overseers, different in nothing from slaves who + groan under the white man's lash in Africa. +</p> +<p> + "Let me come with you to-night," she pleaded again. "I will hide in + the bushes. The men shall not see me." +</p> +<p> + "No, no," he said sternly. "Get you back to your rest at Ruscino. I + did wrong, I did basely to use your ignorance and abuse your + obedience. Get you gone, and listen to your priest, not to me." +</p> +<p> + The child, ever obedient, vanished through the olive boughs. Adone + went onward northward to his tryst: his soul was dark as night; it + enraged him to have been forced by his conscience and his honour to + obey the command of Don Silverio. +</p> +<p> + But she did not go over the bridge to Ruscino. She waited a little + while then followed on his track. Gianna was right. She was a wild + bird. She had been caught and tamed for a time, but she was always + wild. The life which they had given her had been precious and sweet + to her, and she had learned willingly all its ways; but at the bottom + of her heart the love of liberty, the love of movement, the love of + air and sky and freedom were stronger than all else. She was of an + adventurous temper also, and brave like all Abruzzese, and she longed + to see one of those moonlit midnight meetings of armed men to which + she had escaped from Alaida's keeping, she could not have forced + herself to go back out of this clear, cool, radiant night into the + little, close, dark sleeping-chamber. No, not if Don Silverio himself + had stood in her path with the cross raised. She was like a year-old + lioness who smells blood. +</p> +<p> + She knew the way to the tomb of Asdrubal, even in the darkness, as + well as he did. It was situated in a grassy hollow surrounded by + dense trees, some five miles or more from the Terra Vergine, on the + north bank of the river. The solitude was absolute, and the place + large enough to permit the assemblage of several scores of men. +</p> +<p> + Adone went on, unconscious that he was followed; he went at a + swinging trot, easy and swift; the sinews of his lithe limbs were + strong as steel, and his rage, all aflame, lent lightning to his + feet. +</p> +<p> + She allowed him to precede her by half a mile or more, for if he had + seen her his anger would have been great, and she feared it. She went + skipping and bounding along, where the path was clear, in all the joy + of liberty and rapture of the fresh night air. The hours spent in + Alaida's close house in the village had been as terrible to her as + his hours in a birdcatcher's hamper are to a wild bird. Up at Ansalda + she had always been out of doors, and at the Terra Vergine she had + gone under a roof only to eat and sleep. +</p> +<p> + The moon, which was in the beginning of its first quarter, had passed + behind some heavy clouds; there was little light, for there were as + yet few stars visible, but that was not matter to her. She knew her + way as well as any mountain hare. +</p> +<p> + The pungent odour of the heaths through which she went seemed to her + like a draught of wine, the strong sea breeze which was blowing bore + her up like wings. She forgot that she was once more a homeless waif, + as she had been that day when she had sat under the dock leaves by + the Edera water. He had told her she should go back; she believed + him: that was enough. Madonna Clelia would forgive, she felt sure, + for what harm had she done? All would be well; she would feed the + oxen again, and go again to the spring for water, and all would be as + it had been before — her thoughts, her desires, went no farther than + that. So, with a light heart she followed him gaily, running where + there was open ground, pushing hard where the heather grew, going + always in the same path as Adone had done. +</p> +<p> + All of a sudden she stopped short, in alarm. +</p> +<p> + The night was still; the spring of the river was loud upon it, owls + hooted and chuckled, now and then a fox in the thickets barked. There + are many sounds in the open country at night; sounds of whirring + pinions, of stealthy feet, of shrill, lone cries, of breaking twigs, + of breaking ferns, of little rivulets unheard by day, of timid + creatures taking courage in the dark. But to these sounds she was + used; she could give a name to every one of them. She heard now what + was unfamiliar to her in these solitudes; she heard the footsteps of + men; and it seemed to her, all around her, as though in a moment of + time, the heath and bracken and furze grew alive to their tryst with + Adone? She did not think so, for she had never known the few men in + the village summon courage to join the armed meetings of the men of + the valley. She stopped and listened, as a pole-cat which was near + her did; the sounds were those of human beings, breathing, creeping, + moving under the heather. +</p> +<p> + Suddenly she felt some presence close to her in the dark; she held + her breath; she shrank noiselessly between the plumes of heath. If + they were men of the country they would not hurt her, but if not — + she was not sure. +</p> +<p> + Near her was an open space where the wild growth had been recently + cut. The men debouched on to it from the undergrowth, there was a + faint light from the stars on that strip of rough grass; by it she + saw that they were soldiers, five in number. +</p> +<p> + A great terror cowed her, like a hand of ice at her heart, a terror + not for herself, but for those away there, in the green hollow by the + three stone-pines. +</p> +<p> + They were soldiers; yes, they were soldiers; the sounds she had heard + had been the crushing of the plants under their feet, the click of + their muskets as they moved; they were soldiers! Where had they come + from? There were no soldiers at Ruscino. +</p> +<p> + The only time when she had ever seen soldiers had been when the + troopers had captured Baruffo. These were not troopers; they were + small men, on foot, linen-clad, moving stealthily, and as if in fear; + only the tubes of their muskets glistened in the light of the great + planets. +</p> +<p> + She crouched down lower and lower, trying to enter the ground and + hide; she hoped they would go onward, and then she could run — + faster than they — and reach the hollow, and warn Adone and his + fellows. She had no doubt that they came to surprise the meeting; but + she hoped from their pauses and hesitating steps that they were + uncertain what way to take. +</p> +<p> + "If you come to me to lead you — aye! I will lead you! — you will + not forget where I lead!" she said to herself, as she hid under the + heather; and her courage rose, for she saw a deed to be done. For + they were now very near to the place of meeting, and could have taken + the rebels like mice in a trap, if they had only known where they + were; but she, watching them stand still, and stare, and look up to + the stars, and then north, south, east, and west, saw that they did + not know, and that it might be possible to lead them away from the + spot by artifice, as the quail leads the sportsman away from the + place where her nest is hidden. +</p> +<p> + As the thought took shape in her brain a sixth man, a sergeant who + commanded them, touched her with his foot, stooped, clutched her, and + pulled her upward. She did not try to escape. +</p> +<p> + "What beast of night have we here?" he cried. "Spawn of devils, who + are you?" +</p> +<p> + Nerina writhed under the grip of his iron fingers, but she still did + not try to escape. He cursed her, swore at her, shook her, crushed + her arm black and blue. She was sick with pain, but she was mute. +</p> +<p> + "Who are you?" he shouted. +</p> +<p> + "I come down from the mountains to work here in summer." +</p> +<p> + "Can any of you speak her dialect?" cried the sergeant to his + privates: the sergeant was a man of Milan. +</p> +<p> + One man answered, "I come from Paganica; it is much the same tongue + there as in these parts." +</p> +<p> + "Ask her the way, then." +</p> +<p> + The soldier obeyed. +</p> +<p> + "What is the way to the Three Pines? — to the tomb of Asdrubal?" +</p> +<p> + "The way is long," said Nerina. +</p> +<p> + "Do you know it?" +</p> +<p> + "I know it." +</p> +<p> + "Have you heard tell of it?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes." +</p> +<p> + "That men meet at night there?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes." +</p> +<p> + "Meet this night there?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes." +</p> +<p> + "You know where the tomb of Asdrubal is?" +</p> +<p> + "Have I not told you?" +</p> +<p> + The soldier repeated her answer translated to his sergeant; the + latter kept his grasp on her. +</p> +<p> + "Ask her if she will take us there." +</p> +<p> + The soldier asked her and translated her answer. +</p> +<p> + "If we give her two gold pieces she will take us there." +</p> +<p> + "Spawn of hell! I will give her nothing. But if she do not lead us + aright I will give her a bullet for her breakfast." +</p> +<p> + The soldier translated to Nerina: "He will give you two gold pieces + if you guide us aright; and you need have no fear; we are honest men + and the king's servants." +</p> +<p> + "I will guide the king's servants." +</p> +<p> + "You are sure of the way?" +</p> +<p> + "Is the homing pigeon sure of his?" +</p> +<p> + "Let us be off," said the sergeant. "A bullet for her if she fail." +</p> +<p> + He had little pleasure in trusting to this girl of the Abruzzo hills, + but he and his men were lost upon these moors, and might grope all + night, and miss the meeting, and fail to join his comrades and + surprise those who gathered at it. He reckoned upon fear as a sure + agent to keep her true, as it kept his conscripts under arms. +</p> +<p> + "Bid him take his hand off me," said Nerina, "or I do not move." +</p> +<p> + The private translated to his superior. "She prays of your mercy to + leave her free, or she cannot pass through the heather." +</p> +<p> + The sergeant let her go unwillingly, but pushed her in front of him, + and levelled his revolver at her. +</p> +<p> + "Tell her, if she try to get away, I fire." +</p> +<p> + "Tell him I know that," said Nerina. +</p> +<p> + She was not afraid, for a fierce, unholy joy was in her veins; she + could have sung, she could have laughed, she could have danced; she + held them in her power; they had come to ensnare Adone, and she had + got them in her power as if they were so many moles! +</p> +<p> + They tied her hands behind her; she let them do it; she did not want + her hands. Then she began to push her way doggedly, with her head + down, to the south. The tomb of Asdrubal was due north; she could see + the pole star, and turned her back to it and went due south. +</p> +<p> + Three miles or more southward there was a large <i>pollino</i>, or swamp + as L'Erba Molle, the wet grass; the grass was luxuriant, the flora + was varied and beautiful; in appearance it was a field, in reality it + was a morass; to all people of the Valdedera it was dreaded and + avoided, as quicksand are by the seashore. +</p> +<p> + She went on as fast as the narrow path, winding in and out between + the undergrowth, permitted her to go; the armed soldiers, heavy laden + with their knapsacks and their boots, following her clumsily, and + with effort, uttering curses on their ill-luck and their sleepless + night. +</p> +<p> + The stars were now larger and brighter; the darkness was lightened, + the river was running away from its southern birthplace in the hills + which lie like couched lions about the feet of the Gran Sasso. She + could hear its distant murmur. "They come to capture you," she said + to it, "and I will kill them. They shall choke and go down, down, + down — " +</p> +<p> + Her heart leapt within her; and she went with the loaded revolver + pointed at her from behind as though she went to her bridal-bed. +</p> +<p> + "Where are you taking us, vile little bitch?" the sergeant cried, and + the soldier from Paganica translated: "Pretty little brown one, + whither do you go?" +</p> +<p> + "I take you straight," said Nerina, "only you go to clumsily, for men + in these parts should not wear leather upon their feet." +</p> +<p> + The soldiers sighed assent, and would willingly have gone barefoot, + and the sergeant swore in tones of thunder because he could not + understand what she said. +</p> +<p> + Before long they came in sight of the Erba Molle; it looked like a + fair, peaceful pasture, with thousands of sword rushes golden upon + its surface. The light of the stars, which was now brilliant, shone + upon its verdure; there were great flocks of water-birds at roost + around it, and they rose with shrill cries and great noise of wings, + with a roar as though a tide were rising. +</p> +<p> + Across it stretched a line of wooden piles which served as a rude + causeway to those who had the courage and the steadiness to leap from + one to another of them. It was not three times in a season that any + one dared to do so. Adone did so sometimes; and he had taught Nerina + how to make the passage. +</p> +<p> + "Pass you after me, and set your feet where I set mine," said Nerina + to the little soldier of the Abruzzo, and she put down her foot on + the first pile, sunk almost invisible under the bright green slime, + where thousands of frogs were croaking. +</p> +<p> + The soldier of the Abruzzo said to his superior, "She says we must + set our feet where she sets hers. We are quite near now to the tomb + of the barbarian." +</p> +<p> + Nerina, with the light leap of a kid, bounded from pile to pile. They + thought she went on solid ground; on meadow grass. The sergeant and + his men crowded on to what they thought was pasture. In the uncertain + shadows and scarce dawning light, they did not see the row of + submerged timber. They sank like stones in the thick ooze; they were + sucked under to their knees, to their waists, to their shoulders, to + their mouths; the yielding grasses, the clutching slime, the tangled + weed, the bottomless mud, took hold of them; the water-birds shrieked + and beat their wings; the hideous clamour of dying men answered them. +</p> +<p> + Nerina had reached the other side of the morass in safety, and her + mocking laughter rang upon their ears. +</p> +<p> + "I have led you well!" she cried to them. "I have led you well, oh + servants of the king! — oh swine! — oh slaves! — oh spies!— oh + hunters and butchers of men!" +</p> +<p> + And she danced on the edge of the field of death, and the light of + the great planets shone upon her face. +</p> +<p> + Had she run onward at once the wood beyond she would have been saved. + That instant of triumph and mockery lost her. +</p> +<p> + The sergeant had put his revolver in his teeth; he knew now that he + was a dead man; the slime was up to his chin, under his feet the + grass and the mud quaked, yielded, yawned like a grave. +</p> +<p> + He drew his right arm out of the ooze, seized his revolver, and aimed + at the dancing, mocking, triumphant figure beyond the border of + golden sword rushes. With a supreme effort he fired; then he sank + under the mud and weed. +</p> +<p> + The child dropped dead on the edge of the morass. +</p> +<p> + One by one each soldier sank. Not one escaped. +</p> +<p> + The water-birds came back from their upward flight and settled again + on the swamp. +</p> +<p> + Underneath it all was still, save for the loud croaking of the frogs. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0020"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XX +</h2> +<p> + Don Silverio rose with the dawn of day, and entered his church at + five of the clock. There were but a few women gathered in the gaunt, + dark vastness of the nave. The morning was hot, and the scent of buds + and blossoms and fresh-cut grass came in from the fields over the + broken walls and into the ancient houses. +</p> +<p> + When Mass was over, old Alaida crept over the mouldy mosaics timidly + to his side, and kneeled down on the stones. +</p> +<p> + "Most reverend," she whispered, "'twas not my fault. I slept heavily; + she must have unlocked the door, for it was undone at dawn; her bed + is empty, she has not returned." +</p> +<p> + "You speak of Nerina?" +</p> +<p> + "Of Nerina, reverence. I did all I could. It was not my fault. She + was like a hawk in a cage." +</p> +<p> + "I am grieved," he said; and he thought: "Is it Adone?" +</p> +<p> + He feared so. +</p> +<p> + "Is she not at the Terra Vergine?" he asked. Alaida shook her head. +</p> +<p> + "No, reverend sir. I sent my grandchild to ask there. Gianna has not + seen her, and says the girl would never dare to go near Clelia Alba." +</p> +<p> + "I am grieved," said Don Silverio again. +</p> +<p> + He did not blame the old woman, as who, he thought, blames one who + could not tame an eaglet? +</p> +<p> + He went back to the presbytery and broke his fast on a glass of + water, some bread, and some cresses from the river. +</p> +<p> + He had sent for Gianna. In half an hour she came, distressed and + frightened. +</p> +<p> + "Sir, I know not of her; I should not dare to harbour her, even in + the cattle-stall. Madonna Clelia would turn me adrift. When Madonna + Clelia has once spoken —" +</p> +<p> + "Adone is at home?" +</p> +<p> + "Alas! No, sir. He went out at nightfall; we have not seen him since. + He told me he went to a meeting of men at the Three Pines, at what + they call the Tomb of the Barbarian." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio was silent. +</p> +<p> + "It is very grave," he said at last. +</p> +<p> + "Aye, sir, grave indeed," said Gianna. "Would that it were love + between them, sir. Love is sweet and wholesome and kind, but there is + no such thing in Adone's heart. There it is only, alas! Blackness and + fire and hatred, sir; bloodlust against those who mean ill to the + river." +</p> +<p> + "And his mother has lost all influence over him?" +</p> +<p> + "All, sir. She is no more to him now than a bent stick. Yet, months + ago, she gave him her pearls and her bracelets, and he sold them in a + distant town to buy weapons." +</p> +<p> + "Indeed? What madness!" +</p> +<p> + "How else could the men have been armed, sir?" +</p> +<p> + "Armed!" he repeated. "And of what use is it to arm? What use is it + for two hundred peasants to struggle against the whole forces of the + State? They will rot in prison; that is all that they will do." +</p> +<p> + "Maybe yes, sir. Maybe no," said the old woman, with the obstinacy of + ignorance. "Some one must begin. They have no right to take the water + away, sir; no more right than to take the breast from the babe." +</p> +<p> + Then, afraid of having said so much, she dropped her curtsey and went + out into the street. But in another moment she came back into the + study with a scared, blanched face, in which the wrinkles were + scarred deep like furrows in a field. +</p> +<p> + "Sir — sir!" she gasped, "there are the soldiery amongst us." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio rose in haste, put the little dog on his armchair, + closed the door of his study, and went down the narrow stone passage + which parted his bookroom from the entrance. The lofty doorway showed + him the stones of the familiar street, a buttress of his church, a + great branch of one of the self-sown ilex-trees, the glitter of the + arms and the white leather of the cross belts of a sentinel. The + shrill lamentations of the women seemed to rend the sunny air. He + shuddered as he heard. Coming up the street farther off were half a + troop of carabineers and a score of dragoons; the swords of the + latter were drawn, the former had their carbines levelled. The + villagers, screaming with terror, were closing their doors and + shutters in frantic haste; the door of the presbytery alone remained + open. Don Silverio went into the middle of the road and addressed the + officer who headed the carabineers. +</p> +<p> + "May I ask to what my parish owes this visit?" +</p> +<p> + "We owe no answer to you, reverend sir," said the lieutenant. +</p> +<p> + The people were sobbing hysterically, catching their children in + their arms, calling to the Holy Mother to save them, kneeling down on + the sharp stones in the dust. Their priest felt ashamed of them. +</p> +<p> + "My people," he called to them, "do not be afraid. Do not hide + yourselves. Do not kneel to these troopers. You have done no wrong." +</p> +<p> + "I forbid you to address the crowd," said the officer. "Get you back + into your house." +</p> +<p> + "What is my offence?" +</p> +<p> + "You will learn in good time," said the commandant. "Get you into + your presbytery." +</p> +<p> + "My place is with my people." +</p> +<p> + The officer, impatient, struck him on the chest with the pommel of + his sword. +</p> +<p> + Two carabineers thrust him back into the passage. +</p> +<p> + "No law justifies your conduct," he said coldly, "or authorises you + to sever me from my flock." +</p> +<p> + "The sabre is law here," said the lieutenant in command. +</p> +<p> + "It is the only law known anywhere in this kingdom," said Don + Silverio. +</p> +<p> + "Arrest him," said the officer. "He is creating disorder." +</p> +<p> + The carabineers drove him into his study, and a brigadier began to + ransack his papers and drawers. +</p> +<p> + He said nothing; the seizure of his manuscripts and documents was + indifferent to him, for there was nothing he had ever written which + would not bear the fullest light. But the insolent and arbitrary act + moved him to keen anxiety, because it showed that the military men + had licence to do their worst, at their will, and his anguish of + apprehension was for Adone. He could only hope and pray that Adone + had returned, and might be found tranquilly at work in the fields of + the Terra Vergine. But his fears were great. Unless more soldiery + were patrolling the district in all directions it was little likely, + he thought, that these men would conduct themselves thus in Ruscino; + he had no doubt that it was a concerted movement, directed by the + Prefect, and the General commanding the garrisons of the province, + and intended to net in one haul the malcontents of the Valdedera. +</p> +<p> + From his study there was no view upon the street; he could hear the + wailing of women and screaming of children from the now closed + houses: that was all. +</p> +<p> + "What is it your men do to my people?" he said sternly. +</p> +<p> + The brigadier did not reply; he went on throwing papers into a trunk. +</p> +<p> + "Where is your warrant for this search? We are not in a state of + siege?" asked Don Silverio. +</p> +<p> + The man, with a significant gesture, drew his sabre up half way out + of its sheath; then let it fall again with a clash. He vouchsafed no + other answer. +</p> +<p> + Some women's faces pressed in at the grating of the window which + looked on the little garden, scared, blanched, horrified, the white + head, and sunburnt features of Gianna foremost. +</p> +<p> + "Reverendissimo!" they screamed as with one voice. "They are bringing + the lads in from the moors." +</p> +<p> + And Gianna shrieked, "Adone! They have got Adone!" +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio sprang to his feet. +</p> +<p> + "Adone! Have you taken Adone Alba?" +</p> +<p> + "The ringleader! By Bacchus! Yes," cried the brigadier, with a laugh. + "He will get thirty years at the galleys. Your flock does you honour, + Reverendissimo!" +</p> +<p> + "Let me go to my flock," said Don Silverio; and some tone in his + voice, some gesture of his hand, had an authority in them which + compelled the carabineer to let him pass unopposed. +</p> +<p> + He went down the stone passage to the archway of the open door. A + soldier stood sentinel there. The street was crowded with armed men. + The air was full of clangour and clamour; above all rose the shrill + screams of the women. +</p> +<p> + "No one passes," said the sentinel, and he levelled the mouth of his + musket at Don Silverio's breast. +</p> +<p> + "I pass," said the priest, and with his bare hand he grasped the + barrel of the musket and forced it upward. +</p> +<p> + "I rule here, in the name of God," he said in a voice which rolled + down the street with majestic melody, dominating the screams, the + oaths, the hell of evil sound; and he went down the steps of his + house, and no man dared lay a hand on him. +</p> +<p> + He could hear the trampling of horses and the jingling of spears and + scabbards; some lancers who had beaten the moors that night were + coming up the street. Half a company of soldiers of the line, + escorted by carabineers, came in from the country, climbing the steep + street, driving before them a rabble of young men, disarmed, wounded, + lame, with their hands tied behind them, the remnant of those who had + met at the tomb of Asdrubal in the night just passed. They had been + surprised, seized, surrounded by a wall of steel; some had answered + to their leader's call and had defended themselves, but these had + been few; most of them had thrown down their weapons and begged for + mercy when the cold steel of the soldiers was at their throats. Adone + had fought as though the shade of Asdrubal had passed into him; but + his friends had failed him; his enemies had outnumbered him a score + to one; he had been overpowered, disarmed, bound, dragged through his + native heather backward and upward to Ruscino, reaching the shadow of + the walls as the sun rose. +</p> +<p> + The child lay dead by the stagnant pond, and the men she had led to + their death lay choked with the weeds and the slime; but of that he + knew naught. +</p> +<p> + All he knew was that his cause was lost, his life forfeit, his last + hope dead. +</p> +<p> + Only by his stature and his bearing could he be recognised. His + features were black from powder and gore; his right arm hung broken + by a shot; his clothing had been torn off him to his waist; he was + lame; but he alone still bore himself erect as he came on up the + village street. The others were huddled together in a fainting, + tottering, crazed mob; all were sick and swooning from the long + march, beaten when they paused by the buckles of belts and the flat + of sabres. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio saw that sight in front of his church, in the white, + clear light of early morning, and on the air there was a sickly + stench of sweat, of powder, of wounds, of dust. +</p> +<p> + He went straight to the side of Adone. +</p> +<p> + "My son, my son! I will come with you. They cannot refuse me that." +</p> +<p> + But the soul of Adone was as a pit in which a thousand devils strove + for mastery. There was no light in it, no conscience, no gratitude, + no remorse. +</p> +<p> + "Judas!" he cried aloud; and there was foam on his lips and there was + red blood in his eyes. "Judas! You betrayed us!" +</p> +<p> + Then, as a young bull lowers his horns, he bent his head and bit + through and through to the bone the wrist of the soldier who held + him; in terror and pain the man shrieked and let go his hold; Adone's + arms remained bound behind him, but his limbs, though they dripped + blood, were free. +</p> +<p> + He fronted the church, and that breach in the blocks of the Etruscan + wall through which Nerina had taken her path to the river a few hours + before. He knew every inch of the descent. Hundreds of times in his + boyhood had he run along the ruined wall and leaped in sport over the + huge stones, to spring with joyous shouts into the river below. +</p> +<p> + As the soldier with a scream of agony let go his hold, he broke away + like a young lion released from the den. Before they could seize him + he had sprung over the wall, and was tearing down the slope; the + linesmen, rushing in swift pursuit behind him, stumbled, rolled down + the slippery grass, fell over the blocks of granite. He, sure of + foot, knowing the way from childhood, ran down the hill safely, + though blood poured from his wounds and blinded his sight, and a + sickness like the swooning of death dulled his brain. Beyond him and + below him was the river. He dashed into it like a hunted beast + swimming to sanctuary; he ran along in it, with its brightness and + coolness rippling against his parched throat. He stooped and kissed + it for the last time. +</p> +<p> + "Take me! — save me! — comrade, brother, friend!" he cried aloud to + it with his last breath of life; and he plunged where it was deepest. +</p> +<p> + Then the sky grew dark, and only the sound of the water was heard in + his ears. By the bridge its depth was great, and the current was + strong under the shade of the ruined keep. It swept his body onward + to the sea. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0021"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XXI +</h2> +<p> + It was the beginning of winter when Don Silverio Frascara, having + been put upon his trial and no evidence of any sort having been + adduced against him, was declared innocent and set free, no + compensation or apology being offered to him. +</p> +<p> + "Were it only military law it had been easy enough to find him + guilty," said Senator Giovacchino Gallo to the Syndic of San Beda, + and the Count Corradini warmly agreed with his Excellency that for + the sake of law, order, and public peace it would be well could the + military tribunals be always substituted for the civil; but alas! the + monarchy was not yet absolute! +</p> +<p> + He had been detained many weeks and months at the city by the sea, + where the trial of the young men of the Valdedera had been held with + all the prolonged, tedious, and cruel delays common to the national + laws. Great efforts had been made to implicate him in the criminal + charges; but it had been found impossible to verify such suspicions; + every witness by others, and every action of his own, proved the + wisdom, the purity, and the excellence in counsel and example of his + whole life at Ruscino. The unhappy youths who had been taken with + arms in their hands were condemned for overt rebellion and conspiracy + against authority, and were sentenced, some to four, some to seven, + some to ten, and, a few who were considered the ringleaders, to + twenty-five years of cellular confinement. But against Don Silverio + it was found impossible even to make out the semblance of an + accusation, the testimony event of those hostile to him being + irresistibly in his favour in all ways. He had done his utmost to + defend the poor peasantry who had been misled by Adone to their own + undoing, and he had defended also the motives and the character of + the dead with an eloquence which moved to tears the public who heard + him, and touched even the hearts of stone of president and advocates; + and he had done this at his own imminent risk; for men of law can + never be brought to understand that comprehension is not collusion, + or that pity is not fellowship. +</p> +<p> + But all his efforts failed to save the young men from the utmost + rigour of the law. The judge, agreeing with the State prosecutor, + declared that the most severe example was necessary to check once for + all by its terrors the tendency of the common people to resist the + State and its public works and decrees. Useful and patriotic + enterprises must not be impeded or wrecked because ignorance was + opposed to progress: thus said the King's advocate in an impassioned + oration which gained for him eventually emolument and preferment. The + rustics were sent in a body to the penitentiaries; and Don Silverio + was permitted to go home. +</p> +<p> + Cold northern blasts blew from the upper Apennines, and piled the + snows upon the grey and yellow rocks of the Abruzzo heights, as he + crossed the valley of the Edera towards Ruscino. It seemed to him as + though a century had passed since he had left it. In the icy wind + which blew form the hills he shivered, for he had only one poor, thin + coat to cover him. His strength, naturally great, had given way under + the mental and physical sufferings of the last six months, although + no word of lament had ever escaped him. Like all generous natures he + rebuked himself for the sins of others. Incessantly he asked himself + — might he not have saved Adone? +</p> +<p> + As he came to the turn in the road which brought him within sight of + the river, he sat down on a stone and covered his eyes with his + hands. +</p> +<p> + The sacristan had come to meet him, bringing the little dog, grown + thin, and sad, and old with sorrow. +</p> +<p> + "I did all I could for him, but he would not be consoled," murmured + the old man. +</p> +<p> + From the point which they had reached the course of the Edera, and + the lands of the Terra Vergine, were visible. With an effort, like + one who forces his will to look on a dead face, he uncovered his eyes + and looked downward. The olive-trees were still standing; where the + house had stood there was a black, charred, roofless shell; the + untilled fields lay bare beneath the frost. +</p> +<p> + "Reverend sir," said the old man below his breath, "when Clelia Alba + knew that Adone was drowned she set fire to the house, and so + perished. They say she had promised her son." +</p> +<p> + The wind from the north swept across the valley and drove the river + in yellow foam and black eddies through the dead sedges. Above + Ruscino the acacia thickets had been cut down, the herbage was + crushed under timber and iron and stone, the heather was trampled and + hacked, the sand and gravel were piled in heaps, the naked soil + yawned in places like fresh-dug graves; along the southern bank were + laid the metals of a light railway; on the lines of it were some + trucks filled with bricks; the wooden huts of the workmen covered a + dreary, dusty space; the water was still flowing, but on all the + scene were the soil, the disorder, the destruction, the vulgar + meanness and disfigurement which accompany modern labour, and affront + like a coarse bruise the gracious face of Nature. +</p> +<p> + "There have been three hundred men from the Puglie at work," said the + sacristan. "They have stopped awhile now on account of the frost, but + as soon as the weather opens —" +</p> +<p> + "Enough, enough!" murmured Don Silverio; and he rose, and holding the + little dog in his arms, went on down the familiar road. +</p> +<p> + "His body has never been found?" he asked under his breath. +</p> +<p> + The old man shook his head. +</p> +<p> + "Nay, sir; what Edera takes it keeps. He dropped where he knew it was + deepest." +</p> +<p> + As the vicar returned up the village street there was not a soul to + give him greeting except old Gianna, who kneeled weeping at his feet. + The people poured out of their doorways, but they said not a word of + welcome. The memory of Adone was an idolatry with them, and Adone had + said that their priest had betrayed them. One woman threw a stone at + Signorino. Don Silverio covered the little dog, and received the blow + on his own arm. +</p> +<p> + "For twenty years I have had no thought but to serve these, my + people!" he thought; but he neither rebuked nor reproached them. +</p> +<p> + The women as he passed them hissed at him; "Judas! Judas!" +</p> +<p> + One man alone said: "Nay, 'tis a shame. Have you forgot what he did + in the cholera? 'Tis long ago, but still —" +</p> +<p> + But the women said: "He betrayed the poor lads. He brought the + soldiers. He sold the water." +</p> +<p> + Under that outrage, his manhood and his dignity revived. +</p> +<p> + He drew his tall form erect, and passed through the reviling crowd, + and gave them his blessing as he passed. +</p> +<p> + Then he went within his church; and remained there alone. +</p> +<p> + "He is gone to pray for the soul of Adone," said the sacristan. +</p> +<p> + When he came out of the church and entered his house, the street was + empty; the people were afraid of what they had done and of their own + ingratitude. He crossed the threshold of the presbytery. The sere + vine veiled his study casement; in the silence he could hear the + sound of the Edera water; he sat down at his familiar table, with the + dog upon his knees. His eyes were wet, and his heart was sick; his + courage was broken. +</p> +<p> + "How shall I bear my life here?" he thought. All which had made it of + value and lightened its solitude was gone. Even his people had turned + against him; suspicious, thankless, hostile. +</p> +<p> + The old sacristan, standing doubtful and timid at the entrance of the + chamber, drew near and reverently touched his arm. +</p> +<p> + "Sir — here is a letter — it came three days ago." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio stretched out his hand over the little dog's head, and + took it. +</p> +<p> + He changed colour as he saw its seal and superscription. +</p> +<p> + Rome had at last remembered him, and awakened to his value. +</p> +<p> + At the latest Consistory he had been nominated to the Cardinalate. +</p> +<center> + <b>THE END.</b> +</center> +<p> +<b>NOTE</b> +</p> +<p> + As it may appear strange to the English reader that the Porpora + Romana should be given to a village priest, I may here say that, to + my knowledge, a country vicar was himself sweeping out his rural + church when he was informed of his nomination as Cardinal, and M. S. + de Mérode was only deacon when raised to that elevation. +</p> + + +<div style="height: 6em;"><br><br><br><br><br><br></div> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13459 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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Ouida + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Waters of Edera + +Author: Louise de la Ramée, a.k.a. Ouida + +Release Date: September 15, 2004 [EBook #13459] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WATERS OF EDERA *** + + + + +This eBook was prepared by Carol Poster. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div style="height: 8em;"><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h1> + THE<br> + WATERS OF EDERA +</h1> +<h1> + BY<br> + O U I D A +</h1> +<center> + Author of<br> + "Moths," "Under Two Flags," "The Silver Christ," Etc.<br><br> + London<br> + T. FISHER UNWIN<br> + Paternoster Square<br> + 1900 +</center> + + + + +<hr> +<a name="2H_4_0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + THE WATERS OF EDERA +</h2> +<h2> + I +</h2> +<p> + It was a country of wide pastures, of moors covered with heath, of + rock-born streams and rivulets, of forest and hill and dale, sparsely + inhabited, with the sea to the eastward of it, unseen, and the + mountains everywhere visible always, and endlessly changing in + aspect. +</p> +<p> + Herdsmen and shepherds wandered over it, and along its almost disused + roads pedlars and pack mules passed at times but rarely. Minerals and + marbles were under its turf, but none sought for them; pools and + lakes slept in it, undisturbed save by millions of water fowl and + their pursuers. The ruins of temples and palaces were overgrown by + its wild berries and wild flowers. The buffalo browsed where emperors + had feasted, and the bittern winged its slow flight over the fields + of forgotten battles. +</p> +<p> + It was the season when the flocks are brought through this lonely + land, coming from the plains to the hills. Many of them passed on + their way thus along the course of the Edera water. The shepherds, + clothed in goatskin, with the hair worn outward, bearded, brown, + hirsute men, looking like savage satyrs, the flocks they drove before + them travel-worn, lame, heart-broken, the lambs and kids bleating + painfully. They cannot keep up with the pace of the flock, and, when + they fall behind, the shepherds slit their throats, roast their + bodies over an evening fire, or bake them under its ashes, and eat + them; if a town or village be near, the little corpses are sold in + it. Often a sheep dog or a puppy drops down in the same way, footsore + and worn out; then the shepherds do not tarry, but leave the + creatures to their fate, to die slowly of thirst and hunger. +</p> +<p> + The good shepherd is a false phrase. No one is more brutal than a + shepherd. If he were not so he could not bear his life for a day. +</p> +<p> + All that he does is brutal. He stones the flock where it would tarry + against his will. He mutilates the males, and drags the females away + from their sucking babes. He shears their fleeces every spring, + unheeding how the raw skin drops blood. He drives the halting, + footsore, crippled animals on by force over flint and slate and + parching dust. Sometimes he makes them travel twenty miles a day. +</p> +<p> + For his pastime he sets the finest of his beasts to fight. This is + the feast day and holiday sport of all the shepherds; and they bet on + it, until all they have, which is but little, goes on the heads of + the rams; and one will wager his breeches, and another his skin + jacket, and another his comely wife, and the ram which is beaten, if + he have any life left in him, will be stabbed in the throat by his + owner: for he is considered to have disgraced the <i>branca</i>. +</p> +<p> + This Sunday and Saints' day sport was going on a piece of grass land + in the district known as the Vale of Edera. +</p> +<p> + On the turf, cleared of its heaths and ferns, there was a ring of + men, three of them shepherds, the rest peasants. In the midst of them + were the rams, two chosen beasts pitted against each other like two + pugilists. They advanced slowly at first, then more quickly, and yet + more quickly, till they met with a crash, their two foreheads, hard + as though carven in stone, coming in collision with a terrible force; + then each, staggered by the encounter, drew back, dizzy and bruised, + to recoil, and take breath, and gather fresh force, and so charge one + on the other in successive rounds until the weaker should succumb, + and, mangled and senseless, should arise no more. +</p> +<p> + One of the rams was old, and one was young; some of the shepherds + said that the old one was more wary and more experienced, and would + have the advantage; in strength and height they were nearly equal, + but the old one had been in such duels before and the young one + never. The young one thought he had but to rush in, head downward, to + conquer; the old one knew that this was not enough to secure victory. + The young one was blind with ardour and impatience for the fray; the + old one was cool and shrewd and could parry and wait. +</p> +<p> + After three rounds, the two combatants met in a final shock; the + elder ram butted furiously, the younger staggered and failed to + return the blow, his frontal bone was split, and he fell to the + ground; the elder struck him once, twice, thrice, amidst the + uproarious applause of his backers; a stream of blood poured from his + skull, which was pounded to splinters; a terrible convulsion shook + his body and his limbs; he stretched his tongue out as if he tried to + lap water; the men who had their money on him cursed him with every + curse they knew; they did not cut his throat, for they knew he was as + good as dead. +</p> +<p> + "This is a vile thing you have done," said a little beggar girl who + had been passing, and had been arrested by the horrible fascination + of the combat, and forced against her will to stand and watch its + issue. The shepherds jeered; those who had backed the victor were + sponging his wounds beside a runlet of water which was close at hand; + those who had lost were flinging stones on the vanquished. The girl + knelt down by the dying ram to save him from the shower of stones; + she lifted his head gently upward, and tried to pour water through + his jaws from a little wooden cup which she had on her, and which she + had filled at the river. But he could not swallow; his beautiful + opaline eyes were covered with film, he gasped painfully, a foam of + blood on his lips and a stream of blood coursing down his face; a + quiver passed over him again; then his head rested lifeless on his + knees. She touched his shattered horns, his clotted wool, tenderly. +</p> +<p> + "Why did you set him to fight?" she said with an indignation which + choked her voice. "It was vile. He was younger than the other, and + knew less." +</p> +<p> + Those who had won laughed. Those who had lost cursed him again; he + had disgraced his <i>branca</i>. They would flay him, and put him in the + cauldron over the wood fire, and would curse him even whilst they + picked his bones for a white-livered spawn of cowards; a son of a + thrice-damned ewe. +</p> +<p> + The girl knew that was what they do. She laid his battered head + gently down upon the turf, and poured the water out of her cup; her + eyes were blind with tears; she could not give him back his young + life, his zest in his pastoral pleasures, his joy in cropping the + herbage, his rude loves, his merry gambols, his sound sleep, his + odorous breath. +</p> +<p> + He had died to amuse and excite the ugly passions of men, as, if he + had lived longer, he would, in the end, have died to satisfy their + ugly appetites. +</p> +<p> + She looked at his corpse with compassion, the tears standing in her + eyes; then she turned away, and as she went saw that her poor ragged + clothes were splashed here and there with blood, and that her arms + and hands were red with blood: she had not thought of that before; + she had thought only of him. The shepherds did not notice her; they + were quarrelling violently in dispute over what had been lost and + won, thrusting their fingers in each other's faces, and defiling the + fair calm of the day with filthy oaths. +</p> +<p> + The girl shrank away into the heather with the silent swiftness of a + hare; now that she had lost the stimulus of indignant pity she was + afraid of these brutes; if the whim entered into them they would be + as brutal to her as to their flock. +</p> +<p> + Out of fear of them she did not descend at once to the river, but + pushed her way through the sweet-smelling, bee-haunted, cross-leaved + heaths; she could hear the sound of the water on her right all the + time as she went. She knew little of this country, but she had seen + the Edera, and had crossed it farther up its course on one of its + rough tree-bridges. +</p> +<p> + When, as well as she could judge, she had got half a mile away from + the scene of the rams' combat, she changed her course and went to the + right, directed by the murmur of the river. It was slow walking + through the heath and gorse which grew above her head, and were + closely woven together, but in time she reached shelving ground, and + heard the song of the river louder on her ear. The heath ceased to + grow within a few yards of the stream and was replaced by various + water plants and acacia thickets; she slid down the banks between the + stems and alighted on her bare feet where the sand was soft and the + water-dock grew thick. She looked up and down the water; there was no + one in sight, nothing but the banks rosehued with the bloom of the + heather, and, beyond the opposite shore, in the distance, the tender + amethystine hues of the mountains. The water was generally low, + leaving the stretches of sand and of shingle visible, but it was + still deep in many parts. +</p> +<p> + She stripped herself and went down into it, and washed the blood + which had by this time caked upon her flesh. It seemed a pity, she + thought, to sully with that dusky stain this pure, bright, shining + stream; but she had no other way to rid herself of it, and she had in + all the world no other clothes than these poor woollen rags. +</p> +<p> + Her heart was still sore for the fate of the conquered ram; and her + eyes filled again with tears as she washed his blood off her in the + gay running current. But the water was soothing and fresh, the sun + shone on its bright surface; the comfrey and fig-wart blew in the + breeze, the heather smell filled the atmosphere. +</p> +<p> + She was only a child, and her spirits rose, and she capered about in + the shallows, and flung the water over her head, and danced to her + own reflection in it, and forgot her sorrow. Then she washed her + petticoats as well as she could, having nothing but water alone, and + all the while she was as naked as a Naiad, and the sun smiled on her + brown, thin, childish body as it smiled on a stem of plaintain or on + the plumage of a coot. +</p> +<p> + Then when she had washed her skirt she spread it out on the sand to + dry, and sat down beside it, for the heat to bake her limbs after her + long bath. There was no one, and there was nothing, in sight; if any + came near she could hide under the great dock leaves until such + should have passed. It was high noon, and the skirt of wool and the + skirt of hemp grew hot and steamed under the vertical rays; she was + soon as dry as the shingles from which the water had receded for + months. She sat with her hands clasped round her updrawn knees, and + her head grew heavy with the want of slumber, but she would not + sleep, though it was the hour of sleep. Some one might pass by and + steal her clothes, she thought, and how or when would she ever get + others? +</p> +<p> + When the skirt was quite dried, the blood stains still showed on it; + they were no longer red, but looked like the marks from the sand. She + tied it on round her waist and her shirt over it, and wound an old + crimson sash round both. Then she took up her little bundle in which + were the wooden cup and a broken comb, and some pieces of hempen + cloth and a small loaf of maize bread, and went on along the water, + wading and hopping in it, as the water-wagtails did, jumping from + stone to stone, and sometimes sinking up to her knees in a hole. +</p> +<p> + She had no idea where she would rest at night, or where she would get + anything to eat; but that reflection scarcely weighed on her; she + slept well enough under stacks or in outhouses, and she was used to + hunger. So long as no one meddled with her she was content. The + weather was fine and the country was quiet. Only she was sorry for + the dead ram. By this time they would have hung him up by his heels + to a tree, and have pulled the skin off his body. +</p> +<p> + She was sorry; but she jumped along merrily in the water, as a + kingfisher does, and scarcely even wondered where its course would + lead her. +</p> +<p> + At a bend in it she came to a spot where a young man was seated + amongst the bulrushes, watching his fishing net. +</p> +<p> + "Aie!" she cried with a shrill cry of alarm, like a bird who sees a + fowler. She stopped short in her progress; the water at that moment + was up to her knees. With both hands she held up her petticoat to save + it from another wetting; her little bundle was balanced on her head, + the light shone in her great brown eyes. The youth turned and saw + her. +</p> +<p> + She was a very young girl, thirteen at most; her small flat breasts + were those of a child, her narrow shoulders and her narrow loin spoke + of scanty food and privation of all kinds, and her arms and legs were + brown from the play of the sun on their nakedness; they were little + else than skin and bone, nerves and sinew, and looked like stakes of + wood. All the veins and muscles stood revealed as in anatomy, and her + face, which would have been a child's face, a nymph's face, with + level brows, a pure straight profile, and small close ears like + shells, was so fleshless and sunburnt that she looked almost like a + mummy. Her eyes had in them the surprise and sadness of those of a + weaning calf; and her hair, too abundant for such a small head, + would, had it not been so dusty and entangled, have been of a red + golden bronze, the hue of a chestnut which has just burst open its + green husk. +</p> +<p> + "Who are you?" said the young man, looking at her in surprise. +</p> +<p> + "I am Nerina," answered the child. +</p> +<p> + "Where do you come from? What is your country?" +</p> +<p> + She pointed vaguely to the south-west mountains, where the snow on + the upper ranges was still lying with bands of cloud resting on it. +</p> +<p> + "From the Abruzzo?" +</p> +<p> + She was silent. She did not know the mountains of her birthplace by + their names. +</p> +<p> + "Who was your father?" he asked, with some impatience. +</p> +<p> + "He was Black Fausto." +</p> +<p> + "What did he do for a living?" +</p> +<p> + "He went down with the fair season to the Roman plain." +</p> +<p> + He understood: the man had no doubt been a labourer, one of those who + descend in bands from the villages of the Abruzzo heights to plough, + and mow, and sow, and reap, on the lands of the Castelli Romani; men + who work in droves, and are fed and stalled in droves, as cattle are, + who work all through the longest and hottest days in summer, and in + the worst storms of winter; men who are black by the sun, are half + naked, are lean and hairy and drip with continual sweat, but who take + faithfully back the small wage they receive to where their women and + children dwell in their mountain-villages. +</p> +<p> + "He went, you say? Is he ill? Does he work no longer?" +</p> +<p> + "He died last year." +</p> +<p> + "Of what?" +</p> +<p> + She gave a hopeless gesture. "Who knows? He came back with a wolf in + his belly, he said, always gnawing and griping, and he drank water + all day and all night, and his face burned, and his legs were cold, + and all of a sudden his jaw fell, and he spoke no more to us. There + are many of them who die like that after a hot season down in the + plains." +</p> +<p> + He understood; hunger and heat, foul air in their sleeping places, + infusoria in the ditch and rain water, and excessive toil in the + extremes of heat and cold, make gaps in the ranks of these hired + bands every year as if a cannon had been fired into them. +</p> +<p> + "Who takes care of you now?" he asked with pity, as for a homeless + bitch. +</p> +<p> + "Nobody. There is nobody. They are all gone down into the earth." +</p> +<p> + "But how do you live?" +</p> +<p> + "I work when I can. I beg when I cannot. People let me sleep in the + stalls, or the barns, and give me bread." +</p> +<p> + "That is a bad life for a girl." +</p> +<p> + She shrugged her shoulders. +</p> +<p> + "I did not make it." +</p> +<p> + "And where are you going?" +</p> +<p> + She opened her arms wide and swept the air with them. +</p> +<p> + "Anywhere. Along the water, until I find something to do." +</p> +<p> + "I cannot do much," she added, after a pause. "I am little, and no + one has taught me. But I can cut grass and card wool." +</p> +<p> + "The grass season is short, and the wool season is far off. Why did + you not stay in your village?" +</p> +<p> + She was mute. She did not know why she had left it, she had come away + down the mountainside on a wandering instinct, with a vague idea of + finding something better the farther she went: her father had always + come back with silver pieces in his pocket after his stay down there + in those lands which she had never seen, lying as they did down far + below under the golden haze of what seemed an immeasurable distance. +</p> +<p> + "Are you not hungry?" said the fisher. +</p> +<p> + "I am always hungry," she said, with some astonishment at so simple a + question. "I have been hungry ever since I can remember. We all were + up there. Sometimes even the grass was too dried up to eat. Father + used to bring home with him a sack of maize; it was better so long as + that lasted." +</p> +<p> + "Are you hungry now?" +</p> +<p> + "Of course." +</p> +<p> + "Come to my house with me. We will feed you. Come. Have no fear. I am + Adone Alba, of the Terra Vergine, and my mother is a kind woman. She + will not grudge you a meal." +</p> +<p> + The child laughed all over her thin, brown face. +</p> +<p> + "That will be good," she said, and leapt up out of the water. +</p> +<p> + "Poor soul! Poor soul!" thought the young man, with a profound sense + of pity. +</p> +<p> + As the child sprang up out of the river, shaking the water off her as + a little terrier does, he saw that she must have been in great want + of food for a long time; her bones were almost through her skin. He + set his fishing pole more firmly in the ground, and left the net sunk + some half a yard below the surface; then he said to the little girl: +</p> +<p> + "Come, come and break your fast. It has lasted long, I fear." +</p> +<p> + Nerina only understood that she was to be fed; that was enough for + her. She trotted like a stray cur, beckoned by a benevolent hand, + behind him as he went, first through some heather and broom, then + over some grass, where huge olive trees grew, and then through corn + and vine lands, to an old farmhouse, made of timber and stone; large, + long, solid; built to resist robbers in days when robbers came in + armed gangs. There was a wild garden in front of it, full of cabbage + roses, lavender, myrtle, stocks and wallflowers. Over the arched door + a four-season rose-tree clambered. +</p> +<p> + The house, ancient and spacious, with its high-pitched roof of ruddy + tiles, impressed Nerina with a sense of awe, almost of terror. She + remained hesitating on the garden path, where white and red stocks + were blossoming. +</p> +<p> + "Mother," said Adone, "here is a hungry child. Give her, in your + kindness, some broth and bread." +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba came out into the entrance, and saw the little girl with + some displeasure. She was kind and charitable, but she did not love + beggars and vagabonds, and this half-naked female tatterdemalion + offended her sense of decency and probity, and her pride of sex. She + was herself a stately and handsome woman. +</p> +<p> + "The child is famished," said Adone, seeing his mother's displeasure. +</p> +<p> + "She shall eat then, but let her eat outside," said Clelia Alba, and + went back into the kitchen. +</p> +<p> + Nerina waited by the threshold, timid and mute and humble, like a + lost dog; her eyes alone expressed overwhelming emotions: fear and + hope and one ungovernable appetite, hunger. +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba came out in a few minutes with a bowl of hot broth made + of herbs, and a large piece of maize-flour bread. +</p> +<p> + "Take them," she said to her son. +</p> +<p> + Adone took them from her, and gave them to the child. +</p> +<p> + "Sit and eat here," he said, pointing to a stone settle by the wall + under the rose of four seasons. +</p> +<p> + The hands of Nerina trembled with excitement, her eyes looked on + fire, her lips shook, her breath came feverishly and fast. The smell + of the soup made her feel beside herself. She said nothing, but + seized the food and began to drink the good herb-broth with thirsty + eagerness though the steam of it scorched her. +</p> +<p> + Adone, with an instinct of compassion and delicacy, left her + unwatched and went within. +</p> +<p> + "Where did you find that scarecrow?" asked his mother. +</p> +<p> + "Down by the river. She has nobody and nothing. She comes from the + mountains." +</p> +<p> + "There are poor folks enough in Ruscino without adding to them from + without," said Clelia Alba impatiently. "Mind she does not rob the + fowl-house before she slips sway." +</p> +<p> + "She has honest eyes," said Adone. "I am sure she will do us no + harm." +</p> +<p> + When he thought that she had been given time enough to finish her + food he went out; the child was stretched at full length on the stone + seat, and was already sound asleep, lying on her back; the empty bowl + was on the ground, of the bread there was no longer a crumb; she was + sleeping peacefully, profoundly, her thin hands crossed on her naked + brown bosom, on which some rose leaves had fallen from the rose on + the wall above. +</p> +<p> + He looked at her in silence for a little while, then returned to his + mother. +</p> +<p> + "She is tired. She sleeps. Let her rest." +</p> +<p> + "It is unsafe." +</p> +<p> + "How unsafe, mother? She is only a child." +</p> +<p> + "She may have men behind her." +</p> +<p> + "It is not likely." +</p> +<p> + Adone could not say (for he had no idea himself) why he felt sure + that this miserable little waif would not abuse hospitality: "She is + a child," he answered rather stupidly, for children are often + treacherous and wicked, and he knew nothing of this one except what + she had chosen to tell of herself. +</p> +<p> + "She may have men behind her," repeated his mother. +</p> +<p> + "Such men as you are thinking of, mother, do not come to this valley + nowadays. Ulisse Ferrero was the last of them. Indeed, I think this + poor little creature is all alone in the world. Go and look at her. + You will see how forlorn and small she is." +</p> +<p> + She went to the doorway and looked at the sleeping beggar; her eyes + softened as she gazed, the whole attitude and appearance of the child + were so miserable and so innocent, so helpless, and yet so tranquil, + that her maternal heart was touched; the waif slept on the stone + bench beside the door of strangers as though she were in some safe + and happy home. +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba looked down on her a few moments, then took the kerchief + off her hair, and laid it gently, without awakening the sleeper, over + the breast and the face of the child, on which flies were settling + and the sun was shining. +</p> +<p> + Then she picked up the empty earthenware bowl, and went indoors + again. +</p> +<p> + "I will go back to the river," said Adone. "I have left the net + there." +</p> +<p> + His mother nodded assent. +</p> +<p> + "You will not send this little foreigner away till I return?" he + asked. Every one was a foreigner who had not been born in the vale of + Edera. +</p> +<p> + "No; not till you return." +</p> +<p> + He went away through the sunshine and shadow of the olive-trees. He + knew that his mother never broke her word. But she thought as she + washed the bowl: "A little stray mongrel bitch like that may bite + badly some day. She must go. She is nothing now; but by and by she + may bite." +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba knew human nature, though she had never been out of sight + of the river Edera. She took her spinning-wheel and sat down by the + door. There was nothing urgent to do, and she could from the + threshold keep a watch on the little vagabond, and would be aware if + she awoke. All around was quiet. She could see up and down the + valley, beyond the thin, silvery foliage of the great olive-trees, + and across it to where the ruins of a great fortress towered in their + tragic helplessness. The sun shone upon her fields of young wheat, + her slopes of pasture. The cherry-trees and the pear-trees were in + bloom, her trellised vines running from tree to tree. Ragged-robin, + yellow crowsfoot, purple orchis, filled the grass, intermixed with + the blue of borage and the white and gold of the oxeye. She did not + note these things. Those fancies were for her son. Herself, she would + have preferred that there should be no flower in the grasses, for + before the cow was fed the flowers had to be picked out of the cut + grass, and had served no good end that she could perceive, for she + knew of no bees except the wild ones, whose honey no one ever tasted, + hidden from sight in hollow trees as it was. +</p> +<p> + Nerina slept on in peace and without dreams. Now and then another + rose let fall some petals on her, or a bee buzzed above her, but her + repose remained undisturbed. +</p> +<p> + The good food filled her, even in her sleep, with deep contentment, + and the brain, well nourished by the blood, was still. +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba felt her heart soften despite herself for this lonely + creature; though she was always suspicious of her, for she had never + known any good thing come down from the high mountains, but only + theft and arson and murder, and men banded together to solace their + poverty with crime. In her youth the great brigands of the Upper + Abruzzo had been names of terror in Ruscino, and in the hamlets lying + along the course of the Edera, and many a time a letter written in + blood had been fastened with a dagger to the door of church or + cottage, intimating the will of the unseen chief to the subjugated + population. Of late years less had been heard and seen of such men; + but they or their like were still heard and felt sometimes, up above + in lonely forests, or down where the moorland and macchia met, and + the water of Edera ran deep and lonely. In her girlhood, a father, a + son, and a grandson had been all killed on a lonely part of the + higher valley because they had dared to occupy a farm and a + water-mill after one of these hillmen had laid down the law that no + one was to live on the land or to set the waterwheel moving. +</p> +<p> + That had been a good way off, indeed, and for many a year the Edera + had not seen the masked men, with their belts, crammed with arms and + gold, round their loins; but still, one never knew, she thought; + unbidden guests were oftener devils than angels. +</p> +<p> + And it seemed to her that the child could not really be asleep all + this time in a strange place and the open air. At last she got up, + went again to the bench and drew her handkerchief aside, and looked + down on the sleeper; on the thin, narrow chest, the small, bony + hands, the tiny virginal nipples like wood strawberries. +</p> +<p> + She saw that the slumber was real, the girl very young and more than + half-starved. "Let her forget while she can," she thought, and + covered her face again. "It is still early in the day." +</p> +<p> + The bees hummed on; a low wind swept over a full-blown rose and shook + its loose leaves to the ground. The shadow from the ruined tower + began to touch the field which lay nearest the river, a sign that it + was two hours after noon. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + II +</h2> +<p> + The large square fresh-water fishing-net had sunk under the surface, + the canes which framed it were out of sight; only the great central + pole, which sustained the whole, and was planted in the ground of the + river-bank, remained visible as it bent and swayed but did not yield + or break. Such nets as this had been washed by the clear green waters + of the pools and torrents of the Edera ever since the days of + Etruscan gods and Latin augurs; religions had changed, but the river, + and the ways of the men of the river, had not altered. +</p> +<p> + Adone did not touch it, for it was well where it was; he seated + himself on the bank ready to seize and hold it if its pole showed any + sign of yielding and giving way and heeling over into the stream. He + sat thus amongst the bulrushes for many an hour, on many a spring day + and summer night. Although fish were not numerous he never tired of + his vigil, lulled by the sound of the current as it splashed among + the stones and rippled through the rushes; a deeper music coming from + its higher reaches, where it fell over a ledge of rock and leapt like + a live thing into the air. And, indeed, what thing could be more + living than this fresh, pure, untroubled water, glad as a child, + swift as a swallow, singing for sport, as a happy boy sings, as it + ran down on its way from the hills? +</p> +<p> + To the young man sitting now on its bank amidst the bulrushes it was + as living as himself, his playmate, friend, and master, all in one. + First of all things which he could remember were the brightness and + the coolness of it as it had laved his limbs in his childhood on + mid-summer noons, his mother's hands holding him safely as he waded + with rosy feet and uncertain steps along its pebbly bottom! How many + mornings, when he had grown to boyhood and to manhood, had he escaped + from the rays of the vertical sun into its acacia-shadowed pools; how + many moonlit, balmy nights had he bathed in its still reaches, the + liquid silver of its surface breaking up like molten metal as he + dived! How many hours of peace had he passed, as he was spending + this, waiting for the fish to float into his great net, whilst the + air and the water were alike so still that he could hear the little + voles stealing in and out amongst the reeds, and the water-thrush + pushing the pebbles on its sands in search for insects, though beast + and bird were both unseen by him! How many a time upon the dawn of a + holy-day had he washed and swam in its waters whilst the bells of the + old church in the village above had tolled in the softness of dusk! +</p> +<p> + He thought of none of these memories distinctly, for he was young and + contented, and those who are satisfied with their lot live in their + present; but they all drifted vaguely through his mind as he sat by + the side of the river, as the memories of friends dear from infancy + drift through our waking dreams. +</p> +<p> + He was in every way a son of the Edera, for he had been born almost + in the water itself; his mother had been washing linen with other + women at the ford when she had been taken with the pains of labour + two months before her time. Her companions had had no time or thought + to do more than to stretch her on the wet sand, with some hempen + sheets, which had not yet been thrown in the water, between her and + the ground; and the cries of her in her travail had echoed over the + stream and had startled the kingfishers in the osiers, and the wild + ducks in the marshes, and the tawny owls asleep in the belfry tower + of the village. But her pains had been brief though sharp, and her + son had first seen the light beside the water; a strong and healthy + child, none the worse for his too early advent, and the rough + river-women had dipped him in the shallows, where their linen and + their wooden beaters were, and had wrapped him up in a soiled woollen + shirt, and had laid him down with his face on his mother's young + breast, opening his shut unconscious mouth with their rough fingers, + and crying in his deaf ear, "Suck! and grow to be a man!" +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba was now a woman of forty-one years old, and he, her only + son, was twenty-four; they had named him Adone; the beautiful Greek + Adonais having passed into the number of the saints of the Latin + Church, by a transition so frequent in hagiology that its strangeness + is not remembered save by a scholar here and there. When he had been + born she had been a young creature of seventeen, with the wild grace + of a forest doe; with that nobility of beauty, that purity of + outline, and that harmony of structure, which still exist in those + Italians in whom the pure Italiote blood is undefiled by Jew or + Gentile. Now her abundant hair was white, and her features were + bronzed and lined by open-air work, and her hands of beautiful shape + were hard as horn through working in the fields. She looked an old + woman, and was thought so by others, and thought herself so: for + youth is soon over in these parts, and there is no half-way house + between youth and age for the peasant. +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba, moreover, had lost her youth earlier even than others: + lost it for ever when her husband at five-and-twenty years of age had + been killed by falling from an olive-tree of which the branch + sustaining him had cracked and broken under his weight. His neck had + been broken in the fall. She had been dancing and shouting with her + two-year-old child on the grassland not far off, romping and playing + ball with some dropped chestnuts; and when their play was over she + had lifted her boy on to her shoulder and run with him to find his + father. Under one of the great, gnarled, wide-spreading olives she + had seen him, lying asleep as she thought. +</p> +<p> + "Oh, lazy one, awake! The sun is only two hours old!" she had cried + merrily, and the child on her shoulder had cooed and shouted in + imitation, "Wake—wake—wake!" and she, laughing, had cast a chestnut + she had carried in her hand upon the motionless figure. Then, as the + prostrate form did not stir, a sudden terror had seized her, and she + had set the baby down upon the grass and run to the olive-tree. There + she had seen that this was death, for when she had raised him his + head had dropped, and seemed to hang like a poppy broken in a blast + of wind, and his eyes had no sight, and his mouth had no breath. +</p> +<p> + From that dread hour Clelia Alba had never laughed again. Her hair + grew white, and her youth went away from her for ever. +</p> +<p> + She lived for the sake of her son, but she and joy had parted company + for ever. +</p> +<p> + His death had made her sole ruler of the Terra Vergine; she had both + the knowledge and the strength necessary for culture of the land, and + she taught her boy to value and respect the soil. +</p> +<p> + "As you treat the ground ill or well, so will your ground treat you," + she said to him. +</p> + +<p> + She always wore the costume of the province, which was similar to + that of the Abruzzo villages, and suited her cast of features and her + strong and haughty carriage. On feast-days she wore three strings of + fine pearls round her throat, and bracelets of massive gold and of + fine workmanship, so many in number that her arms were stiff with + them; they had been her mother's and grandmother's and + great-grandmother's, and had been in her dower. To sell or pawn them + under stress of need, had such occurred, would never have seemed to + any of her race to be possible. It would have seemed as sacrilegious + as to take the chalice off the church altar, and melt its silver and + jewels in the fire. When she should go to her grave these ornaments + would pass to Adone as heirlooms; none of her family were living. +</> +<p> + "Never talk of death, mother," he said, whenever she spoke of these + things. "Death is always listening; and if he hear his name he taps + the talker on the shoulder, just to show that he is there and must be + reckoned with." +</p> +<p> + "Not so, my son!" replied Clelia Alba, with a sigh. "He has every + soul of us written down in his books from the time we are born; we + all have our hour to go and none of us can alter it." +</p> +<p> + "I do not believe that," said Adone. "We kill ourselves oftentimes; + or we hasten our end, as drunkards do." +</p> +<p> + "Did your father hasten his end?" said his mother. "Did not some one + break that olive branch? It was not the tree itself, though the + Ruscino folks would have it cut down because they called it a felon." +</p> +<p> + "Was it not the devil?" said Adone. +</p> +<p> + He believed in the devil, of course, as he had been taught to do; and + had he not as a child met the infernal effigy everywhere—in marble, + in stone, in wood, in colour, in the church and outside it, on + water-spout and lamp-iron, and even on the leaves of his primer? But + it seemed to him that the devil had "<i>troppo braccia</i>" given him, was + allowed too long a tether, too free a hand; if indeed he it were that + made everything go wrong, and Adone did not see who else it could be. + Here, in the vale of Edera, all the world believed in Satan as in + holy water, or in daily bread. +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba crossed herself hastily, for she was a pious woman. +</p> +<p> + "We are talking blasphemy, my son," she said gravely. "Of course + there is the good God who orders the number of our days for each of + us, and is over us all." +</p> +<p> + Adone was silent. To him it seemed doubtful. Did the good God kill + the pretty little children as the butcher in a city killed his lambs? + But he never contradicted or vexed his mother; he loved her with a + great and tender affection. He was less ignorant than she was, and + saw many things she could not see; he was, as it were, on a hilltop + and she down in a valley, but he had a profound respect for her; he + obeyed her implicitly, as if he were still a child, and he thought + the world held no woman equal to her. +</p> +<p> + When he went back to his house that evening, with his great net on + his shoulder and swinging in one hand some fresh-water fish, he + looked at the stone bench, which was empty of all except some fallen + rose-leaves, and then anxiously, questioningly, in the face of his + mother. +</p> +<p> + So he answered the regard. +</p> +<p> + "The girl is gone to Gianna's custody," she said rather harshly. + "Gianna will give her her supper, and will let her sleep in the loft. + With the morning we will see what we can do for her, and how she can + be sped upon her way." +</p> +<p> + Adone kissed her hands. +</p> +<p> + "You are always good," he said simply. +</p> +<p> + "I am weak," answered his mother, "I am weak, Adone; when you wish + anything I consent to it against my judgment." +</p> +<p> + But she was not weak; or at least only weak in the way in which all + generous natures are so. +</p> +<p> + On the morrow Nerina was not sped on her way. The old woman, Gianna, + thought well of her. +</p> +<p> + "She is as clean as a stone in the water," she said; "she has + foul-smelling rags, but her flesh is clean. She woke at dawn, and + asked for something to do. She knows nought, but she is willing and + teachable. We can make her of use. She has nowhere to go. She is a + stray little puppy. Her people were miserable, but they seem to have + been pious folks. She has a cross pricked on her shoulder. She says + her mother did it when she was a babe to scare the devil off her. I + do not know what to say; she is a poor, forlorn little wretch; if you + like to keep her, I for my part will see to her. I am old: it is well + to do a good work before one dies." +</p> +<p> + Gianna was an old woman, half house-servant, half farm-servant, + wholly friend; she had lived at the Terra Vergine all her life; big, + gaunt, and very strong, she could do the work of a man, although she + was over seventy years of age; burnt black by the sun, and with a + pile of grey hair like the hank of flax on her distaff, she was + feared by the whole district for her penetrating glance and her + untiring energy. When Gianna was satisfied the stars had changed + their courses, said the people, so rare was the event; therefore, + that this little wanderer contented her was at once a miracle and a + voucher indisputable. +</p> +<p> + So the child remained there; but her presence troubled Adone's + mother, though Nerina was humble as a homeless dog, was noiseless and + seldom seen, was obedient, agile, and became useful in many manners, + and learned with equal eagerness the farm work taught her by Gianna, + and the doctrine taught her by Don Silverio, for she was intelligent + and willing in every way. Only Clelia Alba thought, "Perhaps Gianna's + good heart misleads her. Gianna is rough; but she has a heart as + tender at bottom as a ripe melon's flesh." +</p> +<p> + Anyhow, she took her old servant's word and allowed the child to + remain. She could not bring herself to turn adrift a female thing to + stray about homeless and hungry, and end in some bottomless pit. The + child might be the devil's spawn. No one could be sure. But she had + eyes which looked up straight and true, and were as clear as the + river water where it flowed over pebbles in the shade. When the devil + is in a soul he always grins behind the eyes; he cannot help it; and + so you know him; thus, at least, they thought at Ruscino and in all + the vale of Edera; and the devil did not lurk in the eyes of Nerina. +</p> +<p> + "Have I done right, reverend sir?" asked Clelia Alba of the Vicar of + Ruscino. +</p> +<p> + "Oh, yes—yes—charity is always right," he answered, unwilling to + discourage her in her benevolence; but in his own mind he thought, + "The child is a child, but she will grow; she is brown, and starved, + and ugly now, but she will grow; she is a female thing and she will + grow, and I think she will be handsome later on; it would have been + more prudent to have put some money in her hand and some linen in her + wallet, and have let her pass on her way down the river. The saints + forbid that I should put aloes into the honey of their hearts; but + this child will grow." +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba perceived that he had his doubts as she had hers. But + they said nothing of them to each other. The issue would lie with + Time, whom men always depict as a mower, but who is also a sower, + too. However, for good or ill, she was there; and he knew that, + having once harboured her, they would never drive her adrift. Clelia + Alba was in every sense a good woman; a little hard at times, narrow + of sympathy, too much shut up in her maternal passion; but in the + main merciful and correct in judgment. +</p> +<p> + "If the child were not good the river would not have given her to + us," said Adone to her; and believed it. +</p> +<p> + "Good-day, my son," said the voice of the Vicar, Don Silverio + Frascara, behind him, where Adone worked in the fields. "Where did + you find that scarecrow whom your mother has shown me just now?" +</p> +<p> + "She was in the river, most reverend, dancing along in it, as merry + as a princess." +</p> +<p> + "But she is a skeleton!" +</p> +<p> + "Almost." +</p> +<p> + "And you know nothing of her?" +</p> +<p> + "Nothing, sir." +</p> +<p> + "You were more charitable than wise." +</p> +<p> + "One cannot let a little female thing starve whilst one has bread in + the hutch. My mother is a virtuous woman. She will teach the child + virtue." +</p> +<p> + "Let us hope so," said Don Silverio. "But all, my son, do not take + kindly to that lesson." +</p> +<p> + "What will be, will be. The river brought her." +</p> +<p> + He credited the river with a more than human sagacity. He held it in + awe and in reverence as a deity, as the Greeks of old held their + streams. It would have drowned the child, he thought, if she had been + an evil creature or of evil augury. But he did not say so, for he did + not care to provoke Don Silverio's fine fleeting ironical smile. +</p> +<p> + A goatherd who passed some few days later with his flock on his way + to the mountains recognised the little girl. +</p> +<p> + "You are Black Fausto's daughter," he said to her. "Is he dead? Eh, + well, we must all die. May his soul rest." +</p> +<p> + To Gianna, who questioned him, he said, "Yes, he was a good soul. + Often have I seen him down in the Roman plains. He worked himself to + death. These gangs of labourers get poor pay. I saw him also in the + hills where this girl comes from, ever so high up, you seem to touch + the sky. I summered there two years ago; he had his womankind in a + cabin, and he took all that he got home to them. Aye, he was a good + soul. We can come away out of the heats, but they have to stay down + in them; for the reaping and the sowing are their chief gain, and + they get the fever into their blood, and the worms into their + bellies, and it kills them mostly before they are forty. You see, at + Ansalda, where he came from, it was snow eight months out of the + twelve, so the heats and the mists killed him: for the air you are + born in you want, and if you do not get it in time you sicken." +</p> +<p> + "Like enough," said Gianna, who herself had never been out of sight + of the river Edera ever since she had been a babe in swaddling + clothes. "Tell me, gossip, was the child born in wedlock?" +</p> +<p> + "Eh, eh!" said the goatherd grinning. "That I would not take on me + to say. But like enough, like enough; they are always ready to go + before the priest in those high hills." +</p> +<p> + The little girl glided into her place humbly and naturally, with no + servility but with untiring willingness and thankfulness. It seemed + to her an amazing favour of heaven to live with these good people; to + have a roof over her head and food regularly every day. Up there in + her home, amongst the crags of Ansalda, she had never known what it + was not to have a daily hunger gnawing always in her entrails, and + making her writhe at night on her bed of dry leaves. In her thirteen + years of life she had never once had enough—no one ever had. A full + stomach had been a thing unknown. +</p> +<p> + She began to grow, she began to put a little flesh on her bones; they + had cut her hair short, for it had been so rough, and it grew again + burnished and bright like copper; colour came into her cheeks and + lips; she seemed to spring upward, visibly, like a young cane. She + worked hard, but she worked willingly, and she was well nourished on + sound food, though it had little variety and was entirely vegetable; + and every day she went down and bathed in the river at the same place + where she had sat nude under the dock leaves whilst her skirt dried + in the sun. +</p> +<p> + To her the Terra Vergine was Paradise itself; to be fed, to be + clothed, to have a mattress to sleep on, to work amongst the flowers + and the grass and the animals—it was all so beautiful, she thought + sometimes that she must be in heaven. +</p> +<p> + She spoke little. Since she had been under this roof she had grown + ashamed of the squalor and starvation and wretchedness of her past + existence. She did not like to think of it even; it had been no fault + of hers, but she felt ashamed that she ever should have been that + little, filthy, unkempt, naked thing, grovelling on the clay floor, + and fighting for mouldy crusts with the other children on the rock of + Ansalda. +</p> +<p> + "If I had only known when father was alive," she thought; but even if + she had known all she knew now, what could she have done? There had + been nothing to use, nothing to eat, nothing to wear, and the rain + and the snow and the wind had come in on them where they had lain + huddled together on their bed of rotten leaves. Now and then she said + something of that rude childhood of hers to Adone; she was afraid of + the women, but not of him; she trotted after him as the little white + curly dog Signorino trotted after Don Silverio. +</p> +<p> + "Do not think of those dark days, little one," he said to her. "They + are gone by. Think of your parents and pray for their souls; but let + the rest go; you have all your life to live." +</p> +<p> + "My mother was young when she died," said the child. "If she had had + food she would not have died. She said so. She kept on gnawing a bit + of rag which was soaked in water; you cheat hunger that way, you + know, but it does not fill you." +</p> +<p> + "Pour soul! Poor soul!" said Adone, and he thought of the great + markets he had seen in the north, the droves of oxen, the piles of + fruits, the long lines of wine carts, the heaps of slaughtered game, + the countless shops with their electric light, the trains running one + after another all the nights and every night to feed the rich; and he + thought, as he had thought when a boy, that the devil had <i>troppo + braccio</i>, if any devil indeed there were beside man himself. +</p> +<p> + Should there be anywhere on the face of the earth, young women, good + women, mothers of babes who died of sheer hunger like this mother of + Nerina's up yonder in the snows of the Abruzzo? He thought not; his + heart revolted at the vision of her, a living skeleton on her heap of + leaves. +</p> +<p> + "Father brought all he had," continued the child, "but he could not + come back until after harvest, and when he came back she had been in + the ground two months and more. They put him in the same ditch when + his turn came; but she was no longer there, for they take up the + bones every three years and burn them. They say they must, else the + ditch would get too full." +</p> +<p> + Adone shuddered. He knew that tens of thousands died so, and had died + so ever since the days of Phenicians and Gauls and Goths. But it + revolted him. The few gorged, the many famished—strange + disproportion! unkind and unfair balance! +</p> +<p> + But what remedy was there? +</p> +<p> + Adone had read some socialistic and communistic literature; but it + had not satisfied him; it had seemed to him vain, verbose, alluring, + but unreal, no better adapted to cure any real hunger than the soaked + rag of Nerina's mother. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0003"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + III +</h2> +<p> + The Valdedera is situated on the south of the Marches, on the + confines of what is now the territorial division of the + Abruzzo-Molese, and so lies between the Apennines and the Adriatic, + fanned by cool winds in summer from the eternal snow of the mountain + peaks, and invigorated in all seasons by breezes from the Adrian Sea. +</p> +<p> + Ruscino, placed midway in the valley, is only a village to which no + traveller has for many years come, and of which no geographer ever + speaks; it is marked on the maps of military topographers, and is, of + course, inscribed on the fiscal rolls, but is now no more than a + village; though once, when the world was young, it was the Etruscan + Rusciae, and then the Latin Ruscinonis; and then, when the Papacy was + mighty, it was the militant principality of the fortified town of + Ruscino. But it was, when the parish of Don Silverio, an almost + uninhabited village; a pale, diminutive, shrunken relic of its heroic + self; and of it scarcely any man knows anything except the few men + who make their dwelling there; sons of the soil, who spring from its + marble dust and return to it. +</p> +<p> + It had shrunk to a mere hamlet as far as its population was counted; + it shrank more and more with every census. There was but a handful of + poor people who, when gathered together in the great church, looked + no more than a few flies on a slab of marble. +</p> +<p> + The oldest men and women of the place could recall the time when it + had been still of some importance as a posting place on the mountain + route between the markets of the coast and the western towns, when + its highway had been kept clean and clear through the woods for + public and private conveyance, and when the clatter of horses' hoofs + and merry notes of horns had roused the echoes of its stones. In that + first half of the century, too, they had lived fairly well, and wine + and fowls had cost next to nothing, and home-made loaves had been + always large enough to give a beggar or a stray dog a slice. But + these times had long been over; every one was hungry now, and every + one a beggar, by way of change, and to make things equal, as the + people said, with dreary mirth and helpless acquiescence in their + lot. Like most riverain people, they lived chiefly by the river, + cutting and selling its canes, its sallows, its osiers, its sedges, + catching its fish, digging its sand; but there were few buyers in + this depopulated district. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio Frascara, its vicar, had been sent thither as a + chastisement for his too sceptical and inquiring mind, his too + undisciplined temper. Nearly twenty years in this solitude had + chastened both; the fire had died out of his soul and the light out + of his eyes. His days were as monotonous as those of the blinded ass + set to turn the wine-press. All the steel of his spirit rusted, all + the brilliancy of his brain clouded; his life was like a fine rapier + which is left in a corner of a dusty attic and forgotten. +</p> +<p> + In certain rare states of the atmosphere the gold cross on St. + Peter's is visible from some of the peaks of the Abruzzese Apennines. + It looks like a speck of light far, far away in the silver-green of + the western horizon. When one day he climbed to such an altitude and + saw it thus, his heart contracted with a sickly pain, for in Rome he + had dreamed many dreams; and in Rome, until his exile to the Vale of + Edera, he had been a preacher of noted eloquence, of brilliant + fascination, and of daring thought. +</p> +<p> + There had been long cypress alleys which at sunset had glowed with + rose and gold, where he had in his few leisure hours builded up such + visions for the future as illumined the unknown years to the eyes of + an Ignatius, a Hildebrand, a Lacordaire, a Bossuet. On the place + where those grand avenues had stretched their green length in the + western light, and the seminarist had paced over the sward, there + were now long, dreary lines of brick and stone, the beaten dust of + roadways, the clang and smoke of engines: as the gardens had passed + away so had passed his ambitions and visions; as the cypresses had + been ground to powder in the steam mill, so was he crushed and + effaced under an inexorable fate. The Church, intolerant of + individuality, like all despotisms, had broken his spirit; like all + despotisms the tyranny had been blind. But he had been rebellious to + doctrine; she had bound him to her stake. +</p> +<p> + He would have been a great prelate, perhaps even a great Pope; but he + would have been also a great reformer, so she stamped him down into + nothingness under her iron heel. And for almost a score of years she + had kept him in Ruscino, where he buried and baptized the old and new + creatures who squirmed in the dust, where any ordinary country priest + able to gabble through the ritual could have done as well as he. Some + few of the more liberal and learned dignitaries of the Church did + indeed think that it was waste of great powers, but he had the Sacred + College against him, and no one ventured to speak in his favour at + the Vatican. He had no pious women of rank to plead for him, no + millionaires and magnates to solicit his preferment. He was with time + forgotten as utterly as a folio is forgotten on a library shelf until + mildew eats its ink away and spiders nest between its leaves. He had + the thirty pounds a year which the State pays to such parish priests; + and he had nothing else. +</p> +<p> + He was a tall and naturally stately man, but his form was bent by + that want of good food which is the chronic malady of many parts of + Italy. There was little to eat in Ruscino, and had there been more + there would have been no one who knew how to prepare it. Bread, + beans, a little oil, a little lard, herbs which grew wild, goat's + milk, cheese, and at times a few small river fish; these were all his + sustenance: his feasts and his fasts were much alike, and the little + wine he had he gave away to the sick and the aged. For this reason + his high stature was bent and his complexion was of the clear, yellow + pallor of old marbles; his profile was like the Caesarian outline on + a medallion, and his eyes were deep wells of impenetrable thought; + his finely cut lips rarely smiled, they had always upon them an + expression of bitterness, as though the apple of life in its eating + had been harsh and hard as a crab. +</p> +<p> + His presbytery was close to his church, a dreary place with only a + few necessaries and many books within it, and his only servant was an + old man, lame and stupid, who served also as sacristan. +</p> +<p> + It was a cure of souls which covered many miles but counted few + persons. Outside the old walls of Ruscino nearly all the land of vale + of Edera was untilled, and within them a few poverty-stricken people + dragged out their days uncared for by any one, only remembered by the + collectors of fiscal dues. "<i>They</i> never forget," said the people. + "As soon as one is born, always and in every season, until one's + bones rattle down into the ditch of the dead, <i>they</i> remember + always." +</p> +<p> + The grasp of an invisible power took the crust off their bread, the + toll off their oil, off their bed of sacking, off their plate of + fish, and took their children when they grew to manhood and sent them + into strange lands and over strange seas; they felt the grip of that + hard hand as their forefathers had felt it under the Caesars, under + the Popes, under the feudal lords, under the foreign kings; they felt + it so now under the Casa Sabauda; the same, always the same; for the + manners and titles of the State may change, but its appetite never + lessens, and its greed never spares. For twice a thousand years their + blood had flowed and their earnings had been wrung out of them in the + name of the State, and nothing was changed in that respect; the few + lads they begot amongst them went to Africa, now as under Pompeius or + Scipio; and their corn sack was taken away from them under Depretis + or Crispi, as under the Borgia or the Malatesta; and their grape + skins soaked in water were taxed as wine, their salt for their + soup-pot was seized as contraband, unless it bore the government + stamp, and, if they dared say a word of resistance, there were the + manacles and the prison under Vittorio and Umberto as under Bourbon + or Bonaparte; for there are some things which are immutable as fate. + At long intervals, during the passing of ages, the poor stir, like + trodden worms, under this inexorable monotony of their treatment by + their rulers; and then baleful fires redden the sky, and blood runs + in the conduits, and the rich man trembles; but the cannon are + brought up at full gallop and it is soon over; there is nothing ever + really altered; the iron wheels only press the harder on the unhappy + worm, and there is nothing changed. +</p> +<p> + Here at Ruscino there were tombs of nenfro which had overhung the + river for thirty centuries; but those tombs have never seen any other + thing than this, nor ever will, until the light and the warmth of the + sun shall be withdrawn for ever, and the earth shall remain alone + with her buried multitudes. +</p> +<p> + There was only Don Silverio who thought of such a thing as this, a + scholar all alone amongst barbarians; for his heart ached for his + barbarians, though they bore him no love in return for his pity. They + would have liked better a gossiping, rotund, familiar, ignorant, + peasant priest, one of themselves, chirping formula comfortably over + skeleton corpses. +</p> +<p> + In default of other interests he interested himself in this ancient + place, passing from neglect into oblivion, as his own life was doing. + There were Etruscan sepulchres and Pelasgic caves which had been + centuries earlier rifled of their objects of value, but still + otherwise remained untouched under the acacia woods by the river. + There were columns and terraces and foundations of marble which had + been there when the Latin city of Ruscinonis had flourished, from the + time of Augustus until its destruction by Theodoric. And nearest of + all these to him were the Longobardo church and the ancient houses + and the dismantled fortress and the ruined walls of what had been the + fief of the Toralba, the mediaeval fortified town of Ruscino. It + still kept this, its latest, name, but it kept little else. Thrice a + thousand centuries had rolled over it, eating it away as the sea eats + away a cliff. War and fire and time had had their will with it for so + long that dropped acorns and pine-pips had been allowed leisure to + sink between the stones, and sprout and bud and rise and spread, and + were now hoary and giant trees, of which the roots were sunk deep + into its ruins, its graves, its walls. +</p> +<p> + It had been Etruscan, it had been Latin, it had been Longobardo, it + had been Borgian and Papal; through all these changes a fortified + city, then a castellated town, then a walled village; and a village + it now remained. It will never be more; before many generations pass + it will probably have become still less; a mere tumulus, a mere + honeycomb of buried tombs. It was now perishing, surely though + slowly, but in peace, with the grass growing on its temple stairs and + the woodbine winding round its broken columns. +</p> +<p> + The trained and stored intellect of Don Silverio could set each + period of its story apart, and read all the vestiges remaining of + each. Ruscino was now to all others a mere poverty-stricken place, + brown and gaunt and sorrowful, scorching in the sun, with only the + river beneath it to keep it clean and alive. But to him it was as a + palimpsest of surpassing value and interest, which, sorely difficult + to decipher, held its treasures close from the profane and the + ignorant, but tempted and rewarded the scholar, like the lettering on + a Pompeian nuptial ring, the cyphers on a funeral urn of Herculaneum. + "After all, my lot might be worse than it is," he thought with + philosophy. "They might have sent me to a modern manufacturing town + in one of the Lombard provinces, or exiled me to some native + settlement in Eritrea." +</p> +<p> + Here, at least, he had history and nature, and he enjoyed thousands + of hours undisturbed in which to read or write, or muse and ponder on + this chronicle of brick and stone, this buried mass of dead men's + labours and of dead men's dust. +</p> +<p> + Doubtless, his manuscripts would lie unknown, unread; no man would + care for them; but the true scholar cares neither for public not + posterity; he lives for the work he loves; and if he knows that he + will have few readers in the future—maybe none—how many read + Grotius, or Boethius, or Chrysostom, or Jerome? +</p> +<p> + Here, like a colony of ants, the generations had crowded one on + another, now swept away by the stamp of a conqueror's heel and now + succeeded by another toiling swarm, building anew each time out of + ruin, undaunted by the certainty of destruction, taught nothing by + the fate of their precursors. From the profound sense of despair + which the contemplation of the uselessness of human effort, and the + waste of human life, produces on the scholar's mind, it was a relief + to him to watch the gladness of its river, the buoyancy of its + currents, the foam of white blossom on its acacia and syringa + thickets, the gold sceptres and green lances of its iris-pseudacorus, + the sweep of the winds through its bulrushes and canebreaks, the + glory of colour in the blue stars of its veronica, the bright rosy + spikes of its epilobium. The river seemed always happy, even when the + great rainfall of autumn churned it into froth and the lightnings + illumined its ink-black pools. +</p> +<p> + It was on the river that he had first made friends with Adone, then a + child of six, playing and splashing in the stream, on a midsummer + noon. Don Silverio also was bathing. Adone, a little nude figure, as + white as alabaster in the hot light, for he was very fair of skin, + sprang suddenly out of the water on to the turf above where his + breeches and shirt had been left; he was in haste, for he had heard + his mother calling to him from their fields; an adder started out of + a coil of bindweed and would itself round his ankle as he stooped for + his clothes. +</p> +<p> + The priest, standing waist-deep in the river a few yards away, saw it + before the child did, and cried out to him: "Stand still till I come! + Be not afraid!" Adone understood, and, although trembling with terror + and loathing as he realised his danger, and felt the slimy clasp of + the snake, remained motionless as he was bidden to do. In a second of + time the priest had leaped through the water to his side, seized the + adder, and killed it. +</p> +<p> + "Good boy," he said to the child. "If you had moved your foot the + creature would have bitten you." +</p> +<p> + Adone's eyes filled with tears. +</p> +<p> + "Thank you, sir; thank you for mother," he said very gently, for he + was a shy child, though courageous. +</p> +<p> + The priest stroked his curls. +</p> +<p> + "There is death in the grass very often. We should not fear death, + but neither should we run risk of it uselessly, especially when we + have a mother whom it would grieve. Come and bathe at this spot, at + this hour, to-morrow and every day, if you like. I will be here and + look after you, you are little to be alone." +</p> +<p> + They were often together from that day onwards. +</p> +<p> + The brutishness and greed of his flock oppressed him. He was sent + here to have care of their souls, but where were their souls? They + would all have sold them to the foul fiend for a mess of artichokes + fried in oil. In such a solitude as this he had been glad to be able + to teach and move the young malleable mind of Adone Alba; the only + one of them who seemed to have any mind at all. Adone also had a + voice as sweet as a nightingale in the syringa bushes in May; and it + pierced the gloom of the old naked gaunt church as a nightingale's + thrills through the dark hour before dawn. +</p> +<p> + There was no other music in that choir except the children's or + youths' voices; there was nothing to make music with except those + flexible pipes of the boyish throats; and Don Silverio loved and + understood choral music; he had studied it in Rome. Adone never + refused to sing for him, and when the voice of adolescence had + replaced that of childhood, he would still stand no less docilely by + the old marble lectern, and wake the melodies of early masters from + the yellow pages. +</p> +<p> + The church was as damp as a vault of the dead; cold even when the + dog-star reigned in the heavens. The brasses and bronzes were rusted + with moisture, and the marbles were black with the spores of mould; + rain dripped through the joints of the roof, and innumberable + sparrows made their nests there; the mosaics of the floor were green + from these droppings, and from those of the rain; the sun never + entered through any of the windows, which were yellow with age and + dust; but here, with a lantern for their only light, they solaced + each other with the song of the great choral masters. Only Adone, + although he never said or showed it, was glad when the huge key + groaned in the lock of the outer door, and he ran out into the + evening starlight, down the steep streets, across the bridge, and + felt the fresh river air blowing on him, and heard the swirling of + the water amongst the frost-stiffened canes, and saw far off in the + darkened fields the glimmer of a light—the light of home. +</p> +<p> + That old home was the dearest thing on earth to the young man. He had + never been away from it but once, when the conscription called him. + In that time, which had been to him like a nightmare, the time of his + brief exile to the army, because he was the only son of a widow, he + had been sent to a northern city, one of commerce and noise and + crowded, breathless life; he had been cooped up in it like a panther + in a den, like a hawk in a cage. What he saw of the vices and + appetites of men, the pressure of greed and of gain, the harsh and + stupid tyranny of the few, the slavish and ignoble submission of the + many, the brutish bullying, the crouching obedience, the deadly + routine, the lewd licence of reaction—all filled him with disdain + and with disgust. When he returned to his valley he bathed in the + waters of Edera before he crossed his mother's threshold. +</p> +<p> + "Make me clean as I was when I left you!" he cried, and took the + water in the hollow of his hands and kissed it. +</p> +<p> + But no water flows on the earth, from land to sea, which can wholly + cleanse the soul as it cleanses the body. +</p> +<p> + That brief time under arms he cursed as thousands of youths have + cursed it. Its hated stigma and pollution never wholly passed away. + It left a bitterness on his lips, a soil upon his memories. But how + sweet to him beyond expression, on his return, were the sound of the + rushing river in the silence of the night, the pure odours of the + blossoming beanfields, the clear dark sky with its radiant stars, the + sense of home, the peace of his own fields! +</p> +<p> + "Mother, whether life for me shall be long or short, here its every + hour shall be spent!" he said, as he stood on his own ground and + looked through the olive-trees to the river, running swiftly and + strong beneath the moon. +</p> +<p> + "Those are good words, my son," said Clelia Alba, and her hands + rested on his bowed head. +</p> +<p> + He adored both the soil and the water of this place of his birth; no + toil upon either seemed to him hard or mean. All which seemed to him + to matter much in the life of a man was to be free, and he was so. In + that little kingdom of fertile soil and running stream no man could + bid him come and go, no law ruled his uprising and his down lying; he + had enough for his own wants and the wants of those about him, enough + for the needs of the body, and the mind here had not many needs; at + the Terra Vergine he was his own master, except so far as he + cheerfully deferred to his mother; and all which he put into the + earth he could take out of it for his own usage, though indeed the + fiscal authorities claimed well nigh one-half, rating his land at far + more than its worth. No doubt scientific agriculture might have made + it yield more than he did; but he was content to follow the ways of + old; he farmed as men did when the Sun-god was the farm slave of + Admetus. The hellebore and the violets grew at will in his furrows; + the clematis and the ivy climbed his figtrees; the fritillaria and + daphne grew in his pastures, and he never disturbed them, or scared + the starling and the magpie which fluttered in the wake of his wooden + plough. The land was good land, and gave him whatever he wanted; he + grudged nothing off it to bird, or beast, or leaf, or flower, or to + the hungry wayfarer who chanced to pass by his doors. In remote + places the old liberal, frank, open-handed hospitality of an earlier + time is still in Italy a practice as well as a tradition. +</p> +<p> + The house was their own, and the earth gave them their bread, their + wine, their vegetables, their oil, hemp, and flax for their linen, + and herbs for their soup; of the olive-oil they had more than enough + for use, and the surplus was sold once a year in the nearest town, + San Beda, and served to meet the fiscal demands. They had rarely any + ready money, but no peasant in Italy ever expects, unless by some + luck at lotto, to have money in his pocket. +</p> +<p> + He worked hard; at some seasons extremely hard; he hired labour + sometimes, but not often, for to pay for the hiring takes the profit + off the land. But he had been used to such work from childhood, and + it was never irksome to him; even though he rose in the dark, and + rarely went home to supper till the stars were shining. He had no + near neighbours except the poor folks in Ruscino. All surrounding him + was grass and moor and wood, called communal property, but in reality + belonging legally to no one; vast, still, fragrant leagues of + uninhabited country stretching away to the blue hills, home of the + fox and the hare and the boar, of the hawk and the woodpecker and the + bittern. +</p> +<p> + Through those wilds he loved to wander alone; the sweet stillness of + a countryside which was uncontaminated by the residence of men + stilling the vague unrest of his youth, and the mountains towering in + the light lending to the scene the charm of the unknown. +</p> +<p> + In days of storm or rain he read with Don Silverio or sang in the + church; on fine holy-days he roamed far afield in the lonely + heatherlands and woodlands which were watered by the Edera. He + carried a gun, for defence if need be, for there were boars and + wolves in these solitudes; but he never used it upon bird or beast. +</p> +<p> + Like St. Francis of Assissi, both he and Don Silverio took more + pleasure in the life than in the death of fair winged things. +</p> +<p> + "We are witness, twice in every year, of that great and inexplicable + miracle," the priest said often, "that passage of small, frail, + unguided creatures, over seas and continents, through tempests and + simoons, and with every man's hand against them, and death waiting to + take them upon every shore, by merciless and treacherous tricks, and + we think nought of it; we care nought for it; we spread the nets and + the gins—that is all. We are unworthy of all which makes the earth + beautiful—vilely unworthy!" +</p> +<p> + One of the causes of his unpopularity in Ruscino was the inexorable + persistence with which he broke their gins, lifted their nets, + cleared off their birdlime, dispersed their watertraps, and forbade + the favourite night poaching by lanterns in the woods. More than once + they threatened his life, but he only smiled. +</p> +<p> + "<i>Faccia pure</i>!" he said, "you will cut a knot which I did not tie, + and which I cannot myself undo." +</p> +<p> + But they held him in too much awe to dare to touch him, and they knew + that again and again he went on bread and water himself to give his + wine to their sick, or his strip of meat to their old people. +</p> +<p> + Moreover, they feared Adone. +</p> +<p> + "If you touch a hair of Don Silverio's head, or the hem of his + cassock, I will burn Ruscino," said Adone to one of those who had + threatened his friend, "and you will all burn with it, for the river + will not help you; the river will turn to oil and make the flames + rage tenfold." +</p> +<p> + The people were afraid as they heard him, for the wrath of the gentle + is terrible from its rarity. +</p> +<p> + "For sure 'tis the dead Tor'alba as speak in him," they said with + fright under their breath, for there was a tale told in the district + that Adone Alba was descended from the old war-lords. +</p> +<p> + The veterans of the village and the countryside remembered hearing + their fathers say that the family of the Terra Vergine were descended + from those great marquises who had reigned for centuries in that + Rocca which was now a grim, ivy-covered ruin on the north of the + Edera water. But more than this no one could say; no one could tell + how the warlike race had become mere tillers of the soil, or how + those who had measured out life and death up and down the course of + the valley had lost their power and possessions. There were vague + traditions of a terrible siege, following on a great battle in the + vale; that was all. