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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/4327-h.zip b/4327-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..293fc54 --- /dev/null +++ b/4327-h.zip diff --git a/4327-h/4327-h.htm b/4327-h/4327-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b007572 --- /dev/null +++ b/4327-h/4327-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,19374 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of The Valley of Decision, by Edith Wharton +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.footnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.transnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.intro {font-size: medium ; + text-indent: -5% ; + margin-left: 5% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Valley of Decision, by Edith Wharton + +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 Valley of Decision + +Author: Edith Wharton + +Posting Date: August 1, 2009 [EBook #4327] +Release Date: August, 2003 +First Posted: January 7, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VALLEY OF DECISION *** + + + + +Produced by Sue Asscher. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +THE VALLEY OF DECISION +</H1> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BY +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +EDITH WHARTON +</H2> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Author of "A Gift from the Grave," "Crucial Instances," etc. +</H4> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +"Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision." +</H3> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TO +<BR> +MY FRIENDS +<BR> +PAUL AND MINNIE BOURGET +<BR> +IN REMEMBRANCE OF +<BR> +ITALIAN DAYS TOGETHER. +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS. +</H2> + +<H4> +BOOK I. <A HREF="#chap01">THE OLD ORDER.</A> +<BR> +BOOK II. <A HREF="#chap02">THE NEW LIGHT.</A> +<BR> +BOOK III. <A HREF="#chap03">THE CHOICE.</A> +<BR> +BOOK IV. <A HREF="#chap04">THE REWARD.</A> +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BOOK I. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE OLD ORDER. +</H3> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Prima che incontro alla festosa fronte<BR> + I lugubri suoi lampi il ver baleni.<BR> +</P> + +<H4> +1.1. +</H4> + +<P> +It was very still in the small neglected chapel. The noises of the farm +came faintly through closed doors—voices shouting at the oxen in the +lower fields, the querulous bark of the old house-dog, and Filomena's +angry calls to the little white-faced foundling in the kitchen. +</P> + +<P> +The February day was closing, and a ray of sunshine, slanting through a +slit in the chapel wall, brought out the vision of a pale haloed head +floating against the dusky background of the chancel like a water-lily +on its leaf. The face was that of the saint of Assisi—a sunken ravaged +countenance, lit with an ecstasy of suffering that seemed not so much to +reflect the anguish of the Christ at whose feet the saint knelt, as the +mute pain of all poor down-trodden folk on earth. +</P> + +<P> +When the small Odo Valsecca—the only frequenter of the chapel—had been +taunted by the farmer's wife for being a beggar's brat, or when his ears +were tingling from the heavy hand of the farmer's son, he found a +melancholy kinship in that suffering face; but since he had fighting +blood in him too, coming on the mother's side of the rude Piedmontese +stock of the Marquesses di Donnaz, there were other moods when he turned +instead to the stout Saint George in gold armour, just discernible +through the grime and dust of the opposite wall. +</P> + +<P> +The chapel of Pontesordo was indeed as wonderful a storybook as fate +ever unrolled before the eyes of a neglected and solitary child. For a +hundred years or more Pontesordo, a fortified manor of the Dukes of +Pianura, had been used as a farmhouse; and the chapel was never opened +save when, on Easter Sunday, a priest came from the town to say mass. At +other times it stood abandoned, cobwebs curtaining the narrow windows, +farm tools leaning against the walls, and the dust deep on the sea-gods +and acanthus volutes of the altar. The manor of Pontesordo was very old. +The country people said that the great warlock Virgil, whose +dwelling-place was at Mantua, had once shut himself up for a year in the +topmost chamber of the keep, engaged in unholy researches; and another +legend related that Alda, wife of an early lord of Pianura, had thrown +herself from its battlements to escape the pursuit of the terrible +Ezzelino. The chapel adjoined this keep, and Filomena, the farmer's +wife, told Odo that it was even older than the tower and that the walls +had been painted by early martyrs who had concealed themselves there +from the persecutions of the pagan emperors. +</P> + +<P> +On such questions a child of Odo's age could obviously have no +pronounced opinion, the less so as Filomena's facts varied according to +the seasons or her mood, so that on a day of east wind or when the worms +were not hatching well, she had been known to affirm that the pagans had +painted the chapel under Virgil's instruction, to commemorate the +Christians they had tortured. In spite of the distance to which these +conflicting statements seemed to relegate them, Odo somehow felt as +though these pale strange people—youths with ardent faces under their +small round caps, damsels with wheat-coloured hair and boys no bigger +than himself, holding spotted dogs in leash—were younger and nearer to +him than the dwellers on the farm: Jacopone the farmer, the shrill +Filomena, who was Odo's foster-mother, the hulking bully their son and +the abate who once a week came out from Pianura to give Odo religious +instruction and who dismissed his questions with the invariable +exhortation not to pry into matters that were beyond his years. Odo had +loved the pictures in the chapel all the better since the abate, with a +shrug, had told him they were nothing but old rubbish, the work of the +barbarians. +</P> + +<P> +Life at Pontesordo was in truth not very pleasant for an ardent and +sensitive little boy of nine, whose remote connection with the reigning +line of Pianura did not preserve him from wearing torn clothes and +eating black bread and beans out of an earthen bowl on the kitchen +doorstep. +</P> + +<P> +"Go ask your mother for new clothes!" Filomena would snap at him, when +his toes came through his shoes and the rents in his jacket-sleeves had +spread beyond darning. "These you are wearing are my Giannozzo's, as you +well know, and every rag on your back is mine, if there were any law for +poor folk, for not a copper of pay for your keep or a stitch of clothing +for your body have we had these two years come Assumption—. What's +that? You can't ask your mother, you say, because she never comes here? +True enough—fine ladies let their brats live in cow-dung, but they must +have Indian carpets under their own feet. Well, ask the abate, then—he +has lace ruffles to his coat and a naked woman painted on his snuff +box—What? He only holds his hands up when you ask? Well, then, go ask +your friends on the chapel-walls—maybe they'll give you a pair of +shoes—though Saint Francis, for that matter, was the father of the +discalced, and would doubtless tell you to go without!" And she would +add with a coarse laugh: "Don't you know that the discalced are shod +with gold?" +</P> + +<P> +It was after such a scene that the beggar-noble, as they called him at +Pontesordo, would steal away to the chapel and, seating himself on an +upturned basket or a heap of pumpkins, gaze long into the face of the +mournful saint. +</P> + +<P> +There was nothing unusual in Odo's lot. It was that of many children in +the eighteenth century, especially those whose parents were cadets of +noble houses, with an appanage barely sufficient to keep their wives and +themselves in court finery, much less to pay their debts and clothe and +educate their children. All over Italy at that moment, had Odo Valsecca +but known it, were lads whose ancestors, like his own, had been dukes +and crusaders, but who, none the less, were faring, as he fared, on +black bread and hard blows, and the half-comprehended taunts of unpaid +foster-parents. Many, doubtless, there were who cared little enough, as +long as they might play morro with the farmer's lads and ride the colt +bare-back through the pasture and go bird-netting and frog-hunting with +the village children; but some perhaps, like Odo, suffered in a dumb +animal way, without understanding why life was so hard on little boys. +</P> + +<P> +Odo, for his part, had small taste for the sports in which Gianozzo and +the village lads took pleasure. He shrank from any amusement associated +with the frightening or hurting of animals, and his bosom swelled with +the fine gentleman's scorn of the clowns who got their fun in so coarse +a way. Now and then he found a moment's glee in a sharp tussle with one +of the younger children who had been tormenting a frog or a beetle; but +he was still too young for real fighting, and could only hang on the +outskirts when the bigger boys closed, and think how some day he would +be at them and break their lubberly heads. There were thus many hours +when he turned to the silent consolations of the chapel. So familiar had +he grown with the images on its walls that he had a name for every one: +the King, the Knight, the Lady, the children with guinea-pigs, basilisks +and leopards, and lastly the Friend, as he called Saint Francis. An +almond-faced lady on a white palfrey with gold trappings represented his +mother, whom he had seen too seldom for any distinct image to interfere +with the illusion; a knight in damascened armour and scarlet cloak was +the valiant captain, his father, who held a commission in the ducal +army; and a proud young man in diadem and ermine, attended by a retinue +of pages, stood for his cousin, the reigning Duke of Pianura. +</P> + +<P> +A mist, as usual at that hour, was rising from the marshes between +Pontesordo and Pianura, and the light soon ebbed from the saint's face, +leaving the chapel in obscurity. Odo had crept there that afternoon with +a keener sense than usual of the fact that life was hard on little boys; +and though he was cold and hungry and half afraid, the solitude in which +he cowered seemed more endurable than the noisy kitchen where, at that +hour, the farm hands were gathering for their polenta, and Filomena was +screaming at the frightened orphan who carried the dishes to the table. +He knew, of course, that life at Pontesordo would not last for +ever—that in time he would grow up and be mysteriously transformed into +a young gentleman with a sword and laced coat, who would go to court and +perhaps be an officer in the Duke's army or in that of some neighbouring +prince; but, viewed from the lowliness of his nine years, that dazzling +prospect was too remote to yield much solace for the cuffs and sneers, +the ragged shoes and sour bread of the present. The fog outside had +thickened, and the face of Odo's friend was now discernible only as a +spot of pallor in the surrounding dimness. Even he seemed farther away +than usual, withdrawn into the fog as into that mist of indifference +which lay all about Odo's hot and eager spirit. The child sat down among +the gourds and medlars on the muddy floor and hid his face against his +knees. +</P> + +<P> +He had sat there a long time when the noise of wheels and the crack of a +postillion's whip roused the dogs chained in the stable. Odo's heart +began to beat. What could the sounds mean? It was as though the +flood-tide of the unknown were rising about him and bursting open the +chapel door to pour in on his loneliness. It was, in fact, Filomena who +opened the door, crying out to him in an odd Easter Sunday voice, the +voice she used when she had on her silk neckerchief and gold chain or +when she was talking to the bailiff. +</P> + +<P> +Odo sprang up and hid his face in her lap. She seemed, of a sudden, +nearer to him than any one else—a last barrier between himself and the +mystery that awaited him outside. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, you poor sparrow," she said, dragging him across the threshold of +the chapel, "the abate is here asking for you;" and she crossed herself, +as though she had named a saint. +</P> + +<P> +Odo pulled away from her with a last wistful glance at Saint Francis, +who looked back at him in an ecstasy of commiseration. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, come," Filomena repeated, dropping to her ordinary key as she +felt the resistance of the little boy's hand. "Have you no heart, you +wicked child? But, to be sure, the poor innocent doesn't know! Come +cavaliere, your illustrious mother waits." +</P> + +<P> +"My mother?" The blood rushed to his face; and she had called him +"cavaliere"! +</P> + +<P> +"Not here, my poor lamb! The abate is here; don't you see the lights of +the carriage? There, there, go to him. I haven't told him, your +reverence; it's my silly tender-heartedness that won't let me. He's +always been like one of my own creatures to me—" and she confounded Odo +by bursting into tears. +</P> + +<P> +The abate stood on the doorstep. He was a tall stout man with a hooked +nose and lace ruffles. His nostrils were stained with snuff and he took +a pinch from a tortoise-shell box set with the miniature of a lady; then +he looked down at Odo and shrugged his shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +Odo was growing sick with apprehension. It was two days before the +appointed time for his weekly instruction and he had not prepared his +catechism. He had not even thought of it—and the abate could use the +cane. Odo stood silent and envied girls, who are not disgraced by +crying. The tears were in his throat, but he had fixed principles about +crying. It was his opinion that a little boy who was a cavaliere might +weep when he was angry or sorry, but never when he was afraid; so he +held his head high and put his hand to his side, as though to rest it on +his sword. +</P> + +<P> +The abate sneezed and tapped his snuff-box. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, come, cavaliere, you must be brave—you must be a man; you have +duties, you have responsibilities. It's your duty to console your +mother—the poor lady is plunged in despair. Eh? What's that? You +haven't told him? Cavaliere, your illustrious father is no more." +</P> + +<P> +Odo stared a moment without understanding; then his grief burst from him +in a great sob, and he hid himself against Filomena's apron, weeping for +the father in damascened armour and scarlet cloak. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, come," said the abate impatiently. "Is supper laid? for we must +be gone as soon as the mist rises." He took the little boy by the hand. +"Would it not distract your mind to recite the catechism?" he inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"No, no!" cried Odo with redoubled sobs. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, then, as you will. What a madman!" he exclaimed to Filomena. "I +warrant it hasn't seen its father three times in its life. Come in, +cavaliere; come to supper." +</P> + +<P> +Filomena had laid a table in the stone chamber known as the bailiff's +parlour, and thither the abate dragged his charge and set him down +before the coarse tablecloth covered with earthen platters. A tallow dip +threw its flare on the abate's big aquiline face as he sat opposite Odo, +gulping the hastily prepared frittura and the thick purple wine in its +wicker flask. Odo could eat nothing. The tears still ran down his cheeks +and his whole soul was possessed by the longing to steal back and see +whether the figure of the knight in the scarlet cloak had vanished from +the chapel wall. The abate sat in silence, gobbling his food like the +old black pig in the yard. When he had finished he stood up, exclaiming: +"Death comes to us all, as the hawk said to the chicken. You must be a +man, cavaliere." Then he stepped into the kitchen, and called out for +the horses to be put to. +</P> + +<P> +The farm hands had slunk away to one of the outhouses, and Filomena and +Jacopone stood bowing and curtseying as the carriage drew up at the +kitchen door. In a corner of the big vaulted room the little foundling +was washing the dishes, heaping the scraps in a bowl for herself and the +fowls. Odo ran back and touched her arm. She gave a start and looked at +him with frightened eyes. He had nothing to give her, but he said: +"Good-bye, Momola"; and he thought to himself that when he was grown up +and had a sword he would surely come back and bring her a pair of shoes +and a panettone. The abate was calling him, and the next moment he found +himself lifted into the carriage, amid the blessings and lamentations of +his foster-parents; and with a great baying of dogs and clacking of +whipcord the horses clattered out of the farmyard, and turned their +heads toward Pianura. +</P> + +<P> +The mist had rolled back and fields and vineyards lay bare to the winter +moon. The way was lonely, for it skirted the marsh, where no one lived; +and only here and there the tall black shadow of a crucifix ate into the +whiteness of the road. Shreds of vapour still hung about the hollows, +but beyond these fold on fold of translucent hills melted into a sky +dewy with stars. Odo cowered in his corner, staring out awestruck at the +unrolling of the strange white landscape. He had seldom been out at +night, and never in a carriage; and there was something terrifying to +him in this flight through the silent moon-washed fields, where no oxen +moved in the furrows, no peasants pruned the mulberries, and not a +goat's bell tinkled among the oaks. He felt himself alone in a ghostly +world from which even the animals had vanished, and at last he averted +his eyes from the dreadful scene and sat watching the abate, who had +fixed a reading-lamp at his back, and whose hooked-nosed shadow, as the +springs jolted him up and down, danced overhead like the huge Pulcinella +at the fair of Pontesordo. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +1.2. +</H4> + +<P> +The gleam of a lantern woke Odo. The horses had stopped at the gates of +Pianura, and the abate giving the pass-word, the carriage rolled under +the gatehouse and continued its way over the loud cobble-stones of the +ducal streets. These streets were so dark, being lit but by some lantern +projecting here and there from the angle of a wall, or by the flare of +an oil-lamp under a shrine, that Odo, leaning eagerly out, could only +now and then catch a sculptured palace-window, the grinning mask on the +keystone of an archway, or the gleaming yellowish facade of a church +inlaid with marbles. Once or twice an uncurtained window showed a group +of men drinking about a wineshop table, or an artisan bending over his +work by the light of a tallow dip; but for the most part doors and +windows were barred and the streets disturbed only by the watchman's cry +or by a flash of light and noise as a sedan chair passed with its escort +of linkmen and servants. All this was amazing enough to the sleepy eyes +of the little boy so unexpectedly translated from the solitude of +Pontesordo; but when the carriage turned under another arch and drew up +before the doorway of a great building ablaze with lights, the pressure +of accumulated emotions made him fling his arms about his preceptor's +neck. +</P> + +<P> +"Courage, cavaliere, courage! You have duties, you have +responsibilities," the abate admonished him; and Odo, choking back his +fright, suffered himself to be lifted out by one of the lacqueys grouped +about the door. The abate, who carried a much lower crest than at +Pontesordo, and seemed far more anxious to please the servants than they +to oblige him, led the way up a shining marble staircase where beggars +whined on the landings and powdered footmen in the ducal livery were +running to and fro with trays of refreshments. Odo, who knew that his +mother lived in the Duke's palace, had vaguely imagined that his +father's death must have plunged its huge precincts into silence and +mourning; but as he followed the abate up successive flights of stairs +and down long corridors full of shadow he heard a sound of dance music +below and caught the flash of girandoles through the antechamber doors. +The thought that his father's death had made no difference to any one in +the palace was to the child so much more astonishing than any of the +other impressions crowding his brain, that these were scarcely felt, and +he passed as in a dream through rooms where servants were quarrelling +over cards and waiting-women rummaged in wardrobes full of perfumed +finery, to a bedchamber in which a lady dressed in weeds sat +disconsolately at supper. +</P> + +<P> +"Mamma! Mamma!" he cried, springing forward in a passion of tears. +</P> + +<P> +The lady, who was young, pale and handsome, pushed back her chair with a +warning hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Child," she exclaimed, "your shoes are covered with mud; and, good +heavens, how you smell of the stable! Abate, is it thus you teach your +pupil to approach me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Madam, I am abashed by the cavaliere's temerity. But in truth I believe +excessive grief has clouded his wits—'tis inconceivable how he mourns +his father!" +</P> + +<P> +Donna Laura's eyebrows rose in a faint smile. "May he never have worse +to grieve for!" said she in French; then, extending her scented hand to +the little boy, she added solemnly: "My son, we have suffered an +irreparable loss." +</P> + +<P> +Odo, abashed by her rebuke and the abate's apology, had drawn his heels +together in a rustic version of the low bow with which the children of +that day were taught to approach their parents. +</P> + +<P> +"Holy Virgin!" said his mother with a laugh, "I perceive they have no +dancing-master at Pontesordo. Cavaliere, you may kiss my hand. +So—that's better; we shall make a gentleman of you yet. But what makes +your face so wet? Ah, crying, to be sure. Mother of God! as for crying, +there's enough to cry about." She put the child aside and turned to the +preceptor. "The Duke refuses to pay," she said with a shrug of despair. +</P> + +<P> +"Good heavens!" lamented the abate, raising his hands. "And Don Lelio?" +he faltered. +</P> + +<P> +She shrugged again, impatiently. "As great a gambler as my husband. +They're all alike, abate: six times since last Easter has the bill been +sent to me for that trifle of a turquoise buckle he made such a to-do +about giving me." She rose and began to pace the room in disorder. "I'm +a ruined woman," she cried, "and it's a disgrace for the Duke to refuse +me." +</P> + +<P> +The abate raised an admonishing finger. "Excellency...excellency..." +</P> + +<P> +She glanced over her shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Eh? You're right. Everything is heard here. But who's to pay for my +mourning the saints alone know! I sent an express this morning to my +father, but you know my brothers bleed him like leeches. I could have +got this easily enough from the Duke a year ago—it's his marriage has +made him so stiff. That little white-faced fool—she hates me because +Lelio won't look at her, and she thinks it's my fault. As if I cared +whom he looks at! Sometimes I think he has money put away...all I want +is two hundred ducats...a woman of my rank!" She turned suddenly on Odo, +who stood, very small and frightened, in the corner to which she had +pushed him. "What are you staring at, child? Eh! the monkey is dropping +with sleep. Look at his eyes, abate! Here, Vanna, Tonina, to bed with +him; he may sleep with you in my dressing-closet, Tonina. Go with her, +child, go; but for God's sake wake him if he snores. I'm too ill to have +my rest disturbed." And she lifted a pomander to her nostrils. +</P> + +<P> +The next few days dwelt in Odo's memory as a blur of strange sights and +sounds. The super-acute state of his perceptions was succeeded after a +night's sleep by the natural passivity with which children accept the +improbable, so that he passed from one novel impression to another as +easily and with the same exhilaration as if he had been listening to a +fairy tale. Solitude and neglect had no surprises for him, and it seemed +natural enough that his mother and her maids should be too busy to +remember his presence. +</P> + +<P> +For the first day or two he sat unnoticed on his little stool in a +corner of his mother's room, while packing-chests were dragged in, +wardrobes emptied, mantua-makers and milliners consulted, and +troublesome creditors dismissed with abuse, or even blows, by the +servants lounging in the ante-chamber. Donna Laura continued to show the +liveliest symptoms of concern, but the child perceived her distress to +be but indirectly connected with the loss she had suffered, and he had +seen enough of poverty at the farm to guess that the need of money was +somehow at the bottom of her troubles. How any one could be in want, who +slept between damask curtains and lived on sweet cakes and chocolate, it +exceeded his fancy to conceive; yet there were times when his mother's +voice had the same frightened angry sound as Filomena's on the days when +the bailiff went over the accounts at Pontesordo. +</P> + +<P> +Her excellency's rooms, during these days, were always crowded, for +besides the dressmakers and other merchants there was the hairdresser, +or French Monsu—a loud, important figure, with a bag full of cosmetics +and curling-irons—the abate, always running in and out with messages +and letters, and taking no more notice of Odo than if he had never seen +him, and a succession of ladies brimming with condolences, and each +followed by a servant who swelled the noisy crowd of card-playing +lacqueys in the ante-chamber. +</P> + +<P> +Through all these figures came and went another, to Odo the most +noticeable,—that of a handsome young man with a high manner, dressed +always in black, but with an excess of lace ruffles and jewels, a +clouded amber head to his cane, and red heels to his shoes. This young +gentleman, whose age could not have been more than twenty, and who had +the coldest insolent air, was treated with profound respect by all but +Donna Laura, who was for ever quarrelling with him when he was present, +yet could not support his absence without lamentations and alarm. The +abate appeared to act as messenger between the two, and when he came to +say that the Count rode with the court, or was engaged to sup with the +Prime Minister, or had business on his father's estate in the country, +the lady would openly yield to her distress, crying out that she knew +well enough what his excuses meant: that she was the most cruelly +outraged of women, and that he treated her no better than a husband. +</P> + +<P> +For two days Odo languished in his corner, whisked by the women's +skirts, smothered under the hoops and falbalas which the dressmakers +unpacked from their cases, fed at irregular hours, and faring on the +whole no better than at Pontesordo. The third morning, Vanna, who seemed +the most good-natured of the women, cried out on his pale looks when she +brought him his cup of chocolate. "I declare," she exclaimed, "the child +has had no air since he came in from the farm. What does your excellency +say? Shall the hunchback take him for a walk in the gardens?" +</P> + +<P> +To this her excellency, who sat at her toilet under the hair-dresser's +hands, irritably replied that she had not slept all night and was in no +state to be tormented about such trifles, but that the child might go +where he pleased. +</P> + +<P> +Odo, who was very weary of his corner, sprang up readily enough when +Vanna, at this, beckoned him to the inner ante-chamber. Here, where +persons of a certain condition waited (the outer being given over to +servants and tradesmen), they found a lean humpbacked boy, shabbily +dressed in darned stockings and a faded coat, but with an extraordinary +keen pale face that at once attracted and frightened the child. +</P> + +<P> +"There, go with him; he won't eat you," said Vanna, giving him a push as +she hurried away; and Odo, trembling a little, laid his hand in the +boy's. "Where do you come from?" he faltered, looking up into his +companion's face. +</P> + +<P> +The boy laughed and the blood rose to his high cheekbones. "I?—From the +Innocenti, if your Excellency knows where that is," said he. +</P> + +<P> +Odo's face lit up. "Of course I do," he cried, reassured. "I know a girl +who comes from there—the Momola at Pontesordo." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, indeed?" said the boy with a queer look. "Well, she's my sister, +then. Give her my compliments when you see her, cavaliere. Oh, we're a +large family, we are!" +</P> + +<P> +Odo's perplexity was returning. "Are you really Momola's brother?" he +asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Eh, in a way—we're children of the same house." +</P> + +<P> +"But you live in the palace, don't you?" Odo persisted, his curiosity +surmounting his fear. "Are you a servant of my mother's?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm the servant of your illustrious mother's servants; the abatino of +the waiting-women. I write their love-letters, do you see, cavaliere, I +carry their rubbish to the pawnbroker's when their sweethearts have bled +them of their savings; I clean the birdcages and feed the monkeys, and +do the steward's accounts when he's drunk, and sleep on a bench in the +portico and steal my food from the pantry...and my father very likely +goes in velvet and carries a sword at his side." +</P> + +<P> +The boy's voice had grown shrill, and his eyes blazed like an owl's in +the dark. Odo would have given the world to be back in his corner, but +he was ashamed to betray his lack of heart; and to give himself courage +he asked haughtily: "And what is your name, boy?" +</P> + +<P> +The hunchback gave him a gleaming look. "Call me Brutus," he cried, "for +Brutus killed a tyrant." He gave Odo's hand a pull. "Come along," said +he, "and I'll show you his statue in the garden—Brutus's statue in a +prince's garden, mind you!" And as the little boy trotted at his side +down the long corridors he kept repeating under his breath in a kind of +angry sing-song, "For Brutus killed a tyrant." +</P> + +<P> +The sense of strangeness inspired by his odd companion soon gave way in +Odo's mind to emotions of delight and wonder. He was, even at that age, +unusually sensitive to external impressions, and when the hunchback, +after descending many stairs and winding through endless back-passages, +at length led him out on a terrace above the gardens, the beauty of the +sight swelled his little heart to bursting. +</P> + +<P> +A Duke of Pianura had, some hundred years earlier, caused a great wing +to be added to his palace by the eminent architect Carlo Borromini, and +this accomplished designer had at the same time replanted and enlarged +the ducal gardens. To Odo, who had never seen plantations more artful +than the vineyards and mulberry orchards about Pontesordo, these +perspectives of clipped beech and yew, these knots of box filled in with +multi-coloured sand, appeared, with the fountains, colonnades and +trellised arbours surmounted by globes of glass, to represent the very +pattern and Paradise of gardens. It seemed indeed too beautiful to be +real, and he trembled, as he sometimes did at the music of the Easter +mass, when the hunchback, laughing at his amazement, led him down the +terrace steps. +</P> + +<P> +It was Odo's lot in after years to walk the alleys of many a splendid +garden, and to pace, often wearily enough, the paths along which he was +now led; but never after did he renew the first enchanted impression of +mystery and brightness that remained with him as the most vivid emotion +of his childhood. +</P> + +<P> +Though it was February the season was so soft that the orange and lemon +trees had been put out in their earthen vases before the lemon-house, +and the beds in the parterres were full of violets, daffodils and +auriculas; but the scent of the orange-blossoms and the bright colours +of the flowers moved Odo less than the noble ordonnance of the pleached +alleys, each terminated by a statue or a marble seat; and when he came +to the grotto where, amid rearing sea-horses and Tritons, a cascade +poured from the grove above, his wonder passed into such delicious awe +as hung him speechless on the hunchback's hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Eh," said the latter with a sneer, "it's a finer garden than we have at +our family palace. Do you know what's planted there?" he asked, turning +suddenly on the little boy. "Dead bodies, cavaliere! Rows and rows of +them; the bodies of my brothers and sisters, the Innocents who die like +flies every year of the cholera and the measles and the putrid fever." +He saw the terror in Odo's face and added in a gentler tone: "Eh, don't +cry, cavaliere; they sleep better in those beds than in any others +they're like to lie on. Come, come, and I'll show your excellency the +aviaries." +</P> + +<P> +From the aviaries they passed to the Chinese pavilion, where the Duke +supped on summer evenings, and thence to the bowling-alley, the +fish-stew and the fruit-garden. At every step some fresh surprise +arrested Odo; but the terrible vision of that other garden planted with +the dead bodies of the Innocents robbed the spectacle of its brightness, +dulled the plumage of the birds behind their gilt wires and cast a +deeper shade over the beech-grove, where figures of goat-faced men +lurked balefully in the twilight. Odo was glad when they left the +blackness of this grove for the open walks, where gardeners were working +and he had the reassurance of the sky. The hunchback, who seemed sorry +that he had frightened him, told him many curious stories about the +marble images that adorned the walks; and pausing suddenly before one of +a naked man with a knife in his hand, cried out in a frenzy: "This is my +namesake, Brutus!" But when Odo would have asked if the naked man was a +kinsman, the boy hurried him on, saying only: "You'll read of him some +day in Plutarch." +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +1.3. +</H4> + +<P> +Odo, next morning, under the hunchback's guidance, continued his +exploration of the palace. His mother seemed glad to be rid of him, and +Vanna packing him off early, with the warning that he was not to fall +into the fishponds or get himself trampled by the horses, he guessed, +with a thrill, that he had leave to visit the stables. Here in fact the +two boys were soon making their way among the crowd of grooms and +strappers in the yard, seeing the Duke's carriage-horses groomed, and +the Duchess's cream-coloured hackney saddled for her ride in the chase; +and at length, after much lingering and gazing, going on to the +harness-rooms and coach-house. The state-carriages, with their carved +and gilt wheels, their panels gay with flushed divinities and their +stupendous velvet hammer-cloths edged with bullion, held Odo spellbound. +He had a born taste for splendour, and the thought that he might one day +sit in one of these glittering vehicles puffed his breast with pride and +made him address the hunchback with sudden condescension. "When I'm a +man I shall ride in these carriages," he said; whereat the other laughed +and returned good-humouredly: "Eh, that's not so much to boast of, +cavaliere; I shall ride in a carriage one of these days myself." Odo +stared, not over-pleased, and the boy added: "When I'm carried to the +churchyard, I mean," with a chuckle of relish at the joke. +</P> + +<P> +From the stables they passed to the riding-school, with its open +galleries supported on twisted columns, where the duke's gentlemen +managed their horses and took their exercise in bad weather. Several +rode there that morning; and among them, on a fine Arab, Odo recognised +the young man in black velvet who was so often in Donna Laura's +apartments. +</P> + +<P> +"Who's that?" he whispered, pulling the hunchback's sleeve, as the +gentleman, just below them, made his horse execute a brilliant balotade. +</P> + +<P> +"That? Bless the innocent! Why, the Count Lelio Trescorre, your +illustrious mother's cavaliere servente." +</P> + +<P> +Odo was puzzled, but some instinct of reserve withheld him from further +questions. The hunchback, however, had no such scruples. "They do say, +though," he went on, "that her Highness has her eye on him, and in that +case I'll wager your illustrious mamma has no more chance than a sparrow +against a hawk." +</P> + +<P> +The boy's words were incomprehensible, but the vague sense that some +danger might be threatening his mother's friend made Odo whisper: "What +would her Highness do to him?" +</P> + +<P> +"Make him a prime-minister, cavaliere," the hunchback laughed. +</P> + +<P> +Odo's guide, it appeared, was not privileged to conduct him through the +state apartments of the palace, and the little boy had now been four +days under the ducal roof without catching so much as a glimpse of his +sovereign and cousin. The very next morning, however, Vanna swept him +from his trundle-bed with the announcement that he was to be received by +the Duke that day, and that the tailor was now waiting to try on his +court dress. He found his mother propped against her pillows, drinking +chocolate, feeding her pet monkey and giving agitated directions to the +maidservants on their knees before the open carriage-trunks. Her +excellency informed Odo that she had that moment received an express +from his grandfather, the old Marquess di Donnaz; that they were to +start next morning for the castle of Donnaz, and that he was to be +presented to the Duke as soon as his Highness had risen from dinner. A +plump purse lay on the coverlet, and her countenance wore an air of +kindness and animation which, together with the prospect of wearing a +court dress and travelling to his grandfather's castle in the mountains, +so worked on Odo's spirits that, forgetting the abate's instructions, he +sprang to her with an eager caress. +</P> + +<P> +"Child, child," was her only rebuke; and she added, with a tap on his +cheek: "It is lucky I shall have a sword to protect me." +</P> + +<P> +Long before the hour Odo was buttoned into his embroidered coat and +waistcoat. He would have on the sword at once, and when they sat down to +dinner, though his mother pressed him to eat with more concern than she +had before shown, it went hard with him to put his weapon aside, and he +cast longing eyes at the corner where it lay. At length a chamberlain +summoned them and they set out down the corridors, attended by two +servants. Odo held his head high, with one hand leading Donna Laura (for +he would not appear to be led by her) while the other fingered his +sword. The deformed beggars who always lurked about the great staircase +fawned on them as they passed, and on a landing they crossed the +humpbacked boy, who grinned mockingly at Odo; but the latter, with his +chin up, would not so much as glance at him. +</P> + +<P> +A master of ceremonies in short black cloak and gold chain received them +in the antechamber of the Duchess's apartments, where the court played +lansquenet after dinner; the doors of her Highness's closet were thrown +open, and Odo, now glad enough to cling to his mother's hand, found +himself in a tall room, with gods and goddesses in the clouds overhead +and personages as supra-terrestrial seated in gilt armchairs about a +smoking brazier. Before one of these, to whom Donna Laura swept +successive curtsies in advancing, the frightened cavaliere found himself +dragged with his sword between his legs. He ducked his head like the old +drake diving for worms in the puddle at the farm, and when at last he +dared look up, it was to see an odd sallow face, half-smothered in an +immense wig, bowing back at him with infinite ceremony—and Odo's heart +sank to think that this was his sovereign. +</P> + +<P> +The Duke was in fact a sickly narrow-faced young man with thick +obstinate lips and a slight lameness that made his walk ungainly; but +though no way resembling the ermine-cloaked king of the chapel at +Pontesordo, he yet knew how to put on a certain majesty with his state +wig and his orders. As for the newly married Duchess, who sat at the +other end of the cabinet caressing a toy spaniel, she was scant fourteen +and looked a mere child in her great hoop and jewelled stomacher. Her +wonderful fair hair, drawn over a cushion and lightly powdered, was +twisted with pearls and roses, and her cheeks excessively rouged, in the +French fashion; so that as she arose on the approach of the visitors she +looked to Odo for all the world like the wooden Virgin hung with votive +offerings in the parish church at Pontesordo. Though they were but three +months married the Duke, it was rumoured, was never with her, preferring +the company of the young Marquess of Cerveno, his cousin and +heir-presumptive, a pale boy scented with musk and painted like a +comedian, whom his Highness would never suffer away from him and who now +leaned with an impertinent air against the back of the ducal armchair. +</P> + +<P> +On the other side of the brazier sat the dowager Duchess, the Duke's +grandmother, an old lady so high and forbidding of aspect that Odo cast +but one look at her face, which was yellow and wrinkled as a medlar, and +surmounted, in the Spanish style, with black veils and a high coif. What +these alarming personages said and did, the child could never recall; +nor were his own actions clear to him, except for a furtive caress that +he remembered giving the spaniel as he kissed the Duchess's hand; +whereupon her Highness snatched up the pampered animal and walked away +with a pout of anger. Odo noticed that her angry look followed him as he +and Donna Laura withdrew; but the next moment he heard the Duke's voice +and saw his Highness limping after them. +</P> + +<P> +"You must have a furred cloak for your journey, cousin," said he +awkwardly, pressing something in the hand of Odo's mother, who broke +into fresh compliments and curtsies, while the Duke, with a finger on +his thick lip, withdrew hastily into the closet. +</P> + +<P> +The next morning early they set out on their journey. There had been +frost in the night and a cold sun sparkled on the palace windows and on +the marble church-fronts as their carriage lumbered through the streets, +now full of noise and animation. It was Odo's first glimpse of the town +by daylight, and he clapped his hands with delight at sight of the +people picking their way across the reeking gutters, the asses laden +with milk and vegetables, the servant-girls bargaining at the +provision-stalls, the shop-keepers' wives going to mass in pattens and +hoods, with scaldini in their muffs, the dark recessed openings in the +palace basements, where fruit sellers, wine-merchants and coppersmiths +displayed their wares, the pedlars hawking books and toys, and here and +there a gentleman in a sedan chair returning flushed and disordered from +a night at bassett or faro. The travelling-carriage was escorted by +half-a-dozen of the Duke's troopers and Don Lelio rode at the door +followed by two grooms. He wore a furred coat and boots, and never, to +Odo, had he appeared more proud and splendid; but Donna Laura had hardly +a word for him, and he rode with the set air of a man who acquits +himself of a troublesome duty. +</P> + +<P> +Outside the gates the spectacle seemed tame in comparison; for the road +bent toward Pontesordo, and Odo was familiar enough with the look of the +bare fields, set here and there with oak-copses to which the leaves +still clung. As the carriage skirted the marsh his mother raised the +windows, exclaiming that they must not expose themselves to the +pestilent air; and though Odo was not yet addicted to general +reflections, he could not but wonder that she should display such dread +of an atmosphere she had let him breathe since his birth. He knew of +course that the sunset vapours on the marsh were unhealthy: everybody on +the farm had a touch of the ague, and it was a saying in the village +that no one lived at Pontesordo who could buy an ass to carry him away; +but that Donna Laura, in skirting the place on a clear morning of frost, +should show such fear of infection, gave a sinister emphasis to the +ill-repute of the region. +</P> + +<P> +The thought, he knew not why, turned his mind to Momola, who often on +damp evenings sat shaking and burning in the kitchen corner. He +reflected with a pang that he might never see her again, and leaning +forward he strained his eyes for a glimpse of Pontesordo. They were +passing through a patch of oaks; but where these ended the country +opened, and beyond a belt of osiers and the mottled faded stretches of +the marsh the keep stood up like a beckoning finger. Odo cried out as +though in answer to its call; but that moment the road turned a knoll +and bent across rising ground toward an unfamiliar region. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank God!" cried his mother, lowering the window, "we're rid of that +poison and can breath the air." +</P> + +<P> +As the keep vanished Odo reproached himself for not having begged a pair +of shoes for Momola. He had felt very sorry for her since the hunchback +had spoken so strangely of life at the foundling hospital; and he had a +sudden vision of her bare feet, pinched with cold and cut with the +pebbles of the yard, perpetually running across the damp stone floors, +with Filomena crying after her: "Hasten then, child of iniquity! You +are slower than a day without bread!" He had almost resolved to speak of +the foundling to his mother, who still seemed in a condescending humour; +but his attention was unexpectedly distracted by a troop of Egyptians, +who came along the road leading a dancing bear; and hardly had these +passed when the chariot of an itinerant dentist engaged him. The whole +way, indeed, was alive with such surprises; and at Valsecca, where they +dined, they found the yard of the inn crowded with the sumpter-mules and +servants of a cardinal travelling to Rome, who was to lie there that +night and whose bedstead and saucepans had preceded him. +</P> + +<P> +Here, after dinner, Don Lelio took leave of Odo's mother, with small +show of regret on either side; the lady high and sarcastic, the +gentleman sullen and polite; and both, as it seemed, easier when the +business was despatched and the Count's foot in the stirrup. He had so +far taken little notice of Odo, but he now bent from the saddle and +tapped the boy's cheek, saying in his cold way: "In a few years I shall +see you at court;" and with that rode away toward Pianura. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +1.4. +</H4> + +<P> +Lying that night at Pavia, the travellers set forward next morning for +the city of Vercelli. The road, though it ran for the most part through +flat mulberry orchards and rice-fields reflecting the pale blue sky in +their sodden channels, would yet have appeared diverting enough to Odo, +had his mother been in the mood to reply to his questions; for whether +their carriage overtook a party of strolling jugglers, travelling in a +roofed-in waggon, with the younger children of the company running +alongside in threadbare tights and trunkhose decked with tinsel; or +whether they drove through a village market-place, where yellow earthen +crocks and gaudy Indian cottons, brass pails and braziers and platters +of bluish pewter, filled the stalls with a medley of colour—at every +turn was something that excited the boy's wonder; but Donna Laura, who +had fallen into a depression of spirits, lamenting the cold, her +misfortunes and the discomfort of the journey, was at no more pains than +the abate to satisfy the promptings of his curiosity. +</P> + +<P> +Odo had indeed met but one person who cared to listen to him, and that +was the strange hunchback who had called himself Brutus. Remembering how +entertainingly this odd guide had explained all the wonders of the ducal +grounds, Odo began to regret that he had not asked his mother to let him +have Brutus for a body-servant. Meanwhile no one attended to his +questions and the hours were beginning to seem long when, on the third +day, they set out from Vercelli toward the hills. The cold increased as +they rose; and Odo, though he had often wished to see the mountains, was +yet dismayed at the gloomy and menacing aspect of the region on which +they were entering. Leafless woods, prodigious boulders and white +torrents foaming and roaring seemed a poor exchange for the +pleasantly-ordered gardens of Pianura. Here were no violets and cowslips +in bloom; hardly a green blade pierced the sodden roadside, and +snowdrifts lingered in the shaded hollows. +</P> + +<P> +Donna Laura's loudly expressed fear of robbers seemed to increase the +loneliness of the way, which now traversed tracts of naked moorland, now +plunged again into forest, with no sign of habitation but here and there +a cowherd's hut under the trees or a chapel standing apart on some +grassy eminence. When night fell the waters grew louder, a stinging wind +swept the woods, and the carriage, staggering from rut to rut, seemed +every moment about to land them in some invisible ravine. Fear and cold +at last benumbed the little boy, and when he woke he was being lifted +from his seat and torches were flashing on a high escutcheoned doorway +set in battlemented walls. He was carried into a hall lit with smoky +oil-lamps and hung with armour and torn banners. +</P> + +<P> +Here, among a group of rough-looking servants, a tall old man in a +nightcap and furred gown was giving orders in a loud passionate voice. +This personage, who was of a choleric complexion, with a face like +mottled red marble, seized Odo by the wrist and led him up a flight of +stairs so worn and slippery that he tripped at every step; thence down a +corridor and into a gloomy apartment where three ladies shivered about a +table set with candles. Bidden by the old gentleman to salute his +grandmother and great-aunts, Odo bowed over three wrinkled hands, one +fat and soft as a toad's stomach, the others yellow and dry as +lemon-skins. His mother embraced the ladies in the same humble manner, +and the Marquess, first furiously calling for supper, thrust Odo down on +a stool in the ingle. +</P> + +<P> +From this point of observation the child, now vividly awake, noted the +hangings of faded tapestry that heaved in the draught, the ceiling of +beams and the stone floor strewn with rushes. The candle-light +flickering on the faces of his aged relatives showed his grandmother to +be a pale heavy-cheeked person with little watchful black eyes which she +dropped at her husband's approach; while the two great-aunts, seated +side by side in high-backed chairs with their feet on braziers, reminded +Odo of the narrow elongated saints squeezed into the niches of a +church-door. The old Marchioness wore the high coif and veil of the +previous century; the aunts, who, as Odo afterwards learned, were +canonesses of a noble order, were habited in a semi-conventual dress, +with crosses hanging on their bosoms; and none spoke but when the +Marquess addressed them. +</P> + +<P> +Their timidity appeared to infect Odo's mother, who, from her habitual +volubility of temper, sank to a mood of like submissiveness. A supper of +venison and goat's cheese was not designed to restore her spirits, and +when at length she and Odo had withdrawn to their cavernous bedchamber, +she flung herself weeping on the bed and declared she must die if she +remained long in this prison. +</P> + +<P> +Falling asleep under such influences, it was the more wonderful to Odo +to wake with the sun on his counterpane, a sweet noise of streams +through the casement and the joyous barking of hounds in the castle +court. From the window-seat he looked out on a scene extraordinarily +novel to his lowland eyes. The chamber commanded the wooded steep below +the castle, with a stream looping its base; beyond, the pastures sloped +pleasantly under walnut trees, with here and there a clearing ploughed +for the spring crops and a sunny ledge or two planted with vines. Above +this pastoral landscape, bare crags upheld a snowpeak; and, as if to +lend a human interest to the scene, the old Marquess, his flintlock on +his shoulder, his dogs and beaters at his heels, now rode across the +valley. +</P> + +<P> +Wonder succeeded to wonder that first morning; for there was the castle +to be seen, with the kennels and stables roughly kept, but full of dogs +and horses; and Odo, in the Marquess's absence, was left free to visit +every nook of his new home. Pontesordo, though perhaps as ancient as +Donnaz, was but a fortified manor in the plain; but here was the +turreted border castle, bristling at the head of the gorge like the +fangs in a boar's throat: its walls overhung by machicolations, its +portcullis still dropped at nightfall, and the loud stream forming a +natural moat at its base. Through the desert spaces of this great +structure Odo wandered at will, losing himself in its network of bare +chambers, some now put to domestic uses, with smoked meats hanging from +the rafters, cheeses ranged on shelves and farmer's implements stacked +on the floor; others abandoned to bats and spiders, with slit-like +openings choked by a growth of wild cherries, and little animals +scurrying into their holes as Odo opened the unused doors. At the next +turn he mounted by a winding stair to the platform behind the +battlements, whence he could look down on the inner court, where horses +were being groomed, dogs fed, harnesses mended, and platters of smoking +food carried from the kitchen to the pantry; or, leaning another way, +discovered, between the cliff and the rampart a tiny walled garden with +fruit-trees and a sundial. +</P> + +<P> +The ladies kept to themselves in a corner of the castle, where the rooms +were hung with tapestry and a few straight-backed chairs stood about the +hearth; but even here no fires were suffered till nightfall, nor was +there so much as a carpet in the castle. Odo's grandmother, the old +Marchioness, a heavy woman who would doubtless have enjoyed her ease in +a cushioned seat, was afoot all day attending to her household; for +besides the dairy and the bakehouse and the stillroom where fruits were +stewed and pastes prepared, there was the great spinning-room full of +distaffs and looms, where the women spun and wove all the linen used in +the castle and the coarse stuffs worn by its inmates; with workshops for +the cobbler and tailor who clothed and shod the Marquess and his +household. All these the Marchioness must visit, and attend to her +devotions between; the ladies being governed by a dark-faced priest, +their chaplain and director, who kept them perpetually running along the +cold stone corridors to the chapel in a distant wing, where they knelt +without so much as a brazier to warm them or a cushion to their knees. +As to the chapel, though larger and loftier than that of Pontesordo, +with a fine carved and painted tabernacle and many silver candlesticks, +it seemed to Odo, by reason of its bare walls, much less beautiful than +that deserted oratory; nor did he, amid all the novelty of his +surroundings, cease to regret the companionship of his familiar images. +</P> + +<P> +His delight was the greater, therefore, when, exploring a part of the +castle now quite abandoned, he came one day on a vaulted chamber used as +a kind of granary, where, under layers of dirt and cobwebs, lovely +countenances flowered from the walls. The scenes depicted differed +indeed from those of Pontesordo, being less animated and homely and more +difficult for a child to interpret; for here were naked laurel-crowned +knights on prancing horses, nimble goat-faced creatures grouped in +adoration round a smoking altar and youths piping to saffron-haired +damsels on grass-banks set with poplars. The very strangeness of the +fable set forth perhaps engaged the child's fancy; or the benignant +mildness of the countenances, so unlike the eager individual faces of +the earlier artist; for he returned again and again to gaze unweariedly +on the inhabitants of that tranquil grassy world, studying every inch of +the walls and with much awe and fruitless speculation deciphering on the +hem of a floating drapery the inscription: Bernardinus Lovinus pinxit. +</P> + +<P> +His impatience to know more of the history of these paintings led him to +question an old man, half house-servant, half huntsman, now too infirm +for service and often to be found sunning himself in the court with an +old hound's chin on his knee. The old man, whose name was Bruno, told +him the room in question had been painted for the Marquess Gualberto di +Donnaz, who had fought under the Duke of Milan hundreds of years before: +a splendid and hospitable noble, patron of learning and the arts, who +had brought the great Milanese painter to Donnaz and kept him there a +whole summer adorning the banqueting-room. "But I advise you, little +master," Bruno added, "not to talk too loudly of your discovery; for we +live in changed days, do you see, and it seems those are pagan sorcerers +and witches painted on the wall, and because of that, and their +nakedness, the chaplain has forbidden all the young boys and wenches +about the place to set foot there; and the Marchioness herself, I'm +told, doesn't enter without leave." +</P> + +<P> +This was the more puzzling to Odo that he had seen so many naked pagans, +in colours and marble, at his cousin's palace of Pianura, where they +were praised as the chief ornament of that sumptuous fabric; but he kept +Bruno's warning in mind and so timed his visits that they escaped the +chaplain's observation. Whether this touch of mystery added charm to the +paintings; or whether there was already forming in him what afterward +became an instinctive resistance to many of the dictates of his age; +certain it is that, even after he had been privileged to admire the +stupendous works of the Caracci at Parma and of the immortal Giulio +Romano at Mantua, Odo's fancy always turned with peculiar fondness to +the clear-limbed youths moving in that world of untroubled beauty. +</P> + +<P> +Odo, the day after his arrival at Donnaz, learned that the chaplain was +to be his governor; and he was not long in discovering that the system +of that ecclesiastic bore no resemblance to the desultory methods of his +former pedagogue. It was not that Don Gervaso was a man of superior +acquirements: in writing, ciphering and the rudiments of Latin he seemed +little likely to carry Odo farther than the other; but in religious +instruction he suffered no negligence or inattention. His piety was of a +stamp so different from the abate's that it vivified the theological +abstractions over which Odo had formerly languished, infusing a +passionate meaning into the formulas of the textbooks. His discourse +breathed the same spirit, and had his religion been warmed by +imagination or tempered by charity the child had been a ductile +substance in his hands; but the shadow of the Council of Trent still +hung over the Church in Savoy, making its approach almost as sombre and +forbidding as that of the Calvinist heresy. As it was, the fascination +that drew Odo to the divine teachings was counteracted by a depressing +awe: he trembled in God's presence almost as much as in his +grandfather's, and with the same despair of discovering what course of +action was most likely to call down the impending wrath. The beauty of +the Church's offices, now for the first time revealed to him in the +well-ordered services of the chapel, was doubly moving in contrast with +the rude life at Donnaz; but his confessions tortured him and the +penances which the chaplain inflicted abased without reforming his +spirit. +</P> + +<P> +Next to the mass, the books Don Gervaso lent him were his chief +pleasure: the Lives of the Saints, Cardinal Bellarmine's Fables and The +Mirror of true Penitence. The Lives of the Saints fed at once his +imagination and his heart, and over the story of Saint Francis, now +first made known to him, he trembled with delicious sympathy. The +longing to found a hermitage like the Portiuncula among the savage rocks +of Donnaz, and live there in gentle communion with plants and animals, +alternated in him with the martial ambition to ride forth against the +Church's enemies, as his ancestors had ridden against the bloody and +pestilent Waldenses; but whether his piety took the passive or the +aggressive form, it always shrank from the subtleties of doctrine. To +live like the saints, rather than to reason like the fathers, was his +ideal of Christian conduct; if indeed a vague pity for suffering +creatures and animals was not the source of his monastic yearnings, and +a desire to see strange countries the secret of his zeal against the +infidel. +</P> + +<P> +The chaplain, though reproving his lukewarmness in matters of dogma, +could not but commend his devotion to the saints; and one day his +grandmother, to reward him for some act of piety, informed him with +tears of joy that he was destined for holy orders, and that she had good +hopes of living to see him a bishop. This news had hardly the intended +effect; for Odo's dream was of the saint's halo rather than the bishop's +mitre; and throwing himself on his knees before the old Marquess, who +was present, he besought that he might be allowed to join the Franciscan +order. The Marquess at this flew into so furious a rage, cursing the +meddlesomeness of women and the chaplain's bigotry, that the ladies +burst into tears and Odo's swelling zeal turned small. There was indeed +but one person in the castle who seemed not to regard its master's +violences, and that was the dark-faced chaplain, who, when the Marquess +had paused out of breath, tranquilly returned that nothing could make +him repent of having brought a soul to Christ, and that, as to the +cavaliere Odo, if his maker designed him for a religious, the Pope +himself could not cross his vocation. +</P> + +<P> +"Ay, ay! vocation," snarled the Marquess. "You and the women here shut +the child up between you and stuff his ears full of monkish stories and +miracles and the Lord knows what, and then talk of the simpleton's +vocation. His vocation, nom de Dieu, is to be an abbot first, and then a +monsignore, and then a bishop, if he can—and to the devil with your +cowls and cloisters!" And he gave orders that Odo should hunt with him +next morning. +</P> + +<P> +The chaplain smiled. "Hubert was a huntsman," said he, "and yet he died +a saint." +</P> + +<P> +From that time forth the old Marquess kept Odo oftener at his side, +making his grandson ride with him about his estates and on such +hunting-parties as were not beyond the boy's strength. The domain of +Donnaz included many a mile of vine and forest, over which, till the +fifteenth century, its lords had ruled as sovereign Marquesses. They +still retained a part of their feudal privileges, and Odo's grandfather, +tenacious of these dwindling rights, was for ever engaged in vain +contests with his peasantry. To see these poor creatures cursed and +brow-beaten, their least offences punished, their few claims disputed, +must have turned Odo's fear of his grandfather to hatred, had he not +observed that the old man gave with one hand what he took with the +other, so that, in his dealings with his people, he resembled one of +those torrents which now devastate and now enrich their banks. The +Marquess, in fact, while he held obstinately to his fishing rights, +prosecuted poachers, enforced the corvee and took toll at every ford, +yet laboured to improve his lands, exterminated the wild beasts that +preyed on them, helped his peasants in sickness, nourished them in old +age and governed them with a paternal tyranny doubtless less +insufferable than the negligence of the great land-owners who lived at +court. +</P> + +<P> +To Odo, however, these rides among the tenantry were less agreeable than +the hunting-expeditions which carried them up the mountain in the +solitude of morning. Here the wild freshness of the scene and the +exhilaration of pursuit roused the fighting strain in the boy's blood, +and so stirred his memory with tales of prowess that sometimes, as they +climbed the stony defiles in the clear shadow before sunrise, he fancied +himself riding forth to exterminate the Waldenses who, according to the +chaplain, still lurked like basilisks and dragons in the recesses of the +mountains. Certain it is that his rides with the old Marquess, if they +inflamed his zeal against heresy, cooled the ardour of his monastic +vocation; and if he pondered on his future, it was to reflect that +doubtless he would some day be a bishop, and that bishops were +territorial lords, we might hunt the wolf and boar in their own domains. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +1.5. +</H4> + +<P> +Reluctantly, every year about the Epiphany, the old Marquess rode down +from Donnaz to spend two months in Turin. It was a service exacted by +King Charles Emanuel, who viewed with a jealous eye those of his nobles +inclined to absent themselves from court and rewarded their presence +with privileges and preferments. At the same time the two canonesses +descended to their abbey in the plain, and thus with the closing in of +winter the old Marchioness, Odo and his mother were left alone in the +castle. +</P> + +<P> +To the Marchioness this was an agreeable period of spiritual compunction +and bodily repose; but to Donna Laura a season of despair. The poor +lady, who had been early removed from the rough life at Donnaz to the +luxurious court of Pianura, and was yet in the fulness of youth and +vivacity, could not resign herself to an existence no better, as she +declared, than that of any herdsman's wife upon the mountains. Here was +neither music nor cards, scandal nor love-making; no news of the +fashions, no visits from silk-mercers or jewellers, no Monsu to curl her +hair and tempt her with new lotions, or so much as a strolling +soothsayer or juggler to lighten the dullness of the long afternoons. +The only visitors to the castle were the mendicant friars drawn thither +by the Marchioness's pious repute; and though Donna Laura disdained not +to call these to her chamber and question them for news, yet their +country-side scandals were no more to her fancy than the two-penny wares +of the chapmen who unpacked their baubles on the kitchen hearth. +</P> + +<P> +She pined for some word of Pianura; but when a young abate, who had +touched there on his way from Tuscany, called for a night at the castle +to pay his duty to Don Gervaso, the word he brought with him of the +birth of an heir to the duchy was so little to Donna Laura's humour that +she sprang up from the supper-table, and crying out to the astonished +Odo, "Ah, now you are for the Church indeed," withdrew in disorder to +her chamber. The abate, who ascribed her commotion to a sudden seizure, +continued to retail the news of Pianura, and Odo, listening with his +elders, learned that Count Lelio Trescorre had been appointed Master of +the Horse, to the indignation of the Bishop, who desired the place for +his nephew, Don Serafino; that the Duke and Duchess were never together; +that the Duchess was suspected of being in secret correspondence with +the Austrians, and that the young Marquess of Cerveno was gone to the +baths of Lucca to recover from an attack of tertian fever contracted the +previous autumn at the Duke's hunting-lodge near Pontesordo. Odo +listened for some mention of his humpbacked friend, or of Momola the +foundling; but the abate's talk kept a higher level and no one less than +a cavaliere figured on his lips. He was the only visitor of quality who +came that winter to Donnaz, and after his departure a fixed gloom +settled on Donna Laura's spirits. Dusk at that season fell early in the +gorge, fierce winds blew off the glaciers, and Donna Laura sat shivering +and lamenting on one side of the hearth, while the old Marchioness, on +the other, strained her eyes over an embroidery in which the pattern +repeated itself like the invocations of a litany, and Don Gervaso, near +the smoking oil-lamp, read aloud from the Glories of Mary or the Way of +Perfection of Saint Theresa. +</P> + +<P> +On such evenings Odo, stealing from the tapestry parlour, would seek out +Bruno, who sat by the kitchen hearth with the old hound's nose at his +feet. The kitchen, indeed, on winter nights, was the pleasantest place +in the castle. The fire-light from its great stone chimney shone on the +strings of maize and bunches of dried vegetables that hung from the roof +and on the copper kettles and saucepans ranged along the wall. The wind +raged against the shutters of the unglazed windows, and the +maid-servants, distaff in hand, crowded closer to the blaze, listening +to the songs of some wandering fiddler or to the stories of a +ruddy-nosed Capuchin monk who was being regaled, by the steward's +orders, on a supper of tripe and mulled wine. The Capuchin's tales, told +in the Piedmontese jargon, and seasoned with strange allusions and +boisterous laughter, were of little interest to Odo, who would creep +into the ingle beside Bruno and beg for some story of his ancestors. The +old man was never weary of rehearsing the feats and gestures of the +lords of Donnaz, and Odo heard again and again how they had fought the +savage Switzers north of the Alps and the Dauphin's men in the west; how +they had marched with Savoy against Montferrat and with France against +the Republic of Genoa. Better still he liked to hear of the Marquess +Gualberto, who had been the Duke of Milan's ally and had brought home +the great Milanese painter to adorn his banqueting-room at Donnaz. The +lords of Donnaz had never been noted for learning, and Odo's grandfather +was fond of declaring that a nobleman need not be a scholar; but the +great Marquess Gualberto, if himself unlettered, had been the patron of +poets and painters and had kept learned clerks to write down the annals +of his house on parchment painted by the monks. These annals were locked +in the archives, under Don Gervaso's care; but Odo learned from the old +servant that some of the great Marquess's books had lain for years on an +upper shelf in the vestry off the chapel; and here one day, with Bruno's +aid, the little boy dislodged from a corner behind the missals and +altar-books certain sheepskin volumes clasped in blackened silver. The +comeliest of these, which bore on their title-page a dolphin curled +about an anchor, were printed in unknown characters; but on opening the +smaller volumes Odo felt the same joyous catching of the breath as when +he had stepped out on the garden-terrace at Pianura. For here indeed +were gates leading to a land of delectation: the country of the giant +Morgante, the enchanted island of Avillion, the court of the Soldan and +the King's palace at Camelot. +</P> + +<P> +In this region Odo spent many blissful hours. His fancy ranged in the +wake of heroes and adventurers who, for all he knew, might still be +feasting and fighting north of the Alps, or might any day with a blast +of their magic horns summon the porter to the gates of Donnaz. Foremost +among them, a figure towering above even Rinaldo, Arthur and the Emperor +Frederic, was that Conrad, father of Conradin, whose sayings are set +down in the old story-book of the Cento Novelle, "the flower of gentle +speech." There was one tale of King Conrad that the boy never forgot: +how the King, in his youth, had always about him a company of twelve +lads of his own age; how when Conrad did wrong, his governors, instead +of punishing him, beat his twelve companions; and how, on the young +King's asking what the lads were being punished for, the pedagogues +replied: +</P> + +<P> +"For your Majesty's offences." +</P> + +<P> +"And why do you punish my companions instead of me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because you are our lord and master," he was told. +</P> + +<P> +At this the King fell to thinking, and thereafter, it is said, in pity +for those who must suffer in his stead he set close watch on himself, +lest his sinning should work harm to others. This was the story of King +Conrad; and much as Odo loved the clash of arms and joyous feats of +paladins rescuing fair maids in battle, yet Conrad's seemed to him, even +then, a braver deed than these. +</P> + +<P> +In March of the second year the old Marquess, returning from Turin, was +accompanied, to the surprise of all, by the fantastical figure of an +elderly gentleman in the richest travelling dress, with one of the new +French toupets, a thin wrinkled painted face, and emitting with every +movement a prodigious odour of millefleurs. This visitor, who was +attended by his French barber and two or three liveried servants, the +Marquess introduced as the lord of Valdu, a neighbouring seigneurie of +no great account. Though his lands marched with the Marquess's, it was +years since the Count had visited Donnaz, being one of the King's +chamberlains and always in attendance on his Majesty; and it was amazing +to see with what smirks and grimaces, and ejaculations in Piedmontese +French, he complimented the Marchioness on her appearance, and exclaimed +at the magnificence of the castle, which must doubtless have appeared to +him little better than a cattle-grange. His talk was unintelligible to +Odo, but there was no mistaking the nature of the glances he fixed on +Donna Laura, who, having fled to her room on his approach, presently +descended in a ravishing new sacque, with an air of extreme surprise, +and her hair curled (as Odo afterward learned) by the Count's own +barber. +</P> + +<P> +Odo had never seen his mother look handsomer. She sparkled at the +Count's compliments, embraced her father, playfully readjusted her +mother's coif, and in the prettiest way made their excuses to the Count +for the cold draughts and bare floors of the castle. "For having lived +at court myself," said she, "I know to what your excellency is +accustomed, and can the better value your condescension in exposing +yourself, at this rigorous season, to the hardships of our +mountain-top." +</P> + +<P> +The Marquess at this began to look black, but seeing the Count's +pleasure in the compliment, contented himself with calling out for +dinner, which, said he, with all respect to their visitor, would stay +his stomach better than the French kick-shaws at his Majesty's table. +Whether the Count was of the same mind, it was impossible to say, though +Odo could not help observing that the stewed venison and spiced boar's +flesh seemed to present certain obstacles either to his jaws or his +palate, and that his appetite lingered on the fried chicken-livers and +tunny-fish in oil; but he cast such looks at Donna Laura as seemed to +declare that for her sake he would willingly have risked his teeth on +the very cobblestones of the court. Knowing how she pined for company, +Odo was not surprised at his mother's complaisance; yet wondered to see +the smile with which she presently received the Count's half-bantering +disparagement of Pianura. For the duchy, by his showing, was a place of +small consequence, an asylum of superannuated fashions; whereas no +Frenchman of quality ever visited Turin without exclaiming on its +resemblance to Paris, and vowing that none who had the entree of +Stupinigi need cross the Alps to see Versailles. As to the Marquess's +depriving the court of Donna Laura's presence, their guest protested +against it as an act of overt disloyalty to the sovereign; and what most +surprised Odo, who had often heard his grandfather declaim against the +Count as a cheap jackanapes that hung about the court for what he could +make at play, was the indulgence with which the Marquess received his +visitor's sallies. Father and daughter in fact vied in amenities to the +Count. The fire was kept alight all day in his rooms, his Monsu waited +on with singular civility by the steward, and Donna Laura's own woman +sent down by her mistress to prepare his morning chocolate. +</P> + +<P> +Next day it was agreed the gentlemen should ride to Valdu; but its lord +being as stiff-jointed as a marionette, Donna Laura, with charming tact, +begged to be of the party, and thus enabled him to attend her in her +litter. The Marquess thereupon called on Odo to ride with him; and +setting forth across the mountain they descended by a long defile to the +half-ruined village of Valdu. Here, for the first time, Odo saw the +spectacle of a neglected estate, its last penny wrung from it for the +absent master's pleasure by a bailiff who was expected to extract his +pay from the sale of clandestine concessions to the tenants. Riding +beside the Marquess, who swore under his breath at the ravages of the +undyked stream and the sight of good arable land run wild and choked +with underbrush, the little boy obtained a precocious insight into the +evils of a system which had long outlived its purpose, and the idea of +feudalism was ever afterward embodied for him in his glimpse of the +peasants of Valdu looking up sullenly from their work as their suzerain +and protector thrust an unfamiliar painted smile between the curtains of +his litter. +</P> + +<P> +What his grandfather thought of Valdu (to which the Count on the way +home referred with smirking apologies as the mountain-lair of his +barbarous ancestors) was patent enough even to Odo's undeveloped +perceptions; but it would have required a more experienced understanding +to detect the motive that led the Marquess, scarce two days after their +visit, to accord his daughter's hand to the Count. Odo felt a shock of +dismay on learning that his beautiful mother was to become the property +of an old gentleman whom he guessed to be of his grandfather's age, and +whose enamoured grimaces recalled the antics of her favourite monkey, +and the boy's face reflected the blush of embarrassment with which Donna +Laura imparted the news; but the children of that day were trained to a +passive acquiescence, and had she informed him that she was to be +chained in the keep on bread and water, Odo would have accepted the fact +with equal philosophy. Three weeks afterward his mother and the old +Count were married in the chapel of Donnaz, and Donna Laura, with many +tears and embraces, set out for Turin, taking her monkey but leaving her +son behind. It was not till later that Odo learned of the social usage +which compelled young widows to choose between remarriage and the +cloister; and his subsequent views were unconsciously tinged by the +remembrance of his mother's melancholy bridal. +</P> + +<P> +Her departure left no traces but were speedily repaired by the coming of +spring. The sun growing warmer, and the close season putting an end to +the Marquess's hunting, it was now Odo's chief pleasure to carry his +books to the walled garden between the castle and the southern face of +the cliff. This small enclosure, probably a survival of medieval +horticulture, had along the upper ledge of its wall a grass walk +commanding the flow of the stream, and an angle turret that turned one +slit to the valley, the other to the garden lying below like a tranquil +well of scent and brightness: its box trees clipped to the shape of +peacocks and lions, its clove pinks and simples set in a border of +thrift, and a pear tree basking on its sunny wall. These pleasant +spaces, which Odo had to himself save when the canonesses walked there +to recite their rosary, he peopled with the knights and ladies of the +novelle, and the fantastic beings of Pulci's epic: there walked the Fay +Morgana, Regulus the loyal knight, the giant Morgante, Trajan the just +Emperor and the proud figure of King Conrad; so that, escaping thither +from the after-dinner dullness of the tapestry parlour, the boy seemed +to pass from the most oppressive solitude to a world of warmth and +fellowship. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +1.6. +</H4> + +<P> +Odo, who, like all neglected children, was quick to note in the +demeanour of his elders any hint of a change in his own condition, had +been keenly conscious of the effect produced at Donnaz by the news of +the Duchess of Pianura's deliverance. Guided perhaps by his mother's +exclamation, he noticed an added zeal in Don Gervaso's teachings and an +unction in the manner of his aunts and grandmother, who embraced him as +though they were handling a relic; while the old Marquess, though he +took his grandson seldomer on his rides, would sit staring at him with a +frowning tenderness that once found vent in the growl—"Morbleu, but +he's too good for the tonsure!" All this made it clear to Odo that he +was indeed meant for the Church, and he learned without surprise that +the following spring he was to be sent to the seminary at Asti. +</P> + +<P> +With a view to prepare him for this change, the canonesses suggested his +attending them that year on their annual pilgrimage to the sanctuary of +Oropa. Thither, for every feast of the Assumption, these pious ladies +travelled in their litter; and Odo had heard from them many tales of the +miraculous Black Virgin who drew thousands to her shrine among the +mountains. They set forth in August, two days before the feast, +ascending through chestnut groves to the region of bare rocks; thence +downward across torrents hung with white acacia and along park-like +grassy levels deep in shade. The lively air, the murmur of verdure, the +perfume of mown grass in the meadows and the sweet call of the cuckoos +from every thicket made an enchantment of the way; but Odo's pleasure +redoubled when, gaining the high-road to Oropa, they mingled with the +long train of devotees ascending from the plain. Here were pilgrims of +every condition, from the noble lady of Turin or Asti (for it was the +favourite pilgrimage of the Sardinian court), attended by her physician +and her cicisbeo, to the half-naked goatherd of Val Sesia or Salluzzo; +the cheerful farmers of the Milanese, with their wives, in silver +necklaces and hairpins, riding pillion on plump white asses; sick +persons travelling in closed litters or carried on hand-stretchers; +crippled beggars obtruding their deformities; confraternities of hooded +penitents, Franciscans, Capuchins and Poor Clares in dusty companies; +jugglers, pedlars, Egyptians and sellers of drugs and amulets. From +among these, as the canonesses' litter jogged along, an odd figure +advanced toward Odo, who had obtained leave to do the last mile of the +journey on foot. This was a plump abate in tattered ecclesiastical +dress, his shoes white as a miller's and the perspiration streaking his +face as he laboured along in the dust. He accosted Odo in a soft shrill +voice, begging leave to walk beside the young cavaliere, whom he had +more than once had the honour of seeing at Pianura; and, in reply to the +boy's surprised glance, added, with a swelling of the chest and an +absurd gesture of self-introduction, "But perhaps the cavaliere is not +too young to have heard of the illustrious Cantapresto, late primo +soprano of the ducal theatre of Pianura?" +</P> + +<P> +Odo being obliged to avow his ignorance, the fat creature mopped his +brow and continued with a gasp—"Ah, your excellency, what is fame? From +glory to obscurity is no farther than from one milestone to another! Not +eight years ago, cavaliere, I was followed through the streets of +Pianura by a greater crowd than the Duke ever drew after him! But what +then? The voice goes—it lasts no longer than the bloom of a flower—and +with it goes everything: fortune, credit, consideration, friends and +parasites! Not eight years ago, sir—would you believe me?—I was +supping nightly in private with the Bishop, who had nearly quarrelled +with his late Highness for carrying me off by force one evening to his +casino; I was heaped with dignities and favours; all the poets in the +town composed sonnets in my honour; the Marquess of Trescorre fought a +duel about me with the Bishop's nephew, Don Serafino; I attended his +lordship to Rome; I spent the villeggiatura at his villa, where I sat at +play with the highest nobles in the land; yet when my voice went, +cavaliere, it was on my knees I had to beg of my heartless patron the +paltry favour of the minor orders!" Tears were running down the abate's +cheeks, and he paused to wipe them with a corner of tattered bands. +</P> + +<P> +Though Odo had been bred in an abhorrence of the theatre, the strange +creature's aspect so pricked his compassion that he asked him what he +was now engaged in; at which Cantapresto piteously cried, "Alas, what am +I not engaged in, if the occasion offers? For whatever a man's habit, he +will not wear it long if it cover an empty belly; and he that respects +his calling must find food enough to continue in it. But as for me, sir, +I have put a hand to every trade, from composing scenarios for the ducal +company of Pianura, to writing satirical sonnets for noblemen that +desire to pass for wits. I've a pretty taste, too, in compiling +almanacks, and when nothing else served I have played the public +scrivener at the street corner; nay, sir, necessity has even driven me +to hold the candle in one or two transactions I would not more actively +have mixed in; and it was to efface the remembrance of one of these—for +my conscience is still over-nice for my condition—that I set out on +this laborious pilgrimage." +</P> + +<P> +Much of this was unintelligible to Odo; but he was moved by any mention +of Pianura, and in the abate's first pause he risked the question—"Do +you know the hump-backed boy Brutus?" +</P> + +<P> +His companion stared and pursed his soft lips. +</P> + +<P> +"Brutus?" says he. "Brutus? Is he about the Duke's person?" +</P> + +<P> +"He lives in the palace," said Odo doubtfully. +</P> + +<P> +The fat ecclesiastic clapped a hand to his thigh. +</P> + +<P> +"Can it be your excellency has in mind the foundling boy Carlo Gamba? +Does the jackanapes call himself Brutus now? He was always full of his +classical allusions! Why, sir, I think I know him very well; he is even +rumoured to be a brother of Don Lelio Trescorre's, and I believe the +Duke has lately given him to the Marquess of Cerveno, for I saw him not +long since in the Marquess's livery at Pontesordo." +</P> + +<P> +"Pontesordo?" cried Odo. "It was there I lived." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you indeed, cavaliere? But I think you will have been at the Duke's +manor of that name; and it was the hunting-lodge on the edge of the +chase that I had in mind. The Marquess uses it, I believe, as a kind of +casino; though not without risk of a distemper. Indeed, there is much +wonder at his frequenting it, and 'tis said he does so against the +Duke's wishes." +</P> + +<P> +The name of Pontesordo had set Odo's memories humming like a hive of +bees, and without heeding his companion's allusions he asked—"And did +you see the Momola?" +</P> + +<P> +The other looked his perplexity. +</P> + +<P> +"She's an Innocent too," Odo hastened to explain. "She is Filomena's +servant at the farm." +</P> + +<P> +The abate at this, standing still in the road, screwed up his eyelids +and protruded a relishing lip. "Eh, eh," said he, "the girl from the +farm, you say?" And he gave a chuckle. "You've an eye, cavaliere, you've +an eye," he cried, his soft body shaking with enjoyment; but before Odo +could make a guess at his meaning their conversation was interrupted by +a sharp call from the litter. The abate at once disappeared in the +crowd, and a moment later the litter had debouched on the grassy +quadrangle before the outer gates of the monastery. This space was set +in beech-woods, amid which gleamed the white-pillared chapels of the Way +of the Cross; and the devouter pilgrims, dispersed beneath the trees, +were ascending from one chapel to another, preparatory to entering the +church. +</P> + +<P> +The quadrangle itself was crowded with people, and the sellers of votive +offerings, in their booths roofed with acacia-boughs, were driving a +noisy trade in scapulars and Agnus Deis, images of the Black Virgin of +Oropa, silver hearts and crosses, and phials of Jordan water warranted +to effect the immediate conversion of Jews and heretics. In one corner a +Carmelite missionary had set up his portable pulpit, and, crucifix in +hand, was exhorting the crowd; in another, an improvisatore intoned +canticles to the miraculous Virgin; a barefoot friar sat selling +indulgences at the monastery gate, and pedlars with trays of rosaries +and religious prints pushed their way among the pilgrims. Young women of +less pious aspect solicited the attention of the better-dressed +travellers, and jugglers, mountebanks and quacks of every description +hung on the outskirts of the square. The sight speedily turned Odo's +thought from his late companion, and the litter coming to a halt he was +leaning forward to observe the antics of a tumbler who had spread his +carpet beneath the trees, when the abate's face suddenly rose to the +surface of the throng and his hand thrust a crumpled paper between the +curtains of the litter. Odo was quick-witted enough to capture this +missive without attracting the notice of his grand-aunts, and stealing a +glance at it, he read—"Cavaliere, I starve. When the illustrious ladies +descend, for Christ's sake beg a scudo of them for the unhappy +Cantapresto." +</P> + +<P> +By this the litter had disengaged itself and was moving toward the outer +gates. Odo, aware of the disfavour with which the theatre was viewed at +Donnaz, and unable to guess how far the soprano's present habit would be +held to palliate the scandal of his former connection, was perplexed how +to communicate his petition to the canonesses. A moment later, however, +the question solved itself; for as the aunts descended at the door of +the rector's lodging, the porter, running to meet them, stumbled on a +black mass under the arcade, and raised the cry that here was a man +dropped dead. A crowd gathering, some one called out that it was an +ecclesiastic had fallen; whereat the great-aunts were hurrying forward +when Odo whispered the eldest, Donna Livia, that the sick man was indeed +an abate from Pianura. Donna Livia immediately bid her servants lift him +into the porter's lodge, where, with the administering of spirits, the +poor soprano presently revived and cast a drowning glance about the +chamber. +</P> + +<P> +"Eight years ago, illustrious ladies," he gurgled, "I had nearly died +one night of a surfeit of ortolans; and now it is of a surfeit of +emptiness that I am perishing." +</P> + +<P> +The ladies at this, with exclamations of pity, called on the +lay-brothers for broth and cordials, and bidding the porter enquire more +particularly into the history of the unhappy ecclesiastic, hastened away +with Odo to the rector's parlour. +</P> + +<P> +Next morning betimes all were afoot for the procession, which the +canonesses were to witness from the monastery windows. The apothecary +had brought word that the abate, whose seizure was indeed the result of +hunger, was still too weak to rise; and Donna Livia, eager to open her +devotions with an act of pity, pressed a sequin in the man's hand, and +bid him spare no care for the sufferer's comfort. +</P> + +<P> +This sent Odo in a cheerful mood to the red-hung windows, whence, +peering between the folds of his aunts' gala habits, he admired the +great court enclosed in nobly-ordered cloisters and strewn with fresh +herbs and flowers. Thence one of the rector's chaplains conducted them +to the church, placing them, in company with the monastery's other noble +guests, in a tribune constructed above the choir. It was Odo's first +sight of a great religious ceremony, and as he looked down on the church +glimmering with votive offerings and gold-fringed draperies, and seen +through rolling incense in which the altar-candles swam like stars +reflected in a river, he felt an almost sensual thrill of pleasure at +the thought that his life was to be passed amid scenes of such mystic +beauty. The sweet singing of the choir raised his spirit to a higher +view of the scene; and the sight of the huddled misery on the floor of +the church revived in him the old longing for the Franciscan cowl. +</P> + +<P> +From these raptures he was speedily diverted by the sight awaiting him +at the conclusion of the mass. Hardly had the spectators returned to the +rector's windows when, the doors of the church swinging open, a +procession headed by the rector himself descended the steps and began to +make the circuit of the court. Odo's eyes swam with the splendour of +this burst of banners, images and jewelled reliquaries, surmounting the +long train of tonsured heads and bathed in a light almost blinding after +the mild penumbra of the church. As the monks advanced, the pilgrims, +pouring after them, filled the court with a dark undulating mass through +which the procession wound like a ray of sunlight down the brown bosom +of a torrent. Branches of oleander swung in the air, devout cries hailed +the approach of the Black Madonna's canopy, and hoarse voices swelled to +a roar the measured litanies of the friars. +</P> + +<P> +The ceremonies over, Odo, with the canonesses, set out to visit the +chapels studding the beech-knoll above the monastic buildings. Passing +out of Juvara's great portico they stood a moment above the grassy +common, which presented a scene in curious contrast to that they had +just quitted. Here refreshment-booths had been set up, musicians were +fiddling, jugglers unrolling their carpets, dentists shouting out the +merits of their panaceas, and light women drinking with the liveried +servants of the nobility. The very cripples who had groaned the loudest +in church now rollicked with the mountebanks and dancers; and no trace +remained of the celebration just concluded but the medals and relics +strung about the necks of those engaged in these gross diversions. +</P> + +<P> +It was strange to pass from this scene to the solitude of the grove, +where, in a twilight rustling with streams, the chapels lifted their +white porches. Peering through the grated door of each little edifice, +Odo beheld within a group of terra-cotta figures representing some scene +of the Passion—here a Last Supper, with a tigerish Judas and a Saint +John resting his yellow curls on his Master's bosom, there an Entombment +or a group of stricken Maries. These figures, though rudely modelled and +daubed with bright colours, yet, by a vivacity of attitude and gesture +which the mystery of their setting enhanced, conveyed a thrilling +impression of the sacred scenes set forth; and Odo was yet at an age +when the distinction between flesh-and-blood and its plastic +counterfeits is not clearly defined, or when at least the sculptured +image is still a mysterious half-sentient thing, denizen of some strange +borderland between art and life. It seemed to him, as he gazed through +the chapel gratings, that those long-distant episodes of the divine +tragedy had been here preserved in some miraculous state of suspended +animation, and as he climbed from one shrine to another he had the sense +of treading the actual stones of Gethsemane and Calvary. +</P> + +<P> +As was usual with him, the impressions of the moment had effaced those +preceding it, and it was almost with surprise that, at the rector's +door, he beheld the primo soprano of Pianura totter forth to the litter +and offer his knee as a step for the canonesses. The charitable ladies +cried out on him for this imprudence, and his pallor still giving +evidence of distress, he was bidden to wait on them after supper with +his story. He presented himself promptly in the parlour, and being +questioned as to his condition at once rashly proclaimed his former +connection with the ducal theatre of Pianura. No avowal could have been +more disastrous to his cause. The canonesses crossed themselves with +horror, and the abate, seeing his mistake, hastened to repair it by +exclaiming—"What, ladies, would you punish me for following a vocation +to which my frivolous parents condemned me when I was too young to +resist their purpose? And have not my subsequent sufferings, my penances +and pilgrimages, and the state to which they have reduced me, +sufficiently effaced the record of an involuntary error?" +</P> + +<P> +Seeing the effect of this appeal the abate made haste to follow up his +advantage. "Ah, illustrious ladies," he cried, "am I not a living +example of the fate of those who leave all to follow righteousness? For +while I remained on the stage, among the most dissolute surroundings, +fortune showered me with every benefit she heaps on her favourites. I +had my seat at every table in Pianura; the Duke's chair to carry me to +the theatre; and more money than I could devise how to spend; while now +that I have resigned my calling to embrace the religious life, you see +me reduced to begging a crust from the very mendicants I formerly +nourished. For," said he, moved to tears by his own recital, "my +superfluity was always spent in buying the prayers of the unfortunate, +and to judge how I was esteemed by those acquainted with my private +behaviour you need only learn that, on my renouncing the stage, 'twas +the Bishop of Pianura who himself accorded me the tonsure." +</P> + +<P> +This discourse, which Odo admired for its adroitness, visibly excited +the commiseration of the ladies; but at mention of the Bishop, Donna +Livia exchanged a glance with her sister, who enquired, with a quaint +air of astuteness, "But how comes it, abate, that with so powerful a +protector you have been exposed to such incredible reverses?" +</P> + +<P> +Cantapresto rolled a meaning eye. +</P> + +<P> +"Alas, madam, it was through my protector that misfortune attacked me; +for his lordship having appointed me secretary to his favourite nephew, +Don Serafino, that imprudent nobleman required of me services so +incompatible with my cloth that disobedience became a duty; whereupon, +not satisfied with dismissing me in disgrace, he punished me by +blackening my character to his uncle. To defend myself was to traduce +Don Serafino; and rather than reveal his courses to the Bishop I sank to +the state in which you see me; a state," he added with emotion, "that I +have travelled this long way to commend to the adorable pity of Her +whose Son had not where to lay His head." +</P> + +<P> +This stroke visibly touched the canonesses, still soft from the +macerations of the morning; and Donna Livia compassionately asked how he +had subsisted since his rupture with the Bishop. +</P> + +<P> +"Madam, by the sale of my talents in any service not at odds with my +calling: as the compiling of pious almanacks, the inditing of rhymed +litanies and canticles, and even the construction of theatrical +pieces"—the ladies lifted hands of reprobation—"of theatrical pieces," +Cantapresto impressively repeated, "for the use of the Carmelite nuns of +Pianura. But," said he with a deprecating smile, "the wages of virtue +are less liberal than those of sin, and spite of a versatility I think I +may honestly claim, I have often had to subsist on the gifts of the +pious, and sometimes, madam, to starve on their compassion." +</P> + +<P> +This ready discourse, and the soprano's evident distress, so worked on +the canonesses that, having little money at their disposal, it was +fixed, after some private consultation, that he should attend them to +Donnaz, where Don Gervaso, in consideration of his edifying conduct in +renouncing the stage, might be interested in helping him to a situation; +and when the little party set forth from Oropa, the abate Cantapresto +closed the procession on one of the baggage-mules, with Odo riding +pillion at his back. Good fortune loosened the poor soprano's tongue, +and as soon as the canonesses' litter was a safe distance ahead he began +to beguile the way with fragments of reminiscence and adventure. Though +few of his allusions were clear to Odo, the glimpse they gave of the +motley theatrical life of the north Italian cities—the quarrels between +Goldoni and the supporters of the expiring commedia dell' arte—the +rivalries of the prime donne and the arrogance of the popular +comedians—all these peeps into a tinsel world of mirth, cabal and +folly, enlivened by the recurring names of the Four Masks, those +lingering gods of the older dispensation, so lured the boy's fancy and +set free his vagrant wonder, that he was almost sorry to see the keep of +Donnaz reddening in the second evening's sunset. +</P> + +<P> +Such regrets, however, their arrival at the castle soon effaced; for in +the doorway stood the old Marquess, a letter in hand, who springing +forward caught his grandson by the shoulders, and cried with his great +boar-hunting shout, "Cavaliere, you are heir-presumptive of Pianura!" +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +1.7. +</H4> + +<P> +The Marquess of Cerveno had succumbed to the tertian ague contracted at +the hunting-lodge of Pontesordo; and this unforeseen calamity left but +one life, that of the sickly ducal infant, between Odo and the +succession to the throne of Pianura. Such was the news conveyed +post-haste from Turin by Donna Laura; who added the Duke's express wish +that his young kinsman should be fitted for the secular career, and the +information that Count Valdu had already entered his stepson's name at +the Royal Academy of Turin. +</P> + +<P> +The Duke of Pianura being young and in good health, and his wife having +already given him an heir, the most sanguine imagination could hardly +view Odo as being brought much nearer the succession; yet the change in +his condition was striking enough to excuse the fancy of those about him +for shaping the future to their liking. The priestling was to turn +courtier and perhaps soldier; Asti was to be exchanged for Turin, the +seminary for the academy; and even the old chief of Donnaz betrayed in +his grumbling counsels to the boy a sense of the exalted future in which +they might some day serve him. +</P> + +<P> +The preparations of departure and the wonder of his new state left Odo +little space wherein to store his thought with impressions of what he +was leaving; and it was only in after years, when the accretion of +superficial incident had dropped from his past, that those last days at +Donnaz gained their full distinctness. He saw them then, heavy with the +warmth of the long summer, from the topmost pine-belt to the bronzed +vineyards turning their metallic clusters to the sun; and in the midst +his small bewildered figure, netted in a web of association, and +seeming, as he broke away, to leave a shred of himself in every corner +of the castle. +</P> + +<P> +Sharpest of all, there remained with him the vision of his last hour +with Don Gervaso. The news of Odo's changed condition had been received +in silence by the chaplain. He was not the man to waste words and he +knew the futility of asserting the Church's claim to the +heir-presumptive of a reigning house. Therefore if he showed no +enthusiasm he betrayed no resentment; but, the evening before the boy's +departure, led him, still in silence, to the chapel. Here the priest +knelt with Odo; then, raising him, sat on one of the benches facing the +high altar, and spoke a few grave words. +</P> + +<P> +"You are setting out," said he, "on a way far different from that in +which it has been my care to guide you; yet the high road and the +mountain path may, by diverse windings, lead to the same point; and +whatever walk a man chooses, it will surely carry him to the end that +God has appointed. If you are called to serve Him in the world, the +journey on which you are now starting may lead you to the throne of +Pianura; but even so," he went on, "there is this I would have you +remember: that should this dignity come to you it may come as a calamity +rather than a joy; for when God confers earthly honours on a child of +His predilection, He sometimes deigns to render them as innocuous as +misfortune; and my chief prayer for you is that you should be raised to +this eminence, it may be at a moment when such advancement seems to +thrust you in the dust." +</P> + +<P> +The words burned themselves into Odo's heart like some mystic writing on +the walls of memory, long afterward to start into fiery meaning. At the +time he felt only that the priest spoke with a power and dignity no +human authority could give; and for a moment all the stored influences +of his faith reached out to him from the dimly-gleaming altar. +</P> + +<P> +The next sun rose on a new world. He was to set out at daylight, and +dawn found him at the casement, footing it in thought down the road as +yet undistinguishable in a dying glimmer of stars. Bruno was to attend +him to Turin; but one of the women presently brought word that the old +huntsman's rheumatism had caught him in the knee, and that the Marquess, +resolved not to delay his grandson's departure, had chosen Cantapresto +as the boy's companion. The courtyard, when Odo descended, fairly +bubbled with the voluble joy of the fat soprano, who was giving +directions to the servants, receiving commissions and instructions from +the aunts, assuring everybody of his undying devotion to the +heir-presumptive of Pianura, and citing impressive instances of the +responsibilities with which the great of the earth had formerly +entrusted him. +</P> + +<P> +As a companion for Odo the abate was clearly not to Don Gervaso's taste; +but he stood silent, turning the comment of a cool eye on the soprano's +protestations, and saying only, as Cantapresto swept the company into +the circle of an obsequious farewell:—"Remember, signor abate, it is to +your cloth this business is entrusted." The abate's answer was a rush of +purple to the forehead; but Don Gervaso imperturbably added, "And you +lie but one night on the road." +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile the old Marquess, visibly moved, was charging Odo to respect +his elders and superiors, while in the same breath warning him not to +take up with the Frenchified notions of the court, but to remember that +for a lad of his condition the chief virtues were a tight seat in the +saddle, a quick hand on the sword and a slow tongue in counsel. "Mind +your own business," he concluded, "and see that others mind theirs." +</P> + +<P> +The Marchioness thereupon, with many tears, hung a scapular about Odo's +neck, bidding him shun the theatre and be regular at confession; one of +the canonesses reminded him not to omit a visit to the chapel of the +Holy Winding-sheet, while the other begged him to burn a candle for her +at the Consolata; and the servants pressed forward to embrace and bless +their little master. +</P> + +<P> +Day was high by this, and as the Marquess's travelling-chariot rumbled +down the valley the shadows seemed to fly before it. Odo at first lay +numb; but presently his senses woke to the call of the brightening +landscape. The scene was such as Salvator might have painted: wild +blocks of stone heaped under walnut-shade; here the white plunge of +water down a wall of granite, and there, in bluer depths, a charcoal +burner's hut sending up its spiral of smoke to the dark raftering of +branches. Though it was but a few hours since Odo had travelled from +Oropa, years seemed to have passed over him, and he saw the world with a +new eye. Each sound and scent plucked at him in passing: the roadside +started into detail like the foreground of some minute Dutch painter; +every pendent mass of fern, dark dripping rock, late tuft of harebell +called out to him: "Look well, for this is your last sight of us!" His +first sight too, it seemed: since he had lived through twelve Italian +summers without sense of the sun-steeped quality of atmosphere that, +even in shade, gives each object a golden salience. He was conscious of +it now only as it suggested fingering a missal stiff with gold-leaf and +edged with a swarming diversity of buds and insects. The carriage moved +so slowly that he was in no haste to turn the pages; and each spike of +yellow foxglove, each clouding of butterflies about a patch of +speedwell, each quiver of grass over a hidden thread of moisture, became +a marvel to be thumbed and treasured. +</P> + +<P> +From this mood he was detached by the next bend of the road. The way, +hitherto winding through narrow glens, now swung to a ledge overhanging +the last escarpment of the mountains; and far below, the Piedmontese +plain unrolled to the southward its interminable blue-green distances +mottled with forest. A sight to lift the heart; for on those sunny +reaches Ivrea, Novara, Vercelli lay like sea-birds on a summer sea. It +was the future unfolding itself to the boy; dark forests, wide rivers, +strange cities and a new horizon: all the mystery of the coming years +figured to him in that great plain stretching away to the greater +mystery of heaven. +</P> + +<P> +To all this Cantapresto turned a snoring countenance. The lively air of +the hills, the good fare of Donnaz, and the satisfaction, above all, of +rolling on cushions over a road he had thought to trudge on foot, had +lapped the abate in Capuan slumber. The midday halt aroused him. The +travellers rested at an inn on the edge of the hills, and here +Cantapresto proved to his charge that, as he phrased it, his belly had +as short a memory for food as his heart for injuries. A flask of Asti +put him in the talking mood, and as they drove on he regaled Odo with a +lively picture of the life on which he was about to enter. +</P> + +<P> +"You are going," said he, "to one of the first cities of Europe; one +that has all the beauty and elegance of the French capital without its +follies and excesses. Turin is blessed with a court where good manners +and a fine tone are more highly prized than the extravagances of genius; +and I have heard it said of his Majesty that he was delighted to see his +courtiers wearing the French fashions outside their heads, provided they +didn't carry the French ideas within. You are too young, doubtless, +cavaliere, to have heard of the philosophers who are raising such a +pother north of the Alps: a set of madmen that, because their birth +doesn't give them the entree of Versailles, are preaching that men +should return to a state of nature, great ladies suckle their young like +animals, and the peasantry own their land like nobles. Luckily you'll +hear little of this infectious talk in Turin: the King stamps out the +philosophers like vermin or packs them off to splutter their heresies in +Milan or Venice. But to a nobleman mindful of the privileges of his +condition there is no more agreeable sojourn in Europe. The wines are +delicious, the women—er—accomplished—and though the sbirri may hug +one a trifle close now and then, why, with money and discretion, a +friend or two in the right quarters, and the wit to stand well with the +Church, there's no city in Europe where a man may have pleasanter sins +to confess." +</P> + +<P> +The carriage, by this, was descending the last curves above the valley, +and before them, in a hollow of the hills, blinked the warm shimmer of +maize and vine, like some bright vintage brimming its cup. The soprano +waved a convivial hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Look," he cried, "what Nature has done for this happy region! Where +herself has spread the table so bountifully, should her children hang +back from the feast? I vow, cavaliere, if the mountains were built for +hermits and ascetics, then the plain was made level for dancing, +banqueting and the pleasures of the villeggiatura. If God had meant us +to break our teeth on nuts and roots, why did He hang the vine with +fruit and draw three crops of wheat from this indulgent soil? I protest +when I look on such a scene as this, it is sufficient incentive to +lowliness to remember that the meek shall inherit the earth!" +</P> + +<P> +This mood held Cantapresto till his after-dinner sleep overtook him; and +when he woke again the chariot was clattering across the bridge of +Chivasso. The Po rolled its sunset crimson between flats that seemed +dull and featureless after the broken scenery of the hills; but beyond +the bridge rose the towers and roofs of the town, with its +cathedral-front catching the last slant of light. In the streets dusk +had fallen and a lamp flared under the arch of the inn before which the +travellers halted. Odo's head was heavy, and he hardly noticed the +figures thronging the caffe into which they were led; but presently +there rose a shout of "Cantapresto!" and a ring of waving arms and +flashing teeth encircled his companion. +</P> + +<P> +These appendages belonged to a troop of men and women, some masked and +in motley, others in discoloured travel-stained garments, who pressed +about the soprano with cries of joyous recognition. He was evidently an +old favourite of the band, for a duenna in tattered velvet fell on his +neck with genial unreserve, a pert soubrette caught him by the arm the +duenna left free, and a terrific Matamor with a nose like a scimitar +slapped him on the back with a tin sword. +</P> + +<P> +Odo's glimpse of the square at Oropa told him that here was a band of +strolling players such as Cantapresto had talked of on the ride back to +Donnaz. Don Gervaso's instructions and the old Marchioness's warning +against the theatre were present enough in the boy's mind to add a touch +of awe to the curiosity with which he observed these strange objects of +the Church's reprobation. They struck him, it must be owned, as more +pitiable than alarming, for the duenna's toes were coming through her +shoes, and one or two of the children who hung on the outskirts of the +group looked as lean and hungry under their spangles as the +foundling-girl of Pontesordo. Spite of this they seemed a jolly crew, +and ready (at Cantapresto's expense) to celebrate their encounter with +the ex-soprano in unlimited libations of Asti and Val Pulicello. The +singer, however, hung back with protesting gestures. +</P> + +<P> +"Gently, then, gently, dear friends—dear companions! When was it we +parted? In the spring of the year—and we meet now in the late summer. +As the seasons change so do our conditions: if the spring is a season of +folly, then is the harvest-time the period for reflection. When we last +met I was a strolling poet, glad to serve your gifted company within the +scope of my talents—now, ladies and gentlemen, now"—he drew himself up +with pride—"now you behold in me the governor and friend of the +heir-presumptive of Pianura." +</P> + +<P> +Cries of incredulity and derision greeted this announcement, and one of +the girls called out laughingly, "Yet you have the same old cassock to +your back!" +</P> + +<P> +"And the same old passage from your mouth to your belly," added an +elastic Harlequin, reaching an arm across the women's shoulders. "Come, +Cantapresto, we'll help you line it with good wine, to the health of his +most superlatively serene Highness, the heir-presumptive of Pianura; and +where is that fabulous personage, by the way?" +</P> + +<P> +Odo at this retreated hastily behind the soprano; but a pretty girl +catching sight of him, he found himself dragged into the centre of the +company, who hailed him with fantastic obeisances. Supper meanwhile was +being laid on the greasy table down the middle of the room. The Matamor, +who seemed the director of the troupe, thundered out his orders for +maccaroni, fried eels and sausages; the inn-servants flanked the plates +with wine-flasks and lumps of black bread, and in a moment the hungry +comedians, thrusting Odo into a high seat at the head of the table, were +falling on the repast with a prodigious clatter of cutlery. +</P> + +<P> +Of the subsequent incidents of the feast—the banter of the younger +women, the duenna's lachrymose confidences, the incessant interchange of +theatrical jargon and coarse pleasantry—there remained to Odo but a +confused image, obscured by the smoke of guttering candles, the fumes of +wine and the stifling air of the low-ceilinged tavern. Even the face of +the pretty girl who had dragged him from his concealment, and who now +sat at his side, plying him with sweets from her own plate, began to +fade into the general blur; and his last impression was of Cantapresto's +figure dilating to immense proportions at the other end of the table, as +the soprano rose with shaking wine-glass to favour the company with a +song. The chorus, bursting forth in response, surged over Odo's drowning +senses, and he was barely aware, in the tumult of noise and lights, of +an arm slipped about him, a softly-heaving pillow beneath his head, and +the gradual subsidence into dark delicious peace. +</P> + +<P> +So, on the first night of his new life, the heir-presumptive of Pianura +fell asleep with his head in a dancing-girl's breast. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +1.8. +</H4> + +<P> +The travellers were to journey by Vettura from Chivasso to Turin; and +when Odo woke next morning the carriage stood ready in the courtyard. +</P> + +<P> +Cantapresto, mottled and shamefaced, with his bands awry and an air of +tottering dignity, was gathering their possessions together, and the +pretty girl who had pillowed Odo's slumbers now knelt by his bed and +laughingly drew on his stockings. She was a slim brown morsel, not much +above his age, with a glance that flitted like a bird, and round +shoulders slipping out of her kerchief. A wave of shyness bathed Odo to +the forehead as their eyes met: he hung his head stupidly and turned +away when she fetched the comb to dress his hair. +</P> + +<P> +His toilet completed, she called out to the abate to go below and see +that the cavaliere's chocolate was ready; and as the door closed she +turned and kissed Odo on the lips. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, how red you are!" she cried laughing. "Is that the first kiss +you've ever had? Then you'll remember me when you're Duke of +Pianura—Mirandolina of Chioggia, the first girl you ever kissed!" She +was pulling his collar straight while she talked, so that he could not +get away from her. "You will remember me, won't you?" she persisted. "I +shall be a great actress by that time, and you'll appoint me prima +amorosa to the ducal theatre of Pianura, and throw me a diamond bracelet +from your Highness's box and make all the court ladies ready to poison +me for rage!" She released his collar and dropped away from him. "Ah, +no, I shall be a poor strolling player, and you a great prince," she +sighed, "and you'll never, never think of me again; but I shall always +remember that I was the first girl you ever kissed!" +</P> + +<P> +She hung back in a dazzle of tears, looking so bright and tender that +Odo's bashfulness melted like a spring frost. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall never be Duke," he cried, "and I shall never forget you!" And +with that he turned and kissed her boldly and then bolted down the +stairs like a hare. And all that day he scorched and froze with the +thought that perhaps she had been laughing at him. +</P> + +<P> +Cantapresto was torpid after the feast, and Odo detected in him an air +of guilty constraint. The boy was glad enough to keep silence, and they +rolled on without speaking through the wide glowing landscape. Already +the nearness of a great city began to make itself felt. The bright +champaign was scattered over with farm-houses, their red-tiled +pigeon-cots and their granges latticed with openwork terra-cotta +pleasantly breaking the expanse of maize and mulberry; villages lay +along the banks of the canals intersecting the plain; and the hills +beyond the Po were planted with villas and monasteries. +</P> + +<P> +All the afternoon they drove between umbrageous parks and under the +walls of terraced vineyards. It was a region of delectable shade, with +glimpses here and there of gardens flashing with fountains and villa +roofs decked with statues and vases; and at length, toward sunset, a +bend of the road brought them out on a fair-spreading city, so +flourishing in buildings, so beset with smiling hills, that Odo, +springing from his seat, cried out in sheer joy of the spectacle. +</P> + +<P> +They had still the suburbs to traverse; and darkness was falling when +they entered the gates of Turin. This brought the fresh amazement of +wide lamplit streets, clean and bright as a ball-room, lined with +palaces and filled with well-dressed loungers: officers in the brilliant +Sardinian uniforms, fine gentlemen in French tie-wigs and narrow-sleeved +coats, merchants hurrying home from business, ecclesiastics in +high-swung carriages, and young bloods dashing by in their curricles. +The tables before the coffee-houses were thronged with idlers taking +their chocolate and reading the gazettes; and here and there the arched +doorway of a palace showed some gay party supping al fresco in a garden +hung with lamps. +</P> + +<P> +The flashing of lights and the noise of the streets roused Cantapresto, +who sat up with a sudden assumption of dignity. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, cavaliere," said he, "you now see a great city, a famous city, a +city aptly called 'the Paris of Italy.' Nowhere else shall you find such +well-lit streets, such fair pavements, shops so full of Parisian wares, +promenades so crowded with fine carriages and horses. What a life a +young gentleman may lead here! The court is hospitable, society amiable, +the theatres are the best-appointed in Italy." +</P> + +<P> +Here Cantapresto paused with a deprecating cough. +</P> + +<P> +"Only one thing is necessary," he went on, "to complete enjoyment of the +fruits of this garden of Eden; and that is"—he coughed +again—"discretion. His Majesty, cavaliere, is a father to his subjects; +the Church is their zealous mother; and between two such parents, and +the innumerable delegates of their authority, why, you may fancy, sir, +that a man has to wear his eyes on all sides of his head. Discretion is +a virtue the Church herself commends; it is natural, then, that she +should afford her children full opportunity to practise it. And look +you, cavaliere, it is like gymnastics: the younger you acquire it, the +less effort it costs. Our Maker Himself has taught us the value of +silence by putting us speechless into the world: if we learn to talk +later we do it at our own risk! But for your own part, cavaliere—since +the habit cannot too early be exercised—I would humbly counsel you to +say nothing to your illustrious parents of our little diversion of last +evening." +</P> + +<P> +The Countess Valdu lived on the upper floor of a rococo palace near the +Piazza San Carlo; and here Odo, led by Cantapresto, presently found +himself shown into an apartment where several ladies and gentlemen sat +at cards. His mother, detaching herself from the group, embraced him +with unusual warmth, and the old Count, more painted and perfumed than +ever, hurried up with an obsequious greeting. Odo for the first time +found himself of consequence in the world; and as he was passed from +guest to guest, questioned about his journey, praised for his good +colour and stout looks, complimented on his high prospects, and +laughingly entreated not to forget his old friends when fortune should +advance him to the duchy, he began to feel himself a reigning potentate +already. +</P> + +<P> +His mother, as he soon learned, had sunk into a life almost as dull and +restricted as that she had left Donnaz to escape. Count Valdu's position +at court was more ornamental than remunerative, the income from his +estates was growing annually smaller, and he was involved in costly +litigation over the sale of some entailed property. Such conditions were +little to the Countess's humour, and the society to which her narrow +means confined her offered few distractions to her vanity. The +frequenters of the house were chiefly poor relations and hangers-on of +the Count's, the parasites who in those days were glad to subsist on the +crumbs of the slenderest larder. Half-a-dozen hungry Countesses, their +lean admirers, a superannuated abate or two, and a flock of threadbare +ecclesiastics, made up Donna Laura's circle; and even her cicisbeo, +selected in family council under the direction of her confessor, was an +austere gentleman of middle age, who collected ancient coins and was +engaged in composing an essay on the Martellian verse. +</P> + +<P> +This company, which devoted hours to the new French diversion of the +parfilage, and spent the evenings in drinking lemonade and playing +basset for small stakes, found its chief topic of conversation in the +only two subjects safely discussed in Turin at that day—the doings of +the aristocracy and of the clergy. The fashion of the Queen's headdress +at the last circle, the marked manner in which his Majesty had lately +distinguished the brilliant young cavalry officer, Count Roberto di +Tournanches, the third marriage of the Countess Alfieri of Asti, the +incredibility of the rumour that the court ladies of Versailles had +taken to white muslin and Leghorn hats, the probable significance of the +Vicar-general's visit to Rome, the subject of the next sacred +representation to be given by the nuns of Santa Croce—such were the +questions that engaged the noble frequenters of Casa Valdu. +</P> + +<P> +This was the only society that Donna Laura saw; for she was too poor to +dress to her taste and too proud to show herself in public without the +appointments becoming her station. Her sole distraction consisted in +visits to the various shrines—the Sudario, the Consolata, the Corpus +Domini—at which the feminine aristocracy offered up its devotions and +implored absolution for sins it had often no opportunity to commit: for +though fashion accorded cicisbei to the fine ladies of Turin, the Church +usually restricted their intercourse to the exchange of the most +harmless amenities. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile the antechamber was as full of duns as the approach to Donna +Laura's apartment at Pianura; and Odo guessed that the warmth of the +maternal welcome sprang less from natural affection than from the hope +of using his expectations as a sop to her creditors. The pittance which +the ducal treasury allowed for his education was scarce large enough to +be worth diverting to other ends; but a potential prince is a shield to +the most vulnerable fortunes. In this character Odo for the first time +found himself flattered, indulged, and made the centre of the company. +The contrast to his life of subjection at Donnaz; the precocious +initiation into motives that tainted the very fount of filial piety; the +taste of this mingled draught of adulation and disillusionment, might +have perverted a nature more self-centred than his. From this +perversion, and from many subsequent perils he was saved by a kind of +imaginative sympathy, a wondering joy in the mere spectacle of life, +that tinged his most personal impressions with a streak of the +philosophic temper. If this trait did not save him from sorrow, it at +least lifted him above pettiness; if it could not solve the difficulties +of life it could arm him to endure them. It was the best gift of the +past from which he sprang; but it was blent with another quality, a deep +moral curiosity that ennobled his sensuous enjoyment of the outward show +of life; and these elements were already tending in him, as in countless +youths of his generation, to the formation of a new spirit, the spirit +that was to destroy one world without surviving to create another. +</P> + +<P> +Of all this none could have been less conscious than the lad just +preparing to enter on his studies at the Royal Academy of Turin. That +institution, adjoining the royal palace, was a kind of nursery or +forcing-house for the budding nobility of Savoy. In one division of the +sumptuous building were housed his Majesty's pages, a corps of luxurious +indolent young fops; another wing accommodated the regular students of +the Academy, sons of noblemen and gentlemen destined for the secular +life, while a third was set aside for the "forestieri" or students from +foreign countries and from the other Italian states. To this quarter Odo +Valsecca was allotted; though it was understood that on leaving the +Academy he was to enter the Sardinian service. +</P> + +<P> +It was customary for a young gentleman of Odo's rank to be attended at +the Academy not only by a body-servant but by a private governor or +pedant, whose business it was to overlook his studies, attend him +abroad, and have an eye to the society he frequented. The old Marquess +of Donnaz had sent his daughter, by Odo's hand, a letter recommending +her to select her son's governor with particular care, choosing rather a +person of grave behaviour and assured morality than one of your glib +ink-spatterers who may know the inside of all the folios in the King's +library without being the better qualified for the direction of a young +gentleman's conduct; and to this letter Don Gervaso appended the terse +postcript: "Your excellency is especially warned against according this +or any other position of trust to the merry-andrew who calls himself the +abate Cantapresto." +</P> + +<P> +Donna Laura, with a shrug, handed the letter to her husband; Count +Valdu, adjusting his glasses, observed it was notorious that people +living in the depths of the country thought themselves qualified to +instruct their city relatives on all points connected with the social +usages; and the cicisbeo suggested that he could recommend an abate who +was proficient in the construction of the Martellian verse, and who +would made no extra charge for that accomplishment. +</P> + +<P> +"Charges!" the Countess cried. "There's a matter my father doesn't deign +to consider. It's not enough, nowadays, to give the lads a governor, but +they must maintain their servants too, an idle gluttonous crew that prey +on their pockets and get a commission off every tradesman's bill." +</P> + +<P> +Count Valdu lifted a deprecating hand. +</P> + +<P> +"My dear, nothing could be more offensive to his Majesty than any +attempt to reduce the way of living of the pupils of the Academy." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course," she shrugged—"But who's to pay? The Duke's beggarly +pittance hardly clothes him." +</P> + +<P> +The cicisbeo suggested that the cavaliere Odo had expectations; at which +Donna Laura flushed and turned uneasy; while the Count, part of whose +marital duty it was to intervene discreetly between his lady and her +knight, now put forth the remark that the abate Cantapresto seemed a +shrewd serviceable fellow. +</P> + +<P> +"Nor do I like to turn him adrift," cried the Countess instantly, "after +he has obliged us by attending my son on his journey." +</P> + +<P> +"And I understand," added the Count, "that he would be glad to serve the +cavaliere in any capacity you might designate." +</P> + +<P> +"Why not in all?" said the cicisbeo thoughtfully. "There would be +undoubted advantages to the cavaliere in possessing a servant who would +explain the globes while powdering his hair and not be above calling his +chair when he attended him to a lecture." +</P> + +<P> +And the upshot of it was that when Odo, a few days later, entered on his +first term at the Academy, he was accompanied by the abate Cantapresto, +who had agreed, for a minimum of pay, to serve him faithfully in the +double capacity of pedagogue and lacquey. +</P> + +<P> +The considerable liberty accorded the foreign students made Odo's first +year at the Academy at once pleasanter and less profitable than had he +been one of the regular pupils. The companions among whom he found +himself were a set of lively undisciplined young gentlemen, chiefly from +England, Russia and the German principalities; all in possession of more +or less pocket-money and attended by governors either pedantic and +self-engrossed or vulgarly subservient. These young sprigs, whose +ambition it was to ape the dress and manners of the royal pages, led a +life of dissipation barely interrupted by a few hours of attendance at +the academic classes. From the ill-effects of such surroundings Odo was +preserved by an intellectual curiosity that flung him ravening on his +studies. It was not that he was of a bookish habit, or that the drudgery +of the classes was less irksome to him than to the other pupils; but not +even the pedantic methods then prevailing, or the distractions of his +new life, could dull the flush of his first encounter with the past. His +imagination took fire over the dry pages of Cornelius Nepos, glowed with +the mild pastoral warmth of the Georgics and burst into flame at the +first hexameters of the Aeneid. He caught but a fragment of meaning here +and there, but the sumptuous imagery, the stirring names, the glimpses +into a past where Roman senators were mingled with the gods of a +gold-pillared Olympus, filled his mind with a misty pageant of +immortals. These moments of high emotion were interspersed with hours of +plodding over the Latin grammar and the textbooks of philosophy and +logic. Books were unknown ground to Cantapresto, and among masters and +pupils there was not one who could help Odo to the meaning of his task, +or who seemed aware that it might have a meaning. To most of the lads +about him the purpose of the Academy was to fit young gentlemen for the +army or the court; to give them the chance of sweating a shirt every +morning with the fencing-master and of learning to thread the +intricacies of the court minuet. They modelled themselves on the dress +and bearing of the pages, who were always ruffling it about the +quadrangle in court dress and sword, or booted and spurred for a day's +hunting at the King's chase of Stupinigi. To receive a nod or a word +from one of these young demigods on his way to the King's opera-box or +just back from a pleasure-party at her Majesty's villa above the Po—to +hear of their tremendous exploits and thrilling escapades—seemed to put +the whole school in touch with the fine gentleman's world of intrigue, +cards and duelling: the world in which ladies were subjugated, fortunes +lost, adversaries run through and tradesmen ruined with that +imperturbable grace which distinguished the man of quality from the +plebeian. +</P> + +<P> +Among the privileges of the foreign pupils were frequent visits to the +royal theatre; and here was to Odo a source of unimagined joys. His +superstitious dread of the stage (a sentiment, he soon discovered, that +not even his mother's director shared) made his heart beat oppressively +as he first set foot in the theatre. It was a gala night, boxes and +stalls were thronged, and the audience-hall unfolded its glittering +curves like some poisonous flower enveloping him in rich malignant +fragrance. This impression was dispelled by the rising of the curtain on +a scene of such Claude-like loveliness as it would have been impossible +to associate with the bug-bear tales of Donnaz or with the coarse antics +of the comedians at Chivasso. A temple girt with mysterious shade, +lifting its colonnade above a sunlit harbour; and before the temple, +vine-wreathed nymphs waving their thyrsi through the turns of a +melodious dance—such was the vision that caught up Odo and swept him +leagues away from the rouged and starred assemblage gathered in the +boxes to gossip, flirt, eat ices and chocolates, and incidentally, in +the pauses of their talk, to listen for a moment to the ravishing airs +of Metastasio's Achilles in Scyros. +</P> + +<P> +The distance between such performances—magic evocations of light and +colour and melody—and the gross buffoonery of the popular stage, still +tainted with the obscenities of the old commedia dell' arte, in a +measure explains the different points from which at that period the +stage was viewed in Italy: a period when in such cities as Milan, +Venice, Turin, actors and singers were praised to the skies and loaded +with wealth and favours, while the tatterdemalion players who set up +their boards in the small towns at market-time or on feast-days were +despised by the people and flung like carrion into unconsecrated graves. +The impression Odo had gathered from Don Gervaso's talk was of the +provincial stage in all its pothouse license; but here was a spectacle +as lofty and harmonious as some great religious pageant. As the action +developed and the beauty of the verse was borne to Odo on the light +hurrying ripples of Caldara's music he turned instinctively to share his +pleasure with those about him. Cantapresto, in a new black coat and +ruffles, was conspicuously taking snuff from the tortoiseshell box which +the Countess's cicisbeo had given him; but Odo saw that he took less +pleasure in the spectacle than in the fact of accompanying the +heir-presumptive of Pianura to a gala performance at the royal theatre; +and the lads about them were for the most part engaged either with their +own dress and appearance, or in exchanging greetings with the royal +pages and the older students. A few of these sat near Odo, disdainfully +superior in their fob-chains and queues; and as the boy glanced about +him he met the fixed stare of one of the number, a tall youth seated at +his elbow, and conspicuous, even in that modish company, for the +exaggerated elegance of his dress. This young man, whose awkward bearing +and long lava-hued face crowned with flamboyant hair contrasted oddly +with his finical apparel, returned Odo's look with a gaze of eager +comprehension. He too, it was clear, felt the thrill and wonder, or at +least re-lived them in the younger lad's emotion; and from that moment +Odo felt himself in mute communion with his neighbour. +</P> + +<P> +The quick movement of the story—the succession of devices by which the +wily Ulysses lures Achilles to throw off his disguise, while Deidamia +strives to conceal his identity; the scenic beauties of the background, +shifting from sculpture-gallery to pleasance, from pleasance to +banquet-hall; the pomp and glitter of the royal train, the melting +graces of Deidamia and her maidens; seemed, in their multiple appeal, to +develop in Odo new faculties of perception. It was his first initiation +into Italian poetry, and the numbers, now broken, harsh and passionate, +now flowing into liquid sweetness, were so blent with sound and colour +that he scarce knew through which sense they reached him. Deidamia's +strophes thrilled him like the singing-girl's kiss, and at the young +hero's cry— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Ma lo so ch' io sono Achille,<BR> + E mi sento Achille in sen—<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +his fists tightened and the blood hummed in his ears. +</P> + +<P> +In the scene of the banquet-hall, where the followers of Ulysses lay +before Lycomedes the offerings of the Greek chieftains, and, while the +King and Deidamia are marvelling at the jewels and the Tyrian robes, +Achilles, unmindful of his disguise, bursts out +</P> + +<P> +Ah, chi vide finora armi piu belle? +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +—at this supreme point Odo again turned to his neighbour. They +exchanged another look, and at the close of the act the youth leaned +forward to ask with an air of condescension: "Is this your first +acquaintance with the divine Metastasio?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have never been in a play-house before," said Odo reddening. +</P> + +<P> +The other smiled. "You are fortunate in having so worthy an introduction +to the stage. Many of our operas are merely vulgar and ridiculous; but +Metastasio is a great poet." Odo nodded a breathless assent. "A great +poet," his new acquaintance resumed, "and handling a great theme. But do +you not suffer from the silly songs that perpetually interrupt the flow +of the verse? To me they are intolerable. Metastasio might have been a +great tragic dramatist if Italy would have let him. But Italy does not +want tragedies—she wishes to be sung to, danced to, made eyes at, +flattered and amused! Give her anything, anything that shall help her to +forget her own abasement. Panem et circenses! that is always her cry. +And who can wonder that her sovereigns and statesmen are willing to +humour her, when even her poets stoop to play the mountebank for her +diversion?" The speaker, ruffling his locks with a hand that scattered +the powder, turned on the brilliant audience his strange corrugated +frown. "Fools! simpletons!" he cried, "not to see that in applauding the +Achilles of Metastasio they are smiling at the allegory of their own +abasement! What are the Italians of today but men tricked out in women's +finery, when they should be waiting full-armed to rally at the first +signal of revolt? Oh, for the day when a poet shall arise who dares tell +them the truth, not disguised in sentimental frippery, not ending in a +maudlin reconciliation of love and glory—but the whole truth, naked, +cold and fatal as a patriot's blade; a poet who dares show these +bedizened courtiers they are no freer than the peasants they oppress, +and tell the peasants they are entitled to the same privileges as their +masters!" He paused and drew back with a supercilious smile. "But +doubtless, sir," said he, "I offend you in thus arraigning your sacred +caste; for unless I mistake you belong to the race of demi-gods—the +Titans whose downfall is at hand?" He swept the boxes with a +contemptuous eye. +</P> + +<P> +Little of this tirade was clear to Odo; but something in the speaker's +tone moved him to answer, with a quick lifting of his head: "My name is +Odo Valsecca, of the Dukes of Pianura;" when, fearing he had seemed to +parade his birth before one evidently of inferior station, he at once +added with a touch of shyness: "And you, sir, are perhaps a poet, since +you speak so beautifully?" +</P> + +<P> +At which, with a stare and a straightening of his long awkward body, the +other haughtily returned: "A poet, sir? I am the Count Vittorio Alfieri +of Asti." +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +1.9. +</H4> + +<P> +The singular being with whom chance had thus brought him acquainted was +to have a lasting influence on the formation of Odo's character. +</P> + +<P> +Vittorio Alfieri, then just concluding, at the age of sixteen, his +desultory years of academic schooling, was probably the most +extraordinary youth in Charles Emmanuel's dominion. Of the future +student, of the tragic poet who was to prepare the liberation of Italy +by raising the political ideals of his generation, this moody boy with +his craze for dress and horses, his pride of birth and contempt for his +own class, his liberal theories and insolently aristocratic practice, +must have given small promise to the most discerning observer. It seems +indeed probable that none thought him worth observing and that he passed +among his townsmen merely as one of the most idle and extravagant young +noblemen in a society where idleness and extravagance were held to be +the natural attributes of the great. But in the growth of character the +light on the road to Damascus is apt to be preceded by faint premonitory +gleams; and even in his frivolous days at the Academy Alfieri carried a +Virgil in his pocket and wept and trembled over Ariosto's verse. +</P> + +<P> +It was the instant response of Odo's imagination that drew the two +together. Odo, as one of the foreign pupils, was quartered in the same +wing of the Academy with the students of Alfieri's class, and enjoyed an +almost equal freedom. Thus, despite the difference of age, the lads +found themselves allied by taste and circumstances. Among the youth of +their class they were perhaps the only two who already felt, however +obscurely, the stirring of unborn ideals, the pressure of that tide of +renovation that was to sweep them, on widely-sundered currents, to the +same uncharted deep. Alfieri, at any rate, represented to the younger +lad the seer who held in his hands the keys of knowledge and beauty. Odo +could never forget the youth who first leant him Annibale Caro's Aeneid +and Metastasio's opera libretti, Voltaire's Zaire and the comedies of +Goldoni; while Alfieri perhaps found in his companion's sympathy with +his own half-dormant tastes the first incentive to a nobler activity. +Certain it is that, in the interchange of their daily comradeship, the +elder gave his friend much that he was himself unconscious of +possessing, and perhaps first saw reflected in Odo's more vivid +sensibility an outline of the formless ideals coiled in the depths of +his own sluggish nature. +</P> + +<P> +The difference in age, and the possession of an independent fortune, +which the laws of Savoy had left Alfieri free to enjoy since his +fifteenth year, gave him an obvious superiority over Odo; but if +Alfieri's amusements separated him from his young friend, his tastes +were always drawing them together; and Odo was happily of those who are +more engaged in profiting by what comes their way than in pining for +what escapes them. Much as he admired Alfieri, it was somehow impossible +for the latter to condescend to him; and the equality of intercourse +between the two was perhaps its chief attraction to a youth surfeited +with adulation. +</P> + +<P> +Of the opportunities his new friendship brought him, none became in +after years a pleasanter memory to Odo than his visits with Vittorio to +the latter's uncle, the illustrious architect Count Benedetto Alfieri. +This accomplished and amiable man, who had for many years devoted his +talents to the King's service, was lodged in a palace adjoining the +Academy; and thither, one holiday afternoon, Vittorio conducted his +young friend. +</P> + +<P> +Ignorant as Odo was of all the arts, he felt on the very threshold the +new quality of his surroundings. These tall bare rooms, where busts and +sarcophagi were ranged as in the twilight of a temple, diffused an +influence that lowered the voice and hushed the step. In the +semi-Parisian capital where French architects designed the King's +pleasure-houses and the nobility imported their boudoir-panellings from +Paris and their damask hangings from Lyons, Benedetto Alfieri +represented the old classic tradition, the tradition of the "grand +manner," which had held its own through all later variations of taste, +running parallel with the barocchismo of the seventeenth century and the +effeminate caprices of the rococo period. He had lived much in Rome, in +the company of men like Winckelmann and Maffei, in that society where +the revival of classical research was being forwarded by the liberality +of Princes and Cardinals and by the indefatigable zeal of the scholars +in their pay. From this centre of aesthetic reaction Alfieri had +returned to the Gallicized Turin, with its preference for the graceful +and ingenious rather than for the large, the noble, the restrained; +bringing to bear on the taste of his native city the influence of a view +raised but perhaps narrowed by close study of the past: the view of a +generation of architects in whom archeological curiosity had stifled the +artistic instinct, and who, instead of assimilating the spirit of the +past like their great predecessors, were engrossed in a sterile +restoration of the letter. It may be said of this school of architects +that they were of more service to posterity than to their +contemporaries; for while they opened the way to modern antiquarian +research, their pedantry checked the natural development of a style +which, if left to itself, might in time have found new and more vigorous +forms of expression. +</P> + +<P> +To Odo, happily, Count Benedetto's surroundings spoke more forcibly than +his theories. Every object in the calm severe rooms appealed to the boy +with the pure eloquence of form. Casts of the Vatican busts stood +against the walls and a niche at one end of the library contained a +marble copy of the Apollo Belvedere. The sarcophagi with their winged +genii, their garlands and bucranes, and porphyry tazzas, the fragments +of Roman mosaic and Pompeian fresco-painting, roused Odo's curiosity as +if they had been the scattered letters of a new alphabet; and he saw +with astonishment his friend Vittorio's indifference to these wonders. +Count Benedetto, it was clear, was resigned to his nephew's lack of +interest. The old man doubtless knew that he represented to the youth +only the rich uncle whose crotchets must be humoured for the sake of +what his pocket may procure; and such kindly tolerance made Odo regret +that Vittorio should not at least affect an interest in his uncle's +pursuits. +</P> + +<P> +Odo's eagerness to see and learn filled Count Benedetto with a simple +joy. He brought forth all his treasures for the boy's instruction and +the two spent many an afternoon poring over Piranesi's Roman etchings, +Maffei's Verona Illustrata, and Count Benedetto's own elegant +pencil-drawings of classical remains. Like all students of his day he +had also his cabinet of antique gems and coins, from which Odo obtained +more intimate glimpses of that buried life so marvellously exhumed +before him: hints of traffic in far-off market-places and familiar +gestures of hands on which those very jewels might have sparkled. Nor +did the Count restrict the boy's enquiries to that distant past; and for +the first time Odo heard of the masters who had maintained the great +classical tradition on Latin soil: Sanmichele, Vignola, Sansovino, and +the divine Michael Angelo, whom the old architect never named without +baring his head. From the works of these architects Odo formed his first +conception of the earlier, more virile manner which the first contact +with Graeco-Roman antiquity had produced. The Count told him, too, of +the great painters whose popularity had been lessened, if their fame had +not been dimmed, by the more recent achievements of Correggio, Guido, +Guercino, and the Bolognese school. The splendour of the stanze of the +Vatican, the dreadful majesty of the Sistine ceiling, revealed to Odo +the beauty of that unmatched moment before grandeur broke into bombast. +His early association with the expressive homely art of the chapel at +Pontesordo and with the half-pagan beauty of Luini's compositions had +formed his taste on soberer lines than the fashion of the day affected; +and his imagination breathed freely on the heights of the Latin +Parnassus. Thus, while his friend Vittorio stormed up and down the quiet +rooms, chattering about his horses, boasting of his escapades, or +ranting against the tyranny of the Sardinian government, Odo, at the old +Count's side, was entering on the great inheritance of the past. +</P> + +<P> +Such an initiation was the more precious to him from the indifference of +those about him to all forms of liberal culture. Among the greater +Italian cities, Turin was at that period the least open to new +influences, the most rigidly bound up in the formulas of the past. While +Milan, under the Austrian rule, was becoming a centre of philosophic +thought; while Naples was producing a group of economists such as +Galiani, Gravina and Filangieri; while ecclesiastical Rome was +dedicating herself to the investigation of ancient art and polity, and +even flighty Venice had her little set of "liberals," who read Voltaire +and Hume and wept over the rights of man, the old Piedmontese capital +lay in the grasp of a bigoted clergy and of a reigning house which was +already preparing to superimpose Prussian militarism on the old feudal +discipline of the border. Generations of hard fighting and rigorous +living had developed in the nobles the qualities which were preparing +them for the great part their country was to play; and contact with the +Waldensian and Calvinist heresies had stiffened Piedmontese piety into a +sombre hatred of schism and a minute observance of the mechanical rules +of the faith. Such qualities could be produced only at the expense of +intellectual freedom; and if Piedmont could show a few nobles like +Massimo d'Azeglio's father, who "made the education of his children his +first and gravest thought" and supplemented the deficiencies of his +wife's conventual training by "consecrating to her daily four hours of +reading, translating and other suitable exercises," the commoner view +was that of Alfieri's own parents, who frequently repeated in their +son's hearing "the old maxim of the Piedmontese nobility" that there is +no need for a gentleman to be a scholar. Such at any rate was the +opinion of the old Marquess of Donnaz, and of all the frequenters of +Casa Valdu. Odo's stepfather was engrossed in the fulfilment of his +duties about the court, and Donna Laura, under the influence of poverty +and ennui, had sunk into a state of rigid pietism; so that the lad, on +his visits to his mother, found himself in a world where art was +represented by the latest pastel-portrait of a court beauty, literature +by Liguori's Glories of Mary or the blessed Battista's Mental Sorrows of +Christ, and history by the conviction that Piedmont's efforts to stamp +out the enemies of the Church had distinguished her above every other +country of Europe. Donna Laura's cicisbeo was indeed a member of the +local Arcadia, and given to celebrating in verse every incident in the +noble household of Valdu, from its lady's name-day to the death of a pet +canary; but his own tastes inclined to the elegant Bettinelli, whose +Lettere Virgiliane had so conclusively shown Dante to be a writer of +barbarous doggerel; and among the dilettanti of the day one heard less +of Raphael than of Carlo Maratta, less of Ariosto and Petrarch than of +the Jesuit poet Padre Cevo, author of the sublime "heroico-comic" poem +on the infancy of Jesus. +</P> + +<P> +It was in fact mainly to the Jesuits that Italy, in the early part of +the eighteenth century, owed her literature and her art, as well as the +direction of her religious life. Though the reaction against the order +was everywhere making itself felt, though one Italian sovereign after +another had been constrained to purchase popularity or even security by +banishing the Society from his dominions, the Jesuits maintained their +hold on the aristocracy, whose pretentions they flattered, whose tastes +they affected, and to whom they represented the spirit of religious and +political conservatism, against which invisible forces were already felt +to be moving. For the use of their noble supporters, the Jesuits had +devised a religion as elaborate and ceremonious as the social usages of +the aristocracy: a religion which decked its chapels in imitation of +great ladies' boudoirs and prescribed observances in keeping with the +vapid and gossiping existence of their inmates. +</P> + +<P> +To Odo, fresh from the pure air of Donnaz, where the faith of his +kinsfolk expressed itself in charity, self-denial and a noble decency of +life, there was something stifling in the atmosphere of languishing +pietism in which his mother's friends veiled the emptiness of their +days. Under the instruction of the Countess's director the boy's +conscience was enervated by the casuistries of Liguorianism and his +devotion dulled by the imposition of interminable "pious practices." It +was in his nature to grudge no sacrifice to his ideals, and he might +have accomplished without question the monotonous observances his +confessor exacted, but for the changed aspect of the Deity in whose name +they were imposed. +</P> + +<P> +As with most thoughtful natures, Odo's first disillusionment was to come +from discovering not what his God condemned, but what He condoned. +Between Cantapresto's coarse philosophy of pleasure and the refined +complaisances of his new confessor he felt the distinction to be one +rather of taste than of principle; and it seemed to him that the +religion of the aristocracy might not unfairly be summed up in the +ex-soprano's cynical aphorism: "As respectful children of our Heavenly +Father it behoves us not to speak till we are spoken to." +</P> + +<P> +Even the religious ceremonies he witnessed did not console him for that +chill hour of dawn, when, in the chapel at Donnaz, he had served the +mass for Don Gervaso, with a heart trembling at its own unworthiness yet +uplifted by the sense of the Divine Presence. In the churches adorned +like aristocratic drawing-rooms, of which some Madonna, wreathed in +artificial flowers, seemed the amiable and indulgent hostess, and where +the florid passionate music of the mass was rendered by the King's opera +singers before a throng of chattering cavaliers and ladies, Odo prayed +in vain for a reawakening of the old emotion. The sense of sonship was +gone. He felt himself an alien in the temple of this affable divinity, +and his heart echoed no more than the cry which had once lifted him on +wings of praise to the very threshold of the hidden glory— +</P> + +<P> +Domine, dilexi decorem domus tuae et locum habitationis gloriae tuae! +</P> + +<P> +It was in the first reaction from this dimly felt loss that he lit one +day on a volume which Alfieri had smuggled into the Academy—the Lettres +Philosophiques of Francois Arouet de Voltaire. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BOOK II. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE NEW LIGHT. +</H3> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +Zu neuen Ufern lockt ein neuer Tag. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +2.1. +</H4> + +<P> +One afternoon of April in the year 1774, Odo Valsecca, riding down the +hillside below the church of the Superga, had reined in his horse at a +point where a group of Spanish chestnuts overhung the way. The air was +light and pure, the shady turf invited him, and dismounting he bid his +servant lead the horses to the wayside inn half way down the slope. +</P> + +<P> +The spot he had chosen, though secluded as some nook above the gorge of +Donnaz, commanded a view of the Po rolling at his feet like a flood of +yellowish metal, and beyond, outspread in clear spring sunshine, the +great city in the bosom of the plain. The spectacle was fair enough to +touch any fancy: brown domes and facades set in new-leaved gardens and +surrounded by vineyards extending to the nearest acclivities; +country-houses glancing through the fresh green of planes and willows; +monastery-walls cresting the higher ridges; and westward the Po winding +in sunlit curves toward the Alps. +</P> + +<P> +Odo had lost none of his sensitiveness to such impressions; but the sway +of another mood turned his eye from the outstretched beauty of the city +to the vernal solitude about him. It was the season when old memories of +Donnaz worked in his blood; when the banks and hedges of the fresh +hill-country about Turin cheated him with a breath of budding +beech-groves and the fragrance of crushed fern in the glens of the high +Pennine valleys. It was a mere waft, perhaps, from some clod of loosened +earth, or the touch of cool elastic moss as he flung himself face +downward under the trees; but the savour, the contact filled his +nostrils with mountain air and his eyes with dim-branched distances. At +Donnaz the slow motions of the northern spring had endeared to him all +those sweet incipiencies preceding the full choral burst of leaf and +flower: the mauve mist over bare woodlands, the wet black gleams in +frost-bound hollows, the thrust of fronds through withered bracken, the +primrose-patches spreading like pale sunshine along wintry lanes. He had +always felt a sympathy for these delicate unnoted changes; but the +feeling which had formerly been like the blind stir of sap in a plant +was now a conscious sensation that groped for speech and understanding. +</P> + +<P> +He had grown up among people to whom such emotions were unknown. The old +Marquess's passion for his fields and woods was the love of the +agriculturist and the hunter, not that of the naturalist or the poet; +and the aristocracy of the cities regarded the country merely as so much +soil from which to draw their maintenance. The gentlefolk never absented +themselves from town but for a few weeks of autumn, when they went to +their villas for the vintage, transporting thither all the diversions of +city life and venturing no farther afield than the pleasure-grounds that +were but so many open-air card-rooms, concert-halls and theatres. Odo's +tenderness for every sylvan function of renewal and decay, every +shifting of light and colour on the flying surface of the year, would +have been met with the same stare with which a certain enchanting +Countess had received the handful of wind-flowers that, fresh from a +sunrise on the hills, he had laid one morning among her toilet-boxes. +The Countess Clarice had stared and laughed, and every one of his +acquaintance, Alfieri even, would have echoed her laugh; but one man at +least had felt the divine commotion of nature's touch, had felt and +interpreted it, in words as fresh as spring verdure, in the pages of a +volume that Odo now drew from his pocket. +</P> + +<P> +"I longed to dream, but some unexpected spectacle continually distracted +me from my musings. Here immense rocks hung their ruinous masses above +my head; there the thick mist of roaring waterfalls enveloped me; or +some unceasing torrent tore open at my very feet an abyss into which the +gaze feared to plunge. Sometimes I was lost in the twilight of a thick +wood; sometimes, on emerging from a dark ravine, my eyes were charmed by +the sight of an open meadow...Nature seemed to revel in unwonted +contrasts; such varieties of aspect had she united in one spot. Here was +an eastern prospect bright with spring flowers, while autumn fruits +ripened to the south and the northern face of the scene was still locked +in wintry frosts...Add to this the different angles at which the peaks +took the light, the chiaroscuro of sun and shade, and the variations of +light resulting from it at morning and evening...sum up the impressions +I have tried to describe and you will be able to form an idea of the +enchanting situation in which I found myself...The scene has indeed a +magical, a supernatural quality, which so ravishes the spirit and senses +that one seems to lose all exact notion of one's surroundings and +identity." +</P> + +<P> +This was a new language to eighteenth-century readers. Already it had +swept through the length and breadth of France, like a spring storm-wind +bursting open doors and windows, and filling close candle-lit rooms with +wet gusts and the scent of beaten blossoms; but south of the Alps the +new ideas travelled slowly, and the Piedmontese were as yet scarce aware +of the man who had written thus of their own mountains. It was true +that, some thirty years earlier, in one of the very monasteries on which +Odo now looked down, a Swiss vagrant called Rousseau had embraced the +true faith with the most moving signs of edification; but the rescue of +Helvetian heretics was a favourite occupation of the Turinese nobility +and it is doubtful if any recalled the name of the strange proselyte who +had hastened to signalise his conversion by robbing his employers and +slandering an innocent maid-servant. Odo in fact owed his first +acquaintance with the French writers to Alfieri, who, in the intervals +of his wandering over Europe, now and then reappeared in Turin laden +with the latest novelties in Transalpine literature and haberdashery. +What his eccentric friend failed to provide, Odo had little difficulty +in obtaining for himself; for though most of the new writers were on the +Index, and the Sardinian censorship was notoriously severe, there was +never yet a barrier that could keep out books, and Cantapresto was a +skilled purveyor of contraband dainties. Odo had thus acquainted himself +with the lighter literature of England and France; and though he had +read but few philosophical treatises, was yet dimly aware of the new +standpoint from which, north of the Alps, men were beginning to test the +accepted forms of thought. The first disturbance of his childish faith, +and the coincident reading of the Lettres Philosophiques, had been +followed by a period of moral perturbation, during which he suffered +from that sense of bewilderment, of inability to classify the phenomena +of life, that is one of the keenest trials of inexperience. Youth and +nature had their way with him, however, and a wholesome reaction of +indifference set in. The invisible world of thought and conduct had been +the frequent subject of his musings; but the other, tangible world was +close to him too, spreading like a rich populous plain between himself +and the distant heights of speculation. The old doubts, the old +dissatisfactions, hung on the edge of consciousness; but he was too +profoundly Italian not to linger awhile in that atmosphere of careless +acquiescence that is so pleasant a medium for the unhampered enjoyment +of life. Some day, no doubt, the intellectual curiosity and the moral +disquietude would revive; but what he wanted now were books which +appealed not to his reason but to his emotions, which reflected as in a +mirror the rich and varied life of the senses: books that were warm to +the touch, like the little volume in his hand. +</P> + +<P> +For it was not only of nature that the book spoke. Amid scenes of such +rustic freshness were set human passions as fresh and natural: a great +romantic love, subdued to duty, yet breaking forth again and again as +young shoots spring from the root of a felled tree. To +eighteenth-century readers such a picture of life was as new as its +setting. Duty, in that day, to people of quality, meant the observance +of certain fixed conventions: the correct stepping of a moral minuet; as +an inner obligation, as a voluntary tribute to Diderot's "divinity on +earth," it had hardly yet drawn breath. To depict a personal relation so +much purer and more profound than any form of sentiment then in fashion, +and then to subordinate it, unflinchingly, to the ideal of those larger +relations that link the individual to the group—this was a stroke of +originality for which it would be hard to find a parallel in modern +fiction. Here at last was an answer to the blind impulses agrope in +Odo's breast—the loosening of those springs of emotion that gushed +forth in such fresh contrast to the stagnant rills of the sentimental +pleasure-garden. To renounce a Julie would be more thrilling than— +</P> + +<P> +Odo, with a sigh, thrust the book in his pocket and rose to his feet. It +was the hour of the promenade at the Valentino and he had promised the +Countess Clarice to attend her. The old high-roofed palace of the French +princess lay below him, in its gardens along the river: he could figure, +as he looked down on it, the throng of carriages and chairs, the +modishly dressed riders, the pedestrians crowding the footpath to watch +the quality go by. The vision of all that noise and glitter deepened the +sweetness of the woodland hush. He sighed again. Suddenly voices sounded +in the road below—a man's speech flecked with girlish laughter. Odo +hung back listening: the girl's voice rang like a bird-call through his +rustling fancies. Presently she came in sight: a slender black-mantled +figure hung on the arm of an elderly man in the sober dress of one of +the learned professions—a physician or a lawyer, Odo guessed. Their +being afoot, and the style of the man's dress, showed that they were of +the middle class; their demeanour, that they were father and daughter. +The girl moved with a light forward flowing of her whole body that +seemed the pledge of grace in every limb: of her face Odo had but a +bright glimpse in the eclipse of her flapping hat-brim. She stood under +his tree unheeded; but as they rose abreast of him the girl paused and +dropped her companion's arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Look! The cherry flowers!" she cried, and stretched her arms to a white +gush of blossoms above the wall across the road. The movement tilted +back her hat, and Odo caught her small fine profile, wide-browed as the +head on some Sicilian coin, with a little harp-shaped ear bedded in dark +ripples. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," she wailed, straining on tiptoe, "I can't reach them!" +</P> + +<P> +Her father smiled. "May temptation," said he philosophically, "always +hang as far out of your reach." +</P> + +<P> +"Temptation?" she echoed. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it not theft you're bent on?" +</P> + +<P> +"Theft? This is a monk's orchard, not a peasant's plot." +</P> + +<P> +"Confiscation, then," he humorously conceded. +</P> + +<P> +"Since they pay no taxes on their cherries they might at least," she +argued, "spare a few to us poor taxpayers." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," said her father, "I want to tax their cherries, not to gather +them." He slipped a hand through her arm. "Come, child," said he, "does +not the philosopher tell us that he who enjoys a thing possesses it? The +flowers are yours already!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, are they?" she retorted. "Then why doesn't the loaf in the baker's +window feed the beggar that looks in at it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Casuist!" he cried and drew her up the bend of the road. +</P> + +<P> +Odo stood gazing after them. Their words, their aspect, seemed an echo +of his reading. The father in his plain broadcloth and square-buckled +shoes, the daughter with her unpowdered hair and spreading hat, might +have stepped from the pages of the romance. What a breath of freshness +they brought with them! The girl's cheek was clear as the +cherry-blossoms, and with what lovely freedom did she move! Thus Julie +might have led Saint Preux through her "Elysium." Odo crossed the road +and, breaking one of the blossoming twigs, thrust it in the breast of +his uniform. Then he walked down the hill to the inn where the horses +waited. Half an hour later he rode up to the house where he lodged in +the Piazza San Carlo. +</P> + +<P> +In the archway Cantapresto, heavy with a nine years' accretion of fat, +laid an admonishing hand on his bridle. +</P> + +<P> +"Cavaliere, the Countess's black boy—" +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" +</P> + +<P> +"Three several times has battered the door down with a missive." +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" +</P> + +<P> +"The last time, I shook him off with the message that you would be there +before him." +</P> + +<P> +"Be where?" +</P> + +<P> +"At the Valentino; but that was an hour ago!" +</P> + +<P> +Odo slipped from the saddle. +</P> + +<P> +"I must dress first. Call a chair; or no—write a letter for me first. +Let Antonio carry it." +</P> + +<P> +The ex-soprano, wheezing under the double burden of flesh and +consequence, had painfully laboured after Odo up the high stone flights +to that young gentleman's modest lodgings, and they stood together in a +study lined with books and hung with prints and casts from the antique. +Odo threw off his dusty coat and called the servant to remove his boots. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you read the lady's letters, cavaliere?" Cantapresto asked, +obsequiously offering them on a lacquered tray. +</P> + +<P> +"No—no: write first. Begin 'My angelic lady'—" +</P> + +<P> +"You began the last letter in those terms, cavaliere," his scribe +reminded him with suspended pen. +</P> + +<P> +"The devil! Well, then—wait. 'Throned goddess'—" +</P> + +<P> +"You ended the last letter with 'throned goddess.'" +</P> + +<P> +"Curse the last letter! Why did you send it?" Odo sprang up and slipped +his arms into the dress-tunic his servant had brought him. "Write +anything. Say that I am suddenly summoned by—" +</P> + +<P> +"By the Count Alfieri?" Cantapresto suggested. +</P> + +<P> +"Count Alfieri? Is he here? He has returned?" +</P> + +<P> +"He arrived an hour ago, cavaliere. He sent you this Moorish scimitar +with his compliments. I understand he comes recently from Spain." +</P> + +<P> +"Imbecile, not to have told me before! Quick, Antonio—my gloves, my +sword." Odo, flushed and animated, buckled his sword-belt with impatient +hands. "Write anything—anything to free my evening. Tomorrow +morning—tomorrow morning I shall wait on the lady. Let Antonio carry +her a nosegay with my compliments. Did you see him Cantapresto? Was he +in good health? Does he sup at home? He left no message? Quick, Antonio, +a chair!" he cried with his hand on the door. +</P> + +<P> +Odo had acquired, at twenty-two, a nobility of carriage not incompatible +with the boyish candour of his gaze, and becomingly set off by the +brilliant dress-uniform of a lieutenant in one of the provincial +regiments. He was tall and fair, and a certain languor of complexion, +inherited from his father's house, was corrected in him by the vivacity +of the Donnaz blood. This now sparkled in his grey eye, and gave a glow +to his cheek, as he stepped across the threshold, treading on a sprig of +cherry-blossom that had dropped unnoticed to the floor. +</P> + +<P> +Cantapresto, looking after him, caught sight of the flowers and kicked +them aside with a contemptuous toe. "I sometimes think he botanises," he +murmured with a shrug. "The Lord knows what queer notions he gets out of +all these books!" +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +2.2. +</H4> + +<P> +As an infusion of fresh blood to Odo were Alfieri's meteoric returns to +Turin. Life moved languidly in the strait-laced city, even to a young +gentleman a-tiptoe for adventure and framed to elicit it as the +hazel-wand draws water. Not that vulgar distractions were lacking. The +town, as Cantapresto had long since advised him, had its secret +leniencies, its posterns opening on clandestine pleasure; but there was +that in Odo which early turned him from such cheap counterfeits of +living. He accepted the diversions of his age, but with a clear sense of +their worth; and the youth who calls his pleasures by their true name +has learned the secret of resisting them. +</P> + +<P> +Alfieri's coming set deeper springs in motion. His follies and +extravagances were on a less provincial scale than those of Odo's daily +associates. The breath of a freer life clung to him and his allusions +were so many glimpses into a larger world. His political theories were +but the enlargement of his private grievances, but the mere play of +criticism on accepted institutions was an exercise more novel and +exhilirating than the wildest ride on one of his half-tamed +thorough-breds. Still chiefly a man of pleasure, and the slave, as +always, of some rash infatuation, Alfieri was already shaking off the +intellectual torpor of his youth; and the first stirrings of his +curiosity roused an answering passion in Odo. Their tastes were indeed +divergent, for to that external beauty which was to Odo the very bloom +of life, Alfieri remained insensible; while of its imaginative +counterpart, its prolongation in the realm of thought and emotion, he +had but the most limited conception. But his love of ringing deeds woke +the chivalrous strain in Odo, and his vague celebration of Liberty, that +unknown goddess to whom altars were everywhere building, chimed with the +other's scorn of oppression and injustice. So far, it is true, their +companionship had been mainly one of pleasure; but the temper of both +gave their follies that provisional character which saves them from +vulgarity. +</P> + +<P> +Odo, who had slept late on the morning after his friend's return, was +waked by the pompous mouthing of certain lines just then on every lip in +Italy:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Meet was it that, its ancient seats forsaking,<BR> + An Empire should set forth with dauntless sail,<BR> + And braving tempests and the deep's betrayal,<BR> + Break down the barriers of inviolate worlds—<BR> + That Cortez and Pizarro should esteem<BR> + The blood of man a trivial sacrifice<BR> + When, flinging down from their ancestral thrones<BR> + Incas and Mexicans of royal line,<BR> + They wrecked two kingdoms to refresh thy palate—<BR> +</P> + +<P> +They were the verses in which the abate Parini, in his satire of The +Morning, apostrophizes the cup of chocolate which the lacquey presents +to his master. Cantapresto had in fact just entered with a cup of this +beverage, and Alfieri, who stood at his friend's bedside with unpowdered +locks and a fashionable undress of Parisian cut, snatching the tray from +the soprano's hands presented it to Odo in an attitude of mock +servility. +</P> + +<P> +The young man sprang up laughing. It was the fashion to applaud Parini's +verse in the circles at which his satire was aimed, and none recited his +mock heroics with greater zest than the young gentlemen whose fopperies +he ridiculed. Odo's toilet was indeed a rite almost as elaborate as that +of Parini's hero; and this accomplished, he was on his way to fulfil the +very duty the poet most unsparingly derides: the morning visit of the +cicisbeo to his lady; but meanwhile he liked to show himself above the +follies of his class by joining in the laugh against them. When he +issued from the powder-room in his gold-laced uniform, with scented +gloves and carefully-adjusted queue, he presented the image of a young +gentleman so clearly equal to the most flattering emergencies that +Alfieri broke into a smile of half-ironical approval. "I see, my dear +cavaliere, that it were idle to invite you to try one of the new Arabs I +have brought with me from Spain, since it is plain other duties engage +you; but I come to lay claim to your evening." +</P> + +<P> +Odo hesitated. "The Queen holds a circle this evening," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"And her lady-in-waiting is in attendance?" returned Alfieri. "And the +lady-in-waiting's gentleman-in-waiting also?" +</P> + +<P> +Odo made an impatient movement. "What inducements do you offer?" said he +carelessly. +</P> + +<P> +Alfieri stepped close and tapped him on the sleeve. "Meet me at ten +o'clock at the turn of the lane behind the Corpus Domini. Wear a cloak +and a mask, and leave this gentleman at home with a flask of Asti." He +glanced at Cantapresto. +</P> + +<P> +Odo hesitated a moment. He knew well enough where such midnight turnings +led, and across the vision evoked by his friend's words a girl's face +flitted suddenly. +</P> + +<P> +"Is that all?" he said with a shrug. "You find me, I fear, in no humour +for such exploits." +</P> + +<P> +Alfieri smiled. "And if I say that I have promised to bring you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Promised—?" +</P> + +<P> +"To one as chary of exacting such pledges as I of giving them. If I say +that you stake your life on the adventure, and that the stake is not too +great for the reward—?" +</P> + +<P> +His sallow face had reddened with excitement, and Odo's forehead +reflected the flush. Was it possible—? But the thought set him tingling +with disgust. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, you say little," he cried lightly, "at the rate at which I value +my life." +</P> + +<P> +Alfieri turned on him. "If your life is worthless; make it worth +something!" he exclaimed. "I offer you the opportunity tonight." +</P> + +<P> +"What opportunity?" +</P> + +<P> +"The sight of a face that men have laid down their lives to see." +</P> + +<P> +Odo laughed and buckled on his sword. "If you answer for the risk, I +agree to take it," said he. "At ten o'clock then, behind the Corpus +Domini." +</P> + +<P> +If the ladies whom gallant gentlemen delight to serve could guess what +secret touchstones of worth these same gentlemen sometimes carry into +the adored presence, many a handsome head would be carried with less +assurance, and many a fond exaction less confidently imposed. If, for +instance, the Countess Clarice di Tournanches, whose high-coloured image +reflected itself so complacently in her Venetian toilet-glass, could +have known that the Cavaliere Odo Valsecca's devoted glance saw her +through the medium of a countenance compared to which her own revealed +the most unexpected shortcomings, she might have received him with less +airy petulance of manner. But how could so accomplished a mistress doubt +the permanence of her rule? The Countess Clarice, in singling out young +Odo Valsecca (to the despair of a score of more experienced cavaliers) +had done him an honour that she could no more imagine his resigning than +an adventurer a throne to which he is unexpectedly raised. She was a +finished example of the pretty woman who views the universe as planned +for her convenience. What could go wrong in a world where noble ladies +lived in palaces hung with tapestry and damask, with powdered lacqueys +to wait on them, a turbaned blackamoor to tend their parrots and +monkeys, a coronet-coach at the door to carry them to mass or the +ridotto, and a handsome cicisbeo to display on the promenade? Everything +had combined to strengthen the Countess Clarice's faith in the existing +order of things. Her husband, Count Roberto di Tournanches, was one of +the King's equerries and distinguished for his brilliant career as an +officer of the Piedmontese army—a man marked for the highest favours in +a society where military influences were paramount. Passing at sixteen +from an aristocratic convent to the dreary magnificence of the Palazzo +Tournanches, Clarice had found herself a lady-in-waiting at the dullest +court in Europe and the wife of an army officer engrossed in his +profession, and pledged by etiquette to the service of another lady. Odo +Valsecca represented her escape from this bondage—the dash of romance +and folly in a life of elegant formalities; and the Countess, who would +not have sacrificed to him one of her rights as a court-lady or a nobil +donna of the Golden Book, regarded him as the reward which Providence +accords to a well-regulated conduct. +</P> + +<P> +Her room, when Odo entered it on taking leave of Alfieri, was crowded, +as usual at that hour, with the hangers-on of the noble lady's lever: +the abatino in lace ruffles, handing about his latest rhymed acrostic, +the jeweller displaying a set of enamelled buckles newly imported from +Paris, and the black-breeched doctor with white bands who concocted +remedies for the Countess's vapours and megrims. These personages, +grouped about the toilet-table where the Countess sat under the hands of +a Parisian hairdresser, were picturesquely relieved against the stucco +panelling and narrow mirrors of the apartment, with its windows looking +on a garden set with mossy statues. To Odo, however, the scene suggested +the most tedious part of his day's routine. The compliments to be +exchanged, the silly verses to be praised, the gewgaws from Paris to be +admired, were all contrasted in his mind with the vision of that other +life which had come to him on the hillside of the Superga. On this mood +the Countess Clarice's sarcasms fell without effect. To be pouted at +because he had failed to attend the promenade of the Valentino was to +Odo but a convenient pretext for excusing himself from the Queen's +circle that evening. He had engaged with little ardour to join Alfieri +in what he guessed to be a sufficiently commonplace adventure; but as he +listened to the Countess's chatter about the last minuet-step, and the +relative merits of sanspareil water and oil-of-lilies, of gloves from +Blois and Vendome, his impatience hailed any alternative as a release. +Meanwhile, however, long hours of servitude intervened. The lady's +toilet completed, to the adjusting of the last patch, he must attend her +to dinner, where, placed at her side, he was awarded the honour of +carving the roast; must sit through two hours of biribi in company with +the abatino, the doctor, and half-a-dozen parasites of the noble table; +and for two hours more must ride in her gilt coach up and down the +promenade of the Valentino. +</P> + +<P> +Escaping from this ceremonial, with the consciousness that it must be +repeated on the morrow, Odo was seized with that longing for freedom +that makes the first street-corner an invitation to flight. How he +envied Alfieri, whose travelling-carriage stood at the beck of such +moods! Odo's scant means forbade evasion, even had his military duties +not kept him in Turin. He felt himself no more than a puppet dancing to +the tune of Parini's satire, a puny doll condemned, as the strings of +custom pulled, to feign the gestures of immortal passions. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +2.3. +</H4> + +<P> +The night was moonless, with cold dashes of rain, and though the streets +of Turin were well-lit no lantern-ray reached the windings of the lane +behind the Corpus Domini. +</P> + +<P> +As Odo, alone under the wall of the church, awaited his friend's +arrival, he wondered what risk had constrained the reckless Alfieri to +such unwonted caution. Italy was at that time a vast network of +espionage, and the Piedmontese capital passed for one of the +best-policed cities in Europe; but even on a moonless night the law +distinguished between the noble pleasure-seeker and the obscure +delinquent whose fate it was to pay the other's shot. Odo knew that he +would probably be followed and his movements reported to the +authorities; but he was almost equally certain that there would be no +active interference in his affairs. What chiefly puzzled him was +Alfieri's insistence that Cantapresto should not be privy to the +adventure. The soprano had long been the confidant of his pupil's +escapades, and his adroitness had often been of service in intrigues +such as that on which Odo now fancied himself engaged. The place, again, +perplexed him: a sober quarter of convents and private dwellings, in the +very eye of the royal palace, scarce seeming the theatre for a light +adventure. These incongruities revived his former wonder; nor was this +dispelled by Alfieri's approach. +</P> + +<P> +The poet, masked and unattended, rejoined his friend without a word; and +Odo guessed in him an eye and ear alert for pursuit. Guided by the +pressure of his arm, Odo was hurried round the bend of the lane, up a +transverse alley and across a little square lost between high shuttered +buildings. Alfieri, at his first word, gripped his arm with a backward +glance; then urged him on under the denser blackness of an arched +passage-way, at the end of which an oil-light glimmered. Here a gate in +a wall confronted them. It opened at Alfieri's tap and Odo scented wet +box-borders and felt the gravel of a path under foot. The gate was at +once locked behind them and they entered the ground-floor of a house as +dark as the garden. Here a maid-servant of close aspect met them with a +lamp and preceded them upstairs to a bare landing hung with charts and +portulani. On Odo's flushed anticipations this antechamber, which seemed +the approach to some pedant's cabinet, had an effect undeniably +chilling; but Alfieri, heedless of his surprise, had cast off cloak and +mask, and now led the way into a long conventual-looking room lined with +book-shelves. A knot of middle-aged gentlemen of sober dress and manner, +gathered about a cabinet of fossils in the centre of this apartment, +looked up at the entrance of the two friends; then the group divided, +and Odo with a start recognised the girl he had seen on the road to the +Superga. +</P> + +<P> +She bowed gravely to the young men. "My father," said she, in a clear +voice without trace of diffidence, "has gone to his study for a book, +but will be with you in a moment." +</P> + +<P> +She wore a dress in keeping with her manner, its black stuff folds and +the lawn kerchief crossed on her bosom giving height and authority to +her slight figure. The dark unpowdered hair drawn back over a cushion +made a severer setting for her face than the fluctuating brim of her +shade-hat; and this perhaps added to the sense of estrangement with +which Odo gazed at her; but she met his look with a smile, and instantly +the rosy girl flashed through her grave exterior. +</P> + +<P> +"Here is my father," said she; and her companion of the previous day +stepped into the room with several folios under his arm. +</P> + +<P> +Alfieri turned to Odo. "This, my dear Odo," said he, "is my +distinguished friend, Professor Vivaldi, who has done us the honour of +inviting us to his house." He took the Professor's hand. "I have brought +you," he continued, "the friend you were kind enough to include in your +invitation—the Cavaliere Odo Valsecca." +</P> + +<P> +Vivaldi bowed. "Count Alfieri's friends," said he, "are always welcome +to my house; though I fear there is here little to interest a young +gentleman of the Cavaliere Valsecca's years." And Odo detected a shade +of doubt in his glance. +</P> + +<P> +"The Cavaliere Valsecca," Alfieri smilingly rejoined, "is above his +years in wit and learning, and I answer for his interest as I do for his +discretion." +</P> + +<P> +The Professor bowed again. "Count Alfieri, sir," he said, "has doubtless +explained to you the necessity that obliges me to be so private in +receiving my friends; and now perhaps you will join these gentlemen in +examining some rare fossil fish newly sent me from the Monte Bolca." +</P> + +<P> +Odo murmured a civil rejoinder; but the wonder into which the sight of +the young girl had thrown him was fast verging on stupefaction. What +mystery was here? What necessity compelled an elderly professor to +receive his scientific friends like a band of political conspirators? +How above all, in the light of the girl's presence, was Odo to interpret +Alfieri's extravagant allusions to the nature of their visit? +</P> + +<P> +The company having returned to the cabinet of fossils, none seemed to +observe his disorder but the young lady who was its cause; and seeing +him stand apart she advanced with a smile, saying, "Perhaps you would +rather look at some of my father's other curiosities." +</P> + +<P> +Simple as the words were, they failed to restore Odo's self-possession, +and for a moment he made no answer. Perhaps she partly guessed the cause +of his commotion; yet it was not so much her beauty that silenced him, +as the spirit that seemed to inhabit it. Nature, in general so chary of +her gifts, so prone to use one good feature as the palliation of a dozen +deficiencies, to wed the eloquent lip with the ineffectual eye, had +indeed compounded her of all fine meanings, making each grace the +complement of another and every outward charm expressive of some inward +quality. Here was as little of the convent-bred miss as of the flippant +and vapourish fine lady; and any suggestion of a less fair alternative +vanished before such candid graces. Odo's confusion had in truth sprung +from Alfieri's ambiguous hints; and these shrivelling to nought in the +gaze that encountered his, constraint gave way to a sense of wondering +pleasure. +</P> + +<P> +"I should like to see whatever you will show me," said he, as simply as +one child speaking to another; and she answered in the same tone, "Then +we'll glance at my father's collections before the serious business of +the evening begins." +</P> + +<P> +With these words she began to lead him about the room, pointing out and +explaining the curiosities it contained. It was clear that, like many +scholars of his day, Professor Vivaldi was something of an eclectic in +his studies, for while one table held a fine orrery, a cabinet of coins +stood near, and the book-shelves were surmounted by specimens of coral +and petrified wood. Of all these rarities his daughter had a word to +say, and though her explanations were brief and without affectation of +pedantry, they put her companion's ignorance to the blush. It must be +owned, however, that had his learning been a match for hers it would +have stood him in poor stead at the moment; his faculties being lost in +the wonder of hearing such discourse from such lips. To his compliments +on her erudition she returned with a smile that what learning she had +was no merit, since she had been bred in a library; to which she +suddenly added:—"You are not unknown to me, Cavaliere; but I never +thought to see you here." +</P> + +<P> +The words renewed her hearer's surprise; but giving him no time to +reply, she went on in a lower tone:—"You are young and the world is +fair before you. Have you considered that before risking yourself among +us?" +</P> + +<P> +She coloured under Odo's wondering gaze, and at his random rejoinder +that it was a risk any man would gladly take without considering, she +turned from him with a gesture in which he fancied a shade of +disappointment. +</P> + +<P> +By this they had reached the cabinet of fossils, about which the +interest of the other guests still seemed to centre. Alfieri, indeed, +paced the farther end of the room with the air of awaiting the despatch +of some tedious business; but the others were engaged in an animated +discussion necessitating frequent reference to the folios Vivaldi had +brought from his study. +</P> + +<P> +The latter turned to Odo as though to include him in the group. "I do +not know, sir," said he, "whether you have found leisure to study these +enigmas of that mysterious Sphinx, the earth; for though Count Alfieri +has spoken to me of your unusual acquirements, I understand your tastes +have hitherto lain rather in the direction of philosophy and letters;" +and on Odo's prompt admission of ignorance, he courteously continued: +"The physical sciences seem, indeed, less likely to appeal to the +imaginative and poetical faculty in man, and, on the other hand, +religion has appeared to prohibit their too close investigation; yet I +question if any thoughtful mind can enter on the study of these curious +phenomena without feeling, as it were, an affinity between such +investigations and the most abstract forms of thought. For whether we +regard these figured stones as of terriginous origin, either mere lusus +naturae, or mineral formations produced by a plastic virtue latent in +the earth, or whether as in fact organic substances lapidified by the +action of water; in either case, what speculations must their origin +excite, leading us back into that dark and unexplored period of time +when the breath of Creation was yet moving on the face of the waters!" +</P> + +<P> +Odo had listened but confusedly to the first words of this discourse; +but his intellectual curiosity was too great not to respond to such an +appeal, and all his perplexities slipped from him in the pursuit of the +Professor's thought. +</P> + +<P> +One of the other guests seemed struck by his look of attention. "My dear +Vivaldi," said this gentleman, laying down a fossil, and fixing his gaze +on Odo while he addressed the Professor, "why use such superannuated +formulas in introducing a neophyte to a study designed to subvert the +very foundations of the Mosaic cosmogony? I take it the Cavaliere is one +of us, since he is here this evening: why, then, permit him to stray +even for a moment in the labyrinth of theological error?" +</P> + +<P> +The Professor's deprecating murmur was cut short by an outburst from +another of the learned group, a red-faced spectacled personage in a +doctor's gown. +</P> + +<P> +"Pardon me for suggesting," he exclaimed, "that the conditional terms in +which our host was careful to present his hypotheses are better suited +to the instruction of the neophyte than our learned friend's positive +assertions. But if the Vulcanists are to claim the Cavaliere Valsecca, +may not the Diluvials also have a hearing? How often must it be repeated +that theology as well as physical science is satisfied by the Diluvial +explanation of the origin of petrified organisms, whereas inexorable +logic compels the Vulcanists to own that their thesis is subversive of +all dogmatic belief?" +</P> + +<P> +The first speaker answered with a gesture of disdain. "My dear doctor, +you occupy a chair in our venerated University. From that exalted +cathedra the Mosaic theory of Creation must still be expounded; but in +the security of these surroundings—the catacombs of the new faith—why +keep up the forms of an obsolete creed? As long ago as Pythagoras, man +was taught that all things were in a state of flux, without end as +without beginning, and must we still, after more than two thousand +years, pretend to regard the universe as some gigantic toy manufactured +in six days by a Superhuman Artisan, who is presently to destroy it at +his pleasure?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sir," cried the other, flushing from red to purple at this assault, "I +know not on what ground you insinuate that my private convictions differ +from my public doctrine—" +</P> + +<P> +But here, with a firmness tempered by the most scrupulous courtesy, +Professor Vivaldi intervened. +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen," said he, "the discussion in which you are engaged, +interesting as it is, must, I fear, distract us from the true purpose of +our meeting. I am happy to offer my house as the asylum of all free +research; but you must remember that the first object of these reunions +is, not the special study of any one branch of modern science, but the +application of physical investigation to the origin and destiny of man. +In other words, we ask the study of nature to lead us to the knowledge +of ourselves; and it is because we approach this great problem from a +point as yet unsanctioned by dogmatic authority, that I am reluctantly +obliged"—and here he turned to Odo with a smile—"to throw a veil of +privacy over these inoffensive meetings." +</P> + +<P> +Here at last was the key to the enigma. The gentlemen assembled in +Professor Vivaldi's rooms were met there to discuss questions not safely +aired in public. They were conspirators indeed, but the liberation they +planned was intellectual rather than political; though the acuter among +them doubtless saw whither such innovations tended. Meanwhile they were +content to linger in that wide field of speculation which the +development of the physical sciences had recently opened to philosophic +thought. As, at the Revival of Learning, the thinker imprisoned in +mediaeval dialectics suddenly felt under his feet the firm ground of +classic argument, so, in the eighteenth century, philosophy, long +suspended in the void of metaphysic, touched earth again and, +Antaeus-like, drew fresh life from the contact. It was clear that +Professor Vivaldi, whose very name had been unknown to Odo, was an +important figure in the learned world, and one uniting the tact and +firmness necessary to control those dissensions from which philosophy +itself does not preserve its disciples. His words calmed the two +disputants who were preparing to do battle over Odo's unborn scientific +creed, and the talk growing more general, the Professor turned to his +daughter, saying, "My Fulvia, is the study prepared?" +</P> + +<P> +She signed her assent, and her father led the way to an inner cabinet, +where seats were drawn about a table scattered with pamphlets, gazettes +and dictionaries, and set out with modest refreshments. Here began a +conversation ranging from chemistry to taxation, and from the +perfectibility of man to the secondary origin of the earth's surface. It +was evident to Odo that, though the Professor's guests represented all +shades of opinion, some being clearly loth to leave the safe anchorage +of orthodoxy, while others already braved the seas of free enquiry, yet +all were at one as to the need of unhampered action and discussion. +Odo's dormant curiosity woke with a start at the summons of fresh +knowledge. Here were worlds to explore, or rather the actual world about +him, a region then stranger and more unfamiliar than the lost Atlantis +of fable. Liberty was the word on every lip, and if to some it +represented the right to doubt the Diluvial origin of fossils, to others +that of reforming the penal code, to a third (as to Alfieri) merely +personal independence and relief from civil restrictions; yet these +fragmentary conceptions seemed, to Odo's excited fancy, to blend in the +vision of a New Light encircling the whole horizon of thought. He +understood at last Alfieri's allusion to a face for the sight of which +men were ready to lay down their lives; and if, as he walked home before +dawn, those heavenly lineaments were blent in memory with features of a +mortal cast, yet these were pure and grave enough to stand for the image +of the goddess. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +2.4. +</H4> + +<P> +Professor Orazio Vivaldi, after filling with distinction the chair of +Philosophy at the University of Turin, had lately resigned his office +that he might have leisure to complete a long-contemplated work on the +Origin of Civilisation. His house was the meeting-place of a society +calling itself of the Honey-Bees and ostensibly devoted to the study of +the classical poets, from whose pages the members were supposed to cull +mellifluous nourishment; but under this guise the so-called literati had +for some time indulged in free discussion of religious and scientific +questions. The Academy of the Honey-Bees comprised among its members all +the independent thinkers of Turin: doctors of law, of philosophy and +medicine, chemists, philologists and naturalists, with one or two +members of the nobility, who, like Alfieri, felt, or affected, an +interest in the graver problems of life, and could be trusted not to +betray the true character of the association. +</P> + +<P> +These details Odo learned the next day from Alfieri; who went on to say +that, owing to the increased vigilance of the government, and to the +banishment of several distinguished men accused by the Church of +heretical or seditious opinions, the Honey-Bees had of late been obliged +to hold their meetings secretly, it being even rumoured that Vivaldi, +who was their president, had resigned his professorship and withdrawn +behind the shelter of literary employment in order to elude the +observation of the authorities. Men had not yet forgotten the fate of +the Neapolitan historian, Pietro Giannone, who for daring to attack the +censorship and the growth of the temporal power had been driven from +Naples to Vienna, from Vienna back to Venice, and at length, at the +prompting of the Holy See, lured across the Piedmontese frontier by +Charles Emmanuel of Savoy, and imprisoned for life in the citadel of +Turin. The memory of his tragic history—most of all, perhaps, of his +recantation and the "devout ending" to which solitude and persecution +had forced the freest spirit of his day—hovered like a warning on the +horizon of thought and constrained political speculation to hide itself +behind the study of fashionable trifles. Alfieri had lately joined the +association of the Honey-Bees, and the Professor, at his suggestion, had +invited Odo, for whose discretion his friend declared himself ready to +answer. The Honey-Bees were in fact desirous of attracting young men of +rank who felt an interest in scientific or economic problems; for it was +hoped that in this manner the new ideas might imperceptibly permeate the +class whose privileges and traditions presented the chief obstacle to +reform. In France, it was whispered, free-thinkers and political +agitators were the honoured guests of the nobility, who eagerly embraced +their theories and applied them to the remedy of social abuses. Only by +similar means could the ideals of the Piedmontese reformers be realised; +and in those early days of universal illusion none appeared to suspect +the danger of arming inexperienced hands with untried weapons. Utopia +was already in sight; and all the world was setting out for it as for +some heavenly picnic ground. +</P> + +<P> +Of Vivaldi himself, Alfieri spoke with extravagant admiration. His +affable exterior was said to conceal the moral courage of one of +Plutarch's heroes. He was a man after the antique pattern, ready to lay +down fortune, credit and freedom in the defence of his convictions. "An +Agamemnon," Alfieri exclaimed, "who would not hesitate to sacrifice his +daughter to obtain a favourable wind for his enterprise!" +</P> + +<P> +The metaphor was perhaps scarcely to Odo's taste; but at least it gave +him the chance for which he had waited. "And the daughter?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"The lovely doctoress?" said Alfieri carelessly. "Oh, she's one of your +prodigies of female learning, such as our topsy-turvy land produces: an +incipient Laura Bassi or Gaetana Agnesi, to name the most distinguished +of their tribe; though I believe that hitherto her father's good sense +or her own has kept her from aspiring to academic honours. The beautiful +Fulvia is a good daughter, and devotes herself, I'm told, to helping +Vivaldi in his work; a far more becoming employment for one of her age +and sex than defending Latin theses before a crew of ribald students." +</P> + +<P> +In this Odo was of one mind with him; for though Italy was used to the +spectacle of the Improvisatrice and the female doctor of philosophy, it +is doubtful if the character was one in which any admirer cared to see +his divinity figure. Odo, at any rate, felt a distinct satisfaction in +learning that Fulvia Vivaldi had thus far made no public display of her +learning. How much pleasanter to picture her as her father's aid, +perhaps a sharer in his dreams: a vestal cherishing the flame of Liberty +in the secret sanctuary of the goddess! He scarce knew as yet of what +his feeling for the girl was compounded. The sentiment she had roused +was one for which his experience had no name: an emotion in which awe +mingled with an almost boyish sense of fellowship, sex as yet lurking +out of sight as in some hidden ambush. It was perhaps her association +with a world so unfamiliar and alluring that lent her for the moment her +greatest charm. Odo's imagination had been profoundly stirred by what he +had heard and seen at the meeting of the Honey-Bees. That impatience +with the vanity of his own pursuits and with the injustice of existing +conditions, which hovered like a phantom at the feast of life, had at +last found form and utterance. Parini's satires and the bitter mockery +of the "Frusta Letteraria" were but instruments of demolition; but the +arguments of the Professor's friends had that constructive quality so +appealing to the urgent temper of youth. Was the world in ruins? Then +here was a plan to rebuild it. Was humanity in chains? Behold the angel +on the threshold of the prison! +</P> + +<P> +Odo, too impatient to await the next reunion of the Honey-Bees, sought +out and frequented those among the members whose conversation had +chiefly attracted him. They were grave men, of studious and retiring +habit, leading the frugal life of the Italian middle-class, a life in +dignified contrast to the wasteful and aimless existence of the +nobility. Odo's sensitiveness to outward impressions made him peculiarly +alive to this contrast. None was more open than he to the seducements of +luxurious living, the polish of manners, the tacit exclusion of all that +is ugly or distressing; but it seemed to him that fine living should be +but the flower of fine feeling, and that such external graces, when they +adorned a dull and vapid society, were as incongruous as the royal +purple on a clown. Among certain of his new friends he found a +clumsiness of manner somewhat absurdly allied with an attempt at Roman +austerity; but he was fair-minded enough to see that the middle-class +doctor or lawyer who tries to play the Cicero is, after all, a more +respectable figure than the Marquess who apes Caligula or Commodus. +Still, his lurking dilettantism made him doubly alive to the elegance of +the Palazzo Tournanches when he went thither from a coarse meal in the +stuffy dining-parlour of one of his new acquaintances; as he never +relished the discourse of the latter more than after an afternoon in the +society of the Countess's parasites. +</P> + +<P> +Alfieri's allusions to the learned ladies for whom Italy was noted made +Odo curious to meet the wives and daughters of his new friends; for he +knew it was only in their class that women received something more than +the ordinary conventual education; and he felt a secret desire to +compare Fulvia Vivaldi with other young girls of her kind. Learned +ladies he met, indeed; for though the women-folk of some of the +philosophers were content to cook and darn for them (and perhaps +secretly burn a candle in their behalf to Saint Thomas Aquinas or Saint +Dominick, refuters of heresy), there were others who aspired to all the +honours of scholarship, and would order about their servant-girls in +Tuscan, and scold their babies in Ciceronian Latin. Among these fair +grammarians, however, he met none that wore her learning lightly. They +were forever tripping in the folds of their doctors' gowns, and +delivering their most trivial views ex cathedra; and too often the poor +philosophers, their lords and fathers, cowered under their harangues +like frightened boys under the tongue of a schoolmaster. +</P> + +<P> +It was in fact only in the household of Orazio Vivaldi that Odo found +the simplicity and grace of living for which he longed. Alfieri had +warned him not to visit the Professor too often, since the latter, being +under observation, might be compromised by the assiduity of his friends. +Odo therefore waited for some days before presenting himself, and when +he did so it was at the angelus, when the streets were crowded and a +man's comings and goings the less likely to be marked. He found Vivaldi +reading with his daughter in the long library where the Honey-Bees held +their meetings; but Fulvia at once withdrew, nor did she show herself +again during Odo's visit. It was clear that, proud of her as Vivaldi +was, he had no wish to parade her attainments, and that in her daily +life she maintained the Italian habit of seclusion; but to Odo she was +everywhere present in the quiet room with its well-ordered books and +curiosities, and the scent of flowers rising through the shuttered +windows. He was sensible of an influence permeating even the inanimate +objects about him, so that they seemed to reflect the spirit of those +who dwelt there. No room had given him this sense of companionship since +he had spent his boyish holidays in the old Count Benedetto's +apartments; but it was of another, intangible world that his present +surroundings spoke. Vivaldi received him kindly and asked him to repeat +his visit; and Odo returned as often as he thought prudent. +</P> + +<P> +The Professor's conversation engaged him deeply. Vivaldi's familiarity +with French speculative literature, and with its sources in the +experiential philosophy of the English school, gave Odo his first clear +conception of the origin and tendency of the new movement. This +coordination of scattered ideas was aided by his readings in the +Encyclopaedia, which, though placed on the Index in Piedmont, was to be +found behind the concealed panels of more than one private library. From +his talks with Alfieri, and from the pages of Plutarch, he had gained a +certain insight into the Stoical view of reason as the measure of +conduct, and of the inherent sufficiency of virtue as its own end. He +now learned that all about him men were endeavouring to restore the +human spirit to that lost conception of its dignity; and he longed to +join the band of new crusaders who had set out to recover the tomb of +truth from the forces of superstition. The distinguishing mark of +eighteenth-century philosophy was its eagerness to convert its +acquisitions in every branch of knowledge into instruments of practical +beneficence; and this quality appealed peculiarly to Odo, who had ever +been moved by abstract theories only as they explained or modified the +destiny of man. Vivaldi, pleased by his new pupil's eagerness to learn, +took pains to set before him this aspect of the struggle. +</P> + +<P> +"You will now see," he said, after one of their long talks about the +Encyclopaedists, "why we who have at heart the mental and social +regeneration of our countrymen are so desirous of making a concerted +effort against the established system. It is only by united action that +we can prevail. The bravest mob of independent fighters has little +chance against a handful of disciplined soldiers, and the Church is +perfectly logical in seeing her chief danger in the Encyclopaedia's +systematised marshalling of scattered truths. As long as the attacks on +her authority were isolated, and as it were sporadic, she had little to +fear even from the assaults of genius; but the most ordinary intellect +may find a use and become a power in the ranks of an organised +opposition. Seneca tells us the slaves in ancient Rome were at one time +so numerous that the government prohibited their wearing a distinctive +dress lest they should learn their strength and discover that the city +was in their power; and the Church knows that when the countless spirits +she has enslaved without subduing have once learned their number and +efficiency they will hold her doctrines at their mercy.—The Church +again," he continued, "has proved her astuteness in making faith the +gift of grace and not the result of reason. By so doing she placed +herself in a position which was well-nigh impregnable till the school of +Newton substituted observation for intuition and his followers showed +with increasing clearness the inability of the human mind to apprehend +anything outside the range of experience. The ultimate claim of the +Church rests on the hypothesis of an intuitive faculty in man. Disprove +the existence of this faculty, and reason must remain the supreme test +of truth. Against reason the fabric of theological doctrine cannot long +hold out, and the Church's doctrinal authority once shaken, men will no +longer fear to test by ordinary rules the practical results of her +teaching. We have not joined the great army of truth to waste our time +in vain disputations over metaphysical subtleties. Our aim is, by +freeing the mind of man from superstition to relieve him from the +practical abuses it entails. As it is impossible to examine any fiscal +or industrial problem without discovering that the chief obstacle to +improvement lies in the Church's countless privileges and exemptions, so +in every department of human activity we find some inveterate wrong +taking shelter under the claim of a divinely-revealed authority. This +claim demolished, the stagnant current of human progress will soon burst +its barriers and set with a mighty rush toward the wide ocean of truth +and freedom..." +</P> + +<P> +That general belief in the perfectibility of man which cheered the +eighteenth-century thinkers in their struggle for intellectual liberty +coloured with a delightful brightness this vision of a renewed humanity. +It threw its beams on every branch of research, and shone like an +aureole round those who laid down fortune and advancement to purchase +the new redemption of mankind. Foremost among these, as Odo now learned, +were many of his own countrymen. In his talks with Vivaldi he first +explored the course of Italian thought and heard the names of the great +jurists, Vico and Gravina, and of his own contemporaries, Filangieri, +Verri and Beccaria. Vivaldi lent him Beccaria's famous volume and +several numbers of the "Caffe," the brilliant gazette which Verri and +his associates were then publishing in Milan, and in which all the +questions of the day, theological, economic and literary, were discussed +with a freedom possible only under the lenient Austrian rule. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," Vivaldi cried, "Milan is indeed the home of the free spirit, and +were I not persuaded that a man's first duty is to improve the condition +of his own city and state, I should long ago have left this unhappy +kingdom; indeed I sometimes fancy I may yet serve my own people better +by proclaiming the truth openly at a distance than by whispering it in +their midst." +</P> + +<P> +It was a surprise to Odo to learn that the new ideas had already taken +such hold in Italy, and that some of the foremost thinkers on scientific +and economic subjects were among his own countrymen. Like all +eighteenth-century Italians of his class he had been taught to look to +France as the source of all culture, intellectual and social; and he was +amazed to find that in jurisprudence, and in some of the natural +sciences, Italy led the learning of Europe. +</P> + +<P> +Once or twice Fulvia showed herself for a moment; but her manner was +retiring and almost constrained, and her father always contrived an +excuse for dismissing her. This was the more noticeable as she continued +to appear at the meetings of the Honey-Bees, where she joined freely in +the conversation, and sometimes diverted the guests by playing on the +harpsichord or by recitations from the poets; all with such art and +grace, and withal so much simplicity, that it was clear she was +accustomed to the part. Odo was thus driven to the not unflattering +conclusion that she had been instructed to avoid his company; and after +the first disappointment he was too honest to regret it. He was deeply +drawn to the girl; but what part could she play in the life of a man of +his rank? The cadet of an impoverished house, it was unlikely that he +would marry; and should he do so, custom forbade even the thought of +taking a wife outside of his class. Had he been admitted to free +intercourse with Fulvia, love might have routed such prudent counsels; +but in the society of her father's associates, where she moved, as in a +halo of learning, amid the respectful admiration of middle-aged +philosophers and jurists, she seemed as inaccessible as a young Minerva. +</P> + +<P> +Odo, at first, had been careful not to visit Vivaldi too often; but the +Professor's conversation was so instructive, and his library so +inviting, that inclination got the better of prudence, and the young man +fell into the habit of turning almost daily down the lane behind the +Corpus Domini. Vivaldi, too proud to betray any concern for his personal +safety, showed no sign of resenting the frequency of these visits; +indeed, he received Odo with an increasing cordiality that, to an older +observer, might have betokened an effort to hide his apprehension. +</P> + +<P> +One afternoon, escaping later than usual from the Valentino, Odo had +again bent toward the quiet quarter behind the palace. He was afoot, +with a cloak over his laced coat, and the day being Easter Monday the +streets were filled with a throng of pleasure-seekers amid whom it +seemed easy enough for a man to pass unnoticed. Odo, as he crossed the +Piazza Castello, thought it had never presented a gayer scene. Booths +with brightly-striped awnings had been set up under the arcades, which +were thronged with idlers of all classes; court-coaches dashed across +the square or rolled in and out of the palace-gates; and the Palazzo +Madama, lifting against the sunset its ivory-tinted columns and statues, +seemed rather some pictured fabric of Claude's or Bibbiena's than an +actual building of brick and marble. The turn of a corner carried him +from this spectacle into the solitude of a by-street where his own tread +was the only sound. He walked on carelessly; but suddenly he heard what +seemed an echo of his step. He stopped and faced about. No one was in +sight but a blind beggar crouching at the side-door of the Corpus +Domini. Odo walked on, listening, and again he heard the step, and again +turned to find himself alone. He tried to fancy that his ear had tricked +him; but he knew too much of the subtle methods of Italian espionage not +to feel a secret uneasiness. His better judgment warned him back; but +the desire to spend a pleasant hour prevailed. He took a turn through +the neighbouring streets, in the hope of diverting suspicion, and ten +minutes later was at the Professor's gate. +</P> + +<P> +It opened at once, and to his amazement Fulvia stood before him. She had +thrown a black mantle over her head, and her face looked pale and vivid +in the fading light. Surprise for a moment silenced Odo, and before he +could speak the girl, without pausing to close the gate, had drawn him +toward her and flung her arms about his neck. In the first disorder of +his senses he was conscious only of seeking her lips; but an instant +later he knew it was no kiss of love that met his own, and he felt her +tremble violently in his arms. He saw in a flash that he was on unknown +ground; but his one thought was that Fulvia was in trouble and looked to +him for aid. He gently freed himself from her hold and tried to shape a +soothing question; but she caught his arm and, laying a hand over his +mouth, drew him across the garden and into the house. The lower floor +stood dark and empty. He followed Fulvia up the stairs and into the +library, which was also empty. The shutters stood wide, admitting the +evening freshness and a drowsy scent of jasmine from the garden. +</P> + +<P> +Odo could not control a thrill of strange anticipation as he found +himself alone in this silent room with the girl whose heart had so +lately beat against his own. She had sunk into a chair, with her face +hidden, and for a moment or two he stood before her without speaking. +Then he knelt at her side and took her hands with a murmur of +endearment. +</P> + +<P> +At his touch she started up. "And it was I," she cried, "who persuaded +my father that he might trust you!" And she sank back sobbing. +</P> + +<P> +Odo rose and moved away, waiting for her overwrought emotion to subside. +At length he gently asked, "Do you wish me to leave you?" +</P> + +<P> +She raised her head. "No," she said firmly, though her lip still +trembled; "you must first hear an explanation of my conduct; though it +is scarce possible," she added, flushing to the brow, "that you have not +already guessed the purpose of this lamentable comedy." +</P> + +<P> +"I guess nothing," he replied, "save that perhaps I may in some way +serve you." +</P> + +<P> +"Serve me?" she cried, with a flash of anger through her tears. "It is a +late hour to speak of service, after what you have brought on this +house!" +</P> + +<P> +Odo turned pale. "Here indeed, madam," said he, "are words that need an +explanation." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," she broke forth, "and you shall have it; though I think to any +other it must be writ large upon my countenance." She rose and paced the +floor impetuously. "Is it possible," she began again, "you do not yet +perceive the sense of that execrable scene? Or do you think, by feigning +ignorance, to prolong my humiliation? Oh," she said, pausing before him, +her breast in a tumult, her eyes alight, "it was I who persuaded my +father of your discretion and prudence, it was through my influence that +he opened himself to you so freely; and is this the return you make? +Alas, why did you leave your fashionable friends and a world in which +you are so fitted to shine, to bring unhappiness on an obscure household +that never dreamed of courting your notice?" +</P> + +<P> +As she stood before him in her radiant anger, it went hard with Odo not +to silence with a kiss a resentment that he guessed to be mainly +directed against herself; but he controlled himself and said quietly: +"Madam, I were a dolt not to perceive that I have had the misfortune to +offend; but when or how, I swear to heaven I know not; and till you +enlighten me I can neither excuse nor defend myself." +</P> + +<P> +She turned pale, but instantly recovered her composure. "You are right," +she said; "I rave like a foolish girl; but indeed I scarce know if I am +in my waking senses"—She paused, as if to check a fresh rush of +emotion. "Oh, sir," she cried, "can you not guess what has happened? You +were warned, I believe, not to frequent this house too openly; but of +late you have been an almost daily visitor, and you never come here but +you are followed. My father's doctrines have long been under suspicion, +and to be accused of perverting a man of your rank must be his ruin. He +was too proud to tell you this, and profiting today by his absence, and +knowing that if you came the spies would be at your heels, I resolved to +meet you at the gate, and welcome you in such a way that our enemies +should be deceived as to the true cause of your visits." +</P> + +<P> +Her voice wavered on the last words, but she faced him proudly, and it +was Odo whose gaze fell. Never perhaps had he been conscious of cutting +a meaner figure; yet shame was so blent in him with admiration for the +girl's nobility and courage, that compunction was swept away in the +impulse that flung him at her feet. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," he cried, "I have been blind indeed, and what you say abases me to +earth. Yes, I was warned that my visits might compromise your father; +nor had I any pretext for returning so often but my own selfish pleasure +in his discourse; or so at least," he added in a lower voice, "I chose +to fancy—but when we met just now at the gate, if you acted a comedy, +believe me, I did not; and if I have come day after day to this house, +it is because, unknowingly, I came for you." +</P> + +<P> +The words had escaped him unawares, and he was too sensible of their +untimeliness not to be prepared for the gesture with which she cut him +short. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," said she, in a tone of the liveliest reproach, "spare me this last +affront if you wish me to think the harm you have already done was done +unknowingly!" +</P> + +<P> +Odo rose to his feet, tingling under the rebuke. "If respect and +admiration be an affront, madam," he said, "I cannot remain in your +presence without offending, and nothing is left me but to withdraw; but +before going I would at least ask if there is no way of repairing the +harm that my over-assiduity has caused." +</P> + +<P> +She flushed high at the question. "Why, that," she said, "is in part, I +trust, already accomplished; indeed," she went on with an effort, "it +was when I learned the authorities suspected you of coming here on a +gallant adventure that I devised the idea of meeting you at the gate; +and for the rest, sir, the best reparation you can make is one that will +naturally suggest itself to a gentleman whose time must already be so +fully engaged." +</P> + +<P> +And with that she made him a deep reverence, and withdrew to the inner +room. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +2.5. +</H4> + +<P> +When the Professor's gate closed on Odo night was already falling and +the oil-lamp at the end of the arched passage-way shed its weak circle +of light on the pavement. This light, as Odo emerged, fell on a +retreating figure which resembled that of the blind beggar he had seen +crouching on the steps of the Corpus Domini. He ran forward, but the man +hurried across the little square and disappeared in the darkness. Odo +had not seen his face; but though his dress was tattered, and he leaned +on a beggar's staff, something about his broad rolling back recalled the +well-filled outline of Cantapresto's cassock. +</P> + +<P> +Sick at heart, Odo rambled on from one street to another, avoiding the +more crowded quarters, and losing himself more than once in the +districts near the river, where young gentlemen of his figure seldom +showed themselves unattended. The populace, however, was all abroad, and +he passed as unregarded as though his sombre thoughts had enveloped him +in actual darkness. +</P> + +<P> +It was late when at length he turned again into the Piazza Castello, +which was brightly lit and still thronged with pleasure-seekers. As he +approached, the crowd divided to make way for three or four handsome +travelling-carriages, preceded by linkmen and liveried out-riders and +followed by a dozen mounted equerries. The people, evidently in the +humour to greet every incident of the streets as part of a show prepared +for their diversion, cheered lustily as the carriages dashed across the +square; and Odo, turning to a man at his elbow, asked who the +distinguished visitors might be. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, sir," said the other laughing, "I understand it is only an +Embassage from some neighbouring state; but when our good people are in +their Easter mood they are ready to take a mail-coach for Elijah's +chariot and their wives' scolding for the Gift of Tongues." +</P> + +<P> +Odo spent a restless night face to face with his first humiliation. +Though the girl's rebuff had cut him to the quick, it was the vision of +the havoc his folly had wrought that stood between him and sleep. To +have endangered the liberty, the very life, perhaps, of a man he loved +and venerated, and who had welcomed him without heed of personal risk, +this indeed was bitter to his youthful self-sufficiency. The thought of +Giannone's fate was like a cold clutch at his heart; nor was there any +balm in knowing that it was at Fulvia's request he had been so freely +welcomed; for he was persuaded that, whatever her previous feeling might +have been, the scene just enacted must render him forever odious to her. +Turn whither it would, his tossing vanity found no repose; and dawn rose +for him on a thorny waste of disillusionment. +</P> + +<P> +Cantapresto broke in early on this vigil, flushed with the importance of +a letter from the Countess Valdu. The lady summoned her son to dinner, +"to meet an old friend and distinguished visitor"; and a verbal message +bade Odo come early and wear his new uniform. He was too well acquainted +with his mother's exaggerations to attach much importance to the +summons; but being glad of an excuse to escape his daily visit at the +Palazzo Tournanches, he sent Donna Laura word that he would wait on her +at two. +</P> + +<P> +On the very threshold of Casa Valdu, Odo perceived that unwonted +preparations were afoot. The shabby liveries of the servants had been +refurbished and the marble floor newly scoured; and he found his mother +seated in the drawing-room, an apartment never unshrouded save on the +most ceremonious occasions. As to Donna Laura, she had undergone the +same process of renovation, and with more striking results. It seemed to +Odo, when she met him sparkling under her rouge and powder, as though +some withered flower had been dipped in water, regaining for the moment +a languid semblance of its freshness. Her eyes shone, her hand trembled +under his lips, and the diamonds rose and fell on her eager bosom. +</P> + +<P> +"You are late!" she tenderly reproached him; and before he had time to +reply, the double doors were thrown open, and the major-domo announced +in an awed voice: "His excellency Count Lelio Trescorre." +</P> + +<P> +Odo turned with a start. To his mind, already crowded with a confusion +of thoughts, the name summoned a throng of memories. He saw again his +mother's apartments at Pianura, and the handsome youth with lace ruffles +and a clouded amber cane, who came and went among her other visitors +with an air of such superiority, and who rode beside the +travelling-carriage on the first stage of their journey to Donnaz. To +that handsome youth the gentleman just announced bore the likeness of +the finished portrait to the sketch. He was a man of about +two-and-thirty, of the middle height, with a delicate dark face and an +air of arrogance not unbecomingly allied to an insinuating courtesy of +address. His dress of sombre velvet, with a star on the breast, and a +profusion of the finest lace, suggested the desire to add dignity and +weight to his appearance without renouncing the softer ambitions of his +age. +</P> + +<P> +He received with a smile Donna Laura's agitated phrases of welcome. "I +come," said he kissing her hand, "in my private character, not as the +Envoy of Pianura, but as the friend and servant of the Countess Valdu; +and I trust," he added turning to Odo, "of the Cavaliere Valsecca also." +</P> + +<P> +Odo bowed in silence. +</P> + +<P> +"You may have heard," Trescorre continued, addressing him in the same +engaging tone, "that I am come to Turin on a mission from his Highness +to the court of Savoy: a trifling matter of boundary-lines and customs, +which I undertook at the Duke's desire, the more readily, it must be +owned, since it gave me the opportunity to renew my acquaintance with +friends whom absence has not taught me to forget." He smiled again at +Donna Laura, who blushed like a girl. +</P> + +<P> +The curiosity which Trescorre's words excited was lost to Odo in the +painful impression produced by his mother's agitation. To see her, a +woman already past her youth, and aged by her very efforts to preserve +it, trembling and bridling under the cool eye of masculine indifference, +was a spectacle the more humiliating that he was too young to be moved +by its human and pathetic side. He recalled once seeing a memento mori +of delicately-tinted ivory, which represented a girl's head, one side +all dewy freshness, the other touched with death; and it seemed to him +that his mother's face resembled this tragic toy, the side her mirror +reflected being still rosy with youth, while that which others saw was +already a ruin. His heart burned with disgust as he followed Donna Laura +and Trescorre into the dining-room, which had been set out with all the +family plate, and decked with rare fruits and flowers. The Countess had +excused her husband on the plea of his official duties, and the three +sat down alone to a meal composed of the costliest delicacies. +</P> + +<P> +Their guest, who ate little and drank less, entertained them with the +latest news of Pianura, touching discreetly on the growing estrangement +between the Duke and Duchess, and speaking with becoming gravity of the +heir's weak health. It was clear that the speaker, without filling an +official position at the court, was already deep in the Duke's counsels, +and perhaps also in the Duchess's; and Odo guessed under his smiling +indiscretions the cool aim of the man who never wastes a shot. +</P> + +<P> +Toward the close of the meal, when the servants had withdrawn, he turned +to Odo with a graver manner. "You have perhaps guessed, cavaliere," he +said, "that in venturing to claim the Countess's hospitality in so +private a manner, I had in mind the wish to open myself to you more +freely than would be possible at court." He paused a moment, as though +to emphasise his words; and Odo fancied he cultivated the trick of +deliberate speaking to counteract his natural arrogance of manner. "The +time has come," he went on, "when it seems desirable that you should be +more familiar with the state of affairs at Pianura. For some years it +seemed likely that the Duchess would give his Highness another son; but +circumstances now appear to preclude that hope; and it is the general +opinion of the court physicians that the young prince has not many years +to live." He paused again, fixing his eyes on Odo's flushed face. "The +Duke," he continued, "has shown a natural reluctance to face a situation +so painful both to his heart and his ambitions; but his feelings as a +parent have yielded to his duty as a sovereign, and he recognises the +fact that you should have an early opportunity of acquainting yourself +more nearly with the affairs of the duchy, and also of seeing something +of the other courts of Italy. I am persuaded," he added, "that, young as +you are, I need not point out to you on what slight contingencies all +human fortunes hang, and how completely the heir's recovery or the birth +of another prince must change the aspect of your future. You have, I am +sure, the heart to face such chances with becoming equanimity, and to +carry the weight of conditional honours without any undue faith in their +permanence." +</P> + +<P> +The admonition was so lightly uttered that it seemed rather a tribute to +Odo's good sense than a warning to his inexperience; and indeed it was +difficult for him, in spite of an instinctive aversion to the man, to +quarrel with anything in his address or language. Trescorre in fact +possessed the art of putting younger men at their ease, while appearing +as an equal among his elders: a gift doubtless developed by the +circumstances of court life, and the need of at once commanding respect +and disarming diffidence. +</P> + +<P> +He took leave upon his last words, declaring, in reply to the Countess's +protests, that he had promised to accompany the court that afternoon to +Stupinigi. "But I hope," he added, turning to Odo, "to continue our talk +at greater length, if you will favour me with a visit tomorrow at my +lodgings." +</P> + +<P> +No sooner was the door closed on her illustrious visitor than Donna +Laura flung herself on Odo's bosom. +</P> + +<P> +"I always knew it," she cried, "my dearest; but, oh, that I should live +to see the day!" and she wept and clung to him with a thousand +endearments, from the nature of which he gathered that she already +beheld him on the throne of Pianura. To his laughing reminder of the +distance that still separated him from that dizzy eminence, she made +answer that there was far more than he knew, that the Duke had fallen +into all manner of excesses which had already gravely impaired his +health, and that for her part she only hoped her son, when raised to a +station so far above her own, would not forget the tenderness with which +she had ever cherished him, or the fact that Count Valdu's financial +situation was one quite unworthy the stepfather of a reigning prince. +</P> + +<P> +Escaping at length from this parody of his own sensations, Odo found +himself in a tumult of mind that solitude served only to increase. +Events had so pressed upon him within the last few days that at times he +was reduced to a passive sense of spectatorship, an inability to regard +himself as the centre of so many converging purposes. It was clear that +Trescorre's mission was mainly a pretext for seeing the Duke's young +kinsman; and that some special motive must have impelled the Duke to +show such sudden concern for his cousin's welfare. Trescorre need hardly +have cautioned Odo against fixing his hopes on the succession. The Duke +himself was a man not above five-and-thirty, and more than one chance +stood between Odo and the duchy; nor was it this contingency that set +his pulses beating, but rather the promise of an immediate change in his +condition. The Duke wished him to travel, to visit the different courts +of Italy: what was the prospect of ruling over a stagnant principality +to this near vision of the world and the glories thereof, suddenly +discovered from the golden height of opportunity? Save for a few weeks +of autumn villeggiatura at some neighbouring chase or vineyard, Odo had +not left Turin for nine years. He had come there a child and had grown +to manhood among the same narrow influences and surroundings. To be +turned loose on the world at two-and-twenty, with such an arrears of +experience to his credit, was to enter on a richer inheritance than any +duchy; and in Odo's case the joy of the adventure was doubled by its +timeliness. That fate should thus break at a stroke the meshes of habit, +should stoop to play the advocate of his secret inclinations, seemed to +promise him the complicity of the gods. Once in a lifetime, chance will +thus snap the toils of a man's making; and it is instructive to see the +poor puppet adore the power that connives at his evasion... +</P> + +<P> +Trescorre remained a week in Turin; and Odo saw him daily at court, at +his lodgings, or in company. The little sovereignty of Pianura being an +important factor in the game of political equilibrium, her envoy was +sure of a flattering reception from the neighbouring powers; and +Trescorre's person and address must have commended him to the most +fastidious company. He continued to pay particular attention to Odo, and +the rumour was soon abroad that the Cavaliere Valsecca had been sent for +to visit his cousin, the reigning Duke; a rumour which, combined with +Donna Laura's confidential hints, made Odo the centre of much feminine +solicitude, and roused the Countess Clarice to a vivid sense of her +rights. These circumstances, and his own tendency to drift on the +current of sensation, had carried Odo more easily than he could have +hoped past the painful episode of the Professor's garden. He was still +tormented by the sense of his inability to right so grave a wrong; but +he found solace in the thought that his absence was after all the best +reparation he could make. +</P> + +<P> +Trescorre, though distinguishing Odo by his favours, had not again +referred to the subject of their former conversation; but on the last +day of his visit he sent for Odo to his lodgings and at once entered +upon the subject. +</P> + +<P> +"His Highness," said he, "does not for the present recommend your +resigning your commission in the Sardinian army; but as he desires you +to visit him at Pianura, and to see something of the neighbouring +courts, he has charged me to obtain for you a two years' leave of +absence from his Majesty's service: a favour the King has already been +pleased to accord. The Duke has moreover resolved to double your present +allowance and has entrusted me with the sum of two hundred ducats, which +he desires you to spend in the purchase of a travelling-carriage, and +such other appointments as are suitable to a gentleman of your rank and +expectations." As he spoke, he unlocked his despatch-box and handed a +purse to Odo. "His Highness," he continued, "is impatient to see you; +and once your preparations are completed, I should advise you to set out +without delay; that is," he added, after one of his characteristic +pauses, "if I am right in supposing that there is no obstacle to your +departure." +</P> + +<P> +Odo, inferring an allusion to the Countess Clarice, smiled and coloured +slightly. "I know of none," he said. +</P> + +<P> +Trescorre bowed. "I am glad to hear it," he said, "for I know that a man +of your age and appearance may have other inclinations than his own to +consider. Indeed, I have had reports of a connection that I should not +take the liberty of mentioning, were it not that your interest demands +it." He waited a moment, but Odo remained silent. "I am sure," he went +on, "you will do me the justice of believing that I mean no reflection +on the lady, when I warn you against being seen too often in the quarter +behind the Corpus Domini. Such attachments, though engaging at the +outset to a fastidious taste, are often more troublesome than a young +man of your age can foresee; and in this case the situation is +complicated by the fact that the girl's father is in ill odour with the +authorities, so that, should the motive of your visits be mistaken, you +might find yourself inconveniently involved in the proceedings of the +Holy Office." +</P> + +<P> +Odo, who had turned pale, controlled himself sufficiently to listen in +silence, and with as much pretence of indifference as he could assume. +It was the peculiar misery of his situation that he could not defend +Fulvia without betraying her father, and that of the two alternatives +prudence bade him reject the one that chivalry would have chosen. It +flashed across him, however, that he might in some degree repair the +harm he had done by finding out what measures were to be taken against +Vivaldi; and to this end he carelessly asked:—"Is it possible that the +Professor has done anything to give offence in such quarters?" +</P> + +<P> +His assumption of carelessness was perhaps overdone; for Trescorre's +face grew as blank as a shuttered house-front. +</P> + +<P> +"I have heard rumours of the kind," he rejoined; "but they would +scarcely have attracted my notice had I not learned of your honouring +the young lady with your favours." He glanced at Odo with a smile. "Were +I a father," he added, "with a son of your age, my first advice to him +would be to form no sentimental ties but in his own society or in the +world of pleasure—the only two classes where the rules of the game are +understood." +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +2.6. +</H4> + +<P> +Odo had appointed to leave Turin some two weeks after Trescorre's +departure; but the preparations for a young gentleman's travels were in +those days a momentous business, and one not to be discharged without +vexatious postponements. The travelling-carriage must be purchased and +fitted out, the gold-mounted dressing-case selected and engraved with +the owner's arms, servants engaged and provided with liveries, and the +noble tourist's own wardrobe stocked with an assortment of costumes +suited to the vicissitudes of travel and the requirements of court life. +</P> + +<P> +Odo's impatience to be gone increased with every delay, and at length he +determined to go forward at all adventure, leaving Cantapresto to +conclude the preparations and overtake him later. It had been agreed +with Trescorre that Odo, on his way to Pianura, should visit his +grandfather, the old Marquess, whose increasing infirmities had for some +years past imprisoned him on his estates, and accordingly about the +Ascension he set out in the saddle for Donnaz, attended only by one +servant, and having appointed that Cantapresto should meet him with the +carriage at Ivrea. +</P> + +<P> +The morning broke cloudy as he rode out of the gates. Beyond the suburbs +a few drops fell, and as he pressed forward the country lay before him +in the emerald freshness of a spring rain, vivid strips of vineyard +alternating with silvery bands of oats, the domes of the walnut-trees +dripping above the roadside, and the poplars along the water-courses all +slanting one way in the soft continuous downpour. He had left Turin in +that mood of clinging melancholy which waits on the most hopeful +departures, and the landscape seemed an image of anticipations clouded +with regret. He had had a stormy but tender parting with Clarice, whose +efforts to act the forsaken Ariadne were somewhat marred by her +irrepressible pride in her lover's prospects, and whose last word had +charged him to bring her back one of the rare lap-dogs bred by the monks +of Bologna. Seen down the lengthening vista of separation even Clarice +seemed regrettable; and Odo would have been glad to let his mind linger +on their farewells. But another thought importuned him. He had left +Turin without news of Vivaldi or Fulvia, and without having done +anything to conjure the peril to which his rashness had exposed them. +More than once he had been about to reveal his trouble to Alfieri; but +shame restrained him when he remembered that it was Alfieri who had +vouched for his discretion. After his conversation with Trescorre he had +tried to find some way of sending a word of warning to Vivaldi; but he +had no messenger whom he could trust; and would not Vivaldi justly +resent a warning from such a source? He felt himself the prisoner of his +own folly, and as he rode along the wet country roads an invisible +gaoler seemed to spur beside him. +</P> + +<P> +The clouds lifted at noon; and leaving the plain he mounted into a world +sparkling with sunshine and quivering with new-fed streams. The first +breath of mountain-air lifted the mist from his spirit, and he began to +feel himself a boy again as he entered the high gorges in the cold light +after sunset. It was about the full of the moon, and in his impatience +to reach Donnaz he resolved to push on after nightfall. The forest was +still thinly-leaved, and the rustle of wind in the branches and the +noise of the torrents recalled his first approach to the castle, in the +wild winter twilight. The way lay in darkness till the moon rose, and +once or twice he took a wrong turn and found himself engaged in some +overgrown woodland track; but he soon regained the high-road, and his +servant, a young fellow of indomitable cheerfulness, took the edge off +their solitude by frequent snatches of song. At length the moon rose, +and toward midnight Odo, spurring out of a dark glen, found himself at +the opening of the valley of Donnaz. A cold radiance bathed the familiar +pastures, the houses of the village along the stream, and the turrets +and crenellations of the castle at the head of the gorge. The air was +bitter, and the horses' hoofs struck sharply on the road as they trotted +past the slumbering houses and halted at the gateway through which Odo +had first been carried as a sleepy child. It was long before the +travellers' knock was answered, but a bewildered porter at length +admitted them, and Odo cried out when he recognised in the man's face +the features of one of the lads who had taught him to play pallone in +the castle court. +</P> + +<P> +Within doors all were abed; but the cavaliere was expected, and supper +laid for him in the very chamber where he had slept as a lad. The sight +of so much that was strange and yet familiar—of the old stone walls, +the banners, the flaring lamps and worn slippery stairs—all so much +barer, smaller, more dilapidated than he had remembered—stirred the +deep springs of his piety for inanimate things, and he was seized with a +fancy to snatch up a light and explore the recesses of the castle. But +he had been in the saddle since dawn, and the keen air and the long +hours of riding were in his blood. They weighted his lids, relaxed his +limbs, and gently divesting him of his hopes and fears, pressed him down +in the deep sepulchre of a dreamless sleep... +</P> + +<P> +Odo remained a month at Donnaz. His grandfather's happiness in his +presence would in itself have sufficed to detain him, apart from his +natural tenderness for old scenes and associations. It was one of the +compensations of his rapidly travelling imagination that the past, from +each new vantage-ground of sensation, acquired a fascination which to +the more sober-footed fancy only the perspective of years can give. +Life, in childhood, is a picture-book of which the text is +undecipherable; and the youth now revisiting the unchanged setting of +his boyhood was spelling out for the first time the legend beneath the +picture. +</P> + +<P> +The old Marquess, though broken in body, still ruled his household from +his seat beside the hearth. The failure of bodily activity seemed to +have doubled his moral vigour, and the walls shook with the vehemence of +his commands. The Marchioness was sunk in a state of placid apathy from +which only her husband's outbursts roused her; one of the canonesses was +dead, and the other, drier and more shrivelled than ever, pined in her +corner like a statue whose mate is broken. Bruno was dead too; his old +dog's bones had long since enriched a corner of the vineyard; and some +of the younger lads that Odo had known about the place were grown to +sober-faced men with wives and children. +</P> + +<P> +Don Gervaso was still chaplain of Donnaz; and Odo saw with surprise that +the grave ecclesiastic who had formerly seemed an old man to him was in +fact scarce past the middle age. In general aspect he was unchanged; but +his countenance had darkened, and what Odo had once taken for harshness +of manner he now perceived to be a natural melancholy. The young man had +not been long at Donnaz without discovering that in that little world of +crystallised traditions the chaplain was the only person conscious of +the new forces abroad. It had never occurred to the Marquess that +anything short of a cataclysm such as it would be blasphemy to predict +could change the divinely established order whereby the territorial lord +took tithes from his peasantry and pastured his game on their crops. The +hierarchy which rested on the bowed back of the toiling serf and +culminated in the figure of the heaven-sent King seemed to him as +immutable as the everlasting hills. The men of his generation had not +learned that it was built on a human foundation and that a sudden +movement of the underlying mass might shake the structure to its +pinnacle. The Marquess, who, like Donna Laura, already beheld Odo on the +throne of Pianura, was prodigal of counsels which showed a touching +inability to discern the new aspect under which old difficulties were +likely to present themselves. That a ruler should be brave, prudent, +personally abstemious, and nobly lavish in his official display; that he +should repress any attempts on the privileges of the Church, while at +the same time protecting his authority from the encroachments of the +Holy See; these axioms seemed to the old man to sum up the sovereign's +duty to the state. The relation, to his mind, remained a distinctly +personal and paternal one; and Odo's attempts to put before him the new +theory of government, as a service performed by the ruler in the +interest of the ruled, resulted only in stirring up the old sediment of +absolutism which generations of feudal power had deposited in the Donnaz +blood. +</P> + +<P> +Only the chaplain perceived what new agencies were at work; but even he +looked on as a watcher from a distant tower, who sees opposing armies +far below him in the night, without being able to follow their movements +or guess which way the battle goes. +</P> + +<P> +"The days," he said to Odo, "are evil. The Church's enemies, the +basilisks and dragons of unbelief and license, are stirring in their old +lairs, the dark places of the human spirit. It is time that a fresh +purification by blood should cleanse the earth of its sins. That hour +has already come in France, where the blood of heretics has lately +fertilised the soil of faith; it will come here, as surely as I now +stand before you; and till it comes the faithful can only weary heaven +with their entreaties, if haply thereby they may mitigate the evil. I +shall remain here," he continued, "while the Marquess needs me; but that +task discharged, I intend to retire to one of the contemplative orders, +and with my soul perpetually uplifted like the arms of Moses, wear out +my life in prayer for those whom the latter days shall overtake." +</P> + +<P> +Odo had listened in silence; but after a moment he said: "My father, +among those who have called in to question the old order of things there +are many animated by no mere desire for change, no idle inclination to +pry into the divine mysteries, but who earnestly long to ease the burden +of mankind and let light into what you have called the dark places of +the spirit. How is it, they ask, that though Christ came to save the +poor and the humble, it is on them that life presses most heavily after +eighteen hundred years of His rule? All cannot be well in a world where +such contradictions exist, and what if some of the worst abuses of the +age have found lodgment in the very ramparts that faith has built +against them?" +</P> + +<P> +Don Gervaso's face grew stern and his eyes rested sadly on Odo. "You +speak," said he, "of bringing light into dark places; but what light is +there on earth save that which is shed by the Cross, and where shall +they find guidance who close their eyes to that divine illumination?" +</P> + +<P> +"But is there not," Odo rejoined, "a divine illumination within each of +us, the light of truth which we must follow at any cost—or have the +worst evils and abuses only to take refuge in the Church to find +sanctuary there, as malefactors find it?" +</P> + +<P> +The chaplain shook his head. "It is as I feared," he said, "and Satan +has spread his subtlest snare for you; for if he tempts some in the +guise of sensual pleasure, or of dark fears and spiritual abandonment, +it is said that to those he most thirsts to destroy he appears in the +likeness of their Saviour. You tell me it is to right the wrongs of the +poor and the humble that your new friends, the philosophers, have +assailed the authority of Christ. I have only one answer to make: +Christ, as you said just now, died for the poor—how many of your +philosophers would do as much? Because men hunger and thirst, is that a +sign that He has forsaken them? And since when have earthly privileges +been the token of His favour? May He not rather have designed that, by +continual sufferings and privations, they shall lay up for themselves +treasures in Heaven such as your eyes and mine shall never see or our +ears hear? And how dare you assume that any temporal advantages could +atone for that of which your teachings must deprive them—the heavenly +consolations of the love of Christ?" +</P> + +<P> +Odo listened with a sense of deepening discouragement. "But is it +necessary," he urged, "to confound Christ with His ministers, the law +with its exponents? May not men preserve their hope of heaven and yet +lead more endurable lives on earth?