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0004"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + IV +</h2> +<p> + The church in which Don Silverio officiated every morning and evening + for the benefit of a few old crones, had once been a Latin temple; it + had been built from the Corinthian pillars, the marble peristyle, the + rounded, open dome, like that of the Pantheon, of a pagan edifice; + and to these had been added a Longobardo belfry and chancel; pigeons + and doves roosted and nested in it, and within it was cold even in + midsummer, and dark always as a vault. It was dedicated to St. + Jerome, and was a world too wide for the shrunken band of believers + who came to worship in it; there was a high, dark altar said to have + been painted by Ribera, and nothing else that spoke in any way of + art, except the capitals of its pillars and the Roman mosaics of its + floor. +</p> +<p> + The Longobardo bell-tower was of vast height and strength; within it + were various chambers, and these chambers had served through many + ages as muniment-rooms. There were innumerable documents of many + different epochs, almost all in Latin, a few in Greek. Don Silverio, + who was a fine classic as well as a learned archæologist, spent all + his lonely and cold winter evenings in the study of these early + chronicles, his oil lamp burning pale and low, his little white dog + lying on his knees. +</p> +<p> + These manuscripts gave him great trouble, and were in many parts + almost unintelligible, in others almost effaced by damp, in others + again gnawed by rats and mice. But he was interested in his labours + and in his subject, and after several years of work on them, he was + able to make out a consecutive history of the Valdedera, and he was + satisfied that the peasant of the Terra Vergine had been directly + descended from the feudal-lords of Ruscino. That pittance of land by + the waterside under the shadow of the ruined citadel was all which + remained of the great fief of the youth in whose veins ran the blood + of men who had given princes, and popes, and cardinals, and captains + of condottieri, and patrons of art, and conquerors or revolted + provinces, to the Italy of old from the beginning of the thirteenth + century to the end of the sixteenth. For three hundred years the + Tor'alba had been lords there, owning all their eyes could reach from + mountain to sea; then after long siege the walled town and their + adjacent stronghold had fallen into the hands of hereditary foes + whose forces had been united against them. Fire and steel had done + their worst, and only a month-old child had escaped from the burning + Rocca, being saved in a boat laden with reeds at anchor in the river, + and hidden by a faithful vassal. The child had grown to manhood and + had lived to old age, leading a peasant's life on the banks of the + Edera; the name had been mutilated in common usage amongst those who + spoke only the dialect of the province, and for three more centuries + father and son had succeeded each other, working for their daily + bread where their ancestors had defied Borgia and Della Rovere, and + Feltrio, and Malatesta; the gaunt dark shade of the dismantled + citadel lying athwart their fields between them and the setting sun. +</p> +<p> + Should he tell Adone this or not? +</p> +<p> + Would the knowledge of his ancestry put a thorn in the boy's + contented heart? Would it act as a spur to higher things, or be + merely as the useless sting of a nettle? +</p> +<p> + Who could say? +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio remembered the gorgeous dreams of his own youth; and + what had been their issue? +</p> +<p> + At fifty years old he was buried in a deserted village, never hearing + from year's end to year's end one word of friendship or phrase of + culture. +</p> +<p> + Would it be well or would it be wrong to disturb that tranquil + acquiescence in a humble destiny? He could not decide. He dared not + take upon himself so much responsibility. "In doubt do nothing" has + been the axiom of many wise men. The remembrance of the maxim closed + his lips. He had himself been in early manhood passionately + ambitious; he was only a priest, but of priests are made the + Gregorio, the Bonifazio, the Leone of the Papal throne; to the dreams + of a seminarist nothing is impossible. But Adone had no such dreams; + he was as satisfied with his lot as any young steer which wants + nothing more than the fair, fresh fields of its birth. But one day as + he was sitting with the boy, then fifteen years old, on the south + bank of the Edera, the spirit moved him and he spake. It was the day + of San Benedetto, when the swallows come. The grass was full of pink + lychnis and yellow buttercups. A strong east wind was blowing from + the sea. A number of martins, true to the proverb, were circling + gaily above the stream. The water, reflecting the brilliant hues of + the heavens, was hurrying on its seaward way, swollen by recent rains + and hastened by a strong wind blowing from the eastern mountains. +</p> +<p> + The lands of the Terra Vergine lay entirely on the south-east bank of + the river, and covered many acres, of which some was moorland still. + Almost opposite to it was the one-arched stone bridge, attributed to + Theodoric, and on the northern bank was the ruined Rocca, towering + above the trees which had grown up around it; whilst hidden by it and + by the remains of the fortifications was that which was now the mere + village of Ruscino. +</p> +<p> + "Listen, Adone!" he said in his deep, melodious voice, grave and + sweet as a mass of Palestrina. "Listen, and I will tell you the tale + of yonder donjon and village, and of the valley of the Edera, so far + as I have been able to make it out for myself." +</p> +<p> + According to the writers whose manuscripts he had discovered the town + of Ruscino, like Cremona, had existed before the siege of Troy, that + is, six hundred years before the foundation of Rome. Of this there + was no proof except tradition, but the ruins of the walls and the + tombs by the riverside and in the fields proved that it had been an + Etruscan city, and of some considerable extent and dignity, in those + remote ages. +</p> +<p> + "The foundations of the Rocca," he continued, "were probably part of + a great stronghold raised by the Gauls, who undoubtedly conquered the + whole of this valley at the time when they settled themselves in what + is now the Marches, and founded Senegallia. It was visited by + Asdrubal, and burned by Alaric; then occupied by the Greek free + lances of Justinian; in the time of the Frankish victories, in common + with greater places, it was forced to swear allegiance to the first + papal Adrian. After that it had been counted as one of the fiefs + comprised in the possessions of the Pentapolis; and later on, when + the Saracens ravaged the shores of the Adriatic, they had come up the + Valdedera and pillaged and burned again. Gregory the Ninth gave the + valley to the family of its first feudal lords, the Tor'alba, in + recompense for military service, and they, out of the remains of the + Gallic, Etruscan, and Roman towns, rebuilt Ruscino and raised the + Rocca on the ruins of the castle of the Gauls. There, though at feud + many time with their foes, the Della Rovere, the Malatesta, and the + Dukes of Urbino, they held their own successfully, favoured usually + by Rome, and for three centuries grew in force and in possessions. + But they lost the favour of Rome by their haughtiness and + independence; and under pretext that they merited punishment, Cesare + Borgia brought troops of mercenaries against them, and after a fierce + conflict in the valley (the terrible battle of which the villagers + preserved the memory) the town was besieged and sacked. +</p> +<p> + "After this battle, which must have taken place on yonder moor, to + the north-west, for the assailants had crossed the Apennines, the + Tor'alba and the remnant of men remaining to them retreated within + the walls of Ruscino. +</p> +<p> + "The whole place and the citadel were burning, set on fire by order + of Borgia. The church alone was spared, and the dead men were as + thick as stones on the walls, and in the streets, and in the nave of + the church, and on the streets, and in the houses. This river was + choked with corpses, and dark with blood. The black smoke towered to + the sky in billows like a sea. The mercenaries swarmed over the + bastions and violated the women, and cut off their breasts and threw + their bodies down into the stream and their children after them. The + Lady of Tor'alba, valiant as Caterina Sforza, was the first slain. +</p> +<p> + "The whole place was given up to flame and carnage, and the great + captains were as helpless as dead oxen. They were all slain amongst + their troopers and their vassals, and their bodies were burnt when + the fortress was fired. +</p> +<p> + "Only one little child escaped the massacre, a month-old babe, son of + the Marquis of Tor'alba, who was hidden by a faithful servant amongst + the reeds of the Edera in a basket. This servant was the only male + who escaped slaughter. +</p> +<p> + "The river rushes were more merciful than man, they kept the little + new-born lordling safe until his faithful vassal, under cover of the + night, when the assailants were drunk and stupid with licence + gratified, could take him to a poor woman to be suckled in a cottage + farther down the river. How he grew up I know not, but certain it is + that thirty years later one Federigo Tor'alba was living where you + live, and your house and land have never changed hands or title + since; only your name has been truncated, as often happens in the + speech of the people. How this land called the Terra Vergine was + first obtained I cannot say; the vassal may have saved some gold or + jewels which belonged to his masters, and have purchased these acres, + or the land may have been taken up and put gradually into cultivation + without any legal right to it; of this there is no explanation, no + record. But from that time the mighty lordship of Tor'alba has been + extinct, and scarcely exists now even in local tradition; although + their effigies are on their tombs, and the story of their reign can + be deciphered by any one who can read a sixteenth-century manuscript, + as you might do for yourself, my son, had you been diligent." +</p> +<p> + Adone was silent. He had listened with attention, as he did to + everything which was said or read to him by Don Silverio. But he was + not astonished, because he had often heard, though vaguely, the + legend of his descent. +</p> +<p> + "Of what use is it?" he said, as he sat moving the bright water with + his bare slim feet. "Nothing will bring it all back." +</p> +<p> + "It should serve some great end," said Don Silverio, not knowing very + well what he meant or to what he desired to move the young man's + mind. "Nobility of blood should make the hands cleaner, the heart + higher, the aims finer." +</p> +<p> + Adone had shrugged his shoulders. +</p> +<p> + "We are all equal!" he answered. +</p> +<p> + "We are not all equal," the priest said curtly. "There is not + equality in nature. Are there even two pebbles alike in the bed of + the river?" +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio, for the first time in his life, could have willingly + let escape him some unholy word. It incensed him that he could not + arouse in the boy any of that interest and excitement which had moved + his own feelings so strongly as he had spent his spare evenings + poring over the crabbed characters and the dust-weighted vellum of + the charred and mutilated archives discovered by him in a secret + closet in the bell-tower of his church. With infinite toil, patience, + and ability he had deciphered the Latin of rolls, registers, letters, + chronicles, so damaged by water, fire, and the teeth of rats and + mice, that it required all an archæologist's ingenuity and devotion + to make out any sense from them. Summer days and winter nights had + found him poring over the enigma of these documents, and now, when he + had conquered and revealed their secret, he who was most concerned in + it was no more stirred by curiosity or pride than if he had been one + of the big tawny owls dwelling in the dusk of the belfry. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio was a learned man and a holy man, and should have + despised such vanities, but an historic past had great seduction for + him; a militant race fascinated him against his conscience, and + aristocracy allured him despite all his better judgement; it seemed + to him that if he had learned that he had come from a knightly <i>gens</i> + such as this of the Tor'alba, he would have been more strongly moved + to self-glorification than would have become a servant of the Church. + He himself had no knowledge even of his own near parentage; he had + been a forsaken child, left one dark autumn night in the iron cradle + of the gates of a foundling hospital in Reggio Calabrese. His names + had been bestowed on him by the chaplain of the institution; and his + education had been given him by an old nobleman of the town, + attracted by his appearance and intelligence as a child. He was now + fifty years of age; and he had never known anything of kith and kin, + or of the mingled sweetness and importunity of any human tie. +</p> +<p> + Adone sat silent, looking up at the fortress of his forefathers. He + was more moved than his words showed. +</p> +<p> + "If we were lords of the land and the town and the people, we were + also lords of the river," was what he was thinking; and that thought + moved him to strong pride and pleasure, for he loved the river with a + great love, only equalled by that which he felt for his mother. +</p> +<p> + "They were lords of the river?" he asked aloud. +</p> +<p> + "Undoubtedly," answered the priest. "It was one of the highways of + the province from east to west and <i>vice versâ</i> in that time; the + signoria of this Rocca took toll, kept the fords and bridges and + ferries; none could pass up and down under Ruscino without being seen + by the sentinels on the ramparts here. The Edera was different then; + more navigable, perhaps less beautiful. Rivers change like nations. + There have been landslips which have altered its course and made its + torrents. In some parts it is shallower, in others deeper. The woods + which enclosed its course then have been largely felled, though not + wholly. Sand has been dug from it incessantly, and rocks have fallen + across it. As you know, no boats or barges which draw any depth of + water can ascend or descend it now without being towed by horses; and + in some parts, as here, it is course, too precipitous in its fall for + even small boats to adventure themselves upon it: its shoals of + lilies can blossom unmolested where its surface is level. Yes; + undoubtedly, the lords of Ruscino were also lords of the Edera, from + its mouth to its source; and their river formed at once their + strongest defence and their weakest point. It was difficult + sufficiently to guard so many miles of water; above all because, as I + say, its course was so much clearer, and its depth so much greater, + that a flotilla of rafts or cutters could ascend it from its mouth as + far as this town in the Middle Ages; in fact, more than once, + corsairs from the Levant and from Morocco did so ascend it, and + though they were driven back by the culverins of the citadel, they + every time carried off to slavery some of the youths and maidens of + the plain." +</p> +<p> + Adone gazed across the river to the moss-grown walls which had once + been fortifications still visible on the side of the hill, and to the + frowning donjon, the blackened towers, the ruined bastions, of what + had been once the Rocca, with the amber light and rosy clouds of the + unseen sun behind them. +</p> +<p> + "Teach me Latin, your reverence," was all he said. +</p> +<p> + "I have always offered to do so," said Don Silverio. +</p> +<p> + Adone was again silent, swinging his slender brown feet in the water, + and looking always upward at the evening sky beyond the great round + shape of the dismantled fortress. +</p> +<p> + He learned some Latin with much difficulty, studying hard in his + evening leisure in the winters, and with time he could decipher for + himself, with assistance from Don Silverio, the annals of the + Tor'alba; and he saw that it was as certain as anything grown over + with the lichens and cobwebs of time can be that he himself was the + last of the race. +</p> +<p> + "Your father used to say something of the sort," his mother said; + "but he had only heard it piecemeal from old people, and never heard + enough to put the pieces together as you have done. 'What does it + matter either?' he used to say; and he said those great lords had + been cut-throats on the land and robbers on the river. For your + father's father had worn the red shirt in his youth, as I have told + you often, and thought but little of lords and princes." +</p> +<p> + But Adone was different; the past allured him with the fascination + which it has for poets and scholars; he was neither of these, except + in a vague, unconscious way; but his imagination was strong and + fertile once aroused; the past, as suggested to him by the vicar, by + degrees became to him a living thing and nearer than the present, as + it is to scholars who are poets. He was neither scholar nor poet; but + he loved to muse upon that far-off time when his forefathers had been + lords of the land and of the water. +</p> +<p> + He did not want the grandeur, he did not envy the power which they + had possessed; but he wished that, like them, he could own the Edera + from its rise in the hills to its fall into the sea. +</p> +<p> + "Oh, dear river!" he sang to it tenderly, "I love you. I love you as + the dragon-flies do, as the wagtails do, as the water voles do; I am + you and you are me. When I lean over you and smile, you smile back to + me. You are beautiful in the night and the morning, when you mirror + the moon and play with the sunbeams, when you are angry under the + wind, and when you are at peace in the heat of the noon. You have + been purple with the blood of my people, and now you are green and + fresh as the leaves of the young vine. You have been black with + powder and battle, now you are fair with the hue of the sky and the + blue of the myosotis. You are the same river as you were a thousand + years ago, and yet you only come down to-day from the high hills, + young and strong, and ever renewing. What is the life of man beside + yours?" +</p> +<p> + That was the ode which he sang in the dialect of the province, and + the stream washed his feet as he sang; and with his breath on his + long reed flute—the same flute as youths have made and used ever + since the days that Apollo reigned on Saracte—he copied the singing + of the river, which piped as it ran, like birds at dawn. +</p> +<p> + But this was only at such times as daybreak or early night when he + was alone. +</p> +<p> + There were but a few people within the ruined walls of Ruscino; most + of the houses were tenantless and tottering to their fall. A few old + bent men and weather-beaten women and naked children climbed its + steep lanes and slept under its red-brown roofs, bawled to each other + from its deep arched doorways to tell of death or birth, and gathered + dandelion leaves upon its ramparts to cure their shrunken and swollen + bladders. He knew them every one, he was familiar with and kind to + them; but he was aloof from them by temperament and thought, and he + showed them his soul no more than the night birds in the towers + showed their tawny breasts and eyes of topaz to the hungry and ragged + fowls which scratched amongst the dust and refuse on the stones in + the glare of day. +</p> +<p> + "<i>Il Bel Adone</i>!" sighed matrons and the maidens of the scattered + farms and the old gloomy castellated granges which here and there, + leagues distant from one another, broke the green and silent monotony + of the vast historic country whose great woods sloped from hill to + plain. But to these, too, he was indifferent, though they had the + stern and solid beauty of the Latium women on their broad low brows, + their stately busts, their ox-like eyes, their shapely feet and + limbs; and often, joined to that, the red-gold hair and the fair skin + of the Adriatic type. As they bound the sheaves, and bore the + water-jars, and went in groups through the seeding grass to chapel, + or fountain, or shrine, they had the free, frank grace of an earlier + time; just such as these had carried the votive doves to the altars + of Venus and chanted by the waters of the Edera the worship of Isis + and her son. But to Adone they had no charm. What did he desire or + dream of? Himself he could not have said. Perhaps they were too warm; + it was certain that they left him cold. +</p> +<p> + Sometimes he learned over the river and looked longingly into its + depths. +</p> +<p> + "Show me the woman I shall love," he said to the water, but it + hastened on, glad, tumultuous, unheeding; and he only saw the + reflection of the white jonquils or of the golden sword rush on its + banks. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0005"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + V +</h2> +<p> + Fruits ripen quickly in these provinces, and children become women in + a summer hour; but with Nerina, through want and suffering and + hunger, physical growth had been slow, and she remained long a child + in many things and many ways. Only in her skill and strength for work + was she older than her actual age. +</p> +<p> + She could hoe and reap and sow: she could row and steer the boat + amongst the shallows as well as any man; she could milk the cow, and + put the steers in the waggon; she could card hemp and flax, and weave + and spin either; she could carry heavy weights balanced on her head; + she was strong and healthy and never ill, and with it all she was + happy. Her large bright eyes were full of contentment, and her rosy + mouth often smiled out of the mere gladness of living. Her senses + were still asleep and her young soul wanted nothing more than life + gave her. +</p> +<p> + "You can earn your bread anywhere now, little one," said Clelia Alba + to her one day, when she had been there three years. +</p> +<p> + The girl shrank as under a blow; her brown and rosy face grew + colourless. "Do you wish me to go away?" she said humbly. +</p> +<p> + "No, no," said Clelia, although that was what she did desire. "No, + not while I live. But should I die, you could not stay here with my + son." +</p> +<p> + "Why?" said Nerina. She did not understand why. +</p> +<p> + Clelia hesitated. +</p> +<p> + "You ought to feel that yourself," she said harshly. "Young men and + young maids do not dwell together, unless" +</p> +<p> + "Unless what?" asked Nerina. +</p> +<p> + "You are a simpleton indeed, or you are shamming," thought Adone's + mother; but aloud she only said, "It is not in our usage." +</p> +<p> + "But you will not die," said Nerina anxiously. "Why should you think + of dying, madonna? You are certainly old, but you are not so very, + very old." +</p> +<p> + Clelia smiled. +</p> +<p> + "You do not flatter, child. So much the better. Run away and drive in + those fowls. They are making havoc in the beanfield." +</p> +<p> + She could not feel otherwise than tenderly towards this young + creature, always so obedient, so tractable, so contented, so + grateful; but she would willingly have placed her elsewhere could she + have done so with a clear conscience. +</p> +<p> + "My son will never do ill by any creature under his roof," she + thought. "But still youth is youth; and the girl grows." +</p> +<p> + "We must dower her and mate her; eh, your reverence?" she said to Don + Silverio when he passed by later in that day. +</p> +<p> + "Willingly," he answered. "But to whom? To the owls or the cats at + Ruscino?" +</p> +<p> + In himself he thought, "She is as straight and as slight as a + chestnut wand, but she is as strong. When you shall try to bend her + where she shall not want to go you will not succeed." +</p> +<p> + For he knew the character of Nerina in the confessional better than + Clelia Alba judged of it in her house. +</p> +<p> + "It was not wise to bring her here," he added aloud. "But having + committed that error it would be unfair to charge the child with the + painful payment of it. You are a just woman, my good friend; you must + see that." +</p> +<p> + Clelia saw it clearly, for she never tried to trick her conscience. +</p> +<p> + "Your reverence mistakes me," she answered. "I would not give her to + any but a good man and a good home." +</p> +<p> + "They are not common," said Don Silverio. "Nor are they as easy to + find as flies in summer." +</p> +<p> + What was the marriage of the poor for the woman? What did it bring? + What did it mean? The travail of child-bearing, the toil of the + fields, the hardship of constant want, the incessant clamour on her + ear of unsatisfied hunger, the painful rearing of sons whom the State + takes away from her as soon as they are of use, painful ending of + life on grudged crusts as a burden to others on a hearth no longer + her own. This, stripped of glamour, is the lot nine times out of ten + of the female peasant — a creature of burden like the cow she yokes, + an animal valued only in her youth and her prime; in old age or in + sickness like the stricken and barren goat, who has nought but its + skin and its bones. +</p> +<p> + Poor little Nerina! +</p> +<p> + As he went home he saw her cutting fodder for a calf; she was + kneeling in a haze of rose colour made by the many blossoms of the + <i>orchis maculat</i> which grew there. The morning light sparkled in the + wet grass. She got up as she saw him cross the field, dropped her + curtsey low with a smile, then resumed her work, the dew, the sun, + the sweet fresh scents shed on her like a benison. +</p> +<p> + "Poor little soul," thought Don Silverio. "Poor little soul! Has + Adone no eyes?" +</p> +<p> + Adone had eyes, but they saw other things than a little maiden in the + meadow-grass. +</p> +<p> + To her he was a deity; she believed in him and worshipped him with + the strongest faith, as a little sister might have done. She would + have fought for him like a little mastiff; she would have suffered in + his service with rapture and pride; she was as vigilant for his + interests as if she were fidelity incarnated. She watched over all + that belonged to him, and the people of Ruscino feared her more than + they feared Pierino the watch-dog. Woe betided the hapless wight who + made free with the ripe olives, or the ripe grapes, with the fig or + the peach or the cherry which grew on Adone's lands; it seemed to + such marauders that she had a thousand eyes and lightning in her + feet. +</p> +<p> + One day, when she had dealt such vigorous blows with a blackthorn + stick on the back of a lad who had tried to enter the fowl-house, + that he fell down and shrieked for pardon, Adone reproved her. + "Remember they are very poor, Nerina," he said to her. "So were your + own folks, you say." +</p> +<p> + "I know they are poor," replied Nerina; she held to her opinions. + "But when they ask, you always give. Therefore it is vile to rob you. + Besides," she added, "if you go on and let them steal and steal till + you will have nothing left." +</p> +<p> + Whatever she saw, whatever she heard, she told Adone; and he gave ear + to her because she was not a chatterer, but was usually of few words. + All her intelligence was spent in the defence and in the culture of + the Terra Vergine; she did not know her alphabet, and did not wish to + do so; but she had the quickest of ears, the keenest of eyes, the + brightest of brains. +</p> +<p> + One morning she came running to him where he was cutting barley. +</p> +<p> + "Adone! Adone!" she cried breathlessly, "there were strange men by + the river to-day." +</p> +<p> + "Indeed," said Adone astonished, because strangers were never seen + there. Ruscino was near no highroad, and the river had long ceased to + be navigable. +</p> +<p> + "They asked me questions, but I put my hands to my ears and shook my + head; they thought I was deaf." +</p> +<p> + "What sort of men were they?" he asked with more attention, for there + were still those who lived by violence up in the forests which + overhung the valley of the Edera. +</p> +<p> + "How do I know? They were clothed in long woollen bed-gowns, and they + had boots on their feet, and on their heads hats shaped like + kitchen-pans." +</p> +<p> + Adone smiled. He saw men from a town, or country fellows who aped + such men, with a contempt which was born at once of that artistic + sense of fitness which was in him, and of his adherence to the + customs and habits of his province. The city-bred and city-clothed + man looked to him a grotesque and helpless creature, much sillier + than an ape. +</p> +<p> + "That sounds like citizens or townsfolk. What did they say?" +</p> +<p> + "I could not understand; but they spoke of the water, I think, for + they pointed to it and said a great deal which I did not understand, + and seemed to measure the banks, and took your punt and threw a chain + into the water in places." +</p> +<p> + "Took castings? Used my punt? That is odd! I have never seen a + stranger in my life by the Edera. Were they anglers?" +</p> +<p> + "No." +</p> +<p> + "Or sportsmen?" +</p> +<p> + "They had no guns." +</p> +<p> + "How many were they?" +</p> +<p> + "Three. They went away up the river talking." +</p> +<p> + "Did they cross the bridge?" +</p> +<p> + "No. They were not shepherds, or labourers, or priests," said Nerina. + To these classes of men her own acquaintance was confined. +</p> +<p> + "Painters, perhaps?" said Adone; but no artists were ever seen there; + the existence even of the valley was scarcely known, except to + topographers. +</p> +<p> + "What are painters?" said Nerina. +</p> +<p> + "Men who sit and stare and then make splashes of colour." +</p> +<p> + "No; they did not do that." +</p> +<p> + "It is strange." +</p> +<p> + He felt vaguely uneasy that any had come near the water; as a lover + dislikes the pressure of a crowd about his beloved in a street, so he + disliked the thought of foreign eyes resting on the Edera. That they + should have used his little punt, always left amongst the sedges, + seemed to him a most offensive and unpardonable action. +</p> +<p> + He went to the spot where the intruders had been seen, but there was + no trace of them, except that the wet sand bore footprints of persons + who had, as she had said of them, worn boots. He followed these + footprints for some mile or more up the edge of the stream, but there + he lost them from sight; they had passed on to the grass of a level + place, and the dry turf, cropped by sheep to its roots, told no + tales. Near this place was a road used by cattle drivers and mules; + it crossed the heather for some thousand yards, then plunged into the + woods, and so went up over the hills to the town of Teramo, + thirty-five kilometres away. It was a narrow, rough, steep road, + wholly unfit for vehicles of any kind more tender than the rude + ox-treggia, slow as a snail, with rounds of a tree-trunk for its + wheels, and seldom used except by country folks. +</p> +<p> + He would have asked Don Silverio if he had heard or seen anything of + any strangers, but the priest was away that day at one of the lonely + moorland cabins comprised in his parish of Ruscino, where an old man, + who had been a great sinner in his past, was at his last gasp, and + his sons and grandsons and great-grandchildren all left him to meet + his end as he might. +</p> +<p> + It was a fine day, and they had their grain to get in, and even the + women were busy. They set a stoup of water by him, and put some in + his nostrils, and shut the door to keep out the flies. It was no use + to stay there they thought. If you helped a poor soul to give up the + ghost by a hand on his mouth, or an elbow in his stomach, you got + into trouble; it was safer to leave him alone when he was a-dying. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio had given the viaticum to the old man the night before, + not thinking he would outlive the night. He now found the door locked + and saw the place was deserted. He broke the door open with a few + kicks, and found the house empty save for the dying creature on the + sacks of leaves. +</p> +<p> + "They would not wait! They would not wait — hell take them!" said + the old man, with a groan, his bony hands fighting the air. +</p> +<p> + "Hush, hush! the holy oil is on you," said Don Silverio. "They knew I + should be here." +</p> +<p> + It was a charitable falsehood, but the brain of the old man was still + too awake to be deceived by it. +</p> +<p> + "Why locked they the door, then? Hell take them! They are reaping in + the lower fields — hell take them!" he repeated, his bony, toothless + jaws gnashing with each word. +</p> +<p> + He was eighty-four years old; he had been long the terror of his + district and of his descendants, and they paid him out now that he + was powerless; they left him alone in that sun-baked cabin, and they + had carefully put his crutch out of reach, so that if any force + should return to his paralysed body he should be unable to move. +</p> +<p> + It was the youngest of them, a little boy of seven years old, who had + thought to do that; the crutch had hit him so often. +</p> +<p> + The day had been only beginning when Don Silverio had reached the + cabin, but he resolved to await there the return of the family; its + hours were many and long and cruel in the midsummer heat, in this + foetid place, where more than a score of men, women, and children of + all ages, slept and swarmed through every season, and where the + floors of beaten earth were paven with filth three millimetres thick. + The people were absent, but their ordure, their urine, their lice, + their saliva were left there after them, and the stench of all was + concentrated on this bed where the old man wrestled with death. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio stayed on in the sultry and pestilent steam which rose + up from the floor. Gnats and flies of all kinds buzzed in the heavy + air, or settled in black knots on the walls and the rafters. With a + bunch of dried maize-leaves he drove them off the old man's face and + hands and limbs, and ever and again at intervals gave the poor + creature a draught of water with a few drops in it from a phial of + cordial which he had brought with him. The hours passed, each seeming + longer than a day; at last the convulsive twitching of the jaws + ceased; the jaw had fallen, the dark cavern of the toothless mouth + yawned in a set grimace, the vitreous eyes were turned up into the + head: the old man was dead. But Don Silverio did not leave him; two + sows and a hog were in a stye which was open to the house; he knew + that they would come and gnaw the corpse if it were left to them; + they were almost starving, and grunted angrily. +</p> +<p> + He spent so many vigils similar to this that the self-sacrifice + entailed in them never struck either him or those he served. +</p> +<p> + When the great heat had passed he set the door wide open; the sun was + setting; a flood of light inundated the plain from the near mountains + on the west, where the Leonessa towered, to those shadowy green + clouds which far away in the east were the marshes before the sea. + Through the ruddy glory of the evening the family returned, dark + figures against the gold; brown women, half-nude men, footsore + children, their steps dragging reluctantly homeward. +</p> +<p> + At the sight of the priest on the threshold they stopped and made + obeisance humbly in reverent salutation. +</p> +<p> + "Is he dead, most reverend?" said the eldest of the brood, a man of + sixty, touching the ground with his forehead. +</p> +<p> + "Your father is dead," said Don Silverio. +</p> +<p> + The people were still; relieved to hear that all was over, yet + vaguely terrified, rather by his gaze than by his words. A woman wept + aloud out of fear. +</p> +<p> + "We could net let the good grain spoil," said the eldest man, with + some shame in his voice. +</p> +<p> + "Pray that your sons may deal otherwise with you when your turn shall + come," said Don Silverio; and then he went through them, unmoved by + their prayers and cries, and passed across the rough grass-land out + of sight. +</p> +<p> + The oldest man, he who was now head of the house, remained prostrate + on the threshold and beat the dust with his hands and heels; he was + afraid to enter, afraid of that motionless, lifeless bag of bones of + which the last cry had been a curse at him. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio went on his way over the moors homeward, for he had no + means except his own limbs whereby to go his scattered parishioners. + When he reached the village and climbed its steep stones night had + long fallen and he was sorely tired. He entered by a door which was + never locked, and found an oil wick burning on his table, which was + set out with the brown crockery used for his frugal supper of cheese + and lettuce and bread. His old servant was abed. His little dog alone + was on the watch to welcome him. It was a poor, plain place, with + whitewashed walls and a few necessary articles of use; but it was + clean and sweet, its brick floors were sanded, and the night air blew + in from its open casement with the freshness from the river in it. + Its quiet was seldom disturbed except by the tolling of the bell for + the church services; and it was welcome to him after the toil and + heat and stench of the past day. +</p> +<p> + "My lot might have been worse," he thought, as he broke his loaf; he + was disinclined to eat; the filthy odours of the cabin pursued him. +</p> +<p> + He was used to have had a little weekly journal sent to him by the + post; which came at rare intervals on an ass's back to Ruscino, the + ass and his rider, with a meal sack half filled by the meagre + correspondence of the district, making the rounds of that part of the + province with an irregularity which seemed as natural to the + sufferers by it as to the postman himself. "He cannot be everywhere + at once," they said of him with indulgence. +</p> +<p> + When he reached his home that evening the little news-sheet was lying + on his table beside the brown crockery, the cheese, lettuces, and + bread. He scarcely touched the food; he was saddened and sickened by + the day he had passed, although there had been nothing new in it, + nothing of which he had not been witness a hundred times in the + cabins of his parishioners. The little paper caught his eye, he took + it and opened it. It was but a meagre thing, tardy of news, costing + only two centimes, but it was the only publication which brought him + any intelligence of that outer world from which he was as much + separated as though he had been on a deserted isle in mid-ocean. +</p> +<p> + By the pale light of the single wick he turned over its thin sheet to + distract his thoughts; there was war news in east and west, Church + news in his own diocese and elsewhere; news all ten days old and + more; political news also, scanty and timidly related. The name of + the stream running underneath the walls of Ruscino caught his regard; + a few lines were headed with it, and these lines said curtly: +</p> +<p> + "<i>The project to divert the course of the Edera river will be brought + before the Chamber shortly; the Minister of Agriculture is considered + to favour the project</i>." +</p> +<p> + He held the sheet nearer to the light and read the paragraph again, + and yet again. The words were clear and indisputable in their + meaning; they could not be misconstrued. There was but one river + Edera in the whole province, in the whole country; there could be no + doubt as to what river was meant; yet it seemed to him utterly + impossible that any such project could be conceived by any creature. + Divert the course of the Edera? He felt stupefied. He read the words + over and over again; then he read them aloud in the stillness of the + night, and his voice sounded strong in his own ears. +</p> +<p> + "It must be a misprint; it must be a mistake for the Era of Volterra, + or the Esino, north of Ancona," he said to himself, and he went to + his book closet and brought out an old folio geography which he had + once bought for a few pence on a Roman bookstall, spread it open + before him, and read one by one the names of all the streams of the + peninsula, from the Dora Baltea to the Giarretta. There was no other + Edera river. Unless it were indeed a misprint altogether, the stream + which flowed under his church walls was the one which was named in + the news-sheet. +</p> +<p> + "But it is impossible, it is impossible!" he said so loudly, that his + little dog awoke and climbed on his knee uneasily and in alarm. "What + could the people do? What could the village do, or the land or the + fisher folk? Are we to have drought added to hunger? Can they respect + nothing? The river belongs to the valley: to seize it, to appraise + it, to appropriate it, to make it away with it, would be as monstrous + as to steal his mother's milk from a yearling babe!" +</p> +<p> + He shut the folio and pushed it away from him across the table. "If + this is true," he said to himself, "if, anyhow, this monstrous thing + be true, it will kill Adone!" +</p> +<p> + In the morning he awoke from a short perturbed sleep with that heavy + sense of a vaguely remembered calamity which stirs in the awakening + brain like a worm in the unclosing flower. +</p> +<p> + The morning-office over, he sought out the little news-sheet, to make + sure that he had read aright; his servant had folded it up and laid + it aside on a shelf, he unfolded it with a hand which trembled; the + same lines stared at him in the warm light of sunrise as in the faint + glimmer of the floating wick. The very curtness and coldness of the + announcement testified to its exactitude. He did not any longer doubt + its truth; but there were no details, no explanations: he pondered on + the possibilities of obtaining them; it was useless to seek them in + the village or the countryside, the people were as ignorant as sheep. +</p> +<p> + Adone alone had intelligence, but he shrank from taking these tidings + to the youth, as he would have shrunk from doing him a physical hurt. + The news might be false or premature; many projects were discussed, + many schemes sketched out, many speculations set on foot which came + to nothing in the end: were this thing true, Adone would learn it all + too soon and read it on the wounded face of nature. Not at least + until he could himself be certain of its truth would he speak of it + to the young man whose fathers had been lords of the river. +</p> +<p> + His duties over for the forenoon, he went up the three hundred stairs + of his bell-tower, to the wooden platform, between the + machicolations. It was a dizzy height, and both stairs and roof were + in ruins, but he went cautiously, and was familiar with the danger. + The owls which bred there were so used to him that they did not stir + in their siesta as he passed them. He stood aloft in the glare of + noonday, and looked down on the winding stream as it passed under the + ruined walls of Ruscino, and growing, as it flowed, clearer and + clearer, and wilder and wilder, as it rushed over stones and + boulders, foaming and shouting, rushed through the heather on its way + towards the Marches. Under Ruscino it had its brown mountain colour + still, but as it ran it grew green as emeralds, blue as sapphires, + silver and white and gray like a dove's wings; it was unsullied and + translucent; the white clouds were reflected on it. It went through a + country lonely, almost deserted, only at great distances from one + another was there a group of homesteads, a cluster of stacks, a + conical cabin in some places where the woods gave place to pasture; + here and there were the ruins of a temple, of a fortress, of some + great marble or granite tomb; but there was no living creature in + sight except a troop of buffaloes splashing in a pool. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio looked down on its course until his dazzled eyes lost it + from sight in the glory of light through which it sped, and his heart + sank, and he would fain have been a woman to have wept aloud. For he + saw that its beauty and its solitude were such as would likely enough + tempt the spoilers. He saw that it lay fair and defenceless as a + maiden on her bed. +</p> +<p> + He dwelt out of the world now, but he had once dwelt in it; and the + world does not greatly change, it only grows more rapacious. He knew + that in this age there is only one law, to gain; only one duty, to + prosper: that nature is of no account, nor beauty either, nor repose, + nor ancient rights, nor any of the simple claims of normal justice. + He knew that if in the course of the river there would be gold for + capitalists, for engineers, for attorneys, for deputies, for + ministers, that then the waters of the Edera were in all probability + doomed. +</p> +<p> + He descended the rotten stairs slowly, with a weight as of lead at + his heart. He did not any longer doubt the truth of what he had read. + Who, or what, shall withstand the curse of its time? +</p> +<p> + "They have forgotten us so long," he thought, with bitterness in his + soul. "We have been left to bury our dead as we would, and to see the + children starve as they might; they remember us now, because we + possess something which they can snatch from us!" +</p> +<p> + He did not doubt any more. He could only wait: wait and see in what + form and in what time the evil would come to them. Meantime, he said + to himself, he would not speak of it to Adone, and he burned the + news-sheet. Administrations alter frequently and unexpectedly, and + the money-changers, who are fostered by them, sometimes fall with + them, and their projects remain in the embryo of a mere prospectus. + There was that chance. +</p> +<p> + He knew that, in the age he lived in, all things were estimated only + by their value to commerce or to speculation; that there was neither + space nor patience amongst men for what was, in their reckoning, + useless; that the conqueror was now but a trader in disguise; that + civilisation was but the shibboleth of traffic; that because trade + follows the flag, therefore to carry the flag afar, thousands of + young soldiers of every nationality are slaughtered annually in + poisonous climes and obscure warfare, because such is the <i>suprema + lex</i> and will of the trader. If the waters of Edera would serve to + grind any grit for the mills of modern trade they would be taken into + bondage with many other gifts of nature as fair and as free as they + were. All creation groaned and travailed in pain that the great + cancer should spread. +</p> +<p> + "It is not only ours," he remembered with a pang; on its way to and + from the Valdedera the river passed partially through two other + communes, and water belongs to the district in which it runs. True, + the country of each of these was like that of this valley, + depopulated and wild; but, however great a solitude any land may be, + it is still locally and administratively dependent on the chief town + of its commune. Ruscino and its valley were dependent on San Beda; + these two other communes were respectively under a little town of the + Abruzzo and under a seaport of the Adriatic. +</p> +<p> + The interest of the valley of the Edera in its eponymous stream was a + large share; but it was not more than a share, in this gift of + nature. If it came to any question of conflicting interests, Ruscino + and the valley might very likely be powerless, and could only, in any + event, be represented by and through San Beda; a strongly + ecclesiastical and papal little place, and, therefore, without + influence with the ruling powers, and consequently viewed with an + evil eye by the Prefecture. +</p> +<p> + He pondered anxiously on the matter for some days, then, arduous as + the journey was, he resolved to go to San Beda and inquire. +</p> +<p> + The small mountain city was many miles away upon a promontory of + marble rocks, and its many spires and towers were visible only in + afternoon light from the valley of the Edera. It was as old as + Ruscino, a dull, dark, very ancient place with monasteries and + convents like huge fortresses and old palaces still fortified and + grim as death amongst them. A Cistercian monastery, which had been + chiefly built by the second Giulio, crowned a prominent cliff, which + dominated the town, and commanded a view of the whole of the valley + of the Edera, and, on the western horizon, of the Leonessa and her + tributary mountains and hills. +</p> +<p> + He had not been there for five years; he went on foot, for there was + no other means of transit, and if there had been he would not have + wasted money on it; the way was long and irksome; for the latter + half, entirely up a steep mountain road. He started in the early + morning as soon as Mass had been celebrated, and it was four in the + afternoon before he had passed the gates of the town, and paid his + respects to the Bishop. He rested in the Certosa, of which the + superior was known to him; the monks, like the Bishop, had heard + nothing. So far as he could learn when he went into the streets no + one in the place had heard anything of the project to alter the + course of the river. He made the return journey by night, so as to + reach his church by daybreak, and was there in his place by the high + altar when the bell tolled at six o'clock, and the three or four old + people, who never missed an office, were kneeling on the stones. +</p> +<p> + He had walked over forty miles, and had eaten nothing except some + bread and a piece of dried fish. But he always welcomed physical + fatigue; it served to send to sleep the restless intellect, the + gnawing regrets, the bitter sense of wasted powers and of useless + knowledge, which were his daily company. +</p> +<p> + He had begged his friends, the friars, to obtain an interview with + the Syndic of Sand Beda, and interrogate him on the subject. Until he + should learn something positive he could not bring himself to speak + of the matter to Adone: but the fact of his unusual absence had too + much astonished his little community for the journey not to have been + the talk of Ruscino. Surprised and disturbed like others, Adone was + waiting for him in the sacristy after the first mass. +</p> +<p> + "You have been away a whole day and night and never told me, + reverendissimo!" he cried in reproach and amazement. +</p> +<p> + "I have yet to learn that you are my keeper," said Don Silverio with + a cold and caustic intonation. +</p> +<p> + Adone coloured to the roots of his curling hair. +</p> +<p> + "That is unkind, sir!" he said humbly; "I only meant that — that —" +</p> +<p> + "I know, I know!" said the priest impatiently, but with contrition. + "You meant only friendship and good-will; but there are times when + the best intentions irk one. I went to see the Prior of the Certosa, + and old friend; I had business in San Beda." +</p> +<p> + Adone was silent, afraid that he had shown an unseemly curiosity; he + saw that Don Silverio was irritated and not at ease, and he hesitated + what words to choose. +</p> +<p> + His friend relented, and blamed himself for being hurried by + disquietude into harshness. +</p> +<p> + "Come and have a cup of coffee with me, my son," he said in his old, + kind tones. "I am going home to break my fast." +</p> +<p> + But Adone was hurt and humiliated, and made excuse of field work, + which pressed by reason of the weather, and so he did not name to his + friend and councillor the visit of the three men to the river. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio went home and boiled his coffee; he always did this + himself; it was the only luxury he ever allowed himself, and he did + not indulge even in this very often. But for once the draught had + neither fragrance nor balm for him. He was overtired, weary in mind + as in body, and greatly dejected; even though nothing was known at + San Beda he felt convinced that what he had read was the truth. +</p> +<p> + He knew but little of affairs of speculation, but he knew that it was + only in reason to suppose that such projects would be kept concealed, + as long as might be expedient, from those who would be known to be + hostile to them, in order to minimise the force of opposition. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0006"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + VI +</h2> +<p> + On the morning of the fourth day which followed on the priest's visit + to San Beda, about ten in the forenoon, Adone, with his two oxen, + Orlando and Rinaldo, were near the river on that part of his land + which was still natural moorland, and on which heather, and ling, and + broom, and wild roses, and bracken grew together. He had come to cut + a waggon load of furze, and had been at work there since eight + o'clock, when he had come out of the great porch of the church after + attending mass, for it was the twentieth of June, the name-day of Don + Silverio. +</p> +<p> + Scarcely had that day dawned when Adone had risen and had gone across + the river to the presbytery, bearing with him a dozen eggs, two + flasks of his best wine, and a bunch of late-flowering roses. They + were his annual offerings on this day; he felt some trepidation as he + climbed the steep, stony, uneven street lest they should be rejected, + for he was conscious that three evenings before he had offended Don + Silverio, and had left the presbytery too abruptly. But his fears + were allayed as soon as he entered the house; the vicar was already + up and dressed, and was about to go to the church. At the young man's + first contrite words Don Silverio stopped him with a kind smile. +</p> +<p> + "I was impatient and to blame," he said as he took the roses. "You + heap coals of fire on my head, my son, with your welcome gifts." +</p> +<p> + Then together they had gone to the quaint old church of which the one + great bell was tolling. +</p> +<p> + Mass over, Adone had gone home, broken his fast, taken off his velvet + jacket, his long scarlet waistcoat, and his silver-studded belt, and + put the oxen to the pole of the waggon. +</p> +<p> + "Shall I come?" cried Nerina. +</p> +<p> + "No," he answered. "Go and finish cutting the oats in the triangular + field." +</p> +<p> + Always obedient, she went, her sickle swinging to her girdle. She was + sorry, but she never murmured. +</p> +<p> + Adone had been at work amongst the furze two hours when old Pierino, + who always accompanied the oxen, got up, growled, and then barked. +</p> +<p> + "What is it, old friend?" asked Adone, and left off his work and + listened. He heard voices by the waterside, and steps on the loose + shingle of its shrunken summer bed. He went out of the wild growth + round him and looked. There were four men standing and talking by the + water. They were doubtless the same persons as Nerina had seen, for + they were evidently men from a city and strangers. Disquietude and + offence took alarm in him at once. +</p> +<p> + He conquered that shyness which was natural to him, and which was due + to the sensitiveness of his temperament and the solitude in which he + had been reared. +</p> +<p> + "Excuse me, sirs," he said, as he advanced to them with his head + uncovered; "what is it you want with my river?" +</p> +<p> + "Your river!" repeated the head of the group, and he smiled. "How is + it more yours than your fellows?" +</p> +<p> + Adone advanced nearer. +</p> +<p> + "The whole course of the water belonged to my ancestors," he + answered, "and this portion at least is mine now; you stand on my + ground; I ask you what is your errand?" +</p> +<p> + He spoke with courtesy, but in a tone of authority which seemed to + the intruders imperious and irritating. But they controlled their + annoyance; they did not wish to offend this haughty young peasant. +</p> +<p> + "To be owner of the water it is necessary to own both banks of it," + the stranger replied politely, but with some impatience. "The + opposite bank is communal property. Do not fear, however, whatever + your rights may be they will be carefully examined and considered." +</p> +<p> + "By whom? They concern only myself." +</p> +<p> + "None of our rights concern only ourselves. What are those which you + claim in special on the Edera water?" +</p> +<p> + Adone was silent for a few moments; he was astonished and + embarrassed; he had never reflected on the legal side of his claim to + the river; he had grown up in love and union with it; such + affections, born with us at birth, are not analysed until they are + assailed. +</p> +<p> + "You are strangers," he replied. "But what right do you question me? + I was born here. What is your errand?" +</p> +<p> + "You must be Adone Alba?" said the person, as if spokesman for the + others. +</p> +<p> + "I am." +</p> +<p> + "And you own the land known as the Terra Vergine?" +</p> +<p> + "I do." +</p> +<p> + "You will hear from us in due time, then. Meantime" +</p> +<p> + "Meantime you trespass on my ground. Leave it, sirs." +</p> +<p> + The four strangers drew a few paces, and conferred together in a low + tone, consulting a sheaf of papers. Their council over, he who + appeared the most conspicuous in authority turned again to the young + man, who was watching them with a vague apprehension which he could + not explain to himself. +</p> +<p> + "There is no question of trespass; the river-side is free to all," + said the stranger, with some contempt. "Courtesy would become you + better, Sir Adone." +</p> +<p> + Adone coloured. He knew that courtesy was at all times wise, and + useful, and an obligation amongst men; but his anger was stronger + than his prudence and his vague alarm was yet stronger still. +</p> +<p> + "Say your errand with the water," he replied imperiously. "Then I can + judge of it. No one, sirs, comes hither against my will." +</p> +<p> + "You will hear from us in due time," answered the intruder. "And + believe me, young man, you may lose much, you cannot gain anything, + by rudeness and opposition." +</p> +<p> + "Opposition to what?" +</p> +<p> + The stranger turned his back upon him, rolled up his papers, spoke + again with his companions, and lifted from a large stone on which he + had placed it a case of surveyor's instruments. Adone went close up + to him. "Opposition to what? What is it you are doing here?" +</p> +<p> + "We are not your servants," said the gentleman with impatience. "Do + not attempt any brawling I advise you; it will tell against you and + cannot serve you in any way." +</p> +<p> + "The soil and the water are mine, and you meddle with them," said + Adone. "If you were honest men you would not be ashamed of what you + do, and would declare your errand. Brawling is not in my habit; but I + will drive my oxen over you. The land and the waters are mine." +</p> +<p> + The chief of the group gave a disdainful, incredulous gesture, but + the others pulled him by the sleeve and argued with him in low tones + and a strange tongue, which Adone thought was German. The leader of + the group was a small man with a keen and mobile face and piercing + eyes; he did not yield easily to the persuasions of his companions; + he was disposed to be combative; he was offended by what seemed to + him the insults of a mere peasant. +</p> +<p> + Adone went back to his oxen, standing dozing with drooped heads; he + gathered up the reins of rope and mounted the waggon, raising the + heads of the sleepy beasts. He held his goad in his hand; the golden + gorze was piled behind him; he was in full sunlight, his hair was + lifted by the breeze from his forehead; his face was flushed and set + and stern. They saw that he would keep his word and drive down on to + them, and make his oxen knock them down and the wheels grind their + bodies into pulp. They had no arms of any kind, they felt they had no + choice but to submit: and did so, with sore reluctance. +</p> +<p> + "He looks like a young god," said one of them with an angry laugh. + "Mortals cannot fight against the gods." +</p> +<p> + With discomfiture they retreated before him and went along the grassy + path northward, as Nerina had seen them do on the day of their first + arrival. +</p> +<p> + So far Adone had conquered. +</p> +<p> + But no joy or pride of a victor was with him. He stood and watched + them pass away with a heavy sense of impending ill upon him; the + river was flowing joyously, unconscious of its doom, but on him, + though he knew nothing, and conceived nothing, of the form which the + approaching evil would take, a great weight of anxiety descended. +</p> +<p> + He got down from the waggon when he had seen them disappear, and + continued his uninterrupted work amongst the furze; and he remained + on the same spot long after the waggon was filled, lest in his + absence the intruders should return. Only when the sun set did he + turn the heads of the oxen homeward. +</p> +<p> + He said nothing to the women, but when he had stalled and fed his + cattle he changed his leathern breeches and put a clean shirt on his + back, and went down the twilit fields and across the water to + Ruscino; he told his mother that he would sup with Don Silverio. +</p> +<p> + When Adone entered the book-room his friend was seated at a deal + table laden with volumes and manuscripts, but he was neither writing + nor reading, nor had he lighted his lamp. The moonlight shone through + the vine climbing up and covering the narrow window. He looked up and + saw by Adone's countenance that something was wrong. +</p> +<p> + "What are they coming for, sir, to the river?" said the young man as + he uncovered his head on the threshold of the chamber. Don Silverio + hesitated to reply; in the moonlight his features looked like a mask + of a dead man, it was so white and its lines so deep. +</p> +<p> + "Why do they come to the river, these strangers?" repeated Adone. + "They would not say. They were on my land. I threatened to drive my + cattle over them. Then they went. But can you guess, sir, why they + come?" +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio still hesitated. Adone repeated his question with more + insistence; he came up to the table and leaned his hands upon it, and + looked down on the face of his friend. +</p> +<p> + "Why do they come?" he repeated a fourth time. "They must have some + reason. Surely you know?" +</p> +<p> + "Listen, Adone, and control yourself," said Don Silverio. "I saw + something in a journal a few days ago which made me go to San Beda. + But there they knew nothing at all of what the newspaper had stated. + What I said startled and alarmed them. I begged the Prior to acquaint + me if he heard of any scheme affecting us. To-day, only, he has sent + a young monk over with a letter to me, for it was only yesterday that + he heard that there is a project in Rome to turn the river out of its + course, and use it for hydraulic power; to what purpose he does not + know. The townsfolk of San Beda are in entire sympathy with this + district and against the scheme, which will only benefit a foreign + syndicate. That is all I know, for it is all he knows; he took his + information direct from the syndic, Count Corradini. My boy, my dear + boy, control yourself!" +</p> +<p> + Adone had dropped down on a chair, and leaning his elbow on the table + hid his face upon his hands. A tremor shook his frame from head to + foot. +</p> +<p> + "I knew it was some deviltry," he muttered. "Oh, Lord! oh, Lord! + would that I had made the oxen trample them into thousand pieces! + They ought never to have left my field alive!" +</p> +<p> + "Hush, hush!" said the priest sternly. "I cannot have such language + in my house. Compose yourself." +</p> +<p> + Adone raised his head; his eyes were alight as with fire; his face + was darkly red. +</p> +<p> + "What, sir! You tell me the river is to be taken away from us, and + you ask me to be calm! It is not in human nature to bear such a wrong + in peace. Take away the Edera! Take away the water! They had better + cut our throats. What! a poor wretch who steals a few grapes off a + vine, a few eggs from a hen roost, is called a thief and hounded to + the galleys, and such robbery as this is to be borne in silence + because the thieves wear broadcloth! It cannot be. It cannot be; I + swear it shall never be whilst I have life. The river is mine. We + reigned here three hundred years and more; you have told me so. It is + written on the parchments. I will hold my own." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio was silent; he was silent from remorse. He had told + Adone what, without him, Adone would have lived and died never + knowing or dreaming. He had thought only to stimulate the youth to + gentle conduct, honourable pride, perhaps to some higher use of his + abilities: no more than this. +</p> +<p> + He had never seen the young man thus violent and vehement; he had + always found him tranquil to excess, difficult to rouse, slow to + anger, indeed almost incapable of it; partaking of the nature of the + calm and docile cattle with whom so much of his time was passed. But + under the spur of an intolerable menace the warrior's blood which + slumbered in Adone leapt to action; all at once the fierce temper of + the lords of Ruscino displayed its fire and its metal; it was not the + peasant of the Terra Vergine who was before him now, but the heir of + the seigneury of the Rocca. +</p> +<p> + "It is not only what I told him of his race," he thought. "If he had + known nothing, none the less would the blood in his veins have + stirred and the past have moved him." +</p> +<p> + Aloud he said: +</p> +<p> + "My son, I feel for you from the depths of my soul. I feel with you + also. For if these foreigners take the river-water from us what will + become of my poor, desolate people, only too wretched already as they + are? You would not be alone in your desperation, Adone. But do not + let us take alarm too quickly. This measure is in gestation; but it + may never come to birth. Many such projects are discussed which from + one cause or another are not carried out; this one must pass through + many preliminary phases before it becomes fact. There must be surely + many vested rights which cannot with impunity be invaded. Take + courage. Have patience." +</p> +<p> + He paused, for he saw that for the first time since they had known + each other, Adone was not listening to him. +</p> +<p> + Adone was staring up at the moon which hung, golden and full, in the + dark blue sky, seeming framed in the leaves and coils of the vine. +</p> +<p> + "The river is mine," he muttered. "The river and I are as brothers. + They shall kill me before they touch the water." +</p> +<p> + "He will go mad or commit some great crime," thought his friend, + looking at him. "We must move every lever and strain every nerve, to + frustrate this scheme, to prevent this spoliation. But if the thieves + see money in it who shall stay their hands?" +</p> +<p> + He rose and laid his hands on Adone's shoulders. +</p> +<p> + "To-night you are in no fitting state for calm consideration of this + possible calamity. Go home, my son. Go to your room. Say nothing to + your mother. Pray and sleep. In the forenoon come to me and we will + speak of the measures which it may be possible to take to have this + matter examined and opposed. We are very poor; but still we are not + altogether helpless. Only, there must be no violence. You wrong + yourself and you weaken a good cause by such wild threats. + Good-night, my son. Go home." +</p> +<p> + The long habit of obedience to his superior, and the instinctive + docility of his temper compelled Adone to submit; he drew a long, + deep breath and the blood faded from his face. +</p> +<p> + Without a word he turned from the table and wept out of the + presbytery into the night and the white glory of the moonshine. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0007"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + VII +</h2> +<p> + Don Silverio drew to him his unfinished letter to the Prior; the + young monk who would take it back in the morning to San Beda was + already asleep in a little chamber above. But he could not write, he + was too perturbed and too anxious. Although he had spoken so calmly + he was full of carking care; both for the threatened evil in itself, + and for its effects upon his parishioners; and especially upon Adone. + He knew that in this age it is more difficult to check the devouring + monster of commercial covetousness than it ever was to stay the Bull + of Crete; and that for a poor and friendless community to oppose a + strong and wealthy band of speculators is indeed for the wooden lance + to shiver to atoms on the brazen shield. +</p> +<p> + He left his writing table and extinguished his lamp. Bidding the + little dog lie still upon his chair, he went through the house to a + door which opened from it into the bell tower of his church and which + allowed him to go from the house to the church without passing out + into the street. He climbed the belfry stairs once more, lighting + himself at intervals by striking a wooden match; for through the + narrow loopholes in the walls the moonbeams did not penetrate. He + knew the way so well that he could have gone up and down those + rotting stairs even in total darkness, and he safely reached the + platform of the bell tower, though one halting step might have sent + him in that darkness head foremost to his death. +</p> +<p> + He stood there, and gazed downwards on the moonlit landscape far + below, over the roofs and the walls of the village towards the open + fields and the river, with beyond that the wooded country and the + cultured land known as the Terra Vergine, and beyond those again the + moors, the marshes, and the mountains. The moonlight shone with + intense clearness on the waters of the Edera and on the stone + causeway of the old one-arched bridge. On the bridge there was a + figure moving slowly; he knew it to be that of Adone. Adone was going + home. +</p> +<p> + He was relieved from the pressure of one immediate anxiety, but his + apprehensions for the future were great, both for the young man and + for the people of Ruscino and its surrounding country. To take away + their river was to deprive them of the little which they had to make + life tolerable and to supply the means of existence. Its winter + overflow nourished the fields which they owned around it, and the + only cornmill of the district worked by a huge wheel in its water. If + the river were turned out of its course above Ruscino the whole of + this part of the vale would be made desolate. +</p> +<p> + Life was already hard for the human creatures in these fair scenes on + which he looked; without the river their lot would be intolerable. +</p> +<p> + "Forbid it, O Lord! Forbid this monstrous wrong," he said, as he stood + with bared head under the starry skies. +</p> +<p> + When the people of a remote place are smitten by a public power the + blow falls on them as unintelligible in its meaning, as invisible in + its agency, as a thunderbolt is to the cattle whom it slays in their + stalls. Even Don Silverio, with his classic culture and his + archæological learning, had little comprehension of the means and + methods by which these enterprises were combined and carried out; the + world of commerce and speculation is as aloof from the scholar and + the recluse as the rings of Saturn or the sun of Aldebaran. Its + mechanism, its intentions, its combinations, its manners of action, + its ways of expenditure, its intrigues with banks and governments: + all these, to men who dwell in rural solitudes, aloof from the babble + of crowds, are utterly unknown; the very language of the Bourses has + no more meaning to them than the jar of wheels or roar of steam. +</p> +<p> + He stood and looked with a sinking heart on the quiet, moonlit + country, and the winding course of the water where it flowed, now + silvery in the light, now black in the gloom, passing rapidly through + the heather and the sallows under the gigantic masses of the Etruscan + walls. It seemed to him to the full as terrible as to Adone; but it + did not seem to him so utterly impossible, because he knew more of + the ways of men and of their unhesitating and immeasurable cruelty + whenever their greed was excited. If the fury of speculation saw + desirable prey in the rape of the Edera then the Edera was doomed, + like the daughter of Ædipus or the daughter of Jephtha. +</p> +<p> + Adone had gone across the bridge, but he had remained by the + waterside. +</p> +<p> + "Pray and sleep!" Don Silverio had said in his last words. But to + Adone it seemed that neither prayer nor sleep would ever come to him + again so long as this impending evil hung over him and the water of + Edera. +</p> +<p> + He spent the first part of that summer night wandering aimlessly up + and down his own bank, blind to the beauty of the moonlight, deaf to + the songs of the nightingales, his mind filled with one thought. An + hour after midnight he went home and let himself into the silent + house by a small door which opened at the back, and which he used on + such rare occasions as he stayed out late. He struck a match and went + up to his room, and threw himself, dressed, upon his bed. His mother + was listening for his return, but she did not call to him. She knew + he was a man now, and must be left to his own will. +</p> +<p> + "What ails Adone that he is not home?" had asked old Gianna. Clelia + Alba had been herself perturbed by his absence at that hour, but she + had answered:— +</p> +<p> + "What he likes to tell, he tells. Prying questions make false + tongues. I have never questioned him since he was breeched." +</p> +<p> + "There are not many women like you," had said Gianna, partly in + admiration, half in impatience. +</p> +<p> + "Adone is a boy for you and me," had replied his mother. "But for + himself and for all others he is a man. We must remember it." +</p> +<p> + Gianna had muttered mumbled, rebellious words; he did not seem other + than a child to her; she had been one of those present at this birth + on the shining sands of the Edera. +</p> +<p> + He could not sleep. He could only listen to the distant murmur of the + river. With dawn the women awoke. Nerina came running down the steep + stone stair and went to let out and feed her charges, the fowls. + Gianna went to the well in the court with her bronze pitcher and + pail. Clelia Alba cut great slices of bread at the kitchen table; and + hooked the cauldron of maize flour to the chain above the fire on the + kitchen hearth. He could not wait for their greetings, their + questions, the notice which his changed mien would surely attract. + For the first time in all his twenty-four years of life he went out + of the house without a word to his mother, and took his way to the + river again; for the first time he was neglectful of his cattle and + forgetful of the land. +</p> +<p> + Nerina came in from the fowl-house with alarm on her face. +</p> +<p> + "Madama Clelia!" she said timidly, "Adone has gone away without + feeding and watering the oxen. May I do it?" +</p> +<p> + "Can you manage them, little one?" +</p> +<p> + "Oh, yes; they love me." +</p> +<p> + "Go then; but take care." +</p> +<p> + "She is a good child!" said Gianna. "The beasts won't hurt her. They + know their friends." +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba, to whom her own and her son's dignity was dear, said + nothing of her own displeasure and surprise at Adone's absence. But + she was only the more distressed by it. Never, since he had been old + enough to work at all, had he been missing in the hours of labour. +</p> +<p> + "I only pray," she thought, "that no woman may have hold of him." +</p> +<p> + Adone hardly knew what he did; he was like a man who has had a blow + on the temple; his sight was troubled; his blood seemed to burn in + his brain. He wandered from habit through the field and down to the + river, to the spot where from his infancy he had been used to bathe. + He took off his clothes and waded into the water, which was cold as + snow after the night. The shock of the cold, and the sense of the + running current laving his limbs, restored him in a measure to + himself. He swam down the stream in the shadow of the early morning. + The air was full of the scent of dog-roses and flowering thyme; he + turned on his back and floated; between him and the sky a hawk + passed; the bell of the church was tolling for the diurnal mass. He + ran along in the sun, as it grew warm, to dry his skin by movement, + as his wont was. He was still stupefied by the fear which had fallen + upon him; but the water had cooled and braced him. +</p> +<p> + He had forgotten his mother, the cattle, the labours awaiting him; + his whole mind was absorbed in this new horror sprung up in his path, + none knew from where, or by whom begotten. The happy, unconscious + stream ran singing at his feet as the nightingale sang in the acacia + thickets, its brown mountain water growing green and limpid as it + passed over submerged grass and silver sand. +</p> +<p> + How could any thieves conspire to take it from the country in which + it was born? How could any dare to catch it, and imprison it, and put + it to vile uses? It was a living thing, a free thing, a precious + thing, more precious than jewel or gold. Both jewels and gold the law + protected. Could it not protect the Edera? +</p> +<p> + "Something must be done," he said to himself. "But what?" +</p> +<p> + He had not the faintest knowledge of what could or should be done; he + regretted that he had not written his mark with the horns and the + hoofs of his oxen on the foreign invaders; they might never again + fall into his power. +</p> +<p> + He had never felt before such ferocious or cruel instincts as arose + in him now. Don Silverio seemed to him tame and lukewarm before this + monstrous conspiracy of strangers. He knew that a priest must not + give way to anger; yet it seemed to him that even a priest should be + roused to fury here; there was a wrath which was holy. +</p> +<p> + When he was clothed he stood and looked down again at the gliding + stream. +</p> +<p> + A feeble, cracked voice called to him from the opposite bank. +</p> +<p> + "Adone, my lad, what is this tale?" +</p> +<p> + The speaker was an old man of eighty odd years, a native of Ruscino, + one Patrizio Cambi, who was not yet too feeble to cut the rushes and + osiers, and maintained a widowed daughter and her young children by + that means. +</p> +<p> + "What tale?" said Adone, unwilling to be roused from his own dark + thoughts. "What tale, Trizio?" +</p> +<p> + "That they are going to meddle with the river," answered the old man. + "They can't do it, can they?" +</p> +<p> + "What have you heard?" +</p> +<p> + "That they are going to meddle with the river." +</p> +<p> + "In what way?" +</p> +<p> + "The Lord knows, or the devil. There was a waggon with four horses + came as near as it could get to us in the woods yonder by Ruffo's, + and the driver told Ruffo that the gentry he drove had come by road + from that town by the sea— I forget its name— in order to see the + river, this river, our river; and that he had brought another posse + of gentry two weeks or more on the same errand, and that they were + a-measuring and a-plumbing it, and that they were going to get + possession of its somehow or other, but Ruffo could not hear anything + more than that; and I supposed that you knew, because this part of it + is yours if it be any man's; this part of it that runs through the + Terra Vergine." +</p> +<p> + "Yes, it is mine," answered Adone very slowly. "It is mine here, and + it was once ours from source to sea." +</p> +<p> + "Aye, it is ours!" said old Trizio Cambi mistaking him. He was a man + once tall, but now bent nearly double; he had a harsh, wrinkled face, + brown as a hazel nut, and he was nearly a skeleton; but he had eyes + which were still fine and still had some fire in them. In his youth + he had been a Garibaldino. +</p> +<p> + "It is ours," repeated Trizio. "At least if anything belongs to poor + folks. What say you, Adone?" +</p> +<p> + "Much belongs to the poor, but others take it from them," said Adone. + "You have seen a hawk take a sparrow, Trizio. The poor count no more + than the sparrows." +</p> +<p> + "But the water is the gift of God," said the old man. +</p> +<p> + Adone did not answer. +</p> +<p> + "What can we do?" said Trizio, wiping the dew off his sickle. "Who + knows aught of us? Who cares? If the rich folks want the river they + will take it, curse them!" +</p> +<p> + Adone did not answer. He knew that it was so, all over the earth. +</p> +<p> + "We shall know no more than birds tangled in a net," said Trizio. + "They will come and work their will." +</p> +<p> + Adone rose up out of the grass. "I will go and see Ruffo," he said. + He was glad to do something. +</p> +<p> + "Ruffo knows no more than that," said Trizio angrily. "The driver of + the horses knew no more." +</p> +<p> + Adone paid him no need, but began to push his way through the thick + network of the interlaced heather. He thought that perhaps Ruffo, a + man who made wooden shoes, and hoops for casks, and shaped chestnut + poles for vines, might tell him more than had been told to old + Trizio; might at least be able to suggest from what quarter and in + what shape this calamity was rising, to burst over their valley as a + hailstorm broods above, then breaks, on helpless fields and + defenceless gardens, beating down without warning the birds and the + blossoms of spring. +</p> +<p> + When he had been in Lombardy he had seen once a great steam-engine at + work, stripping a moorland of its natural growth and turning it into + ploughed land. He remembered how the huge machine with its stench of + oil and fire had forced its way through the furze and ferns and wild + roses and myrtle, and torn them up, and flung them on one side, and + scattered and trampled all the insect life, and all the bird life, + and all the hares, and field mice, and stoats, and hedgehogs, who + made their home there. "A fine sight," a man had said to him; and he + had answered, "A cursed wickedness." Was this what they would do to + the vale of Edera? If they took the river they could not spare the + land. He felt scared, bruised, terrified, like one of these poor + moorland hares. He remembered a poor stoat which, startled out of its + sleep, had turned and bitten one of the iron wheels of the machine, + and the wheel had gone over it and crushed it into a mass of blood + and fur. He was as furious and as helpless as the stoat had been. +</p> +<p> + But when he had walked the four miles which separated the Terra + Vergine from the chestnut woods where the maker of wooden shoes + lived, he heard nothing else from Ruffo than this: that gentlemen had + come from Teramo to study the Edera water; they were going to turn it + aside and use it; more than that the man who had driven them had not + heard and could not explain. +</p> +<p> + "There were four horses, and he had nothing to give them but water + and grass," said the cooper. "The gentry brought wine and food for + themselves. They came the day before yesterday and slept here. They + went away this morning. They paid me well, oh, very well. I did what + I could for them. It is five-and-thirty miles if one off Teramo, aye, + nearer forty. They followed the old posting road; but you know where + it enters the woods it is all overgrown, and gone to rack and ruin, + from want of use. In my grandfather's time it was a fine, well-kept + highway, with posthouses every ten miles, though a rare place for + robbery; but nowadays nobody wants it at all, for nobody comes or + goes. It will soon be blocked, so the driver says; it will soon be + quite choked up what with brambles, and rocks, and fallen trees, and + what not. He was black with rage, for he was obliged to go back as he + had come, and he said he had been cheated into the job." +</p> +<p> + Adone listened wearily to the garrulous Ruffo, who emphasised each + phrase with a blow of his little hammer on a shoe. He had wasted all + his morning hours, and learned nothing. He felt like a man who is + lost in a strange and deserted country at night; he could find no + clue, could see no light. Perhaps if he went to the seaport town, + which was the Prefecture, he might hear something? +</p> +<p> + But he had never left the valley of the Edera except for that brief + time which he had passed under arms in the north. He felt that he had + no means, no acquaintance, no knowledge, whereby he could penetrate + the mystery of this scheme. He did not even know the status of the + promoters, or the scope of their speculation. The Prefecture was + placed in a port on the Adriatic which had considerable trade to the + Dalmatian and Greek coasts, but he scarcely knew its name. If he went + there what could he do or learn? Would the stones speak, or the waves + tell that which he thirsted to know? What use was the martial blood + in his veins? He could not strike an invisible foe. +</p> +<p> + "Don't go to meet trouble half way," said the man Ruffo, meaning + well. "I may have mistaken the driver. They cannot take hold of a + river, how should they? Water slips through your fingers. Where it + was set running in the beginning of the world, there it will go on + running till the crack of doom. Let them look; let them prate; they + can't take it." +</p> +<p> + But Adone's reason would not allow him to be so consoled. +</p> +<p> + He understood a little of what hydraulic science can compass; he knew + what canalisation meant, and its assistance to traffic and trade; he + had seen the waterworks on the Po, on the Adige, on the Mincio; he + had heard how the Velino had been enslaved for the steel foundry of + Terni, how the Nerino fed the ironworks of Narni; he had seen the + Adda captive at Lodi, and the lakes held in bond at Mantua; he had + read of the water drawn from Monte Amiata; and not very many miles + off him, in the Abruzzo, was that hapless Fuscino, which had been + emptied and dried up by rich meddlers of Rome. +</p> +<p> + He knew also enough of the past to know how water had been forced to + serve the will and the wants of the Roman Consulate and the Roman + empire, of how the marble aqueducts had cast the shadow of their + arches over the land, and how the provinces had been tunnelled and + bridged and canalised and irrigated, during two thousand years, by + those whose bones were dust under the Latin soil. He could not wholly + cheat himself, as these unlettered men could do; he knew that if the + commerce which has succeeded the Caesars as ruler of the world + coveted the waters of Edera, the river was lost to the home of its + birth and to him. +</p> +<p> + "How shall I tell my mother?" he asked himself as he walked back + through the fragrant and solitary country. He felt ashamed at his own + helplessness and ignorance. If courage could have availed anything he + would not have been wanting; but all that was needed here was a + worldly and technical knowledge, of which he possessed no more than + did the trout in the stream. +</p> +<p> + As he neared his home, pushing his way laboriously through the + interlaced bracken and heaths which had never been cut for a score of + years, he saw approaching him the tall, slender form of Don Silverio, + moving slowly, for the heather was breast high, his little dog + barking at a startled wood-pigeon. +</p> +<p> + "They are anxious about you at your house," Don Silverio said with + some sternness. "Is it well to cause your mother this disquietude?" +</p> +<p> + "No, it is not well," replied Adone. "But how can I see her and not + tell her, and how can I tell her this thing?" +</p> +<p> + "Women to bear trouble are braver than men," said the priest. "They + have more patience in pain than we. I have said something to her; but + we need not yet despair. We know nothing of any certainty. Sometimes + such schemes are abandoned at the last moment because too costly or + too unremunerative. Sometimes they drag on for half a lifetime; and + at the end nothing comes of them." +</p> +<p> + "You have told my mother?" +</p> +<p> + "I told her what troubles you, and made you leave your work undone. + The little girl was feeding the cattle." +</p> +<p> + Adone coloured. He was conscious of the implied rebuke. +</p> +<p> + "Sir," he said in a low tone, "if this accursed thing comes to pass + what will become of us? What I said in my haste last night I say in + cold reason to-day." +</p> +<p> + "Then you are wrong, and you will turn a calamity into a curse. Men + often do so." +</p> +<p> + "It is more than a calamity." +</p> +<p> + "Perhaps. Would not some other grief be yet worse? If you were + stricken with blindness?" +</p> +<p> + "No; I should still hear the river running." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio looked at him. He saw by the set, sleepless, reckless + look on his face that the young man was in no mood to be reached by + any argument, or to be susceptible to either rebuke or consolation. + The time might come when he would be so; but that time was far off he + feared. The evenness, the simplicity, the loneliness of Adone's + existence, made it open to impressions, and absorbed by them, as busy + and changeful lives never are; it was like the heather plants around + them, it would not bear transplanting; its birthplace would be its + tomb. +</p> +<p> + "Let us go back to your mother," he said. "Why should you shun her? + What you feel she feels also. Why leave her alone?" +</p> +<p> + "I will go home," said Adone. +</p> +<p> + "Yes, come home. You must see that there is nothing to be done or to + be learned as yet. When they know anything fresh at San Beda they + will let me know. The Prior is a man of good faith." +</p> +<p> + Adone turned on him almost savagely; his eyes were full of sullen + anger. +</p> +<p> + "And I am to bear my days like this? Knowing nothing, hearing + nothing, doing nothing to protect the water that is as dear to me as + a brother, and the land which is my own? What will the land be + without the river? You forget, sir, you forget!" +</p> +<p> + "No, I do not forget," said Don Silverio without offence. "But I ask + you to hear reason. What can you possibly do? Think you no man has + been wronged before you? Think you that you alone here will suffer? + The village will be ruined. Do you feel for yourself alone?" +</p> +<p> + Adone seemed scarcely to hear. He was like a man in a fever who sees + one set of images and cannot see anything else. +</p> +<p> + "Sir," he said suddenly, "why will you not go to Rome?" +</p> +<p> + "To Rome?" echoed the priest in amazement. +</p> +<p> + "There alone can the truth of this thing be learned," said Adone. "It + is to Rome that the promoters of this scheme must carry it; there to + be permitted or forbidden as the Government chooses. All these things + are brought about by bribes, by intrigues, by union. Without + authority from high office they cannot be done. We here do not even + know who are buying or selling us—" +</p> +<p> + "No, we do not," said Don Silverio; and he thought, "When the + cart-horse is bought by the knacker what matter to him the name of + his purchaser or his price?" +</p> +<p> + "Sir," said Adone, with passionate entreaty. "Do go to Rome. There + alone can the truth be learnt. You, a learned man, can find means to + meet learned people. I would go, I would have gone yesternight, but, + when I should get there, I know no more than a stray dog where to go + or from whom to inquire. They would see I am a country fellow. They + would shut the doors in my face. But you carry respect with you. No + one would dare to flout you. You could find ways and means to know + who moves this scheme, how far it is advanced, what chance there is + of our defeating it. Go, I beseech you, go!" +</p> +<p> + "My son, you amaze me," said Don Silverio. "I? In Rome? I have not + stirred out of this district for eighteen years. I am nothing. I have + no voice. I have no weight. I am a poor rural vicar buried here for + punishment." +</p> +<p> + He stopped abruptly, for no complaint of the injustice from which he + suffered had ever in those eighteen years escaped him. +</p> +<p> + "Go, go," said Adone. "You carry respect with you. You are learned + and will know how to find those in power and how to speak to them. + Go, go! Have pity on all of us, your poor, helpless, menaced people." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio was silent. +</p> +<p> + Was it now his duty to go into the haunts of men, as it had been his + duty to remain shut up in the walls of Ruscino? The idea appalled + him. +</p> +<p> + Accomplished and self-possessed though he was, his fine mind and his + fine manners had not served wholly to protect him from that rust and + nervousness which come from the disuse of society and the absence of + intercourse with equals. +</p> +<p> + It seemed to him impossible that he could again enter cities, recall + usages, seek out acquaintances, move in the stir of streets, and wait + in antechambers. +</p> +<p> + That was the life of the world; he had done with it, forsworn it + utterly, both by order of his superiors and by willing + self-sacrifice. Yet he knew that Adone was right. It was only from + men of the world and amongst them, it was only in the great cities, + that it was possible to follow up the clue of such speculations as + now threatened the vale of Edera. +</p> +<p> + The young man he knew could not do what was needed, and certainly + would get no hearing—a peasant of the Abruzzo border, who looked + like a figure of Giorgione's, and would probably be arrested as an + anarchist if he were to endeavour to enter any great house or public + office. But to go to Rome himself! To revisit the desecrated city! + This seemed to him a pilgrimage impossible except for the holiest + purpose. He felt as if the very stones of Trastevere would rise up + and laugh at him, a country priest with the moss and the mould of a + score of years passed in rural obscurity upon him. Moreover, to + revisit Rome would be to tear open wounds long healed. There his + studious youth had been passed, and there his ambitious dreams had + been dreamed. +</p> +<p> + "I cannot go to Rome," he said abruptly. "Do not ask me, I cannot go + to Rome." +</p> +<p> + "Then I will go," said Adone; "and if in no other way, I will force + myself into the king's palace and make him hear." +</p> +<p> + "And his guards will seize you, and his judges will chain you up in a + solitary cell for life! Do not say such mad things. What could the + king reply, even if he listened, which he would not do? He would say + that these things were for ministers and prefects and surveyors and + engineers to judge of, not for him or you. Be reasonable, Adone; do + not speak or act like a fool. This is the first grief you have known + in your life, and you are distraught by it. That is natural enough, + my poor boy. But you exaggerate the danger. It must be far off as + yet. It is a mere project." +</p> +<p> + "And I am to remain here, tilling the land in silence and inaction + until, one day without notice, I shall see a crowd of labourers at + work upon the river, and shall see appraisers measuring my fields! + You know that is how things are done. You know the poor are always + left in the dark until all is ripe for their robbery. Look you, sir, + if you go to Rome I will wait in such patience as I can for whatever + you may learn. But if you do not go, I go, and if I can do no better + I will take the king by the throat." +</p> +<p> + "I have a mind to take you by the throat myself," said Don Silverio, + with an irritation which he found it hard to control. "Well, I will + think over what you wish, and if I find it possible, if I think it + justified, if I can afford the means, if I can obtain the permission, + for such a journey, I will go to Rome; for your sake, for your + mother's sake. I will let you know my decision later. Let us walk + homeward. The sun is low. At your house the three women must be + anxious." +</p> +<p> + Adone accompanied him in silence through the heather, of which the + blossoming expanse was reddening in the light of the late afternoon + until the land looked a ruby ocean. They did not speak again until + they reached the confines of the Terra Vergine. +</p> +<p> + Then Don Silverio took the path which went through the pasture to the + bridge, and Adone turned towards his own dwelling. +</p> +<p> + "Spare your mother. Speak gently," said the elder man; the younger + man made a sign of assent and of obedience. +</p> +<p> + "He will go to Rome," said Adone to himself, and almost he regretted + that he had urged the journey, for in his own veins the fever of + unrest and the sting of fierce passions were throbbing, and he panted + and pined for action. He was the heir of the lords of the river. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0008"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + VIII +</h2> +<p> + Like the cooper Ruffo, Clelia Alba had received the tidings with + incredulity, though aghast at the mere suggestion. +</p> +<p> + "It is impossible," she said. She had seen the water there ever since + she had been a babe in swaddling clothes. +</p> +<p> + "It is not possible," she said, "that any man could be profane enough + to alter the bed which heaven had given it." +</p> +<p> + But she was sorely grieved to see the effect such a fear had upon + Adone. +</p> +<p> + "I was afraid it was a woman," she thought; "but this thing, could it + be true, would be worse than any harlot or adulteress. If they took + away the river the land would perish. It lives by the river." +</p> +<p> + "The river is our own as far as we touch it," she said aloud to her + son; "but it was the earth's before it was ours. To sever water from + the land it lives in were worse than to snatch a child from its + mother's womb." +</p> +<p> + Adone did not tell her that water was no more sacred than land to the + modern contractor. She would learn that all to soon if the conspiracy + against the Edera succeeded. But he tried to learn from her what + legal rights they possessed to the stream: what had his father + thought? He knew well that his old hereditary claim to the Lordship + of Ruscino, however capable of proof, would be set aside as fantastic + and untenable; but their claim to the water through the holding of + Terra Vergine could surely not be set aside. +</p> +<p> + "Your father never said aught about the water that I can remember," + she answered. "I think he would no more have thought it needful to + say it was his than to say that you were his son. It is certain we + are writ down in the district as owners of the ground; we pay taxes + for it; and the title of the water must be as one with that." +</p> +<p> + "So say I; at least over what runs through our fields we, alone, have + any title, and for that title I will fight to the death," said Adone. + "River rights go with the land through which the river passes." +</p> +<p> + "But, my son," she said with true wisdom, "your father would never + have allowed any danger to the water to make him faithless to the + land. If you let this threat, this dread, turn you away from your + work; if you let your fears make you neglect your field and your + olives, and your cattle and your vines, you will do more harm to + yourself than the worst enemy can do you. To leave a farm to itself + is to call down the vengeance of heaven. A week's abandonment undoes + the work of years. I and Gianna and the child do what we can, but we + are women, and Nerina is young." +</p> +<p> + "No doubt you speak wisely, mother," replied Adone humbly. "But of + what use is it to dress and manure a vine, if the accursed phylloxera + be in its sap and at its root? What use is it to till these lands if + they be doomed to perish from thirst?" +</p> +<p> + "Do your best," said his mother, "then the fault will not lie with + you, whatever happen." +</p> +<p> + The counsel was sound; but to Adone all savour and hope were gone out + of his labour. When he saw the green gliding water shine through the + olive branches, and beyond the foliage of the walnut-trees, his arms + fell nerveless to his side, his throat swelled with sobs, which he + checked as they rose, but which were only the more bitter for + that—all the joy and the peace of his day's work were gone. +</p> +<p> + It was but a small space of it to one whose ancestors had reigned + over the stream from its rise in the oak woods to its fall into the + sea; but he thought that no one could dispute or diminish or + disregard his exclusive possession of the Edera water where it ran + through his fields. They could not touch that, even if they seized it + lower down, where it ran through other communes. Were they to take it + above his land, above the bridge of Ruscino, its bed here would be + dried up, and his homestead and the village both be ruined. The + clear, intangible right which he meant to defend at any cost, in any + manner, was his right to have the river run untouched through his + fields. The documents which proved the rights of the great extinct + Seigneury might be useless, but the limited, shrunken right of the + peasant ownership was as unassailable as his mother's right to the + three strings of pearls; or so he believed. +</p> +<p> + The rights of the Lords of Ruscino might be but shadows of far-off + things, things of tradition, of history, of romance, but the rights + of the peasant proprietors of the Terra Vergine must, he thought, be + respected if there were any justice upon earth, for they were plainly + writ down in the municipal registers of San Beda. To rouse others to + defend their equal rights in the same way, from the source of the + Edera to its union with the Adriatic, seemed to him the first effort + to be made. He was innocent enough to believe that it would suffice + to prove that its loss would be their ruin to obtain redress at once. +</p> +<p> + Whilst Don Silverio was still hesitating as to what seemed to him + this momentous and painful journey to Rome his mind was made up by a + second letter received from the Superior of the Certosa at San Beda, + the friend to whom he had confided the task of inquiring as to the + project for the Edera. +</p> +<p> + This letter was long, and in Latin. They were two classics, who liked + thus to refresh themselves and each other with epistles such as St. + Augustine or Tertullian might have penned. The letter was of elegant + scholarship, but its contents were unwelcome. It said that the Most + Honourable the Syndic of San Beda had enjoyed a conference with the + Prefect of the province, and it had therein transpired that the + project for the works upon the river Edera had been long well known + to the Prefect, and that such project was approved by the existing + Government, and therefore by all the Government officials, as was but + natural. It was not admitted that the Commune of San Beda had any + local interest or local right sufficiently strong to oppose the + project, as such a claim would amount to a monopoly, and no monopoly + could exist in a district through which a running river partially + passed, and barely one-fifth of the course of this stream lay through + that district known as the valley of the Edera. The entire + Circondario, except the valley, was believed to be in favour of the + project, which the Prefect informed the Syndic could not be otherwise + than most favourable to the general interests of the country at + large. +</p> +<p> + "Therefore, most honoured and revered friend," wrote the Superior of + the Cistercians, "his most esteemed worship does not see his way to + himself suggest opposition to this course in our Town Council, or in + our Provincial Council, and the Most Worshipful the Assessors do not + either see theirs; it being, as you know, an equivocal and onerous + thing for either council to express or suggest in their assembly + views antagonistic to those of the Prefecture, so that I fear, most + honoured and reverend friend, it will not be in my power farther to + press this matter, and I fear also that your parish of Ruscino, being + isolated and sparsely populated, and its chief area uncultivated, + will be possessed of but one small voice in this matter, the + interests of the greater number being always in such a case + preferred." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio read the letter twice, its stately and correct Latinity + not serving to disguise the mean and harsh fact of its truly modern + logic. "Because we are few and poor and weak we have no rights!" he + said bitterly. "Because the water comes from others, and goes to + others, it is not ours whilst in our land!" +</p> +<p> + He did not blame his friend at San Beda. +</p> +<p> + Ecclesiastics existed only on sufferance, and any day the Certosa + might be closed if its inmates offended the ruling powers. But the + letter, nevertheless, lay like a stone on his heart. All the + harshness, the narrowness, the disregard of the interests of the + weak, the rude, rough, tyrannical pressing onward of the strong to + their own selfish aims, all the characteristics of the modern world + seemed to find voice in it and jeer at him. +</p> +<p> + It was not for the first time in his life that he had pressed against + the iron gates of interest and formula and oppression, and only + bruised his breast and torn his hands. +</p> +<p> + He had a little sum of money put by in case of illness and for his + burial; that was the only fund on which he could draw to take him to + Rome and keep him when there, and it was so small that it would be + soon exhausted. He passed the best part of the night doubting which + way his duty pointed. He fasted, prayed, and communed with his soul, + and at length it seemed to him as if a voice from without said to + him, "Take up your staff, and go." For the journey appalled him, and + where his inclination pointed he had taught himself to see error. He + shrank inexpressibly from going into the noise and glare and crowd of + men; he clung to his solitude as a timid animal to its lair; and + therefore he felt persuaded that he ought to leave Ruscino on his + errand, because it was so acutely painful to him. +</p> +<p> + Whilst he should be gone Adone at least would do nothing rash; would + of course await the issue of his investigations. Time brings council, + and time, he hoped, would in this instance befriend him. He had + already obtained the necessary permission to leave his parish; he + then asked for a young friend from San Beda to take his place in the + village; left his little dog to the care of Nerina; took his small + hoard in a leathern bag strapped to his loins, and went on his way at + daybreak along the southwest portion of the valley, to cover on foot + the long distance which lay between him and the nearest place at + which a public vehicle went twice a week to a railway station; whence + he could take the train to Terni and so to Rome. +</p> +<p> + Adone accompanied him the first half of the way, but they said little + to one another; their hearts were full. Adone could not forget the + rebuke given to him, and Don Silverio was too wise a man to lean + heavily on a sore and aching wound, or repeat counsels already given + and rejected. +</p> +<p> + At the third milestone he stopped and begged, in a tone which was a + command, the young man to return home. +</p> +<p> + "Do not leave your land for me," he said. "Every hour is of gold at + this season. Go back, my son! I pray that I may bring you peace." +</p> +<p> + "Give me your blessing," said Adone meekly, and he knelt down in the + dust of the roadside. His friend gave it; then their hands met in + silent farewell. +</p> +<p> + The sun had risen, and the cold clear air was yielding to its rays. + The young man reluctantly turned back, and left the priest to go + onward alone, a tall, dark figure in the morning light; the river + running between acacia thickets and rushes on his right. Before long + he was forced to leave the course of the stream, and ascend a rugged + and precipitous road which mounted southward and westward through oak + woods into the mountains between the Leonessa and Gran Sasso, until + it reached a shrunken, desolate village, with fine Etruscan and Roman + remains left to perish, and a miserable hostelry, with the miserable + diligences starting from it on alternate days, the only remains of + its former posting activity. There he arrived late in the evening, + and broke his fast on a basin of bean soup, then rested on a bench, + for he could not bring himself to enter the filthy bed which was + alone to be obtained, and spent the following morning examining the + ancient ruins, for the conveyance did not start until four o'clock in + the afternoon. When that hour came he made one of the travellers, all + country folks, who were packed close as pigeons in a crate in the + ramshackle, noisy, broken-down vehicle, which lumbered on its way + behind its lean and suffering horses, through woods and hills and + along mountain passes of a grandeur and a beauty on which the eyes of + educated travellers rarely looked. +</p> +<p> + The journey by this conveyance occupied seven hours, and he was + obliged to wait five more at that village station which was the + nearest point at which he could meet the train which went from Terni + to Rome. Only parliamentary trains stop at such obscure places; and + this one seemed to him slower even than the diligence had been. It + was crammed with country lads going to the conscription levy in the + capital: some of them drunk, some of them noisy and quarrelsome, some + in tears, some silent and sullen, all of them sad company. The dusty, + stinking, sun-scorched waggons, open one to another, with the stench + of hot unwashed flesh, and the clouds of dust driven through the + unglazed windows, seemed to Don Silverio a hell of man's own making, + and in remembrance his empty quiet room, with its vine-hung window, + at Ruscino, seemed by comparison a lost heaven. +</p> +<p> + To think that there were thousands of men who travelled thus, every + day of every year, in every country, many of them from no obligation + whatever, but from choice! +</p> +<p> + "What lunatics, what raving idiots we should look to Plato or to + Socrates, could they see us!" he thought. Was what is called progress + anything else except increased insanity in human life? +</p> +<p> + He leaned back in his corner, and bore the dust in his eyes and his + throat as best he might, and spoke a few kind words to the boys + nearest to him, and felt as if every bone in his body was broken as + the wooden and iron cage shook him from side to side. The train + stopped finally in that area of bricks and mortar and vulgarity and + confusion where once stood the Baths of Diocletian. It was late in + the night when he heard the name of Rome. +</p> +<p> + No scholar can hear that name without emotion. On him it smote with a + keen personal pain, awakening innumerable memories, calling from + their graves innumerable dreams. +</p> +<p> + He had left it a youth, filled with all the aspirations, the fire, + the courage, the faith, of a lofty and spiritual temper. He returned + to it a man aged before his time, worn, weary, crushed, spiritless, + with no future except death. +</p> +<p> + He descended from the waggon with the crowd of jaded conscripts and + mingled with that common and cosmopolitan crowd which now defiles the + city of the Caesars. The fatigue of his body, and the cramped pain of + his aching spine, added to the moral and the mental suffering which + was upon him as he moved a stranger and alone along the new, + unfamiliar streets where, alone here and there, some giant ruin, some + stately arch, some marble form of god or prophet, recalled to him the + Urbs that he had known. +</p> +<p> + But he remembered the mission on which he came; and he rebuked his + self-indulgence in mourning for his own broken fate. +</p> +<p> + "I am a faithless servant and a feeble friend," he thought in + self-reproach. "Let me not weaken my poor remnant of strength in + egotism and repining. I come hither for Adone and the Edera. Let me + think of my errand only; not of myself, nor even of this desecrated + city." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0009"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + IX +</h2> +<p> + It was now the season to plough the reapen fields, and he had always + taken pleasure in his straight furrows; as straight as though + measured by a rule on the level lands; and of the skill with which on + the hilly ground Orlando and Rinaldo moved so skillfully, turning in + so small a space, answering to every inflection of his voice, taking + such care not to break a twig of the fruit trees, or bend a shoot of + the vines, or graze a stem of the olives. +</p> +<p> + "Good hearts, dear hearts, faithful friends and trusty servants!" he + murmured to the oxen. He leaned his bare arms on the great + fawn-coloured flanks of Orlando, and his forehead on his arms, which + grew wet with hidden tears. +</p> +<p> + The cattle stood motionless, breathing loudly through their distended + nostrils, the yokes on their shoulders crinking, their hides + twitching under the torment of the flies. Nerina, who had been + washing linen in the Edera, approached through the olives; she + hesitated a few minutes, then put the linen down off her head on to + the grass, gathered some plumes of featherfew and ferns, and brushed + the flies off the necks of the oxen. Adone started, looked up in + displeasure at being thus surprised, then, seeing the intruder was + only the little girl, he sat down on the side of the plough, and made + believe to break his noon-day bread. +</p> +<p> + "You have no wine," said the child. "Shall I run to the house for a + flask?" +</p> +<p> + "No, my dear, no. If I am athirst there is water — as yet there is + water!" he murmured bitterly, for the menace of this impending horror + began to grow on him with the fixity and obsession of a mania. +</p> +<p> + Nerina continued to fan the cattle and drive off the flies from their + necks. She looked at him wistfully from behind the figures of the + stately animals. She was afraid of the sorrow which was in the air. + No one had told her what the evil was which hung over the Terra + Vergine; and she never asked questions. The two elder women never + took her into their confidence on any subject, and she had no + communication with the few people in Ruscino. She had seen that + something was wrong, but she could not guess what: something which + made Madonna Clelia's brows dark, and Gianna's temper bad, and Adone + himself weary and ill at ease. +</p> +<p> + Seeing him sitting there, not eating, throwing his bread to some wild + pigeons which followed the plough, she plucked up courage to speak; + he was always kind to her, though he noticed her little. +</p> +<p> + "What is it that ails you all?" she asked. "Tell me, Adone, I am not + a foolish thing to babble." +</p> +<p> + He did not answer. What use were words? Deeds were wanted. +</p> +<p> + "Adone, tell me," she said in a whisper; "what is this that seems to + lie like a stone on you all? Tell me why Don Silverio has gone away. + I will never tell again." +</p> +<p> + There was a pathetic entreaty in the words which touched and roused + him; there was in it the sympathy which would not criticise or doubt, + and which is to the sore heart as balm and soothes it by its very + lack of reason. +</p> +<p> + He told her; told her the little that he knew, the much that he + feared; he spent all the force of his emotion in the narrative. +</p> +<p> + The child leaned against the great form of the ox and listened, not + interrupting by a word or cry. +</p> +<p> + She did not rebuke him as Don Silverio had done, or reproach him as + did his mother; she only listened with a world of comprehension in + her eyes more eloquent than speech, not attempting to arrest the fury + of imprecation or the prophecies of vengeance which poured from his + lips. Hers was that undoubting, undivided, implicit faith which is so + dear to the wounded pride and impotent strength of a man in trouble + who is conscious that what he longs to do would not be approved by + law or sanctioned by religion. That faith spoke in her eyes, in her + absorbed attention, in the few breathless sentences which escaped + her; there was also on her youthful face a set, stern anger akin to + his own. +</p> +<p> + "Could we not slay these men?" she said in a low, firm voice; she + came of a mountain race by whom life was esteemed little and revenge + honour. +</p> +<p> + "We must not even say such a thing," said Adone bitterly, in whose + ears the rebuke of Don Silverio still rang. "In these days everything + is denied us, even speech. If we take our rights we are caged in + their prisons." +</p> +<p> + "But what will you do, then?" +</p> +<p> + "For the moment I wait to learn more. These things are done in the + dark, or at least in no light that we can see. To kill these men as + you wish, little one, would do nothing. Others of their kind would + fill their places. The seekers of gold are like ants. Slay thousands, + tens of thousands come on; if once the scent of gain be on the wind + it brings men in crowds from all parts, as the smell of carrion + brings meat-flies. If they think of seizing the Edera it is because + men of business will turn it into gold. The Edera gives us our grain, + our fruits, our health, our life; but if it will give money to the + foreigner, the foreigner will take it as he would take the stars and + coin them if he could. The brigand of the hills is caged or shot; the + brigand of the banks is allowed to fatten and die in the odour of + success. There are two measures." +</p> +<p> + Nerina failed to understand, but her own mind was busy with what + seemed to her this monstrous injustice. +</p> +<p> + "But why do they let them do it? They take and chain the men who rob + a traveller or a house." +</p> +<p> + Adone cast his last atom of bread to the birds. +</p> +<p> + "There are two measures," he answered. "Kill one, you go to the + galleys for life. Kill half a million, you are a hero in history, and + get in your own generation titles, and money, and applause." +</p> +<p> + "Baruffo was a good man and my father's friend," Nerina said, + following her own thoughts. "Baruffo was in the oak woods always, far + below us, but he often brought us wine and game at night, and + sometimes money too. Baruffo was a good man. He was so kind. Twice my + father aided him to escape. But one night they seized him; there was + a whole troop of carabineers against him, they took him in a trap, + they could never have got him else, and I saw him brought down the + mountain road and I ran and kissed him before they could stop me; and + he never came back — they kept him." +</p> +<p> + "No doubt they kept him," said Adone bitterly. "Baruffo was a peasant + outlawed; if he had been a banker, or a minister, or a railway + contractor, he might have gone on thieving all his life, and met only + praise. They keep poor Baruffo safe in their accursed prisons, but + they will take care never to keep, or take even for a day, + law-breakers whose sins are far blacker than his, and whose victims + are multitudes." +</p> +<p> + "If Baruffo were here he would help you," said Nerina. "He was such a + fine strong man and had no fear." +</p> +<p> + Adone rose and put his hands on the handles of the plough. +</p> +<p> + "Take up your linen, little one," he said to the girl, "and go home, + or my mother will be angry with you for wasting time." +</p> +<p> + Nerina came close to him and her brown dog-like eyes looked up like a + dog's into his face. +</p> +<p> + "Tell me what you do, Adone," she said beseechingly, "I will tell no + one. I was very little when Baruffo came and went to and fro in our + hut; but I had sense; I never spoke. Only when the guards had him I + kissed him, because then it did not matter what they knew; there was + no hope." +</p> +<p> + "Yes, I will tell you," said Adone. "Maybe I shall end like Baruffo." +</p> +<p> + Then he called on Orlando and Rinaldo by their names, and they + lowered their heads and strained at their collars, and with a mighty + wrench of their loins and shoulders they forced the share through the + heavy earth. +</p> +<p> + Nerina stood still and looked after him as he passed along under the + vine-hung trees. +</p> +<p> + "Baruffo may have done some wrong," she thought, "but Adone, he has + done none, he is as good as if he were a saint of God, and if he + should be obliged to do evil it will be no fault of his, but because + other men are wicked." +</p> +<p> + Then she put the load of linen on her head, and went along the grassy + path homeward, and she saw the rosy gladioli, and the golden tansy, + by which she passed through tears. Yet she was glad because Adone had + trusted her; and because she now knew as much as the elder women in + his house, who had put no confidence in her. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0010"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + X +</h2> +<p> + "I SHALL not write," Don Silverio had said to Adone. "As soon as I + know anything for certain I shall return. Of that you may be sure." +</p> +<p> + For he knew that letters took a week or more to find their slow way + to Ruscino, and he hoped to return in less than that time; having no + experience of "what hell it is in waiting to abide," and of the + endless doublings and goings to earth of that fox-like thing, a + modern speculation; he innocently believed that he would only have to + ask a question to have it answered. +</p> +<p> + Day after day Adone mounted to the bell-tower roof, and gazed over + the country in vain. Day after day the little dog escaped from the + custody of Nerina, trotted over the bridge, pattered up the street, + and ran whining into his master's study. Every night the people of + Ruscino hung up a lantern on a loophole of the belfry, and another on + the parapet of the bridge, that their pastor might not miss his way + if he were coming on foot beside the river; and every night Adone + himself watched on the river bank or by the town wall, sleepless, + longing for, yet dreading that which he should hear. But more than a + week passed, and the priest did not return. The anxiety of Adone + consumed him like fire. He strove to dull his anxiety by incessant + work, but it was too acute to be soothed by physical fatigue. He + counted the days and the hours, and he could not sleep. The women + watched him in fear and silence; they dared ask nothing, lest they + should wound him. Only Nerina whispered to him once or twice in the + fields, "Where is he gone? When will he come back?" +</p> +<p> + "God knows!" he answered. Every evening that he saw the sun set + beyond the purple line of the mountains which were heaped in their + masses of marble and snow between him and the Patrimonium Petrus, he + felt as if he could never bear another night. He could hear the + clear, fresh sound of the running river, and it seemed to him like + the voice of some friend crying aloud to him in peril. Whilst these + summer days and nights sped away what was being done to save it? He + felt like a coward; like one who stands by and sees a comrade + murdered. In his solitude and apprehension he began to lose all + self-control; he imagined impossible things; he began to see in his + waking dreams, as in a nightmare, the dead body of Don Silverio lying + with a knife in its breast in some cut-throat alley of Rome. For two + weeks passed, and there was no sign of his return, and no message + from him. +</p> +<p> + The poor people of Ruscino also were troubled. Their vicar had never + left them before. They did not love him; he was too unlike them; but + they honoured him, they believed in him; he was always there in their + sickness and sorrow; they leaned on his greater strength in all their + penury and need; and he was poor like them, and stripped himself + still barer for their sakes. +</p> +<p> + Through the young friar who had replaced him they had heard something + of the calamity which threatened to befall them through the Edera. It + was all dark to them; they could understand nothing. Why others + should want their river and why they should lose it, or in what + manner a stream could be turned from its natural course — all these + things were to them incomprehensible. In the beginning of the world + it had been set running there. Who would be impious enough to meddle + with it? +</p> +<p> + Whoever tried to do so would be smitten with the vengeance of Heaven. + Of that they were sure. Nevertheless, to hear the mention of such a + thing tormented them; and when they opened their doors at dawn they + looked out in terror lest the water should have been taken away in + the night. +</p> +<p> + Their stupidity irritated Adone so greatly that he ceased altogether + to speak to them of the impending calamity. "They are stocks and + stones. They have not the sense of sheep nor the courage of goats," + he said, with the old scorn which his forefathers had felt for their + rustic vassals stirring in him. +</p> +<p> + "I believe that they would dig sand and carry wood for the engineers + and the craftsmen who would build the dykes!" he said to his mother. +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba sighed. "My son, hunger is a hard master; it makes the + soul faint, the heart hard, the belly ravenous. We have never known + it. We cannot judge those who know nothing else." +</p> +<p> + "Even hunger need not make one vile," he answered. +</p> +<p> + But he did not disclose all his thoughts to his mother. +</p> +<p> + He was so intolerant of these poor people of Ruscino because he + foresaw the hopelessness of forging their weak tempers into the metal + necessary for resistance. As well might he hope to change a + sword-rush of the river into a steel sabre for combat. Masaniello, + Rienzi, Garibaldi, had roused the peasantry and led them against + their foes; but the people they dealt with must, he thought, have + been made of different stuff than these timorous villagers, who could + not even be make to comprehend the magnitude of the wrong which was + plotted against them. +</p> +<p> + "Tell them," he said to old Trizio: "tell them their wells will run + dry; their fish will rot on the dry bed of what was once the river; + their canes, their reeds and rushes, their osiers, will all fail + them; when they shall go out into their fields nothing which they sow + or plant will grow, because the land will be cracked and parched; + there will be no longer the runlets and rivulets to water the soil; + birds will die of thirst, and thousands of little river creatures + will be putrid carcasses in the sun; for the Edera, which is life and + joy and health to this part of the country, will be carried far away, + imprisoned in brick walls, drawn under ground, forced to labour like + a slave, put to vile uses, soiled and degraded. Cannot you tell them + this, and make them see?" +</p> +<p> + The old man shook his white head. "They would never believe. It is + too hard for them. Where the river runs, there it will always be. So + they think." +</p> +<p> + "They are dolts, they are mules, they are swine!" said Adone. "Nay, + may the poor beasts forgive me! The beasts cannot help themselves, + but men can if they choose." +</p> +<p> + "Humph!" said Trizio doubtfully. "My lad, you have not seen men shot + down by the hundred. I have — long ago, long ago." +</p> +<p> + "There is no chance of their being shot," he said with contempt, + almost with regret. "All that is wanted of them are common sense, + union, protestation, comprehension of their rights." +</p> +<p> + "Aye, you all begin with that," said the old Garabaldino. "But, my + lad, you do not end there, for it is just those things which are your + right which those above you will never hear of; and then up come the + cannon thundering, and when the smoke clears away there are your dead + — and that is all you get." +</p> +<p> + The voice of the old soldier was thin and cracked and feeble, but it + had a sound in it which chilled the hot blood of his hearer. +</p> +<p> + Yet surely this was no revolutionary question, no socialistic theory, + no new alarming demand; it was only a claim old as the hills, only a + resolve to keep what the formation of the earth had given to this + province. +</p> +<p> + As well blame a father for claiming his own child as blame him and + his neighbours for claiming their own river! +</p> +<p> + They were tranquil and docile people, poor and patient, paying what + they were told to pay, letting the fiscal wolf gnaw and glut as it + chose unopposed, not loving their rulers indeed, but never moving or + speaking against them, accepting the snarl, the worry, the theft, the + greed, the malice of the State without questioning. +</p> +<p> + Were they to stand by and see their river ruined, and do nothing, as + the helpless fishermen of Fuscino have accepted the ruin of their + lake? +</p> +<p> + To all young men of courage and sensibility and enthusiasm the + vindication of a clear right seems an act so simple that it is only + through long and painful experience that they realize that there is + nothing under the sun which is so hard to compass, or which is met by + such strong antagonism. To Adone, whose nature was unspoilt by modern + influences, and whose world was comprised in the fields and moors + around Ruscino, it seemed incredible that such a title as that of his + native soil to the water of Edera could be made clear to those in + power without instant ratification of it. +</p> +<p> + "Whether you do aught or naught it comes to the same thing," said the + old Garibaldino, who was wiser. "We did much; we spent our blood like + water, and what good has it been? For one devil we drove out before + our muskets, a thousand worse devils have entered since." +</p> +<p> + "It is different," said Adone, impatient. "All we have to do is to + keep out the stranger. You had to drive him out. No politics or + doctrines come into our cause; all we mean, all we want, is to be + left alone, to remain as we are. That is all. It is simple and just." +</p> +<p> + "Aye, it is simple; aye, it is just," said the old man; but he sucked + his pipe-stem grimly: he had never seen these arguments prosper; and + in his own youth he had cherished such mistakes himself, to his own + hindrance. +</p> +<p> + Had he not sung in those glorious days of hope and faith, +</p> +<center> + "Fratelli d'Italia!<br> + L'Italia s'e desta!" +</center> +<p> + In the night which followed on the fourteenth day of the Vicar's + absence, Adone, unable either to rest or to labour, went into his + cattle-stalls and fed and watered all the animals, then he crossed + the river and went along its north bank by the same path which he had + followed with Don Silverio two weeks earlier. He had passed to and + fro that path often since his friend's departure, for by it the + priest must return; there was no other way to and from the west. +</p> +<p> + Rain had fallen in the night, and the river was buoyant, and the + grass sparkled, the mountains were of sapphire blue, and above the + shallows clouds of flies and gnats were fluttering, waterlilies were + blossoming where the water was still, and in the marshes buffaloes + pushed their dark forms amongst the nymphoea and the nuphar. +</p> +<p> + He had no longer any eyes to see these things; he only strained his + sight to catch the first glimpse of a tired traveler. The landscape + here was level for many miles of moor and pasture and a human form + approaching could be seen from a great distance. It was such a dawn + as he had used to love beyond all other blessings of nature; but now + the buffaloes in the pools and swamps were not more blind to its + charm than he. +</p> +<p> + The sun rose behind him out of the unseen Adrian waves, and a rosy + light spread itself over the earth; and at that moment he saw afar + off a dark form moving slowly. With a loud cry he sprang forward and + ran with the fleetness of a colt the hundred yards which were between + him and that familiar figure. +</p> +<p> + "My son! my dear son!" cried Don Silverio, as Adone reached him and + fell on his knees on the scorched turf. +</p> +<p> + "At last!" he murmured, choked with joy and fear. "Oh, where have you + been? We are half dead, your people and I. What tidings do you bring? + What comfort?" +</p> +<p> + "Rise up, and remember that you are a man," said Don Silverio; and + the youth, gazing upwards keenly into his face, suddenly lost all + hope, seeing no ray of hope on that weary countenance. +</p> +<p> + "You cannot save us?" he cried, with a scream like a wounded hare's. +</p> +<p> + "I cannot, my dear son," answered Don Silverio. +</p> +<p> + Adone dropped backward as if a bullet had struck him; his head smote + the dry ground; he had lost consciousness, his face was livid. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio raised him and dragged him into the shade of a bay-tree + and dashed water on him from the river. In a few minutes he was + roused and again conscious, but on his features there was a dazed, + stunned look. +</p> +<p> + "You cannot save us?" he repeated. +</p> +<p> + "Neither you nor I have millions," said Don Silverio with bitterness. + "It is with no other weapon that men can fight successfully now." +</p> +<p> + Adone had risen to his feet; he was pale as a corpse, only the blood + was set in his forehead. +</p> +<p> + "Is it true, then?" he muttered. "Do they mean to come here?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes." +</p> +<p> + "Who are they? Jews?" +</p> +<p> + "Jews and Gentiles. There is no difference between those races now; + they have a common Credo — greed; they adore one Jehovah — gold. My + boy, I am very tired, and you are ill. Let us get home as quickly as + we can." +</p> +<p> + "I am not ill. It was nothing. It is passed. Tell me the worst." +</p> +<p> + "The worst, in a work, is that a foreign company, already established + for several years in this country, has obtained a faculty to turn + this water out if its course and use it as the motive power of an + electric railway and of an acetylene manufactory, and of other + enterprises." +</p> +<p> + "And this cannot be undone?" +</p> +<p> + "I fear not; they are rich and powerful. What are we? Let me get + home. There you shall hear all, and judge." +</p> +<p> + Adone asked and said no more. He turned and went backward. His steps + were slow and unsteady, his head was hung down. The dry, hot air was + like fire around them; the sun, though still low, darted fierce rays + upon them, like spears thrown with a sure aim. He had not known how + much and how strongly he had hoped until now that he heard that there + was no hope left. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio, though he did not speak of himself, was faint with + fatigue; the return journey had tried him more cruelly than the + first, since on his way to Rome he had been sustained by the hope to + find the project abandoned, or at the least uncertain. He had spent + all his scanty earnings, so hardly and tediously collected through a + score of years, and he had brought back to his poor people, and to + the youth he loved, nothing except the confirmation of their worst + fears. It was with difficulty that he could drag his aching feet over + the burn grass back to his parish. +</p> +<p> + When they reached the bridge they were on the village side of the + stream. Adone, with an effort, raised himself from the trance into + which he had fallen. +</p> +<p> + "Forgive me, sir; you are overtired, you must rest. I will come to + you later." +</p> +<p> + "No, no," said Don Silverio quickly, for he thought the youth in no + state to be alone. "I will wash and take a cup of coffee, then I will + tell you all. Wait in my book-room." +</p> +<p> + They went together to his house. There was no one in the street or on + the walls except some children gathering dandelion leaves in the + ditch. They reached the priest's house unobserved; only the little + dog, who was making his diurnal search there, rushed out of the + entrance in a frenzy of rapture. +</p> +<p> + "Poor little man! Dear Signorino!" murmured Don Silverio, and he took + the little creature in his arms. Then he opened the door of his + study. "Wait there," he said to Adone. "I will soon come downstairs. + I will only wash off the dust of this journey." +</p> +<p> + Adone obeyed. +</p> +<p> + The room was dusky, cool, silent; he sat down in it and waited; he + could hear the loud, uneven beating of his own heart in the + stillness. +</p> +<p> + As he felt now, so, he thought, must feel men who have heard their + own death-sentence, and are thrust alone into a cell. +</p> +<p> + If Don Silverio could do nothing, to whom could he turn? +</p> +<p> + Could he induce the people to rise? It would be their ruin as well as + his, this rape of the river. Would they bear it as they bore + taxation, neglect, conscription, hunger? +</p> +<p> + It was not half an hour, although it seemed to him half a day, which + passed before Don Silverio came down the stone stair, his little dog + running and leaping about him. He seated himself before Adone, by the + shuttered window, through which, by chinks and holes in the wood, + there came rays of light and tendrils of vine. +</p> +<p> + Then detail by detail, with lucidity and brevity, he narrated all he + had heard and done in Rome, and which it was exceeding hard to bring + home to the comprehension of a mind wholly ignorant of such things. +</p> +<p> + "When I reached Rome," he explained, "I was for some days in despair. + The deputy of San Beda was not at the Chamber. He was in Sicily. + Another deputy, a friend of the Prior at San Beda, to whom I had a + letter, was very ill with typhoid fever. I knew not where to turn. I + could not knock at the doors of strangers without credentials. Then I + remembered that one with whom I had been friends, great friends, when + we were both seminarists, had become a great man at the Vaticano. It + was scarcely possible that he, in his great elevation, would + recollect one unseen for a quarter of a century. But I took courage + and sent in my name. Imagine my surprise and emotion when I was + admitted at once to his presence, and was received by him with the + uttermost kindness. He assisted me in every way. He could not of + course move ostensibly in a matter of the government, himself, but he + gave me letters to those who could obtain me the information and the + interviews which I desired. He was goodness itself, and through him I + was even received by his Holiness. But from all those political and + financial people whom I saw I learned but the same thing. The matter + is far advanced, is beyond any alteration. The company is formed. The + concurrence of parliament is not to be, but has long been, given. The + ministry favours the project. They all repeated to me the same + formula: public works are to the public interest. They babbled + commonplaces. They spoke of great advantages to the province. I + pleaded as forcibly as I could in the interests of this valley, and I + opposed fact to formula. But my facts were not those which they + wanted; and they told me, politely but unmistakably, that a churchman + should not seek to interfere with civil matters. The promoters are + masters of the position. They are all of accord: the foreign bankers, + the Italian bankers; the foreign engineers, the Italian engineers; + the Technical office, the President of Council, the dicastero of + Hygiene, of Agriculture, of Public Works, all of them. Our poor + little valley seems to them a desirable prey; they have seized it, + they will keep it. They were all courteous enough. They are polite, + and even unwilling to cause what they call unnecessary friction. But + they will not give an inch. Their talons are in our flesh as an + eagle's in a lamb's. One thinks fondly that what a man possesses is + his own, be it land, house, stream—what not! But we mistake. There + is a thing stronger, higher, more powerful than any poor title of + property acquired by heritage, by purchase, or by labour. It is what + they call expropriation. You think the Edera cannot be touched: it + can be expropriated. You think the Terra Vergine cannot be touched: + it can be expropriated. Against expropriation no rights can stand. It + is the concentration and crystallisation of Theft legitamised by + Government; that is by Force. A vagrant may not take a sheaf of your + wheat, a fowl from your hen-house: if he do so, the law protects you + and punishes him. A syndicate of rich men, of powerful men, may take + the whole of your land, and the State will compel you to accept any + arbitrary price which it may choose to put upon your loss. According + as you are rich or poor yourself, so great or so small will be the + amount awarded to you. All the sub-prefects, all the syndics, all the + officials in this province, will be richly rewarded; the people + defrauded of the soil and the river will get what may be given them + by an enforced valuation. I have conversed with all kinds and + conditions of men; and I have heard only one statement in the mouths + of all: the matter is beyond all alteration. There is money in it; + the men whose trade is money will not let it go. My son, my dearest + son, be calm, be prudent. Violence can only injure yourself, and it + can save nothing." +</p> +<p> + He had for the moment spoken as he had been speaking for the last two + weeks to men of education and of the world. +</p> +<p> + He was recalled to the fact that his present auditor did not reason, + did not comprehend, only felt, and was drunk with his own force of + feeling. The look on Adone's face appalled him. +</p> +<p> + The youth seemed almost to have no intelligence left, almost as if + all which had been said to him had reached neither his ear nor his + brain. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio had been in the world of men, and unconsciously he had + adopted their phraseology and their manner. To Adone, who had + expected some miracle, some rescue almost archangelic, some promise + of immediate and divine interposition, these calm and rational + statements conveyed scarcely any sense, so terrible was the + destruction of his hopes. All the trust and candour and sweetness of + his nature turned to gall. +</p> +<p> + He listened, a sullen, savage darkness stealing over his countenance. +</p> +<p> + "And our rights? Theirs? — mine?" he said as Don Silverio paused. +</p> +<p> + "For all rights taken away they will give legal compensation." +</p> +<p> + "You dare repeat that, sir?" +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio controlled his indignation with difficulty. +</p> +<p> + "I dare do whatever I deem right to do. You should know that by this + time." +</p> +<p> + "You think this right?" +</p> +<p> + "I think it right to repeat exactly what has been said to me. I do + not of necessity approve because I repeat." +</p> +<p> + "You know no compensation is possible!" +</p> +<p> + "Morally, none. I speak of but what the law allows." +</p> +<p> + "The law of pirates, of cut-throats!" +</p> +<p> + "The law of the State, alas!" +</p> +<p> + Adone laughed. His hearer had heard such laughter as that in + madhouses. +</p> +<p> + "The State kills a soldier, and gives his family a hundred francs! + That is the compensation of the State. If they emptied their + treasuries, could they give the soldier back his life? If they + emptied their treasuries, could they give us back what they will take + from us?" +</p> +<p> + "My dear son, do not doubt my sympathy. All my heart is with you. But + what can be done? Can a poor village, a poor commune, struggle with + any chance of success against a rich company and a government? Can a + stalk of wheat resist the sickle? Can an ear of wheat resist the + threshing-flail? I have told you the story of Don Quixote della + Mancha. Would you fight the empty air like him?" +</p> +<p> + Adone did not reply. +</p> +<p> + His beautiful face grew moody, dark, fierce; in his eyes flamed + passions which had no voice upon his lips; his white teeth ground + against one another. +</p> +<p> + "Believe me, Adone," said his friend, "we are in evil days, when men + babble of liberty, and are so intent on the mere empty sound of their + lips that they perceive not the fetters on their wrists and feet. + There was never any time when there was so little freedom and so + little justice as in ours. Two gigantic dominions now rule the human + race; they are the armies and the moneymakers. Science serves them + turn by turn, and receives from each its wage. The historian Mommsen + has written that we are probably inferior both in intelligence and in + humanity, in prosperity and in civilisation, at the close of this + century to what the human race was under Severus Antonius; and it is + true." +</p> +<p> + Adone did not seem to hear. What were these abstract reasonings to + him? All he cared for were his river and his fields. +</p> +<p> + "I sought for an old friend of mine in Rome," said Don Silverio, + endeavouring to gain his attention and divert his thought, "one + Pamfilio Scoria. He was a learned scholar; he had possessed a small + competence and a house of his own, small too, but of admirable + architecture, a Quattrocentisto house. I could not find this house in + Rome. After long search I learned that it had been pulled down to + make a new street. Pamfilio Scoria had in vain tried to preserve his + rights. The city had turned him out and taken his property, paying + what it chose. His grief was so great to see it destroyed, and to be + turned adrift with his books and manuscripts, that he fell ill and + died not long afterwards. On the site of the house there is a + drinking-place kept by Germans; a street railway runs before it. This + kind of theft, of pillage, takes place every week. It is masked as + public utility. We are not alone sufferers from such a crime." +</p> +<p> + Adone was still silent. +</p> +<p> + His thoughts were not such as he could utter aloud in the priest's + presence; and he heard nothing that was said; he heard only little + Nerina's voice saying: "Could we not kill these men?" That flutelike + whisper seemed to him to sigh with the very voice of the river + itself. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio rose, his patience, great as it was, exhausted. +</p> +<p> + "My son, as you do not give ear to me it is useless for me to speak. + I must go to my office. The friar from San Beda desires to return + this evening. I have done all I can. I have told you the facts as + they stand. Take courage, Be peaceable for your mother's sake and + restrain yourself for your own. It is a frightful calamity which + hangs over us all. But it is our duty to meet it like men." +</p> +<p> + "Like men!" muttered Adone as he rose to his feet; had not the child + from the Abruzzo rocks a better sense of men's duty than this priest + so calm and wise? +</p> +<p> + "Men resist," he said very low. +</p> +<p> + "Men resist," repeated Don Silverio. "They resist when their + resistance serves any purpose, but when it can only serve to crush + them uselessly under a mass of iron they are not men if they resist, + but madmen." +</p> +<p> + "Farewell, sir," said Adone. +</p> +<p> + And with an obeisance he went out of the chamber. +</p> +<p> + "Poor boy! Poor, passionate, dear youth!" thought Don Silverio as the + door closed. "He thinks me cold and without emotion; how little he + knows! He cannot suffer as I suffer for him and for my poor wretched + people. What will they do when they shall know? They will mourn like + starved sheep bleating in a field of stones, and I, their shepherd, + shall not have a blade of grass wherewith to comfort them!" +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0011"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XI +</h2> +<p> + Adone's sight was troubled as soon as he passed out of the dusky room + into the blaze of noonday sunshine. His eyes seemed filled with + blood. His brain was dizzy. That which had been his sheet-anchor in + all doubts and contrition, his faith in and his reverence for Don + Silverio, availed him nothing now. A blind sympathy with his most + violent instincts was the only thing which could now content or + console him. +</p> +<p> + He was in that state to which all counsels of moderation appear but + so much treason and unkindness. As he went out of the priest's house + in that dazzling light, a hand caught his sleeve and that young + flutelike voice of which he had thought murmured to him — +</p> +<p> + "Adone! what tidings? What has he told you?" +</p> +<p> + Nerina, having run across the bridge and up the street after the + little dog, had seen him and Don Silverio enter, and had waited for + Adone to come out of the house. +</p> +<p> + Adone pushed her away. +</p> +<p> + "Let me be!" he said impatiently. "It is all bad — bad — bad. Bad + as ill-blood. Bad as crime." +</p> +<p> + She clung to his arm nevertheless. +</p> +<p> + "Come into the church and tell me. No one cares as I do." +</p> +<p> + "Poor little soul!" +</p> +<p> + He let her draw him into the great porch of the church and thence + into the church itself; it was dark, as it always was, cold as an + autumn evening, damp even in the canicular heat. +</p> +<p> + "No one will hear; tell me!" said the child. +</p> +<p> + He told her. +</p> +<p> + "And what are you to do?" she asked, her eyes dilated with horror. +</p> +<p> + "According to him," said Adone bitterly, "I am to be meek and + helpless as the heifer which goes to the slaughter. Men must not + resist what the law permits." +</p> +<p> + Nerina was mute. To dispute what Don Silverio said was like blasphemy + to her; she honoured him with all her soul, but she loved Adone. +</p> +<p> + She loved the Edera water too; that fair green rippling water, on + whose bank she had sat naked under the dock leaves the day the two + rams had fought. That which was threatened was an unholy, wicked, + cruel robbery. Was it indeed necessary to yield to it in submission? +</p> +<p> + She remembered a saying of Baruffo's: "If a man stand up to me I + leave him some coins in his pocket, some life in his body; but if he + crouch and cringe I stick him in the throat. He is a craven." +</p> +<p> + The doctrine of Baruffo seemed to her the more sound. It warmed the + blood of the little Abruzzo-born maiden to recall it. In the high + mountains and forests the meeker virtues are not greatly honoured. +</p> +<p> + She stood by Adone's side, knitting her brows under her auburn + curling locks, clenching her hands. +</p> +<p> + "Is there <i>one</i> who does this evil most of all?" she said at length. + "<i>One</i> we could reach?" +</p> +<p> + "You are a brave child, Nerina!" said Adone, and his words made her + proud. "I fear there is a crowd. Such men are like locusts; they come + in swarms. But the first man who touches the water—" +</p> +<p> + "Shall sup of it and drown!" +</p> +<p> + The little girl added the words with a fierce joy in her great bright + eyes. +</p> +<p> + "Hush!" said Adone, "and get you homeward, and tell my mother that + Don Silverio has returned, and that I will come back to my work in a + little while. Tell her he says there is no hope." +</p> +<p> + Nerina obeyed him instantly, her bare feet flying over the stones of + the street. He was left alone in the sombre church, with the great + winged angels of stone above his head. +</p> +<p> + He was grateful for its gloom. He shrank from the light of the + morning. Every drop of blood in his body, and in his brain, and in + his limbs, seemed to him to turn to fire — a fire which all the + waters of the Edera would never quench. +</p> +<p> + How could they be accused of rebellion or wrong-doing because they + wanted to keep the water running in the channel which it had made for + itself in the very beginning of the world? +</p> +<p> + The Edera was ancient as its neighbours, the Fiumicino which heard + the voice of Cæsar, or the Marecchia which was bridged by Augustus; + ancient as the fountain of Arethusa, as the lake of Diana Nemorensis. + What sacrilege could be more heinous than to chase it from its chosen + course? No Lucumon of Etruria, or Esarch of Ravenna, or Pope or Rome, + had ever dared to touch it. Revolutionists! they, who only sought to + preserve it? The revolutionists were those who with alien hands and + vampire's greed would seek to disturb its peace. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0012"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XII +</h2> +<p> + All that day the people of Ruscino crowded round the Presbytery. +</p> +<p> + "What of the Edera water, sir?" they asked him a hundred times in the + shrill cries of the women, in the rude bellow of the men, in the + high-pitched, dissonant clamour of angry speakers. And all the day + his patience and kindness were abused, and his nerves racked and + strained, in the effort to persuade them that the river which ran + beneath their walls was no more theirs than the stars which shone + above it. +</p> +<p> + It was hopeless to bring home to their intelligence either the + invalidity of their claim, or the peril which would lie in their + opposition. +</p> +<p> + "'Twas there in the beginning of time," they said. "There it must be + for our children's children." +</p> +<p> + He talked nonsense, they thought; who should be able to stop a river + which was for ever running? The Edera water was carried in the womb + of the Leonessa: Leonessa gave it fresh birth every day. +</p> +<p> + Yes! thought Don Silverio, as he walked by the river after sunset, + and watched its bright, impetuous current dash over the stones and + shingle whilst two kingfishers flashed along its surface. Yes, truly + Nature would pour it forth every day from her unfailing breast so + long as man did not do it outrage. But how long would that be? A + year, two years, three years, at most; then its place would know it + no more, and its song would be silent. The water-pipet would make its + nest no more in its sedges, and the blue porphyrion would woo his + mate no more on its bosom. As one of the rich men in Rome had said to + him with a cynical smile, "The river will be there always, only it + will be dry!" +</p> +<p> + In the gloaming he went and spoke to Adone's mother. She was at her + spinning-wheel, but her hands moved mechanically; her face was dark + and her eyelids swollen. +</p> +<p> + "My friend," he said, as he sat down on the bench beneath the + rose-tree, "I have brought you ill-tidings." +</p> +<p> + "It is true then, sir?" +</p> +<p> + "Alas!" +</p> +<p> + "I do not believe it. God will not let it be." +</p> +<p> + "Would that I could think so." +</p> +<p> + "'Tis you, sir, who should think so, and not I." +</p> +<p> + "My good Clelia," he said, with some impatience, "it is no use to + dream dreams. Try and persuade your son to accept the inevitable. My + words seem harsh. They are not so. But I dare not let you cherish + your illusions like this; blind yourself to fact, you expect some + supernatural intercession. They will take your river; they will take + your lands. Your house will be yours no more. If you do not go + peaceably they will have you turned out, as if you were a debtor. + This may take some time, for it will be done with all due legal + forms, but it will be done. They will pay you and your son some value + by appraisement, but they will take your land and your house and all + that is yours and his; I have seen the plans in Rome. Can you think + that I should invent this to torture you? There will be a process, a + sentence, an award; the money the law allots to you will be strictly + paid to you; but you will be driven away from the Terra Vergine. + Realise this. Try and keep your reason and save your son from + madness. Surely, where there is great love between two people, and + bonds of memory and mutual duty, and strong faith, there a home may + be made anywhere, even over seas?" +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba snapped with violence the thread she span. "They have + talked you over, sir," she said curtly. "When you went away you were + with us." +</p> +<p> + "With you!" he echoed. "In heart, in pity, in sympathy, yes; never + could I be otherwise. But were I to see you struck with lightning, + should I save you by telling you that lightning did not kill? I did + not know that the enterprise was as mature as I found it to be when I + saw the promoters of it in Rome. But I know now that it has been long + in incubation; you must remember that every bend and ordnance maps; + every stream, however small, is known to the technical office, and + the engineers civil and military. I abhor the project. It is to me a + desecration, an infamy, a robbery; it will ruin the Valdedera from + every point of view; but we can do nothing; this is what I implore + you to realise. We are as helpless as one of your fowls when you cut + its throat. Violence can only hurry your son into the grip of the + law. His rights are morally as plain as yonder snow on those + mountains; but because they will buy his rights at what will be + publicly estimated as a fair price, the law will not allow him to + consider himself injured. My dear friend, you are a woman of sense + and foresight; try to see this thing as it is." +</p> +<p> + "I will hear what Adone says, sir," replied Clelia Alba doggedly. "If + he bids me burn the house, I shall burn it." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio was heart-sick and impatient. What use was it to argue + with such minds as these? As well might he waste his words on the + trunks of the olives, on the oxen in their stalls. +</p> +<p> + They were wronged. +</p> +<p> + That the wrong done them was masked under specious pretences, and was + protected by all the plate armour of law and government, made the + outrage little the worse to them. The brigand from the hills who used + to harry their cattle and pillage their strong-box looked to them a + hero, a saint, a Christ, compared to these modern thieves who were + environed with all the defences and impunity which the law and the + State could give. When an earth-shock makes the soil under your feet + quiver, and gape, and mutter, you feel that unnatural forces are + being hurled against you, you feel that you are the mere sport and + jest of an unjust deity. This was what they felt now. +</p> +<p> + "Nay," said Clelia Alba, "if the earth opened, and took us, it would + be kinder; it would bury us at least under our own rooftree." +</p> +<p> + What use was it to speak to such people as these of the right of + expropriation granted by parliament, of the authority of a + <i>dicastero</i>, and of a prefecture, of the sophistries and arguments of + lawyers, of the adjudication of values, of the appraisement of + claims? They were wronged: and they came of a race and of a soil in + which the only fitting redresser of wrong was revenge. +</p> +<p> + "Mother," cried Adone, "my father would not have given up his land as + meekly as a sheep yields up her life." +</p> +<p> + "No," said Clelia Alba; "whether he came from those war-lords of old + I know not, but he would have fought as they fought." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0013"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XIII +</h2> +<p> + The autumn and winter passed without more being heard in the + Valdedera of the new invasion. The peasantry generally believed that + such silence was favourable to their wishes; but Don Silverio knew + that it was otherwise. The promoters of the work did not concern + themselves with the local population, they dealt with greater folks; + with those who administered the various communes, and who controlled + the valuation of the land through which the course of the Edera ran; + chiefly those well-born persons who constituted the provincial + council. A great deal of money would change hands, but it was + intended, by all through whose fingers those heavy sums would pass, + that as little of the money as possible should find its way to the + owners of the soil. A public work is like a fat hog; between the + slaughterers, the salesmen, the middlemen, and the consumers, little + falls to the original holder of the hog. The peasants of the + Valdedera were astonished that no one came to treat with them; but + they did not understand that they dwelt under a paternal government, + and the first care of a paternal government is to do everything for + its children which is likely to promise any profit to itself. +</p> +<p> + The men of business whom Don Silverio had seen in Rome did not + trouble themselves with the rustic proprietors of either water or + land; they treated with the great officials of the department, with + the deputies, the prefects, and sub-prefects, the syndics and + assessors; so a perfect silence on the question reigned from the rise + of the river to its mouth, and many of the men said over their + wood-fires that they had been scared for nothing. The younger men, + however, and those who were under Adone's influence, were more wary; + they guessed that the matter was being matured without them; that + when the hog should be eaten, the smallest and rustiest flitch would + then be divided amongst them. Agents, such agents as were ministerial + instruments of these magnates in election time, went amongst the + scattered people and spoke to them of the great public utility of the + contemplated works, and made them dispirited and doubtful of the + value of their holdings, and uncertain of the legality of their + tenures. But these agents were cautious and chary of promises, for + they knew that in this district the temper of men was proud and hot + and revengeful; and they knew also that when these rural owners + should be brought into the courts to receive their price they would + be dealt with just as the great men chose. One by one, so that each + should be unsupported by his neighbours, the men of the valley were + summoned, now to this town, now to the other, and were deftly argued + with, and told that what was projected would be their salvation, and + assured that the delegates who would be sent in their name by their + provincial council to the capital would defend all their dearest + interests. +</p> +<p> + The rich man, the man of business, the man of cities, may receive in + such transactions compensation, which is greatly to their advantage, + because traffic is their trade, because to buy and sell, and turn and + return, and roll the ball of gold so that it grows bigger every hour, + is their custom and interest. But the poor man, the rustic, the man + with the one ewe lamb, loses always, whether he assents to the sale + or has it forced upon him. These people of the valley might have a + little ready money given them on valuation, but it would be money + clipped and cropped by the avarice of intermediates until little of + it would remain, and they would be driven out to begin life anew; + away from their old rooftree and the fruits of long years of labour. +</p> +<p> + From far and near men came to Ruscino to take counsel of its vicar; + his wisdom being esteemed and his intelligence known in the valley + beyond the confines of his parish: and what advice could he give + them? He could but tell them that it was useless to kick against the + pricks. He knew so well the cold, curt, inflexible official answer; + the empty, vapouring regrets, false, simpering, pharisaical; the + parrot-phrases of public interests, public considerations, public + welfare; the smile, the sneer, the self-complacent shrug of those who + know that only the people whom they profess to serve will suffer. To + him, as to them, it seemed a monstrous thing to take away the water + from its natural channel and force the men who lived on it and by it + to alter all their ways of life and see their birthplace changed into + a desert in order that aliens might make money. But he could not + counsel them to resist; no resistance was possible. It was like any + other tyranny of the State: like the fiscal brutality which sold up a + poor man's hayrick or clothing because he could not pay the poll-tax. + If the poor man resisted, if he fired his old fowling-piece, or used + his knife on the minions of the State, what use was such resistance? + He went to rot in prison. +</p> +<p> + His calling, his conscience, his good sense, his obedience to law, + all alike compelled him to urge on them patience, submission, and + inaction before the provocation of a great wrong. He dared not even + let them see one tithe of the sympathy he felt, lest if he did so + they should draw from it an incentive to illegal action. +</p> +<p> + The part which he was obliged to take in thus persuading the people + to be tranquil under injustice estranged him farther and farther from + Adone Alba, who found it a cowardice and a treachery, although he + dared not say so in words. Had he retained the coolness of reason the + youth would have known and acknowledged that in the position of Don + Silverio no other course would have been possible or decent. But + reason had long left him, and inaction and impulse alone remained. He + would not allow that a wrong might be condemned, and yet endured. To + him all endurance had in it the meanness of condonation. +</p> +<p> + He ceased to have any faith in his friend and teacher; and gradually + grew more and more alienated from him; their intimate affection, + their frequent intercourse, their long walks and evening meeting were + over; and even as his spiritual director the vicar had no longer + power over him. Most of his actions and intentions were concealed; + except in the younger men of the district, who saw as he saw, he had + now no confidence in any one. The impending loss of the land and the + water turned all the sweetness of his nature to gall. He thought that + never in the history of the world had any wrong so black been done. + He, himself, flung broadcast the fires of burning incitation without + heeding or caring whither the flames might reach. Riots had been + successful before this: why not now? He was young enough and innocent + enough to believe in the divine right of a just cause. If that were + denied, what remained to the weak? +</p> +<p> + If he could, he would have set the valley in flames from one end to + the other rather than have allowed the foreigners to seize it. Had + not his forefather perished in fire on yonder hill rather than cede + to the Borgia? +</p> +<p> + Evening after evening he looked at the sun setting behind the Rocca + and felt the black rage in him gnaw at his heart like a vulture. +</p> +<p> + They would offer him money for this dear earth, for this fair, + beloved stream! — the mere thought choked him as a man who loved his + wife would be choked at the though of her dishonoured sale. +</p> +<p> + Some were half persuaded that it would be a fine thing to get some + crisp banknotes in exchange for waste ground which yielded little, or + a cabin which was falling to pieces, or a strip of woodland which + gave them fuel, but not much more. But the majority were angry, + irreconcilable, furious to lose the water, full of their wrongs. + These were glad to find Adone Alba a spokesman and a leader: they + were tow which caught fire at his torch. They comprehended little, + but they knew that they were wronged; and they agreed with him that + the labourers who should come from over the border to meddle with + them should be made to rue it bitterly. +</p> +<p> + The Italian goes over seas, indeed; huddled under the hatches of + emigrant ships; miserable, starved, confined; unable to move, scarce + able to breathe, like the unhappy beasts carried with him. But he + never goes willingly; he never wrenches himself from the soil without + torn nerves and aching heart; if he lives and makes a little money in + exile he comes back to the shadow of the village church, to the sound + of the village bell which he knew in his boyhood, to walk in the + lanes where he threw his wooden quoit as a lad, and to play dominoes + under the green bough of the winehouse where as a child he used to + watch his elders and envy them. +</p> +<p> + Most of these people dwelling on the Edera water had not been five + miles away from the river in all their lives. The moorland birds and + beasts went farther afield than they. They had no interest in what + was beyond their own freehold; they did not even know or care whither + the water went, or whence it came. Where it was, they owned it. That + was enough for them. +</p> +<p> + "Sir, what is it Adone does?" said Clelia Alba, one dusky and stormy + eve after vespers. "At nightfall out he goes; and never a word to me, + only 'Your blessing, mother,' he says, as if he might lose his life + where he goes. I thought at first it was some love matter, for he is + young; but it cannot be that, for he is too serious, and he goes + fully armed, with his father's pistols in his belt and his own long + dagger in his stocking. True, they go so to a love tryst, if it be a + dangerous one; if the woman be wedded; only I think it is not that, + for men in love are different. I think that he broods over some act." +</p> +<p> + "Neither you nor I can do aught. He is of age to judge for himself," + said Don Silverio; "but, like you, I do not think a woman is the + cause of his absence." +</p> +<p> + "Can you not speak to him, sir?" +</p> +<p> + "I have spoken. It is useless. He is moved by a motive stronger than + any argument we can use. In a word, good Clelia, this coming seizure + of the water is suffering so great to him that he loses his reason. + He is trying to make the men of the commune see as he sees. He wants + to rouse them, to arm them. He might as well set the calves in your + stalls to butt the mountain granite." +</p> +<p> + "Maybe, sir," said Clelia Alba, unwillingly; but her eye gleamed, and + her stern, proud face grew harder. "But he has the right to do it if + he can. If they touch the water they are thieves, worse than those + who came down from the hills in the years of my girlhood." +</p> +<p> + "You would encourage him in insurrection, then?" +</p> +<p> + "Nay, I would not do that; but neither would I blame him. Every man + has a right to defend his own. Neither his father nor mine, sir, were + cowards." +</p> +<p> + "This is no question of cowardice. It is a question of common sense. + A few country lads cannot oppose a government. With what weapons can + they do so? Courage I honour; without it all active virtues are + supine; but it is not courage to attempt the impossible, to lead the + ignorant to death — or worse." +</p> +<p> + "Of that my son must judge, sir," said Adone's mother, inflexible to + argument. "I shall not set myself against him. He is master now. If + he bid me fire the place I shall do it. For four-and-twenty years he + obeyed me like a little child; never a murmur, never a frown. Now he + is his own master, and master of the land. I shall do as he tells me. + It is his turn now, and he is no fool, sir, Adone." +</p> +<p> + "He is no fool; no. But he is beside himself. He is incapable of + judgment. His blood is on fire and fires his brain." +</p> +<p> + "I think not, sir. He is quiet. He speaks little" +</p> +<p> + "Because he meditates what will not bear speech. Were he violent I + should be less alarmed. He shuns me — me — his oldest friend." +</p> +<p> + "Because no doubt, sir, he feels you are against him." +</p> +<p> + "Against him! How can I, being what I am, be otherwise? Could you + expect me to foment insurrection, and what less than that can + opposition such as he intends become?" +</p> +<p> + "You speak as you feel bound to speak, sir, no doubt." +</p> +<p> + "But think of the end? Must not every action be weighed and + considered and judgment passed on it by what will be its issue? No + rising of our poor people can effect anything except their own + destruction. It is only a demagogue who would urge them on to it. + Adone is not a demagogue. He is a generous youth frantic from sorrow, + but helpless. Can you not see that?" +</p> +<p> + "I do not see that he is helpless," said his mother with obstinacy. + "The thing that are about to do us is unjust. I would load a gun + myself against them, and if money be what is wanted I would give + Adone my pearls. He asks me for nothing, but when he does I will + strip myself to my shift to aid him." +</p> +<p> + "It is a terrible madness!" cried Don Silverio. "What can your + fowling-piece or your necklace do against all the force these + speculators and contractors will employ? It is a great, a heinous + wrong which will be done to you; that no one can feel more strongly + than I. But there are wrongs to which we must submit when we are + weak; and, my good Clelia, against this we poor folks in the Vale of + Edera are as weak as the teal in the marshes against the swivel guns + of the sportsmen's punts." +</p> +<p> + But he argued in vain; logic and persuasion are alike useless when + opposed to the rock of ignorance and obstinacy. She held him in deep + reverence; she brought her conscience to his judgment; she thought + him beyond ordinary humanity: but when he endeavoured to persuade her + that her son was wrong he failed. +</p> +<p> + "Sir, you know that this crime against the river will ruin us," she + said doggedly. "Why then should you try to tie our hands? I do not + know what Adone does; his mind is hid from me, but if, as you say, he + wants a rising of our people, it is natural and just." +</p> +<p> + When the mind of the peasant — man or woman — be made up in its + stubbornness, all learning, wisdom, experience, even fact, speak in + vain; it opposes to all proofs the passive resistance of a dogged + incredulity: to reason with it is as useless as to quarry stone with + a razor. +</p> +<p> + Many and many a time had he given up in exhaustion and nausea his + endeavours to convince the rural mind of some simple fact, some clear + cause, some elementary principle. He knew that Clelia Alba would + never believe in the exile which would be her certain fate until the + armed and liveried creatures of the State should drive her from her + home by order of the State. He had seen in Rome that there was no + possible chance of opposing this enterprise against the Edera water. + It had been decided on by men of money who had the ear of ministers, + the precedence in ante-chambers, the means of success in political + departments and in commercial centres. A few scattered provincial + owners of land and labourers on land might as well try to oppose + these men as the meek steinbok in the mountain solitudes to escape + the expanding bullet of a prince's rifle. Yet he also saw how + impossible it was to expect a young man like Adone, with his lineage, + his temperament, his courage, and his mingling of ignorance and + knowledge, to accept the inevitable without combat. As well might he + be bidden to accept dishonour. +</p> +<p> + The remorse in his soul was keen, inasmuch as without him Adone would + never have known of his descent from the lords of Ruscino, and never, + probably, have acquired that "little learning" which a poet of the + north has said is a dangerous thing. +</p> +<p> + "Better," thought Don Silverio, with tormenting self-reproach, + "better have left him to his plough, to his scythe, to his + reaping-hook; better have left him in ignorance of the meaning of art + and of study; better have left him a mere peasant to beget peasants + like himself. Then he would have suffered less, and might possibly + have taken peaceably such compensation as the law would have allowed + him for the loss to his land, and have gone away to the West, as so + many go, leaving the soil they were born on to pass out of culture." +</p> +<p> + Would Adone ever have done that? No; he would not; he was wedded to + the soil like the heaths that grew out of it. He might be violently + dragged away, but he would never live elsewhere; his heart had struck + its roots too deeply into the earth which nurtured him. +</p> +<p> + "Why did you tell him of all the great men that lived?" Clelia Alba + had often said to him. "Why did you fill his soul with that hunger + which no bread that is baked can content? We, who work to live, have + no time to do aught except work, and sleep awhile to get strength for + more work; and so on, always the same, until age ties knots in our + sinews, and makes our blood thin and slow. What use is it to open + gates to him which he must never pass, to make his mind a tangled + skein that can never be undone? When you work hard you want to rest + in your resting hours, not to dream. Dreaming is no rest. He is + always dreaming, and now he dreams of blood and fire." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio's heart was with them, and by all the obligations of his + calling was forced to be against them. He was of a militant temper; + he would gladly have led them into action as did the martial priests + of old; but his sense, his duty, his conscience, all forbade him to + even show them such encouragement as would lie in sympathy. Had he + been rich he would have taken their cause into the tribunals and + contested this measure inch by inch, however hopelessly. But who + would plead for a poor parish, for a penniless priest? What payment + could he offer, he who could scarcely find the coins to fill his + salt-box or to mend his surplice? +</p> +<p> + A great anxiety consumed him. He saw no way out of this calamity. The + people were wronged, grossly wronged, but how could they right that + wrong? Bloodshed would not alter it, or even cure it. What was + theirs, and the earth's, was to be taken from them; and how were they + to be persuaded that to defend their own would be a crime. +</p> +<p> + "There is nothing, then, but for the people to lie down and let the + artillery roll over them!" said Adone once, with bitter emphasis. +</p> +<p> + "And the drivers and the gunners are their own brothers, sons, + nephews, who will not check their gallop an instant for that fact; + for the worst thing about force is that it makes its human + instruments mere machines like the guns which they manoeuver," thought + Don Silverio, as he answered aloud: "No; I fear there will be nothing + else for them to do under any tyranny, until all the nations of the + earth shall cease to send their children to be made the janissaries + of the State. No alteration of existing dominions will be possible so + long as the Armies exist." +</p> +<p> + Adone was silent; convinced against his will, and therefore convinced + without effect or adhesion. +</p> +<p> + He dared not tell his friend of the passionate propaganda which he + had begun up and down the course of the Edera, striving to make these + stocks and stones stir, striving to make the blind see, the deaf + hear, the infirm rise and leap. +</p> +<p> + "Let us go and make music," said the priest at last. "That will not + harm any one, and will do our own souls good. It is long since I + heard your voice." +</p> +<p> + "It will be longer," thought Adone, as he answered: "Excuse me, sir; + I cannot think of any other thing than this great evil which hangs + over us. There is not one of our country people who does not curse + the scheme. They are frightened and stupid, but they are angry and + miserable. Those who are their spokesmen, or who ought to be, do not + say what they wish, do not care what they wish, do not ask what they + wish. They are the sons of the soil, but they count for nothing. If + they met to try and do anything for themselves, guards — soldiery — + would come from a distance, they say, and break up the meetings, and + carry those who should speak away to some prison. The Government + approves the theft of the water: that is to be enough." +</p> +<p> + "Yet public meeting has been a right of the people on the Latin soil + ever since the Cæsars." +</p> +<p> + "What matter right, what matter wrong? No one heeds either." +</p> +<p> + "We must help ourselves." +</p> +<p> + He spoke sullenly and under his breath. He did not dare to say more + clearly what was in his thoughts. +</p> +<p> + "By brute force?" said Don Silverio. "That were madness. What would + be the number of the able-bodied men of all three communes? Let us + say two thousand; that is over the mark. What weapons would they + have? Old muskets, old fowling-pieces, and not many of those; their + scythes, their axes, their sticks. A single battalion would cut them + down as you mow grass. You have not seen rioters dispersed by trained + troops. I have. I have seen even twenty carabineers gallop down a + street full of armed citizens, the carabineers shooting right and + left without selection; and the street, before they had ridden two + hundred yards, was empty except for a few fallen bodies which the + horses trampled. You can never hope to succeed in these days with a + mere <i>jacquerie</i>. You might as well set your wheatsheaves up to + oppose a field battery." +</p> +<p> + "Garibaldi," muttered Adone, "he had naught but raw levies!" +</p> +<p> + "Garabaldi was an instinctive military genius, like Aguto, like + Ferruccio, like Gian delle Bande Neri, like all the great + Condottieri. But he would probably have rotted in the Spielberg, or + been shot in some fortress of the Quadrilateral, if he had not been + supported by that proclamation of Genoa and campaign of Lombardy, + which were Louis Napoleon's supreme errors in French policy." +</p> +<p> + Adone was silent, stung by that sense of discomfiture and + mortification which comes upon those who feel their own inability to + carry on an argument. To him Garibaldi was superhuman, fabulous, far + away in the mists of an heroic past, as Ulysses to Greek youths. +</p> +<p> + "You, sir, may preach patience," he said sullenly. "It is no doubt + your duty to preach it. But I cannot be patient. My heart would choke + in my throat." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio looked him straight in the face. +</p> +<p> + "What is it you intend to do?" +</p> +<p> + "I tell you that you can do nothing, my son." +</p> +<p> + "How know you that, reverend? You are a priest, not a man." +</p> +<p> + A faint red colour came over Don Silverio's colourless face. +</p> +<p> + "One may be both," he said simply. "You are distraught, my son, by a + great calamity. Try and see yourself as other see you, and do not + lead the poor and ignorant into peril. Will the Edera waters be freer + because your neighbours and you are at the galleys? The men of gold, + who have the men of steel behind them, will be always stronger than + you." +</p> +<p> + "God is over us all," said Adone. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio was silent. He could not refute that expression of + faith, but in his soul he could not share it; and Adone had said it, + less in faith than in obstinacy. He meant to rouse the country if he + could, let come what might of the rising. +</p> +<p> + Who could tell the issue? A spark from a poor man's hearth had set a + city in flames before now. +</p> +<p> + "How can you think me indifferent?" said Don Silverio. "Had I no + feeling for you should I not feel for myself? Almost certainly my + life will be doomed to end here. Think you that I shall see with + callousness the ruin of this fair landscape, which has been my chief + consolation through so many dreary years? You, who deem yourself so + wholly without hope, may find solace if you choose to take it. You + are young, you are free, all the tenderest ties of life can be yours + if you choose; if this home be destroyed you may make another where + you will. But I am bound here. I must obey; I must submit. I cannot + move; I cannot alter or renew my fate; and to me the destruction of + the beauty of the Edera valley will be the loss of the only pleasure + of my existence. Try and see with my eyes, Adone; it may help you to + bear your burden." +</p> +<p> + But he might as well have spoken to the water itself, or to the + boulders of its rocks, or to the winds which swept its surface. +</p> +<p> + "It is not yours," said Adone, almost brutally. "You were not born + here. You cannot know! Live elsewhere? My mother and I? Sooner a + thousand times would we drown in Edera!" +</p> +<p> + The water was golden under the reflections of the sun as he spoke; + the great net was swaying in it, clear of the sword rush and iris; a + kingfisher like a jewel was threading its shallows; there was the + fresh smell of the heather and the wild tulips on the air. +</p> +<p> + "You do not know what it is to love a thing! — how should you? — + you, a priest!" said Adone. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio did not reply. He went on down the course of the stream. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0014"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XIV +</h2> +<p> + One morning in early April Adone received a printed invitation to + attend in five days' time at the Municipality of San Beda to hear of + something which concerned him. It was brought by the little old + postman who went the rounds of the district once a week on his + donkey; the five days had already expired before the summons was + delivered. Adone's ruddy cheeks grew pale as he glanced over it; he + thrust it into the soil and drove his spade through it. The old man + waiting, in hopes to get a draught of wine, looked at him in dismay. +</p> +<p> + "Is that a way to treat their Honours' commands?" he said aghast. +</p> +<p> + Adone did not answer or raise his head; he went on with his digging; + he was turning and trenching the soil to plant potatoes; he flung + spadefuls of earth over the buried summons. +</p> +<p> + "What's amiss with you, lad?" said the old fellow, who had known him + from his infancy. +</p> +<p> + "Leave me," said Adone, with impatience. "Go to the house if you want + to drink and to bait your beast." +</p> +<p> + "Thank ye," said the old man. "But you will go, won't you, Adone? It + fares ill with those who do not go." +</p> +<p> + "Who told you to say that?" +</p> +<p> + "Nobody; but I have lived a' many years, and I have carried those + printed papers a' many years, and I know that those who do not go + when they are called rue it. Their Honours don't let you flout them." +</p> +<p> + "Their Honours be damned!" said Adone. "Go to the house." +</p> +<p> + The little old man, sorely frightened, dropped his head, and pulling + his donkey by its bridle went away along the grass path under the + vines. +</p> +<p> + Adone went on delving, but his strong hands shook with rage and + emotion as they grasped the handle of the spade. He knew as well as + if he had been told by a hundred people that he was called to treat + of the sale of the Terra Vergine. He forced himself to go on with his + forenoon's labour, but the dear familiar earth swam and spun before + his sight. +</p> +<p> + "What?" he muttered to it, "I who love you am not your owner? I who + was born on you am not your lawful heir? I who have laboured on you + ever since I was old enough to use a tool at all am now in my manhood + to give you up to strangers? I will make you run red with blood + first!" +</p> +<p> + It wanted then two hours of noon. When twelve strokes sounded from + across the river, tolled slowly by the old bronze bell of the church + tower, he went for the noonday meal and rest to the house. +</p> +<p> + The old man was not longer there, but Clelia Alba said to him — +</p> +<p> + "Dario says they summon you to Dan Beda, and that you will not go?" +</p> +<p> + "He said right." +</p> +<p> + "But, my son," cried his mother, "go you must! These orders are not + to be shirked. Those who give them have the law behind them. You know + that." +</p> +<p> + "They have the villainy of the law behind them: the only portion of + the law the people ever suffered to see." +</p> +<p> + "But how can you know what it is about if you do not go?" +</p> +<p> + "There is only one thing which it can be. One thing that I will not + hear." +</p> +<p> + "You mean for the river — for the land?" +</p> +<p> + "What else?" +</p> +<p> + Her face grew as stern as his own. "If that be so... Still you should + go, my son; you should go to hold your own." +</p> +<p> + "I will hold my own," said Adone; and in his thoughts he added, "but + not by words." +</p> +<p> + "What is the day of the month for which they call you?" asked his + mother. +</p> +<p> + "The date is passed by three days. That is a little feat which + authority often plays upon the people." +</p> +<p> + They went within. The meal was eaten in silence; the nut-brown eyes + of Nerina looked wistfully in their faces, but she asked nothing; she + guessed enough. +</p> +<p> + Adone said nothing to Don Silverio of the summons, for he knew that + the priest would counsel strongly his attendance in person at San + Beda, even though the date was already passed. +</p> +<p> + But the Vicar had heard of it from the postman, who confided to him + the fears he felt that Adone would neglect the summons, and so get + into trouble. He perceived at once the error which would be committed + if any sentence should be allowed to go by default through absence of + the person cited.. By such absence the absentee discredits himself; + whatsoever may be the justice of his cause, it is prejudiced at the + outset. But how to persuade of this truth a man so blind with pain + and rage and so dogged in self-will as Adone had become, Don Silverio + did not see. He shrank from renewing useless struggles and disputes + which led to no issue. He felt that Adone and he would only drift + farther and farther apart with every word they spoke. +</p> +<p> + The young man viewed this thing through a red mist of hatred and + headstrong fury; it was impossible for his elder to admit that such + views were wise or pardonable, or due to anything more than the + heated visions evoked by a great wrong. +</p> +<p> + That evening at sunset he saw the little girl Nerina at the river. + She had led the cows to the water, and they and she were standing + knee deep in the stream. The western light shone on their soft, + mottled, dun hides and on her ruddy brown hair and bright young face. + The bearded bulrushes were round them; the light played on the broad + leaves of the docks and the red spikes of great beds of willow-herb; + the water reflected the glowing sky, and close to its surface numbers + of newly-come swallows whirled and dipped and darted, chasing gnats, + whilst near at hand on a spray a little woodlark sang. +</p> +<p> + The scene was fair, peaceful, full of placid and tender loveliness. +</p> +<p> + "And all this is to be changed and ruined in order that some sons of + the mammon of unrighteousness may set up their mills to grind their + gold," he thought to himself as he passed over the stepping-stones, + which at this shallow place could be crossed dryfoot. +</p> +<p> + "Where is Adone?" he called to the child. +</p> +<p> + "He is gone down the river in the punt, most reverend." +</p> +<p> + "And his mother?" +</p> +<p> + "Is at the house, sir." +</p> +<p> + Don Silvero went through the pastures under the great olives. When he + reached the path leading to the house he saw Clelia Alba seated + before the doorway spinning. The rose-tree displayed its first + crimson buds above her head; on the roof sparrows and starlings were + busy. +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba rose and dropped a low courtesy to him, then resumed her + work at the wheel. +</p> +<p> + "You have heard, sir?" she said in a low tone. "They summons him to + San Beda." +</p> +<p> + "Old Dario told me; but Adone will not go?" +</p> +<p> + "No sir; he will never go." +</p> +<p> + "He is in error." +</p> +<p> + "I do not know sir. He is best judge of that." +</p> +<p> + "I fear he is in no state of mind to judge calmly of anything. His + absence will go against him. Instead of an amicable settlement the + question will go to the tribunals, and if he be unrepresented there + he will be condemned <i>in contumacium</i>." +</p> +<p> + "Amicable settlement?" repeated his mother, her fine face animated + and stern, and her deep dark eyes flashing. "Can you, sir, dare you, + sir, name such a thing? What they would do is robbery, vile robbery, + a thousand times worse than aught the men of night ever did when they + came down from the hills to harass our homesteads." +</p> +<p> + "I do not say this otherwise; but the law is with those who harass + you now. We cannot alter the times, good Clelia; we must take them as + they are. Your son should go to San Beda and urge his rights, not + with violence but with firmness and lucidity; he should also provide + himself with an advocate, or he will be driven out of his home by + sheer force, and with some miserable sum as compensation." +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba's brown skin grew ashen grey, and its heavy lines + deepened. +</p> +<p> + "You mean... that is possible?" +</p> +<p> + "It is more than possible. It is certain. These things always end so. + My poor dear friend! do you not understand, even yet, that nothing + can save your homestead?" +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba leaned her elbows on her knees and bowed her face upon + her hands. She felt as women of her race had felt on some fair morn + when they had seen the skies redden with baleful fires, and the + glitter of steel corslets shine under the foliage, and had heard the + ripe corn crackle under the horses' hoofs, and had heard the + shrieking children scream, "The lances are coming, mother! Mother! + save us!" +</p> +<p> + Those women had had no power to save homestead or child; they had + seen the pikes twist in the curling locks, and the daggers thrust in + the white young throats, and the flames soar to heaven, burning + rooftree and clearing stackyard, and they had possessed no power to + stay the steel or quench the torch. She was like them. +</p> +<p> + She lifted her face up to the light. +</p> +<p> + "He will kill them." +</p> +<p> + "He may kill one man — two men — he will have blood on his hands. + What will that serve? I have told you again and again. This thing is + inevitable — frightful, but inevitable, like war. In war do not + millions of innocent and helpless creatures suffer through no fault + of their own, no cause of their own, on account of some king's + caprice or statesman's blunder? You are just such victims here. + Nothing will preserve to you the Terra Vergine. My dear old friend, + have courage." +</p> +<p> + "I cannot believe it, sir; I cannot credit it. The land is ours; this + little bit of the good and solid earth is ours; God will not let us + be robbed of it." +</p> +<p> + "My friend! no miracles are wrought now. I have told you again and + again and again you must lose this place." +</p> +<p> + "I will not believe it!" +</p> +<p> + "Alas! I pray hat you may not be forced to believe; but I know that I + pray in vain. Tell me, you are certain that Adone will not answer + that summons?" +</p> +<p> + "I am certain." +</p> +<p> + "He is mad." +</p> +<p> + "No, sir he is not mad. No more than I, his mother. We have faith in + Heaven." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio was silent. It was not for him to tell them that such + faith was a feeble staff. +</p> +<p> + "I must not tarry," he said, and rose. "The night is near at hand. + Tell your son what I have said. My dear friend, I would almost as + soon stab you in the throat as say these things to you; but as you + value your son's sanity and safety make him realise this fact, which + you and he deny: the law will take your home from you, as it will + take the river from the province." +</p> +<p> + "No, sir!" said Clelia Alba fiercely. "No, no, no! There is a God + above us!" +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio bade her sadly farewell, and insisted no more. He went + through the odorous grasslands, where the primrose and wild hyacinth + grew so thickly and the olive branches were already laden with small + green berries, and his soul was uneasy, seeing how closed is the mind + of the peasant to argument or to persuasion. Often had he seen a poor + beetle pushing its ball of dirt up the side of a sandhill only to + fall back, and begin again, and again fall; for any truth to + endeavour to penetrate the brain of the rustic is as hard as for the + beetle to climb the sand. He was disinclined to seek the discomfiture + of another useless argument, but neither could he be content in his + conscience to let this matter wholly alone. +</p> +<p> + Long and dreary as the journey was to San Beda, he undertook it + again, saying nothing to any one of his purpose. He hoped to be able + to put Adone's contumacy in a pardonable light before the Syndic, and + perhaps to plea his cause better than the boy could plead it for + himself. To Don Silverio he always seemed a boy still, and therefore + excusable in all his violence and extravagances. +</p> +<p> + The day was fine and cool, and walking was easier and less exhausting + than it had been at the season of his first visit; moreover, his + journey to Rome had braced his nerves and sinews to exertion, and + restored to him the energy and self-possession which the long, + tedious, monotonous years of solitude in Ruscino had weakened. There + was a buoyant wind coming from the sea with rain in its track, and a + deep blue sky with grand clouds drifting past the ultramarine hues of + the Abruzzo range. The bare brown rocks grew dark as bronze, and the + forest-clothed hills were almost black in the shadows, as the + clustered towers and roofs of the little city came in sight. He went, + fatigued as he was, straight to the old ducal palace, which was now + used as the municipality, without even shaking the dust off his feet. +</p> +<p> + "Say that I come for the affair of Adone Alba," he said to the first + persons he saw in the ante-room on the first floor. In the little + ecclesiastical town his calling commanded respect. They begged him to + sit own and rest, and in a few minutes returned to say that the most + illustrious the Count Corradini would receive him at once in his + private room; it was a day of general council, but the council would + not meet for an hour. The Syndic was a tall, spare, frail man, with a + patrician's face and an affable manner. He expressed himself in + courteous terms as flattered by the visit of the Vicar Ruscino, and + inquired if in any way he could be of the slightest service. +</p> +<p> + "Of the very greatest, your Excellency," said Don Silverio. "I have + ventured to come hither on behalf of a young parishioner of mine, + Adone Alba, who, having received the summons of your Excellency only + yesterday, may, I trust, be excused for not having obeyed it on the + date named. He is unable to come to-day. May I offer myself for his + substitute as <i>amicus curie</i>!" +</p> +<p> + "Certainly, certainly," said Corradini, relieved to meet an educated + man instead of the boor he had expected. "If the summons were delayed + by any fault of my officials, the delay must be inquired into. + Meanwhile, most reverend, have you instructions to conclude the + affair?" +</p> +<p> + "As yet, I venture to remind your Excellency, we do not even know + what is the affair of which you speak." +</p> +<p> + "Oh no; quite true. The matter is the sale of the land known under + the title of the Terra Vergine." +</p> +<p> + "Thank Heaven I am here, and not Adone," thought Don Silverio. +</p> +<p> + Aloud he answered, "What sale? The proprietor has heard of none." +</p> +<p> + "He must have heard. It can be no news to you that the works about to + be made upon the river Edera will necessitate the purchase of the + land known as the Terra Vergine." +</p> +<p> + Here the Syndic put on gold spectacles, drew towards him a black + portfolio filled by plans and papers, and began to move them about, + muttering, as he searched, little scraps of phrases out of each of + them. At last he turned over the sheets which concerned the land of + the Alba. +</p> +<p> + "Terra Vergine — Commune of Ruscino — owners Alba from 1620 — + family of good report — regular taxpayers — sixty hectares — land + productive; value — just so — humph, humph, humph!" +</p> +<p> + Then he laid down the documents and looked at Don Silverio from over + his spectacles. +</p> +<p> + "I conclude, most reverend, that you come empowered by this young man + to treat with us?" +</p> +<p> + "I venture, sir," replied Don Silverio respectfully, "to remind you + again that it is impossible I should be so empowered, since Adone + Alba was ignorant of the reason for which he was summoned here." +</p> +<p> + Corradini shuffled his documents nervously with some irritation. +</p> +<p> + "This conference, then, is a mere waste of time? I hold council + to-day —" +</p> +<p> + "Pardon me, your Excellency," said Don Silverio blandly. "It will not + be a waste of time if you will allow me to lay before you certain + facts, and, first, to ask you one question: Who is, or are, the buyer + or buyers of this land?" +</p> +<p> + The question was evidently unwelcome to the Syndic; it was direct, + which every Italian considers ill-bred, and it was awkward to answer. + He was troubled for personal reasons, and the calm and searching gaze + of the priest's dark eyes embarrassed him. After all, he thought, it + would have been better to deal with the boor himself. +</p> +<p> + "Why do you ask that?" he said irritably. "You are aware that the + National Society for the Improvement of Land and the foreign company + of the Teramo-Tronto Electric Railway combine in these projected + works?" +</p> +<p> + "To which of these two societies, then, is Adone Alba, or am I, as + his <i>locum tenens</i>, to address ourselves?" +</p> +<p> + "To neither. This commune deals with you." +</p> +<p> + "Why?" +</p> +<p> + Count Corradini took off his glasses, put them on again, shifted the + papers and plans in his imposing portfolio. +</p> +<p> + "May I ask again — why?" said Don Silverio in the gentlest tones of + his beautiful voice. +</p> +<p> + "Because, because," answered the Syndic irritably, "because the whole + affair is in treaty between our delegates and the companies. Public + societies do not deal with private individuals directly, but by + proxy." +</p> +<p> + "Pardon my ignorance," said Don Silverio, "but why does the commune + desire to substitute itself for the owner?" +</p> +<p> + "It is usual." +</p> +<p> + "Ah! It is usual." +</p> +<p> + Corradini did not like the repetition of his phrase, which would not + perhaps bear very close examination. He looked at his watch. +</p> +<p> + "Excuse me, Reverend Father, but time presses." +</p> +<p> + "Allow me to crave of your bounty a little more time, nevertheless. I + am not habituated to business, but I believe, if I understand your + worshipful self aright, the commune contemplates purchasing from the + individuals, with power and intent to sell to the companies." +</p> +<p> + What an unmannerly ecclesiastic! thought Corradini; for indeed, put + thus bluntly and crudely what the commune, as represented by himself, + was doing did not look as entirely correct as could be desired. +</p> +<p> + "I was in Rome, most illustrious," said Don Silverio, "in + connection with this matter some months ago?" +</p> +<p> + "In Rome?" +</p> +<p> + To hear this was unpleasant to the Syndic; it ha never occurred to + him that his rural, illiterate, and sparsely populated district would + have contained any person educated enough to think of inquiring in + Rome about this local matter. +</p> +<p> + "To Rome! Why did you go to Rome?" +</p> +<p> + "To acquire information concerning this scheme." +</p> +<p> + "You are an owner of land?" +</p> +<p> + "No, sir. I am a poor, very poor, priest." +</p> +<p> + "It cannot concern you, then." +</p> +<p> + "It concerns my people. Nothing which concerns them is alien to me." +</p> +<p> + "Humph, humph! Most proper, most praiseworthy. But we have no time + for generalities. You came to treat of the Terra Vergine?" +</p> +<p> + "Pardon me, sir; I came to hear why you summoned Adone Alba, one of + my flock." +</p> +<p> + "Could he not have come himself? It had been but his duty." +</p> +<p> + "He could not, sir; and, to say truth, he would not. He does not + intend to sell his land." +</p> +<p> + "What!" +</p> +<p> + Corradini half rose from his chair, leaning both hands on the table, + and staring though his glasses across the mass of portfolios and + papers at the priest. +</p> +<p> + "He will have no choice allowed him," he said with great anger. "To + the interests of the State all minor interests must bend. What! a + mere peasant stand in the way of a great enterprise?" +</p> +<p> + "You intend expropriation then?" +</p> +<p> + The voice of Don Silverio was very calm and sweet, but his + countenance was stern. +</p> +<p> + Corradini was irritated beyond measure. He did not desire to play + that great card so early in the game. +</p> +<p> + "I do not say that," he muttered. "There must be parliamentary + sanction for any forced sale. I spoke in general terms. Private + interest must cede to public" +</p> +<p> + "There is parliamentary sanction already given to the project for the + Valley of Edera," said Don Silverio, "expropriation included." +</p> +<p> + Count Corradini threw himself back in his chair with an action + expressive at once of wrath and of impotence. He had an irritating + sense that this priest was master of the position, and knew much more + than he said. In reality Don Silverio knew very little, but he had + skill and tact enough to give a contrary impression to his auditor. + He followed up his advantage. +</p> +<p> + "Expropriation is to be permitted to enforce sales on recalcitrant + landowners," he continued. "But that measure, even though conceded in + theory, will take time to translate into practice. I fear, sir, that + if it be ever put into execution we shall have trouble in your + commune. Your council has been over hasty in allying itself with + these speculators. You and they have not taken into account the + immense injury which will be done to the valley and to my own village + or town, call it as you will, of Ruscino. The people are quiet, + patient, meek, but they will not be so if they are robbed of the + water of the Edera. It is the source of all the little — the very + little — good which comes to them. So it is with Adone Alba. He has + been God-fearing, law-abiding, a good son, excellent in all + relations; but he will not recognise as law the seizure of his land. + Sir, you are the elected chief of this district; all these people + look to you for support in their emergency. What are these foreign + speculators to you that you should side with them? You say this + commune will purchase from its peasant proprietors in the interests + of these foreigners. Was it to do this that they elected you? Why + should the interests of the foreigners be upheld by you to the injury + of those of your own people? Speaking for my own parish, I can affirm + to you that, simple souls as they are, poor in the extreme, and + resigned to poverty, you will have trouble with them all if you take + it on you to enforce the usurpation of the Edera water." +</p> +<p> + Count Corradini, still leaning back in his large leathern chair, + listened as if he were hypnotised; he was astounded, offended, + enraged, but he was fascinated by the low, rich, harmonious + modulations of the voice which addressed him, and by the sense of + mastery which the priest conveyed without by a single word asserting + it. +</p> +<p> + "You would threaten me with public disorder?" he said feebly, and + with consciousness of feebleness. +</p> +<p> + "No sir; I would adjure you, in God's name, not to provoke it." +</p> +<p> + "It does not rest with me." +</p> +<p> + He raised himself in his chair: his slender aristocratic hands played + nervously with the strings of the portfolio, his eyelids flickered, + and his eyes avoided those of his visitor. +</p> +<p> + "I have no voice in this matter. You mistake." +</p> +<p> + "Surely your Excellency speaks with the voice of all you electors?" +</p> +<p> + "Of my administrative council, then? But they are all in favour of + the project; so is his Excellency the Prefect, so is the Deputy, so + is the Government. Can I take upon myself in my own slender + personality to oppose these?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes, sir, because you are the mouthpiece of those who cannot speak + for themselves." +</p> +<p> + "Euh! Euh! That may be true in a sense. But you mistake; my authority + is most limited. I have but two votes in Council. I am as wholly + convinced as you can be that some will suffer for the general good. + The individual is crushed by the crowd in these days. We are in a + period of immense and febrile development; of wholly unforeseen + expansion; we are surrounded by the miracles of science; we are + witnesses of an increase of intelligence which will lead to results + whereof no living man can dream; civilisation in its vast and + ineffable benevolence sometimes wounds, even as the light and heat of + the blessed sun —" +</p> +<p> + "Pardon me, sir," said Don Soverio, "at any other moment it would be + my dearest privilege to listen to your eloquence. But time passes. I + came here on a practical errand. I desire to take back some definite + answer to Adone and Clelia Alba. Am I to understand from you that the + municipality, on behalf of these foreign companies, desires to + purchase his land, and even insists upon its right to do so?" +</p> +<p> + The Syndic, accustomed to seek shelter from all plain speaking in the + cover of flowery periods such as those in which he had been arrested, + was driven from his usual refuge. He could not resume the noble and + enlightened discourse which had been thus recklessly cut in two. He + tied the strings of the portfolio into a bow, and undid them, and + tied them again. +</p> +<p> + "I have received you, sir, <i>ex officio</i>," he replied after a long + silence. "You address me as if I possessed some special individual + power. I have none. I am but the mouthpiece, the representative of my + administrative council. You, a learned ecclesiastic, cannot want to + be taught what are the functions of a Syndic." +</p> +<p> + "I am to understand then that I must address myself on behalf of my + people to the Prefect?" +</p> +<p> + Corradini was silent. The last thing he desired was for this + importunate priest to see the Prefect. +</p> +<p> + "I must go into council at once," he said, again looking at his + watch. "Could you return? Are you remaining here?" +</p> +<p> + "Some hours, sir." +</p> +<p> + "Will you dine with me at my house at three? You will give me much + pleasure, and the Countess Corradini will be charmed." +</p> +<p> + "I am grateful for so much offered honour, but I have promised to + make my noonday meal with an old friend, the superior of the + Cistercians." +</p> +<p> + "An excellent, a holy person," said Corradini, with a bend of his + head. "Be at my house, reverend sir, at five of the clock. I shall + then have spoken with the assessors of your errand, and it will be + dealt with probably in council." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio made a low bow, and left him free to go to his awaiting + councillors, who were already gathered round a long table covered by + green cloth, in a vaulted and stately chamber, stories from Greek + mythology carved on its oaken doors and stone cornices. +</p> +<p> + "Pray excuse me, gentleman," said the courtly mayor to his assessors, + taking his seat on an old walnut-wood throne at the head of the + table. "I have been detained by this matter of the Valdedera. I fear + the people of that valley will show an ungrateful and refractory + temper. How hard it is to persuade the ignorant where their true + interests lie! But let us to business." +</p> +<p> + "It will be a hard matter," said the Prior to Don Silverio as they + walked together in the little burial-ground of the monastery between + its lines of rose-trees and its lines of crosses, after the frugal + noonday meal had been eaten in the refrectory. "It will be a hard + matter. You will fail, I fear. The municipalities here smell money. + That is enough to make them welcome the invasion. What can you do + against the force of gold?" +</p> +<p> + "Would it avail anything to see the Prefect?" +</p> +<p> + "Nothing. He is cousin to the Minister of Agriculture, whose brother + is chairman of the Teramo-Fermo Company. We are governed solely by + what the French call <i>tripotage</i>." +</p> +<p> + "What character does this Syndic bear?" +</p> +<p> + "A good one. He is blameless in his domestic relation, an indulgent + landlord, a gentleman, respectful of religion, assiduous in his + duties; but he is in debt; his large estates produce little; he has + no other means. I would not take upon me to say that he would be + above a bribe." +</p> +<p> + At five of the clock, as the Syndic had told him to do, Don Silverio + presented himself at the Palazzo Corradini. He was shown with much + deference by an old liveried servant into a fine apartment with + marble busts in niches in the walls, and antique bookcases of oak, + and doorhangings of Tuscan tapestry. The air of the place was cold, + and had the scent of a tomb. It was barely luminated by two bronze + lamps in which unshaded oil wicks burned. Corradini joined him there + in five minutes' time, and welcomed him to the house with grace and + warmth of courtesy. +</p> +<p> + "What does he want of me?" thought Don Silverio, who had not been + often met in life by such sweet phrases. "Does he want me to be + blind?" +</p> +<p> + "Dear and reverend sir," said the mayor, placing himself with his + back to the brass lamps, "tell me fully about this youth whom you + protect, who will not sell the Terra Vergine. Here we can speak at + our ease; yonder at the municipality, there may be always some + eavesdropper." +</p> +<p> + "Most worshipful, what I said is matter well known to the whole + countryside; all the valley can bear witness to its truth," replied + Don Silverio, and he proceeded to set forth all that he knew of Adone + and Clelia Alba, and of their great love for their lands; he only did + not mention what he believed to be Adone's descent, because he feared + that it might sound fantastical or presumptuous. Nearly three hundred + years of peasant ownership and residence were surely titles enough + for consideration. +</p> +<p> + "If land owned thus, and tilled thus by one family, can be taken away + from that family by Act of Parliament to please the greedy schemes of + strangers, why preserve the eighth commandment in the Decalogue? It + becomes absurd. There cannot be a more absolute ownership than this + of the Alba to the farm they live on and cultivate. So long as there + is any distinction at all between <i>meum et tuum</i>, how can its violent + seizure be by any possibility defended?" +</p> +<p> + "There will be no violent seizure," said Corradini. "The young man + will be offered a good price; even, since you are interested in him, + a high price." +</p> +<p> + "But he will take no price — no price, if he were paid million; they + would not compensate for his loss." +</p> +<p> + "He must be a very singular young man." +</p> +<p> + "His character is singular, no doubt, in an age in which money is + esteemed the sole goal of existence, and discontent constitutes + philosophy. Adone Alba wants nothing but what he has; he only asks to + be left alone." +</p> +<p> + "It is difficult to be left alone in a world full of other people! If + your hero wants a Thebaid, he can go and buy one in La Plata, or the + Argentine, with the price we shall give for his land." +</p> +<p> + "We?" repeated Don Silverio with significant emphasis. +</p> +<p> + Corradini reddened a little. "I only use the word because I am + greatly interested in the success of this enterprise, being convinced + of its general utility to the province. Being cognisant as I am of + the neighbourhood, I hoped I could prevent some friction." +</p> +<p> + "The shares are, I believe, already on the market?" +</p> +<p> + It was a harmless remark, yet it was a disagreeable one to the Syndic + of San Beda. +</p> +<p> + "What would be the selling price of the Terra Vergine?" he said + abruptly. "It is valued at twelve thousand francs." +</p> +<p> + "It is useless to discuss its price," replied Don Silverio, "and the + question is much wider than the limits of the Terra Vergine. In one + word, is the whole of the Valdedera to be ruined because a Minister + has a relation who desires to create an unnecessary railway?" +</p> +<p> + "Ruined is a large word. These constructions appear to all, except + primitive and ignorant people, to be improvements, acquisitions, + benefits. In our province we are so aloof from all movement, so + remote in our seclusion, so moss-grown in our antiquity, so wedded to + the past, to old customs, old habits, old ways of act and thought, + that the modern world shocks us as impious, odious, and intolerable." +</p> +<p> + "Sir," said Don Silverio with his most caustic smile, "if you are + here to sing the praises of modernity, allow me to withdraw from the + duet. I venture to ask you, as I asked you this morning, one plain + question. To whom is Adone Alba, to whom are my people of Ruscino, to + appeal against the sequestration?" +</p> +<p> + "To no one. The Prefect approves; the Minister approves; the local + deputies approve; I and my municipal and provincial councils approve; + Parliament has approved and authorised. Who remain opposed? A few + small landowners and a mob of poor persons living in your village of + Ruscino and in similar places." +</p> +<p> + "Who can create grave disorders and will do so." +</p> +<p> + "Disorders, even insurrections, do not greatly alarm authority + nowadays; they are easily pressed since the invention of the + quick-firing guns. The army is always on the side of order." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio rose. +</p> +<p> + "Most honourable Corradini! your views and mine are so far asunder + that no amount of discussion can assimilate them. Allow me to salute + you." +</p> +<p> + "Wait one instant, reverence," said the Syndic. "May I ask how it is + that an ecclesiastic of your appearance and your intellect can have + been buried so long in such an owls' nest as Ruscino?" +</p> +<p> + "Sir," replied Don Silverio very coldly, "ask my superiors: I am but + one of the least of the servants of the Church." +</p> +<p> + "You might be one of her greatest servants, if influence —" +</p> +<p> + "I abhor the word influence. It means a bribe too subtle to be + punished, too gilded to alarm." +</p> +<p> + "Nay, sometimes it is but a word in season, a pressure in the right + place." +</p> +<p> + "It means that which cannot serve the poor man without degrading + him." +</p> +<p> + "But — but — if as a reward for duty, advancement cane to you?" +</p> +<p> + "I fail to understand." +</p> +<p> + "Let me speak frankly. With your superiority to them you must easily + rule the embryo rioters of the Valdedera. If, to your efforts it + should be owing that the population remain quiet, and that this Adone + Alba and others in a similar position come to me in an orderly manner + and a pliant spirit, I will engage that this service to us on your + part shall not be forgotten." +</p> +<p> + He paused; but Don Silverio did not reply. +</p> +<p> + "It is lamentable and unjust," continued the mayor, "that any one of + your evident mental powers and capacity for higher place should be + wasting your years and wasting your mind in a miserable solitude like + Ruscino. If you will aid us to a pacific cession of the Valdedera I + will take upon myself to promise that your translation to a higher + office shall be favoured by the Government-" +</p> +<p> + He paused again, for he did not see upon Don Silverio's countenance + that flattered and rejoiced expression which he expected; there was + even upon it a look of scorn. He regretted that he had said so much. +</p> +<p> + "I thank your Excellency for so benevolent an interest in my poor + personality," said Don Silverio. "But with the King's government I + have nothing to do. I am content in the place whereto I have been + called, and have no disposition to assist the speculations of foreign + companies. I have the honour to bid your Excellency good evening." +</p> +<p> + He bowed low, and backed out of the apartment this time. Count + Corradini did not endeavour to detain him. +</p> +<p> + When he got out into the air the strong mountain wind was blowing + roughly down the steep and narrow street. He felt it with pleasure + smite his cheeks and brows. +</p> +<p> + "Truly only from nature can we find strength and health," he + murmured. "In the houses of men there are but fever and corruption, + and uncleanliness." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0015"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XV +</h2> +<p> + To neglect no possible chance, he resolved to see the Prefect, if the + Prefect consented to see him. This great official dwelt in a seaport + city, whence he ruled the province, for such a period at least as his + star should be in the ascendant, that is, whilt his political group + should be in power. It was scarcely likely that a government official + would be accessible to any arguments which a poor country priest + could bring forward against a government project. Still, he resolved + to make the effort, for at the Prefect's name apprehension, keen and + quaking, had leapt into Count Corradini's faded eyes. +</p> +<p> + From San Beda to the seaport city there stretched some forty miles of + distance; the first part a descent down the spurs of the Apennines, + the latter half through level sandy country, with pine woods here and + there. The first half he covered on foot, the second by the + parliamentary train, which drew its long black line snake-like and + slow, through the dunes and the stagnant waters. He had but a few + francs in his waistband, and could ill afford to expend those. +</p> +<p> + When he reached his destination it was evening; too late for him to + present himself at the Prefecture with any chance of admittance. The + Prior at San Beda had given him a letter to the vicar of the church + of Sant Anselmo in the city, and by this gentleman he was received + and willingly lodged for the night. +</p> +<p> + "A government project — a project approved by ministers and + deputies?" said his host on hearing what was the errand on which he + came there. "As well, my brother, might you assail the Gran Sasse + d'Italia! There must be money in it, much money, for our Conscript + Fathers." +</p> +<p> + "I suppose so," said Don Silverio, "but I cannot see where it is to + come from." +</p> +<p> + "From the pockets of the taxpayers, my friend!" replied the incumbent + of Sant Anselmo, with a smile as of a man who knows the world he + lives in. "The country is honeycombed by enterprises undertaken + solely to this end — to pass the money which rusts in the pockets of + fools into those of wise men who know how to make it run about and + multiply. In what other scope are all our betterments, our hygiene, + our useless railway lines, our monstrous new streets, all our + modernisation, put in the cauldron and kept boiling like a witch's + supper?" +</p> +<p> + "I know, I know," said Don Silverio wearily. "The whole land is + overrun by <i>affaristi</i>, like red ants." +</p> +<p> + "Do not slander the ants!" replied his host; "I would not offend the + name of any honest, hard-working little insect by giving it to the + men through whom this country is eaten up by selfish avarice and + unscrupulous speculation! But tell me, what do you hope for from our + revered Prefect?" +</p> +<p> + "I hope nothing, but I wish to leave no stone unturned. Tell me of + him." +</p> +<p> + "Of his Excellency, Giovacchino Gallo, senator, Grand Cross, and + whatnot? There is much to tell, though there is nothing which could + not be also told of many another gentleman in high place. It is the + usual story: the supple spine, the sharp eye, the greased foot. He + was a young lawyer, useful to deputies. He married a lovely woman + whom a prince had admired beyond him. He asked no questions; her + dower was large. To do him justice, he has always behaved very well + to her. He entered Parliament early, and there was useful also, to + existing institutions. He was instrumental in carrying many railway + and canal bills through the chamber. He has been always successful in + his undertakings, and he knows that nothing succeeds like success. I + am told that he and his wife are <i>persone gratissime</i> at the + Quirinale, and that her jewels are extremely fine. When he was named + Senator two years ago the Press, especially the Press of the Right, + saluted his nomination as strengthening the Senate by the accession + to it of a person of impeccable virtue, of enlightened intellect, and + of a character cast in antique moulds of noble simplicity and Spartan + courage. You think, my brother, that this favourite of fortune is + likely to favour your plea for your parishioners?" +</p> +<p> + "Dear and revered brother," replied Don Silverio, "I came hither + with no such illusions. If I had done, your biography of this + functionary would have dispelled them." +</p> +<p> + Nevertheless, although without hope, at two o'clock of that day he + went to the audience which was granted him at the intervention of the + bishop of the city, obtained by means of the vicar of Sant Anselmo. +</p> +<p> + The Prefecture was situated in a palace of sixteenth century + architecture, a noble and stately place of immense size, greatly + injured by telegraph and telephone wires stretching all round it, the + post-office and the tax offices being situated on the ground floor, + and the great central court daubed over with fresh paint and + whitewash. Some little soldiers in dingy uniforms, ill-cut and + ill-fitting, stood about gates and doors. On the first floor were the + apartments occupied by his Excellency. Don Silverio was kept waiting + for some time in a vestibule of fine proportions painted by + Diotisalvi, with a colossal marble group in its centre of the death + of Caesar. +</p> +<p> + He looked at it wistfully. +</p> +<p> + "Ah, Guilio!" he murmured, "what use were your conquests, what use + was your genius, the greatest perchance the world has ever seen? What + use? You were struck in the throat like a felled ox, and the land you + ruled lies bleeding at every pore!" +</p> +<p> + In a quarter of an hour he was ushered through other large rooms into + one of great architectural beauty, where the Prefect was standing by + a writing-table. +</p> +<p> + Giovacchino Gallo was a short, stout person with a large stomach, a + bald head, bright restless eyes, and a high, narrow forehead; his + face was florid, like the face of one to whom the pleasures of the + table are not alien. His address was courteous but distant, stiff, + and a little pompous; he evidently believed in himself as a great + person and only unbent to other greater persons, when he unbent so + vastly that he crawled. +</p> +<p> + "What can I do for your Reverence?" he asked, as he seated himself + behind the writing-table and pointed to a chair. +</p> +<p> + The words were polite but the tone was curt; it was officialism + crystallised. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio explained the purpose of his visit, and urged the + prayers of his people. +</p> +<p> + "I am but the vicar of Ruscino," he said in explanation, "but in this + matter I plead for all the natives of the Valdedera. Your Excellency + is Governor of this province, in which the Edera takes its rise and + has its course. My people, and all those others who are not under my + ministry, but whose desires and supplications I represent, venture to + look to you for support in their greatest distress, and intercession + for them against this calamity." +</p> +<p> + The face of the Prefect grew colder and sterner, his eyes got an + angry sparkle, his plump, rosy hands closed on a malachite + paper-knife; he wished the knife were of steel, and the people of the + Valdedera had but one head. +</p> +<p> + "Are you aware, sir," he said impatiently, "that the matter of which + you speak has had the ratification of Parliament?" +</p> +<p> + "But it has not had the ratification of the persons whom it most + concerns." +</p> +<p> + "Do you supposed, then, when a great public work is to be + accomplished the promoters are to go hat in hand for permission to + every peasant resident on the area?" +</p> +<p> + "A great public work seems to me a large expression: too large for + this case. The railway is not needed. The acetylene works are a + private speculation. I venture to recall to your Excellency that + these people, whom you would ignore, own the land, or, where they do + not own it, have many interests both in the land and the water." + "Pardon me, your Excellency, but that is a phrase: it is not a fact. + You could not, if you gave them millions, compensate them for the + seizure of their river and their lands. These belong to them and to + their descendants by natural right. They cannot be deprived of these + by Act of Parliament without gross injury and injustice." + "There must be suffering for the individual in all benefit of the + general!" +</p> +<p> + "And doubtless, sir, when one is not the individual the suffering + appears immaterial!" +</p> +<p> + "What an insolent priest!" thought Giovacchino Gallo, and struck the + paper-knife with anger on the table. +</p> +<p> + "Take my own parishioners alone," pursued Don Silverio. "Their small + earnings depend entirely upon the Edera water; it gives them their + food, their bed, their occupation; it gives them health and strength; + it irrigates their little holdings, <i>extra murus</i>, on which they and + their families depend for grain and maize and rice. If you change + their river-bed into dry land they will starve. Are not your own + countrymen dearer to you than the members of a foreign syndicate?" +</p> +<p> + "There will be work for them at the acetylene factory." +</p> +<p> + "Are they not free men? Are they to be driven like slaves to a work + which would be hateful to them? These people are country born and + country bred. They labour in the open air, and have done so for + generations. Pardon me, your Excellency, but every year the King's + Government forces into exile thousands, tens of thousands, of our + hard working peasants with their families. The taxation of the land + and of all its products lays waste thousands of square miles in this + country. The country is being depleted and depopulated, and the best + of its manhood is being sent out of it by droves to Brazil, to La + Plata, to the Argentines, to anywhere and everywhere, where labour is + cheap and climate homicidal. The poor are packed on emigrant ships + and sent with less care than crated of fruit receive. They consent to + go because they are famished here. Is it well for a country to lose + its labouring classes, its frugal, willing, and hard-working manhood? + to pack them off across the oceans by contract with other states? The + Government has made a contract with a Pacific island for five + thousand Italians? Are they free men or are they slaves? Can your + Excellency call my people free who are allowed no voice against the + seizure of their own river, and to whom you offer an unwholesome and + indoor labour as compensation for the ruin of their lives? Now, they + are poor indeed, but they are contented; they keep body and soul + together, they live on their natal soil, they live as their fathers + lived. Is it just, is it right, is it wise to turn these people into + disaffection and despair by an act of tyranny and spoilation through + which the only gainers will be foreign speculators abroad and at home + the gamblers of the Bourses? Sir, I do not believe that the world + holds people more patient, more long-suffering, more pacific under + dire provocation, or more willing to subsist on the poorest and + hardest conditions than Italians are; is it right or just or wise to + take advantage of that national resignation to take from half a + province the natural aid and the natural beauty with which God + Himself has dowered it in the gift of the mountainborn stream? You + are powerful, sir, you have the ear of the Government; you will not + try to stop this infamous theft of the Edera water whilst there is + still time?" +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio spoke with that eloquence and with that melody of voice + which few could bear unmoved; and even the dull ear and the hard + heart of the official who heard him were for one brief moment moved + as by the pathos of a song sung by some great tenor. +</p> +<p> + But that moment was very brief. Over the face of Giovacchino Gallo a + look passed at once brutal and suspicious. "Curse this priest!" he + thought; "he will give us trouble." +</p> +<p> + He rose, stiff, cold, pompous, with a frigid smile on his red, full, + <i>bon viveur's</i> lips. +</p> +<p> + "If you imagine that I should venture to attack, or even presume to + criticise, a matter which the Most Honourable the Minister of + Agriculture has in his wisdom approved and ratified, you must have a + strange conception of my fitness for my functions. As regards + yourself, Reverend Sir, I regret that you appear to forget that the + chief duty of your sacred office is to inculcate to your flock + unquestioning submission to Governmental decrees." +</p> +<p> + "Is that your Excellency's last word?" +</p> +<p> + "It is my first, and my last, word." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio bowed low. +</p> +<p> + "You may regret it, sir," he said simply, and left the writing-table + and crossed the room. But as he approached the door the Prefect, + still standing, said, "Wait!" +</p> +<p> + Gallo opened two or three drawers in his table, searched for some + papers, looked over them, leaving the priest always standing between + him and the door. Don Silverio was erect; his tall frail form had a + great majesty in it; his pallid features were stern. +</p> +<p> + "Return a moment," said Gallo. +</p> +<p> + "I can hear your Excellency where I am," replied Don Silverio, and + did not stir. +</p> +<p> + "I have here reports from certain of my agents," said Gallo, + fingering his various papers, "that there is and has been for some + time a subversive movement amongst the sparse population of the + Valdedera." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio did not speak or stir. +</p> +<p> + "It is an agrarian agitation," continued Gallo, "limited to its area, + with little probability of spreading, but it exists; there are + meetings by night, both open-air and secret meetings; the latter take + place now in one farmhouse, now in another. The leader of this + noxious and unlawful movement is one Adone Alba. He is of your + parish." +</p> +<p> + He lifted his eyelids and flashed a quick, searching glance at the + priest. +</p> +<p> + "He is of my parish," repeated Don Silverio, with no visible emotion. +</p> +<p> + "You know of this agitation?" +</p> +<p> + "If I did, sir, I should not say so. But I am not in the confidence + of Adone Alba." +</p> +<p> + "Of course I do not ask you to reveal the secrets of the + confessional, but —" +</p> +<p> + "Neither in the confessional nor out of it have I heard anything + whatever from him concerning any such matter as that of which you + speak." +</p> +<p> + "He is a young man?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes." +</p> +<p> + "And the owner of the land known as the Terra Vergine?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes." +</p> +<p> + "And his land is comprised in that which will be taken by the + projected works?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes." +</p> +<p> + "Are you sure that he has not sent you here?" +</p> +<p> + "My parishoners are not in the habit of 'sending' me anywhere. You + reverse our respective positions." +</p> +<p> + "Humility is not one of your ecclesiastical virtues, Most Reverend." +</p> +<p> + "It may be so." +</p> +<p> + Gallo thrust his papers back into their drawer and locked it with a + sharp click. +</p> +<p> + "You saw the Syndic of San Beda?" +</p> +<p> + "I did." +</p> +<p> + "Much what you say. Official language is always limited and learned + by rote." +</p> +<p> + Gallo would willingly have thrown his bronze inkstand at the insolent + ecclesiastic; his temper was naturally choleric, though years of + sycophancy and State service had taught him to control it. +</p> +<p> + "Well, Reverend Sir!" he said, with ill-concealed irritation, "this + conversation is, I see, useless. You protect and screen your people. + Perhaps I cannot blame you for that, but you will allow me to remind + you that it is my duty to see that the order and peace of this + district are not in any manner disturbed; and that any parish priest + if he fomented dissatisfaction or countenanced agitation in his + district, would be much more severely dealt with by me than any + civilian would be in the same circumstances. We tolerate and respect + the Church so long as she remains strictly within her own sphere, but + so long only." +</p> +<p> + "We are all perfectly well aware of the conditions attached to the + <i>placet</i> and the <i>exequatur</i> at all times, and we are all conscious + that even the limited privileges of civilians are denied to us!" + replied Don Silverio. "I have the honour to wish your Excellency good + morning." +</p> +<p> + He closed the door behind him. +</p> +<p> + "Damnation!" said Giovacchino Gallo; "that is a strong man! Is Mother + Church blind that she lets such an one rust and rot in the miserable + parish of Ruscino?" +</p> +<p> + When Don Silverio rejoined the Vicar of Sant Anselmo the latter asked + him anxiously how his errand had sped. +</p> +<p> + "It was a waste of breath and words," he answered. "I might have + known that it would be so with any Government official." +</p> +<p> + "But you might have put a spoke in Count Corradini's wheel. If you + had told Gallo that the other is trafficking —" +</p> +<p> + "Why should I betray a man who received me in all good faith? And + what good would it have accomplished if I had done so?" +</p> +<p> + And more weary than ever in mind and body he returned to Ruscino. +</p> +<p> + As he had left the Prefect's presence that eminent person had rung + for his secretary. +</p> +<p> + "Brandone, send me Sarelli." +</p> +<p> + In a few moments Sarelli had appeared; he was the usher of the + Prefecture by appointment; by taste and in addition he was its chief + spy. He was a native of the city, and a person of considerable acumen + and excellent memory; he never needed to make memoranda — there is + nothing so dangerous to an official as written notes. + "Sarelli, what are the reports concerning the vicar of Ruscino?" +</p> +<p> + Sarelli stood respectfully at attention; he had been a + non-commissioned officer of artillery; and answered in rapid but + clear tones — +</p> +<p> + "Great ability — great eloquence — disliked by superiors; formerly + great preacher in Rome; supposed to be at Ruscino as castigation; + learned — benevolent — correct." +</p> +<p> + "Humph!" said Gallo, disappointed. "Not likely then to cause trouble + or disorder? — to necessitate painful measures?" +</p> +<p> + Sarelli rapidly took his cue. +</p> +<p> + "Hitherto, your Excellency, uniformly correct; except in one instance + —" +</p> +<p> + "That instance?" +</p> +<p> + "Your Excellency will have heard of Ulisse Ferrero, a great robber of + the lower Abruzzo Citeriore Primo?" +</p> +<p> + "I have: continue." +</p> +<p> + "Ulisse Ferrero was outlawed; his band had been killed or captured, + every one; he had lost his right arm; he hid for many years in the + lower woods of Abruzzo; he came down at night to the farmhouses, the + people gave him food and drink, and aided him —" +</p> +<p> + "Their criminal habit always: continue." +</p> +<p> + "Sometimes in one district, sometimes in another, he was often in the + <i>macchia</i> of the Valdedera. The people of the district, and + especially of Ruscino, protected him. They thought him a saint, + because once when at the head of his band, which was then very + strong, he had come into Ruscino and done them no harm, but only + eaten and drunk, and left a handful of silver pieces to pay for what + he and his men had taken. So they protected him now, and oftentimes + for more than a year he came out of the <i>macchia</i>, and the villagers + gave him all they could, and he went up and down Ruscino as if he + were a king; and this lasted for several seasons, and, as we learned + afterwards, Don Silverio Frascara had cognisance of this fact, but + did nothing. When Ulisse Ferrero was at last captured (it is nine + years ago come November, and it was not in Ruscino but in the woods + above), and brought to trial, many witnesses were summoned, and + amongst them this Don Silverio; and the judge said to him, 'You had + knowledge that this man came oftentimes into you parish?' and Don + Silverio answered, 'I had.' 'You knew that he was an outlaw, in + rupture with justice?' 'I did,' he answered. Then the judge struck + his fist with anger on his desk. 'And you a priest, a guardian of + order, did not denounce him to the authorities?' Then Don Silverio, + your Excellency, quite quietly, but with a smile (I was there close + to him), had the audacity to answer the judge. 'I am a priest,' he + said 'and I study my breviary, but do not find in it any command + which authorises me to betray my fellow creatures.' That made a + terrible stir in the tribunal, you Excellency. They talked of + committing him to gaol for contempt of court and for collusion with + the outlaw. But it took place at San Beda, where they are all + <i>papalini</i>, as your Excellency knows, and nothing was done, sir." +</p> +<p> + "That reply is verily like this priest!" thought Giovacchino Gallo. + "A man of ability, of intellect, of incorruptible temper, but a man + as like as not to encourage and excuse sedition." +</p> +<p> + Aloud he said, "You may go, Sarelli. Good morning." +</p> +<p> + "May I be allowed a word, sir?" +</p> +<p> + "Speak." +</p> +<p> + "May it not well be, sir, that Don Silverio's organisation or + suggestion is underneath this insurrectionary movement of the young + men in the Valdedera?" +</p> +<p> + "It is possible; yes. See to it." +</p> +<p> + "Your servant, sir." +</p> +<p> + Sarelli withdrew, elated. He loved tracking, like a bloodhound, for + the sheer pleasure of the "cold foot chase." The official views both + layman and priest with contempt and aversion; both are equally his + prey, both equally his profit: he lives by them and on them, as the + galleruca does on the elm-tree, whose foliage it devours, but he + despises them because they are not officials, as the galleruca + doubtless, if it can think, despises the elm. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0016"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XVI +</h2> +<p> + Of course his absence could not be hidden from any in his parish. The + mere presence of the rector of an adjacent parish, who had taken his + duties, sufficed to reveal it. For so many years he had never stirred + out of Ruscino in winter cold or summer heat, that none of his people + could satisfactorily account to themselves for his now frequent + journeys. The more sagacious supposed that he was trying to get the + project for the river undone; but they did not all have so much faith + in him. Many had always been vaguely suspicious of him; he was so + wholly beyond their comprehension. They asked Adone what he knew, or, + if he knew nothing, what he thought. Adone put them aside with an + impatient, imperious gesture. "But you knew when he went to Rome?" + they persisted. Adone swung himself loose from them with a movement + of anger. It hurt him to speak of the master he had renounced, of the + friend he had forsaken. His conscience shrank from any distrust of + Don Silverio; yet his old faith was no more alive. He was going + rapidly down a steep descent, and in that downward rush he lost all + his higher instincts; he was becoming insensible to everything except + the thirst for action, for vengeance. +</p> +<p> + To the man who lives in a natural state away from cities it appears + only virile and just to defend himself, to avenge himself, with the + weapons which nature and art have given him; he feels no satisfaction + in creeping and crawling through labyrinths of the law, and he cannot + see why he, the wronged, should be forced to spend, and wait, and + humbly pray, while the wrongdoer may go, in the end, unchastised. + Such a tribunal as St. Louis held under an oak-tree, or the Emperor + Akbar in a mango grove, would be intelligible to him; but the + procedure, the embarrassments, the sophistries, the whole machinery + of modern law are abhorrent to him. +</p> +<p> + He yearned to be the Tell, the Massaniello, the Andreas Hofer, of his + province; but the apathy and supineness and timidity of his neighbors + tied his hands. He knew that they were not made of the stuff with + which a leader could hope to conquer. All his fiery appeals fell like + shooting stars, brilliant but useless; all his vehement excitations + did little more than scare the peasants whom he sought to rouse. A + few bold spirits like his own seconded his efforts and aided his + propaganda; but these were not numerous enough to leaven the inert + mass. +</p> +<p> + His plan was primitive and simple: it was to oppose by continual + resistance every attempt which should be made to begin the projected + works upon the river; to destroy at night all which should be done in + the day, and so harass and intimidate the workmen who should be sent + there that they should, in fear and fatigue, give up their labours. + They would certainly be foreign workmen; that is, workmen from + another province; probably from the Puglie. It was said that three + hundred of them were coming that week from the Terra d'Otranto to + work above Ruscino. He reckoned that he and those he led would have + the advantage of local acquaintance with the land and water, and + could easily, having their own homes as base, carry on a guerrilla + warfare for any length of time. No doubt, he knew, the authorities + would send troops to the support of the labours, but he believed that + when the resolve of the district to oppose at all hazards any + interference with the Edera should be made clear, the Government + would not provoke an insurrection for the sake of favouring a foreign + syndicate. So far as he reasoned at all, he reasoned thus. +</p> +<p> + But he forgot, or rather he did not know, that the lives of its + people, whether soldiers or civilians, matter very little to any + Government, and that its own vanity, which it calls dignity, and the + financial interests of its supporters, matter greatly; where the + Executive has been defied there it is inexorable and unscrupulous. +</p> +<p> + Both up and down the river there was but one feeling of bitter rage + against the impending ruin of the water; there was but one piteous + cry of helpless desperation. But to weld this, which was mere + emotion, into that sterner passion of which resistance and revolt are + made, was a task beyond his powers. +</p> +<p> + "No on will care for us; we are too feeble, we are too small," they + urged; they were willing to do anything were they sure it would + succeed, but — +</p> +<p> + "But who can be sure of anything under heaven?" replied Adone. "You + are never sure of your crops until the very last day they are reaped + and carried; yet you sow." +</p> +<p> + Yes, they granted that; but sowing grain was a safe, familiar + labour; the idea of sowing lead and death alarmed them. Still there + were some, most of them those who were dwellers on the river, or + owners of land abutting on it, who were of more fiery temper, and + these thought as Adone thought, that never had a rural people juster + cause for rebellion; and these gathered around him in those meetings + by night of which information had reached the Prefecture, for there + are spies in every province. +</p> +<p> + Adone had changed greatly; he had grown thin and almost gaunt; he had + lost his beautiful aspect of adolescence; his eyes had no longer + their clear and happy light; they were keen and fierce, and looked + out defiantly from under his level brows. +</p> +<p> + He worked on his own land usually, by day, to stave off suspicion; + but by night he scoured the country up and down the stream wherever + he believed he could find proselytes or arms. He had no settled plan + of action; he had no defined project; his only idea was to resist, to + resist, to resist. Under a leader he would have been an invaluable + auxiliary, but he had not the knowledge whatever of stratagem, or + manoeuvre, or any of the manifold complications of guerrilla warfare. + His calm and dreamy life had not prepared him to be all at once a man + of action: action was alien alike to his temperament and to his + habits. All his heart, his blood, his imagination, were on fire; but + behind them there was not that genius of conception and command which + alone makes the successful chief of a popular cause. +</p> +<p> + His mother said nothing to disturb or deter him on his course, but in + herself she was sorely afraid. She kept her lips shut because she + would have thought it unworthy to discourage him, and she could not + believe in his success, try how she might to compel her faith to + await miracles. +</p> +<p> + Little Nerina alone gave him that unquestioning, blind belief which + is so dear to the soul of man. Nerina was convinced that at his call + the whole of the Valdedera would rise full-armed, and that no hostile + power on earth would dare to touch the water. To her any miracle + seemed possible. Whatever he ordered, she did. She had neither fear + nor hesitation. She would slip out of her room unheard, and speed + over the dark country on moonless nights on his errands; she would + seek for weapons and bring them in and distribute them; she would + take his messages to those on whom he could rely, and rouse to his + cause the hesitating and half-hearted by repetition of his words. Her + whole young life had caught fire at his; and her passionate loyalty + accepted without comprehending all he enjoined her or told to her. +</p> +<p> + The danger which she ran and the concealment of which she was guilty, + never disturbed her for an instant. What Adone ordained was her law. + Had he not taken pity on her in her misery that day by the river? Was + she not to do anything and everything to serve him and save the + river? This was her sole creed; but it sufficed to fill her still + childish soul. If, with it, there were mingled a more intense and + more personal sentiment, she was unconscious of, and he indifferent + to, it. He sent her to do his bidding as he would have sent a boy, + because he recognised in her that zeal and fervent fidelity to a + trust of which he was not sure in others. +</p> +<p> + Although she was a slender brown thing, like a nightingale, she was + strong, elastic, untiring; nothing seemed to fatigue her; she always + looked as fresh as the dew, as vigorous as a young cherry-tree. Her + big hazel eyes danced under their long lashes, and her pretty mouth + was like one of the four-season roses which bloomed on the house + wall. She was not thought much to look at in a province where the + fine Roman type is blended with the Venetian colouring in the beauty + of its women; but she had a charm and a grace of her own; wild and + rustic, like that of a spray of grass or a harvest mouse swinging on + a stalk of wheat. +</p> +<p> + She was so lithe, so swift, so agile; so strong without effort, so + buoyant and content, that she carried with her the sense of her own + perfect health and happiness, as the east wind blowing up the Edera + water bore with it the scent of the sea. +</p> +<p> + But of any physical charm in her Adone saw nothing. A great rage + filled his soul, and a black cloud seemed to float between him and + all else which was not the wrong done to him and his and the water of + Edera. Until he should have lifted off the land and the stream this + coming curse which threatened them, life held nothing for him which + could tempt or touch him. +</p> +<p> + He used the girl for his own purposes and did not spare her; but + those purposes were only those of his self-imposed mission, and of + all which was youthful, alluring, feminine, in her he saw nothing: + she was to him no more than a lithe, swift, hardy filly would have + been which he should have ridden over the moors and pastures to its + death in pursuit of his end. He who had been always so tender of + heart had grown cruel; he would have flung corpse upon corpse into + the water if by such holocaust he could have reached his purpose. + What had drawn him to Nernia had been that flash of ferocity which he + had seen in her; that readiness to go to the bitter end in the sweet + right of vengeance; instincts which formed so singular a contrast to + the childish gaiety and the sunny goodwill of her normal disposition. +</p> +<p> + He knew that nothing which could have been done to her would have + made her reveal any confidence placed in her. That she was often out + all the hours of the night on errands to the widely scattered + dwellings of the peasants did not prevent her coming at dawn into the + cattle stalls to feed and tend the beasts. +</p> +<p> + And she was so dexterous, so sure, so silent; even the sharp eyes of + old Gianna never detected her nocturnal absence, even the shrewd + observation of Clelia Alba never detected any trace of fatigue in her + or any negligence in her tasks. She was always there when they needed + her, did all that she was used to do, was obedient to every word or + sign; they did not know that as she carried the water pails, or cut + the grass, or swept the bricks, or washed the linen, her heart sung + proudly within her a joyous song because she shared a secret — a + perilous secret — of which the elder woman knew nothing. Any night a + stray shot might strike her as she ran over the moors, or through the + heather; any night a false step might pitch her headlong into a + ravine or a pool; any night, returning through the shallows of the + ford, she might miss her footing and fall into one of the bottomless + holes that the river hid in its depths: but the danger of it only + endeared her errand the more to her; made her the prouder that she + was chosen for it. +</p> +<p> + "I fear nothing," she said to him truthfully; "I fear only that you + should not be content." +</p> +<p> + And as signal fires run from point to point, or hill to hill, so she + ran from one farmhouse to another, bearing the messages which + organised those gatherings whereof Giavacchino Gallo had the + knowledge. The men she summoned and spoke with were rough peasants, + for the most part, rude as the untanned skins they wore at their + work, but not one of them ever said a gross word or gave a lewd + glance to the child. +</p> +<p> + She was <i>la bimba</i> to them all; a brave little soul and honest; they + respected her as if she were one of their own children, or one of + their own sisters, and Nernia coming through the starlight, with an + old musket slung at her back, which Adone had taught her to use, and + her small, bronzed feet leaping over the ground like a young goat's, + was a figure which soon became familiar and welcome to the people. + She seemed to them like a harbinger of hope; she had few words, but + those words reverberated with courage and energy; she moved the + supine, she braced the timid; she brought the wavering firmness and + the nervous strength; she said what Adone had taught her to say, but + she put into it all her own immense faith in him, all her own + innocent and undoubting certainty that his cause was just and would + be blessed by heaven. +</p> +<p> + The Edera water belonged to them. Would they let it be turned away + from their lands and given to strangers? +</p> +<p> + As a little spaniel or beagle threshes a covert, obedient to his + master's will and working only to please him, so she scoured the + country-side and drove in, by persuasion, or appeal, or threat, all + those who would lend ear to her, to the midnight meetings on the + moors, or in the homesteads, where Adone harangued them, with + eloquence ever varied, on a theme which was never stale, because it + appealed at once to the hearts and to the interests of his hearers. +</p> +<p> + But many of them, though fascinated, remained afraid. +</p> +<p> + "When all is said, what can we do?" they muttered. "Authority has a + long arm." +</p> +<p> + The people of the district talked under their breath of nothing else + than of this resistance which was being preached as a holy war by the + youth of Terra Vergine. They were secret and silent, made prudent by + many generations which had suffered from harsh measures and brutal + reprisals, but the league he proclaimed fascinated and possessed + them. Conspiracy has a seduction subtle and irresistible as gambling + for those who have once become its servants. It is potent as wine, + and colours the brain which it inflames. To these lowly, solitary + men, who knew nothing beyond their own fields and coppices and + wastelands, its excitement came like a magic philter to change the + monotony of their days. They were most of them wholly unlettered; + knew not their A B C; had only learned the law of the seasons, and + the earth, and the trees which grew, and the beasts which grazed; but + they had imagination; they had the blood of ancient races; they were + neither dolts not boors, though Adone in his wrath called them so. + They were fascinated by the call to rise and save their river. A + feeling, more local than patriotism, but more noble than interest, + moved them to share in his passionate hatred of the intruders, and to + hearken to his appeals to them to arm and rise as one man. +</p> +<p> + But, on the other hand, long years of servitude and hardship had made + them timid as gallant dogs are made so by fasting or the whip. "What + are we?" some of them said to him. "We are no more than the + earthworms in the soil." For there is a pathetic humility in these + descendants of the ancient rulers of the world; it is a humility born + of hope deferred, of the sense of every change of masters, of + knowledge that the sun rises and sets upon their toil, as it did on + that of their fathers, as it will do on that of their children, and + will never see it lessened, nor see the fruits thereof given to + themselves or to their sons. It is a humility which is never ignoble, + but is infinitely, because hopelessly, sad. +</p> +<p> + The river was their own, surely, yes; but, like so much else that was + their own, the State claimed it. +</p> +<p> + "What can be more yours than the son you beget, the fruit of your + loins, the child for whom you have laboured through long years?" said + an old man to him once. "Yet the State, as soon as he is of use to + you, the State takes him, makes a beast of burden of him, kills his + youth and his manhood; sends him without a word to you, to be maimed + and slaughtered in Africa, his very place of death unknown to you; + his body — the body you begat and which his mother bore in her womb + and nourished and cherished — is devoured by the beasts of the + desert and the birds of the air. They take all; why shall they not + take the river also?" +</p> +<p> + The glowing faith of Adone was flung, as the sunlit salt spray of the + ocean is cast on a cliff of basalt, against the barrier of that weary + and prostrate despair which the State dares to tell the poor is their + duty and their portion upon earth. +</p> +<p> + But the younger men listened to him more readily, being less bent and + broken by long labour, and poor food, and many years of unanswered + prayers. Of these some had served their time in regiments, and aided + him to give some knowledge of drill and of the use of weapons to + those who agreed with him to dispute by force the claim of strangers + to the Edera water. +</p> +<p> + These gatherings took place on waste lands or bare heaths, or in + clearings or hollows in the woods, and the tramp of feet and click of + weapons scared the affrighted fox and the astounded badger. They + dared not fire lest the sound should betray their whereabouts to some + unfriendly ear; but they went through all other military exercises as + far as it lay in their power to do so. +</p> +<p> + The extreme loneliness of the Edera valley was in their favour. Once + in half a year, perhaps, half a troop of carabineers might ride + through the district, but this was only if there had been any notable + assassination or robbery; and of police there was none nearer than + the town of San Beda. +</p> +<p> + It was to arrange these nightly exercises, and summon to or warn off + men from them, as might be expedient, that Nernia was usually sent + upon her nocturnal errands. One night when she had been bidden by + Adone to go to a certain hamlet in the woods to the north, the child, + as she was about to slip back the great steel bolts which fastened + the house door, saw a light upon the stairs which she had just + descended, and turning round, her hand upon the lock, saw Clelia + Alba. +</p> +<p> + "Why are you out of your bed at this hour?" said the elder woman. Her + face was stern and dark. +</p> +<p> + Nernia did not answer; her gay courage forsook her; she trembled. +</p> +<p> + "Why?" asked Adone's mother. +</p> +<p> + "I was going out," answered the child. Her voice shook. She was + clothed as usual in the daytime, but she had over her head a woollen + wrapper. She had not her musket, for she kept it in the hen-house, + and was accustomed to take it as she passed that place. +</p> +<p> + "Going out! At the fourth hour of the night? Is that an answer for a + decent maiden?" +</p> +<p> + Nernia was silent. +</p> +<p> + "Go back to your room, and I will lock you in it; in the morning you + will account to me." +</p> +<p> + Nernia recovered her self-possession, though she trembled still. +</p> +<p> + "Pardon me, Madama Clelia," she said humbly, "I must go out." +</p> +<p> + She did not look ashamed, and her small brown face had a resolute + expression. +</p> +<p> + A great anguish seized and wrung the heart of Clelia Alba. She knew + that Adone was not in the house, Did he, the soul of purity and + honour, seduce a girl who dwelt under his own roof? — carry on an + intrigue with a little beggar, to his own shame and the outrage of + his mother? Was this the true cause of his frequent absence, his many + nights abroad? Her dark brows contracted, her black eyes blazed. +</p> +<p> + "Go to your room, wanton!" she said in tones of thunder. "In the + morning you will answer to me." +</p> +<p> + But Nernia, who had before this slipped the bolt aside, and who + always kept her grasp upon the great key in the lock, suddenly turned + it, pushed the oak door open, and before the elder woman was + conscious of what she was doing, had dashed out into the air, and + slammed the door behind her. The rush of wind had blown out the lamp + in Clelia Alba's hand. +</p> +<p> + When, after fumbling vainly for some minutes to find the door, and + bruising her hands against the wall and oaken chair, she at last + found it and thrust it open, the night without was moonless and + starless and stormy, and in its unillumined blackness she saw no + trace of the little girl. She went out on to the doorstep and + listened, but there was no sound. The wind was high; the perfume of + the stocks and wallflowers was strong; far away the sound of the + river rushing through the sedges was audible in the intense + stillness, an owl hooted, a nightjar sent forth its sweet, strange, + sighing note. Of Nernia there was no trace. Clelia Alba came within + and closed the door, and locked and bolted it. +</p> +<p> + The old woman Gianna had come downstairs with a lighted rush candle + in her hand; she was scared and afraid. +</p> +<p> + "What is it? What is it, madama?" +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba dropped down on the chair by the door. +</p> +<p> + "It is — it is — that the beggar's spawn you would have me shelter + is the leman of my son; and he has dishonoured his house and mine." +</p> +<p> + Gianna shook her grey head in solemn denial and disbelief. +</p> +<p> + "Sior'a, Clelia, do not say such words or think such thoughts of your + son or of the child. She is as harmless as any flower that blows out + there in the garden, and he is a noble youth, though now, by the + wickedness of me, distraught and off his head. What makes you revile + them so?" +</p> +<p> + "They are both out this night. Is not that enough?" +</p> +<p> + Gianna was distressed; from her chamber above she had heard the words + which had passed between Adone's mother and Nernia, and knew the girl + was gone. +</p> +<p> + "I would condemn others, but not Adone and the child," she returned. + "For sure they do not do right to have secrets from you, but they are + not such secrets as you think." +</p> +<p> + "Enough!" said Clelia Alba sternly. "The morning will show who is + right. It suffices for me that the son of Valeria Albo, my son, has + forgot his duty to his mother and his respect for himself." +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba rose with effort from her chair, relighted her lamp at + the old woman's rush candle, and went slowly and heavily up the + stairs. She felt stunned and outraged. Her son! — hers! — to lie + out of nights with a little nameless vagrant! +</p> +<p> + Gianna caught hold of her skirt. "Madama — listen. I saw him born + that day by the Edera water, and I have seen him every day of his + life since till now. He would never do a base thing. Do not you, his + mother, disgrace him by thinking of it for an hour. This thing is + odd, is ugly, is strange, but wait to judge it —" +</p> +<p> + Clelia Alba released her skirt from her old servant's grasp. +</p> +<p> + "You mean well, but you are crazed. Get you gone." +</p> +<p> + Gianna let go her hold and crept submissively down the stair. She set + her rushlight on the floor and sat down in the chair beside the door, + and told her beads with shaking fingers. One or other of them, she + thought, might come home either soon or late, for she did not believe + that any amorous intimacy was the reason that they were both out — + God knew where — in this windy, pitch-dark night. +</p> +<p> + "But he does wrong, he does wrong," she thought. "He sends the child + on his errands perhaps, but he should remember a girl is like a + peach, you cannot handle it ever so gently but its bloom goes; and he + leaves us alone, two old women here, and we might have our throats + cut before we should be able to wake old Ettore in the stable." +</p> +<p> + The night seemed long to her in the lone stone entrance, with the + owls hooting round the house, and the winds blowing loud and tearing + the tiles from the roof. Above, in her chamber, Adone's mother walked + to and fro all night sleepless. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0017"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XVII +</h2> +<p> + Gianna before it was dawn went out in the hope that she might meet + Adone on his return, and be able to speak to him before he could see + his mother. She was also in extreme anxiety for Nerina, of whom she + had grown fond. She did not think the little girl would dare return + after the words of Clelia Alba. She knew the child was courageous, + but timid, like an otter or a swallow. +</p> +<p> + She went to the edge of the river and waited; he must cross it to + come home; but whether he would cross higher up or lower down she + could not tell. There was the faint light which preceded the rising + of the sun. A great peace, a great freshness, were on the water and + the land. +</p> +<p> + "Oh Lord, what fools we are!" thought the old woman. "The earth makes + itself anew for us with every dawn, and our own snarling, and + fretting, and mourning cloud it all over for us, and we only see our + own silly souls!" +</p> +<p> + Soon, before the sun was rising, Adone came in sight, passing with + firm, accustomed step across the undressed trunks of trees which were + here thrown across the river to make a passage lower down the stream + than the bridge of Ruscino. He was walking with spirit and ease, his + head was erect, his belt was filled with arms, his eyes had sternness + and command in them; he came from one of the military drillings in + the woods, and had been content with it. Seeing old Gianna waiting + there he understood that something must have happened, and his first + fears were for his mother. +</p> +<p> + "Is she ill?" he cried, as he reached the bank of his own land. +</p> +<p> + "No; she is well in health," answered Gianna, "but she is sorely + grieved and deeply angered; she found the girl Nerina going out at + the dead of night." +</p> +<p> + Adone changed colour. He was silent. Gianna came close to him. +</p> +<p> + "The child and you both out all night, heaven knows where! What but + one thing can your mother think?" +</p> +<p> + "If she thinks but one thing, that thing is false." +</p> +<p> + "Maybe. I believe so myself, but, Sior' Clelia will not. Why do you + send the child out at such hours?" +</p> +<p> + "What did she say to my mother?" +</p> +<p> + "Nothing; only that she had to go." +</p> +<p> + "Faithful little soul!" +</p> +<p> + "Aye! And it is when little maids are faithful like this that men + ruin them. I do not want to speak without respect to you, Adone, for + I have eaten your bread and been sheltered by your roof through many + a year; but for whatever end you send that child out of nights, you + do a bad thing, a cruel thing, a thing unworthy of your stock; and if + I know Clelia Alba——and who should know her if not I?— she will + never let Nerina enter her house again." +</p> +<p> + Adone's face grew dark. +</p> +<p> + "The house is mine. Nerina shall not be turned out of it." +</p> +<p> + "Perhaps it is yours; but it is your mother's too, and you will + scarce turn out your mother for the sake of a little beggar-girl?" +</p> +<p> + Adone was silent; he saw the dilemma; he knew his mother's nature; he + inherited it. +</p> +<p> + "Go you," he said at last; "go you and tell her that the child went + out on my errands, indeed, but I have not seen her; there is no + collusion with her, and she is not and never will be <i>dama</i> of mine." +</p> +<p> + "I will take her no such message, for she would not listen. Go you; + say what you choose; perhaps she will credit you, perhaps she will + not. Anyhow, you are warned. As for me, I will go and search for + Nerina." +</p> +<p> + "Do you mean she has not returned?" +</p> +<p> + "Certainly she has not. She will no more dare to return than a kicked + dog. You forget she is a young thing, a creature of nothing; she + thinks herself no more than a pebble or a twig. Besides, your mother + called her a wanton. That is a word not soon washed out. She is + humble as a blade of grass, but she will resent that. You have made + much trouble with your rebellious work. You have done ill — ill — + ill!" +</p> +<p> + Adone submitted mutely to the upbraiding; he knew he had done + selfishly, wrongfully, brutally, that which had seemed well to + himself with no consideration of others. +</p> +<p> + "Get you gone and search for the child," he said at last. "I will go + myself to my mother." +</p> +<p> + "It is the least you can do. But you must not forget the cattle. + Nerina is not there to see to them." +</p> +<p> + She pushed past him and went on to the footbridge; but midway across + it she turned and called to him: "I lit the fire, and the coffee is + on it. Where am I to look for the child? In the heather? in the + woods? up in Ruscino? down in the lower valley? or may be at the + presbytery?" +</p> +<p> + "Don Silverio is absent," Adone called back to her; and he passed on + under the olive-trees towards his home. Gianna paused on the bridge + and watched him till he was out of sight; then she went back herself + by another path which led to the stables. A thought had struck her: + Nerina was too devoted to the cattle to have let them suffer; + possible she was even now attending to them in their stalls. +</p> +<p> + "She is a faithful little thing as he said!" the old servant + muttered. "Yes; and such as she are born to labour and to suffer, and + to eat the bread of bitterness." +</p> +<p> + "Where is she, Pierino?" she said to the old white dog; he was lying + on the grass; if the girl were lost, she thought, Pierino would be + away somewhere looking for her. +</p> +<p> + Gianna's heart was hard against Adone; in a dim way she understood + the hopes and the schemes which occupied him, but she could not + forgive him for sacrificing to them his mother and this friendless + child. It was so like a man, she said to herself, to tear along on + what he thought a road to glory, and never heed what he trampled down + as he went — never heed any more than the mower heeds the daisies. +</p> +<p> + In the cattle stalls she found the oxen and the cows already watered, + brushed, and content, with their pile of fresh grass beside them; + there was no sound in the stables but of their munching and + breathing, and now and then the rattle of the chains which linked + them to their mangers. +</p> +<p> + "Maybe she is amongst the hay," thought Gianna, and painfully she + climbed the wide rungs of the ladder which led to the hay loft. + There, sure enough, was Nerina, sound asleep upon the fodder. She + looked very small, very young, very innocent. +</p> +<p> + The old woman thought of the first day that she had seen the child + asleep on the stone bench by the porch; and her eyes grew dim. +</p> +<p> + "Who knows where you will rest to-morrow?" she thought; and she went + backwards down the ladder noiselessly so as not to awaken a sleeper, + whose awaking might be so sorrowful. +</p> +<p> + Gianna went back to the house and busied herself with her usual + tasks; she could hear the voices of Adone and Clelia Alba in the + chamber above; they sounded in altercation, but their words she could + not hear. +</p> +<p> + It was at dawn that same day that Don Silverio returned from his + interviews with Count Corradini and Senatore Gallo. When he reached + Ruscino the little rector of the village in the woods had already + celebrated mass. Don Silverio cleansed himself from the dust of + travel, entered his church for his orisons, then broke his fast with + bread and a plate of lentils, and whilst the day was still young took + the long familiar way to the Terra Vergine. Whatever the interview + might cost in pain and estrangement he felt that he dared not lose an + hour in informing Adone of what was so dangerously known at the + Prefecture. +</p> +<p> + "He will not kill me," he thought; "and if he did, it would not + matter much;— except for you, my poor little man," he added to his + dog Signorino, who was running gleefully in his shadow. Gianna saw + him approaching as she looked from the kitchen window, and cried her + thanks to the saints with passionate gratitude. Then she went out and + met him. +</p> +<p> + "Praise be to the Madonna that you have come back, reverendissimo!" + she cried. "There are sore trouble and disputes under our roof." +</p> +<p> + "I grieve to hear that," he answered; and thought, "I fear I have + lost my power to cast oil on the troubled waters." +</p> +<p> + He entered the great vaulted kitchen and sat down, for he was + physically weary, having walked twenty miles in the past night. +</p> +<p> + "What you feel at liberty to tell me, let me hear," he said to the + old servant. +</p> +<p> + Gianna told him in her picturesque, warmly-coloured phrase what had + passed between Sior' Clelia and the little girl in the night; and + what she had herself said to Adone at dawn; and how Nerina was lying + asleep in the hay-loft, being afraid, doubtless, to come up to the + house. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio listened with pain and indignation. +</p> +<p> + "What is he about to risk a female child on such errands? And why is + his mother in such vehement haste to say cruel words and think unjust + and untrue things?" +</p> +<p> + "They are unjust and untrue, sir, are they not?" said Gianna. "But it + looked ill, you see; a little creature going out in the middle of the + night, and to be sure she was but a vagrant when she came to us." +</p> +<p> + "And now — how does the matter stand? Has Adone convinced his mother + of the girl's innocence?" +</p> +<p> + "Whew! That I cannot say, sir. They are upstairs; and their voices + were loud an hour ago. Now they are still. I had a mind to go up, but + I am afraid." +</p> +<p> + "Go up; and send Adone to me." +</p> +<p> + "He is perhaps asleep, sir; he came across the water at dawn." +</p> +<p> + "If so, wake him. I must speak to him without delay." +</p> +<p> + Gianna went and came down quickly. +</p> +<p> + "He is gone out to work in the fields, sir. Madama told me so. If he + does not work, the land will go out of cultivation, sir." +</p> +<p> + "He may have gone to Nerina?" +</p> +<p> + "I do not think so, sir. But I will go back to the stable and see." +</p> +<p> + "And beg Sior' Clelia to come down to me." +</p> +<p> + He was left alone a few minutes in the great old stone chamber, with + its smell of dried herbs hanging from its rafters and of maize leaves + baking in the oven. +</p> +<p> + The land would go out of cultivation — yes! — and the acetylene + factories would take the place of the fragrant garden, the olive + orchards, the corn lands, the pastures. He did not wonder that Adone + was roused to fury; but what fury would avail aught? What pain, what + despair, what tears, would stay the desecration for an hour? The + hatchet would hew it all down, and the steam plough would pass over + it all, and then the stone and the mortar, the bricks and the iron, + the engines, and the wheels, and the cauldrons, would be enthroned on + the ruined soil: the gods of a soulless age. +</p> +<p> + "Oh, the pity of it! The pity of it!" thought Don Silverio, as the + blue sky shone through the grated window and against the blue sky a + rose branch swung and a swallow circled. +</p> +<p> + "Your servant, Reverendissimo," said the voice of Clelia Alba, and + Don Silverio rose from his seat. +</p> +<p> + "My friend," he said to her, "I find you in trouble, and I fear that + I shall add to it. But tell me first, what is this tale of Nerina?" +</p> +<p> + "It is but this, sir; if Nerina enter here, I go." +</p> +<p> + "You cannot be serious!" +</p> +<p> + "If you think so, look at me." +</p> +<p> + He did look at her; at her severe aquiline features, at her heavy + eyelids drooping over eyes of implacable wrath, at her firm mouth and + jaw, cold as if cut in marble. She was not a woman to trifle or to + waver; perhaps she was one who having received offence would never + forgive. +</p> +<p> + "But it is monstrous!" he exclaimed; "you cannot turn adrift a little + friendless girl — you cannot leave your own house, your dead + husband's house — neither is possible — you rave!" +</p> +<p> + "It is my son's house. He will harbour whom he will. But if the girl + pass the doorstep I go. I am not too old to labour for myself." +</p> +<p> + "My good woman — my dear friend — it is incredible! I see what you + believe, but I cannot pardon you for believing it. Even were it what + you choose to think — which is not possible — surely your duty to a + motherless and destitute girl of her tender years should counsel more + benevolence?" +</p> +<p> + The face of Clelia Alba grew chillier and harder still. +</p> +<p> + "Sir, leave me to judge of my own duties as the mother of Adone, and + the keeper of this house. He has told me that he is master here. I do + not deny it. He is over age. He can bring her here if he chooses, but + I go." +</p> +<p> + "But you must know the child cannot live here with a young man!" +</p> +<p> + "Why not?" said Clelia Alba, and a cruel smile passed over her face. + "It seems to me more decent than lying out in the fields together + night after night." +</p> +<p> + "Silence!" said Don Silverio in that tone which awed the boldest. "Of + what avail is your own virtue if it make you thus harsh, thus + unbelieving, thus ready to condemn?" +</p> +<p> + "I claim no more virtue than any clean-living woman should possess; + but Valerio Alba would not have brought his leman into my presence, + neither shall his son do so." +</p> +<p> + "In your present mood, words are wasted on you. Go to your chamber, + Sior' Clelia, and entreat Heaven to soften your heart. There is + sorrow enough in store for you without your creating misery out of + suspicion and unbelief. This house will not long be either yours or + Adone's." +</p> +<p> + He left the kitchen and went out into the air; Clelia Alba was too + proud, too dogged, in her obstinancy to endeavour to detain him or to + ask him what he meant. +</p> +<p> + "Where is Adone?" he asked of the old labourer Ettore, who was + carrying manure in a great skip upon his back. +</p> +<p> + "He is down by the five apple-trees, sir," answered Ettore. +</p> +<p> + The five apple-trees were beautiful old trees, gnarled, moss-grown, + hoary, but still bearing abundant blossom; they grew in a field which + was that year being trenched for young vines, a hard, back-breaking + labour; the trenches were being cut obliquely, so as not to disturb + the apple-trees or injure some fine fig-trees which grew there. Adone + was at work, stripped to his shirt and hidden in the delved earth to + his shoulders. +</p> +<p> + He looked up from the trench and lifted his hat as he saw the priest + enter the field; then he resumed his labour. +</p> +<p> + "Come out of your ditch and hearken to me. I will not weary you with + many words." +</p> +<p> + Adone, moved by long habit of obedience and deference, leapt with his + agile feet on to the border of the trench and stood there, silent, + sullen, ready to repel reproof with insolence. +</p> +<p> + "Is it worthy of you to ruin the name of a girl of sixteen by sending + her on midnight errands to your fellow-rebels?" +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio spoke bluntly; he spoke only on suspicion, but his tone + was that of a direct charge. +</p> +<p> + Adone did not doubt for a moment that he was in possession of facts. +</p> +<p> + "Has the girl played us false?" he said moodily. +</p> +<p> + "I have not seen the girl," replied Don Silvero. "But it is a base + thing to do, to use that child for errands of which she cannot know + either the danger or the illegality. You misuse one whose youth and + helplessness should have been her greatest protection." +</p> +<p> + "I had no one else that I could trust." +</p> +<p> + "Pour little soul! You could trust her, so you abused her trust! No: + I do not believe you are her lover. I do not believe you care for her + more than for the clod of earth you stand on. But to my thinking that + makes what you have done worse; colder, more cruel, more calculating. + Had you seduced her, you would at least feel that you owed her + something. She has been a mere little runner and slave to you — no + more. Surely your knowledge that she depends on you ought to have + sufficed to make her sacred?" +</p> +<p> + Adone looked on the ground. His face was red with the dull flush of + shame. He knew that he merited all these words and more. +</p> +<p> + "I will provide temporarily for her; and you will send her out no + more upon these errands," continued Don Silverio. "Perhaps, with + time, your mother may soften to her; but I doubt it." +</p> +<p> + "The house is mine," said Adone sullenly. "She shall not keep Nerina + out of it." +</p> +<p> + "You certainly cannot turn your mother away from her own hearth," + replied Don Silverio with contempt. "I tell you I will take the girl + to some place in Ruscino where she will be safe for the present time. + But I came to say another thing to you as well as this. I have been + away three days. I have seen the Prefect, Senatore Gallo. He has + informed me that your intentions, your actions, your plans and + coadjutors are known to him, and that he is aware that you are + conspiring to organise resistance and riot." +</p> +<p> + A great shock struck Adone as he heard; he felt as if an electric + charge had passed through him. He had believed his secret to be as + absolutely unknown as the graves of the lucomone under the ivy by the + riverside. +</p> +<p> + "How could he know?" he stammered. "Who is the traitor?" +</p> +<p> + "That matters little," said Don Silverio. "What matters much is, that + all you do and desire to do is written down at the Prefecture." +</p> +<p> + Adone was sceptical. He laughed harshly. +</p> +<p> + "If so, sir, why do they not arrest me? That would be easy enough. I + do not hide." +</p> +<p> + "Have you not ofttimes seen a birdcatcher spread his net? Does he + seize the first bird which approaches it? He is not so unwise. He + waits until all the feathered innocents are in the meshes: then he + fills his sack. That is how the Government acts always. It gives its + enemies full rope to hang themselves. It is cold of blood, and slow, + and sure." +</p> +<p> + "You say this to scare me, to make me desist." +</p> +<p> + "I say it because it is the truth; and if you were not a boy, blind + with rage and unreason, you would long since have known that such + actions as yours, in rousing or trying to rouse the peasants of the + Valdedera, must come to the ear of the authorities. Do not mistake. + They let you alone as yet, not because they love you or fear you; but + because they are too cunning and too wise to touch the pear before it + is ripe." +</p> +<p> + Adone was silent. He was convinced; and many evil thoughts were black + within his brain. His first quarrel with a mother he adored had + intensified all the desperate ferocity awake in him. +</p> +<p> + "You are as blind as a mole," said Don Silverio, "but you have not + the skill of the mole in constructing its hidden galleries. You + scatter your secrets broadcast as you scatter grain over your + ploughed field. You think it is enough to choose a moonless night for + you and your companions-in-arms to be seen by no living creature! + Does the stoat, does the wild cat, make such a mistake as that? If + you make war on the State, study the ways of your foe. Realise that + it has as many eyes, as many ears, as many feet as the pagan god; + that its arm is as long as its craft, that it has behind it + unscrupulous force and unlimited gold, and the support of all those + who only want to pursue their making of wealth in ease and in peace. + Do you imagine you can meet and beat such antagonists with a few + rusty muskets, a few beardless boys, a poor little girl like Nerina?" +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio's voice was curt, imperious, sardonic; his sentences cut + like whips; then after a moment of silence his tone changed to an + infinite softness and sweetness of pleading and persuasion. +</p> +<p> + "My son, my dear son! cease to live in this dream of impossible + issues. Wake to the brutality of fact, to nakedness of truth. You + have to suffer a great wrong; but will you be consoled for it by the + knowledge that you have led to the slaughter men whom you have known + from your infancy? It can but end in one way — your conflict with + the power of the State. You, and those who have listened to you, will + be shot down without mercy, or flung into prison, or driven to lead + the life of tracked beasts in the woods. There is no other possible + end to the rising which you are trying to bring about. If you have no + pity for your mother, have pity on your comrades, for the women who + bore them, for the women who love them." +</p> +<p> + Adone quivered with breathless fury as he heard. All the blackness of + his soul gathered into a storm of rage, burst forth in shameful doubt + and insult. He set his teeth, and his voice hissed through them, + losing all its natural music. +</p> +<p> + "Sir, your clients are men in high places; mine are my miserable + brethren. You take the side of the rich and powerful; I take that of + the poor and the robbed. Maybe your reverence has deemed it your duty + to tell the authorities that which you say they have learned?" +</p> +<p> + A knife through his breast-bone would have given a kindlier wound to + his hearer. Amazement under such an outrage was stronger in Don + Silverio than any other feeling for the first moment. Adone — Adone! + — his scholar, his beloved, his disciple! — spoke to him thus! Then + an overwhelming disgust and scorn swept over him, and was stronger + than his pain. He could have stricken the ungrateful youth to the + earth. The muscles of his right arm swelled and throbbed; but, with + an intense effort, he controlled the impulse to avenge his insulted + honour. Without a word, and with one glance of reproach and of + disdain, he turned away and went through the morning shadows under + the drooping apple boughs. +</p> +<p> + Adone, with his teeth set hard and his eyes filled with savage fire, + sprang down into the trench and resumed his work. +</p> +<p> + He was impenitent. +</p> +<p> + "He is mad! He knows not what he says!" thought the man whom he had + insulted. But though he strove to excuse the outrage it was like a + poisoned blade in his flesh. +</p> +<p> + Adone could suspect him! Adone could believe him to be an informer! +</p> +<p> + Was this all the recompense for eighteen years of unwearying + affection, patience, and tuition? Though the whole world had + witnessed against him, he would have sworn that Adone Alba would have + been faithful to him. +</p> +<p> + "He is mad," he thought. "His first great wrong turns his blood to + poison. He will come to me weeping to-morrow." +</p> +<p> + But he knew that what Adone had said to him, however repented of, + however washed away with tears, was one of those injuries which may + be forgiven, but can never be forgotten, by any living man. It would + yawn like a pit between them for ever. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0018"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XVIII +</h2> +<p> + To this apple-tree field there was a high hedge of luxuriant elder + and ash, myrtle and field-roses. Behind this hedge old Gianna was + waiting for him; the tears were running down her face. She took the + skirt of his coat between her hands. "Wait, your reverence, wait! The + child is in the cattle stable." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio looked down on her a few moments without comprehension. + Then he remembered. +</p> +<p> + "Is she there indeed? Poor little soul! She must not go to the + house." +</p> +<p> + "She does not dream of it, sir. Only she cannot understand why + Madonna Clelia's anger is so terrible. What can I do — oh, Lord!" +</p> +<p> + "Keep her where she is for the present. I am going home. I will speak + with some of the women in Ruscino, and find her some temporary + shelter." +</p> +<p> + "She will go to none, sir. She says she must be where she can serve + Adone. If she be shut up, she will escape and run into the woods. + Three years ago she was a wild thing; she will turn wild again." +</p> +<p> + "Like enough! But we must do what we can. I am going home. I will + come or send to you in a few hours." +</p> +<p> + Gianna reluctantly let him go. As he crossed the river he looked down + on the bright water, here green as emeralds, there brown as peat, + eddying round the old stone piers of the bridge, and an infinite + sorrow was on him. +</p> +<p> + As a forest fire sweeps away under its rolling smoke and waves of + flame millions of obscure and harmless creatures, so the baneful + fires of men's greed and speculations came from afar and laid low + these harmless lives with neither thought of them or pity. +</p> +<p> + Later in the day he sent word to Gianna to bring Nernia to the + presbytery. They both came, obedient. The child looked tired and had + lost her bright colour; but she had a resolute look on her face. +</p> +<p> + "My poor little girl," he said gently to her, "Madonna Clelia is + angered against you. We will hope her anger will pass ere long. + Meanwhile you must not go to the house. You would not make ill-blood + between a mother and her son?" +</p> +<p> + "No," said Nernia. +</p> +<p> + "I have found a home for awhile for you, with old Alaida Manzi; you + know her; she is a good creature. I am very sorry for you, my child; + but you did wrong to be absent at night; above all not to go back to + your chamber when Clelia Alba bade you to do so." +</p> +<p> + Nernia's face darkened. "I did no harm." +</p> +<p> + "I am sure you did not mean to do any; but you disobeyed Madonna + Clelia." +</p> +<p> + Nernia was silent. +</p> +<p> + "You are a young girl; you must not roam the country at night. It is + most perilous. Decent maidens and women are never abroad after + moonrise." +</p> +<p> + Nernia said nothing. +</p> +<p> + "You will promise me never to go out at night again?" +</p> +<p> + "I cannot promise that, sir." +</p> +<p> + "Why?" +</p> +<p> + "If I be wanted, I shall go." +</p> +<p> + "If Adone Alba bid you — is that your meaning?" +</p> +<p> + Nernia was silent. +</p> +<p> + "Do you think that it is fitting for you to have secrets from me, + your confessor?" +</p> +<p> + Nernia was silent; her rosy mouth was closed firmly. It was very + terrible to have to displease and disobey Don Silverio; but she would + not speak, not if she should burn in everlasting flames for ever. +</p> +<p> + "Take her away. Take her to Alaida," he said wearily to Gianna. +</p> +<p> + "She only obeys Adone, sir," said the old woman. "All I can say + counts as naught." +</p> +<p> + "Adone will send her on no more midnight errands, unless he be brute + and fool both. Take her away. Look to her, you and Alaida." +</p> +<p> + "I will do what I can, sir," said Gianna humbly, and pushed the girl + out into the village street before her. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio sat down at his deal writing-table and wrote in his + fine, clear calligraphy a few lines: "<i>In the name of my holy office + I forbid you to risk the life and good name of the maiden Nernia on + your unlawful errands</i>." +</p> +<p> + Then he signed and sealed the sheet, and sent it by his sacristan to + Adone. +</p> +<p> + He received no answer. +</p> +<p> + The night which followed was one of the most bitter in its + meditations that he had ever spent; and he had spent many cruel and + sleepless nights ere then. +</p> +<p> + That Adone could for one fleeting moment have harboured so vile a + thought filled him with nausea and amaze. Betray them! He! — who + would willingly have given up such years of life as might remain to + him could he by such a sacrifice have saved their river and their + valley from destruction. There was nothing short of vice or crime + which he would not have done to save the Edera water from its fate. + But it was utterly impossible to do anything. Even men of eminence + had often brought all their forces of wealth and argument against + similar enterprises, and had failed in their opposition. What could a + few score of peasants, and one poor ecclesiastic, do against all the + omnipotence of Parliament, of millionaires, of secretaries of State, + of speculators, of promoters, tenacious and forcible and ravenous as + the octopus? +</p> +<p> + In those lonely night hours when the moonbeams shone on his bed and + the little white dog nestled itself close to his shoulder, he was + tortured also by the sense that it was his duty to arrest Adone and + the men of the Valdedera in their mad course, even at the price of + such treachery to them as Adone had dared to attribute to him. But if + that were his duty it must be the first duty which consciously he had + left undone! +</p> +<p> + If he could only stop them on their headlong folly by betraying them + they must rush on to their doom! +</p> +<p> + He saw no light, no hope, no assistance anywhere. These lads would + not be able to save a single branch of the river water, nor a + sword-rush on its banks, nor a moorhen in its shallows, nor a cluster + of myosotis upon its banks, and they would ruin themselves. +</p> +<p> + The golden glory of the planet Venus shone between the budding + vine-leaves at his casement. +</p> +<p> + "Are you not tire?" he said to the shining orb. "Are you not tired of + watching the endless cruelties and insanities on earth?" +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0019"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XIX +</h2> +<p> + The people of Ruscino went early to their beds; the light of the + oil-wicks of the Presbytery was always the only light in the village + half an hour after dark. Nerina went uncomplainingly to hers in the + dark stone house within the walls where she had been told that it was + her lot to dwell. She did not break her fast; she drank great + draughts of water; then, with no word except a brief good-night, she + went to the sacking filled with leaves which the old woman Alaida + pointed out for her occupancy. +</p> +<p> + "She is soon reconciled," thought the old crone. "They have trained + her well." +</p> +<p> + Relieved of all anxiety, she herself lay down in the dark and slept. + The girl seemed a good, quiet, tame little thing, and said her + paternosters as she should do. But Nerina did not sleep. She was + stifled in this little close room with its one shuttered window. She + who was used to sleeping with the fresh fragrant air of the dark + fields blowing over her in her loft, felt the sour, stagnant + atmosphere take her like a hand by the throat. +</p> +<p> + As soon as she heard by the heavy breathing of the aged woman that + she was sunk in the congested slumber of old age, the child got up + noiselessly — she had not undressed — and stole out of the chamber, + taking the door key from the nail on which Alaida had hung it. A + short stone stair led down to the entrance. No one else was sleeping + in the house; all was dark, and she had not even a match or a + tinder-box; but she felt her way to the outer door, unlocked it, as + she had been used to unlock the door at the Terra Vergine, and in + another moment ran down the steep and stone street. She laughed as + the wind from the river blew against her lips, and brought her the + fragrance of Adone's fields. +</p> +<p> + "I shall be in time!" she thought, as she ran down a short cut which + led, in a breakneck descent, over the slope of what had once been the + glacis of the fortress, beneath the Rocca to the bridge. +</p> +<p> + The usual spot for the assembly of the malcontents was a grassy + hollow surrounded on all sides with woods, and called the tomb of + Asdrubal, from a mound of masonry which bore that name, although it + was utterly improbable that Asdrubal, who had been slain a hundred + miles to the northeast on the Marecchia water, should have been + buried in the Valdedera at all. But the place and the name were well + known in the district to hundreds of peasants, who knew no more who + or what Asdrubal had been than they knew the names of the stars which + form the constellation of Perseus. +</p> +<p> + Adone had summoned his friends to be there by nightfall, and he was + passing from the confines of his own lands on to those of the open + moors when the child saw him. He was dressed in his working clothes, + but he was fully armed: his gun on his shoulder, his great pistols in + his sash, his dagger in his stocking. They were ancient arms; but + they had served in matters of life and death, and would so serve + again. On the three-edged blade of the sixteenth-century poignard was + a blood-stain more than a century old which nothing would efface. +</p> +<p> + "Nerina!" he cried as the girl stopped him, and was more distressed + than pleased to see her there; he had not thought of her. +</p> +<p> + In the moonlight, under the silvery olive foliage her little sunburnt + face and figure took a softer and more feminine grace. But Adone had + not sight for it. For him she was but a sturdy little pony, who would + trot till she dropped. +</p> +<p> + He was cruel as those who are possessed by one intense and absorbing + purpose always are: he was cruel to Nerina as Garibaldi, in the days + of Ravenna, was cruel to Anita. +</p> +<p> + But through that intense egotism which sees in all the world only its + own cause, its own end, its own misery, there touched him for one + instant an unselfish pity for the child of whom he had made so + mercilessly his servant and his slave. +</p> +<p> + "Poor little girl! I have been hard to you, I have been cruel and + unfair," he said, as a vague sense of her infinite devotion to his + cause moved him as a man may be moved by a dog's fidelity. +</p> +<p> + "You have been good to me," said Nerina; and from the bottom of her + heart she thought so. "I came to see if you wanted me," she added + humbly. +</p> +<p> + "No, no. They think ill of you for going my errands. Poor child, I + have done you harm enough. I will not do you more." +</p> +<p> + "You have done me only good." +</p> +<p> + "What! When my mother has turned you out of the house!" +</p> +<p> + "It is her right." +</p> +<p> + "Let it be so for a moment. You shall come back. You are with old + Alaida?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes." +</p> +<p> + "How can you be out to-night?" +</p> +<p> + "She sleeps heavily, and the lock is not hard." +</p> +<p> + "You are a brave child." +</p> +<p> + "Is there nothing to do to-night?" +</p> +<p> + "No, dear." +</p> +<p> + "Where do you go?" +</p> +<p> + "To meet the men at the tomb of Asdrubal." +</p> +<p> + "Who summoned them?" +</p> +<p> + "I myself. You must be sad and sorry, child, and it is my fault." +</p> +<p> + She checked a sob in her throat. "I am not far away, and old Alaida + is kind. Let me go on some errand to-night?" +</p> +<p> + "No, my dear, I cannot." +</p> +<p> + He recalled the words of the message which he had received from Don + Silverio that day. He knew the justice of this message, he knew that + it only forbade what all humanity, hospitality, manhood, and + compassion forbade to him. One terrible passion had warped his + nature, closed his heart, and invaded his reason to the exclusion of + all other thoughts or instincts; but he was not yet so lost to shame + as, now that he knew what he had done, to send out a female creature + into peril to do his bidding. +</p> +<p> + "Tell me, then, tell me," pleaded Nerina, "when will anything be + done?" +</p> +<p> + "Whenever the foreign labourers come to work on the water we shall + drive them away." +</p> +<p> + "But if they will not go?" +</p> +<p> + "Child, the river is deep; we know its ways and its soundings; they + do not." +</p> +<p> + Her great bright eyes flashed fire: an unholy joy laughed in them. +</p> +<p> + "We will baptize them over again!" she said; and all her face laughed + and sparkled in the moonlight. There was fierce mountain blood in her + veins; it grew hot at the thought of slaughter like the juice of + grapes warmed in an August noon. +</p> +<p> + He laughed slow, savagely. "Their blood will be on their own heads!" +</p> +<p> + He meant to drive them out, swamp them in the stream, choke them in + the sand, hunt them in the heather; make every man of them rue the + day that ever they came thither to meddle with the Edera water. +</p> +<p> + "Curse them! Their blood will be on their own heads!" he said between + his teeth. He was thinking of the strange men who it was said would + be at work on the land and the water before the moon, young now, + should be in her last quarter; men hired by the hundreds, + day-labourers of the Romagna and the Puglie, leased by contract, + marshalled under overseers, different in nothing from slaves who + groan under the white man's lash in Africa. +</p> +<p> + "Let me come with you to-night," she pleaded again. "I will hide in + the bushes. The men shall not see me." +</p> +<p> + "No, no," he said sternly. "Get you back to your rest at Ruscino. I + did wrong, I did basely to use your ignorance and abuse your + obedience. Get you gone, and listen to your priest, not to me." +</p> +<p> + The child, ever obedient, vanished through the olive boughs. Adone + went onward northward to his tryst: his soul was dark as night; it + enraged him to have been forced by his conscience and his honour to + obey the command of Don Silverio. +</p> +<p> + But she did not go over the bridge to Ruscino. She waited a little + while then followed on his track. Gianna was right. She was a wild + bird. She had been caught and tamed for a time, but she was always + wild. The life which they had given her had been precious and sweet + to her, and she had learned willingly all its ways; but at the bottom + of her heart the love of liberty, the love of movement, the love of + air and sky and freedom were stronger than all else. She was of an + adventurous temper also, and brave like all Abruzzese, and she longed + to see one of those moonlit midnight meetings of armed men to which + she had escaped from Alaida's keeping, she could not have forced + herself to go back out of this clear, cool, radiant night into the + little, close, dark sleeping-chamber. No, not if Don Silverio himself + had stood in her path with the cross raised. She was like a year-old + lioness who smells blood. +</p> +<p> + She knew the way to the tomb of Asdrubal, even in the darkness, as + well as he did. It was situated in a grassy hollow surrounded by + dense trees, some five miles or more from the Terra Vergine, on the + north bank of the river. The solitude was absolute, and the place + large enough to permit the assemblage of several scores of men. +</p> +<p> + Adone went on, unconscious that he was followed; he went at a + swinging trot, easy and swift; the sinews of his lithe limbs were + strong as steel, and his rage, all aflame, lent lightning to his + feet. +</p> +<p> + She allowed him to precede her by half a mile or more, for if he had + seen her his anger would have been great, and she feared it. She went + skipping and bounding along, where the path was clear, in all the joy + of liberty and rapture of the fresh night air. The hours spent in + Alaida's close house in the village had been as terrible to her as + his hours in a birdcatcher's hamper are to a wild bird. Up at Ansalda + she had always been out of doors, and at the Terra Vergine she had + gone under a roof only to eat and sleep. +</p> +<p> + The moon, which was in the beginning of its first quarter, had passed + behind some heavy clouds; there was little light, for there were as + yet few stars visible, but that was not matter to her. She knew her + way as well as any mountain hare. +</p> +<p> + The pungent odour of the heaths through which she went seemed to her + like a draught of wine, the strong sea breeze which was blowing bore + her up like wings. She forgot that she was once more a homeless waif, + as she had been that day when she had sat under the dock leaves by + the Edera water. He had told her she should go back; she believed + him: that was enough. Madonna Clelia would forgive, she felt sure, + for what harm had she done? All would be well; she would feed the + oxen again, and go again to the spring for water, and all would be as + it had been before — her thoughts, her desires, went no farther than + that. So, with a light heart she followed him gaily, running where + there was open ground, pushing hard where the heather grew, going + always in the same path as Adone had done. +</p> +<p> + All of a sudden she stopped short, in alarm. +</p> +<p> + The night was still; the spring of the river was loud upon it, owls + hooted and chuckled, now and then a fox in the thickets barked. There + are many sounds in the open country at night; sounds of whirring + pinions, of stealthy feet, of shrill, lone cries, of breaking twigs, + of breaking ferns, of little rivulets unheard by day, of timid + creatures taking courage in the dark. But to these sounds she was + used; she could give a name to every one of them. She heard now what + was unfamiliar to her in these solitudes; she heard the footsteps of + men; and it seemed to her, all around her, as though in a moment of + time, the heath and bracken and furze grew alive to their tryst with + Adone? She did not think so, for she had never known the few men in + the village summon courage to join the armed meetings of the men of + the valley. She stopped and listened, as a pole-cat which was near + her did; the sounds were those of human beings, breathing, creeping, + moving under the heather. +</p> +<p> + Suddenly she felt some presence close to her in the dark; she held + her breath; she shrank noiselessly between the plumes of heath. If + they were men of the country they would not hurt her, but if not — + she was not sure. +</p> +<p> + Near her was an open space where the wild growth had been recently + cut. The men debouched on to it from the undergrowth, there was a + faint light from the stars on that strip of rough grass; by it she + saw that they were soldiers, five in number. +</p> +<p> + A great terror cowed her, like a hand of ice at her heart, a terror + not for herself, but for those away there, in the green hollow by the + three stone-pines. +</p> +<p> + They were soldiers; yes, they were soldiers; the sounds she had heard + had been the crushing of the plants under their feet, the click of + their muskets as they moved; they were soldiers! Where had they come + from? There were no soldiers at Ruscino. +</p> +<p> + The only time when she had ever seen soldiers had been when the + troopers had captured Baruffo. These were not troopers; they were + small men, on foot, linen-clad, moving stealthily, and as if in fear; + only the tubes of their muskets glistened in the light of the great + planets. +</p> +<p> + She crouched down lower and lower, trying to enter the ground and + hide; she hoped they would go onward, and then she could run — + faster than they — and reach the hollow, and warn Adone and his + fellows. She had no doubt that they came to surprise the meeting; but + she hoped from their pauses and hesitating steps that they were + uncertain what way to take. +</p> +<p> + "If you come to me to lead you — aye! I will lead you! — you will + not forget where I lead!" she said to herself, as she hid under the + heather; and her courage rose, for she saw a deed to be done. For + they were now very near to the place of meeting, and could have taken + the rebels like mice in a trap, if they had only known where they + were; but she, watching them stand still, and stare, and look up to + the stars, and then north, south, east, and west, saw that they did + not know, and that it might be possible to lead them away from the + spot by artifice, as the quail leads the sportsman away from the + place where her nest is hidden. +</p> +<p> + As the thought took shape in her brain a sixth man, a sergeant who + commanded them, touched her with his foot, stooped, clutched her, and + pulled her upward. She did not try to escape. +</p> +<p> + "What beast of night have we here?" he cried. "Spawn of devils, who + are you?" +</p> +<p> + Nerina writhed under the grip of his iron fingers, but she still did + not try to escape. He cursed her, swore at her, shook her, crushed + her arm black and blue. She was sick with pain, but she was mute. +</p> +<p> + "Who are you?" he shouted. +</p> +<p> + "I come down from the mountains to work here in summer." +</p> +<p> + "Can any of you speak her dialect?" cried the sergeant to his + privates: the sergeant was a man of Milan. +</p> +<p> + One man answered, "I come from Paganica; it is much the same tongue + there as in these parts." +</p> +<p> + "Ask her the way, then." +</p> +<p> + The soldier obeyed. +</p> +<p> + "What is the way to the Three Pines? — to the tomb of Asdrubal?" +</p> +<p> + "The way is long," said Nerina. +</p> +<p> + "Do you know it?" +</p> +<p> + "I know it." +</p> +<p> + "Have you heard tell of it?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes." +</p> +<p> + "That men meet at night there?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes." +</p> +<p> + "Meet this night there?" +</p> +<p> + "Yes." +</p> +<p> + "You know where the tomb of Asdrubal is?" +</p> +<p> + "Have I not told you?" +</p> +<p> + The soldier repeated her answer translated to his sergeant; the + latter kept his grasp on her. +</p> +<p> + "Ask her if she will take us there." +</p> +<p> + The soldier asked her and translated her answer. +</p> +<p> + "If we give her two gold pieces she will take us there." +</p> +<p> + "Spawn of hell! I will give her nothing. But if she do not lead us + aright I will give her a bullet for her breakfast." +</p> +<p> + The soldier translated to Nerina: "He will give you two gold pieces + if you guide us aright; and you need have no fear; we are honest men + and the king's servants." +</p> +<p> + "I will guide the king's servants." +</p> +<p> + "You are sure of the way?" +</p> +<p> + "Is the homing pigeon sure of his?" +</p> +<p> + "Let us be off," said the sergeant. "A bullet for her if she fail." +</p> +<p> + He had little pleasure in trusting to this girl of the Abruzzo hills, + but he and his men were lost upon these moors, and might grope all + night, and miss the meeting, and fail to join his comrades and + surprise those who gathered at it. He reckoned upon fear as a sure + agent to keep her true, as it kept his conscripts under arms. +</p> +<p> + "Bid him take his hand off me," said Nerina, "or I do not move." +</p> +<p> + The private translated to his superior. "She prays of your mercy to + leave her free, or she cannot pass through the heather." +</p> +<p> + The sergeant let her go unwillingly, but pushed her in front of him, + and levelled his revolver at her. +</p> +<p> + "Tell her, if she try to get away, I fire." +</p> +<p> + "Tell him I know that," said Nerina. +</p> +<p> + She was not afraid, for a fierce, unholy joy was in her veins; she + could have sung, she could have laughed, she could have danced; she + held them in her power; they had come to ensnare Adone, and she had + got them in her power as if they were so many moles! +</p> +<p> + They tied her hands behind her; she let them do it; she did not want + her hands. Then she began to push her way doggedly, with her head + down, to the south. The tomb of Asdrubal was due north; she could see + the pole star, and turned her back to it and went due south. +</p> +<p> + Three miles or more southward there was a large <i>pollino</i>, or swamp + as L'Erba Molle, the wet grass; the grass was luxuriant, the flora + was varied and beautiful; in appearance it was a field, in reality it + was a morass; to all people of the Valdedera it was dreaded and + avoided, as quicksand are by the seashore. +</p> +<p> + She went on as fast as the narrow path, winding in and out between + the undergrowth, permitted her to go; the armed soldiers, heavy laden + with their knapsacks and their boots, following her clumsily, and + with effort, uttering curses on their ill-luck and their sleepless + night. +</p> +<p> + The stars were now larger and brighter; the darkness was lightened, + the river was running away from its southern birthplace in the hills + which lie like couched lions about the feet of the Gran Sasso. She + could hear its distant murmur. "They come to capture you," she said + to it, "and I will kill them. They shall choke and go down, down, + down — " +</p> +<p> + Her heart leapt within her; and she went with the loaded revolver + pointed at her from behind as though she went to her bridal-bed. +</p> +<p> + "Where are you taking us, vile little bitch?" the sergeant cried, and + the soldier from Paganica translated: "Pretty little brown one, + whither do you go?" +</p> +<p> + "I take you straight," said Nerina, "only you go to clumsily, for men + in these parts should not wear leather upon their feet." +</p> +<p> + The soldiers sighed assent, and would willingly have gone barefoot, + and the sergeant swore in tones of thunder because he could not + understand what she said. +</p> +<p> + Before long they came in sight of the Erba Molle; it looked like a + fair, peaceful pasture, with thousands of sword rushes golden upon + its surface. The light of the stars, which was now brilliant, shone + upon its verdure; there were great flocks of water-birds at roost + around it, and they rose with shrill cries and great noise of wings, + with a roar as though a tide were rising. +</p> +<p> + Across it stretched a line of wooden piles which served as a rude + causeway to those who had the courage and the steadiness to leap from + one to another of them. It was not three times in a season that any + one dared to do so. Adone did so sometimes; and he had taught Nerina + how to make the passage. +</p> +<p> + "Pass you after me, and set your feet where I set mine," said Nerina + to the little soldier of the Abruzzo, and she put down her foot on + the first pile, sunk almost invisible under the bright green slime, + where thousands of frogs were croaking. +</p> +<p> + The soldier of the Abruzzo said to his superior, "She says we must + set our feet where she sets hers. We are quite near now to the tomb + of the barbarian." +</p> +<p> + Nerina, with the light leap of a kid, bounded from pile to pile. They + thought she went on solid ground; on meadow grass. The sergeant and + his men crowded on to what they thought was pasture. In the uncertain + shadows and scarce dawning light, they did not see the row of + submerged timber. They sank like stones in the thick ooze; they were + sucked under to their knees, to their waists, to their shoulders, to + their mouths; the yielding grasses, the clutching slime, the tangled + weed, the bottomless mud, took hold of them; the water-birds shrieked + and beat their wings; the hideous clamour of dying men answered them. +</p> +<p> + Nerina had reached the other side of the morass in safety, and her + mocking laughter rang upon their ears. +</p> +<p> + "I have led you well!" she cried to them. "I have led you well, oh + servants of the king! — oh swine! — oh slaves! — oh spies!— oh + hunters and butchers of men!" +</p> +<p> + And she danced on the edge of the field of death, and the light of + the great planets shone upon her face. +</p> +<p> + Had she run onward at once the wood beyond she would have been saved. + That instant of triumph and mockery lost her. +</p> +<p> + The sergeant had put his revolver in his teeth; he knew now that he + was a dead man; the slime was up to his chin, under his feet the + grass and the mud quaked, yielded, yawned like a grave. +</p> +<p> + He drew his right arm out of the ooze, seized his revolver, and aimed + at the dancing, mocking, triumphant figure beyond the border of + golden sword rushes. With a supreme effort he fired; then he sank + under the mud and weed. +</p> +<p> + The child dropped dead on the edge of the morass. +</p> +<p> + One by one each soldier sank. Not one escaped. +</p> +<p> + The water-birds came back from their upward flight and settled again + on the swamp. +</p> +<p> + Underneath it all was still, save for the loud croaking of the frogs. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0020"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XX +</h2> +<p> + Don Silverio rose with the dawn of day, and entered his church at + five of the clock. There were but a few women gathered in the gaunt, + dark vastness of the nave. The morning was hot, and the scent of buds + and blossoms and fresh-cut grass came in from the fields over the + broken walls and into the ancient houses. +</p> +<p> + When Mass was over, old Alaida crept over the mouldy mosaics timidly + to his side, and kneeled down on the stones. +</p> +<p> + "Most reverend," she whispered, "'twas not my fault. I slept heavily; + she must have unlocked the door, for it was undone at dawn; her bed + is empty, she has not returned." +</p> +<p> + "You speak of Nerina?" +</p> +<p> + "Of Nerina, reverence. I did all I could. It was not my fault. She + was like a hawk in a cage." +</p> +<p> + "I am grieved," he said; and he thought: "Is it Adone?" +</p> +<p> + He feared so. +</p> +<p> + "Is she not at the Terra Vergine?" he asked. Alaida shook her head. +</p> +<p> + "No, reverend sir. I sent my grandchild to ask there. Gianna has not + seen her, and says the girl would never dare to go near Clelia Alba." +</p> +<p> + "I am grieved," said Don Silverio again. +</p> +<p> + He did not blame the old woman, as who, he thought, blames one who + could not tame an eaglet? +</p> +<p> + He went back to the presbytery and broke his fast on a glass of + water, some bread, and some cresses from the river. +</p> +<p> + He had sent for Gianna. In half an hour she came, distressed and + frightened. +</p> +<p> + "Sir, I know not of her; I should not dare to harbour her, even in + the cattle-stall. Madonna Clelia would turn me adrift. When Madonna + Clelia has once spoken —" +</p> +<p> + "Adone is at home?" +</p> +<p> + "Alas! No, sir. He went out at nightfall; we have not seen him since. + He told me he went to a meeting of men at the Three Pines, at what + they call the Tomb of the Barbarian." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio was silent. +</p> +<p> + "It is very grave," he said at last. +</p> +<p> + "Aye, sir, grave indeed," said Gianna. "Would that it were love + between them, sir. Love is sweet and wholesome and kind, but there is + no such thing in Adone's heart. There it is only, alas! Blackness and + fire and hatred, sir; bloodlust against those who mean ill to the + river." +</p> +<p> + "And his mother has lost all influence over him?" +</p> +<p> + "All, sir. She is no more to him now than a bent stick. Yet, months + ago, she gave him her pearls and her bracelets, and he sold them in a + distant town to buy weapons." +</p> +<p> + "Indeed? What madness!" +</p> +<p> + "How else could the men have been armed, sir?" +</p> +<p> + "Armed!" he repeated. "And of what use is it to arm? What use is it + for two hundred peasants to struggle against the whole forces of the + State? They will rot in prison; that is all that they will do." +</p> +<p> + "Maybe yes, sir. Maybe no," said the old woman, with the obstinacy of + ignorance. "Some one must begin. They have no right to take the water + away, sir; no more right than to take the breast from the babe." +</p> +<p> + Then, afraid of having said so much, she dropped her curtsey and went + out into the street. But in another moment she came back into the + study with a scared, blanched face, in which the wrinkles were + scarred deep like furrows in a field. +</p> +<p> + "Sir — sir!" she gasped, "there are the soldiery amongst us." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio rose in haste, put the little dog on his armchair, + closed the door of his study, and went down the narrow stone passage + which parted his bookroom from the entrance. The lofty doorway showed + him the stones of the familiar street, a buttress of his church, a + great branch of one of the self-sown ilex-trees, the glitter of the + arms and the white leather of the cross belts of a sentinel. The + shrill lamentations of the women seemed to rend the sunny air. He + shuddered as he heard. Coming up the street farther off were half a + troop of carabineers and a score of dragoons; the swords of the + latter were drawn, the former had their carbines levelled. The + villagers, screaming with terror, were closing their doors and + shutters in frantic haste; the door of the presbytery alone remained + open. Don Silverio went into the middle of the road and addressed the + officer who headed the carabineers. +</p> +<p> + "May I ask to what my parish owes this visit?" +</p> +<p> + "We owe no answer to you, reverend sir," said the lieutenant. +</p> +<p> + The people were sobbing hysterically, catching their children in + their arms, calling to the Holy Mother to save them, kneeling down on + the sharp stones in the dust. Their priest felt ashamed of them. +</p> +<p> + "My people," he called to them, "do not be afraid. Do not hide + yourselves. Do not kneel to these troopers. You have done no wrong." +</p> +<p> + "I forbid you to address the crowd," said the officer. "Get you back + into your house." +</p> +<p> + "What is my offence?" +</p> +<p> + "You will learn in good time," said the commandant. "Get you into + your presbytery." +</p> +<p> + "My place is with my people." +</p> +<p> + The officer, impatient, struck him on the chest with the pommel of + his sword. +</p> +<p> + Two carabineers thrust him back into the passage. +</p> +<p> + "No law justifies your conduct," he said coldly, "or authorises you + to sever me from my flock." +</p> +<p> + "The sabre is law here," said the lieutenant in command. +</p> +<p> + "It is the only law known anywhere in this kingdom," said Don + Silverio. +</p> +<p> + "Arrest him," said the officer. "He is creating disorder." +</p> +<p> + The carabineers drove him into his study, and a brigadier began to + ransack his papers and drawers. +</p> +<p> + He said nothing; the seizure of his manuscripts and documents was + indifferent to him, for there was nothing he had ever written which + would not bear the fullest light. But the insolent and arbitrary act + moved him to keen anxiety, because it showed that the military men + had licence to do their worst, at their will, and his anguish of + apprehension was for Adone. He could only hope and pray that Adone + had returned, and might be found tranquilly at work in the fields of + the Terra Vergine. But his fears were great. Unless more soldiery + were patrolling the district in all directions it was little likely, + he thought, that these men would conduct themselves thus in Ruscino; + he had no doubt that it was a concerted movement, directed by the + Prefect, and the General commanding the garrisons of the province, + and intended to net in one haul the malcontents of the Valdedera. +</p> +<p> + From his study there was no view upon the street; he could hear the + wailing of women and screaming of children from the now closed + houses: that was all. +</p> +<p> + "What is it your men do to my people?" he said sternly. +</p> +<p> + The brigadier did not reply; he went on throwing papers into a trunk. +</p> +<p> + "Where is your warrant for this search? We are not in a state of + siege?" asked Don Silverio. +</p> +<p> + The man, with a significant gesture, drew his sabre up half way out + of its sheath; then let it fall again with a clash. He vouchsafed no + other answer. +</p> +<p> + Some women's faces pressed in at the grating of the window which + looked on the little garden, scared, blanched, horrified, the white + head, and sunburnt features of Gianna foremost. +</p> +<p> + "Reverendissimo!" they screamed as with one voice. "They are bringing + the lads in from the moors." +</p> +<p> + And Gianna shrieked, "Adone! They have got Adone!" +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio sprang to his feet. +</p> +<p> + "Adone! Have you taken Adone Alba?" +</p> +<p> + "The ringleader! By Bacchus! Yes," cried the brigadier, with a laugh. + "He will get thirty years at the galleys. Your flock does you honour, + Reverendissimo!" +</p> +<p> + "Let me go to my flock," said Don Silverio; and some tone in his + voice, some gesture of his hand, had an authority in them which + compelled the carabineer to let him pass unopposed. +</p> +<p> + He went down the stone passage to the archway of the open door. A + soldier stood sentinel there. The street was crowded with armed men. + The air was full of clangour and clamour; above all rose the shrill + screams of the women. +</p> +<p> + "No one passes," said the sentinel, and he levelled the mouth of his + musket at Don Silverio's breast. +</p> +<p> + "I pass," said the priest, and with his bare hand he grasped the + barrel of the musket and forced it upward. +</p> +<p> + "I rule here, in the name of God," he said in a voice which rolled + down the street with majestic melody, dominating the screams, the + oaths, the hell of evil sound; and he went down the steps of his + house, and no man dared lay a hand on him. +</p> +<p> + He could hear the trampling of horses and the jingling of spears and + scabbards; some lancers who had beaten the moors that night were + coming up the street. Half a company of soldiers of the line, + escorted by carabineers, came in from the country, climbing the steep + street, driving before them a rabble of young men, disarmed, wounded, + lame, with their hands tied behind them, the remnant of those who had + met at the tomb of Asdrubal in the night just passed. They had been + surprised, seized, surrounded by a wall of steel; some had answered + to their leader's call and had defended themselves, but these had + been few; most of them had thrown down their weapons and begged for + mercy when the cold steel of the soldiers was at their throats. Adone + had fought as though the shade of Asdrubal had passed into him; but + his friends had failed him; his enemies had outnumbered him a score + to one; he had been overpowered, disarmed, bound, dragged through his + native heather backward and upward to Ruscino, reaching the shadow of + the walls as the sun rose. +</p> +<p> + The child lay dead by the stagnant pond, and the men she had led to + their death lay choked with the weeds and the slime; but of that he + knew naught. +</p> +<p> + All he knew was that his cause was lost, his life forfeit, his last + hope dead. +</p> +<p> + Only by his stature and his bearing could he be recognised. His + features were black from powder and gore; his right arm hung broken + by a shot; his clothing had been torn off him to his waist; he was + lame; but he alone still bore himself erect as he came on up the + village street. The others were huddled together in a fainting, + tottering, crazed mob; all were sick and swooning from the long + march, beaten when they paused by the buckles of belts and the flat + of sabres. +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio saw that sight in front of his church, in the white, + clear light of early morning, and on the air there was a sickly + stench of sweat, of powder, of wounds, of dust. +</p> +<p> + He went straight to the side of Adone. +</p> +<p> + "My son, my son! I will come with you. They cannot refuse me that." +</p> +<p> + But the soul of Adone was as a pit in which a thousand devils strove + for mastery. There was no light in it, no conscience, no gratitude, + no remorse. +</p> +<p> + "Judas!" he cried aloud; and there was foam on his lips and there was + red blood in his eyes. "Judas! You betrayed us!" +</p> +<p> + Then, as a young bull lowers his horns, he bent his head and bit + through and through to the bone the wrist of the soldier who held + him; in terror and pain the man shrieked and let go his hold; Adone's + arms remained bound behind him, but his limbs, though they dripped + blood, were free. +</p> +<p> + He fronted the church, and that breach in the blocks of the Etruscan + wall through which Nerina had taken her path to the river a few hours + before. He knew every inch of the descent. Hundreds of times in his + boyhood had he run along the ruined wall and leaped in sport over the + huge stones, to spring with joyous shouts into the river below. +</p> +<p> + As the soldier with a scream of agony let go his hold, he broke away + like a young lion released from the den. Before they could seize him + he had sprung over the wall, and was tearing down the slope; the + linesmen, rushing in swift pursuit behind him, stumbled, rolled down + the slippery grass, fell over the blocks of granite. He, sure of + foot, knowing the way from childhood, ran down the hill safely, + though blood poured from his wounds and blinded his sight, and a + sickness like the swooning of death dulled his brain. Beyond him and + below him was the river. He dashed into it like a hunted beast + swimming to sanctuary; he ran along in it, with its brightness and + coolness rippling against his parched throat. He stooped and kissed + it for the last time. +</p> +<p> + "Take me! — save me! — comrade, brother, friend!" he cried aloud to + it with his last breath of life; and he plunged where it was deepest. +</p> +<p> + Then the sky grew dark, and only the sound of the water was heard in + his ears. By the bridge its depth was great, and the current was + strong under the shade of the ruined keep. It swept his body onward + to the sea. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0021"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + XXI +</h2> +<p> + It was the beginning of winter when Don Silverio Frascara, having + been put upon his trial and no evidence of any sort having been + adduced against him, was declared innocent and set free, no + compensation or apology being offered to him. +</p> +<p> + "Were it only military law it had been easy enough to find him + guilty," said Senator Giovacchino Gallo to the Syndic of San Beda, + and the Count Corradini warmly agreed with his Excellency that for + the sake of law, order, and public peace it would be well could the + military tribunals be always substituted for the civil; but alas! the + monarchy was not yet absolute! +</p> +<p> + He had been detained many weeks and months at the city by the sea, + where the trial of the young men of the Valdedera had been held with + all the prolonged, tedious, and cruel delays common to the national + laws. Great efforts had been made to implicate him in the criminal + charges; but it had been found impossible to verify such suspicions; + every witness by others, and every action of his own, proved the + wisdom, the purity, and the excellence in counsel and example of his + whole life at Ruscino. The unhappy youths who had been taken with + arms in their hands were condemned for overt rebellion and conspiracy + against authority, and were sentenced, some to four, some to seven, + some to ten, and, a few who were considered the ringleaders, to + twenty-five years of cellular confinement. But against Don Silverio + it was found impossible even to make out the semblance of an + accusation, the testimony event of those hostile to him being + irresistibly in his favour in all ways. He had done his utmost to + defend the poor peasantry who had been misled by Adone to their own + undoing, and he had defended also the motives and the character of + the dead with an eloquence which moved to tears the public who heard + him, and touched even the hearts of stone of president and advocates; + and he had done this at his own imminent risk; for men of law can + never be brought to understand that comprehension is not collusion, + or that pity is not fellowship. +</p> +<p> + But all his efforts failed to save the young men from the utmost + rigour of the law. The judge, agreeing with the State prosecutor, + declared that the most severe example was necessary to check once for + all by its terrors the tendency of the common people to resist the + State and its public works and decrees. Useful and patriotic + enterprises must not be impeded or wrecked because ignorance was + opposed to progress: thus said the King's advocate in an impassioned + oration which gained for him eventually emolument and preferment. The + rustics were sent in a body to the penitentiaries; and Don Silverio + was permitted to go home. +</p> +<p> + Cold northern blasts blew from the upper Apennines, and piled the + snows upon the grey and yellow rocks of the Abruzzo heights, as he + crossed the valley of the Edera towards Ruscino. It seemed to him as + though a century had passed since he had left it. In the icy wind + which blew form the hills he shivered, for he had only one poor, thin + coat to cover him. His strength, naturally great, had given way under + the mental and physical sufferings of the last six months, although + no word of lament had ever escaped him. Like all generous natures he + rebuked himself for the sins of others. Incessantly he asked himself + — might he not have saved Adone? +</p> +<p> + As he came to the turn in the road which brought him within sight of + the river, he sat down on a stone and covered his eyes with his + hands. +</p> +<p> + The sacristan had come to meet him, bringing the little dog, grown + thin, and sad, and old with sorrow. +</p> +<p> + "I did all I could for him, but he would not be consoled," murmured + the old man. +</p> +<p> + From the point which they had reached the course of the Edera, and + the lands of the Terra Vergine, were visible. With an effort, like + one who forces his will to look on a dead face, he uncovered his eyes + and looked downward. The olive-trees were still standing; where the + house had stood there was a black, charred, roofless shell; the + untilled fields lay bare beneath the frost. +</p> +<p> + "Reverend sir," said the old man below his breath, "when Clelia Alba + knew that Adone was drowned she set fire to the house, and so + perished. They say she had promised her son." +</p> +<p> + The wind from the north swept across the valley and drove the river + in yellow foam and black eddies through the dead sedges. Above + Ruscino the acacia thickets had been cut down, the herbage was + crushed under timber and iron and stone, the heather was trampled and + hacked, the sand and gravel were piled in heaps, the naked soil + yawned in places like fresh-dug graves; along the southern bank were + laid the metals of a light railway; on the lines of it were some + trucks filled with bricks; the wooden huts of the workmen covered a + dreary, dusty space; the water was still flowing, but on all the + scene were the soil, the disorder, the destruction, the vulgar + meanness and disfigurement which accompany modern labour, and affront + like a coarse bruise the gracious face of Nature. +</p> +<p> + "There have been three hundred men from the Puglie at work," said the + sacristan. "They have stopped awhile now on account of the frost, but + as soon as the weather opens —" +</p> +<p> + "Enough, enough!" murmured Don Silverio; and he rose, and holding the + little dog in his arms, went on down the familiar road. +</p> +<p> + "His body has never been found?" he asked under his breath. +</p> +<p> + The old man shook his head. +</p> +<p> + "Nay, sir; what Edera takes it keeps. He dropped where he knew it was + deepest." +</p> +<p> + As the vicar returned up the village street there was not a soul to + give him greeting except old Gianna, who kneeled weeping at his feet. + The people poured out of their doorways, but they said not a word of + welcome. The memory of Adone was an idolatry with them, and Adone had + said that their priest had betrayed them. One woman threw a stone at + Signorino. Don Silverio covered the little dog, and received the blow + on his own arm. +</p> +<p> + "For twenty years I have had no thought but to serve these, my + people!" he thought; but he neither rebuked nor reproached them. +</p> +<p> + The women as he passed them hissed at him; "Judas! Judas!" +</p> +<p> + One man alone said: "Nay, 'tis a shame. Have you forgot what he did + in the cholera? 'Tis long ago, but still —" +</p> +<p> + But the women said: "He betrayed the poor lads. He brought the + soldiers. He sold the water." +</p> +<p> + Under that outrage, his manhood and his dignity revived. +</p> +<p> + He drew his tall form erect, and passed through the reviling crowd, + and gave them his blessing as he passed. +</p> +<p> + Then he went within his church; and remained there alone. +</p> +<p> + "He is gone to pray for the soul of Adone," said the sacristan. +</p> +<p> + When he came out of the church and entered his house, the street was + empty; the people were afraid of what they had done and of their own + ingratitude. He crossed the threshold of the presbytery. The sere + vine veiled his study casement; in the silence he could hear the + sound of the Edera water; he sat down at his familiar table, with the + dog upon his knees. His eyes were wet, and his heart was sick; his + courage was broken. +</p> +<p> + "How shall I bear my life here?" he thought. All which had made it of + value and lightened its solitude was gone. Even his people had turned + against him; suspicious, thankless, hostile. +</p> +<p> + The old sacristan, standing doubtful and timid at the entrance of the + chamber, drew near and reverently touched his arm. +</p> +<p> + "Sir — here is a letter — it came three days ago." +</p> +<p> + Don Silverio stretched out his hand over the little dog's head, and + took it. +</p> +<p> + He changed colour as he saw its seal and superscription. +</p> +<p> + Rome had at last remembered him, and awakened to his value. +</p> +<p> + At the latest Consistory he had been nominated to the Cardinalate. +</p> +<center> + <b>THE END.</b> +</center> +<p> +<b>NOTE</b> +</p> +<p> + As it may appear strange to the English reader that the Porpora + Romana should be given to a village priest, I may here say that, to + my knowledge, a country vicar was himself sweeping out his rural + church when he was informed of his nomination as Cardinal, and M. S. + de Mérode was only deacon when raised to that elevation. +</p> + + +<div style="height: 6em;"><br><br><br><br><br><br></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Waters of Edera +by Louise de la Ramée, a.k.a. Ouida + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WATERS OF EDERA *** + +***** This file should be named 13459-h.htm or 13459-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/4/5/13459/ + +This eBook was prepared by Carol Poster. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Waters of Edera + +Author: Louise de la Ramée, a.k.a. Ouida + +Release Date: September 15, 2004 [EBook #13459] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WATERS OF EDERA *** + + + + +This eBook was prepared by Carol Poster. + + + + + + +THE +WATERS OF EDERA + + + + +BY +O U I D A + +Author of +"Moths," "Under Two Flags," "The Silver Christ," Etc. + + + +London +T. FISHER UNWIN +Paternoster Square + +1900 + + + + + +THE WATERS OF EDERA + + +I + +It was a country of wide pastures, of moors covered with heath, of +rock-born streams and rivulets, of forest and hill and dale, sparsely +inhabited, with the sea to the eastward of it, unseen, and the +mountains everywhere visible always, and endlessly changing in +aspect. + +Herdsmen and shepherds wandered over it, and along its almost disused +roads pedlars and pack mules passed at times but rarely. Minerals and +marbles were under its turf, but none sought for them; pools and +lakes slept in it, undisturbed save by millions of water fowl and +their pursuers. The ruins of temples and palaces were overgrown by +its wild berries and wild flowers. The buffalo browsed where emperors +had feasted, and the bittern winged its slow flight over the fields +of forgotten battles. + +It was the season when the flocks are brought through this lonely +land, coming from the plains to the hills. Many of them passed on +their way thus along the course of the Edera water. The shepherds, +clothed in goatskin, with the hair worn outward, bearded, brown, +hirsute men, looking like savage satyrs, the flocks they drove before +them travel-worn, lame, heart-broken, the lambs and kids bleating +painfully. They cannot keep up with the pace of the flock, and, when +they fall behind, the shepherds slit their throats, roast their +bodies over an evening fire, or bake them under its ashes, and eat +them; if a town or village be near, the little corpses are sold in +it. Often a sheep dog or a puppy drops down in the same way, footsore +and worn out; then the shepherds do not tarry, but leave the +creatures to their fate, to die slowly of thirst and hunger. + +The good shepherd is a false phrase. No one is more brutal than a +shepherd. If he were not so he could not bear his life for a day. + +All that he does is brutal. He stones the flock where it would tarry +against his will. He mutilates the males, and drags the females away +from their sucking babes. He shears their fleeces every spring, +unheeding how the raw skin drops blood. He drives the halting, +footsore, crippled animals on by force over flint and slate and +parching dust. Sometimes he makes them travel twenty miles a day. + +For his pastime he sets the finest of his beasts to fight. This is +the feast day and holiday sport of all the shepherds; and they bet on +it, until all they have, which is but little, goes on the heads of +the rams; and one will wager his breeches, and another his skin +jacket, and another his comely wife, and the ram which is beaten, if +he have any life left in him, will be stabbed in the throat by his +owner: for he is considered to have disgraced the _branca_. + +This Sunday and Saints' day sport was going on a piece of grass land +in the district known as the Vale of Edera. + +On the turf, cleared of its heaths and ferns, there was a ring of +men, three of them shepherds, the rest peasants. In the midst of them +were the rams, two chosen beasts pitted against each other like two +pugilists. They advanced slowly at first, then more quickly, and yet +more quickly, till they met with a crash, their two foreheads, hard +as though carven in stone, coming in collision with a terrible force; +then each, staggered by the encounter, drew back, dizzy and bruised, +to recoil, and take breath, and gather fresh force, and so charge one +on the other in successive rounds until the weaker should succumb, +and, mangled and senseless, should arise no more. + +One of the rams was old, and one was young; some of the shepherds +said that the old one was more wary and more experienced, and would +have the advantage; in strength and height they were nearly equal, +but the old one had been in such duels before and the young one +never. The young one thought he had but to rush in, head downward, to +conquer; the old one knew that this was not enough to secure victory. +The young one was blind with ardour and impatience for the fray; the +old one was cool and shrewd and could parry and wait. + +After three rounds, the two combatants met in a final shock; the +elder ram butted furiously, the younger staggered and failed to +return the blow, his frontal bone was split, and he fell to the +ground; the elder struck him once, twice, thrice, amidst the +uproarious applause of his backers; a stream of blood poured from his +skull, which was pounded to splinters; a terrible convulsion shook +his body and his limbs; he stretched his tongue out as if he tried to +lap water; the men who had their money on him cursed him with every +curse they knew; they did not cut his throat, for they knew he was as +good as dead. + +"This is a vile thing you have done," said a little beggar girl who +had been passing, and had been arrested by the horrible fascination +of the combat, and forced against her will to stand and watch its +issue. The shepherds jeered; those who had backed the victor were +sponging his wounds beside a runlet of water which was close at hand; +those who had lost were flinging stones on the vanquished. The girl +knelt down by the dying ram to save him from the shower of stones; +she lifted his head gently upward, and tried to pour water through +his jaws from a little wooden cup which she had on her, and which she +had filled at the river. But he could not swallow; his beautiful +opaline eyes were covered with film, he gasped painfully, a foam of +blood on his lips and a stream of blood coursing down his face; a +quiver passed over him again; then his head rested lifeless on his +knees. She touched his shattered horns, his clotted wool, tenderly. + +"Why did you set him to fight?" she said with an indignation which +choked her voice. "It was vile. He was younger than the other, and +knew less." + +Those who had won laughed. Those who had lost cursed him again; he +had disgraced his _branca_. They would flay him, and put him in the +cauldron over the wood fire, and would curse him even whilst they +picked his bones for a white-livered spawn of cowards; a son of a +thrice-damned ewe. + +The girl knew that was what they do. She laid his battered head +gently down upon the turf, and poured the water out of her cup; her +eyes were blind with tears; she could not give him back his young +life, his zest in his pastoral pleasures, his joy in cropping the +herbage, his rude loves, his merry gambols, his sound sleep, his +odorous breath. + +He had died to amuse and excite the ugly passions of men, as, if he +had lived longer, he would, in the end, have died to satisfy their +ugly appetites. + +She looked at his corpse with compassion, the tears standing in her +eyes; then she turned away, and as she went saw that her poor ragged +clothes were splashed here and there with blood, and that her arms +and hands were red with blood: she had not thought of that before; +she had thought only of him. The shepherds did not notice her; they +were quarrelling violently in dispute over what had been lost and +won, thrusting their fingers in each other's faces, and defiling the +fair calm of the day with filthy oaths. + +The girl shrank away into the heather with the silent swiftness of a +hare; now that she had lost the stimulus of indignant pity she was +afraid of these brutes; if the whim entered into them they would be +as brutal to her as to their flock. + +Out of fear of them she did not descend at once to the river, but +pushed her way through the sweet-smelling, bee-haunted, cross-leaved +heaths; she could hear the sound of the water on her right all the +time as she went. She knew little of this country, but she had seen +the Edera, and had crossed it farther up its course on one of its +rough tree-bridges. + +When, as well as she could judge, she had got half a mile away from +the scene of the rams' combat, she changed her course and went to the +right, directed by the murmur of the river. It was slow walking +through the heath and gorse which grew above her head, and were +closely woven together, but in time she reached shelving ground, and +heard the song of the river louder on her ear. The heath ceased to +grow within a few yards of the stream and was replaced by various +water plants and acacia thickets; she slid down the banks between the +stems and alighted on her bare feet where the sand was soft and the +water-dock grew thick. She looked up and down the water; there was no +one in sight, nothing but the banks rosehued with the bloom of the +heather, and, beyond the opposite shore, in the distance, the tender +amethystine hues of the mountains. The water was generally low, +leaving the stretches of sand and of shingle visible, but it was +still deep in many parts. + +She stripped herself and went down into it, and washed the blood +which had by this time caked upon her flesh. It seemed a pity, she +thought, to sully with that dusky stain this pure, bright, shining +stream; but she had no other way to rid herself of it, and she had in +all the world no other clothes than these poor woollen rags. + +Her heart was still sore for the fate of the conquered ram; and her +eyes filled again with tears as she washed his blood off her in the +gay running current. But the water was soothing and fresh, the sun +shone on its bright surface; the comfrey and fig-wart blew in the +breeze, the heather smell filled the atmosphere. + +She was only a child, and her spirits rose, and she capered about in +the shallows, and flung the water over her head, and danced to her +own reflection in it, and forgot her sorrow. Then she washed her +petticoats as well as she could, having nothing but water alone, and +all the while she was as naked as a Naiad, and the sun smiled on her +brown, thin, childish body as it smiled on a stem of plaintain or on +the plumage of a coot. + +Then when she had washed her skirt she spread it out on the sand to +dry, and sat down beside it, for the heat to bake her limbs after her +long bath. There was no one, and there was nothing, in sight; if any +came near she could hide under the great dock leaves until such +should have passed. It was high noon, and the skirt of wool and the +skirt of hemp grew hot and steamed under the vertical rays; she was +soon as dry as the shingles from which the water had receded for +months. She sat with her hands clasped round her updrawn knees, and +her head grew heavy with the want of slumber, but she would not +sleep, though it was the hour of sleep. Some one might pass by and +steal her clothes, she thought, and how or when would she ever get +others? + +When the skirt was quite dried, the blood stains still showed on it; +they were no longer red, but looked like the marks from the sand. She +tied it on round her waist and her shirt over it, and wound an old +crimson sash round both. Then she took up her little bundle in which +were the wooden cup and a broken comb, and some pieces of hempen +cloth and a small loaf of maize bread, and went on along the water, +wading and hopping in it, as the water-wagtails did, jumping from +stone to stone, and sometimes sinking up to her knees in a hole. + +She had no idea where she would rest at night, or where she would get +anything to eat; but that reflection scarcely weighed on her; she +slept well enough under stacks or in outhouses, and she was used to +hunger. So long as no one meddled with her she was content. The +weather was fine and the country was quiet. Only she was sorry for +the dead ram. By this time they would have hung him up by his heels +to a tree, and have pulled the skin off his body. + +She was sorry; but she jumped along merrily in the water, as a +kingfisher does, and scarcely even wondered where its course would +lead her. + +At a bend in it she came to a spot where a young man was seated +amongst the bulrushes, watching his fishing net. + +"Aie!" she cried with a shrill cry of alarm, like a bird who sees a +fowler. She stopped short in her progress; the water at that moment +was up to her knees. With both hands she held up her petticoat to save +it from another wetting; her little bundle was balanced on her head, +the light shone in her great brown eyes. The youth turned and saw +her. + +She was a very young girl, thirteen at most; her small flat breasts +were those of a child, her narrow shoulders and her narrow loin spoke +of scanty food and privation of all kinds, and her arms and legs were +brown from the play of the sun on their nakedness; they were little +else than skin and bone, nerves and sinew, and looked like stakes of +wood. All the veins and muscles stood revealed as in anatomy, and her +face, which would have been a child's face, a nymph's face, with +level brows, a pure straight profile, and small close ears like +shells, was so fleshless and sunburnt that she looked almost like a +mummy. Her eyes had in them the surprise and sadness of those of a +weaning calf; and her hair, too abundant for such a small head, +would, had it not been so dusty and entangled, have been of a red +golden bronze, the hue of a chestnut which has just burst open its +green husk. + +"Who are you?" said the young man, looking at her in surprise. + +"I am Nerina," answered the child. + +"Where do you come from? What is your country?" + +She pointed vaguely to the south-west mountains, where the snow on +the upper ranges was still lying with bands of cloud resting on it. + +"From the Abruzzo?" + +She was silent. She did not know the mountains of her birthplace by +their names. + +"Who was your father?" he asked, with some impatience. + +"He was Black Fausto." + +"What did he do for a living?" + +"He went down with the fair season to the Roman plain." + +He understood: the man had no doubt been a labourer, one of those who +descend in bands from the villages of the Abruzzo heights to plough, +and mow, and sow, and reap, on the lands of the Castelli Romani; men +who work in droves, and are fed and stalled in droves, as cattle are, +who work all through the longest and hottest days in summer, and in +the worst storms of winter; men who are black by the sun, are half +naked, are lean and hairy and drip with continual sweat, but who take +faithfully back the small wage they receive to where their women and +children dwell in their mountain-villages. + +"He went, you say? Is he ill? Does he work no longer?" + +"He died last year." + +"Of what?" + +She gave a hopeless gesture. "Who knows? He came back with a wolf in +his belly, he said, always gnawing and griping, and he drank water +all day and all night, and his face burned, and his legs were cold, +and all of a sudden his jaw fell, and he spoke no more to us. There +are many of them who die like that after a hot season down in the +plains." + +He understood; hunger and heat, foul air in their sleeping places, +infusoria in the ditch and rain water, and excessive toil in the +extremes of heat and cold, make gaps in the ranks of these hired +bands every year as if a cannon had been fired into them. + +"Who takes care of you now?" he asked with pity, as for a homeless +bitch. + +"Nobody. There is nobody. They are all gone down into the earth." + +"But how do you live?" + +"I work when I can. I beg when I cannot. People let me sleep in the +stalls, or the barns, and give me bread." + +"That is a bad life for a girl." + +She shrugged her shoulders. + +"I did not make it." + +"And where are you going?" + +She opened her arms wide and swept the air with them. + +"Anywhere. Along the water, until I find something to do." + +"I cannot do much," she added, after a pause. "I am little, and no +one has taught me. But I can cut grass and card wool." + +"The grass season is short, and the wool season is far off. Why did +you not stay in your village?" + +She was mute. She did not know why she had left it, she had come away +down the mountainside on a wandering instinct, with a vague idea of +finding something better the farther she went: her father had always +come back with silver pieces in his pocket after his stay down there +in those lands which she had never seen, lying as they did down far +below under the golden haze of what seemed an immeasurable distance. + +"Are you not hungry?" said the fisher. + +"I am always hungry," she said, with some astonishment at so simple a +question. "I have been hungry ever since I can remember. We all were +up there. Sometimes even the grass was too dried up to eat. Father +used to bring home with him a sack of maize; it was better so long as +that lasted." + +"Are you hungry now?" + +"Of course." + +"Come to my house with me. We will feed you. Come. Have no fear. I am +Adone Alba, of the Terra Vergine, and my mother is a kind woman. She +will not grudge you a meal." + +The child laughed all over her thin, brown face. + +"That will be good," she said, and leapt up out of the water. + +"Poor soul! Poor soul!" thought the young man, with a profound sense +of pity. + +As the child sprang up out of the river, shaking the water off her as +a little terrier does, he saw that she must have been in great want +of food for a long time; her bones were almost through her skin. He +set his fishing pole more firmly in the ground, and left the net sunk +some half a yard below the surface; then he said to the little girl: + +"Come, come and break your fast. It has lasted long, I fear." + +Nerina only understood that she was to be fed; that was enough for +her. She trotted like a stray cur, beckoned by a benevolent hand, +behind him as he went, first through some heather and broom, then +over some grass, where huge olive trees grew, and then through corn +and vine lands, to an old farmhouse, made of timber and stone; large, +long, solid; built to resist robbers in days when robbers came in +armed gangs. There was a wild garden in front of it, full of cabbage +roses, lavender, myrtle, stocks and wallflowers. Over the arched door +a four-season rose-tree clambered. + +The house, ancient and spacious, with its high-pitched roof of ruddy +tiles, impressed Nerina with a sense of awe, almost of terror. She +remained hesitating on the garden path, where white and red stocks +were blossoming. + +"Mother," said Adone, "here is a hungry child. Give her, in your +kindness, some broth and bread." + +Clelia Alba came out into the entrance, and saw the little girl with +some displeasure. She was kind and charitable, but she did not love +beggars and vagabonds, and this half-naked female tatterdemalion +offended her sense of decency and probity, and her pride of sex. She +was herself a stately and handsome woman. + +"The child is famished," said Adone, seeing his mother's displeasure. + +"She shall eat then, but let her eat outside," said Clelia Alba, and +went back into the kitchen. + +Nerina waited by the threshold, timid and mute and humble, like a +lost dog; her eyes alone expressed overwhelming emotions: fear and +hope and one ungovernable appetite, hunger. + +Clelia Alba came out in a few minutes with a bowl of hot broth made +of herbs, and a large piece of maize-flour bread. + +"Take them," she said to her son. + +Adone took them from her, and gave them to the child. + +"Sit and eat here," he said, pointing to a stone settle by the wall +under the rose of four seasons. + +The hands of Nerina trembled with excitement, her eyes looked on +fire, her lips shook, her breath came feverishly and fast. The smell +of the soup made her feel beside herself. She said nothing, but +seized the food and began to drink the good herb-broth with thirsty +eagerness though the steam of it scorched her. + +Adone, with an instinct of compassion and delicacy, left her +unwatched and went within. + +"Where did you find that scarecrow?" asked his mother. + +"Down by the river. She has nobody and nothing. She comes from the +mountains." + +"There are poor folks enough in Ruscino without adding to them from +without," said Clelia Alba impatiently. "Mind she does not rob the +fowl-house before she slips sway." + +"She has honest eyes," said Adone. "I am sure she will do us no +harm." + +When he thought that she had been given time enough to finish her +food he went out; the child was stretched at full length on the stone +seat, and was already sound asleep, lying on her back; the empty bowl +was on the ground, of the bread there was no longer a crumb; she was +sleeping peacefully, profoundly, her thin hands crossed on her naked +brown bosom, on which some rose leaves had fallen from the rose on +the wall above. + +He looked at her in silence for a little while, then returned to his +mother. + +"She is tired. She sleeps. Let her rest." + +"It is unsafe." + +"How unsafe, mother? She is only a child." + +"She may have men behind her." + +"It is not likely." + +Adone could not say (for he had no idea himself) why he felt sure +that this miserable little waif would not abuse hospitality: "She is +a child," he answered rather stupidly, for children are often +treacherous and wicked, and he knew nothing of this one except what +she had chosen to tell of herself. + +"She may have men behind her," repeated his mother. + +"Such men as you are thinking of, mother, do not come to this valley +nowadays. Ulisse Ferrero was the last of them. Indeed, I think this +poor little creature is all alone in the world. Go and look at her. +You will see how forlorn and small she is." + +She went to the doorway and looked at the sleeping beggar; her eyes +softened as she gazed, the whole attitude and appearance of the child +were so miserable and so innocent, so helpless, and yet so tranquil, +that her maternal heart was touched; the waif slept on the stone +bench beside the door of strangers as though she were in some safe +and happy home. + +Clelia Alba looked down on her a few moments, then took the kerchief +off her hair, and laid it gently, without awakening the sleeper, over +the breast and the face of the child, on which flies were settling +and the sun was shining. + +Then she picked up the empty earthenware bowl, and went indoors +again. + +"I will go back to the river," said Adone. "I have left the net +there." + +His mother nodded assent. + +"You will not send this little foreigner away till I return?" he +asked. Every one was a foreigner who had not been born in the vale of +Edera. + +"No; not till you return." + +He went away through the sunshine and shadow of the olive-trees. He +knew that his mother never broke her word. But she thought as she +washed the bowl: "A little stray mongrel bitch like that may bite +badly some day. She must go. She is nothing now; but by and by she +may bite." + +Clelia Alba knew human nature, though she had never been out of sight +of the river Edera. She took her spinning-wheel and sat down by the +door. There was nothing urgent to do, and she could from the +threshold keep a watch on the little vagabond, and would be aware if +she awoke. All around was quiet. She could see up and down the +valley, beyond the thin, silvery foliage of the great olive-trees, +and across it to where the ruins of a great fortress towered in their +tragic helplessness. The sun shone upon her fields of young wheat, +her slopes of pasture. The cherry-trees and the pear-trees were in +bloom, her trellised vines running from tree to tree. Ragged-robin, +yellow crowsfoot, purple orchis, filled the grass, intermixed with +the blue of borage and the white and gold of the oxeye. She did not +note these things. Those fancies were for her son. Herself, she would +have preferred that there should be no flower in the grasses, for +before the cow was fed the flowers had to be picked out of the cut +grass, and had served no good end that she could perceive, for she +knew of no bees except the wild ones, whose honey no one ever tasted, +hidden from sight in hollow trees as it was. + +Nerina slept on in peace and without dreams. Now and then another +rose let fall some petals on her, or a bee buzzed above her, but her +repose remained undisturbed. + +The good food filled her, even in her sleep, with deep contentment, +and the brain, well nourished by the blood, was still. + +Clelia Alba felt her heart soften despite herself for this lonely +creature; though she was always suspicious of her, for she had never +known any good thing come down from the high mountains, but only +theft and arson and murder, and men banded together to solace their +poverty with crime. In her youth the great brigands of the Upper +Abruzzo had been names of terror in Ruscino, and in the hamlets lying +along the course of the Edera, and many a time a letter written in +blood had been fastened with a dagger to the door of church or +cottage, intimating the will of the unseen chief to the subjugated +population. Of late years less had been heard and seen of such men; +but they or their like were still heard and felt sometimes, up above +in lonely forests, or down where the moorland and macchia met, and +the water of Edera ran deep and lonely. In her girlhood, a father, a +son, and a grandson had been all killed on a lonely part of the +higher valley because they had dared to occupy a farm and a +water-mill after one of these hillmen had laid down the law that no +one was to live on the land or to set the waterwheel moving. + +That had been a good way off, indeed, and for many a year the Edera +had not seen the masked men, with their belts, crammed with arms and +gold, round their loins; but still, one never knew, she thought; +unbidden guests were oftener devils than angels. + +And it seemed to her that the child could not really be asleep all +this time in a strange place and the open air. At last she got up, +went again to the bench and drew her handkerchief aside, and looked +down on the sleeper; on the thin, narrow chest, the small, bony +hands, the tiny virginal nipples like wood strawberries. + +She saw that the slumber was real, the girl very young and more than +half-starved. "Let her forget while she can," she thought, and +covered her face again. "It is still early in the day." + +The bees hummed on; a low wind swept over a full-blown rose and shook +its loose leaves to the ground. The shadow from the ruined tower +began to touch the field which lay nearest the river, a sign that it +was two hours after noon. + + + + + + + +II + +The large square fresh-water fishing-net had sunk under the surface, +the canes which framed it were out of sight; only the great central +pole, which sustained the whole, and was planted in the ground of the +river-bank, remained visible as it bent and swayed but did not yield +or break. Such nets as this had been washed by the clear green waters +of the pools and torrents of the Edera ever since the days of +Etruscan gods and Latin augurs; religions had changed, but the river, +and the ways of the men of the river, had not altered. + +Adone did not touch it, for it was well where it was; he seated +himself on the bank ready to seize and hold it if its pole showed any +sign of yielding and giving way and heeling over into the stream. He +sat thus amongst the bulrushes for many an hour, on many a spring day +and summer night. Although fish were not numerous he never tired of +his vigil, lulled by the sound of the current as it splashed among +the stones and rippled through the rushes; a deeper music coming from +its higher reaches, where it fell over a ledge of rock and leapt like +a live thing into the air. And, indeed, what thing could be more +living than this fresh, pure, untroubled water, glad as a child, +swift as a swallow, singing for sport, as a happy boy sings, as it +ran down on its way from the hills? + +To the young man sitting now on its bank amidst the bulrushes it was +as living as himself, his playmate, friend, and master, all in one. +First of all things which he could remember were the brightness and +the coolness of it as it had laved his limbs in his childhood on +mid-summer noons, his mother's hands holding him safely as he waded +with rosy feet and uncertain steps along its pebbly bottom! How many +mornings, when he had grown to boyhood and to manhood, had he escaped +from the rays of the vertical sun into its acacia-shadowed pools; how +many moonlit, balmy nights had he bathed in its still reaches, the +liquid silver of its surface breaking up like molten metal as he +dived! How many hours of peace had he passed, as he was spending +this, waiting for the fish to float into his great net, whilst the +air and the water were alike so still that he could hear the little +voles stealing in and out amongst the reeds, and the water-thrush +pushing the pebbles on its sands in search for insects, though beast +and bird were both unseen by him! How many a time upon the dawn of a +holy-day had he washed and swam in its waters whilst the bells of the +old church in the village above had tolled in the softness of dusk! + +He thought of none of these memories distinctly, for he was young and +contented, and those who are satisfied with their lot live in their +present; but they all drifted vaguely through his mind as he sat by +the side of the river, as the memories of friends dear from infancy +drift through our waking dreams. + +He was in every way a son of the Edera, for he had been born almost +in the water itself; his mother had been washing linen with other +women at the ford when she had been taken with the pains of labour +two months before her time. Her companions had had no time or thought +to do more than to stretch her on the wet sand, with some hempen +sheets, which had not yet been thrown in the water, between her and +the ground; and the cries of her in her travail had echoed over the +stream and had startled the kingfishers in the osiers, and the wild +ducks in the marshes, and the tawny owls asleep in the belfry tower +of the village. But her pains had been brief though sharp, and her +son had first seen the light beside the water; a strong and healthy +child, none the worse for his too early advent, and the rough +river-women had dipped him in the shallows, where their linen and +their wooden beaters were, and had wrapped him up in a soiled woollen +shirt, and had laid him down with his face on his mother's young +breast, opening his shut unconscious mouth with their rough fingers, +and crying in his deaf ear, "Suck! and grow to be a man!" + +Clelia Alba was now a woman of forty-one years old, and he, her only +son, was twenty-four; they had named him Adone; the beautiful Greek +Adonais having passed into the number of the saints of the Latin +Church, by a transition so frequent in hagiology that its strangeness +is not remembered save by a scholar here and there. When he had been +born she had been a young creature of seventeen, with the wild grace +of a forest doe; with that nobility of beauty, that purity of +outline, and that harmony of structure, which still exist in those +Italians in whom the pure Italiote blood is undefiled by Jew or +Gentile. Now her abundant hair was white, and her features were +bronzed and lined by open-air work, and her hands of beautiful shape +were hard as horn through working in the fields. She looked an old +woman, and was thought so by others, and thought herself so: for +youth is soon over in these parts, and there is no half-way house +between youth and age for the peasant. + +Clelia Alba, moreover, had lost her youth earlier even than others: +lost it for ever when her husband at five-and-twenty years of age had +been killed by falling from an olive-tree of which the branch +sustaining him had cracked and broken under his weight. His neck had +been broken in the fall. She had been dancing and shouting with her +two-year-old child on the grassland not far off, romping and playing +ball with some dropped chestnuts; and when their play was over she +had lifted her boy on to her shoulder and run with him to find his +father. Under one of the great, gnarled, wide-spreading olives she +had seen him, lying asleep as she thought. + +"Oh, lazy one, awake! The sun is only two hours old!" she had cried +merrily, and the child on her shoulder had cooed and shouted in +imitation, "Wake--wake--wake!" and she, laughing, had cast a chestnut +she had carried in her hand upon the motionless figure. Then, as the +prostrate form did not stir, a sudden terror had seized her, and she +had set the baby down upon the grass and run to the olive-tree. There +she had seen that this was death, for when she had raised him his +head had dropped, and seemed to hang like a poppy broken in a blast +of wind, and his eyes had no sight, and his mouth had no breath. + +From that dread hour Clelia Alba had never laughed again. Her hair +grew white, and her youth went away from her for ever. + +She lived for the sake of her son, but she and joy had parted company +for ever. + +His death had made her sole ruler of the Terra Vergine; she had both +the knowledge and the strength necessary for culture of the land, and +she taught her boy to value and respect the soil. + +"As you treat the ground ill or well, so will your ground treat you," +she said to him. + + She always wore the costume of the province, which was similar to +that of the Abruzzo villages, and suited her cast of features and her +strong and haughty carriage. On feast-days she wore three strings of +fine pearls round her throat, and bracelets of massive gold and of +fine workmanship, so many in number that her arms were stiff with +them; they had been her mother's and grandmother's and +great-grandmother's, and had been in her dower. To sell or pawn them +under stress of need, had such occurred, would never have seemed to +any of her race to be possible. It would have seemed as sacrilegious +as to take the chalice off the church altar, and melt its silver and +jewels in the fire. When she should go to her grave these ornaments +would pass to Adone as heirlooms; none of her family were living. + +"Never talk of death, mother," he said, whenever she spoke of these +things. "Death is always listening; and if he hear his name he taps +the talker on the shoulder, just to show that he is there and must be +reckoned with." + +"Not so, my son!" replied Clelia Alba, with a sigh. "He has every +soul of us written down in his books from the time we are born; we +all have our hour to go and none of us can alter it." + +"I do not believe that," said Adone. "We kill ourselves oftentimes; +or we hasten our end, as drunkards do." + +"Did your father hasten his end?" said his mother. "Did not some one +break that olive branch? It was not the tree itself, though the +Ruscino folks would have it cut down because they called it a felon." + +"Was it not the devil?" said Adone. + +He believed in the devil, of course, as he had been taught to do; and +had he not as a child met the infernal effigy everywhere--in marble, +in stone, in wood, in colour, in the church and outside it, on +water-spout and lamp-iron, and even on the leaves of his primer? But +it seemed to him that the devil had "_troppo braccia_" given him, was +allowed too long a tether, too free a hand; if indeed he it were that +made everything go wrong, and Adone did not see who else it could be. +Here, in the vale of Edera, all the world believed in Satan as in +holy water, or in daily bread. + +Clelia Alba crossed herself hastily, for she was a pious woman. + +"We are talking blasphemy, my son," she said gravely. "Of course +there is the good God who orders the number of our days for each of +us, and is over us all." + +Adone was silent. To him it seemed doubtful. Did the good God kill +the pretty little children as the butcher in a city killed his lambs? +But he never contradicted or vexed his mother; he loved her with a +great and tender affection. He was less ignorant than she was, and +saw many things she could not see; he was, as it were, on a hilltop +and she down in a valley, but he had a profound respect for her; he +obeyed her implicitly, as if he were still a child, and he thought +the world held no woman equal to her. + +When he went back to his house that evening, with his great net on +his shoulder and swinging in one hand some fresh-water fish, he +looked at the stone bench, which was empty of all except some fallen +rose-leaves, and then anxiously, questioningly, in the face of his +mother. + +So he answered the regard. + +"The girl is gone to Gianna's custody," she said rather harshly. +"Gianna will give her her supper, and will let her sleep in the loft. +With the morning we will see what we can do for her, and how she can +be sped upon her way." + +Adone kissed her hands. + +"You are always good," he said simply. + +"I am weak," answered his mother, "I am weak, Adone; when you wish +anything I consent to it against my judgment." + +But she was not weak; or at least only weak in the way in which all +generous natures are so. + +On the morrow Nerina was not sped on her way. The old woman, Gianna, +thought well of her. + +"She is as clean as a stone in the water," she said; "she has +foul-smelling rags, but her flesh is clean. She woke at dawn, and +asked for something to do. She knows nought, but she is willing and +teachable. We can make her of use. She has nowhere to go. She is a +stray little puppy. Her people were miserable, but they seem to have +been pious folks. She has a cross pricked on her shoulder. She says +her mother did it when she was a babe to scare the devil off her. I +do not know what to say; she is a poor, forlorn little wretch; if you +like to keep her, I for my part will see to her. I am old: it is well +to do a good work before one dies." + +Gianna was an old woman, half house-servant, half farm-servant, +wholly friend; she had lived at the Terra Vergine all her life; big, +gaunt, and very strong, she could do the work of a man, although she +was over seventy years of age; burnt black by the sun, and with a +pile of grey hair like the hank of flax on her distaff, she was +feared by the whole district for her penetrating glance and her +untiring energy. When Gianna was satisfied the stars had changed +their courses, said the people, so rare was the event; therefore, +that this little wanderer contented her was at once a miracle and a +voucher indisputable. + +So the child remained there; but her presence troubled Adone's +mother, though Nerina was humble as a homeless dog, was noiseless and +seldom seen, was obedient, agile, and became useful in many manners, +and learned with equal eagerness the farm work taught her by Gianna, +and the doctrine taught her by Don Silverio, for she was intelligent +and willing in every way. Only Clelia Alba thought, "Perhaps Gianna's +good heart misleads her. Gianna is rough; but she has a heart as +tender at bottom as a ripe melon's flesh." + +Anyhow, she took her old servant's word and allowed the child to +remain. She could not bring herself to turn adrift a female thing to +stray about homeless and hungry, and end in some bottomless pit. The +child might be the devil's spawn. No one could be sure. But she had +eyes which looked up straight and true, and were as clear as the +river water where it flowed over pebbles in the shade. When the devil +is in a soul he always grins behind the eyes; he cannot help it; and +so you know him; thus, at least, they thought at Ruscino and in all +the vale of Edera; and the devil did not lurk in the eyes of Nerina. + +"Have I done right, reverend sir?" asked Clelia Alba of the Vicar of +Ruscino. + +"Oh, yes--yes--charity is always right," he answered, unwilling to +discourage her in her benevolence; but in his own mind he thought, +"The child is a child, but she will grow; she is brown, and starved, +and ugly now, but she will grow; she is a female thing and she will +grow, and I think she will be handsome later on; it would have been +more prudent to have put some money in her hand and some linen in her +wallet, and have let her pass on her way down the river. The saints +forbid that I should put aloes into the honey of their hearts; but +this child will grow." + +Clelia Alba perceived that he had his doubts as she had hers. But +they said nothing of them to each other. The issue would lie with +Time, whom men always depict as a mower, but who is also a sower, +too. However, for good or ill, she was there; and he knew that, +having once harboured her, they would never drive her adrift. Clelia +Alba was in every sense a good woman; a little hard at times, narrow +of sympathy, too much shut up in her maternal passion; but in the +main merciful and correct in judgment. + +"If the child were not good the river would not have given her to +us," said Adone to her; and believed it. + +"Good-day, my son," said the voice of the Vicar, Don Silverio +Frascara, behind him, where Adone worked in the fields. "Where did +you find that scarecrow whom your mother has shown me just now?" + +"She was in the river, most reverend, dancing along in it, as merry +as a princess." + +"But she is a skeleton!" + +"Almost." + +"And you know nothing of her?" + +"Nothing, sir." + +"You were more charitable than wise." + +"One cannot let a little female thing starve whilst one has bread in +the hutch. My mother is a virtuous woman. She will teach the child +virtue." + +"Let us hope so," said Don Silverio. "But all, my son, do not take +kindly to that lesson." + +"What will be, will be. The river brought her." + +He credited the river with a more than human sagacity. He held it in +awe and in reverence as a deity, as the Greeks of old held their +streams. It would have drowned the child, he thought, if she had been +an evil creature or of evil augury. But he did not say so, for he did +not care to provoke Don Silverio's fine fleeting ironical smile. + +A goatherd who passed some few days later with his flock on his way +to the mountains recognised the little girl. + +"You are Black Fausto's daughter," he said to her. "Is he dead? Eh, +well, we must all die. May his soul rest." + +To Gianna, who questioned him, he said, "Yes, he was a good soul. +Often have I seen him down in the Roman plains. He worked himself to +death. These gangs of labourers get poor pay. I saw him also in the +hills where this girl comes from, ever so high up, you seem to touch +the sky. I summered there two years ago; he had his womankind in a +cabin, and he took all that he got home to them. Aye, he was a good +soul. We can come away out of the heats, but they have to stay down +in them; for the reaping and the sowing are their chief gain, and +they get the fever into their blood, and the worms into their +bellies, and it kills them mostly before they are forty. You see, at +Ansalda, where he came from, it was snow eight months out of the +twelve, so the heats and the mists killed him: for the air you are +born in you want, and if you do not get it in time you sicken." + +"Like enough," said Gianna, who herself had never been out of sight +of the river Edera ever since she had been a babe in swaddling +clothes. "Tell me, gossip, was the child born in wedlock?" + +"Eh, eh!" said the goatherd grinning. "That I would not take on me +to say. But like enough, like enough; they are always ready to go +before the priest in those high hills." + +The little girl glided into her place humbly and naturally, with no +servility but with untiring willingness and thankfulness. It seemed +to her an amazing favour of heaven to live with these good people; to +have a roof over her head and food regularly every day. Up there in +her home, amongst the crags of Ansalda, she had never known what it +was not to have a daily hunger gnawing always in her entrails, and +making her writhe at night on her bed of dry leaves. In her thirteen +years of life she had never once had enough--no one ever had. A full +stomach had been a thing unknown. + +She began to grow, she began to put a little flesh on her bones; they +had cut her hair short, for it had been so rough, and it grew again +burnished and bright like copper; colour came into her cheeks and +lips; she seemed to spring upward, visibly, like a young cane. She +worked hard, but she worked willingly, and she was well nourished on +sound food, though it had little variety and was entirely vegetable; +and every day she went down and bathed in the river at the same place +where she had sat nude under the dock leaves whilst her skirt dried +in the sun. + +To her the Terra Vergine was Paradise itself; to be fed, to be +clothed, to have a mattress to sleep on, to work amongst the flowers +and the grass and the animals--it was all so beautiful, she thought +sometimes that she must be in heaven. + +She spoke little. Since she had been under this roof she had grown +ashamed of the squalor and starvation and wretchedness of her past +existence. She did not like to think of it even; it had been no fault +of hers, but she felt ashamed that she ever should have been that +little, filthy, unkempt, naked thing, grovelling on the clay floor, +and fighting for mouldy crusts with the other children on the rock of +Ansalda. + +"If I had only known when father was alive," she thought; but even if +she had known all she knew now, what could she have done? There had +been nothing to use, nothing to eat, nothing to wear, and the rain +and the snow and the wind had come in on them where they had lain +huddled together on their bed of rotten leaves. Now and then she said +something of that rude childhood of hers to Adone; she was afraid of +the women, but not of him; she trotted after him as the little white +curly dog Signorino trotted after Don Silverio. + +"Do not think of those dark days, little one," he said to her. "They +are gone by. Think of your parents and pray for their souls; but let +the rest go; you have all your life to live." + +"My mother was young when she died," said the child. "If she had had +food she would not have died. She said so. She kept on gnawing a bit +of rag which was soaked in water; you cheat hunger that way, you +know, but it does not fill you." + +"Pour soul! Poor soul!" said Adone, and he thought of the great +markets he had seen in the north, the droves of oxen, the piles of +fruits, the long lines of wine carts, the heaps of slaughtered game, +the countless shops with their electric light, the trains running one +after another all the nights and every night to feed the rich; and he +thought, as he had thought when a boy, that the devil had _troppo +braccio_, if any devil indeed there were beside man himself. + +Should there be anywhere on the face of the earth, young women, good +women, mothers of babes who died of sheer hunger like this mother of +Nerina's up yonder in the snows of the Abruzzo? He thought not; his +heart revolted at the vision of her, a living skeleton on her heap of +leaves. + +"Father brought all he had," continued the child, "but he could not +come back until after harvest, and when he came back she had been in +the ground two months and more. They put him in the same ditch when +his turn came; but she was no longer there, for they take up the +bones every three years and burn them. They say they must, else the +ditch would get too full." + +Adone shuddered. He knew that tens of thousands died so, and had died +so ever since the days of Phenicians and Gauls and Goths. But it +revolted him. The few gorged, the many famished--strange +disproportion! unkind and unfair balance! + +But what remedy was there? + +Adone had read some socialistic and communistic literature; but it +had not satisfied him; it had seemed to him vain, verbose, alluring, +but unreal, no better adapted to cure any real hunger than the soaked +rag of Nerina's mother. + + + + + +III + +The Valdedera is situated on the south of the Marches, on the +confines of what is now the territorial division of the +Abruzzo-Molese, and so lies between the Apennines and the Adriatic, +fanned by cool winds in summer from the eternal snow of the mountain +peaks, and invigorated in all seasons by breezes from the Adrian Sea. + +Ruscino, placed midway in the valley, is only a village to which no +traveller has for many years come, and of which no geographer ever +speaks; it is marked on the maps of military topographers, and is, of +course, inscribed on the fiscal rolls, but is now no more than a +village; though once, when the world was young, it was the Etruscan +Rusciae, and then the Latin Ruscinonis; and then, when the Papacy was +mighty, it was the militant principality of the fortified town of +Ruscino. But it was, when the parish of Don Silverio, an almost +uninhabited village; a pale, diminutive, shrunken relic of its heroic +self; and of it scarcely any man knows anything except the few men +who make their dwelling there; sons of the soil, who spring from its +marble dust and return to it. + +It had shrunk to a mere hamlet as far as its population was counted; +it shrank more and more with every census. There was but a handful of +poor people who, when gathered together in the great church, looked +no more than a few flies on a slab of marble. + +The oldest men and women of the place could recall the time when it +had been still of some importance as a posting place on the mountain +route between the markets of the coast and the western towns, when +its highway had been kept clean and clear through the woods for +public and private conveyance, and when the clatter of horses' hoofs +and merry notes of horns had roused the echoes of its stones. In that +first half of the century, too, they had lived fairly well, and wine +and fowls had cost next to nothing, and home-made loaves had been +always large enough to give a beggar or a stray dog a slice. But +these times had long been over; every one was hungry now, and every +one a beggar, by way of change, and to make things equal, as the +people said, with dreary mirth and helpless acquiescence in their +lot. Like most riverain people, they lived chiefly by the river, +cutting and selling its canes, its sallows, its osiers, its sedges, +catching its fish, digging its sand; but there were few buyers in +this depopulated district. + +Don Silverio Frascara, its vicar, had been sent thither as a +chastisement for his too sceptical and inquiring mind, his too +undisciplined temper. Nearly twenty years in this solitude had +chastened both; the fire had died out of his soul and the light out +of his eyes. His days were as monotonous as those of the blinded ass +set to turn the wine-press. All the steel of his spirit rusted, all +the brilliancy of his brain clouded; his life was like a fine rapier +which is left in a corner of a dusty attic and forgotten. + +In certain rare states of the atmosphere the gold cross on St. +Peter's is visible from some of the peaks of the Abruzzese Apennines. +It looks like a speck of light far, far away in the silver-green of +the western horizon. When one day he climbed to such an altitude and +saw it thus, his heart contracted with a sickly pain, for in Rome he +had dreamed many dreams; and in Rome, until his exile to the Vale of +Edera, he had been a preacher of noted eloquence, of brilliant +fascination, and of daring thought. + +There had been long cypress alleys which at sunset had glowed with +rose and gold, where he had in his few leisure hours builded up such +visions for the future as illumined the unknown years to the eyes of +an Ignatius, a Hildebrand, a Lacordaire, a Bossuet. On the place +where those grand avenues had stretched their green length in the +western light, and the seminarist had paced over the sward, there +were now long, dreary lines of brick and stone, the beaten dust of +roadways, the clang and smoke of engines: as the gardens had passed +away so had passed his ambitions and visions; as the cypresses had +been ground to powder in the steam mill, so was he crushed and +effaced under an inexorable fate. The Church, intolerant of +individuality, like all despotisms, had broken his spirit; like all +despotisms the tyranny had been blind. But he had been rebellious to +doctrine; she had bound him to her stake. + +He would have been a great prelate, perhaps even a great Pope; but he +would have been also a great reformer, so she stamped him down into +nothingness under her iron heel. And for almost a score of years she +had kept him in Ruscino, where he buried and baptized the old and new +creatures who squirmed in the dust, where any ordinary country priest +able to gabble through the ritual could have done as well as he. Some +few of the more liberal and learned dignitaries of the Church did +indeed think that it was waste of great powers, but he had the Sacred +College against him, and no one ventured to speak in his favour at +the Vatican. He had no pious women of rank to plead for him, no +millionaires and magnates to solicit his preferment. He was with time +forgotten as utterly as a folio is forgotten on a library shelf until +mildew eats its ink away and spiders nest between its leaves. He had +the thirty pounds a year which the State pays to such parish priests; +and he had nothing else. + +He was a tall and naturally stately man, but his form was bent by +that want of good food which is the chronic malady of many parts of +Italy. There was little to eat in Ruscino, and had there been more +there would have been no one who knew how to prepare it. Bread, +beans, a little oil, a little lard, herbs which grew wild, goat's +milk, cheese, and at times a few small river fish; these were all his +sustenance: his feasts and his fasts were much alike, and the little +wine he had he gave away to the sick and the aged. For this reason +his high stature was bent and his complexion was of the clear, yellow +pallor of old marbles; his profile was like the Caesarian outline on +a medallion, and his eyes were deep wells of impenetrable thought; +his finely cut lips rarely smiled, they had always upon them an +expression of bitterness, as though the apple of life in its eating +had been harsh and hard as a crab. + +His presbytery was close to his church, a dreary place with only a +few necessaries and many books within it, and his only servant was an +old man, lame and stupid, who served also as sacristan. + +It was a cure of souls which covered many miles but counted few +persons. Outside the old walls of Ruscino nearly all the land of vale +of Edera was untilled, and within them a few poverty-stricken people +dragged out their days uncared for by any one, only remembered by the +collectors of fiscal dues. "_They_ never forget," said the people. +"As soon as one is born, always and in every season, until one's +bones rattle down into the ditch of the dead, _they_ remember +always." + +The grasp of an invisible power took the crust off their bread, the +toll off their oil, off their bed of sacking, off their plate of +fish, and took their children when they grew to manhood and sent them +into strange lands and over strange seas; they felt the grip of that +hard hand as their forefathers had felt it under the Caesars, under +the Popes, under the feudal lords, under the foreign kings; they felt +it so now under the Casa Sabauda; the same, always the same; for the +manners and titles of the State may change, but its appetite never +lessens, and its greed never spares. For twice a thousand years their +blood had flowed and their earnings had been wrung out of them in the +name of the State, and nothing was changed in that respect; the few +lads they begot amongst them went to Africa, now as under Pompeius or +Scipio; and their corn sack was taken away from them under Depretis +or Crispi, as under the Borgia or the Malatesta; and their grape +skins soaked in water were taxed as wine, their salt for their +soup-pot was seized as contraband, unless it bore the government +stamp, and, if they dared say a word of resistance, there were the +manacles and the prison under Vittorio and Umberto as under Bourbon +or Bonaparte; for there are some things which are immutable as fate. +At long intervals, during the passing of ages, the poor stir, like +trodden worms, under this inexorable monotony of their treatment by +their rulers; and then baleful fires redden the sky, and blood runs +in the conduits, and the rich man trembles; but the cannon are +brought up at full gallop and it is soon over; there is nothing ever +really altered; the iron wheels only press the harder on the unhappy +worm, and there is nothing changed. + +Here at Ruscino there were tombs of nenfro which had overhung the +river for thirty centuries; but those tombs have never seen any other +thing than this, nor ever will, until the light and the warmth of the +sun shall be withdrawn for ever, and the earth shall remain alone +with her buried multitudes. + +There was only Don Silverio who thought of such a thing as this, a +scholar all alone amongst barbarians; for his heart ached for his +barbarians, though they bore him no love in return for his pity. They +would have liked better a gossiping, rotund, familiar, ignorant, +peasant priest, one of themselves, chirping formula comfortably over +skeleton corpses. + +In default of other interests he interested himself in this ancient +place, passing from neglect into oblivion, as his own life was doing. +There were Etruscan sepulchres and Pelasgic caves which had been +centuries earlier rifled of their objects of value, but still +otherwise remained untouched under the acacia woods by the river. +There were columns and terraces and foundations of marble which had +been there when the Latin city of Ruscinonis had flourished, from the +time of Augustus until its destruction by Theodoric. And nearest of +all these to him were the Longobardo church and the ancient houses +and the dismantled fortress and the ruined walls of what had been the +fief of the Toralba, the mediaeval fortified town of Ruscino. It +still kept this, its latest, name, but it kept little else. Thrice a +thousand centuries had rolled over it, eating it away as the sea eats +away a cliff. War and fire and time had had their will with it for so +long that dropped acorns and pine-pips had been allowed leisure to +sink between the stones, and sprout and bud and rise and spread, and +were now hoary and giant trees, of which the roots were sunk deep +into its ruins, its graves, its walls. + +It had been Etruscan, it had been Latin, it had been Longobardo, it +had been Borgian and Papal; through all these changes a fortified +city, then a castellated town, then a walled village; and a village +it now remained. It will never be more; before many generations pass +it will probably have become still less; a mere tumulus, a mere +honeycomb of buried tombs. It was now perishing, surely though +slowly, but in peace, with the grass growing on its temple stairs and +the woodbine winding round its broken columns. + +The trained and stored intellect of Don Silverio could set each +period of its story apart, and read all the vestiges remaining of +each. Ruscino was now to all others a mere poverty-stricken place, +brown and gaunt and sorrowful, scorching in the sun, with only the +river beneath it to keep it clean and alive. But to him it was as a +palimpsest of surpassing value and interest, which, sorely difficult +to decipher, held its treasures close from the profane and the +ignorant, but tempted and rewarded the scholar, like the lettering on +a Pompeian nuptial ring, the cyphers on a funeral urn of Herculaneum. +"After all, my lot might be worse than it is," he thought with +philosophy. "They might have sent me to a modern manufacturing town +in one of the Lombard provinces, or exiled me to some native +settlement in Eritrea." + +Here, at least, he had history and nature, and he enjoyed thousands +of hours undisturbed in which to read or write, or muse and ponder on +this chronicle of brick and stone, this buried mass of dead men's +labours and of dead men's dust. + +Doubtless, his manuscripts would lie unknown, unread; no man would +care for them; but the true scholar cares neither for public not +posterity; he lives for the work he loves; and if he knows that he +will have few readers in the future--maybe none--how many read +Grotius, or Boethius, or Chrysostom, or Jerome? + +Here, like a colony of ants, the generations had crowded one on +another, now swept away by the stamp of a conqueror's heel and now +succeeded by another toiling swarm, building anew each time out of +ruin, undaunted by the certainty of destruction, taught nothing by +the fate of their precursors. From the profound sense of despair +which the contemplation of the uselessness of human effort, and the +waste of human life, produces on the scholar's mind, it was a relief +to him to watch the gladness of its river, the buoyancy of its +currents, the foam of white blossom on its acacia and syringa +thickets, the gold sceptres and green lances of its iris-pseudacorus, +the sweep of the winds through its bulrushes and canebreaks, the +glory of colour in the blue stars of its veronica, the bright rosy +spikes of its epilobium. The river seemed always happy, even when the +great rainfall of autumn churned it into froth and the lightnings +illumined its ink-black pools. + +It was on the river that he had first made friends with Adone, then a +child of six, playing and splashing in the stream, on a midsummer +noon. Don Silverio also was bathing. Adone, a little nude figure, as +white as alabaster in the hot light, for he was very fair of skin, +sprang suddenly out of the water on to the turf above where his +breeches and shirt had been left; he was in haste, for he had heard +his mother calling to him from their fields; an adder started out of +a coil of bindweed and would itself round his ankle as he stooped for +his clothes. + +The priest, standing waist-deep in the river a few yards away, saw it +before the child did, and cried out to him: "Stand still till I come! +Be not afraid!" Adone understood, and, although trembling with terror +and loathing as he realised his danger, and felt the slimy clasp of +the snake, remained motionless as he was bidden to do. In a second of +time the priest had leaped through the water to his side, seized the +adder, and killed it. + +"Good boy," he said to the child. "If you had moved your foot the +creature would have bitten you." + +Adone's eyes filled with tears. + +"Thank you, sir; thank you for mother," he said very gently, for he +was a shy child, though courageous. + +The priest stroked his curls. + +"There is death in the grass very often. We should not fear death, +but neither should we run risk of it uselessly, especially when we +have a mother whom it would grieve. Come and bathe at this spot, at +this hour, to-morrow and every day, if you like. I will be here and +look after you, you are little to be alone." + +They were often together from that day onwards. + +The brutishness and greed of his flock oppressed him. He was sent +here to have care of their souls, but where were their souls? They +would all have sold them to the foul fiend for a mess of artichokes +fried in oil. In such a solitude as this he had been glad to be able +to teach and move the young malleable mind of Adone Alba; the only +one of them who seemed to have any mind at all. Adone also had a +voice as sweet as a nightingale in the syringa bushes in May; and it +pierced the gloom of the old naked gaunt church as a nightingale's +thrills through the dark hour before dawn. + +There was no other music in that choir except the children's or +youths' voices; there was nothing to make music with except those +flexible pipes of the boyish throats; and Don Silverio loved and +understood choral music; he had studied it in Rome. Adone never +refused to sing for him, and when the voice of adolescence had +replaced that of childhood, he would still stand no less docilely by +the old marble lectern, and wake the melodies of early masters from +the yellow pages. + +The church was as damp as a vault of the dead; cold even when the +dog-star reigned in the heavens. The brasses and bronzes were rusted +with moisture, and the marbles were black with the spores of mould; +rain dripped through the joints of the roof, and innumberable +sparrows made their nests there; the mosaics of the floor were green +from these droppings, and from those of the rain; the sun never +entered through any of the windows, which were yellow with age and +dust; but here, with a lantern for their only light, they solaced +each other with the song of the great choral masters. Only Adone, +although he never said or showed it, was glad when the huge key +groaned in the lock of the outer door, and he ran out into the +evening starlight, down the steep streets, across the bridge, and +felt the fresh river air blowing on him, and heard the swirling of +the water amongst the frost-stiffened canes, and saw far off in the +darkened fields the glimmer of a light--the light of home. + +That old home was the dearest thing on earth to the young man. He had +never been away from it but once, when the conscription called him. +In that time, which had been to him like a nightmare, the time of his +brief exile to the army, because he was the only son of a widow, he +had been sent to a northern city, one of commerce and noise and +crowded, breathless life; he had been cooped up in it like a panther +in a den, like a hawk in a cage. What he saw of the vices and +appetites of men, the pressure of greed and of gain, the harsh and +stupid tyranny of the few, the slavish and ignoble submission of the +many, the brutish bullying, the crouching obedience, the deadly +routine, the lewd licence of reaction--all filled him with disdain +and with disgust. When he returned to his valley he bathed in the +waters of Edera before he crossed his mother's threshold. + +"Make me clean as I was when I left you!" he cried, and took the +water in the hollow of his hands and kissed it. + +But no water flows on the earth, from land to sea, which can wholly +cleanse the soul as it cleanses the body. + +That brief time under arms he cursed as thousands of youths have +cursed it. Its hated stigma and pollution never wholly passed away. +It left a bitterness on his lips, a soil upon his memories. But how +sweet to him beyond expression, on his return, were the sound of the +rushing river in the silence of the night, the pure odours of the +blossoming beanfields, the clear dark sky with its radiant stars, the +sense of home, the peace of his own fields! + +"Mother, whether life for me shall be long or short, here its every +hour shall be spent!" he said, as he stood on his own ground and +looked through the olive-trees to the river, running swiftly and +strong beneath the moon. + +"Those are good words, my son," said Clelia Alba, and her hands +rested on his bowed head. + +He adored both the soil and the water of this place of his birth; no +toil upon either seemed to him hard or mean. All which seemed to him +to matter much in the life of a man was to be free, and he was so. In +that little kingdom of fertile soil and running stream no man could +bid him come and go, no law ruled his uprising and his down lying; he +had enough for his own wants and the wants of those about him, enough +for the needs of the body, and the mind here had not many needs; at +the Terra Vergine he was his own master, except so far as he +cheerfully deferred to his mother; and all which he put into the +earth he could take out of it for his own usage, though indeed the +fiscal authorities claimed well nigh one-half, rating his land at far +more than its worth. No doubt scientific agriculture might have made +it yield more than he did; but he was content to follow the ways of +old; he farmed as men did when the Sun-god was the farm slave of +Admetus. The hellebore and the violets grew at will in his furrows; +the clematis and the ivy climbed his figtrees; the fritillaria and +daphne grew in his pastures, and he never disturbed them, or scared +the starling and the magpie which fluttered in the wake of his wooden +plough. The land was good land, and gave him whatever he wanted; he +grudged nothing off it to bird, or beast, or leaf, or flower, or to +the hungry wayfarer who chanced to pass by his doors. In remote +places the old liberal, frank, open-handed hospitality of an earlier +time is still in Italy a practice as well as a tradition. + +The house was their own, and the earth gave them their bread, their +wine, their vegetables, their oil, hemp, and flax for their linen, +and herbs for their soup; of the olive-oil they had more than enough +for use, and the surplus was sold once a year in the nearest town, +San Beda, and served to meet the fiscal demands. They had rarely any +ready money, but no peasant in Italy ever expects, unless by some +luck at lotto, to have money in his pocket. + +He worked hard; at some seasons extremely hard; he hired labour +sometimes, but not often, for to pay for the hiring takes the profit +off the land. But he had been used to such work from childhood, and +it was never irksome to him; even though he rose in the dark, and +rarely went home to supper till the stars were shining. He had no +near neighbours except the poor folks in Ruscino. All surrounding him +was grass and moor and wood, called communal property, but in reality +belonging legally to no one; vast, still, fragrant leagues of +uninhabited country stretching away to the blue hills, home of the +fox and the hare and the boar, of the hawk and the woodpecker and the +bittern. + +Through those wilds he loved to wander alone; the sweet stillness of +a countryside which was uncontaminated by the residence of men +stilling the vague unrest of his youth, and the mountains towering in +the light lending to the scene the charm of the unknown. + +In days of storm or rain he read with Don Silverio or sang in the +church; on fine holy-days he roamed far afield in the lonely +heatherlands and woodlands which were watered by the Edera. He +carried a gun, for defence if need be, for there were boars and +wolves in these solitudes; but he never used it upon bird or beast. + +Like St. Francis of Assissi, both he and Don Silverio took more +pleasure in the life than in the death of fair winged things. + +"We are witness, twice in every year, of that great and inexplicable +miracle," the priest said often, "that passage of small, frail, +unguided creatures, over seas and continents, through tempests and +simoons, and with every man's hand against them, and death waiting to +take them upon every shore, by merciless and treacherous tricks, and +we think nought of it; we care nought for it; we spread the nets and +the gins--that is all. We are unworthy of all which makes the earth +beautiful--vilely unworthy!" + +One of the causes of his unpopularity in Ruscino was the inexorable +persistence with which he broke their gins, lifted their nets, +cleared off their birdlime, dispersed their watertraps, and forbade +the favourite night poaching by lanterns in the woods. More than once +they threatened his life, but he only smiled. + +"_Faccia pure_!" he said, "you will cut a knot which I did not tie, +and which I cannot myself undo." + +But they held him in too much awe to dare to touch him, and they knew +that again and again he went on bread and water himself to give his +wine to their sick, or his strip of meat to their old people. + +Moreover, they feared Adone. + +"If you touch a hair of Don Silverio's head, or the hem of his +cassock, I will burn Ruscino," said Adone to one of those who had +threatened his friend, "and you will all burn with it, for the river +will not help you; the river will turn to oil and make the flames +rage tenfold." + +The people were afraid as they heard him, for the wrath of the gentle +is terrible from its rarity. + +"For sure 'tis the dead Tor'alba as speak in him," they said with +fright under their breath, for there was a tale told in the district +that Adone Alba was descended from the old war-lords. + +The veterans of the village and the countryside remembered hearing +their fathers say that the family of the Terra Vergine were descended +from those great marquises who had reigned for centuries in that +Rocca which was now a grim, ivy-covered ruin on the north of the +Edera water. But more than this no one could say; no one could tell +how the warlike race had become mere tillers of the soil, or how +those who had measured out life and death up and down the course of +the valley had lost their power and possessions. There were vague +traditions of a terrible siege, following on a great battle in the +vale; that was all. + + + + + +IV + +The church in which Don Silverio officiated every morning and evening +for the benefit of a few old crones, had once been a Latin temple; it +had been built from the Corinthian pillars, the marble peristyle, the +rounded, open dome, like that of the Pantheon, of a pagan edifice; +and to these had been added a Longobardo belfry and chancel; pigeons +and doves roosted and nested in it, and within it was cold even in +midsummer, and dark always as a vault. It was dedicated to St. +Jerome, and was a world too wide for the shrunken band of believers +who came to worship in it; there was a high, dark altar said to have +been painted by Ribera, and nothing else that spoke in any way of +art, except the capitals of its pillars and the Roman mosaics of its +floor. + +The Longobardo bell-tower was of vast height and strength; within it +were various chambers, and these chambers had served through many +ages as muniment-rooms. There were innumerable documents of many +different epochs, almost all in Latin, a few in Greek. Don Silverio, +who was a fine classic as well as a learned archæologist, spent all +his lonely and cold winter evenings in the study of these early +chronicles, his oil lamp burning pale and low, his little white dog +lying on his knees. + +These manuscripts gave him great trouble, and were in many parts +almost unintelligible, in others almost effaced by damp, in others +again gnawed by rats and mice. But he was interested in his labours +and in his subject, and after several years of work on them, he was +able to make out a consecutive history of the Valdedera, and he was +satisfied that the peasant of the Terra Vergine had been directly +descended from the feudal-lords of Ruscino. That pittance of land by +the waterside under the shadow of the ruined citadel was all which +remained of the great fief of the youth in whose veins ran the blood +of men who had given princes, and popes, and cardinals, and captains +of condottieri, and patrons of art, and conquerors or revolted +provinces, to the Italy of old from the beginning of the thirteenth +century to the end of the sixteenth. For three hundred years the +Tor'alba had been lords there, owning all their eyes could reach from +mountain to sea; then after long siege the walled town and their +adjacent stronghold had fallen into the hands of hereditary foes +whose forces had been united against them. Fire and steel had done +their worst, and only a month-old child had escaped from the burning +Rocca, being saved in a boat laden with reeds at anchor in the river, +and hidden by a faithful vassal. The child had grown to manhood and +had lived to old age, leading a peasant's life on the banks of the +Edera; the name had been mutilated in common usage amongst those who +spoke only the dialect of the province, and for three more centuries +father and son had succeeded each other, working for their daily +bread where their ancestors had defied Borgia and Della Rovere, and +Feltrio, and Malatesta; the gaunt dark shade of the dismantled +citadel lying athwart their fields between them and the setting sun. + +Should he tell Adone this or not? + +Would the knowledge of his ancestry put a thorn in the boy's +contented heart? Would it act as a spur to higher things, or be +merely as the useless sting of a nettle? + +Who could say? + +Don Silverio remembered the gorgeous dreams of his own youth; and +what had been their issue? + +At fifty years old he was buried in a deserted village, never hearing +from year's end to year's end one word of friendship or phrase of +culture. + +Would it be well or would it be wrong to disturb that tranquil +acquiescence in a humble destiny? He could not decide. He dared not +take upon himself so much responsibility. "In doubt do nothing" has +been the axiom of many wise men. The remembrance of the maxim closed +his lips. He had himself been in early manhood passionately +ambitious; he was only a priest, but of priests are made the +Gregorio, the Bonifazio, the Leone of the Papal throne; to the dreams +of a seminarist nothing is impossible. But Adone had no such dreams; +he was as satisfied with his lot as any young steer which wants +nothing more than the fair, fresh fields of its birth. But one day as +he was sitting with the boy, then fifteen years old, on the south +bank of the Edera, the spirit moved him and he spake. It was the day +of San Benedetto, when the swallows come. The grass was full of pink +lychnis and yellow buttercups. A strong east wind was blowing from +the sea. A number of martins, true to the proverb, were circling +gaily above the stream. The water, reflecting the brilliant hues of +the heavens, was hurrying on its seaward way, swollen by recent rains +and hastened by a strong wind blowing from the eastern mountains. + +The lands of the Terra Vergine lay entirely on the south-east bank of +the river, and covered many acres, of which some was moorland still. +Almost opposite to it was the one-arched stone bridge, attributed to +Theodoric, and on the northern bank was the ruined Rocca, towering +above the trees which had grown up around it; whilst hidden by it and +by the remains of the fortifications was that which was now the mere +village of Ruscino. + +"Listen, Adone!" he said in his deep, melodious voice, grave and +sweet as a mass of Palestrina. "Listen, and I will tell you the tale +of yonder donjon and village, and of the valley of the Edera, so far +as I have been able to make it out for myself." + +According to the writers whose manuscripts he had discovered the town +of Ruscino, like Cremona, had existed before the siege of Troy, that +is, six hundred years before the foundation of Rome. Of this there +was no proof except tradition, but the ruins of the walls and the +tombs by the riverside and in the fields proved that it had been an +Etruscan city, and of some considerable extent and dignity, in those +remote ages. + +"The foundations of the Rocca," he continued, "were probably part of +a great stronghold raised by the Gauls, who undoubtedly conquered the +whole of this valley at the time when they settled themselves in what +is now the Marches, and founded Senegallia. It was visited by +Asdrubal, and burned by Alaric; then occupied by the Greek free +lances of Justinian; in the time of the Frankish victories, in common +with greater places, it was forced to swear allegiance to the first +papal Adrian. After that it had been counted as one of the fiefs +comprised in the possessions of the Pentapolis; and later on, when +the Saracens ravaged the shores of the Adriatic, they had come up the +Valdedera and pillaged and burned again. Gregory the Ninth gave the +valley to the family of its first feudal lords, the Tor'alba, in +recompense for military service, and they, out of the remains of the +Gallic, Etruscan, and Roman towns, rebuilt Ruscino and raised the +Rocca on the ruins of the castle of the Gauls. There, though at feud +many time with their foes, the Della Rovere, the Malatesta, and the +Dukes of Urbino, they held their own successfully, favoured usually +by Rome, and for three centuries grew in force and in possessions. +But they lost the favour of Rome by their haughtiness and +independence; and under pretext that they merited punishment, Cesare +Borgia brought troops of mercenaries against them, and after a fierce +conflict in the valley (the terrible battle of which the villagers +preserved the memory) the town was besieged and sacked. + +"After this battle, which must have taken place on yonder moor, to +the north-west, for the assailants had crossed the Apennines, the +Tor'alba and the remnant of men remaining to them retreated within +the walls of Ruscino. + +"The whole place and the citadel were burning, set on fire by order +of Borgia. The church alone was spared, and the dead men were as +thick as stones on the walls, and in the streets, and in the nave of +the church, and on the streets, and in the houses. This river was +choked with corpses, and dark with blood. The black smoke towered to +the sky in billows like a sea. The mercenaries swarmed over the +bastions and violated the women, and cut off their breasts and threw +their bodies down into the stream and their children after them. The +Lady of Tor'alba, valiant as Caterina Sforza, was the first slain. + +"The whole place was given up to flame and carnage, and the great +captains were as helpless as dead oxen. They were all slain amongst +their troopers and their vassals, and their bodies were burnt when +the fortress was fired. + +"Only one little child escaped the massacre, a month-old babe, son of +the Marquis of Tor'alba, who was hidden by a faithful servant amongst +the reeds of the Edera in a basket. This servant was the only male +who escaped slaughter. + +"The river rushes were more merciful than man, they kept the little +new-born lordling safe until his faithful vassal, under cover of the +night, when the assailants were drunk and stupid with licence +gratified, could take him to a poor woman to be suckled in a cottage +farther down the river. How he grew up I know not, but certain it is +that thirty years later one Federigo Tor'alba was living where you +live, and your house and land have never changed hands or title +since; only your name has been truncated, as often happens in the +speech of the people. How this land called the Terra Vergine was +first obtained I cannot say; the vassal may have saved some gold or +jewels which belonged to his masters, and have purchased these acres, +or the land may have been taken up and put gradually into cultivation +without any legal right to it; of this there is no explanation, no +record. But from that time the mighty lordship of Tor'alba has been +extinct, and scarcely exists now even in local tradition; although +their effigies are on their tombs, and the story of their reign can +be deciphered by any one who can read a sixteenth-century manuscript, +as you might do for yourself, my son, had you been diligent." + +Adone was silent. He had listened with attention, as he did to +everything which was said or read to him by Don Silverio. But he was +not astonished, because he had often heard, though vaguely, the +legend of his descent. + +"Of what use is it?" he said, as he sat moving the bright water with +his bare slim feet. "Nothing will bring it all back." + +"It should serve some great end," said Don Silverio, not knowing very +well what he meant or to what he desired to move the young man's +mind. "Nobility of blood should make the hands cleaner, the heart +higher, the aims finer." + +Adone had shrugged his shoulders. + +"We are all equal!" he answered. + +"We are not all equal," the priest said curtly. "There is not +equality in nature. Are there even two pebbles alike in the bed of +the river?" + +Don Silverio, for the first time in his life, could have willingly +let escape him some unholy word. It incensed him that he could not +arouse in the boy any of that interest and excitement which had moved +his own feelings so strongly as he had spent his spare evenings +poring over the crabbed characters and the dust-weighted vellum of +the charred and mutilated archives discovered by him in a secret +closet in the bell-tower of his church. With infinite toil, patience, +and ability he had deciphered the Latin of rolls, registers, letters, +chronicles, so damaged by water, fire, and the teeth of rats and +mice, that it required all an archæologist's ingenuity and devotion +to make out any sense from them. Summer days and winter nights had +found him poring over the enigma of these documents, and now, when he +had conquered and revealed their secret, he who was most concerned in +it was no more stirred by curiosity or pride than if he had been one +of the big tawny owls dwelling in the dusk of the belfry. + +Don Silverio was a learned man and a holy man, and should have +despised such vanities, but an historic past had great seduction for +him; a militant race fascinated him against his conscience, and +aristocracy allured him despite all his better judgement; it seemed +to him that if he had learned that he had come from a knightly _gens_ +such as this of the Tor'alba, he would have been more strongly moved +to self-glorification than would have become a servant of the Church. +He himself had no knowledge even of his own near parentage; he had +been a forsaken child, left one dark autumn night in the iron cradle +of the gates of a foundling hospital in Reggio Calabrese. His names +had been bestowed on him by the chaplain of the institution; and his +education had been given him by an old nobleman of the town, +attracted by his appearance and intelligence as a child. He was now +fifty years of age; and he had never known anything of kith and kin, +or of the mingled sweetness and importunity of any human tie. + +Adone sat silent, looking up at the fortress of his forefathers. He +was more moved than his words showed. + +"If we were lords of the land and the town and the people, we were +also lords of the river," was what he was thinking; and that thought +moved him to strong pride and pleasure, for he loved the river with a +great love, only equalled by that which he felt for his mother. + +"They were lords of the river?" he asked aloud. + +"Undoubtedly," answered the priest. "It was one of the highways of +the province from east to west and _vice versâ_ in that time; the +signoria of this Rocca took toll, kept the fords and bridges and +ferries; none could pass up and down under Ruscino without being seen +by the sentinels on the ramparts here. The Edera was different then; +more navigable, perhaps less beautiful. Rivers change like nations. +There have been landslips which have altered its course and made its +torrents. In some parts it is shallower, in others deeper. The woods +which enclosed its course then have been largely felled, though not +wholly. Sand has been dug from it incessantly, and rocks have fallen +across it. As you know, no boats or barges which draw any depth of +water can ascend or descend it now without being towed by horses; and +in some parts, as here, it is course, too precipitous in its fall for +even small boats to adventure themselves upon it: its shoals of +lilies can blossom unmolested where its surface is level. Yes; +undoubtedly, the lords of Ruscino were also lords of the Edera, from +its mouth to its source; and their river formed at once their +strongest defence and their weakest point. It was difficult +sufficiently to guard so many miles of water; above all because, as I +say, its course was so much clearer, and its depth so much greater, +that a flotilla of rafts or cutters could ascend it from its mouth as +far as this town in the Middle Ages; in fact, more than once, +corsairs from the Levant and from Morocco did so ascend it, and +though they were driven back by the culverins of the citadel, they +every time carried off to slavery some of the youths and maidens of +the plain." + +Adone gazed across the river to the moss-grown walls which had once +been fortifications still visible on the side of the hill, and to the +frowning donjon, the blackened towers, the ruined bastions, of what +had been once the Rocca, with the amber light and rosy clouds of the +unseen sun behind them. + +"Teach me Latin, your reverence," was all he said. + +"I have always offered to do so," said Don Silverio. + +Adone was again silent, swinging his slender brown feet in the water, +and looking always upward at the evening sky beyond the great round +shape of the dismantled fortress. + +He learned some Latin with much difficulty, studying hard in his +evening leisure in the winters, and with time he could decipher for +himself, with assistance from Don Silverio, the annals of the +Tor'alba; and he saw that it was as certain as anything grown over +with the lichens and cobwebs of time can be that he himself was the +last of the race. + +"Your father used to say something of the sort," his mother said; +"but he had only heard it piecemeal from old people, and never heard +enough to put the pieces together as you have done. 'What does it +matter either?' he used to say; and he said those great lords had +been cut-throats on the land and robbers on the river. For your +father's father had worn the red shirt in his youth, as I have told +you often, and thought but little of lords and princes." + +But Adone was different; the past allured him with the fascination +which it has for poets and scholars; he was neither of these, except +in a vague, unconscious way; but his imagination was strong and +fertile once aroused; the past, as suggested to him by the vicar, by +degrees became to him a living thing and nearer than the present, as +it is to scholars who are poets. He was neither scholar nor poet; but +he loved to muse upon that far-off time when his forefathers had been +lords of the land and of the water. + +He did not want the grandeur, he did not envy the power which they +had possessed; but he wished that, like them, he could own the Edera +from its rise in the hills to its fall into the sea. + +"Oh, dear river!" he sang to it tenderly, "I love you. I love you as +the dragon-flies do, as the wagtails do, as the water voles do; I am +you and you are me. When I lean over you and smile, you smile back to +me. You are beautiful in the night and the morning, when you mirror +the moon and play with the sunbeams, when you are angry under the +wind, and when you are at peace in the heat of the noon. You have +been purple with the blood of my people, and now you are green and +fresh as the leaves of the young vine. You have been black with +powder and battle, now you are fair with the hue of the sky and the +blue of the myosotis. You are the same river as you were a thousand +years ago, and yet you only come down to-day from the high hills, +young and strong, and ever renewing. What is the life of man beside +yours?" + +That was the ode which he sang in the dialect of the province, and +the stream washed his feet as he sang; and with his breath on his +long reed flute--the same flute as youths have made and used ever +since the days that Apollo reigned on Saracte--he copied the singing +of the river, which piped as it ran, like birds at dawn. + +But this was only at such times as daybreak or early night when he +was alone. + +There were but a few people within the ruined walls of Ruscino; most +of the houses were tenantless and tottering to their fall. A few old +bent men and weather-beaten women and naked children climbed its +steep lanes and slept under its red-brown roofs, bawled to each other +from its deep arched doorways to tell of death or birth, and gathered +dandelion leaves upon its ramparts to cure their shrunken and swollen +bladders. He knew them every one, he was familiar with and kind to +them; but he was aloof from them by temperament and thought, and he +showed them his soul no more than the night birds in the towers +showed their tawny breasts and eyes of topaz to the hungry and ragged +fowls which scratched amongst the dust and refuse on the stones in +the glare of day. + +"_Il Bel Adone_!" sighed matrons and the maidens of the scattered +farms and the old gloomy castellated granges which here and there, +leagues distant from one another, broke the green and silent monotony +of the vast historic country whose great woods sloped from hill to +plain. But to these, too, he was indifferent, though they had the +stern and solid beauty of the Latium women on their broad low brows, +their stately busts, their ox-like eyes, their shapely feet and +limbs; and often, joined to that, the red-gold hair and the fair skin +of the Adriatic type. As they bound the sheaves, and bore the +water-jars, and went in groups through the seeding grass to chapel, +or fountain, or shrine, they had the free, frank grace of an earlier +time; just such as these had carried the votive doves to the altars +of Venus and chanted by the waters of the Edera the worship of Isis +and her son. But to Adone they had no charm. What did he desire or +dream of? Himself he could not have said. Perhaps they were too warm; +it was certain that they left him cold. + +Sometimes he learned over the river and looked longingly into its +depths. + +"Show me the woman I shall love," he said to the water, but it +hastened on, glad, tumultuous, unheeding; and he only saw the +reflection of the white jonquils or of the golden sword rush on its +banks. + + + + + +V + +Fruits ripen quickly in these provinces, and children become women in +a summer hour; but with Nerina, through want and suffering and +hunger, physical growth had been slow, and she remained long a child +in many things and many ways. Only in her skill and strength for work +was she older than her actual age. + +She could hoe and reap and sow: she could row and steer the boat +amongst the shallows as well as any man; she could milk the cow, and +put the steers in the waggon; she could card hemp and flax, and weave +and spin either; she could carry heavy weights balanced on her head; +she was strong and healthy and never ill, and with it all she was +happy. Her large bright eyes were full of contentment, and her rosy +mouth often smiled out of the mere gladness of living. Her senses +were still asleep and her young soul wanted nothing more than life +gave her. + +"You can earn your bread anywhere now, little one," said Clelia Alba +to her one day, when she had been there three years. + +The girl shrank as under a blow; her brown and rosy face grew +colourless. "Do you wish me to go away?" she said humbly. + +"No, no," said Clelia, although that was what she did desire. "No, +not while I live. But should I die, you could not stay here with my +son." + +"Why?" said Nerina. She did not understand why. + +Clelia hesitated. + +"You ought to feel that yourself," she said harshly. "Young men and +young maids do not dwell together, unless" + +"Unless what?" asked Nerina. + +"You are a simpleton indeed, or you are shamming," thought Adone's +mother; but aloud she only said, "It is not in our usage." + +"But you will not die," said Nerina anxiously. "Why should you think +of dying, madonna? You are certainly old, but you are not so very, +very old." + +Clelia smiled. + +"You do not flatter, child. So much the better. Run away and drive in +those fowls. They are making havoc in the beanfield." + +She could not feel otherwise than tenderly towards this young +creature, always so obedient, so tractable, so contented, so +grateful; but she would willingly have placed her elsewhere could she +have done so with a clear conscience. + +"My son will never do ill by any creature under his roof," she +thought. "But still youth is youth; and the girl grows." + +"We must dower her and mate her; eh, your reverence?" she said to Don +Silverio when he passed by later in that day. + +"Willingly," he answered. "But to whom? To the owls or the cats at +Ruscino?" + +In himself he thought, "She is as straight and as slight as a +chestnut wand, but she is as strong. When you shall try to bend her +where she shall not want to go you will not succeed." + +For he knew the character of Nerina in the confessional better than +Clelia Alba judged of it in her house. + +"It was not wise to bring her here," he added aloud. "But having +committed that error it would be unfair to charge the child with the +painful payment of it. You are a just woman, my good friend; you must +see that." + +Clelia saw it clearly, for she never tried to trick her conscience. + +"Your reverence mistakes me," she answered. "I would not give her to +any but a good man and a good home." + +"They are not common," said Don Silverio. "Nor are they as easy to +find as flies in summer." + +What was the marriage of the poor for the woman? What did it bring? +What did it mean? The travail of child-bearing, the toil of the +fields, the hardship of constant want, the incessant clamour on her +ear of unsatisfied hunger, the painful rearing of sons whom the State +takes away from her as soon as they are of use, painful ending of +life on grudged crusts as a burden to others on a hearth no longer +her own. This, stripped of glamour, is the lot nine times out of ten +of the female peasant -- a creature of burden like the cow she yokes, +an animal valued only in her youth and her prime; in old age or in +sickness like the stricken and barren goat, who has nought but its +skin and its bones. + +Poor little Nerina! + +As he went home he saw her cutting fodder for a calf; she was +kneeling in a haze of rose colour made by the many blossoms of the +_orchis maculat_ which grew there. The morning light sparkled in the +wet grass. She got up as she saw him cross the field, dropped her +curtsey low with a smile, then resumed her work, the dew, the sun, +the sweet fresh scents shed on her like a benison. + +"Poor little soul," thought Don Silverio. "Poor little soul! Has +Adone no eyes?" + +Adone had eyes, but they saw other things than a little maiden in the +meadow-grass. + +To her he was a deity; she believed in him and worshipped him with +the strongest faith, as a little sister might have done. She would +have fought for him like a little mastiff; she would have suffered in +his service with rapture and pride; she was as vigilant for his +interests as if she were fidelity incarnated. She watched over all +that belonged to him, and the people of Ruscino feared her more than +they feared Pierino the watch-dog. Woe betided the hapless wight who +made free with the ripe olives, or the ripe grapes, with the fig or +the peach or the cherry which grew on Adone's lands; it seemed to +such marauders that she had a thousand eyes and lightning in her +feet. + +One day, when she had dealt such vigorous blows with a blackthorn +stick on the back of a lad who had tried to enter the fowl-house, +that he fell down and shrieked for pardon, Adone reproved her. +"Remember they are very poor, Nerina," he said to her. "So were your +own folks, you say." + +"I know they are poor," replied Nerina; she held to her opinions. +"But when they ask, you always give. Therefore it is vile to rob you. +Besides," she added, "if you go on and let them steal and steal till +you will have nothing left." + +Whatever she saw, whatever she heard, she told Adone; and he gave ear +to her because she was not a chatterer, but was usually of few words. +All her intelligence was spent in the defence and in the culture of +the Terra Vergine; she did not know her alphabet, and did not wish to +do so; but she had the quickest of ears, the keenest of eyes, the +brightest of brains. + +One morning she came running to him where he was cutting barley. + +"Adone! Adone!" she cried breathlessly, "there were strange men by +the river to-day." + +"Indeed," said Adone astonished, because strangers were never seen +there. Ruscino was near no highroad, and the river had long ceased to +be navigable. + +"They asked me questions, but I put my hands to my ears and shook my +head; they thought I was deaf." + +"What sort of men were they?" he asked with more attention, for there +were still those who lived by violence up in the forests which +overhung the valley of the Edera. + +"How do I know? They were clothed in long woollen bed-gowns, and they +had boots on their feet, and on their heads hats shaped like +kitchen-pans." + +Adone smiled. He saw men from a town, or country fellows who aped +such men, with a contempt which was born at once of that artistic +sense of fitness which was in him, and of his adherence to the +customs and habits of his province. The city-bred and city-clothed +man looked to him a grotesque and helpless creature, much sillier +than an ape. + +"That sounds like citizens or townsfolk. What did they say?" + +"I could not understand; but they spoke of the water, I think, for +they pointed to it and said a great deal which I did not understand, +and seemed to measure the banks, and took your punt and threw a chain +into the water in places." + +"Took castings? Used my punt? That is odd! I have never seen a +stranger in my life by the Edera. Were they anglers?" + +"No." + +"Or sportsmen?" + +"They had no guns." + +"How many were they?" + +"Three. They went away up the river talking." + +"Did they cross the bridge?" + +"No. They were not shepherds, or labourers, or priests," said Nerina. +To these classes of men her own acquaintance was confined. + +"Painters, perhaps?" said Adone; but no artists were ever seen there; +the existence even of the valley was scarcely known, except to +topographers. + +"What are painters?" said Nerina. + +"Men who sit and stare and then make splashes of colour." + +"No; they did not do that." + +"It is strange." + +He felt vaguely uneasy that any had come near the water; as a lover +dislikes the pressure of a crowd about his beloved in a street, so he +disliked the thought of foreign eyes resting on the Edera. That they +should have used his little punt, always left amongst the sedges, +seemed to him a most offensive and unpardonable action. + +He went to the spot where the intruders had been seen, but there was +no trace of them, except that the wet sand bore footprints of persons +who had, as she had said of them, worn boots. He followed these +footprints for some mile or more up the edge of the stream, but there +he lost them from sight; they had passed on to the grass of a level +place, and the dry turf, cropped by sheep to its roots, told no +tales. Near this place was a road used by cattle drivers and mules; +it crossed the heather for some thousand yards, then plunged into the +woods, and so went up over the hills to the town of Teramo, +thirty-five kilometres away. It was a narrow, rough, steep road, +wholly unfit for vehicles of any kind more tender than the rude +ox-treggia, slow as a snail, with rounds of a tree-trunk for its +wheels, and seldom used except by country folks. + +He would have asked Don Silverio if he had heard or seen anything of +any strangers, but the priest was away that day at one of the lonely +moorland cabins comprised in his parish of Ruscino, where an old man, +who had been a great sinner in his past, was at his last gasp, and +his sons and grandsons and great-grandchildren all left him to meet +his end as he might. + +It was a fine day, and they had their grain to get in, and even the +women were busy. They set a stoup of water by him, and put some in +his nostrils, and shut the door to keep out the flies. It was no use +to stay there they thought. If you helped a poor soul to give up the +ghost by a hand on his mouth, or an elbow in his stomach, you got +into trouble; it was safer to leave him alone when he was a-dying. + +Don Silverio had given the viaticum to the old man the night before, +not thinking he would outlive the night. He now found the door locked +and saw the place was deserted. He broke the door open with a few +kicks, and found the house empty save for the dying creature on the +sacks of leaves. + +"They would not wait! They would not wait -- hell take them!" said +the old man, with a groan, his bony hands fighting the air. + +"Hush, hush! the holy oil is on you," said Don Silverio. "They knew I +should be here." + +It was a charitable falsehood, but the brain of the old man was still +too awake to be deceived by it. + +"Why locked they the door, then? Hell take them! They are reaping in +the lower fields -- hell take them!" he repeated, his bony, toothless +jaws gnashing with each word. + +He was eighty-four years old; he had been long the terror of his +district and of his descendants, and they paid him out now that he +was powerless; they left him alone in that sun-baked cabin, and they +had carefully put his crutch out of reach, so that if any force +should return to his paralysed body he should be unable to move. + +It was the youngest of them, a little boy of seven years old, who had +thought to do that; the crutch had hit him so often. + +The day had been only beginning when Don Silverio had reached the +cabin, but he resolved to await there the return of the family; its +hours were many and long and cruel in the midsummer heat, in this +foetid place, where more than a score of men, women, and children of +all ages, slept and swarmed through every season, and where the +floors of beaten earth were paven with filth three millimetres thick. +The people were absent, but their ordure, their urine, their lice, +their saliva were left there after them, and the stench of all was +concentrated on this bed where the old man wrestled with death. + +Don Silverio stayed on in the sultry and pestilent steam which rose +up from the floor. Gnats and flies of all kinds buzzed in the heavy +air, or settled in black knots on the walls and the rafters. With a +bunch of dried maize-leaves he drove them off the old man's face and +hands and limbs, and ever and again at intervals gave the poor +creature a draught of water with a few drops in it from a phial of +cordial which he had brought with him. The hours passed, each seeming +longer than a day; at last the convulsive twitching of the jaws +ceased; the jaw had fallen, the dark cavern of the toothless mouth +yawned in a set grimace, the vitreous eyes were turned up into the +head: the old man was dead. But Don Silverio did not leave him; two +sows and a hog were in a stye which was open to the house; he knew +that they would come and gnaw the corpse if it were left to them; +they were almost starving, and grunted angrily. + +He spent so many vigils similar to this that the self-sacrifice +entailed in them never struck either him or those he served. + +When the great heat had passed he set the door wide open; the sun was +setting; a flood of light inundated the plain from the near mountains +on the west, where the Leonessa towered, to those shadowy green +clouds which far away in the east were the marshes before the sea. +Through the ruddy glory of the evening the family returned, dark +figures against the gold; brown women, half-nude men, footsore +children, their steps dragging reluctantly homeward. + +At the sight of the priest on the threshold they stopped and made +obeisance humbly in reverent salutation. + +"Is he dead, most reverend?" said the eldest of the brood, a man of +sixty, touching the ground with his forehead. + +"Your father is dead," said Don Silverio. + +The people were still; relieved to hear that all was over, yet +vaguely terrified, rather by his gaze than by his words. A woman wept +aloud out of fear. + +"We could net let the good grain spoil," said the eldest man, with +some shame in his voice. + +"Pray that your sons may deal otherwise with you when your turn shall +come," said Don Silverio; and then he went through them, unmoved by +their prayers and cries, and passed across the rough grass-land out +of sight. + +The oldest man, he who was now head of the house, remained prostrate +on the threshold and beat the dust with his hands and heels; he was +afraid to enter, afraid of that motionless, lifeless bag of bones of +which the last cry had been a curse at him. + +Don Silverio went on his way over the moors homeward, for he had no +means except his own limbs whereby to go his scattered parishioners. +When he reached the village and climbed its steep stones night had +long fallen and he was sorely tired. He entered by a door which was +never locked, and found an oil wick burning on his table, which was +set out with the brown crockery used for his frugal supper of cheese +and lettuce and bread. His old servant was abed. His little dog alone +was on the watch to welcome him. It was a poor, plain place, with +whitewashed walls and a few necessary articles of use; but it was +clean and sweet, its brick floors were sanded, and the night air blew +in from its open casement with the freshness from the river in it. +Its quiet was seldom disturbed except by the tolling of the bell for +the church services; and it was welcome to him after the toil and +heat and stench of the past day. + +"My lot might have been worse," he thought, as he broke his loaf; he +was disinclined to eat; the filthy odours of the cabin pursued him. + +He was used to have had a little weekly journal sent to him by the +post; which came at rare intervals on an ass's back to Ruscino, the +ass and his rider, with a meal sack half filled by the meagre +correspondence of the district, making the rounds of that part of the +province with an irregularity which seemed as natural to the +sufferers by it as to the postman himself. "He cannot be everywhere +at once," they said of him with indulgence. + +When he reached his home that evening the little news-sheet was lying +on his table beside the brown crockery, the cheese, lettuces, and +bread. He scarcely touched the food; he was saddened and sickened by +the day he had passed, although there had been nothing new in it, +nothing of which he had not been witness a hundred times in the +cabins of his parishioners. The little paper caught his eye, he took +it and opened it. It was but a meagre thing, tardy of news, costing +only two centimes, but it was the only publication which brought him +any intelligence of that outer world from which he was as much +separated as though he had been on a deserted isle in mid-ocean. + +By the pale light of the single wick he turned over its thin sheet to +distract his thoughts; there was war news in east and west, Church +news in his own diocese and elsewhere; news all ten days old and +more; political news also, scanty and timidly related. The name of +the stream running underneath the walls of Ruscino caught his regard; +a few lines were headed with it, and these lines said curtly: + +"_The project to divert the course of the Edera river will be brought +before the Chamber shortly; the Minister of Agriculture is considered +to favour the project_." + +He held the sheet nearer to the light and read the paragraph again, +and yet again. The words were clear and indisputable in their +meaning; they could not be misconstrued. There was but one river +Edera in the whole province, in the whole country; there could be no +doubt as to what river was meant; yet it seemed to him utterly +impossible that any such project could be conceived by any creature. +Divert the course of the Edera? He felt stupefied. He read the words +over and over again; then he read them aloud in the stillness of the +night, and his voice sounded strong in his own ears. + +"It must be a misprint; it must be a mistake for the Era of Volterra, +or the Esino, north of Ancona," he said to himself, and he went to +his book closet and brought out an old folio geography which he had +once bought for a few pence on a Roman bookstall, spread it open +before him, and read one by one the names of all the streams of the +peninsula, from the Dora Baltea to the Giarretta. There was no other +Edera river. Unless it were indeed a misprint altogether, the stream +which flowed under his church walls was the one which was named in +the news-sheet. + +"But it is impossible, it is impossible!" he said so loudly, that his +little dog awoke and climbed on his knee uneasily and in alarm. "What +could the people do? What could the village do, or the land or the +fisher folk? Are we to have drought added to hunger? Can they respect +nothing? The river belongs to the valley: to seize it, to appraise +it, to appropriate it, to make it away with it, would be as monstrous +as to steal his mother's milk from a yearling babe!" + +He shut the folio and pushed it away from him across the table. "If +this is true," he said to himself, "if, anyhow, this monstrous thing +be true, it will kill Adone!" + +In the morning he awoke from a short perturbed sleep with that heavy +sense of a vaguely remembered calamity which stirs in the awakening +brain like a worm in the unclosing flower. + +The morning-office over, he sought out the little news-sheet, to make +sure that he had read aright; his servant had folded it up and laid +it aside on a shelf, he unfolded it with a hand which trembled; the +same lines stared at him in the warm light of sunrise as in the faint +glimmer of the floating wick. The very curtness and coldness of the +announcement testified to its exactitude. He did not any longer doubt +its truth; but there were no details, no explanations: he pondered on +the possibilities of obtaining them; it was useless to seek them in +the village or the countryside, the people were as ignorant as sheep. + +Adone alone had intelligence, but he shrank from taking these tidings +to the youth, as he would have shrunk from doing him a physical hurt. +The news might be false or premature; many projects were discussed, +many schemes sketched out, many speculations set on foot which came +to nothing in the end: were this thing true, Adone would learn it all +too soon and read it on the wounded face of nature. Not at least +until he could himself be certain of its truth would he speak of it +to the young man whose fathers had been lords of the river. + +His duties over for the forenoon, he went up the three hundred stairs +of his bell-tower, to the wooden platform, between the +machicolations. It was a dizzy height, and both stairs and roof were +in ruins, but he went cautiously, and was familiar with the danger. +The owls which bred there were so used to him that they did not stir +in their siesta as he passed them. He stood aloft in the glare of +noonday, and looked down on the winding stream as it passed under the +ruined walls of Ruscino, and growing, as it flowed, clearer and +clearer, and wilder and wilder, as it rushed over stones and +boulders, foaming and shouting, rushed through the heather on its way +towards the Marches. Under Ruscino it had its brown mountain colour +still, but as it ran it grew green as emeralds, blue as sapphires, +silver and white and gray like a dove's wings; it was unsullied and +translucent; the white clouds were reflected on it. It went through a +country lonely, almost deserted, only at great distances from one +another was there a group of homesteads, a cluster of stacks, a +conical cabin in some places where the woods gave place to pasture; +here and there were the ruins of a temple, of a fortress, of some +great marble or granite tomb; but there was no living creature in +sight except a troop of buffaloes splashing in a pool. + +Don Silverio looked down on its course until his dazzled eyes lost it +from sight in the glory of light through which it sped, and his heart +sank, and he would fain have been a woman to have wept aloud. For he +saw that its beauty and its solitude were such as would likely enough +tempt the spoilers. He saw that it lay fair and defenceless as a +maiden on her bed. + +He dwelt out of the world now, but he had once dwelt in it; and the +world does not greatly change, it only grows more rapacious. He knew +that in this age there is only one law, to gain; only one duty, to +prosper: that nature is of no account, nor beauty either, nor repose, +nor ancient rights, nor any of the simple claims of normal justice. +He knew that if in the course of the river there would be gold for +capitalists, for engineers, for attorneys, for deputies, for +ministers, that then the waters of the Edera were in all probability +doomed. + +He descended the rotten stairs slowly, with a weight as of lead at +his heart. He did not any longer doubt the truth of what he had read. +Who, or what, shall withstand the curse of its time? + +"They have forgotten us so long," he thought, with bitterness in his +soul. "We have been left to bury our dead as we would, and to see the +children starve as they might; they remember us now, because we +possess something which they can snatch from us!" + +He did not doubt any more. He could only wait: wait and see in what +form and in what time the evil would come to them. Meantime, he said +to himself, he would not speak of it to Adone, and he burned the +news-sheet. Administrations alter frequently and unexpectedly, and +the money-changers, who are fostered by them, sometimes fall with +them, and their projects remain in the embryo of a mere prospectus. +There was that chance. + +He knew that, in the age he lived in, all things were estimated only +by their value to commerce or to speculation; that there was neither +space nor patience amongst men for what was, in their reckoning, +useless; that the conqueror was now but a trader in disguise; that +civilisation was but the shibboleth of traffic; that because trade +follows the flag, therefore to carry the flag afar, thousands of +young soldiers of every nationality are slaughtered annually in +poisonous climes and obscure warfare, because such is the _suprema +lex_ and will of the trader. If the waters of Edera would serve to +grind any grit for the mills of modern trade they would be taken into +bondage with many other gifts of nature as fair and as free as they +were. All creation groaned and travailed in pain that the great +cancer should spread. + +"It is not only ours," he remembered with a pang; on its way to and +from the Valdedera the river passed partially through two other +communes, and water belongs to the district in which it runs. True, +the country of each of these was like that of this valley, +depopulated and wild; but, however great a solitude any land may be, +it is still locally and administratively dependent on the chief town +of its commune. Ruscino and its valley were dependent on San Beda; +these two other communes were respectively under a little town of the +Abruzzo and under a seaport of the Adriatic. + +The interest of the valley of the Edera in its eponymous stream was a +large share; but it was not more than a share, in this gift of +nature. If it came to any question of conflicting interests, Ruscino +and the valley might very likely be powerless, and could only, in any +event, be represented by and through San Beda; a strongly +ecclesiastical and papal little place, and, therefore, without +influence with the ruling powers, and consequently viewed with an +evil eye by the Prefecture. + +He pondered anxiously on the matter for some days, then, arduous as +the journey was, he resolved to go to San Beda and inquire. + +The small mountain city was many miles away upon a promontory of +marble rocks, and its many spires and towers were visible only in +afternoon light from the valley of the Edera. It was as old as +Ruscino, a dull, dark, very ancient place with monasteries and +convents like huge fortresses and old palaces still fortified and +grim as death amongst them. A Cistercian monastery, which had been +chiefly built by the second Giulio, crowned a prominent cliff, which +dominated the town, and commanded a view of the whole of the valley +of the Edera, and, on the western horizon, of the Leonessa and her +tributary mountains and hills. + +He had not been there for five years; he went on foot, for there was +no other means of transit, and if there had been he would not have +wasted money on it; the way was long and irksome; for the latter +half, entirely up a steep mountain road. He started in the early +morning as soon as Mass had been celebrated, and it was four in the +afternoon before he had passed the gates of the town, and paid his +respects to the Bishop. He rested in the Certosa, of which the +superior was known to him; the monks, like the Bishop, had heard +nothing. So far as he could learn when he went into the streets no +one in the place had heard anything of the project to alter the +course of the river. He made the return journey by night, so as to +reach his church by daybreak, and was there in his place by the high +altar when the bell tolled at six o'clock, and the three or four old +people, who never missed an office, were kneeling on the stones. + +He had walked over forty miles, and had eaten nothing except some +bread and a piece of dried fish. But he always welcomed physical +fatigue; it served to send to sleep the restless intellect, the +gnawing regrets, the bitter sense of wasted powers and of useless +knowledge, which were his daily company. + +He had begged his friends, the friars, to obtain an interview with +the Syndic of Sand Beda, and interrogate him on the subject. Until he +should learn something positive he could not bring himself to speak +of the matter to Adone: but the fact of his unusual absence had too +much astonished his little community for the journey not to have been +the talk of Ruscino. Surprised and disturbed like others, Adone was +waiting for him in the sacristy after the first mass. + +"You have been away a whole day and night and never told me, +reverendissimo!" he cried in reproach and amazement. + +"I have yet to learn that you are my keeper," said Don Silverio with +a cold and caustic intonation. + +Adone coloured to the roots of his curling hair. + +"That is unkind, sir!" he said humbly; "I only meant that -- that --" + +"I know, I know!" said the priest impatiently, but with contrition. +"You meant only friendship and good-will; but there are times when +the best intentions irk one. I went to see the Prior of the Certosa, +and old friend; I had business in San Beda." + +Adone was silent, afraid that he had shown an unseemly curiosity; he +saw that Don Silverio was irritated and not at ease, and he hesitated +what words to choose. + +His friend relented, and blamed himself for being hurried by +disquietude into harshness. + +"Come and have a cup of coffee with me, my son," he said in his old, +kind tones. "I am going home to break my fast." + +But Adone was hurt and humiliated, and made excuse of field work, +which pressed by reason of the weather, and so he did not name to his +friend and councillor the visit of the three men to the river. + +Don Silverio went home and boiled his coffee; he always did this +himself; it was the only luxury he ever allowed himself, and he did +not indulge even in this very often. But for once the draught had +neither fragrance nor balm for him. He was overtired, weary in mind +as in body, and greatly dejected; even though nothing was known at +San Beda he felt convinced that what he had read was the truth. + +He knew but little of affairs of speculation, but he knew that it was +only in reason to suppose that such projects would be kept concealed, +as long as might be expedient, from those who would be known to be +hostile to them, in order to minimise the force of opposition. + + + + + +VI + +On the morning of the fourth day which followed on the priest's visit +to San Beda, about ten in the forenoon, Adone, with his two oxen, +Orlando and Rinaldo, were near the river on that part of his land +which was still natural moorland, and on which heather, and ling, and +broom, and wild roses, and bracken grew together. He had come to cut +a waggon load of furze, and had been at work there since eight +o'clock, when he had come out of the great porch of the church after +attending mass, for it was the twentieth of June, the name-day of Don +Silverio. + +Scarcely had that day dawned when Adone had risen and had gone across +the river to the presbytery, bearing with him a dozen eggs, two +flasks of his best wine, and a bunch of late-flowering roses. They +were his annual offerings on this day; he felt some trepidation as he +climbed the steep, stony, uneven street lest they should be rejected, +for he was conscious that three evenings before he had offended Don +Silverio, and had left the presbytery too abruptly. But his fears +were allayed as soon as he entered the house; the vicar was already +up and dressed, and was about to go to the church. At the young man's +first contrite words Don Silverio stopped him with a kind smile. + +"I was impatient and to blame," he said as he took the roses. "You +heap coals of fire on my head, my son, with your welcome gifts." + +Then together they had gone to the quaint old church of which the one +great bell was tolling. + +Mass over, Adone had gone home, broken his fast, taken off his velvet +jacket, his long scarlet waistcoat, and his silver-studded belt, and +put the oxen to the pole of the waggon. + +"Shall I come?" cried Nerina. + +"No," he answered. "Go and finish cutting the oats in the triangular +field." + +Always obedient, she went, her sickle swinging to her girdle. She was +sorry, but she never murmured. + +Adone had been at work amongst the furze two hours when old Pierino, +who always accompanied the oxen, got up, growled, and then barked. + +"What is it, old friend?" asked Adone, and left off his work and +listened. He heard voices by the waterside, and steps on the loose +shingle of its shrunken summer bed. He went out of the wild growth +round him and looked. There were four men standing and talking by the +water. They were doubtless the same persons as Nerina had seen, for +they were evidently men from a city and strangers. Disquietude and +offence took alarm in him at once. + +He conquered that shyness which was natural to him, and which was due +to the sensitiveness of his temperament and the solitude in which he +had been reared. + +"Excuse me, sirs," he said, as he advanced to them with his head +uncovered; "what is it you want with my river?" + +"Your river!" repeated the head of the group, and he smiled. "How is +it more yours than your fellows?" + +Adone advanced nearer. + +"The whole course of the water belonged to my ancestors," he +answered, "and this portion at least is mine now; you stand on my +ground; I ask you what is your errand?" + +He spoke with courtesy, but in a tone of authority which seemed to +the intruders imperious and irritating. But they controlled their +annoyance; they did not wish to offend this haughty young peasant. + +"To be owner of the water it is necessary to own both banks of it," +the stranger replied politely, but with some impatience. "The +opposite bank is communal property. Do not fear, however, whatever +your rights may be they will be carefully examined and considered." + +"By whom? They concern only myself." + +"None of our rights concern only ourselves. What are those which you +claim in special on the Edera water?" + +Adone was silent for a few moments; he was astonished and +embarrassed; he had never reflected on the legal side of his claim to +the river; he had grown up in love and union with it; such +affections, born with us at birth, are not analysed until they are +assailed. + +"You are strangers," he replied. "But what right do you question me? +I was born here. What is your errand?" + +"You must be Adone Alba?" said the person, as if spokesman for the +others. + +"I am." + +"And you own the land known as the Terra Vergine?" + +"I do." + +"You will hear from us in due time, then. Meantime" + +"Meantime you trespass on my ground. Leave it, sirs." + +The four strangers drew a few paces, and conferred together in a low +tone, consulting a sheaf of papers. Their council over, he who +appeared the most conspicuous in authority turned again to the young +man, who was watching them with a vague apprehension which he could +not explain to himself. + +"There is no question of trespass; the river-side is free to all," +said the stranger, with some contempt. "Courtesy would become you +better, Sir Adone." + +Adone coloured. He knew that courtesy was at all times wise, and +useful, and an obligation amongst men; but his anger was stronger +than his prudence and his vague alarm was yet stronger still. + +"Say your errand with the water," he replied imperiously. "Then I can +judge of it. No one, sirs, comes hither against my will." + +"You will hear from us in due time," answered the intruder. "And +believe me, young man, you may lose much, you cannot gain anything, +by rudeness and opposition." + +"Opposition to what?" + +The stranger turned his back upon him, rolled up his papers, spoke +again with his companions, and lifted from a large stone on which he +had placed it a case of surveyor's instruments. Adone went close up +to him. "Opposition to what? What is it you are doing here?" + +"We are not your servants," said the gentleman with impatience. "Do +not attempt any brawling I advise you; it will tell against you and +cannot serve you in any way." + +"The soil and the water are mine, and you meddle with them," said +Adone. "If you were honest men you would not be ashamed of what you +do, and would declare your errand. Brawling is not in my habit; but I +will drive my oxen over you. The land and the waters are mine." + +The chief of the group gave a disdainful, incredulous gesture, but +the others pulled him by the sleeve and argued with him in low tones +and a strange tongue, which Adone thought was German. The leader of +the group was a small man with a keen and mobile face and piercing +eyes; he did not yield easily to the persuasions of his companions; +he was disposed to be combative; he was offended by what seemed to +him the insults of a mere peasant. + +Adone went back to his oxen, standing dozing with drooped heads; he +gathered up the reins of rope and mounted the waggon, raising the +heads of the sleepy beasts. He held his goad in his hand; the golden +gorze was piled behind him; he was in full sunlight, his hair was +lifted by the breeze from his forehead; his face was flushed and set +and stern. They saw that he would keep his word and drive down on to +them, and make his oxen knock them down and the wheels grind their +bodies into pulp. They had no arms of any kind, they felt they had no +choice but to submit: and did so, with sore reluctance. + +"He looks like a young god," said one of them with an angry laugh. +"Mortals cannot fight against the gods." + +With discomfiture they retreated before him and went along the grassy +path northward, as Nerina had seen them do on the day of their first +arrival. + +So far Adone had conquered. + +But no joy or pride of a victor was with him. He stood and watched +them pass away with a heavy sense of impending ill upon him; the +river was flowing joyously, unconscious of its doom, but on him, +though he knew nothing, and conceived nothing, of the form which the +approaching evil would take, a great weight of anxiety descended. + +He got down from the waggon when he had seen them disappear, and +continued his uninterrupted work amongst the furze; and he remained +on the same spot long after the waggon was filled, lest in his +absence the intruders should return. Only when the sun set did he +turn the heads of the oxen homeward. + +He said nothing to the women, but when he had stalled and fed his +cattle he changed his leathern breeches and put a clean shirt on his +back, and went down the twilit fields and across the water to +Ruscino; he told his mother that he would sup with Don Silverio. + +When Adone entered the book-room his friend was seated at a deal +table laden with volumes and manuscripts, but he was neither writing +nor reading, nor had he lighted his lamp. The moonlight shone through +the vine climbing up and covering the narrow window. He looked up and +saw by Adone's countenance that something was wrong. + +"What are they coming for, sir, to the river?" said the young man as +he uncovered his head on the threshold of the chamber. Don Silverio +hesitated to reply; in the moonlight his features looked like a mask +of a dead man, it was so white and its lines so deep. + +"Why do they come to the river, these strangers?" repeated Adone. +"They would not say. They were on my land. I threatened to drive my +cattle over them. Then they went. But can you guess, sir, why they +come?" + +Don Silverio still hesitated. Adone repeated his question with more +insistence; he came up to the table and leaned his hands upon it, and +looked down on the face of his friend. + +"Why do they come?" he repeated a fourth time. "They must have some +reason. Surely you know?" + +"Listen, Adone, and control yourself," said Don Silverio. "I saw +something in a journal a few days ago which made me go to San Beda. +But there they knew nothing at all of what the newspaper had stated. +What I said startled and alarmed them. I begged the Prior to acquaint +me if he heard of any scheme affecting us. To-day, only, he has sent +a young monk over with a letter to me, for it was only yesterday that +he heard that there is a project in Rome to turn the river out of its +course, and use it for hydraulic power; to what purpose he does not +know. The townsfolk of San Beda are in entire sympathy with this +district and against the scheme, which will only benefit a foreign +syndicate. That is all I know, for it is all he knows; he took his +information direct from the syndic, Count Corradini. My boy, my dear +boy, control yourself!" + +Adone had dropped down on a chair, and leaning his elbow on the table +hid his face upon his hands. A tremor shook his frame from head to +foot. + +"I knew it was some deviltry," he muttered. "Oh, Lord! oh, Lord! +would that I had made the oxen trample them into thousand pieces! +They ought never to have left my field alive!" + +"Hush, hush!" said the priest sternly. "I cannot have such language +in my house. Compose yourself." + +Adone raised his head; his eyes were alight as with fire; his face +was darkly red. + +"What, sir! You tell me the river is to be taken away from us, and +you ask me to be calm! It is not in human nature to bear such a wrong +in peace. Take away the Edera! Take away the water! They had better +cut our throats. What! a poor wretch who steals a few grapes off a +vine, a few eggs from a hen roost, is called a thief and hounded to +the galleys, and such robbery as this is to be borne in silence +because the thieves wear broadcloth! It cannot be. It cannot be; I +swear it shall never be whilst I have life. The river is mine. We +reigned here three hundred years and more; you have told me so. It is +written on the parchments. I will hold my own." + +Don Silverio was silent; he was silent from remorse. He had told +Adone what, without him, Adone would have lived and died never +knowing or dreaming. He had thought only to stimulate the youth to +gentle conduct, honourable pride, perhaps to some higher use of his +abilities: no more than this. + +He had never seen the young man thus violent and vehement; he had +always found him tranquil to excess, difficult to rouse, slow to +anger, indeed almost incapable of it; partaking of the nature of the +calm and docile cattle with whom so much of his time was passed. But +under the spur of an intolerable menace the warrior's blood which +slumbered in Adone leapt to action; all at once the fierce temper of +the lords of Ruscino displayed its fire and its metal; it was not the +peasant of the Terra Vergine who was before him now, but the heir of +the seigneury of the Rocca. + +"It is not only what I told him of his race," he thought. "If he had +known nothing, none the less would the blood in his veins have +stirred and the past have moved him." + +Aloud he said: + +"My son, I feel for you from the depths of my soul. I feel with you +also. For if these foreigners take the river-water from us what will +become of my poor, desolate people, only too wretched already as they +are? You would not be alone in your desperation, Adone. But do not +let us take alarm too quickly. This measure is in gestation; but it +may never come to birth. Many such projects are discussed which from +one cause or another are not carried out; this one must pass through +many preliminary phases before it becomes fact. There must be surely +many vested rights which cannot with impunity be invaded. Take +courage. Have patience." + +He paused, for he saw that for the first time since they had known +each other, Adone was not listening to him. + +Adone was staring up at the moon which hung, golden and full, in the +dark blue sky, seeming framed in the leaves and coils of the vine. + +"The river is mine," he muttered. "The river and I are as brothers. +They shall kill me before they touch the water." + +"He will go mad or commit some great crime," thought his friend, +looking at him. "We must move every lever and strain every nerve, to +frustrate this scheme, to prevent this spoliation. But if the thieves +see money in it who shall stay their hands?" + +He rose and laid his hands on Adone's shoulders. + +"To-night you are in no fitting state for calm consideration of this +possible calamity. Go home, my son. Go to your room. Say nothing to +your mother. Pray and sleep. In the forenoon come to me and we will +speak of the measures which it may be possible to take to have this +matter examined and opposed. We are very poor; but still we are not +altogether helpless. Only, there must be no violence. You wrong +yourself and you weaken a good cause by such wild threats. +Good-night, my son. Go home." + +The long habit of obedience to his superior, and the instinctive +docility of his temper compelled Adone to submit; he drew a long, +deep breath and the blood faded from his face. + +Without a word he turned from the table and wept out of the +presbytery into the night and the white glory of the moonshine. + + + + + +VII + +Don Silverio drew to him his unfinished letter to the Prior; the +young monk who would take it back in the morning to San Beda was +already asleep in a little chamber above. But he could not write, he +was too perturbed and too anxious. Although he had spoken so calmly +he was full of carking care; both for the threatened evil in itself, +and for its effects upon his parishioners; and especially upon Adone. +He knew that in this age it is more difficult to check the devouring +monster of commercial covetousness than it ever was to stay the Bull +of Crete; and that for a poor and friendless community to oppose a +strong and wealthy band of speculators is indeed for the wooden lance +to shiver to atoms on the brazen shield. + +He left his writing table and extinguished his lamp. Bidding the +little dog lie still upon his chair, he went through the house to a +door which opened from it into the bell tower of his church and which +allowed him to go from the house to the church without passing out +into the street. He climbed the belfry stairs once more, lighting +himself at intervals by striking a wooden match; for through the +narrow loopholes in the walls the moonbeams did not penetrate. He +knew the way so well that he could have gone up and down those +rotting stairs even in total darkness, and he safely reached the +platform of the bell tower, though one halting step might have sent +him in that darkness head foremost to his death. + +He stood there, and gazed downwards on the moonlit landscape far +below, over the roofs and the walls of the village towards the open +fields and the river, with beyond that the wooded country and the +cultured land known as the Terra Vergine, and beyond those again the +moors, the marshes, and the mountains. The moonlight shone with +intense clearness on the waters of the Edera and on the stone +causeway of the old one-arched bridge. On the bridge there was a +figure moving slowly; he knew it to be that of Adone. Adone was going +home. + +He was relieved from the pressure of one immediate anxiety, but his +apprehensions for the future were great, both for the young man and +for the people of Ruscino and its surrounding country. To take away +their river was to deprive them of the little which they had to make +life tolerable and to supply the means of existence. Its winter +overflow nourished the fields which they owned around it, and the +only cornmill of the district worked by a huge wheel in its water. If +the river were turned out of its course above Ruscino the whole of +this part of the vale would be made desolate. + +Life was already hard for the human creatures in these fair scenes on +which he looked; without the river their lot would be intolerable. + +"Forbid it, O Lord! Forbid this monstrous wrong," he said, as he stood +with bared head under the starry skies. + +When the people of a remote place are smitten by a public power the +blow falls on them as unintelligible in its meaning, as invisible in +its agency, as a thunderbolt is to the cattle whom it slays in their +stalls. Even Don Silverio, with his classic culture and his +archæological learning, had little comprehension of the means and +methods by which these enterprises were combined and carried out; the +world of commerce and speculation is as aloof from the scholar and +the recluse as the rings of Saturn or the sun of Aldebaran. Its +mechanism, its intentions, its combinations, its manners of action, +its ways of expenditure, its intrigues with banks and governments: +all these, to men who dwell in rural solitudes, aloof from the babble +of crowds, are utterly unknown; the very language of the Bourses has +no more meaning to them than the jar of wheels or roar of steam. + +He stood and looked with a sinking heart on the quiet, moonlit +country, and the winding course of the water where it flowed, now +silvery in the light, now black in the gloom, passing rapidly through +the heather and the sallows under the gigantic masses of the Etruscan +walls. It seemed to him to the full as terrible as to Adone; but it +did not seem to him so utterly impossible, because he knew more of +the ways of men and of their unhesitating and immeasurable cruelty +whenever their greed was excited. If the fury of speculation saw +desirable prey in the rape of the Edera then the Edera was doomed, +like the daughter of Ædipus or the daughter of Jephtha. + +Adone had gone across the bridge, but he had remained by the +waterside. + +"Pray and sleep!" Don Silverio had said in his last words. But to +Adone it seemed that neither prayer nor sleep would ever come to him +again so long as this impending evil hung over him and the water of +Edera. + +He spent the first part of that summer night wandering aimlessly up +and down his own bank, blind to the beauty of the moonlight, deaf to +the songs of the nightingales, his mind filled with one thought. An +hour after midnight he went home and let himself into the silent +house by a small door which opened at the back, and which he used on +such rare occasions as he stayed out late. He struck a match and went +up to his room, and threw himself, dressed, upon his bed. His mother +was listening for his return, but she did not call to him. She knew +he was a man now, and must be left to his own will. + +"What ails Adone that he is not home?" had asked old Gianna. Clelia +Alba had been herself perturbed by his absence at that hour, but she +had answered:-- + +"What he likes to tell, he tells. Prying questions make false +tongues. I have never questioned him since he was breeched." + +"There are not many women like you," had said Gianna, partly in +admiration, half in impatience. + +"Adone is a boy for you and me," had replied his mother. "But for +himself and for all others he is a man. We must remember it." + +Gianna had muttered mumbled, rebellious words; he did not seem other +than a child to her; she had been one of those present at this birth +on the shining sands of the Edera. + +He could not sleep. He could only listen to the distant murmur of the +river. With dawn the women awoke. Nerina came running down the steep +stone stair and went to let out and feed her charges, the fowls. +Gianna went to the well in the court with her bronze pitcher and +pail. Clelia Alba cut great slices of bread at the kitchen table; and +hooked the cauldron of maize flour to the chain above the fire on the +kitchen hearth. He could not wait for their greetings, their +questions, the notice which his changed mien would surely attract. +For the first time in all his twenty-four years of life he went out +of the house without a word to his mother, and took his way to the +river again; for the first time he was neglectful of his cattle and +forgetful of the land. + +Nerina came in from the fowl-house with alarm on her face. + +"Madama Clelia!" she said timidly, "Adone has gone away without +feeding and watering the oxen. May I do it?" + +"Can you manage them, little one?" + +"Oh, yes; they love me." + +"Go then; but take care." + +"She is a good child!" said Gianna. "The beasts won't hurt her. They +know their friends." + +Clelia Alba, to whom her own and her son's dignity was dear, said +nothing of her own displeasure and surprise at Adone's absence. But +she was only the more distressed by it. Never, since he had been old +enough to work at all, had he been missing in the hours of labour. + +"I only pray," she thought, "that no woman may have hold of him." + +Adone hardly knew what he did; he was like a man who has had a blow +on the temple; his sight was troubled; his blood seemed to burn in +his brain. He wandered from habit through the field and down to the +river, to the spot where from his infancy he had been used to bathe. +He took off his clothes and waded into the water, which was cold as +snow after the night. The shock of the cold, and the sense of the +running current laving his limbs, restored him in a measure to +himself. He swam down the stream in the shadow of the early morning. +The air was full of the scent of dog-roses and flowering thyme; he +turned on his back and floated; between him and the sky a hawk +passed; the bell of the church was tolling for the diurnal mass. He +ran along in the sun, as it grew warm, to dry his skin by movement, +as his wont was. He was still stupefied by the fear which had fallen +upon him; but the water had cooled and braced him. + +He had forgotten his mother, the cattle, the labours awaiting him; +his whole mind was absorbed in this new horror sprung up in his path, +none knew from where, or by whom begotten. The happy, unconscious +stream ran singing at his feet as the nightingale sang in the acacia +thickets, its brown mountain water growing green and limpid as it +passed over submerged grass and silver sand. + +How could any thieves conspire to take it from the country in which +it was born? How could any dare to catch it, and imprison it, and put +it to vile uses? It was a living thing, a free thing, a precious +thing, more precious than jewel or gold. Both jewels and gold the law +protected. Could it not protect the Edera? + +"Something must be done," he said to himself. "But what?" + +He had not the faintest knowledge of what could or should be done; he +regretted that he had not written his mark with the horns and the +hoofs of his oxen on the foreign invaders; they might never again +fall into his power. + +He had never felt before such ferocious or cruel instincts as arose +in him now. Don Silverio seemed to him tame and lukewarm before this +monstrous conspiracy of strangers. He knew that a priest must not +give way to anger; yet it seemed to him that even a priest should be +roused to fury here; there was a wrath which was holy. + +When he was clothed he stood and looked down again at the gliding +stream. + +A feeble, cracked voice called to him from the opposite bank. + +"Adone, my lad, what is this tale?" + +The speaker was an old man of eighty odd years, a native of Ruscino, +one Patrizio Cambi, who was not yet too feeble to cut the rushes and +osiers, and maintained a widowed daughter and her young children by +that means. + +"What tale?" said Adone, unwilling to be roused from his own dark +thoughts. "What tale, Trizio?" + +"That they are going to meddle with the river," answered the old man. +"They can't do it, can they?" + +"What have you heard?" + +"That they are going to meddle with the river." + +"In what way?" + +"The Lord knows, or the devil. There was a waggon with four horses +came as near as it could get to us in the woods yonder by Ruffo's, +and the driver told Ruffo that the gentry he drove had come by road +from that town by the sea-- I forget its name-- in order to see the +river, this river, our river; and that he had brought another posse +of gentry two weeks or more on the same errand, and that they were +a-measuring and a-plumbing it, and that they were going to get +possession of its somehow or other, but Ruffo could not hear anything +more than that; and I supposed that you knew, because this part of it +is yours if it be any man's; this part of it that runs through the +Terra Vergine." + +"Yes, it is mine," answered Adone very slowly. "It is mine here, and +it was once ours from source to sea." + +"Aye, it is ours!" said old Trizio Cambi mistaking him. He was a man +once tall, but now bent nearly double; he had a harsh, wrinkled face, +brown as a hazel nut, and he was nearly a skeleton; but he had eyes +which were still fine and still had some fire in them. In his youth +he had been a Garibaldino. + +"It is ours," repeated Trizio. "At least if anything belongs to poor +folks. What say you, Adone?" + +"Much belongs to the poor, but others take it from them," said Adone. +"You have seen a hawk take a sparrow, Trizio. The poor count no more +than the sparrows." + +"But the water is the gift of God," said the old man. + +Adone did not answer. + +"What can we do?" said Trizio, wiping the dew off his sickle. "Who +knows aught of us? Who cares? If the rich folks want the river they +will take it, curse them!" + +Adone did not answer. He knew that it was so, all over the earth. + +"We shall know no more than birds tangled in a net," said Trizio. +"They will come and work their will." + +Adone rose up out of the grass. "I will go and see Ruffo," he said. +He was glad to do something. + +"Ruffo knows no more than that," said Trizio angrily. "The driver of +the horses knew no more." + +Adone paid him no need, but began to push his way through the thick +network of the interlaced heather. He thought that perhaps Ruffo, a +man who made wooden shoes, and hoops for casks, and shaped chestnut +poles for vines, might tell him more than had been told to old +Trizio; might at least be able to suggest from what quarter and in +what shape this calamity was rising, to burst over their valley as a +hailstorm broods above, then breaks, on helpless fields and +defenceless gardens, beating down without warning the birds and the +blossoms of spring. + +When he had been in Lombardy he had seen once a great steam-engine at +work, stripping a moorland of its natural growth and turning it into +ploughed land. He remembered how the huge machine with its stench of +oil and fire had forced its way through the furze and ferns and wild +roses and myrtle, and torn them up, and flung them on one side, and +scattered and trampled all the insect life, and all the bird life, +and all the hares, and field mice, and stoats, and hedgehogs, who +made their home there. "A fine sight," a man had said to him; and he +had answered, "A cursed wickedness." Was this what they would do to +the vale of Edera? If they took the river they could not spare the +land. He felt scared, bruised, terrified, like one of these poor +moorland hares. He remembered a poor stoat which, startled out of its +sleep, had turned and bitten one of the iron wheels of the machine, +and the wheel had gone over it and crushed it into a mass of blood +and fur. He was as furious and as helpless as the stoat had been. + +But when he had walked the four miles which separated the Terra +Vergine from the chestnut woods where the maker of wooden shoes +lived, he heard nothing else from Ruffo than this: that gentlemen had +come from Teramo to study the Edera water; they were going to turn it +aside and use it; more than that the man who had driven them had not +heard and could not explain. + +"There were four horses, and he had nothing to give them but water +and grass," said the cooper. "The gentry brought wine and food for +themselves. They came the day before yesterday and slept here. They +went away this morning. They paid me well, oh, very well. I did what +I could for them. It is five-and-thirty miles if one off Teramo, aye, +nearer forty. They followed the old posting road; but you know where +it enters the woods it is all overgrown, and gone to rack and ruin, +from want of use. In my grandfather's time it was a fine, well-kept +highway, with posthouses every ten miles, though a rare place for +robbery; but nowadays nobody wants it at all, for nobody comes or +goes. It will soon be blocked, so the driver says; it will soon be +quite choked up what with brambles, and rocks, and fallen trees, and +what not. He was black with rage, for he was obliged to go back as he +had come, and he said he had been cheated into the job." + +Adone listened wearily to the garrulous Ruffo, who emphasised each +phrase with a blow of his little hammer on a shoe. He had wasted all +his morning hours, and learned nothing. He felt like a man who is +lost in a strange and deserted country at night; he could find no +clue, could see no light. Perhaps if he went to the seaport town, +which was the Prefecture, he might hear something? + +But he had never left the valley of the Edera except for that brief +time which he had passed under arms in the north. He felt that he had +no means, no acquaintance, no knowledge, whereby he could penetrate +the mystery of this scheme. He did not even know the status of the +promoters, or the scope of their speculation. The Prefecture was +placed in a port on the Adriatic which had considerable trade to the +Dalmatian and Greek coasts, but he scarcely knew its name. If he went +there what could he do or learn? Would the stones speak, or the waves +tell that which he thirsted to know? What use was the martial blood +in his veins? He could not strike an invisible foe. + +"Don't go to meet trouble half way," said the man Ruffo, meaning +well. "I may have mistaken the driver. They cannot take hold of a +river, how should they? Water slips through your fingers. Where it +was set running in the beginning of the world, there it will go on +running till the crack of doom. Let them look; let them prate; they +can't take it." + +But Adone's reason would not allow him to be so consoled. + +He understood a little of what hydraulic science can compass; he knew +what canalisation meant, and its assistance to traffic and trade; he +had seen the waterworks on the Po, on the Adige, on the Mincio; he +had heard how the Velino had been enslaved for the steel foundry of +Terni, how the Nerino fed the ironworks of Narni; he had seen the +Adda captive at Lodi, and the lakes held in bond at Mantua; he had +read of the water drawn from Monte Amiata; and not very many miles +off him, in the Abruzzo, was that hapless Fuscino, which had been +emptied and dried up by rich meddlers of Rome. + +He knew also enough of the past to know how water had been forced to +serve the will and the wants of the Roman Consulate and the Roman +empire, of how the marble aqueducts had cast the shadow of their +arches over the land, and how the provinces had been tunnelled and +bridged and canalised and irrigated, during two thousand years, by +those whose bones were dust under the Latin soil. He could not wholly +cheat himself, as these unlettered men could do; he knew that if the +commerce which has succeeded the Caesars as ruler of the world +coveted the waters of Edera, the river was lost to the home of its +birth and to him. + +"How shall I tell my mother?" he asked himself as he walked back +through the fragrant and solitary country. He felt ashamed at his own +helplessness and ignorance. If courage could have availed anything he +would not have been wanting; but all that was needed here was a +worldly and technical knowledge, of which he possessed no more than +did the trout in the stream. + +As he neared his home, pushing his way laboriously through the +interlaced bracken and heaths which had never been cut for a score of +years, he saw approaching him the tall, slender form of Don Silverio, +moving slowly, for the heather was breast high, his little dog +barking at a startled wood-pigeon. + +"They are anxious about you at your house," Don Silverio said with +some sternness. "Is it well to cause your mother this disquietude?" + +"No, it is not well," replied Adone. "But how can I see her and not +tell her, and how can I tell her this thing?" + +"Women to bear trouble are braver than men," said the priest. "They +have more patience in pain than we. I have said something to her; but +we need not yet despair. We know nothing of any certainty. Sometimes +such schemes are abandoned at the last moment because too costly or +too unremunerative. Sometimes they drag on for half a lifetime; and +at the end nothing comes of them." + +"You have told my mother?" + +"I told her what troubles you, and made you leave your work undone. +The little girl was feeding the cattle." + +Adone coloured. He was conscious of the implied rebuke. + +"Sir," he said in a low tone, "if this accursed thing comes to pass +what will become of us? What I said in my haste last night I say in +cold reason to-day." + +"Then you are wrong, and you will turn a calamity into a curse. Men +often do so." + +"It is more than a calamity." + +"Perhaps. Would not some other grief be yet worse? If you were +stricken with blindness?" + +"No; I should still hear the river running." + +Don Silverio looked at him. He saw by the set, sleepless, reckless +look on his face that the young man was in no mood to be reached by +any argument, or to be susceptible to either rebuke or consolation. +The time might come when he would be so; but that time was far off he +feared. The evenness, the simplicity, the loneliness of Adone's +existence, made it open to impressions, and absorbed by them, as busy +and changeful lives never are; it was like the heather plants around +them, it would not bear transplanting; its birthplace would be its +tomb. + +"Let us go back to your mother," he said. "Why should you shun her? +What you feel she feels also. Why leave her alone?" + +"I will go home," said Adone. + +"Yes, come home. You must see that there is nothing to be done or to +be learned as yet. When they know anything fresh at San Beda they +will let me know. The Prior is a man of good faith." + +Adone turned on him almost savagely; his eyes were full of sullen +anger. + +"And I am to bear my days like this? Knowing nothing, hearing +nothing, doing nothing to protect the water that is as dear to me as +a brother, and the land which is my own? What will the land be +without the river? You forget, sir, you forget!" + +"No, I do not forget," said Don Silverio without offence. "But I ask +you to hear reason. What can you possibly do? Think you no man has +been wronged before you? Think you that you alone here will suffer? +The village will be ruined. Do you feel for yourself alone?" + +Adone seemed scarcely to hear. He was like a man in a fever who sees +one set of images and cannot see anything else. + +"Sir," he said suddenly, "why will you not go to Rome?" + +"To Rome?" echoed the priest in amazement. + +"There alone can the truth of this thing be learned," said Adone. "It +is to Rome that the promoters of this scheme must carry it; there to +be permitted or forbidden as the Government chooses. All these things +are brought about by bribes, by intrigues, by union. Without +authority from high office they cannot be done. We here do not even +know who are buying or selling us--" + +"No, we do not," said Don Silverio; and he thought, "When the +cart-horse is bought by the knacker what matter to him the name of +his purchaser or his price?" + +"Sir," said Adone, with passionate entreaty. "Do go to Rome. There +alone can the truth be learnt. You, a learned man, can find means to +meet learned people. I would go, I would have gone yesternight, but, +when I should get there, I know no more than a stray dog where to go +or from whom to inquire. They would see I am a country fellow. They +would shut the doors in my face. But you carry respect with you. No +one would dare to flout you. You could find ways and means to know +who moves this scheme, how far it is advanced, what chance there is +of our defeating it. Go, I beseech you, go!" + +"My son, you amaze me," said Don Silverio. "I? In Rome? I have not +stirred out of this district for eighteen years. I am nothing. I have +no voice. I have no weight. I am a poor rural vicar buried here for +punishment." + +He stopped abruptly, for no complaint of the injustice from which he +suffered had ever in those eighteen years escaped him. + +"Go, go," said Adone. "You carry respect with you. You are learned +and will know how to find those in power and how to speak to them. +Go, go! Have pity on all of us, your poor, helpless, menaced people." + +Don Silverio was silent. + +Was it now his duty to go into the haunts of men, as it had been his +duty to remain shut up in the walls of Ruscino? The idea appalled +him. + +Accomplished and self-possessed though he was, his fine mind and his +fine manners had not served wholly to protect him from that rust and +nervousness which come from the disuse of society and the absence of +intercourse with equals. + +It seemed to him impossible that he could again enter cities, recall +usages, seek out acquaintances, move in the stir of streets, and wait +in antechambers. + +That was the life of the world; he had done with it, forsworn it +utterly, both by order of his superiors and by willing +self-sacrifice. Yet he knew that Adone was right. It was only from +men of the world and amongst them, it was only in the great cities, +that it was possible to follow up the clue of such speculations as +now threatened the vale of Edera. + +The young man he knew could not do what was needed, and certainly +would get no hearing--a peasant of the Abruzzo border, who looked +like a figure of Giorgione's, and would probably be arrested as an +anarchist if he were to endeavour to enter any great house or public +office. But to go to Rome himself! To revisit the desecrated city! +This seemed to him a pilgrimage impossible except for the holiest +purpose. He felt as if the very stones of Trastevere would rise up +and laugh at him, a country priest with the moss and the mould of a +score of years passed in rural obscurity upon him. Moreover, to +revisit Rome would be to tear open wounds long healed. There his +studious youth had been passed, and there his ambitious dreams had +been dreamed. + +"I cannot go to Rome," he said abruptly. "Do not ask me, I cannot go +to Rome." + +"Then I will go," said Adone; "and if in no other way, I will force +myself into the king's palace and make him hear." + +"And his guards will seize you, and his judges will chain you up in a +solitary cell for life! Do not say such mad things. What could the +king reply, even if he listened, which he would not do? He would say +that these things were for ministers and prefects and surveyors and +engineers to judge of, not for him or you. Be reasonable, Adone; do +not speak or act like a fool. This is the first grief you have known +in your life, and you are distraught by it. That is natural enough, +my poor boy. But you exaggerate the danger. It must be far off as +yet. It is a mere project." + +"And I am to remain here, tilling the land in silence and inaction +until, one day without notice, I shall see a crowd of labourers at +work upon the river, and shall see appraisers measuring my fields! +You know that is how things are done. You know the poor are always +left in the dark until all is ripe for their robbery. Look you, sir, +if you go to Rome I will wait in such patience as I can for whatever +you may learn. But if you do not go, I go, and if I can do no better +I will take the king by the throat." + +"I have a mind to take you by the throat myself," said Don Silverio, +with an irritation which he found it hard to control. "Well, I will +think over what you wish, and if I find it possible, if I think it +justified, if I can afford the means, if I can obtain the permission, +for such a journey, I will go to Rome; for your sake, for your +mother's sake. I will let you know my decision later. Let us walk +homeward. The sun is low. At your house the three women must be +anxious." + +Adone accompanied him in silence through the heather, of which the +blossoming expanse was reddening in the light of the late afternoon +until the land looked a ruby ocean. They did not speak again until +they reached the confines of the Terra Vergine. + +Then Don Silverio took the path which went through the pasture to the +bridge, and Adone turned towards his own dwelling. + +"Spare your mother. Speak gently," said the elder man; the younger +man made a sign of assent and of obedience. + +"He will go to Rome," said Adone to himself, and almost he regretted +that he had urged the journey, for in his own veins the fever of +unrest and the sting of fierce passions were throbbing, and he panted +and pined for action. He was the heir of the lords of the river. + + + + + +VIII + +Like the cooper Ruffo, Clelia Alba had received the tidings with +incredulity, though aghast at the mere suggestion. + +"It is impossible," she said. She had seen the water there ever since +she had been a babe in swaddling clothes. + +"It is not possible," she said, "that any man could be profane enough +to alter the bed which heaven had given it." + +But she was sorely grieved to see the effect such a fear had upon +Adone. + +"I was afraid it was a woman," she thought; "but this thing, could it +be true, would be worse than any harlot or adulteress. If they took +away the river the land would perish. It lives by the river." + +"The river is our own as far as we touch it," she said aloud to her +son; "but it was the earth's before it was ours. To sever water from +the land it lives in were worse than to snatch a child from its +mother's womb." + +Adone did not tell her that water was no more sacred than land to the +modern contractor. She would learn that all to soon if the conspiracy +against the Edera succeeded. But he tried to learn from her what +legal rights they possessed to the stream: what had his father +thought? He knew well that his old hereditary claim to the Lordship +of Ruscino, however capable of proof, would be set aside as fantastic +and untenable; but their claim to the water through the holding of +Terra Vergine could surely not be set aside. + +"Your father never said aught about the water that I can remember," +she answered. "I think he would no more have thought it needful to +say it was his than to say that you were his son. It is certain we +are writ down in the district as owners of the ground; we pay taxes +for it; and the title of the water must be as one with that." + +"So say I; at least over what runs through our fields we, alone, have +any title, and for that title I will fight to the death," said Adone. +"River rights go with the land through which the river passes." + +"But, my son," she said with true wisdom, "your father would never +have allowed any danger to the water to make him faithless to the +land. If you let this threat, this dread, turn you away from your +work; if you let your fears make you neglect your field and your +olives, and your cattle and your vines, you will do more harm to +yourself than the worst enemy can do you. To leave a farm to itself +is to call down the vengeance of heaven. A week's abandonment undoes +the work of years. I and Gianna and the child do what we can, but we +are women, and Nerina is young." + +"No doubt you speak wisely, mother," replied Adone humbly. "But of +what use is it to dress and manure a vine, if the accursed phylloxera +be in its sap and at its root? What use is it to till these lands if +they be doomed to perish from thirst?" + +"Do your best," said his mother, "then the fault will not lie with +you, whatever happen." + +The counsel was sound; but to Adone all savour and hope were gone out +of his labour. When he saw the green gliding water shine through the +olive branches, and beyond the foliage of the walnut-trees, his arms +fell nerveless to his side, his throat swelled with sobs, which he +checked as they rose, but which were only the more bitter for +that--all the joy and the peace of his day's work were gone. + +It was but a small space of it to one whose ancestors had reigned +over the stream from its rise in the oak woods to its fall into the +sea; but he thought that no one could dispute or diminish or +disregard his exclusive possession of the Edera water where it ran +through his fields. They could not touch that, even if they seized it +lower down, where it ran through other communes. Were they to take it +above his land, above the bridge of Ruscino, its bed here would be +dried up, and his homestead and the village both be ruined. The +clear, intangible right which he meant to defend at any cost, in any +manner, was his right to have the river run untouched through his +fields. The documents which proved the rights of the great extinct +Seigneury might be useless, but the limited, shrunken right of the +peasant ownership was as unassailable as his mother's right to the +three strings of pearls; or so he believed. + +The rights of the Lords of Ruscino might be but shadows of far-off +things, things of tradition, of history, of romance, but the rights +of the peasant proprietors of the Terra Vergine must, he thought, be +respected if there were any justice upon earth, for they were plainly +writ down in the municipal registers of San Beda. To rouse others to +defend their equal rights in the same way, from the source of the +Edera to its union with the Adriatic, seemed to him the first effort +to be made. He was innocent enough to believe that it would suffice +to prove that its loss would be their ruin to obtain redress at once. + +Whilst Don Silverio was still hesitating as to what seemed to him +this momentous and painful journey to Rome his mind was made up by a +second letter received from the Superior of the Certosa at San Beda, +the friend to whom he had confided the task of inquiring as to the +project for the Edera. + +This letter was long, and in Latin. They were two classics, who liked +thus to refresh themselves and each other with epistles such as St. +Augustine or Tertullian might have penned. The letter was of elegant +scholarship, but its contents were unwelcome. It said that the Most +Honourable the Syndic of San Beda had enjoyed a conference with the +Prefect of the province, and it had therein transpired that the +project for the works upon the river Edera had been long well known +to the Prefect, and that such project was approved by the existing +Government, and therefore by all the Government officials, as was but +natural. It was not admitted that the Commune of San Beda had any +local interest or local right sufficiently strong to oppose the +project, as such a claim would amount to a monopoly, and no monopoly +could exist in a district through which a running river partially +passed, and barely one-fifth of the course of this stream lay through +that district known as the valley of the Edera. The entire +Circondario, except the valley, was believed to be in favour of the +project, which the Prefect informed the Syndic could not be otherwise +than most favourable to the general interests of the country at +large. + +"Therefore, most honoured and revered friend," wrote the Superior of +the Cistercians, "his most esteemed worship does not see his way to +himself suggest opposition to this course in our Town Council, or in +our Provincial Council, and the Most Worshipful the Assessors do not +either see theirs; it being, as you know, an equivocal and onerous +thing for either council to express or suggest in their assembly +views antagonistic to those of the Prefecture, so that I fear, most +honoured and reverend friend, it will not be in my power farther to +press this matter, and I fear also that your parish of Ruscino, being +isolated and sparsely populated, and its chief area uncultivated, +will be possessed of but one small voice in this matter, the +interests of the greater number being always in such a case +preferred." + +Don Silverio read the letter twice, its stately and correct Latinity +not serving to disguise the mean and harsh fact of its truly modern +logic. "Because we are few and poor and weak we have no rights!" he +said bitterly. "Because the water comes from others, and goes to +others, it is not ours whilst in our land!" + +He did not blame his friend at San Beda. + +Ecclesiastics existed only on sufferance, and any day the Certosa +might be closed if its inmates offended the ruling powers. But the +letter, nevertheless, lay like a stone on his heart. All the +harshness, the narrowness, the disregard of the interests of the +weak, the rude, rough, tyrannical pressing onward of the strong to +their own selfish aims, all the characteristics of the modern world +seemed to find voice in it and jeer at him. + +It was not for the first time in his life that he had pressed against +the iron gates of interest and formula and oppression, and only +bruised his breast and torn his hands. + +He had a little sum of money put by in case of illness and for his +burial; that was the only fund on which he could draw to take him to +Rome and keep him when there, and it was so small that it would be +soon exhausted. He passed the best part of the night doubting which +way his duty pointed. He fasted, prayed, and communed with his soul, +and at length it seemed to him as if a voice from without said to +him, "Take up your staff, and go." For the journey appalled him, and +where his inclination pointed he had taught himself to see error. He +shrank inexpressibly from going into the noise and glare and crowd of +men; he clung to his solitude as a timid animal to its lair; and +therefore he felt persuaded that he ought to leave Ruscino on his +errand, because it was so acutely painful to him. + +Whilst he should be gone Adone at least would do nothing rash; would +of course await the issue of his investigations. Time brings council, +and time, he hoped, would in this instance befriend him. He had +already obtained the necessary permission to leave his parish; he +then asked for a young friend from San Beda to take his place in the +village; left his little dog to the care of Nerina; took his small +hoard in a leathern bag strapped to his loins, and went on his way at +daybreak along the southwest portion of the valley, to cover on foot +the long distance which lay between him and the nearest place at +which a public vehicle went twice a week to a railway station; whence +he could take the train to Terni and so to Rome. + +Adone accompanied him the first half of the way, but they said little +to one another; their hearts were full. Adone could not forget the +rebuke given to him, and Don Silverio was too wise a man to lean +heavily on a sore and aching wound, or repeat counsels already given +and rejected. + +At the third milestone he stopped and begged, in a tone which was a +command, the young man to return home. + +"Do not leave your land for me," he said. "Every hour is of gold at +this season. Go back, my son! I pray that I may bring you peace." + +"Give me your blessing," said Adone meekly, and he knelt down in the +dust of the roadside. His friend gave it; then their hands met in +silent farewell. + +The sun had risen, and the cold clear air was yielding to its rays. +The young man reluctantly turned back, and left the priest to go +onward alone, a tall, dark figure in the morning light; the river +running between acacia thickets and rushes on his right. Before long +he was forced to leave the course of the stream, and ascend a rugged +and precipitous road which mounted southward and westward through oak +woods into the mountains between the Leonessa and Gran Sasso, until +it reached a shrunken, desolate village, with fine Etruscan and Roman +remains left to perish, and a miserable hostelry, with the miserable +diligences starting from it on alternate days, the only remains of +its former posting activity. There he arrived late in the evening, +and broke his fast on a basin of bean soup, then rested on a bench, +for he could not bring himself to enter the filthy bed which was +alone to be obtained, and spent the following morning examining the +ancient ruins, for the conveyance did not start until four o'clock in +the afternoon. When that hour came he made one of the travellers, all +country folks, who were packed close as pigeons in a crate in the +ramshackle, noisy, broken-down vehicle, which lumbered on its way +behind its lean and suffering horses, through woods and hills and +along mountain passes of a grandeur and a beauty on which the eyes of +educated travellers rarely looked. + +The journey by this conveyance occupied seven hours, and he was +obliged to wait five more at that village station which was the +nearest point at which he could meet the train which went from Terni +to Rome. Only parliamentary trains stop at such obscure places; and +this one seemed to him slower even than the diligence had been. It +was crammed with country lads going to the conscription levy in the +capital: some of them drunk, some of them noisy and quarrelsome, some +in tears, some silent and sullen, all of them sad company. The dusty, +stinking, sun-scorched waggons, open one to another, with the stench +of hot unwashed flesh, and the clouds of dust driven through the +unglazed windows, seemed to Don Silverio a hell of man's own making, +and in remembrance his empty quiet room, with its vine-hung window, +at Ruscino, seemed by comparison a lost heaven. + +To think that there were thousands of men who travelled thus, every +day of every year, in every country, many of them from no obligation +whatever, but from choice! + +"What lunatics, what raving idiots we should look to Plato or to +Socrates, could they see us!" he thought. Was what is called progress +anything else except increased insanity in human life? + +He leaned back in his corner, and bore the dust in his eyes and his +throat as best he might, and spoke a few kind words to the boys +nearest to him, and felt as if every bone in his body was broken as +the wooden and iron cage shook him from side to side. The train +stopped finally in that area of bricks and mortar and vulgarity and +confusion where once stood the Baths of Diocletian. It was late in +the night when he heard the name of Rome. + +No scholar can hear that name without emotion. On him it smote with a +keen personal pain, awakening innumerable memories, calling from +their graves innumerable dreams. + +He had left it a youth, filled with all the aspirations, the fire, +the courage, the faith, of a lofty and spiritual temper. He returned +to it a man aged before his time, worn, weary, crushed, spiritless, +with no future except death. + +He descended from the waggon with the crowd of jaded conscripts and +mingled with that common and cosmopolitan crowd which now defiles the +city of the Caesars. The fatigue of his body, and the cramped pain of +his aching spine, added to the moral and the mental suffering which +was upon him as he moved a stranger and alone along the new, +unfamiliar streets where, alone here and there, some giant ruin, some +stately arch, some marble form of god or prophet, recalled to him the +Urbs that he had known. + +But he remembered the mission on which he came; and he rebuked his +self-indulgence in mourning for his own broken fate. + +"I am a faithless servant and a feeble friend," he thought in +self-reproach. "Let me not weaken my poor remnant of strength in +egotism and repining. I come hither for Adone and the Edera. Let me +think of my errand only; not of myself, nor even of this desecrated +city." + + + + + + +IX + +It was now the season to plough the reapen fields, and he had always +taken pleasure in his straight furrows; as straight as though +measured by a rule on the level lands; and of the skill with which on +the hilly ground Orlando and Rinaldo moved so skillfully, turning in +so small a space, answering to every inflection of his voice, taking +such care not to break a twig of the fruit trees, or bend a shoot of +the vines, or graze a stem of the olives. + +"Good hearts, dear hearts, faithful friends and trusty servants!" he +murmured to the oxen. He leaned his bare arms on the great +fawn-coloured flanks of Orlando, and his forehead on his arms, which +grew wet with hidden tears. + +The cattle stood motionless, breathing loudly through their distended +nostrils, the yokes on their shoulders crinking, their hides +twitching under the torment of the flies. Nerina, who had been +washing linen in the Edera, approached through the olives; she +hesitated a few minutes, then put the linen down off her head on to +the grass, gathered some plumes of featherfew and ferns, and brushed +the flies off the necks of the oxen. Adone started, looked up in +displeasure at being thus surprised, then, seeing the intruder was +only the little girl, he sat down on the side of the plough, and made +believe to break his noon-day bread. + +"You have no wine," said the child. "Shall I run to the house for a +flask?" + +"No, my dear, no. If I am athirst there is water -- as yet there is +water!" he murmured bitterly, for the menace of this impending horror +began to grow on him with the fixity and obsession of a mania. + +Nerina continued to fan the cattle and drive off the flies from their +necks. She looked at him wistfully from behind the figures of the +stately animals. She was afraid of the sorrow which was in the air. +No one had told her what the evil was which hung over the Terra +Vergine; and she never asked questions. The two elder women never +took her into their confidence on any subject, and she had no +communication with the few people in Ruscino. She had seen that +something was wrong, but she could not guess what: something which +made Madonna Clelia's brows dark, and Gianna's temper bad, and Adone +himself weary and ill at ease. + +Seeing him sitting there, not eating, throwing his bread to some wild +pigeons which followed the plough, she plucked up courage to speak; +he was always kind to her, though he noticed her little. + +"What is it that ails you all?" she asked. "Tell me, Adone, I am not +a foolish thing to babble." + +He did not answer. What use were words? Deeds were wanted. + +"Adone, tell me," she said in a whisper; "what is this that seems to +lie like a stone on you all? Tell me why Don Silverio has gone away. +I will never tell again." + +There was a pathetic entreaty in the words which touched and roused +him; there was in it the sympathy which would not criticise or doubt, +and which is to the sore heart as balm and soothes it by its very +lack of reason. + +He told her; told her the little that he knew, the much that he +feared; he spent all the force of his emotion in the narrative. + +The child leaned against the great form of the ox and listened, not +interrupting by a word or cry. + +She did not rebuke him as Don Silverio had done, or reproach him as +did his mother; she only listened with a world of comprehension in +her eyes more eloquent than speech, not attempting to arrest the fury +of imprecation or the prophecies of vengeance which poured from his +lips. Hers was that undoubting, undivided, implicit faith which is so +dear to the wounded pride and impotent strength of a man in trouble +who is conscious that what he longs to do would not be approved by +law or sanctioned by religion. That faith spoke in her eyes, in her +absorbed attention, in the few breathless sentences which escaped +her; there was also on her youthful face a set, stern anger akin to +his own. + +"Could we not slay these men?" she said in a low, firm voice; she +came of a mountain race by whom life was esteemed little and revenge +honour. + +"We must not even say such a thing," said Adone bitterly, in whose +ears the rebuke of Don Silverio still rang. "In these days everything +is denied us, even speech. If we take our rights we are caged in +their prisons." + +"But what will you do, then?" + +"For the moment I wait to learn more. These things are done in the +dark, or at least in no light that we can see. To kill these men as +you wish, little one, would do nothing. Others of their kind would +fill their places. The seekers of gold are like ants. Slay thousands, +tens of thousands come on; if once the scent of gain be on the wind +it brings men in crowds from all parts, as the smell of carrion +brings meat-flies. If they think of seizing the Edera it is because +men of business will turn it into gold. The Edera gives us our grain, +our fruits, our health, our life; but if it will give money to the +foreigner, the foreigner will take it as he would take the stars and +coin them if he could. The brigand of the hills is caged or shot; the +brigand of the banks is allowed to fatten and die in the odour of +success. There are two measures." + +Nerina failed to understand, but her own mind was busy with what +seemed to her this monstrous injustice. + +"But why do they let them do it? They take and chain the men who rob +a traveller or a house." + +Adone cast his last atom of bread to the birds. + +"There are two measures," he answered. "Kill one, you go to the +galleys for life. Kill half a million, you are a hero in history, and +get in your own generation titles, and money, and applause." + +"Baruffo was a good man and my father's friend," Nerina said, +following her own thoughts. "Baruffo was in the oak woods always, far +below us, but he often brought us wine and game at night, and +sometimes money too. Baruffo was a good man. He was so kind. Twice my +father aided him to escape. But one night they seized him; there was +a whole troop of carabineers against him, they took him in a trap, +they could never have got him else, and I saw him brought down the +mountain road and I ran and kissed him before they could stop me; and +he never came back -- they kept him." + +"No doubt they kept him," said Adone bitterly. "Baruffo was a peasant +outlawed; if he had been a banker, or a minister, or a railway +contractor, he might have gone on thieving all his life, and met only +praise. They keep poor Baruffo safe in their accursed prisons, but +they will take care never to keep, or take even for a day, +law-breakers whose sins are far blacker than his, and whose victims +are multitudes." + +"If Baruffo were here he would help you," said Nerina. "He was such a +fine strong man and had no fear." + +Adone rose and put his hands on the handles of the plough. + +"Take up your linen, little one," he said to the girl, "and go home, +or my mother will be angry with you for wasting time." + +Nerina came close to him and her brown dog-like eyes looked up like a +dog's into his face. + +"Tell me what you do, Adone," she said beseechingly, "I will tell no +one. I was very little when Baruffo came and went to and fro in our +hut; but I had sense; I never spoke. Only when the guards had him I +kissed him, because then it did not matter what they knew; there was +no hope." + +"Yes, I will tell you," said Adone. "Maybe I shall end like Baruffo." + +Then he called on Orlando and Rinaldo by their names, and they +lowered their heads and strained at their collars, and with a mighty +wrench of their loins and shoulders they forced the share through the +heavy earth. + +Nerina stood still and looked after him as he passed along under the +vine-hung trees. + +"Baruffo may have done some wrong," she thought, "but Adone, he has +done none, he is as good as if he were a saint of God, and if he +should be obliged to do evil it will be no fault of his, but because +other men are wicked." + +Then she put the load of linen on her head, and went along the grassy +path homeward, and she saw the rosy gladioli, and the golden tansy, +by which she passed through tears. Yet she was glad because Adone had +trusted her; and because she now knew as much as the elder women in +his house, who had put no confidence in her. + + + + + +X + +"I SHALL not write," Don Silverio had said to Adone. "As soon as I +know anything for certain I shall return. Of that you may be sure." + +For he knew that letters took a week or more to find their slow way +to Ruscino, and he hoped to return in less than that time; having no +experience of "what hell it is in waiting to abide," and of the +endless doublings and goings to earth of that fox-like thing, a +modern speculation; he innocently believed that he would only have to +ask a question to have it answered. + +Day after day Adone mounted to the bell-tower roof, and gazed over +the country in vain. Day after day the little dog escaped from the +custody of Nerina, trotted over the bridge, pattered up the street, +and ran whining into his master's study. Every night the people of +Ruscino hung up a lantern on a loophole of the belfry, and another on +the parapet of the bridge, that their pastor might not miss his way +if he were coming on foot beside the river; and every night Adone +himself watched on the river bank or by the town wall, sleepless, +longing for, yet dreading that which he should hear. But more than a +week passed, and the priest did not return. The anxiety of Adone +consumed him like fire. He strove to dull his anxiety by incessant +work, but it was too acute to be soothed by physical fatigue. He +counted the days and the hours, and he could not sleep. The women +watched him in fear and silence; they dared ask nothing, lest they +should wound him. Only Nerina whispered to him once or twice in the +fields, "Where is he gone? When will he come back?" + +"God knows!" he answered. Every evening that he saw the sun set +beyond the purple line of the mountains which were heaped in their +masses of marble and snow between him and the Patrimonium Petrus, he +felt as if he could never bear another night. He could hear the +clear, fresh sound of the running river, and it seemed to him like +the voice of some friend crying aloud to him in peril. Whilst these +summer days and nights sped away what was being done to save it? He +felt like a coward; like one who stands by and sees a comrade +murdered. In his solitude and apprehension he began to lose all +self-control; he imagined impossible things; he began to see in his +waking dreams, as in a nightmare, the dead body of Don Silverio lying +with a knife in its breast in some cut-throat alley of Rome. For two +weeks passed, and there was no sign of his return, and no message +from him. + +The poor people of Ruscino also were troubled. Their vicar had never +left them before. They did not love him; he was too unlike them; but +they honoured him, they believed in him; he was always there in their +sickness and sorrow; they leaned on his greater strength in all their +penury and need; and he was poor like them, and stripped himself +still barer for their sakes. + +Through the young friar who had replaced him they had heard something +of the calamity which threatened to befall them through the Edera. It +was all dark to them; they could understand nothing. Why others +should want their river and why they should lose it, or in what +manner a stream could be turned from its natural course -- all these +things were to them incomprehensible. In the beginning of the world +it had been set running there. Who would be impious enough to meddle +with it? + +Whoever tried to do so would be smitten with the vengeance of Heaven. +Of that they were sure. Nevertheless, to hear the mention of such a +thing tormented them; and when they opened their doors at dawn they +looked out in terror lest the water should have been taken away in +the night. + +Their stupidity irritated Adone so greatly that he ceased altogether +to speak to them of the impending calamity. "They are stocks and +stones. They have not the sense of sheep nor the courage of goats," +he said, with the old scorn which his forefathers had felt for their +rustic vassals stirring in him. + +"I believe that they would dig sand and carry wood for the engineers +and the craftsmen who would build the dykes!" he said to his mother. + +Clelia Alba sighed. "My son, hunger is a hard master; it makes the +soul faint, the heart hard, the belly ravenous. We have never known +it. We cannot judge those who know nothing else." + +"Even hunger need not make one vile," he answered. + +But he did not disclose all his thoughts to his mother. + +He was so intolerant of these poor people of Ruscino because he +foresaw the hopelessness of forging their weak tempers into the metal +necessary for resistance. As well might he hope to change a +sword-rush of the river into a steel sabre for combat. Masaniello, +Rienzi, Garibaldi, had roused the peasantry and led them against +their foes; but the people they dealt with must, he thought, have +been made of different stuff than these timorous villagers, who could +not even be make to comprehend the magnitude of the wrong which was +plotted against them. + +"Tell them," he said to old Trizio: "tell them their wells will run +dry; their fish will rot on the dry bed of what was once the river; +their canes, their reeds and rushes, their osiers, will all fail +them; when they shall go out into their fields nothing which they sow +or plant will grow, because the land will be cracked and parched; +there will be no longer the runlets and rivulets to water the soil; +birds will die of thirst, and thousands of little river creatures +will be putrid carcasses in the sun; for the Edera, which is life and +joy and health to this part of the country, will be carried far away, +imprisoned in brick walls, drawn under ground, forced to labour like +a slave, put to vile uses, soiled and degraded. Cannot you tell them +this, and make them see?" + +The old man shook his white head. "They would never believe. It is +too hard for them. Where the river runs, there it will always be. So +they think." + +"They are dolts, they are mules, they are swine!" said Adone. "Nay, +may the poor beasts forgive me! The beasts cannot help themselves, +but men can if they choose." + +"Humph!" said Trizio doubtfully. "My lad, you have not seen men shot +down by the hundred. I have -- long ago, long ago." + +"There is no chance of their being shot," he said with contempt, +almost with regret. "All that is wanted of them are common sense, +union, protestation, comprehension of their rights." + +"Aye, you all begin with that," said the old Garabaldino. "But, my +lad, you do not end there, for it is just those things which are your +right which those above you will never hear of; and then up come the +cannon thundering, and when the smoke clears away there are your dead +-- and that is all you get." + +The voice of the old soldier was thin and cracked and feeble, but it +had a sound in it which chilled the hot blood of his hearer. + +Yet surely this was no revolutionary question, no socialistic theory, +no new alarming demand; it was only a claim old as the hills, only a +resolve to keep what the formation of the earth had given to this +province. + +As well blame a father for claiming his own child as blame him and +his neighbours for claiming their own river! + +They were tranquil and docile people, poor and patient, paying what +they were told to pay, letting the fiscal wolf gnaw and glut as it +chose unopposed, not loving their rulers indeed, but never moving or +speaking against them, accepting the snarl, the worry, the theft, the +greed, the malice of the State without questioning. + +Were they to stand by and see their river ruined, and do nothing, as +the helpless fishermen of Fuscino have accepted the ruin of their +lake? + +To all young men of courage and sensibility and enthusiasm the +vindication of a clear right seems an act so simple that it is only +through long and painful experience that they realize that there is +nothing under the sun which is so hard to compass, or which is met by +such strong antagonism. To Adone, whose nature was unspoilt by modern +influences, and whose world was comprised in the fields and moors +around Ruscino, it seemed incredible that such a title as that of his +native soil to the water of Edera could be made clear to those in +power without instant ratification of it. + +"Whether you do aught or naught it comes to the same thing," said the +old Garibaldino, who was wiser. "We did much; we spent our blood like +water, and what good has it been? For one devil we drove out before +our muskets, a thousand worse devils have entered since." + +"It is different," said Adone, impatient. "All we have to do is to +keep out the stranger. You had to drive him out. No politics or +doctrines come into our cause; all we mean, all we want, is to be +left alone, to remain as we are. That is all. It is simple and just." + +"Aye, it is simple; aye, it is just," said the old man; but he sucked +his pipe-stem grimly: he had never seen these arguments prosper; and +in his own youth he had cherished such mistakes himself, to his own +hindrance. + +Had he not sung in those glorious days of hope and faith, + + "Fratelli d'Italia! + L'Italia s'e desta!" + +In the night which followed on the fourteenth day of the Vicar's +absence, Adone, unable either to rest or to labour, went into his +cattle-stalls and fed and watered all the animals, then he crossed +the river and went along its north bank by the same path which he had +followed with Don Silverio two weeks earlier. He had passed to and +fro that path often since his friend's departure, for by it the +priest must return; there was no other way to and from the west. + +Rain had fallen in the night, and the river was buoyant, and the +grass sparkled, the mountains were of sapphire blue, and above the +shallows clouds of flies and gnats were fluttering, waterlilies were +blossoming where the water was still, and in the marshes buffaloes +pushed their dark forms amongst the nymphoea and the nuphar. + +He had no longer any eyes to see these things; he only strained his +sight to catch the first glimpse of a tired traveler. The landscape +here was level for many miles of moor and pasture and a human form +approaching could be seen from a great distance. It was such a dawn +as he had used to love beyond all other blessings of nature; but now +the buffaloes in the pools and swamps were not more blind to its +charm than he. + +The sun rose behind him out of the unseen Adrian waves, and a rosy +light spread itself over the earth; and at that moment he saw afar +off a dark form moving slowly. With a loud cry he sprang forward and +ran with the fleetness of a colt the hundred yards which were between +him and that familiar figure. + +"My son! my dear son!" cried Don Silverio, as Adone reached him and +fell on his knees on the scorched turf. + +"At last!" he murmured, choked with joy and fear. "Oh, where have you +been? We are half dead, your people and I. What tidings do you bring? +What comfort?" + +"Rise up, and remember that you are a man," said Don Silverio; and +the youth, gazing upwards keenly into his face, suddenly lost all +hope, seeing no ray of hope on that weary countenance. + +"You cannot save us?" he cried, with a scream like a wounded hare's. + +"I cannot, my dear son," answered Don Silverio. + +Adone dropped backward as if a bullet had struck him; his head smote +the dry ground; he had lost consciousness, his face was livid. + +Don Silverio raised him and dragged him into the shade of a bay-tree +and dashed water on him from the river. In a few minutes he was +roused and again conscious, but on his features there was a dazed, +stunned look. + +"You cannot save us?" he repeated. + +"Neither you nor I have millions," said Don Silverio with bitterness. +"It is with no other weapon that men can fight successfully now." + +Adone had risen to his feet; he was pale as a corpse, only the blood +was set in his forehead. + +"Is it true, then?" he muttered. "Do they mean to come here?" + +"Yes." + +"Who are they? Jews?" + +"Jews and Gentiles. There is no difference between those races now; +they have a common Credo -- greed; they adore one Jehovah -- gold. My +boy, I am very tired, and you are ill. Let us get home as quickly as +we can." + +"I am not ill. It was nothing. It is passed. Tell me the worst." + +"The worst, in a work, is that a foreign company, already established +for several years in this country, has obtained a faculty to turn +this water out if its course and use it as the motive power of an +electric railway and of an acetylene manufactory, and of other +enterprises." + +"And this cannot be undone?" + +"I fear not; they are rich and powerful. What are we? Let me get +home. There you shall hear all, and judge." + +Adone asked and said no more. He turned and went backward. His steps +were slow and unsteady, his head was hung down. The dry, hot air was +like fire around them; the sun, though still low, darted fierce rays +upon them, like spears thrown with a sure aim. He had not known how +much and how strongly he had hoped until now that he heard that there +was no hope left. + +Don Silverio, though he did not speak of himself, was faint with +fatigue; the return journey had tried him more cruelly than the +first, since on his way to Rome he had been sustained by the hope to +find the project abandoned, or at the least uncertain. He had spent +all his scanty earnings, so hardly and tediously collected through a +score of years, and he had brought back to his poor people, and to +the youth he loved, nothing except the confirmation of their worst +fears. It was with difficulty that he could drag his aching feet over +the burn grass back to his parish. + +When they reached the bridge they were on the village side of the +stream. Adone, with an effort, raised himself from the trance into +which he had fallen. + +"Forgive me, sir; you are overtired, you must rest. I will come to +you later." + +"No, no," said Don Silverio quickly, for he thought the youth in no +state to be alone. "I will wash and take a cup of coffee, then I will +tell you all. Wait in my book-room." + +They went together to his house. There was no one in the street or on +the walls except some children gathering dandelion leaves in the +ditch. They reached the priest's house unobserved; only the little +dog, who was making his diurnal search there, rushed out of the +entrance in a frenzy of rapture. + +"Poor little man! Dear Signorino!" murmured Don Silverio, and he took +the little creature in his arms. Then he opened the door of his +study. "Wait there," he said to Adone. "I will soon come downstairs. +I will only wash off the dust of this journey." + +Adone obeyed. + +The room was dusky, cool, silent; he sat down in it and waited; he +could hear the loud, uneven beating of his own heart in the +stillness. + +As he felt now, so, he thought, must feel men who have heard their +own death-sentence, and are thrust alone into a cell. + +If Don Silverio could do nothing, to whom could he turn? + +Could he induce the people to rise? It would be their ruin as well as +his, this rape of the river. Would they bear it as they bore +taxation, neglect, conscription, hunger? + +It was not half an hour, although it seemed to him half a day, which +passed before Don Silverio came down the stone stair, his little dog +running and leaping about him. He seated himself before Adone, by the +shuttered window, through which, by chinks and holes in the wood, +there came rays of light and tendrils of vine. + +Then detail by detail, with lucidity and brevity, he narrated all he +had heard and done in Rome, and which it was exceeding hard to bring +home to the comprehension of a mind wholly ignorant of such things. + +"When I reached Rome," he explained, "I was for some days in despair. +The deputy of San Beda was not at the Chamber. He was in Sicily. +Another deputy, a friend of the Prior at San Beda, to whom I had a +letter, was very ill with typhoid fever. I knew not where to turn. I +could not knock at the doors of strangers without credentials. Then I +remembered that one with whom I had been friends, great friends, when +we were both seminarists, had become a great man at the Vaticano. It +was scarcely possible that he, in his great elevation, would +recollect one unseen for a quarter of a century. But I took courage +and sent in my name. Imagine my surprise and emotion when I was +admitted at once to his presence, and was received by him with the +uttermost kindness. He assisted me in every way. He could not of +course move ostensibly in a matter of the government, himself, but he +gave me letters to those who could obtain me the information and the +interviews which I desired. He was goodness itself, and through him I +was even received by his Holiness. But from all those political and +financial people whom I saw I learned but the same thing. The matter +is far advanced, is beyond any alteration. The company is formed. The +concurrence of parliament is not to be, but has long been, given. The +ministry favours the project. They all repeated to me the same +formula: public works are to the public interest. They babbled +commonplaces. They spoke of great advantages to the province. I +pleaded as forcibly as I could in the interests of this valley, and I +opposed fact to formula. But my facts were not those which they +wanted; and they told me, politely but unmistakably, that a churchman +should not seek to interfere with civil matters. The promoters are +masters of the position. They are all of accord: the foreign bankers, +the Italian bankers; the foreign engineers, the Italian engineers; +the Technical office, the President of Council, the dicastero of +Hygiene, of Agriculture, of Public Works, all of them. Our poor +little valley seems to them a desirable prey; they have seized it, +they will keep it. They were all courteous enough. They are polite, +and even unwilling to cause what they call unnecessary friction. But +they will not give an inch. Their talons are in our flesh as an +eagle's in a lamb's. One thinks fondly that what a man possesses is +his own, be it land, house, stream--what not! But we mistake. There +is a thing stronger, higher, more powerful than any poor title of +property acquired by heritage, by purchase, or by labour. It is what +they call expropriation. You think the Edera cannot be touched: it +can be expropriated. You think the Terra Vergine cannot be touched: +it can be expropriated. Against expropriation no rights can stand. It +is the concentration and crystallisation of Theft legitamised by +Government; that is by Force. A vagrant may not take a sheaf of your +wheat, a fowl from your hen-house: if he do so, the law protects you +and punishes him. A syndicate of rich men, of powerful men, may take +the whole of your land, and the State will compel you to accept any +arbitrary price which it may choose to put upon your loss. According +as you are rich or poor yourself, so great or so small will be the +amount awarded to you. All the sub-prefects, all the syndics, all the +officials in this province, will be richly rewarded; the people +defrauded of the soil and the river will get what may be given them +by an enforced valuation. I have conversed with all kinds and +conditions of men; and I have heard only one statement in the mouths +of all: the matter is beyond all alteration. There is money in it; +the men whose trade is money will not let it go. My son, my dearest +son, be calm, be prudent. Violence can only injure yourself, and it +can save nothing." + +He had for the moment spoken as he had been speaking for the last two +weeks to men of education and of the world. + +He was recalled to the fact that his present auditor did not reason, +did not comprehend, only felt, and was drunk with his own force of +feeling. The look on Adone's face appalled him. + +The youth seemed almost to have no intelligence left, almost as if +all which had been said to him had reached neither his ear nor his +brain. + +Don Silverio had been in the world of men, and unconsciously he had +adopted their phraseology and their manner. To Adone, who had +expected some miracle, some rescue almost archangelic, some promise +of immediate and divine interposition, these calm and rational +statements conveyed scarcely any sense, so terrible was the +destruction of his hopes. All the trust and candour and sweetness of +his nature turned to gall. + +He listened, a sullen, savage darkness stealing over his countenance. + +"And our rights? Theirs? -- mine?" he said as Don Silverio paused. + +"For all rights taken away they will give legal compensation." + +"You dare repeat that, sir?" + +Don Silverio controlled his indignation with difficulty. + +"I dare do whatever I deem right to do. You should know that by this +time." + +"You think this right?" + +"I think it right to repeat exactly what has been said to me. I do +not of necessity approve because I repeat." + +"You know no compensation is possible!" + +"Morally, none. I speak of but what the law allows." + +"The law of pirates, of cut-throats!" + +"The law of the State, alas!" + +Adone laughed. His hearer had heard such laughter as that in +madhouses. + +"The State kills a soldier, and gives his family a hundred francs! +That is the compensation of the State. If they emptied their +treasuries, could they give the soldier back his life? If they +emptied their treasuries, could they give us back what they will take +from us?" + +"My dear son, do not doubt my sympathy. All my heart is with you. But +what can be done? Can a poor village, a poor commune, struggle with +any chance of success against a rich company and a government? Can a +stalk of wheat resist the sickle? Can an ear of wheat resist the +threshing-flail? I have told you the story of Don Quixote della +Mancha. Would you fight the empty air like him?" + +Adone did not reply. + +His beautiful face grew moody, dark, fierce; in his eyes flamed +passions which had no voice upon his lips; his white teeth ground +against one another. + +"Believe me, Adone," said his friend, "we are in evil days, when men +babble of liberty, and are so intent on the mere empty sound of their +lips that they perceive not the fetters on their wrists and feet. +There was never any time when there was so little freedom and so +little justice as in ours. Two gigantic dominions now rule the human +race; they are the armies and the moneymakers. Science serves them +turn by turn, and receives from each its wage. The historian Mommsen +has written that we are probably inferior both in intelligence and in +humanity, in prosperity and in civilisation, at the close of this +century to what the human race was under Severus Antonius; and it is +true." + +Adone did not seem to hear. What were these abstract reasonings to +him? All he cared for were his river and his fields. + +"I sought for an old friend of mine in Rome," said Don Silverio, +endeavouring to gain his attention and divert his thought, "one +Pamfilio Scoria. He was a learned scholar; he had possessed a small +competence and a house of his own, small too, but of admirable +architecture, a Quattrocentisto house. I could not find this house in +Rome. After long search I learned that it had been pulled down to +make a new street. Pamfilio Scoria had in vain tried to preserve his +rights. The city had turned him out and taken his property, paying +what it chose. His grief was so great to see it destroyed, and to be +turned adrift with his books and manuscripts, that he fell ill and +died not long afterwards. On the site of the house there is a +drinking-place kept by Germans; a street railway runs before it. This +kind of theft, of pillage, takes place every week. It is masked as +public utility. We are not alone sufferers from such a crime." + +Adone was still silent. + +His thoughts were not such as he could utter aloud in the priest's +presence; and he heard nothing that was said; he heard only little +Nerina's voice saying: "Could we not kill these men?" That flutelike +whisper seemed to him to sigh with the very voice of the river +itself. + +Don Silverio rose, his patience, great as it was, exhausted. + +"My son, as you do not give ear to me it is useless for me to speak. +I must go to my office. The friar from San Beda desires to return +this evening. I have done all I can. I have told you the facts as +they stand. Take courage, Be peaceable for your mother's sake and +restrain yourself for your own. It is a frightful calamity which +hangs over us all. But it is our duty to meet it like men." + +"Like men!" muttered Adone as he rose to his feet; had not the child +from the Abruzzo rocks a better sense of men's duty than this priest +so calm and wise? + +"Men resist," he said very low. + +"Men resist," repeated Don Silverio. "They resist when their +resistance serves any purpose, but when it can only serve to crush +them uselessly under a mass of iron they are not men if they resist, +but madmen." + +"Farewell, sir," said Adone. + +And with an obeisance he went out of the chamber. + +"Poor boy! Poor, passionate, dear youth!" thought Don Silverio as the +door closed. "He thinks me cold and without emotion; how little he +knows! He cannot suffer as I suffer for him and for my poor wretched +people. What will they do when they shall know? They will mourn like +starved sheep bleating in a field of stones, and I, their shepherd, +shall not have a blade of grass wherewith to comfort them!" + + + + + +XI + +Adone's sight was troubled as soon as he passed out of the dusky room +into the blaze of noonday sunshine. His eyes seemed filled with +blood. His brain was dizzy. That which had been his sheet-anchor in +all doubts and contrition, his faith in and his reverence for Don +Silverio, availed him nothing now. A blind sympathy with his most +violent instincts was the only thing which could now content or +console him. + +He was in that state to which all counsels of moderation appear but +so much treason and unkindness. As he went out of the priest's house +in that dazzling light, a hand caught his sleeve and that young +flutelike voice of which he had thought murmured to him -- + +"Adone! what tidings? What has he told you?" + +Nerina, having run across the bridge and up the street after the +little dog, had seen him and Don Silverio enter, and had waited for +Adone to come out of the house. + +Adone pushed her away. + +"Let me be!" he said impatiently. "It is all bad -- bad -- bad. Bad +as ill-blood. Bad as crime." + +She clung to his arm nevertheless. + +"Come into the church and tell me. No one cares as I do." + +"Poor little soul!" + +He let her draw him into the great porch of the church and thence +into the church itself; it was dark, as it always was, cold as an +autumn evening, damp even in the canicular heat. + +"No one will hear; tell me!" said the child. + +He told her. + +"And what are you to do?" she asked, her eyes dilated with horror. + +"According to him," said Adone bitterly, "I am to be meek and +helpless as the heifer which goes to the slaughter. Men must not +resist what the law permits." + +Nerina was mute. To dispute what Don Silverio said was like blasphemy +to her; she honoured him with all her soul, but she loved Adone. + +She loved the Edera water too; that fair green rippling water, on +whose bank she had sat naked under the dock leaves the day the two +rams had fought. That which was threatened was an unholy, wicked, +cruel robbery. Was it indeed necessary to yield to it in submission? + +She remembered a saying of Baruffo's: "If a man stand up to me I +leave him some coins in his pocket, some life in his body; but if he +crouch and cringe I stick him in the throat. He is a craven." + +The doctrine of Baruffo seemed to her the more sound. It warmed the +blood of the little Abruzzo-born maiden to recall it. In the high +mountains and forests the meeker virtues are not greatly honoured. + +She stood by Adone's side, knitting her brows under her auburn +curling locks, clenching her hands. + +"Is there _one_ who does this evil most of all?" she said at length. +"_One_ we could reach?" + +"You are a brave child, Nerina!" said Adone, and his words made her +proud. "I fear there is a crowd. Such men are like locusts; they come +in swarms. But the first man who touches the water--" + +"Shall sup of it and drown!" + +The little girl added the words with a fierce joy in her great bright +eyes. + +"Hush!" said Adone, "and get you homeward, and tell my mother that +Don Silverio has returned, and that I will come back to my work in a +little while. Tell her he says there is no hope." + +Nerina obeyed him instantly, her bare feet flying over the stones of +the street. He was left alone in the sombre church, with the great +winged angels of stone above his head. + +He was grateful for its gloom. He shrank from the light of the +morning. Every drop of blood in his body, and in his brain, and in +his limbs, seemed to him to turn to fire -- a fire which all the +waters of the Edera would never quench. + +How could they be accused of rebellion or wrong-doing because they +wanted to keep the water running in the channel which it had made for +itself in the very beginning of the world? + +The Edera was ancient as its neighbours, the Fiumicino which heard +the voice of Cæsar, or the Marecchia which was bridged by Augustus; +ancient as the fountain of Arethusa, as the lake of Diana Nemorensis. +What sacrilege could be more heinous than to chase it from its chosen +course? No Lucumon of Etruria, or Esarch of Ravenna, or Pope or Rome, +had ever dared to touch it. Revolutionists! they, who only sought to +preserve it? The revolutionists were those who with alien hands and +vampire's greed would seek to disturb its peace. + + + + + +XII + +All that day the people of Ruscino crowded round the Presbytery. + +"What of the Edera water, sir?" they asked him a hundred times in the +shrill cries of the women, in the rude bellow of the men, in the +high-pitched, dissonant clamour of angry speakers. And all the day +his patience and kindness were abused, and his nerves racked and +strained, in the effort to persuade them that the river which ran +beneath their walls was no more theirs than the stars which shone +above it. + +It was hopeless to bring home to their intelligence either the +invalidity of their claim, or the peril which would lie in their +opposition. + +"'Twas there in the beginning of time," they said. "There it must be +for our children's children." + +He talked nonsense, they thought; who should be able to stop a river +which was for ever running? The Edera water was carried in the womb +of the Leonessa: Leonessa gave it fresh birth every day. + +Yes! thought Don Silverio, as he walked by the river after sunset, +and watched its bright, impetuous current dash over the stones and +shingle whilst two kingfishers flashed along its surface. Yes, truly +Nature would pour it forth every day from her unfailing breast so +long as man did not do it outrage. But how long would that be? A +year, two years, three years, at most; then its place would know it +no more, and its song would be silent. The water-pipet would make its +nest no more in its sedges, and the blue porphyrion would woo his +mate no more on its bosom. As one of the rich men in Rome had said to +him with a cynical smile, "The river will be there always, only it +will be dry!" + +In the gloaming he went and spoke to Adone's mother. She was at her +spinning-wheel, but her hands moved mechanically; her face was dark +and her eyelids swollen. + +"My friend," he said, as he sat down on the bench beneath the +rose-tree, "I have brought you ill-tidings." + +"It is true then, sir?" + +"Alas!" + +"I do not believe it. God will not let it be." + +"Would that I could think so." + +"'Tis you, sir, who should think so, and not I." + +"My good Clelia," he said, with some impatience, "it is no use to +dream dreams. Try and persuade your son to accept the inevitable. My +words seem harsh. They are not so. But I dare not let you cherish +your illusions like this; blind yourself to fact, you expect some +supernatural intercession. They will take your river; they will take +your lands. Your house will be yours no more. If you do not go +peaceably they will have you turned out, as if you were a debtor. +This may take some time, for it will be done with all due legal +forms, but it will be done. They will pay you and your son some value +by appraisement, but they will take your land and your house and all +that is yours and his; I have seen the plans in Rome. Can you think +that I should invent this to torture you? There will be a process, a +sentence, an award; the money the law allots to you will be strictly +paid to you; but you will be driven away from the Terra Vergine. +Realise this. Try and keep your reason and save your son from +madness. Surely, where there is great love between two people, and +bonds of memory and mutual duty, and strong faith, there a home may +be made anywhere, even over seas?" + +Clelia Alba snapped with violence the thread she span. "They have +talked you over, sir," she said curtly. "When you went away you were +with us." + +"With you!" he echoed. "In heart, in pity, in sympathy, yes; never +could I be otherwise. But were I to see you struck with lightning, +should I save you by telling you that lightning did not kill? I did +not know that the enterprise was as mature as I found it to be when I +saw the promoters of it in Rome. But I know now that it has been long +in incubation; you must remember that every bend and ordnance maps; +every stream, however small, is known to the technical office, and +the engineers civil and military. I abhor the project. It is to me a +desecration, an infamy, a robbery; it will ruin the Valdedera from +every point of view; but we can do nothing; this is what I implore +you to realise. We are as helpless as one of your fowls when you cut +its throat. Violence can only hurry your son into the grip of the +law. His rights are morally as plain as yonder snow on those +mountains; but because they will buy his rights at what will be +publicly estimated as a fair price, the law will not allow him to +consider himself injured. My dear friend, you are a woman of sense +and foresight; try to see this thing as it is." + +"I will hear what Adone says, sir," replied Clelia Alba doggedly. "If +he bids me burn the house, I shall burn it." + +Don Silverio was heart-sick and impatient. What use was it to argue +with such minds as these? As well might he waste his words on the +trunks of the olives, on the oxen in their stalls. + +They were wronged. + +That the wrong done them was masked under specious pretences, and was +protected by all the plate armour of law and government, made the +outrage little the worse to them. The brigand from the hills who used +to harry their cattle and pillage their strong-box looked to them a +hero, a saint, a Christ, compared to these modern thieves who were +environed with all the defences and impunity which the law and the +State could give. When an earth-shock makes the soil under your feet +quiver, and gape, and mutter, you feel that unnatural forces are +being hurled against you, you feel that you are the mere sport and +jest of an unjust deity. This was what they felt now. + +"Nay," said Clelia Alba, "if the earth opened, and took us, it would +be kinder; it would bury us at least under our own rooftree." + +What use was it to speak to such people as these of the right of +expropriation granted by parliament, of the authority of a +_dicastero_, and of a prefecture, of the sophistries and arguments of +lawyers, of the adjudication of values, of the appraisement of +claims? They were wronged: and they came of a race and of a soil in +which the only fitting redresser of wrong was revenge. + +"Mother," cried Adone, "my father would not have given up his land as +meekly as a sheep yields up her life." + +"No," said Clelia Alba; "whether he came from those war-lords of old +I know not, but he would have fought as they fought." + + + + +XIII + +The autumn and winter passed without more being heard in the +Valdedera of the new invasion. The peasantry generally believed that +such silence was favourable to their wishes; but Don Silverio knew +that it was otherwise. The promoters of the work did not concern +themselves with the local population, they dealt with greater folks; +with those who administered the various communes, and who controlled +the valuation of the land through which the course of the Edera ran; +chiefly those well-born persons who constituted the provincial +council. A great deal of money would change hands, but it was +intended, by all through whose fingers those heavy sums would pass, +that as little of the money as possible should find its way to the +owners of the soil. A public work is like a fat hog; between the +slaughterers, the salesmen, the middlemen, and the consumers, little +falls to the original holder of the hog. The peasants of the +Valdedera were astonished that no one came to treat with them; but +they did not understand that they dwelt under a paternal government, +and the first care of a paternal government is to do everything for +its children which is likely to promise any profit to itself. + +The men of business whom Don Silverio had seen in Rome did not +trouble themselves with the rustic proprietors of either water or +land; they treated with the great officials of the department, with +the deputies, the prefects, and sub-prefects, the syndics and +assessors; so a perfect silence on the question reigned from the rise +of the river to its mouth, and many of the men said over their +wood-fires that they had been scared for nothing. The younger men, +however, and those who were under Adone's influence, were more wary; +they guessed that the matter was being matured without them; that +when the hog should be eaten, the smallest and rustiest flitch would +then be divided amongst them. Agents, such agents as were ministerial +instruments of these magnates in election time, went amongst the +scattered people and spoke to them of the great public utility of the +contemplated works, and made them dispirited and doubtful of the +value of their holdings, and uncertain of the legality of their +tenures. But these agents were cautious and chary of promises, for +they knew that in this district the temper of men was proud and hot +and revengeful; and they knew also that when these rural owners +should be brought into the courts to receive their price they would +be dealt with just as the great men chose. One by one, so that each +should be unsupported by his neighbours, the men of the valley were +summoned, now to this town, now to the other, and were deftly argued +with, and told that what was projected would be their salvation, and +assured that the delegates who would be sent in their name by their +provincial council to the capital would defend all their dearest +interests. + +The rich man, the man of business, the man of cities, may receive in +such transactions compensation, which is greatly to their advantage, +because traffic is their trade, because to buy and sell, and turn and +return, and roll the ball of gold so that it grows bigger every hour, +is their custom and interest. But the poor man, the rustic, the man +with the one ewe lamb, loses always, whether he assents to the sale +or has it forced upon him. These people of the valley might have a +little ready money given them on valuation, but it would be money +clipped and cropped by the avarice of intermediates until little of +it would remain, and they would be driven out to begin life anew; +away from their old rooftree and the fruits of long years of labour. + +From far and near men came to Ruscino to take counsel of its vicar; +his wisdom being esteemed and his intelligence known in the valley +beyond the confines of his parish: and what advice could he give +them? He could but tell them that it was useless to kick against the +pricks. He knew so well the cold, curt, inflexible official answer; +the empty, vapouring regrets, false, simpering, pharisaical; the +parrot-phrases of public interests, public considerations, public +welfare; the smile, the sneer, the self-complacent shrug of those who +know that only the people whom they profess to serve will suffer. To +him, as to them, it seemed a monstrous thing to take away the water +from its natural channel and force the men who lived on it and by it +to alter all their ways of life and see their birthplace changed into +a desert in order that aliens might make money. But he could not +counsel them to resist; no resistance was possible. It was like any +other tyranny of the State: like the fiscal brutality which sold up a +poor man's hayrick or clothing because he could not pay the poll-tax. +If the poor man resisted, if he fired his old fowling-piece, or used +his knife on the minions of the State, what use was such resistance? +He went to rot in prison. + +His calling, his conscience, his good sense, his obedience to law, +all alike compelled him to urge on them patience, submission, and +inaction before the provocation of a great wrong. He dared not even +let them see one tithe of the sympathy he felt, lest if he did so +they should draw from it an incentive to illegal action. + +The part which he was obliged to take in thus persuading the people +to be tranquil under injustice estranged him farther and farther from +Adone Alba, who found it a cowardice and a treachery, although he +dared not say so in words. Had he retained the coolness of reason the +youth would have known and acknowledged that in the position of Don +Silverio no other course would have been possible or decent. But +reason had long left him, and inaction and impulse alone remained. He +would not allow that a wrong might be condemned, and yet endured. To +him all endurance had in it the meanness of condonation. + +He ceased to have any faith in his friend and teacher; and gradually +grew more and more alienated from him; their intimate affection, +their frequent intercourse, their long walks and evening meeting were +over; and even as his spiritual director the vicar had no longer +power over him. Most of his actions and intentions were concealed; +except in the younger men of the district, who saw as he saw, he had +now no confidence in any one. The impending loss of the land and the +water turned all the sweetness of his nature to gall. He thought that +never in the history of the world had any wrong so black been done. +He, himself, flung broadcast the fires of burning incitation without +heeding or caring whither the flames might reach. Riots had been +successful before this: why not now? He was young enough and innocent +enough to believe in the divine right of a just cause. If that were +denied, what remained to the weak? + +If he could, he would have set the valley in flames from one end to +the other rather than have allowed the foreigners to seize it. Had +not his forefather perished in fire on yonder hill rather than cede +to the Borgia? + +Evening after evening he looked at the sun setting behind the Rocca +and felt the black rage in him gnaw at his heart like a vulture. + +They would offer him money for this dear earth, for this fair, +beloved stream! -- the mere thought choked him as a man who loved his +wife would be choked at the though of her dishonoured sale. + +Some were half persuaded that it would be a fine thing to get some +crisp banknotes in exchange for waste ground which yielded little, or +a cabin which was falling to pieces, or a strip of woodland which +gave them fuel, but not much more. But the majority were angry, +irreconcilable, furious to lose the water, full of their wrongs. +These were glad to find Adone Alba a spokesman and a leader: they +were tow which caught fire at his torch. They comprehended little, +but they knew that they were wronged; and they agreed with him that +the labourers who should come from over the border to meddle with +them should be made to rue it bitterly. + +The Italian goes over seas, indeed; huddled under the hatches of +emigrant ships; miserable, starved, confined; unable to move, scarce +able to breathe, like the unhappy beasts carried with him. But he +never goes willingly; he never wrenches himself from the soil without +torn nerves and aching heart; if he lives and makes a little money in +exile he comes back to the shadow of the village church, to the sound +of the village bell which he knew in his boyhood, to walk in the +lanes where he threw his wooden quoit as a lad, and to play dominoes +under the green bough of the winehouse where as a child he used to +watch his elders and envy them. + +Most of these people dwelling on the Edera water had not been five +miles away from the river in all their lives. The moorland birds and +beasts went farther afield than they. They had no interest in what +was beyond their own freehold; they did not even know or care whither +the water went, or whence it came. Where it was, they owned it. That +was enough for them. + +"Sir, what is it Adone does?" said Clelia Alba, one dusky and stormy +eve after vespers. "At nightfall out he goes; and never a word to me, +only 'Your blessing, mother,' he says, as if he might lose his life +where he goes. I thought at first it was some love matter, for he is +young; but it cannot be that, for he is too serious, and he goes +fully armed, with his father's pistols in his belt and his own long +dagger in his stocking. True, they go so to a love tryst, if it be a +dangerous one; if the woman be wedded; only I think it is not that, +for men in love are different. I think that he broods over some act." + +"Neither you nor I can do aught. He is of age to judge for himself," +said Don Silverio; "but, like you, I do not think a woman is the +cause of his absence." + +"Can you not speak to him, sir?" + +"I have spoken. It is useless. He is moved by a motive stronger than +any argument we can use. In a word, good Clelia, this coming seizure +of the water is suffering so great to him that he loses his reason. +He is trying to make the men of the commune see as he sees. He wants +to rouse them, to arm them. He might as well set the calves in your +stalls to butt the mountain granite." + +"Maybe, sir," said Clelia Alba, unwillingly; but her eye gleamed, and +her stern, proud face grew harder. "But he has the right to do it if +he can. If they touch the water they are thieves, worse than those +who came down from the hills in the years of my girlhood." + +"You would encourage him in insurrection, then?" + +"Nay, I would not do that; but neither would I blame him. Every man +has a right to defend his own. Neither his father nor mine, sir, were +cowards." + +"This is no question of cowardice. It is a question of common sense. +A few country lads cannot oppose a government. With what weapons can +they do so? Courage I honour; without it all active virtues are +supine; but it is not courage to attempt the impossible, to lead the +ignorant to death -- or worse." + +"Of that my son must judge, sir," said Adone's mother, inflexible to +argument. "I shall not set myself against him. He is master now. If +he bid me fire the place I shall do it. For four-and-twenty years he +obeyed me like a little child; never a murmur, never a frown. Now he +is his own master, and master of the land. I shall do as he tells me. +It is his turn now, and he is no fool, sir, Adone." + +"He is no fool; no. But he is beside himself. He is incapable of +judgment. His blood is on fire and fires his brain." + +"I think not, sir. He is quiet. He speaks little" + +"Because he meditates what will not bear speech. Were he violent I +should be less alarmed. He shuns me -- me -- his oldest friend." + +"Because no doubt, sir, he feels you are against him." + +"Against him! How can I, being what I am, be otherwise? Could you +expect me to foment insurrection, and what less than that can +opposition such as he intends become?" + +"You speak as you feel bound to speak, sir, no doubt." + +"But think of the end? Must not every action be weighed and +considered and judgment passed on it by what will be its issue? No +rising of our poor people can effect anything except their own +destruction. It is only a demagogue who would urge them on to it. +Adone is not a demagogue. He is a generous youth frantic from sorrow, +but helpless. Can you not see that?" + +"I do not see that he is helpless," said his mother with obstinacy. +"The thing that are about to do us is unjust. I would load a gun +myself against them, and if money be what is wanted I would give +Adone my pearls. He asks me for nothing, but when he does I will +strip myself to my shift to aid him." + +"It is a terrible madness!" cried Don Silverio. "What can your +fowling-piece or your necklace do against all the force these +speculators and contractors will employ? It is a great, a heinous +wrong which will be done to you; that no one can feel more strongly +than I. But there are wrongs to which we must submit when we are +weak; and, my good Clelia, against this we poor folks in the Vale of +Edera are as weak as the teal in the marshes against the swivel guns +of the sportsmen's punts." + +But he argued in vain; logic and persuasion are alike useless when +opposed to the rock of ignorance and obstinacy. She held him in deep +reverence; she brought her conscience to his judgment; she thought +him beyond ordinary humanity: but when he endeavoured to persuade her +that her son was wrong he failed. + +"Sir, you know that this crime against the river will ruin us," she +said doggedly. "Why then should you try to tie our hands? I do not +know what Adone does; his mind is hid from me, but if, as you say, he +wants a rising of our people, it is natural and just." + +When the mind of the peasant -- man or woman -- be made up in its +stubbornness, all learning, wisdom, experience, even fact, speak in +vain; it opposes to all proofs the passive resistance of a dogged +incredulity: to reason with it is as useless as to quarry stone with +a razor. + +Many and many a time had he given up in exhaustion and nausea his +endeavours to convince the rural mind of some simple fact, some clear +cause, some elementary principle. He knew that Clelia Alba would +never believe in the exile which would be her certain fate until the +armed and liveried creatures of the State should drive her from her +home by order of the State. He had seen in Rome that there was no +possible chance of opposing this enterprise against the Edera water. +It had been decided on by men of money who had the ear of ministers, +the precedence in ante-chambers, the means of success in political +departments and in commercial centres. A few scattered provincial +owners of land and labourers on land might as well try to oppose +these men as the meek steinbok in the mountain solitudes to escape +the expanding bullet of a prince's rifle. Yet he also saw how +impossible it was to expect a young man like Adone, with his lineage, +his temperament, his courage, and his mingling of ignorance and +knowledge, to accept the inevitable without combat. As well might he +be bidden to accept dishonour. + +The remorse in his soul was keen, inasmuch as without him Adone would +never have known of his descent from the lords of Ruscino, and never, +probably, have acquired that "little learning" which a poet of the +north has said is a dangerous thing. + +"Better," thought Don Silverio, with tormenting self-reproach, +"better have left him to his plough, to his scythe, to his +reaping-hook; better have left him in ignorance of the meaning of art +and of study; better have left him a mere peasant to beget peasants +like himself. Then he would have suffered less, and might possibly +have taken peaceably such compensation as the law would have allowed +him for the loss to his land, and have gone away to the West, as so +many go, leaving the soil they were born on to pass out of culture." + +Would Adone ever have done that? No; he would not; he was wedded to +the soil like the heaths that grew out of it. He might be violently +dragged away, but he would never live elsewhere; his heart had struck +its roots too deeply into the earth which nurtured him. + +"Why did you tell him of all the great men that lived?" Clelia Alba +had often said to him. "Why did you fill his soul with that hunger +which no bread that is baked can content? We, who work to live, have +no time to do aught except work, and sleep awhile to get strength for +more work; and so on, always the same, until age ties knots in our +sinews, and makes our blood thin and slow. What use is it to open +gates to him which he must never pass, to make his mind a tangled +skein that can never be undone? When you work hard you want to rest +in your resting hours, not to dream. Dreaming is no rest. He is +always dreaming, and now he dreams of blood and fire." + +Don Silverio's heart was with them, and by all the obligations of his +calling was forced to be against them. He was of a militant temper; +he would gladly have led them into action as did the martial priests +of old; but his sense, his duty, his conscience, all forbade him to +even show them such encouragement as would lie in sympathy. Had he +been rich he would have taken their cause into the tribunals and +contested this measure inch by inch, however hopelessly. But who +would plead for a poor parish, for a penniless priest? What payment +could he offer, he who could scarcely find the coins to fill his +salt-box or to mend his surplice? + +A great anxiety consumed him. He saw no way out of this calamity. The +people were wronged, grossly wronged, but how could they right that +wrong? Bloodshed would not alter it, or even cure it. What was +theirs, and the earth's, was to be taken from them; and how were they +to be persuaded that to defend their own would be a crime. + +"There is nothing, then, but for the people to lie down and let the +artillery roll over them!" said Adone once, with bitter emphasis. + +"And the drivers and the gunners are their own brothers, sons, +nephews, who will not check their gallop an instant for that fact; +for the worst thing about force is that it makes its human +instruments mere machines like the guns which they manoeuver," thought +Don Silverio, as he answered aloud: "No; I fear there will be nothing +else for them to do under any tyranny, until all the nations of the +earth shall cease to send their children to be made the janissaries +of the State. No alteration of existing dominions will be possible so +long as the Armies exist." + +Adone was silent; convinced against his will, and therefore convinced +without effect or adhesion. + +He dared not tell his friend of the passionate propaganda which he +had begun up and down the course of the Edera, striving to make these +stocks and stones stir, striving to make the blind see, the deaf +hear, the infirm rise and leap. + +"Let us go and make music," said the priest at last. "That will not +harm any one, and will do our own souls good. It is long since I +heard your voice." + +"It will be longer," thought Adone, as he answered: "Excuse me, sir; +I cannot think of any other thing than this great evil which hangs +over us. There is not one of our country people who does not curse +the scheme. They are frightened and stupid, but they are angry and +miserable. Those who are their spokesmen, or who ought to be, do not +say what they wish, do not care what they wish, do not ask what they +wish. They are the sons of the soil, but they count for nothing. If +they met to try and do anything for themselves, guards -- soldiery -- +would come from a distance, they say, and break up the meetings, and +carry those who should speak away to some prison. The Government +approves the theft of the water: that is to be enough." + +"Yet public meeting has been a right of the people on the Latin soil +ever since the Cæsars." + +"What matter right, what matter wrong? No one heeds either." + +"We must help ourselves." + +He spoke sullenly and under his breath. He did not dare to say more +clearly what was in his thoughts. + +"By brute force?" said Don Silverio. "That were madness. What would +be the number of the able-bodied men of all three communes? Let us +say two thousand; that is over the mark. What weapons would they +have? Old muskets, old fowling-pieces, and not many of those; their +scythes, their axes, their sticks. A single battalion would cut them +down as you mow grass. You have not seen rioters dispersed by trained +troops. I have. I have seen even twenty carabineers gallop down a +street full of armed citizens, the carabineers shooting right and +left without selection; and the street, before they had ridden two +hundred yards, was empty except for a few fallen bodies which the +horses trampled. You can never hope to succeed in these days with a +mere _jacquerie_. You might as well set your wheatsheaves up to +oppose a field battery." + +"Garibaldi," muttered Adone, "he had naught but raw levies!" + +"Garabaldi was an instinctive military genius, like Aguto, like +Ferruccio, like Gian delle Bande Neri, like all the great +Condottieri. But he would probably have rotted in the Spielberg, or +been shot in some fortress of the Quadrilateral, if he had not been +supported by that proclamation of Genoa and campaign of Lombardy, +which were Louis Napoleon's supreme errors in French policy." + +Adone was silent, stung by that sense of discomfiture and +mortification which comes upon those who feel their own inability to +carry on an argument. To him Garibaldi was superhuman, fabulous, far +away in the mists of an heroic past, as Ulysses to Greek youths. + +"You, sir, may preach patience," he said sullenly. "It is no doubt +your duty to preach it. But I cannot be patient. My heart would choke +in my throat." + +Don Silverio looked him straight in the face. + +"What is it you intend to do?" + +"I tell you that you can do nothing, my son." + +"How know you that, reverend? You are a priest, not a man." + +A faint red colour came over Don Silverio's colourless face. + +"One may be both," he said simply. "You are distraught, my son, by a +great calamity. Try and see yourself as other see you, and do not +lead the poor and ignorant into peril. Will the Edera waters be freer +because your neighbours and you are at the galleys? The men of gold, +who have the men of steel behind them, will be always stronger than +you." + +"God is over us all," said Adone. + +Don Silverio was silent. He could not refute that expression of +faith, but in his soul he could not share it; and Adone had said it, +less in faith than in obstinacy. He meant to rouse the country if he +could, let come what might of the rising. + +Who could tell the issue? A spark from a poor man's hearth had set a +city in flames before now. + +"How can you think me indifferent?" said Don Silverio. "Had I no +feeling for you should I not feel for myself? Almost certainly my +life will be doomed to end here. Think you that I shall see with +callousness the ruin of this fair landscape, which has been my chief +consolation through so many dreary years? You, who deem yourself so +wholly without hope, may find solace if you choose to take it. You +are young, you are free, all the tenderest ties of life can be yours +if you choose; if this home be destroyed you may make another where +you will. But I am bound here. I must obey; I must submit. I cannot +move; I cannot alter or renew my fate; and to me the destruction of +the beauty of the Edera valley will be the loss of the only pleasure +of my existence. Try and see with my eyes, Adone; it may help you to +bear your burden." + +But he might as well have spoken to the water itself, or to the +boulders of its rocks, or to the winds which swept its surface. + +"It is not yours," said Adone, almost brutally. "You were not born +here. You cannot know! Live elsewhere? My mother and I? Sooner a +thousand times would we drown in Edera!" + +The water was golden under the reflections of the sun as he spoke; +the great net was swaying in it, clear of the sword rush and iris; a +kingfisher like a jewel was threading its shallows; there was the +fresh smell of the heather and the wild tulips on the air. + +"You do not know what it is to love a thing! -- how should you? -- +you, a priest!" said Adone. + +Don Silverio did not reply. He went on down the course of the stream. + + + + + + +XIV + +One morning in early April Adone received a printed invitation to +attend in five days' time at the Municipality of San Beda to hear of +something which concerned him. It was brought by the little old +postman who went the rounds of the district once a week on his +donkey; the five days had already expired before the summons was +delivered. Adone's ruddy cheeks grew pale as he glanced over it; he +thrust it into the soil and drove his spade through it. The old man +waiting, in hopes to get a draught of wine, looked at him in dismay. + +"Is that a way to treat their Honours' commands?" he said aghast. + +Adone did not answer or raise his head; he went on with his digging; +he was turning and trenching the soil to plant potatoes; he flung +spadefuls of earth over the buried summons. + +"What's amiss with you, lad?" said the old fellow, who had known him +from his infancy. + +"Leave me," said Adone, with impatience. "Go to the house if you want +to drink and to bait your beast." + +"Thank ye," said the old man. "But you will go, won't you, Adone? It +fares ill with those who do not go." + +"Who told you to say that?" + +"Nobody; but I have lived a' many years, and I have carried those +printed papers a' many years, and I know that those who do not go +when they are called rue it. Their Honours don't let you flout them." + +"Their Honours be damned!" said Adone. "Go to the house." + +The little old man, sorely frightened, dropped his head, and pulling +his donkey by its bridle went away along the grass path under the +vines. + +Adone went on delving, but his strong hands shook with rage and +emotion as they grasped the handle of the spade. He knew as well as +if he had been told by a hundred people that he was called to treat +of the sale of the Terra Vergine. He forced himself to go on with his +forenoon's labour, but the dear familiar earth swam and spun before +his sight. + +"What?" he muttered to it, "I who love you am not your owner? I who +was born on you am not your lawful heir? I who have laboured on you +ever since I was old enough to use a tool at all am now in my manhood +to give you up to strangers? I will make you run red with blood +first!" + +It wanted then two hours of noon. When twelve strokes sounded from +across the river, tolled slowly by the old bronze bell of the church +tower, he went for the noonday meal and rest to the house. + +The old man was not longer there, but Clelia Alba said to him -- + +"Dario says they summon you to Dan Beda, and that you will not go?" + +"He said right." + +"But, my son," cried his mother, "go you must! These orders are not +to be shirked. Those who give them have the law behind them. You know +that." + +"They have the villainy of the law behind them: the only portion of +the law the people ever suffered to see." + +"But how can you know what it is about if you do not go?" + +"There is only one thing which it can be. One thing that I will not +hear." + +"You mean for the river -- for the land?" + +"What else?" + +Her face grew as stern as his own. "If that be so... Still you should +go, my son; you should go to hold your own." + +"I will hold my own," said Adone; and in his thoughts he added, "but +not by words." + +"What is the day of the month for which they call you?" asked his +mother. + +"The date is passed by three days. That is a little feat which +authority often plays upon the people." + +They went within. The meal was eaten in silence; the nut-brown eyes +of Nerina looked wistfully in their faces, but she asked nothing; she +guessed enough. + +Adone said nothing to Don Silverio of the summons, for he knew that +the priest would counsel strongly his attendance in person at San +Beda, even though the date was already passed. + +But the Vicar had heard of it from the postman, who confided to him +the fears he felt that Adone would neglect the summons, and so get +into trouble. He perceived at once the error which would be committed +if any sentence should be allowed to go by default through absence of +the person cited.. By such absence the absentee discredits himself; +whatsoever may be the justice of his cause, it is prejudiced at the +outset. But how to persuade of this truth a man so blind with pain +and rage and so dogged in self-will as Adone had become, Don Silverio +did not see. He shrank from renewing useless struggles and disputes +which led to no issue. He felt that Adone and he would only drift +farther and farther apart with every word they spoke. + +The young man viewed this thing through a red mist of hatred and +headstrong fury; it was impossible for his elder to admit that such +views were wise or pardonable, or due to anything more than the +heated visions evoked by a great wrong. + +That evening at sunset he saw the little girl Nerina at the river. +She had led the cows to the water, and they and she were standing +knee deep in the stream. The western light shone on their soft, +mottled, dun hides and on her ruddy brown hair and bright young face. +The bearded bulrushes were round them; the light played on the broad +leaves of the docks and the red spikes of great beds of willow-herb; +the water reflected the glowing sky, and close to its surface numbers +of newly-come swallows whirled and dipped and darted, chasing gnats, +whilst near at hand on a spray a little woodlark sang. + +The scene was fair, peaceful, full of placid and tender loveliness. + +"And all this is to be changed and ruined in order that some sons of +the mammon of unrighteousness may set up their mills to grind their +gold," he thought to himself as he passed over the stepping-stones, +which at this shallow place could be crossed dryfoot. + +"Where is Adone?" he called to the child. + +"He is gone down the river in the punt, most reverend." + +"And his mother?" + +"Is at the house, sir." + +Don Silvero went through the pastures under the great olives. When he +reached the path leading to the house he saw Clelia Alba seated +before the doorway spinning. The rose-tree displayed its first +crimson buds above her head; on the roof sparrows and starlings were +busy. + +Clelia Alba rose and dropped a low courtesy to him, then resumed her +work at the wheel. + +"You have heard, sir?" she said in a low tone. "They summons him to +San Beda." + +"Old Dario told me; but Adone will not go?" + +"No sir; he will never go." + +"He is in error." + +"I do not know sir. He is best judge of that." + +"I fear he is in no state of mind to judge calmly of anything. His +absence will go against him. Instead of an amicable settlement the +question will go to the tribunals, and if he be unrepresented there +he will be condemned _in contumacium_." + +"Amicable settlement?" repeated his mother, her fine face animated +and stern, and her deep dark eyes flashing. "Can you, sir, dare you, +sir, name such a thing? What they would do is robbery, vile robbery, +a thousand times worse than aught the men of night ever did when they +came down from the hills to harass our homesteads." + +"I do not say this otherwise; but the law is with those who harass +you now. We cannot alter the times, good Clelia; we must take them as +they are. Your son should go to San Beda and urge his rights, not +with violence but with firmness and lucidity; he should also provide +himself with an advocate, or he will be driven out of his home by +sheer force, and with some miserable sum as compensation." + +Clelia Alba's brown skin grew ashen grey, and its heavy lines +deepened. + +"You mean... that is possible?" + +"It is more than possible. It is certain. These things always end so. +My poor dear friend! do you not understand, even yet, that nothing +can save your homestead?" + +Clelia Alba leaned her elbows on her knees and bowed her face upon +her hands. She felt as women of her race had felt on some fair morn +when they had seen the skies redden with baleful fires, and the +glitter of steel corslets shine under the foliage, and had heard the +ripe corn crackle under the horses' hoofs, and had heard the +shrieking children scream, "The lances are coming, mother! Mother! +save us!" + +Those women had had no power to save homestead or child; they had +seen the pikes twist in the curling locks, and the daggers thrust in +the white young throats, and the flames soar to heaven, burning +rooftree and clearing stackyard, and they had possessed no power to +stay the steel or quench the torch. She was like them. + +She lifted her face up to the light. + +"He will kill them." + +"He may kill one man -- two men -- he will have blood on his hands. +What will that serve? I have told you again and again. This thing is +inevitable -- frightful, but inevitable, like war. In war do not +millions of innocent and helpless creatures suffer through no fault +of their own, no cause of their own, on account of some king's +caprice or statesman's blunder? You are just such victims here. +Nothing will preserve to you the Terra Vergine. My dear old friend, +have courage." + +"I cannot believe it, sir; I cannot credit it. The land is ours; this +little bit of the good and solid earth is ours; God will not let us +be robbed of it." + +"My friend! no miracles are wrought now. I have told you again and +again and again you must lose this place." + +"I will not believe it!" + +"Alas! I pray hat you may not be forced to believe; but I know that I +pray in vain. Tell me, you are certain that Adone will not answer +that summons?" + +"I am certain." + +"He is mad." + +"No, sir he is not mad. No more than I, his mother. We have faith in +Heaven." + +Don Silverio was silent. It was not for him to tell them that such +faith was a feeble staff. + +"I must not tarry," he said, and rose. "The night is near at hand. +Tell your son what I have said. My dear friend, I would almost as +soon stab you in the throat as say these things to you; but as you +value your son's sanity and safety make him realise this fact, which +you and he deny: the law will take your home from you, as it will +take the river from the province." + +"No, sir!" said Clelia Alba fiercely. "No, no, no! There is a God +above us!" + +Don Silverio bade her sadly farewell, and insisted no more. He went +through the odorous grasslands, where the primrose and wild hyacinth +grew so thickly and the olive branches were already laden with small +green berries, and his soul was uneasy, seeing how closed is the mind +of the peasant to argument or to persuasion. Often had he seen a poor +beetle pushing its ball of dirt up the side of a sandhill only to +fall back, and begin again, and again fall; for any truth to +endeavour to penetrate the brain of the rustic is as hard as for the +beetle to climb the sand. He was disinclined to seek the discomfiture +of another useless argument, but neither could he be content in his +conscience to let this matter wholly alone. + +Long and dreary as the journey was to San Beda, he undertook it +again, saying nothing to any one of his purpose. He hoped to be able +to put Adone's contumacy in a pardonable light before the Syndic, and +perhaps to plea his cause better than the boy could plead it for +himself. To Don Silverio he always seemed a boy still, and therefore +excusable in all his violence and extravagances. + +The day was fine and cool, and walking was easier and less exhausting +than it had been at the season of his first visit; moreover, his +journey to Rome had braced his nerves and sinews to exertion, and +restored to him the energy and self-possession which the long, +tedious, monotonous years of solitude in Ruscino had weakened. There +was a buoyant wind coming from the sea with rain in its track, and a +deep blue sky with grand clouds drifting past the ultramarine hues of +the Abruzzo range. The bare brown rocks grew dark as bronze, and the +forest-clothed hills were almost black in the shadows, as the +clustered towers and roofs of the little city came in sight. He went, +fatigued as he was, straight to the old ducal palace, which was now +used as the municipality, without even shaking the dust off his feet. + +"Say that I come for the affair of Adone Alba," he said to the first +persons he saw in the ante-room on the first floor. In the little +ecclesiastical town his calling commanded respect. They begged him to +sit own and rest, and in a few minutes returned to say that the most +illustrious the Count Corradini would receive him at once in his +private room; it was a day of general council, but the council would +not meet for an hour. The Syndic was a tall, spare, frail man, with a +patrician's face and an affable manner. He expressed himself in +courteous terms as flattered by the visit of the Vicar Ruscino, and +inquired if in any way he could be of the slightest service. + +"Of the very greatest, your Excellency," said Don Silverio. "I have +ventured to come hither on behalf of a young parishioner of mine, +Adone Alba, who, having received the summons of your Excellency only +yesterday, may, I trust, be excused for not having obeyed it on the +date named. He is unable to come to-day. May I offer myself for his +substitute as _amicus curie_!" + +"Certainly, certainly," said Corradini, relieved to meet an educated +man instead of the boor he had expected. "If the summons were delayed +by any fault of my officials, the delay must be inquired into. +Meanwhile, most reverend, have you instructions to conclude the +affair?" + +"As yet, I venture to remind your Excellency, we do not even know +what is the affair of which you speak." + +"Oh no; quite true. The matter is the sale of the land known under +the title of the Terra Vergine." + +"Thank Heaven I am here, and not Adone," thought Don Silverio. + +Aloud he answered, "What sale? The proprietor has heard of none." + +"He must have heard. It can be no news to you that the works about to +be made upon the river Edera will necessitate the purchase of the +land known as the Terra Vergine." + +Here the Syndic put on gold spectacles, drew towards him a black +portfolio filled by plans and papers, and began to move them about, +muttering, as he searched, little scraps of phrases out of each of +them. At last he turned over the sheets which concerned the land of +the Alba. + +"Terra Vergine -- Commune of Ruscino -- owners Alba from 1620 -- +family of good report -- regular taxpayers -- sixty hectares -- land +productive; value -- just so -- humph, humph, humph!" + +Then he laid down the documents and looked at Don Silverio from over +his spectacles. + +"I conclude, most reverend, that you come empowered by this young man +to treat with us?" + +"I venture, sir," replied Don Silverio respectfully, "to remind you +again that it is impossible I should be so empowered, since Adone +Alba was ignorant of the reason for which he was summoned here." + +Corradini shuffled his documents nervously with some irritation. + +"This conference, then, is a mere waste of time? I hold council +to-day --" + +"Pardon me, your Excellency," said Don Silverio blandly. "It will not +be a waste of time if you will allow me to lay before you certain +facts, and, first, to ask you one question: Who is, or are, the buyer +or buyers of this land?" + +The question was evidently unwelcome to the Syndic; it was direct, +which every Italian considers ill-bred, and it was awkward to answer. +He was troubled for personal reasons, and the calm and searching gaze +of the priest's dark eyes embarrassed him. After all, he thought, it +would have been better to deal with the boor himself. + +"Why do you ask that?" he said irritably. "You are aware that the +National Society for the Improvement of Land and the foreign company +of the Teramo-Tronto Electric Railway combine in these projected +works?" + +"To which of these two societies, then, is Adone Alba, or am I, as +his _locum tenens_, to address ourselves?" + +"To neither. This commune deals with you." + +"Why?" + +Count Corradini took off his glasses, put them on again, shifted the +papers and plans in his imposing portfolio. + +"May I ask again -- why?" said Don Silverio in the gentlest tones of +his beautiful voice. + +"Because, because," answered the Syndic irritably, "because the whole +affair is in treaty between our delegates and the companies. Public +societies do not deal with private individuals directly, but by +proxy." + +"Pardon my ignorance," said Don Silverio, "but why does the commune +desire to substitute itself for the owner?" + +"It is usual." + +"Ah! It is usual." + +Corradini did not like the repetition of his phrase, which would not +perhaps bear very close examination. He looked at his watch. + +"Excuse me, Reverend Father, but time presses." + +"Allow me to crave of your bounty a little more time, nevertheless. I +am not habituated to business, but I believe, if I understand your +worshipful self aright, the commune contemplates purchasing from the +individuals, with power and intent to sell to the companies." + +What an unmannerly ecclesiastic! thought Corradini; for indeed, put +thus bluntly and crudely what the commune, as represented by himself, +was doing did not look as entirely correct as could be desired. + +"I was in Rome, most illustrious," said Don Silverio, "in +connection with this matter some months ago?" + +"In Rome?" + +To hear this was unpleasant to the Syndic; it ha never occurred to +him that his rural, illiterate, and sparsely populated district would +have contained any person educated enough to think of inquiring in +Rome about this local matter. + +"To Rome! Why did you go to Rome?" + +"To acquire information concerning this scheme." + +"You are an owner of land?" + +"No, sir. I am a poor, very poor, priest." + +"It cannot concern you, then." + +"It concerns my people. Nothing which concerns them is alien to me." + +"Humph, humph! Most proper, most praiseworthy. But we have no time +for generalities. You came to treat of the Terra Vergine?" + +"Pardon me, sir; I came to hear why you summoned Adone Alba, one of +my flock." + +"Could he not have come himself? It had been but his duty." + +"He could not, sir; and, to say truth, he would not. He does not +intend to sell his land." + +"What!" + +Corradini half rose from his chair, leaning both hands on the table, +and staring though his glasses across the mass of portfolios and +papers at the priest. + +"He will have no choice allowed him," he said with great anger. "To +the interests of the State all minor interests must bend. What! a +mere peasant stand in the way of a great enterprise?" + +"You intend expropriation then?" + +The voice of Don Silverio was very calm and sweet, but his +countenance was stern. + +Corradini was irritated beyond measure. He did not desire to play +that great card so early in the game. + +"I do not say that," he muttered. "There must be parliamentary +sanction for any forced sale. I spoke in general terms. Private +interest must cede to public" + +"There is parliamentary sanction already given to the project for the +Valley of Edera," said Don Silverio, "expropriation included." + +Count Corradini threw himself back in his chair with an action +expressive at once of wrath and of impotence. He had an irritating +sense that this priest was master of the position, and knew much more +than he said. In reality Don Silverio knew very little, but he had +skill and tact enough to give a contrary impression to his auditor. +He followed up his advantage. + +"Expropriation is to be permitted to enforce sales on recalcitrant +landowners," he continued. "But that measure, even though conceded in +theory, will take time to translate into practice. I fear, sir, that +if it be ever put into execution we shall have trouble in your +commune. Your council has been over hasty in allying itself with +these speculators. You and they have not taken into account the +immense injury which will be done to the valley and to my own village +or town, call it as you will, of Ruscino. The people are quiet, +patient, meek, but they will not be so if they are robbed of the +water of the Edera. It is the source of all the little -- the very +little -- good which comes to them. So it is with Adone Alba. He has +been God-fearing, law-abiding, a good son, excellent in all +relations; but he will not recognise as law the seizure of his land. +Sir, you are the elected chief of this district; all these people +look to you for support in their emergency. What are these foreign +speculators to you that you should side with them? You say this +commune will purchase from its peasant proprietors in the interests +of these foreigners. Was it to do this that they elected you? Why +should the interests of the foreigners be upheld by you to the injury +of those of your own people? Speaking for my own parish, I can affirm +to you that, simple souls as they are, poor in the extreme, and +resigned to poverty, you will have trouble with them all if you take +it on you to enforce the usurpation of the Edera water." + +Count Corradini, still leaning back in his large leathern chair, +listened as if he were hypnotised; he was astounded, offended, +enraged, but he was fascinated by the low, rich, harmonious +modulations of the voice which addressed him, and by the sense of +mastery which the priest conveyed without by a single word asserting +it. + +"You would threaten me with public disorder?" he said feebly, and +with consciousness of feebleness. + +"No sir; I would adjure you, in God's name, not to provoke it." + +"It does not rest with me." + +He raised himself in his chair: his slender aristocratic hands played +nervously with the strings of the portfolio, his eyelids flickered, +and his eyes avoided those of his visitor. + +"I have no voice in this matter. You mistake." + +"Surely your Excellency speaks with the voice of all you electors?" + +"Of my administrative council, then? But they are all in favour of +the project; so is his Excellency the Prefect, so is the Deputy, so +is the Government. Can I take upon myself in my own slender +personality to oppose these?" + +"Yes, sir, because you are the mouthpiece of those who cannot speak +for themselves." + +"Euh! Euh! That may be true in a sense. But you mistake; my authority +is most limited. I have but two votes in Council. I am as wholly +convinced as you can be that some will suffer for the general good. +The individual is crushed by the crowd in these days. We are in a +period of immense and febrile development; of wholly unforeseen +expansion; we are surrounded by the miracles of science; we are +witnesses of an increase of intelligence which will lead to results +whereof no living man can dream; civilisation in its vast and +ineffable benevolence sometimes wounds, even as the light and heat of +the blessed sun --" + +"Pardon me, sir," said Don Soverio, "at any other moment it would be +my dearest privilege to listen to your eloquence. But time passes. I +came here on a practical errand. I desire to take back some definite +answer to Adone and Clelia Alba. Am I to understand from you that the +municipality, on behalf of these foreign companies, desires to +purchase his land, and even insists upon its right to do so?" + +The Syndic, accustomed to seek shelter from all plain speaking in the +cover of flowery periods such as those in which he had been arrested, +was driven from his usual refuge. He could not resume the noble and +enlightened discourse which had been thus recklessly cut in two. He +tied the strings of the portfolio into a bow, and undid them, and +tied them again. + +"I have received you, sir, _ex officio_," he replied after a long +silence. "You address me as if I possessed some special individual +power. I have none. I am but the mouthpiece, the representative of my +administrative council. You, a learned ecclesiastic, cannot want to +be taught what are the functions of a Syndic." + +"I am to understand then that I must address myself on behalf of my +people to the Prefect?" + +Corradini was silent. The last thing he desired was for this +importunate priest to see the Prefect. + +"I must go into council at once," he said, again looking at his +watch. "Could you return? Are you remaining here?" + +"Some hours, sir." + +"Will you dine with me at my house at three? You will give me much +pleasure, and the Countess Corradini will be charmed." + +"I am grateful for so much offered honour, but I have promised to +make my noonday meal with an old friend, the superior of the +Cistercians." + +"An excellent, a holy person," said Corradini, with a bend of his +head. "Be at my house, reverend sir, at five of the clock. I shall +then have spoken with the assessors of your errand, and it will be +dealt with probably in council." + +Don Silverio made a low bow, and left him free to go to his awaiting +councillors, who were already gathered round a long table covered by +green cloth, in a vaulted and stately chamber, stories from Greek +mythology carved on its oaken doors and stone cornices. + +"Pray excuse me, gentleman," said the courtly mayor to his assessors, +taking his seat on an old walnut-wood throne at the head of the +table. "I have been detained by this matter of the Valdedera. I fear +the people of that valley will show an ungrateful and refractory +temper. How hard it is to persuade the ignorant where their true +interests lie! But let us to business." + +"It will be a hard matter," said the Prior to Don Silverio as they +walked together in the little burial-ground of the monastery between +its lines of rose-trees and its lines of crosses, after the frugal +noonday meal had been eaten in the refrectory. "It will be a hard +matter. You will fail, I fear. The municipalities here smell money. +That is enough to make them welcome the invasion. What can you do +against the force of gold?" + +"Would it avail anything to see the Prefect?" + +"Nothing. He is cousin to the Minister of Agriculture, whose brother +is chairman of the Teramo-Fermo Company. We are governed solely by +what the French call _tripotage_." + +"What character does this Syndic bear?" + +"A good one. He is blameless in his domestic relation, an indulgent +landlord, a gentleman, respectful of religion, assiduous in his +duties; but he is in debt; his large estates produce little; he has +no other means. I would not take upon me to say that he would be +above a bribe." + +At five of the clock, as the Syndic had told him to do, Don Silverio +presented himself at the Palazzo Corradini. He was shown with much +deference by an old liveried servant into a fine apartment with +marble busts in niches in the walls, and antique bookcases of oak, +and doorhangings of Tuscan tapestry. The air of the place was cold, +and had the scent of a tomb. It was barely luminated by two bronze +lamps in which unshaded oil wicks burned. Corradini joined him there +in five minutes' time, and welcomed him to the house with grace and +warmth of courtesy. + +"What does he want of me?" thought Don Silverio, who had not been +often met in life by such sweet phrases. "Does he want me to be +blind?" + +"Dear and reverend sir," said the mayor, placing himself with his +back to the brass lamps, "tell me fully about this youth whom you +protect, who will not sell the Terra Vergine. Here we can speak at +our ease; yonder at the municipality, there may be always some +eavesdropper." + +"Most worshipful, what I said is matter well known to the whole +countryside; all the valley can bear witness to its truth," replied +Don Silverio, and he proceeded to set forth all that he knew of Adone +and Clelia Alba, and of their great love for their lands; he only did +not mention what he believed to be Adone's descent, because he feared +that it might sound fantastical or presumptuous. Nearly three hundred +years of peasant ownership and residence were surely titles enough +for consideration. + +"If land owned thus, and tilled thus by one family, can be taken away +from that family by Act of Parliament to please the greedy schemes of +strangers, why preserve the eighth commandment in the Decalogue? It +becomes absurd. There cannot be a more absolute ownership than this +of the Alba to the farm they live on and cultivate. So long as there +is any distinction at all between _meum et tuum_, how can its violent +seizure be by any possibility defended?" + +"There will be no violent seizure," said Corradini. "The young man +will be offered a good price; even, since you are interested in him, +a high price." + +"But he will take no price -- no price, if he were paid million; they +would not compensate for his loss." + +"He must be a very singular young man." + +"His character is singular, no doubt, in an age in which money is +esteemed the sole goal of existence, and discontent constitutes +philosophy. Adone Alba wants nothing but what he has; he only asks to +be left alone." + +"It is difficult to be left alone in a world full of other people! If +your hero wants a Thebaid, he can go and buy one in La Plata, or the +Argentine, with the price we shall give for his land." + +"We?" repeated Don Silverio with significant emphasis. + +Corradini reddened a little. "I only use the word because I am +greatly interested in the success of this enterprise, being convinced +of its general utility to the province. Being cognisant as I am of +the neighbourhood, I hoped I could prevent some friction." + +"The shares are, I believe, already on the market?" + +It was a harmless remark, yet it was a disagreeable one to the Syndic +of San Beda. + +"What would be the selling price of the Terra Vergine?" he said +abruptly. "It is valued at twelve thousand francs." + +"It is useless to discuss its price," replied Don Silverio, "and the +question is much wider than the limits of the Terra Vergine. In one +word, is the whole of the Valdedera to be ruined because a Minister +has a relation who desires to create an unnecessary railway?" + +"Ruined is a large word. These constructions appear to all, except +primitive and ignorant people, to be improvements, acquisitions, +benefits. In our province we are so aloof from all movement, so +remote in our seclusion, so moss-grown in our antiquity, so wedded to +the past, to old customs, old habits, old ways of act and thought, +that the modern world shocks us as impious, odious, and intolerable." + +"Sir," said Don Silverio with his most caustic smile, "if you are +here to sing the praises of modernity, allow me to withdraw from the +duet. I venture to ask you, as I asked you this morning, one plain +question. To whom is Adone Alba, to whom are my people of Ruscino, to +appeal against the sequestration?" + +"To no one. The Prefect approves; the Minister approves; the local +deputies approve; I and my municipal and provincial councils approve; +Parliament has approved and authorised. Who remain opposed? A few +small landowners and a mob of poor persons living in your village of +Ruscino and in similar places." + +"Who can create grave disorders and will do so." + +"Disorders, even insurrections, do not greatly alarm authority +nowadays; they are easily pressed since the invention of the +quick-firing guns. The army is always on the side of order." + +Don Silverio rose. + +"Most honourable Corradini! your views and mine are so far asunder +that no amount of discussion can assimilate them. Allow me to salute +you." + +"Wait one instant, reverence," said the Syndic. "May I ask how it is +that an ecclesiastic of your appearance and your intellect can have +been buried so long in such an owls' nest as Ruscino?" + +"Sir," replied Don Silverio very coldly, "ask my superiors: I am but +one of the least of the servants of the Church." + +"You might be one of her greatest servants, if influence --" + +"I abhor the word influence. It means a bribe too subtle to be +punished, too gilded to alarm." + +"Nay, sometimes it is but a word in season, a pressure in the right +place." + +"It means that which cannot serve the poor man without degrading +him." + +"But -- but -- if as a reward for duty, advancement cane to you?" + +"I fail to understand." + +"Let me speak frankly. With your superiority to them you must easily +rule the embryo rioters of the Valdedera. If, to your efforts it +should be owing that the population remain quiet, and that this Adone +Alba and others in a similar position come to me in an orderly manner +and a pliant spirit, I will engage that this service to us on your +part shall not be forgotten." + +He paused; but Don Silverio did not reply. + +"It is lamentable and unjust," continued the mayor, "that any one of +your evident mental powers and capacity for higher place should be +wasting your years and wasting your mind in a miserable solitude like +Ruscino. If you will aid us to a pacific cession of the Valdedera I +will take upon myself to promise that your translation to a higher +office shall be favoured by the Government-" + +He paused again, for he did not see upon Don Silverio's countenance +that flattered and rejoiced expression which he expected; there was +even upon it a look of scorn. He regretted that he had said so much. + +"I thank your Excellency for so benevolent an interest in my poor +personality," said Don Silverio. "But with the King's government I +have nothing to do. I am content in the place whereto I have been +called, and have no disposition to assist the speculations of foreign +companies. I have the honour to bid your Excellency good evening." + +He bowed low, and backed out of the apartment this time. Count +Corradini did not endeavour to detain him. + +When he got out into the air the strong mountain wind was blowing +roughly down the steep and narrow street. He felt it with pleasure +smite his cheeks and brows. + +"Truly only from nature can we find strength and health," he +murmured. "In the houses of men there are but fever and corruption, +and uncleanliness." + + + + + +XV + +To neglect no possible chance, he resolved to see the Prefect, if the +Prefect consented to see him. This great official dwelt in a seaport +city, whence he ruled the province, for such a period at least as his +star should be in the ascendant, that is, whilt his political group +should be in power. It was scarcely likely that a government official +would be accessible to any arguments which a poor country priest +could bring forward against a government project. Still, he resolved +to make the effort, for at the Prefect's name apprehension, keen and +quaking, had leapt into Count Corradini's faded eyes. + +From San Beda to the seaport city there stretched some forty miles of +distance; the first part a descent down the spurs of the Apennines, +the latter half through level sandy country, with pine woods here and +there. The first half he covered on foot, the second by the +parliamentary train, which drew its long black line snake-like and +slow, through the dunes and the stagnant waters. He had but a few +francs in his waistband, and could ill afford to expend those. + +When he reached his destination it was evening; too late for him to +present himself at the Prefecture with any chance of admittance. The +Prior at San Beda had given him a letter to the vicar of the church +of Sant Anselmo in the city, and by this gentleman he was received +and willingly lodged for the night. + +"A government project -- a project approved by ministers and +deputies?" said his host on hearing what was the errand on which he +came there. "As well, my brother, might you assail the Gran Sasse +d'Italia! There must be money in it, much money, for our Conscript +Fathers." + +"I suppose so," said Don Silverio, "but I cannot see where it is to +come from." + +"From the pockets of the taxpayers, my friend!" replied the incumbent +of Sant Anselmo, with a smile as of a man who knows the world he +lives in. "The country is honeycombed by enterprises undertaken +solely to this end -- to pass the money which rusts in the pockets of +fools into those of wise men who know how to make it run about and +multiply. In what other scope are all our betterments, our hygiene, +our useless railway lines, our monstrous new streets, all our +modernisation, put in the cauldron and kept boiling like a witch's +supper?" + +"I know, I know," said Don Silverio wearily. "The whole land is +overrun by _affaristi_, like red ants." + +"Do not slander the ants!" replied his host; "I would not offend the +name of any honest, hard-working little insect by giving it to the +men through whom this country is eaten up by selfish avarice and +unscrupulous speculation! But tell me, what do you hope for from our +revered Prefect?" + +"I hope nothing, but I wish to leave no stone unturned. Tell me of +him." + +"Of his Excellency, Giovacchino Gallo, senator, Grand Cross, and +whatnot? There is much to tell, though there is nothing which could +not be also told of many another gentleman in high place. It is the +usual story: the supple spine, the sharp eye, the greased foot. He +was a young lawyer, useful to deputies. He married a lovely woman +whom a prince had admired beyond him. He asked no questions; her +dower was large. To do him justice, he has always behaved very well +to her. He entered Parliament early, and there was useful also, to +existing institutions. He was instrumental in carrying many railway +and canal bills through the chamber. He has been always successful in +his undertakings, and he knows that nothing succeeds like success. I +am told that he and his wife are _persone gratissime_ at the +Quirinale, and that her jewels are extremely fine. When he was named +Senator two years ago the Press, especially the Press of the Right, +saluted his nomination as strengthening the Senate by the accession +to it of a person of impeccable virtue, of enlightened intellect, and +of a character cast in antique moulds of noble simplicity and Spartan +courage. You think, my brother, that this favourite of fortune is +likely to favour your plea for your parishioners?" + +"Dear and revered brother," replied Don Silverio, "I came hither +with no such illusions. If I had done, your biography of this +functionary would have dispelled them." + +Nevertheless, although without hope, at two o'clock of that day he +went to the audience which was granted him at the intervention of the +bishop of the city, obtained by means of the vicar of Sant Anselmo. + +The Prefecture was situated in a palace of sixteenth century +architecture, a noble and stately place of immense size, greatly +injured by telegraph and telephone wires stretching all round it, the +post-office and the tax offices being situated on the ground floor, +and the great central court daubed over with fresh paint and +whitewash. Some little soldiers in dingy uniforms, ill-cut and +ill-fitting, stood about gates and doors. On the first floor were the +apartments occupied by his Excellency. Don Silverio was kept waiting +for some time in a vestibule of fine proportions painted by +Diotisalvi, with a colossal marble group in its centre of the death +of Caesar. + +He looked at it wistfully. + +"Ah, Guilio!" he murmured, "what use were your conquests, what use +was your genius, the greatest perchance the world has ever seen? What +use? You were struck in the throat like a felled ox, and the land you +ruled lies bleeding at every pore!" + +In a quarter of an hour he was ushered through other large rooms into +one of great architectural beauty, where the Prefect was standing by +a writing-table. + +Giovacchino Gallo was a short, stout person with a large stomach, a +bald head, bright restless eyes, and a high, narrow forehead; his +face was florid, like the face of one to whom the pleasures of the +table are not alien. His address was courteous but distant, stiff, +and a little pompous; he evidently believed in himself as a great +person and only unbent to other greater persons, when he unbent so +vastly that he crawled. + +"What can I do for your Reverence?" he asked, as he seated himself +behind the writing-table and pointed to a chair. + +The words were polite but the tone was curt; it was officialism +crystallised. + +Don Silverio explained the purpose of his visit, and urged the +prayers of his people. + +"I am but the vicar of Ruscino," he said in explanation, "but in this +matter I plead for all the natives of the Valdedera. Your Excellency +is Governor of this province, in which the Edera takes its rise and +has its course. My people, and all those others who are not under my +ministry, but whose desires and supplications I represent, venture to +look to you for support in their greatest distress, and intercession +for them against this calamity." + +The face of the Prefect grew colder and sterner, his eyes got an +angry sparkle, his plump, rosy hands closed on a malachite +paper-knife; he wished the knife were of steel, and the people of the +Valdedera had but one head. + +"Are you aware, sir," he said impatiently, "that the matter of which +you speak has had the ratification of Parliament?" + +"But it has not had the ratification of the persons whom it most +concerns." + +"Do you supposed, then, when a great public work is to be +accomplished the promoters are to go hat in hand for permission to +every peasant resident on the area?" + +"A great public work seems to me a large expression: too large for +this case. The railway is not needed. The acetylene works are a +private speculation. I venture to recall to your Excellency that +these people, whom you would ignore, own the land, or, where they do +not own it, have many interests both in the land and the water." +"Pardon me, your Excellency, but that is a phrase: it is not a fact. +You could not, if you gave them millions, compensate them for the +seizure of their river and their lands. These belong to them and to +their descendants by natural right. They cannot be deprived of these +by Act of Parliament without gross injury and injustice." +"There must be suffering for the individual in all benefit of the +general!" + +"And doubtless, sir, when one is not the individual the suffering +appears immaterial!" + +"What an insolent priest!" thought Giovacchino Gallo, and struck the +paper-knife with anger on the table. + +"Take my own parishioners alone," pursued Don Silverio. "Their small +earnings depend entirely upon the Edera water; it gives them their +food, their bed, their occupation; it gives them health and strength; +it irrigates their little holdings, _extra murus_, on which they and +their families depend for grain and maize and rice. If you change +their river-bed into dry land they will starve. Are not your own +countrymen dearer to you than the members of a foreign syndicate?" + +"There will be work for them at the acetylene factory." + +"Are they not free men? Are they to be driven like slaves to a work +which would be hateful to them? These people are country born and +country bred. They labour in the open air, and have done so for +generations. Pardon me, your Excellency, but every year the King's +Government forces into exile thousands, tens of thousands, of our +hard working peasants with their families. The taxation of the land +and of all its products lays waste thousands of square miles in this +country. The country is being depleted and depopulated, and the best +of its manhood is being sent out of it by droves to Brazil, to La +Plata, to the Argentines, to anywhere and everywhere, where labour is +cheap and climate homicidal. The poor are packed on emigrant ships +and sent with less care than crated of fruit receive. They consent to +go because they are famished here. Is it well for a country to lose +its labouring classes, its frugal, willing, and hard-working manhood? +to pack them off across the oceans by contract with other states? The +Government has made a contract with a Pacific island for five +thousand Italians? Are they free men or are they slaves? Can your +Excellency call my people free who are allowed no voice against the +seizure of their own river, and to whom you offer an unwholesome and +indoor labour as compensation for the ruin of their lives? Now, they +are poor indeed, but they are contented; they keep body and soul +together, they live on their natal soil, they live as their fathers +lived. Is it just, is it right, is it wise to turn these people into +disaffection and despair by an act of tyranny and spoilation through +which the only gainers will be foreign speculators abroad and at home +the gamblers of the Bourses? Sir, I do not believe that the world +holds people more patient, more long-suffering, more pacific under +dire provocation, or more willing to subsist on the poorest and +hardest conditions than Italians are; is it right or just or wise to +take advantage of that national resignation to take from half a +province the natural aid and the natural beauty with which God +Himself has dowered it in the gift of the mountainborn stream? You +are powerful, sir, you have the ear of the Government; you will not +try to stop this infamous theft of the Edera water whilst there is +still time?" + +Don Silverio spoke with that eloquence and with that melody of voice +which few could bear unmoved; and even the dull ear and the hard +heart of the official who heard him were for one brief moment moved +as by the pathos of a song sung by some great tenor. + +But that moment was very brief. Over the face of Giovacchino Gallo a +look passed at once brutal and suspicious. "Curse this priest!" he +thought; "he will give us trouble." + +He rose, stiff, cold, pompous, with a frigid smile on his red, full, +_bon viveur's_ lips. + +"If you imagine that I should venture to attack, or even presume to +criticise, a matter which the Most Honourable the Minister of +Agriculture has in his wisdom approved and ratified, you must have a +strange conception of my fitness for my functions. As regards +yourself, Reverend Sir, I regret that you appear to forget that the +chief duty of your sacred office is to inculcate to your flock +unquestioning submission to Governmental decrees." + +"Is that your Excellency's last word?" + +"It is my first, and my last, word." + +Don Silverio bowed low. + +"You may regret it, sir," he said simply, and left the writing-table +and crossed the room. But as he approached the door the Prefect, +still standing, said, "Wait!" + +Gallo opened two or three drawers in his table, searched for some +papers, looked over them, leaving the priest always standing between +him and the door. Don Silverio was erect; his tall frail form had a +great majesty in it; his pallid features were stern. + +"Return a moment," said Gallo. + +"I can hear your Excellency where I am," replied Don Silverio, and +did not stir. + +"I have here reports from certain of my agents," said Gallo, +fingering his various papers, "that there is and has been for some +time a subversive movement amongst the sparse population of the +Valdedera." + +Don Silverio did not speak or stir. + +"It is an agrarian agitation," continued Gallo, "limited to its area, +with little probability of spreading, but it exists; there are +meetings by night, both open-air and secret meetings; the latter take +place now in one farmhouse, now in another. The leader of this +noxious and unlawful movement is one Adone Alba. He is of your +parish." + +He lifted his eyelids and flashed a quick, searching glance at the +priest. + +"He is of my parish," repeated Don Silverio, with no visible emotion. + +"You know of this agitation?" + +"If I did, sir, I should not say so. But I am not in the confidence +of Adone Alba." + +"Of course I do not ask you to reveal the secrets of the +confessional, but --" + +"Neither in the confessional nor out of it have I heard anything +whatever from him concerning any such matter as that of which you +speak." + +"He is a young man?" + +"Yes." + +"And the owner of the land known as the Terra Vergine?" + +"Yes." + +"And his land is comprised in that which will be taken by the +projected works?" + +"Yes." + +"Are you sure that he has not sent you here?" + +"My parishoners are not in the habit of 'sending' me anywhere. You +reverse our respective positions." + +"Humility is not one of your ecclesiastical virtues, Most Reverend." + +"It may be so." + +Gallo thrust his papers back into their drawer and locked it with a +sharp click. + +"You saw the Syndic of San Beda?" + +"I did." + +"Much what you say. Official language is always limited and learned +by rote." + +Gallo would willingly have thrown his bronze inkstand at the insolent +ecclesiastic; his temper was naturally choleric, though years of +sycophancy and State service had taught him to control it. + +"Well, Reverend Sir!" he said, with ill-concealed irritation, "this +conversation is, I see, useless. You protect and screen your people. +Perhaps I cannot blame you for that, but you will allow me to remind +you that it is my duty to see that the order and peace of this +district are not in any manner disturbed; and that any parish priest +if he fomented dissatisfaction or countenanced agitation in his +district, would be much more severely dealt with by me than any +civilian would be in the same circumstances. We tolerate and respect +the Church so long as she remains strictly within her own sphere, but +so long only." + +"We are all perfectly well aware of the conditions attached to the +_placet_ and the _exequatur_ at all times, and we are all conscious +that even the limited privileges of civilians are denied to us!" +replied Don Silverio. "I have the honour to wish your Excellency good +morning." + +He closed the door behind him. + +"Damnation!" said Giovacchino Gallo; "that is a strong man! Is Mother +Church blind that she lets such an one rust and rot in the miserable +parish of Ruscino?" + +When Don Silverio rejoined the Vicar of Sant Anselmo the latter asked +him anxiously how his errand had sped. + +"It was a waste of breath and words," he answered. "I might have +known that it would be so with any Government official." + +"But you might have put a spoke in Count Corradini's wheel. If you +had told Gallo that the other is trafficking --" + +"Why should I betray a man who received me in all good faith? And +what good would it have accomplished if I had done so?" + +And more weary than ever in mind and body he returned to Ruscino. + +As he had left the Prefect's presence that eminent person had rung +for his secretary. + +"Brandone, send me Sarelli." + +In a few moments Sarelli had appeared; he was the usher of the +Prefecture by appointment; by taste and in addition he was its chief +spy. He was a native of the city, and a person of considerable acumen +and excellent memory; he never needed to make memoranda -- there is +nothing so dangerous to an official as written notes. +"Sarelli, what are the reports concerning the vicar of Ruscino?" + +Sarelli stood respectfully at attention; he had been a +non-commissioned officer of artillery; and answered in rapid but +clear tones -- + +"Great ability -- great eloquence -- disliked by superiors; formerly +great preacher in Rome; supposed to be at Ruscino as castigation; +learned -- benevolent -- correct." + +"Humph!" said Gallo, disappointed. "Not likely then to cause trouble +or disorder? -- to necessitate painful measures?" + +Sarelli rapidly took his cue. + +"Hitherto, your Excellency, uniformly correct; except in one instance +--" + +"That instance?" + +"Your Excellency will have heard of Ulisse Ferrero, a great robber of +the lower Abruzzo Citeriore Primo?" + +"I have: continue." + +"Ulisse Ferrero was outlawed; his band had been killed or captured, +every one; he had lost his right arm; he hid for many years in the +lower woods of Abruzzo; he came down at night to the farmhouses, the +people gave him food and drink, and aided him --" + +"Their criminal habit always: continue." + +"Sometimes in one district, sometimes in another, he was often in the +_macchia_ of the Valdedera. The people of the district, and +especially of Ruscino, protected him. They thought him a saint, +because once when at the head of his band, which was then very +strong, he had come into Ruscino and done them no harm, but only +eaten and drunk, and left a handful of silver pieces to pay for what +he and his men had taken. So they protected him now, and oftentimes +for more than a year he came out of the _macchia_, and the villagers +gave him all they could, and he went up and down Ruscino as if he +were a king; and this lasted for several seasons, and, as we learned +afterwards, Don Silverio Frascara had cognisance of this fact, but +did nothing. When Ulisse Ferrero was at last captured (it is nine +years ago come November, and it was not in Ruscino but in the woods +above), and brought to trial, many witnesses were summoned, and +amongst them this Don Silverio; and the judge said to him, 'You had +knowledge that this man came oftentimes into you parish?' and Don +Silverio answered, 'I had.' 'You knew that he was an outlaw, in +rupture with justice?' 'I did,' he answered. Then the judge struck +his fist with anger on his desk. 'And you a priest, a guardian of +order, did not denounce him to the authorities?' Then Don Silverio, +your Excellency, quite quietly, but with a smile (I was there close +to him), had the audacity to answer the judge. 'I am a priest,' he +said 'and I study my breviary, but do not find in it any command +which authorises me to betray my fellow creatures.' That made a +terrible stir in the tribunal, you Excellency. They talked of +committing him to gaol for contempt of court and for collusion with +the outlaw. But it took place at San Beda, where they are all +_papalini_, as your Excellency knows, and nothing was done, sir." + +"That reply is verily like this priest!" thought Giovacchino Gallo. +"A man of ability, of intellect, of incorruptible temper, but a man +as like as not to encourage and excuse sedition." + +Aloud he said, "You may go, Sarelli. Good morning." + +"May I be allowed a word, sir?" + +"Speak." + +"May it not well be, sir, that Don Silverio's organisation or +suggestion is underneath this insurrectionary movement of the young +men in the Valdedera?" + +"It is possible; yes. See to it." + +"Your servant, sir." + +Sarelli withdrew, elated. He loved tracking, like a bloodhound, for +the sheer pleasure of the "cold foot chase." The official views both +layman and priest with contempt and aversion; both are equally his +prey, both equally his profit: he lives by them and on them, as the +galleruca does on the elm-tree, whose foliage it devours, but he +despises them because they are not officials, as the galleruca +doubtless, if it can think, despises the elm. + + + + +XVI + +Of course his absence could not be hidden from any in his parish. The +mere presence of the rector of an adjacent parish, who had taken his +duties, sufficed to reveal it. For so many years he had never stirred +out of Ruscino in winter cold or summer heat, that none of his people +could satisfactorily account to themselves for his now frequent +journeys. The more sagacious supposed that he was trying to get the +project for the river undone; but they did not all have so much faith +in him. Many had always been vaguely suspicious of him; he was so +wholly beyond their comprehension. They asked Adone what he knew, or, +if he knew nothing, what he thought. Adone put them aside with an +impatient, imperious gesture. "But you knew when he went to Rome?" +they persisted. Adone swung himself loose from them with a movement +of anger. It hurt him to speak of the master he had renounced, of the +friend he had forsaken. His conscience shrank from any distrust of +Don Silverio; yet his old faith was no more alive. He was going +rapidly down a steep descent, and in that downward rush he lost all +his higher instincts; he was becoming insensible to everything except +the thirst for action, for vengeance. + +To the man who lives in a natural state away from cities it appears +only virile and just to defend himself, to avenge himself, with the +weapons which nature and art have given him; he feels no satisfaction +in creeping and crawling through labyrinths of the law, and he cannot +see why he, the wronged, should be forced to spend, and wait, and +humbly pray, while the wrongdoer may go, in the end, unchastised. +Such a tribunal as St. Louis held under an oak-tree, or the Emperor +Akbar in a mango grove, would be intelligible to him; but the +procedure, the embarrassments, the sophistries, the whole machinery +of modern law are abhorrent to him. + +He yearned to be the Tell, the Massaniello, the Andreas Hofer, of his +province; but the apathy and supineness and timidity of his neighbors +tied his hands. He knew that they were not made of the stuff with +which a leader could hope to conquer. All his fiery appeals fell like +shooting stars, brilliant but useless; all his vehement excitations +did little more than scare the peasants whom he sought to rouse. A +few bold spirits like his own seconded his efforts and aided his +propaganda; but these were not numerous enough to leaven the inert +mass. + +His plan was primitive and simple: it was to oppose by continual +resistance every attempt which should be made to begin the projected +works upon the river; to destroy at night all which should be done in +the day, and so harass and intimidate the workmen who should be sent +there that they should, in fear and fatigue, give up their labours. +They would certainly be foreign workmen; that is, workmen from +another province; probably from the Puglie. It was said that three +hundred of them were coming that week from the Terra d'Otranto to +work above Ruscino. He reckoned that he and those he led would have +the advantage of local acquaintance with the land and water, and +could easily, having their own homes as base, carry on a guerrilla +warfare for any length of time. No doubt, he knew, the authorities +would send troops to the support of the labours, but he believed that +when the resolve of the district to oppose at all hazards any +interference with the Edera should be made clear, the Government +would not provoke an insurrection for the sake of favouring a foreign +syndicate. So far as he reasoned at all, he reasoned thus. + +But he forgot, or rather he did not know, that the lives of its +people, whether soldiers or civilians, matter very little to any +Government, and that its own vanity, which it calls dignity, and the +financial interests of its supporters, matter greatly; where the +Executive has been defied there it is inexorable and unscrupulous. + +Both up and down the river there was but one feeling of bitter rage +against the impending ruin of the water; there was but one piteous +cry of helpless desperation. But to weld this, which was mere +emotion, into that sterner passion of which resistance and revolt are +made, was a task beyond his powers. + +"No on will care for us; we are too feeble, we are too small," they +urged; they were willing to do anything were they sure it would +succeed, but -- + +"But who can be sure of anything under heaven?" replied Adone. "You +are never sure of your crops until the very last day they are reaped +and carried; yet you sow." + +Yes, they granted that; but sowing grain was a safe, familiar +labour; the idea of sowing lead and death alarmed them. Still there +were some, most of them those who were dwellers on the river, or +owners of land abutting on it, who were of more fiery temper, and +these thought as Adone thought, that never had a rural people juster +cause for rebellion; and these gathered around him in those meetings +by night of which information had reached the Prefecture, for there +are spies in every province. + +Adone had changed greatly; he had grown thin and almost gaunt; he had +lost his beautiful aspect of adolescence; his eyes had no longer +their clear and happy light; they were keen and fierce, and looked +out defiantly from under his level brows. + +He worked on his own land usually, by day, to stave off suspicion; +but by night he scoured the country up and down the stream wherever +he believed he could find proselytes or arms. He had no settled plan +of action; he had no defined project; his only idea was to resist, to +resist, to resist. Under a leader he would have been an invaluable +auxiliary, but he had not the knowledge whatever of stratagem, or +manoeuvre, or any of the manifold complications of guerrilla warfare. +His calm and dreamy life had not prepared him to be all at once a man +of action: action was alien alike to his temperament and to his +habits. All his heart, his blood, his imagination, were on fire; but +behind them there was not that genius of conception and command which +alone makes the successful chief of a popular cause. + +His mother said nothing to disturb or deter him on his course, but in +herself she was sorely afraid. She kept her lips shut because she +would have thought it unworthy to discourage him, and she could not +believe in his success, try how she might to compel her faith to +await miracles. + +Little Nerina alone gave him that unquestioning, blind belief which +is so dear to the soul of man. Nerina was convinced that at his call +the whole of the Valdedera would rise full-armed, and that no hostile +power on earth would dare to touch the water. To her any miracle +seemed possible. Whatever he ordered, she did. She had neither fear +nor hesitation. She would slip out of her room unheard, and speed +over the dark country on moonless nights on his errands; she would +seek for weapons and bring them in and distribute them; she would +take his messages to those on whom he could rely, and rouse to his +cause the hesitating and half-hearted by repetition of his words. Her +whole young life had caught fire at his; and her passionate loyalty +accepted without comprehending all he enjoined her or told to her. + +The danger which she ran and the concealment of which she was guilty, +never disturbed her for an instant. What Adone ordained was her law. +Had he not taken pity on her in her misery that day by the river? Was +she not to do anything and everything to serve him and save the +river? This was her sole creed; but it sufficed to fill her still +childish soul. If, with it, there were mingled a more intense and +more personal sentiment, she was unconscious of, and he indifferent +to, it. He sent her to do his bidding as he would have sent a boy, +because he recognised in her that zeal and fervent fidelity to a +trust of which he was not sure in others. + +Although she was a slender brown thing, like a nightingale, she was +strong, elastic, untiring; nothing seemed to fatigue her; she always +looked as fresh as the dew, as vigorous as a young cherry-tree. Her +big hazel eyes danced under their long lashes, and her pretty mouth +was like one of the four-season roses which bloomed on the house +wall. She was not thought much to look at in a province where the +fine Roman type is blended with the Venetian colouring in the beauty +of its women; but she had a charm and a grace of her own; wild and +rustic, like that of a spray of grass or a harvest mouse swinging on +a stalk of wheat. + +She was so lithe, so swift, so agile; so strong without effort, so +buoyant and content, that she carried with her the sense of her own +perfect health and happiness, as the east wind blowing up the Edera +water bore with it the scent of the sea. + +But of any physical charm in her Adone saw nothing. A great rage +filled his soul, and a black cloud seemed to float between him and +all else which was not the wrong done to him and his and the water of +Edera. Until he should have lifted off the land and the stream this +coming curse which threatened them, life held nothing for him which +could tempt or touch him. + +He used the girl for his own purposes and did not spare her; but +those purposes were only those of his self-imposed mission, and of +all which was youthful, alluring, feminine, in her he saw nothing: +she was to him no more than a lithe, swift, hardy filly would have +been which he should have ridden over the moors and pastures to its +death in pursuit of his end. He who had been always so tender of +heart had grown cruel; he would have flung corpse upon corpse into +the water if by such holocaust he could have reached his purpose. +What had drawn him to Nernia had been that flash of ferocity which he +had seen in her; that readiness to go to the bitter end in the sweet +right of vengeance; instincts which formed so singular a contrast to +the childish gaiety and the sunny goodwill of her normal disposition. + +He knew that nothing which could have been done to her would have +made her reveal any confidence placed in her. That she was often out +all the hours of the night on errands to the widely scattered +dwellings of the peasants did not prevent her coming at dawn into the +cattle stalls to feed and tend the beasts. + +And she was so dexterous, so sure, so silent; even the sharp eyes of +old Gianna never detected her nocturnal absence, even the shrewd +observation of Clelia Alba never detected any trace of fatigue in her +or any negligence in her tasks. She was always there when they needed +her, did all that she was used to do, was obedient to every word or +sign; they did not know that as she carried the water pails, or cut +the grass, or swept the bricks, or washed the linen, her heart sung +proudly within her a joyous song because she shared a secret -- a +perilous secret -- of which the elder woman knew nothing. Any night a +stray shot might strike her as she ran over the moors, or through the +heather; any night a false step might pitch her headlong into a +ravine or a pool; any night, returning through the shallows of the +ford, she might miss her footing and fall into one of the bottomless +holes that the river hid in its depths: but the danger of it only +endeared her errand the more to her; made her the prouder that she +was chosen for it. + +"I fear nothing," she said to him truthfully; "I fear only that you +should not be content." + +And as signal fires run from point to point, or hill to hill, so she +ran from one farmhouse to another, bearing the messages which +organised those gatherings whereof Giavacchino Gallo had the +knowledge. The men she summoned and spoke with were rough peasants, +for the most part, rude as the untanned skins they wore at their +work, but not one of them ever said a gross word or gave a lewd +glance to the child. + +She was _la bimba_ to them all; a brave little soul and honest; they +respected her as if she were one of their own children, or one of +their own sisters, and Nernia coming through the starlight, with an +old musket slung at her back, which Adone had taught her to use, and +her small, bronzed feet leaping over the ground like a young goat's, +was a figure which soon became familiar and welcome to the people. +She seemed to them like a harbinger of hope; she had few words, but +those words reverberated with courage and energy; she moved the +supine, she braced the timid; she brought the wavering firmness and +the nervous strength; she said what Adone had taught her to say, but +she put into it all her own immense faith in him, all her own +innocent and undoubting certainty that his cause was just and would +be blessed by heaven. + +The Edera water belonged to them. Would they let it be turned away +from their lands and given to strangers? + +As a little spaniel or beagle threshes a covert, obedient to his +master's will and working only to please him, so she scoured the +country-side and drove in, by persuasion, or appeal, or threat, all +those who would lend ear to her, to the midnight meetings on the +moors, or in the homesteads, where Adone harangued them, with +eloquence ever varied, on a theme which was never stale, because it +appealed at once to the hearts and to the interests of his hearers. + +But many of them, though fascinated, remained afraid. + +"When all is said, what can we do?" they muttered. "Authority has a +long arm." + +The people of the district talked under their breath of nothing else +than of this resistance which was being preached as a holy war by the +youth of Terra Vergine. They were secret and silent, made prudent by +many generations which had suffered from harsh measures and brutal +reprisals, but the league he proclaimed fascinated and possessed +them. Conspiracy has a seduction subtle and irresistible as gambling +for those who have once become its servants. It is potent as wine, +and colours the brain which it inflames. To these lowly, solitary +men, who knew nothing beyond their own fields and coppices and +wastelands, its excitement came like a magic philter to change the +monotony of their days. They were most of them wholly unlettered; +knew not their A B C; had only learned the law of the seasons, and +the earth, and the trees which grew, and the beasts which grazed; but +they had imagination; they had the blood of ancient races; they were +neither dolts not boors, though Adone in his wrath called them so. +They were fascinated by the call to rise and save their river. A +feeling, more local than patriotism, but more noble than interest, +moved them to share in his passionate hatred of the intruders, and to +hearken to his appeals to them to arm and rise as one man. + +But, on the other hand, long years of servitude and hardship had made +them timid as gallant dogs are made so by fasting or the whip. "What +are we?" some of them said to him. "We are no more than the +earthworms in the soil." For there is a pathetic humility in these +descendants of the ancient rulers of the world; it is a humility born +of hope deferred, of the sense of every change of masters, of +knowledge that the sun rises and sets upon their toil, as it did on +that of their fathers, as it will do on that of their children, and +will never see it lessened, nor see the fruits thereof given to +themselves or to their sons. It is a humility which is never ignoble, +but is infinitely, because hopelessly, sad. + +The river was their own, surely, yes; but, like so much else that was +their own, the State claimed it. + +"What can be more yours than the son you beget, the fruit of your +loins, the child for whom you have laboured through long years?" said +an old man to him once. "Yet the State, as soon as he is of use to +you, the State takes him, makes a beast of burden of him, kills his +youth and his manhood; sends him without a word to you, to be maimed +and slaughtered in Africa, his very place of death unknown to you; +his body -- the body you begat and which his mother bore in her womb +and nourished and cherished -- is devoured by the beasts of the +desert and the birds of the air. They take all; why shall they not +take the river also?" + +The glowing faith of Adone was flung, as the sunlit salt spray of the +ocean is cast on a cliff of basalt, against the barrier of that weary +and prostrate despair which the State dares to tell the poor is their +duty and their portion upon earth. + +But the younger men listened to him more readily, being less bent and +broken by long labour, and poor food, and many years of unanswered +prayers. Of these some had served their time in regiments, and aided +him to give some knowledge of drill and of the use of weapons to +those who agreed with him to dispute by force the claim of strangers +to the Edera water. + +These gatherings took place on waste lands or bare heaths, or in +clearings or hollows in the woods, and the tramp of feet and click of +weapons scared the affrighted fox and the astounded badger. They +dared not fire lest the sound should betray their whereabouts to some +unfriendly ear; but they went through all other military exercises as +far as it lay in their power to do so. + +The extreme loneliness of the Edera valley was in their favour. Once +in half a year, perhaps, half a troop of carabineers might ride +through the district, but this was only if there had been any notable +assassination or robbery; and of police there was none nearer than +the town of San Beda. + +It was to arrange these nightly exercises, and summon to or warn off +men from them, as might be expedient, that Nernia was usually sent +upon her nocturnal errands. One night when she had been bidden by +Adone to go to a certain hamlet in the woods to the north, the child, +as she was about to slip back the great steel bolts which fastened +the house door, saw a light upon the stairs which she had just +descended, and turning round, her hand upon the lock, saw Clelia +Alba. + +"Why are you out of your bed at this hour?" said the elder woman. Her +face was stern and dark. + +Nernia did not answer; her gay courage forsook her; she trembled. + +"Why?" asked Adone's mother. + +"I was going out," answered the child. Her voice shook. She was +clothed as usual in the daytime, but she had over her head a woollen +wrapper. She had not her musket, for she kept it in the hen-house, +and was accustomed to take it as she passed that place. + +"Going out! At the fourth hour of the night? Is that an answer for a +decent maiden?" + +Nernia was silent. + +"Go back to your room, and I will lock you in it; in the morning you +will account to me." + +Nernia recovered her self-possession, though she trembled still. + +"Pardon me, Madama Clelia," she said humbly, "I must go out." + +She did not look ashamed, and her small brown face had a resolute +expression. + +A great anguish seized and wrung the heart of Clelia Alba. She knew +that Adone was not in the house, Did he, the soul of purity and +honour, seduce a girl who dwelt under his own roof? -- carry on an +intrigue with a little beggar, to his own shame and the outrage of +his mother? Was this the true cause of his frequent absence, his many +nights abroad? Her dark brows contracted, her black eyes blazed. + +"Go to your room, wanton!" she said in tones of thunder. "In the +morning you will answer to me." + +But Nernia, who had before this slipped the bolt aside, and who +always kept her grasp upon the great key in the lock, suddenly turned +it, pushed the oak door open, and before the elder woman was +conscious of what she was doing, had dashed out into the air, and +slammed the door behind her. The rush of wind had blown out the lamp +in Clelia Alba's hand. + +When, after fumbling vainly for some minutes to find the door, and +bruising her hands against the wall and oaken chair, she at last +found it and thrust it open, the night without was moonless and +starless and stormy, and in its unillumined blackness she saw no +trace of the little girl. She went out on to the doorstep and +listened, but there was no sound. The wind was high; the perfume of +the stocks and wallflowers was strong; far away the sound of the +river rushing through the sedges was audible in the intense +stillness, an owl hooted, a nightjar sent forth its sweet, strange, +sighing note. Of Nernia there was no trace. Clelia Alba came within +and closed the door, and locked and bolted it. + +The old woman Gianna had come downstairs with a lighted rush candle +in her hand; she was scared and afraid. + +"What is it? What is it, madama?" + +Clelia Alba dropped down on the chair by the door. + +"It is -- it is -- that the beggar's spawn you would have me shelter +is the leman of my son; and he has dishonoured his house and mine." + +Gianna shook her grey head in solemn denial and disbelief. + +"Sior'a, Clelia, do not say such words or think such thoughts of your +son or of the child. She is as harmless as any flower that blows out +there in the garden, and he is a noble youth, though now, by the +wickedness of me, distraught and off his head. What makes you revile +them so?" + +"They are both out this night. Is not that enough?" + +Gianna was distressed; from her chamber above she had heard the words +which had passed between Adone's mother and Nernia, and knew the girl +was gone. + +"I would condemn others, but not Adone and the child," she returned. +"For sure they do not do right to have secrets from you, but they are +not such secrets as you think." + +"Enough!" said Clelia Alba sternly. "The morning will show who is +right. It suffices for me that the son of Valeria Albo, my son, has +forgot his duty to his mother and his respect for himself." + +Clelia Alba rose with effort from her chair, relighted her lamp at +the old woman's rush candle, and went slowly and heavily up the +stairs. She felt stunned and outraged. Her son! -- hers! -- to lie +out of nights with a little nameless vagrant! + +Gianna caught hold of her skirt. "Madama -- listen. I saw him born +that day by the Edera water, and I have seen him every day of his +life since till now. He would never do a base thing. Do not you, his +mother, disgrace him by thinking of it for an hour. This thing is +odd, is ugly, is strange, but wait to judge it --" + +Clelia Alba released her skirt from her old servant's grasp. + +"You mean well, but you are crazed. Get you gone." + +Gianna let go her hold and crept submissively down the stair. She set +her rushlight on the floor and sat down in the chair beside the door, +and told her beads with shaking fingers. One or other of them, she +thought, might come home either soon or late, for she did not believe +that any amorous intimacy was the reason that they were both out -- +God knew where -- in this windy, pitch-dark night. + +"But he does wrong, he does wrong," she thought. "He sends the child +on his errands perhaps, but he should remember a girl is like a +peach, you cannot handle it ever so gently but its bloom goes; and he +leaves us alone, two old women here, and we might have our throats +cut before we should be able to wake old Ettore in the stable." + +The night seemed long to her in the lone stone entrance, with the +owls hooting round the house, and the winds blowing loud and tearing +the tiles from the roof. Above, in her chamber, Adone's mother walked +to and fro all night sleepless. + + + + + +XVII + +Gianna before it was dawn went out in the hope that she might meet +Adone on his return, and be able to speak to him before he could see +his mother. She was also in extreme anxiety for Nerina, of whom she +had grown fond. She did not think the little girl would dare return +after the words of Clelia Alba. She knew the child was courageous, +but timid, like an otter or a swallow. + +She went to the edge of the river and waited; he must cross it to +come home; but whether he would cross higher up or lower down she +could not tell. There was the faint light which preceded the rising +of the sun. A great peace, a great freshness, were on the water and +the land. + +"Oh Lord, what fools we are!" thought the old woman. "The earth makes +itself anew for us with every dawn, and our own snarling, and +fretting, and mourning cloud it all over for us, and we only see our +own silly souls!" + +Soon, before the sun was rising, Adone came in sight, passing with +firm, accustomed step across the undressed trunks of trees which were +here thrown across the river to make a passage lower down the stream +than the bridge of Ruscino. He was walking with spirit and ease, his +head was erect, his belt was filled with arms, his eyes had sternness +and command in them; he came from one of the military drillings in +the woods, and had been content with it. Seeing old Gianna waiting +there he understood that something must have happened, and his first +fears were for his mother. + +"Is she ill?" he cried, as he reached the bank of his own land. + +"No; she is well in health," answered Gianna, "but she is sorely +grieved and deeply angered; she found the girl Nerina going out at +the dead of night." + +Adone changed colour. He was silent. Gianna came close to him. + +"The child and you both out all night, heaven knows where! What but +one thing can your mother think?" + +"If she thinks but one thing, that thing is false." + +"Maybe. I believe so myself, but, Sior' Clelia will not. Why do you +send the child out at such hours?" + +"What did she say to my mother?" + +"Nothing; only that she had to go." + +"Faithful little soul!" + +"Aye! And it is when little maids are faithful like this that men +ruin them. I do not want to speak without respect to you, Adone, for +I have eaten your bread and been sheltered by your roof through many +a year; but for whatever end you send that child out of nights, you +do a bad thing, a cruel thing, a thing unworthy of your stock; and if +I know Clelia Alba----and who should know her if not I?-- she will +never let Nerina enter her house again." + +Adone's face grew dark. + +"The house is mine. Nerina shall not be turned out of it." + +"Perhaps it is yours; but it is your mother's too, and you will +scarce turn out your mother for the sake of a little beggar-girl?" + +Adone was silent; he saw the dilemma; he knew his mother's nature; he +inherited it. + +"Go you," he said at last; "go you and tell her that the child went +out on my errands, indeed, but I have not seen her; there is no +collusion with her, and she is not and never will be _dama_ of mine." + +"I will take her no such message, for she would not listen. Go you; +say what you choose; perhaps she will credit you, perhaps she will +not. Anyhow, you are warned. As for me, I will go and search for +Nerina." + +"Do you mean she has not returned?" + +"Certainly she has not. She will no more dare to return than a kicked +dog. You forget she is a young thing, a creature of nothing; she +thinks herself no more than a pebble or a twig. Besides, your mother +called her a wanton. That is a word not soon washed out. She is +humble as a blade of grass, but she will resent that. You have made +much trouble with your rebellious work. You have done ill -- ill -- +ill!" + +Adone submitted mutely to the upbraiding; he knew he had done +selfishly, wrongfully, brutally, that which had seemed well to +himself with no consideration of others. + +"Get you gone and search for the child," he said at last. "I will go +myself to my mother." + +"It is the least you can do. But you must not forget the cattle. +Nerina is not there to see to them." + +She pushed past him and went on to the footbridge; but midway across +it she turned and called to him: "I lit the fire, and the coffee is +on it. Where am I to look for the child? In the heather? in the +woods? up in Ruscino? down in the lower valley? or may be at the +presbytery?" + +"Don Silverio is absent," Adone called back to her; and he passed on +under the olive-trees towards his home. Gianna paused on the bridge +and watched him till he was out of sight; then she went back herself +by another path which led to the stables. A thought had struck her: +Nerina was too devoted to the cattle to have let them suffer; +possible she was even now attending to them in their stalls. + +"She is a faithful little thing as he said!" the old servant +muttered. "Yes; and such as she are born to labour and to suffer, and +to eat the bread of bitterness." + +"Where is she, Pierino?" she said to the old white dog; he was lying +on the grass; if the girl were lost, she thought, Pierino would be +away somewhere looking for her. + +Gianna's heart was hard against Adone; in a dim way she understood +the hopes and the schemes which occupied him, but she could not +forgive him for sacrificing to them his mother and this friendless +child. It was so like a man, she said to herself, to tear along on +what he thought a road to glory, and never heed what he trampled down +as he went -- never heed any more than the mower heeds the daisies. + +In the cattle stalls she found the oxen and the cows already watered, +brushed, and content, with their pile of fresh grass beside them; +there was no sound in the stables but of their munching and +breathing, and now and then the rattle of the chains which linked +them to their mangers. + +"Maybe she is amongst the hay," thought Gianna, and painfully she +climbed the wide rungs of the ladder which led to the hay loft. +There, sure enough, was Nerina, sound asleep upon the fodder. She +looked very small, very young, very innocent. + +The old woman thought of the first day that she had seen the child +asleep on the stone bench by the porch; and her eyes grew dim. + +"Who knows where you will rest to-morrow?" she thought; and she went +backwards down the ladder noiselessly so as not to awaken a sleeper, +whose awaking might be so sorrowful. + +Gianna went back to the house and busied herself with her usual +tasks; she could hear the voices of Adone and Clelia Alba in the +chamber above; they sounded in altercation, but their words she could +not hear. + +It was at dawn that same day that Don Silverio returned from his +interviews with Count Corradini and Senatore Gallo. When he reached +Ruscino the little rector of the village in the woods had already +celebrated mass. Don Silverio cleansed himself from the dust of +travel, entered his church for his orisons, then broke his fast with +bread and a plate of lentils, and whilst the day was still young took +the long familiar way to the Terra Vergine. Whatever the interview +might cost in pain and estrangement he felt that he dared not lose an +hour in informing Adone of what was so dangerously known at the +Prefecture. + +"He will not kill me," he thought; "and if he did, it would not +matter much;-- except for you, my poor little man," he added to his +dog Signorino, who was running gleefully in his shadow. Gianna saw +him approaching as she looked from the kitchen window, and cried her +thanks to the saints with passionate gratitude. Then she went out and +met him. + +"Praise be to the Madonna that you have come back, reverendissimo!" +she cried. "There are sore trouble and disputes under our roof." + +"I grieve to hear that," he answered; and thought, "I fear I have +lost my power to cast oil on the troubled waters." + +He entered the great vaulted kitchen and sat down, for he was +physically weary, having walked twenty miles in the past night. + +"What you feel at liberty to tell me, let me hear," he said to the +old servant. + +Gianna told him in her picturesque, warmly-coloured phrase what had +passed between Sior' Clelia and the little girl in the night; and +what she had herself said to Adone at dawn; and how Nerina was lying +asleep in the hay-loft, being afraid, doubtless, to come up to the +house. + +Don Silverio listened with pain and indignation. + +"What is he about to risk a female child on such errands? And why is +his mother in such vehement haste to say cruel words and think unjust +and untrue things?" + +"They are unjust and untrue, sir, are they not?" said Gianna. "But it +looked ill, you see; a little creature going out in the middle of the +night, and to be sure she was but a vagrant when she came to us." + +"And now -- how does the matter stand? Has Adone convinced his mother +of the girl's innocence?" + +"Whew! That I cannot say, sir. They are upstairs; and their voices +were loud an hour ago. Now they are still. I had a mind to go up, but +I am afraid." + +"Go up; and send Adone to me." + +"He is perhaps asleep, sir; he came across the water at dawn." + +"If so, wake him. I must speak to him without delay." + +Gianna went and came down quickly. + +"He is gone out to work in the fields, sir. Madama told me so. If he +does not work, the land will go out of cultivation, sir." + +"He may have gone to Nerina?" + +"I do not think so, sir. But I will go back to the stable and see." + +"And beg Sior' Clelia to come down to me." + +He was left alone a few minutes in the great old stone chamber, with +its smell of dried herbs hanging from its rafters and of maize leaves +baking in the oven. + +The land would go out of cultivation -- yes! -- and the acetylene +factories would take the place of the fragrant garden, the olive +orchards, the corn lands, the pastures. He did not wonder that Adone +was roused to fury; but what fury would avail aught? What pain, what +despair, what tears, would stay the desecration for an hour? The +hatchet would hew it all down, and the steam plough would pass over +it all, and then the stone and the mortar, the bricks and the iron, +the engines, and the wheels, and the cauldrons, would be enthroned on +the ruined soil: the gods of a soulless age. + +"Oh, the pity of it! The pity of it!" thought Don Silverio, as the +blue sky shone through the grated window and against the blue sky a +rose branch swung and a swallow circled. + +"Your servant, Reverendissimo," said the voice of Clelia Alba, and +Don Silverio rose from his seat. + +"My friend," he said to her, "I find you in trouble, and I fear that +I shall add to it. But tell me first, what is this tale of Nerina?" + +"It is but this, sir; if Nerina enter here, I go." + +"You cannot be serious!" + +"If you think so, look at me." + +He did look at her; at her severe aquiline features, at her heavy +eyelids drooping over eyes of implacable wrath, at her firm mouth and +jaw, cold as if cut in marble. She was not a woman to trifle or to +waver; perhaps she was one who having received offence would never +forgive. + +"But it is monstrous!" he exclaimed; "you cannot turn adrift a little +friendless girl -- you cannot leave your own house, your dead +husband's house -- neither is possible -- you rave!" + +"It is my son's house. He will harbour whom he will. But if the girl +pass the doorstep I go. I am not too old to labour for myself." + +"My good woman -- my dear friend -- it is incredible! I see what you +believe, but I cannot pardon you for believing it. Even were it what +you choose to think -- which is not possible -- surely your duty to a +motherless and destitute girl of her tender years should counsel more +benevolence?" + +The face of Clelia Alba grew chillier and harder still. + +"Sir, leave me to judge of my own duties as the mother of Adone, and +the keeper of this house. He has told me that he is master here. I do +not deny it. He is over age. He can bring her here if he chooses, but +I go." + +"But you must know the child cannot live here with a young man!" + +"Why not?" said Clelia Alba, and a cruel smile passed over her face. +"It seems to me more decent than lying out in the fields together +night after night." + +"Silence!" said Don Silverio in that tone which awed the boldest. "Of +what avail is your own virtue if it make you thus harsh, thus +unbelieving, thus ready to condemn?" + +"I claim no more virtue than any clean-living woman should possess; +but Valerio Alba would not have brought his leman into my presence, +neither shall his son do so." + +"In your present mood, words are wasted on you. Go to your chamber, +Sior' Clelia, and entreat Heaven to soften your heart. There is +sorrow enough in store for you without your creating misery out of +suspicion and unbelief. This house will not long be either yours or +Adone's." + +He left the kitchen and went out into the air; Clelia Alba was too +proud, too dogged, in her obstinancy to endeavour to detain him or to +ask him what he meant. + +"Where is Adone?" he asked of the old labourer Ettore, who was +carrying manure in a great skip upon his back. + +"He is down by the five apple-trees, sir," answered Ettore. + +The five apple-trees were beautiful old trees, gnarled, moss-grown, +hoary, but still bearing abundant blossom; they grew in a field which +was that year being trenched for young vines, a hard, back-breaking +labour; the trenches were being cut obliquely, so as not to disturb +the apple-trees or injure some fine fig-trees which grew there. Adone +was at work, stripped to his shirt and hidden in the delved earth to +his shoulders. + +He looked up from the trench and lifted his hat as he saw the priest +enter the field; then he resumed his labour. + +"Come out of your ditch and hearken to me. I will not weary you with +many words." + +Adone, moved by long habit of obedience and deference, leapt with his +agile feet on to the border of the trench and stood there, silent, +sullen, ready to repel reproof with insolence. + +"Is it worthy of you to ruin the name of a girl of sixteen by sending +her on midnight errands to your fellow-rebels?" + +Don Silverio spoke bluntly; he spoke only on suspicion, but his tone +was that of a direct charge. + +Adone did not doubt for a moment that he was in possession of facts. + +"Has the girl played us false?" he said moodily. + +"I have not seen the girl," replied Don Silvero. "But it is a base +thing to do, to use that child for errands of which she cannot know +either the danger or the illegality. You misuse one whose youth and +helplessness should have been her greatest protection." + +"I had no one else that I could trust." + +"Pour little soul! You could trust her, so you abused her trust! No: +I do not believe you are her lover. I do not believe you care for her +more than for the clod of earth you stand on. But to my thinking that +makes what you have done worse; colder, more cruel, more calculating. +Had you seduced her, you would at least feel that you owed her +something. She has been a mere little runner and slave to you -- no +more. Surely your knowledge that she depends on you ought to have +sufficed to make her sacred?" + +Adone looked on the ground. His face was red with the dull flush of +shame. He knew that he merited all these words and more. + +"I will provide temporarily for her; and you will send her out no +more upon these errands," continued Don Silverio. "Perhaps, with +time, your mother may soften to her; but I doubt it." + +"The house is mine," said Adone sullenly. "She shall not keep Nerina +out of it." + +"You certainly cannot turn your mother away from her own hearth," +replied Don Silverio with contempt. "I tell you I will take the girl +to some place in Ruscino where she will be safe for the present time. +But I came to say another thing to you as well as this. I have been +away three days. I have seen the Prefect, Senatore Gallo. He has +informed me that your intentions, your actions, your plans and +coadjutors are known to him, and that he is aware that you are +conspiring to organise resistance and riot." + +A great shock struck Adone as he heard; he felt as if an electric +charge had passed through him. He had believed his secret to be as +absolutely unknown as the graves of the lucomone under the ivy by the +riverside. + +"How could he know?" he stammered. "Who is the traitor?" + +"That matters little," said Don Silverio. "What matters much is, that +all you do and desire to do is written down at the Prefecture." + +Adone was sceptical. He laughed harshly. + +"If so, sir, why do they not arrest me? That would be easy enough. I +do not hide." + +"Have you not ofttimes seen a birdcatcher spread his net? Does he +seize the first bird which approaches it? He is not so unwise. He +waits until all the feathered innocents are in the meshes: then he +fills his sack. That is how the Government acts always. It gives its +enemies full rope to hang themselves. It is cold of blood, and slow, +and sure." + +"You say this to scare me, to make me desist." + +"I say it because it is the truth; and if you were not a boy, blind +with rage and unreason, you would long since have known that such +actions as yours, in rousing or trying to rouse the peasants of the +Valdedera, must come to the ear of the authorities. Do not mistake. +They let you alone as yet, not because they love you or fear you; but +because they are too cunning and too wise to touch the pear before it +is ripe." + +Adone was silent. He was convinced; and many evil thoughts were black +within his brain. His first quarrel with a mother he adored had +intensified all the desperate ferocity awake in him. + +"You are as blind as a mole," said Don Silverio, "but you have not +the skill of the mole in constructing its hidden galleries. You +scatter your secrets broadcast as you scatter grain over your +ploughed field. You think it is enough to choose a moonless night for +you and your companions-in-arms to be seen by no living creature! +Does the stoat, does the wild cat, make such a mistake as that? If +you make war on the State, study the ways of your foe. Realise that +it has as many eyes, as many ears, as many feet as the pagan god; +that its arm is as long as its craft, that it has behind it +unscrupulous force and unlimited gold, and the support of all those +who only want to pursue their making of wealth in ease and in peace. +Do you imagine you can meet and beat such antagonists with a few +rusty muskets, a few beardless boys, a poor little girl like Nerina?" + +Don Silverio's voice was curt, imperious, sardonic; his sentences cut +like whips; then after a moment of silence his tone changed to an +infinite softness and sweetness of pleading and persuasion. + +"My son, my dear son! cease to live in this dream of impossible +issues. Wake to the brutality of fact, to nakedness of truth. You +have to suffer a great wrong; but will you be consoled for it by the +knowledge that you have led to the slaughter men whom you have known +from your infancy? It can but end in one way -- your conflict with +the power of the State. You, and those who have listened to you, will +be shot down without mercy, or flung into prison, or driven to lead +the life of tracked beasts in the woods. There is no other possible +end to the rising which you are trying to bring about. If you have no +pity for your mother, have pity on your comrades, for the women who +bore them, for the women who love them." + +Adone quivered with breathless fury as he heard. All the blackness of +his soul gathered into a storm of rage, burst forth in shameful doubt +and insult. He set his teeth, and his voice hissed through them, +losing all its natural music. + +"Sir, your clients are men in high places; mine are my miserable +brethren. You take the side of the rich and powerful; I take that of +the poor and the robbed. Maybe your reverence has deemed it your duty +to tell the authorities that which you say they have learned?" + +A knife through his breast-bone would have given a kindlier wound to +his hearer. Amazement under such an outrage was stronger in Don +Silverio than any other feeling for the first moment. Adone -- Adone! +-- his scholar, his beloved, his disciple! -- spoke to him thus! Then +an overwhelming disgust and scorn swept over him, and was stronger +than his pain. He could have stricken the ungrateful youth to the +earth. The muscles of his right arm swelled and throbbed; but, with +an intense effort, he controlled the impulse to avenge his insulted +honour. Without a word, and with one glance of reproach and of +disdain, he turned away and went through the morning shadows under +the drooping apple boughs. + +Adone, with his teeth set hard and his eyes filled with savage fire, +sprang down into the trench and resumed his work. + +He was impenitent. + +"He is mad! He knows not what he says!" thought the man whom he had +insulted. But though he strove to excuse the outrage it was like a +poisoned blade in his flesh. + +Adone could suspect him! Adone could believe him to be an informer! + +Was this all the recompense for eighteen years of unwearying +affection, patience, and tuition? Though the whole world had +witnessed against him, he would have sworn that Adone Alba would have +been faithful to him. + +"He is mad," he thought. "His first great wrong turns his blood to +poison. He will come to me weeping to-morrow." + +But he knew that what Adone had said to him, however repented of, +however washed away with tears, was one of those injuries which may +be forgiven, but can never be forgotten, by any living man. It would +yawn like a pit between them for ever. + + + + + +XVIII + +To this apple-tree field there was a high hedge of luxuriant elder +and ash, myrtle and field-roses. Behind this hedge old Gianna was +waiting for him; the tears were running down her face. She took the +skirt of his coat between her hands. "Wait, your reverence, wait! The +child is in the cattle stable." + +Don Silverio looked down on her a few moments without comprehension. +Then he remembered. + +"Is she there indeed? Poor little soul! She must not go to the +house." + +"She does not dream of it, sir. Only she cannot understand why +Madonna Clelia's anger is so terrible. What can I do -- oh, Lord!" + +"Keep her where she is for the present. I am going home. I will speak +with some of the women in Ruscino, and find her some temporary +shelter." + +"She will go to none, sir. She says she must be where she can serve +Adone. If she be shut up, she will escape and run into the woods. +Three years ago she was a wild thing; she will turn wild again." + +"Like enough! But we must do what we can. I am going home. I will +come or send to you in a few hours." + +Gianna reluctantly let him go. As he crossed the river he looked down +on the bright water, here green as emeralds, there brown as peat, +eddying round the old stone piers of the bridge, and an infinite +sorrow was on him. + +As a forest fire sweeps away under its rolling smoke and waves of +flame millions of obscure and harmless creatures, so the baneful +fires of men's greed and speculations came from afar and laid low +these harmless lives with neither thought of them or pity. + +Later in the day he sent word to Gianna to bring Nernia to the +presbytery. They both came, obedient. The child looked tired and had +lost her bright colour; but she had a resolute look on her face. + +"My poor little girl," he said gently to her, "Madonna Clelia is +angered against you. We will hope her anger will pass ere long. +Meanwhile you must not go to the house. You would not make ill-blood +between a mother and her son?" + +"No," said Nernia. + +"I have found a home for awhile for you, with old Alaida Manzi; you +know her; she is a good creature. I am very sorry for you, my child; +but you did wrong to be absent at night; above all not to go back to +your chamber when Clelia Alba bade you to do so." + +Nernia's face darkened. "I did no harm." + +"I am sure you did not mean to do any; but you disobeyed Madonna +Clelia." + +Nernia was silent. + +"You are a young girl; you must not roam the country at night. It is +most perilous. Decent maidens and women are never abroad after +moonrise." + +Nernia said nothing. + +"You will promise me never to go out at night again?" + +"I cannot promise that, sir." + +"Why?" + +"If I be wanted, I shall go." + +"If Adone Alba bid you -- is that your meaning?" + +Nernia was silent. + +"Do you think that it is fitting for you to have secrets from me, +your confessor?" + +Nernia was silent; her rosy mouth was closed firmly. It was very +terrible to have to displease and disobey Don Silverio; but she would +not speak, not if she should burn in everlasting flames for ever. + +"Take her away. Take her to Alaida," he said wearily to Gianna. + +"She only obeys Adone, sir," said the old woman. "All I can say +counts as naught." + +"Adone will send her on no more midnight errands, unless he be brute +and fool both. Take her away. Look to her, you and Alaida." + +"I will do what I can, sir," said Gianna humbly, and pushed the girl +out into the village street before her. + +Don Silverio sat down at his deal writing-table and wrote in his +fine, clear calligraphy a few lines: "_In the name of my holy office +I forbid you to risk the life and good name of the maiden Nernia on +your unlawful errands_." + +Then he signed and sealed the sheet, and sent it by his sacristan to +Adone. + +He received no answer. + +The night which followed was one of the most bitter in its +meditations that he had ever spent; and he had spent many cruel and +sleepless nights ere then. + +That Adone could for one fleeting moment have harboured so vile a +thought filled him with nausea and amaze. Betray them! He! -- who +would willingly have given up such years of life as might remain to +him could he by such a sacrifice have saved their river and their +valley from destruction. There was nothing short of vice or crime +which he would not have done to save the Edera water from its fate. +But it was utterly impossible to do anything. Even men of eminence +had often brought all their forces of wealth and argument against +similar enterprises, and had failed in their opposition. What could a +few score of peasants, and one poor ecclesiastic, do against all the +omnipotence of Parliament, of millionaires, of secretaries of State, +of speculators, of promoters, tenacious and forcible and ravenous as +the octopus? + +In those lonely night hours when the moonbeams shone on his bed and +the little white dog nestled itself close to his shoulder, he was +tortured also by the sense that it was his duty to arrest Adone and +the men of the Valdedera in their mad course, even at the price of +such treachery to them as Adone had dared to attribute to him. But if +that were his duty it must be the first duty which consciously he had +left undone! + +If he could only stop them on their headlong folly by betraying them +they must rush on to their doom! + +He saw no light, no hope, no assistance anywhere. These lads would +not be able to save a single branch of the river water, nor a +sword-rush on its banks, nor a moorhen in its shallows, nor a cluster +of myosotis upon its banks, and they would ruin themselves. + +The golden glory of the planet Venus shone between the budding +vine-leaves at his casement. + +"Are you not tire?" he said to the shining orb. "Are you not tired of +watching the endless cruelties and insanities on earth?" + + + + + +XIX + +The people of Ruscino went early to their beds; the light of the +oil-wicks of the Presbytery was always the only light in the village +half an hour after dark. Nerina went uncomplainingly to hers in the +dark stone house within the walls where she had been told that it was +her lot to dwell. She did not break her fast; she drank great +draughts of water; then, with no word except a brief good-night, she +went to the sacking filled with leaves which the old woman Alaida +pointed out for her occupancy. + +"She is soon reconciled," thought the old crone. "They have trained +her well." + +Relieved of all anxiety, she herself lay down in the dark and slept. +The girl seemed a good, quiet, tame little thing, and said her +paternosters as she should do. But Nerina did not sleep. She was +stifled in this little close room with its one shuttered window. She +who was used to sleeping with the fresh fragrant air of the dark +fields blowing over her in her loft, felt the sour, stagnant +atmosphere take her like a hand by the throat. + +As soon as she heard by the heavy breathing of the aged woman that +she was sunk in the congested slumber of old age, the child got up +noiselessly -- she had not undressed -- and stole out of the chamber, +taking the door key from the nail on which Alaida had hung it. A +short stone stair led down to the entrance. No one else was sleeping +in the house; all was dark, and she had not even a match or a +tinder-box; but she felt her way to the outer door, unlocked it, as +she had been used to unlock the door at the Terra Vergine, and in +another moment ran down the steep and stone street. She laughed as +the wind from the river blew against her lips, and brought her the +fragrance of Adone's fields. + +"I shall be in time!" she thought, as she ran down a short cut which +led, in a breakneck descent, over the slope of what had once been the +glacis of the fortress, beneath the Rocca to the bridge. + +The usual spot for the assembly of the malcontents was a grassy +hollow surrounded on all sides with woods, and called the tomb of +Asdrubal, from a mound of masonry which bore that name, although it +was utterly improbable that Asdrubal, who had been slain a hundred +miles to the northeast on the Marecchia water, should have been +buried in the Valdedera at all. But the place and the name were well +known in the district to hundreds of peasants, who knew no more who +or what Asdrubal had been than they knew the names of the stars which +form the constellation of Perseus. + +Adone had summoned his friends to be there by nightfall, and he was +passing from the confines of his own lands on to those of the open +moors when the child saw him. He was dressed in his working clothes, +but he was fully armed: his gun on his shoulder, his great pistols in +his sash, his dagger in his stocking. They were ancient arms; but +they had served in matters of life and death, and would so serve +again. On the three-edged blade of the sixteenth-century poignard was +a blood-stain more than a century old which nothing would efface. + +"Nerina!" he cried as the girl stopped him, and was more distressed +than pleased to see her there; he had not thought of her. + +In the moonlight, under the silvery olive foliage her little sunburnt +face and figure took a softer and more feminine grace. But Adone had +not sight for it. For him she was but a sturdy little pony, who would +trot till she dropped. + +He was cruel as those who are possessed by one intense and absorbing +purpose always are: he was cruel to Nerina as Garibaldi, in the days +of Ravenna, was cruel to Anita. + +But through that intense egotism which sees in all the world only its +own cause, its own end, its own misery, there touched him for one +instant an unselfish pity for the child of whom he had made so +mercilessly his servant and his slave. + +"Poor little girl! I have been hard to you, I have been cruel and +unfair," he said, as a vague sense of her infinite devotion to his +cause moved him as a man may be moved by a dog's fidelity. + +"You have been good to me," said Nerina; and from the bottom of her +heart she thought so. "I came to see if you wanted me," she added +humbly. + +"No, no. They think ill of you for going my errands. Poor child, I +have done you harm enough. I will not do you more." + +"You have done me only good." + +"What! When my mother has turned you out of the house!" + +"It is her right." + +"Let it be so for a moment. You shall come back. You are with old +Alaida?" + +"Yes." + +"How can you be out to-night?" + +"She sleeps heavily, and the lock is not hard." + +"You are a brave child." + +"Is there nothing to do to-night?" + +"No, dear." + +"Where do you go?" + +"To meet the men at the tomb of Asdrubal." + +"Who summoned them?" + +"I myself. You must be sad and sorry, child, and it is my fault." + +She checked a sob in her throat. "I am not far away, and old Alaida +is kind. Let me go on some errand to-night?" + +"No, my dear, I cannot." + +He recalled the words of the message which he had received from Don +Silverio that day. He knew the justice of this message, he knew that +it only forbade what all humanity, hospitality, manhood, and +compassion forbade to him. One terrible passion had warped his +nature, closed his heart, and invaded his reason to the exclusion of +all other thoughts or instincts; but he was not yet so lost to shame +as, now that he knew what he had done, to send out a female creature +into peril to do his bidding. + +"Tell me, then, tell me," pleaded Nerina, "when will anything be +done?" + +"Whenever the foreign labourers come to work on the water we shall +drive them away." + +"But if they will not go?" + +"Child, the river is deep; we know its ways and its soundings; they +do not." + +Her great bright eyes flashed fire: an unholy joy laughed in them. + +"We will baptize them over again!" she said; and all her face laughed +and sparkled in the moonlight. There was fierce mountain blood in her +veins; it grew hot at the thought of slaughter like the juice of +grapes warmed in an August noon. + +He laughed slow, savagely. "Their blood will be on their own heads!" + +He meant to drive them out, swamp them in the stream, choke them in +the sand, hunt them in the heather; make every man of them rue the +day that ever they came thither to meddle with the Edera water. + +"Curse them! Their blood will be on their own heads!" he said between +his teeth. He was thinking of the strange men who it was said would +be at work on the land and the water before the moon, young now, +should be in her last quarter; men hired by the hundreds, +day-labourers of the Romagna and the Puglie, leased by contract, +marshalled under overseers, different in nothing from slaves who +groan under the white man's lash in Africa. + +"Let me come with you to-night," she pleaded again. "I will hide in +the bushes. The men shall not see me." + +"No, no," he said sternly. "Get you back to your rest at Ruscino. I +did wrong, I did basely to use your ignorance and abuse your +obedience. Get you gone, and listen to your priest, not to me." + +The child, ever obedient, vanished through the olive boughs. Adone +went onward northward to his tryst: his soul was dark as night; it +enraged him to have been forced by his conscience and his honour to +obey the command of Don Silverio. + +But she did not go over the bridge to Ruscino. She waited a little +while then followed on his track. Gianna was right. She was a wild +bird. She had been caught and tamed for a time, but she was always +wild. The life which they had given her had been precious and sweet +to her, and she had learned willingly all its ways; but at the bottom +of her heart the love of liberty, the love of movement, the love of +air and sky and freedom were stronger than all else. She was of an +adventurous temper also, and brave like all Abruzzese, and she longed +to see one of those moonlit midnight meetings of armed men to which +she had escaped from Alaida's keeping, she could not have forced +herself to go back out of this clear, cool, radiant night into the +little, close, dark sleeping-chamber. No, not if Don Silverio himself +had stood in her path with the cross raised. She was like a year-old +lioness who smells blood. + +She knew the way to the tomb of Asdrubal, even in the darkness, as +well as he did. It was situated in a grassy hollow surrounded by +dense trees, some five miles or more from the Terra Vergine, on the +north bank of the river. The solitude was absolute, and the place +large enough to permit the assemblage of several scores of men. + +Adone went on, unconscious that he was followed; he went at a +swinging trot, easy and swift; the sinews of his lithe limbs were +strong as steel, and his rage, all aflame, lent lightning to his +feet. + +She allowed him to precede her by half a mile or more, for if he had +seen her his anger would have been great, and she feared it. She went +skipping and bounding along, where the path was clear, in all the joy +of liberty and rapture of the fresh night air. The hours spent in +Alaida's close house in the village had been as terrible to her as +his hours in a birdcatcher's hamper are to a wild bird. Up at Ansalda +she had always been out of doors, and at the Terra Vergine she had +gone under a roof only to eat and sleep. + +The moon, which was in the beginning of its first quarter, had passed +behind some heavy clouds; there was little light, for there were as +yet few stars visible, but that was not matter to her. She knew her +way as well as any mountain hare. + +The pungent odour of the heaths through which she went seemed to her +like a draught of wine, the strong sea breeze which was blowing bore +her up like wings. She forgot that she was once more a homeless waif, +as she had been that day when she had sat under the dock leaves by +the Edera water. He had told her she should go back; she believed +him: that was enough. Madonna Clelia would forgive, she felt sure, +for what harm had she done? All would be well; she would feed the +oxen again, and go again to the spring for water, and all would be as +it had been before -- her thoughts, her desires, went no farther than +that. So, with a light heart she followed him gaily, running where +there was open ground, pushing hard where the heather grew, going +always in the same path as Adone had done. + +All of a sudden she stopped short, in alarm. + +The night was still; the spring of the river was loud upon it, owls +hooted and chuckled, now and then a fox in the thickets barked. There +are many sounds in the open country at night; sounds of whirring +pinions, of stealthy feet, of shrill, lone cries, of breaking twigs, +of breaking ferns, of little rivulets unheard by day, of timid +creatures taking courage in the dark. But to these sounds she was +used; she could give a name to every one of them. She heard now what +was unfamiliar to her in these solitudes; she heard the footsteps of +men; and it seemed to her, all around her, as though in a moment of +time, the heath and bracken and furze grew alive to their tryst with +Adone? She did not think so, for she had never known the few men in +the village summon courage to join the armed meetings of the men of +the valley. She stopped and listened, as a pole-cat which was near +her did; the sounds were those of human beings, breathing, creeping, +moving under the heather. + +Suddenly she felt some presence close to her in the dark; she held +her breath; she shrank noiselessly between the plumes of heath. If +they were men of the country they would not hurt her, but if not -- +she was not sure. + +Near her was an open space where the wild growth had been recently +cut. The men debouched on to it from the undergrowth, there was a +faint light from the stars on that strip of rough grass; by it she +saw that they were soldiers, five in number. + +A great terror cowed her, like a hand of ice at her heart, a terror +not for herself, but for those away there, in the green hollow by the +three stone-pines. + +They were soldiers; yes, they were soldiers; the sounds she had heard +had been the crushing of the plants under their feet, the click of +their muskets as they moved; they were soldiers! Where had they come +from? There were no soldiers at Ruscino. + +The only time when she had ever seen soldiers had been when the +troopers had captured Baruffo. These were not troopers; they were +small men, on foot, linen-clad, moving stealthily, and as if in fear; +only the tubes of their muskets glistened in the light of the great +planets. + +She crouched down lower and lower, trying to enter the ground and +hide; she hoped they would go onward, and then she could run -- +faster than they -- and reach the hollow, and warn Adone and his +fellows. She had no doubt that they came to surprise the meeting; but +she hoped from their pauses and hesitating steps that they were +uncertain what way to take. + +"If you come to me to lead you -- aye! I will lead you! -- you will +not forget where I lead!" she said to herself, as she hid under the +heather; and her courage rose, for she saw a deed to be done. For +they were now very near to the place of meeting, and could have taken +the rebels like mice in a trap, if they had only known where they +were; but she, watching them stand still, and stare, and look up to +the stars, and then north, south, east, and west, saw that they did +not know, and that it might be possible to lead them away from the +spot by artifice, as the quail leads the sportsman away from the +place where her nest is hidden. + +As the thought took shape in her brain a sixth man, a sergeant who +commanded them, touched her with his foot, stooped, clutched her, and +pulled her upward. She did not try to escape. + +"What beast of night have we here?" he cried. "Spawn of devils, who +are you?" + +Nerina writhed under the grip of his iron fingers, but she still did +not try to escape. He cursed her, swore at her, shook her, crushed +her arm black and blue. She was sick with pain, but she was mute. + +"Who are you?" he shouted. + +"I come down from the mountains to work here in summer." + +"Can any of you speak her dialect?" cried the sergeant to his +privates: the sergeant was a man of Milan. + +One man answered, "I come from Paganica; it is much the same tongue +there as in these parts." + +"Ask her the way, then." + +The soldier obeyed. + +"What is the way to the Three Pines? -- to the tomb of Asdrubal?" + +"The way is long," said Nerina. + +"Do you know it?" + +"I know it." + +"Have you heard tell of it?" + +"Yes." + +"That men meet at night there?" + +"Yes." + +"Meet this night there?" + +"Yes." + +"You know where the tomb of Asdrubal is?" + +"Have I not told you?" + +The soldier repeated her answer translated to his sergeant; the +latter kept his grasp on her. + +"Ask her if she will take us there." + +The soldier asked her and translated her answer. + +"If we give her two gold pieces she will take us there." + +"Spawn of hell! I will give her nothing. But if she do not lead us +aright I will give her a bullet for her breakfast." + +The soldier translated to Nerina: "He will give you two gold pieces +if you guide us aright; and you need have no fear; we are honest men +and the king's servants." + +"I will guide the king's servants." + +"You are sure of the way?" + +"Is the homing pigeon sure of his?" + +"Let us be off," said the sergeant. "A bullet for her if she fail." + +He had little pleasure in trusting to this girl of the Abruzzo hills, +but he and his men were lost upon these moors, and might grope all +night, and miss the meeting, and fail to join his comrades and +surprise those who gathered at it. He reckoned upon fear as a sure +agent to keep her true, as it kept his conscripts under arms. + +"Bid him take his hand off me," said Nerina, "or I do not move." + +The private translated to his superior. "She prays of your mercy to +leave her free, or she cannot pass through the heather." + +The sergeant let her go unwillingly, but pushed her in front of him, +and levelled his revolver at her. + +"Tell her, if she try to get away, I fire." + +"Tell him I know that," said Nerina. + +She was not afraid, for a fierce, unholy joy was in her veins; she +could have sung, she could have laughed, she could have danced; she +held them in her power; they had come to ensnare Adone, and she had +got them in her power as if they were so many moles! + +They tied her hands behind her; she let them do it; she did not want +her hands. Then she began to push her way doggedly, with her head +down, to the south. The tomb of Asdrubal was due north; she could see +the pole star, and turned her back to it and went due south. + +Three miles or more southward there was a large _pollino_, or swamp +as L'Erba Molle, the wet grass; the grass was luxuriant, the flora +was varied and beautiful; in appearance it was a field, in reality it +was a morass; to all people of the Valdedera it was dreaded and +avoided, as quicksand are by the seashore. + +She went on as fast as the narrow path, winding in and out between +the undergrowth, permitted her to go; the armed soldiers, heavy laden +with their knapsacks and their boots, following her clumsily, and +with effort, uttering curses on their ill-luck and their sleepless +night. + +The stars were now larger and brighter; the darkness was lightened, +the river was running away from its southern birthplace in the hills +which lie like couched lions about the feet of the Gran Sasso. She +could hear its distant murmur. "They come to capture you," she said +to it, "and I will kill them. They shall choke and go down, down, +down -- " + +Her heart leapt within her; and she went with the loaded revolver +pointed at her from behind as though she went to her bridal-bed. + +"Where are you taking us, vile little bitch?" the sergeant cried, and +the soldier from Paganica translated: "Pretty little brown one, +whither do you go?" + +"I take you straight," said Nerina, "only you go to clumsily, for men +in these parts should not wear leather upon their feet." + +The soldiers sighed assent, and would willingly have gone barefoot, +and the sergeant swore in tones of thunder because he could not +understand what she said. + +Before long they came in sight of the Erba Molle; it looked like a +fair, peaceful pasture, with thousands of sword rushes golden upon +its surface. The light of the stars, which was now brilliant, shone +upon its verdure; there were great flocks of water-birds at roost +around it, and they rose with shrill cries and great noise of wings, +with a roar as though a tide were rising. + +Across it stretched a line of wooden piles which served as a rude +causeway to those who had the courage and the steadiness to leap from +one to another of them. It was not three times in a season that any +one dared to do so. Adone did so sometimes; and he had taught Nerina +how to make the passage. + +"Pass you after me, and set your feet where I set mine," said Nerina +to the little soldier of the Abruzzo, and she put down her foot on +the first pile, sunk almost invisible under the bright green slime, +where thousands of frogs were croaking. + +The soldier of the Abruzzo said to his superior, "She says we must +set our feet where she sets hers. We are quite near now to the tomb +of the barbarian." + +Nerina, with the light leap of a kid, bounded from pile to pile. They +thought she went on solid ground; on meadow grass. The sergeant and +his men crowded on to what they thought was pasture. In the uncertain +shadows and scarce dawning light, they did not see the row of +submerged timber. They sank like stones in the thick ooze; they were +sucked under to their knees, to their waists, to their shoulders, to +their mouths; the yielding grasses, the clutching slime, the tangled +weed, the bottomless mud, took hold of them; the water-birds shrieked +and beat their wings; the hideous clamour of dying men answered them. + +Nerina had reached the other side of the morass in safety, and her +mocking laughter rang upon their ears. + +"I have led you well!" she cried to them. "I have led you well, oh +servants of the king! -- oh swine! -- oh slaves! -- oh spies!-- oh +hunters and butchers of men!" + +And she danced on the edge of the field of death, and the light of +the great planets shone upon her face. + +Had she run onward at once the wood beyond she would have been saved. +That instant of triumph and mockery lost her. + +The sergeant had put his revolver in his teeth; he knew now that he +was a dead man; the slime was up to his chin, under his feet the +grass and the mud quaked, yielded, yawned like a grave. + +He drew his right arm out of the ooze, seized his revolver, and aimed +at the dancing, mocking, triumphant figure beyond the border of +golden sword rushes. With a supreme effort he fired; then he sank +under the mud and weed. + +The child dropped dead on the edge of the morass. + +One by one each soldier sank. Not one escaped. + +The water-birds came back from their upward flight and settled again +on the swamp. + +Underneath it all was still, save for the loud croaking of the frogs. + + + + + + +XX + +Don Silverio rose with the dawn of day, and entered his church at +five of the clock. There were but a few women gathered in the gaunt, +dark vastness of the nave. The morning was hot, and the scent of buds +and blossoms and fresh-cut grass came in from the fields over the +broken walls and into the ancient houses. + +When Mass was over, old Alaida crept over the mouldy mosaics timidly +to his side, and kneeled down on the stones. + +"Most reverend," she whispered, "'twas not my fault. I slept heavily; +she must have unlocked the door, for it was undone at dawn; her bed +is empty, she has not returned." + +"You speak of Nerina?" + +"Of Nerina, reverence. I did all I could. It was not my fault. She +was like a hawk in a cage." + +"I am grieved," he said; and he thought: "Is it Adone?" + +He feared so. + +"Is she not at the Terra Vergine?" he asked. Alaida shook her head. + +"No, reverend sir. I sent my grandchild to ask there. Gianna has not +seen her, and says the girl would never dare to go near Clelia Alba." + +"I am grieved," said Don Silverio again. + +He did not blame the old woman, as who, he thought, blames one who +could not tame an eaglet? + +He went back to the presbytery and broke his fast on a glass of +water, some bread, and some cresses from the river. + +He had sent for Gianna. In half an hour she came, distressed and +frightened. + +"Sir, I know not of her; I should not dare to harbour her, even in +the cattle-stall. Madonna Clelia would turn me adrift. When Madonna +Clelia has once spoken --" + +"Adone is at home?" + +"Alas! No, sir. He went out at nightfall; we have not seen him since. +He told me he went to a meeting of men at the Three Pines, at what +they call the Tomb of the Barbarian." + +Don Silverio was silent. + +"It is very grave," he said at last. + +"Aye, sir, grave indeed," said Gianna. "Would that it were love +between them, sir. Love is sweet and wholesome and kind, but there is +no such thing in Adone's heart. There it is only, alas! Blackness and +fire and hatred, sir; bloodlust against those who mean ill to the +river." + +"And his mother has lost all influence over him?" + +"All, sir. She is no more to him now than a bent stick. Yet, months +ago, she gave him her pearls and her bracelets, and he sold them in a +distant town to buy weapons." + +"Indeed? What madness!" + +"How else could the men have been armed, sir?" + +"Armed!" he repeated. "And of what use is it to arm? What use is it +for two hundred peasants to struggle against the whole forces of the +State? They will rot in prison; that is all that they will do." + +"Maybe yes, sir. Maybe no," said the old woman, with the obstinacy of +ignorance. "Some one must begin. They have no right to take the water +away, sir; no more right than to take the breast from the babe." + +Then, afraid of having said so much, she dropped her curtsey and went +out into the street. But in another moment she came back into the +study with a scared, blanched face, in which the wrinkles were +scarred deep like furrows in a field. + +"Sir -- sir!" she gasped, "there are the soldiery amongst us." + +Don Silverio rose in haste, put the little dog on his armchair, +closed the door of his study, and went down the narrow stone passage +which parted his bookroom from the entrance. The lofty doorway showed +him the stones of the familiar street, a buttress of his church, a +great branch of one of the self-sown ilex-trees, the glitter of the +arms and the white leather of the cross belts of a sentinel. The +shrill lamentations of the women seemed to rend the sunny air. He +shuddered as he heard. Coming up the street farther off were half a +troop of carabineers and a score of dragoons; the swords of the +latter were drawn, the former had their carbines levelled. The +villagers, screaming with terror, were closing their doors and +shutters in frantic haste; the door of the presbytery alone remained +open. Don Silverio went into the middle of the road and addressed the +officer who headed the carabineers. + +"May I ask to what my parish owes this visit?" + +"We owe no answer to you, reverend sir," said the lieutenant. + +The people were sobbing hysterically, catching their children in +their arms, calling to the Holy Mother to save them, kneeling down on +the sharp stones in the dust. Their priest felt ashamed of them. + +"My people," he called to them, "do not be afraid. Do not hide +yourselves. Do not kneel to these troopers. You have done no wrong." + +"I forbid you to address the crowd," said the officer. "Get you back +into your house." + +"What is my offence?" + +"You will learn in good time," said the commandant. "Get you into +your presbytery." + +"My place is with my people." + +The officer, impatient, struck him on the chest with the pommel of +his sword. + +Two carabineers thrust him back into the passage. + +"No law justifies your conduct," he said coldly, "or authorises you +to sever me from my flock." + +"The sabre is law here," said the lieutenant in command. + +"It is the only law known anywhere in this kingdom," said Don +Silverio. + +"Arrest him," said the officer. "He is creating disorder." + +The carabineers drove him into his study, and a brigadier began to +ransack his papers and drawers. + +He said nothing; the seizure of his manuscripts and documents was +indifferent to him, for there was nothing he had ever written which +would not bear the fullest light. But the insolent and arbitrary act +moved him to keen anxiety, because it showed that the military men +had licence to do their worst, at their will, and his anguish of +apprehension was for Adone. He could only hope and pray that Adone +had returned, and might be found tranquilly at work in the fields of +the Terra Vergine. But his fears were great. Unless more soldiery +were patrolling the district in all directions it was little likely, +he thought, that these men would conduct themselves thus in Ruscino; +he had no doubt that it was a concerted movement, directed by the +Prefect, and the General commanding the garrisons of the province, +and intended to net in one haul the malcontents of the Valdedera. + +From his study there was no view upon the street; he could hear the +wailing of women and screaming of children from the now closed +houses: that was all. + +"What is it your men do to my people?" he said sternly. + +The brigadier did not reply; he went on throwing papers into a trunk. + +"Where is your warrant for this search? We are not in a state of +siege?" asked Don Silverio. + +The man, with a significant gesture, drew his sabre up half way out +of its sheath; then let it fall again with a clash. He vouchsafed no +other answer. + +Some women's faces pressed in at the grating of the window which +looked on the little garden, scared, blanched, horrified, the white +head, and sunburnt features of Gianna foremost. + +"Reverendissimo!" they screamed as with one voice. "They are bringing +the lads in from the moors." + +And Gianna shrieked, "Adone! They have got Adone!" + +Don Silverio sprang to his feet. + +"Adone! Have you taken Adone Alba?" + +"The ringleader! By Bacchus! Yes," cried the brigadier, with a laugh. +"He will get thirty years at the galleys. Your flock does you honour, +Reverendissimo!" + +"Let me go to my flock," said Don Silverio; and some tone in his +voice, some gesture of his hand, had an authority in them which +compelled the carabineer to let him pass unopposed. + +He went down the stone passage to the archway of the open door. A +soldier stood sentinel there. The street was crowded with armed men. +The air was full of clangour and clamour; above all rose the shrill +screams of the women. + +"No one passes," said the sentinel, and he levelled the mouth of his +musket at Don Silverio's breast. + +"I pass," said the priest, and with his bare hand he grasped the +barrel of the musket and forced it upward. + +"I rule here, in the name of God," he said in a voice which rolled +down the street with majestic melody, dominating the screams, the +oaths, the hell of evil sound; and he went down the steps of his +house, and no man dared lay a hand on him. + +He could hear the trampling of horses and the jingling of spears and +scabbards; some lancers who had beaten the moors that night were +coming up the street. Half a company of soldiers of the line, +escorted by carabineers, came in from the country, climbing the steep +street, driving before them a rabble of young men, disarmed, wounded, +lame, with their hands tied behind them, the remnant of those who had +met at the tomb of Asdrubal in the night just passed. They had been +surprised, seized, surrounded by a wall of steel; some had answered +to their leader's call and had defended themselves, but these had +been few; most of them had thrown down their weapons and begged for +mercy when the cold steel of the soldiers was at their throats. Adone +had fought as though the shade of Asdrubal had passed into him; but +his friends had failed him; his enemies had outnumbered him a score +to one; he had been overpowered, disarmed, bound, dragged through his +native heather backward and upward to Ruscino, reaching the shadow of +the walls as the sun rose. + +The child lay dead by the stagnant pond, and the men she had led to +their death lay choked with the weeds and the slime; but of that he +knew naught. + +All he knew was that his cause was lost, his life forfeit, his last +hope dead. + +Only by his stature and his bearing could he be recognised. His +features were black from powder and gore; his right arm hung broken +by a shot; his clothing had been torn off him to his waist; he was +lame; but he alone still bore himself erect as he came on up the +village street. The others were huddled together in a fainting, +tottering, crazed mob; all were sick and swooning from the long +march, beaten when they paused by the buckles of belts and the flat +of sabres. + +Don Silverio saw that sight in front of his church, in the white, +clear light of early morning, and on the air there was a sickly +stench of sweat, of powder, of wounds, of dust. + +He went straight to the side of Adone. + +"My son, my son! I will come with you. They cannot refuse me that." + +But the soul of Adone was as a pit in which a thousand devils strove +for mastery. There was no light in it, no conscience, no gratitude, +no remorse. + +"Judas!" he cried aloud; and there was foam on his lips and there was +red blood in his eyes. "Judas! You betrayed us!" + +Then, as a young bull lowers his horns, he bent his head and bit +through and through to the bone the wrist of the soldier who held +him; in terror and pain the man shrieked and let go his hold; Adone's +arms remained bound behind him, but his limbs, though they dripped +blood, were free. + +He fronted the church, and that breach in the blocks of the Etruscan +wall through which Nerina had taken her path to the river a few hours +before. He knew every inch of the descent. Hundreds of times in his +boyhood had he run along the ruined wall and leaped in sport over the +huge stones, to spring with joyous shouts into the river below. + +As the soldier with a scream of agony let go his hold, he broke away +like a young lion released from the den. Before they could seize him +he had sprung over the wall, and was tearing down the slope; the +linesmen, rushing in swift pursuit behind him, stumbled, rolled down +the slippery grass, fell over the blocks of granite. He, sure of +foot, knowing the way from childhood, ran down the hill safely, +though blood poured from his wounds and blinded his sight, and a +sickness like the swooning of death dulled his brain. Beyond him and +below him was the river. He dashed into it like a hunted beast +swimming to sanctuary; he ran along in it, with its brightness and +coolness rippling against his parched throat. He stooped and kissed +it for the last time. + +"Take me! -- save me! -- comrade, brother, friend!" he cried aloud to +it with his last breath of life; and he plunged where it was deepest. + +Then the sky grew dark, and only the sound of the water was heard in +his ears. By the bridge its depth was great, and the current was +strong under the shade of the ruined keep. It swept his body onward +to the sea. + + + + + +XXI + +It was the beginning of winter when Don Silverio Frascara, having +been put upon his trial and no evidence of any sort having been +adduced against him, was declared innocent and set free, no +compensation or apology being offered to him. + +"Were it only military law it had been easy enough to find him +guilty," said Senator Giovacchino Gallo to the Syndic of San Beda, +and the Count Corradini warmly agreed with his Excellency that for +the sake of law, order, and public peace it would be well could the +military tribunals be always substituted for the civil; but alas! the +monarchy was not yet absolute! + +He had been detained many weeks and months at the city by the sea, +where the trial of the young men of the Valdedera had been held with +all the prolonged, tedious, and cruel delays common to the national +laws. Great efforts had been made to implicate him in the criminal +charges; but it had been found impossible to verify such suspicions; +every witness by others, and every action of his own, proved the +wisdom, the purity, and the excellence in counsel and example of his +whole life at Ruscino. The unhappy youths who had been taken with +arms in their hands were condemned for overt rebellion and conspiracy +against authority, and were sentenced, some to four, some to seven, +some to ten, and, a few who were considered the ringleaders, to +twenty-five years of cellular confinement. But against Don Silverio +it was found impossible even to make out the semblance of an +accusation, the testimony event of those hostile to him being +irresistibly in his favour in all ways. He had done his utmost to +defend the poor peasantry who had been misled by Adone to their own +undoing, and he had defended also the motives and the character of +the dead with an eloquence which moved to tears the public who heard +him, and touched even the hearts of stone of president and advocates; +and he had done this at his own imminent risk; for men of law can +never be brought to understand that comprehension is not collusion, +or that pity is not fellowship. + +But all his efforts failed to save the young men from the utmost +rigour of the law. The judge, agreeing with the State prosecutor, +declared that the most severe example was necessary to check once for +all by its terrors the tendency of the common people to resist the +State and its public works and decrees. Useful and patriotic +enterprises must not be impeded or wrecked because ignorance was +opposed to progress: thus said the King's advocate in an impassioned +oration which gained for him eventually emolument and preferment. The +rustics were sent in a body to the penitentiaries; and Don Silverio +was permitted to go home. + +Cold northern blasts blew from the upper Apennines, and piled the +snows upon the grey and yellow rocks of the Abruzzo heights, as he +crossed the valley of the Edera towards Ruscino. It seemed to him as +though a century had passed since he had left it. In the icy wind +which blew form the hills he shivered, for he had only one poor, thin +coat to cover him. His strength, naturally great, had given way under +the mental and physical sufferings of the last six months, although +no word of lament had ever escaped him. Like all generous natures he +rebuked himself for the sins of others. Incessantly he asked himself +-- might he not have saved Adone? + +As he came to the turn in the road which brought him within sight of +the river, he sat down on a stone and covered his eyes with his +hands. + +The sacristan had come to meet him, bringing the little dog, grown +thin, and sad, and old with sorrow. + +"I did all I could for him, but he would not be consoled," murmured +the old man. + +From the point which they had reached the course of the Edera, and +the lands of the Terra Vergine, were visible. With an effort, like +one who forces his will to look on a dead face, he uncovered his eyes +and looked downward. The olive-trees were still standing; where the +house had stood there was a black, charred, roofless shell; the +untilled fields lay bare beneath the frost. + +"Reverend sir," said the old man below his breath, "when Clelia Alba +knew that Adone was drowned she set fire to the house, and so +perished. They say she had promised her son." + +The wind from the north swept across the valley and drove the river +in yellow foam and black eddies through the dead sedges. Above +Ruscino the acacia thickets had been cut down, the herbage was +crushed under timber and iron and stone, the heather was trampled and +hacked, the sand and gravel were piled in heaps, the naked soil +yawned in places like fresh-dug graves; along the southern bank were +laid the metals of a light railway; on the lines of it were some +trucks filled with bricks; the wooden huts of the workmen covered a +dreary, dusty space; the water was still flowing, but on all the +scene were the soil, the disorder, the destruction, the vulgar +meanness and disfigurement which accompany modern labour, and affront +like a coarse bruise the gracious face of Nature. + +"There have been three hundred men from the Puglie at work," said the +sacristan. "They have stopped awhile now on account of the frost, but +as soon as the weather opens --" + +"Enough, enough!" murmured Don Silverio; and he rose, and holding the +little dog in his arms, went on down the familiar road. + +"His body has never been found?" he asked under his breath. + +The old man shook his head. + +"Nay, sir; what Edera takes it keeps. He dropped where he knew it was +deepest." + +As the vicar returned up the village street there was not a soul to +give him greeting except old Gianna, who kneeled weeping at his feet. +The people poured out of their doorways, but they said not a word of +welcome. The memory of Adone was an idolatry with them, and Adone had +said that their priest had betrayed them. One woman threw a stone at +Signorino. Don Silverio covered the little dog, and received the blow +on his own arm. + +"For twenty years I have had no thought but to serve these, my +people!" he thought; but he neither rebuked nor reproached them. + +The women as he passed them hissed at him; "Judas! Judas!" + +One man alone said: "Nay, 'tis a shame. Have you forgot what he did +in the cholera? 'Tis long ago, but still --" + +But the women said: "He betrayed the poor lads. He brought the +soldiers. He sold the water." + +Under that outrage, his manhood and his dignity revived. + +He drew his tall form erect, and passed through the reviling crowd, +and gave them his blessing as he passed. + +Then he went within his church; and remained there alone. + +"He is gone to pray for the soul of Adone," said the sacristan. + +When he came out of the church and entered his house, the street was +empty; the people were afraid of what they had done and of their own +ingratitude. He crossed the threshold of the presbytery. The sere +vine veiled his study casement; in the silence he could hear the +sound of the Edera water; he sat down at his familiar table, with the +dog upon his knees. His eyes were wet, and his heart was sick; his +courage was broken. + +"How shall I bear my life here?" he thought. All which had made it of +value and lightened its solitude was gone. Even his people had turned +against him; suspicious, thankless, hostile. + +The old sacristan, standing doubtful and timid at the entrance of the +chamber, drew near and reverently touched his arm. + +"Sir -- here is a letter -- it came three days ago." + +Don Silverio stretched out his hand over the little dog's head, and +took it. + +He changed colour as he saw its seal and superscription. + +Rome had at last remembered him, and awakened to his value. + +At the latest Consistory he had been nominated to the Cardinalate. + + +THE END. + + + +NOTE + +As it may appear strange to the English reader that the Porpora +Romana should be given to a village priest, I may here say that, to +my knowledge, a country vicar was himself sweeping out his rural +church when he was informed of his nomination as Cardinal, and M. S. +de Mérode was only deacon when raised to that elevation. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Waters of Edera +by Louise de la Ramée, a.k.a. 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