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, my child, beware, for this is the heresy of private judgment, which +has already drawn down thousands into the pit. It is one of the most +insidious errors in which the spirit of evil has ever masqueraded; for +it is based on the fallacy that we, blind creatures of a day, and +ourselves in the meshes of sin, can penetrate the counsels of the +Eternal, and test the balances of the heavenly Justice. I tremble to +think into what an abyss your noblest impulses may fling you, if you +abandon yourself to such illusions; and more especially if it pleases +God to place in your hands a small measure of that authority of which He +is the supreme repository.—When I took leave of you here nine years +since," Don Gervaso continued in a gentler tone, "we prayed together in +the chapel; and I ask you, before setting out on your new life, to +return there with me and lay your doubts and difficulties before Him who +alone is able to still the stormy waves of the soul." +</P> + +<P> +Odo, touched by the appeal, accompanied him to the chapel, and knelt on +the steps whence his young spirit had once soared upward on the heavenly +pleadings of the Mass. The chapel was as carefully tended as ever; and +amid the comely appointments of the altar shone forth that Presence +which speaks to men of an act of love perpetually renewed. But to Odo +the voice was mute, the divinity wrapped in darkness; and he remembered +reading in some Latin author that the ancient oracles had ceased to +speak when their questioners lost faith in them. He knew not whether his +own faith was lost; he felt only that it had put forth on a sea of +difficulties across which he saw the light of no divine command. +</P> + +<P> +In this mood there was no more help to be obtained from Don Gervaso than +from the Marquess. Odo's last days at Donnaz were clouded by a sense of +the deep estrangement between himself and that life of which the outward +aspect was so curiously unchanged. His past seemed to look at him with +unrecognising eyes, to bar the door against his knock; and he rode away +saddened by that sense of isolation which follows the first encounter +with a forgotten self. +</P> + +<P> +At Ivrea the sight of Cantapresto and the travelling-carriage roused him +as from a waking dream. Here, at his beck were the genial realities of +life, embodied, humorously enough, in the bustling figure which for so +many years had played a kind of comic accompaniment to his experiences. +Cantapresto was in a fever of expectation. To set forth on the road +again, after nine years of well-fed monotony, and under conditions so +favourable to his physical well-being, was to drink the wine of romance +from a golden cup. Odo was at the age when the spirit lies as naturally +open to the variations of mood as a lake to the shifting of the breeze; +and Cantapresto's exuberant humour, and the novel details of their +travelling equipment, had soon effaced the graver influences of Donnaz. +Life stretched before him alluring and various as the open road; and his +pulses danced to the tune of the postillion's whip as the carriage +rattled out of the gates. +</P> + +<P> +It was a bright morning and the plain lay beneath them like a planted +garden, in all the flourish and verdure of June; but the roads being +deep in mire, and unrepaired after the ravages of the winter, it was +past noon before they reached the foot of the hills. Here matters were +little better, for the highway was ploughed deep by the wheels of the +numberless vans and coaches journeying from one town to another during +the Whitsun holidays, so that even a young gentleman travelling post +must resign himself to a plebeian rate of progression. Odo at first was +too much pleased with the novelty of the scene to quarrel with any +incidental annoyances; but as the afternoon wore on the way began to +seem long, and he was just giving utterance to his impatience when +Cantapresto, putting his head out of the window, announced in a tone of +pious satisfaction that just ahead of them were a party of travellers in +far worse case than themselves. Odo, leaning out, saw that, a dozen +yards ahead, a modest chaise of antique pattern had in fact come to +grief by the roadside. He called to his postillion to hurry forward, and +they were soon abreast of the wreck, about which several people were +grouped in anxious colloquy. Odo sprang out to offer his services; but +as he alit he felt Cantapresto's hand on his sleeve. +</P> + +<P> +"Cavaliere," the soprano whispered, "these are plainly people of no +condition, and we have yet a good seven miles to Vercelli, where all the +inns will be crowded for the Whitsun fair. Believe me, it were better to +go forward." +</P> + +<P> +Odo advanced without heeding this admonition; but a moment later he had +almost regretted his action; for in the centre of the group about the +chaise stood the two persons whom, of all the world, he was at that +moment least wishful of meeting. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +2.7. +</H4> + +<P> +It was in fact Vivaldi who, putting aside the knot of idlers about the +chaise, stepped forward at Odo's approach. The philosopher's countenance +was perturbed, his travelling-coat spattered with mud, and his daughter, +hooded and veiled, clung to him with an air of apprehension that smote +Odo to the heart. He caught a blush of recognition beneath her veil; and +as he drew near she raised a finger to her lip and faintly shook her +head. +</P> + +<P> +The mute signal reassured him. "I see, sir," said he, turning +courteously to Vivaldi, "that you are in a bad plight, and I hope that I +or my carriage may be of service to you." He ventured a second glance at +Fulvia, but she had turned aside and was inspecting the wheel of the +chaise with an air of the most disheartening detachment. +</P> + +<P> +Vivaldi, who had returned Odo's greeting without any sign of ill-will, +bowed slightly and seemed to hesitate a moment. "Our plight, as you +see," he said, "is indeed a grave one; for the wheel has come off our +carriage and my driver here tells me there is no smithy this side +Vercelli, where it is imperative we should lie tonight. I hope, +however," he added, glancing down the road, "that with all the traffic +now coming and going we may soon be overtaken by some vehicle that will +carry us to our destination." +</P> + +<P> +He spoke calmly, but it was plain some pressing fear underlay his +composure, and the nature of the emergency was but too clear to Odo. +</P> + +<P> +"Will not my carriage serve you?" he hastily rejoined. "I am for +Vercelli, and if you will honour me with your company we can go forward +at once." +</P> + +<P> +Fulvia, during this exchange of words, had affected to be engaged with +the luggage, which lay in a heap beside the chaise; but at this point +she lifted her head and shot a glance at her father from under her black +travelling-hood. +</P> + +<P> +Vivaldi's constraint increased. "This, sir," said he, "is a handsome +offer, and one for which I thank you; but I fear our presence may +incommode you and the additional weight of our luggage perhaps delay +your progress. I have little fear but some van or waggon will overtake +us before nightfall; and should it chance otherwise," he added with a +touch of irresistible pedantry, "why, it behoves us to remember that we +shall be none the worse off, since the sage is independent of +circumstances." +</P> + +<P> +Odo could hardly repress a smile. "Such philosophy, sir, is admirable in +principle, but in practice hardly applicable to a lady unused to passing +her nights in a rice-field. The region about here is notoriously +unhealthy and you will surely not expose your daughter to the risk of +remaining by the roadside or of finding a lodging in some peasant's +hut." +</P> + +<P> +Vivaldi drew himself up. "My daughter," said he, "has been trained to +face graver emergencies with an equanimity I have no fear of putting to +the touch—'the calm of a mind blest in the consciousness of its +virtue'; and were it not that circumstances are somewhat pressing—" he +broke off and glanced at Cantapresto, who was fidgeting about Odo's +carriage or talking in undertones with the driver of the chaise. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, sir," said Odo urgently, "Let my servants put your luggage up and +we'll continue this argument on the road." +</P> + +<P> +Vivaldi again paused. "Sir," he said at length, "will you first step +aside with me a moment?" he led Odo a few paces down the road. "I make +no pretence," he went on when they were out of Cantapresto's hearing, +"of concealing from you that this offer comes very opportune to our +needs, for it is urgent we should be out of Piedmont by tomorrow. But +before accepting a seat in your carriage, I must tell you that you offer +it to a proscribed man; since I have little reason to doubt that by this +time the sbirri are on my track." +</P> + +<P> +It was impossible to guess from Vivaldi's manner whether he suspected +Odo of being the cause of his misadventure; and the young man, though +flushing to the forehead, took refuge in the thought of Fulvia's signal +and maintained a self-possessed silence. +</P> + +<P> +"The motive of my persecution," Vivaldi continued, "I need hardly +explain to one acquainted with my house and with the aims and opinions +of those who frequent it. We live, alas, in an age when it is a moral +offence to seek enlightenment, a political crime to share it with +others. I have long foreseen that any attempt to raise the condition of +my countrymen must end in imprisonment or flight; and though perhaps to +have suffered the former had been a more impressive vindication of my +views, why, sir, the father at the last moment overruled the +philosopher, and thinking of my poor girl there, who but for me stands +alone in the world, I resolved to take refuge in a state where a man may +work for the liberty of others without endangering his own." +</P> + +<P> +Odo had listened with rising eagerness. Was not here an opportunity, if +not to atone, at least to give practical evidence of his contrition? +</P> + +<P> +"What you tell me sir," he exclaimed, "cannot but increase my zeal to +serve you. Here is no time to palter. I am on my way to Lombardy, which, +from what you say, I take to be your destination also; and if you and +your daughter will give me your company across the border I think you +need fear no farther annoyance from the police, since my passports, as +the Duke of Pianura's cousin, cover any friends I choose to take in my +company." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, sir," said Vivaldi, visibly moved by the readiness of the +response, "here is a generosity so far in excess of our present needs +that it encourages me to accept the smaller favour of travelling with +you to Vercelli. There we have friends with whom we shall be safe for +the night, and soon after sunrise I hope we may be across the border." +</P> + +<P> +Odo at once followed up his advantage by pointing out that it was on the +border that difficulties were most likely to arise; but after a few +moments of debate Vivaldi declared he must first take counsel with his +daughter, who still hung like a mute interrogation on the outskirts of +their talk. +</P> + +<P> +After a few words with her, he returned to Odo. "My daughter," said he, +"whose good sense puts my wisdom to the blush, wishes me first to +enquire if you purpose returning to Turin; since in that case, as she +points out, your kindness might result in annoyances to which we have no +right to expose you." +</P> + +<P> +Odo coloured. "Such considerations, I beg your daughter to believe, +would not weigh with me an instant; but as I am leaving Piedmont for two +years I am not so happy as to risk anything by serving you." +</P> + +<P> +Vivaldi on this assurance at once consented to accept a seat in his +carriage as far as Boffalora, the first village beyond the Sardinian +frontier. It was agreed that at Vercelli Odo was to set down his +companions at an inn whence, alone and privately, they might gain their +friend's house; that on the morrow at daybreak he was to take them up at +a point near the convent of the Umiliati, and that thence they were to +push forward without a halt for Boffalora. +</P> + +<P> +This agreement reached, Odo was about to offer Fulvia a hand to the +carriage when an unwelcome thought arrested him. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope, sir," said he, again turning to Vivaldi, and blushing furiously +as he spoke, "that you feel assured of my discretion; but I ought +perhaps to warn you that my companion yonder, though the good-naturedest +fellow alive, is not one to live long on good terms with a secret, +whether his own or another's." +</P> + +<P> +"I am obliged to you," said Vivaldi, "for the hint; but my daughter and +I are like those messengers who, in time of war, learn to carry their +despatches beneath their tongues. You may trust us not to betray +ourselves; and your friend may, if he chooses, suppose me to be +travelling to Milan to act as governor to a young gentleman of quality." +</P> + +<P> +The Professor's luggage had by this been put on Odo's carriage, and the +latter advanced to Fulvia. He had drawn a favourable inference from the +concern she had shown for his welfare; but to his mortification she +merely laid two reluctant finger tips in his hand and took her seat +without a word of thanks or so much as a glance at her rescuer. This +unmerited repulse, and the constraint occasioned by Cantapresto's +presence, made the remainder of the drive interminable. Even the +Professor's apposite reflections on rice-growing and the culture of the +mulberry did little to shorten the way; and when at length the +bell-towers of Vercelli rose in sight Odo felt the relief of a man who +has acquitted himself of a tedious duty. He had looked forward with the +most romantic anticipations to the outcome of this chance encounter with +Fulvia; but the unforgiving humour which had lent her a transitory charm +now became as disfiguring as some physical defect; and his heart swelled +with the defiance of youthful disappointment. +</P> + +<P> +It was near the angelus when they entered the city. Just within the +gates Odo set down his companions, who took leave of him, the one with +the heartiest expressions of gratitude, the other with a hurried +inclination of her veiled head. Thence he drove on to the Three Crowns, +where he designed to lie. The streets were still crowded with +holiday-makers and decked out with festal hangings. Tapestries and +silken draperies adorned the balconies of the houses, innumerable tiny +lamps framed the doors and windows, and the street-shrines were dressed +with a profusion of flowers; while every square and open space in the +city was crowded with booths, with the tents of ambulant comedians and +dentists, and with the outspread carpets of snake-charmers, +posture-makers and jugglers. Among this mob of quacks and pedlars +circulated other fantastic figures, the camp-followers of the army of +hucksters: dwarfs and cripples, mendicant friars, gypsy fortune-tellers, +and the itinerant reciters of Ariosto and Tasso. With these mingled the +towns-people in holiday dress, the well-to-do farmers and their wives, +and a throng of nondescript idlers, ranging from the servants of the +nobility pushing their way insolently through the crowd, to those +sinister vagabonds who lurk, as it were, in the interstices of every +concourse of people. +</P> + +<P> +It was not long before the noise and animation about him had dispelled +Odo's ill-humour. The world was too fair to be darkened by a girl's +disdain, and a reaction of feeling putting him in tune with the humours +of the market-place, he at once set forth on foot to view the city. It +was now near sunset and the day's decline irradiated the stately front +of the Cathedral, the walls of the ancient Hospital that faced it, and +the groups gathered about the stalls and platforms obstructing the +square. Even in his travelling-dress Odo was not a figure to pass +unnoticed, and he was soon assailed by laughing compliments on his looks +and invitations to visit the various shows concealed behind the flapping +curtains of the tents. There were enough pretty faces in the crowd to +justify such familiarities, and even so modest a success was not without +solace to his vanity. He lingered for some time in the square, answering +the banter of the blooming market-women, inspecting the +filigree-ornaments from Genoa, and watching a little yellow bitch in a +hooped petticoat and lappets dance the furlana to the music of an +armless fiddler who held the bow in his teeth. As he turned from this +show Odo's eye was caught by a handsome girl who, on the arm of a +dashing cavalier in somewhat shabby velvet, was cheapening a pair of +gloves at a neighbouring stall. The girl, who was masked, shot a dark +glance at Odo from under her three-cornered Venetian hat; then, tossing +down a coin, she gathered up the gloves and drew her companion away. The +manoeuvre was almost a challenge, and Odo was about to take it up when a +pretty boy in a Scaramouch habit, waylaying him with various graceful +antics, thrust a play-bill in his hand; and on looking round he found +the girl and her gallant had disappeared. The play-bill, with a wealth +of theatrical rhetoric, invited Odo to attend the Performance to be +given that evening at the Philodramatic Academy by the celebrated Capo +Comico Tartaglia of Rimini and his world-renowned company of Comedians, +who, in the presence of the aristocracy of Vercelli, were to present a +new comedy entitled "Le Gelosie di Milord Zambo," with an Intermezzo of +singing and dancing by the best Performers of their kind. +</P> + +<P> +Dusk was already falling, and Odo, who had brought no letters to the +gentry of Vercelli, where he intended to stay but a night, began to +wonder how he should employ his evening. He had hoped to spend it in +Vivaldi's company, but the Professor not having invited him, he saw no +prospect but to return to the inn and sup alone with Cantapresto. In the +doorway of the Three Crowns he found the soprano awaiting him. +Cantapresto, who had been as mute as a fish during the afternoon's +drive, now bustled forward with a great show of eagerness. +</P> + +<P> +"What poet was it," he cried, "that paragoned youth to the Easter +sunshine, which, wherever it touches, causes a flower to spring up? Here +we are scarce alit in a strange city, and already a messenger finds the +way to our inn with a most particular word from his lady to the +Cavaliere Odo Valsecca." And he held out a perfumed billet sealed with a +flaming dart. +</P> + +<P> +Odo's heart gave a leap at the thought that the letter might be from +Fulvia; but on breaking the seal he read these words, scrawled in an +unformed hand:— +</P> + +<P> +"Will the Cavaliere Valsecca accept from an old friend, who desires to +renew her acquaintance with him, the trifling gift of a side-box at Don +Tartaglia's entertainment this evening?" +</P> + +<P> +Vexed at his credulity, Odo tossed the invitation to Cantapresto; but a +moment later, recalling the glance of the pretty girl in the +market-place, he began to wonder if the billet might not be the prelude +to a sufficiently diverting adventure. It at least offered a way of +passing the evening; and after a hurried supper he set out with +Cantapresto for the Philodramatic Academy. It was late when they entered +their box, and several masks were already capering before the +footlights, exchanging lazzi with the townsfolk in the pit, and +addressing burlesque compliments to the quality in the boxes. The +theatre seemed small and shabby after those of Turin, and there was +little in the old-fashioned fopperies of a provincial audience to +interest a young gentleman fresh from the capital. Odo looked about for +any one resembling the masked beauty of the market-place; but he beheld +only ill-dressed dowagers and matrons, or ladies of the town more +conspicuous for their effrontery than for their charms. +</P> + +<P> +The main diversion of the evening was by this begun. It was a comedy in +the style of Goldoni's early pieces, representing the actual life of the +day, but interspersed with the antics of the masks, to whose improvised +drolleries the people still clung. A terrific Don Spavento in cloak and +sword played the jealous English nobleman, Milord Zambo, and the part of +Tartaglia was taken by the manager, one of the best-known interpreters +of the character in Italy. Tartaglia was the guardian of the prima +amorosa, whom the enamoured Briton pursued; and in the Columbine, when +she sprang upon the stage with a pirouette that showed her slender +ankles and embroidered clocks, Odo instantly recognised the graceful +figure and killing glance of his masked beauty. Her face, which was now +uncovered, more than fulfilled the promise of her eyes, being indeed as +arch and engaging a countenance as ever flashed distraction across the +foot-lights. She was greeted with an outburst of delight that cost her a +sour glance from the prima amorosa, and presently the theatre was +ringing with her improvised sallies, uttered in the gay staccato of the +Venetian dialect. There was to Odo something perplexingly familiar in +this accent and in the light darting movements of her little head framed +in a Columbine's ruff, with a red rose thrust behind one ear; but after +a rapid glance about the house she appeared to take no notice of him and +he began to think it must be to some one else he owed his invitation. +</P> + +<P> +From this question he was soon diverted by his increasing enjoyment of +the play. It was not indeed a remarkable example of its kind, being +crudely enough put together, and turning on a series of ridiculous and +disconnected incidents; but to a taste formed on the frigid elegancies +of Metastasio and the French stage there was something refreshing in +this plunge into the coarse homely atmosphere of the old popular +theatre. Extemporaneous comedies were no longer played in the great +cities, and Odo listened with surprise to the swift thrust and parry, +the inexhaustible flow of jest and repartee, the readiness with which +the comedians caught up each other's leads, like dancers whirling +without a false step through the mazes of some rapid contradance. +</P> + +<P> +So engaged was he that he no longer observed the Columbine save as a +figure in this flying reel; but presently a burst of laughter fixed his +attention and he saw that she was darting across the stage pursued by +Milord Zambo, who, furious at the coquetries of his betrothed, was +avenging himself by his attentions to the Columbine. Half way across, +her foot caught and she fell on one knee. Zambo rushed to the rescue; +but springing up instantly, and feigning to treat his advance as a part +of the play, she cried out with a delicious assumption of outraged +dignity:— +</P> + +<P> +"Not a step farther, villain! Know that it is sacrilege for a common +mortal to embrace one who has been kissed by his most illustrious +Highness the Heir-presumptive of Pianura!" +</P> + +<P> +"Mirandolina of Chioggia!" sprang to Odo's lips. At the same instant the +Columbine turned about and swept him a deep curtsey, to the delight of +the audience, who had no notion of what was going forward, but were in +the humour to clap any whim of their favourite's; then she turned and +darted off the stage, and the curtain fell on a tumult of applause. +</P> + +<P> +Odo had hardly recovered from his confusion when the door of the box +opened and the young Scaramouch he had seen in the market-place peeped +in and beckoned to Cantapresto. The soprano rose with alacrity, leaving +Odo alone in the dimly-lit box, his mind agrope in a labyrinth of +memories. A moment later Cantapresto returned with that air of furtive +relish that always proclaimed him the bearer of a tender message. The +one he now brought was to the effect that the Signorina Miranda +Malmocco, justly renowned as one of the first Columbines of Italy, had +charged him to lay at the Cavaliere Valsecca's feet her excuses for the +liberty she had taken with his illustrious name, and to entreat that he +would show his magnanimity by supping with her after the play in her +room at the Three Crowns—a request she was emboldened to make by the +fact that she was lately from Pianura, and could give him the last news +of the court. +</P> + +<P> +The message chimed with Odo's mood, and the play over he hastened back +to the inn with Cantapresto, and bid the landlord send to the Signorina +Miranda's room whatever delicacies the town could provide. Odo on +arriving that afternoon had himself given orders that his carriage +should be at the door the next morning an hour before sunrise; and he +now repeated these instructions to Cantapresto, charging him on his life +to see that nothing interfered with their fulfilment. The soprano +objected that the hour was already late, and that they could easily +perform the day's journey without curtailing their rest; but on Odo's +reiteration of the order he resigned himself, with the remark that it +was a pity old age had no savings-bank for the sleep that youth +squandered. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +2.8. +</H4> + +<P> +It was something of a disappointment to Odo, on entering the Signorina +Miranda's room, to find that she was not alone. Engaged in feeding her +pet monkey with sugar-plums was the young man who had given her his arm +in the Piazza. This gentleman, whom she introduced to Odo as her cousin +and travelling companion, the Count of Castelrovinato, had the same air +of tarnished elegance as his richly-laced coat and discoloured ruffles. +He seemed, however, of a lively and obliging humour, and Mirandolina +observed with a smile that she could give no better notion of his +amiability than by mentioning that he was known among her friends as the +Cavaliere Frattanto. This praise, Odo thought, seemed scarcely to the +cousin's liking; but he carried it off with the philosophic remark that +it is the mortar between the bricks that holds the building together. +</P> + +<P> +"At present," said Mirandolina laughing, "he is engaged in propping up a +ruin; for he has fallen desperately in love with our prima amorosa, a +lady who lost her virtue under the Pharaohs, but whom, for his sake, I +have been obliged to include in our little supper." +</P> + +<P> +This, it was clear, was merely a way of palliating the Count's +infatuation for herself; but he took the second thrust as good-naturedly +as the first, remarking that he had been bred for an archeologist and +had never lost his taste for the antique. +</P> + +<P> +Odo's servants now appearing with a pasty of beccafichi, some bottles of +old Malaga and a tray of ices and fruits, the three seated themselves at +the table, which Mirandolina had decorated with a number of wax candles +stuck in the cut-glass bottles of the Count's dressing-case. Here they +were speedily joined by the actress's monkey and parrot, who had soon +spread devastation among the dishes. While Miranda was restoring order +by boxing the monkey's ears and feeding the shrieking bird from her +lips, the door opened to admit the prima amorosa, a lady whose mature +charms and mellifluous manner suggested a fine fruit preserved in syrup. +The newcomer was clearly engrossed in captivating the Count, and the +latter amply justified his nick-name by the cynical complaisance with +which he cleared the way for Odo by responding to her advances. +</P> + +<P> +The tete-a-tete thus established, Miranda at once began to excuse +herself for the means she had taken to attract Odo's attention at the +theatre. She had heard from the innkeeper that the Duke of Pianura's +cousin, the Cavaliere Valsecca, was expected that day in Vercelli; and +seeing in the Piazza a young gentleman in travelling-dress and French +toupet, had at once guessed him to be the distinguished stranger from +Turin. At the theatre she had been much amused by the air of +apprehension with which Odo had appeared to seek, among the dowdy or +vulgar inmates of the boxes, the sender of the mysterious billet; and +the contrast between the elegant gentleman in embroidered coat and +gold-hilted sword, and the sleepy bewildered little boy of the midnight +feast at Chivasso, had seized her with such comic effect that she could +not resist a playful allusion to their former meeting. All this was set +forth with so sprightly an air of mock-contrition that, had Odo felt the +least resentment, it must instantly have vanished. He was, however, in +the humour to be pleased by whatever took his mind off his own affairs, +and none could be more skilled than Mirandolina in profiting by such a +mood. +</P> + +<P> +He pressed her to tell him something of what had befallen her since they +had met, but she replied by questioning him about his own experiences, +and on learning that he had been called to Pianura on account of the +heir's ill-health she declared it was notorious that the little prince +had not long to live, and that the Duke could not hope for another son. +</P> + +<P> +"The Duke's life, however," said Odo, "is as good as mine, and in truth +I am far less moved by my remote hopes of the succession than by the +near prospect of visiting so many famous cities and seeing so much that +is novel and entertaining." +</P> + +<P> +Miranda shrugged her pretty shoulders. "Why, as to the Duke's life," +said she, "there are some that would not give a counterfeit penny for +it; but indeed his Highness lives so secluded from the world, and is +surrounded by persons so jealous to conceal his true condition even from +the court, that the reports of his health are no more to be trusted than +the other strange rumours about him. I was told in Pianura that but four +persons are admitted to his familiarity: his confessor, his mistress, +Count Trescorre, who is already comptroller of finance and will soon be +prime-minister, and a strange German doctor or astrologer that is lately +come to the court. As to the Duchess, she never sees him; and were it +not for Trescorre, who has had the wit to stand well with both sides, I +doubt if she would know more of what goes on about her husband than any +scullion in the ducal kitchens." +</P> + +<P> +She spoke with the air of one well-acquainted with the subject, and Odo, +curious to learn more, asked her how she came to have such an insight +into the intrigues of the court. +</P> + +<P> +"Why," said she, "in the oddest way imaginable—by being the guest of +his lordship the Bishop of Pianura; and since you asked me just now to +tell you something of my adventures, I will, if you please, begin by +relating the occurrences that procured me this extraordinary honour. But +first," she added with a smile, "would it not be well to open another +bottle of Malaga?" +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +MIRANDOLINA'S STORY. +</H4> + +<P> +You must know, she continued, when Odo had complied with her request, +that soon after our parting at Chivasso the company with which I was +travelling came to grief through the dishonesty of the Harlequin, who +ran away with the Capo Comico's wife, carrying with him, besides the +lady, the far more irretrievable treasure of our modest earnings. This +brought us to destitution, and the troop was disbanded. I had nothing +but the spangled frock on my back, and thinking to make some use of my +sole possession I set out as a dancer with the flute-player of the +company, a good-natured fellow that had a performing marmozet from the +Indies. We three wandered from one town to another, spreading our carpet +wherever there was a fair or a cattle-market, going hungry in bad +seasons, and in our luckier days attaching ourselves to some band of +strolling posture-makers or comedians. +</P> + +<P> +One day, after about a year of this life, I had the good fortune, in the +market-place of Parma, to attract the notice of a rich English nobleman +who was engaged in writing a book on the dances of the ancients. This +gentleman, though no longer young, and afflicted with that strange +English malady that obliges a man to wrap his feet in swaddling-clothes +like a new-born infant, was of a generous and paternal disposition, and +offered, if I would accompany him to Florence, to give me a home and a +genteel education. I remained with him about two years, during which +time he had me carefully instructed in music, French and the art of the +needle. In return for this, my principal duties were to perform in +antique dances before the friends of my benefactor—whose name I could +never learn to pronounce—and to read aloud to him the works of the +modern historians and philosophers. +</P> + +<P> +We lived in a large palace with exceedingly high-ceilinged rooms, which +my friend would never have warmed on account of his plethoric habit, and +as I had to dance at all seasons in the light draperies worn by the +classical goddesses, I suffered terribly from chilblains and contracted +a cruel cough. To this, however, I might have resigned myself; but when +I learned from a young abate who frequented the house that the books I +was compelled to read were condemned by the Church, and could not be +perused without deadly peril to the soul, I at once resolved to fly from +such contaminating influences. Knowing that his lordship would not +consent to my leaving him, I took the matter out of his hands by +slipping out one day during the carnival, carrying with me from that +accursed house nothing but the few jewels that my benefactor had +expressed the intention of leaving me in his will. At the nearest church +I confessed my involuntary sin in reading the prohibited books, and +having received absolution and the sacrament, I joined my friend the +abate at Cafaggiolo, whence we travelled to Modena, where he was +acquainted with a theatrical manager just then in search of a Columbine. +My dancing and posturing at Florence had given me something of a name +among the dilettanti, and I was at once engaged by the manager, who took +me to Venice, where I subsequently joined the company of the excellent +Tartaglia with whom I am now acting. Since then I have been attended by +continued success, which I cannot but ascribe to my virtuous resolve to +face poverty and distress rather than profit a moment longer by the +beneficence of an atheist. +</P> + +<P> +All this I have related to show you how the poor ignorant girl you met +at Chivasso was able to acquire something of the arts and usages of good +company; but I will now pass on to the incident of my visit to Pianura. +Our manager, then, had engaged some time since to give a series of +performances at Pianura during the last carnival. The Bishop's nephew, +Don Serafino, who has a pronounced taste for the theatre, had been +instrumental in making the arrangement; but at the last moment he wrote +us that, owing to the influence of the Duke's confessor, the Bishop had +been obliged to prohibit the appearance of women on the stage of +Pianura. This was a cruel blow, as we had prepared a number of comedies +in which I was to act the leading part; and Don Serafino was equally +vexed, since he did me the honour of regarding me as the chief ornament +of the company. At length it was agreed that, to overcome the +difficulty, it should be given out that the celebrated Tartaglia of +Rimini would present himself at Pianura with his company of comedians, +among whom was the popular favourite, Mirandolino of Chioggia, twin +brother of the Signorina Miranda Malmocco, and trained by that actress +to play in all her principal parts. +</P> + +<P> +This satisfied the scruples and interests of all concerned, and soon +afterward I made my first appearance in Pianura. My success was greater +than we had foreseen; for I threw myself into the part with such zest +that every one was taken in, and even Don Serafino required the most +categorical demonstration to convince him that I was not my own brother. +The illusion I produced was, however, not without its inconveniences; +for, among the ladies who thronged to see the young Mirandolino, were +several who desired a closer acquaintance with him; and one of these, as +it happened, was the Duke's mistress, the Countess Belverde. You will +see the embarrassment of my situation. If I failed to respond to her +advances, her influence was sufficient to drive us from the town at the +opening of a prosperous season; if I discovered my sex to her, she might +more cruelly avenge herself by throwing the whole company into prison, +to be dealt with by the Holy Office. Under these circumstances, I +decided to appeal to the Bishop, but without, of course, revealing to +him that I was, so to speak, my own sister. His lordship, who is never +sorry to do the Belverde a bad turn, received me with the utmost +indulgence, and declared that, to protect my innocence from the designs +of this new Potiphar's wife, he would not only give me a lodging in the +Episcopal palace, but confer on me the additional protection of the +minor orders. This was rather more than I had bargained for, but he that +wants the melon is a fool to refuse the rind, and I thanked the Bishop +for his kindness and allowed him to give out that, my heart having been +touched by grace, I had resolved, at the end of the season, to withdraw +from the stage and prepare to enter the Church. +</P> + +<P> +I now fancied myself safe; for I knew the Countess could not attempt my +removal without risk of having her passion denounced to the Duke. I +spent several days very agreeably in the Episcopal palace, entertained +at his lordship's own table, and favoured with private conversations +during which he told me many curious and interesting things about the +Duke and the court, and delicately abstained from all allusion to my +coming change of vocation. The Countess, however, had not been idle. One +day I received notice that the Holy Office disapproved of the appearance +on the stage of a young man about to enter the Church, and requested me +to withdraw at once to the Barnabite monastery, where I was to remain +till I received the minor orders. Now the Abbot of the Barnabites was +the Belverde's brother, and I saw at once that to obey his order would +place me in that lady's power. I again addressed myself to the Bishop, +but to my despair he declared himself unable to aid me farther, saying +that he dared not offend the Holy Office, and that he had already run +considerable risk in protecting me from the Countess. +</P> + +<P> +I was accordingly transferred to the monastery, in spite of my own +entreaties and those of the good Tartaglia, who moved heaven and earth +to save his Columbine from sequestration. You may imagine my despair. My +fear of doing Tartaglia an injury kept me from revealing my sex, and for +twenty-four hours I languished in my cell, refusing food and air, and +resisting the repeated attempts of the good monks to alleviate my +distress. At length however I bethought me that the Countess would soon +appear; and it flashed across me that the one person who could protect +me from her was her brother. I at once sought an interview with the +Abbot, who received me with great indulgence. I explained to him that +the distress I suffered was occasioned by the loss that my sequestration +was causing my excellent manager, and begged him to use his influence to +have me released from the monastery. The Abbot listened attentively, and +after a pause replied that there was but one person who could arrange +the matter, and that was his sister the Countess Belverde, whose +well-known piety gave her considerable influence in such matters. I now +saw that no alternative remained but to confess the truth; and with +tears of agitation I avowed my sex, and threw myself on his mercy. +</P> + +<P> +I was not disappointed in the result. The Abbot listened with the +greatest benevolence to all the details of my adventure. He laughed +heartily at his sister's delusion, but said I had done right in not +undeceiving her, as her dread of ridicule might have led to unpleasant +reprisals. He declared that for the present he could not on any account +consent to let me out of his protection; but he promised if I submitted +myself implicitly to his guidance, not only to preserve me from the +Belverde's machinations, but to ensure my reappearing on the stage +within two days at the latest. Knowing him to be a very powerful +personage I thought it best to accept these conditions, which in any +case it would have been difficult to resist; and the next day he +informed me that the Holy Office had consented to the Signorina Miranda +Malmocco's appearing on the stage of Pianura during the remainder of the +season, in consideration of the financial injury caused to the manager +of the company by the edifying conversion of her twin-brother. +</P> + +<P> +"In this way," the Abbot was pleased to explain, "you will be quite safe +from my sister, who is a woman of the most unexceptionable morals, and +at the same time you will not expose our excellent Bishop to the charge +of having been a party to a grave infraction of ecclesiastical +discipline.—My only condition," he added with a truly paternal smile, +"is that, after the Signorina Miranda's performance at the theatre her +twin-brother the Signor Mirandolino shall return every evening to the +monastery: a condition which seems necessary to the preservation of our +secret, and which I trust you will not regard as too onerous, in view of +the service I have been happy enough to render you." +</P> + +<P> +It would have ill become me to dispute the excellent ecclesiastic's +wishes, and Tartaglia and the rest of the company having been sworn to +secrecy, I reappeared that very evening in one of my favourite parts, +and was afterward carried back to the monastery in the most private +manner. The Signorina Malmocco's successes soon repaired the loss +occasioned by her brother's withdrawal, and if any suspected their +identity all were interested to conceal their suspicions. +</P> + +<P> +Thus it came about that my visit to Pianura, having begun under the roof +of a Bishop, ended in a monastery of Barnabites—nor have I any cause to +complain of the hospitality of either of my hosts... +</P> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<P> +Odo, charmed by the vivacity with which this artless narrative was +related, pressed Miranda to continue the history of her adventures. The +actress laughingly protested that she must first refresh herself with +one of the ices he had so handsomely provided; and meanwhile she begged +the Count to favour them with a song. +</P> + +<P> +This gentleman, who seemed glad of any pretext for detaching himself +from his elderly flame, rescued Mirandolina's lute from the inquisitive +fingering of the monkey, and striking a few melancholy chords, sang the +following words, which he said he had learned from a peasant of the +Abruzzi:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Flower of the thyme!<BR> + She draws me as your fragrance draws the bees,<BR> + She draws me as the cold moon draws the seas,<BR> + And summer winter-time.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Flower of the broom!<BR> + Like you she blossoms over dark abysses,<BR> + And close to ruin bloom her sweetest kisses,<BR> + And on the brink of doom.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Flower of the rue!<BR> + She wore you on her breast when first we met.<BR> + I begged your blossom and I wear it yet—<BR> + Flower of regret!<BR> +</P> + +<P> +The song ended, the prima amorosa, overcome by what she visibly deemed +an appeal to her feelings, declared with some agitation that the hour +was late and she must withdraw. Miranda wished the actress an +affectionate goodnight and asked the Count to light her to her room, +which was on the farther side of the gallery surrounding the courtyard +of the inn. Castelrovinato complied with his usual air of resignation, +and the door closing on the couple, Odo and Miranda found themselves +alone. +</P> + +<P> +"And now," said the good-natured girl, placing herself on the sofa and +turning to her guest with a smile, "if you will take a seat at my side I +will gladly continue the history of my adventures"... +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +2.9. +</H4> + +<P> +Odo woke with a start. He had been trying to break down a great +gold-barred gate, behind which Fulvia, pale and disordered, struggled in +the clutch of the blind beggar of the Corpus Domini... +</P> + +<P> +He sat up and looked about him. The gate was still there; but as he +gazed it resolved itself into his shuttered window, barred with wide +lines of sunlight. It was day, then! He sprang out of bed and flung open +the shutters. Beneath him lay the piazza of Vercelli, bathed in the +vertical brightness of a summer noon; and as he stared out on this +inexorable scene, the clock over the Hospital struck twelve. +</P> + +<P> +Twelve o'clock! And he had promised to meet Vivaldi at dawn behind the +Umiliati! As the truth forced itself on Odo he dropped into a chair and +hid his face with a groan. He had failed them again, then—and this time +how cruelly and basely! He felt himself the victim of a conspiracy which +in some occult manner was forever forcing him to outrage and betray the +two beings he most longed to serve. The idea of a conspiracy flashed a +sudden light on his evening's diversion, and he sprang up with a cry. +Yes! It was a plot, and any but a dolt must have traced the soprano's +hand in this vulgar assault upon his senses. He choked with anger at the +thought of having played the dupe when two lives he cherished were +staked upon his vigilance... +</P> + +<P> +To his furious summons Cantapresto presented a blank wall of ignorance. +Yes, the Cavaliere had given orders that the carriage should be ready +before daybreak; but who was authorised to wake the cavaliere? After +keeping the carriage two hours at the door Cantapresto had ventured to +send it back to the stable; but the horses should instantly be put to, +and within an hour they would be well forward on their journey. +Meanwhile, should the barber be summoned at once? Or would the cavaliere +first refresh himself with an excellent cup of chocolate, prepared under +Cantapresto's own supervision? +</P> + +<P> +Odo turned on him savagely. "Traitor—spy! In whose pay—?" +</P> + +<P> +But the words roused him to a fresh sense of peril. Cantapresto, though +he might have guessed Odo's intention, was not privy to his plan of +rejoining Vivaldi and Fulvia; and it flashed across the young man that +his self-betrayal must confirm the others' suspicions. His one hope of +protecting his friends was to affect indifference to what had happened; +and this was made easier, by the reflection that Cantapresto was after +all but a tool in more powerful hands. To be spied on was so natural to +an Italian of that day that the victim's instinct was rather to +circumvent the spy than to denounce him. +</P> + +<P> +Odo dismissed Cantapresto with the reply that he would give orders about +the carriage later; desiring that meanwhile the soprano should purchase +the handsomest set of filigree ornaments to be found in Vercelli, and +carry them with the Cavaliere Valsecca's compliments to the Signorina +Malmocco. +</P> + +<P> +Having thus rid himself of observation he dressed as rapidly as +possible, trying the while to devise some means of tracing Vivaldi. But +the longer he pondered the attempt the more plainly he saw its futility. +Vivaldi, doubtless from motives of prudence, had not named the friend +with whom he and Fulvia were to take shelter; nor did Odo even know in +what quarter of the city to seek them. To question the police was to +risk their last chance of safety; and for the same reason he dared not +enquire of the posting-master whether any travellers had set out that +morning for Lombardy. His natural activity of mind was hampered by a +leaden sense of remissness. With what anguish of spirit must Vivaldi and +Fulvia have awaited him in that hour of dawn behind the convent! What +thoughts must have visited the girl's mind as day broadened, the city +woke, and peril pressed on them with every voice and eye! And when at +length they saw that he had failed them, which way did their hunted +footsteps turn? Perhaps they dared not go back to the friend who had +taken them in for the night. Perhaps even now they wandered through the +streets, fearing arrest if they revealed themselves by venturing to +engage a carriage, at every turn of his thoughts Odo was mocked by some +vision of disaster; and an hour of perplexity yielded no happier +expedient than that of repairing to the meeting-place behind the +Umiliati. It was a deserted lane with few passers; and after vainly +questioning the blank wall of the convent and the gates of a +sinister-looking alms-house that faced it, he retraced his steps to the +inn. +</P> + +<P> +He spent a day of futile research and bitter thoughts, now straying +forth in the hope of meeting Vivaldi, now hastening back to the Three +Crowns on the chance that some message might await him. He dared not let +his mind rest on what might have befallen his friends; yet the +alternative of contemplating his own course was scarcely more endurable. +Nightfall brought the conviction that the Professor and Fulvia had +passed beyond his reach. It was clear that if they were still in +Vercelli they did not mean to make their presence known to him, while in +the event of their escape he was without means of tracing them farther. +He knew indeed that their destination was Milan, but, should they reach +there safely, what hope was there of finding them in a city of +strangers? By a stroke of folly he had cut himself off from all +communication with them, and his misery was enhanced by the discovery of +his weakness. He who had fed his fancy on high visions, cherishing in +himself the latent patriot and hero, had been driven by a girl's caprice +to break the first law of manliness and honour! The event had already +justified her; and in a flash of self-contempt he saw himself as she no +doubt beheld him—the fribble preying like a summer insect on the slow +growths of difficult years... +</P> + +<P> +In bitterness of spirit he set out the next morning for Pianura. A +half-melancholy interest drew him back to the scene of his lonely +childhood, and he had started early in order to push on that night to +Pontesordo. At Valsecca, the regular posting-station between Vercelli +and Pianura, he sent Cantapresto forward to the capital, and in a stormy +yellow twilight drove alone across the waste land that dipped to the +marshes. On his right the woods of the ducal chase hung black against +the sky; and presently he saw ahead of him the old square keep, with a +flight of swallows circling low about its walls. +</P> + +<P> +In the muddy farm-yard a young man was belabouring a donkey laden with +mulberry-shoots. He stared for a moment at Odo's approach and then +sullenly returned to his task. +</P> + +<P> +Odo sprang out into the mud. "Why do you beat the brute?" said he +indignantly. The other turned a dull face on him and he recognised his +old enemy Giannozzo. +</P> + +<P> +"Giannozzo," he cried, "don't you know me? I am the Cavaliere Valsecca, +whose ears you used to box when you were a lad. Must you always be +pummelling something, that you can't let that poor brute alone at the +end of its day's work?" +</P> + +<P> +Giannozzo, dropping his staff, stammered out that he craved his +excellency's pardon for not knowing him, but that as for the ass it was +a stubborn devil that would not have carried Jesus Christ without +gibbing. +</P> + +<P> +"The beast is tired and hungry," cried Odo, his old compassion for the +sufferings of the farm-animals suddenly reviving. "How many hours have +you worked it without rest or food?" +</P> + +<P> +"No more than I have worked myself," said Giannozzo sulkily; "and as for +its being hungry, why should it fare better than its masters?" +</P> + +<P> +Their words had called out of the house a lean bent woman, whose +shrivelled skin showed through the rents in her unbleached shift. At +sight of Odo she pushed Giannozzo aside and hurried forward to ask how +she might serve the gentleman. +</P> + +<P> +"With supper and a bed, my good Filomena," said Odo; and she flung +herself at his feet with a cry. +</P> + +<P> +"Saints of heaven, that I should not have known his excellency! But I am +half blind with the fever, and who could have dreamed of such an +honour?" She clung to his knees in the mud, kissing his hands and +calling down blessings on him. "And as for you, Giannozzo, you +curd-faced fool, quick, see that his excellency's horses are stabled and +go call your father from the cow-house while I prepare his excellency's +supper. And fetch me in a faggot to light the fire in the bailiff's +parlour." +</P> + +<P> +Odo followed her into the kitchen, where he had so often crouched in a +corner to eat his polenta out of reach of her vigorous arm. The roof +seemed lower and more smoke-blackened than ever, but the hearth was +cold, and he noticed that no supper was laid. Filomena led him into the +bailiff's parlour, where a mortal chill seized him. Cobwebs hung from +the walls, the window-panes were broken and caked with grime, and the +few green twigs which Giannozzo presently threw on the hearth poured a +cloud of smoke into the cold heavy air. +</P> + +<P> +There was a long delay while supper was preparing, and when at length +Filomena appeared, it was only to produce, with many excuses, a loaf of +vetch-bread, a bit of cheese and some dried quinces. There was nothing +else in the house, she declared: not so much as a bit of lard to make +soup with, a handful of pasti or a flask of wine. In the old days, as +his excellency might remember, they had eaten a bit of meat on Sundays, +and drunk aquarolle with their supper; but since the new taxes it was as +much as the farmers could do to feed their cattle, without having a +scrap to spare for themselves. Jacopone, she continued, was bent double +with the rheumatism, and had not been able to drive a plough or to work +in the mulberries for over two years. He and the farm-lads sat in the +cow-stables when their work was over, for the sake of the heat, and she +carried their black bread out there to them: a cold supper tasted better +in a warm place, and as his excellency knew, all the windows in the +house were unglazed save in the bailiff's parlour. Her man would be in +presently to pay his duty to his excellency; but he had grown +dull-witted since the rheumatism took him, and his excellency must not +take it ill if his talk was a little childish. +</P> + +<P> +Thereupon Filomena excused herself, that she might put a clean shirt on +Jacopone, and Odo was left to his melancholy musings. His mind had of +late run much on economic abuses; but what was any philandering with +reform to this close contact with misery? It was as though white hungry +faces had suddenly stared in at the windows of his brightly-lit life. +What did these people care for education, enlightenment, the religion of +humanity? What they wanted was fodder for their cattle, a bit of meat on +Sundays and a faggot on the hearth. +</P> + +<P> +Filomena presently returned with her husband; but Jacopone had shrunk +into a crippled tremulous old man, who pulled a vague forelock at Odo +without sign of recognition. Filomena, it was clear, was master at +Pontesordo; for though Giannozzo was a man grown, and did a man's work, +he still danced to the tune of his mother's tongue. It was from her that +Odo, shivering over the smoky hearth, gathered the details of their +wretched state. Pontesordo being a part of the ducal domain, they had +led in their old days an easier life than their neighbours; but the new +taxes had stripped them as bare as a mulberry-tree in June. +</P> + +<P> +"How is a Christian to live, excellency, with the salt-tax doubled, so +that the cows go dry for want of it; with half a zecchin on every pair +of oxen, a stajo of wheat and two fowls to the parish, and not so much +as a bite of grass allowed on the Duke's lands? In his late Highness's +day the poor folk were allowed to graze their cattle on the borders of +the chase; but now a man dare not pluck a handful of weeds there, or so +much as pick up a fallen twig; though the deer may trample his young +wheat, and feed off the patch of beans at his very door. They do say the +Duchess has a kind heart, and gives away money to the towns-folk; but we +country-people who spend our lives raising fodder for her game never +hear of her Highness but when one of her game-keepers comes down on us +for poaching or stealing wood.—Yes, by the saints, and it was her +Highness who sent a neighbour's lad to the galleys last year for felling +a tree in the chase; a good lad as ever dug furrow, but he lacked wood +for a new plough-share, and how in God's name was he to plough his field +without it?" +</P> + +<P> +So she went on, like a torrent after the spring rains; but when he named +Momola she fell silent, and Giannozzo, looking sideways, drummed with +his heel on the floor. +</P> + +<P> +Odo glanced from one to the other. "She's dead, then?" he cried. +</P> + +<P> +Filomena opened deprecating palms. "Can one tell, excellency? It may be +she is off with the gypsies." +</P> + +<P> +"The gypsies? How long since?" +</P> + +<P> +"Giannozzo," cried his mother, as he stood glowering, "go see that the +stable is locked and his excellency's horses bedded down." He slunk out +and she began to gather up the remains of Odo's meagre supper. +</P> + +<P> +"But you must remember when this happened." +</P> + +<P> +"Holy Mother! It was the year we had frost in April and lost our +hatching for want of leaves. But as for that child of ingratitude, one +day she was here, the next she was gone—clean gone, as a nut drops from +the tree—and I that had given the blood of my veins to nourish her! +Since then, God is my witness, we have had nothing but misfortune. The +next year it was the weevils in the wheat; and so it goes." +</P> + +<P> +Odo was silent, seeing it was vain to press her. He fancied that the +girl must have died—of neglect perhaps, or ill usage—and that they +feared to own it. His heart swelled, but not against them: they seemed +to him no more accountable than cowed hunger-driven animals. +</P> + +<P> +He tossed impatiently on the hard bed Filomena had made up for him in +the bailiff's parlour, and was afoot again with the first light. +Stepping out into the farm-yard he looked abroad over the flat grey face +of the land. Around the keep stretched the new-ploughed fields and the +pollarded mulberry orchards; but these, with the clustered hovels of the +village, formed a mere islet in the surrounding waste of marsh and +woodland. The scene symbolised fitly enough of social conditions of the +country: the over-crowded peasantry huddled on their scant patches of +arable ground, while miles of barren land represented the feudal rights +that hemmed them in on every side. +</P> + +<P> +Odo walked across the yard to the chapel. On the threshold he stumbled +over a heap of mulberry-shoots and a broken plough-share. Twilight held +the place; but as he stood there the frescoes started out in the slant +of the sunrise like dead faces floating to the surface of a river. Dead +faces, yes: plaintive spectres of his childish fears and longings, lost +in the harsh daylight of experience. He had forgotten the very dreams +they stood for: Lethe flowed between and only one voice reached across +the torrent. It was that of Saint Francis, lover of the poor... +</P> + +<P> +The morning was hot as Odo drove toward Pianura, and limping ahead of +him in the midday glare he presently saw the figure of a hump-backed man +in a decent black dress and three-cornered hat. There was something +familiar in the man's gait, and in the shape of his large head, poised +on narrow stooping shoulders, and as the carriage drew abreast of him, +Odo, leaning from the window, cried out, "Brutus—this must be Brutus!" +</P> + +<P> +"Your excellency has the advantage of me," said the hunchback, turning +on him a thin face lit by the keen eyes that had once searched his +childish soul. +</P> + +<P> +Odo met the rebuff with a smile. "Does that," said he, "prevent my +suggesting that you might continue your way more comfortably in my +carriage? The road is hot and dusty, and, as you see, I am in want of +company." +</P> + +<P> +The pedestrian, who seemed unprepared for this affable rejoinder, had +the sheepish air of a man whose rudeness has missed the mark. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, sir," said he, recovering himself, "comfort is all a matter of +habit, and I daresay the jolting of your carriage might seem to me more +unpleasant than the heat and dust of the road, to which necessity has +long since accustomed me." +</P> + +<P> +"In that case," returned Odo with increasing amusement, "you will have +the additional merit of sacrificing your pleasure to add to mine." +</P> + +<P> +The hunchback stared. "And what have you or yours ever done for me," he +retorted, "that I should sacrifice to your pleasure even the wretched +privilege of being dusted by the wheels of your coach?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, that," replied Odo, "is a question I can scarce answer till you +give me the opportunity of naming myself.—If you are indeed Carlo +Gamba," he continued, "I am your old friend and companion Odo Valsecca." +</P> + +<P> +The hunchback started. "The Cavaliere Valsecca!" he cried. "I had heard +that you were expected." He stood gazing at Odo. "Our next Duke!" he +muttered. +</P> + +<P> +Odo smiled. "I had rather," he said, "that my past commended me than my +future. It is more than doubtful if I am ever able to offer you a seat +in the Duke's carriage; but Odo Valsecca's is very much at your +service." +</P> + +<P> +Gamba bowed with a kind of awkward dignity. "I am grateful for a +friend's kindness," he said, "but I do not ride in a nobleman's +carriage." +</P> + +<P> +"There," returned Odo with perfect good-humour, "you have had advantage +of ME; for I can no more escape doing so than you can escape spending +your life in the company of an ill-tempered man." And courteously +lifting his hat he called to the postillion to drive on. +</P> + +<P> +The hunchback at this, flushing red, laid a hand on the carriage door. +</P> + +<P> +"Sir," said he, "I freely own myself in the wrong; but a smooth temper +was not one of the blessings my unknown parents bequeathed to me; and I +confess I had heard of you as one little concerned with your inferiors +except as they might chance to serve your pleasure." +</P> + +<P> +It was Odo's turn to colour. "Look," said he, "at the fallibility of +rumour; for I had heard of you as something of a philosopher, and here I +find you not only taking a man's character on hearsay but denying him +the chance to prove you mistaken!" +</P> + +<P> +"I deny it no longer," said Gamba stepping into the coach; "but as to +philosophy, the only claim I can make to it is that of being by birth a +peripatetic." +</P> + +<P> +His dignity appeased, the hunchback proved himself a most engaging +companion, and as the carriage lumbered slowly toward Pianura he had +time not only to recount his own history but to satisfy Odo as to many +points of the life awaiting him. +</P> + +<P> +Gamba, it appeared, owed his early schooling to a Jesuit priest who, +visiting the foundling asylum, had been struck by the child's quickness, +and had taken him home and bred him to be a clerk. The priest's death +left his charge adrift, with a smattering of scholarship above his +station, and none to whom he could turn for protection. For a while he +had lived, as he said, like a street-cat, picking up a meal where he +could, and sleeping in church porches and under street-arcades, till one +of the Duke's servants took pity on him and he was suffered to hang +about the palace and earn his keep by doing the lacquey's errands. The +Duke's attention having been called to him as a lad of parts, his +Highness had given him to the Marquess of Cerveno, in whose service he +remained till shortly before that young nobleman's death. The hunchback +passed hastily over this period; but his reticence was lit by the angry +flash of his eyes. After the Marquess's death he had lived for a while +from hand to mouth, copying music, writing poetry for weddings and +funerals, doing pen-and-ink portraits at a scudo apiece, and putting his +hand to any honest job that came his way. Count Trescorre, who now and +then showed a fitful recognition of the tie that was supposed to connect +them, at length heard of the case to which he was come and offered him a +trifling pension. This the hunchback refused, asking instead to be given +some fixed employment. Trescorre then obtained his appointment as +assistant to the Duke's librarian, a good old priest engrossed in +compiling the early history of Pianura from the ducal archives; and this +post Gamba had now filled for two years. +</P> + +<P> +"It must," said Odo, "be one singularly congenial to you, if, as I have +heard, you are of a studious habit. Though I suppose," he tentatively +added, "the library is not likely to be rich in works of the new +scientific and philosophic schools." +</P> + +<P> +His companion received this observation in silence; and after a moment +Odo continued: "I have a motive in asking, since I have been somewhat +deeply engaged in the study of these writers, and my dearest wish is to +continue while in Pianura my examination of their theories, and if +possible to become acquainted with any who share their views." +</P> + +<P> +He was not insensible of the risk of thus opening himself to a stranger; +but the sense of peril made him the more eager to proclaim himself on +the side of the cause he seemed to have deserted. +</P> + +<P> +Gamba turned as he spoke, and their eyes met in one of those revealing +glances that lay the foundations of friendship. +</P> + +<P> +"I fear, Cavaliere," said the hunchback with a smile, "that you will +find both branches of investigation somewhat difficult to pursue in +Pianura; for the Church takes care that neither the philosophers nor +their books shall gain a footing in our most Christian state. Indeed," +he added, "not only must the library be free from heretical works, but +the librarian clear of heretical leanings; and since you have honoured +me with your confidence I will own that, the court having got wind of my +supposed tendency to liberalism, I live in daily expectation of +dismissal. For the moment they are content to keep their spies on me; +but were it not for the protection of the good abate, my superior, I +should long since have been turned out." +</P> + +<P> +"And why," asked Odo, "do you speak of the court and the Church as one?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because, sir, in our virtuous duchy the terms are interchangeable. The +Duke is in fact so zealous a son of the Church that if the latter showed +any leniency to sinners the secular arm would promptly repair her +negligence. His Highness, as you may have heard, is ruled by his +confessor, an adroit Dominican. The confessor, it is true, has two +rivals, the Countess Belverde, a lady distinguished for her piety, and a +German astrologer or alchemist, lately come to Pianura, and calling +himself a descendant of the Egyptian priesthood and an adept of the +higher or secret doctrines of Neoplatonism. These three, however, though +ostensibly rivals for the Duke's favour, live on such good terms with +one another that they are suspected of having entered into a secret +partnership; while some regard them all as the emissaries of the +Jesuits, who, since the suppression of the Society, are known to have +kept a footing in Pianura, as in most of the Italian states. As to the +Duke, the death of the Marquess of Cerveno, the failing health of the +little prince, and his own strange physical infirmities, have so preyed +on his mind that he is the victim of any who are unscrupulous enough to +trade on the fears of a diseased imagination. His counsellors, however +divided in doctrine, have at least one end in common; and that is, to +keep the light of reason out of the darkened chamber in which they have +confined him; and with such a ruler and such principles of government, +you may fancy that poor philosophy has not where to lay her head." +</P> + +<P> +"And the people?" Odo pursued. "What of the fiscal administration? In +some states where liberty of thought is forbidden the material welfare +of the subject is nevertheless considered." +</P> + +<P> +The hunchback shook his head. "It may be so," said he, "though I had +thought the principle of moral tyranny must infect every branch of +public administration. With us, at all events, where the Church party +rules, the privileges and exemptions of the clergy are the chief source +of suffering, and the state of passive ignorance in which they have kept +the people has bred in the latter a dull resignation that is the surest +obstacle to reform. Oh, sir," he cried, his eyes darkening with emotion, +"if you could see, as I do, the blind brute misery on which all the +magnificence of rank and all the refinements of luxury are built, you +would feel, as you drive along this road, that with every turn of the +wheels you are passing over the bodies of those who have toiled without +ceasing that you might ride in a gilt coach, and have gone hungry that +you might feast in Kings' palaces!" +</P> + +<P> +The touch of rhetoric in this adjuration did not discredit it with Odo, +to whom the words were as caustic on an open wound. He turned to make +some impulsive answer; but as he did so he caught sight of the towers of +Pianura rising above the orchards and market-gardens of the suburbs. The +sight started a new train of feeling, and Gamba, perceiving it, said +quietly: "But this is no time to speak of such things." +</P> + +<P> +A moment later the carriage had passed under the great battlemented +gates, with their Etruscan bas-reliefs, and the motto of the house of +Valsecca—Humilitas—surmounted by the ducal escutcheon. +</P> + +<P> +Though the hour was close on noon the streets were as animated as at the +angelus, and the carriage could hardly proceed for the crowd obstructing +its passage. So unusual at that period was such a sight in one of the +lesser Italian cities that Odo turned to Gamba for an explanation. At +the same moment a roar rose from the crowd; and the coach turning into +the Corso which led to the ducal palace and the centre of the town, Odo +caught sight of a strange procession advancing from that direction. It +was headed by a clerk or usher with a black cap and staff, behind whom +marched two bare-foot friars escorting between them a middle-aged man in +the dress of an abate, his hands bound behind him and his head +surmounted by a paste-board mitre inscribed with the title: A Destroyer +of Female Chastity. This man, who was of a simple and decent aspect, was +so dazed by the buffeting of the crowd, so spattered by the mud and +filth hurled at him from a hundred taunting hands, and his countenance +distorted by so piteous a look of animal fear, that he seemed more like +a madman being haled to Bedlam than a penitent making public amends for +his offence. +</P> + +<P> +"Are such failings always so severely punished in Pianura?" Odo asked, +turning ironically to Gamba as the mob and its victim passed out of +sight. +</P> + +<P> +The hunchback smiled. "Not," said he, "if the offender be in a position +to benefit by the admirable doctrines of probabilism, the direction of +intention, or any one of the numerous expedients by which an indulgent +Church has smoothed the way of the sinner; but as God does not give the +crop unless man sows the seed, so His ministers bestow grace only when +the penitent has enriched the treasury. The fellow," he added, "is a man +of some learning and of a retired and orderly way of living, and the +charge was brought against him by a jeweller and his wife, who owed him +a sum of money and are said to have chosen this way of evading payment. +The priests are always glad to find a scape-goat of the sort, especially +when there are murmurs against the private conduct of those in high +places, and the woman, having denounced him, was immediately assured by +her confessor that any debt incurred to a seducer was null and void, and +that she was entitled to a hundred scudi of damages for having been led +into sin." +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +2.10. +</H4> + +<P> +At the Duke's express wish, Odo was to lodge in the palace; and when he +entered the courtyard he found Cantapresto waiting to lead him to his +apartment. +</P> + +<P> +The rooms assigned to him lay at the end of one of the wings overlooking +the gardens; and as he mounted the great stairway and walked down the +corridors with their frescoed walls and busts of Roman emperors he +recalled the far-off night when he had passed through the same scenes as +a frightened awe-struck child. Where he had then beheld a supernatural +fabric, peopled with divinities of bronze and marble, and glowing with +light and colour, he now saw a many-corridored palace, stately indeed, +and full of a faded splendour, but dull and antiquated in comparison +with the new-fangled elegance of the Sardinian court. Yet at every turn +some object thrilled the fibres of old association or pride of race. +Here he traversed a gallery hung with the portraits of his line; there +caught a glimpse of the pages' antechamber through which he and his +mother had been led when they waited on the Duke; and from the windows +of his closet he overlooked the alleys and terraces where he had +wandered with the hunchback. +</P> + +<P> +One of the Duke's pages came to say that his Highness would receive the +cavaliere when the court rose from dinner; and finding himself with two +hours on his hands, Odo determined to await his kinsman's summons in the +garden. Thither he presently repaired; and was soon, with a mournful +pleasure, retracing the paths he had first explored in such an ecstasy +of wonder. The pleached walks and parterres were in all the freshness of +June. Roses and jasmine mingled on the terrace-walls, citron-trees +ingeniously grafted with red and white carnations stood in Faenza jars +before the lemon-house, and marble nymphs and fauns peeped from thickets +of flowering camellias. A noise of childish voices presently attracted +Odo, and following a tunnel of clipped limes he came out on a theatre +cut in the turf and set about with statues of Apollo and the Muses. A +handful of boys in military dress were performing a series of evolutions +in the centre of this space; and facing them stood a child of about ten +years, in a Colonel's uniform covered with orders, his hair curled and +powdered, a paste-board sword in his hand, and his frail body supported +on one side by a turbaned dwarf, and on the other by an ecclesiastic who +was evidently his governor. The child, as Odo approached, was calling +out his orders to his regiment in a weak shrill voice, moving now here, +now there on his booted tottering legs, as his two supporters guided +him, and painfully trying to flourish the paper weapon that was too +heavy for his nerveless wrist. Behind this strange group stood another +figure, that of a tall heavy man, richly dressed, with a curious +Oriental-looking order on his breast and a veiled somnolent eye which he +kept fixed on the little prince. +</P> + +<P> +Odo had been about to advance and do homage to his cousin; but a sign +from the man in the background arrested him. The manoeuvres were soon +over, the heir was lifted into a little gilded chariot drawn by white +goats, his regiment formed in line and saluted him, and he disappeared +down one of the alleys with his attendants. +</P> + +<P> +This ceremony over, the tall man advanced to Odo with a bow and asked +pardon for the liberty he had taken. +</P> + +<P> +"You are doubtless," said he, "his Highness's cousin, the Cavaliere +Valsecca; and my excuse for intruding between yourself and the prince is +that I am the Duke's physician, Count Heiligenstern, and that the heir +is at present undergoing a course of treatment under my care. His +health, as you probably know, has long been a cause of anxiety to his +illustrious parents, and when I was summoned to Pianura the College of +Physicians had given up all hope of saving him. Since my coming, +however, I flatter myself that a marked change is perceptible. My method +is that of invigorating the blood by exciting the passions most likely +to produce a generous vital ardour. Thus, by organising these juvenile +manoeuvres, I arouse the prince's martial zeal; by encouraging him to +study the history of his ancestors, I evoke his political ambition; by +causing him to be led about the gardens on a pony, accompanied by a +miniature pack of Maltese dogs in pursuit of a tame doe, I stimulate the +passion of the chase; but it is essential to my system that one emotion +should not violently counteract another, and I am therefore obliged to +protect my noble patient from the sudden intrusion of new impressions." +</P> + +<P> +This explanation, delivered in a sententious tone, and with a strong +German accent, seemed to Odo no more than a learned travesty of the +familiar and pathetic expedient of distracting a sick child by the +pretence of manly diversions. He was struck, however, by the physician's +aspect, and would have engaged him in talk had not one of the Duke's +gentlemen appeared with the announcement that his Highness would be +pleased to receive the Cavaliere Valsecca. +</P> + +<P> +Like most dwellings of its kind in Italy, the palace of Pianura +resembled one of those shells which reveal by their outer convolutions +the gradual development of the creature housed within. For two or three +generations after Bracciaforte, the terrible founder of the line, had +made himself master of the republic, his descendants had clung to the +old brick fortress or rocca which the great condottiere had held +successfully against the burghers' arquebuses and the battering-rams of +rival adventurers, and which still glassed its battlements in the slow +waters of the Piana beside the city wall. It was Ascanio, the first +Duke, the correspondent of Politian and Castiglione, who, finding the +ancestral lair too cramped for the court of a humanist prince, had +summoned Luciano da Laurana to build a palace better fitted to his +state. Duke Ascanio, in bronze by Verocchio, still looked up with pride +from the palace-square at the brick and terra-cotta facade with its +fruit-wreathed arches crowned by imperial profiles; but a later prince +found the small rooms and intricate passages of Laurana's structure +inadequate to the pomp of an ally of Leo X., and Vignola added the state +apartments, the sculpture gallery and the libraries. +</P> + +<P> +The palace now passed for one of the wonders of Italy. The Duke's guest, +the witty and learned Aretino, celebrated it in verse, his friend +Cardinal Bembo in prose; Correggio painted the walls of one room, Guilio +Romano the ceiling of another. It seemed that magnificence could go no +farther, till the seventeenth century brought to the throne a Duke who +asked himself how a self-respecting prince could live without a theatre, +a riding-school and an additional wing to lodge the ever-growing train +of court officials who had by this time replaced the feudal men-at-arms. +He answered the question by laying an extra tax on his people and +inviting to Pianura the great Roman architect Carlo Borromini, who +regretfully admitted that his illustrious patron was on the whole less +royally housed than their Highnesses of Mantua and Parma. Within five +years the "cavallerizza," the theatre and the gardens flung defiance at +these aspiring potentates; and again Pianura took precedence of her +rivals. The present Duke's father had expressed the most recent tendency +of the race by the erection of a chapel in the florid Jesuit style; and +the group of buildings thus chronicled in rich durable lines the varying +passions and ambitions of three hundred years of power. +</P> + +<P> +As Odo followed his guide toward the Duke's apartments he remarked a +change in the aspect of the palace. Where formerly the corridors had +been thronged with pages, lacqueys and gaily-dressed cavaliers and +ladies, only a few ecclesiastics now glided by: here a Monsignore in +ermine and lace rochet, attended by his chaplain and secretaries, there +a cowled Dominican or a sober-looking secular priest. The Duke was +lodged in the oldest portion of the palace, and Odo, who had never +visited these apartments, looked with interest at the projecting +sculptured chimney and vaulted ceiling of the pages' ante-chamber, which +had formerly been the guardroom and was still hung with panoplies. +Thence he was led into a gallery lined with scriptural tapestries and +furnished in the heavy style of the seventeenth century. Here he waited +a few moments, hearing the sound of conversation in the room beyond; +then the door of this apartment opened, and a handsome Dominican passed +out, followed by a page who invited Odo to step into the Duke's cabinet. +</P> + +<P> +This was a very small room, completely panelled in delicate wood-carving +touched with gold. Over this panelling, regardless of the beauty of its +design, had been hung a mass of reliquaries and small devotional +bas-reliefs and paintings, making the room appear more like the chapel +of a wonder-working saint than a prince's closet. Here again Odo found +himself alone; but the page presently returned to say that his Highness +was not well and begged the cavaliere to wait on him in his bed-chamber. +</P> + +<P> +The most conspicuous object in this room was a great bedstead raised on +a dais. The plumed posts and sumptuous hangings of the bed gave it an +altar-like air, and the Duke himself, who lay between the curtains, his +wig replaced by a nightcap, a scapular about his neck, and his +shrivelled body wrapped in a brocaded dressing-gown, looked more like a +relic than a man. His heavy under-lip trembled slightly as he offered +his hand to Odo's salute. +</P> + +<P> +"You find me, cousin," said he after a brief greeting, "much troubled by +a question that has of late incessantly disturbed my rest—can the soul, +after full intuition of God, be polluted by the sins of the body?" he +clutched Odo's hand in his burning grasp. "Is it possible that there are +human beings so heedless of their doom that they can go about their +earthly pleasures with this awful problem unsolved? Oh, why has not some +Pope decided it? Why has God left this hideous uncertainty hanging over +us? You know the doctrine of Plotinus—'he who has access to God leaves +the virtues behind him as the images of the gods are left in the outer +temple.' Many of the fathers believed that the Neoplatonists were +permitted to foreshadow in their teachings the revelation of Christ; but +on these occult points much doubt remains, and though certain of the +great theologians have inclined to this interpretation, there are others +who hold that it leans to the heresy of Quietism." +</P> + +<P> +Odo, who had inferred in the Duke's opening words an allusion to the +little prince's ill-health, or to some political anxiety, was at a loss +how to reply to this strange appeal; but after a moment he said, "I have +heard that your Highness's director is a man of great learning and +discrimination. Can he not help your Highness to some decision on this +point?" +</P> + +<P> +The Duke glanced at him suspiciously. "Father Ignazio," said he, "is in +fact well-versed in theology; but there are certain doctrines +inaccessible to all but a few who have received the direct illumination +of heaven, and on this point I cannot feel that his judgment is final." +He wiped the dampness from his sallow forehead and pressed the scapular +to his lips. "May you never know," he cried, "the agony of a father +whose child is dying, of a sovereign who longs to labour for the welfare +of his people, but who is racked by the thought that in giving his mind +to temporal duties and domestic affections while such spiritual +difficulties are still unsolved, he may be preparing for himself an +eternity of torture such as that—" and he pointed to an old and +blackened picture of the Last Judgment that hung on the opposite wall. +</P> + +<P> +Odo tried to frame a soothing rejoinder; but the Duke passionately +interrupted him. "Alas, cousin, no rest is possible for one who has +attained the rapture of the Beatific Vision, yet who trembles lest the +mere mechanical indulgence of the senses may still subject him to the +common penalty of sin! As a man who has devoted himself to the study of +theology is privileged to argue on questions forbidden to the vulgar, so +surely fasting, maceration and ecstasy must liberate the body from the +bondage of prescribed morality. Shall no distinction be recognised +between my conduct and that of the common sot or debauchee whose soul +lies in blind subjection to his lower instincts? I, who have laboured +early and late to remove temptation from my people—who have punished +offences against conduct as unsparingly as spiritual error—I, who have +not scrupled to destroy every picture in my galleries that contained a +nude figure or a wanton attitude—I, who have been blessed from +childhood by tokens of divine favour and miraculous intervention—can I +doubt that I have earned the privileges of that higher state in which +the soul is no longer responsible for the failings of the body? And +yet—and yet—what if I were mistaken?" he moaned. "What if my advisors +have deceived me? Si autem et sic impius sum, quare frustra laboravi?" +And he sank back on his pillows limp as an empty glove. +</P> + +<P> +Alarmed at his disorder, Odo stood irresolute whether to call for help; +but as he hesitated the Duke feebly drew from his bosom a gold key +attached to a slender Venetian chain. +</P> + +<P> +"This," said he, "unlocks the small tortoise-shell cabinet yonder. In it +you will find a phial of clear liquor, a few drops of which will restore +me. 'Tis an essence distilled by the Benedictine nuns of the Perpetual +Adoration and peculiarly effective in accesses of spiritual +disturbance." +</P> + +<P> +Odo complied, and having poured the liquor into a glass, held it to his +cousin's lips. In a moment the Duke's eye revived and he began to speak +in a weak but composed voice, with an air of dignity in singular +contrast to his previous self-abandonment. "I am," said he, "unhappily +subject to such seizures after any prolonged exertion, and a +conversation I have just had with my director has left me in no fit +state to receive you. The cares of government sit heavy on one who has +scarce health enough for the duties of a private station; and were it +not for my son I should long since have withdrawn to the shelter of the +monastic life." He paused and looked at Odo with a melancholy kindness. +"In you," said he, "the native weakness of our complexion appears to +have been tempered by the blood of your mother's house, and your +countenance gives every promise of health and vivacity." +</P> + +<P> +He broke off with a sigh and continued in a more authoritative tone: +"You have learned from Count Trescorre my motive in summoning you to +Pianura. My son's health causes me the liveliest concern, my own is +subject to such seizures as you have just witnessed. I cannot think +that, in this age of infidelity and disorder, God can design to deprive +a Christian state of a line of sovereigns uniformly zealous in the +defence of truth; but the purposes of Heaven are inscrutable, as the +recent suppression of the Society of Jesus has most strangely proved; +and should our dynasty be extinguished I am consoled by the thought that +the rule will pass to one of our house. Of this I shall have more to say +to you in future. Meanwhile your first business is to acquaint yourself +with your new surroundings. The Duchess holds a circle this evening, +where you will meet the court; but I must advise you that the persons +her Highness favours with her intimacy are not those best qualified to +guide and instruct a young man in your position. These you will meet at +the house of the Countess Belverde, one of the Duchess's ladies, a woman +of sound judgment and scrupulous piety, who gathers about her all our +most learned and saintly ecclesiastics. Count Trescorre will instruct +you in all that becomes your position at court, and my director, Father +Ignazio, will aid you in the selection of a confessor. As to the Bishop, +a most worthy and conversable prelate, to whom I would have you show all +due regard, his zeal in spiritual matters is not as great as I could +wish, and in private talk he indulges in a laxity of opinion against +which I cannot too emphatically warn you. Happily, however, Pianura +offers other opportunities of edification. Father Ignazio is a man of +wide learning and inflexible doctrine, and in several of our +monasteries, notably that of the Barnabites, you will find examples of +sanctity and wisdom such as a young man may well devoutly consider. Our +convents also are distinguished for the severity of their rule and the +spiritual privileges accorded them. The Carmelites have every reason to +hope for the beatification of their aged Prioress, and among the nuns of +the Perpetual Adoration is one who has recently received the ineffable +grace of the vulnus divinum. In the conversation of these saintly nuns, +and of the holy Abbot of the Barnabites, you will find the surest +safeguard against those errors and temptations that beset your age." He +leaned back with a gesture of dismissal; but added, reddening slightly, +as Odo prepared to withdraw: "You will oblige me, cousin, when you meet +my physician, Count Heiligenstern, by not touching on the matter of the +restorative you have seen me take." +</P> + +<P> +Odo left his cousin's presence with a feeling of deep discouragement. To +a spirit aware of the new influences abroad, and fresh from contact with +evils rooted in the very foundations of the existing system, there was a +peculiar irony in being advised to seek guidance and instruction in the +society of ecstatic nuns and cloistered theologians. The Duke, with his +sickly soul agrope in a maze of Neoplatonism and probabilism, while his +people groaned under unjust taxes, while knowledge and intellectual +liberty languished in a kind of moral pest-house, seemed to Odo like a +ruler who, in time of famine, should keep the royal granaries locked and +spend his days praying for the succour that his own hand might have +dispensed. +</P> + +<P> +In the tapestry room one of his Highness's gentlemen waited to reconduct +Odo. Their way lay through the portrait gallery of which he had +previously caught a glimpse, and here he begged his guide to leave him. +He felt a sudden desire to meet his unknown ancestors face to face, and +to trace the tendencies which, from the grim Bracciaforte and the +stately sceptical humanist of Leo's age, had mysteriously forced the +race into its ever-narrowing mould. The dusky canvases, hung high in +tarnished escutcheoned frames, presented a continuous chronicle of the +line, from Bracciaforte himself, with his predatory profile outlined by +some early Tuscan hand against the turrets of his impregnable fortress. +Odo lingered long on this image, but it was not till he stood beneath +Piero della Francesca's portrait of the first Duke that he felt the +thrill of kindred instincts. In this grave face, with its sensuous mouth +and melancholy speculative eyes, he recognised the mingled strain of +impressionability and unrest that had reached such diverse issues in his +cousin and himself. The great Duke of the "Golden Age," in his +Titianesque brocade, the statuette of a naked faun at his elbow, and a +faun-like smile on his own ruddy lips, represented another aspect of the +ancestral spirit: the rounded temperament of an age of Cyrenaicism, in +which every moment was a ripe fruit sunned on all sides. A little +farther on, the shadow of the Council of Trent began to fall on the +ducal faces, as the uniform blackness of the Spanish habit replaced the +sumptuous colours of the Renaissance. Here was the persecuting Bishop, +Paul IV.'s ally against the Spaniards, painted by Caravaggio in hauberk +and mailed gloves, with his motto—Etiam cum gladio—surmounting the +episcopal chair; there the Duke who, after a life of hard warfare and +stern piety, had resigned his office to his son and died in the +"angelica vestis" of the tertiary order; and the "beatified" Duchess who +had sold her jewels to buy corn for the poor during the famine of 1670, +and had worn a hair-shirt under a corset that seemed stiff enough to +serve all the purposes of bodily mortification. So the file descended, +the colours fading, the shadows deepening, till it reached a baby +porporato of the last century, who had donned the cardinal's habit at +four, and stood rigid and a little pale in his red robes and lace, with +a crucifix and a skull on the table to which the top of his berretta +hardly reached. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed to Odo as he gazed on the long line of faces as though their +owners had entered one by one into a narrowing defile, where the sun +rose later and set earlier on each successive traveller; and in every +countenance, from that of the first Duke to that of his own peruked and +cuirassed grandfather, he discerned the same symptom of decadency: that +duality of will which, in a delicately-tempered race, is the fatal fruit +of an undisturbed pre-eminence. They had ruled too long and enjoyed too +much; and the poor creature he had just left to his dismal scruples and +forebodings seemed the mere empty husk of long-exhausted passions. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +2.11. +</H4> + +<P> +The Duchess was lodged in the Borromini wing of the palace, and thither +Odo was conducted that evening. +</P> + +<P> +To eyes accustomed to such ceremonial there was no great novelty in the +troop of powdered servants, the major-domo in his short cloak and chain, +and the florid splendour of the long suite of rooms, decorated in a +style that already appeared over-charged to the more fastidious taste of +the day. Odo's curiosity centred chiefly in the persons peopling this +scene, whose conflicting interests and passions formed, as it were, the +framework of the social structure of Pianura, so that there was not a +labourer in the mulberry-orchards or a weaver in the silk-looms but +depended for his crust of black bread and the leaking roof over his head +on the private whim of some member of that brilliant company. +</P> + +<P> +The Duchess, who soon entered, received Odo with the flighty good-nature +of a roving mind; but as her deep-blue gaze met his her colour rose, her +eyes lingered on his face, and she invited him to a seat at her side. +Maria Clementina was of Austrian descent, and something in her free and +noble port and the smiling arrogance of her manner recalled the aspect +of her distant kinswoman, the young Queen of France. She plied Odo with +a hundred questions, interrupting his answers with a playful abruptness, +and to all appearances more engaged by his person than his discourse. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you seen my son?" she asked. "I remember you a little boy scarce +bigger than Ferrante, whom your mother brought to kiss my hand in the +very year of my marriage. Yes—and you pinched my toy spaniel, sir, and +I was so angry with you that I got up and turned my back on the +company—do you remember? But how should you, being such a child at the +time? Ah, cousin how old you make me feel! I would to God my son looked +as you did then; but the Duke is killing him with his nostrums. The +child was healthy enough when he was born; but what with novenas and +touching of relics and animal magnetism and electrical treatment, +there's not a bone in his little body but the saints and the surgeons +are fighting over its possession. Have you read 'Emile,' cousin, by the +new French author—I forget his name? Well, I would have the child +brought up like 'Emile,' allowed to run wild in the country and grow up +sturdy and hard as a little peasant. But what heresies am I talking! The +book is on the Index, I believe, and if my director knew I had it in my +library I should be set up in the stocks in the market-place and all my +court-gowns burnt at the Church door as a warning against the danger of +importing the new fashions from France!—I hope you hunt, cousin?" she +cried suddenly. "'Tis my chief diversion and one I would have my friends +enjoy with me. His Highness has lately seen fit to cut down my stables, +so that I have scarce forty saddle-horses to my name, and the greater +part but sorry nags at that; yet I can still find a mount for any friend +that will ride with me and I hope to see you among the number if the +Duke can spare you now and then from mass and benediction. His Highness +complains that I am always surrounded by the same company; but is it my +fault if there are not twenty persons at court that can survive a day in +the saddle and a night at cards? Have you seen the Belverde, my mistress +of the robes? She follows the hunt in a litter, cousin, and tells her +beads at the death! I hope you like cards too, cousin, for I would have +all my weaknesses shared by my friends, that they may be the less +disposed to criticise them." +</P> + +<P> +The impression produced on the Duchess by the cavaliere Valsecca was +closely observed by several members of the group surrounding her +Highness. One of these was Count Trescorre, who moved among the +courtiers with an air of ease that seemed to establish without +proclaiming the tie between himself and the Duchess. When Maria +Clementina sat down at play, Trescorre joined Odo and with his usual +friendliness pointed out the most conspicuous figures in the circle. The +Duchess's society, as the Duke had implied, was composed of the livelier +members of the court, chief among whom was the same Don Serafino who had +figured so vividly in the reminiscences of Mirandolina and Cantapresto. +This gentleman, a notorious loose-liver and gamester, with some remains +of good looks and a gay boisterous manner, played the leader of revels +to her Highness's following; and at his heels came the flock of pretty +women and dashing spendthrifts who compose the train of a young and +pleasure-loving princess. On such occasions as the present, however, all +the members of the court were obliged to pay their duty to her Highness; +and conspicuous among these less frequent visitors was the Duke's +director, the suave and handsome Dominican whom Odo had seen leaving his +Highness's closet that afternoon. This ecclesiastic was engaged in +conversation with the Prime Minister, Count Pievepelago, a small feeble +mannikin covered with gold lace and orders. The deference with which the +latter followed the Dominican's discourse excited Odo's attention; but +it was soon diverted by the approach of a lady who joined herself to the +group with an air of discreet familiarity. Though no longer young, she +was still slender and graceful, and her languid eye and vapourish manner +seemed to Odo to veil an uncommon alertness of perception. The rich +sobriety of her dress, the jewelled rosary about her wrist, and most of +all, perhaps, the murderous sweetness of the smile with which the +Duchess addressed her, told him that here was the Countess Belverde; an +inference which Trescorre confirmed. +</P> + +<P> +"The Countess," said he, "or I should rather say the Marchioness of +Boscofolto, since the Duke has just bestowed on her the fief of that +name, is impatient to make your acquaintance; and since you doubtless +remember the saying of the Marquis de Montesquieu, that to know a ruler +one must know his confessor and his mistress, you will perhaps be glad +to seize both opportunities in one." +</P> + +<P> +The Countess greeted Odo with a flattering deference and at once drew +him into conversation with Pievepelago and the Dominican. +</P> + +<P> +"We are discussing," said she, "the details of Prince Ferrante's +approaching visit to the shrine of our Lady of the Mountain. This shrine +lies about half an hour's ride beyond my villa of Boscofolto, where I +hope to have the honour of receiving their Highnesses on their return +from the pilgrimage. The Madonna del Monte, as you doubtless know, has +often preserved the ducal house in seasons of peril, notably during the +great plague of 1630 and during the famine in the Duchess Polixena's +time, when her Highness, of blessed memory, met our Lady in the streets +distributing bread, in the dress of a peasant-woman from the hills, but +with a necklace made of blood-drops instead of garnets. Father Ignazio +has lately counselled the little prince's visiting in state the +protectress of his line, and his Highness's physician, Count +Heiligenstern, does not disapprove the plan. In fact," she added, "I +understand that he thinks all special acts of piety beneficial, as +symbolising the inward act by which the soul incessantly strives to +reunite itself to the One." +</P> + +<P> +The Dominican glanced at Odo with a smile. "The Count's dialectics," +said he, "might be dangerous were they a little clearer; but we must +hope he distinguishes more accurately between his drugs than his +dogmas." +</P> + +<P> +"But I am told," the Prime Minister here interposed in a creaking rusty +voice, "that her Highness is set against the pilgrimage and will put +every obstacle in the way of its being performed." +</P> + +<P> +The Countess sighed and cast down her eyes, the Dominican remained +silent, and Trescorre said quietly to Odo, "Her Highness would be +pleased to have you join her in a game at basset." As they crossed the +room he added in a low tone: "The Duchess, in spite of her remarkable +strength of character, is still of an age to be readily open to new +influences. I observed she was much taken by your conversation, and you +would be doing her a service by engaging her not to oppose this +pilgrimage to Boscofolto. We have Heiligenstern's word that it cannot +harm the prince, it will produce a good impression on the people, and it +is of vital importance to her Highness not to side against the Duke in +such matters." And he withdrew with a smile as Odo approached the +card-table. +</P> + +<P> +Odo left the Duchess's circle with an increased desire to penetrate more +deeply into the organisation of the little world about him, to trace the +operation of its various parts, and to put his hand on the mainspring +about which they revolved; and he wondered whether Gamba, whose +connection with the ducal library must give him some insight into the +affairs of the court, might not prove as instructive a guide through +this labyrinth as through the mazes of the ducal garden. +</P> + +<P> +The Duke's library filled a series of rooms designed in the classical +style of the cinque-cento. On the very threshold Odo was conscious of +leaving behind the trivial activities of the palace, with the fantastic +architecture which seemed their natural setting. Here all was based on a +noble permanence of taste, a convergence of accumulated effort toward a +chosen end; and the door was fittingly surmounted by Seneca's definition +of the wise man's state: "Omnia illi secula ut deo serviunt." +</P> + +<P> +Odo would gladly have lingered among the books which filled the rooms +with an incense-like aroma of old leather. His imagination caressed in +passing the yellowish vellum backs, the worn tooling of Aldine folios, +the heavy silver clasps of ancient chronicles and psalters; but his +first object was to find Gamba and renew the conversation of the +previous day. In this he was disappointed. The only occupant of the +library was the hunchback's friend and protector, the abate Crescenti, a +tall white-haired priest with the roseate gravity and benevolent air of +a donator in some Flemish triptych. The abate, courteously welcoming +Odo, explained that he had despatched his assistant to the Benedictine +monastery to copy certain ancient records of transactions between that +order and the Lords of Valsecca, and added that Gamba, on his return, +should at once be apprised of the cavaliere's wish to see him. +</P> + +<P> +The abate himself had been engaged, when his visitor entered, in +collating manuscripts, but on Odo's begging him to return to his work, +he said with a smile: "I do not suffer from an excess of interruptions, +for the library is the least visited portion of the palace, and I am +glad to welcome any who are disposed to inspect its treasures. I know +not, cavaliere," he added, "if the report of my humble labours has ever +reached you;" and on Odo's affirmative gesture he went on, with the +eagerness of a shy man who gathers assurance from the intelligence of +his listener: "Such researches into the rude and uncivilised past seem +to me as essential to the comprehension of the present as the mastering +of the major premiss to the understanding of a syllogism; and to those +who reproach me for wasting my life over the chronicles of barbarian +invasions and the records of monkish litigations, instead of +contemplating the illustrious deeds of Greek sages and Roman heroes, I +confidently reply that it is more useful to a man to know his own +father's character than that of a remote ancestor. Even in this quiet +retreat," he went on, "I hear much talk of abuses and of the need for +reform; and I often think that if they who rail so loudly against +existing institutions would take the trouble to trace them to their +source, and would, for instance, compare this state as it is today with +its condition five hundred or a thousand years ago, instead of measuring +it by the standard of some imaginary Platonic republic, they would find, +if not less subject for complaint, yet fuller means of understanding and +remedying the abuses they discover." +</P> + +<P> +This view of history was one so new in the abate Crescenti's day that it +surprised Odo with the revelation of unsuspected possibilities. How was +it that among the philosophers whose works he had studied, none had +thought of tracing in the social and political tendencies of the race +the germ of wrongs so confidently ascribed to the cunning of priests and +the rapacity of princes? Odo listened with growing interest while +Crescenti, encouraged by his questions, pointed out how the abuses of +feudalism had arisen from the small land-owner's need of protection +against the northern invader, as the concentration of royal prerogative +had been the outcome of the king's intervention between his great +vassals and the communes. The discouragement which had obscured Odo's +outlook since his visit to Pontesordo was cleared away by the discovery +that in a sympathetic study of the past might lie the secret of dealing +with present evils. His imagination, taking the intervening obstacles at +a bound, arrived at once at the general axiom to which such inductions +pointed; and if he afterward learned that human development follows no +such direct line of advance, but must painfully stumble across the +wastes of error, prejudice and ignorance, while the theoriser traverses +the same distance with a stroke of his speculative pinions; yet the +influence of these teachings tempered his judgments with charity and +dignified his very failures by a tragic sense of their inevitableness. +</P> + +<P> +Crescenti suggested that Gamba should wait on Odo that evening; but the +latter, being uncertain how far he might dispose of his time, enquired +where the hunchback lodged, with a view of sending for him at a +convenient moment. Having dined at the Duchess's table, and soon +wearying of the vapid company of her associates, he yielded to the +desire for contrast that so often guided his course, and set out toward +sunset in search of Gamba's lodging. +</P> + +<P> +It was his first opportunity of inspecting the town at leisure, and for +a while he let his curiosity lead him as it would. The streets near the +palace were full of noble residences, recording, in their sculptured +doorways, in the wrought-iron work of torch-holders and window-grilles, +and in every architectural detail, the gradual change of taste that had +transformed the machicolations of the mediaeval fighter into the open +cortiles and airy balconies of his descendant. Here and there, amid +these inveterate records of dominion, rose the monuments of a mightier +and more ancient power. Of these churches and monasteries the greater +number, dating only from the ascendancy of the Valseccas, showed an +ordered and sumptuous architecture; but one or two buildings surviving +from the period of the free city stood out among them with the austerity +of desert saints in a throng of court ecclesiastics. The columns of the +Cathedral porch were still supported on featureless porphyry lions worn +smooth by generations of loungers; and above the octagonal baptistery +ran a fantastic basrelief wherein the spirals of the vine framed an +allegory of men and monsters symbolising, in their mysterious conflicts, +the ever-recurring Manicheism of the middle ages. Fresh from his talk +with Crescenti, Odo lingered curiously on these sculptures, which but +the day before he might have passed by as the efforts of ignorant +workmen, but which now seemed full of the significance that belongs to +any incomplete expression of human thought or feeling. Of their relation +to the growth of art he had as yet no clear notion; but as evidence of +sensations that his forefathers had struggled to record, they touched +him like the inarticulate stammerings in which childhood strives to +convey its meaning. +</P> + +<P> +He found Gamba's lodging on the upper floor of a decayed palace in one +of the by-lanes near the Cathedral. The pointed arcades of this ancient +building enclosed the remains of floriated mouldings, and the walls of +the court showed traces of fresco-painting; but clothes-lines now hung +between the arches, and about the well-head in the centre of the court +sat a group of tattered women with half-naked children playing in the +dirt at their feet. One of these women directed Odo to the staircase +which ascended between damp stone walls to Gamba's door. This was opened +by the hunchback himself, who, with an astonished exclamation, admitted +his visitor to a scantily furnished room littered with books and papers. +A child sprawled on the floor, and a young woman, who had been sewing in +the fading light of the attic window, snatched him up as Odo entered. +Her back being turned to the light, he caught only a slender youthful +outline; but something in the turn of the head, the shrinking curve of +the shoulders, carried him back to the little barefoot figure cowering +in a corner of the kitchen at Pontesordo, while the farm-yard rang with +Filomena's call—"Where are you then, child of iniquity?" +</P> + +<P> +"Momola—don't you know me?" he exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +She hung back trembling, as though the sound of his voice roused an echo +of fear; but Gamba, reddening slightly, took her hand and led her +forward. +</P> + +<P> +"It is, indeed," said he, "your excellency's old playmate, the Momola of +Pontesordo, who consents to share my poverty and who makes me forget it +by the tenderness of her devotion." +</P> + +<P> +But Momola, at this, found voice. "Oh, sir," she cried, "it is he who +took me in when I was half-dead and starving, who many a time went +hungry to feed me, and who cares for the child as if it were his own!" +</P> + +<P> +As she stood there, in her half-wild hollowed-eyed beauty, which seemed +a sickly efflorescence of the marshes, pressing to her breast another +"child of iniquity" as pale and elfish as her former self, she seemed to +Odo the embodiment of ancient wrongs, risen from the wasted soil to +haunt the dreams of its oppressors. +</P> + +<P> +Gamba shrugged his shoulders. "Why," said he, "a child of my own is a +luxury I am never likely to possess as long as I have wit to remember +the fundamental axiom of philosophy: entia non sunt multiplicanda +praeter necessitatum; so it is natural enough fate should single me out +to repair the negligence of those who have failed to observe that +admirable principle. And now," he added, turning gently to Momola, "it +is time to put the boy to bed." +</P> + +<P> +When the door had closed on her Odo turned to Gamba. "I could learn +nothing at Pontesordo," he said. "They seemed unwilling to speak of her. +What is her story and where did you first know her?" +</P> + +<P> +Gamba's face darkened. "You will remember, cavaliere," he said, "that +some time after your departure from Pianura I passed into the service of +the Marquess of Cerveno, then a youth of about twenty, who combined with +graceful manners and a fair exterior a nature so corrupt and cowardly +that he seemed like some such noble edifice as this, designed to house +great hopes and high ambitions, but fallen to base uses and become the +shelter of thieves and prostitutes. Prince Ferrante being sickly from +his birth, the Marquess was always looked on as the Duke's successor, +and to Trescorre, who even then, as Master of the Horse, cherished the +ambitions he has since realised, no prospect could have been more +distasteful. My noble brother, to do him justice, has always hated the +Jesuits, who, as you doubtless know, were all-powerful here before the +recent suppression of the Order. The Marquess of Cerveno was as +completely under their control as the Duke is under that of the +Dominicans, and Trescorre knew that with the Marquess's accession his +own rule must end. He did his best to gain an influence over his future +ruler, but failing in this resolved to ruin him. +</P> + +<P> +"Cerveno, like all your house, was passionately addicted to the chase, +and spent much time hunting in the forest of Pontesordo. One day the +stag was brought to bay in the farm-yard of the old manor, and there +Cerveno saw Momola, then a girl of sixteen, of a singular wild beauty +which sickness and trouble have since effaced. The young Marquess was +instantly taken; and though hitherto indifferent to women, yielded so +completely to his infatuation that Trescorre, ever on the alert, saw in +it an unexpected means to his end. He instantly married Momola to +Giannozzo, whom she feared and hated; he schooled Giannozzo in the part +of the jealous and vindictive husband, and by the liberal use of money +contrived that Momola, while suffered to encourage the Marquess's +addresses, should be kept so close that Cerveno could not see her save +by coming to Pontesordo. This was the first step in the plan; the next +was to arrange that Momola should lure her lover to the hunting-lodge on +the edge of the chase. This lodge, as your excellency may remember, lies +level with the marsh, and so open to noxious exhalations that a night's +sojourn there may be fatal. The infernal scheme was carried out with the +connivance of the scoundrels at the farm, who had no scruples about +selling the girl for a few ducats; and as to Momola, can you wonder that +her loathing of Giannozzo and of her wretched life at Pontesordo threw +her defenceless into Trescorre's toils? All was cunningly planned to +exasperate Cerveno's passion and Momola's longing to escape; and at +length, pressed by his entreaties and innocently carrying out the +designs of his foe, the poor girl promised to meet him after night-fall +at the hunting-lodge. The secrecy of the adventure, and the peril to +which it exposed him (for Trescorre had taken care to paint Giannozzo +and his father in the darkest colours) were fuel to Cerveno's passion, +and he went night after night to Pontesordo. The time was August, when +the marsh breathes death, and the Duke, apprised of his favourite's +imprudence, forbade his returning to the chase. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing could better have served Trescorre; for opposition spurred the +Marquess's languid temper, and he had now the incredible folly to take +up his residence in the lodge. Within three weeks the fever held him. He +was at once taken to Pianura, and on recovering from his seizure was +sent to take the mountain air at the baths of Lucca. But the poison was +in his blood. He never regained more than a semblance of health, and his +madness having run its course, his passion for Momola turned to hate of +the poor girl to whom he ascribed his destruction. Giannozzo, meanwhile, +terrified by the report that the Duke had winded the intrigue, and +fearing to be charged with connivance, thought to prove his innocence by +casting off his wife and disowning her child. +</P> + +<P> +"What part I played in this grim business I leave your excellency to +conceive. As the Marquess's creature I was forced to assist at the +spectacle without power to stay its consequences; but when the child was +born I carried the news to my master and begged him to come to the +mother's aid. For answer, he had me beaten by his lacqueys and flung out +of his house. I stomached the beating and addressed myself to Trescorre. +My noble brother, whose insight is seldom at fault, saw that I knew +enough to imperil him. The Marquess was dying and his enemy could afford +to be generous. He gave me a little money and the following year +obtained from the Duke my appointment as assistant librarian. In this +way I was able to give Momola a home, and to save her child from the +Innocenti. She and I, cavaliere, are the misshapen offspring of that +cruel foster-parent, who rears more than half the malefactors in the +state; but please heaven the boy shall have a better start in life, and +perhaps grow up to destroy some of the evils on which that cursed +charity thrives." +</P> + +<P> +This narrative, and the sight of Momola and her child, followed so +strangely on the spectacle of sordid misery he had witnessed at +Pontesordo, that an inarticulate pity held Odo by the throat. Gamba's +anger against the people at the farm seemed as senseless as their own +cruelty to their animals. What were they all—Momola, her child, and her +persecutors—but a sickly growth of the decaying social order? He felt +an almost physical longing for fresh air, light, the rush of a purifying +wind through the atmosphere of moral darkness that surrounded him. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +2.12. +</H4> + +<P> +To relieve the tension of his thoughts he set forth to Gamba the purpose +of his visit. +</P> + +<P> +"I am," said he, "much like a stranger at a masked ball, where all the +masks are acquainted with each other's disguises and concerted to +mystify the visitor. Among the persons I have met at court several have +shown themselves ready to guide me through this labyrinth; but, till +they themselves unmask and declare their true characters, I am doubtful +whither they may lead me; nor do I know of any so well fitted as +yourself to give me a clue to my surroundings. As for my own disguise," +he added with a smile, "I believe I removed it sufficiently on our first +meeting to leave you no doubt as to the use to which your information +will be put." +</P> + +<P> +Gamba, who seemed touched by this appeal, nevertheless hesitated before +replying. At length he said: "I have the fullest trust in your +excellency's honour; but I must remind you that during your stay here +you will be under the closest observation and that any opinions you +express will at once be attributed to the persons you are known to +frequent. I would not," he continued hastily, "say this for myself +alone, but I have two mouths to feed and my views are already under +suspicion." +</P> + +<P> +Reassured by Odo's protestations, or rather, perhaps, by the more +convincing warrant of his look and manner, Gamba proceeded to give him a +detailed description of the little world in which chance had placed +them. +</P> + +<P> +"If you have seen the Duke," said he, "I need not tell you that it is +not he who governs the duchy. We are ruled at present by a triumvirate +consisting of the Belverde, the Dominican and Trescorre. Pievepelago, +the Prime Minister, is a dummy put in place by the Jesuits and kept +there by the rivalries of the other three; but he is in his dotage and +the courtiers are already laying wagers as to his successor. Many think +Father Ignazio will replace him, but I stake my faith on Trescorre. The +Duke dislikes him, but he is popular with the middle class, who, since +they have shaken off the yoke of the Jesuits, would not willingly see an +ecclesiastic at the head of the state. The duchess's influence is also +against the Dominican, for her Highness, being, as you know, connected +with the Austrian court, is by tradition unfavourable to the Church +party. The Duchess's preferences would weigh little with the Duke were +it not that she is sole heiress to the old Duke of Monte Alloro, and +that any attempt to bring that principality under the control of the +Holy See might provoke the interference of Austria. +</P> + +<P> +"In so ticklish a situation I see none but Trescorre to maintain the +political balance. He has been adroit enough to make himself necessary +to the Duchess without alienating the Duke; he has introduced one or two +trifling reforms that have given him a name for liberality in spite of +the heavy taxes with which he has loaded the peasantry; and has in short +so played his cards as to profit by the foibles of both parties. Her +Highness," he continued, in reply to a question of Odo's, "was much +taken by him when she first came to Pianura; and before her feeling had +cooled he had contrived to make himself indispensable to her. The +Duchess is always in debt; and Trescorre, as Comptroller of Finance, +holds her by her besetting weakness. Before his appointment her +extravagance was the scandal of the town. She borrowed from her ladies, +her pages, her very lacqueys; when she went on a visit to her uncle of +Monte Alloro she pocketed the money he bestowed on her servants; nay, +she was even accused of robbing the Marchioness of Pievepelago, who, +having worn one evening a diamond necklace which excited her Highness's +admiration, was waylaid on the way home and the jewels torn from her +neck by a crowd of masked ruffians among whom she is said to have +recognised one of the ducal servants. These are doubtless idle reports; +but it is certain that Trescorre's appointment engaged him still more to +the Duchess by enabling him to protect her from such calumnies; while by +increasing the land taxes he has discharged the worst of her debts and +thus made himself popular with the tradesmen she had ruined. Your +excellency must excuse my attempting to paint the private character of +her Highness. Such facts as I have reported are of public notoriety, but +to exceed them would be an unwarranted presumption. I know she has the +name of being affable to her dependents, capable of a fitful generosity, +and easily moved by distress; and it is certain that her domestic +situation has been one to excite pity and disarm criticism. +</P> + +<P> +"With regard to his Highness, it is difficult either to detect his +motives or to divine his preferences. His youth was spent in pious +practices; and a curious reason is given for the origin of this habit. +He was educated, as your excellency is doubtless aware, by a French +philosopher of the school of Hobbes; and it is said that in the interval +of his tasks the poor Duke, bewildered by his governor's distinctions +between conception and cognition, and the object and the sentient, used +to spend his time praying the saints to assist him in his atheistical +studies; indeed a satire of the day ascribes him as making a novena to +the Virgin to obtain a clearer understanding of the universality of +matter. Others with more likelihood aver that he frequented the churches +to escape from the tyranny of his pedagogue; and it is certain that from +one cause or another his education threw him into the opposite extreme +of a superstitious and mechanical piety. His marriage, his differences +with the Duchess, and the evil influence of Cerveno, exposed him to new +temptations, and for a time he led a life which seemed to justify the +worst charges of the enemies of materialism. Recent events have flung +him back on the exaggerated devotion of his youth, and now, when his +health permits, he spends his time serving mass, singing in the choir at +benediction and making pilgrimages to the relics of the saints in the +different churches of the duchy. +</P> + +<P> +"A few years since, at the instigation of his confessor, he destroyed +every picture in the ducal gallery that contained any naked figure or +represented any subject offensive to religion. Among them was Titian's +famous portrait of Duke Ascanio's mistress, known as the Goldsmith's +Daughter, and a Venus by the Venetian painter Giorgione, so highly +esteemed in its day that Pope Leo X. is said to have offered in exchange +for it the gift of a papal benefice, and a Cardinal's hat for Duke +Guidobaldo's younger son. His Highness, moreover, impedes the +administration of justice by resisting all attempts to restrict the +Church's right of sanctuary, and upholds the decree forbidding his +subjects to study at the University of Pavia, where, as you know, the +natural sciences are professed by the ablest scholars of Italy. He +allows no public duties to interfere with his private devotions, and +whatever the urgency of affairs, gives no audience to his ministers on +holydays; and a Cardinal a latere recently passing through the duchy on +his return to Rome was not received at the Duke's table because he +chanced to arrive on a Friday. +</P> + +<P> +"His Highness's fears for Prince Ferrante's health have drawn a swarm of +quacks to Pianura, and the influence of the Church is sometimes +counteracted by that of the physicians with whom the Duke surrounds +himself. The latest of these, the famous Count Heiligenstern, who is +said to have performed some remarkable cures by means of the electrical +fluid and of animal magnetism, has gained such an ascendancy over the +Duke that some suspect him of being an agent of the Austrian court, +while others declare that he is a Jesuit en robe courte. But just at +present the people scent a Jesuit under every habit, and it is even +rumoured that the Belverde is secretly affiliated to a female branch of +the Society. With such a sovereign and such ministers, your excellency +need not be told how the state is governed. Trescorre, heaven save the +mark! represents the liberal party; but his liberalism is like the +generosity of the unarmed traveller who throws his purse to a foot-pad; +and Father Ignazio is at hand to see that the people are not bettered at +the expense of the Church. +</P> + +<P> +"As to the Duke, having no settled policy, and being governed only +through his fears, he leans first to one influence and then to another; +but since the suppression of the Jesuits nothing can induce him to +attack any ecclesiastical privileges. The diocese of Pianura holds a +fief known as the Caccia del Vescovo, long noted as the most lawless +district of the duchy. Before the death of the late Pope, Trescorre had +prevailed on the Duke to annex it to the principality; but the dreadful +fate of Ganganelli has checked bolder sovereigns than his Highness in +their attempts on the immunities of the Church, and one of the fairest +regions of our unhappy state remains a barren waste, the lair of outlaws +and assassins, and a menace to the surrounding country. His Highness is +not incapable of generous impulses and his occasional acts of humanity +might endear him to his people were it not that they despise him for +being the creature of his favourites. Thus, the gift of Boscofolto to +the Belverde has excited the bitterest discontent; for the Countess is +notorious for her cruel exactions, and it is certain that at her death +this rich fief will revert to the Church. And now," Gamba ended with a +smile, "I have made known to your excellency the chief characters in the +masque, as rumour depicts them to the vulgar. As to the court, like the +government, it is divided into two parties: the Duke's, headed by the +Belverde, and containing the staider and more conservative members of +the Church and nobility; and the Duchess's, composed of every fribble +and flatterer, every gamester and rake, every intriguing woman and +vulgar parvenu that can worm a way into her favour. In such an +atmosphere you may fancy how knowledge thrives. The Duke's library +consists of a few volumes of theological casuistry, and her Highness +never opens a book unless it be to scandalise her husband by reading +some prohibited pamphlet from France. The University, since the fall of +the Jesuits, has been in charge of the Barnabite order, and, for aught I +know, the Ptolemaic system is still taught there, together with the +dialectic of Aristotle. As to science, it is anathema; and the press +being subject to the restrictions of the Holy Office, and the University +closed to modern thought, but few scholars are to be found in the duchy, +save those who occupy themselves with belles-lettres, or, like the abate +Crescenti, are engaged in historical research. Pianura, even in the late +Duke's day, had its circle of lettered noblemen who patronised the arts +and founded the local Arcadia; but such pursuits are out of fashion, the +Arcadia languishes, and the Bishop of Pianura is the only dignitary that +still plays the Mecaenas. His lordship, whose theological laxity and +coolness toward the Holy Office have put him out of favour with the +Duke, has, I am told, a fine cabinet of paintings (some of them, it is +rumoured, the very pictures that his Highness ordered to be burnt) and +the episcopal palace swarms with rhyming abatini, fashionable +playwrights and musicians, and the travelling archeologists who hawk +their antiques about from one court to another. Here you may assist at +interminable disputes as to the relative merits of Tasso and Ariosto, or +listen to a learned dissertation on the verse engraved on a carnelian +stone; but as to the questions now agitating the world, they are held of +less account than a problem in counterpoint or the construction of a +doubtful line in Ovid. As long as Truth goes naked she can scarce hope +to be received in good company; and her appearance would probably cause +as much confusion among the Bishop's literati as in the councils of the +Holy Office." +</P> + +<P> +The old analogy likening the human mind to an imperfect mirror, which +modifies the images it reflects, occurred more than once to Odo during +the hunchback's lively delineation. It was impossible not to remember +that the speaker owed his education to the charity of the order he +denounced; and this fact suggested to Odo that the other lights and +shadows in the picture might be disposed with more art than accuracy. +Still, they doubtless embodied a negative truth, and Odo thought it +probable that such intellectual diversion as he could hope for must be +sought in the Bishop's circle. +</P> + +<P> +It was two days later that he first beheld that prelate, heading the +ducal pilgrimage to the shrine of the mountain Virgin. The day had +opened with a confused flight of chimes from every bell-tower in +Pianura, as though a migratory flock of notes had settled for a moment +on the roofs and steeples of the city. The ducal party set forth early +from the palace, but the streets were already spanned with arches and +garlands of foliage, tapestries and religious paintings decked the +facades of the wealthier houses, and at every street-shrine a cluster of +candle-flames hovered like yellow butterflies above the freshly-gathered +flowers. The windows were packed with spectators, and the crowds who +intended to accompany the pilgrimage were already gathering, with their +painted and gilt candles, from every corner of the town. Each church and +monastery door poured forth its priests or friars to swell the line, and +the various lay confraternities, issuing in their distinctive dress from +their "lodges" or assembly-rooms, formed a link between the secular and +religious divisions of the procession. The market-place was strewn with +sand and sweet herbs; and here, on the doorsteps of the Cathedral, +between the featureless porphyry lions, the Bishop waited with his +red-robed chapter, and the deacons carrying the painted banners of the +diocese. Seen thus, with the cloth-of-gold dalmatic above his pontifical +tunic, the mitre surmounting his clear-cut impassive face, and the +crozier held aloft in his jewelled gloves, he might have stood for a +chryselephantine divinity in the porch of some pagan temple. +</P> + +<P> +Odo, riding beside the Duke's litter, had leisure to note not only the +diverse features of the procession but their varying effect on the +spectators. It was plain that, as Trescorre had said, the pilgrimage was +popular with the people. That imaginative sensuousness which has +perpetually renewed the Latin Church by giving form and colour to her +dogmatic abstractions, by transforming every successive phase of her +belief into something to be seen and handled, found an irresistible +outlet in a ceremony that seemed to combine with its devotional intent a +secret element of expiation. The little prince was dimly felt to be +paying for the prodigality of his fathers, to be in some way a link of +suffering between the tongue-tied misery of the fields and the insolent +splendour of the court; and a vague faith in the vicarious efficacy of +his devotion drew the crowd into momentary sympathy with its rulers. Yet +this was but an underlying element in the instinctive delight of the +people in the outward forms of their religion. Odo's late experiences +had wakened him to the influences acting on that obscure substratum of +human life that still seemed, to most men of his rank, of no more +account than the brick lining of their marble-coated palaces. As he +watched the mounting excitement of the throng, and pictured to himself +the lives suddenly lit up by this pledge of unseen promises, he wondered +that the enemies of the Church should ascribe her predominance to any +cause but the natural needs of the heart. The people lived in unlit +hovels, for there was a tax on mental as well as on material windows; +but here was a light that could pierce the narrowest crevice and scatter +the darkness with a single ray. +</P> + +<P> +Odo noted with equal interest the impression produced by the various +members of the court and the Church dignitaries. The Duke's litter was +coldly received, but a pitying murmur widened about the gilt chair in +which Prince Ferrante was seated at his governor's side, and the +approach of Trescorre, mounted on a fine horse and dressed with his +usual sober elegance, woke a shout that made him for a moment the +central figure of the procession. The Bishop was none too warmly +welcomed; but when Crescenti appeared, white-haired and erect among the +parish priests, the crowd swayed toward him like grasses in the suction +of a current; and one of the Duke's gentlemen, seeing Odo's surprise, +said with a smile: "No one does more good in Pianura than our learned +librarian." +</P> + +<P> +A different and still more striking welcome awaited the Duchess, who +presently appeared on her favourite white hackney, surrounded by the +members of her household. Her reluctance to take part in the pilgrimage +had been overcome by the exhilaration of showing herself to the public, +and as she rode along in her gold-embroidered habit and plumed hat she +was just such an image of radiant and indulgent sovereignty as turns +enforced submission into a romantic allegiance. Her flushing cheek and +kindled eye showed the reaction of the effect she produced, and if her +subjects forgot her debts, her violences and follies, she was perhaps +momentarily transformed into the being their enthusiasm created. She was +at any rate keenly alive to the admiration she excited and eager to +enhance it by those showy impulses of benevolence that catch the public +eye; as when, at the city gates, she stopped her horse to intervene in +behalf of a soldier who had been put under arrest for some slight +infraction of duty, and then rode on enveloped in the passionate +shouting of the crowd. +</P> + +<P> +The shrine at which the young prince was to pay his devotions stood just +beyond the city, on the summit of one of the low knolls which pass for +hills in the level landscape of Pianura. The white-columned church with +its classical dome and portico had been erected as a thank-offering +after the plague of 1630, and the nave was lined with life-sized votive +figures of Dukes and Duchesses clad in the actual wigs and robes that +had dressed their transient grandeur. As the procession wound into the +church, to the ringing of bells and the chanting of the choir, Odo was +struck by the spectacle of that line of witnesses, watching in +glassy-eyed irony the pomp and display to which their moldering robes +and tarnished insignia seemed to fix so brief a term. Once or twice +already he had felt the shows of human power as no more than vanishing +reflections on the tide of being; and now, as he knelt near the shrine, +with its central glitter of jewels and its nimbus of wavering lights, +and listened to the reiterated ancient wail: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Mater inviolata, ora pro nobis!<BR> + Virgo veneranda, ora pro nobis!<BR> + Speculum justitiae, ora pro nobis!"<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +it seemed to him as though the bounds of life and death were merged, and +the sumptuous group of which he formed a part already dusted over with +oblivion. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +2.13. +</H4> + +<P> +Spite of the Mountain Madonna's much-vaunted powers, the first effect of +the pilgrimage was to provoke a serious indisposition in the Duke. +Exhausted by fasting and emotion, he withdrew to his apartments and for +several days denied himself to all but Heiligenstern, who was suspected +by some of suffering his patient's disorder to run its course with a +view to proving the futility of such remedies. This break in his +intercourse with his kinsman left Odo free to take the measure of his +new surroundings. The company most naturally engaging him was that which +surrounded the Duchess; but he soon wearied of the trivial diversions it +offered. It had ever been necessary to him that his pleasures should +touch the imagination as well as the senses; and with such refinement of +enjoyment the gallants of Pianura were unacquainted. Odo indeed +perceived with a touch of amusement that, in a society where Don +Serafino set the pace, he must needs lag behind his own lacquey. +Cantapresto had, in fact, been hailed by the Bishop's nephew with a +cordiality that proclaimed them old associates in folly; and the +soprano's manner seemed to declare that, if ever he had held the candle +for Don Serafino, he did not grudge the grease that might have dropped +on his cassock. He was soon prime favourite and court buffoon in the +Duchess's circle, organising pleasure-parties, composing scenarios for +her Highness's private theatre, and producing at court any comedian or +juggler the report of whose ability reached him from the market-place. +Indefatigable in the contriving of such diversions, he soon virtually +passed out of Odo's service into that of her Highness: a circumstance +which the young man the less regretted as it left him freer to cultivate +the acquaintance of Gamba and his friends without exposing them to +Cantapresto's espionage. +</P> + +<P> +Odo had felt himself specially drawn toward the abate Crescenti; and the +afternoon after their first meeting he had repaired to the librarian's +dwelling. Crescenti was the priest of an ancient parish lying near the +fortress; and his tiny house was wedged in an angle of the city walls, +like a bird's nest in the mouth of a disused canon. A long flight of +steps led up to his study, which on the farther side opened level with a +vine-shaded patch of herbs and damask roses in the projection of a +ruined bastion. This interior, the home of studious peace, was as +cheerful and well-ordered as its inmate's mind; and Odo, seated under +the vine pergola in the late summer light, and tasting the abate's Val +Pulicella while he turned over the warped pages of old codes and +chronicles, felt the stealing charm of a sequestered life. +</P> + +<P> +He had learned from Gamba that Crescenti was a faithful parish priest as +well as an assiduous scholar, but he saw that the librarian's +beneficence took that purely personal form which may coexist with a +serene acceptance of the general evils underlying particular hardships. +His charities were performed in the old unquestioning spirit of the +Roman distribution of corn; and doubtless the good man who carries his +loaf of bread and his word of hope into his neighbour's hovel reaps a +more tangible return than the lonely thinker who schemes to undermine +the strongholds of injustice. Still there was a perplexing contrast +between the superficiality of Crescenti's moral judgments and the +breadth and penetration of his historic conceptions. Odo was too +inexperienced to reflect that a man's sense of the urgency of +improvement lies mainly in the line of his talent: as the merchant is +persuaded that the roads most in need of mending are those on which his +business makes him travel. Odo himself was already conscious of living +in a many-windowed house, with outlooks diverse enough to justify more +than one view of the universe; but he had no conception of that +concentration of purpose that may make the mind's flight to its goal as +direct and unvarying as the course of a homing bird. The talk turning on +Gamba, Crescenti spoke of the help which the hunchback gave him in his +work among the poor. +</P> + +<P> +"His early hardships," said he, "have given him an insight into +character that my happier circumstances have denied me; and he has more +than once been the means of reclaiming some wretch that I despaired of. +Unhappily, his parts and learning are beyond his station, and will not +let him rest in the performance of his duties. His mind, I often tell +him, is like one of those inn parlours hung with elaborate maps of the +three Heretical Cities; whereas the only topography with which the +virtuous traveller need be acquainted is that of the Heavenly City to +which all our journeyings should tend. The soundness of his heart +reassures me as to this distemper of the reason; but others are less +familiar with his good qualities and I tremble for the risks to which +his rashness may expose him." +</P> + +<P> +The librarian went on to say that Gamba had a pretty poetical gift which +he was suspected of employing in the composition of anonymous satires on +the court, the government and the Church. At that period every Italian +town was as full of lampoons as a marsh of mosquitoes, and it was as +difficult in the one case as the other for the sufferer to detect the +specific cause of his sting. The moment in Italy was a strange one. The +tide of reform had been turned back by the very act devised to hasten +it: the suppression of the Society of Jesus. The shout of liberation +that rose over the downfall of the order had sunk to a guarded whisper. +The dark legend already forming around Ganganelli's death, the hint of +that secret liquor distilled for the order's use in a certain convent of +Perugia, hung like a menace on the political horizon; and the disbanded +Society seemed to have tightened its hold on the public conscience as a +dying man's clutch closes on his victorious enemy. +</P> + +<P> +So profoundly had the Jesuits impressed the world with the sense of +their mysterious power that they were felt to be like one of those +animal organisms which, when torn apart, carry on a separate existence +in every fragment. Ganganelli's bull had provided against their exerting +any political influence, or controlling opinion as confessors or as +public educators; but they were known to be everywhere in Italy, either +hidden in other orders, or acting as lay agents of foreign powers, as +tutors in private families, or simply as secular priests. Even the +confiscation of their wealth did not seem to diminish the popular sense +of their strength. Perhaps because that strength had never been +completely explained, even by their immense temporal advantages, it was +felt to be latent in themselves, and somehow capable of withstanding +every kind of external assault. They had moreover benefited by the +reaction which always follows on the breaking up of any great +organisation. Their detractors were already beginning to forget their +faults and remember their merits. The people had been taught to hate the +Society as the possessor of wealth and privileges which should have been +theirs; but when the Society fell its possessions were absorbed by the +other powers, and in many cases the people suffered from abuses and +maladministration which they had not known under their Jesuit landlords. +The aristocracy had always been in sympathy with the order, and in many +states the Jesuits had been banished simply as a measure of political +expediency, a sop to the restless masses. In these cases the latent +power of the order was concealed rather than diminished by the pretence +of a more liberal government, and everywhere, in one form or another, +the unseen influence was felt to be on the watch for those who dared to +triumph over it too soon. +</P> + +<P> +Such conditions fostered the growth of social satire. Constructive +ambition was forced back into its old disguises, and ridicule of +individual weaknesses replaced the general attack on beliefs and +institutions. Satirical poems in manuscript passed from hand to hand in +coffee-houses, casinos and drawing-rooms, and every conspicuous incident +in social or political life was borne on a biting quatrain to the +confines of the state. The Duke's gift of Boscofolto to the Countess +Belverde had stirred up a swarm of epigrams, and the most malignant +among them, Crescenti averred, were openly ascribed to Gamba. +</P> + +<P> +"A few more imprudences," he added, "must cost him his post; and if your +excellency has any influence with him I would urge its being used to +restrain him from such excesses." +</P> + +<P> +Odo, on taking his leave of the librarian, ran across Gamba at the first +street-corner; and they had not proceeded a dozen yards together when +the eye of the Duke's kinsman fell on a snatch of doggerel scrawled in +chalk on an adjacent wall. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Beware (the quatrain ran) O virtuous wife or maid,<BR> + Our ruler's fondness for the shade,<BR> + Lest first he woo thee to the leafy glade<BR> + And then into the deeper wood persuade."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +This crude play on the Belverde's former title and the one she had +recently acquired was signed "Carlo Gamba." +</P> + +<P> +Odo glanced curiously at the hunchback, who met the look with a composed +smile. "My enemies don't do me justice," said he; "I could do better +than that if I tried;" and he effaced the words with a sweep of his +shabby sleeve. +</P> + +<P> +Other lampoons of the same quality were continually cropping up on the +walls of Pianura, and the ducal police were kept as busy rubbing them +out as a band of weeders digging docks out of a garden. The Duchess's +debts, the Duke's devotions, the Belverde's extortions, Heiligenstern's +mummery, and the political rivalry between Trescorre and the Dominican, +were sauce to the citizen's daily bread; but there was nothing in these +popular satires to suggest the hunchback's trenchant irony. +</P> + +<P> +It was in the Bishop's palace that Odo read the first lampoon in which +he recognised his friend's touch. In this society of polished dilettanti +such documents were valued rather for their literary merits than for +their political significance; and the pungent lines in which the Duke's +panaceas were hit off (the Belverde figuring among them as a Lenten +diet, a dinner of herbs, and a wonder-working bone) caused a flutter of +professional envy in the episcopal circle. +</P> + +<P> +The Bishop received company every evening; and Odo soon found that, as +Gamba had said, it was the best company in Pianura. His lordship lived +in great state in the Gothic palace adjoining the Cathedral. The gloomy +vaulted rooms of the original structure had been abandoned to the small +fry of the episcopal retinue. In the chambers around the courtyard his +lordship drove a thriving trade in wines from his vineyards, while his +clients awaited his pleasure in the armoury, where the panoplies of his +fighting predecessors still rusted on the walls. Behind this facade a +later prelate had built a vast wing overlooking a garden which descended +by easy terraces to the Piana. In the high-studded apartments of this +wing the Bishop held his court and lived the life of a wealthy secular +nobleman. His days were agreeably divided between hunting, inspecting +his estates, receiving the visits of antiquarians, artists and literati, +and superintending the embellishments of his gardens, then the most +famous in North Italy; while his evenings were given to the more private +diversions which his age and looks still justified. In religious +ceremonies or in formal intercourse with his clergy he was the most +imposing and sacerdotal of bishops; but in private life none knew better +how to disguise his cloth. He was moreover a man of parts, and from the +construction of a Latin hexameter to the growing of a Holland bulb, had +a word worth hearing on all subjects likely to engage the dilettante. A +liking soon sprang up between Odo and this versatile prelate; and in the +retirement of his lordship's cabinet, or pacing with him the +garden-alleys set with ancient marbles, the young man gathered many +precepts of that philosophy of pleasure which the great churchmen of the +eighteenth century practised with such rare completeness. +</P> + +<P> +The Bishop had not, indeed, given much thought to the problems which +most deeply engaged his companion. His theory of life took no account of +the future and concerned itself little with social conditions outside +his own class; but he was acquainted with the classical schools of +thought, and, having once acted as the late Duke's envoy to the French +court, had frequented the Baron d'Holbach's drawing-room and +familiarised himself with the views of the Encyclopaedists; though it +was clear that he valued their teachings chiefly as an argument against +asceticism. +</P> + +<P> +"Life," said he to Odo, as they sat one afternoon in a garden-pavilion +above the river, a marble Mercury confronting them at the end of a vista +of clipped myrtle, "life, cavaliere, is a stock on which we may graft +what fruit or flower we choose. See the orange-tree in that Capo di +Monte jar: in a week or two it will be covered with red roses. Here +again is a citron set with carnations; and but yesterday my gardener +sent me word that he had at last succeeded in flowering a pomegranate +with jasmine. In such cases the gardener chooses as his graft the flower +which, by its colour and fragrance, shall most agreeably contrast with +the original stock; and he who orders his life on the same principle, +grafting it with pleasures that form a refreshing off-set to the +obligations of his rank and calling, may regard himself as justified by +Nature, who, as you see, smiles on such abnormal unions among her +children.—Not long ago," he went on, with a reminiscent smile, "I had +here under my roof a young person who practised to perfection this art +of engrafting life with the unexpected. Though she was only a player in +a strolling company—a sweetheart of my wild nephew's, as you may +guess—I have met few of her sex whose conversation was so instructive +or who so completely justified the Scriptural adage, "the sweetness of +the lips increaseth learning..." He broke off to sip his chocolate. "But +why," he continued, "do I talk thus to a young man whose path is lined +with such opportunities? The secret of happiness is to say with the +great Emperor, 'Everything is fruit to me which thy seasons bring, O +Nature.'" +</P> + +<P> +"Such a creed, monsignore," Odo ventured to return, "is as flattering to +the intelligence as to the senses; for surely it better becomes a +reasoning being to face fate as an equal than to cower before it like a +slave; but, since you have opened yourself so freely on the subject, may +I carry your argument a point farther and ask how you reconcile your +conception of man's destiny with the authorised teachings of the +Church?" +</P> + +<P> +The Bishop raised his head with a guarded glance. +</P> + +<P> +"Cavaliere," said he, "the ancients did not admit the rabble to their +sacred mysteries; nor dare we permit the unlettered to enter the +hollowed precincts of the temple of Reason." +</P> + +<P> +"True," Odo acquiesced; "but if the teachings of Christianity are the +best safeguard of the people, should not those teachings at least be +stripped of the grotesque excrescences with which the superstitions of +the people and—perhaps—the greed and craft of the priesthood have +smothered the simple precepts of Jesus?" +</P> + +<P> +The Bishop shrugged his shoulders. "As long," said he, "as the people +need the restraint of a dogmatic religion so long must we do our utmost +to maintain its outward forms. In our market-place on feast-days there +appears the strange figure of a man who carries a banner painted with an +image of Saint Paul surrounded by a mass of writhing serpents. This man +calls himself a descendant of the apostle and sells to our peasants the +miraculous powder with which he killed the great serpent at Malta. If it +were not for the banner, the legend, the descent from Saint Paul, how +much efficacy do you think those powders would have? And how long do you +think the precepts of an invisible divinity would restrain the evil +passions of an ignorant peasant? It is because he is afraid of the +plaster God in his parish church, and of the priest who represents that +God, that he still pays his tithes and forfeitures and keeps his hands +from our throats. By Diana," cried the Bishop, taking snuff, "I have no +patience with those of my calling who go about whining for apostolic +simplicity, and would rob the churches of their ornaments and the +faithful of their ceremonies. +</P> + +<P> +"For my part," he added, glancing with a smile about the +delicately-stuccoed walls of the pavilion, through the windows of which +climbing roses shed their petals on the rich mosaics transferred from a +Roman bath, "for my part, when I remember that 'tis to Jesus of Nazareth +I owe the good roof over my head and the good nags in my stable; nay, +the very venison and pheasants from my preserves, with the gold plate I +eat them off, and above all the leisure to enjoy as they deserve these +excellent gifts of the Creator—when I consider this, I say, I stand +amazed at those who would rob so beneficent a deity of the least of his +privileges.—But why," he continued again after a moment, as Odo +remained silent, "should we vex ourselves with such questions, when +Providence has given us so fair a world to enjoy and such varied +faculties with which to apprehend its beauties? I think you have not +seen the Venus Callipyge in bronze that I have lately received from +Rome?" And he rose and led the way to the house. +</P> + +<P> +This conversation revealed to Odo a third conception of the religious +idea. In Piedmont religion imposed itself as a military discipline, the +enforced duty of the Christian citizen to the heavenly state; to the +Duke it was a means of purchasing spiritual immunity from the +consequences of bodily weakness; to the Bishop, it replaced the panem et +circenses of ancient Rome. Where, in all this, was the share of those +whom Christ had come to save? Where was Saint Francis's devotion to his +heavenly bride, the Lady Poverty? Though here and there a good parish +priest like Crescenti ministered to the temporal wants of the peasantry, +it was only the free-thinker and the atheist who, at the risk of life +and fortune, laboured for their moral liberation. Odo listened with a +saddened heart, thinking, as he followed his host through the perfumed +shade of the gardens, and down the long saloon at the end of which the +Venus stood, of those who for the love of man had denied themselves such +delicate emotions and gone forth cheerfully to exile or imprisonment. +These were the true lovers of the Lady Poverty, the band in which he +longed to be enrolled; yet how restrain a thrill of delight as the +slender dusky goddess detached herself against the cool marble of her +niche, looking, in the sun-rippled green penumbra of the saloon, with a +sound of water falling somewhere out of sight, as though she had just +stepped dripping from the wave? +</P> + +<P> +In the Duchess's company life struck another gait. Here was no waiting +on subtle pleasures, but a headlong gallop after the cruder sort. +Hunting, gaming and masquerading filled her Highness's days; and Odo had +felt small inclination to keep pace with the cavalcade, but for the +flying huntress at its head. To the Duchess's "view halloo" every drop +of blood in him responded; but a vigilant image kept his bosom barred. +So they rode, danced, diced together, but like strangers who cross hands +at a veglione. Once or twice he fancied the Duchess was for unmasking; +but her impulses came and went like fireflies in the dusk, and it suited +his humour to remain a looker-on. +</P> + +<P> +So life piped to him during his first days at Pianura: a merry tune in +the Bishop's company, a mad one in the Duchess's; but always with the +same sad undertone, like the cry of the wind on a warm threshold. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +2.14. +</H4> + +<P> +Trescorre too kept open house, and here Odo found a warmer welcome than +he had expected. Though Trescorre was still the Duchess's accredited +lover, it was clear that the tie between them was no longer such as to +make him resent her kindness to her young kinsman. He seemed indeed +anxious to draw Odo into her Highness's circle, and surprised him by a +frankness and affability of which his demeanour at Turin had given no +promise. As leader of the anti-clericals he stood for such liberalism as +dared show its head in Pianura; and he seemed disposed to invite Odo's +confidence in political matters. The latter was, however, too much the +child of his race not to hang back from such an invitation. He did not +distrust Trescorre more than the other courtiers; but it was a time when +every ear was alert for the foot-fall of treachery, and the rashest man +did not care to taste first of any cup that was offered him. +</P> + +<P> +These scruples Trescorre made it his business to dispel. He was the only +person at court who was willing to discuss politics, and his clear view +of affairs excited Odo's admiration if not his concurrence. Odo's was in +fact one of those dual visions which instinctively see both sides of a +case and take the defence of the less popular. Gamba's principles were +dear to him; but he did not therefore believe in the personal baseness +of every opponent of the cause. He had refrained from mentioning the +hunchback to his supposed brother; but the latter, in one of their +talks, brought forward Gamba's name, without reference to the +relationship, but with high praise for the young librarian's parts. +This, at the moment, put Odo on his guard; but Trescorre having one day +begged him to give Gamba warning of some petty danger that threatened +him from the clerical side, it became difficult not to believe in an +interest so attested; the more so as Trescorre let it be seen that +Gamba's political views were not such as to distract from his sympathy. +</P> + +<P> +"The fellow's brains," said he, "would be of infinite use to me; but +perhaps he serves us best at a distance. All I ask is that he shall not +risk himself too near Father Ignazio's talons, for he would be a pretty +morsel to throw to the Holy Office, and the weak point of such a man's +position is that, however dangerous in life, he can threaten no one from +the grave." +</P> + +<P> +Odo reported this to Gamba, who heard with a two-edged smile. "Yes," was +his comment, "he fears me enough to want to see me safe in his fold." +</P> + +<P> +Odo flushed at the implication. "And why not?" said he. "Could you not +serve the cause better by attaching yourself openly to the liberals than +by lurking in the ditch to throw mud at both parties?" +</P> + +<P> +"The liberals!" sneered Gamba. "Where are they? And what have they done? +It was they who drove out the Jesuits; but to whom did the Society's +lands go? To the Duke, every acre of them! And the peasantry suffered +far less under the fathers, who were good agriculturists, than under the +Duke, who is too busy with monks and astrologers to give his mind to +irrigation or the reclaiming of waste land. As to the University, who +replaced the Jesuits there? Professors from Padua or Pavia? Heaven +forbid! But holy Barnabites that have scarce Latin enough to spell out +the Lives of the Saints! The Jesuits at least gave a good education to +the upper classes; but now the young noblemen are as ignorant as +peasants." +</P> + +<P> +Trescorre received at his house, besides the court functionaries, all +the liberal faction and the Duchess's personal friends. He kept a lavish +state, but lacking the Bishop's social gifts, was less successful in +fusing the different elements of his circle. The Duke, for the first few +weeks after his kinsman's arrival, received no company; and did not even +appear in the Belverde's drawing-rooms; but Odo deemed it none the less +politic to show himself there without delay. +</P> + +<P> +The new Marchioness of Boscofolto lived in one of the finest palaces of +Pianura, but prodigality was the least of her failings, and the +meagreness of her hospitality was an unfailing source of epigram to the +drawing-rooms of the opposition. True, she kept open table for half the +clergy in the town (omitting, of course, those worldly ecclesiastics who +frequented the episcopal palace), but it was whispered that she had +persuaded her cook to take half wages in return for the privilege of +victualling such holy men, and that the same argument enabled her to +obtain her provisions below the market price. In her outer ante-chamber +the servants yawned dismally over a cold brazier, without so much as a +game of cards to divert them, and the long enfilade of saloons leading +to her drawing-room was so scantily lit that her guests could scarce +recognise each other in passing. In the room where she sat, a tall +crucifix of ebony and gold stood at her elbow and a holy-water cup +encrusted with jewels hung on the wall at her side. A dozen or more +ecclesiastics were always gathered in stiff seats about the hearth; and +the aspect of the apartment, and the Marchioness's semi-monastic +costume, justified the nickname of "the sacristy," which the Duchess had +bestowed on her rival's drawing-room. +</P> + +<P> +Around the small fire on this cheerless hearth the fortunes of the state +were discussed and directed, benefices disposed of, court appointments +debated, and reputations made and unmade in tones that suggested the low +drone of a group of canons intoning the psalter in an empty cathedral. +The Marchioness, who appeared as eager as the others to win Odo to her +party, received him with every mark of consideration and pressed him to +accompany her on a visit to her brother, the Abbot of the Barnabites; an +invitation which he accepted with the more readiness as he had not +forgotten the part played by that religious in the adventure of +Mirandolina of Chioggia. +</P> + +<P> +He found the Abbot a man with a bland intriguing eye and centuries of +pious leisure in his voice. He received his visitors in a room hung with +smoky pictures of the Spanish school, showing Saint Jerome in the +wilderness, the death of Saint Peter Martyr, and other sanguinary +passages in the lives of the saints; and Odo, seated among such +surroundings, and hearing the Abbot deplore the loose lives and +religious negligence of certain members of the court, could scarce +repress a smile as the thought of Mirandolina flitted through his mind. +</P> + +<P> +"She must," he reflected, "have found this a sad change from the +Bishop's palace;" and admired with what philosophy she had passed from +one protector to the other. +</P> + +<P> +Life in Pianura, after the first few weeks, seemed on the whole a tame +business to a youth of his appetite; and he secretly longed for a +pretext to resume his travels. None, however, seemed likely to offer; +for it was clear that the Duke, in the interval of more pressing +concerns, wished to study and observe his kinsman. When sufficiently +recovered from the effects of the pilgrimage, he sent for Odo and +questioned him closely as to the way in which he had spent his time +since coming to Pianura, the acquaintances he had formed and the +churches he had frequented. Odo prudently dwelt on the lofty tone of the +Belverde's circle, and on the privilege he had enjoyed in attending her +on a visit to the holy Abbot of the Barnabites; touching more lightly on +his connection with the Bishop, and omitting all mention of Gamba and +Crescenti. The Duke assumed a listening air, but it was clear that he +could not put off his private thoughts long enough to give an open mind +to other matters; and Odo felt that he was nowhere so secure as in his +cousin's company. He remembered, however, that the Duke had plenty of +eyes to replace his own, and that a secret which was safe in his actual +presence might be in mortal danger on his threshold. +</P> + +<P> +His Highness on this occasion was pleased to inform his kinsman that he +had ordered Count Trescorre to place at the young man's disposal an +income enabling him to keep a carriage and pair, four saddle-horses and +five servants. It was scant measure for an heir-presumptive, and Odo +wondered if the Belverde had had a hand in the apportionment; but his +indifference to such matters (for though personally fastidious he cared +little for display) enabled him to show such gratitude that the Duke, +fancying he might have been content with less, had nearly withdrawn two +of the saddle-horses. This becoming behaviour greatly advanced the young +man in the esteem of his Highness, who accorded him on the spot the +petites entrees of the ducal apartments. It was a privilege Odo had no +mind to abuse; for if life moved slowly in the Belverde's circle it was +at a standstill in the Duke's. His Highness never went abroad but to +serve mass in some church (his almost daily practice) or to visit one of +the numerous monasteries within the city. From Ash Wednesday to Easter +Monday it was his custom to transact no public or private business. +During this time he received none of his ministers, and saw his son but +for a few moments once a day; while in Holy Week he made a retreat with +the Barnabites, the Belverde withdrawing for the same period to the +convent of the Perpetual Adoration. +</P> + +<P> +Odo, as his new life took shape, found his chief interest in the society +of Crescenti and Gamba. In the Duchess's company he might have lost all +taste for soberer pleasures, but that his political sympathies wore a +girl's reproachful shape. Ever at his side, more vividly than in the +body, Fulvia Vivaldi became the symbol of his best aims and deepest +failure. Sometimes, indeed, her look drove him forth in the Duchess's +train, but more often, drawing him from the crowd of pleasure-seekers, +beckoned the way to solitude and study. Under Crescenti's tuition he +began the reading of Dante, who just then, after generations of neglect, +was once more lifting his voice above the crowd of minor singers. The +mighty verse swept Odo out to open seas of thought, and from his vision +of that earlier Italy, hapless, bleeding, but alive and breast to breast +with the foe, he drew the presage of his country's resurrection. +</P> + +<P> +Passing from this high music to the company of Gamba and his friends was +like leaving a church where the penitential psalms are being sung for +the market-place where mud and eggs are flying. The change was not +agreeable to a fastidious taste; but, as Gamba said, you cannot clean +out a stable by waving incense over it. After some hesitation, he had +agreed to make Odo acquainted with those who, like himself, were +secretly working in the cause of progress. These were mostly of the +middle class, physicians, lawyers, and such men of letters as could +subsist on the scant wants of an unliterary town. Ablest among them was +the bookseller, Andreoni, whose shop was the meeting place of all the +literati of Pianura. Andreoni, famous throughout Italy for his editions +of the classics, was a man of liberal views and considerable learning, +and in his private room were to be found many prohibited volumes, such +as Beccaria's Crime and Punishment, Gravina's Hydra Mystica, Concini's +History of Probabilism and the Amsterdam editions of the French +philosophical works. +</P> + +<P> +The reformers met at various places, and their meetings were conducted +with as much secrecy as those of the Honey-Bees. Odo was at first +surprised that they should admit him to their conferences; but he soon +divined that the gatherings he attended were not those at which the +private designs of the party were discussed. It was plain that they +belonged to some kind of secret association; and before he had been long +in Pianura he learned that the society of the Illuminati, that bugbear +of priests and princes, was supposed to have agents at work in the +duchy. Odo had heard little of this execrated league, but that it was +said to preach atheism, tyrannicide and the complete abolition of +territorial rights; but this, being the report of the enemy, was to be +received with a measure of doubt. He tried to learn from Gamba whether +the Illuminati had a lodge in the city; but on this point he could +extract no information. Meanwhile he listened with interest to +discussions on taxation, irrigation, and such economic problems as might +safely be aired in his presence. +</P> + +<P> +These talks brought vividly before him the political corruption of the +state and the misery of the unprivileged classes. All the land in the +duchy was farmed on the metayer system, and with such ill results that +the peasants were always in debt to their landlords. The weight of the +evil lay chiefly on the country-people, who had to pay on every pig they +killed, on all the produce they carried to market, on their farm +implements, their mulberry-orchards and their silk-worms, to say nothing +of the tithes to the parish. So oppressive were these obligations that +many of the peasants, forsaking their farms, enrolled themselves in the +mendicant orders, thus actually strengthening the hand of their +oppressors. Of legislative redress there was no hope, and the Duke was +inaccessible to all but his favourites. The previous year, as Odo +learned, eight hundred poor labourers, exasperated by want, had +petitioned his Highness to relieve them of the corvee; but though they +had raised fifteen hundred scudi to bribe the court official who was to +present their address, no reply had ever been received. In the city +itself, the monopoly of corn and tobacco weighed heavily on the +merchants, and the strict censorship of the press made the open +ventilation of wrongs impossible, while the Duke's sbirri and the agents +of the Holy Office could drag a man's thoughts from his bosom and search +his midnight dreams. The Church party, in the interest of their order, +fostered the Duke's fears of sedition and branded every innovator as an +atheist; the Holy Office having even cast grave doubts on the orthodoxy +of a nobleman who had tried to introduce the English system of ploughing +on his estates. It was evident to Odo that the secret hopes of the +reformers centred in him, and the consciousness of their belief was +sweeter than love in his bosom. It diverted him from the follies of his +class, fixed his thoughts at an age when they are apt to range, and thus +slowly shaped and tempered him for high uses. +</P> + +<P> +In this fashion the weeks passed and summer came. It was the Duchess's +habit to escape the August heats by retiring to the dower-house on the +Piana, a league beyond the gates; but the little prince being still +under the care of the German physician, who would not consent to his +removal, her Highness reluctantly lingered in Pianura. With the first +leafing of the oaks Odo's old love for the budding earth awoke, and he +rode out daily in the forest toward Pontesordo. It was but a flat +stretch of shade, lacking the voice of streams and the cold breath of +mountain-gorges: a wood without humours or surprises; but the mere +spring of the turf was delightful as he cantered down the grass alleys +roofed with level boughs, the outer sunlight just gilding the lip of the +long green tunnel. +</P> + +<P> +Sometimes he attended the Duchess, but oftener chose to ride alone, +setting forth early after a night at cards or a late vigil in +Crescenti's study. One of these solitary rides brought him without +premeditation to a low building on the fenny edge of the wood. It was a +small house, added, it appeared, to an ancient brick front adorned with +pilasters, perhaps a fragment of some woodland temple. The door-step was +overgrown with a stealthy green moss and tufted with giant fennel; and a +shutter swinging loose on its hinge gave a glimpse of inner dimness. Odo +guessed at once that this was the hunting lodge where Cerveno had found +his death; and as he stood looking out across the oozy secrets of the +marsh, the fever seemed to hang on his steps. He turned away with a +shiver; but whether it were the sullen aspect of the house, or the close +way in which the wood embraced it, the place suddenly laid a detaining +hand upon him. It was as though he had reached the heart of solitude. +Even the faint woodland noises seemed to recede from that dense circle +of shade, and the marsh turned a dead eye to heaven. +</P> + +<P> +Odo tethered his horse to a bough and seated himself on the doorstep; +but presently his musings were disturbed by the sound of voices, and the +Duchess, attended by her gentlemen, swept by at the end of a long glade. +He fancied she waved her hand to him; but being in no humour to join the +cavalcade, he remained seated, and the riders soon passed out of sight. +As he sat there sombre thoughts came to him, stealing up like +exhalations from the fen. He saw his life stretched out before him, full +of broken purposes and ineffectual effort. Public affairs were in so +perplexed a case that consistent action seemed impossible to either +party, and their chief efforts were bent toward directing the choice of +a regent. It was this, rather than the possibility of his accession, +which fixed the general attention on Odo, and pledged him to +circumspection. While not concealing that in economic questions his +sympathies were with the liberals, he had carefully abstained from +political action, and had hoped, by the strict observance of his +religious duties, to avoid the enmity of the Church party. Trescorre's +undisguised sympathy seemed the pledge of liberal support, and it could +hardly be doubted that the choice of a regent in the Church party would +be unpopular enough to imperil the dynasty. With Austria hovering on the +horizon the Church herself was not likely to take such risks; and thus +all interests seemed to centre in Odo's appointment. +</P> + +<P> +New elements of uncertainty were, however, perpetually disturbing the +prospect. Among these was Heiligenstern's growing influence over the +Duke. Odo had seen little of the German physician since their first +meeting. Hearsay had it that he was close-pressed by the spies of the +Holy Office, and perhaps for this reason he remained withdrawn in the +Duke's private apartments and rarely showed himself abroad. The little +prince, his patient, was as seldom seen, and the accounts of the +German's treatment were as conflicting as the other rumours of the +court. It was noised on all sides, however, that the Duke was +ill-satisfied with the results of the pilgrimage, and resolved upon less +hallowed measures to assure his heir's recovery. Hitherto, it was +believed, the German had conformed to the ordinary medical treatment; +but the clergy now diligently spread among the people the report that +supernatural agencies were to be employed. This rumour caused such +general agitation that it was said both parties had made secret advances +to the Duchess in the hope of inducing her to stay the scandal. Though +Maria Clementina felt little real concern for the public welfare, her +stirring temper had more than once roused her to active opposition of +the government, and her kinship with the old Duke of Monte Alloro made +her a strong factor in the political game. Of late, however, she seemed +to have wearied of this sport, throwing herself entirely into the +private diversions of her station, and alluding with laughing +indifference to her husband's necromantic researches. +</P> + +<P> +Such was the conflicting gossip of the hour; but it was in fact idle to +forecast the fortunes of a state dependent on a valetudinary's whims; +and rumour was driven to feed upon her own conjectures. To Odo the state +of affairs seemed a satire on his secret aspirations. In a private +station or as a ruling prince he might have served his fellows: as a +princeling on the edge of power he was no more than the cardboard sword +in a toy armoury. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly he heard his name pronounced and starting up saw Maria +Clementina at his side. She rode alone, and held out her hand as he +approached. +</P> + +<P> +"I have had an accident," said she, breathing quickly. "My girth is +broke and I have lost the rest of my company." +</P> + +<P> +She was glowing with her quick ride, and as Odo lifted her from the +saddle her loosened hair brushed his face like a kiss. For a moment she +seemed like life's answer to the dreary riddle of his fate. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," she sighed, leaning on him, "I am glad I found you, cousin; I +hardly knew how weary I was;" and she dropped languidly to the doorstep. +</P> + +<P> +Odo's heart was beating hard. He knew it was only the stir of the spring +sap in his veins, but Maria Clementina wore a look of morning brightness +that might have made a soberer judgment blink. He turned away to examine +her saddle. As he did so, he observed that her girth was not torn, but +clean cut, as with sharp scissors. He glanced up in surprise, but she +sat with drooping lids, her head thrown back against the lintel; and +repressing the question on his lips he busied himself with the +adjustment of the saddle. When it was in place he turned to give her a +hand; but she only smiled up at him through her lashes. +</P> + +<P> +"What!" said she with an air of lovely lassitude, "are you so impatient +to be rid of me? I should have been so glad to linger here a little." +She put her hand in his and let him lift her to her feet. "How cool and +still it is! Look at that little spring bubbling through the moss. Could +you not fetch me a drink from it?" +</P> + +<P> +She tossed aside her riding-hat and pushed back the hair from her warm +forehead. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Highness must not drink of the water here," said Odo, releasing +her hand. +</P> + +<P> +She gave him a quick derisive glance. "Ah, true," she cried; "this is +the house to which that abandoned wretch used to lure poor Cerveno." She +drew back to look at the lodge. "Were you ever in it?" she asked +curiously. "I should like to see how the place looks." +</P> + +<P> +She laid her hand on the door-latch, and to Odo's surprise it yielded to +her touch. "We're in luck, I vow," she declared with a laugh. "Come +cousin, let us visit the temple of romance together." +</P> + +<P> +The allusion to Cerveno jarred on Odo, and he followed her in silence. +Within doors, the lodge was seen to consist of a single room, gaily +painted with hunting-scenes framed in garlands of stucco. In the dusk +they could just discern the outlines of carved and gilded furniture, and +a Venice mirror gave back their faces like phantoms in a magic crystal. +</P> + +<P> +"This is stifling," said Odo impatiently. "Would your Highness not be +better in the open?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, no," she persisted. "Unbar the shutters and we shall have air +enough. I love a deserted house: I have always fancied that if one came +in noiselessly enough one might catch the ghosts of the people who used +to live in it." +</P> + +<P> +He obeyed in silence, and the green-filtered forest noon filled the room +with a quiver of light. A chill stole upon Odo as he looked at the +dust-shrouded furniture, the painted harpsichord with green mould +creeping over its keyboard, the consoles set with empty wine flagons and +goblets of Venice glass. The place was like the abandoned corpse of +pleasure. +</P> + +<P> +But Maria Clementina laughed and clapped her hands. "This is +enchanting," she cried, throwing herself into an arm-chair of threadbare +damask, "and I shall rest here while you refresh me with a glass of +Lacrima Christi from one of those dusty flagons. They are empty, you +say? Never mind, for I have a flask of cordial in my saddle-bag. Fetch +it, cousin, and wash these two glasses in the spring, that we may toast +all the dead lovers that have drunk out of them." +</P> + +<P> +When Odo returned with the flask and glasses, she had brushed the dust +from a slender table of inlaid wood, and drawn a seat near her own. She +filled the two goblets with cordial and signed to Odo to seat himself +beside her. +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you pull such a glum face?" she cried, leaning over to touch his +glass before she emptied hers. "Is it that you are thinking of poor +Cerveno? On my soul, I question if he needs your pity! He had his hour +of folly, and was too gallant a gentleman not to pay the shot. For my +part I would rather drink a poisoned draught than die of thirst." +</P> + +<P> +The wine was rising in waves of colour over her throat and brow, and +setting her glass down she suddenly laid her ungloved hand on Odo's. +</P> + +<P> +"Cousin," she said in a low voice, "I could help you if you would let +me." +</P> + +<P> +"Help me?" he said, only half-aware of her words in the warm surprise of +her touch. +</P> + +<P> +She drew back, but with a look that seemed to leave her hand in his. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you mad," she murmured, "or do you despise your danger?" +</P> + +<P> +"Am I in danger?" he echoed smiling. He was thinking how easily a man +might go under in that deep blue gaze of hers. She dropped her lids as +though aware of his thought. +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you concern yourself with politics?" she went on with a new note +in her voice. "Can you find no diversion more suited to your rank and +age? Our court is a dull one, I own—but surely even here a man might +find a better use for his time." +</P> + +<P> +Odo's self-possession returned in a flash. "I am not," cried he gaily, +"in a position to dispute it at this moment;" and he leaned over to +recapture her hand. To his surprise she freed herself with an affronted +air. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," she said, "you think this a device to provoke a gallant +conversation." She faced him nobly now. "Look," said she, drawing a +folded paper from the breast of her riding-coat. "Have you not +frequented these houses?" +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly sobered, he ran his eye over the paper. It contained the dates +of the meetings he had attended at the houses of Gamba's friends, with +the designation of each house. He turned pale. +</P> + +<P> +"I had no notion," said he, with a smile, "that my movements were of +interest in such high places; but why does your Highness speak of danger +in this connection?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because it is rumoured that the lodge of the Illuminati, which is known +to exist in Pianura, meets secretly at the houses on this list." +</P> + +<P> +Odo hesitated a moment. "Of that," said he, "I have no report. I am +acquainted with the houses only as the residences of certain learned and +reputable men, who devote their leisure to scientific studies." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," she interrupted, "call them by what name you please! It is all one +to your enemies." +</P> + +<P> +"My enemies?" said he lightly. "And who are they?" +</P> + +<P> +"Who are they?" she repeated impatiently. "Who are they not? Who is +there at court that has such cause to love you? The Holy Office? The +Duke's party?" +</P> + +<P> +Odo smiled. "I am perhaps not in the best odour with the Church party," +said he, "but Count Trescorre has shown himself my friend, and I think +my character is safe in his keeping. Nor will it be any news to him that +I frequent the company you name." +</P> + +<P> +She threw back her head with a laugh. "Boy," she cried, "you are blinder +even than I fancied! Do you know why it was that the Duke summoned you +to Pianura? Because he wished his party to mould you to their shape, in +case the regency should fall into your hands. And what has Trescorre +done? Shown himself your friend, as you say—won your confidence, +encouraged you to air your liberal views, allowed you to show yourself +continually in the Bishop's company, and to frequent the secret +assemblies of free thinkers and conspirators—and all that the Duke may +turn against you and perhaps name him regent in your stead! Believe me, +cousin," she cried with a mounting urgency, "you never stood in greater +need of a friend than now. If you continue on your present course you +are undone. The Church party is resolved to hunt down the Illuminati, +and both sides would rejoice to see you made the scapegoat of the Holy +Office." She sprung up and laid her hand on his arm. "What can I do to +convince you?" she said passionately. "Will you believe me if I ask you +to go away—to leave Pianura on the instant?" +</P> + +<P> +Odo had risen also, and they faced each other in silence. There was an +unmistakable meaning in her tone: a self-revelation so simple and +ennobling that she seemed to give herself as hostage for her words. +</P> + +<P> +"Ask me to stay, cousin—not to go," he whispered, her yielding hand in +his. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, madman," she cried, "not to believe me NOW! But it is not too late +if you will still be guided." +</P> + +<P> +"I will be guided—but not away from you." +</P> + +<P> +She broke away, but with a glance that drew him after. "It is late now +and we must set forward," she said abruptly. "Come to me tomorrow early. +I have much more to say to you." +</P> + +<P> +The words seemed to be driven out on her quick breathing, and the blood +came and went in her cheek like a hurried messenger. She caught up her +riding-hat and turned to put it on before the Venice mirror. +</P> + +<P> +Odo, stepping up behind her, looked over her shoulder to catch the +reflection of her blush. Their eyes met for a laughing instant; then he +drew back deadly pale, for in the depths of the dim mirror he had seen +another face. +</P> + +<P> +The Duchess cried out and glanced behind her. "Who was it? Did you see +her?" she said trembling. +</P> + +<P> +Odo mastered himself instantly. +</P> + +<P> +"I saw nothing," he returned quietly. "What can your Highness mean?" +</P> + +<P> +She covered her eyes with her hands. "A girl's face," she +shuddered—"there in the mirror—behind mine—a pale face with a black +travelling hood over it—" +</P> + +<P> +He gathered up her gloves and riding-whip and threw open the door of the +pavilion. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Highness is weary and the air here insalubrious. Shall we not +ride?" he said. +</P> + +<P> +Maria Clementina heard him with a blank stare. Suddenly she roused +herself and made as though to pass out; but on the threshold she +snatched her whip from him and, turning, flung it full at the mirror. +Her aim was good and the chiselled handle of the whip shattered the +glass to fragments. +</P> + +<P> +She caught up her long skirt and stepped into the open. +</P> + +<P> +"I brook no rivals!" said she with a white-lipped smile. "And now, +cousin," she added gaily, "to horse!" +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +2.15. +</H4> + +<P> +Odo, as in duty bound, waited the next morning on the Duchess; but word +was brought that her Highness was indisposed, and could not receive him +till evening. +</P> + +<P> +He passed a drifting and distracted day. The fear lay much upon him that +danger threatened Gamba and his associates; yet to seek them out in the +present conjuncture might be to play the stalking-horse to their +enemies. Moreover, he fancied the Duchess not incapable of using +political rumours to further her private caprice; and scenting no +immediate danger he resolved to wait upon events. +</P> + +<P> +On rising from dinner he was surprised by a summons from the Duke. The +message, an unusual one at that hour, was brought by a slender pale lad, +not in his Highness's service, but in that of the German physician +Heiligenstern. The boy, who was said to be a Georgian rescued from the +Grand Signior's galleys, and whose small oval face was as smooth as a +girl's, accosted Odo in one of the remoter garden alleys with the +request to follow him at once to the Duke's apartment. Odo complied, and +his guide loitered ahead with an air of unconcern, as though not wishing +to have his errand guessed. As they passed through the tapestry gallery +preceding the gentlemen's antechamber, footsteps and voices were heard +within. Instantly the boy was by Odo's side and had drawn him into the +embrasure of a window. A moment later Trescorre left the antechamber and +walked rapidly past their hiding-place. As soon as he was out of sight +the Georgian led Odo from his concealment and introduced him by a +private way to the Duke's closet. +</P> + +<P> +His Highness was in his bed-chamber; and Odo, on being admitted, found +him, still in dressing-gown and night-cap, kneeling with a disordered +countenance before the ancient picture of the Last Judgment that hung on +the wall facing his bed. He seemed to have forgotten that he had asked +for his kinsman; for on the latter's entrance he started up with a +suspicious glance and hastily closed the panels of the picture, which +(as Odo now noticed) appeared to conceal an inner painting. Then, +gathering his dressing-gown about him, he led the way to his closet and +bade his visitor be seated. +</P> + +<P> +"I have," said he, speaking in a low voice, and glancing apprehensively +about him, "summoned you hither privately to speak on a subject which +concerns none but ourselves.—You met no one on your way?" he broke off +to enquire. +</P> + +<P> +Odo told him that Count Trescorre had passed, but without perceiving +him. +</P> + +<P> +The Duke seemed relieved. "My private actions," said he querulously, +"are too jealously spied upon by my ministers. Such surveillance is an +offence to my authority, and my subjects shall learn that it will not +frighten me from my course." He straightened his bent shoulders and +tried to put on the majestic look of his official effigy. "It appears," +he continued, with one of his sudden changes of manner, "that the +Duchess's uncle, the Duke of Monte Alloro, has heard favourable reports +of your wit and accomplishments, and is desirous of receiving you at his +court." He paused, and Odo concealed his surprise behind a profound bow. +</P> + +<P> +"I own," the Duke went on, "that the invitation comes unseasonably, +since I should have preferred to keep you at my side; but his Highness's +great age, and his close kinship to my wife, through whom the request is +conveyed, make it impossible for me to refuse." The Duke again paused, +as though uncertain how to proceed. At length he resumed:—"I will not +conceal from you that his Highness is subject to the fantastical humours +of his age. He makes it a condition that the length of your stay shall +not be limited; but should you fail to suit his mood you may find +yourself out of favour in a week. He writes of wishing to send you on a +private mission to the court of Naples; but this may be no more than a +passing whim. I see no way, however, but to let you go, and to hope for +a favourable welcome for you. The Duchess is determined upon giving her +uncle this pleasure, and in fact has consented in return to oblige me in +an important matter." He flushed and averted his eyes. "I name this," he +added with an effort, "only that her Highness may be aware that it +depends on herself whether I hold to my side of the bargain. Your papers +are already prepared and you have my permission to set out at your +convenience. Meanwhile it were well that you should keep your +preparations private, at least till you are ready to take leave." And +with the air of dignity he could still assume on occasion, he rose and +handed Odo his passport. +</P> + +<P> +Odo left the closet with a beating heart. It was clear that his +departure from Pianura was as strongly opposed by some one in high +authority as it was favoured by the Duchess; and why opposed and by whom +he could not so much as hazard a guess. In the web of court intrigues it +was difficult for the wariest to grope his way; and Odo was still new to +such entanglements. His first sensation was one of release, of a future +suddenly enlarged and cleared. The door was open again to opportunity, +and he was of an age to greet the unexpected like a bride. Only one +thought disturbed him. It was clear that Maria Clementina had paid high +for his security; and did not her sacrifice, whatever its nature, +constitute a claim upon his future? In sending him to her uncle, whose +known favourite she was, she did not let him out of her hand. If he +accepted this chance of escape he must hereafter come and go as she +bade. At the thought, his bounding fancy slunk back humbled. He saw +himself as Trescorre's successor, his sovereign's official lover, taking +up again, under more difficult circumstances, and without the zest of +inexperience, the dull routine of his former bondage. No, a thousand +times no; he would fetter himself to no woman's fancy! Better find a +pretext for staying in Pianura, affront the Duchess by refusing her aid, +risk his prospects, his life even, than bow his neck twice to the same +yoke. All her charm vanished in this vision of unwilling +subjection...Disturbed by these considerations, and anxious to compose +his spirits, Odo bethought himself of taking refuge in the Bishop's +company. Here at least the atmosphere was clear of mystery: the Bishop +held aloof from political intrigue and breathed an air untainted by the +odium theologicum. Odo found his lordship seated in the cool tessellated +saloon which contained his chiefest treasures—marble busts ranged on +pedestals between the windows, the bronze Venus Callipyge, and various +tables of pietra commessa set out with vases and tazzas of antique +pattern. A knot of virtuosi gathered about one of these tables were +engaged in examining a collection of engraved gems displayed by a +lapidary of Florence; while others inspected a Greek manuscript which +the Bishop had lately received from Syria. Beyond the windows, a +cedrario or orange-walk stretched its sunlit vista to the terrace above +the river; and the black cassocks of one or two priests who were +strolling in the clear green shade of a pleached alley made pleasant +spots of dimness in the scene. +</P> + +<P> +Even here, however, Odo was aware of a certain disquietude. The Bishop's +visitors, instead of engaging in animated disputations over his +lordship's treasures, showed a disposition to walk apart, conversing in +low tones; and he himself, presently complaining of the heat, invited +Odo to accompany him to the grot beneath the terrace. In this shaded +retreat, studded with shells and coral and cooled by an artificial wind +forced through the conchs of marble Tritons, his lordship at once began +to speak of the rumours of public disaffection. +</P> + +<P> +"As you know," said he, "my duties and tastes alike seclude me from +political intrigue, and the scandal of the day seldom travels beyond my +kitchens. But as creaking signboards announce a storm, the hints and +whispers of my household tell me there is mischief abroad. My position +protects me from personal risk, and my lack of ambition from political +enmity; for it is notorious I would barter the highest honours in the +state for a Greek vase or a bronze of Herculanaeum—not to mention the +famous Venus of Giorgione, which, if report be true, his Highness has +burned at Father Ignazio's instigation. But yours, cavaliere, is a less +sheltered walk, and perhaps a friendly warning may be of service. Yet," +he added after a pause, "a warning I can scarce call it, since I know +not from what quarter the danger impends. Proximus ardet Ucalegon; but +there is no telling which way the flames may spread. I can only advise +you that the Duke's growing infatuation for his German magician has bred +the most violent discontent among his subjects, and that both parties +appear resolved to use this disaffection to their advantage. It is said +his Highness intends to subject the little prince to some mysterious +treatment connected with the rites of the Egyptian priesthood, of whose +secret doctrine Heiligenstern pretends to be an adept. Yesterday it was +bruited that the Duchess loudly opposed the experiment; this afternoon +it is given out that she has yielded. What the result may be, none can +foresee; but whichever way the storm blows, the chief danger probably +threatens those who have had any connection with the secret societies +known to exist in the duchy." +</P> + +<P> +Odo listened attentively, but without betraying any great surprise; and +the Bishop, evidently reassured by his composure, suggested that, the +heat of the day having declined, they should visit the new Indian +pheasants in his volary. +</P> + +<P> +The Bishop's hints had not helped his listener to a decision. Odo indeed +gave Cantapresto orders to prepare as privately as possible for their +departure; but rather to appear to be carrying out the Duke's +instructions than with any fixed intention of so doing. How to find a +pretext for remaining he was yet uncertain. To disobey the Duke was +impossible; but in the general state of tension it seemed likely enough +that both his Highness and the Duchess might change their minds within +the next twenty-four hours. He was reluctant to appear that evening in +the Duchess's circle; but the command was not to be evaded, and he went +thither resolved to excuse himself early. +</P> + +<P> +He found her Highness surrounded by the usual rout that attended her. +She was herself in a mood of wild mirth, occasioned by the drolleries of +an automatic female figure which a travelling showman introduced by +Cantapresto had obtained leave to display at court. This lively puppet +performed with surprising skill on the harpsichord, giving the company, +among other novelties, selections from the maestro Piccini's latest +opera and a concerto of the German composer Gluck. +</P> + +<P> +Maria Clementina seemed at first unaware of her kinsman's presence, and +he began to hope he might avoid any private talk with her; but when the +automaton had been dismissed and the card-tables were preparing, one of +her gentlemen summoned him to her side. As usual, she was highly rouged +in the French fashion, and her cold blue eyes had a light which set off +the extraordinary fairness of her skin. +</P> + +<P> +"Cousin," said she at once, "have you your papers?" Her tone was haughty +and yet eager, as though she scorned to show herself concerned, yet +would not have had him believe in her indifference. Odo bowed without +speaking. +</P> + +<P> +"And when do you set out?" she continued. "My good uncle is impatient to +receive you." +</P> + +<P> +"At the earliest moment, madam," he replied with some hesitation. +</P> + +<P> +The hesitation was not lost on her and he saw her flush through her +rouge. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," said she in a low voice, "the earliest moment is none too +early!—Do you go tomorrow?" she persisted; but just then Trescorre +advanced toward them, and under a burst of assumed merriment she +privately signed to Odo to withdraw. +</P> + +<P> +He was glad to make his escape, for the sense of walking among hidden +pitfalls was growing on him. That he had acquitted himself awkwardly +with the Duchess he was well aware; but Trescorre's interruption had at +least enabled him to gain time. An increasing unwillingness to leave +Pianura had replaced his former impatience to be gone. The reluctance to +desert his friends was coupled with a boyish desire to stay and see the +game out; and behind all his other impulses lurked the instinctive +resistance to any feminine influence save one. +</P> + +<P> +The next morning he half-expected another message from the Duchess; but +none came, and he judged her to be gravely offended. Cantapresto +appeared early with the rumour that some kind of magical ceremony was to +be performed that evening in the palace; and toward noon the Georgian +boy again came privately to Odo and requested him to wait on the Duke +when his Highness rose from supper. This increased Odo's fears for +Gamba, Andreoni and the other reformers; yet he dared neither seek them +out in person nor entrust a message to Cantapresto. As the day passed, +however, he began to throw off his apprehensions. It was not the first +time since he had come to Pianura that there had been ominous talk of +political disturbances, and he knew that Gamba and his friends were not +without means of getting under shelter. As to his own risk, he did not +give it a thought. He was not of an age or a temper to weigh personal +danger against the excitement of conflict; and as evening drew on he +found himself wondering with some impatience if after all nothing +unusual would happen. +</P> + +<P> +He supped alone, and at the appointed hour proceeded to the Duke's +apartments, taking no farther precaution than to carry his passport +about him. The palace seemed deserted. Everywhere an air of apprehension +and mystery hung over the long corridors and dimly-lit antechambers. The +day had been sultry, with a low sky foreboding great heat, and not a +breath of air entered at the windows. There were few persons about, but +one or two beggars lurked as usual on the landings of the great +staircase, and Odo, in passing, felt his sleeve touched by a woman +cowering under the marble ramp in the shadow thrown by a colossal +Caesar. Looking down, he heard a voice beg for alms, and as he gave it +the woman pressed a paper into his hand and slipped away through the +darkness. +</P> + +<P> +Odo hastened on till he could assure himself of being unobserved; then +he unfolded the paper and read these words in Gamba's hand: "Have no +fear for any one's safety but your own." With a sense of relief he hid +the message and entered the Duke's antechamber. +</P> + +<P> +Here he was received by Heiligenstern's Oriental servant, who, with a +mute salutation, led him into a large room where the Duke's pages +usually waited. The walls of this apartment had been concealed under +hangings of black silk worked with cabalistic devices. Oil-lamps set on +tripods of antique design shed a faint light over the company seated at +one end of the room, among whom Odo recognised the chief dignitaries of +the court. The ladies looked pale but curious, the men for the most part +indifferent or disapproving. Intense quietness prevailed, broken only by +the soft opening and closing of the door through which the guests were +admitted. Presently the Duke and Duchess emerged from his Highness's +closet. They were followed by Prince Ferrante, supported by his governor +and his dwarf, and robed in a silken dressing-gown which hung in +voluminous folds about his little shrunken body. Their Highnesses seated +themselves in two armchairs in front of the court, and the little prince +reclined beside his mother. +</P> + +<P> +No sooner had they taken their places than Heiligenstern stepped forth, +wearing a doctor's gown and a quaintly-shaped bonnet or mitre. In his +long robes and strange headdress he looked extraordinarily tall and +pale, and his features had the glassy-eyed fixity of an ancient mask. He +was followed by his two attendants, the Oriental carrying a frame-work +of polished metal, not unlike a low narrow bed, which he set down in the +middle of the room; while the Georgian lad, who had exchanged his +fustanella and embroidered jacket for a flowing white robe, bore in his +hands a crystal globe set in a gold stand. Having reverently placed it +on a small table, the boy, at a signal from his master, drew forth a +phial and dropped its contents into a bronze vat or brazier which stood +at the far end of the room. Instantly clouds of perfumed vapour filled +the air, and as these dispersed it was seen that the black hangings of +the walls had vanished with them, and the spectators found themselves +seated in a kind of open temple through which the eye travelled down +colonnaded vistas set with statues and fountains. This magical prospect +was bathed in sunlight, and Odo observed that, though the lamps had gone +out, the same brightness suffused the room and illuminated the wondering +faces of the audience. The little prince uttered a cry of delight, and +the magician stepped forward, raising a long white wand in his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"This," said he, in measured accents, "is an evocation of the Temple of +Health, into whose blissful precincts the wisdom of the ancients was +able to lead the sufferer who put his trust in them. This deceptio +visus, or product of rhabdomancy, easily effected by an adept of the +Egyptian mysteries, is designed but to prefigure the reality which +awaits those who seek health through the ministry of the disciples of +Iamblichus. It is no longer denied among men of learning that those who +have been instructed in the secret doctrine of the ancients are able, by +certain correspondences of nature, revealed only to the initiated, to +act on the inanimate world about them, and on the animal economy, by +means beyond the common capabilities of man." He paused a moment, and +then, turning with a low bow to the Duke, enquired whether his Highness +desired the rites to proceed. +</P> + +<P> +The Duke signed his assent, and Heiligenstern, raising his wand, evoked +another volume of mist. This time it was shot through with green flames, +and as the wild light subsided the room was once more revealed with its +black hangings, and the lamps flickered into life again. +</P> + +<P> +After another pause, doubtless intended to increase the tension of the +spectators, the magician bade his servant place the crystal before him. +He then raised his hands as if in prayer, speaking in a strange chanting +jargon, in which Odo detected fragments of Greek and Latin, and the +recurring names of the Judaic demons and angels. As this ceased +Heiligenstern beckoned to the Georgian boy, who approached him with +bowed head and reverently folded hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Highness," said Heiligenstern, "and this distinguished company, +are doubtless familiar with the magic crystal of the ancients, in which +the future may be deciphered by the pure in heart. This lad, whom I +rescued from slavery and have bred to my service in the solemn rites of +the priesthood of Isis, is as clear in spirit as the crystal which +stands before you. The future lies open to him in this translucent +sphere and he is prepared to disclose it at your bidding." +</P> + +<P> +There was a moment's silence; but on the magician's repeating his +enquiry the Duke said: "Let the boy tell me what he sees." +</P> + +<P> +Heiligenstern at once laid his hands on his acolyte's head and murmured +a few words over him; then the boy advanced and bent devoutly above the +crystal. Almost immediately the globe was seen to cloud, as though +suffused with milk; the cloud gradually faded and the boy began to speak +in a low hesitating tone. +</P> + +<P> +"I see," he said, "I see a face...a fair face..." He faltered and +glanced up almost apprehensively at Heiligenstern, whose gaze remained +impenetrable. The boy began to tremble. "I see nothing," he said in a +whisper. "There is one here purer than I...the crystal will not speak +for me in that other's presence..." +</P> + +<P> +"Who is that other?" Heiligenstern asked. +</P> + +<P> +The boy fixed his eyes on the little prince. An excited murmur ran +through the company and Heiligenstern again advanced to the Duke. "Will +your Highness," he asked, "permit the prince to look into the sacred +sphere?" +</P> + +<P> +Odo saw the Duchess extend her hand impulsively toward the child; but at +a signal from the Duke the little prince's chair was carried to the +table on which the crystal stood. Instantly the former phenomenon was +repeated, the globe clouding and then clearing itself like a pool after +rain. +</P> + +<P> +"Speak, my son," said the Duke. "Tell us what the heavenly powers reveal +to you." +</P> + +<P> +The little prince continued to pore over the globe without speaking. +Suddenly his thin face reddened and he clung more closely to his +companion's arm. +</P> + +<P> +"I see a beautiful place," he began, his small fluting voice rising like +a bird's pipe in the stillness, "a place a thousand times more beautiful +than this...like a garden...full of golden-haired children...with +beautiful strange toys in their hands...they have wings like +birds...they ARE birds...ah! they are flying away from me...I see them +no more...they vanish through the trees..." He broke off sadly. +</P> + +<P> +Heiligenstern smiled. "That, your Highness, is a vision of the prince's +own future, when, restored to health, he is able to disport himself with +his playmates in the gardens of the palace." +</P> + +<P> +"But they were not the gardens of the palace!" the little boy exclaimed. +"They were much more beautiful than our gardens." +</P> + +<P> +Heiligenstern bowed. "They appeared so to your Highness," he +deferentially suggested, "because all the world seems more beautiful to +those who have regained their health." +</P> + +<P> +"Enough, my son!" exclaimed the Duchess with a shaken voice. "Why will +you weary the child?" she continued, turning to the Duke; and the +latter, with evident reluctance, signed to Heiligenstern to cover the +crystal. To the general surprise, however, Prince Ferrante pushed back +the black velvet covering which the Georgian boy was preparing to throw +over it. +</P> + +<P> +"No, no," he exclaimed, in the high obstinate voice of the spoiled +child, "let me look again...let me see some more beautiful things...I +have never seen anything so beautiful, even in my sleep!" It was the +plaintive cry of the child whose happiest hours are those spent in +unconsciousness. +</P> + +<P> +"Look again, then," said the Duke, "and ask the heavenly powers what +more they have to show you." +</P> + +<P> +The boy gazed in silence; then he broke out: "Ah, now we are in the +palace...I see your Highness's cabinet...no, it is the bedchamber...it +is night...and I see your Highness lying asleep...very still...very +still...your Highness wears the scapular received last Easter from his +Holiness...It is very dark...Oh, now a light begins to shine...where +does it come from? Through the door? No, there is no door on that side +of the room...It shines through the wall at the foot of the bed...ah! I +see"—his voice mounted to a cry—"The old picture at the foot of the +bed...the picture with the wicked people burning in it...has opened like +a door...the light is shining through it...and now a lady steps out from +the wall behind the picture...oh, so beautiful...she has yellow hair, as +yellow as my mother's...but longer...oh, much longer...she carries a +rose in her hand...and there are white doves flying about her +shoulders...she is naked, quite naked, poor lady! but she does not seem +to mind...she seems to be laughing about it...and your Highness..." +</P> + +<P> +The Duke started up violently. "Enough—enough!" he stammered. "The +fever is on the child...this agitation is...most pernicious...Cover the +crystal, I say!" +</P> + +<P> +He sank back, his forehead damp with perspiration. In an instant the +crystal had been removed, and Prince Ferrante carried back to his +mother's side. The boy seemed in nowise affected by his father's +commotion. His eyes burned with excitement, and he sat up eagerly, as +though not to miss a detail of what was going forward. Maria Clementina +leaned over and clasped his hand, but he hardly noticed her. "I want to +see some more beautiful things!" he insisted. +</P> + +<P> +The Duke sat speechless, a fallen heap in his chair, and the courtiers +looked at each other, their faces shifting spectrally in the faint +light, like phantom travellers waiting to be ferried across some +mysterious river. At length Heiligenstern advanced and with every mark +of deference addressed himself to the Duke. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Highness," said he quietly, "need be under no apprehension as to +the effect produced upon the prince. The magic crystal, as your Highness +is aware, is under the protection of the blessed spirits, and its +revelations cannot harm those who are pure-minded enough to receive +them. But the chief purpose of this assemblage was to witness the +communication of vital force to the prince, by means of the electrical +current. The crystal, by revealing its secrets to the prince, has +testified to his perfect purity of mind, and thus declared him to be in +a peculiarly fit state to receive what may be designated as the +Sacrament of the new faith." +</P> + +<P> +A murmur ran through the room, but Heiligenstern continued without +wavering: "I mean thereby to describe that natural religion which, by +instructing its adepts in the use of the hidden potencies of earth and +air, testifies afresh to the power of the unseen Maker of the Universe." +</P> + +<P> +The murmur subsided, and the Duke, regaining his voice, said with an +assumption of authority: "Let the treatment begin." +</P> + +<P> +Heiligenstern immediately spoke a word to the Oriental, who bent over +the metal bed which had been set up in the middle of the room. As he did +so the air again darkened and the figures of the magician and his +assistants were discernible only as flitting shades in the obscurity. +Suddenly a soft pure light overflowed the room, the perfume of flowers +filled the air, and music seemed to steal out of the very walls. +Heiligenstern whispered to the governor and between them they lifted the +little prince from his chair and laid him gently on the bed. The +magician then leaned over the boy with a slow weaving motion of the +hands. +</P> + +<P> +"If your Highness will be pleased to sleep," he said, "I promise your +Highness the most beautiful dreams." +</P> + +<P> +The boy smiled back at him and he continued to bend above the bed with +flitting hands. Suddenly the little prince began to laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"What does your Highness feel?" the magician asked. +</P> + +<P> +"A prickling...such a soft warm prickling...as if my blood were sunshine +with motes dancing in it...or as if that sparkling wine of France were +running all over my body." +</P> + +<P> +"It is an agreeable sensation, your Highness?" +</P> + +<P> +The boy nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"It is well with your Highness?" +</P> + +<P> +"Very well." +</P> + +<P> +Heiligenstern began a loud rhythmic chant, and gradually the air +darkened, but with the mild dimness of a summer twilight, through which +sparks could be seen flickering like fire-flies about the reclining +prince. The hush grew deeper; but in the stillness Odo became aware of +some unseen influence that seemed to envelope him in waves of exquisite +sensation. It was as though the vast silence of the night had poured +into the room and, like a dark tepid sea, was lapping about his body and +rising to his lips. His thoughts, dissolved into emotion, seemed to +waver and float on the stillness like sea-weed on the lift of the tide. +He stood spell-bound, lulled, yielding himself to a blissful +dissolution. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly he became aware that the hush was too intense, too complete; +and a moment later, as though stretched to the cracking-point, it burst +terrifically into sound. A huge uproar shook the room, crashing through +it like a tangible mass. The sparks whirled in a menacing dance round +the little prince's body, and, abruptly blotted, left a deeper darkness, +in which the confused herding movements of startled figures were +indistinguishably merged. A flash of silence followed; then the +liberated forces of the night broke in rain and thunder on the rocking +walls of the room. +</P> + +<P> +"Light—light!" some one stammered; and at the same moment a door was +flung open, admitting a burst of candle-light and a group of figures in +ecclesiastical dress, against which the white gown and black hood of +Father Ignazio detached themselves. The Dominican stepped toward the +Duke. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Highness," said he in a tone of quiet resolution, "must pardon +this interruption; I act at the bidding of the Holy Office." +</P> + +<P> +Even in that moment of profound disarray the name sent a deeper shudder +through his hearers. The Duke, who stood grasping the arms of his chair, +raised his head and tried to stare down the intruders; but no one heeded +his look. At a signal from the Dominican a servant had brought in a pair +of candelabra, and in their commonplace light the cabalistic hangings, +the magician's appliances and his fantastically-dressed attendants +looked as tawdry as the paraphernalia of a village quack. Heiligenstern +alone survived the test. Erect, at bay as it were, his black robe +falling in hieratic folds, the white wand raised in his hands, he might +have personified the Prince of Darkness drawn up undaunted against the +hosts of the Lord. Some one had snatched the little prince from his +stretcher, and Maria Clementina, holding him to her breast, sat palely +confronting the sorcerer. She alone seemed to measure her strength +against his in some mysterious conflict of the will. But meanwhile the +Duke had regained his voice. +</P> + +<P> +"My father," said he, "on what information does the Holy Office act?" +</P> + +<P> +The Dominican drew a parchment from his breast. "On that of the +Inquisitor General, your Highness," he replied, handing the paper to the +Duke, who unfolded it with trembling hands but was plainly unable to +master its contents. Father Ignazio beckoned to an ecclesiastic who had +entered the room in his train. +</P> + +<P> +"This, your Highness," said he, "is the abate de Crucis of Innsbruck, +who was lately commissioned by the Holy Office to enquire into the +practises and doctrine of the order of the Illuminati, that corrupt and +atheistical sect which has been the cause of so much scandal among the +German principalities. In the course of his investigations he became +aware that the order had secretly established a lodge in Pianura; and +hastening hither from Rome to advise your Highness of the fact, has +discovered in the so-called Count Heiligenstern one of the most +notorious apostles of the order." He turned to the priest. "Signor +abate," he said, "you confirm these facts?" +</P> + +<P> +The abate de Crucis quietly advanced. He was a slight pale man of about +thirty, with a thoughtful and indulgent cast of countenance. +</P> + +<P> +"In every particular," said he, bowing profoundly to the Duke, and +speaking in a low voice of singular sweetness. "It has been my duty to +track this man's career from its ignoble beginning to its infamous +culmination, and I have been able to place in the hands of the Holy +Office the most complete proofs of his guilt. The so-called Count +Heiligenstern is the son of a tailor in a small village of Pomerania. +After passing through various vicissitudes with which I need not trouble +your Highness, he obtained the confidence of the notorious Dr. +Weishaupt, the founder of the German order of the Illuminati, and +together this precious couple have indefatigably propagated their +obscene and blasphemous doctrines. That they preach atheism and +tyrannicide I need not tell your Highness; but it is less generally +known that they have made these infamous doctrines the cloak of private +vices from which even paganism would have recoiled. The man now before +me, among other open offences against society, is known to have seduced +a young girl of noble family in Ratisbon and to have murdered her child. +His own wife and children he long since abandoned and disowned; and the +youth yonder, whom he describes as a Georgian slave rescued from the +Grand Signior's galleys, is in fact the wife of a Greek juggler of +Ravenna, and has forsaken her husband to live in criminal intercourse +with an atheist and assassin." +</P> + +<P> +This indictment, pronounced with an absence of emotion which made each +word cut the air like the separate stroke of a lash, was followed by a +prolonged silence; then one of the Duchess's ladies cried out suddenly +and burst into tears. This was the signal for a general outbreak. The +room was filled with a confusion of voices, and among the groups surging +about him Odo noticed a number of the Duke's sbirri making their way +quietly through the crowd. The notary of the Holy Office advanced toward +Heiligenstern, who had placed himself against the wall, with one arm +flung about his trembling acolyte. The Duchess, her boy still clasped +against her, remained proudly seated; but her eyes met Odo's in a glance +of terrified entreaty, and at the same instant he felt a clutch on his +sleeve and heard Cantapresto's whisper. +</P> + +<P> +"Cavaliere, a boat waits at the landing below the tanners' lane. The +shortest way to it is through the gardens and your excellency will find +the gate beyond the Chinese pavilion unlocked." +</P> + +<P> +He had vanished before Odo could look round. The latter still wavered; +but as he did so he caught Trescorre's face through the crowd. The +minister's eye was fixed on him; and the discovery was enough to make +him plunge through the narrow wake left by Cantapresto's retreat. +</P> + +<P> +Odo made his way unhindered to the ante-room, which was also thronged, +ecclesiastics, servants and even beggars from the courtyard jostling +each other in their struggle to see what was going forward. The +confusion favoured his escape, and a moment later he was hastening down +the tapestry gallery and through the vacant corridors of the palace. He +was familiar with half-a-dozen short-cuts across this network of +passages; but in his bewilderment he pressed on down the great stairs +and across the echoing guard-room that opened on the terrace. A drowsy +sentinel challenged him; and on Odo's explaining that he sought to +leave, and not to enter, the palace, replied that he had his Highness's +orders to let no one out that night. For a moment Odo was at a loss; +then he remembered his passport. It seemed to him an interminable time +before the sentinel had scrutinised it by the light of a guttering +candle, and to his surprise he found himself in a cold sweat of fear. +The rattle of the storm simulated footsteps at his heels and he felt the +blind rage of a man within shot of invisible foes. +</P> + +<P> +The passport restored, he plunged out into the night. It was pitch-black +in the gardens and the rain drove down with the guttural rush of a +midsummer storm. So fierce was its fall that it seemed to suck up the +earth in its black eddies, and he felt himself swept along over a +heaving hissing surface, with wet boughs lashing out at him as he fled. +From one terrace to another he dropped to lower depths of buffeting +dripping darkness, till he found his hand on the gate-latch and swung to +the black lane below the wall. Thence on a run he wound to the tanners' +quarter by the river: a district commonly as foul-tongued as it was +ill-favoured, but tonight clean-purged of both evils by the vehement +sweep of the storm. Here he groped his way among slippery places and +past huddled out-buildings to the piles of the wharf. The rain was now +subdued to a noiseless vertical descent, through which he could hear the +tap of the river against the piles. Scarce knowing what he fled or +whither he was flying, he let himself down the steps and found the flat +of a boat's bottom underfoot. A boatman, distinguishable only as a black +bulk in the stern, steadied his descent with outstretched hand; then the +bow swung round, and after a labouring stroke or two they caught the +current and were swept down through the rushing darkness. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BOOK III. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE CHOICE. +</H3> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + The Vision touched him on the lips and said:<BR> + Hereafter thou shalt eat me in thy bread,<BR> + Drink me in all thy kisses, feel my hand<BR> + Steal 'twixt thy palm and Joy's, and see me stand<BR> + Watchful at every crossing of the ways,<BR> + The insatiate lover of thy nights and days.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +3.1. +</H4> + +<P> +It was at Naples, some two years later, that the circumstances of his +flight were recalled to Odo Valsecca by the sound of a voice which at +once mysteriously connected itself with the incidents of that wild +night. +</P> + +<P> +He was seated with a party of gentlemen in the saloon of Sir William +Hamilton's famous villa of Posilipo, where they were sipping the +ambassador's iced sherbet and examining certain engraved gems and +burial-urns recently taken from the excavations. The scene was such as +always appealed to Odo's fancy: the spacious room, luxuriously fitted +with carpets and curtains in the English style, and opening on a +prospect of classical beauty and antique renown; in his hands the rarest +specimens of that buried art which, like some belated golden harvest, +was now everywhere thrusting itself through the Neapolitan soil; and +about him men of taste and understanding, discussing the historic or +mythological meaning of the objects before them, and quoting Homer or +Horace in corroboration of their guesses. +</P> + +<P> +Several visitors had joined the party since Odo's entrance; and it was +from a group of these later arrivals that the voice had reached him. He +looked round and saw a man of refined and scholarly appearance, dressed +en abbe, as was the general habit in Rome and Naples, and holding in one +hand the celebrated blue vase cut in cameo which Sir William had +recently purchased from the Barberini family. +</P> + +<P> +"These reliefs," the stranger was saying, "whether cut in the substance +itself, or afterward affixed to the glass, certainly belong to the +Grecian period of cameo-work, and recall by the purity of their design +the finest carvings of Dioskorides." His beautifully-modulated Italian +was tinged by a slight foreign accent, which seemed to connect him still +more definitely with the episode his voice recalled. Odo turned to a +gentleman at his side and asked the speaker's name. +</P> + +<P> +"That," was the reply, "is the abate de Crucis, a scholar and +cognoscente, as you perceive, and at present attached to the household +of the Papal Nuncio." +</P> + +<P> +Instantly Odo beheld the tumultuous scene in the Duke's apartments, and +heard the indictment of Heiligenstern falling in tranquil accents from +the very lips which were now, in the same tone, discussing the date of a +Greek cameo vase. Even in that moment of disorder he had been struck by +the voice and aspect of the agent of the Holy Office, and by a singular +distinction that seemed to set the man himself above the coil of +passions in which his action was involved. To Odo's spontaneous yet +reflective temper there was something peculiarly impressive in the kind +of detachment which implies, not obtuseness or indifference, but a +higher sensitiveness disciplined by choice. Now he felt a renewed pang +of regret that such qualities should be found in the service of the +opposition; but the feeling was not incompatible with a wish to be more +nearly acquainted with their possessor. +</P> + +<P> +The two years elapsing since Odo's departure from Pianura had widened if +they had not lifted his outlook. If he had lost something of his early +enthusiasm he had exchanged it for a larger experience of cities and +men, and for the self-command born of varied intercourse. He had reached +a point where he was able to survey his past dispassionately and to +disentangle the threads of the intrigue in which he had so nearly lost +his footing. The actual circumstances of his escape were still wrapped +in mystery: he could only conjecture that the Duchess, foreseeing the +course events would take, had planned with Cantapresto to save him in +spite of himself. His nocturnal flight down the river had carried him to +Ponte di Po, the point where the Piana flows into the Po, the latter +river forming for a few miles the southern frontier of the duchy. Here +his passport had taken him safely past the customs-officer, and +following the indications of the boatman, he had found, outside the +miserable village clustered about the customs, a travelling-chaise which +brought him before the next night-fall to Monte Alloro. +</P> + +<P> +Of the real danger from which this timely retreat had removed him, +Gamba's subsequent letters had brought ample proof. It was indeed mainly +against himself that both parties, perhaps jointly, had directed their +attack; designing to take him in the toils ostensibly prepared for the +Illuminati. His evasion known, the Holy Office had contented itself with +imprisoning Heiligenstern in one of the Papal fortresses near the +Adriatic, while his mistress, though bred in the Greek confession, was +confined in a convent of the Sepolte Vive and his Oriental servant sent +to the Duke's galleys. As to those suspected of affiliations with the +forbidden sect, fines and penances were imposed on a few of the least +conspicuous, while the chief offenders, either from motives of policy or +thanks to their superior adroitness, were suffered to escape without a +reprimand. After this, Gamba's letters reported, the duchy had lapsed +into its former state of quiescence. Prince Ferrante had been seriously +ailing since the night of the electrical treatment, but the Pope having +sent his private physician to Pianura, the boy had rallied under the +latter's care. The Duke, as was natural, had suffered an acute relapse +of piety, spending his time in expiatory pilgrimages to the various +votive churches of the duchy, and declining to transact any public +business till he should have compiled with his own hand a calendar of +the lives of the saints, with the initial letters painted in miniature, +which he designed to present to his Holiness at Easter. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile Odo, at Monte Alloro, found himself in surroundings so +different from those he had left that it seemed incredible they should +exist in the same world. The Duke of Monte Alloro was that rare survival +of a stronger age, a cynic. In a period of sentimental optimism, of +fervid enthusiasms and tearful philanthropy, he represented the +pleasure-loving prince of the Renaissance, crushing his people with +taxes but dazzling them with festivities; infuriating them by his +disregard of the public welfare, but fascinating them by his good looks, +his tolerance of old abuses, his ridicule of the monks, and by the +careless libertinage which had founded the fortunes of more than one +middle-class husband and father—for the Duke always paid well for what +he appropriated. He had grown old in his pleasant sins, and these, as +such raiment will, had grown old and dingy with him; but if no longer +splendid he was still splendour-loving, and drew to his court the most +brilliant adventurers of Italy. Spite of his preference for such +company, he had a nobler side, the ruins of a fine but uncultivated +intelligence, and a taste for all that was young, generous and high in +looks and courage. He was at once drawn to Odo, who instinctively +addressed himself to these qualities, and whose conversation and manners +threw into relief the vulgarity of the old Duke's cronies. The latter +was the shrewd enough to enjoy the contrast at the expense of his +sycophants' vanity; and the cavaliere Valsecca was for a while the +reigning favourite. It would have been hard to say whether his patron +was most tickled by his zeal for economic reforms, or by his faith in +the perfectibility of man. Both these articles of Odo's creed drew tears +of enjoyment from the old Duke's puffy eyes; and he was never tired of +declaring that only his hatred for his nephew of Pianura induced him to +accord his protection to so dangerous an enemy of society. +</P> + +<P> +Odo at first fancied that it was in response to a mere whim of the +Duke's that he had been despatched to Monte Alloro; but he soon +perceived that the invitation had been inspired by Maria Clementina's +wish. Some three months after Odo's arrival, Cantapresto suddenly +appeared with a packet of letters from the Duchess. Among them her +Highness had included a few lines to Odo, whom she briefly adjured not +to return to Pianura, but to comply in all things with her uncle's +desires. Soon after this the old Duke sent for Odo, and asked him how +his present mode of life agreed with his tastes. Odo, who had learned +that frankness was the surest way to the Duke's favour, replied that, +while nothing could be more agreeable than the circumstances of his +sojourn at Monte Alloro, he must own to a wish to travel when the +occasion offered. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, this is as I fancied," replied the Duke, who held in his hand an +open letter on which Odo recognised Maria Clementina's seal. "We have +always," he continued, "spoken plainly with each other, and I will not +conceal from you that it is for your best interests that you should +remain away from Pianura for the present. The Duke, as you doubtless +divine, is anxious for your return, and her Highness, for that very +reason, is urgent that you should prolong your absence. It is notorious +that the Duke soon wearies of those about him, and that your best chance +of regaining his favour is to keep out of his reach and let your enemies +hang themselves in the noose they have prepared for you. For my part, I +am always glad to do an ill-turn to that snivelling friar, my nephew, +and the more so when I can seriously oblige a friend; and, as you have +perhaps guessed, the Duke dares not ask for your return while I show a +fancy for your company. But this," added he with an ironical twinkle, +"is a tame place for a young man of your missionary temper, and I have a +mind to send you on a visit to that arch-tyrant Ferdinand of Naples, in +whose dominions a man may yet burn for heresy or be drawn and quartered +for poaching on a nobleman's preserves. I am advised that some rare +treasures have lately been taken from the excavations there and I should +be glad if you would oblige me by acquiring a few for my gallery. I will +give you letters to a cognoscente of my acquaintance, who will put his +experience at the disposal of your excellent taste, and the funds at +your service will, I hope, enable you to outbid the English brigands +who, as the Romans say, would carry off the Colosseum if it were +portable." +</P> + +<P> +In all this Odo discerned Maria Clementina's hand, and an instinctive +resistance made him hang back upon his patron's proposal. But the only +alternative was to return to Pianura; and every letter from Gamba urged +on him (for the very reasons the Duke had given) the duty of keeping out +of reach as the surest means of saving himself and the cause to which he +was pledged. Nothing remained but a graceful acquiescence; and early the +next spring he started for Naples. +</P> + +<P> +His first impulse had been to send Cantapresto back to the Duchess. He +knew that he owed his escape me grave difficulties to the soprano's +prompt action on the night of Heiligenstern's arrest; but he was equally +sure that such action might not always be as favourable to his plans. It +was plain that Cantapresto was paid to spy on him, and that whenever +Odo's intentions clashed with those of his would-be protectors the +soprano would side with the latter. But there was something in the air +of Monte Alloro which dispelled such considerations, or at least +weakened the impulse to act on them. Cantapresto as usual had attracted +notice at court. His glibness and versatility amused the Duke, and to +Odo he was as difficult to put off as a bad habit. He had become so +accomplished a servant that he seemed a sixth sense of his master's; and +when the latter prepared to start on his travels Cantapresto took his +usual seat in the chaise. +</P> + +<P> +To a traveller of Odo's temper there could be few more agreeable +journeys than the one on which he was setting out, and the Duke being in +no haste to have his commission executed, his messenger had full leisure +to enjoy every stage of the way. He profited by this to visit several of +the small principalities north of the Apennines before turning toward +Genoa, whence he was to take ship for the South. When he left Monte +Alloro the land had worn the bleached face of February, and it was +amazing to his northern-bred eyes to find himself, on the sea-coast, in +the full exuberance of summer. Seated by this halcyon shore, Genoa, in +its carved and frescoed splendour, just then celebrating with the +customary gorgeous ritual the accession of a new Doge, seemed to Odo +like the richly-inlaid frame of some Renaissance "triumph." But the +splendid houses with their marble peristyles, and the painted villas in +their orange-groves along the shore, housed a dull and narrow-minded +society, content to amass wealth and play biribi under the eyes of their +ancestral Vandykes, without any concern as to the questions agitating +the world. A kind of fat commercial dulness, a lack of that personal +distinction which justifies magnificence, seemed to Odo the prevailing +note of the place; nor was he sorry when his packet set sail for Naples. +</P> + +<P> +Here indeed he found all the vivacity that Genoa lacked. Few cities +could at first acquaintance be more engaging to the stranger. Dull and +brown as it appeared after the rich tints of Genoa, yet so gloriously +did sea and land embrace it, so lavishly the sun gild and the moon +silver it, that it seemed steeped in the surrounding hues of nature. And +what a nature to eyes subdued to the sober tints of the north! Its +spectacular quality—that studied sequence of effects ranging from the +translucent outline of Capri and the fantastically blue mountains of the +coast, to Vesuvius lifting its torch above the plain—this prodigal +response to fancy's claims suggested the boundless invention of some +great scenic artist, some Olympian Veronese with sea and sky for a +palette. And then the city itself, huddled between bay and mountains, +and seething and bubbling like a Titan's cauldron! Here was life at its +source, not checked, directed, utilised, but gushing forth +uncontrollably through every fissure of the brown walls and reeking +streets—love and hatred, mirth and folly, impudence and greed, going +naked and unashamed as the lazzaroni on the quays. The variegated +surface of it all was fascinating to Odo. It set free his powers of +purely physical enjoyment, keeping all deeper sensations in abeyance. +These, however, presently found satisfaction in that other hidden beauty +of which city and plain were but the sumptuous drapery. It is hardly too +much to say that to the trained eyes of the day the visible Naples +hardly existed, so absorbed were they in the perusal of her buried past. +The fever of excavation was on every one. No social or political problem +could find a hearing while the subject of the last coin or bas-relief +from Pompeii or Herculanaeum remained undecided. Odo, at first an amused +spectator, gradually found himself engrossed in the fierce quarrels +raging over the date of an intaglio or the myth represented on an +amphora. The intrinsic beauty of the objects, and the light they shed on +one of the most brilliant phases of human history, were in fact +sufficient to justify the prevailing ardour; and the reconstructive +habit he had acquired from Crescenti lent a living interest to the +driest discussion between rival collectors. +</P> + +<P> +Gradually other influences reasserted themselves. At the house of Sir +William Hamilton, then the centre of the most polished society in +Naples, he met not only artists and archeologists, but men of letters +and of affairs. Among these, he was peculiarly drawn to the two +distinguished economists, the abate Galiani and the cavaliere +Filangieri, in whose company he enjoyed for the first time sound +learning unhampered by pedantry. The lively Galiani proved that social +tastes and a broad wit are not incompatible with more serious interests; +and Filangieri threw the charm of a graceful personality over any topic +he discussed. In the latter, indeed, courtly, young and romantic, a +thinker whose intellectual acuteness was steeped in moral emotion, Odo +beheld the type of the new chivalry, an ideal leader of the campaign +against social injustice. Filangieri represented the extremest optimism +of the day. His sense of existing abuses was only equalled by his faith +in their speedy amendment. Love was to cure all evils: the love of man +for man, the effusive all-embracing sympathy of the school of the +Vicaire Savoyard, was to purge the emotions by tenderness and pity. In +Gamba, the victim of the conditions he denounced, the sense of present +hardship prevailed over the faith in future improvement; while +Filangieri's social superiority mitigated his view of the evils and +magnified the efficacy of the proposed remedies. Odo's days passed +agreeably in such intercourse, or in the excitement of excursions to the +ruined cities; and as the court and the higher society of Naples offered +little to engage him, he gradually restricted himself to the small +circle of chosen spirits gathered at the villa Hamilton. To these he +fancied the abate de Crucis might prove an interesting addition; and the +desire to learn something of this problematic person induced him to quit +the villa at the moment when the abate took leave. +</P> + +<P> +They found themselves together on the threshold; and Odo, recalling to +the other the circumstances of their first meeting, proposed that they +should dismiss their carriages and regain the city on foot. De Crucis +readily consented; and they were soon descending the hill of Posilipo. +Here and there a turn in the road brought them to an open space whence +they commanded the bay from Procida to Sorrento, with Capri afloat in +liquid gold and the long blue shadow of Vesuvius stretching like a +menace toward the city. The spectacle was one of which Odo never +wearied; but today it barely diverted him from the charms of his +companion's talk. The abate de Crucis had that quality of repressed +enthusiasm, of an intellectual sensibility tempered by self-possession, +which exercises the strongest attraction over a mind not yet master of +itself. Though all he said had a personal note he seemed to withhold +himself even in the moment of greatest expansion: like some prince who +should enrich his favourites from the public treasury but keep his +private fortune unimpaired. In the course of their conversation Odo +learned that though of Austrian birth his companion was of mingled +English and Florentine parentage: a fact perhaps explaining the mixture +of urbanity and reserve that lent such charm to his manner. He told Odo +that his connection with the Holy Office had been only temporary, and +that, having contracted a severe cold the previous winter in Germany, he +had accepted a secretaryship in the service of the Papal Nuncio in order +to enjoy the benefits of a mild climate. "By profession," he added, "I +am a pedagogue, and shall soon travel to Rome, where I have been called +by Prince Bracciano to act as governor to his son; and meanwhile I am +taking advantage of my residence here to indulge my taste for +antiquarian studies." +</P> + +<P> +He went on to praise the company they had just left, declaring that he +knew no better way for a young man to form his mind than by frequenting +the society of men of conflicting views and equal capacity. "Nothing," +said he, "is more injurious to the growth of character than to be +secluded from argument and opposition; as nothing is healthier than to +be obliged to find good reasons for one's beliefs on pain of +surrendering them." +</P> + +<P> +"But," said Odo, struck with this declaration, "to a man of your cloth +there is one belief which never surrenders to reason." +</P> + +<P> +The other smiled. "True," he agreed; "but I often marvel to see how +little our opponents know of that belief. The wisest of them seem in the +case of those children at our country fairs who gape at the incredible +things depicted on the curtains of the booths, without asking themselves +whether the reality matches its presentment. The weakness of human +nature has compelled us to paint the outer curtain of the sanctuary in +gaudy colours, and the malicious fancy of our enemies has given a +monstrous outline to these pictures; but what are such vanities to one +who has passed beyond, and beheld the beauty of the King's daughter, all +glorious within?" +</P> + +<P> +As though unwilling to linger on such grave topics, he turned the talk +to the scene at their feet, questioning Odo as to the impression Naples +had made on him. He listened courteously to the young man's comments on +the wretched state of the peasantry, the extravagances of the court and +nobility and the judicial corruption which made the lower classes submit +to any injustice rather than seek redress through the courts. De Crucis +agreed with him in the main, admitting that the monopoly of corn, the +maintenance of feudal rights and the King's indifference to the graver +duties of his rank placed the kingdom of Naples far below such states as +Tuscany or Venetia; "though," he added, "I think our economists, in +praising one state at the expense of another, too often overlook those +differences of character and climate that must ever make it impossible +to govern different races in the same manner. Our peasants have a blunt +saying: Cut off the dog's tail and he is still a dog; and so I suspect +the most enlightened rule would hardly bring this prompt and choleric +people, living on a volcanic soil amid a teeming vegetation, into any +resemblance with the clear-headed Tuscan or the gentle and dignified +Roman." +</P> + +<P> +As he spoke they emerged upon the Chiaia, where at that hour the quality +took the air in their carriages, while the lower classes thronged the +footway. A more vivacious scene no city of Europe could present. The +gilt coaches drawn by six or eight of the lively Neapolitan horses, +decked with plumes and artificial flowers and preceded by running +footmen who beat the foot-passengers aside with long staves; the +richly-dressed ladies seated in this never-ending file of carriages, +bejewelled like miraculous images and languidly bowing to their friends; +the throngs of citizens and their wives in holiday dress; the sellers of +sherbet, ices and pastry bearing their trays and barrels through the +crowd with strange cries and the jingling of bells; the friars of every +order in their various habits, the street-musicians, the half-naked +lazzaroni, cripples and beggars, who fringed the throng like the line of +scum edging a fair lake;—this medley of sound and colour, which in fact +resembled some sudden growth of the fiery soil, was an expressive +comment on the abate's words. +</P> + +<P> +"Look," he continued, as he and Odo drew aside to escape the mud from an +emblazoned chariot, "at the gold-leaf on the panels of that coach and +the gold-lace on the liveries of those lacqueys. Is there any other city +in the world where gold is so prodigally used? Where the monks gild +their relics, the nobility their servants, the apothecaries their pills, +the very butchers their mutton? One might fancy their bright sun had set +them the example! And how cold and grey all soberer tints must seem to +these children of Apollo! Well—so it is with their religion and their +daily life. I wager half those naked wretches yonder would rather attend +a fine religious service, with abundance of gilt candles, music from +gilt organ-pipes, and incense from gilt censers, than eat a good meal or +sleep in a decent bed; as they would rather starve under a handsome +merry King that has the name of being the best billiard-player in Europe +than go full under one of your solemn reforming Austrian Archdukes!" +</P> + +<P> +The words recalled to Odo Crescenti's theory of the influence of +character and climate on the course of history; and this subject soon +engrossing both speakers, they wandered on, inattentive to their +surroundings, till they found themselves in the thickest concourse of +the Toledo. Here for a moment the dense crowd hemmed them in; and as +they stood observing the humours of the scene, Odo's eye fell on the +thick-set figure of a man in doctor's dress, who was being led through +the press by two agents of the Inquisition. The sight was too common to +have fixed his attention, had he not recognised with a start the +irascible red-faced professor who, on his first visit to Vivaldi, had +defended the Diluvial theory of creation. The sight raised a host of +memories from which Odo would gladly have beaten a retreat; but the +crowd held him in check and a moment later he saw that the doctor's eyes +were fixed on him with an air of recognition. A movement of pity +succeeded his first impulse, and turning to de Crucis he exclaimed:—"I +see yonder an old acquaintance who seems in an unlucky plight and with +whom I should be glad to speak." +</P> + +<P> +The other, following his glance, beckoned to one of the sbirri, who made +his way through the throng with the alacrity of one summoned by a +superior. De Crucis exchanged a few words with him, and then signed to +him to return to his charge, who presently vanished in some fresh +shifting of the crowd. +</P> + +<P> +"Your friend," said de Crucis, "has been summoned before the Holy Office +to answer a charge of heresy preferred by the authorities. He has lately +been appointed to the chair of physical sciences in the University here, +and has doubtless allowed himself to publish openly views that were +better expounded in the closet. His offence, however, appears to be a +mild one, and I make no doubt he will be set free in a few days." +</P> + +<P> +This, however, did not satisfy Odo; and he asked de Crucis if there were +no way of speaking with the doctor at once. +</P> + +<P> +His companion hesitated. "It can easily be arranged," said he; +"but—pardon me, cavaliere—are you well-advised in mixing yourself in +such matters?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am well-advised in seeking to serve a friend!" Odo somewhat hotly +returned; and de Crucis, with a faint smile of approval, replied +quietly: "In that case I will obtain permission for you to visit your +friend in the morning." +</P> + +<P> +He was true to his word; and the next forenoon Odo, accompanied by an +officer of police, was taken to the prison of the Inquisition. Here he +found his old acquaintance seated in a clean commodious room and reading +Aristotle's "History of Animals," the only volume of his library that he +had been permitted to carry with him. He welcomed Odo heartily, and on +the latter's enquiring what had brought him to this plight, replied with +some dignity that he had been led there in the fulfilment of his duty. +</P> + +<P> +"Some months ago," he continued, "I was summoned hither to profess the +natural sciences in the University; a summons I readily accepted, since +I hoped, by the study of a volcanic soil, to enlarge my knowledge of the +globe's formation. Such in fact was the case, but to my surprise my +researches led me to adopt the views I had formerly combated, and I now +find myself in the ranks of the Vulcanists, or believers in the +secondary origin of the earth: a view you may remember I once opposed +with all the zeal of inexperience. Having firmly established every point +in my argument according to the Baconian method of investigation, I felt +it my duty to enlighten my scholars; and in the course of my last +lecture I announced the result of my investigations. I was of course +aware of the inevitable result; but the servants of Truth have no choice +but to follow where she calls, and many have joyfully traversed stonier +places than I am likely to travel." +</P> + +<P> +Nothing could exceed the respect with which Odo heard this simple +confession of faith. It was as though the speaker had unconsciously +convicted him of remissness, of cowardice even; so vain and windy his +theorising seemed, judged by the other's deliberate act! Yet placed as +he was, what could he do, how advance their common end, but by passively +waiting on events? At least, he reflected, he could perform the trivial +service of trying to better his friend's case; and this he eagerly +offered to attempt. The doctor thanked him, but without any great +appearance of emotion: Odo was struck by the change which had +transformed a heady and intemperate speaker into a model of philosophic +calm. The doctor, indeed, seemed far more concerned for the safety of +his library and his cabinet of minerals than for his own. "Happily," +said he, "I am not a man of family, and can therefore sacrifice my +liberty with a clear conscience: a fact I am the more thankful for when +I recall the moral distress of our poor friend Vivaldi, when compelled +to desert his post rather than be separated from his daughter." +</P> + +<P> +The name brought the colour to Odo's brow, and with an embarrassed air +he asked what news the doctor had of their friend. +</P> + +<P> +"Alas," said the other, "the last was of his death, which happened two +years since in Pavia. The Sardinian government had, as you probably +know, confiscated his small property on his leaving the state, and I am +told he died in great poverty, and in sore anxiety for his daughter's +future." He added that these events had taken place before his own +departure from Turin, and that since then he had learned nothing of +Fulvia's fate, save that she was said to have made her home with an aunt +who lived in a town of the Veneto. +</P> + +<P> +Odo listened in silence. The lapse of time, and the absence of any links +of association, had dimmed the girl's image in his breast; but at the +mere sound of her name it lived again, and he felt her interwoven with +his deepest fibres. The picture of her father's death and of her own +need filled him with an ineffectual pity, and for a moment he thought of +seeking her out; but the other could recall neither the name of the town +she had removed to nor that of the relative who had given her a home. +</P> + +<P> +To aid the good doctor was a simpler business. The intervention of de +Crucis and Odo's own influence sufficed to effect his release, and on +the payment of a heavy fine (in which Odo privately assisted him) he was +reinstated in his chair. The only promise exacted by the Holy Office was +that he should in future avoid propounding his own views on questions +already decided by Scripture, and to this he readily agreed, since, as +he shrewdly remarked to Odo, his opinions were now well-known, and any +who wished farther instruction had only to apply to him privately. +</P> + +<P> +The old Duke having invited Odo to return to Monte Alloro with such +treasures as he had collected for the ducal galleries, the young man +resolved to visit Rome on his way to the North. His acquaintance with de +Crucis had grown into something like friendship since their joint effort +in behalf of the imprisoned sage, and the abate preparing to set out +about the same time, the two agreed to travel together. The road leading +from Naples to Rome was at that time one of the worst in Italy, and was +besides so ill-provided with inns that there was no inducement to linger +on the way. De Crucis, however, succeeded in enlivening even this +tedious journey. He was a good linguist and a sound classical scholar, +besides having, as he had told Odo, a pronounced taste for antiquarian +research. In addition to this, he performed agreeably on the violin, and +was well-acquainted with the history of music. His chief distinction, +however, lay in the ease with which he wore his accomplishments, and in +a breadth of view that made it possible to discuss with him many +subjects distasteful to most men of his cloth. The sceptical or +licentious ecclesiastic was common enough; but Odo had never before met +a priest who united serious piety with this indulgent temper, or who had +learning enough to do justice to the arguments of his opponents. +</P> + +<P> +On his venturing one evening to compliment de Crucis on these qualities, +the latter replied with a smile: "Whatever has been lately advanced +against the Jesuits, it can hardly be denied that they were good +school-masters; and it is to them I owe the talents you have been +pleased to admire. Indeed," he continued, quietly fingering his violin, +"I was myself bred in the order: a fact I do not often make known in the +present heated state of public opinion, but which I never conceal when +commended for any quality that I owe to the Society rather than to my +own merit." +</P> + +<P> +Surprise for the moment silenced Odo; for though it was known that Italy +was full of former Jesuits who had been permitted to remain in the +country as secular priests, and even to act as tutors or professors in +private families, he had never thought of de Crucis in this connection. +The latter, seeing his surprise, went on: "Once a Jesuit, always a +Jesuit, I suppose. I at least owe the Society too much not to own my +debt when the occasion offers. Nor could I ever see the force of the +charge so often brought against us: that we sacrifice everything to the +glory of the order. For what is the glory of the order? Our own motto +has declared it: Ad majorem Dei gloriam—who works for the Society works +for its Master. If our zeal has been sometimes misdirected, our blood +has a thousand times witnessed to its sincerity. In the Indies, in +America, in England during the great persecution, and lately on our own +unnatural coasts, the Jesuits have died for Christ as joyfully as His +first disciples died for Him. Yet these are but a small number in +comparison with the countless servants of the order who, labouring in +far countries among savage peoples, or surrounded by the heretical +enemies of our faith, have died the far bitterer death of moral +isolation: setting themselves to their task with the knowledge that +their lives were but so much indistinguishable dust to be added to the +sum of human effort. What association founded on human interests has +ever commanded such devotion? And what merely human authority could +count on such unquestioning obedience, not in a mob of poor illiterate +monks, but in men chosen for their capacity and trained to the exercise +of their highest faculties? Yet there have never lacked such men to +serve the Order; and as one of our enemies has said—our noblest enemy, +the great Pascal—'je crois volontiers aux histoires dont les temoins se +font egorger.'" +</P> + +<P> +He did not again revert to his connection with the Jesuits; but in the +farther course of their acquaintance Odo was often struck by the +firmness with which he testified to the faith that was in him, without +using the jargon of piety, or seeming, by his own attitude, to cast a +reflection on that of others. He was indeed master of that worldly +science which the Jesuits excelled in imparting, and which, though it +might sink to hypocrisy in smaller natures, became in a finely-tempered +spirit, the very flower of Christian courtesy. +</P> + +<P> +Odo had often spoken to de Crucis of the luxurious lives led by many of +the monastic orders in Naples. It might be true enough that the monks +themselves, and even their abbots, fared on fish and vegetables, and +gave their time to charitable and educational work; but it was +impossible to visit the famous monastery of San Martino, or that of the +Carthusians at Camaldoli, without observing that the anchoret's cell had +expanded into a delightful apartment, with bedchamber, library and +private chapel, and his cabbage-plot into a princely garden. De Crucis +admitted the truth of the charge, explaining it in part by the character +of the Neapolitan people, and by the tendency of the northern traveller +to forget that such apparent luxuries as spacious rooms, shady groves +and the like are regarded as necessities in a hot climate. He urged, +moreover, that the monastic life should not be judged by a few isolated +instances; and on the way to Rome he proposed that Odo, by way of seeing +the other side of the question, should visit the ancient foundation of +the Benedictines on Monte Cassino. +</P> + +<P> +The venerable monastery, raised on its height over the busy vale of +Garigliano, like some contemplative spirit above the conflicting +problems of life, might well be held to represent the nobler side of +Christian celibacy. For nearly a thousand years its fortified walls had +been the stronghold of the humanities, and generations of students had +cherished and added to the treasures of the famous library. But the +Benedictine rule was as famous for good works as for learning, and its +comparative abstention from dogmatic controversy and from the mechanical +devotion of some of the other orders had drawn to it men of superior +mind, who sought in the monastic life the free exercise of the noblest +activities rather than a sanctified refuge from action. This was +especially true of the monastery of Monte Cassino, whither many scholars +had been attracted and where the fathers had long had the highest name +for learning and beneficence. The monastery, moreover, in addition to +its charitable and educational work among the poor, maintained a school +of theology to which students came from all parts of Italy; and their +presence lent an unwonted life to the great labyrinth of courts and +cloisters. +</P> + +<P> +The abbot, with whom de Crucis was well-acquainted, welcomed the +travellers warmly, making them free of the library and the archives and +pressing them to prolong their visit. Under the spell of these +influences they lingered on from day to day; and to Odo they were the +pleasantest days he had known. To be waked before dawn by the bell +ringing for lauds—to rise from the narrow bed in his white-washed cell, +and opening his casement look forth over the haze-enveloped valley, the +dark hills of the Abruzzi and the remote gleam of sea touched into being +by the sunrise—to hasten through hushed echoing corridors to the +church, where in a grey resurrection-light the fathers were intoning the +solemn office of renewal—this morning ablution of the spirit, so like +the bodily plunge into clear cold water, seemed to attune the mind to +the fullest enjoyment of what was to follow: the hours of study, the +talks with the monks, the strolls through cloister or garden, all +punctuated by the recurring summons to devotion. Yet for all its latent +significance it remained to him a purely sensuous impression, the vision +of a golden leisure: not a solution of life's perplexities, but at best +an honourable escape from them. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +3.2. +</H4> + +<P> +"To know Rome is to have assisted at the councils of destiny!" This cry +of a more famous traveller must have struggled for expression in Odo's +breast as the great city, the city of cities, laid her irresistible hold +upon him. His first impression, as he drove in the clear evening light +from the Porta del Popolo to his lodgings in the Via Sistina, was of a +prodigious accumulation of architectural effects, a crowding of century +on century, all fused in the crucible of the Roman sun, so that each +style seemed linked to the other by some subtle affinity of colour. +Nowhere else, surely, is the traveller's first sight so crowded with +surprises, with conflicting challenges to eye and brain. Here, as he +passed, was a fragment of the ancient Servian wall, there a new stucco +shrine embedded in the bricks of a medieval palace; on one hand a lofty +terrace crowned by a row of mouldering busts, on the other a tower with +machicolated parapet, its flanks encrusted with bits of Roman sculpture +and the escutcheons of seventeenth-century Popes. Opposite, perhaps, one +of Fuga's golden-brown churches, with windy saints blowing out of their +niches, overlooked the nereids of a barocco fountain, or an old house +propped itself like a palsied beggar against a row of Corinthian +columns; while everywhere flights of steps led up and down to hanging +gardens or under archways, and each turn revealed some distant glimpse +of convent-walls on the slope of a vineyard or of red-brown ruins +profiled against the dim sea-like reaches of the Campagna. +</P> + +<P> +Afterward, as order was born out of chaos, and he began to thread his +way among the centuries, this first vision lost something of its +intensity; yet it was always, to the last, through the eye that Rome +possessed him. Her life, indeed, as though in obedience to such a +setting, was an external, a spectacular business, from the wild +animation of the cattle-market in the Forum or the hucksters' traffic +among the fountains of the Piazza Navona, to the pompous entertainments +in the cardinals' palaces and the ever-recurring religious ceremonies +and processions. Pius VI., in the reaction from Ganganelli's democratic +ways, had restored the pomp and ceremonial of the Vatican with the +religious discipline of the Holy Office; and never perhaps had Rome been +more splendid on the surface or more silent and empty within. Odo, at +times, as he moved through some assemblage of cardinals and nobles, had +the sensation of walking through a huge reverberating palace, decked out +with all the splendours of art but long since abandoned of men. The +superficial animation, the taste for music and antiquities, all the +dilettantisms of an idle and irresponsible society, seemed to him to +shrivel to dust in the glare of that great past that lit up every corner +of the present. +</P> + +<P> +Through his own connections, and the influence of de Crucis, he saw all +that was best not only among the nobility, but in that ecclesiastical +life now more than ever predominant in Rome. Here at last he was face to +face with the mighty Sphinx, and with the bleaching bones of those who +had tried to guess her riddle. Wherever he went these "lost adventurers" +walked the streets with him, gliding between the Princes of the Church +in the ceremonies of Saint Peter's and the Lateran, or mingling in the +company that ascended the state staircase at some cardinal's levee. +</P> + +<P> +He met indeed many accomplished and amiable ecclesiastics, but it seemed +to him that the more thoughtful among them had either acquired their +peace of mind at the cost of a certain sensitiveness, or had taken +refuge in a study of the past, as the early hermits fled to the desert +from the disorders of Antioch and Alexandria. None seemed disposed to +face the actual problems of life, and this attitude of caution or +indifference had produced a stagnation of thought that contrasted +strongly with the animation of Sir William Hamilton's circle in Naples. +The result in Odo's case was a reaction toward the pleasures of his age; +and of these Rome had but few to offer. He spent some months in the +study of the antique, purchasing a few good examples of sculpture for +the Duke, and then, without great reluctance, set out for Monte Alloro. +</P> + +<P> +Here he found a changed atmosphere. The Duke welcomed him handsomely, +and bestowed the highest praise on the rarities he had collected; but +for the moment the court was ruled by a new favourite, to whom Odo's +coming was obviously unwelcome. This adroit adventurer, whose name was +soon to become notorious throughout Europe, had taken the old prince by +his darling weaknesses, and Odo, having no mind to share in the excesses +of the precious couple, seized the first occasion to set out again on +his travels. +</P> + +<P> +His course had now become one of aimless wandering; for prudence still +forbade his return to Pianura, and his patron's indifference left him +free to come and go as he chose. He had brought from Rome—that albergo +d'ira—a settled melancholy of spirit, which sought refuge in such +distractions as the moment offered. In such a mood change of scene was a +necessity, and he resolved to employ the next months in visiting several +of the mid-Italian cities. Toward Florence he was specially drawn by the +fact that Alfieri now lived there; but, as often happens after such +separations, the reunion was a disappointment. Alfieri, indeed, warmly +welcomed his friend; but he was engrossed in his dawning passion for the +Countess of Albany, and that lady's pitiable situation excluded all +other interests from his mind. To Odo, to whom the years had brought an +increasing detachment, this self-absorption seemed an arrest in growth; +for Alfieri's early worship of liberty had not yet found its destined +channel of expression, and for the moment his enthusiasms had shrunk to +the compass of a romantic adventure. The friends parted after a few days +of unsatisfying intercourse; and it was under the influence of this +final disenchantment that Odo set out for Venice. +</P> + +<P> +It was the vintage season, and the travellers descended from the +Apennines on a landscape diversified by the picturesque incidents of the +grape-gathering. On every slope stood some villa with awnings spread, +and merry parties were picnicking among the vines or watching the +peasants at their work. Cantapresto, who had shown great reluctance at +leaving Monte Alloro, where, as he declared, he found himself as snug as +an eel in a pasty, was now all eagerness to press forward; and Odo was +in the mood to allow any influence to decide his course. He had an +invaluable courier in Cantapresto, whose enormous pretensions generally +assured him the best lodging and the fastest conveyance to be obtained, +and who was never happier than when outwitting a rival emissary, or +bribing a landlord to serve up on Odo's table the repast ordered in +advance for some distinguished traveller. His impatience to reach +Venice, which he described as the scene of all conceivable delights, had +on this occasion tripled his zeal, and they travelled rapidly to Padua, +where he had engaged a burchiello for the passage down the Brenta. Here, +however, he found he had been outdone at his own game; for the servant +of an English Duke had captured the burchiello and embarked his noble +party before Cantapresto reached the wharf. This being the season of the +villeggiatura, when the Venetian nobility were exchanging visits on the +mainland, every conveyance was in motion and no other boat to be had for +a week; while as for the "bucentaur" or public bark, which was just then +getting under way, it was already packed to the gunwale with Jews, +pedlars and such vermin, and the captain swore by the three thousand +relics of Saint Justina that he had no room on board for so much as a +hungry flea. +</P> + +<P> +Odo, who had accompanied Cantapresto to the water-side, was listening to +these assurances and to the soprano's vain invectives, when a +well-dressed young man stepped up to the group. This gentleman, whose +accent and dress showed him to be a Frenchman of quality, told Odo that +he was come from Vicenza, whither he had gone to engage a company of +actors for his friend the Procuratore Bra, who was entertaining a +distinguished company at his villa on the Brenta; that he was now +returning with his players, and that he would be glad to convey Odo so +far on his road to Venice. His friend's seat, he added, was near Oriago, +but a few miles above Fusina, where a public conveyance might always be +found; so that Odo would doubtless be able to proceed the same night to +Venice. +</P> + +<P> +This civil offer Odo at once accepted, and the Frenchman thereupon +suggested that, as the party was to set out the next day at sunrise, the +two should sup together and pass the intervening hours in such +diversions as the city offered. They returned to the inn, where the +actors were also lodged, and Odo's host having ordered a handsome +supper, proposed, with his guest's permission, to invite the leading +members of the company to partake of it. He departed on this errand; and +great was Odo's wonder, when the door reopened, to discover, among the +party it admitted, his old acquaintance of Vercelli, the Count of +Castelrovinato. The latter, whose dress and person had been refurbished, +and who now wore an air of rakish prosperity, greeted him with evident +pleasure, and, while their entertainer was engaged in seating the ladies +of the company, gave him a brief account of the situation. +</P> + +<P> +The young French gentleman (whom he named as the Marquis de +Coeur-Volant) had come to Italy some months previously on the grand +tour, and having fallen a victim to the charms of Venice, had declared +that, instead of continuing on his travels, he meant to complete his +education in that famous school of pleasure. Being master of his own +fortune, he had hired a palace on the Grand Canal, had dispatched his +governor (a simple archaeologist) on a mission of exploration to Sicily +and Greece, and had devoted himself to an assiduous study of Venetian +manners. Among those contributing to his instruction was Mirandolina of +Chioggia, who had just completed a successful engagement at the theatre +of San Moise in Venice. Wishing to detain her in the neighbourhood, her +adorer had prevailed on his friend the Procuratore to give a series of +comedies at his villa of Bellocchio and had engaged to provide him with +a good company of performers. Miranda was of course selected as prima +amorosa; and the Marquess, under Castelrovinato's guidance, had then set +out to collect the rest of the company. This he had succeeded in doing, +and was now returning to Bellocchio, where Miranda was to meet them. Odo +was the more diverted at the hazard which had brought him into such +company, as the Procuratore Bra was one of the noblemen to whom the old +Duke had specially recommended him. On learning this, the Marquess urged +him to present his letter of introduction on arriving at Bellocchio, +where the Procuratore, who was noted for hospitality to strangers, would +doubtless insist on his joining the assembled party. This Odo declined +to do; but his curiosity to see Mirandolina made him hope that chance +would soon throw him in the Procuratore's way. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile supper was succeeded by music and dancing, and the company +broke up only in time to proceed to the landing-place where their barge +awaited them. This was a private burchiello of the Procuratore's with a +commodious antechamber for the servants, and a cabin cushioned in +damask. Into this agreeable retreat the actresses were packed with all +their bags and band-boxes; and their travelling-cloaks being rolled into +pillows, they were soon asleep in a huddle of tumbled finery. +</P> + +<P> +Odo and his host preferred to take the air on deck. The sun was rising +above the willow-clad banks of the Brenta, and it was pleasant to glide +in the clear early light past sleeping gardens and villas, and vineyards +where the peasants were already at work. The wind setting from the sea, +they travelled slowly and had full leisure to view the succession of +splendid seats interspersed with gardens, the thriving villages, and the +poplar-groves festooned with vines. Coeur-Volant spoke eloquently of the +pleasures to be enjoyed in this delightful season of the villeggiatura. +"Nowhere," said he, "do people take their pleasures so easily and +naturally as in Venice. My countrymen claim a superiority in this art, +and it may be they possessed it a generation ago. But what a morose +place is France become since philosophy has dethroned enjoyment! If you +go on a visit to one of our noblemen's seats, what do you find there, I +ask? Cards, comedies, music, the opportunity for an agreeable intrigue +in the society of your equals? No—but a hostess engaged in suckling and +bathing her brats, or in studying chemistry and optics with some dirty +school-master, who is given the seat of honour at table and a pavilion +in the park to which he may retire when weary of the homage of the +great; while as for the host, he is busy discussing education or +political economy with his unfortunate guests, if, indeed, he is not +dragging them through leagues of mud and dust to inspect his latest +experiments in forestry and agriculture, or to hear a pack of snuffling +school-children singing hymns to the God of Nature! And what," he +continued, "is the result of it all? The peasants are starving, the +taxes are increasing, the virtuous landlords are ruining themselves in +farming on scientific principles, the tradespeople are grumbling because +the nobility do not spend their money in Paris, the court is dull, the +clergy are furious, the Queen mopes, the King is frightened, and the +whole French people are yawning themselves to death from Normandy to +Provence." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Castelrovinato with his melancholy smile, "the test of +success is to have had one's money's worth; but experience, which is +dried pleasure, is at best a dusty diet, as we know. Yonder, in a fold +of those hills," he added, pointing to the cluster of Euganean mountains +just faintly pencilled above the plain, "lies the little fief from which +I take my name. Acre by acre, tree by tree, it has gone to pay for my +experiments, not in agriculture but in pleasure; and whenever I look +over at it from Venice and reflect on what each rood of ground or trunk +of tree has purchased, I wonder to see my life as bare as ever for all +that I have spent on it." +</P> + +<P> +The young Marquess shrugged his shoulders. "And would your life," he +exclaimed, "have been a whit less bare had you passed it in your +ancestral keep among those windy hills, in the company of swineherds and +charcoal-burners, with a milk-maid for your mistress and the village +priest for your partner at picquet?" +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps not," the other agreed. "There is a tale of a man who spent his +life in wishing he had lived differently; and when he died he was +surrounded by a throng of spectral shapes, each one exactly like the +other, who, on his asking what they were, replied: 'We are all the +different lives you might have lived.'" +</P> + +<P> +"If you are going to tell ghost-stories," cried Coeur-Volant, "I will +call for a bottle of Canary!" +</P> + +<P> +"And I," rejoined the Count good-humouredly, "will try to coax the +ladies forth with a song;" and picking up his lute, which always lay +within reach, he began to sing in the Venetian dialect:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + There's a villa on the Brenta<BR> + Where the statues, white as snow,<BR> + All along the water-terrace<BR> + Perch like sea-gulls in a row.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + There's a garden on the Brenta<BR> + Where the fairest ladies meet,<BR> + Picking roses from the trellis<BR> + For the gallants at their feet.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + There's an arbour on the Brenta<BR> + Made of yews that screen the light,<BR> + Where I kiss my girl at midday<BR> + Close as lovers kiss at night.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +The players soon emerged at this call and presently the deck resounded +with song and laughter. All the company were familiar with the Venetian +bacaroles, and Castelrovinato's lute was passed from hand to hand, as +one after another, incited by the Marquess's Canary, tried to recall +some favourite measure—"La biondina in gondoleta" or "Guarda, che bella +luna." +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile life was stirring in the villages and gardens, and groups of +people appearing on the terraces overhanging the water. Never had Odo +beheld a livelier scene. The pillared houses with their rows of statues +and vases, the flights of marble steps descending to the gilded +river-gates, where boats bobbed against the landings and boatmen gasped +in the shade of their awnings; the marble trellises hung with grapes, +the gardens where parterres of flowers and parti-coloured gravel +alternated with the dusk of tunnelled yew-walks; the company playing at +bowls in the long alleys, or drinking chocolate in gazebos above the +river; the boats darting hither and thither on the stream itself, the +travelling-chaises, market-waggons and pannier-asses crowding the +causeway along the bank—all were unrolled before him with as little +effect of reality as the episodes woven in some gaily-tinted tapestry. +Even the peasants in the vineyards seemed as merry and thoughtless as +the quality in their gardens. The vintage-time is the holiday of the +rural year and the day's work was interspersed with frequent intervals +of relaxation. At the villages where the burchiello touched for +refreshments, handsome young women in scarlet bodices came on board with +baskets of melons, grapes, figs and peaches; and under the trellises on +the landings, lads and girls with flowers in their hair were dancing the +monferrina to the rattle of tambourines or the chant of some wandering +ballad-singer. These scenes were so engaging to the comedians that they +could not be restrained from going ashore and mingling in the village +diversions; and the Marquess, though impatient to rejoin his divinity, +was too volatile not to be drawn into the adventure. The whole party +accordingly disembarked, and were presently giving an exhibition of +their talents to the assembled idlers, the Pantaloon, Harlequin and +Doctor enacting a comical intermezzo which Cantapresto had that morning +composed for them, while Scaramouch and Columbine joined the dancers, +and the rest of the company, seizing on a train of donkeys laden with +vegetables for the Venetian market, stripped these patient animals of +their panniers, and mounting them bareback started a Corso around the +village square amid the invectives of the drivers and the applause of +the crowd. +</P> + +<P> +Day was declining when the Marquess at last succeeded in driving his +flock to their fold, and the moon sent a quiver of brightness across the +water as the burchiello touched at the landing of a villa set amid +close-massed foliage high above the river. Gardens peopled with statues +descended from the portico of the villa to the marble platform on the +water's edge, where a throng of boatmen in the Procuratore's livery +hurried forward to receive the Marquess and his companions. The +comedians, sobered by the magnificence of their surroundings, followed +their leader like awe-struck children. Light and music streamed from the +long facade overhead, but the lower gardens lay hushed and dark, the air +fragrant with unseen flowers, the late moon just burnishing the edges of +the laurel-thickets from which, now and again, a nightingale's song +gushed in a fountain of sound. Odo, spellbound, followed the others +without a thought of his own share in the adventure. Never before had +beauty so ministered to every sense. He felt himself lost in his +surroundings, absorbed in the scent and murmur of the night. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +3.3. +</H4> + +<P> +On the upper terrace a dozen lacqueys with wax lights hastened out to +receive the travellers. A laughing group followed, headed by a tall +vivacious woman covered with jewels, whom Odo guessed to be the +Procuratessa Bra. The Marquess, hastening forward, kissed the lady's +hand, and turned to summon the actors, who hung back at the farther end +of the terrace. The light from the windows and from the lacquey's tapers +fell full on the motley band, and Odo, roused to the singularity of his +position, was about to seek shelter behind the Pantaloon when he heard a +cry of recognition, and Mirandolina, darting out of the Procuratessa's +circle, fell at that lady's feet with a whispered word. +</P> + +<P> +The Procuratessa at once advanced with a smile of surprise and bade the +Cavaliere Valsecca welcome. Seeing Odo's embarrassment, she added that +his Highness of Monte Alloro had already apprised her of the cavaliere's +coming, and that she and her husband had the day before despatched a +messenger to Venice to enquire if he were already there to invite him to +the villa. At the same moment a middle-aged man with an air of careless +kindly strength emerged from the house and greeted Odo. +</P> + +<P> +"I am happy," said he bowing, "to receive at Bellocchio a member of the +princely house of Pianura; and your excellency will no doubt be as +well-pleased as ourselves that accident enables us to make acquaintance +without the formalities of an introduction." +</P> + +<P> +This, then, was the famous Procuratore Bra, whose house had given three +Doges to Venice, and who was himself regarded as the most powerful if +not the most scrupulous noble of his day. Odo had heard many tales of +his singularities, for in a generation of elegant triflers his figure +stood out with the ruggedness of a granite boulder in a clipped and +gravelled garden. To hereditary wealth and influence he added a love of +power seconded by great political sagacity and an inflexible will. If +his means were not always above suspicion they at least tended to +statesmanlike ends, and in his public capacity he was faithful to the +highest interests of the state. Reports differed as to his private use +of his authority. He was noted for his lavish way of living, and for a +hospitality which distinguished him from the majority of his class, who, +however showy in their establishments, seldom received strangers, and +entertained each other only on the most ceremonious occasions. The +Procuratore kept open house both in Venice and on the Brenta, and in his +drawing-rooms the foreign traveller was welcomed as freely as in Paris +or London. Here, too, were to be met the wits, musicians and literati +whom a traditional morgue still excluded from many aristocratic houses. +Yet in spite of his hospitality (or perhaps because of it) the +Procuratore, as Odo knew, was the butt of the very poets he entertained, +and the worst satirised man in Venice. It was his misfortune to be in +love with his wife; and this state of mind (in itself sufficiently +ridiculous) and the shifts and compromises to which it reduced him, were +a source of endless amusement to the humorists. Nor were graver rumours +wanting; for it was known that the Procuratore, so proof against other +persuasions, was helpless in his wife's hands, and that honest men had +been undone and scoundrels exalted at a nod of the beautiful +Procuratessa. That lady, as famous in her way as her husband, was noted +for quite different qualities; so that, according to one satirist, her +hospitality began where his ended, and the Albergo Bra (the nickname +their palace went by) was advertised in the lampoons of the day as +furnishing both bed and board. In some respects, however, the tastes of +the noble couple agreed, both delighting in music, wit, good company, +and all the adornments of life; while, with regard to their private +conduct, it doubtless suffered by being viewed through the eyes of a +narrow and trivial nobility, apt to look with suspicion on any deviation +from the customs of their class. Such was the household in which Odo +found himself unexpectedly included. He learned that his hosts were in +the act of entertaining the English Duke who had captured his burchiello +that morning; and having exchanged his travelling-dress for a more +suitable toilet he was presently conducted to the private theatre where +the company had gathered to witness an improvised performance by +Mirandolina and the newly-arrived actors. +</P> + +<P> +The Procuratessa at once beckoned him to the row of gilt armchairs where +she sat with the noble Duke and several ladies of distinction. The +little theatre sparkled with wax-lights reflected in the facets of glass +chandeliers and in the jewels of the richly-habited company, and Odo was +struck by the refined brilliancy of the scene. Before he had time to +look about him the curtains of the stage were drawn back, and +Mirandolina flashed into view, daring and radiant as ever, and dressed +with an elegance which spoke well for the liberality of her new +protector. She was as much at her ease as before the vulgar audience of +Vercelli, and spite of the distinguished eyes fixed upon her, her smiles +and sallies were pointedly addressed to Odo. This made him the object of +the Procuratessa's banter, but had an opposite effect on the Marquess, +who fixed him with an irritated eye and fidgeted restlessly in his seat +as the performance went on. +</P> + +<P> +When the curtain fell the Procuratessa led the company to the circular +saloon which, as in most villas of the Venetian mainland, formed the +central point of the house. If Odo had been charmed by the graceful +decorations of the theatre, he was dazzled by the airy splendour of this +apartment. Dance-music was pouring from the arched recesses above the +doorways, and chandeliers of coloured Murano glass diffused a soft +brightness over the pilasters of the stuccoed walls, and the floor of +inlaid marbles on which couples were rapidly forming for the +contradance. His eye, however, was soon drawn from these to the ceiling +which overarched the dancers with what seemed like an Olympian revel +reflected in sunset clouds. Over the gilt balustrade surmounting the +cornice lolled the figures of fauns, bacchantes, nereids and tritons, +hovered over by a cloud of amorini blown like rose-leaves across a rosy +sky, while in the centre of the dome Apollo burst in his chariot through +the mists of dawn, escorted by a fantastic procession of the human +races. These alien subjects of the sun—a fur-clad Laplander, a turbaned +figure on a dromedary, a blackamoor and a plumed American Indian—were +in turn surrounded by a rout of Maenads and Silenuses, whose flushed +advance was checked by the breaking of cool green waves, through which +boys wreathed with coral and seaweed disported themselves among shoals +of flashing dolphins. It was as though the genius of Pleasure had poured +all the riches of his inexhaustible realm on the heads of the revellers +below. +</P> + +<P> +The Procuratessa brought Odo to earth by remarking that it was a +master-piece of the divine Tiepolo he was admiring. She added that at +Bellocchio all formalities were dispensed with, and begged him to +observe that, in the rooms opening into the saloon, recreations were +provided for every taste. In one of these apartments silver trays were +set out with sherbets, cakes, and fruit cooled in snow, while in another +stood gaming-tables around which the greater number of the company were +already gathering for tresette. A third room was devoted to music; and +hither Mirandolina, who was evidently allowed a familiarity of +intercourse not accorded to the other comedians, had withdrawn with the +pacified Marquess, and perched on the arm of a high gilt chair was +pinching the strings of a guitar and humming the first notes of a +boatman's song... +</P> + +<P> +After completing the circuit of the rooms Odo stepped out on the +terrace, which was now bathed in the whiteness of a soaring moon. The +colonnades detached against silver-misted foliage, the gardens +spectrally outspread, seemed to enclose him in a magic circle of +loveliness which the first ray of daylight must dispel. He wandered on, +drawn to the depths of shade on the lower terraces. The hush grew +deeper, the murmur of the river more mysterious. A yew-arbour invited +him and he seated himself on the bench niched in its inmost dusk. Seen +through the black arch of the arbour the moonlight lay like snow on +parterres and statues. He thought of Maria Clementina, and of the +delight she would have felt in such a scene as he had just left. Then +the remembrance of Mirandolina's blandishments stole over him and spite +of himself he smiled at the Marquess's discomfiture. Though he was in no +humour for an intrigue his fancy was not proof against the romance of +his surroundings, and it seemed to him that Miranda's eyes had never +been so bright or her smile so full of provocation. No wonder Frattanto +followed her like a lost soul and the Marquess abandoned Rome and +Baalbec to sit at the feet of such a teacher! Had not that light +philosopher after all chosen the true way and guessed the Sphinx's +riddle? Why should today always be jilted for tomorrow, sensation +sacrificed to thought? +</P> + +<P> +As he sat revolving these questions the yew-branches seemed to stir, and +from some deeper recess of shade a figure stole to his side. He started, +but a hand was laid on his lips and he was gently forced back into his +seat. Dazzled by the outer moonlight he could just guess the outline of +the figure pressed against his own. He sat speechless, yielding to the +charm of the moment, till suddenly he felt a rapid kiss and the visitor +vanished as mysteriously as she had come. He sprang up to follow, but +inclination failed with his first step. Let the spell of mystery remain +unbroken! He sank down on the seat again lulled by dreamy musings... +</P> + +<P> +When he looked up the moonlight had faded and he felt a chill in the +air. He walked out on the terrace. The moon hung low and the tree-tops +were beginning to tremble. The villa-front was grey, with oblongs of +yellow light marking the windows of the ball-room. As he looked up at +it, the dance-music ceased and not a sound was heard but the stir of the +foliage and the murmur of the river against its banks. Then, from a +loggia above the central portico, a woman's clear contralto notes took +flight: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Before the yellow dawn is up,<BR> + With pomp of shield and shaft,<BR> + Drink we of Night's fast-ebbing cup<BR> + One last delicious draught.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + The shadowy wine of Night is sweet,<BR> + With subtle slumbrous fumes<BR> + Crushed by the Hours' melodious feet<BR> + From bloodless elder-blooms...<BR> +</P> + +<P> +The days at Bellocchio passed in a series of festivities. The mornings +were spent in drinking chocolate, strolling in the gardens and visiting +the fish-ponds, meanders and other wonders of the villa; thence the +greater number of guests were soon drawn to the card-tables, from which +they rose only to dine; and after an elaborate dinner prepared by a +French cook the whole company set out to explore the country or to +exchange visits with the hosts of the adjoining villas. Each evening +brought some fresh diversion: a comedy or an operetta in the miniature +theatre, an al fresco banquet on the terrace or a ball attended by the +principal families of the neighbourhood. Odo soon contrived to reassure +the Marquess as to his designs upon Miranda, and when Coeur-Volant was +not at cards the two young men spent much of their time together. The +Marquess was never tired of extolling the taste and ingenuity with which +the Venetians planned and carried out their recreations. "Nature +herself," said he, "seems the accomplice of their merry-making, and in +no other surroundings could man's natural craving for diversion find so +graceful and poetic an expression." +</P> + +<P> +The scene on which they looked out seemed to confirm his words. It was +the last evening of their stay at Bellocchio, and the Procuratessa had +planned a musical festival on the river. Festoons of coloured lanterns +wound from the portico to the water; and opposite the landing lay the +Procuratore's Bucentaur, a great barge hung with crimson velvet. In the +prow were stationed the comedians, in airy mythological dress, and as +the guests stepped on board they were received by Miranda, a rosy Venus +who, escorted by Mars and Adonis, recited an ode composed by Cantapresto +in the Procuratessa's honour. A banquet was spread in the deck-house, +which was hung with silk arras and Venetian mirrors, and, while the +guests feasted, dozens of little boats hung with lights and filled with +musicians flitted about the Bucentaur like a swarm of musical +fireflies... +</P> + +<P> +The next day Odo accompanied the Procuratessa to Venice. Had he been a +traveller from beyond the Alps he could hardly have been more unprepared +for the spectacle that awaited him. In aspect and customs Venice +differed almost as much from other Italian cities as from those of the +rest of Europe. From the fanciful stone embroidery of her churches and +palaces to a hundred singularities in dress and manners—the +full-bottomed wigs and long gowns of the nobles, the black mantles and +head-draperies of the ladies, the white masks worn abroad by both sexes, +the publicity of social life under the arcades of the Piazza, the +extraordinary freedom of intercourse in the casini, gaming-rooms and +theatres—the city proclaimed, in every detail of life and architecture, +her independence of any tradition but her own. This was the more +singular as Saint Mark's square had for centuries been the meeting-place +of East and West, and the goal of artists, scholars and pleasure-seekers +from all parts of the world. Indeed, as Coeur-Volant pointed out, the +Venetian customs almost appeared to have been devised for the +convenience of strangers. The privilege of going masked at almost all +seasons and the enforced uniformity of dress, which in itself provided a +kind of incognito, made the place singularly favourable to every kind of +intrigue and amusement; while the mild temper of the people and the +watchfulness of the police prevented the public disorders that such +license might have occasioned. These seeming anomalies abounded on every +side. From the gaming-table where a tinker might set a ducat against a +prince it was but a few steps to the Broglio, or arcade under the ducal +palace, into which no plebeian might intrude while the nobility walked +there. The great ladies, who were subject to strict sumptuary laws, and +might not display their jewels or try the new French fashions but on the +sly, were yet privileged at all hours to go abroad alone in their +gondolas. No society was more haughty and exclusive in its traditions, +yet the mask leveled all classes and permitted, during the greater part +of the year, an equality of intercourse undreamed of in other cities; +while the nobles, though more magnificently housed than in any other +capital of Europe, generally sought amusement at the public casini or +assembly-rooms instead of receiving company in their own palaces. Such +were but a few of the contradictions in a city where the theatres were +named after the neighbouring churches, where there were innumerable +religious foundations but scarce an ecclesiastic to be met in company, +and where the ladies of the laity dressed like nuns, while the nuns in +the aristocratic convents went in gala habits and with uncovered heads. +No wonder that to the bewildered stranger the Venetians seemed to keep +perpetual carnival and Venice herself to be as it were the mere stage of +some huge comic interlude. +</P> + +<P> +To Odo the setting was even more astonishing than the performance. Never +had he seen pleasure and grace so happily allied, all the arts of life +so combined in the single effort after enjoyment. Here was not a mere +tendency to linger on the surface, but the essence of superficiality +itself; not an ignoring of what lies beneath, but an elimination of it; +as though all human experience should be beaten thin and spread out +before the eye like some brilliant tenuous plaque of Etruscan gold. And +in this science of pleasure—mere jeweller's work though it were—the +greatest artists had collaborated, each contributing his page to the +philosophy of enjoyment in the form of some radiant allegory flowering +from palace wall or ceiling like the enlarged reflection of the life +beneath it. Nowhere was the mind arrested by a question or an idea. +Thought slunk away like an unmasked guest at the ridotto. Sensation +ruled supreme, and each moment was an iridescent bubble fresh-blown from +the lips of fancy. +</P> + +<P> +Odo brought to the spectacle the humour best fitted for its enjoyment. +His weariness and discouragement sought refuge in the emotional +satisfaction of the hour. Here at least the old problem of living had +been solved, and from the patrician taking the air in his gondola to the +gondolier himself, gambling and singing on the water-steps of his +master's palace, all seemed equally satisfied with the solution. Now if +ever was the time to cry "halt!" to the present, to forget the travelled +road and take no thought for the morrow... +</P> + +<P> +The months passed rapidly and agreeably. The Procuratessa was the most +amiable of guides, and in her company Odo enjoyed the best that Venice +had to offer, from the matchless music of the churches and hospitals to +the petits soupers in the private casini of the nobility; while +Coeur-Volant and Castelrovinato introduced him to scenes where even a +lady of the Procuratessa's intrepidity might not venture. +</P> + +<P> +Such a life left little time for thoughtful pleasures; nor did Odo find +in the society about him any sympathy with his more personal tastes. At +first he yielded willingly enough to the pressure of his surroundings, +glad to escape from thoughts of the past and speculations about the +future; but it was impossible for him to lose his footing in such an +element, and at times he felt the lack of such companionship as de +Crucis had given him. There was no society in Venice corresponding with +the polished circles of Milan or Naples, or with the academic class in +such University towns as Padua and Pavia. The few Venetians destined to +be remembered among those who had contributed to the intellectual +advancement of Italy vegetated in obscurity, suffering not so much from +religious persecution—for the Inquisition had little power in +Venice—as from the incorrigible indifference of a society which ignored +all who did not contribute to its amusement. Odo indeed might have +sought out these unhonoured prophets, but that all the influences about +him set the other way, and that he was falling more and more into the +habit of running with the tide. Now and then, however, a vague ennui +drove him to one of the bookshops which, throughout Italy were the chief +meeting-places of students and authors. On one of these occasions the +dealer invited him into a private room where he kept some rare volumes, +and here Odo was surprised to meet Andreoni, the liberal bookseller of +Pianura. +</P> + +<P> +Andreoni at first seemed somewhat disconcerted by the meeting; but +presently recovering his confidence, he told Odo that he had been +recently banished from Pianura, the cause of his banishment being the +publication of a book on taxation that was supposed to reflect on the +fiscal system of the duchy. Though he did not name the author, Odo at +once suspected Gamba; but on his enquiring if the latter had also been +banished, Andreoni merely replied that he had been dismissed from his +post, and had left Pianura. The bookseller went on to say that he had +come to Venice with the idea of setting up his press either there or in +Padua, where his wife's family lived. Odo was eager to hear more; but +Andreoni courteously declined to wait on him at his lodgings, on the +plea that it might harm them both to be seen together. They agreed, +however, to meet in San Zaccaria after low mass the next morning, and +here Andreoni gave Odo a fuller report of recent events in the duchy. +</P> + +<P> +It appeared that in the incessant see-saw of party influences the Church +had once more gained on the liberals. Trescorre was out of favour, the +Dominican had begun to show his hand more openly, and the Duke, more +than ever apprehensive about his health, was seeking to conciliate +heaven by his renewed persecution of the reformers. In the general +upheaval even Crescenti had nearly lost his place; and it was rumoured +that he kept it only through the intervention of the Pope, who had +represented to the Duke that the persecution of a scholar already famous +throughout Europe would reflect little credit on the Church. +</P> + +<P> +As for Gamba, Andreoni, though unwilling to admit a knowledge of his +exact whereabouts, assured Odo that he was well and had not lost +courage. At court matters remained much as usual. The Duchess, +surrounded by her familiars, had entered on a new phase of mad +expenditure, draining the exchequer to indulge her private whims, +filling her apartments with mountebanks and players, and borrowing from +courtiers and servants to keep her creditors from the door. Trescorre +was no longer able to check her extravagance, and his influence with the +Duke being on the wane, the court was once more the scene of unseemly +scandals and disorders. +</P> + +<P> +The only new figure to appear there since Odo's departure was that of +the little prince's governor, who had come from Rome a few months +previously to superintend the heir's education, which was found to have +been grievously neglected under his former masters. This was an +ecclesiastic, an ex-Jesuit as some said, but without doubt a man of +parts, and apparently of more tolerant views than the other churchmen +about the court. +</P> + +<P> +"But," Andreoni added, "your excellency may chance to recall him; for he +is the same abate de Crucis who was sent to Pianura by the Holy Office +to arrest the German astrologer." +</P> + +<P> +Odo heard him with surprise. He had had no news of de Crucis since their +parting in Rome, where, as he supposed, the latter was to remain for +some years in the service of Prince Bracciano. Odo was at a loss to +conceive how or why the Jesuit had come to Pianura; but, whatever his +reasons for being there, it was certain that his influence must make +itself felt far beyond the range of his immediate duties. Whether this +influence would be exerted for good or ill it was impossible to +forecast; but much as Odo admired de Crucis, he could not forget that +the Jesuit, by his own avowal, was still the servant of the greatest +organised opposition to moral and intellectual freedom that the world +had ever known. That this opposition was not always actively manifested +Odo was well aware. He knew that the Jesuit spirit moved in many +directions and that its action was often more beneficial than that of +its opponents; but it remained an incalculable element in the +composition of human affairs, and one the more to be feared since, in +ceasing to have a material existence, it had acquired the dread +pervasiveness of an idea. +</P> + +<P> +With the Epiphany the wild carnival-season set in. Nothing could surpass +the excesses of this mad time. All classes seemed bitten by the +tarantula of mirth, every gondola hid an intrigue, the patrician's +tabarro concealed a noble lady, the feminine hood and cloak a young +spark bent on mystification, the friar's habit a man of pleasure and the +nun's veil a lady of the town. The Piazza swarmed with merry-makers of +all degrees. The square itself was taken up by the booths of hucksters, +rope-dancers and astrologers, while promenaders in travesty thronged the +arcades, and the ladies of the nobility, in their white masks and black +zendaletti, surveyed the scene from the windows of the assembly-rooms in +the Procuratie, or, threading the crowd on the arms of their gallants, +visited the various peep-shows and flocked about the rhinoceros +exhibited in a great canvas tent in the Piazzetta. The characteristic +contrasts of Venetian life seemed to be emphasised by the vagaries of +the carnival, and Odo never ceased to be diverted by the sight of a long +line of masqueraders in every kind of comic disguise kneeling devoutly +before the brilliantly-lit shrine of the Virgin under the arches of the +Procuratie, while the friar who led their devotions interrupted his +litany whenever the quack on an adjoining platform began to bawl through +a tin trumpet the praise of his miraculous pills. +</P> + +<P> +The mounting madness culminated on Giovedi Grasso, the last Thursday +before Lent, when the Piazzetta became the scene of ceremonies in which +the Doge himself took part. These opened with the decapitation of three +bulls: a rite said to commemorate some long-forgotten dispute between +the inveterate enemies, Venice and Aquileia. The bulls, preceded by +halberdiers and trumpeters, and surrounded by armed attendants, were led +in state before the ducal palace, and the executioner, practised in his +bloody work, struck off each head with a single stroke of his huge +sword. This slaughter was succeeded by pleasanter sights, such as the +famous Vola, or flight of a boy from the bell-tower of Saint Mark's to a +window of the palace, where he presented a nosegay to his Serenity and +was caught up again to his airy vaulting-ground. After this ingenious +feat came another called the "Force of Hercules," given by a band of +youths who, building themselves into a kind of pyramid, shifted their +postures with inexhaustible agility, while bursts of fireworks wove +yellow arches through the midday light. Meanwhile the crowds in the +streets fled this way and that as a throng of uproarious young fellows +drove before them the bulls that were to be baited in the open squares; +and wherever a recessed doorway or the angle of a building afforded +shelter from the rout, some posture-maker or ballad-singer had gathered +a crowd about his carpet. +</P> + +<P> +Ash Wednesday brought about a dramatic transformation. Every travesty +laid aside, every tent and stall swept away, the people again gathered +in the Piazza to receive the ashes of penitence on their heads, the +churches now became the chief centres of interest. Venice was noted for +her sacred music and for the lavish illumination of her favourite +shrines and chapels; and few religious spectacles were more impressive +than the Forty Hours' devotion in the wealthier churches of the city. +All the magic of music, painting and sculpture were combined in the +service of religion, and Odo's sense of the dramatic quality of the +Catholic rites found gratification in the moving scenes where, amid the +imperishable splendours of his own creation, man owned himself but dust. +Never before had he been so alive to the symbolism of the penitential +season, so awed by the beauty and symmetry of that great structure of +the Liturgical Year that leads the soul up, step by step, to the awful +heights of Calvary. The very carelessness of those about him seemed to +deepen the solemnity of the scenes enacted—as though the Church, after +all her centuries of dominion, were still, as in those early days, but a +voice crying in the wilderness. +</P> + +<P> +The Easter bells ushered in the reign of another spirit. If the carnival +folly was spent, the joy of returning life replaced it. After the winter +diversions of cards, concerts and theatres, came the excursions to the +island-gardens of the lagoon and the evening promenade of the fresca on +the Grand Canal. Now the palace-windows were hung with awnings, the +oleanders in the balconies grew rosy against the sea-worn marble, and +yellow snap-dragons blossomed from the crumbling walls. The market-boats +brought early fruits and vegetables from the Brenta and roses and +gilly-flowers from the Paduan gardens; and when the wind set from shore +it carried with it the scent of lime-blossoms and flowering fields. Now +also was the season when the great civic and religious processions took +place, dyeing the water with sunset hues as they swept from the steps of +the Piazzetta to San Giorgio, the Redentore or the Salute. In the +fashionable convents the nuns celebrated the festivals of their patron +saints with musical and dramatic entertainments to which secular +visitors were invited. These entertainments were a noted feature of +Venetian life, and the subject of much scandalous comment among visitors +from beyond the Alps. The nuns of the stricter orders were as closely +cloistered as elsewhere; but in the convents of Santa Croce, Santa +Chiara, and a few others, mostly filled by the daughters of the +nobility, an unusual liberty prevailed. It was known that the inmates +had taken the veil for family reasons, and to the indulgent Venetian +temper it seemed natural that their seclusion should be made as little +irksome as possible. As a rule the privileges accorded to the nuns +consisted merely in their being allowed to receive visits in the +presence of a lay-sister, and to perform in concerts on the feast-days +of the order; but some few convents had a name for far greater license, +and it was a common thing for the noble libertine returned from Italy to +boast of his intrigue with a Venetian nun. +</P> + +<P> +Odo, in the Procuratessa's train, had of course visited many of the +principal convents. Whether it were owing to the malicious pleasure of +contrasting their own state with that of their cloistered sisters, or to +the discreet shelter which the parlour afforded to their private +intrigues, the Venetian ladies were exceedingly partial to these visits. +The Procuratessa was no exception to the rule, and as was natural to one +of her complexion, she preferred the convents where the greatest freedom +prevailed. Odo, however, had hitherto found little to tempt him in these +glimpses of forbidden fruit. The nuns, though often young and pretty, +had the insipidity of women secluded from the passions and sorrows of +life without being raised above them; and he preferred the frank +coarseness of the Procuratessa's circle to the simpering graces of the +cloister. +</P> + +<P> +Even Coeur-Volant's mysterious boast of a conquest he had made among the +sisters failed to excite his friend's curiosity. The Marquess, though +still devoted to Miranda, was too much the child of his race not to seek +variety in his emotions; indeed he often declared that the one fault of +the Italian character was its unimaginative fidelity in love-affairs. +</P> + +<P> +"Does a man," he asked, "dine off one dish at a gourmet's banquet? And +why should I restrict myself to one course at the most richly-spread +table in Europe? One must love at least two women to appreciate either; +and, did the silly creatures but know it, a rival becomes them like a +patch." +</P> + +<P> +Sister Mary of the Crucifix, he went on to explain, possessed the very +qualities that Miranda lacked. The daughter of a rich nobleman of +Treviso, she was skilled in music, drawing and all the operations of the +needle, and was early promised in marriage to a young man whose estates +adjoined her father's. The jealousy of a younger sister, who was +secretly in love with the suitor, caused her to accuse Coeur-Volant's +mistress of misconduct and thus broke off the marriage; and the unhappy +girl, repudiated by her bridegroom, was at once despatched to a convent +in Venice. Enraged at her fate, she had repeatedly appealed to the +authorities to release her; but her father's wealth and influence +prevailed against all her efforts. The abbess, however, felt such pity +for her that she was allowed more freedom than the other nuns, with whom +her wit and beauty made her a favourite in spite of her exceptional +privileges. These, as Coeur-Volant hinted, included the liberty of +leaving the convent after night-fall to visit her friends; and he +professed to be one of those whom she had thus honoured. Always eager to +have his good taste ratified by the envy of his friends, he was urgent +with Odo to make the lady's acquaintance, and it was agreed that, on the +first favourable occasion, a meeting should take place at Coeur-Volant's +casino. The weeks elapsed, however, without Odo's hearing further of the +matter, and it had nearly passed from his mind when one August day he +received word that the Marquess hoped for his company that evening. +</P> + +<P> +He was in that mood of careless acquiescence when any novelty invites, +and the heavy warmth of the summer night seemed the accomplice of his +humour. Cloaked and masked, he stepped into his gondola and was swept +rapidly along the Grand Canal and through winding channels to the +Giudecca. It was close on midnight and all Venice was abroad. Gondolas +laden with musicians and hung with coloured lamps lay beneath the palace +windows or drifted out on the oily reaches of the lagoon. There was no +moon, and the side-canals were dark and noiseless but for the hundreds +of caged nightingales that made every byway musical. As his prow slipped +past garden walls and under the blackness of low-ached bridges Odo felt +the fathomless mystery of the Venetian night: not the open night of the +lagoons, but the secret dusk of nameless waterways between blind windows +and complaisant gates. +</P> + +<P> +At one of these his gondola presently touched. The gate was cautiously +unbarred and Odo found himself in a strip of garden preceding a low +pavilion in which not a light was visible. A woman-servant led him +indoors and the Marquess greeted him on the threshold. +</P> + +<P> +"You are late!" he exclaimed. "I began to fear you would not be here to +receive our guests with me." +</P> + +<P> +"Your guests?" Odo repeated. "I had fancied there was but one." +</P> + +<P> +The Marquess smiled. "My dear Mary of the Crucifix," he said, "is too +well-born to venture out alone at this late hour, and has prevailed on +her bosom friend to accompany her.—Besides," he added with his +deprecating shrug, "I own I have had too recent an experience of your +success to trust you alone with my enchantress; and she has promised to +bring the most fascinating nun in the convent to protect her from your +wiles." +</P> + +<P> +As he spoke he led Odo into a room furnished in the luxurious style of a +French boudoir. A Savonnerie carpet covered the floor, the lounges and +easy-chairs were heaped with cushions, and the panels hung with pastel +drawings of a lively or sentimental character. The windows toward the +garden were close-shuttered, but those on the farther side of the room +stood open on a starlit terrace whence the eye looked out over the +lagoon to the outer line of islands. +</P> + +<P> +"Confess," cried Coeur-Volant, pointing to a table set with delicacies +and flanked by silver wine-coolers, "that I have spared no pains to do +my goddess honour and that this interior must present an agreeable +contrast to the whitewashed cells and dismal refectory of her convent! +No passion," he continued, with his quaint didactic air, "is so +susceptible as love to the influence of its surroundings; and principles +which might have held out against a horse-hair sofa and soupe a l'oignon +have before now been known to succumb to silk cushions and champagne." +</P> + +<P> +He received with perfect good-humour the retort that if he failed in his +designs his cook and his upholsterer would not be to blame; and the +young men were still engaged in such banter when the servant returned to +say that a gondola was at the water-gate. The Marquess hastened out and +presently reappeared with two masked and hooded figures. The first of +these, whom he led by the hand, entered with the air of one not +unaccustomed to her surroundings; but the other hung back, and on the +Marquess's inviting them to unmask, hurriedly signed to her friend to +refuse. +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, fair strangers," said Coeur-Volant with a laugh; "if you +insist on prolonging our suspense we shall avenge ourselves by +prolonging yours, and neither my friend nor I will unmask till you are +pleased to set us the example." +</P> + +<P> +The first lady echoed his laugh. "Shall I own," she cried, "that I +suspect in this unflattering compliance a pretext to conceal your +friend's features from me as long as possible? For my part," she +continued, throwing back her hood, "the mask of hypocrisy I am compelled +to wear in the convent makes me hate every form of disguise, and with +all my defects I prefer to be known as I am." And with that she detached +her mask and dropped the cloak from her shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +The gesture revealed a beauty of the laughing sensuous type best suited +to such surroundings. Sister Mary of the Crucifix, in her sumptuous gown +of shot-silk, with pearls wound through her reddish hair and hanging on +her bare shoulders, might have stepped from some festal canvas of +Bonifazio's. She had laid aside even the light gauze veil worn by the +nuns in gala habit, and no vestige of her calling showed itself in dress +or bearing. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you accept my challenge, cavaliere?" she exclaimed, turning on Odo a +glance confident of victory. +</P> + +<P> +The Marquess meanwhile had approached the other nun with the intention +of inducing her to unmask; but as Sister Mary of the Crucifix advanced +to perform the same service for his friend, his irrepressible jealousy +made him step hastily between them. +</P> + +<P> +"Come cavaliere," he cried, drawing Odo gaily toward the unknown nun, +"since you have induced one of our fair guests to unmask perhaps you may +be equally successful with the other, who appears provokingly +indifferent to my advances." +</P> + +<P> +The masked nun had in fact retreated to a corner of the room and stood +there, drawing her cloak about her, rather in the attitude of a +frightened child than in that of a lady bent on a gallant adventure. +</P> + +<P> +Sister Mary of the Crucifix approached her playfully. "My dear Sister +Veronica," said she, throwing her arm about the other's neck, "hesitates +to reveal charms which she knows must cast mine in the shade; but I am +not to be outdone in generosity, and if the Marquess will unmask his +friend I will do the same by mine." +</P> + +<P> +As she spoke she deftly pinioned the nun's hands and snatched off her +mask with a malicious laugh. The Marquess, entering into her humour, +removed Odo's at the same instant, and the latter, turning with a laugh, +found himself face to face with Fulvia Vivaldi. He grew white, and Mary +of the Crucifix sprang forward to catch her friend. +</P> + +<P> +"Good God! What is this?" gasped the Marquess, staring from one to the +other. +</P> + +<P> +A glance of entreaty from Fulvia checked the answer on Odo's lips, and +for a moment there was silence in the room; then Fulvia, breaking away +from her companion, fled out on the terrace. The other was about to +follow; but Odo, controlling himself, stepped between them. +</P> + +<P> +"Madam," said he in a low voice, "I recognise in your companion a friend +of whom I have long had no word. Will you pardon me if I speak with her +alone?" +</P> + +<P> +Sister Mary drew back with a meaning sparkle in her handsome eyes. "Why, +this," she cried, not without a touch of resentment, "is the prettiest +ending imaginable; but what a sly creature, to be sure, to make me think +it was her first assignation!" +</P> + +<P> +Odo, without answering, hastened out on the terrace. It was so dark +after the brightly lit room that for a moment he did not distinguish the +figure which had sprung to the low parapet above the water; and he +stumbled forward just in time to snatch Fulvia back to safety. +</P> + +<P> +"This is madness!" he cried, as she hung upon him trembling. +</P> + +<P> +"The boat," she stammered in a strange sobbing voice—"the boat should +be somewhere below—" +</P> + +<P> +"The boat lies at the water-gate on the other side," he answered. +</P> + +<P> +She drew away from him with a gesture of despair. The struggle with +Sister Mary had disordered her hair and it fell on her white neck in +loosened strands. "My cloak—my mask—" she faltered vaguely, clasping +her hands across her bosom; then suddenly dropped to a seat and burst +into tears. Once before—but in how different a case!—he had seen her +thus thrilled with weeping. Then fate had thrown him humbled at her +feet, now it was she who cried him mercy in every line of her bowed head +and shaken breast; and the thought of that other meeting flooded his +heart with pity. +</P> + +<P> +He knelt before her, seeking her hands. "Fulvia, why do you shrink from +me?" he whispered. But she shook her head and wept on. +</P> + +<P> +At last her sobs subsided and she rose to her feet. "I must go back," +said she in a low tone, and would have passed him. +</P> + +<P> +"Back? To the convent?" +</P> + +<P> +"To the convent," she said after him; but she made no farther effort to +move. +</P> + +<P> +The question that tortured him sprang forth. "You have taken the vows?" +</P> + +<P> +"A month since," she answered. +</P> + +<P> +He hid his face in his hands and for a moment both were silent. "And you +have no other word for me—none?" he faltered at last. +</P> + +<P> +She fixed him with a hard bright stare. "Yes—one," she cried; "keep a +place for me among your gallant recollections." +</P> + +<P> +"Fulvia!" he said with sudden strength, and caught her by the arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me pass!" she cried. +</P> + +<P> +"No, by heaven!" he retorted; "not till you listen to me—not till you +tell me how it is that I come upon you here!—Ah, child," he broke out, +"do you fancy I don't see how little you belong in such scenes? That I +don't know you are here through some dreadful error? Fulvia," he +pleaded, "will you never trust me?" And at the word he burned with +blushes in the darkness. +</P> + +<P> +His voice, perhaps, rather than what he said, seemed to have struck a +yielding fibre. He felt her arm tremble in his hold; but after a moment +she said with cruel distinctness: "There was no error. I came knowingly. +It was the company and not the place I was deceived in." +</P> + +<P> +Odo drew back with a start; then, as if in spite of himself, he broke +into a laugh. "By the saints," said he, almost joyously, "I am sorry to +be where I am not wanted; but since no better company offers, will you +not make the best of mine and suffer me to hand you in to supper with +our friends?" And with a low bow he offered her his arm. +</P> + +<P> +The effect was instantaneous. He saw her catch at the balustrade for +support. +</P> + +<P> +"Sancta simplicitas!" he exulted, "and did you think to play the part at +such short notice?" He fell at her feet and covered her hands with +kisses. "My Fulvia! My poor child! come with me, come away from here," +he entreated. "I know not what mad hazard has brought us thus together, +but I thank God on my knees for the encounter. You shall tell me all or +nothing, as you please—you shall presently dismiss me at your +convent-gate, and never see me again if you so will it—but till then, I +swear, you are in my charge, and no human power shall come between us!" +</P> + +<P> +As he ended the Marquess's voice called gaily through the open window: +"Friends, the burgundy is uncorked! Will you not join us in a glass of +good French wine?" +</P> + +<P> +Fulvia flung herself upon Odo. "Yes—yes; away—take me away from here!" +she cried, clinging to him. She had gathered her cloak about her and +drawn the hood over her disordered hair. "Away! Away!" she repeated. "I +cannot see them again. Good God, is there no other way out?" +</P> + +<P> +With a gesture he warned her to be silent and drew her along the terrace +in the shadow of the house. The gravel creaked beneath their feet, and +she shook at the least sound; but her hand lay in his like a child's and +he felt himself her master. At the farther end of the terrace a flight +of steps led to a narrow strip of shore. He helped her down and after +listening a moment gave a whistle. Presently they heard a low plash of +oars and saw the prow of a gondola cautiously rounding the angle of the +terrace. The water was shallow and the boatmen proceeded slowly and at +length paused a few yards from the land. +</P> + +<P> +"We can come no nearer," one of them called; "what is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Your mistress is unwell and wishes to return," Odo answered; and +catching Fulvia in his arms he waded out with her to the gondola and +lifted her over the side. "To Santa Chiara!" he ordered, as he laid her +on the cushions beneath the felze; and the boatmen, recognising her as +one of their late fares, without more ado began to row rapidly toward +the city. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +3.4. +</H4> + +<P> +In the pitying darkness of the gondola she lay beyond speech, her hand +in his, her breath coming fitfully. Odo waited in suspense, not daring +to question her, yet sure that if she did not speak then she would never +do so. All doubt and perplexity of spirit had vanished in the simple +sense of her nearness. The throb of her hand in his was like the +heart-beat of hope. He felt himself no longer a drifting spectator of +life but a sharer in its gifts and renunciations. Which this meeting +would bring he dared not yet surmise: it was enough that he was with +Fulvia and that love had freed his spirit. +</P> + +<P> +At length she began to speak. Her agitation was so great that he had +difficulty in piecing together the fragments of her story; but for the +moment he was more concerned in regaining her confidence than in seeking +to obtain a clear picture of the past. Before she could end, the gondola +rounded the corner of the narrow canal skirting the garden-wall of Santa +Chiara. Alarmed lest he should lose her again he passionately urged her +to receive him on the morrow; and after some hesitation she consented. A +moment later their prow touched the postern and the boatman gave a low +call which proved him no novice at the business. Fulvia signed to Odo +not to speak or move; and they sat listening intently for the opening of +the gate. As soon as it was unbarred she sprang ashore and vanished in +the darkness of the garden; and with a cold sense of failure Odo heard +the bolt slipping back and the stealthy fall of the oars as the gondola +slid away under the shadow of the convent-wall. Whither was he being +carried and would that bolt ever be drawn for him again? In the sultry +dawn the convent loomed forbiddingly as a prison, and he could hardly +believe that a few hours earlier the very doors now closed against him +had stood open to all the world. They would open again; but whether to +him, who could conjecture? He was resolved to see Fulvia again, but he +shrank from the thought of forcing himself upon her. She had promised to +receive him; but what revulsion of feeling might not the morrow bring? +</P> + +<P> +Unable to sleep, he bade the boatmen carry him to the Lido. The sun was +just rising above the Friulian Alps and the lagoon lay dull and smooth +as a breathed-on mirror. As he paced the lonely sands he tried to +reconstruct Fulvia's broken story, supplementing it with such details as +his experience of Venetian life suggested. It appeared that after her +father's death she had found herself possessed of a small sum of money +which he had painfully accumulated for her during the two years they had +spent in Pavia. Her only thought was to employ this inheritance in +publishing the great work on the origin of civilisation which Vivaldi +had completed a few days before his last seizure. Through one of the +professors of the University, who had been her father's friend, she +negotiated with a printer of Amsterdam for the production of the book, +and the terms being agreed on, despatched the money and the manuscript +thither by a sure hand. Both were duly delivered and the publisher had +advanced so far in his work as to send Fulvia the proof-sheets of the +first chapters, when he took alarm at the renewed activity of the Holy +Office in France and Italy, declared there would be no market for the +book in the present state of affairs, and refused either to continue +printing it, or to restore the money, which he said had barely covered +the setting-up of the type. Fulvia then attempted to recover the +manuscript; but the publisher refusing to surrender it, she found +herself doubly beggared at a stroke. +</P> + +<P> +In this extremity she turned to a sister of her father's, who lived near +Treviso; and this excellent woman, though persuaded that her brother's +heretical views had doomed him to everlasting torment, did not scruple +to offer his child a home. Here Fulvia had lived for two years when her +aunt's sudden death left her destitute; for the good lady, to atone for +having given shelter to a niece of doubtful orthodoxy, had left the +whole of her small property to the Church. +</P> + +<P> +Fulvia's only other relations were certain distant cousins of her +mother's, members of the Venetian nobility, but of the indigent class +called Barnabotti, who lived on the bounty of the state. While in +Treviso she had made the acquaintance of one of these cousins, a +stirring noisy fellow involved in all the political agitations of the +state. It was among the Barnabotti, the class most indebted to the +government, that these seditious movements generally arose; and Fulvia's +cousin was one of the most notorious malcontents of his order. She had +mistaken his revolutionary bluster for philosophic enlightenment; and, +persuaded that he shared in her views, she rashly appealed to him for +help. With the most eloquent expressions of sympathy he offered her a +home under his own roof; but on reaching Venice she was but ill-received +by his wife and family, who made no scruple of declaring that, being but +pensioners themselves, they were in no state to nourish their pauper +relatives. Fulvia could not but own that they were right; for they lived +in the garret of a half-ruined house, pawning their very beds to pay for +ices in the Piazza and sitting at home all the week in dirty shifts and +night-caps that they might go to mass in silk and powder on a Sunday. +After two months of wretchedness with these unfriendly hosts, whom she +vainly tried to conciliate by a hundred little services and attentions +the poor girl resolved to return to Milan, where she hoped to obtain +some menial position in the household of one of her father's friends. +Her cousins, at this, made a great outcry, protesting that none of their +blood should so demean herself, and that they would spare no efforts to +find some better way of providing for her. Their noble connections gave +Fulvia the hope that they might obtain a small pension for her, and she +unsuspiciously yielded to their wishes; but to her dismay she learned a +few weeks later, that, thanks to their exertions, she was to be admitted +as a novice to the convent of Santa Chiara. Though it was the common way +of disposing of portionless girls, the liberal views of her cousins had +reassured Fulvia, and she woke to her fate too late to escape it. She +was to enter on her novitiate on the morrow; but even had delay been +possible she knew that both the civil and religious authorities would +sustain her family in their course. +</P> + +<P> +Her cousins, knowing her independent spirit, and perhaps fearing an +outcry if they sequestered her too closely, had thought to soften her +resistance by placing her in a convent noted for its leniencies; but to +Fulvia such surroundings were more repugnant than the strictest monastic +discipline. The corruption of the religious orders was a favourite topic +with her father's friends, and the Venetian nuns were noted throughout +Italy for their frivolous and dissipated lives; but nothing that Fulvia +had heard or imagined approached the realities that awaited her. At +first the mere sense of imprisonment, of being cut off forever from the +world of free thought and action which had been her native element, +overwhelmed every other feeling, and she lay numb in the clutch of fate. +But she was too young for this merciful torpor to last, and with the +returning consciousness of her situation came the instinctive effort to +amend it. How she longed then to have been buried in some strict order, +where she might have spent her days in solitary work and meditation! How +she loathed the petty gossip of the nuns, their furtive reaching after +forbidden pleasures! The blindest bigotry would have been less +insufferable than this clandestine commerce with the world, the +strictest sequestration than this open parody of the monastic calling. +She sought in vain among her companions for an answering mind. Many, +like herself, were in open rebellion against their lot; but for reasons +so different that the feeling was an added estrangement. At last the +longing to escape over-mastered every other sensation. It became a fixed +idea, a devouring passion. She did not trust herself to think of what +must follow, but centred every faculty on the effort of evasion. +</P> + +<P> +At this point in her story her growing distress had made it hard for Odo +to gather more than a general hint of her meaning. It was clear, +however, that she had found her sole hope of escape lay in gaining the +friendship of one of the more favoured nuns. Her own position in the +community was of the humblest, for she had neither rank nor wealth to +commend her; but her skill on the harpsichord had attracted the notice +of the music-mistress and she had been enrolled in the convent orchestra +before her novitiate was over. This had brought her into contact with a +few of the more favoured sisters, and among them she had recognised in +Sister Mary of the Crucifix the daughter of the nobleman who had been +her aunt's landlord at Treviso. Fulvia's name was not unknown to the +handsome nun, and the coincidence was enough to draw them together in a +community where such trivial affinities must replace the ties of nature. +Fulvia soon learned that Mary of the Crucifix was the spoiled darling of +the convent. Her beauty and spirit, as much perhaps as her family +connections, had given her this predominance; and no scruples interfered +with her use of it. Finding herself, as she declared, on the wrong side +of the grate, she determined to gather in all the pleasures she could +reach through it; and her reach was certainly prodigious. Here Odo had +been obliged to fall back on his knowledge of Venetian customs to +conjecture the incidents leading up to the scene of the previous night. +He divined that Fulvia, maddened by having had to pronounce the +irrevocable vows, had resolved to fly at all hazards; that Sister Mary, +unconscious of her designs, had proposed to take her on a party of +pleasure, and that the rash girl, blind to every risk but that of delay, +had seized on this desperate means of escape. What must have followed +had she not chanced on Odo, she had clearly neither the courage nor the +experience to picture; but she seemed to have had some confused idea of +throwing herself on the mercy of the foreign nobleman she believed she +was to meet. +</P> + +<P> +So much Odo had gathered; and her voice, her gesture, the disorder of +her spirit, supplied what her words omitted. Not for a moment, either in +listening to her or in the soberer period of revision, did he question +the exact truth of her narrative. It was the second time that they had +met under strange circumstances; yet now as before the sense of her +candour was his ruling thought. He concluded that, whatever plight she +found herself in, she would be its immediate justification; and felt +sure he must have reached this conclusion though love had not had a +stake in the verdict. This perhaps but proved him the more deeply taken; +for it is when passion tightens the net that reason flaps her wings most +loudly. +</P> + +<P> +Day was high when he returned to his lodgings, impatient for a word from +Fulvia. None had come; and as the hours passed he yielded to the most +disheartening fancies. His wretchedness was increased by the thought +that he had once inflicted on her such suspense he was now enduring; and +he went so far as to wonder if this were her revenge for Vercelli. But +if the past was intolerable to consider the future was all baffling +fears. His immediate study was how to see her; and this her continued +silence seemed to refuse him. The extremity of her plight was his best +ally; yet here again anxiety suggested that his having been the witness +of her humiliation must insensibly turn her against him. Never perhaps +does a man show less knowledge of human nature than in speculating on +the conduct of his beloved; and every step in the labyrinth of his +conjectures carried Odo farther from the truth. This rose on him at +nightfall, in the shape of a letter slipped in his hand by a lay-sister +as he crossed the square before his lodgings. He stepped to the light of +the nearest shrine and read the few words in a tumult. "This being +Friday, no visitors are admitted to the convent; but I entreat you to +come to me tomorrow an hour before benediction." A postcript added: "It +is the hour when visitors are most frequent." +</P> + +<P> +He saw her meaning in a flash: his best chance of speaking with her was +in a crowd, and his heart bounded at the significance of her admission. +Now indeed he felt himself lord of the future. Nothing counted but that +he was to see her. His horizon was narrowed to the bars through which +her hand would greet him; yet never had the world appeared so vast. +</P> + +<P> +Long before the hour appointed he was at the gate of Santa Chiara. He +asked to speak with Sister Veronica and the portress led him to the +parlour. Several nuns were already behind the grate, chatting with a +group of fashionable ladies and their gallants; but Fulvia was not among +them. In a few moments the portress returned and informed Odo that +Sister Veronica was indisposed and unable to leave her cell. His heart +sank, and he asked if she had sent no message. The portress answered in +the negative, but added that the abbess begged him to come to her +parlour; and at this his hopes took wing again. +</P> + +<P> +The abbess's parlour was preceded by a handsome antechamber, where Odo +was bidden to wait. It was doubtless the Reverend Mother's hour for +receiving company, for through the door beyond he heard laughter and +music and the sound of lively talk. Presently this door opened and Mary +of the Crucifix entered. In her monastic habit she looked coarse and +overblown: the severe lines and sober tints of the dress did not become +her. Odo felt an insurmountable repugnance at seeing her. He could not +conceive why Fulvia had chosen such an intermediary, and for the first +time a stealing doubt tainted his thoughts of her. +</P> + +<P> +Sister Mary seemed to read his mind. "You bear me a grudge," said she +gaily; "but I think you will live to own that I do not return it. Come +with me if you wish to speak with Sister Veronica." +</P> + +<P> +Odo flushed with surprise. "She is not too unwell to receive me?" +</P> + +<P> +Sister Mary raised her eyebrows in astonishment. "To receive her cousin? +Her nearest male relative, come from Treviso purposely to visit her? The +saints forbid!" she cried. "The poor child is indeed dying—but only to +see her cousin!" And with that she seized his hand and hurried him down +the corridor to a door on which she tapped three times. It opened at +once, and catching Odo by the shoulder she pushed him laughingly over +the threshold and cried out as she vanished: "Be careful not to agitate +the sufferer!" +</P> + +<P> +Odo found himself in a neat plain cell; but he had no eyes for his +surroundings. All that he saw was Fulvia, dressed in her nun's habit and +seated near the window, through which the afternoon light fell softly on +her white coif and the austere folds of her dress. She rose and greeted +him with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +"You are not ill, then?" he cried, stupidly, and the colour rose to her +pale face. +</P> + +<P> +"No," she said, "I am not ill, and at first I was reluctant to make use +of such a subterfuge; but to feign an indisposition was the only way of +speaking with you privately, and, alas, in this school one soon becomes +a proficient in deceit." She paused a moment and then added with an +effort: "Even this favour I could not have obtained save through Sister +Mary of the Crucifix; but she now understands that you are an old friend +of my father's, and that my motive for wishing to see you is not what +she at first supposed." +</P> + +<P> +This was said with such noble simplicity and so direct a glance, that +Odo, confused by the sense of his own doubts, could only murmur as he +bent over her hand: "Fuoco di quest' incendio non v' assale." +</P> + +<P> +She drew back gently and signed him to a seat. "I trust not," she said, +answering his citation; "but I think the flame through which Beatrice +walked must have been less contaminating than this morass in which I +flounder." +</P> + +<P> +She was silent a moment and he had leisure to steal a closer look at +her. It was the first time since their meeting that he had really seen +her face; and he was struck by the touch of awe that had come upon her +beauty. Perhaps her recent suffering had spiritualised a countenance +already pure and lofty; for as he looked at her it seemed to him that +she was transformed into a being beyond earthly contact, and his heart +sank with the sense of her remoteness. Presently she began to speak and +his consciousness of the distance between them was increased by the +composure of her manner. All signs of confusion and distress had +vanished. She faced him with the same innocent freedom as under her +father's roof, and all that had since passed between them seemed to have +slipped from her without a trace. +</P> + +<P> +She began by thanking him for coming, and then at once reverted to her +desperate situation and to her determination to escape. +</P> + +<P> +"I am alone and friendless," she said, "and though the length of our +past acquaintance" (and here indeed she blushed) "scarce warrants such a +presumption, yet I believe that in my father's name I may appeal to you. +It may be that with the best will to help me you can discover no way of +doing so, but at least I shall have the benefit of your advice. I now +see," she added, again deeply blushing, but keeping her eyes on his, +"the madness of my late attempt, and the depth of the abyss from which +you rescued me. Death were indeed preferable to such chances; but I do +not mean to die while life holds out a hope of liberation." +</P> + +<P> +As she spoke there flashed on Odo the reason of her remoteness and +composure. He had come to her as a lover: she received him as a friend. +His longing to aid her was inspired by passion: she saw in it only the +natural impulse of benevolence. So mortifying was the discovery that he +hardly followed her words. All his thoughts were engaged in reviewing +the past; and he now saw that if, as she said, their acquaintance scarce +warranted her appealing to him as a friend, it still less justified his +addressing her as a lover. Only once before had he spoken to her of +love, and that under circumstances which almost forbade a return to the +subject, or at least compelled an added prudence in approaching it. Once +again he found himself the prisoner of his folly, and stood aghast at +the ingenuity of the punishment. To play the part she ascribed to him +was his only portion; and he resolved at least to play it like a man. +</P> + +<P> +With what composure he might, he assured Fulvia of his desire to serve +her, and asked if she had no hope of obtaining her release from the Holy +See. She answered: none, since enquiry must reveal that she was the +daughter of a man who had been prosecuted for heresy, and that after his +death she had devoted the small sum he had left her to the publication +of his writings. She added that his Holiness, resolved to counteract the +effects of the late Pope's leniency, had greatly enlarged the powers of +the Inquisition, and had taken special measures to prevent those who +entered the religious life from renouncing their calling. +</P> + +<P> +"Since I have been here," she said, "three nuns have tried to obtain +their release, and one has conclusively proved that she was forced to +take the vows by fraud; but their pleas have been rejected, and mine +would meet the same fate. Indeed, the only result would be to deprive me +of what little liberty I am allowed; for the three nuns I speak of are +now the most closely watched in the convent." +</P> + +<P> +She went on to explain that, thanks to the connivance of Sister Mary of +the Crucifix, her actual escape might be effected without much +difficulty; but that she was now awake to the madness of taking so +desperate a step without knowing whither it would lead her. +</P> + +<P> +"To be safe," she said, "I must cross the borders of Switzerland. If I +could reach Geneva I should be beyond the arm of the Holy Office, and at +the University there I should find friends of my father who would surely +take pity on my situation and help me to a living. But the journey is +long and difficult, and not to be safely attempted without some +assurance of shelter on the way." +</P> + +<P> +It was on Odo's lips to declare that he would provide her with shelter +and escort; but at this moment three warning taps announced the return +of Sister Mary of the Crucifix. +</P> + +<P> +She entered merrily and at once laid one hand on Fulvia's brow and +caught her wrist in the other. "The patient's pulse has risen," she +declared, "and rest and a lowering treatment are essential. I must ask +the cavaliere to withdraw." +</P> + +<P> +Fulvia, with an air of constraint, held out her hand to Odo. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall see you soon again?" he whispered; and Sister Mary, as though +she had guessed his words, cried out, "I think your excellency may count +on a recurrence of the seizure two days hence at the same hour!" +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +3.5. +</H4> + +<P> +With this Odo was forced to be content; and he passed the intervening +time in devising the means of Fulvia's rescue. He was resolved to let no +rashness or negligence hinder the attempt, and to prove, by the +discretion of his course, that he was no longer the light fool who had +once hazarded her safety. He went about his preparations as one that had +no private stake in the venture; but he was therefore the more +punctilious to show himself worthy of her trust and sensible of the +charge it laid upon him. +</P> + +<P> +At their next meeting he found her in the same open and friendly mood, +and she listened gratefully as he set forth his plan. This was that she +should first write to a doctor of the University in Geneva, who had been +her father's friend, stating her plight and asking if he could help her +to a living should she contrive to reach Geneva. Pending the reply, Odo +was to plan the stages of the journey in such fashion that she might +count on concealment in case of pursuit; and she was not to attempt her +escape till these details were decided. Fulvia was the more ready to +acquiesce in this postponement as she did not wish to involve Sister +Mary in her adventure, but hoped to escape unassisted during an +entertainment which was to take place in the convent on the feast of +Saint Michael, some six weeks later. +</P> + +<P> +To Odo the delay was still more welcome; for it gave him what he must +needs regard as his last opportunity of being in the girl's company. She +had accepted his companionship on the journey with a readiness in which +he saw only the magnanimity of pardon; but in Geneva they must part, and +what hope had he of seeing her again? The first smart of vanity allayed, +he was glad she chose to treat him as a friend. It was in this character +that he could best prove his disinterestedness, his resolve to make +amends for the past; and in this character only—as he now felt—would +it be possible for him to part from her. +</P> + +<P> +On his second visit he ventured to discharge his mind of its heaviest +burden by enquiring what had befallen her and her father after he had +lost trace of them at Vercelli. She told him quite simply that, failing +to meet him at the appointed place, they at once guessed that his plan +had been winded by the abate who travelled with him; and that after a +few hours' delay her father had succeeded in securing a chaise which had +taken them safely across the border. She went on to speak of the +hardships they had suffered after reaching Milan. Even under a +comparatively liberal government it was small advantage to be marked by +the Holy Office; and though he received much kindness, and even material +aid, from those of his way of thinking, Vivaldi was unable to obtain the +professorship he had hoped for. +</P> + +<P> +From Milan they went to Pavia; but in this University, the most liberal +in Italy, the chairs were so sought after that there was no hope of his +receiving a charge worthy of his talents. Here, however, his spirit +breathed its natural air, and reluctant to lose the privileges of such +intercourse he decided to accept the post of librarian to an eccentric +nobleman of the town. If his pay was modest his duties left him leisure +for the work which was his chief concern; for his patron, who had houses +in Milan and Brescia, came seldom to Pavia, and Fulvia and her father +had the vast palace to themselves. They lodged in a corner adjoining the +library, spending their days in studious seclusion, their evenings in +conversation with some of the first scholars of Europe: the learned +botanist Scopoli, Spallanzani, Volta, and Father Fontana, the famous +mathematician. In such surroundings Vivaldi might have pursued his task +contentedly enough, but for the thought of Fulvia's future. This, his +daughter said, continually preyed on him, driving him to labours beyond +his strength; for he hoped by the publication of his book to make good, +at least in part, the loss of the small property which the Sardinian +government had confiscated. All her entreaties could not dissuade him +from over-exertion; and in addition to his regular duties he took on +himself (as she afterward learned) the tedious work of revising proofs +and copying manuscripts for the professors. This drudgery, combined with +severe intellectual effort, exceeded his flagging powers; and the book +was hardly completed when his patron, apprised of its contents, abruptly +removed him from his post. From that day Vivaldi sank in health; but he +ended as became a sage, content to have discharged the task for which he +had given up home and substance, and dying with the great Stoic's words +upon his lips:— +</P> + +<P> +Lex non poena mors. +</P> + +<P> +Vivaldi's friends in Milan came generously to Fulvia's aid, and she +would gladly have remained among them; but after the loss of her small +inheritance and of her father's manuscript she was without means of +repaying their kindness, and nothing remained but to turn to her own +kin. +</P> + +<P> +As Odo sat in the quiet cell, listening to her story, and hearing again +the great names his youth had reverenced, he felt himself an exile +returning to his own, mounting the familiar heights and breathing the +air that was his birthright. Looking back from this recovered standpoint +he saw how far behind his early hopes had been left. Since his departure +from Naples there had been nothing to remind him of that vast noiseless +labour of the spirit going on everywhere beneath the social surface: +that baffled but undiscouraged endeavour in which he had once so +impatiently claimed his share. Now every word of Fulvia's smote the +bones of some dead purpose, till his bosom seemed a very valley of +Ezekiel. Her own trials had fanned her love of freedom, and the near +hope of release lent an exaltation to her words. Of bitterness, of +resentment she gave no sign; and he was awed by the same serenity of +spirit which had struck him in the imprisoned doctor. But perhaps the +strongest impression she produced was that of increasing his points of +contact with life. His other sentimental ties had been a barrier between +himself and the outer world; but the feeling which drew him to Fulvia +had the effect of levelling the bounds of egoism, of letting into the +circle of his nearest emotions that great tide of human longing and +effort that had always faintly sounded on the shores of self. Perhaps it +was her power of evoking this wider life that gave a sense of +permanence, of security almost, to the stolen moments of their +intercourse, lulling the lover's impatience of actual conditions with +the sense of something that must survive the accidents of fortune. Only +in some such way could he explain, in looking back, the completeness of +each moment spent with her. He was conscious even at the time of a +suspension of the emotional laws, a charmed surrender to the limitations +of his fate. When he was away his impatience reasserted itself; but her +presence was like a soothing hand on his spirit, and he knew that his +quiet hours with her would count among those intervals between the +crises of life that flower in memory when the crises themselves have +faded. +</P> + +<P> +It was natural that in the course of these visits she in turn should +question him; and as his past rearranged itself beneath her scrutiny he +seemed once more to trace the thread of purpose on which its fragments +hung. He told her of his connection with the liberals of Pianura, of the +situation at court, and of the reason for his prolonged travels. As he +talked her eyes conveyed the exquisite sense of her complete +comprehension. She saw, before he could justify himself, how the +uncertainty of his future, and his inability to act, had cast him adrift +upon a life of superficial enjoyment; and how his latent dissatisfaction +with this life had inevitably resulted in self-distrust and vacillation. +"You wait your hour," she said of him; and he seized on the phrase as a +justification of his inactivity and, when chance should offer, a spur to +fresh endeavour. Her interest in the liberal cause had been intensified +and exalted by her father's death—his martyrdom, as she described it. +Like most women possessed of an abstract idea she had unconsciously +personified the idea and made a religion of it; but it was a religion of +charity and not of vindictiveness. "I should like my father's death +avenged by love and not by hate," she said; "I would have it bring +peace, not a sword." +</P> + +<P> +On one point only she remained, if not hostile yet unresponsive. This +was when he spoke of de Crucis. Her manner hardened instantly, and he +perceived that, though he dwelt on the Jesuit's tolerant view and +cultivated tastes, she beheld only the priest and not the man. She had +been eager to hear of Crescenti, whom she knew by name as a student of +European repute, and to the praise of whose parochial charities she +listened with outspoken sympathy; but the Jesuits stood for the Holy +Office, and she had suffered too deeply at the hands of the Holy Office +to regard with an open mind any who might be supposed to represent its +principles. It was impossible for Odo to make her understand how +distinctly, in de Crucis's case, the man predominated over the order; +and conscious of the painfulness of the subject, he gave up the attempt +to interest her in his friend. +</P> + +<P> +Three or four times he was permitted to visit her in her cell: after +that they met almost daily in the parlour, where, about the hour of +benediction, they could talk almost as privately under cover of the +general chatter. In due time Fulvia received an answer from the +Calvinist professor, who assured her of a welcome in Geneva and shelter +under his roof. Odo, meanwhile, had perfected the plan of their journey; +but as Michaelmas approached he began to fear Cantapresto's observation. +He now bitterly regretted that he had not held to his purpose of sending +the soprano back to Pianura; but to do so at this point would be to +challenge observation and he resolved instead on despatching him to +Monte Alloro with a letter to the old Duke. As the way to Geneva lay in +the opposite direction this would at least give the fugitives a three +days' lead; and they had little cause to fear pursuit from any other +quarter. The convent indeed might raise a hue and cry; but the nuns of +Santa Chiara had lately given the devout so much cause for scandal that +the abbess would probably be disposed to hush up any fresh delinquency. +The time too was well-chosen; for the sisters had prevailed on the +Reverend Mother to celebrate the saint's day by a masked ball, and the +whole convent was engrossed in the invention of whimsical disguises. The +nuns indeed were not to take part in the ball; but a number of them were +to appear in an allegorical entertainment with which the evening was to +open. The new Papal Nuncio, who was lately arrived in Venice, had +promised to be present; and as he was known to be a man of pleasure +there was scarce a sister in the convent but had an eye to his conquest. +These circumstances gave to Fulvia's plans the shelter of indifference; +for in the delightful effort of surpassing the other nuns even Mary of +the Crucifix lost interest in her friend's affairs. +</P> + +<P> +Odo, to preserve the secrecy of his designs, had been obliged to keep up +a pretence of his former habits, showing himself abroad with +Coeur-Volant and Castelrovinato and frequenting the Procuratessa's routs +and card-parties. This lady, though lately returned to the Brenta, had +announced her intention of coming to Venice for the ball at Santa +Chiara; and Coeur-Volant was mightily preoccupied with the +entertainment, at which he purposed his mistress should outshine all her +companions. +</P> + +<P> +The evening came at last, and Odo found himself entering the gates of +Santa Chiara with a throng of merry-makers. The convent was noted for +its splendid hospitality, and unwonted preparations had been made to +honour the saint. The brightly-illuminated bridge leading to the square +of Santa Chiara was decked with a colonnade of pasteboard and stiffened +linen cunningly painted, and a classical portico masked the entrance +gate. A flourish of trumpets and hautboys, and the firing of miniature +cannon, greeted the arrival of the guests, who were escorted to the +parlour, which was hung with tapestries and glowing with lights like a +Lady Chapel. Here they were received by the abbess, who, on the arrival +of the Nuncio, led the way to the garden, where a stage had been +erected. +</P> + +<P> +The nuns who were not to take part in the play had been seated directly +under the stage, divided from the rest of the company by a low screen of +foliage. Ranged beneath the footlights, which shone on their bare +shoulders and white gowns, and on the gauze veils replacing their +monastic coifs, they seemed a choir of pagan virgins grouped in the +proscenium of an antique theatre. Everything indeed combined to produce +the impression of some classic festival: the setting of motionless +foliage, the mild autumnal sky in which the stars hung near and vivid, +and the foreground thronged with a motley company lit by the shifting +brightness of torches. +</P> + +<P> +As Odo, in mask and travesty, stood observing the fantastically-dressed +audience, the pasteboard theatre adorned with statuary, and the nuns +flitting across the stage, his imagination, strung to the highest pitch +by his own impending venture, was thrilled by the contrast between the +outward appearance of the scene and its underlying reality. From where +he stood he looked directly at the abbess, who was seated with the +Nuncio and his suite under the tall crucifix in the centre of the +garden. As if to emphasise the irony of the situation, the torch fixed +behind this noble group cast an enlarged shadow of the cross over the +abbess's white gown and the splendid robes of her companions, who, +though they wore the mask, had not laid aside their clerical dress. To +Odo the juxtaposition had the effect of some supernatural warning, the +shadow of the divine wrath projected on its heedless ministers; an +impression heightened by the fact that, just opposite the cross, a +lively figure of Pan, surmounting the pediment of the theatre, seemed to +fling defiance at the Galilean intruder. +</P> + +<P> +The nuns, like the rest of the company, were masked; and it had been +agreed between Odo and Fulvia that the latter should wear a wreath of +myrtle above her veil. As almost all her companions had chosen +brightly-coloured flowers this dark green chaplet was easily +distinguished among the clustered heads beneath the stage, and Odo had +no doubt of being able to rejoin Fulvia in the moment of dispersal that +should follow the conclusion of the play. He knew that the sisters were +to precede their guests and be locked behind the grate before the ball +began; but as they passed through the garden and cloisters the barrier +between nuns and visitors would probably not be too strictly maintained. +As he had foreseen, the company, attracted by the graceful procession, +pressed forward regardless of the assistant mistresses' protests, and +the shadowy arcades were full of laughter and whispered snatches of talk +as the white flock was driven back to its fold. +</P> + +<P> +Odo had withdrawn to the darkest angle of the cloister, close to a door +leading to the pharmacy. It was here that Fulvia had told him to wait; +and though he had lost sight of her when the audience rose, he stood +confidently watching for the reappearance of the myrtle-wreath. +Presently he saw it close at hand; and just then the line of sisters +flowed toward him, driven forward by a group of lively masqueraders, +among whom he seemed to recognise Coeur-Volant's voice and figure. +Nothing could have been more opportune, for the pressure swept the +wearer of the myrtle-wreath almost into his arms; and as the intruders +were dispersed and the nuns laughingly reformed their lines, her hand +lingered in his and he felt himself drawn toward the door. +</P> + +<P> +It yielded to her touch and Odo followed her down a dark passageway to +the empty room where rows of old Faenza jars and quaintly-shaped flagons +glimmered in the dusk. Beyond the pharmacy was another door, the key of +which hung on the wall with the portress's hood and cloak. Without a +word the girl wrapped herself in the cloak and, fitting the key to the +lock, softly opened the door. All this was done with a rapidity and +assurance for which Odo was unprepared; but, reflecting that Fulvia's +whole future hung on the promptness with which each detail of her plan +was executed, he concluded that her natural force of character enabled +her to assume an ease she could hardly feel. +</P> + +<P> +The door opened on the kitchen-garden, and brushing the lavender-hedges +with her flying skirts she sped on ahead of Odo to the postern which the +nuns were accustomed to use for their nocturnal escapades. Only the +thickness of an oaken gate stood between Fulvia and the outer world. To +her the opening of the gate meant the first step toward freedom, but to +Odo the passing from their enchanted weeks of fellowship to the inner +loneliness of his former life. He hung back silent while she drew the +bolt. +</P> + +<P> +A moment later they had crossed the threshold and his gondola was +slipping toward them out of the shadow of the wall. Fulvia sprang on +board and he followed her under the felze. The warm darkness enclosing +them stirred impulses which their daily intercourse had subdued, and in +the sense of her nearness he lost sight of the conditions which had +brought them together. The feeling seemed to communicate itself; for as +the gondola rounded the angle of the convent-wall and swung out on the +open, she drooped toward him with the turn of the boat and their lips +met under the loosened masks. +</P> + +<P> +At the same instant the light of the Virgin's shrine in the corner of +the convent-wall fell through the window of the felze on the face lifted +to Odo's; and he found himself suddenly confronted by the tender eyes +and malicious smile of Sister Mary of the Crucifix. +</P> + +<P> +"By Diana," she cried as he started back, "I did but claim my pay in +advance; nor do I think that, when she knows all, Sister Veronica will +grudge me my reward!" +</P> + +<P> +He continued to stare at her in speechless bewilderment, and she went on +with a kind of tender impatience: "You simpleton, can you not guess that +you were watched, and that but for me your Veronica would at this moment +be lying under lock and key in her cell? Instead of which," she +continued, speaking more slowly, and leaning back as though to enjoy the +full savour of his suspense, "instead of which she now awaits you in a +safe nook of my choosing, where, within half an hour's time, you may +atone to her with interest for the infidelity into which I have betrayed +you." +</P> + +<P> +"She knows, then?" Odo faltered, not daring to say more in his ignorance +of Sister Mary's share in the secret. +</P> + +<P> +Sister Mary shook her head with a tantalising laugh. "That you are +coming? Alas, no, poor angel! She fancies that she has been sent from +the convent to avoid you—as indeed she was, and by the Reverend +Mother's own order, who, it seems, had wind of the intrigue this +morning. But, the saints be praised, the excellent sister who was +ordered to attend her is in my pay and instead of conducting her to her +relatives of San Barnado, who were to keep her locked up over night, +has, if I mistake not, taken her to a good woman of my acquaintance—an +old servant, in fact—who will guard her as jealously as the family +plate till you and I come to her release." +</P> + +<P> +As she spoke she put out her head and gave a whispered order to the +gondolier; and at the word the boat swung round and headed for the city. +</P> + +<P> +In the violent reaction which this strange encounter produced, Odo was +for the moment incapable of taking any clear note of his surroundings. +Uncertain if he were not once more the victim of some such mischance as +seemed to attend all his efforts to succour Fulvia, he sat in silent +apprehension as the gondola shot across the Grand Canal and entered the +labyrinth of water-ways behind San Moise. Sister Mary took his silence +philosophically. +</P> + +<P> +"You dare not speak to me, for fear of betraying yourself," she said, +"and I scarce wonder at your distrust; for your plans were so well laid +that I had no notion of what was on foot, and must have remained in +ignorance if Veronica had not been put in Sister Martha's charge. But +you will both live to thank me, and I hope," she added, laughing, "to +own that you would have done better to take me into your confidence from +the first." +</P> + +<P> +As she spoke the gondola touched at the head of a narrow passage which +lost itself in the blackness of the overhanging houses. Sister Mary +sprang out and drew Odo after her. A few yards down the alley she +entered a plain low-storied house somewhat withdrawn behind its +neighbours. Followed by Odo she groped her way up a dark flight of +stairs and knocked at a door on the upper landing. A vague flutter +within, indicative of whispers and uncertain movements, was followed by +the slipping of the bolt, and a middle-aged woman looked out. She drew +back with an exclamation of welcome, and Sister Mary, seizing Odo by the +shoulders, pushed him across the threshold of a small dimly-lit kitchen. +</P> + +<P> +Fulvia, in her nun's habit, cowered in the darkest corner; but at sight +of Odo she sprang up, and ran toward him with a happy cry. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +3.6. +</H4> + +<P> +An hour later the two were well on their way toward Mestre, where a +travelling-chaise awaited them. Odo, having learned that Andreoni was +settled in Padua, had asked him to receive Fulvia in his house till the +next night-fall; and the bookseller, whom he had taken into his +confidence, was eager to welcome the daughter of the revered Vivaldi. +</P> + +<P> +The extremes of hope and apprehension had left Fulvia too exhausted for +many words, and Odo, after she had confirmed every particular of Sister +Mary's story, refrained from questioning her farther. Thanks to her +friend's resources she had been able to exchange her nun's dress for the +plain gown and travelling-cloak of a young woman of the middle class; +and this dress painfully recalled to Odo the day when he had found her +standing beside the broken-down chaise on the road to Vercelli. +</P> + +<P> +The recollection was not calculated to put him at his ease; and indeed +it was only now that he began to feel the peculiar constraint of his +position. To Andreoni his explanation of Fulvia's flight had seemed +natural enough; but on the subsequent stages of their journey she must +pass for his mistress or his wife, and he hardly knew in what spirit she +would take the misapprehensions that must inevitably arise. +</P> + +<P> +At Mestre their carriage waited, and they drove rapidly toward Padua +through the waning night. Andreoni, in his concern for Fulvia's safety, +had prepared for her reception a little farm-house of his wife's, in a +vineyard beyond the town; and here at daybreak it was almost a relief to +Odo to commit his charge to the Signora Andreoni's care. +</P> + +<P> +The day was spent indoors, and Andreoni having thought it more prudent +to bring no servant from Padua, his wife prepared the meals for their +guests and the bookseller drew a jar of his own wine from the cellar. +Fulvia kept to herself during the day; but at dusk she surprised Odo by +entering the room with a trayful of plates and glasses, and helping +their hostess to set out the supper-table. The few hours of rest had +restored to her not only the serenity of the convent, but a lightness of +step and glance that Odo had not seen in her since the early days of +their friendship. He marvelled to see how the first breath of freedom +had set her blood in motion and fanned her languid eye; but he could not +suppress the accompanying thought that his own presence had failed to +work such miracles. +</P> + +<P> +They had planned to ride that night to a little village in the hills +beyond Vicenza, where Fulvia's foster-mother, a peasant of the +Vicentine, lived with her son, who was a vine-dresser; and supper was +hardly over when they were told that their horses waited. Their kind +hosts dared not urge them to linger; and after a hurried farewell they +rode forth into the fresh darkness of the September night. +</P> + +<P> +The new moon was down and they had to thread their way slowly through +the stony lanes between the vineyards. At length they gained the open +country, and growing more accustomed to the darkness put their horses to +a trot. The change of pace, and the exhilaration of traversing an +unknown country in the hush and mystery of night, combined to free their +spirits, and Odo began to be aware that the barrier between them was +lifted. To the charm of their intercourse at Santa Chiara was added that +closer sympathy produced by the sense of isolation. They were enclosed +in their common risk as in some secret meeting-place where no +consciousness of the outer world intruded; and though their talk kept +the safe level of their immediate concerns he felt the change in every +inflection of Fulvia's voice and in the subtler emphasis of her +silences. +</P> + +<P> +The way was long, and he had feared that she would be taxed beyond her +strength; but the miles seemed to fly beneath their horses' feet, and +they could scarcely believe that the dark hills which rose ahead of them +against a whitening sky marked the limit of their journey. +</P> + +<P> +With some difficulty they found their way to the vine-dresser's house, a +mere hut in a remote fold of the hills. From motives of prudence they +had not warned the nurse of their coming; but they found the old woman +already at work in her melon-patch and learned from her that her son had +gone down to his day's labour in the valley. She received Fulvia with a +tender wonder, as at some supernatural presence descending into her +life, too much awed, till the first embraces were over, to risk any +conjecture as to Odo's presence. But with the returning sense of +familiarity—the fancied recovery of the nurseling's features in the +girl's definite outline—came the inevitable reaction of curiosity, and +the fugitives felt themselves coupled in the old woman's meaning smiles. +To Odo's surprise Fulvia received these innuendoes with baffling +composure, parrying the questions she seemed to answer, and finally +taking refuge in a plea for rest. But the accord of the previous night +was broken; and when the travellers set out again, starting a little +before sunset to avoid the vine-dresser's return, the constraint of the +day began to weigh upon them. In Fulvia's case physical weariness +perhaps had a share in the change; but whatever the cause, its effect +was to make this stage of the journey strangely tedious to both. +</P> + +<P> +Their way lay through the country north of Vicenza, whence they hoped by +dawn to gain Peschiera on the lake of Garda, and hire a chaise which +should take them across the border. For the first hour or two they had +the new moon to light them; but as it set the sky clouded and drops of +rain began to fall. Fulvia had hitherto shown a gay indifference to the +discomforts of the journey; but she presently began to complain of the +cold and to question Odo anxiously as to the length of the way. The +hilliness of the country forced them to travel slowly, and it seemed to +Odo that hours had elapsed before they saw lights in the valley below +them. Their plan had been to avoid the towns on their way, and Fulvia, +the night before, had contented herself with a half-hour's rest by the +roadside; but a heavy rain was now falling, and she at once assented to +Odo's tentative proposal that they should take shelter till the storm +was over. +</P> + +<P> +They dismounted at an inn on the outskirts of the village. The sleepy +landlord stared as he unbarred the door and led them into the kitchen; +but he offered no comment beyond remarking that it was a good night to +be under cover. +</P> + +<P> +Fulvia sank down on the wooden settle near the chimney, where a fire had +been hastily kindled. She took no notice of Odo when he removed the +dripping cloak from her shoulders, but sat gazing before her in a kind +of apathy. +</P> + +<P> +"I cannot eat," she said, as Odo pressed her to take her place at the +table. +</P> + +<P> +The innkeeper turned to him with a confidential nod. "Your lady looks +fairly beaten," he said. "I've a notion that one of my good beds would +be more to her taste than the best supper in the land. Shall I have a +room made ready for your excellencies?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, no," said Fulvia, starting up. "We must set out again as soon as we +have supped." +</P> + +<P> +She approached the table and hastily emptied the glass of country wine +that Odo had poured out for her. +</P> + +<P> +The innkeeper seemed a simple unsuspicious fellow, but at this he put +down the plate of cheese he was carrying and looked at her curiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Start out again at this hour of the night?" he exclaimed. "By the +saints, your excellencies must be running a race with the sun! Or do you +doubt my being able to provide you with decent lodgings, that you prefer +mud and rain to my good sheets and pillows?" +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed, no," Odo amicably interposed; "but we are hurrying to meet a +friend who is to rejoin us tomorrow at Peschiera." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah—at Peschiera," said the other, as though the name had struck him. +He took a dish of eggs from the fire and set it before Fulvia. "Well," +he went on with a shrug, "it is written that none of my beds shall be +slept in tonight. Not two hours since I had a gentleman here that gave +the very same excuse for hurrying forward; though his horses were so +spent that I had to provide him with another pair before he could +continue his journey." He laughed and uncorked a second bottle. +</P> + +<P> +"That reminds me," he went on, pausing suddenly before Fulvia, "that the +other gentleman was travelling to meet a friend too; a lady, he said—a +young lady. He fancied she might have passed this way and questioned me +closely; but as it happened there had been no petticoat under my roof +for three days.—I wonder, now, if he could have been looking for your +excellencies?" +</P> + +<P> +Fulvia flushed high at this, but a sign from Odo checked the denial on +her lips. +</P> + +<P> +"Why," said he, "it is not unlikely, though I had fancied our friend +would come from another direction. What was this gentleman like?" +</P> + +<P> +The landlord hesitated, evidently not so much from any reluctance to +impart what he knew as from the inability to express it. "Well," said +he, trying to supplement his words by a vaguely descriptive gesture, "he +was a handsome personable-looking man—smallish built, but with a fine +manner, and dressed not unlike your excellency." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," said Odo carelessly, "our friend is an ecclesiastic.—And which +way did this gentleman travel?" he went on, pouring himself another +glass. +</P> + +<P> +The landlord assumed an air of country cunning. "There's the fishy part +of it," said he. "He gave orders to go toward Verona; but my boy, who +chased the carriage down the road, as lads will, says that at the +cross-ways below the old mill the driver took the turn for Peschiera." +</P> + +<P> +Fulvia at this seemed no longer able to control herself. She came close +to Odo and said in a low urgent tone: "For heaven's sake, let us set +forward!" +</P> + +<P> +Odo again signed to her to keep silent, and with an effort she resumed +her seat and made a pretence of eating. A moment later he despatched the +landlord to the stable, to see that the horses had been rubbed down; and +as soon as the door closed she broke out passionately. +</P> + +<P> +"It is my fault," she cried, "it is all my fault for coming here. If I +had had the courage to keep on this would never have happened!" +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Odo quietly, "and we should have gone straight to Peschiera +and landed in the arms of our pursuer—if this mysterious traveller is +in pursuit of us." +</P> + +<P> +His tone seemed to steady her. "Oh," she said, and the colour flickered +out of her face. +</P> + +<P> +"As it happens," he went on, "nothing could have been more fortunate +than our coming here." +</P> + +<P> +"I see—I see—; but now we must go on at once," she persisted. +</P> + +<P> +He looked at her gravely. "This is your wish?" +</P> + +<P> +She seemed seized with a panic fear. "I cannot stay here!" she repeated. +</P> + +<P> +"Which way shall we go, then? If we continue to Peschiera, and this man +is after us, we are lost." +</P> + +<P> +"But if he does not find us he may return here—he will surely return +here!" +</P> + +<P> +"He cannot return before morning. It is close on midnight already. +Meanwhile you can take a few hours' rest while I devise means of +reaching the lake by some mule-track across the mountain." +</P> + +<P> +It cost him an effort to take this tone with her; but he saw that in her +high-strung mood any other would have been less effective. She rose +slowly, keeping her eyes on him with the look of a frightened child. "I +will do as you wish," she said. +</P> + +<P> +"Let the landlord prepare a bed for you, then. I will keep watch down +here and the horses shall be saddled at daylight." +</P> + +<P> +She stood silent while he went to the door to call the innkeeper; but +when the order was given, and the door closed again, she disconcerted +him by a sudden sob. +</P> + +<P> +"What a burden I am!" she cried. "I had no right to accept this of you." +And she turned and fled up the dark stairs. +</P> + +<P> +The night passed and toward dawn the rain ceased. Odo rose from his +dreary vigil in the kitchen, and called to the innkeeper to carry up +bread and wine to Fulvia's room. Then he went out to see that the horses +were fed and watered. He had not dared to question the landlord as to +the roads, lest his doing so should excite suspicion; but he hoped to +find an ostler who would give him the information he needed. +</P> + +<P> +The stable was empty, however; and he prepared to bait the horses +himself. As he stooped to place his lantern on the floor he caught the +gleam of a small polished object at his feet. He picked it up and found +that it was a silver coat-of-arms, such as are attached to the blinders +and saddles of a carriage-harness. His curiosity was aroused, and +holding the light closer he recognised the ducal crown of Pianura +surmounting the "Humilitas" of the Valseccas. +</P> + +<P> +The discovery was so startling that for some moments he stood gazing at +the small object in his hand without being able to steady his confused +ideas. Gradually they took shape, and he saw that, if the ornament had +fallen from the harness of the traveller who had just preceded them, it +was not Fulvia but he himself who was being pursued. But who was it who +sought him and to what purpose? One fact alone was clear: the traveller, +whoever he was, rode in one of the Duke's carriages, and therefore +presumably upon his sovereign's business. +</P> + +<P> +Odo was still trying to thread a way through these conjectures when a +yawning ostler pushed open the stable-door. +</P> + +<P> +"Your excellency is in a hurry to be gone," he said, with a surprised +glance. +</P> + +<P> +Odo handed him the coat-of-arms. "Can you tell me what this is?" he +asked carelessly. "I picked it up here a moment ago." +</P> + +<P> +The other turned it over and stared. "Why," said he, "that's off the +harness of the gentleman that supped here last night—the same that went +on later to Peschiera." +</P> + +<P> +Odo proceeded to question him about the mule-tracks over Monte Baldo, +and having bidden him saddle the horses in half an hour, crossed the +courtyard and re-entered the inn. A grey light was already falling +through the windows, and he mounted the stairs and knocked on the door +which he thought must be Fulvia's. Her voice bade him enter and he found +her seated fully dressed beside the window. She rose with a smile and he +saw that she had regained her usual self-possession. +</P> + +<P> +"Do we set out at once?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"There is no great haste," he answered. "You must eat first, and by that +time the horses will be saddled." +</P> + +<P> +"As you please," she returned, with a readiness in which he divined the +wish to make amends for her wilfulness the previous night. Her eyes and +cheeks glowed with an excitement which counterfeited the effects of a +night's rest, and he thought he had never seen her more radiant. She +approached the table on which the wine and bread had been placed, and +drew another chair beside her own. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you not share with me?" she asked, filling a glass for him. +</P> + +<P> +He took it from her with a smile. "I have good news for you," he said, +holding out the bit of silver which he had brought from the stable. +</P> + +<P> +She examined it wonderingly. "What does this mean?" she asked, looking +up at him. +</P> + +<P> +"That it is I who am being followed—and not you." +</P> + +<P> +She started and the ornament slipped from her hand. +</P> + +<P> +"You?" she faltered with a quick change of colour. +</P> + +<P> +"This coat-of-arms," he explained, "dropped from the harness of the +traveller who left the inn just before our arrival last night." +</P> + +<P> +"Well—" she said, still without understanding; "and do you know the +coat?" +</P> + +<P> +Odo smiled. "It is mine," he answered; "and the crown is my cousin's. +The traveller must have been a messenger of the Duke's." +</P> + +<P> +She stood leaning against the seat from which she had risen, one hand +still grasping it while the other hung inert. Her lips parted but she +did not speak. Her pallor troubled Odo and he went up to her and took +her hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you not understand," he said gently, "that there is no farther cause +for alarm? I have no reason to think that the Duke's messenger is in +pursuit of me; but should he be so, and should he overtake us, he has no +authority over you and no reason for betraying you to your enemies." +</P> + +<P> +The blood poured back to her face. "Me! My enemies!" she stammered. "It +is not of them I think." She raised her head and faced him in a glow. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment he stood stupidly gazing at her; then the mist lifted and +through it he saw a great light. +</P> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<P> +The landlord's knock warned them that their horses waited, and they rode +out in the grey morning. The world about them still lay in shade, and as +they climbed the wooded defile above the valley Odo was reminded of the +days at Donnaz when he had ridden up the mountain in the same early +light. Never since then had he felt, as he did now, the boy's easy +kinship with the unexpected, the sense that no encounter could be too +wonderful to fit in with the mere wonder of living. +</P> + +<P> +To avoid the road to Peschiera they had resolved to cross the Monte +Baldo by a mule-track which should bring them out at one of the villages +on the eastern shore of Garda; and the search for this path led them up +through steep rain-scented woods where they had to part the wet boughs +as they passed. From time to time they regained the highway and rode +abreast, almost silent at first with the weight of their new nearness, +and then breaking into talk that was the mere overflow of what they were +thinking. There was in truth more to be felt between them than to be +said; since, as each was aware, the new light that suffused the present +left the future as obscure as before. But what mattered, when the hour +was theirs? The narrow kingdom of today is better worth ruling over than +the widest past or future; but not more than once does a man hold its +fugitive sceptre. The past, however, was theirs also: a past so +transformed that he must revisit it with her, joyously confronting her +new self with the image of her that met them at each turn. Then he had +himself to trace in her memories, his transfigured likeness to linger +over in the Narcissus-mirror of her faith in him. This interchange of +recollections served them as well as any outspoken expression of +feeling, and the most commonplace allusion was charged with happy +meanings. +</P> + +<P> +Arabia Petraea had been an Eden to such travellers; how much more the +happy slopes they were now descending! All the afternoon their path +wound down the western incline of Monte Baldo, first under huge olives, +then through thickets of laurel and acacia, to emerge on a lower level +of lemon and orange groves, with the blue lake showing through a diaper +of golden-fruited boughs. Fulvia, to whom this clear-cut southern +foliage was as new as the pure intensity of light that bathed it, seemed +to herself to be moving through the landscape of a dream. It was as +though nature had been remodelled, transformed almost, under the touch +of their love: as though they had found their way to the Hesperian +glades in which poets and painters placed the legendary lovers of +antiquity. +</P> + +<P> +Such feelings were intensified by the strangeness of the situation. In +Italy the young girls of the middle class, though seemingly allowed a +greater freedom of intercourse than the daughters of noblemen, were in +reality as strictly guarded. Though, like Fulvia, they might converse +with the elderly merchants or scholars frequenting the family table, +they were never alone in the company of men, and the high standard of +conduct prevailing in the bourgeoisie forbade all thought of clandestine +intercourse. This was especially true of the families of men of letters, +where the liberal education of the young girls, and their habit of +associating as equals with men of serious and cultivated minds, gave +them a self-possession disconcerting to the young blood accustomed to +conquer with a glance. These girls as a rule, were married early to men +of their own standing, and though the cicisbeo was not unknown after +marriage he was not an authorised member of the household. Fulvia, +indeed, belonged to the class most inaccessible to men of Odo's rank: +the only class in Italy in which the wife's fidelity was as much +esteemed as the innocence of the girl. Such principles had long been +ridiculed by persons of quality and satirised by poets and playwrights. +From Aristophanes to Beaumarchais the cheated husband and the outwitted +guardian had been the figures on which the dramatist relied for his +comic effects. Even the miser tricked out of his savings was a shade +less ridiculous, less grotesquely deserving of his fate, than the +husband defrauded of his wife's affection. The plausible adulteress and +the adroit seducer had a recognised claim on the sympathy of the public. +But the inevitable reaction was at hand; and the new teachers to whom +Odo's contemporaries were beginning to listen had thrown a strangely +poetic light over the dull figures of the domestic virtues. Faithfulness +to the family sanctities, reverence for the marriage tie, courage to +sacrifice the loftiest passion to the most plodding duty: these were +qualities to touch the fancy of a generation sated with derision. If +love as a sentiment was the discovery of the medieval poets, love as a +moral emotion might be called that of the eighteenth-century +philosophers, who, for all their celebration of free unions and fatal +passions, were really on the side of the angels, were fighting the +battle of the spiritual against the sensual, of conscience against +appetite. +</P> + +<P> +The imperceptible action of these new influences formed the real barrier +between Odo and Fulvia. The girl stood for the embodiment of the +purifying emotions that were to renew the world. Her candour, her +unapproachableness, her simple trust in him, were a part of the magic +light which the new idealism had shed over the old social structure. His +was, in short, a love large enough to include other emotions: a widening +rather than a contraction of the emotional range. Youth and propinquity +have before now broken down stronger defences; but Fulvia's situation +was an unspoken appeal to her lover's forbearance. The sense that her +safety depended on him kept his sentimental impulses in check and made +the happiness of the moment seem, in its exquisite unreality, a mere +dreamlike interlude between the facts of life. +</P> + +<P> +Toward sunset they rested in an olive-orchard, tethering their horses to +the low boughs. Overhead, through the thin foliage of tarnished silver, +the sky, as the moon suffused it, melted from steel blue to a clearer +silver. A peasant-woman whose hut stood close by brought them a goat's +cheese on a vine-leaf and a jug of spring-water; and as they supped, a +little goat-herd, driving his flock down the hill, paused to watch them +with furtive woodland eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Odo, questioning him, learned that at the village on the shore below +they could obtain a boat to carry them across the lake. Fulvia, for lack +of a passport, dared not set foot on Austrian soil; but the Swiss +authorities were less exacting and Odo had hopes of crossing the border +without difficulty. They set out again presently, descending through the +grey dusk of the olives till the path became too steep for riding; then +Odo lifted Fulvia from the saddle and led the two horses after her. Here +and there, between the trees, they caught a momentary glimpse of lights +on the shore and the pale gleam of the lake enclosed in black foliage. +From the village below came snatches of song and the shrill wail of a +pipe; and as the night deepened they saw, far out on the water, the wild +flare of the fish-spearers' torches, like comets in an inverted sky. +</P> + +<P> +With nightfall the spirits of both had sunk. Fulvia walked ahead in +silence and Odo read a mute apprehension in her drooping outline. Every +step brought them nearer to the point they both feared to face, and +though each knew what lay in the other's thoughts neither dared break +the silence. Odo's mind turned anxiously to the incidents of the +morning, to the finding of the ducal coat-of-arms, and to all the +possibilities it suggested. What errand save one could have carried an +envoy from Pianura to that remote hamlet among the hills? He could +scarcely doubt that it was in pursuit of himself that the ducal +messenger travelled; but with what object was the journey undertaken? +Was he to be recalled in obedience to some new whim of the Duke's? Or +had some unforeseen change—he dared not let his thoughts define +it—suddenly made his presence needful in Pianura? It was more probable +that the possibility of his flight with Fulvia had been suggested to the +Duke by the ecclesiastical authorities, and that the same hand which had +parted them before was again secretly at work. In any case, it was Odo's +first business to see his companion safely across the border; and in +that endeavour he had now little fear of being thwarted. If the Duke's +messenger awaited them at Peschiera he waited in vain; and though their +flight across the lake might be known before dawn it would then be no +easy matter to overtake them. +</P> + +<P> +In an hour's time, as Odo had hoped, they were putting off from the +shore in a blunt-nosed fishing-boat which was the lightest craft the +village could provide. The lake was stark calm, and the two boatmen, +silhouetted against the moonlight, drove the boat forward with even +vigorous strokes. Fulvia, shivering in the autumnal chill, had drawn her +hood close about her and sat silent, her face in shade. Measured by +their secret apprehensions the boat's progress seemed at first +indescribably slow; but gradually the sounds from the shore grew +fainter, and the fugitives felt themselves alone in a world enclosed by +the moonlit circle of the waters. +</P> + +<P> +As they advanced this sense of isolation and security grew deeper and +more impressive. The motionless surface of the lake was enclosed in a +wall of mountains which the moonlight seemed to vein with marble. A sky +in which the stars were dissolved in white radiance curved high above +their heads; and not a sail flecked the lake or a cloud the sky. The +boat seemed suspended alone in some ethereal medium. +</P> + +<P> +Presently one of the boatmen spoke to the other and glanced toward the +north. Then the second silently shipped his oar and hoisted the sail. +Hardly had he made it fast when a fresh of wind came down the lake and +they began to stretch across the bay with spreading canvas. The wind was +contrary, but Odo welcomed it, for he saw at once that it would be +quicker work to tack to the other shore than to depend on the oars. The +scene underwent a sudden change. The silver mirror over which they had +appeared to glide was shivered into sparkling fragments, and in the +enveloping rush and murmur of the night the boat woke to a creaking +straining activity. +</P> + +<P> +The man at the rudder suddenly pointed to a huddle of lights to the +south. "Peschiera." +</P> + +<P> +Odo laughed. "We shall soon show it our heels," said he. +</P> + +<P> +The other boatman shrugged his shoulders. "Even an enemy's roof may +serve to keep out the storm," he observed philosophically. +</P> + +<P> +"The storm? What storm?" +</P> + +<P> +The man pointed to the north. Against the sky hung a little black cloud, +the merest flaw in the perfect curve of the night. +</P> + +<P> +"The lake is shrewish at this season," the boatman continued. "Did your +excellencies burn a candle before starting?" +</P> + +<P> +Odo sat silent, his eyes fixed on the cloud. It was growing visibly now. +With every moment its outline seemed to shift and spread, till its black +menace dilated to the zenith. The bright water still broke about them in +diamond spray; but as the shadow travelled the lake beneath it turned to +lead. Then the storm dropped on them. It fell suddenly out of +mid-heaven. Sky and water grew black and a long shudder ran through the +boat. For a moment she hung back, staggering under a white fury of +blows; then the gale seemed to lift and swing her about and she shot +forward through a long tunnel of glistening blackness, bows on for +Peschiera. +</P> + +<P> +"The enemy's roof!" thought Odo. He reached for Fulvia's hand and found +it in the darkness. The rain was driving against them now and he drew +her close and wrapped his cloak about her. She lay still, without a +tremor, as though in that shelter no fears could reach her. The night +roared about them and the waters seemed to divide beneath their keel. +Through the tumult Odo shouted to the boatmen to try to make some +harbour north of Peschiera. They shouted back that they must go where +the wind willed and bless the saints if they made any harbour at all; +and Odo saw that Peschiera was their destiny. +</P> + +<P> +It was past midnight when they set foot on shore. The rain still fell in +torrents and they could hardly grope their way up the steps of the +landing-stage. Odo's first concern was to avoid the inn; but the +boatmen, exhausted by their efforts and impatient to be under shelter, +could not be bribed to seek out at that hour another lodging for the +travellers. Odo dared not expose Fulvia longer to the storm, and +reluctantly they turned toward the inn, trusting that at that hour their +coming would attract little notice. +</P> + +<P> +A travelling-carriage stood in the courtyard, and somewhat to Odo's +surprise the landlord was still afoot. He led them into the public +parlour, which was alight, with a good fire on the hearth. A gentleman +in travelling-dress sat near this fire, his back to the door, reading by +a shaded candle. He rose as the travellers entered, and Odo recognised +the abate de Crucis. +</P> + +<P> +The latter advanced with a smile in which pleasure was more visible than +surprise. He bowed slightly to Fulvia, who had shrunk back into the +shadow of the doorway; then he turned to Odo and said: "Cavaliere, I +have travelled six days to overtake you. The Duke of Pianura is dying +and has named you regent." +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +3.7. +</H4> + +<P> +Odo heard a slight movement behind him. He turned and saw that Fulvia +had vanished. He understood her wish for concealment, but its futility +was written in the glance with which de Crucis followed her flight. +</P> + +<P> +The abate continued to speak in urgent tones. "I implore you," he said, +"to lose no time in accompanying me to Pianura. The situation there is +critical and before now his Highness's death may have placed the reins +in your hands." He glanced at his watch. "If your excellency is not too +tired to set out at once, my horses can be harnessed within the half +hour." +</P> + +<P> +Odo's heart sank. To have let his thoughts dwell on such a possibility +seemed to have done little to prepare him for its realisation. He hardly +understood what de Crucis was saying: he knew only that an hour before +he had fancied himself master of his fate and that now he was again in +bonds. His first clear thought was that nothing should part him from +Fulvia. +</P> + +<P> +De Crucis seemed to read the thought. +</P> + +<P> +"Cavaliere," he said, "at a moment when time is so valuable you will +pardon my directness. You are accompanying to Switzerland a lady who has +placed herself in your charge—" +</P> + +<P> +Odo made no reply, and the other went on in the same firm but courteous +tone: "Foreseeing that it would be difficult for you to leave her so +abruptly I provided myself, in Venice, with a passport which will take +her safely across the border." He drew a paper from his coat. "This," +said he, handing it to Odo, "is the Papal Nuncio's authorisation to the +Signorina Fulvia Vivaldi, known in religion as Sister Veronica, to +absent herself from Italy for an indefinite period. With this passport +and a good escort your companion will have no difficulty in joining her +friends." +</P> + +<P> +Excess of astonishment kept Odo silent for a moment; and in that moment +he had as it were a fugitive glimpse into the workings of the great +power which still strove for predominance in Italy. A safe-conduct from +the Papal Nuncio to Fulvia Vivaldi was equivalent to her release from +her vows; and this in turn implied that, for the moment, religious +discipline had been frankly sacrificed to the pressure of political +necessities. How the invisible hands made and unmade the destinies of +those who came in their way! How boldly the Church swept aside her own +defences when they obstructed her course! He was conscious, even at the +moment, of all that men like de Crucis had to say in defence of this +higher expediency, this avowed discrimination between the factors in +each fresh combination of circumstances. He had himself felt the complex +wonder of thoughtful minds before the Church's perpetual miracle of +change disguised in immutability; but now he saw only the meaner side of +the game, its elements of cruelty and falseness; and he felt himself no +more than a frail bark on the dark and tossing seas of ecclesiastical +intrigue. For a moment his heart shuddered back from its fate. +</P> + +<P> +"No passport, no safe-conduct," he said at length, "can release me from +my duty to the lady who has placed herself in my care. I shall not leave +her till she has joined her friends." +</P> + +<P> +De Crucis bowed. "This is the answer I expected," he said, not without +sadness. +</P> + +<P> +Odo glanced at him in surprise. The two men, hitherto, had addressed +each other as strangers; but now something in the abate's tone recalled +to Odo the familiarity of their former intercourse, their deep community +of thought, the significance of the days they had spent together in the +monastery of Monte Cassino. The association of ideas brought before him +the profound sense of responsibility with which, at that time, he had +looked forward to such an hour as this. +</P> + +<P> +The abate was watching him gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"Cavaliere," he said, "every instant counts, all you had once hoped to +do for Pianura is now yours to accomplish. But in your absence your +enemies are not idle. His Highness may revoke your appointment at any +hour. Of late I have had his ear, but I have now been near a week +absent, and you know the Duke is not long constant to one +purpose.—Cavaliere," he exclaimed, "I appeal to you not in the name of +the God whom you have come to doubt, but in that of your fellow-men, +whom you have wished to serve." +</P> + +<P> +Odo looked at him, not without a confused sense of the irony of such an +appeal on such lips, yet with the distinct consciousness that it was +uttered in all sincerity, and that, whatever their superficial diversity +of view, he and de Crucis were at one on those deeper questions that +gave the moment its real significance. +</P> + +<P> +"It is impossible," he repeated, "that I should go with you." +</P> + +<P> +De Crucis was again silent, and Odo was aware of the renewed intentness +of his scrutiny. "If the lady—" broke from him once; but he checked +himself and took a turn in the room. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile a resolve was slowly forming itself in Odo. He would not be +false to the call which, since his boyhood, had so often made itself +heard before the voice of pleasure and self-interest; but he would at +least reserve the right to obey it in his own fashion and under +conditions which left his private inclination free. +</P> + +<P> +"There may be more than one way of serving one's fellows," he said +quietly. "Go back without me, abate. Tell my cousin that I resign my +rights to the succession. I shall live my own life elsewhere, not +unworthily, I hope, but as a private person." +</P> + +<P> +De Crucis had turned pale. For a moment his habitual self-command seemed +about to fail him; and Odo could not but see that a sincere personal +regret was mingled with the political agent's consciousness of failure. +</P> + +<P> +He himself was chiefly aware of a sense of relief, of self-recovery, as +though he had at last solved a baffling enigma and found himself once +more at one with his fate. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly he heard a step behind him. Fulvia had re-entered the room. She +had put off her drenched cloak, but the hair lay in damp strands on her +forehead, deepening her pallor and the lines of weariness under her +eyes. She moved across the room, carrying her head high and advancing +tranquilly to Odo's side. Even in that moment of confused emotions he +was struck by the nobility of her gait and gesture. +</P> + +<P> +She turned to de Crucis, and Odo had the immediate intuition that she +had recognised him. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you let me speak a word privately to the cavaliere Valsecca?" she +said. +</P> + +<P> +The other bowed silently and turned away. The door closed on him, and +Odo and Fulvia remained alone. For a moment neither spoke; then she +said: "That was the abate de Crucis?" +</P> + +<P> +He assented. +</P> + +<P> +She looked at him sadly. "You still believe him to be your friend?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he answered frankly, "I still believe him to be my friend, and, +spite of his cloth, the friend of justice and humanity. But he is here +simply as the Duke's agent. He has been for some time the governor of +Prince Ferrante." +</P> + +<P> +"I knew," she murmured, "I knew—" +</P> + +<P> +He went up to her and caught her hands. "Why do we waste our time upon +him?" he exclaimed impatiently. "Nothing matters but that I am free at +last." +</P> + +<P> +She drew back, gently releasing herself. "Free—?" +</P> + +<P> +"My choice is made. I have resigned my right to the succession. I shall +not return to Pianura." +</P> + +<P> +She continued to stare at him, leaning against the chair from which de +Crucis had risen. +</P> + +<P> +"Your choice is made! Your choice is made!" she repeated. "And you have +chosen—" +</P> + +<P> +"You," he said simply. "Will you go to France with me, Fulvia? Will you +be my wife and work with me at a distance for the cause that, in Italy, +we may not serve together? I have never abandoned the aims your father +taught me to strive for; they are dearer, more sacred to me than ever; +but I cannot strive for them alone. I must feel your hand in mine, I +must know that your heart beats with mine, I must hear the voice of +liberty speak to me in your voice—" He broke off suddenly and went up +to her. "All this is nothing," he said. "I love you. I cannot give you +up. That is all." +</P> + +<P> +For a moment, as he spoke, her face shone with an extraordinary light. +She looked at him intently, as one who seemed to gaze beyond and through +him, at some mystic vision that his words evoked. Then the brightness +faded. +</P> + +<P> +"The picture you draw is a beautiful one," she said, speaking slowly, in +sweet deliberate tones, "but it is not for me to look on. What you said +last is not true. If you love me it is because we have thought the same +thoughts, dreamed the same dream, heard the same voice—in each other's +voices, perhaps, as you say, but none the less a real voice, apart from +us and above us, and one which would speak to us as loudly if we were +apart—one which both of us must follow to the end." +</P> + +<P> +He gazed at her eagerly as she spoke; and while he gazed there came to +him, perversely enough, a vision of the life he was renouncing, not as +it concerned the public welfare but in its merely personal aspect: a +vision of the power, the luxury, the sumptuous background of traditional +state and prerogative in which his artistic and intellectual tastes, as +well as his easy impulses of benevolence, would find unchecked and +immediate gratification. It was the first time that he had been aware of +such lurking influences under his most generous aspirations; but even as +Fulvia ceased to speak the vision faded, leaving only an intenser +longing to bend her will to his. +</P> + +<P> +"You are right," he rejoined; "we must follow that voice to the end; but +why not together? Your father himself often questioned whether the +patriot could not serve his people better at a distance than in their +midst. In France, where the new ideas are not only tolerated but put in +practice, we shall be able to study their effects and to learn how they +may best be applied to the relief of our own unhappy people; and as a +private person, independent of party and patronage, could I not do more +than as the nominal head of a narrow priest-ridden government, where +every act and word would be used by my enemies to injure me and the +cause I represent?" +</P> + +<P> +The vigour and rapidity of the attack, and the promptness with which he +converted her argument to his own use, were not without visible effect. +Odo saw his words reflected in the wavering glow of Fulvia's cheek; but +almost at once she regained control of her pulses and faced him with +that serenity which seemed to come to her at such moments. +</P> + +<P> +"What you say might be true," she answered, "were your opportunities +indeed restricted to the regency. But the little prince's life is known +to hang on a thread: at any moment you may be Duke. And you will not +deny that as Duke of Pianura you can serve your people better than as an +obscure pamphleteer in Paris." +</P> + +<P> +Odo made an impatient gesture. "Are you so sure?" he said. "Even as Duke +I must be the puppet of powers greater than myself—of Austria, of Rome, +nay, of the wealthy nobles who will always league themselves with their +sovereign's enemies rather than suffer a hand upon their privileges. And +even if I were fortunate enough to outwit my masters and rule indeed, +over what a toy kingdom should I reign! How small a number would be +benefited! How little the cause would be helped by my example! As an +obscure pamphleteer I might reach the hearts of thousands and speak to +great kings on their thrones; as Duke of Pianura, fighting single-handed +to reform the laws of my little state, I should rank at best with the +other petty sovereigns who are amusing themselves all over Italy with +agricultural experiments and improved methods of cheese-making." +</P> + +<P> +Again the brightness shone in Fulvia's face. "How you love me!" she said +as he paused; and went on, restraining him with a gesture of the +gentlest dignity: "For it is love that speaks thus in you and not +reason; and you know as I do that the duty to which a man is born comes +before any of his own choosing. You are called to serve liberty on a +throne, I in some obscure corner of the private life. We can no more +exchange our duties than our stations; but if our lives divide, our +purpose remains one, and as pious persons recall each other in the +mystery of the Sacrament, so we shall meet in spirit in the new religion +we profess." +</P> + +<P> +Her voice gained strength and measure as she spoke, and Odo felt that +all that passion could urge must spend itself in vain against such high +security of spirit. +</P> + +<P> +"Go, cavaliere," she continued, "I implore you to lose no time in +reaching Pianura. Occasion is short-lived, and an hour's lingering may +cost you the regency, and with it the chance of gaining a hold on your +people. I will not expatiate, as some might, on the power and dignities +that await you. You are no adventurer plotting to steal a throne, but a +soldier pledged to his post." She moved close to him and suddenly caught +his hand and raised it to her lips. "Your excellency," said she, "has +deigned to look for a moment on a poor girl that crossed your path. Now +your eyes must be on your people, who will yet have cause to love and +bless you as she does." +</P> + +<P> +She shone on him with a weeping brightness that dissolved his very soul. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," he cried, "you have indeed learned your lesson well! I admire with +what stoic calmness you pronounce my doom, with what readiness you +dispose of my future!" +</P> + +<P> +"It is not mine to dispose of," she caught him up, "nor yours; but +belongs, as much as any slave's to his master, to the people you are +called to rule. Think for how many generations their unheeded +sufferings, their unrewarded toil, have paid for the pomp and pleasure +of your house! That is the debt you are called on to acquit, the wrong +you are pledged to set right." +</P> + +<P> +Odo was silent. She had found the unanswerable word. Yes, he was called +on to acquit the accumulated debt of that long unrighteous rule: it was +he who must pay, if need be with the last drop of his blood, for the +savage victories of Bracciaforte, the rapacity of Guidobaldo, the +magnificence of Ascanio, the religious terrors and secret vices of the +poor Duke now nearing his end. All these passions had preyed on the +people, on the tillers and weavers and vine-dressers, obscure servants +of a wasteful greatness: theirs had been the blood that renewed the +exhausted veins of their rulers, through generation after generation of +dumb labour and privation. And the noblest passions, as well as the +basest, had been nourished at the same cost. Every flower in the ducal +gardens, every picture on the palace walls, every honour in the ancient +annals of the house, had been planted, paid for, fought for by the +people. With mute inconscient irony the two powers had faced each other +for generations: the subjects never guessing that their sovereigns were +puppets of their own making, the Dukes that all their pomp and +circumstance were but a borrowed motley. Now the evil wrought in +ignorance remained to be undone in the light of the world's new +knowledge: the discovery of that universal brotherhood which Christ had +long ago proclaimed, and which, after so many centuries, those who +denied Christ were the first to put in practice. Hour by hour, day by +day, at the cost of every personal inclination, of all that endears life +and ennobles failure, Odo must set himself to redeem the credit of his +house. He saw his way straight before him; but in that hour of insight +his heart's instinct of self-preservation made one last effort against +fate. +</P> + +<P> +He turned to Fulvia. +</P> + +<P> +"You are right," he said; "I have no choice. You have shown me the way; +but must I travel it alone? You ask me to give up at a stroke all that +makes life desirable: to set forth, without a backward glance, on the +very road that leads me farthest from you! Yesterday I might have +obeyed; but how can I turn today from this near view of my happiness?" +</P> + +<P> +He paused a moment and she seemed about to answer; but he hurried on +without giving her time. "Fulvia, if you ask this sacrifice of me, is +there none you will make in return? If you bid me go forth and work for +my people, will you not come with me and work for them too?" He +stretched out his hands, in a gesture that seemed to sum up his infinite +need of her, and for a moment they faced each other, silenced by the +nearness of great issues. +</P> + +<P> +She knew well enough what he offered. According to the code of the day +there was no dishonour in the offer and it did not occur to her to +resent it. But she looked at him sadly and he read her refusal in the +look. +</P> + +<P> +"The Regent's mistress?" she said slowly. "The key to the treasury, the +back-door to preferment, the secret trafficker in titles and +appointments? That is what I should stand for—and it is not to such +services that you must even appear to owe your power. I will not say +that I have my own work to do; for the dearest service I could perform +would be to help you in yours. But to do this I must stand aside. To be +near you I must go from you. To love you I must give you up." +</P> + +<P> +She looked him full in the eyes as she spoke; then she went up to him +and kissed him. It was the first kiss she had given him since she had +thrown herself in his arms in her father's garden; but now he felt her +whole being on her lips. +</P> + +<P> +He would have held her fast, forgetting everything in the sweetness of +her surrender; but she drew back quickly and, before he could guess her +intention, throw open the door of the room to which de Crucis had +withdrawn. +</P> + +<P> +"Signor abate!" she said. +</P> + +<P> +The Jesuit came forward. Odo was dimly aware that, for an instant, the +two measured each other; then Fulvia said quietly: +</P> + +<P> +"His excellency goes with you to Pianura." +</P> + +<P> +What more she said, or what de Crucis answered, he could never afterward +recall. He had a confused sense of having cried out a last unavailing +protest, faintly, inarticulately, like a man struggling to make himself +heard in a dream; then the room grew dark about him, and in its stead he +saw the old chapel at Donnaz, with its dimly-gleaming shrine, and heard +the voice of the chaplain, harsh and yet strangely shaken:—"My chief +prayer for you is that, should you be raised to this eminence, it may be +at a moment when such advancement seems to thrust you in the dust." +</P> + +<P> +Odo lifted his head and saw de Crucis standing alone before him. +</P> + +<P> +"I am ready," he said. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BOOK IV. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE REWARD. +</H3> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Where are the portraits of those who have perished in spite of their +vows? +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +4.1. +</H4> + +<P> +One bright March day in the year 1783 the bells of Pianura began to ring +at sunrise, and with their first peal the townsfolk were abroad. +</P> + +<P> +The city was already dressed for a festival. A canopy of crimson velvet, +surmounted by the ducal crown and by the "Humilitas" of the Valseccas, +concealed the columns of the Cathedral porch and fell in royal folds +about the featureless porphyry lions who had seen so many successive +rulers ascend the steps between their outstretched paws. The frieze of +ramping and running animals around the ancient baptistery was concealed +by heavy green garlands alternating with religious banners; and every +church and chapel had draped its doorway with crimson and placed above +the image of its patron saint the ducal crown of Pianura. +</P> + +<P> +No less sumptuous was the adornment of the private dwellings. The great +families—the Trescorri, the Belverdi, the Pievepelaghi—had outdone +each other in the display of golden-threaded tapestries and Genoese +velvets emblazoned with armorial bearings; and even the sombre facade of +the Boscofolto palace showed a rich drapery surmounted by the +quarterings of the new Marchioness. +</P> + +<P> +But it was not only the palace-fronts that had put on a holiday dress. +The contagion had spread to the poorer quarters, and in many a narrow +street and crooked lane, where surely no part of the coming pageant +might be expected to pass, the crazy balconies and unglazed windows were +decked out with scraps of finery: a yard or two of velvet filched from +the state hangings of some noble house, a torn and discoloured church +banner, even a cast-off sacque of brocade or a peasant's holiday +kerchief, skilfully draped about the rusty iron and held in place by +pots of clove-pink and sweet basil. The half-ruined palace which had +once housed Gamba and Momola showed a few shreds of colour on its sullen +front, and the abate Crescenti's modest house, wedged in a corner of the +city walls, was dressed like the altar of a Lady Chapel; while even the +tanners' quarter by the river displayed its festoons of coloured paper +and tinsel, ingeniously twisted into the semblance of a crown. +</P> + +<P> +For the new Duke, who was about to enter his capital in state, was +extraordinarily popular with all classes. His popularity, as yet, was +mainly due to a general detestation of the rule he had replaced; but +such a sentiment gives to a new sovereign an impetus which, if he knows +how to use it, will carry him a long way toward success; and among those +in the Duke's confidence it was rumoured that he was qualified not only +to profit by the expectations he had raised but to fulfil them. The last +months of the late Duke's life had plunged the duchy into such political +and financial disorder that all parties were agreed in welcoming a +change. Even those that had most to lose by the accession of the new +sovereign, or most to fear from the policy he was known to favour, +preferred the possibility of new evils to a continuance of present +conditions. The expertest angler in troubled waters may find waters too +troubled for his sport; and under a government where power is passed +from hand to hand like the handkerchief in a children's game, the most +adroit time-server may find himself grasping the empty air. +</P> + +<P> +It would indeed have been difficult to say who had ruled during the year +preceding the Duke's death. Prime ministers had succeeded each other +like the clowns in a harlequinade. Just as the Church seemed to have +gained the upper hand some mysterious revulsion of feeling would fling +the Duke toward Trescorre and the liberals; and when these had +attempted, by some trifling concession to popular feeling, to restore +the credit of the government, their sovereign, seized by religious +scruples, would hastily recall the clerical party. So the administration +staggered on, reeling from one policy to another, clutching now at this +support and now at that, while Austria and the Holy See hung on its +steps, awaiting the inevitable fall. +</P> + +<P> +A cruel winter and a fresh outbreak of the silkworm disease had +aggravated the misery of the people, while the mounting extravagance of +the Duchess had put a last strain on the exhausted treasury. The +consequent increase of the salt-tax roused such popular fury that Father +Ignazio, who was responsible for the measure, was dismissed by the +panic-stricken Duke, and Trescorre, as usual, called in to repair his +rival's mistake. But it would have taken a greater statesman than +Trescorre to reach the root of such evils; and the new minister +succeeded neither in pacifying the people nor in reassuring his +sovereign. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile the Duke was sinking under the mysterious disease which had +hung upon him since his birth. It was hinted that his last hours were +darkened by hallucinations, and the pious pictured him as haunted by +profligate visions, while the free-thinkers maintained that he was the +dupe of priestly jugglery. Toward the end there was the inevitable +rumour of acqua tofana, and the populace cried out that the Jesuits were +at work again. It seems more probable, however, that his Highness, who +had assisted at the annual festival of the Madonna del Monte, and had +mingled on foot with the swarm of devotees thronging thither from all +parts, had contracted a pestilent disorder from one of the pilgrims. +Certain it is that death came in a dreadful form. The Duchess, alarmed +for the health of Prince Ferrante, fled with him to the dower-house by +the Piana; and the strange nature of his Highness's distemper caused +many to follow her example. Even the Duke's servants, and the quacks +that lived on his bounty, were said to have abandoned the death-chamber; +and an English traveller passing through Pianura boasted that, by the +payment of a small fee to the palace porter, he had obtained leave to +enter his Highness's closet and peer through the doorway at the dying +man. However this may be, it would appear that the Duke's confessor—a +monk of the Barnabite order—was not to be found when his Highness +called for him; and the servant sent forth in haste to fetch a priest +returned, strangely enough, with the abate Crescenti, whose suspected +orthodoxy had so long made him the object of the Duke's detestation. He +it was who alone witnessed the end of that tormented life, and knew upon +what hopes or fears it closed. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile it appeared that the Duchess's precautions were not unfounded; +for Prince Ferrante presently sickened of the same malady which had cut +off his father, and when the Regent, travelling post-haste, arrived in +Pianura, he had barely time to pass from the Duke's obsequies to the +death-bed of the heir. +</P> + +<P> +Etiquette required that a year of mourning should elapse between the +accession of the new sovereign and his state entry into his capital; so +that if Duke Odo's character and intentions were still matter of +conjecture to his subjects, his appearance was already familiar to them. +His youth, his good looks, his open mien, his known affability of +manner, were so many arguments in his favour with an impressionable and +impulsive people; and it was perhaps natural that he should interpret as +a tribute to his principles the sympathy which his person aroused. +</P> + +<P> +It is certain that he fancied himself, at that time, as well-acquainted +with his subjects as they believed themselves to be with him; and the +understanding supposed to exist was productive of equal satisfaction to +both sides. The new Duke had thrown himself with extraordinary zeal into +the task of loving and understanding his people. It had been his refuge +from a hundred doubts and uncertainties, the one clearly-defined object +in an obscure and troubled fate. And their response had, almost +immediately, turned his task into a pleasure. It was so easy to rule if +one's subjects loved one! And so easy to be loved if only one loved +enough in return! If he did not, like the Pope, describe himself to his +people as the servant of the servants of God, he at least longed to make +them feel that this new gospel of service was the base on which all +sovereignty must henceforth repose. +</P> + +<P> +It was not that his first year of power had been without moments of +disillusionment. He had had more than one embittering experience of +intrigue and perfidy, more than one glimpse of the pitfalls besetting +his course; but his confidence in his own powers and his faith in his +people remained unshaken, and with two such beliefs to sustain him it +seemed as though no difficulties would prove insurmountable. +</P> + +<P> +Such at least was the mood in which, on the morning of his entry into +Pianura, he prepared to face his subjects. Strangely enough, the state +entry began at Ponte di Po, the very spot where, on a stormy midnight +some seven years earlier, the new Duke had landed, a fugitive from his +future realm. Here, according to an ancient custom, the sovereign +awaited the arrival of his ministers and court; and then, taking seat in +his state barge, proceeded by water to Pianura, followed by an escort of +galleys. +</P> + +<P> +A great tent hung with tapestries had been set up on the river-bank; and +here Odo awaited the approach of the barge. As it touched at the +landing-stage he stepped out, and his prime minister, Count Trescorre, +advanced toward him, accompanied by the dignitaries of the court. +Trescorre had aged in the intervening years. His delicate features had +withered like a woman's, and the fine irony of his smile had taken an +edge of cruelty. His face suggested a worn engraving, the lines of which +have been deepened by a too-incisive instrument. +</P> + +<P> +The functionaries attending him were, with few exceptions, the same who +had figured in a like capacity at the late sovereign's court. With the +passing of the years they had grown heavier or thinner, more ponderous +or stiffer in their movements, and as they advanced, in their splendid +but unwieldy court dress, they seemed to Odo like superannuated +marionettes whose springs and wires have rusted from disuse. +</P> + +<P> +The barge was a magnificent gilded Bucentaur, presented to the late +Duke's father by the Doge of Venice, and carved by his Serenity's most +famous sculptors in wood. Tritons and sea-goddesses encircled the prow +and throned above the stern, and the interior of the deck-house was +adorned with delicate rilievi and painted by Tiepolo with scenes from +the myth of Amphitrite. Here the new Duke seated himself, surrounded by +his household, and presently the heavy craft, rowed by sixty +galley-slaves, was moving slowly up the river toward Pianura. +</P> + +<P> +In the clear spring light the old walled city, with its domes and +towers, rose pleasantly among budding orchards and fields. Close at hand +were the crenellations of Bracciaforte's keep, and just beyond, the +ornate cupola of the royal chapel, symbolising in their proximity the +successive ambitions of the ducal race; while the round-arched campanile +of the Cathedral and the square tower of the mediaeval town-hall sprang +up side by side, marking the centre of the free city which the Valseccas +had subjugated. It seemed to the new Duke, who was given to such +reflections, that he could read his race's history in that broken +skyline; but he was soon snatched from its perusal by the cheers of the +crowd who thronged the river-bank to greet his approach. +</P> + +<P> +As the Bucentaur touched at the landing-stage and Odo stepped out on the +red carpet strewn with flowers, while cannon thundered from the walls +and the bells burst into renewed jubilation, he felt himself for the +first time face to face with his people. The very ceremonial which in +other cases kept them apart was now a means of closer communication; for +it was to show himself to them that he was making a public entry into +his capital, and it was to see him that the city had poured forth her +shouting throngs. The shouts rose and widened as he advanced, enveloping +him in a mounting tide of welcome, in which cannon, bells and +voices—the decreed and the spontaneous acclamations—were +indistinguishably merged. In like manner, approbation of his person was +mingled with a simple enjoyment of the show of which he formed a part; +and it must have taken a more experienced head than Odo's to distinguish +between the two currents of enthusiasm on which he felt himself swept +forward. +</P> + +<P> +The pageant was indeed brilliant enough to justify the popular +transport; and the fact that the new Duke formed a worthy centre to so +much magnificence was not lost on his splendour-loving subjects. The +late sovereign had so long held himself aloof that the city was +unaccustomed to such shows, and as the procession wound into the square +before the Cathedral, where the thickest of the crowd was massed, the +very pealing of the church-bells was lost in the roar of human voices. +</P> + +<P> +Don Serafino, the Bishop's nephew, and now Master of the Horse, rode +first, on a splendid charger, preceded by four trumpets and followed by +his esquires; then came the court dignitaries, attended by their pages +and staffieri in gala liveries, the marshals with their staves, the +masters of ceremony, and the clergy mounted on mules trapped with +velvet, each led by two running footmen. The Duke rode next, alone and +somewhat pale. Two pages of arms, helmeted and carrying lances, walked +at his horse's bridle; and behind him came his household and ministers, +with their gentlemen and a long train of servants, followed by the +regiment of light horse which closed the procession. +</P> + +<P> +The houses surrounding the square afforded the best point of view to +those unwilling to mix with the crowd in the streets; and among the +spectators thronging the windows and balconies, and leaning over the +edge of the leads, were many who, from one motive or another, felt a +personal interest in the new Duke. The Marchioness of Boscofolto had +accepted a seat in the windows of the Pievepelaghi palace, which formed +an angle of the square, and she and her hostess—the same lady who had +been relieved of her diamond necklace by footpads suspected of wearing +the Duchess's livery—sat observing the scene behind the garlanded +balconies of the piano nobile. In the mezzanin windows of a neighbouring +wine-shop the bookseller Andreoni, with half a dozen members of the +philosophical society to which Odo had belonged, peered above the heads +of the crowd thronging the arcade, and through a dormer of the leads +Carlo Gamba, the assistant in the ducal library, looked out on the +triumph of his former patron. Among the Church dignities grouped about +his Highness was Father Ignazio, the late Duke's confessor, now Prior of +the Dominicans, and said to be withdrawn from political life. Seated on +his richly-trapped mule he observed the scene with impassive face; while +from his place in the long line of minor clergy, the abate Crescenti, +with eyes of infinite tenderness and concern, watched the young Duke +solemnly ascending the Cathedral steps. +</P> + +<P> +In the porch the Bishop waited, impressive as ever in his white and gold +dalmatic, against the red robes of the chapter. Preceded by two +chamberlains Odo mounted the steps amid the sudden silence of the +people. The great bronze portals of the Cathedral, which were never +opened save on occasions of state, swung slowly inward, pouring a wave +of music and incense out upon the hushed sunlit square; then they closed +again, engulphing the brilliant procession—the Duke, the Bishop, the +clergy and the court—and leaving the populace to scatter in search of +the diversions prepared for them at every street-corner. +</P> + +<P> +It was not till late that night that the new Duke found himself alone. +He had withdrawn at last from the torch-lit balcony overlooking the +square, whither the shouts of his subjects had persistently recalled +him. Silence was falling on the illuminated streets, and the dimness of +midnight upon the sky through which rocket after rocket had torn its +brilliant furrows. In the palace a profounder stillness reigned. Since +his accession Odo, out of respect for the late Duke, had lodged in one +of the wings of the great building; but tradition demanded that he +should henceforth inhabit the ducal apartments, and thither, at the +close of the day's ceremonies, his gentlemen had conducted him. +</P> + +<P> +Trescorre had asked permission to wait on him before he slept; and he +knew that the prime minister would be kept late by his conference with +the secret police, whose nightly report could not be handed in till the +festivities were over. Meanwhile Odo was in no mood for sleep. He sat +alone in the closet, still hung with saints' images and jewelled +reliquaries, where his cousin had so often given him audience, and +whence, through the open door, he could see the embroidered curtains and +plumed baldachin of the state bed which was presently to receive him. +All day his heart had beat with high ambitions; but now a weight sank +upon his spirit. The reaction from the tumultuous welcome of the streets +to the closely-guarded silence of the palace made him feel how unreal +was the fancied union between himself and his people, how insuperable +the distance that tradition and habit had placed between them. In the +narrow closet where his predecessor had taken refuge from the detested +task of reigning, the new Duke felt the same moral lassitude steal over +him. How was such a puny will as his to contend against the great forces +of greed and prejudice? All the influences arrayed against +him—tradition, superstition, the lust of power, the arrogance of +race—seemed concentrated in the atmosphere of that silent room, with +its guarded threshold, its pious relics, and lying on the desk in the +embrasure of the window, the manuscript litany which the late Duke had +not lived to complete. +</P> + +<P> +Oppressed by his surroundings, Odo rose and entered the bed-chamber. A +lamp burned before the image of the Madonna at the head of the bed, and +two lighted flambeaux flanked the picture of the Last Judgment on the +opposite wall. Odo remembered the look of terror which the Duke had +fixed on the picture during their first strange conversation. A +praying-stool stood beneath it, and it was said that here, rather than +before the Virgin's image, the melancholy prince performed his private +devotions. The horrors of the scene were depicted with a childish +minuteness of detail, as though the painter had sought to produce an +impression of moral anguish by the accumulation of physical sufferings; +and just such puerile images of the wrath to come may have haunted the +mysterious recesses of the Duke's imagination. Crescenti had told Odo +how the dying man's thoughts had seemed to centre upon this dreadful +subject, and how again and again, amid his ravings, he had cried out +that the picture must be burned, as though the sight of it was become +intolerable to him. +</P> + +<P> +Odo's own mind, across which the events and emotions of the day still +threw the fantastic shadows of an expiring illumination, was wrought to +the highest state of impressionability. He saw in a flash all that the +picture must have symbolised to his cousin's fancy; and in his desire to +reconstruct that dying vision of fleshly retribution, he stepped close +to the diptych, resting a knee on the stool beneath it. As he did so, +the picture suddenly opened, disclosing the inner panel. Odo caught up +one of the flambeaux, and in its light, as on a sunlit wave, there +stepped forth to him the lost Venus of Giorgione. +</P> + +<P> +He knew the picture in an instant. There was no mistaking the glow of +the limbs, the midsummer languor of the smile, the magical atmosphere in +which the gold of sunlight, of autumn leaves, of amber grapes, seemed +fused by some lost alchemy of the brush. As he gazed, the scene changed, +and he saw himself in a darkened room with cabalistic hangings. He saw +Heiligenstern's tall figure, towering in supernatural light, the Duke +leaning eagerly forward, the Duchess with set lips and troubled eyes, +the little prince bent wonderingly above the magic crystal... +</P> + +<P> +A step in the antechamber announced Trescorre's approach. Odo returned +to the cabinet and the minister advanced with a low bow. The two men had +had time to grow accustomed to the new relation in which they stood to +one another, yet there were moments when, to Odo, the past seemed to lie +like fallen leaves beneath Trescorre's steps—Donna Laura, fond and +foolish in her weeds, Gamba, Momola, and the pure featherhead Cerveno, +dying at nineteen of a distemper because he had stood in the other's +way. The impression was strong on him now—but it was only momentary. +Habit reasserted itself, and the minister effaced the man. Odo signed to +Trescorre to seat himself and the latter silently presented his report. +</P> + +<P> +He was a diligent and capable administrator, and however mixed might be +the motives which attached him to his sovereign, they did not interfere +with the exact performance of his duties. Odo knew this and was grateful +for it. He knew that Trescorre, ambitious of the regency, had intrigued +against him to the last. He knew that an intemperate love of power was +the mainspring of that seemingly dispassionate nature. But death had +crossed Trescorre's schemes; and he was too adroit an opportunist not to +see that his best chance now lay in making himself indispensable to his +new sovereign. Of all this Odo was aware; but his own motives in +appointing Trescorre did not justify his looking for great +disinterestedness in his minister. The irony of circumstances had forced +them upon each other, and each knew that the other understood the +situation and was prepared to make the best of it. +</P> + +<P> +The Duke presently rose, and handed back to Trescorre the reports of the +secret police. They were the documents he most disliked to handle. +</P> + +<P> +"You have acquitted yourself admirably of your disagreeable duties," he +said with a smile. "I hope I have done as well. At any rate the day is +over." +</P> + +<P> +Trescorre returned the smile, with his usual tinge of irony. "Another +has already begun," said he. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," said Odo, with a touch of impatience, "are we not to sleep on our +laurels?" +</P> + +<P> +Trescorre bowed. "Austria, your Highness, never sleeps." +</P> + +<P> +Odo looked at him with surprise. "What do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"That I have to remind your Highness—" +</P> + +<P> +"Of what—?" +</P> + +<P> +Trescorre had one of his characteristic pauses. +</P> + +<P> +"That the Duke of Monte Alloro is in failing health—and that her +Highness's year of widowhood ended yesterday." +</P> + +<P> +There was a silence. Odo, who had reseated himself, rose and walked to +the window. The shutters stood open and he looked out over the formless +obscurity of the gardens. Above the intervening masses of foliage the +Borromini wing raised its vague grey bulk. He saw lights in Maria +Clementina's apartments and wondered if she still waked. An hour or two +earlier she had given him her hand in the contra-dance at the state +ball. It was her first public appearance since the late Duke's death, +and with the laying off of her weeds she had regained something of her +former brilliancy. At the moment he had hardly observed her: she had +seemed a mere inanimate part of the pageant of which he formed the +throbbing centre. But now the sense of her nearness pressed upon him. +She seemed close to him, ingrown with his fate; and with the curious +duality of vision that belongs to such moments he beheld her again as +she had first shone on him—the imperious child whom he had angered by +stroking her spaniel, the radiant girl who had welcomed him on his +return to Pianura. Trescorre's voice aroused him. +</P> + +<P> +"At any moment," the minister was saying, "her Highness may fall heir to +Monte Alloro. It is the moment for which Austria waits. There is always +an Archduke ready—and her Highness is still a young woman." +</P> + +<P> +Odo turned slowly from the window. "I have told you that this is +impossible," he murmured. +</P> + +<P> +Trescorre looked down and thoughtfully fingered the documents in his +hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Highness," said he, "is as well-acquainted as your ministers with +the difficulties that beset us. Monte Alloro is one of the richest +states in Italy. It is a pity to alienate such revenues from Pianura." +</P> + +<P> +The new Duke was silent. His minister's words were merely the audible +expression of his own thoughts. He knew that the future welfare of +Pianura depended on the annexation of Monte Alloro. He owed it to his +people to unite the two sovereignties. +</P> + +<P> +At length he said: "You are building on an unwarrantable assumption." +</P> + +<P> +Trescorre raised an interrogative glance. +</P> + +<P> +"You assume her Highness's consent." +</P> + +<P> +The minister again paused; and his pause seemed to flash an ironical +light on the poverty of the other's defences. +</P> + +<P> +"I come straight from her Highness," said he quietly, "and I assume +nothing that I am not in a position to affirm." +</P> + +<P> +Odo turned on him with a start. "Do I understand that you have +presumed—?" +</P> + +<P> +His minister raised a deprecating hand. "Sir," said he, "the Archduke's +envoy is in Pianura." +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +4.2. +</H4> + +<P> +Odo, on his return to Pianura, had taken it for granted that de Crucis +would remain in his service. +</P> + +<P> +There had been little talk between the two on the way. The one was deep +in his own wretchedness, and the other had too fine a tact to intrude on +it; but Odo felt the nearness of that penetrating sympathy which was +almost a gift of divination. He was glad to have de Crucis at his side +at a moment when any other companionship had been intolerable; and in +the egotism of his misery he imagined that he could dispose as he +pleased of his friend's future. +</P> + +<P> +After the little Prince's death, however, de Crucis had at once asked +permission to leave Pianura. He was perhaps not displeased by Odo's +expressions of surprise and disappointment; but they did not alter his +decision. He reminded the new Duke that he had been called to Pianura as +governor to the late heir, and that, death having cut short his task, he +had now no farther pretext for remaining. +</P> + +<P> +Odo listened with a strange sense of loneliness. The responsibilities of +his new state weighed heavily on the musing speculative side of his +nature. Face to face with the sudden summons to action, with the +necessity for prompt and not too-curious choice of means and method, he +felt a stealing apathy of the will, an inclination toward the subtle +duality of judgment that had so often weakened and diffused his +energies. At such a crisis it seemed to him that, de Crucis gone, he +remained without a friend. He urged the abate to reconsider his +decision, begging him to choose a post about his person. +</P> + +<P> +De Crucis shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"The offer," said he, "is more tempting to me than your Highness can +guess; but my business here is at an end, and must be taken up +elsewhere. My calling is that of a pedagogue. When I was summoned to +take charge of Prince Ferrante's education I gave up my position in the +household of Prince Bracciano not only because I believed that I could +make myself more useful in training a future sovereign than the son of a +private nobleman, but also," he added with a smile, "because I was +curious to visit a state of which your Highness had so often spoken, and +because I believed that my residence here might enable me to be of +service to your Highness. In this I was not mistaken; and I will gladly +remain in Pianura long enough to give your Highness such counsels as my +experience suggests; but that business discharged, I must ask leave to +go." +</P> + +<P> +From this position no entreaties could move him; and so fixed was his +resolve that it confirmed the idea that he was still a secret agent of +the Jesuits. Strangely enough, this did not prejudice Odo, who was more +than ever under the spell of de Crucis's personal influence. Though Odo +had been acquainted with many professed philosophers he had never met +among them a character so nearly resembling the old stoical ideal of +temperance and serenity, and he could never be long with de Crucis +without reflecting that the training which could form and nourish so +noble a nature must be other than the world conceived it. +</P> + +<P> +De Crucis, however, frankly pointed out that his former connection with +the Jesuits was too well known in Pianura not to be an obstacle in the +way of his usefulness. +</P> + +<P> +"I own," said he, "that before the late Duke's death I exerted such +influence as I possessed to bring about your Highness's appointment as +regent; but the very connections that favoured me with your predecessor +must stand in the way of my serving your Highness. Nothing could be more +fatal to your prospects than to have it said that you had chosen a +former Jesuit as your advisor. In the present juncture of affairs it is +needful that you should appear to be in sympathy with the liberals, and +that whatever reforms you attempt should seem the result of popular +pressure rather than of your own free choice. Such an attitude may not +flatter the sovereign's pride, and is in fact merely a higher form of +expediency; but it is one which the proudest monarchs of Europe are +finding themselves constrained to take if they would preserve their +power and use it effectually." +</P> + +<P> +Soon afterward de Crucis left Pianura; but before leaving he imparted to +Odo the result of his observations while in the late Duke's service. De +Crucis's view was that of the more thoughtful men of his day who had not +broken with the Church, yet were conscious that the whole social system +of Europe was in need of renovation. The movement of ideas in France, +and their rapid transformation into legislative measures of unforeseen +importance, had as yet made little impression in Italy; and the clergy +in particular lived in serene unconsciousness of any impending change. +De Crucis, however, had been much in France, and had frequented the +French churchmen, who (save in the highest ranks of the hierarchy) were +keenly alive to the need of reform, and ready, in many instances, to +sacrifice their own privileges in the public cause. These men, living in +their provincial cures or abbeys, were necessarily in closer contact +with the people, better acquainted with their needs and more competent +to relieve them, than the city demagogues theorising in Parisian +coffee-houses on the Rights of Man and the Code of Nature. But the voice +of the demagogues carried farther than that of the clergy; and such +revolutionary notions as crossed the Alps had more to do with the +founding of future Utopias than with the remedy of present evils. +</P> + +<P> +Even in France the temperate counsels of the clergy were being overruled +by the sentimental imprudences of the nobles and by the bluster of the +politicians. It was to put Odo on his guard against these two influences +that de Crucis was chiefly anxious; but the intelligent cooperation of +the clergy was sadly lacking in his administrative scheme. He knew that +Odo could not count on the support of the Church party, and that he must +make what use he could of the liberals in his attempts at reform. The +clergy of Pianura had been in power too long to believe in the necessity +of conceding anything to the new spirit; and since the banishment of the +Society of Jesus the presumption of the other orders had increased +instead of diminishing. The priests, whatever their failings, had +attached the needy by a lavish bounty; and they had a powerful auxiliary +in the Madonna of the Mountain, who drew pilgrims from all parts of +Italy and thus contributed to the material welfare of the state as well +as to its spiritual privileges. To the common people their Virgin was +not only a protection against disease and famine, but a kind of oracle, +who by divers signs and tokens gave evidence of divine approval or +displeasure; and it was naturally to the priests that the faithful +looked for a reading of these phenomena. This gave the clergy a powerful +hold on the religious sensibilities of the people; and more than once +the manifest disapproval of the Mountain Madonna had turned the scales +against some economic measure which threatened the rights of her augurs. +</P> + +<P> +De Crucis understood the force of these traditional influences; but Odo, +in common with the more cultivated men of his day, had lived too long in +an atmosphere of polite scepticism to measure the profound hold of +religion on the consciousness of the people. Christ had been so long +banished from the drawing-room that it was has hard to believe that He +still ruled in field and vineyard. To men of Odo's stamp the piety of +the masses was a mere superficial growth, a kind of mental mould to be +dried off by the first beams of knowledge. He did not conceive it as a +habit of thought so old that it had become instinctive, so closely +intertwined with every sense that to hope to eradicate it was like +trying to drain all the blood from a man's body without killing him. He +knew nothing of the unwearied workings of that power, patient as a +natural force, which, to reach spirits darkened by ignorance and eyes +dulled by toil, had stooped to a thousand disguises, humble, tender and +grotesque—peopling the earth with a new race of avenging or protecting +deities, guarding the babe in the cradle and the cattle in the stalls, +blessing the good man's vineyard or blighting the crops of the +blasphemer, guiding the lonely traveller over torrents and precipices, +smoothing the sea and hushing the whirlwind, praying with the mother +over her sick child, and watching beside the dead in plague-house and +lazaret and galley—entering into every joy and grief of the obscurest +consciousness, penetrating to depths of misery which no human compassion +ever reached, and redressing by a prompt and summary justice wrongs of +which no human legislation took account. +</P> + +<P> +Odo's first act after his accession had been to recall the political +offenders banished by his predecessor; and so general was the custom of +marking the opening of a new reign by an amnesty to political exiles, +that Trescorre offered no opposition to the measure. Andreoni and his +friends at once returned to Pianura, and Gamba at the same time emerged +from his mysterious hiding-place. He was the only one of the group who +struck Odo as having any administrative capacity; yet he was more likely +to be of use as a pamphleteer than as an office-holder. As to the other +philosophers, they were what their name implied: thoughtful and +high-minded men, with a generous conception of their civic duties, and a +noble readiness to fulfil them at any cost, but untrained to action, and +totally ignorant of the complex science of government. +</P> + +<P> +Odo found the hunchback changed. He had withered like Trescorre, but +under the harsher blight of physical privations; and his tongue had an +added bitterness. He replied evasively to all enquiries as to what had +become of him during his absence from Pianura; but on Odo's asking for +news of Momola and the child he said coldly: "They are both dead." +</P> + +<P> +"Dead?" Odo exclaimed. "Together?" +</P> + +<P> +"There was scarce an hour between them," Gamba answered. "She said she +must keep alive as long as the boy needed her—after that she turned on +her side and died." +</P> + +<P> +"But of what disorder? How came they to sicken at the same time?" +</P> + +<P> +The hunchback stood silent, his eyes on the ground. Suddenly he raised +them and looked full at the Duke. +</P> + +<P> +"Those that saw them called it the plague." +</P> + +<P> +"The plague? Good God!" Odo slowly returned his stare. "Is it +possible—" he paused—"that she too was at the feast of the Madonna?" +</P> + +<P> +"She was there, but it was not there that she contracted the distemper." +</P> + +<P> +"Not there—?" +</P> + +<P> +"No; for she dragged herself from her bed to go." +</P> + +<P> +There was another silence. The hunchback had lowered his eyes. The Duke +sat motionless, resting his head on his hand. Suddenly he made a gesture +of dismissal... +</P> + +<P> +Two months after his state entry into Pianura Odo married his cousin's +widow. +</P> + +<P> +It surprised him, in looking back, to see how completely the thought of +Maria Clementina had passed out of his life, how wholly he had ceased to +reckon with her as one of the factors in his destiny. At her child's +death-bed he had seen in her only the stricken mother, centred in her +loss, and recalling, in an agony of tears, the little prince's prophetic +vision of the winged playmates who came to him carrying toys from +Paradise. After Prince Ferrante's death she had gone on a long visit to +her uncle of Monte Alloro; and since her return to Pianura she had lived +in the dower-house, refusing Odo's offer of a palace in the town. She +had first shown herself to the public on the day of the state entry; and +now, her year of widowhood over, she was again the consort of a reigning +Duke of Pianura. +</P> + +<P> +No one was more ignorant than her husband of the motives determining her +act. As Duchess of Monte Alloro she might have enjoyed the wealth and +independence which her uncle's death had bestowed on her, but in +marrying again she resigned the right to her new possessions, which +became vested in the crown of Pianura. Was it love that had prompted the +sacrifice? As she stood beside him on the altar steps of the Cathedral, +as she rode home beside him between their shouting subjects, Odo asked +himself the question again and again. The years had dealt lightly with +her, and she had crossed the threshold of the thirties with the assured +step of a woman who has no cause to fear what awaits her. But her blood +no longer spoke her thoughts, and the transparence of youth had changed +to a brilliant density. He could not penetrate beneath the surface of +her smile: she seemed to him like a beautiful toy which might conceal a +lacerating weapon. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile between himself and any better understanding of her stood the +remembrance of their talk in the hunting-lodge of Pontesordo. What she +had offered then he had refused to take: was she the woman to forget +such a refusal? Was it not rather to keep its memory alive that she had +married him? Or was she but the flighty girl he had once imagined her, +driven hither and thither by spasmodic impulses, and incapable of +consistent action, whether for good or ill? The barrier of their +past—of all that lay unsaid and undone between them—so completely cut +her off from him that he had, in her presence, the strange sensation of +a man who believes himself to be alone yet feels that he is +watched...The first months of their marriage were oppressed by this +sense of constraint; but gradually habit bridged the distance between +them and he found himself at once nearer to her and less acutely aware +of her. In the second year an heir was born and died; and the hopes and +grief thus shared drew them insensibly into the relation of the ordinary +husband and wife, knitted together at the roots in spite of superficial +divergencies. +</P> + +<P> +In his passionate need of sympathy and counsel Odo longed to make the +most of this enforced community of interests. Already his first zeal was +flagging, his belief in his mission wavering: he needed the +encouragement of a kindred faith. He had no hope of finding in Maria +Clementina that pure passion for justice which seemed to him the noblest +ardour of the soul. He had read it in one woman's eyes, but these had +long been turned from him. Unconsciously perhaps he counted rather on +his wife's less generous qualities: the passion for dominion, the blind +arrogance of temper that, for the mere pleasure of making her power +felt, had so often drawn her into public affairs. Might not this waste +force—which implied, after all, a certain prodigality of courage—be +used for good as well as evil? Might not his influence make of the +undisciplined creature at his side an unconscious instrument in the +great work of order and reconstruction? +</P> + +<P> +His first appeal to her brought the answer. At his request his ministers +had drawn up a plan of financial reorganisation, which should include +the two duchies; for Monte Alloro, though wealthier than Pianura, was in +even greater need of fiscal reform. As a first step towards replenishing +the treasury the Duke had declared himself ready to limit his private +expenditure to a fixed sum; and he now asked the Duchess to pledge +herself in the same manner. Maria Clementina, since her uncle's death, +had been in receipt of a third of the annual revenues of Monte Alloro. +This should have enabled her to pay her debts and put some dignity and +order into her establishment; but the first year's income had gone in +the building of a villa on the Piana, in imitation of the country-seats +along the Brenta; the second was spent in establishing a menagerie of +wild animals like that of the French Queen at Versailles; and rumour had +it that the Duchess carried her imitation of her royal cousin so far as +to be involved in an ugly quarrel with her jewellers about a necklace +for which she owed a thousand ducats. +</P> + +<P> +All these reports had of course reached Odo; but he still hoped that an +appeal to her love of dominion might prove stronger than the habit of +self-indulgence. He said to himself that nothing had ever been done to +rouse her ambition, that hitherto, if she had meddled in politics, it +had been merely from thwarted vanity or the desire to gratify some +personal spite. Now he hoped to take her by higher passions, and by +associating her with his own schemes to utilise her dormant energies. +</P> + +<P> +For the first moments she listened with the strained fixity of a child; +then her attention flickered and died out. The life-long habit of +referring every question to a personal standpoint made it difficult for +her to follow a general argument, and she leaned back with the resigned +eyelids of piety under the pulpit. Odo, resolved to be patient, and +seeing that the subject was too large for her, tried to take it apart, +putting it before her bit by bit, and at such an angle that she should +catch her own reflection in it. He thought to take her by the Austrian +side, touching on the well-known antagonism between Vienna and Rome, on +the reforms of the Tuscan Grand-Duke, on the Emperor Joseph's open +defiance of the Church's feudal claims. But she scented a personal +application. +</P> + +<P> +"My cousin the Emperor should be a priest himself," she shrugged, "for +he belongs to the preaching order. He never goes to France but he gives +the poor Queen such a scolding that her eyes are red for a week. Has +Joseph been trying to set our house in order?" +</P> + +<P> +Discouraged, but more than ever bent on patience, he tried the chord of +vanity, of her love of popularity. The people called her the beautiful +Duchess—why not let history name her the great? But the mention of +history was unfortunate. It reminded her of her lesson-books, and of the +stupid Greeks and Romans, whose dates she could never recall. She hoped +she should never be anything so dull as an historical personage! And +besides, greatness was for the men—it was enough for a princess to be +virtuous. And she looked as edifying as her own epitaph. +</P> + +<P> +He caught this up and tried to make her distinguish between the public +and the private virtues. But the word "responsibility" slipped from him +and he felt her stiffen. This was preaching, and she hated preaching +even more than history. Her attention strayed again and he rallied his +forces in a last appeal. But he knew it was a lost battle: every +argument broke against the close front of her indifference. He was +talking a language she had never learned—it was all as remote from her +as Church Latin. A princess did not need to know Latin. She let her eye +linger suggestively on the clock. It was a fine hunting morning, and she +had meant to kill a stag in the Caccia del Vescovo. +</P> + +<P> +When he began to sum up, and the question narrowed to a direct appeal, +her eyes left the clock and returned to him. Now she was listening. He +pressed on to the matter of retrenchment. Would she join him, would she +help to make the great work possible? At first she seemed hardly to +understand; but as his meaning grew clear to her—"Is the money no +longer ours?" she exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +He hesitated. "I suppose it is as much ours as ever," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"And how much is that?" she asked impatiently. +</P> + +<P> +"It is ours as a trust for our people." +</P> + +<P> +She stared in honest wonder. These were new signs in her heaven. +</P> + +<P> +"A trust? A trust? I am not sure that I know what that means. Is the +money ours or theirs?" +</P> + +<P> +He hesitated. "In strict honour, it is ours only as long as we spend it +for their benefit." +</P> + +<P> +She turned aside to examine an enamelled patch-box by Van Blarenberghe +which the court jeweller had newly received from Paris. When she raised +her eyes she said: "And if we do not spend it for their benefit—?" +</P> + +<P> +Odo glanced about the room. He looked at the delicate adornment of the +walls, the curtains of Lyons damask, the crystal girandoles, the toys in +porcelain of Saxony and Sevres, in bronze and ivory and Chinese lacquer, +crowding the tables and cabinets of inlaid wood. Overhead floated a rosy +allegory by Luca Giordano; underfoot lay a carpet of the royal +manufactory of France; and through the open windows he heard the plash +of the garden fountains and saw the alignment of the long green alleys +set with the statues of Roman patriots. +</P> + +<P> +"Then," said he—and the words sounded strangely in his own ears—"then +they may take it from us some day—and all this with it, to the very toy +you are playing with." +</P> + +<P> +She rose, and from her fullest height dropped a brilliant smile on him; +then her eyes turned to the portrait of the great fighting Duke set in +the monumental stucchi of the chimney-piece. +</P> + +<P> +"If you take after your ancestors you will know how to defend it," she +said. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +4.3. +</H4> + +<P> +The new Duke sat in his closet. The walls had been stripped of their +pious relics and lined with books, and above the fireplace hung the +Venus of Giorgione, liberated at last from her long imprisonment. The +windows stood open, admitting the soft September air. Twilight had +fallen on the gardens, and through it a young moon floated above the +cypresses. +</P> + +<P> +On just such an evening three years earlier he had ridden down the slope +of the Monte Baldo with Fulvia Vivaldi at his side. How often, since, he +had relived the incidents of that night! With singular precision they +succeeded each other in his thoughts. He felt the wild sweep of the +storm across the lake, the warmth of her nearness, the sense of her +complete trust in him; then their arrival at the inn, the dazzle of +light as they crossed the threshold, and de Crucis confronting them +within. He heard her voice pleading with him in every accent that pride +and tenderness and a noble loyalty could command; he felt her will +slowly dominating his, like a supernatural power forcing him into his +destined path; he felt—and with how profound an irony of spirit!—the +passion of self-dedication in which he had taken up his task. +</P> + +<P> +He had known moments of happiness since; moments when he believed in +himself and in his calling, and felt himself indeed the man she thought +him. That was in the exaltation of the first months, when his +opportunities had seemed as boundless as his dreams, and he had not yet +learned that the sovereign's power may be a kind of spiritual prison to +the man. Since then, indeed, he had known another kind of happiness, had +been aware of a secret voice whispering within him that she was right +and had chosen wisely for him; but this was when he had realised that he +lived in a prison, and had begun to admire the sumptuous adornment of +its walls. For a while the mere external show of power amused him, and +his imagination was charmed by the historic dignity of his surroundings. +In such a setting, against the background of such a past, it seemed easy +to play the benefactor and friend of the people. His sensibility was +touched by the contrast, and he saw himself as a picturesque figure +linking the new dreams of liberty and equality to the feudal traditions +of a thousand years. But this masquerading soon ceased to divert him. +The round of court ceremonial wearied him, and books and art lost their +fascination. The more he varied his amusements the more monotonous they +became, the more he crowded his life with petty duties the more empty of +achievement it seemed. +</P> + +<P> +At first he had hoped to bury his personal disappointments in the task +of reconstructing his little state; but on every side he felt a mute +resistance to his efforts. The philosophical faction had indeed poured +forth pamphlets celebrating his reforms, and comparing his reign to the +return of the Golden Age. But it was not for the philosophers that he +laboured; and the benefits of free speech, a free press, a secular +education did not, after all, reach those over whom his heart yearned. +It was the people he longed to serve; and the people were hungry, were +fever-stricken, were crushed with tithes and taxes. It was hopeless to +try to reach them by the diffusion of popular knowledge. They must first +be fed and clothed; and before they could be fed and clothed the chains +of feudalism must be broken. +</P> + +<P> +Men like Gamba and Andreoni saw this clearly enough; but it was not from +them that help could come. The nobility and clergy must be coaxed or +coerced into sympathy with the new movement; and to accomplish this +exceeded Odo's powers. In France, the revolt from feudalism had found +some of its boldest leaders in the very class that had most to lose by +the change; but in Italy fewer causes were at work to set such +disinterested passions in motion. South of the Alps liberalism was +merely one of the new fashions from France: the men ran after the +pamphlets from Paris as the women ran after the cosmetics; and the +politics went no deeper than the powder. Even among the freest +intellects liberalism resulted in a new way of thinking rather in a new +way of living. Nowhere among the better classes was there any desire to +attack existing institutions. The Church had never troubled the Latin +consciousness. The Renaissance had taught cultivated Italians how to +live at peace with a creed in which they no longer believed; and their +easy-going scepticism was combined with a traditional conviction that +the priest knew better than any one how to deal with the poor, and that +the clergy were of distinct use in relieving the individual conscience +of its obligation to its fellows. +</P> + +<P> +It was against such deep-seated habits of thought that Odo had to +struggle. Centuries of fierce individualism, or of sullen apathy under a +foreign rule, had left the Italians incapable of any concerted political +action; but suspicion, avarice and vanity, combined with a lurking fear +of the Church, united all parties in a kind of passive opposition to +reform. Thus the Duke's resolve to put the University under lay +direction had excited the enmity of the Barnabites, who had been at its +head since the suppression of the Society of Jesus; his efforts to +partition among the peasantry the Caccia del Vescovo, that great waste +domain of the see of Pianura, had roused a storm of fear among all who +laid claim to feudal rights; and his own personal attempts at +retrenchment, which necessitated the suppression of numerous court +offices, had done more than anything else to increase his unpopularity. +Even the people, in whose behalf these sacrifices were made, looked +askance at his diminished state, and showed a perverse sympathy with the +dispossessed officials who had taken so picturesque a part in the public +ceremonials of the court. All Odo's philosophy could not fortify him +against such disillusionments. He felt the lack of Fulvia's +unquestioning faith not only in the abstract beauty of the new ideals +but in their immediate adaptability to the complex conditions of life. +Only a woman's convictions, nourished on sentiment and self-sacrifice, +could burn with that clear unwavering flame: his own beliefs were at the +mercy of every wind of doubt or ingratitude that blew across his +unsheltered sensibilities. +</P> + +<P> +It was more than a year since he had had news of Fulvia. For a while +they had exchanged letters, and it had been a consolation to tell her of +his struggles and experiments, of his many failures and few results. She +had encouraged him to continue the struggle, had analysed his various +plans of reform, and had given her enthusiastic support to the +partitioning of the Bishop's fief and the secularisation of the +University. Her own life, she said, was too uneventful to write of; but +she spoke of the kindness of her hosts, the Professor and his wife, of +the simple unceremonious way of living in the old Calvinist city, and of +the number of distinguished persons drawn thither by its atmosphere of +intellectual and social freedom. +</P> + +<P> +Odo suspected a certain colourlessness in the life she depicted. The +tone of her letters was too uniformly cheerful not to suggest a lack of +emotional variety; and he knew that Fulvia's nature, however much she +fancied it under the rule of reason, was in reality fed by profound +currents of feeling. Something of her old ardour reappeared when she +wrote of the possibility of publishing her father's book. Her friends in +Geneva, having heard of her difficulty with the Dutch publisher, had +undertaken to vindicate her claims; and they had every hope that the +matter would be successfully concluded. The joy of renewed activity with +which this letter glowed would have communicated itself to Odo had he +received it at a different time; but it came on the day of his marriage, +and since then he had never written to her. +</P> + +<P> +Now he felt a sudden longing to break the silence between them, and +seating himself at his desk he began to write. A moment later there was +a knock on the door and one of his gentlemen entered. The Count Vittorio +Alfieri, with a dozen horses and as many servants, was newly arrived at +the Golden Cross, and desired to know when he might have the honour of +waiting on his Highness. +</P> + +<P> +Odo felt the sudden glow of pleasure that the news of Alfieri's coming +always brought. Here was a friend at last! He forgot the constraint of +their last meeting in Florence, and remembered only the happy +interchange of ideas and emotions that had been one of the quickening +influences of his youth. +</P> + +<P> +Alfieri, in the intervening years, was grown to be one of the foremost +figures in Italy. His love for the Countess of Albany, persisting +through the vicissitudes of her tragic marriage, had rallied the +scattered forces of his nature. Ambitious to excel for her sake, to show +himself worthy of such a love, he had at last shaken off the strange +torpor of his youth, and revealed himself as the poet for whom Italy +waited. In ten months of feverish effort he had poured forth fourteen +tragedies—among them the Antigone, the Virginia, and the Conjuration of +the Pazzi. Italy started up at the sound of a new voice vibrating with +passions she had long since unlearned. Since Filicaja's thrilling appeal +to his enslaved country no poet had challenged the old Roman spirit +which Petrarch had striven to rouse. While the literati were busy +discussing Alfieri's blank verse, while the grammarians wrangled over +his syntax and ridiculed his solecisms, the public, heedless of such +niceties, was glowing with the new wine which he had poured into the old +vessels of classic story. "Liberty" was the cry that rang on the lips of +all his heroes, in accents so new and stirring that his audience never +wearied of its repetition. It was no secret that his stories of ancient +Greece and Rome were but allegories meant to teach the love of freedom; +yet the Antigone had been performed in the private theatre of the +Spanish Ambassador at Rome, the Virginia had been received with applause +on the public boards at Turin, and after the usual difficulties with the +censorship the happy author had actually succeeded in publishing his +plays at Siena. These volumes were already in Odo's hands, and a +manuscript copy of the Odes to Free America was being circulated among +the liberals in Pianura, and had been brought to his notice by Andreoni. +</P> + +<P> +To those hopeful spirits who looked for the near approach of a happier +era, Alfieri was the inspired spokesman of reform, the heaven-sent +prophet who was to lead his country out of bondage. The eyes of the +Italian reformers were fixed with passionate eagerness on the course of +events in England and France. The conclusion of peace between England +and America, recently celebrated in Alfieri's fifth Ode, seemed to the +most sceptical convincing proof that the rights of man were destined to +a speedy triumph throughout the civilised world. It was not of a united +Italy that these enthusiasts dreamed. They were not so much patriots as +philanthropists; for the teachings of Rousseau and his school, while +intensifying the love of man for man, had proportionately weakened the +sense of patriotism, of the interets du clocher. The new man prided +himself on being a citizen of the world, on sympathising as warmly with +the poetic savage of Peru as with his own prosaic and narrow-minded +neighbours. Indeed, the prevalent belief that the savage's mode of life +was much nearer the truth than that of civilised Europeans, made it +appear superfluous to enter into the grievances and difficulties of what +was but a passing phase of human development. To cast off clothes and +codes, and live in a peaceful socialism "under the amiable reign of +Truth and Nature," seemed on the whole much easier than to undertake the +systematic reform of existing abuses. +</P> + +<P> +To such dreamers—whose ideas were those of the majority of intelligent +men in France and Italy—Alfieri's high-sounding tirades embodied the +noblest of political creeds; and even the soberer judgment of statesmen +and men of affairs was captivated by the grandeur of his verse and the +heroic audacity of his theme. For the first time in centuries the +Italian Muse spoke with the voice of a man; and every man's heart in +Italy sprang up at the call. +</P> + +<P> +In the midst of these triumphs, fate in the shape of Cardinal York had +momentarily separated Alfieri from his mistress, despatching the +too-tender Countess to a discreet retreat in Alsace, and signifying to +her turbulent adorer that he was not to follow her. Distracted by this +prohibition, Alfieri had resumed the nomadic habits of his youth, now +wandering from one Italian city to another, now pushing as far as Paris, +which he hated but was always revisiting, now dashing across the Channel +to buy thoroughbreds in England—for his passion for horses was +unabated. He was lately returned from such an expedition, having led his +cavalcade across the Alps in person, with a boyish delight in the +astonishment which this fantastic exploit excited. +</P> + +<P> +The meeting between the two friends was all that Odo could have wished. +Though affecting to scorn the courts of princes, Alfieri was not averse +to showing himself there as the poet of the democracy, and to hearing +his heroes mouth their tyrannicidal speeches on the boards of royal and +ducal stages. He had lately made some stay in Milan, where he had +arrived in time to see his Antigone performed before the vice-regal +court, and to be enthusiastically acclaimed as the high-priest of +liberty by a community living placidly under the Austrian yoke. Alfieri +was not the man to be struck by such incongruities. It was his fate to +formulate creeds in which he had no faith: to recreate the political +ideals of Italy while bitterly opposed to any actual effort at reform, +and to be regarded as the mouthpiece of the Revolution while he +execrated the Revolution with the whole force of his traditional +instincts. As usual he was too deeply engrossed in his own affairs to +feel much interest in any others; but it was enough for Odo to clasp the +hand of the man who had given a voice to the highest aspirations of his +countrymen. The poet gave more than he could expect from the friend; and +he was satisfied to listen to Alfieri's account of his triumphs, +interspersed with bitter diatribes against the public whose applause he +courted, and the Pope to whom, on bended knee, he had offered a copy of +his plays. +</P> + +<P> +Odo eagerly pressed Alfieri to remain in Pianura, offering to put one of +the ducal villas at his disposal, and suggesting that the Virginia +should be performed before the court on the Duchess's birthday. +</P> + +<P> +"It is true," he said, "that we can offer you but an indifferent company +of actors; but it might be possible to obtain one or two of the leading +tragedians from Turin or Milan, so that the principal parts should at +least be worthily filled." +</P> + +<P> +Alfieri replied with a contemptuous gesture. "Your Highness, our leading +tragedians are monkeys trained to dance to the tune of Goldoni and +Metastasio. The best are no better than the worst. We have no tragedians +in Italy because—hitherto—we have had no tragic dramatist." He drew +himself up and thrust a hand in his bosom. "Ah!" he exclaimed, "if I +could see the part of Virginia acted by the lady who recently recited, +before a small company in Milan, my Odes to Free America! There indeed +were fire, sublimity and passion! And the countenance had not lost its +freshness, the eye its lustre. But," he suddenly added, "your Highness +knows of whom I speak. The lady is Fulvia Vivaldi, the daughter of the +philosopher at whose feet we sat in our youth." +</P> + +<P> +Fulvia Vivaldi! Odo raised his head with a start. She had left Geneva +then, had returned to Italy. The Alps no longer divided them—a scant +day's journey would bring him to her side! It was strange how the mere +thought seemed to fill the room with her presence. He felt her in the +quickened beat of his pulses, in the sudden lightness of the air, in a +lifting and widening of the very bounds of thought. +</P> + +<P> +From Alfieri he learned that she had lived for some months in the +household of the distinguished naturalist, Count Castiglione, with whose +daughter's education she was charged. In such surroundings her wit and +learning could not fail to attract the best company of Milan, and she +was become one of the most noted figures of the capital. There had been +some talk of offering her the chair of poetry at the Brera; but the +report of her liberal views had deterred the faculty. Meanwhile the very +fact that she represented the new school of thought gave an added zest +to her conversation in a society which made up for its mild servitude +under the Austrian by much talk of liberalism and independence. The +Signorina Vivaldi became the fashion. The literati celebrated her +scholarship, the sonneteers her eloquence and beauty; and no foreigner +on the grand tour was content to leave Milan without having beheld the +fair prodigy and heard her recite Petrarch's Ode to Italy, or the latest +elegy of Pindamonte. +</P> + +<P> +Odo scarce knew with what feelings he listened. He could not but +acknowledge that such a life was better suited to one of Fulvia's gifts +and ambitions than the humdrum existence of a Swiss town; yet his first +sensation was one of obscure jealousy, of reluctance to think of her as +having definitely broken with the past. He had pictured her as adrift, +like himself, on a dark sea of uncertainties; and to learn that she had +found a safe anchorage was almost to feel himself deserted. +</P> + +<P> +The court was soon busy with preparations for the coming performance. A +celebrated actress from Venice was engaged to play the part of Virginia, +and the rehearsals went rapidly forward under the noble author's +supervision. At last the great day arrived, and for the first time in +the history of the little theatre, operetta and pastoral were replaced +by the buskined Muse of tragedy. The court and all the nobility were +present, and though it was no longer thought becoming for ecclesiastics +to visit the theatre, the easy-going Bishop appeared in a side-box in +company with his chaplains and the Vicar-general. +</P> + +<P> +The performance was brilliantly successful. Frantic applause greeted the +tirades of the young Icilius. Every outburst against the abuse of +privileges and the insolence of the patricians was acclaimed by +ministers and courtiers, and the loudest in approval were the Marquess +Pievepelago, the recognised representative of the clericals, the +Marchioness of Boscofolto, whose harsh enforcement of her feudal rights +was among the bitterest grievances of the peasantry, and the good +Bishop, who had lately roused himself from his habitual indolence to +oppose the threatened annexation of the Caccia del Vescovo. One and all +proclaimed their ardent sympathy with the proletariat, their scorn of +tyranny and extortion in high places; and if the Marchioness, on her +return home, ordered one of her linkmen to be flogged for having trod on +her gown; if Pievepelago the next morning refused to give audience to a +poor devil of a pamphleteer that was come to ask his intercession with +the Holy Office; if the Bishop at the same moment concluded the purchase +of six able-bodied Turks from the galleys of his Serenity the Doge of +Genoa—it is probable that, like the illustrious author of the drama, +all were unconscious of any incongruity between their sentiments and +actions. +</P> + +<P> +As to Odo, seated in the state box, with Maria Clementina at his side, +and the court dignitaries grouped in the background, he had not listened +to a dozen lines before all sense of his surroundings vanished and he +became the passive instrument on which the poet played his mighty +harmonies. All the incidental difficulties of life, all the vacillations +of an unsatisfied spirit, were consumed in that energising emotion which +seemed to leave every faculty stripped for action. Profounder meaning +and more subtle music he had found in the great poets of the past; but +here was an appeal to the immediate needs of the hour, uttered in notes +as thrilling as a trumpet-call, and brought home to every sense by the +vivid imagery of the stage. Once more he felt the old ardour of belief +that Fulvia's nearness had fanned in him. His convictions had flagged +rather than his courage: now they started up as at her summons, and he +heard the ring of her voice in every line. +</P> + +<P> +He left the theatre still vibrating with this new inrush of life, and +jealous of any interruption that should check it. The Duchess's birthday +was being celebrated by illuminations and fireworks, and throngs of +merry-makers filled the moonlit streets; but Odo, after appearing for a +moment at his wife's side on the balcony above the public square, +withdrew quietly to his own apartments. The casement of his closet stood +wide, and he leaned against the window-frame, looking out on the silent +radiance of the gardens. As he stood there he saw two figures flit +across the farther end of one of the long alleys. The moonlight +surrendered them for a moment, the shade almost instantly reclaiming +them—strayed revellers, doubtless, escaping from the lights and music +of the Duchess's circle. +</P> + +<P> +A knock roused the Duke and he remembered that he had bidden Gamba wait +on him after the performance. He had been curious to hear what +impression Alfieri's drama had produced upon the hunchback; but now any +interruption seemed unwelcome, and he turned to Gamba with a gesture of +dismissal. +</P> + +<P> +The latter however remained on the threshold. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Highness," he said, "the bookseller Andreoni craves the privilege +of an audience." +</P> + +<P> +"Andreoni? At this hour?" +</P> + +<P> +"For reasons so urgent that he makes no doubt of your Highness's +consent; and to prove his good faith, and the need of presenting himself +at so undue an hour, and in this private manner, he charged me to give +this to your Highness." +</P> + +<P> +He laid in the Duke's hand a small object in blackened silver, which on +nearer inspection proved to be the ducal coat-of-arms. +</P> + +<P> +Odo stood gazing fixedly at this mysterious token, which seemed to come +as an answer to his inmost thoughts. His heart beat high with confused +hopes and fears, and he could hardly control the voice in which he +answered: "Bid Andreoni come to me." +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +4.4. +</H4> + +<P> +The bookseller began by excusing himself for the liberty he had taken. +He explained that the Signorina Fulvia Vivaldi, in whose behalf he came, +was in urgent need of aid, and had begged him to wait on the Duke as +soon as the court had risen from the play. +</P> + +<P> +"She is in Pianura, then?" Odo exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"Since yesterday, your Highness. Three days since she was ordered by the +police to leave Milan within twenty-four hours, and she came at once to +Pianura, knowing that my wife and I would gladly receive her. But today +we learned that the Holy Office was advised of her presence here, and of +the reason of her banishment from Lombardy; and this fresh danger has +forced her to implore your Highness's protection." +</P> + +<P> +Andreoni went on to explain that the publication of her father's book +was the immediate cause of Fulvia's persecution. The Origin of +Civilisation, which had been printed some months previously in +Amsterdam, had stirred Italy more profoundly than any book since +Beccaria's great work on Crime and Punishment. The author's historical +investigations were but a pretext for the development of his political +theories, which were set forth with singular daring and audacity, and +supported by all the arguments that his long study of the past +commanded. The temperate and judicial tone which he had succeeded in +preserving enhanced the effect of his arraignment of Church and state, +and while his immense erudition commended his work to the learned, its +directness of style gave it an immediate popularity with the general +reader. It was an age when every book or pamphlet bearing on the great +question of personal liberty was eagerly devoured by an insatiable +public; and a few weeks after Vivaldi's volume had been smuggled into +Italy it was the talk of every club and coffee-house from Calabria to +Piedmont. The inevitable result soon followed. The Holy Office got wind +of the business, and the book was at once put on the Index. In Naples +and Bologna it was publicly burned, and in Modena a professor of the +University who was found to have a copy in his possession was fined and +removed from his chair. +</P> + +<P> +In Milan, where the strong liberal faction among the nobility, and the +comparative leniency of the Austrian rule, permitted a more unrestrained +discussion of political questions, the Origin of Civilisation was +received with open enthusiasm, and the story of the difficulties that +Fulvia had encountered in its publication made her the heroine of the +moment. She had never concealed her devotion to her father's doctrines, +and in the first glow of filial pride she may have yielded too openly to +the desire to propagate them. Certain it is that she began to be looked +on as having shared in the writing of the book, or as being at least an +active exponent of its principles. Even in Lombardy it was not well to +be too openly associated with the authorship of a condemned book; and +Fulvia was suddenly advised by the police that her presence in Milan was +no longer acceptable to the government. +</P> + +<P> +The news excited great indignation among her friends, and Count +Castiglione and several other gentlemen of rank hastened to intervene in +her behalf; but the governor declared himself unwilling to take issue +with the Holy Office on a doctrinal point, and privately added that it +would be well for the Signorina Vivaldi to withdraw from Lombardy before +the clergy brought any direct charge against her. To ignore this hint +would have been to risk not only her own safety but that of the +gentlemen who had befriended her; and Fulvia at once set out for +Pianura, the only place in Italy where she could count on friendship and +protection. +</P> + +<P> +Andreoni and his wife would gladly have given her a home; but on +learning that the Holy Office was on her track, she had refused to +compromise them by remaining under their roof, and had insisted that +Andreoni should wait on the Duke and obtain a safe-conduct for her that +very night. +</P> + +<P> +Odo listened to this story with an agitation compounded of strangely +contradictory sensations. To learn that Fulvia, at the very moment when +he had pictured her as separated from him by the happiness and security +of her life, was in reality a proscribed wanderer with none but himself +to turn to, filled him with a confused sense of happiness; but the +discovery that, in his own dominions, the political refugee was not safe +from the threats of the Holy Office, excited a different emotion. All +these considerations, however, were subordinate to the thought that he +must see Fulvia at once. It was impossible to summon her to the palace +at that hour, or even to secure her safety till morning, without +compromising Andreoni by calling attention to the fact that a suspected +person was under his roof; and for a moment Odo was at a loss how to +detain her in Pianura without seeming to go counter to her wishes. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly he remembered that Gamba was fertile in expedients, and calling +in the hunchback, asked what plan he could devise. Gamba, after a +moment's reflection, drew a key from his pocket. +</P> + +<P> +"May it please your Highness," he said, "this unlocks the door of the +hunting-lodge at Pontesordo. The place has been deserted these many +years, because of its bad name, and I have more than once found it a +convenient shelter when I had reasons for wishing to be private. At this +season there is no fear of poison from the marshes, and if your Highness +desires I will see that the lady finds her way there before sunrise." +</P> + +<P> +The sun had hardly risen the next morning when the Duke himself set +forth. He rode alone, dressed like one of his own esquires, and gave the +word unremarked to the sleepy sentinel at the gate. As it closed behind +him and he set out down the long road that led to the chase, it seemed +to him that the morning solitude was thronged with spectral memories. +Melancholy and fanciful they flitted before him, now in the guise of +Cerveno and Momola, now of Maria Clementina and himself. Every detail of +the scene was interwoven with the fibres of early association, from the +far off years when, as a lonely child on the farm at Pontesordo, he had +gazed across the marsh at the mysterious woodlands of the chase, to the +later day when, in the deserted hunting-lodge, the Duchess had flung her +whip at the face in the Venice mirror. +</P> + +<P> +He pressed forward impatiently, and presently the lodge rose before him +in its grassy solitude. The level sunbeams had not yet penetrated the +surrounding palisade of boughs, and the house lay in a chill twilight +that seemed an emanation from its mouldering walls. As Odo approached, +Gamba appeared from the shadow and took his horse; and the next moment +he had pushed open the door, and stood in Fulvia's presence. +</P> + +<P> +She was seated at the farther end of the room, and as she rose to meet +him it chanced that her head, enveloped in its black travelling-hood, +was relieved for a moment against the tarnished background of the broken +mirror. The impression struck a chill to his heart; but it was replaced +by a glow of boyish happiness as their eyes met and he felt her hands in +his. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment all his thoughts were lost in the mere sense of her +nearness. She seemed simply an enveloping atmosphere in which he drew +fresh breath; but gradually her outline emerged from this haze of +feeling, and he found himself looking at her with the wondering gaze of +a stranger. She had been a girl of sixteen when they first met. Twelve +years had passed since then, and she was now a woman of twenty-eight, +belonging to a race in which beauty ripens early and as soon declines. +But some happy property of nature—whether the rare mould of her +features or the gift of the spirit that informed them—had held her +loveliness intact, preserving the clear lines of youth after its bloom +was gone, and making her seem like a lover's memory of herself. So she +appeared at first, a bright imponderable presence gliding toward him out +of the past; but as her hands lay in his the warm current of life was +renewed between them, and the woman dispossessed the shade. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +4.5. +</H4> + +<P> +Unpublished fragment from Mr. Arthur Young's diary of his travels in +Italy in the year 1789. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +October 1st. +</P> + +<P> +Having agreed with a vetturino to carry me to Pianura, set out this +morning from Mantua. The country mostly arable, with rows of elm and +maple pollard. Dined at Casal Maggiore, in an infamous filthy inn. At +dinner was joined by a gentleman who had taken the other seat in the +vettura as far as Pianura. We engaged in conversation and I found him a +man of lively intelligence and the most polished address. Though dressed +in the foreign style, en abbe, he spoke English with as much fluency as +myself, and but for the philosophical tone of his remarks I had taken +him for an ecclesiastic. Altogether a striking and somewhat perplexing +character: able, keen, intelligent, evidently used to the best company, +yet acquainted with the condition of the people, the methods of farming, +and other economical subjects such as are seldom thought worthy of +attention among Italians of quality. +</P> + +<P> +It appeared he was newly from France, where he had been as much struck +as myself by the general state of ferment. Though owning that there was +much reason for discontent, and that the conduct of the court and +ministers was blind and infatuated beyond belief, he yet declared +himself gravely apprehensive of the future, saying that the people knew +not what they wanted, and were unwilling to listen to those that might +have proved their best advisors. Whether by this he meant the clergy I +know not; though I observed he spoke favourably of that body in France, +pointing out that, long before the recent agitations, they had defended +the civil rights of the Third Estate, and citing many cases in which the +country curates had shown themselves the truest friends of the people: a +fact my own observation hath confirmed. +</P> + +<P> +I remarked to him that I was surprised to find how little talk there was +in Italy of the distracted conditions in France; and this though the +country is overrun with French refugees, or emigres, as they call +themselves, who bring with them reports that might well excite the alarm +of neighbouring governments. He said he had remarked the same +indifference, but that this was consonant with the Italian character, +which never looked to the morrow; and he added that the mild disposition +of the people, and their profound respect for religion, were sufficient +assurance against any political excess. +</P> + +<P> +To this I could not forbear replying that I could not regard as excesses +the just protests of the poor against the unlawful tyranny of the +privileged classes, nor forbear to hail with joy the dawn of that light +of freedom which hath already shed so sublime an effulgence on the wilds +of the New World. The abate took this in good part, though I could see +he was not wholly of my way of thinking; but he declared that in his +opinion different races needed different laws, and that the sturdy and +temperate American colonists were fitted to enjoy a greater measure of +political freedom than the more volatile French and Italians—as though +liberty were not destined by the Creator to be equally shared by all +mankind! (Footnote: I let this passage stand, though the late unhappy +events in France have, alas! proved that my friend the abate was nearer +right than myself. June, 1794.) +</P> + +<P> +In the afternoon through a poor country to Ponte di Po, a miserable +village on the borders of the duchy, where we lay, not slept, in our +clothes, at the worst inn I have yet encountered. Here our luggage was +plumbed for Pianura. The impertinence of the petty sovereigns to +travellers in Italy is often intolerable, and the customs officers show +the utmost insolence in the search for seditious pamphlets and other +contraband articles; but here I was agreeably surprised by the courtesy +of the officials and the despatch with which our luggage was examined. +On my remarking this, my companion replied that the Duke of Pianura was +a man of liberal views, anxious to encourage foreigners to visit his +state, and the last to put petty obstacles in the way of travel. I +answered, this was the report I had heard of him; and it was in the hope +of learning something more of the reforms he was said to have effected, +that I had turned aside to visit the duchy. My companion replied that +his Highness had in fact introduced some innovations in the government; +but that changes which seemed the most beneficial in one direction often +worked mischief in another, so that the wisest ruler was perhaps not he +that did the greatest amount of good, but he that was cause of the +fewest evils. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +The 2nd. +</P> + +<P> +From Ponte di Po to Pianura the most convenient way is by water; but the +river Piana being greatly swollen by the late rains, my friend, who +seems well-acquainted with the country, proposed driving thither: a +suggestion I readily accepted, as it gave me a good opportunity to study +the roads and farms of the duchy. +</P> + +<P> +Crossing the Piana, drove near four hours over horrible roads across +waste land, thinly wooded, without houses or cultivation. On my +expressing surprise that the territory of so enlightened a prince would +lie thus neglected, the abate said this land was a fief of the see of +Pianura, and that the Duke was desirous of annexing it to the duchy. I +asked if it were true that his Highness had given his people a +constitution modelled on that of the Duke of Tuscany. He said he had +heard the report; but that for his part he must deplore any measure +tending to debar the clergy from the possession of land. Seeing my +surprise, he explained that, in Italy at least, the religious orders +were far better landlords than the great nobles or the petty sovereigns, +who, being for the most part absent from their estates, left their +peasantry to be pillaged by rapacious middlemen and stewards: an +argument I have heard advanced by other travellers, and have myself had +frequent occasion to corroborate. +</P> + +<P> +On leaving the Bishop's domain, remarked an improvement in the roads. +Flat land, well irrigated, and divided as usual into small holdings. The +pernicious metayer system exists everywhere, but I am told the Duke is +opposed to it, though it is upheld not only by the landed class, but by +the numerous economists that write on agriculture from their closets, +but would doubtless be sorely puzzled to distinguish a beet-root from a +turnip. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +The 3rd. +</P> + +<P> +Set out early to visit Pianura. The city clean and well-kept. The Duke +has introduced street-lamps, such as are used in Turin, and the pavement +is remarkably fair and even. Few beggars are to be seen and the people +have a thriving look. Visited the Cathedral and Baptistery, in the +Gothic style, more curious than beautiful; also the Duke's picture +gallery. +</P> + +<P> +Learning that the Duchess was to ride out in the afternoon, had the +curiosity to walk abroad to see her. A good view of her as she left the +palace. Though no longer in her first youth she is one of the handsomest +women I have seen. Remarked a decided likeness to the Queen of France, +though the eye and smile are less engaging. The people in the streets +received her sullenly, and I am told her debts and disorders are the +scandal of the town. She has, of course, her cicisbeo, and the Duke is +the devoted slave of a learned lady, who is said to exert an unlimited +influence over him, and to have done much to better the condition of the +people. A new part for a prince's mistress to play! +</P> + +<P> +In the evening to the theatre, a handsome building, well-lit with wax, +where Cimarosa's Due Baroni was agreeably sung. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +The 4th. +</P> + +<P> +My lord Hervey, in Florence, having favoured me with a letter to Count +Trescorre, the Duke's prime minister, I waited on that gentleman +yesterday. His excellency received me politely and assured me that he +knew me by reputation and would do all he could to put me in the way of +investigating the agricultural conditions of the duchy. Contrary to the +Italian custom, he invited me to dine with him the next day. As a rule +these great nobles do not open their doors to foreigners, however well +recommended. +</P> + +<P> +Visited, by appointment, the press of the celebrated Andreoni, who was +banished during the late Duke's reign for suspected liberal tendencies, +but is now restored to favour and placed at the head of the Royal +Typography. Signor Andreoni received me with every mark of esteem, and +after having shown me some of the finest examples of his work—such as +the Pindar, the Lucretius and the Dante—accompanied me to a +neighbouring coffee-house, where I was introduced to several lovers of +agriculture. Here I learned some particulars of the Duke's attempted +reforms. He has undertaken the work of draining the vast marsh of +Pontesordo, to the west of the city, notorious for its mal'aria; has +renounced the monopoly of corn and tobacco; has taken the University out +of the hands of the Barnabites, and introduced the teaching of the +physical sciences, formerly prohibited by the Church; has spent since +his accession near 200,000 liv. on improving the roads throughout the +duchy, and is now engaged in framing a constitution which shall deprive +the clergy of the greatest part of their privileges and confirm the +sovereign's right to annex ecclesiastical territory for the benefit of +the people. +</P> + +<P> +In spite of these radical measures, his Highness is not popular with the +masses. He is accused of irreligion by the monks that he has removed +from the University, and his mistress, the daughter of a noted +free-thinker who was driven from Piedmont by the Inquisition, is said to +have an unholy influence over him. I am told these rumours are +diligently fomented by the late Duke's minister, now Prior of the +Dominican monastery, a man of bigoted views but great astuteness. The +truth is, the people are so completely under the influence of the friars +that a word is enough to turn them against their truest benefactors. +</P> + +<P> +In the afternoon I was setting out to visit the Bishop's gallery when +Count Trescorre's secretary waited on me with an invitation to inspect +the estates of the Marchioness of Boscofolto: an offer I readily +accepted—for what are the masterpieces of Raphael or Cleomenes to the +sight of a good turnip field or of a well-kept dairy? +</P> + +<P> +I had heard of Boscofolto, which was given by the late Duke to his +mistress, as one of the most productive estates of the duchy; but great +was my disappointment on beholding it. Fine gardens there are, to be +sure, clipt walks, leaden statues, and water-works; but as for the +farms, all is dirt, neglect, disorder. Spite of the lady's wealth, all +are let out alla meta, and farmed on principles that would disgrace a +savage. The spade used instead of the plough, the hedges neglected, +mole-casts in the pastures, good land run to waste, the peasants +starving and indebted—where, with a little thrift and humanity, all had +been smiling plenty! Learned that on the owner's death this great +property reverts to the Barnabites. +</P> + +<P> +From Boscofolto to the church of the Madonna del Monte, where is one of +their wonder-working images, said to be annually visited by close on +thirty thousand pilgrims; but there is always some exaggeration in such +figures. A fine building, richly adorned, and hung with an extraordinary +number of votive offerings: silver arms, legs, hearts, wax images, and +paintings. Some of these latter are clearly the work of village artists, +and depict the miraculous escape of the peasantry from various +calamities, and the preservation of their crops from floods, drought, +lightning and so forth. These poor wretches had done more to better +their crops by spending their savings in good ploughshares and harrows +than by hanging gew-gaws on a wooden idol. +</P> + +<P> +The Rector received us civilly and showed us the treasury, full of +jewels and costly plate, and the buildings where the pilgrims are +lodged. Learned that the Giubileo or centenary festival of the Madonna +is shortly to be celebrated with great pomp. The poorer classes delight +in these ceremonies, and I am told this is to surpass all previous ones, +the clergy intending to work on the superstitions of the people and thus +turn them against the new charter. It is said the Duke hopes to +counteract these designs by offering a jewelled diadem to the Virgin; +but this will no doubt do him a bad turn with the esprits libres. These +little states are as full of intrigues as a foul fruit of maggots. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +The 5th. +</P> + +<P> +To dinner at Count Trescorre's where, as usual, I was the +plainest-dressed man in the company. Have long since ceased to be +concerned by this: why should a mere English farmer compete in elegance +with these Monsignori and Illustrissimi? Surprised to find among the +company my travelling-companion of the other day. Learned that he is the +abate de Crucis, a personal friend of the Duke's. He greeted me +cordially, and on hearing my name, said that he was acquainted with my +works in the translation of Mons. Freville, and now understood how it +was that I had got the better of him in our farming disputations on the +way hither. +</P> + +<P> +Was surprised to be told by Count Trescorre that the Duke desired me to +wait on him that evening. Though in general not ambitious of such +honours, yet in this case nothing could be more gratifying. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +The 6th. +</P> + +<P> +Yesterday evening to the palace, where his Highness received me with +great affability. He was in his private apartments, with the abate de +Crucis and several other learned men; among them the famous abate +Crescenti, librarian to his Highness and author of the celebrated +Chronicles of the Italian States. Happy indeed is the prince who +surrounds himself with scholars instead of courtiers! Yet I cannot say +that the impression his Highness produced on me was one of HAPPINESS. +His countenance is sad, almost careworn, though with a smile of engaging +sweetness; his manner affable without condescension, and open without +familiarity. I am told he is oppressed by the cares of his station; and +from a certain irresolution of voice and eye, that bespeaks not so much +weakness as a speculative cast of mind, I can believe him less fitted +for active government than for the meditations of the closet. He +appears, however, zealous to perform his duties; questioned me eagerly +about my impressions of Italy, and showed a flattering familiarity with +my works, and a desire to profit by what he was pleased to call my +exceptional knowledge of agriculture. I thought I perceived in him a +sincere wish to study the welfare of his people; but was disappointed to +find among his chosen associates not one practical farmer or economist, +but only the usual closet-theorists that are too busy planning Utopias +to think of planting turnips. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +The 7th. +</P> + +<P> +Visited his Highness's estate at Valsecca. Here he has converted a +handsome seat into a school of agriculture, tearing down an immense +orangery to plant mulberries, and replacing costly gardens and statuary +by well-tilled fields: a good example to his wealthy subjects. +Unfortunately his bailiff is not what we should call a practical farmer; +and many acres of valuable ground are given up to a botanic garden, +where exotic plants are grown at great expense, and rather for curiosity +than use: a common error of noble agriculturists. +</P> + +<P> +In the afternoon with the abate de Crucis to the Benedictine monastery, +a league beyond the city. Here I saw the best farming in the duchy. The +Prior received us politely and conversed with intelligence on drainage, +crops and irrigation. I urged on him the cultivation of turnips and he +appeared struck by my arguments. The tenants on this great estate +appeared better housed and fed than any I have seen in Pianura. The +monks have a school of agriculture, less pretentious but better-managed +than the Duke's. Some of them study physics and chemistry, and there are +good chirurgeons among them, who care for the poor without pay. The aged +and infirm peasants are housed in a neat almshouse, and the sick nursed +in a clean well-built lazaret. Altogether an agreeable picture of rural +prosperity, though I had rather it had been the result of FREE LABOUR +than of MONASTIC BOUNTY. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +The 8th. +</P> + +<P> +By appointment, to the Duke's Egeria. This lady, the Signorina F.V., +having heard that I was in Pianura, had desired the Signor Andreoni to +bring me to her. +</P> + +<P> +I had expected a female of the loud declamatory type: something of the +Corilla Olimpica order; but in this was agreeably disappointed. The +Signorina V. is modestly lodged, lives in the frugal style of the middle +class, and refuses to accept a title, though she is thus debarred from +going to court. Were it not indiscreet to speculate on a lady's age, I +should put hers at somewhat above thirty. Though without the Duchess's +commanding elegance she has, I believe, more beauty of a quiet sort: a +countenance at once soft and animated, agreeably tinged with melancholy, +yet lit up by the incessant play of thought and emotion that succeed +each other in her talk. Better conversation I never heard; and can +heartily confirm the assurances of those who had told me that the lady +was as agreeable in discourse as learned in the closet. (Footnote: It +has before now been observed that the FREE and VOLATILE manners of +foreign ladies tend to blind the English traveller to the inferiority of +their PHYSICAL charms. Note by a Female Friend of the Author.) +</P> + +<P> +On entering, found a numerous company assembled to compliment my hostess +on her recent appointment as doctor of the University. This is an honour +not uncommonly conferred in Italy, where female learning, perhaps from +its rarity, is highly esteemed; but I am told the ladies thus +distinguished seldom speak in public, though their degree entitles them +to a chair in the University. In the Signorina V.'s society I found the +most advanced reformers of the duchy: among others Signor Gamba, the +famous pamphleteer, author of a remarkable treatise on taxation, which +had nearly cost him his liberty under the late Duke's reign. He is a man +of extreme views and sarcastic tongue, with an irritability of manner +that is perhaps the result of bodily infirmities. His ideas, I am told, +have much weight with the fair doctoress; and in the lampoons of the day +the new constitution is said to be the offspring of their amours, and to +have inherited its father's deformity. +</P> + +<P> +The company presently withdrawing, my hostess pressed me to remain. She +was eager for news from France, spoke admiringly of the new +constitution, and recited in a moving manner an Ode of her own +composition on the Fall of the Bastille. Though living so retired she +makes no secret of her connection with the Duke; said he had told her of +his conversation with me, and asked what I thought of his plan for +draining the marsh of Pontesordo. On my attempting to reply to this in +detail, I saw that, like some of the most accomplished of her sex, she +was impatient of minutiae, and preferred general ideas to particular +instances; but when the talk turned on the rights of the people I was +struck by the energy and justice of her remarks, and by a tone of +resolution and courage that made me to say to myself: "Here is the hand +that rules the state." +</P> + +<P> +She questioned me earnestly about the state of affairs in France, begged +me to lend her what pamphlets I could procure, and while making no +secret of her republican sympathies, expressed herself with a moderation +not always found in her sex. Of the clergy alone she appeared +intolerant: a fact hardly to be wondered at, considering the persecution +to which she and her father have been subjected. She detained me near +two hours in such discourse, and on my taking leave asked with some show +of feeling what I, as a practical economist, would advise the Duke to do +for the benefit of his people; to which I replied, "Plant turnips, +madam!" and she laughed heartily, and said no doubt I was right. But I +fear all the heads here are too full of fine theories to condescend to +such simple improvements... +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +4.6. +</H4> + +<P> +Fulvia, in the twilight, sat awaiting the Duke. +</P> + +<P> +The room in which she sat looked out on a stone-flagged cloister +enclosing a plot of ground planted with yews; and at the farther end of +this cloister a door communicated by a covered way with the ducal +gardens. The house had formed a part of the convent of the Perpetual +Adoration, which had been sold by the nuns when they moved to the new +buildings the late Duke had given them. A portion had been torn down to +make way for the Marquess of Cerveno's palace, and in the remaining +fragment, a low building wedged between high walls, Fulvia had found a +lodging. Her whole dwelling consisted of the Abbess's parlour, in which +she now sat, and the two or three adjoining cells. The tall presses in +the parlour had been filled with her father's books, and surmounted by +his globes and other scientific instruments. But for this the apartment +remained as unadorned as in her predecessor's day; and Fulvia, in her +austere black gown, with a lawn kerchief folded over her breast, and the +unpowdered hair drawn back from her pale face, might herself have passed +for the head of a religious community. +</P> + +<P> +She cultivated with almost morbid care this severity of dress and +surroundings. There were moments when she could hardly tolerate the pale +autumnal beauty which her glass reflected, when even this phantom of +youth and radiance became a stumbling-block to her spiritual pride. She +was not ashamed of being the Duke of Pianura's mistress; but she had a +horror of being thought like the mistresses of other princes. She +loathed all that the position represented in men's minds; she had +refused all that, according to the conventions of the day, it entitled +her to claim: wealth, patronage, and the rank and estates which it was +customary for the sovereign to confer. She had taken nothing from Odo +but his love, and the little house in which he had lodged her. +</P> + +<P> +Three years had passed since Fulvia's flight to Pianura. From the moment +when she and Odo had stood face to face again, it had been clear to him +that he could never give her up, to her that she could never leave him. +Fate seemed to have thrown them together in derision of their long +struggle, and both felt that lassitude of the will which is the reaction +from vain endeavour. The discovery that he needed her, that the task for +which he had given her up could after all not be accomplished without +her, served to overcome her last resistance. If the end for which both +strove could best be attained together—if he needed the aid of her +unfaltering faith as much as she needed that of his wealth and +power—why should any personal scruple stand between them? Why should +she who had given all else to the cause—ease, fortune, safety, and even +the happiness that lay in her hand—hesitate to make the final sacrifice +of a private ideal? According to the standards of her day there was no +dishonour to a woman in being the mistress of a man whose rank forbade +his marrying her: the dishonour lay in the conduct which had come to be +associated with such relations. Under the old dispensation the influence +of the prince's mistress had stood for the last excesses of moral and +political corruption; why might it not, under the new law, come to +represent as unlimited a power for good? +</P> + +<P> +So love, the casuist, argued; and during those first months, when +happiness seemed at last its own justification, Fulvia lived in every +fibre. But always, even then, she was on the defensive against that +higher tribunal which her own conception of life had created. In spite +of herself she was a child of the new era, of the universal reaction +against the falseness and egotism of the old social code. A standard of +conduct regulated by the needs of the race rather than by individual +passion, a conception of each existence as a link in the great chain of +human endeavour, had slowly shaped itself out of the wild theories and +vague "codes" of the eighteenth-century moralists; and with this sense +of the sacramental nature of human ties, came a renewed reverence for +moral and physical purity. +</P> + +<P> +Fulvia was of those who require that their lives shall be an affirmation +of themselves; and the lack of inner harmony drove her to seek some +outward expression of her ideals. She threw herself with renewed passion +into the political struggle. The best, the only justification of her +power, was to use it boldly, openly, for the good of the people. All the +repressed forces of her nature were poured into this single channel. She +had no desire to conceal her situation, to disguise her influence over +Odo. She wished it rather to be so visible a factor in his relations +with his people that she should come to be regarded as the ultimate +pledge of his good faith. But, like all the casuistical virtues, this +position had the rigidity of something created to fit a special case; +and the result was a fixity of attitude, which spread benumbingly over +her whole nature. She was conscious of the change, yet dared not +struggle against it, since to do so was to confess the weakness of her +case. She had chosen to be regarded as a symbol rather than a woman, and +there were moments when she felt as isolated from life as some marble +allegory in its niche above the market-place. +</P> + +<P> +It was the desire to associate herself with the Duke's public life that +had induced her, after much hesitation, to accept the degree which the +University had conferred on her. She had shared eagerly in the work of +reconstructing the University, and had been the means of drawing to +Pianura several teachers of distinction from Padua and Pavia. It was her +dream to build up a seat of learning which should attract students from +all parts of Italy; and though many young men of good family had +withdrawn from the classes when the Barnabites were dispossessed, she +was confident that they would soon be replaced by scholars from other +states. She was resolved to identify herself openly with the educational +reform which seemed to her one of the most important steps toward civic +emancipation; and she had therefore acceded to the request of the +faculty that, on receiving her degree, she should sustain a thesis +before the University. This ceremony was to take place a few days hence, +on the Duke's birthday; and, as the new charter was to be proclaimed on +the same day, Fulvia had chosen as the subject of her discourse the +Constitution recently promulgated in France. +</P> + +<P> +She pushed aside the bundle of political pamphlets which she had been +studying, and sat looking out at the strip of garden beyond the arches +of the cloister. The narrow horizon bounded by convent walls symbolised +fitly enough the life she had chosen to lead: a life of artificial +restraints and renunciations, passive, conventual almost, in which even +the central point of her love burned, now, with a calm devotional glow. +</P> + +<P> +The door in the cloister opened and the Duke crossed the garden. He +walked slowly, with the listless step she had observed in him of late; +and as he entered she saw that he looked pale and weary. +</P> + +<P> +"You have been at work again," she said. "A cabinet-meeting?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he answered, sinking into the Abbess's high carved chair. +</P> + +<P> +He glanced musingly about the dim room, in which the shadow of the +cloister made an early dusk. Its atmosphere of monastic calm, of which +the significance did not escape him, fell soothingly on his spirit. It +simplified his relation to Fulvia by tacitly restricting it within the +bounds of a tranquil tenderness. Any other setting would have seemed +less in harmony with their fate. +</P> + +<P> +Better, perhaps, than Fulvia, he knew what ailed them both. Happiness +had come to them, but it had come too late; it had come tinged with +disloyalty to their early ideals; it had come when delay and +disillusionment had imperceptibly weakened the springs of passion. For +it is the saddest thing about sorrow that it deadens the capacity for +happiness; and to Fulvia and Odo the joy they had renounced had returned +with an exile's alien face. +</P> + +<P> +Seeing that he remained silent, she rose and lit the shaded lamp on the +table. He watched her as she moved across the room. Her step had lost +none of its flowing grace, of that harmonious impetus which years ago +had drawn his boyish fancy in its wake. As she bent above the lamp, the +circle of light threw her face into relief against the deepening shadows +of the room. She had changed, indeed, but as those change in whom the +springs of life are clear and abundant: it was a development rather than +a diminution. The old purity of outline remained; and deep below the +surface, but still visible sometimes to his lessening insight, the old +girlish spirit, radiant, tender and impetuous, stirred for a moment in +her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +The lamplight fell on the pamphlets she had pushed aside. Odo picked one +up. "What are these?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"They were sent to me by the English traveller whom Andreoni brought +here." +</P> + +<P> +He turned a few pages. "The old story," he said. "Do you never weary of +it?" +</P> + +<P> +"An old story?" she exclaimed. "I thought it had been the newest in the +world. Is it not being written, chapter by chapter, before our very +eyes?" +</P> + +<P> +Odo laid the treatise aside. "Are you never afraid to turn the next +page?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Afraid? Afraid of what?" +</P> + +<P> +"That it may be written in blood." +</P> + +<P> +She uttered a quick exclamation; then her face hardened, and she said in +a low tone: "De Crucis has been with you." +</P> + +<P> +He made the half-resigned, half-impatient gesture of the man who feels +himself drawn into a familiar argument from which there is no issue. +</P> + +<P> +"He left yesterday for Germany." +</P> + +<P> +"He was here too long!" she said, with an uncontrollable escape of +bitterness. +</P> + +<P> +Odo sighed. "If you would but let me bring him to you, you would see +that his influence over me is not what you think it." +</P> + +<P> +She was silent a moment; then she said: "You are tired tonight. Let us +not talk of these things." +</P> + +<P> +"As you please," he answered, with an air of relief; and she rose and +went to the harpsichord. +</P> + +<P> +She played softly, with a veiled touch, gliding from one crepuscular +melody to another, till the room was filled with drifts of sound that +seemed like the voice of its own shadows. There had been times when he +could have yielded himself to this languid tide of music, letting it +loosen the ties of thought till he floated out into the soothing dimness +of sensation; but now the present held him. To Fulvia, too, he knew the +music was but a forced interlude, a mechanical refuge from thought. She +had deliberately narrowed their intercourse to one central idea; and it +was her punishment that silence had come to be merely an intensified +expression of this idea. +</P> + +<P> +When she turned to Odo she saw the same consciousness in his face. It +was useless for them to talk of other things. With a pang of unreasoning +regret she felt that she had become to him the embodiment of a single +thought—a formula, rather than a woman. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me what you have been doing," she said. +</P> + +<P> +The question was a relief. At once he began to separation of his work. +All his thoughts, all his time, were given to the constitution which was +to define the powers of Church and state. The difficulties increased as +the work advanced; but the gravest difficulty was one of which he dared +not tell her: his own growing distrust of the ideas for which he +laboured. He was too keenly aware of the difference in their mental +operations. With Fulvia, ideas were either rejected or at once converted +into principles; with himself, they remained stored in the mind, serving +rather as commentaries on life than as incentives to action. This +perpetual accessibility to new impressions was a quality she could not +understand, or could conceive of only as a weakness. Her own mind was +like a garden in which nothing is ever transplanted. She allowed for no +intermediate stages between error and dogma, for no shifting of the +bounds of conviction; and this security gave her the singleness of +purpose in which he found himself more and more deficient. +</P> + +<P> +Odo remembered that he had once thought her nearness would dispel his +hesitations. At first it had been so; but gradually the contact with her +fixed enthusiasms had set up within him an opposing sense of the claims +ignored. The element of dogmatism in her faith showed the discouraging +sameness of the human mind. He perceived that to a spirit like Fulvia's +it might become possible to shed blood in the cause of tolerance. +</P> + +<P> +The rapid march of events in France had necessarily produced an opposite +effect on minds so differently constituted. To Fulvia the year had been +a year of victory, a glorious affirmation of her political creed. Step +by step she had seen, as in some old allegorical painting, error fly +before the shafts of truth. Where Odo beheld a conflagration she saw a +sunrise; and all that was bare and cold in her own life was warmed and +transfigured by that ineffable brightness. +</P> + +<P> +She listened patiently while he enlarged on the difficulties of the +case. The constitution was framed in all its details, but with its +completion he felt more than ever doubtful of the wisdom of granting it. +He would have welcomed any postponement that did not seem an admission +of fear. He dreaded the inevitable break with the clergy, not so much +because of the consequent danger to his own authority, as because he was +increasingly conscious of the newness and clumsiness of the instrument +with which he proposed to replace their tried and complex system. He +mentioned to Fulvia the rumours of popular disaffection; but she swept +them aside with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +"The people mistrust you," she said. "And what does that mean? That you +have given your enemies time to work on their credulity. The longer you +delay the more opposition you will encounter. Father Ignazio would +rather destroy the state than let it be saved by any hand but his." +</P> + +<P> +Odo reflected. "Of all my enemies," he said, "Father Ignazio is the one +I most respect, because he is the most sincere." +</P> + +<P> +"He is the most dangerous, then," she returned. "A fanatic is always +more powerful than a knave." +</P> + +<P> +He was struck with her undiminished faith in the sufficiency of such +generalisations. Did she really think that to solve such a problem it +was only necessary to define it? The contact with her unfaltering +assurance would once have given him a momentary glow; but now it left +him cold. +</P> + +<P> +She was speaking more urgently. "Surely," she said, "the noblest use a +man can make of his own freedom is to set others free. My father said it +was the only justification of kingship." +</P> + +<P> +He glanced at her half-sadly. "Do you still fancy that kings are free? I +am bound hand and foot." +</P> + +<P> +"So was my father," she flashed back at him; "but he had the Promethean +spirit." +</P> + +<P> +She coloured at her own quickness, but Odo took the thrust tranquilly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he said, "your father had the Promethean spirit: I have not. The +flesh that is daily torn from me does not grow again." +</P> + +<P> +"Your courage is as great as his," she exclaimed, her tenderness in +arms. +</P> + +<P> +"No," he answered, "for his was hopeful." There was a pause, and then he +began to speak of the day's work. +</P> + +<P> +All the afternoon he had been in consultation with Crescenti, whose vast +historical knowledge was of service in determining many disputed points +in the tenure of land. The librarian was in sympathy with any measures +tending to relieve the condition of the peasantry; yet he was almost as +strongly opposed as Trescorre to any reproduction of the Tuscan +constitution. +</P> + +<P> +"He is afraid!" broke from Fulvia. She admired and respected Crescenti, +yet she had never fully trusted him. The taint of ecclesiasticism was on +him. +</P> + +<P> +Odo smiled. "He has never been afraid of facing the charge of +Jansenism," he replied. "All his life he has stood in open opposition to +the Church party." +</P> + +<P> +"It is one thing to criticise their dogmas, another to attack their +privileges. At such a time he is bound to remember that he is a +priest—that he is one of them." +</P> + +<P> +"Yet, as you have often pointed out, it is to the clergy that France in +great measure owes her release from feudalism." +</P> + +<P> +She smiled coldly. "France would have won her cause without the clergy!" +</P> + +<P> +"This is not France, then," he said with a sigh. After a moment he began +again: "Can you not see that any reform which aims at reducing the power +of the clergy must be more easily and successfully carried out if they +can be induced to take part in it? That, in short, we need them at this +moment as we have never needed them before? The example of France ought +at least to show you that." +</P> + +<P> +"The example of France shows me that, to gain a point in such a +struggle, any means must be used! In France, as you say, the clergy were +with the people—here they are against them. Where persuasion fails +coercion must be used!" +</P> + +<P> +Odo smiled faintly. "You might have borrowed that from their own +armoury," he said. +</P> + +<P> +She coloured at the sarcasm. "Why not?" she retorted. "Let them have a +taste of their own methods! They know the kind of pressure that makes +men yield—when they feel it they will know what to do." +</P> + +<P> +He looked at her with astonishment. "This is Gamba's tone," he said. "I +have never heard you speak in this way before." +</P> + +<P> +She coloured again; and now with a profound emotion. "Yes," she said, +"it is Gamba's tone. He and I speak for the same cause and with the same +voice. We are of the people and we speak for the people. Who are your +other counsellors? Priests and noblemen! It is natural enough that they +should wish to make their side of the question heard. Listen to them, if +you will—conciliate them, if you can! We need all the allies we can +win. Only do not fancy they are really speaking for the people. Do not +think it is the people's voice you hear. The people do not ask you to +weigh this claim against that, to look too curiously into the defects +and merits of every clause in their charter. All they ask is that the +charter should be given them!" +</P> + +<P> +She spoke with the low-voiced passion that possessed her at such +moments. All acrimony had vanished from her tone. The expression of a +great conviction had swept aside every personal animosity, and cleared +the sources of her deepest feeling. Odo felt the pressure of her +emotion. He leaned to her and their hands met. +</P> + +<P> +"It shall be given them," he said. +</P> + +<P> +She lifted her face to his. It shone with a great light. Once before he +had seen it so illumined, but with how different a brightness! The +remembrance stirred in him some old habit of the senses. He bent over +and kissed her. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +4.7. +</H4> + +<P> +Never before had Odo so keenly felt the difference between theoretical +visions of liberty and their practical application. His deepest +heart-searchings showed him as sincerely devoted as ever to the cause +which had enlisted his youth. He still longed above all things to serve +his fellows; but the conditions of such service were not what he had +dreamed. How different a calling it had been in Saint Francis's day, +when hearts inflamed with the new sense of brotherhood had but to set +forth on their simple mission of almsgiving and admonition! To love +one's neighbour had become a much more complex business, one that taxed +the intelligence as much as the heart, and in the course of which +feeling must be held in firm subjection to reason. He was discouraged by +Fulvia's inability to understand the change. Hers was the missionary +spirit; and he could not but reflect how much happier she would have +been as a nun in a charitable order, a unit in some organised system of +beneficence. +</P> + +<P> +He too would have been happier to serve than to command! But it is not +given to the lovers of the Lady Poverty to choose their special rank in +her household. Don Gervaso's words came back to him with deepening +significance, and he thought how truly the old chaplain's prayer had +been fulfilled. Honour and power had come to him, and they had abased +him to the dust. The "Humilitas" of his fathers, woven, carved and +painted on every side, pursued him with an ironical reminder of his +impotence. +</P> + +<P> +Fulvia had not been mistaken in attributing his depression of spirit to +de Crucis's visit. It was the first time that de Crucis had returned to +Pianura since the new Duke's accession. Odo had welcomed him eagerly, +had again pressed him to remain; but de Crucis was on his way to +Germany, bound on some business which could not be deferred. Odo, aware +of the renewed activity of the Jesuits, supposed that this business was +connected with the flight of the French refugees, many of whom were gone +to Coblentz; but on this point the abate was silent. Of the state of +affairs in France he spoke openly and despondently. The immoderate haste +with which the reforms had been granted filled him with fears for the +future. Odo knew that Crescenti shared these fears, and the judgment of +these two men, with whom he differed on fundamental principles, weighed +with him far more than the opinions of the party he was supposed to +represent. But he was in the case of many greater sovereigns of his day. +He had set free the waters of reform, and the frail bark of his +authority had been torn from its moorings and swept headlong into the +central current. +</P> + +<P> +The next morning, to his surprise, the Duchess sent one of her gentlemen +to ask an audience. Odo at once replied that he would wait on her +Highness; and a few moments later he was ushered into his wife's closet. +</P> + +<P> +She had just left her toilet, and was still in the morning negligee worn +during that prolonged and public ceremonial. Freshly perfumed and +powdered, her eyes bright, her lips set in a nervous smile, she +curiously recalled the arrogant child who had snatched her spaniel away +from him years ago in that same room. And was she not that child, after +all? Had she ever grown beyond the imperious instincts of her youth? It +seemed to him now that he had judged her harshly in the first months of +their marriage. He had felt a momentary impatience when he had tried to +force her roving impulses into the line of his own endeavour: it was +easier to view her leniently now that she had almost passed out of his +life. +</P> + +<P> +He wondered why she had sent for him. Some dispute with her household, +doubtless; a quarrel with a servant, even—or perhaps some sordid +difficulty with her creditors. But she began in a new key. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Highness," she said, "is not given to taking my advice." +</P> + +<P> +Odo looked at her in surprise. "The opportunity is not often accorded +me," he replied with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +Maria Clementina made an impatient gesture; then her face softened. +Contradictory emotions flitted over it like the reflections cast by a +hurrying sky. She came close to him and then drew away and seated +herself in the high-backed chair where she had throned when he first saw +her. Suddenly she blushed and began to speak. +</P> + +<P> +"Once," she said in a low, almost inaudible voice, "I was able to give +your Highness warning of an impending danger—" She paused and her eyes +rested full on Odo. +</P> + +<P> +He felt his colour rise as he returned her gaze. It was her first +allusion to the past. He had supposed she had forgotten. For a moment he +remained awkwardly silent. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you remember?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"I remember." +</P> + +<P> +"The danger was a grave one. Your Highness may recall that but for my +warning you would not have been advised of it." +</P> + +<P> +"I remember," he said again. +</P> + +<P> +She paused a moment. "The danger," she repeated, "was a grave one; but +it threatened only your Highness's person. Your Highness listened to me +then; will you listen again if I advise you of a greater—a peril +threatening not only your person but your throne?" +</P> + +<P> +Odo smiled. He could guess now what was coming. She had been drilled to +act as the mouthpiece of the opposition. He composed his features and +said quietly: "These are grave words, madam. I know of no such +peril—but I am always ready to listen to your Highness." +</P> + +<P> +His smile had betrayed him, and a quick flame of anger passed over her +face. +</P> + +<P> +"Why should you listen to me, since you never heed what I say?" +</P> + +<P> +"Your Highness has just reminded me that I did so once—" +</P> + +<P> +"Once!" she repeated bitterly. "You were younger then—and so was I!" +She glanced at herself in the mirror with a dissatisfied laugh. +Something in her look and movement touched the springs of compassion. +</P> + +<P> +"Try me again," he said gently. "If I am older, perhaps I am also wiser, +and therefore even more willing to be guided—we all knew that." She +broke off, as though she felt her mistake and wished to make a fresh +beginning. Again her face was full of fluctuating meaning; and he saw, +beneath its shallow surface, the eddy of incoherent impulses. When she +spoke, it was with a noble gravity. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Highness," she said, "does not take me into your counsels; but it +is no secret at court and in the town that you have in contemplation a +grave political measure." +</P> + +<P> +"I have made no secret of it," he replied. +</P> + +<P> +"No—or I should be the last to know it!" she exclaimed, with one of her +sudden lapses into petulance. +</P> + +<P> +Odo made no reply. Her futility was beginning to weary him. She saw it +and again attempted an impersonal dignity of manner. +</P> + +<P> +"It has been your Highness's choice," she said, "to exclude me from +public affairs. Perhaps I was not fitted by education or intelligence to +share in the cares of government. Your Highness will at least bear +witness that I have scrupulously respected your decision, and have never +attempted to intrude upon your counsels." +</P> + +<P> +Odo bowed. It would have been useless to remind her that he had sought +her help and failed to obtain it. +</P> + +<P> +"I have accepted my position," she continued. "I have led the life to +which it has pleased your Highness to restrict me. But I have not been +able to detach my heart as well as my thoughts from your Highness's +interests. I have not learned to be indifferent to your danger." +</P> + +<P> +Odo looked up quickly. She ceased to interest him when she spoke by the +book, and he was impatient to make an end. +</P> + +<P> +"You spoke of danger before," he said. "What danger?" +</P> + +<P> +"That of forcing on your subjects liberties which they do not desire!" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," said he thoughtfully. That was all, then. What a poor tool she +made! He marvelled that, in all these years, Trescorre's skilful hands +should not have fashioned her to better purpose. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Highness," he said, "has reminded me that since our marriage you +had lived withdrawn from public affairs. I will not pause to dispute by +whose choice this has been; I will in turn merely remind your Highness +that such a life does not afford much opportunity of gauging public +opinion." +</P> + +<P> +In spite of himself a note of sarcasm had again crept into his voice; +but to his surprise she did not seem to resent it. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," she exclaimed, with more feeling than she had hitherto shown, "you +fancy that, because I am kept in ignorance of what you think, I am +ignorant also of what others think of you! Believe me," she said, with a +flash of insight that startled him, "I know more of you than if we stood +closer. But you mistake my purpose. I have not sent for you to force my +counsels on you. I have no desire to appear ridiculous. I do not ask you +to hear what <I>I</I> think of your course, but what others think of it." +</P> + +<P> +"What others?" +</P> + +<P> +The question did not disconcert her. "Your subjects," she said quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"My subjects are of many classes." +</P> + +<P> +"All are of one class in resenting this charter. I am told you intend to +proclaim it within a few days. I entreat you at least to delay, to +reconsider your course. Oh, believe me when I say you are in danger! Of +what use to offer a crown to our Lady, when you have it in your heart to +slight her servants? But I will not speak of the clergy, since you +despise them—nor of the nobles, since you ignore their claims. I will +speak only of the people—the people, in whose interest you profess to +act. Believe me, in striking at the Church you wound the poor. It is not +their bodily welfare I mean—though Heaven knows how many sources of +bounty must now run dry! It is their faith you insult. First you turn +them against their masters, then against their God. They may acclaim you +for it now—but I tell you they will hate you for it in the end!" +</P> + +<P> +She paused, flushed with the vehemence of her argument, and eager to +press it farther. But her last words had touched an unexpected fibre in +Odo. He looked at her with his unseeing visionary gaze. +</P> + +<P> +"The end?" he murmured. "Who knows what the end will be?" +</P> + +<P> +"Do you still need to be told?" she exclaimed. "Must you always come to +me to learn that you are in danger?" +</P> + +<P> +"If the state is in danger the danger must be faced. The state exists +for the people; if they do not need it, it has ceased to serve its +purpose." +</P> + +<P> +She clasped her hands in an ecstasy of wonder. "Oh, fool, madman—but it +is not of the state I speak! It is you who are in +danger—you—you—you—" +</P> + +<P> +He raised his head with an impatient gesture. +</P> + +<P> +"I?" he said. "I had thought you meant a graver peril." +</P> + +<P> +She looked at him in silence. Her pride met his and thrilled with it; +and for a moment the two were one. +</P> + +<P> +"Odo!" she cried. She sank into a chair, and he went to her and took her +hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Such fears are worthy neither of us," he said gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"I am not ashamed of them," she said. Her hand clung to him and she +lifted her eyes to his face. "You will listen to me?" she whispered in a +glow. +</P> + +<P> +He drew back chilled. If only she had kept the feminine in abeyance! But +sex was her only weapon. +</P> + +<P> +"I have listened," he said quietly. "And I thank you." +</P> + +<P> +"But you will not be counselled?" +</P> + +<P> +"In the last issue one must be one's own counsellor." +</P> + +<P> +Her face flamed. "If you were but that!" she tossed back at him. +</P> + +<P> +The taunt struck him full. He knew that he should have let it lie; but +he caught it up in spite of himself. +</P> + +<P> +"Madam!" he said. +</P> + +<P> +"I should have appealed to our sovereign, not to her servant!" she +cried, dashing into the breach she had made. +</P> + +<P> +He stood motionless, stunned almost. For what she had said was true. He +was no longer the sovereign: the rule had passed out of his hands. +</P> + +<P> +His silence frightened her. With an instinctive jealousy she saw that +her words had started a train of thought in which she had no part. She +felt herself ignored, abandoned; and all her passions rushed to the +defence of her wounded vanity. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, believe me," she cried, "I speak as your Duchess, not as your wife. +That is a name in which I should never dream of appealing to you. I have +ever stood apart from your private pleasures, as became a woman of my +house." She faced him with a flash of the Austrian insolence. "But when +I see the state drifting to ruin as the result of your caprice, when I +see your own life endangered, your people turned against you, religion +openly insulted, law and authority made the plaything of +this—this—false atheistical creature, that has robbed me—robbed me of +all—" She broke off helplessly and hid her face with a sob. +</P> + +<P> +Odo stood speechless, spell-bound. He could not mistake what had +happened. The woman had surged to the surface at last—the real woman, +passionate, self-centred, undisciplined, but so piteous, after all, in +this sudden subjection to the one tenderness that survived in her. She +loved him and was jealous of her rival. That was the instinct which had +swept all others aside. At that moment she cared nothing for her safety +or his. The state might perish if they but fell together. It was the +distance between them that maddened her. +</P> + +<P> +The tragic simplicity of the revelation left Odo silent. For a fantastic +moment he yielded to the vision of what that waste power might have +accomplished. Life seemed to him a confusion of roving force that met +only to crash in ruins. +</P> + +<P> +His silence drew her to her feet. She repossessed herself, throbbing but +valiant. +</P> + +<P> +"My fears for your Highness's safety have led my speech astray. I have +given your Highness the warning it was my duty to give. Beyond that I +had no thought of trespassing." +</P> + +<P> +And still Odo was silent. A dozen answers struggled to his lips; but +they were checked by the stealing sense of duality that so often +paralysed his action. He had recovered his lucidity of vision, and his +impulses faded before it like mist. He saw life again as it was, an +incomplete and shabby business, a patchwork of torn and ravelled effort. +Everywhere the shears of Atropos were busy, and never could the cut +threads be joined again. +</P> + +<P> +He took his wife's hand and bent over it ceremoniously. It lay in his +like a stone. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +4.8. +</H4> + +<P> +The jubilee of the Mountain Madonna fell on the feast of the +Purification. It was mid-November, but with a sky of June. The autumn +rains had ceased for the moment, and fields and orchards glistened with +a late verdure. +</P> + +<P> +Never had the faithful gathered in such numbers to do honour to the +wonder-working Virgin. A widespread resistance to the influences of free +thought and Jansenism was pouring fresh life into the old formulas of +devotion. Though many motives combined to strengthen this movement, it +was still mainly a simple expression of loyalty to old ideals, an +instinctive rallying around a threatened cause. It is the honest +conviction underlying all great popular impulses that gives them their +real strength; and in this case the thousands of pilgrims flocking on +foot to the mountain shrine embodied a greater moral force than the +powerful ecclesiastics at whose call they had gathered. +</P> + +<P> +The clergy themselves were come from all sides; while those that were +unable to attend had sent costly gifts to the miraculous Virgin. The +Bishops of Mantua, Modena, Vercelli and Cremona had travelled to Pianura +in state, the people flocking out beyond the gates to welcome them. Four +mitred Abbots, several Monsignori, and Priors, Rectors, Vicars-general +and canons innumerable rode in the procession, followed on foot by the +humble army of parish priests and by interminable confraternities of all +orders. +</P> + +<P> +The approach of the great dignitaries was hailed with enthusiasm by the +crowds lining the roads. Even the Bishop of Pianura, never popular with +the people, received an unwonted measure of applause, and the +white-cowled Prior of the Dominicans, riding by stern and close-lipped +as a monk of Zurbaran's, was greeted with frenzied acclamations. The +report that the Bishop and the heads of the religious houses in Pianura +were to set free suppers for the pilgrims had doubtless quickened this +outburst of piety; yet it was perhaps chiefly due to the sense of coming +peril that had gradually permeated the dim consciousness of the crowd. +</P> + +<P> +In the church, the glow of lights, the thrilling beauty of the music and +the glitter of the priestly vestments were blent in a melting harmony of +sound and colour. The shrine of the Madonna shone with unearthly +radiance. Hundreds of candles formed an elongated nimbus about her +hieratic figure, which was surmounted by the canopy of cloth-of-gold +presented by the Duke of Modena. The Bishops of Vercelli and Cremona had +offered a robe of silver brocade studded with coral and turquoises, the +devout Princess Clotilda of Savoy an emerald necklace, the Bishop of +Pianura a marvellous veil of rose-point made in a Flemish convent; while +on the statue's brow rested the Duke's jewelled diadem. +</P> + +<P> +The Duke himself, seated in his tribune above the choir, observed the +scene with a renewed appreciation of the Church's unfailing dramatic +instinct. At first he saw in the spectacle only this outer and symbolic +side, of which the mere sensuous beauty had always deeply moved him; but +as he watched the effect produced on the great throng filling the +aisles, he began to see that this external splendour was but the veil +before the sanctuary, and to realise what de Crucis meant when he spoke +of the deep hold of the Church upon the people. Every colour, every +gesture, every word and note of music that made up the texture of the +gorgeous ceremonial might indeed seem part of a long-studied and +astutely-planned effect. Yet each had its root in some instinct of the +heart, some natural development of the inner life, so that they were in +fact not the cunningly-adjusted fragments of an arbitrary pattern but +the inseparable fibres of a living organism. It was Odo's misfortune to +see too far ahead on the road along which his destiny was urging him. As +he sat there, face to face with the people he was trying to lead, he +heard above the music of the mass and the chant of the kneeling throng +an echo of the question that Don Gervaso had once put to him:—"If you +take Christ from the people, what have you to give them instead?" +</P> + +<P> +He was roused by a burst of silver clarions. The mass was over, and the +Duke and Duchess were to descend from their tribune and venerate the +holy image before it was carried through the church. +</P> + +<P> +Odo rose and gave his hand to his wife. They had not seen each other, +save in public, since their last conversation in her closet. The Duchess +walked with set lips and head erect, keeping her profile turned to him +as they descended the steps and advanced to the choir. None knew better +how to take her part in such a pageant. She had the gift of drawing upon +herself the undivided attention of any assemblage in which she moved; +and the consciousness of this power lent a kind of Olympian buoyancy to +her gait. The richness of her dress and her extravagant display of +jewels seemed almost a challenge to the sacred image blazing like a +rainbow beneath its golden canopy; and Odo smiled to think that his +childish fancy had once compared the brilliant being at his side to the +humble tinsel-decked Virgin of the church at Pontesordo. +</P> + +<P> +As the couple advanced, stillness fell on the church. The air was full +of the lingering haze of incense, through which the sunlight from the +clerestory poured in prismatic splendours on the statue of the Virgin. +Rigid, superhuman, a molten flamboyancy of gold and gems, the +wonder-working Madonna shone out above her worshippers. The Duke and +Duchess paused, bowing deeply, below the choir. Then they mounted the +steps and knelt before the shrine. As they did so a crash broke the +silence, and the startled devotees saw that the ducal diadem had fallen +from the Madonna's head. +</P> + +<P> +The hush prolonged itself a moment; then a canon sprang forward to pick +up the crown, and with the movement a murmur rose and spread through the +church. The Duke's offering had fallen to the ground as he approached to +venerate the blessed image. That this was an omen no man could doubt. It +needed no augur to interpret it. The murmur, gathering force as it swept +through the packed aisles, passed from surprise to fear, from fear to a +deep hum of anger;—for the people understood, as plainly as though she +had spoken, that the Virgin of the Valseccas had cast from her the gift +of an unbeliever... +</P> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<P> +The ceremonies over, the long procession was formed again and set out +toward the city. The crowd had surged ahead, and when the Duke rode +through the gates the streets were already thronged. Moving slowly +between the compact mass of people he felt himself as closely observed +as on the day of his state entry; but with far different effect. +Enthusiasm had given way to a cold curiosity. The excitement of the +spectators had spent itself in the morning, and the sight of their +sovereign failed to rouse their flagging ardour. Now and then a cheer +broke out, but it died again without kindling another in the +uninflammable mass. Odo could not tell how much of this indifference was +due to a natural reaction from the emotions of the morning, how much to +his personal unpopularity, how much to the ominous impression produced +by the falling of the Virgin's crown. He rode between his people +oppressed by a sense of estrangement such as he had never known. He felt +himself shut off from them by an impassable barrier of superstition and +ignorance; and every effort to reach them was like the wrong turn in a +labyrinth, drawing him farther away from the issue to which it seemed to +lead. +</P> + +<P> +As he advanced under this indifferent or hostile scrutiny, he thought +how much easier it would be to face a rain of bullets than this +withering glare of criticism. A sudden longing to escape, to be done +with it all, came over him with sickening force. His nerves ached with +the physical strain of holding himself upright on his horse, of +preserving the statuesque erectness proper to the occasion. He felt like +one of his own ancestral effigies, of which the wooden framework had +rotted under the splendid robes. A congestion at the head of a narrow +street had checked the procession, and he was obliged to rein in his +horse. He looked about and found himself in the centre of the square +near the Baptistery. A few feet off, directly in a line with him, was +the weather-worn front of the Royal Printing-Press. He raised his head +and saw a group of people on the balcony. Though they were close at +hand, he saw them in a blur, against which Fulvia's figure suddenly +detached itself. She had told him that she was to view the procession +with the Andreonis; but through the mental haze which enveloped him her +apparition struck a vague surprise. He looked at her intently, and their +eyes met. A faint happiness stole over her face, but no recognition was +possible, and she continued to gaze out steadily upon the throng below +the balcony. Involuntarily his glance followed hers, and he saw that she +was herself the centre of the crowd's attention. Her plain, almost +Quakerish habit, and the tranquil dignity of her carriage, made her a +conspicuous figure among the animated groups in the adjoining windows, +and Odo, with the acuteness of perception which a public life develops, +was instantly aware that her name was on every lip. At the same moment +he saw a woman close to his horse's feet snatch up her child and make +the sign against the evil eye. A boy who stood staring open-mouthed at +Fulvia caught the gesture and repeated it; a barefoot friar imitated the +boy, and it seemed to Odo that the familiar sign was spreading with +malignant rapidity to the furthest limits of the crowd. The impression +was only momentary; for the cavalcade was again in motion, and without +raising his eyes he rode on, sick at heart... +</P> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<P> +At nightfall a man opened the gate of the ducal gardens below the +Chinese pavilion and stepped out into the deserted lane. He locked the +gate and slipped the key into his pocket; then he turned and walked +toward the centre of the town. As he reached the more populous quarters +his walk slackened to a stroll; and now and then he paused to observe a +knot of merry-makers or look through the curtains of the tents set up in +the squares. +</P> + +<P> +The man was plainly but decently dressed, like a petty tradesman or a +lawyer's clerk, and the night being chill he wore a cloak, and had drawn +his hat-brim over his forehead. He sauntered on, letting the crowd carry +him, with the air of one who has an hour to kill, and whose +holiday-making takes the form of an amused spectatorship. To such an +observer the streets offered ample entertainment. The shrewd air +discouraged lounging and kept the crowd in motion; but the open +platforms built for dancing were thronged with couples, and every +peep-show, wine-shop and astrologer's booth was packed to the doors. The +shrines and street-lamps being all alight, and booths and platforms hung +with countless lanterns, the scene was as bright as day; but in the +ever-shifting medley of peasant-dresses, liveries, monkish cowls and +carnival disguises, a soberly-clad man might easily go unremarked. +</P> + +<P> +Reaching the square before the Cathedral, the solitary observer pushed +his way through the idlers gathered about a dais with a curtain at the +back. Before the curtain stood a Milanese quack, dressed like a noble +gentleman, with sword and plumed hat, and rehearsing his cures in +stentorian tones, while his zany, in the short mask and green-and-white +habit of Brighella, cracked jokes and turned hand-springs for the +diversion of the vulgar. +</P> + +<P> +"Behold," the charlatan was shouting, "the marvellous Egyptian +love-philter distilled from the pearl that the great Emperor Antony +dropped into Queen Cleopatra's cup. This infallible fluid, handed down +for generations in the family of my ancestor, the High Priest of Isis—" +The bray of a neighbouring show-man's trumpet cut him short, and +yielding to circumstances he drew back the curtain, and a tumbling-girl +sprang out and began her antics on the front of the stage. +</P> + +<P> +"What did he say was the price of that drink, Giannina?" asked a young +maid-servant pulling her neighbour's sleeve. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you thinking of buying it for Pietrino, my beauty?" the other +returned with a laugh. "Believe me, it is a sound proverb that says: +When the fruit is ripe it falls of itself." +</P> + +<P> +The girl drew away angrily, and the quack took up his harangue:—"The +same philter, ladies and gentlemen—though in confessing it I betray a +professional secret—the same philter, I declare to you on the honour of +a nobleman, whereby, in your own city, a lady no longer young and no way +remarkable in looks or station, has captured and subjugated the +affections of one so high, so exalted, so above all others in beauty, +rank, wealth, power and dignities—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, oh, that's the Duke!" sniggered a voice in the crowd. +</P> + +<P> +"Ladies and gentlemen, I name no names!" cried the quack impressively. +</P> + +<P> +"No need to," retorted the voice. +</P> + +<P> +"They do say, though, she gave him something to drink," said a young +woman to a youth in a clerk's dress. "The saying is she studied medicine +with the Turks." +</P> + +<P> +"The Moors, you mean," said the clerk with an air of superiority. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, they say her mother was a Turkey slave and her father a murderer +from the Sultan's galleys." +</P> + +<P> +"No, no, she's plain Piedmontese, I tell you. Her father was a physician +in Turin, and was driven out of the country for poisoning his patients +in order to watch their death-agonies." +</P> + +<P> +"They say she's good to the poor, though," said another voice +doubtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Good to the poor? Ay, that's what they said of her father. All I know +is that she heard Stefano the weaver's lad had the falling sickness, and +she carried him a potion with her own hands, and the next day the child +was dead, and a Carmelite friar, who saw the phial he drank from, said +it was the same shape and size as one that was found in a witch's grave +when they were digging the foundations for the new monastery." +</P> + +<P> +"Ladies and gentlemen," shrieked the quack, "what am I offered for a +drop of this priceless liquor?" +</P> + +<P> +The listener turned aside and pushed his way toward the farther end of +the square. As he did so he ran against a merry-andrew who thrust a long +printed sheet in his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Buy my satirical ballads, ladies and gentlemen!" the fellow shouted. +"Two for a farthing, invented and written by an own cousin of the great +Pasquino of Rome! What will you have, sir? Here's the secret history of +a famous Prince's amours with an atheist—here's the true scandal of an +illustrious lady's necklace—two for a farthing...and my humblest thanks +to your excellency." He pocketed the coin, and the other, thrusting the +broadsheets beneath his cloak, pushed on to the nearest coffee-house. +</P> + +<P> +Here every table was thronged, and the babble of talk so loud that the +stranger, hopeless of obtaining refreshment, pressed his way into the +remotest corner of the room and seated himself on an empty cask. At +first he sat motionless, silently observing the crowd; then he drew +forth the ballads and ran his eye over them. He was still engaged in +this study when his notice was attracted by a loud discussion going +forward between a party of men at the nearest table. The disputants, +petty tradesman or artisans by their dress, had evidently been warmed by +a good flagon of wine, and their tones were so lively that every word +reached the listener on the cask. +</P> + +<P> +"Reform, reform!" cried one, who appeared by his dress and manner to be +the weightiest of the company—"it's all very well to cry reform; but +what I say is that most of those that are howling for it no more know +what they're asking than a parrot that's been taught the litany. Now the +first question is: who benefits by your reform? And what's the answer to +that, eh? Is it the tradesmen? The merchants? The clerks, artisans, +household servants, I ask you? I hear some of my fellow-tradesmen +complaining that the nobility don't pay their bills. Will they be better +paid, think you, when the Duke has halved their revenues? Will the +quality keep up as large households, employ as many lacqueys, set as +lavish tables, wear as fine clothes, collect as many rarities, buy as +many horses, give us, in short, as many opportunities of making our +profit out of their pleasure? What I say is, if we're to have new taxes, +don't let them fall on the very class we live by!" +</P> + +<P> +"That's true enough," said another speaker, a lean bilious man with a +pen behind his ear. "The peasantry are the only class that are going to +profit by this constitution." +</P> + +<P> +"And what do the peasantry do for us, I should like to know?" the first +speaker went on triumphantly. "As far as the fat friars go, I'm not +sorry to see them squeezed a trifle, for they've wrung enough money out +of our women-folk to lie between feathers from now till doomsday; but I +say, if you care for your pockets, don't lay hands on the nobility!" +</P> + +<P> +"Gently, gently, my friend," exclaimed a cautious flaccid-looking man +setting down his glass. "Father and son, for four generations, my family +have served Pianura with Church candles, and I can tell you that since +these new atheistical notions came in, the nobility are not the good +patrons they used to be. But as for the friars, I should be sorry to see +them meddled with. It's true they may get the best morsel in the pot and +the warmest seat on the hearth—and one of them, now and then, may take +too long to teach a pretty girl her Pater Noster—but I'm not sure we +shall be better off when they're gone. Formerly, if a child too many +came to poor folk they could always comfort themselves with the thought +that, if there was no room for him at home, the Church was there to +provide for him. But if we drive out the good friars, a man will have to +count mouths before he dares look at his wife too lovingly." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said the scribe with a dry smile, "I've a notion the good friars +have always taken more than they gave; and if it were not for the gaping +mouths under the cowl even a poor man might have victuals enough for his +own." +</P> + +<P> +The first speaker turned on him contentiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Do I understand you are for this new charter, then?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"No, no," said the other. "Better hot polenta than a cold ortolan. +Things are none too good as they are, but I never care to taste first of +a new dish. And in this case I don't fancy the cook." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, that's it," said the soft man. "It's too much like the apothecary's +wife mixing his drugs for him. Men of Roman lineage want no women to +govern them!" He puffed himself out and thrust a hand in his bosom. +"Besides, gentlemen," he added, dropping his voice and glancing +cautiously about the room, "the saints are my witness I'm not +superstitious—but frankly, now, I don't much fancy this business of the +Virgin's crown." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" asked a lean visionary-looking youth who had been +drinking and listening. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, sir, I needn't say I'm the last man in Pianura to listen to +women's tattle; but my wife had it straight from Cino the barber, whose +sister is portress of the Benedictines, that, two days since, one of the +nuns foretold the whole business, precisely as it happened—and what's +more, many that were in the Church this morning will tell you that they +distinctly saw the blessed image raise both arms and tear the crown from +her head." +</P> + +<P> +"H'm," said the young man flippantly, "what became of the Bambino +meanwhile, I wonder?" +</P> + +<P> +The scribe shrugged his shoulders. "We all know," said he, "that Cino +the barber lies like a christened Jew; but I'm not surprised the thing +was known in advance, for I make no doubt the priests pulled the wires +that brought down the crown." +</P> + +<P> +The fat man looked scandalised, and the first speaker waved the subject +aside as unworthy of attention. +</P> + +<P> +"Such tales are for women and monks," he said impatiently. "But the +business has its serious side. I tell you we are being hurried to our +ruin. Here's this matter of draining the marshes at Pontesordo. Who's to +pay for that? The class that profits by it? Not by a long way. It's we +who drain the land, and the peasants are to live on it." +</P> + +<P> +The visionary youth tossed back his hair. "But isn't that an inspiration +to you, sir?" he exclaimed. "Does not your heart dilate at the thought +of uplifting the condition of your down-trodden fellows?" +</P> + +<P> +"My fellows? The peasantry my fellows?" cried the other. "I'd have you +know, my young master, that I come of a long and honourable line of +cloth-merchants, that have had their names on the Guild for two hundred +years and over. I've nothing to do with the peasantry, thank God!" +</P> + +<P> +The youth had emptied another glass. "What?" he screamed. "You deny the +universal kinship of man? You disown your starving brothers? Proud +tyrant, remember the Bastille!" He burst into tears and began to quote +Alfieri. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said the fat man, turning a disgusted shoulder on this display +of emotion, "to my mind this business of draining Pontesordo is too much +like telling the Almighty what to do. If God made the land wet, what +right have we to dry it? Those that begin by meddling with the Creator's +works may end by laying hands on the Creator." +</P> + +<P> +"You're right," said another. "There's no knowing where these +new-fangled notions may land us. For my part, I was rather taken by them +at first; but since I find that his Highness, to pay for all his good +works, is cutting down his household and throwing decent people out of a +job—like my own son, for instance, that was one of the under-steward's +boys at the palace—why, since then, I begin to see a little farther +into the game." +</P> + +<P> +A shabby shrewd-looking fellow in a dirty coat and snuff-stained stock +had sauntered up to the table and stood listening with an amused smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," said the scribe, glancing up, "here's a thoroughgoing reformer, +who'll be asking us all to throw up our hats for the new charter." +</P> + +<P> +The new-comer laughed contemptuously. "I?" he said. "God forbid! The new +charter's none of my making. It's only another dodge for getting round +the populace—for appearing to give them what they would rise up and +take if it were denied them any longer." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, I thought you were hot for these reforms?" exclaimed the fat man +with surprise. +</P> + +<P> +The other shrugged. "You might as well say I was in favour of having the +sun rise tomorrow. It would probably rise at the same hour if I voted +against it. Reform is bound to come, whether your Dukes and Princes are +for it or against it; and those that grant constitutions instead of +refusing them are like men who tie a string to their hats before going +out in a gale. The string may hold for a while—but if it blows hard +enough the hats will all come off in the end." +</P> + +<P> +"Ay, ay; and meanwhile we furnish the string from our own pockets," said +the scribe with a chuckle. +</P> + +<P> +The shabby man grinned. "It won't be the last thing to come out of your +pockets," said he, turning to push his way toward another table. +</P> + +<P> +The others rose and called for their reckoning; and the listener on the +cask slipped out of his corner, elbowed a passage to the door and +stepped forth into the square. +</P> + +<P> +It was after midnight, a thin drizzle was falling, and the crowd had +scattered. The rain was beginning to extinguish the paper lanterns and +the torches, and the canvas sides of the tents flapped dismally, like +wet sheets on a clothes-line. The man drew his cloak closer, and +avoiding the stragglers who crossed his path, turned into the first +street that led to the palace. He walked fast over the slippery +cobble-stones, buffeted by a rising wind and threading his way between +dark walls and sleeping house-fronts till he reached the lane below the +ducal gardens. He unlocked the door by which he had come forth, entered +the gardens, and paused a moment on the terrace above the lane. +</P> + +<P> +Behind him rose the palace, a dark irregular bulk, with a lighted window +showing here and there. Before him lay the city, an indistinguishable +huddle of roofs and towers under the rainy night. He stood awhile gazing +out over it; then he turned and walked toward the palace. The garden +alleys were deserted, the pleached walks dark as subterranean passages, +with the wet gleam of statues starting spectrally out of the blackness. +The man walked rapidly, leaving the Borromini wing on his left, and +skirting the outstanding mass of the older buildings. Behind the marble +buttresses of the chapel, he crossed the dense obscurity of a court +between high walls, found a door under an archway, turned a key in the +lock, and gained a spiral stairway as dark as the court. He groped his +way up the stairs and paused a moment on the landing to listen. Then he +opened another door, lifted a heavy hanging of tapestry, and stepped +into the Duke's closet. It stood empty, with a lamp burning low on the +desk. +</P> + +<P> +The man threw off his cloak and hat, dropped into a chair beside the +desk, and hid his face in his hands. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +4.9. +</H4> + +<P> +It was the eve of the Duke's birthday. A cabinet council had been called +in the morning, and his Highness's ministers had submitted to him the +revised draft of the constitution which was to be proclaimed on the +morrow. +</P> + +<P> +Throughout the conference, which was brief and formal, Odo had been +conscious of a subtle change in the ministerial atmosphere. Instead of +the current of resistance against which he had grown used to forcing his +way, he became aware of a tacit yielding to his will. Trescorre had +apparently withdrawn his opposition to the charter, and the other +ministers had followed suit. To Odo's overwrought imagination there was +something ominous in the change. He had counted on the goad of +opposition to fight off the fatal languor which he had learned to expect +at such crises. Now that he found there was to be no struggle he +understood how largely his zeal had of late depended on such factitious +incentives. He felt an irrational longing to throw himself on the other +side of the conflict, to tear in bits the paper awaiting his signature, +and disown the policy which had dictated it. But the tide of +acquiescence on which he was afloat was no stagnant back-water of +indifference, but the glassy reach just above the fall of a river. The +current was as swift as it was smooth, and he felt himself hurried +forward to an end he could no longer escape. He took the pen which +Trescorre handed him, and signed the constitution. +</P> + +<P> +The meeting over, he summoned Gamba. He felt the need of such +encouragement as the hunchback alone could give. Fulvia's enthusiasms +were too unreal, too abstract. She lived in a region of ideals, whence +ugly facts were swept out by some process of mental housewifery which +kept her world perpetually smiling and immaculate. Gamba at least fed +his convictions on facts. If his outlook was narrow it was direct: no +roseate medium of fancy was interposed between his vision and the truth. +</P> + +<P> +He stood listening thoughtfully while Odo poured forth his doubts. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Highness may well hesitate," he said at last. "There are always +more good reasons against a new state of things than for it. I am not +surprised that Count Trescorre appears to have withdrawn his opposition. +I believe he now honestly wishes your Highness to proclaim the +constitution." +</P> + +<P> +Odo looked up in surprise. "You do not mean that he has come to believe +in it?" +</P> + +<P> +Gamba smiled. "Probably not in your Highness's sense; but he may have +found a use of his own for it." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" Odo asked. +</P> + +<P> +"If he does not believe it will benefit the state he may think it will +injure your Highness." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah—" said the Duke slowly. +</P> + +<P> +There was a pause, during which he was possessed by the same shuddering +reluctance to fix his mind on the facts before him as when he had +questioned the hunchback about Momola's death. He longed to cast the +whole business aside, to be up and away from it, drawing breath in a new +world where every air was not tainted with corruption. He raised his +head with an effort. +</P> + +<P> +"You think, then, that the liberals are secretly acting against me in +this matter?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am persuaded of it, your Highness." +</P> + +<P> +Odo hesitated. "You have always told me," he began again, "that the love +of dominion was your brother's ruling passion. If he really believes +this movement will be popular with the people, why should he secretly +oppose it, instead of making the most of his own share in it as the +minister of a popular sovereign?" +</P> + +<P> +"For several reasons," Gamba answered promptly. "In the first place, the +reforms your Highness has introduced are not of his own choosing, and +Trescorre has little sympathy with any policy he has not dictated. In +the second place, the powers and opportunities of a constitutional +minister are too restricted to satisfy his appetite for rule; and +thirdly—" he paused a moment, as though doubtful how his words would be +received—"I suspect Trescorre of having a private score against your +Highness, which he would be glad to pay off publicly." +</P> + +<P> +Odo fell silent, yielding himself to a fresh current of thought. +</P> + +<P> +"I know not what score he may have against me," he said at length; "but +what injures me must injure the state, and if Trescorre has any such +motive for withdrawing his opposition, it must be because he believes +the constitution will defeat its own ends." +</P> + +<P> +"He does believe that, assuredly; but he is not the only one of your +Highness's ministers that would ruin the state on the chance of finding +an opportunity among the ruins." +</P> + +<P> +"That is as it may be," said Odo with a touch of weariness. "I have seen +enough of human ambition to learn how limited and unimaginative a +passion it is. If it saw farther I should fear it more. But if it is +short-sighted it sees clearly at close range; and the motive you ascribe +to Trescorre would imply that he believes the constitution will be a +failure." +</P> + +<P> +"Without doubt, your Highness. I am convinced that your ministers have +done all they could to prevent the proclamation of the charter, and +failing that, to thwart its workings if it be proclaimed. In this they +have gone hand in hand with the clergy, and their measures have been +well taken. But I do not believe that any state of mind produced by +external influences can long withstand the natural drift of opinion; and +your Highness may be sure that, though the talkers and writers are +mostly against you in this matter, the mass of the people are with you." +</P> + +<P> +Odo answered with a despairing gesture. "How can I be sure, when the +people have no means of expressing their needs? It is like trying to +guess the wants of a deaf and dumb man!" +</P> + +<P> +The hunchback flushed suddenly. "The people will not always be deaf and +dumb," he said. "Some day they will speak." +</P> + +<P> +"Not in my day," said Odo wearily. "And meanwhile we blunder on, without +ever really knowing what incalculable instincts and prejudices are +pitted against us. You and your party tell me the people are sick of the +burdens the clergy lay on them—yet their blind devotion to the Church +is manifest at every turn, and it did not need the business of the +Virgin's crown to show me how little reason and justice can avail +against such influences." +</P> + +<P> +Gamba replied by an impatient gesture. "As to the Virgin's crown," he +said, "your Highness must have guessed it was one of the friars' tricks: +a last expedient to turn the people against you. I was not bred up by a +priest for nothing; I know what past masters those gentry are in raising +ghosts and reading portents. They know the minds of the poor folk as the +herdsman knows the habits of his cattle; and for generations they have +used that knowledge to bring the people more completely under their +control." +</P> + +<P> +"And what have we to oppose to such a power?" Odo exclaimed. "We are +fighting the battle of ideas against passions, of reflection against +instinct; and you have but to look in the human heart to guess which +side will win in such a struggle. We have science and truth and +common-sense with us, you say—yes, but the Church has love and fear and +tradition, and the solidarity of nigh two thousand years of dominion." +</P> + +<P> +Gamba listened in respectful silence; then he replied with a faint +smile: "All that your Highness says is true; but I beg leave to relate +to your Highness a tale which I read lately in an old book of your +library. According to this story it appears that when the early +Christians of Alexandria set out to destroy the pagan idols in the +temples they were seized with great dread at sight of the god Serapis; +for even those that did not believe in the old gods feared them, and +none dared raise a hand against the sacred image. But suddenly a soldier +who was bolder than the rest flung his battle-axe at the figure—and +when it broke in pieces, there rushed out nothing worse than a great +company of rats."... +</P> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<P> +The Duke had promised to visit Fulvia that evening. For several days his +state of indecision had made him find pretexts for avoiding her; but now +that the charter was signed and he had ordered its proclamation, he +craved the contact of her unwavering faith. +</P> + +<P> +He found her alone in the dusk of the convent parlour; but he had hardly +crossed the threshold before he was aware of an indefinable change in +his surroundings. She advanced with an impulsiveness out of harmony with +the usual tranquillity of their meetings, and he felt her hand tremble +and burn in his. In the twilight it seemed to him that her very dress +had a warmer rustle and glimmer, that there emanated from her glance and +movements some heady fragrance of a long-past summer. He smiled to think +that this phantom coquetry should have risen at the summons of an +academic degree; but some deeper sense in him was stirred as by a vision +of waste riches adrift on the dim seas of chance. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment she sat silent, as in the days when they had been too near +each other for many words; and there was something indescribably +soothing in this dreamlike return to the past. It was he who roused +himself first. +</P> + +<P> +"How young you look!" he said, giving involuntary utterance to his +thought. +</P> + +<P> +"Do I?" she answered gaily. "I am glad of that, for I feel +extraordinarily young tonight. Perhaps it is because I have been +thinking a great deal of the old days—of Venice and Turin—and of the +high-road to Vercelli, for instance." She glanced at him with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know," she went on, moving to a seat at his side, and laying a +hand on the arm of his chair, "that there is one secret of mine you have +never guessed in all these years?" +</P> + +<P> +Odo returned her smile. "What is it, I wonder?" he said. +</P> + +<P> +She fixed him with bright bantering eyes. "I knew why you deserted us at +Vercelli." He uttered an exclamation, but she lifted a hand to his lips. +"Ah, how angry I was then—but why be angry now? It all happened so long +ago; and if it had not happened—who knows?—perhaps you would never +have pitied me enough to love me as you did." She laughed softly, +reminiscently, leaning back as if to let the tide of memories ripple +over her. Then she raised her head suddenly, and said in a changed +voice: "Are your plans fixed for tomorrow?" +</P> + +<P> +Odo glanced at her in surprise. Her mind seemed to move as capriciously +as Maria Clementina's. +</P> + +<P> +"The constitution is signed," he answered, "and my ministers proclaim it +tomorrow morning." He looked at her a moment, and lifted her hand to his +lips. "Everything has been done according to your wishes," he said. +</P> + +<P> +She drew away with a start, and he saw that she had turned pale. "No, +no—not as I wish," she murmured. "It must not be because <I>I</I> wish—" +she broke off and her hand slipped from his. +</P> + +<P> +"You have taught me to wish as you wish," he answered gently. "Surely +you would not disown your pupil now?" +</P> + +<P> +Her agitation increased. "Do not call yourself that!" she exclaimed. +"Not even in jest. What you have done has been done of your own +choice—because you thought it best for your people. My nearness or +absence could have made no difference." +</P> + +<P> +He looked at her with growing wonder. "Why this sudden modesty?" he said +with a smile. "I thought you prided yourself on your share in the great +work." +</P> + +<P> +She tried to force an answering smile, but the curve broke into a quiver +of distress, and she came close to him, with a gesture that seemed to +take flight from herself. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't say it, don't say it!" she broke out. "What right have they to +call it my doing? I but stood aside and watched you and gloried in +you—is there any guilt to a woman in THAT?" She clung to him a moment, +hiding her face in his breast. +</P> + +<P> +He loosened her arms gently, that he might draw back and look at her. +"Fulvia," he asked, "what ails you? You are not yourself tonight. Has +anything happened to distress you? Have you been annoyed or alarmed in +any way?—It is not possible," he broke off, "that Trescorre has been +here—?" +</P> + +<P> +She drew away, flushed and protesting. "No, no," she exclaimed. "Why +should Trescorre come here? Why should you fancy that any one has been +here? I am excited, I know; I talk idly; but it is because I have been +thinking too long of these things—" +</P> + +<P> +"Of what things?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of what people say—how can one help hearing that? I sometimes fancy +that the more withdrawn one lives the more distinctly one hears the +outer noises." +</P> + +<P> +"But why should you heed the outer noises? You have never done so +before." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps I was wrong not to do so before. Perhaps I should have listened +sooner. Perhaps others have seen—understood—sooner than I—oh, the +thought is intolerable!" +</P> + +<P> +She moved a pace or two away, and then, regaining the mastery of her +lips and eyes, turned to him with a show of calmness. +</P> + +<P> +"Your heart was never in this charter—" she began. +</P> + +<P> +"Fulvia!" he cried protestingly; but she lifted a silencing hand. "Ah, I +have seen it—I have felt it—but I was never willing to own that you +were right. My pride in you blinded me, I suppose. I could not bear to +dream any fate for you but the greatest. I saw you always leading +events, rather than waiting on them. But true greatness lies in the man, +not in his actions. Compromise, delay, renunciation—these may be as +heroic as conflict. A woman's vision is so narrow that I did not see +this at first. You have always told me that I looked only at one side of +the question; but I see the other side now—I see that you were right." +</P> + +<P> +Odo stood silent. He had followed her with growing wonder. A volte-face +so little in keeping with her mental habits immediately struck him as a +feint; yet so strangely did it accord with his own secret reluctances +that these inclined him to let it pass unquestioned. +</P> + +<P> +Some instinctive loyalty to his past checked the temptation. "I am not +sure that I understand you," he said slowly. "Have you lost faith in the +ideas we have worked for?" +</P> + +<P> +She hesitated, and he saw the struggle beneath her surface calmness. +"No, no," she exclaimed quickly, "I have not lost faith in them—" +</P> + +<P> +"In me, then?" +</P> + +<P> +She smiled with a disarming sadness. "That would be so much simpler!" +she murmured. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean, then?" he urged. "We must understand each other." He +paused, and measured his words out slowly. "Do you think it a mistake to +proclaim the constitution tomorrow?" +</P> + +<P> +Again her face was full of shadowy contradictions. "I entreat you not to +proclaim it tomorrow," she said in a low voice. +</P> + +<P> +Odo felt the blood drum in his ears. Was not this the word for which he +had waited? But still some deeper instinct held him back, warning him, +as it seemed, that to fall below his purpose at such a juncture was the +only measurable failure. He must know more before he yielded, see deeper +into her heart and his; and each moment brought the clearer conviction +that there was more to know and see. +</P> + +<P> +"This is unlike you, Fulvia," he said. "You cannot make such a request +on impulse. You must have a reason." +</P> + +<P> +She smiled. "You told me once that a woman's reasons are only impulses +in men's clothes." +</P> + +<P> +But he was not to be diverted by this thrust. "I shall think so now," he +said, "unless you can give me some better account of yours!" +</P> + +<P> +She was silent, and he pressed on with a persistency for which he +himself could hardly account: "You must have a reason for this request." +</P> + +<P> +"I have one," she said, dropping her attempts at evasion. +</P> + +<P> +"And it is—?" +</P> + +<P> +She paused again, with a look of appeal against which he had to stiffen +himself. +</P> + +<P> +"I do not believe the time has come," she said at length. +</P> + +<P> +"You think the people are not ready for the constitution?" +</P> + +<P> +She answered with an effort: "I think the people are not ready for it." +</P> + +<P> +He fell silent, and they sat facing each other, but with eyes apart. +</P> + +<P> +"You have received this impression from Gamba, from Andreoni—from the +members of our party?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +She made no reply. +</P> + +<P> +"Remember, Fulvia," he went on almost sternly, "that this is the end for +which we have worked together all these years—the end for which we +renounced each other and went forth in our youth, you to exile and I to +an unwilling sovereignty. It was because we loved this cause better than +ourselves that we had strength to give up for it our personal hopes of +happiness. If we betray the cause from any merely personal motive we +shall have fallen below our earlier selves." He waited again, but she +was still silent. "Can you swear to me," he went on, "that no such +motive influences you now? That you honestly believe we have been +deceived and mistaken? That our years of faith and labour have been +wasted, and that, if mankind is to be helped, it is to be in other ways +and by other efforts than ours?" +</P> + +<P> +He stood before her accusingly, almost, the passion of the long fight +surging up in him as he felt the weapon drop from his hand. +</P> + +<P> +Fulvia had sat motionless under his appeal; but as he paused she rose +with an impulsive gesture. "Oh, why do you torment me with questions?" +she cried, half-sobbing. "I venture to counsel a delay, and you arraign +me as though I stood at the day of judgment!" +</P> + +<P> +"It IS our day of judgment," he retorted. "It is the day on which life +confronts us with our own actions, and we must justify them or own +ourselves deluded." He went up to her and caught her hands entreatingly. +"Fulvia," he said, "I too have doubted, wavered—and if you will give me +one honest reason that is worthy of us both—" +</P> + +<P> +She broke from him to hide her weeping. "Reasons! reasons!" she +stammered. "What does the heart know of reasons? I ask a favour—the +first I ever asked of you—and you answer it by haggling with me for +reasons!" +</P> + +<P> +Something in her voice and gesture was like a lightning-flash over a +dark landscape. In an instant he saw the pit at his feet. +</P> + +<P> +"Some one has been with you. Those words were not yours," he cried. +</P> + +<P> +She rallied instantly. "That is a pretext for not heeding them!" she +returned. +</P> + +<P> +The lightning glared again. He stepped close and faced her. +</P> + +<P> +"The Duchess has been here," he said. +</P> + +<P> +She dropped into a chair and hid her face from him. A wave of anger +mounted from his heart, choking back his words and filling his brain +with its fumes. But as it subsided he felt himself suddenly cool, firm, +attempered. There could be no wavering, no self-questioning now. +</P> + +<P> +"When did this happen?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head despairingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Fulvia," he said, "if you will not speak I will speak for you. I can +guess what arguments were used—what threats, even. Were there threats?" +burst from him in a fresh leap of anger. +</P> + +<P> +She raised her head slowly. "Threats would not have mattered," she said. +</P> + +<P> +"But your fears were played on—your fears for my safety?—Fulvia, +answer me!" he insisted. +</P> + +<P> +She rose suddenly and laid her arms about his shoulders, with a gesture +half-tender, half-maternal. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," she said, "why will you torture me? I have borne much for our +love's sake, and would have borne this too—in silence, like the +rest—but to speak of it is to relieve it; and my strength fails me!" +</P> + +<P> +He held her hands fast, keeping his eyes on hers. "No," he said, "for +your strength never failed you when there was any call on it; and our +whole past calls on it now. Rouse yourself, Fulvia: look life in the +face! You were told there might be troubles tomorrow—that I was in +danger, perhaps?" +</P> + +<P> +"There was worse—there was worse," she shuddered. +</P> + +<P> +"Worse?" +</P> + +<P> +"The blame was laid on me—the responsibility. Your love for me, my +power over you, were accused. The people hate me—they hate you for +loving me! Oh, I have destroyed you!" she cried. +</P> + +<P> +Odo felt a slow cold strength pouring into all his veins. It was as +though his enemies, in thinking to mix a mortal poison, had rendered him +invulnerable. He bent over her with great gentleness. +</P> + +<P> +"Fulvia, this is madness," he said. "A moment's thought must show you +what passions are here at work. Can you not rise above such fears? No +one can judge between us but ourselves." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, but you do not know—you will not understand. Your life may be in +danger!" she cried. +</P> + +<P> +"I have been told that before," he said contemptuously. "It is a common +trick of the political game." +</P> + +<P> +"This is no trick," she exclaimed. "I was made to see—to +understand—and I swear to you that the danger is real." +</P> + +<P> +"And what if it were? Is the Church to have all the martyrs?" said he +gaily. "Come, Fulvia, shake off such fancies. My life is as safe as +yours. At worst there may be a little hissing to be faced. That is easy +enough compared to facing one's own doubts. And I have no doubts +now—that is all past, thank heaven! I see the road straight before +me—as straight as when you showed it to me once before, years ago, in +the inn-parlour at Peschiera. You pointed the way to it then; surely you +would not hold me back from it now?" +</P> + +<P> +He took her in his arms and kissed her lips to silence. +</P> + +<P> +"When we meet tomorrow," he said, releasing her, "It will be as teacher +and pupil, you in your doctor's gown and I a learner at your feet. Put +your old faith in me into your argument, and we shall have all Pianura +converted." +</P> + +<P> +He hastened away through the dim gardens, carrying a boy's heart in his +breast. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +4.10. +</H4> + +<P> +The University of Pianura was lodged in the ancient Signoria or Town +Hall of the free city; and here, on the afternoon of the Duke's +birthday, the civic dignitaries and the leading men of the learned +professions had assembled to see the doctorate conferred on the +Signorina Fulvia Vivaldi and on several less conspicuous candidates of +the other sex. +</P> + +<P> +The city was again in gala dress. Early that morning the new +constitution had been proclaimed, with much firing of cannon and display +of official fireworks; but even these great news, and their attendant +manifestations, had failed to enliven the populace, who, instead of +filling the streets with their usual stir, hung massed at certain +points, as though curiously waiting on events. There are few sights more +ominous than that of a crowd thus observing itself, watching in +inconscient suspense for the unknown crisis which its own passions have +engendered. +</P> + +<P> +It was known that his Highness, after the public banquet at the palace, +was to proceed in state to the University; and the throng was thick +about the palace gates and in the streets betwixt it and the Signoria. +Here the square was close-packed, and every window choked with gazers, +as the Duke's coach came in sight, escorted meagrely by his equerries +and the half-dozen light-horse that preceded him. The small escort, and +the marked absence of military display, perhaps disappointed the +splendour-loving crowd; and from this cause or another, scarce a cheer +was heard as his Highness descended from his coach, and walked up the +steps to the porch of ancient carved stone where the faculty awaited +him. +</P> + +<P> +The hall was already filled with students and graduates, and with the +guests of the University. Through this grave assemblage the Duke passed +up to the row of armchairs beneath the dais at the farther end of the +room. Trescorre, who was to have attended his Highness, had excused +himself on the plea of indisposition, and only a few +gentlemen-in-waiting accompanied the Duke; but in the brown half-light +of the old Gothic hall their glittering uniforms contrasted brilliantly +with the black gowns of the students, and the sober broadcloth of the +learned professions. A discreet murmur of enthusiasm rose at their +approach, mounting almost to a cheer as the Duke bowed before taking his +seat; for the audience represented the class most in sympathy with his +policy and most confident of its success. +</P> + +<P> +The meetings of the faculty were held in the great council-chamber where +the Rectors of the old free city had assembled; and such a setting was +regarded as peculiarly appropriate to the present occasion. The fact was +alluded to, with much wealth of historical and mythological analogy, by +the President, who opened the ceremonies with a polysyllabic Latin +oration, in which the Duke was compared to Apollo, Hercules and Jason, +as well as to the flower of sublunary heroes. +</P> + +<P> +This feat of rhetoric over, the candidates were called on to advance and +receive their degrees. The men came first, profiting by the momentary +advantage of sex, but clearly aware of its inability to confer even +momentary importance in the eyes of the impatient audience. A pause +followed, and then Fulvia appeared. Against the red-robed faculty at the +back of the dais, she stood tall and slender in her black cap and gown. +The high windows of painted glass shed a paleness on her face, but her +carriage was light and assured as she advanced to the President and +knelt to receive her degree. The parchment was placed in her hand, the +furred hood laid on her shoulders; then, after another flourish of +rhetoric, she was led to the lectern from which her discourse was to be +delivered. Odo sat just below her, and as she took her place their eyes +met for an instant. He was caught up in the serene exaltation of her +look, as though she soared with him above wind and cloud to a region of +unshadowed calm; then her eyes fell and she began to speak. +</P> + +<P> +She had a pretty mastery of Latin, and though she had never before +spoken in public, her poetical recitations, and the early habit of +intercourse with her father's friends, had given her a fair measure of +fluency and self-possession. These qualities were raised to eloquence by +the sweetness of her voice, and by the grave beauty which made the +academic gown seem her natural wear, rather than a travesty of learning. +Odo at first had some difficulty in fixing his attention on what she +said; and when he controlled his thoughts she was in the height of her +panegyric of constitutional liberty. She had begun slowly, almost +coldly; but now her theme possessed her. One by one she evoked the +familiar formulas with which his mind had once reverberated. They woke +no echo in him now; but he saw that she could still set them ringing +through the sensibilities of her hearers. As she stood there, a slight +impassioned figure, warming to her high argument, his sense of irony was +touched by the incongruity of her background. The wall behind her was +covered by an ancient fresco, fast fading under its touches of renewed +gilding, and representing the patron scholars of the mediaeval world: +the theologians, law-givers and logicians under whose protection the +free city had placed its budding liberties. There they sat, rigid and +sumptuous on their Gothic thrones: Origen, Zeno, David, Lycurgus, +Aristotle; listening in a kind of cataleptic helplessness to a +confession of faith that scattered their doctrines to the winds. As he +looked and listened, a weary sense of the reiterance of things came over +him. For what were these ancient manipulators of ideas, prestidigitators +of a vanished world of thought, but the forbears of the long line of +theorists of whom Fulvia was the last inconscient mouthpiece? The new +game was still played with the old counters, the new jugglers repeated +the old tricks; and the very words now poured out in defence of the new +cause were but mercenaries scarred in the service of its enemies. For +generations, for centuries, man had fought on; crying for liberty, +dreaming it was won, waking to find himself the slave of the new forces +he had generated, burning and being burnt for the same beliefs under +different guises, calling his instinct ideas and his ideas revelations; +destroying, rebuilding, falling, rising, mending broken weapons, +championing extinct illusions, mistaking his failures for achievements +and planting his flag on the ramparts as they fell. And as the vision of +this inveterate conflict rose before him, Odo saw that the beauty, the +power, the immortality, dwelt not in the idea but in the struggle for +it. +</P> + +<P> +His resistance yielded as this sense stole over him, and with an almost +physical relief he felt himself drawn once more into the familiar +current of emotion. Yes, it was better after all to be one of that great +unconquerable army, though, like the Trojans fighting for a phantom +Helen, they might be doing battle for the shadow of a shade; better to +march in their ranks, endure with them, fight with them, fall with them, +than to miss the great enveloping sense of brotherhood that turned +defeat to victory. +</P> + +<P> +As the conviction grew in him, Fulvia's words regained their lost +significance. Through the set mask of language the living thoughts +looked forth, old indeed as the world, but renewed with the new life of +every heart that bore them. She had left the abstract and dropped to +concrete issues: to the gift of the constitution, the benefits and +obligations it implied, the new relations it established between ruler +and subject and between man and man. Odo saw that she approached the +question without flinching. No trace remained of the trembling woman who +had clung to him the night before. Her old convictions repossessed her +and she soared above human fears. +</P> + +<P> +So engrossed was he that he had been unaware of a growing murmur of +sound which seemed to be forcing its way from without through the walls +of the ancient building. As Fulvia's oration neared its end the murmur +rose to a roar. Startled faces were turned toward the doors of the +council-chamber, and one of the Duke's gentlemen left his seat and made +his way through the audience. Odo sat motionless, his eyes on Fulvia. He +noticed that her face paled as the sound reached her, but there was no +break in the voice with which she uttered the closing words of her +peroration. As she ended, the noise was momentarily drowned under a loud +burst of clapping; but this died in a hush of apprehension through which +the outer tumult became more ominously audible. The equerry reentered +the hall with a disordered countenance. He hastened to the Duke and +addressed him urgently. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Highness," he said, "the crowd has thickened and wears an ugly +look. There are many friars abroad, and images of the Mountain Virgin +are being carried in procession. Will your Highness be pleased to remain +here while I summon an escort from the barracks?" +</P> + +<P> +Odo was still watching Fulvia. She had received the applause of the +audience with a deep reverence, and was now in the act of withdrawing to +the inner room at the back of the dais. Her eyes met Odo's; she smiled +and the door closed on her. He turned to the equerry. +</P> + +<P> +"There is no need of an escort," he said. "I trust my people if they do +not trust me." +</P> + +<P> +"But, your Highness, the streets are full of demagogues who have been +haranguing the people since morning. The crowd is shouting against the +constitution and against the Signorina Vivaldi." +</P> + +<P> +A flame of anger passed over the Duke's face; but he subdued it +instantly. +</P> + +<P> +"Go to the Signorina Vivaldi," he said, pointing to the door by which +Fulvia had left the hall. "Assure her that there is no danger, but ask +her to remain where she is till the crowd disperses, and request the +faculty in my name to remain with her." +</P> + +<P> +The equerry bowed, and hurried up the steps of the dais, while the Duke +signed to his other companions to precede him to the door of the hall. +As they walked down the long room, between the close-packed ranks of the +audience, the outer tumult surged threateningly toward them. Near the +doorway, another of the gentlemen-in-waiting was seen to speak with the +Duke. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Highness," he said, "there is a private way at the back by which +you may yet leave the building unobserved." +</P> + +<P> +"You appear to forget that I entered it publicly," said Odo. +</P> + +<P> +"But, your Highness, we cannot answer for the consequences—" +</P> + +<P> +The Duke signed to the ushers to throw open the doors. They obeyed, and +he stepped out into the stone vestibule preceding the porch. The +iron-barred outer doors of this vestibule were securely bolted, and the +porter hung back in affright at the order to unlock them. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Highness, the people are raving mad," he said, flinging himself on +his knees. +</P> + +<P> +Odo turned impatiently to his escort. "Unbar the doors, gentlemen," he +said. The blood was drumming in his ears, but his eye was clear and +steady, and he noted with curious detachment the comic agony of the fat +porter's face, and the strain and swell of the equerry's muscles as he +dragged back the ponderous bolts. +</P> + +<P> +The doors swung open, and the Duke emerged. Below him, still with that +unimpaired distinctness of vision which seemed a part of his heightened +vitality, he saw a great gesticulating mass of people. They packed the +square so closely that their own numbers held them immovable, save for +their swaying arms and heads; and those whom the square could not +contain had climbed to porticoes, balconies and cornices, and massed +themselves in the neck of the adjoining streets. The handful of +light-horse who had escorted the Duke's carriage formed a single line at +the foot of the steps, so that the approach to the porch was still +clear; but it was plain that the crowd, with its next movement, would +break through this slender barrier and hem in the Duke. +</P> + +<P> +At Odo's appearance the shouting had ceased and every eye was turned on +him. He stood there, a brilliant target, in his laced coat of +peach-coloured velvet, his breast covered with orders, a hand on his +jewelled sword-hilt. For a moment sovereign and subjects measured each +other; and in that moment Odo drank his deepest draught of life. He was +not thinking now of the constitution or its opponents. His present +business was to get down the steps and into the carriage, returning to +the palace as openly as he had come. He was conscious of neither pity +nor hatred for the throng in his path. For the moment he regarded them +merely as a natural force, to be fought against like storm or flood. His +clearest sensation was one of relief at having at last some material +obstacle to spend his strength against, instead of the impalpable powers +which had so long beset him. He felt, too, a boyish satisfaction at his +own steadiness of pulse and eye, at the absence of that fatal inertia +which he had come to dread. So clear was his mental horizon that it +embraced not only the present crisis, but a dozen incidents leading up +to it. He remembered that Trescorre had urged him to take a larger +escort, and that he had refused on the ground that any military display +might imply a doubt of his people. He was glad now that he had done so. +He would have hated to slink to his carriage behind a barrier of drawn +swords. He wanted no help to see him through this business. The blood +sang in his veins at the thought of facing it alone. +</P> + +<P> +The silence lasted but a moment; then an image of the Mountain Virgin +was suddenly thrust in air, and a voice cried out: "Down with our Lady's +enemies! We want no laws against the friars!" +</P> + +<P> +A howl caught up the words and tossed them to and fro above the seething +heads. Images of the Virgin, religious banners, the blue-and-white of +the Madonna's colours, suddenly canopied the crowd. +</P> + +<P> +"We want the Barnabites back!" sang out another voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Down with the free-thinkers!" yelled a hundred angry throats. +</P> + +<P> +A stone or two sped through the air and struck the sculptures of the +porch. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Highness!" cried the equerry who stood nearest, and would have +snatched the Duke back within doors. +</P> + +<P> +For all answer, Odo stepped clear of the porch and advanced to the edge +of the steps. As he did so, a shower of missiles hummed about him, and a +stone struck him on the lip. The blood rushed to his head, and he swayed +in the sudden grip of anger; but he mastered himself and raised his lace +handkerchief to the cut. +</P> + +<P> +His gentlemen had drawn their swords; but he signed to them to sheathe +again. His first thought was that he must somehow make the people hear +him. He lifted his hand and advanced a step; but as he did so a shot +rang out, followed by a loud cry. The lieutenant of the light-horse, +infuriated by the insult to his master, had drawn the pistol from his +holster and fired blindly into the crowd. His bullet had found a mark, +and the throng hissed and seethed about the spot where a man had fallen. +At the same instant Odo was aware of a commotion in the group behind +him, and with a great plunge of the heart he saw Fulvia at his side. She +still wore the academic dress, and her black gown detached itself +sharply against the bright colours of the ducal uniforms. +</P> + +<P> +Groans and hisses received her, but the mob hung back, as though her +look had checked them. Then a voice shrieked out: "Down with the +atheist! We want no foreign witches!" and another caught it up with the +yell: "She poisoned the weaver's boy! Her father was hanged for +murdering Christian children!" +</P> + +<P> +The cry set the crowd in motion again, and it rolled toward the line of +mounted soldiers at the foot of the steps. The men had their hands on +their holsters; but the Duke's call rang out: "No firing!" and drawing +their blades, they sat motionless to receive the shock. +</P> + +<P> +It came, dashed against them and dispersed them. Only a few yards lay +now between the people and their sovereign. But at that moment another +shot was fired. This time it came from the thick of the crowd. The +equerries' swords leapt forth again, and they closed around the Duke and +Fulvia. +</P> + +<P> +"Save yourself, sir! Back into the building!" one of the gentlemen +shouted; but Odo had no eyes for what was coming. For as the shot was +heard he had seen a change in Fulvia. A moment they had stood together, +smiling, undaunted, hands locked and wedded eyes, then he felt her +dissolve against him and drop between his arms. +</P> + +<P> +A cry had gone out that the Duke was wounded, and a leaden silence fell +on the crowd. In that silence Odo knelt, lifting Fulvia's head to his +breast. No wound showed through her black gown. She lay as though +smitten by some invisible hand. So deep was the hush that her least +whisper must have reached him; but though he bent close no whisper came. +The invisible hand had struck the very source of life; and to these two, +in their moment of final reunion, with so much unsaid between them that +now at last they longed to say, there was left only the dumb communion +of fast-clouding eyes... +</P> + +<P> +A clatter of cavalry was heard down the streets that led to the square. +The equerry sent to warn Fulvia had escaped from the back of the +building and hastened to the barracks to summon a regiment. But the +soldiery were no longer needed. The blind fury of the mob had died of +its own excess. The rumour that the Duke was hurt brought a chill +reaction of dismay, and the rioters were already scattering when the +cavalry came in sight. Their approach turned the slow dispersal to a +stampede. A few arrests were made, the remaining groups were charged by +the soldiers, and presently the square lay bare as a storm-swept plain, +though the people still hung on its outskirts, ready to disband at the +first threat of the troops. +</P> + +<P> +It was on this solitude that the Duke looked out as he regained a sense +of his surroundings. Fulvia had been carried into the audience-chamber +and laid on the dais, her head resting on the velvet cushions of the +ducal chair. She had died instantly, shot through the heart, and the +surgeons summoned in haste had soon ceased from their ineffectual +efforts. For a long time Odo knelt beside her, unconscious of all but +that one wild moment when life at its highest had been dashed into the +gulf of death. Thought had ceased, and neither rage nor grief moved as +yet across the chaos of his being. All his life was in his eyes, as they +drew up, drop by drop, the precious essence of her loveliness. For she +had grown, beneath the simplifying hand of death, strangely yet most +humanly beautiful. Life had fallen from her like the husk from the +flower, and she wore the face of her first hopes. The transition had +been too swift for any backward look, any anguished rending of the +fibres, and he felt himself, not detached by the stroke, but caught up +with her into some great calm within the heart of change. +</P> + +<P> +He knew not how he found himself once more on the steps above the +square. Below him his state carriage stood in the same place, flanked by +the regiment of cavalry. Down the narrow streets he saw the brooding +cloud of people, and the sight roused his blood. They were his enemies +now—he felt the warm hate in his veins. They were his enemies, and he +would face them openly. No closed chariot guarded by troops—he would +not have so much as a pane of glass between himself and his subjects. He +descended the steps, bade the colonel of the regiment dismount, and +sprang into his saddle. Then, at the head of his soldiers, at a +foot-pace, he rode back through the packed streets to the palace. +</P> + +<P> +In the palace, courtyard and vestibule were thronged with courtiers and +lacqueys. He walked through them with his head high, the cut on his lip +like the mark of a hot iron in the dead whiteness of his face. At the +head of the great staircase Maria Clementina waited. She sprang forward, +distraught and trembling, her face as blanched as his. +</P> + +<P> +"You are safe—you are safe—you are not hurt—" she stammered, catching +at his hands. +</P> + +<P> +A shudder seized him as he put her aside. +</P> + +<P> +"Odo! Odo!" she cried passionately, and made as though to bar his way. +</P> + +<P> +He gave her a blind look and passed on down the long gallery to his +closet. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4> +4.11. +</H4> + +<P> +The joy of reprisals lasted no longer than a summer storm. To hurt, to +silence, to destroy, was too easy to be satisfying. The passions of his +ancestors burned low in Odo's breast: though he felt Bracciaforte's fury +in his veins he could taste no answering gratification of revenge. And +the spirit on which he would have spent his hatred was not here or +there, as an embodied faction, but everywhere as an intangible +influence. The acqua tofana of his enemies had pervaded every fibre of +the state. +</P> + +<P> +The mist of anguish lifted, he saw himself alone among ruins. For a +moment Fulvia's glowing faith had hung between him and a final vision of +the truth; and as his convictions weakened he had replaced them with an +immense pity, an all-sufficing hope. Sentimental verbiage: he saw it +clearly now. He had been the dupe of the old word-jugglery which was +forever confounding fact and fancy in men's minds. For it was +essentially an age of words: the world was drunk with them, as it had +once been drunk with action; and the former was the deadlier drug of the +two. He looked about him languidly, letting the facts of life filter +slowly through his faculties. The sources of energy were so benumbed in +him that he felt like a man whom long disease had reduced to +helplessness and who must laboriously begin his bodily education again. +Hate was the only passion which survived, and that was but a deaf +intransitive emotion coiled in his nature's depths. +</P> + +<P> +Sickness at last brought its obliteration. He sank into gulfs of +weakness and oblivion, and when the rise of the tide floated him back to +life, it was to a life as faint and colourless as infancy. Colourless +too were the boundaries on which he looked out: the narrow enclosure of +white walls, opening on a slit of pale spring landscape. His hands lay +before him, white and helpless on the white coverlet of his bed. He +raised his eyes and saw de Crucis at his side. Then he began to +remember. There had been preceding intervals of consciousness, and in +one of them, in answer perhaps to some vaguely-uttered wish for light +and air, he had been carried out of the palace and the city to the +Benedictine monastery on its wooded knoll beyond the Piana. Then the +veil had dropped again, and his spirit had wandered in a dim place of +shades. There was a faint sweetness in coming back at last to familiar +sights and sounds. They no longer hurt like pressure on an aching nerve: +they seemed rather, now, the touch of a reassuring hand. +</P> + +<P> +As the contact with life became closer and more sustained he began to +watch himself curiously, wondering what instincts and habits of thought +would survive his long mental death. It was with a bitter, almost +pitiable disappointment that he found the old man growing again in him. +Life, with a mocking hand, brought him the cast-off vesture of his past, +and he felt himself gradually compressed again into the old passions and +prejudices. Yet he wore them with a difference—they were a cramping +garment rather than a living sheath. He had brought back from his lonely +voyagings a sense of estrangement deeper than any surface-affinity with +things. +</P> + +<P> +As his physical strength returned, and he was able to leave his room and +walk through the long corridors to the outer air, he felt the old spell +which the life of Monte Cassino had cast on him. The quiet garden, with +its clumps of box and lavender between paths converging to the statue of +Saint Benedict; the cloisters paved with the monks' nameless graves; the +traces of devotional painting left here and there on the weather-beaten +walls, like fragments of prayer in a world-worn mind: these formed a +circle of tranquillising influences in which he could gradually +reacquire the habit of living. +</P> + +<P> +He had never deceived himself as to the cause of the riots. He knew from +Gamba and Andreoni that the liberals and the court, for once working in +unison, had provoked the blind outburst of fanaticism which a rasher +judgment might have ascribed to the clergy. The Dominicans, bigoted and +eager for power, had been ready enough to serve such an end, and some of +the begging orders had furnished the necessary points of contact with +the people; but the movement was at bottom purely political, and +represented the resistance of the privileged classes to any attack on +their inherited rights. +</P> + +<P> +As such, he could no longer regard it as completely unreasonable. He was +beginning to feel the social and political significance of those old +restrictions and barriers against which his early zeal had tilted. +Certainly in the ideal state the rights and obligations of the different +classes would be more evenly adjusted. But the ideal state was a figment +of the brain. The real one, as Crescenti had long ago pointed out, was +the gradual and heterogeneous product of remote social conditions, +wherein every seeming inconsistency had its roots in some bygone need, +and the character of each class, with its special passions, ignorances +and prejudices, was the sum total of influences so ingrown and +inveterate that they had become a law of thought. All this, however, +seemed rather matter for philosophic musing than for definite action. +His predominant feeling was still that of remoteness from the immediate +issues of life: the soeva indignatio had been succeeded by a great calm. +</P> + +<P> +The soothing influences of the monastic life had doubtless helped to +tide him over the stormy passage of returning consciousness. His +sensitiveness to these influences inclined him for the first time to +consider them analytically. Hitherto he had regarded the Church as a +skilfully-adjusted engine, the product of human passions scientifically +combined to obtain the greatest sum of tangible results. Now he saw that +he had never penetrated beneath the surface. For the Church which +grasped, contrived, calculated, struggled for temporal possessions and +used material weapons against spiritual foes—this outer Church was +nothing more than the body, which, like any other animal body, had to +care for its own gross needs, nourish, clothe, defend itself, fight for +a footing among the material resistances of life—while the soul, the +inner animating principle, might dwell aloof from all these things, in a +clear medium of its own. +</P> + +<P> +To this soul of the Church his daily life now brought him close. He felt +it in the ordered beneficence of the great community, in the simplicity +of its external life and the richness and suavity of its inner +relations. No alliance based on material interests, no love of power +working toward a common end, could have created that harmony of thought +and act which was reflected in every face about him. Each of these men +seemed to have FOUND OUT SOMETHING of which he was still ignorant. +</P> + +<P> +What it was, de Crucis tried to tell him as they paced the cloisters +together or sat in the warm stillness of the budding garden. At the +first news of the Duke's illness the Jesuit had hastened to Pianura. No +companionship could have been so satisfying to Odo. De Crucis's mental +attitude toward mankind might have been defined as an illuminated +charity. To love men, or to understand them, is not as unusual as to do +both together; and it was the intellectual acuteness of his friend's +judgments that made their Christian amenity so seductive to Odo. +</P> + +<P> +"The highest claim of Christianity," the Jesuit said one morning, as +they sat on a worn stone bench at the end of the sunny vine-walk, "is +that it has come nearer to solving the problem of men's relations to +each other than any system invented by themselves. This, after all, is +the secret principle of the Church's vitality. She gave a spiritual +charter of equality to mankind long before the philosophers thought of +giving them a material one. If, all the while, she has been fighting for +dominion, arrogating to herself special privileges, struggling to +preserve the old lines of social and legal demarcation, it has been +because for nigh two thousand years she has cherished in her breast the +one free city of the spirit, because to guard its liberties she has had +to defend and strengthen her own position. I do not ask you to consider +whence comes this insight into the needs of man, this mysterious power +over him; I ask you simply to confess them in their results. I am not of +those who believe that God permits good to come to mankind through one +channel only, and I doubt not that now and in times past the thinkers +whom your Highness follows have done much to raise the condition of +their fellows; but I would have you observe that, where they have done +so, it has been because, at bottom, their aims coincided with the +Church's. The deeper you probe into her secret sources of power, the +more you find there, in the germ if you will, but still potentially +active, all those humanising energies which work together for the +lifting of the race. In her wisdom and her patience she may have seen +fit to withhold their expression, to let them seek another outlet; but +they are there, stored in her consciousness like the archetypes of the +Platonists in the Universal Mind. It is the knowledge of this, the sure +knowledge of it, which creates the atmosphere of serenity that you feel +about you. From the tilling of the vineyards, or the dressing of a +beggar's sores, to the loftiest and most complicated intellectual labour +imposed on him, each brother knows that his daily task is part of a +great scheme of action, working ever from imperfection to perfection, +from human incompleteness to the divine completion. This sense of being, +not straws on a blind wind of chance, but units in an ordered force, +gives to the humblest Christian an individual security and dignity which +kings on their thrones might envy. +</P> + +<P> +"But not only does the Church anticipate every tendency of mankind; +alone of all powers she knows how to control and direct the passions she +excites. This it is which makes her an auxiliary that no temporal prince +can well despise. It is in this aspect that I would have your Highness +consider her. Do not underrate her power because it seems based on the +commoner instincts rather than on the higher faculties of man. That is +one of the sources of her strength. She can support her claims by reason +and argument, but it is because her work, like that of her divine +Founder, lies chiefly among those who can neither reason nor argue, that +she chooses to rest her appeal on the simplest and most universal +emotions. As, in our towns, the streets are lit mainly by the tapers +before the shrines of the saints, so the way of life would be dark to +the great multitude of men but for the light of faith burning within +them..." +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile the shufflings of destiny had brought to Trescorre the prize +for which he waited. During the Duke's illness he had been appointed +regent of Pianura, and his sovereign's reluctance to take up the cares +of government had now left him for six months in authority. The day +after the proclaiming of the constitution Odo had withdrawn his +signature from it, on the ground that the concessions it contained were +inopportune. The functions of government went on again in the old way. +The old abuses persisted, the old offences were condoned: it was as +though the apathy of the sovereign had been communicated to his people. +Centuries of submission were in their blood, and for two generations +there had been no warfare south of the Alps. +</P> + +<P> +For the moment men's minds were turned to the great events going forward +in France. It had not yet occurred to the Italians that the recoil of +these events might be felt among themselves. They were simply amused +spectators, roused at last to the significance of the show, but never +dreaming that they might soon be called from the wings to the +footlights. To de Crucis, however, the possibility of such a call was +already present, and it was he who pressed the Duke to return to his +post. A deep reluctance held Odo back. He would have liked to linger on +in the monastery, leading the tranquil yet busy life of the monks, and +trying to read the baffling riddle of its completeness. At that moment +it seemed to him of vastly more importance to discover the exact nature +of the soul—whether it was in fact a metaphysical entity, as these men +believed, or a mere secretion of the brain, as he had been taught to +think—than to go back and govern his people. For what mattered the +rest, if he had been mistaken about the soul? +</P> + +<P> +With a start he realised that he was going as his cousin had gone—that +this was but another form of the fatal lethargy that hung upon his race. +An effort of the will drew him back to Pianura, and made him resume the +semblance of authority; but it carried him no farther. Trescorre +ostensibly became prime minister, and in reality remained the head of +the state. The Duke was present at the cabinet meetings but took no part +in the direction of affairs. His mind was lost in a maze of metaphysical +speculations; and even these served him merely as some +cunningly-contrived toy with which to trick his leisure. +</P> + +<P> +His revocation of the charter had necessarily separated him from Gamba +and the advanced liberals. He knew that the hunchback, ever scornful of +expediency, charged him with disloyalty to the people; but such charges +could no longer wound. The events following the Duke's birthday had +served to crystallise the schemes of the little liberal group, and they +now formed a campaign of active opposition to the government, attacking +it by means of pamphlets and lampoons, and by such public speaking as +the police allowed. The new professors of the University, ardently in +sympathy with the constitutional movement, used their lectures as means +of political teaching, and the old stronghold of dogma became the centre +of destructive criticism. But as yet these ideas formed but a single +live point in the general numbness. +</P> + +<P> +Two years passed in this way. North of the Alps, all Europe was +convulsed, while Italy was still but a sleeper who tosses in his sleep. +In the two Sicilies, the arrogance and perfidy of the government gave a +few martyrs to the cause, and in Bologna there was a brief revolutionary +outbreak; but for the most part the Italian states were sinking into +inanition. Venice, by recalling her fleet from Greece, let fall the +dominion of the sea. Twenty years earlier Genoa had basely yielded +Corsica to France. The Pope condemned the French for their outrages on +religion, and his subjects murdered Basseville, the agent of the new +republic. The sympathies and impulses of the various states were as +contradictory as they were ineffectual. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, in France, Europe was trying to solve at a stroke the +problems of a thousand years. All the repressed passions which +civilisation had sought, however imperfectly, to curb, stalked abroad +destructive as flood and fire. The great generation of the +Encyclopaedists had passed away, and the teachings of Rousseau had +prevailed over those of Montesquieu and Voltaire. The sober sense of the +economists was swept aside by the sound and fury of the demagogues, and +France was become a very Babel of tongues. The old malady of words had +swept over the world like a pestilence. +</P> + +<P> +To the little Italian courts, still dozing in fancied security under the +wing of Bourbon and Hapsburg suzerains, these rumours were borne by the +wild flight of emigres—dead leaves loosened by the first blast of the +storm. Month by month they poured across the Alps in ever-increasing +numbers, bringing confused contradictory tales of anarchy and outrage. +Among those whom chance thus carried to Pianura were certain familiars +of the Duke's earlier life—the Count Alfieri and his royal mistress, +flying from Paris, and arriving breathless with the tale of their +private injuries. To the poet of revolt this sudden realisation of his +doctrines seemed in fact a purely personal outrage. It was as though a +man writing an epic poem on an earthquake should suddenly find himself +engulphed. To Alfieri the downfall of the French monarchy and the +triumph of democratic ideas meant simply that his French investments had +shrunk to nothing, and that he, the greatest poet of the age, had been +obliged, at an immense sacrifice of personal dignity, to plead with a +drunken mob for leave to escape from Paris. To the wider aspect of the +"tragic farce," as he called it, his eyes remained obstinately closed. +He viewed the whole revolutionary movement as a conspiracy against his +comfort, and boasted that during his enforced residence in France he had +not so much as exchanged a word with one of the "French slaves, +instigators of false liberty," who, by trying to put into action the +principles taught in his previous works, had so grievously interfered +with the composition of fresh masterpieces. +</P> + +<P> +The royal pretensions of the Countess of Albany—pretentions affirmed +rather than abated as the tide of revolution rose—made it impossible +that she should be received at the court of Pianura; but the Duke found +a mild entertainment in Alfieri's company. The poet's revulsion of +feeling seemed to Odo like the ironic laughter of the fates. His +thoughts returned to the midnight meetings of the Honey Bees, and to the +first vision of that face which men had lain down their lives to see. +Men had looked on that face since then, and its horror was reflected in +their own. +</P> + +<P> +Other fugitives to Pianura brought another impression of events—that +comic note which life, the supreme dramatic artist, never omits from her +tragedies. These were the Duke's old friend the Marquis de Coeur-Volant, +fleeing from his chateau as the peasants put the torch to it, and +arriving in Pianura destitute, gouty and middle-aged, but imperturbable +and epigrammatic as ever. With him came his Marquise, a dark-eyed lady, +stout to unwieldiness and much given to devotion, in whom it was +whispered (though he introduced her as the daughter of a Venetian +Senator) that a reminiscent eye might still detect the outline of the +gracefullest Columbine who had ever flitted across the Italian stage. +These visitors were lodged by the Duke's kindness in the Palazzo +Cerveno, near the ducal residence; and though the ladies of Pianura were +inclined to look askance on the Marquise's genealogy, yet his Highness's +condescension, and her own edifying piety, had soon allayed these +scruples, and the salon of Madame de Coeur-Volant became the rival of +Madame d'Albany's. +</P> + +<P> +It was, in fact, the more entertaining of the two; for, in spite of his +lady's austere views, the Marquis retained that gift of social +flexibility that was already becoming the tradition of a happier day. To +the Marquis, indeed, the revolution was execrable not so much because of +the hardships it inflicted, as because it was the forerunner of social +dissolution—the breaking-up of the regime which had made manners the +highest morality, and conversation the chief end of man. He could have +lived gaily on a crust in good company and amid smiling faces; but the +social deficiencies of Pianura were more difficult to endure than any +material privation. In Italy, as the Marquis had more than once +remarked, people loved, gambled, wrote poetry, and patronised the arts; +but, alas, they did not converse. Coeur-Volant could not conceal from +his Highness that there was no conversation in Pianura; but he did his +best to fill the void by the constant exercise of his own gift in that +direction, and to Odo at least his talk seemed as good as it was +copious. Misfortune had given a finer savour to the Marquis's +philosophy, and there was a kind of heroic grace in his undisturbed +cultivation of the amenities. +</P> + +<P> +While the Marquis was struggling to preserve the conversational art, and +Alfieri planning the savage revenge of the Misogallo, the course of +affairs in France had gained a wilder impetus. The abolition of the +nobility, the flight and capture of the King, his enforced declaration +of war against Austria, the massacres of Avignon, the sack of the +Tuileries—such events seemed incredible enough till the next had +crowded them out of mind. The new year rose in blood and mounted to a +bloodier noon. All the old defences were falling. Religion, monarchy, +law, were sucked down into the whirlpool of liberated passions. Across +that sanguinary scene passed, like a mocking ghost, the philosophers' +vision of the perfectibility of man. Man was free at last—freer than +his would-be liberators had ever dreamed of making him—and he used his +freedom like a beast. For the multitude had risen—that multitude which +no man could number, which even the demagogues who ranted in its name +had never seriously reckoned with—that dim, grovelling +indistinguishable mass on which the whole social structure rested. It +was as though the very soil moved, rising in mountains or yawning in +chasms about the feet of those who had so long securely battened on it. +The earth shook, the sun and moon were darkened, and the people, the +terrible unknown people, had put in the sickle to the harvest. +</P> + +<P> +Italy roused herself at last. The emissaries of the new France were +swarming across the Alps, pervading the peninsula as the Jesuits had +once pervaded Europe; and in the mind of a young general of the +republican army visions of Italian conquest were already forming. In +Pianura the revolutionary agents found a strong republican party headed +by Gamba and his friends, and a government weakened by debt and +dissensions. The air was thick with intrigue. The little army could no +longer be counted on, and a prolonged bread-riot had driven Trescorre +out of the ministry and compelled the Duke to appoint Andreoni in his +place. Behind Andreoni stood Gamba and the radicals. There could be no +doubt which way the fortunes of the duchy tended. The Duke's would-be +protectors, Austria and the Holy See, were too busy organising the hasty +coalition of the powers to come to his aid, had he cared to call on +them. But to do so would have been but another way of annihilation. To +preserve the individuality of his state, or to merge it in the vision of +a United Italy, seemed to him the only alternatives worth fighting for. +The former was a futile dream, the latter seemed for a brief moment +possible. Piedmont, ever loyal to the monarchical principle, was calling +on her sister states to arm themselves against the French invasion. But +the response was reluctant and uncertain. Private ambitions and petty +jealousies hampered every attempt at union. Austria, the Bourbons and +the Holy See held the Italian principalities in a network of conflicting +interests and obligations that rendered free action impossible. Sadly +Victor Amadeus armed himself alone against the enemy. +</P> + +<P> +Under such conditions Odo could do little to direct the course of +events. They had passed into more powerful hands than his. But he could +at least declare himself for or against the mighty impulse which was +behind them. The ideas he had striven for had triumphed at last, and his +surest hold on authority was to share openly in their triumph. A +profound horror dragged him back. The new principles were not those for +which he had striven. The goddess of the new worship was but a bloody +Maenad who had borrowed the attributes of freedom. He could not bow the +knee in such a charnel-house. Tranquilly, resolutely, he took up the +policy of repression. He knew the attempt was foredoomed to failure, but +that made no difference now: he was simply acting out the inevitable. +</P> + +<P> +The last act came with unexpected suddenness. The Duke woke one morning +to find the citadel in the possession of the people. The impregnable +stronghold of Bracciaforte was in the hands of the serfs whose fathers +had toiled to build it, and the last descendant of Bracciaforte was +virtually a prisoner in his palace. The revolution took place quietly, +without violence or bloodshed. Andreoni waited on the Duke, and a +cabinet-council was summoned. The ministers affected to have yielded +reluctantly to popular pressure. All they asked was a constitution and +the assurance that no resistance would be offered to the French. +</P> + +<P> +The Duke requested a few hours for deliberation. Left alone, he summoned +the Duchess's chamberlain. The ducal pair no longer met save on +occasions of state: they had not exchanged a word since the death of +Fulvia Vivaldi. Odo sent word to her Highness that he could no longer +answer for her security while she remained in the duchy, and that he +begged her to leave immediately for Vienna. She replied that she was +obliged for his warning, but that while he remained in Pianura her place +was at his side. It was the answer he had expected—he had never doubted +her courage—but it was essential to his course that she should leave +the duchy without delay, and after a moment's reflection he wrote a +letter in which he informed her that he must insist on her obedience. No +answer was returned, but he learned that she had turned white, and +tearing the letter in shreds had called for her travelling-carriage +within the hour. He sent to enquire when he might take leave of her, but +she excused herself on the plea of indisposition, and before nightfall +he heard the departing rattle of her wheels. +</P> + +<P> +He immediately summoned Andreoni and announced his unconditional refusal +of the terms proposed to him. He would not give a constitution or +promise allegiance to the French. The minister withdrew, and Odo was +left alone. He had dismissed his gentlemen, and as he sat in his closet +a sense of deathlike isolation came over him. Never had the palace +seemed so silent or so vast. He had not a friend to turn to. De Crucis +was in Germany, and Trescorre, it was reported, had privately attended +the Duchess in her flight. The waves of destiny seemed closing over Odo, +and the circumstances of his past rose, poignant and vivid, before his +drowning sight. +</P> + +<P> +And suddenly, in that moment of failure and abandonment, it seemed to +him again that life was worth the living. His indifference fell from him +like a garment. The old passion of action awoke and he felt a new warmth +in his breast. After all, the struggle was not yet over: though Piedmont +had called in vain on the Italian states, an Italian sword might still +be drawn in her service. If his people would not follow him against +France he could still march against her alone. Old memories hummed in +him at the thought. He recalled how his Piedmontese ancestors had gone +forth against the same foe, and the stout Donnaz blood began to bubble +in his veins. +</P> + +<P> +A knock roused him and Gamba entered by the private way. His appearance +was not unexpected to Odo, and served only to reinforce his new-found +energy. He felt that the issue was at hand. As he expected, Gamba had +been sent to put before him more forcibly and unceremoniously the veiled +threat of the ministers. But the hunchback had come also to plead with +his master in his own name, and in the name of the ideas for which they +had once laboured together. He could not believe that the Duke's +reaction was more than momentary. He could not calculate the strength of +the old associations which, now that the tide had set the other way, +were dragging Odo back to the beliefs and traditions of his caste. +</P> + +<P> +The Duke listened in silence; then he said: "Discussion is idle. I have +no answer to give but that which I have already given." He rose from his +seat in token of dismissal. +</P> + +<P> +The moment was painful to both men. Gamba drew nearer and fell at the +Duke's feet. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Highness," he said, "consider what this means. We hold the state +in our hands. If you are against us you are powerless. If you are with +us we can promise you more power than you ever dreamed of possessing." +</P> + +<P> +The Duke looked at him with a musing smile. "It is as though you offered +me gold in a desert island," he said. "Do not waste such poor bribes on +me. I care for no power but the power to wipe out the work of these last +years. Failing that, I want nothing that you or any other man can give." +</P> + +<P> +Gamba was silent a moment. He turned aside into the embrasure of the +window, and when he spoke again it was in a voice broken with grief. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Highness," he said, "if your choice is made, ours is made also. It +is a hard choice, but these are fratricidal hours. We have come to the +parting of the ways." +</P> + +<P> +The Duke made no sign, and Gamba went on with gathering anguish: "We +would have gone to the world's end with your Highness for our leader!" +</P> + +<P> +"With a leader whom you could lead," Odo interposed. He went up to Gamba +and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Speak out, man," he said. "Say what +you were sent to say. Am I a prisoner?" +</P> + +<P> +The hunchback burst into tears. Odo, with his arms crossed, stood +leaning against the window. The other's anguish seemed to deepen his +detachment. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Highness—your Highness—" Gamba stammered. +</P> + +<P> +The Duke made an impatient gesture. "Come, make an end," he said. +</P> + +<P> +Gamba fell back with a profound bow. +</P> + +<P> +"We do not ask the surrender of your Highness's person," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Not even that?" Odo returned with a faint sneer. +</P> + +<P> +Gamba flushed to the temples, but the retort died on his lips. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Highness," he said, scarce above a whisper, "the gates are +guarded; but the word for tonight is 'Humilitas.'" He knelt and kissed +Odo's hand. Then he rose and passed out of the room... +</P> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<P> +Before dawn the Duke left the palace. The high emotions of the night had +ebbed. He saw himself now, in the ironic light of morning, as a fugitive +too harmless to be worth pursuing. His enemies had let him keep his +sword because they had no cause to fear it. Alone he passed through the +gardens of the palace, and out into the desert darkness of the streets. +Skirting the wall of the Benedictine convent where Fulvia had lodged, he +gained a street leading to the marketplace. In the pallor of the waning +night the ancient monuments of his race stood up mournful and deserted +as a line of tombs. The city seemed a grave-yard and he the ineffectual +ghost of its dead past. He reached the gates and gave the watchword. The +gates were guarded, as he had been advised; but the captain of the watch +let him pass without show of hesitation or curiosity. Though he made no +effort at disguise he went forth unrecognised, and the city closed her +doors on him as carelessly as on any passing wanderer. +</P> + +<P> +Beyond the gates a lad from the ducal stables waited with a horse. Odo +sprang into the saddle and rode on toward Pontesordo. The darkness was +growing thinner, and the meagre details of the landscape, with its +huddled farm-houses and mulberry-orchards, began to define themselves as +he advanced. To his left the field stretched, grey and sodden; ahead, on +his right, hung the dark woods of the ducal chase. Presently a bend of +the road brought him within sight of the keep of Pontesordo. His way led +past it, toward Valsecca; but some obscure instinct laid a detaining +hand on him, and at the cross-roads he bent to the right and rode across +the marshland to the old manor-house. +</P> + +<P> +The farmyard lay hushed and deserted. The peasants who lived there would +soon be afoot; but for the moment Odo had the place to himself. He +tethered his horse to a gate-post and walked across the rough +cobble-stones to the chapel. Its floor was still heaped with farm-tools +and dried vegetables, and in the dimness a heavier veil of dust seemed +to obscure the painted walls. Odo advanced, picking his way among broken +ploughshares and stacks of maize, till he stood near the old marble +altar, with its sea-gods and acanthus volutes. The place laid its +tranquillising hush on him, and he knelt on the step beneath the altar. +Something stirred in him as he knelt there—a prayer, yet not a +prayer—a reaching out, obscure and inarticulate, toward all that had +survived of his early hopes and faiths, a loosening of old founts of +pity, a longing to be somehow, somewhere reunited to his old belief in +life. +</P> + +<P> +How long he knelt he knew not; but when he looked up the chapel was full +of a pale light, and in the first shaft of the sunrise the face of Saint +Francis shone out on him...He went forth into the daybreak and rode away +toward Piedmont. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Valley of Decision, by Edith Wharton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VALLEY OF DECISION *** + +***** This file should be named 4327-h.htm or 4327-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/2/4327/ + +Produced by Sue Asscher. 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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 Valley of Decision + +Author: Edith Wharton + +Posting Date: August 1, 2009 [EBook #4327] +Release Date: August, 2003 +First Posted: January 7, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VALLEY OF DECISION *** + + + + +Produced by Sue Asscher. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + + +THE VALLEY OF DECISION + +BY + +EDITH WHARTON + +Author of "A Gift from the Grave," "Crucial Instances," etc. + + + +"Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision." + + + +TO + +MY FRIENDS + +PAUL AND MINNIE BOURGET + +IN REMEMBRANCE OF + +ITALIAN DAYS TOGETHER. + + + +CONTENTS. + +BOOK I. THE OLD ORDER. + +BOOK II. THE NEW LIGHT. + +BOOK III. THE CHOICE. + +BOOK IV. THE REWARD. + + + +BOOK I. + +THE OLD ORDER. + + Prima che incontro alla festosa fronte + I lugubri suoi lampi il ver baleni. + +1.1. + +It was very still in the small neglected chapel. The noises of the farm +came faintly through closed doors--voices shouting at the oxen in the +lower fields, the querulous bark of the old house-dog, and Filomena's +angry calls to the little white-faced foundling in the kitchen. + +The February day was closing, and a ray of sunshine, slanting through a +slit in the chapel wall, brought out the vision of a pale haloed head +floating against the dusky background of the chancel like a water-lily +on its leaf. The face was that of the saint of Assisi--a sunken ravaged +countenance, lit with an ecstasy of suffering that seemed not so much to +reflect the anguish of the Christ at whose feet the saint knelt, as the +mute pain of all poor down-trodden folk on earth. + +When the small Odo Valsecca--the only frequenter of the chapel--had been +taunted by the farmer's wife for being a beggar's brat, or when his ears +were tingling from the heavy hand of the farmer's son, he found a +melancholy kinship in that suffering face; but since he had fighting +blood in him too, coming on the mother's side of the rude Piedmontese +stock of the Marquesses di Donnaz, there were other moods when he turned +instead to the stout Saint George in gold armour, just discernible +through the grime and dust of the opposite wall. + +The chapel of Pontesordo was indeed as wonderful a storybook as fate +ever unrolled before the eyes of a neglected and solitary child. For a +hundred years or more Pontesordo, a fortified manor of the Dukes of +Pianura, had been used as a farmhouse; and the chapel was never opened +save when, on Easter Sunday, a priest came from the town to say mass. At +other times it stood abandoned, cobwebs curtaining the narrow windows, +farm tools leaning against the walls, and the dust deep on the sea-gods +and acanthus volutes of the altar. The manor of Pontesordo was very old. +The country people said that the great warlock Virgil, whose +dwelling-place was at Mantua, had once shut himself up for a year in the +topmost chamber of the keep, engaged in unholy researches; and another +legend related that Alda, wife of an early lord of Pianura, had thrown +herself from its battlements to escape the pursuit of the terrible +Ezzelino. The chapel adjoined this keep, and Filomena, the farmer's +wife, told Odo that it was even older than the tower and that the walls +had been painted by early martyrs who had concealed themselves there +from the persecutions of the pagan emperors. + +On such questions a child of Odo's age could obviously have no +pronounced opinion, the less so as Filomena's facts varied according to +the seasons or her mood, so that on a day of east wind or when the worms +were not hatching well, she had been known to affirm that the pagans had +painted the chapel under Virgil's instruction, to commemorate the +Christians they had tortured. In spite of the distance to which these +conflicting statements seemed to relegate them, Odo somehow felt as +though these pale strange people--youths with ardent faces under their +small round caps, damsels with wheat-coloured hair and boys no bigger +than himself, holding spotted dogs in leash--were younger and nearer to +him than the dwellers on the farm: Jacopone the farmer, the shrill +Filomena, who was Odo's foster-mother, the hulking bully their son and +the abate who once a week came out from Pianura to give Odo religious +instruction and who dismissed his questions with the invariable +exhortation not to pry into matters that were beyond his years. Odo had +loved the pictures in the chapel all the better since the abate, with a +shrug, had told him they were nothing but old rubbish, the work of the +barbarians. + +Life at Pontesordo was in truth not very pleasant for an ardent and +sensitive little boy of nine, whose remote connection with the reigning +line of Pianura did not preserve him from wearing torn clothes and +eating black bread and beans out of an earthen bowl on the kitchen +doorstep. + +"Go ask your mother for new clothes!" Filomena would snap at him, when +his toes came through his shoes and the rents in his jacket-sleeves had +spread beyond darning. "These you are wearing are my Giannozzo's, as you +well know, and every rag on your back is mine, if there were any law for +poor folk, for not a copper of pay for your keep or a stitch of clothing +for your body have we had these two years come Assumption--. What's +that? You can't ask your mother, you say, because she never comes here? +True enough--fine ladies let their brats live in cow-dung, but they must +have Indian carpets under their own feet. Well, ask the abate, then--he +has lace ruffles to his coat and a naked woman painted on his snuff +box--What? He only holds his hands up when you ask? Well, then, go ask +your friends on the chapel-walls--maybe they'll give you a pair of +shoes--though Saint Francis, for that matter, was the father of the +discalced, and would doubtless tell you to go without!" And she would +add with a coarse laugh: "Don't you know that the discalced are shod +with gold?" + +It was after such a scene that the beggar-noble, as they called him at +Pontesordo, would steal away to the chapel and, seating himself on an +upturned basket or a heap of pumpkins, gaze long into the face of the +mournful saint. + +There was nothing unusual in Odo's lot. It was that of many children in +the eighteenth century, especially those whose parents were cadets of +noble houses, with an appanage barely sufficient to keep their wives and +themselves in court finery, much less to pay their debts and clothe and +educate their children. All over Italy at that moment, had Odo Valsecca +but known it, were lads whose ancestors, like his own, had been dukes +and crusaders, but who, none the less, were faring, as he fared, on +black bread and hard blows, and the half-comprehended taunts of unpaid +foster-parents. Many, doubtless, there were who cared little enough, as +long as they might play morro with the farmer's lads and ride the colt +bare-back through the pasture and go bird-netting and frog-hunting with +the village children; but some perhaps, like Odo, suffered in a dumb +animal way, without understanding why life was so hard on little boys. + +Odo, for his part, had small taste for the sports in which Gianozzo and +the village lads took pleasure. He shrank from any amusement associated +with the frightening or hurting of animals, and his bosom swelled with +the fine gentleman's scorn of the clowns who got their fun in so coarse +a way. Now and then he found a moment's glee in a sharp tussle with one +of the younger children who had been tormenting a frog or a beetle; but +he was still too young for real fighting, and could only hang on the +outskirts when the bigger boys closed, and think how some day he would +be at them and break their lubberly heads. There were thus many hours +when he turned to the silent consolations of the chapel. So familiar had +he grown with the images on its walls that he had a name for every one: +the King, the Knight, the Lady, the children with guinea-pigs, basilisks +and leopards, and lastly the Friend, as he called Saint Francis. An +almond-faced lady on a white palfrey with gold trappings represented his +mother, whom he had seen too seldom for any distinct image to interfere +with the illusion; a knight in damascened armour and scarlet cloak was +the valiant captain, his father, who held a commission in the ducal +army; and a proud young man in diadem and ermine, attended by a retinue +of pages, stood for his cousin, the reigning Duke of Pianura. + +A mist, as usual at that hour, was rising from the marshes between +Pontesordo and Pianura, and the light soon ebbed from the saint's face, +leaving the chapel in obscurity. Odo had crept there that afternoon with +a keener sense than usual of the fact that life was hard on little boys; +and though he was cold and hungry and half afraid, the solitude in which +he cowered seemed more endurable than the noisy kitchen where, at that +hour, the farm hands were gathering for their polenta, and Filomena was +screaming at the frightened orphan who carried the dishes to the table. +He knew, of course, that life at Pontesordo would not last for +ever--that in time he would grow up and be mysteriously transformed into +a young gentleman with a sword and laced coat, who would go to court and +perhaps be an officer in the Duke's army or in that of some neighbouring +prince; but, viewed from the lowliness of his nine years, that dazzling +prospect was too remote to yield much solace for the cuffs and sneers, +the ragged shoes and sour bread of the present. The fog outside had +thickened, and the face of Odo's friend was now discernible only as a +spot of pallor in the surrounding dimness. Even he seemed farther away +than usual, withdrawn into the fog as into that mist of indifference +which lay all about Odo's hot and eager spirit. The child sat down among +the gourds and medlars on the muddy floor and hid his face against his +knees. + +He had sat there a long time when the noise of wheels and the crack of a +postillion's whip roused the dogs chained in the stable. Odo's heart +began to beat. What could the sounds mean? It was as though the +flood-tide of the unknown were rising about him and bursting open the +chapel door to pour in on his loneliness. It was, in fact, Filomena who +opened the door, crying out to him in an odd Easter Sunday voice, the +voice she used when she had on her silk neckerchief and gold chain or +when she was talking to the bailiff. + +Odo sprang up and hid his face in her lap. She seemed, of a sudden, +nearer to him than any one else--a last barrier between himself and the +mystery that awaited him outside. + +"Come, you poor sparrow," she said, dragging him across the threshold of +the chapel, "the abate is here asking for you;" and she crossed herself, +as though she had named a saint. + +Odo pulled away from her with a last wistful glance at Saint Francis, +who looked back at him in an ecstasy of commiseration. + +"Come, come," Filomena repeated, dropping to her ordinary key as she +felt the resistance of the little boy's hand. "Have you no heart, you +wicked child? But, to be sure, the poor innocent doesn't know! Come +cavaliere, your illustrious mother waits." + +"My mother?" The blood rushed to his face; and she had called him +"cavaliere"! + +"Not here, my poor lamb! The abate is here; don't you see the lights of +the carriage? There, there, go to him. I haven't told him, your +reverence; it's my silly tender-heartedness that won't let me. He's +always been like one of my own creatures to me--" and she confounded Odo +by bursting into tears. + +The abate stood on the doorstep. He was a tall stout man with a hooked +nose and lace ruffles. His nostrils were stained with snuff and he took +a pinch from a tortoise-shell box set with the miniature of a lady; then +he looked down at Odo and shrugged his shoulders. + +Odo was growing sick with apprehension. It was two days before the +appointed time for his weekly instruction and he had not prepared his +catechism. He had not even thought of it--and the abate could use the +cane. Odo stood silent and envied girls, who are not disgraced by +crying. The tears were in his throat, but he had fixed principles about +crying. It was his opinion that a little boy who was a cavaliere might +weep when he was angry or sorry, but never when he was afraid; so he +held his head high and put his hand to his side, as though to rest it on +his sword. + +The abate sneezed and tapped his snuff-box. + +"Come, come, cavaliere, you must be brave--you must be a man; you have +duties, you have responsibilities. It's your duty to console your +mother--the poor lady is plunged in despair. Eh? What's that? You +haven't told him? Cavaliere, your illustrious father is no more." + +Odo stared a moment without understanding; then his grief burst from him +in a great sob, and he hid himself against Filomena's apron, weeping for +the father in damascened armour and scarlet cloak. + +"Come, come," said the abate impatiently. "Is supper laid? for we must +be gone as soon as the mist rises." He took the little boy by the hand. +"Would it not distract your mind to recite the catechism?" he inquired. + +"No, no!" cried Odo with redoubled sobs. + +"Well, then, as you will. What a madman!" he exclaimed to Filomena. "I +warrant it hasn't seen its father three times in its life. Come in, +cavaliere; come to supper." + +Filomena had laid a table in the stone chamber known as the bailiff's +parlour, and thither the abate dragged his charge and set him down +before the coarse tablecloth covered with earthen platters. A tallow dip +threw its flare on the abate's big aquiline face as he sat opposite Odo, +gulping the hastily prepared frittura and the thick purple wine in its +wicker flask. Odo could eat nothing. The tears still ran down his cheeks +and his whole soul was possessed by the longing to steal back and see +whether the figure of the knight in the scarlet cloak had vanished from +the chapel wall. The abate sat in silence, gobbling his food like the +old black pig in the yard. When he had finished he stood up, exclaiming: +"Death comes to us all, as the hawk said to the chicken. You must be a +man, cavaliere." Then he stepped into the kitchen, and called out for +the horses to be put to. + +The farm hands had slunk away to one of the outhouses, and Filomena and +Jacopone stood bowing and curtseying as the carriage drew up at the +kitchen door. In a corner of the big vaulted room the little foundling +was washing the dishes, heaping the scraps in a bowl for herself and the +fowls. Odo ran back and touched her arm. She gave a start and looked at +him with frightened eyes. He had nothing to give her, but he said: +"Good-bye, Momola"; and he thought to himself that when he was grown up +and had a sword he would surely come back and bring her a pair of shoes +and a panettone. The abate was calling him, and the next moment he found +himself lifted into the carriage, amid the blessings and lamentations of +his foster-parents; and with a great baying of dogs and clacking of +whipcord the horses clattered out of the farmyard, and turned their +heads toward Pianura. + +The mist had rolled back and fields and vineyards lay bare to the winter +moon. The way was lonely, for it skirted the marsh, where no one lived; +and only here and there the tall black shadow of a crucifix ate into the +whiteness of the road. Shreds of vapour still hung about the hollows, +but beyond these fold on fold of translucent hills melted into a sky +dewy with stars. Odo cowered in his corner, staring out awestruck at the +unrolling of the strange white landscape. He had seldom been out at +night, and never in a carriage; and there was something terrifying to +him in this flight through the silent moon-washed fields, where no oxen +moved in the furrows, no peasants pruned the mulberries, and not a +goat's bell tinkled among the oaks. He felt himself alone in a ghostly +world from which even the animals had vanished, and at last he averted +his eyes from the dreadful scene and sat watching the abate, who had +fixed a reading-lamp at his back, and whose hooked-nosed shadow, as the +springs jolted him up and down, danced overhead like the huge Pulcinella +at the fair of Pontesordo. + + +1.2. + +The gleam of a lantern woke Odo. The horses had stopped at the gates of +Pianura, and the abate giving the pass-word, the carriage rolled under +the gatehouse and continued its way over the loud cobble-stones of the +ducal streets. These streets were so dark, being lit but by some lantern +projecting here and there from the angle of a wall, or by the flare of +an oil-lamp under a shrine, that Odo, leaning eagerly out, could only +now and then catch a sculptured palace-window, the grinning mask on the +keystone of an archway, or the gleaming yellowish facade of a church +inlaid with marbles. Once or twice an uncurtained window showed a group +of men drinking about a wineshop table, or an artisan bending over his +work by the light of a tallow dip; but for the most part doors and +windows were barred and the streets disturbed only by the watchman's cry +or by a flash of light and noise as a sedan chair passed with its escort +of linkmen and servants. All this was amazing enough to the sleepy eyes +of the little boy so unexpectedly translated from the solitude of +Pontesordo; but when the carriage turned under another arch and drew up +before the doorway of a great building ablaze with lights, the pressure +of accumulated emotions made him fling his arms about his preceptor's +neck. + +"Courage, cavaliere, courage! You have duties, you have +responsibilities," the abate admonished him; and Odo, choking back his +fright, suffered himself to be lifted out by one of the lacqueys grouped +about the door. The abate, who carried a much lower crest than at +Pontesordo, and seemed far more anxious to please the servants than they +to oblige him, led the way up a shining marble staircase where beggars +whined on the landings and powdered footmen in the ducal livery were +running to and fro with trays of refreshments. Odo, who knew that his +mother lived in the Duke's palace, had vaguely imagined that his +father's death must have plunged its huge precincts into silence and +mourning; but as he followed the abate up successive flights of stairs +and down long corridors full of shadow he heard a sound of dance music +below and caught the flash of girandoles through the antechamber doors. +The thought that his father's death had made no difference to any one in +the palace was to the child so much more astonishing than any of the +other impressions crowding his brain, that these were scarcely felt, and +he passed as in a dream through rooms where servants were quarrelling +over cards and waiting-women rummaged in wardrobes full of perfumed +finery, to a bedchamber in which a lady dressed in weeds sat +disconsolately at supper. + +"Mamma! Mamma!" he cried, springing forward in a passion of tears. + +The lady, who was young, pale and handsome, pushed back her chair with a +warning hand. + +"Child," she exclaimed, "your shoes are covered with mud; and, good +heavens, how you smell of the stable! Abate, is it thus you teach your +pupil to approach me?" + +"Madam, I am abashed by the cavaliere's temerity. But in truth I believe +excessive grief has clouded his wits--'tis inconceivable how he mourns +his father!" + +Donna Laura's eyebrows rose in a faint smile. "May he never have worse +to grieve for!" said she in French; then, extending her scented hand to +the little boy, she added solemnly: "My son, we have suffered an +irreparable loss." + +Odo, abashed by her rebuke and the abate's apology, had drawn his heels +together in a rustic version of the low bow with which the children of +that day were taught to approach their parents. + +"Holy Virgin!" said his mother with a laugh, "I perceive they have no +dancing-master at Pontesordo. Cavaliere, you may kiss my hand. +So--that's better; we shall make a gentleman of you yet. But what makes +your face so wet? Ah, crying, to be sure. Mother of God! as for crying, +there's enough to cry about." She put the child aside and turned to the +preceptor. "The Duke refuses to pay," she said with a shrug of despair. + +"Good heavens!" lamented the abate, raising his hands. "And Don Lelio?" +he faltered. + +She shrugged again, impatiently. "As great a gambler as my husband. +They're all alike, abate: six times since last Easter has the bill been +sent to me for that trifle of a turquoise buckle he made such a to-do +about giving me." She rose and began to pace the room in disorder. "I'm +a ruined woman," she cried, "and it's a disgrace for the Duke to refuse +me." + +The abate raised an admonishing finger. "Excellency...excellency..." + +She glanced over her shoulder. + +"Eh? You're right. Everything is heard here. But who's to pay for my +mourning the saints alone know! I sent an express this morning to my +father, but you know my brothers bleed him like leeches. I could have +got this easily enough from the Duke a year ago--it's his marriage has +made him so stiff. That little white-faced fool--she hates me because +Lelio won't look at her, and she thinks it's my fault. As if I cared +whom he looks at! Sometimes I think he has money put away...all I want +is two hundred ducats...a woman of my rank!" She turned suddenly on Odo, +who stood, very small and frightened, in the corner to which she had +pushed him. "What are you staring at, child? Eh! the monkey is dropping +with sleep. Look at his eyes, abate! Here, Vanna, Tonina, to bed with +him; he may sleep with you in my dressing-closet, Tonina. Go with her, +child, go; but for God's sake wake him if he snores. I'm too ill to have +my rest disturbed." And she lifted a pomander to her nostrils. + +The next few days dwelt in Odo's memory as a blur of strange sights and +sounds. The super-acute state of his perceptions was succeeded after a +night's sleep by the natural passivity with which children accept the +improbable, so that he passed from one novel impression to another as +easily and with the same exhilaration as if he had been listening to a +fairy tale. Solitude and neglect had no surprises for him, and it seemed +natural enough that his mother and her maids should be too busy to +remember his presence. + +For the first day or two he sat unnoticed on his little stool in a +corner of his mother's room, while packing-chests were dragged in, +wardrobes emptied, mantua-makers and milliners consulted, and +troublesome creditors dismissed with abuse, or even blows, by the +servants lounging in the ante-chamber. Donna Laura continued to show the +liveliest symptoms of concern, but the child perceived her distress to +be but indirectly connected with the loss she had suffered, and he had +seen enough of poverty at the farm to guess that the need of money was +somehow at the bottom of her troubles. How any one could be in want, who +slept between damask curtains and lived on sweet cakes and chocolate, it +exceeded his fancy to conceive; yet there were times when his mother's +voice had the same frightened angry sound as Filomena's on the days when +the bailiff went over the accounts at Pontesordo. + +Her excellency's rooms, during these days, were always crowded, for +besides the dressmakers and other merchants there was the hairdresser, +or French Monsu--a loud, important figure, with a bag full of cosmetics +and curling-irons--the abate, always running in and out with messages +and letters, and taking no more notice of Odo than if he had never seen +him, and a succession of ladies brimming with condolences, and each +followed by a servant who swelled the noisy crowd of card-playing +lacqueys in the ante-chamber. + +Through all these figures came and went another, to Odo the most +noticeable,--that of a handsome young man with a high manner, dressed +always in black, but with an excess of lace ruffles and jewels, a +clouded amber head to his cane, and red heels to his shoes. This young +gentleman, whose age could not have been more than twenty, and who had +the coldest insolent air, was treated with profound respect by all but +Donna Laura, who was for ever quarrelling with him when he was present, +yet could not support his absence without lamentations and alarm. The +abate appeared to act as messenger between the two, and when he came to +say that the Count rode with the court, or was engaged to sup with the +Prime Minister, or had business on his father's estate in the country, +the lady would openly yield to her distress, crying out that she knew +well enough what his excuses meant: that she was the most cruelly +outraged of women, and that he treated her no better than a husband. + +For two days Odo languished in his corner, whisked by the women's +skirts, smothered under the hoops and falbalas which the dressmakers +unpacked from their cases, fed at irregular hours, and faring on the +whole no better than at Pontesordo. The third morning, Vanna, who seemed +the most good-natured of the women, cried out on his pale looks when she +brought him his cup of chocolate. "I declare," she exclaimed, "the child +has had no air since he came in from the farm. What does your excellency +say? Shall the hunchback take him for a walk in the gardens?" + +To this her excellency, who sat at her toilet under the hair-dresser's +hands, irritably replied that she had not slept all night and was in no +state to be tormented about such trifles, but that the child might go +where he pleased. + +Odo, who was very weary of his corner, sprang up readily enough when +Vanna, at this, beckoned him to the inner ante-chamber. Here, where +persons of a certain condition waited (the outer being given over to +servants and tradesmen), they found a lean humpbacked boy, shabbily +dressed in darned stockings and a faded coat, but with an extraordinary +keen pale face that at once attracted and frightened the child. + +"There, go with him; he won't eat you," said Vanna, giving him a push as +she hurried away; and Odo, trembling a little, laid his hand in the +boy's. "Where do you come from?" he faltered, looking up into his +companion's face. + +The boy laughed and the blood rose to his high cheekbones. "I?--From the +Innocenti, if your Excellency knows where that is," said he. + +Odo's face lit up. "Of course I do," he cried, reassured. "I know a girl +who comes from there--the Momola at Pontesordo." + +"Ah, indeed?" said the boy with a queer look. "Well, she's my sister, +then. Give her my compliments when you see her, cavaliere. Oh, we're a +large family, we are!" + +Odo's perplexity was returning. "Are you really Momola's brother?" he +asked. + +"Eh, in a way--we're children of the same house." + +"But you live in the palace, don't you?" Odo persisted, his curiosity +surmounting his fear. "Are you a servant of my mother's?" + +"I'm the servant of your illustrious mother's servants; the abatino of +the waiting-women. I write their love-letters, do you see, cavaliere, I +carry their rubbish to the pawnbroker's when their sweethearts have bled +them of their savings; I clean the birdcages and feed the monkeys, and +do the steward's accounts when he's drunk, and sleep on a bench in the +portico and steal my food from the pantry...and my father very likely +goes in velvet and carries a sword at his side." + +The boy's voice had grown shrill, and his eyes blazed like an owl's in +the dark. Odo would have given the world to be back in his corner, but +he was ashamed to betray his lack of heart; and to give himself courage +he asked haughtily: "And what is your name, boy?" + +The hunchback gave him a gleaming look. "Call me Brutus," he cried, "for +Brutus killed a tyrant." He gave Odo's hand a pull. "Come along," said +he, "and I'll show you his statue in the garden--Brutus's statue in a +prince's garden, mind you!" And as the little boy trotted at his side +down the long corridors he kept repeating under his breath in a kind of +angry sing-song, "For Brutus killed a tyrant." + +The sense of strangeness inspired by his odd companion soon gave way in +Odo's mind to emotions of delight and wonder. He was, even at that age, +unusually sensitive to external impressions, and when the hunchback, +after descending many stairs and winding through endless back-passages, +at length led him out on a terrace above the gardens, the beauty of the +sight swelled his little heart to bursting. + +A Duke of Pianura had, some hundred years earlier, caused a great wing +to be added to his palace by the eminent architect Carlo Borromini, and +this accomplished designer had at the same time replanted and enlarged +the ducal gardens. To Odo, who had never seen plantations more artful +than the vineyards and mulberry orchards about Pontesordo, these +perspectives of clipped beech and yew, these knots of box filled in with +multi-coloured sand, appeared, with the fountains, colonnades and +trellised arbours surmounted by globes of glass, to represent the very +pattern and Paradise of gardens. It seemed indeed too beautiful to be +real, and he trembled, as he sometimes did at the music of the Easter +mass, when the hunchback, laughing at his amazement, led him down the +terrace steps. + +It was Odo's lot in after years to walk the alleys of many a splendid +garden, and to pace, often wearily enough, the paths along which he was +now led; but never after did he renew the first enchanted impression of +mystery and brightness that remained with him as the most vivid emotion +of his childhood. + +Though it was February the season was so soft that the orange and lemon +trees had been put out in their earthen vases before the lemon-house, +and the beds in the parterres were full of violets, daffodils and +auriculas; but the scent of the orange-blossoms and the bright colours +of the flowers moved Odo less than the noble ordonnance of the pleached +alleys, each terminated by a statue or a marble seat; and when he came +to the grotto where, amid rearing sea-horses and Tritons, a cascade +poured from the grove above, his wonder passed into such delicious awe +as hung him speechless on the hunchback's hand. + +"Eh," said the latter with a sneer, "it's a finer garden than we have at +our family palace. Do you know what's planted there?" he asked, turning +suddenly on the little boy. "Dead bodies, cavaliere! Rows and rows of +them; the bodies of my brothers and sisters, the Innocents who die like +flies every year of the cholera and the measles and the putrid fever." +He saw the terror in Odo's face and added in a gentler tone: "Eh, don't +cry, cavaliere; they sleep better in those beds than in any others +they're like to lie on. Come, come, and I'll show your excellency the +aviaries." + +From the aviaries they passed to the Chinese pavilion, where the Duke +supped on summer evenings, and thence to the bowling-alley, the +fish-stew and the fruit-garden. At every step some fresh surprise +arrested Odo; but the terrible vision of that other garden planted with +the dead bodies of the Innocents robbed the spectacle of its brightness, +dulled the plumage of the birds behind their gilt wires and cast a +deeper shade over the beech-grove, where figures of goat-faced men +lurked balefully in the twilight. Odo was glad when they left the +blackness of this grove for the open walks, where gardeners were working +and he had the reassurance of the sky. The hunchback, who seemed sorry +that he had frightened him, told him many curious stories about the +marble images that adorned the walks; and pausing suddenly before one of +a naked man with a knife in his hand, cried out in a frenzy: "This is my +namesake, Brutus!" But when Odo would have asked if the naked man was a +kinsman, the boy hurried him on, saying only: "You'll read of him some +day in Plutarch." + + +1.3. + +Odo, next morning, under the hunchback's guidance, continued his +exploration of the palace. His mother seemed glad to be rid of him, and +Vanna packing him off early, with the warning that he was not to fall +into the fishponds or get himself trampled by the horses, he guessed, +with a thrill, that he had leave to visit the stables. Here in fact the +two boys were soon making their way among the crowd of grooms and +strappers in the yard, seeing the Duke's carriage-horses groomed, and +the Duchess's cream-coloured hackney saddled for her ride in the chase; +and at length, after much lingering and gazing, going on to the +harness-rooms and coach-house. The state-carriages, with their carved +and gilt wheels, their panels gay with flushed divinities and their +stupendous velvet hammer-cloths edged with bullion, held Odo spellbound. +He had a born taste for splendour, and the thought that he might one day +sit in one of these glittering vehicles puffed his breast with pride and +made him address the hunchback with sudden condescension. "When I'm a +man I shall ride in these carriages," he said; whereat the other laughed +and returned good-humouredly: "Eh, that's not so much to boast of, +cavaliere; I shall ride in a carriage one of these days myself." Odo +stared, not over-pleased, and the boy added: "When I'm carried to the +churchyard, I mean," with a chuckle of relish at the joke. + +From the stables they passed to the riding-school, with its open +galleries supported on twisted columns, where the duke's gentlemen +managed their horses and took their exercise in bad weather. Several +rode there that morning; and among them, on a fine Arab, Odo recognised +the young man in black velvet who was so often in Donna Laura's +apartments. + +"Who's that?" he whispered, pulling the hunchback's sleeve, as the +gentleman, just below them, made his horse execute a brilliant balotade. + +"That? Bless the innocent! Why, the Count Lelio Trescorre, your +illustrious mother's cavaliere servente." + +Odo was puzzled, but some instinct of reserve withheld him from further +questions. The hunchback, however, had no such scruples. "They do say, +though," he went on, "that her Highness has her eye on him, and in that +case I'll wager your illustrious mamma has no more chance than a sparrow +against a hawk." + +The boy's words were incomprehensible, but the vague sense that some +danger might be threatening his mother's friend made Odo whisper: "What +would her Highness do to him?" + +"Make him a prime-minister, cavaliere," the hunchback laughed. + +Odo's guide, it appeared, was not privileged to conduct him through the +state apartments of the palace, and the little boy had now been four +days under the ducal roof without catching so much as a glimpse of his +sovereign and cousin. The very next morning, however, Vanna swept him +from his trundle-bed with the announcement that he was to be received by +the Duke that day, and that the tailor was now waiting to try on his +court dress. He found his mother propped against her pillows, drinking +chocolate, feeding her pet monkey and giving agitated directions to the +maidservants on their knees before the open carriage-trunks. Her +excellency informed Odo that she had that moment received an express +from his grandfather, the old Marquess di Donnaz; that they were to +start next morning for the castle of Donnaz, and that he was to be +presented to the Duke as soon as his Highness had risen from dinner. A +plump purse lay on the coverlet, and her countenance wore an air of +kindness and animation which, together with the prospect of wearing a +court dress and travelling to his grandfather's castle in the mountains, +so worked on Odo's spirits that, forgetting the abate's instructions, he +sprang to her with an eager caress. + +"Child, child," was her only rebuke; and she added, with a tap on his +cheek: "It is lucky I shall have a sword to protect me." + +Long before the hour Odo was buttoned into his embroidered coat and +waistcoat. He would have on the sword at once, and when they sat down to +dinner, though his mother pressed him to eat with more concern than she +had before shown, it went hard with him to put his weapon aside, and he +cast longing eyes at the corner where it lay. At length a chamberlain +summoned them and they set out down the corridors, attended by two +servants. Odo held his head high, with one hand leading Donna Laura (for +he would not appear to be led by her) while the other fingered his +sword. The deformed beggars who always lurked about the great staircase +fawned on them as they passed, and on a landing they crossed the +humpbacked boy, who grinned mockingly at Odo; but the latter, with his +chin up, would not so much as glance at him. + +A master of ceremonies in short black cloak and gold chain received them +in the antechamber of the Duchess's apartments, where the court played +lansquenet after dinner; the doors of her Highness's closet were thrown +open, and Odo, now glad enough to cling to his mother's hand, found +himself in a tall room, with gods and goddesses in the clouds overhead +and personages as supra-terrestrial seated in gilt armchairs about a +smoking brazier. Before one of these, to whom Donna Laura swept +successive curtsies in advancing, the frightened cavaliere found himself +dragged with his sword between his legs. He ducked his head like the old +drake diving for worms in the puddle at the farm, and when at last he +dared look up, it was to see an odd sallow face, half-smothered in an +immense wig, bowing back at him with infinite ceremony--and Odo's heart +sank to think that this was his sovereign. + +The Duke was in fact a sickly narrow-faced young man with thick +obstinate lips and a slight lameness that made his walk ungainly; but +though no way resembling the ermine-cloaked king of the chapel at +Pontesordo, he yet knew how to put on a certain majesty with his state +wig and his orders. As for the newly married Duchess, who sat at the +other end of the cabinet caressing a toy spaniel, she was scant fourteen +and looked a mere child in her great hoop and jewelled stomacher. Her +wonderful fair hair, drawn over a cushion and lightly powdered, was +twisted with pearls and roses, and her cheeks excessively rouged, in the +French fashion; so that as she arose on the approach of the visitors she +looked to Odo for all the world like the wooden Virgin hung with votive +offerings in the parish church at Pontesordo. Though they were but three +months married the Duke, it was rumoured, was never with her, preferring +the company of the young Marquess of Cerveno, his cousin and +heir-presumptive, a pale boy scented with musk and painted like a +comedian, whom his Highness would never suffer away from him and who now +leaned with an impertinent air against the back of the ducal armchair. + +On the other side of the brazier sat the dowager Duchess, the Duke's +grandmother, an old lady so high and forbidding of aspect that Odo cast +but one look at her face, which was yellow and wrinkled as a medlar, and +surmounted, in the Spanish style, with black veils and a high coif. What +these alarming personages said and did, the child could never recall; +nor were his own actions clear to him, except for a furtive caress that +he remembered giving the spaniel as he kissed the Duchess's hand; +whereupon her Highness snatched up the pampered animal and walked away +with a pout of anger. Odo noticed that her angry look followed him as he +and Donna Laura withdrew; but the next moment he heard the Duke's voice +and saw his Highness limping after them. + +"You must have a furred cloak for your journey, cousin," said he +awkwardly, pressing something in the hand of Odo's mother, who broke +into fresh compliments and curtsies, while the Duke, with a finger on +his thick lip, withdrew hastily into the closet. + +The next morning early they set out on their journey. There had been +frost in the night and a cold sun sparkled on the palace windows and on +the marble church-fronts as their carriage lumbered through the streets, +now full of noise and animation. It was Odo's first glimpse of the town +by daylight, and he clapped his hands with delight at sight of the +people picking their way across the reeking gutters, the asses laden +with milk and vegetables, the servant-girls bargaining at the +provision-stalls, the shop-keepers' wives going to mass in pattens and +hoods, with scaldini in their muffs, the dark recessed openings in the +palace basements, where fruit sellers, wine-merchants and coppersmiths +displayed their wares, the pedlars hawking books and toys, and here and +there a gentleman in a sedan chair returning flushed and disordered from +a night at bassett or faro. The travelling-carriage was escorted by +half-a-dozen of the Duke's troopers and Don Lelio rode at the door +followed by two grooms. He wore a furred coat and boots, and never, to +Odo, had he appeared more proud and splendid; but Donna Laura had hardly +a word for him, and he rode with the set air of a man who acquits +himself of a troublesome duty. + +Outside the gates the spectacle seemed tame in comparison; for the road +bent toward Pontesordo, and Odo was familiar enough with the look of the +bare fields, set here and there with oak-copses to which the leaves +still clung. As the carriage skirted the marsh his mother raised the +windows, exclaiming that they must not expose themselves to the +pestilent air; and though Odo was not yet addicted to general +reflections, he could not but wonder that she should display such dread +of an atmosphere she had let him breathe since his birth. He knew of +course that the sunset vapours on the marsh were unhealthy: everybody on +the farm had a touch of the ague, and it was a saying in the village +that no one lived at Pontesordo who could buy an ass to carry him away; +but that Donna Laura, in skirting the place on a clear morning of frost, +should show such fear of infection, gave a sinister emphasis to the +ill-repute of the region. + +The thought, he knew not why, turned his mind to Momola, who often on +damp evenings sat shaking and burning in the kitchen corner. He +reflected with a pang that he might never see her again, and leaning +forward he strained his eyes for a glimpse of Pontesordo. They were +passing through a patch of oaks; but where these ended the country +opened, and beyond a belt of osiers and the mottled faded stretches of +the marsh the keep stood up like a beckoning finger. Odo cried out as +though in answer to its call; but that moment the road turned a knoll +and bent across rising ground toward an unfamiliar region. + +"Thank God!" cried his mother, lowering the window, "we're rid of that +poison and can breath the air." + +As the keep vanished Odo reproached himself for not having begged a pair +of shoes for Momola. He had felt very sorry for her since the hunchback +had spoken so strangely of life at the foundling hospital; and he had a +sudden vision of her bare feet, pinched with cold and cut with the +pebbles of the yard, perpetually running across the damp stone floors, +with Filomena crying after her: "Hasten then, child of iniquity! You +are slower than a day without bread!" He had almost resolved to speak of +the foundling to his mother, who still seemed in a condescending humour; +but his attention was unexpectedly distracted by a troop of Egyptians, +who came along the road leading a dancing bear; and hardly had these +passed when the chariot of an itinerant dentist engaged him. The whole +way, indeed, was alive with such surprises; and at Valsecca, where they +dined, they found the yard of the inn crowded with the sumpter-mules and +servants of a cardinal travelling to Rome, who was to lie there that +night and whose bedstead and saucepans had preceded him. + +Here, after dinner, Don Lelio took leave of Odo's mother, with small +show of regret on either side; the lady high and sarcastic, the +gentleman sullen and polite; and both, as it seemed, easier when the +business was despatched and the Count's foot in the stirrup. He had so +far taken little notice of Odo, but he now bent from the saddle and +tapped the boy's cheek, saying in his cold way: "In a few years I shall +see you at court;" and with that rode away toward Pianura. + + +1.4. + +Lying that night at Pavia, the travellers set forward next morning for +the city of Vercelli. The road, though it ran for the most part through +flat mulberry orchards and rice-fields reflecting the pale blue sky in +their sodden channels, would yet have appeared diverting enough to Odo, +had his mother been in the mood to reply to his questions; for whether +their carriage overtook a party of strolling jugglers, travelling in a +roofed-in waggon, with the younger children of the company running +alongside in threadbare tights and trunkhose decked with tinsel; or +whether they drove through a village market-place, where yellow earthen +crocks and gaudy Indian cottons, brass pails and braziers and platters +of bluish pewter, filled the stalls with a medley of colour--at every +turn was something that excited the boy's wonder; but Donna Laura, who +had fallen into a depression of spirits, lamenting the cold, her +misfortunes and the discomfort of the journey, was at no more pains than +the abate to satisfy the promptings of his curiosity. + +Odo had indeed met but one person who cared to listen to him, and that +was the strange hunchback who had called himself Brutus. Remembering how +entertainingly this odd guide had explained all the wonders of the ducal +grounds, Odo began to regret that he had not asked his mother to let him +have Brutus for a body-servant. Meanwhile no one attended to his +questions and the hours were beginning to seem long when, on the third +day, they set out from Vercelli toward the hills. The cold increased as +they rose; and Odo, though he had often wished to see the mountains, was +yet dismayed at the gloomy and menacing aspect of the region on which +they were entering. Leafless woods, prodigious boulders and white +torrents foaming and roaring seemed a poor exchange for the +pleasantly-ordered gardens of Pianura. Here were no violets and cowslips +in bloom; hardly a green blade pierced the sodden roadside, and +snowdrifts lingered in the shaded hollows. + +Donna Laura's loudly expressed fear of robbers seemed to increase the +loneliness of the way, which now traversed tracts of naked moorland, now +plunged again into forest, with no sign of habitation but here and there +a cowherd's hut under the trees or a chapel standing apart on some +grassy eminence. When night fell the waters grew louder, a stinging wind +swept the woods, and the carriage, staggering from rut to rut, seemed +every moment about to land them in some invisible ravine. Fear and cold +at last benumbed the little boy, and when he woke he was being lifted +from his seat and torches were flashing on a high escutcheoned doorway +set in battlemented walls. He was carried into a hall lit with smoky +oil-lamps and hung with armour and torn banners. + +Here, among a group of rough-looking servants, a tall old man in a +nightcap and furred gown was giving orders in a loud passionate voice. +This personage, who was of a choleric complexion, with a face like +mottled red marble, seized Odo by the wrist and led him up a flight of +stairs so worn and slippery that he tripped at every step; thence down a +corridor and into a gloomy apartment where three ladies shivered about a +table set with candles. Bidden by the old gentleman to salute his +grandmother and great-aunts, Odo bowed over three wrinkled hands, one +fat and soft as a toad's stomach, the others yellow and dry as +lemon-skins. His mother embraced the ladies in the same humble manner, +and the Marquess, first furiously calling for supper, thrust Odo down on +a stool in the ingle. + +From this point of observation the child, now vividly awake, noted the +hangings of faded tapestry that heaved in the draught, the ceiling of +beams and the stone floor strewn with rushes. The candle-light +flickering on the faces of his aged relatives showed his grandmother to +be a pale heavy-cheeked person with little watchful black eyes which she +dropped at her husband's approach; while the two great-aunts, seated +side by side in high-backed chairs with their feet on braziers, reminded +Odo of the narrow elongated saints squeezed into the niches of a +church-door. The old Marchioness wore the high coif and veil of the +previous century; the aunts, who, as Odo afterwards learned, were +canonesses of a noble order, were habited in a semi-conventual dress, +with crosses hanging on their bosoms; and none spoke but when the +Marquess addressed them. + +Their timidity appeared to infect Odo's mother, who, from her habitual +volubility of temper, sank to a mood of like submissiveness. A supper of +venison and goat's cheese was not designed to restore her spirits, and +when at length she and Odo had withdrawn to their cavernous bedchamber, +she flung herself weeping on the bed and declared she must die if she +remained long in this prison. + +Falling asleep under such influences, it was the more wonderful to Odo +to wake with the sun on his counterpane, a sweet noise of streams +through the casement and the joyous barking of hounds in the castle +court. From the window-seat he looked out on a scene extraordinarily +novel to his lowland eyes. The chamber commanded the wooded steep below +the castle, with a stream looping its base; beyond, the pastures sloped +pleasantly under walnut trees, with here and there a clearing ploughed +for the spring crops and a sunny ledge or two planted with vines. Above +this pastoral landscape, bare crags upheld a snowpeak; and, as if to +lend a human interest to the scene, the old Marquess, his flintlock on +his shoulder, his dogs and beaters at his heels, now rode across the +valley. + +Wonder succeeded to wonder that first morning; for there was the castle +to be seen, with the kennels and stables roughly kept, but full of dogs +and horses; and Odo, in the Marquess's absence, was left free to visit +every nook of his new home. Pontesordo, though perhaps as ancient as +Donnaz, was but a fortified manor in the plain; but here was the +turreted border castle, bristling at the head of the gorge like the +fangs in a boar's throat: its walls overhung by machicolations, its +portcullis still dropped at nightfall, and the loud stream forming a +natural moat at its base. Through the desert spaces of this great +structure Odo wandered at will, losing himself in its network of bare +chambers, some now put to domestic uses, with smoked meats hanging from +the rafters, cheeses ranged on shelves and farmer's implements stacked +on the floor; others abandoned to bats and spiders, with slit-like +openings choked by a growth of wild cherries, and little animals +scurrying into their holes as Odo opened the unused doors. At the next +turn he mounted by a winding stair to the platform behind the +battlements, whence he could look down on the inner court, where horses +were being groomed, dogs fed, harnesses mended, and platters of smoking +food carried from the kitchen to the pantry; or, leaning another way, +discovered, between the cliff and the rampart a tiny walled garden with +fruit-trees and a sundial. + +The ladies kept to themselves in a corner of the castle, where the rooms +were hung with tapestry and a few straight-backed chairs stood about the +hearth; but even here no fires were suffered till nightfall, nor was +there so much as a carpet in the castle. Odo's grandmother, the old +Marchioness, a heavy woman who would doubtless have enjoyed her ease in +a cushioned seat, was afoot all day attending to her household; for +besides the dairy and the bakehouse and the stillroom where fruits were +stewed and pastes prepared, there was the great spinning-room full of +distaffs and looms, where the women spun and wove all the linen used in +the castle and the coarse stuffs worn by its inmates; with workshops for +the cobbler and tailor who clothed and shod the Marquess and his +household. All these the Marchioness must visit, and attend to her +devotions between; the ladies being governed by a dark-faced priest, +their chaplain and director, who kept them perpetually running along the +cold stone corridors to the chapel in a distant wing, where they knelt +without so much as a brazier to warm them or a cushion to their knees. +As to the chapel, though larger and loftier than that of Pontesordo, +with a fine carved and painted tabernacle and many silver candlesticks, +it seemed to Odo, by reason of its bare walls, much less beautiful than +that deserted oratory; nor did he, amid all the novelty of his +surroundings, cease to regret the companionship of his familiar images. + +His delight was the greater, therefore, when, exploring a part of the +castle now quite abandoned, he came one day on a vaulted chamber used as +a kind of granary, where, under layers of dirt and cobwebs, lovely +countenances flowered from the walls. The scenes depicted differed +indeed from those of Pontesordo, being less animated and homely and more +difficult for a child to interpret; for here were naked laurel-crowned +knights on prancing horses, nimble goat-faced creatures grouped in +adoration round a smoking altar and youths piping to saffron-haired +damsels on grass-banks set with poplars. The very strangeness of the +fable set forth perhaps engaged the child's fancy; or the benignant +mildness of the countenances, so unlike the eager individual faces of +the earlier artist; for he returned again and again to gaze unweariedly +on the inhabitants of that tranquil grassy world, studying every inch of +the walls and with much awe and fruitless speculation deciphering on the +hem of a floating drapery the inscription: Bernardinus Lovinus pinxit. + +His impatience to know more of the history of these paintings led him to +question an old man, half house-servant, half huntsman, now too infirm +for service and often to be found sunning himself in the court with an +old hound's chin on his knee. The old man, whose name was Bruno, told +him the room in question had been painted for the Marquess Gualberto di +Donnaz, who had fought under the Duke of Milan hundreds of years before: +a splendid and hospitable noble, patron of learning and the arts, who +had brought the great Milanese painter to Donnaz and kept him there a +whole summer adorning the banqueting-room. "But I advise you, little +master," Bruno added, "not to talk too loudly of your discovery; for we +live in changed days, do you see, and it seems those are pagan sorcerers +and witches painted on the wall, and because of that, and their +nakedness, the chaplain has forbidden all the young boys and wenches +about the place to set foot there; and the Marchioness herself, I'm +told, doesn't enter without leave." + +This was the more puzzling to Odo that he had seen so many naked pagans, +in colours and marble, at his cousin's palace of Pianura, where they +were praised as the chief ornament of that sumptuous fabric; but he kept +Bruno's warning in mind and so timed his visits that they escaped the +chaplain's observation. Whether this touch of mystery added charm to the +paintings; or whether there was already forming in him what afterward +became an instinctive resistance to many of the dictates of his age; +certain it is that, even after he had been privileged to admire the +stupendous works of the Caracci at Parma and of the immortal Giulio +Romano at Mantua, Odo's fancy always turned with peculiar fondness to +the clear-limbed youths moving in that world of untroubled beauty. + +Odo, the day after his arrival at Donnaz, learned that the chaplain was +to be his governor; and he was not long in discovering that the system +of that ecclesiastic bore no resemblance to the desultory methods of his +former pedagogue. It was not that Don Gervaso was a man of superior +acquirements: in writing, ciphering and the rudiments of Latin he seemed +little likely to carry Odo farther than the other; but in religious +instruction he suffered no negligence or inattention. His piety was of a +stamp so different from the abate's that it vivified the theological +abstractions over which Odo had formerly languished, infusing a +passionate meaning into the formulas of the textbooks. His discourse +breathed the same spirit, and had his religion been warmed by +imagination or tempered by charity the child had been a ductile +substance in his hands; but the shadow of the Council of Trent still +hung over the Church in Savoy, making its approach almost as sombre and +forbidding as that of the Calvinist heresy. As it was, the fascination +that drew Odo to the divine teachings was counteracted by a depressing +awe: he trembled in God's presence almost as much as in his +grandfather's, and with the same despair of discovering what course of +action was most likely to call down the impending wrath. The beauty of +the Church's offices, now for the first time revealed to him in the +well-ordered services of the chapel, was doubly moving in contrast with +the rude life at Donnaz; but his confessions tortured him and the +penances which the chaplain inflicted abased without reforming his +spirit. + +Next to the mass, the books Don Gervaso lent him were his chief +pleasure: the Lives of the Saints, Cardinal Bellarmine's Fables and The +Mirror of true Penitence. The Lives of the Saints fed at once his +imagination and his heart, and over the story of Saint Francis, now +first made known to him, he trembled with delicious sympathy. The +longing to found a hermitage like the Portiuncula among the savage rocks +of Donnaz, and live there in gentle communion with plants and animals, +alternated in him with the martial ambition to ride forth against the +Church's enemies, as his ancestors had ridden against the bloody and +pestilent Waldenses; but whether his piety took the passive or the +aggressive form, it always shrank from the subtleties of doctrine. To +live like the saints, rather than to reason like the fathers, was his +ideal of Christian conduct; if indeed a vague pity for suffering +creatures and animals was not the source of his monastic yearnings, and +a desire to see strange countries the secret of his zeal against the +infidel. + +The chaplain, though reproving his lukewarmness in matters of dogma, +could not but commend his devotion to the saints; and one day his +grandmother, to reward him for some act of piety, informed him with +tears of joy that he was destined for holy orders, and that she had good +hopes of living to see him a bishop. This news had hardly the intended +effect; for Odo's dream was of the saint's halo rather than the bishop's +mitre; and throwing himself on his knees before the old Marquess, who +was present, he besought that he might be allowed to join the Franciscan +order. The Marquess at this flew into so furious a rage, cursing the +meddlesomeness of women and the chaplain's bigotry, that the ladies +burst into tears and Odo's swelling zeal turned small. There was indeed +but one person in the castle who seemed not to regard its master's +violences, and that was the dark-faced chaplain, who, when the Marquess +had paused out of breath, tranquilly returned that nothing could make +him repent of having brought a soul to Christ, and that, as to the +cavaliere Odo, if his maker designed him for a religious, the Pope +himself could not cross his vocation. + +"Ay, ay! vocation," snarled the Marquess. "You and the women here shut +the child up between you and stuff his ears full of monkish stories and +miracles and the Lord knows what, and then talk of the simpleton's +vocation. His vocation, nom de Dieu, is to be an abbot first, and then a +monsignore, and then a bishop, if he can--and to the devil with your +cowls and cloisters!" And he gave orders that Odo should hunt with him +next morning. + +The chaplain smiled. "Hubert was a huntsman," said he, "and yet he died +a saint." + +From that time forth the old Marquess kept Odo oftener at his side, +making his grandson ride with him about his estates and on such +hunting-parties as were not beyond the boy's strength. The domain of +Donnaz included many a mile of vine and forest, over which, till the +fifteenth century, its lords had ruled as sovereign Marquesses. They +still retained a part of their feudal privileges, and Odo's grandfather, +tenacious of these dwindling rights, was for ever engaged in vain +contests with his peasantry. To see these poor creatures cursed and +brow-beaten, their least offences punished, their few claims disputed, +must have turned Odo's fear of his grandfather to hatred, had he not +observed that the old man gave with one hand what he took with the +other, so that, in his dealings with his people, he resembled one of +those torrents which now devastate and now enrich their banks. The +Marquess, in fact, while he held obstinately to his fishing rights, +prosecuted poachers, enforced the corvee and took toll at every ford, +yet laboured to improve his lands, exterminated the wild beasts that +preyed on them, helped his peasants in sickness, nourished them in old +age and governed them with a paternal tyranny doubtless less +insufferable than the negligence of the great land-owners who lived at +court. + +To Odo, however, these rides among the tenantry were less agreeable than +the hunting-expeditions which carried them up the mountain in the +solitude of morning. Here the wild freshness of the scene and the +exhilaration of pursuit roused the fighting strain in the boy's blood, +and so stirred his memory with tales of prowess that sometimes, as they +climbed the stony defiles in the clear shadow before sunrise, he fancied +himself riding forth to exterminate the Waldenses who, according to the +chaplain, still lurked like basilisks and dragons in the recesses of the +mountains. Certain it is that his rides with the old Marquess, if they +inflamed his zeal against heresy, cooled the ardour of his monastic +vocation; and if he pondered on his future, it was to reflect that +doubtless he would some day be a bishop, and that bishops were +territorial lords, we might hunt the wolf and boar in their own domains. + + +1.5. + +Reluctantly, every year about the Epiphany, the old Marquess rode down +from Donnaz to spend two months in Turin. It was a service exacted by +King Charles Emanuel, who viewed with a jealous eye those of his nobles +inclined to absent themselves from court and rewarded their presence +with privileges and preferments. At the same time the two canonesses +descended to their abbey in the plain, and thus with the closing in of +winter the old Marchioness, Odo and his mother were left alone in the +castle. + +To the Marchioness this was an agreeable period of spiritual compunction +and bodily repose; but to Donna Laura a season of despair. The poor +lady, who had been early removed from the rough life at Donnaz to the +luxurious court of Pianura, and was yet in the fulness of youth and +vivacity, could not resign herself to an existence no better, as she +declared, than that of any herdsman's wife upon the mountains. Here was +neither music nor cards, scandal nor love-making; no news of the +fashions, no visits from silk-mercers or jewellers, no Monsu to curl her +hair and tempt her with new lotions, or so much as a strolling +soothsayer or juggler to lighten the dullness of the long afternoons. +The only visitors to the castle were the mendicant friars drawn thither +by the Marchioness's pious repute; and though Donna Laura disdained not +to call these to her chamber and question them for news, yet their +country-side scandals were no more to her fancy than the two-penny wares +of the chapmen who unpacked their baubles on the kitchen hearth. + +She pined for some word of Pianura; but when a young abate, who had +touched there on his way from Tuscany, called for a night at the castle +to pay his duty to Don Gervaso, the word he brought with him of the +birth of an heir to the duchy was so little to Donna Laura's humour that +she sprang up from the supper-table, and crying out to the astonished +Odo, "Ah, now you are for the Church indeed," withdrew in disorder to +her chamber. The abate, who ascribed her commotion to a sudden seizure, +continued to retail the news of Pianura, and Odo, listening with his +elders, learned that Count Lelio Trescorre had been appointed Master of +the Horse, to the indignation of the Bishop, who desired the place for +his nephew, Don Serafino; that the Duke and Duchess were never together; +that the Duchess was suspected of being in secret correspondence with +the Austrians, and that the young Marquess of Cerveno was gone to the +baths of Lucca to recover from an attack of tertian fever contracted the +previous autumn at the Duke's hunting-lodge near Pontesordo. Odo +listened for some mention of his humpbacked friend, or of Momola the +foundling; but the abate's talk kept a higher level and no one less than +a cavaliere figured on his lips. He was the only visitor of quality who +came that winter to Donnaz, and after his departure a fixed gloom +settled on Donna Laura's spirits. Dusk at that season fell early in the +gorge, fierce winds blew off the glaciers, and Donna Laura sat shivering +and lamenting on one side of the hearth, while the old Marchioness, on +the other, strained her eyes over an embroidery in which the pattern +repeated itself like the invocations of a litany, and Don Gervaso, near +the smoking oil-lamp, read aloud from the Glories of Mary or the Way of +Perfection of Saint Theresa. + +On such evenings Odo, stealing from the tapestry parlour, would seek out +Bruno, who sat by the kitchen hearth with the old hound's nose at his +feet. The kitchen, indeed, on winter nights, was the pleasantest place +in the castle. The fire-light from its great stone chimney shone on the +strings of maize and bunches of dried vegetables that hung from the roof +and on the copper kettles and saucepans ranged along the wall. The wind +raged against the shutters of the unglazed windows, and the +maid-servants, distaff in hand, crowded closer to the blaze, listening +to the songs of some wandering fiddler or to the stories of a +ruddy-nosed Capuchin monk who was being regaled, by the steward's +orders, on a supper of tripe and mulled wine. The Capuchin's tales, told +in the Piedmontese jargon, and seasoned with strange allusions and +boisterous laughter, were of little interest to Odo, who would creep +into the ingle beside Bruno and beg for some story of his ancestors. The +old man was never weary of rehearsing the feats and gestures of the +lords of Donnaz, and Odo heard again and again how they had fought the +savage Switzers north of the Alps and the Dauphin's men in the west; how +they had marched with Savoy against Montferrat and with France against +the Republic of Genoa. Better still he liked to hear of the Marquess +Gualberto, who had been the Duke of Milan's ally and had brought home +the great Milanese painter to adorn his banqueting-room at Donnaz. The +lords of Donnaz had never been noted for learning, and Odo's grandfather +was fond of declaring that a nobleman need not be a scholar; but the +great Marquess Gualberto, if himself unlettered, had been the patron of +poets and painters and had kept learned clerks to write down the annals +of his house on parchment painted by the monks. These annals were locked +in the archives, under Don Gervaso's care; but Odo learned from the old +servant that some of the great Marquess's books had lain for years on an +upper shelf in the vestry off the chapel; and here one day, with Bruno's +aid, the little boy dislodged from a corner behind the missals and +altar-books certain sheepskin volumes clasped in blackened silver. The +comeliest of these, which bore on their title-page a dolphin curled +about an anchor, were printed in unknown characters; but on opening the +smaller volumes Odo felt the same joyous catching of the breath as when +he had stepped out on the garden-terrace at Pianura. For here indeed +were gates leading to a land of delectation: the country of the giant +Morgante, the enchanted island of Avillion, the court of the Soldan and +the King's palace at Camelot. + +In this region Odo spent many blissful hours. His fancy ranged in the +wake of heroes and adventurers who, for all he knew, might still be +feasting and fighting north of the Alps, or might any day with a blast +of their magic horns summon the porter to the gates of Donnaz. Foremost +among them, a figure towering above even Rinaldo, Arthur and the Emperor +Frederic, was that Conrad, father of Conradin, whose sayings are set +down in the old story-book of the Cento Novelle, "the flower of gentle +speech." There was one tale of King Conrad that the boy never forgot: +how the King, in his youth, had always about him a company of twelve +lads of his own age; how when Conrad did wrong, his governors, instead +of punishing him, beat his twelve companions; and how, on the young +King's asking what the lads were being punished for, the pedagogues +replied: + +"For your Majesty's offences." + +"And why do you punish my companions instead of me?" + +"Because you are our lord and master," he was told. + +At this the King fell to thinking, and thereafter, it is said, in pity +for those who must suffer in his stead he set close watch on himself, +lest his sinning should work harm to others. This was the story of King +Conrad; and much as Odo loved the clash of arms and joyous feats of +paladins rescuing fair maids in battle, yet Conrad's seemed to him, even +then, a braver deed than these. + +In March of the second year the old Marquess, returning from Turin, was +accompanied, to the surprise of all, by the fantastical figure of an +elderly gentleman in the richest travelling dress, with one of the new +French toupets, a thin wrinkled painted face, and emitting with every +movement a prodigious odour of millefleurs. This visitor, who was +attended by his French barber and two or three liveried servants, the +Marquess introduced as the lord of Valdu, a neighbouring seigneurie of +no great account. Though his lands marched with the Marquess's, it was +years since the Count had visited Donnaz, being one of the King's +chamberlains and always in attendance on his Majesty; and it was amazing +to see with what smirks and grimaces, and ejaculations in Piedmontese +French, he complimented the Marchioness on her appearance, and exclaimed +at the magnificence of the castle, which must doubtless have appeared to +him little better than a cattle-grange. His talk was unintelligible to +Odo, but there was no mistaking the nature of the glances he fixed on +Donna Laura, who, having fled to her room on his approach, presently +descended in a ravishing new sacque, with an air of extreme surprise, +and her hair curled (as Odo afterward learned) by the Count's own +barber. + +Odo had never seen his mother look handsomer. She sparkled at the +Count's compliments, embraced her father, playfully readjusted her +mother's coif, and in the prettiest way made their excuses to the Count +for the cold draughts and bare floors of the castle. "For having lived +at court myself," said she, "I know to what your excellency is +accustomed, and can the better value your condescension in exposing +yourself, at this rigorous season, to the hardships of our +mountain-top." + +The Marquess at this began to look black, but seeing the Count's +pleasure in the compliment, contented himself with calling out for +dinner, which, said he, with all respect to their visitor, would stay +his stomach better than the French kick-shaws at his Majesty's table. +Whether the Count was of the same mind, it was impossible to say, though +Odo could not help observing that the stewed venison and spiced boar's +flesh seemed to present certain obstacles either to his jaws or his +palate, and that his appetite lingered on the fried chicken-livers and +tunny-fish in oil; but he cast such looks at Donna Laura as seemed to +declare that for her sake he would willingly have risked his teeth on +the very cobblestones of the court. Knowing how she pined for company, +Odo was not surprised at his mother's complaisance; yet wondered to see +the smile with which she presently received the Count's half-bantering +disparagement of Pianura. For the duchy, by his showing, was a place of +small consequence, an asylum of superannuated fashions; whereas no +Frenchman of quality ever visited Turin without exclaiming on its +resemblance to Paris, and vowing that none who had the entree of +Stupinigi need cross the Alps to see Versailles. As to the Marquess's +depriving the court of Donna Laura's presence, their guest protested +against it as an act of overt disloyalty to the sovereign; and what most +surprised Odo, who had often heard his grandfather declaim against the +Count as a cheap jackanapes that hung about the court for what he could +make at play, was the indulgence with which the Marquess received his +visitor's sallies. Father and daughter in fact vied in amenities to the +Count. The fire was kept alight all day in his rooms, his Monsu waited +on with singular civility by the steward, and Donna Laura's own woman +sent down by her mistress to prepare his morning chocolate. + +Next day it was agreed the gentlemen should ride to Valdu; but its lord +being as stiff-jointed as a marionette, Donna Laura, with charming tact, +begged to be of the party, and thus enabled him to attend her in her +litter. The Marquess thereupon called on Odo to ride with him; and +setting forth across the mountain they descended by a long defile to the +half-ruined village of Valdu. Here, for the first time, Odo saw the +spectacle of a neglected estate, its last penny wrung from it for the +absent master's pleasure by a bailiff who was expected to extract his +pay from the sale of clandestine concessions to the tenants. Riding +beside the Marquess, who swore under his breath at the ravages of the +undyked stream and the sight of good arable land run wild and choked +with underbrush, the little boy obtained a precocious insight into the +evils of a system which had long outlived its purpose, and the idea of +feudalism was ever afterward embodied for him in his glimpse of the +peasants of Valdu looking up sullenly from their work as their suzerain +and protector thrust an unfamiliar painted smile between the curtains of +his litter. + +What his grandfather thought of Valdu (to which the Count on the way +home referred with smirking apologies as the mountain-lair of his +barbarous ancestors) was patent enough even to Odo's undeveloped +perceptions; but it would have required a more experienced understanding +to detect the motive that led the Marquess, scarce two days after their +visit, to accord his daughter's hand to the Count. Odo felt a shock of +dismay on learning that his beautiful mother was to become the property +of an old gentleman whom he guessed to be of his grandfather's age, and +whose enamoured grimaces recalled the antics of her favourite monkey, +and the boy's face reflected the blush of embarrassment with which Donna +Laura imparted the news; but the children of that day were trained to a +passive acquiescence, and had she informed him that she was to be +chained in the keep on bread and water, Odo would have accepted the fact +with equal philosophy. Three weeks afterward his mother and the old +Count were married in the chapel of Donnaz, and Donna Laura, with many +tears and embraces, set out for Turin, taking her monkey but leaving her +son behind. It was not till later that Odo learned of the social usage +which compelled young widows to choose between remarriage and the +cloister; and his subsequent views were unconsciously tinged by the +remembrance of his mother's melancholy bridal. + +Her departure left no traces but were speedily repaired by the coming of +spring. The sun growing warmer, and the close season putting an end to +the Marquess's hunting, it was now Odo's chief pleasure to carry his +books to the walled garden between the castle and the southern face of +the cliff. This small enclosure, probably a survival of medieval +horticulture, had along the upper ledge of its wall a grass walk +commanding the flow of the stream, and an angle turret that turned one +slit to the valley, the other to the garden lying below like a tranquil +well of scent and brightness: its box trees clipped to the shape of +peacocks and lions, its clove pinks and simples set in a border of +thrift, and a pear tree basking on its sunny wall. These pleasant +spaces, which Odo had to himself save when the canonesses walked there +to recite their rosary, he peopled with the knights and ladies of the +novelle, and the fantastic beings of Pulci's epic: there walked the Fay +Morgana, Regulus the loyal knight, the giant Morgante, Trajan the just +Emperor and the proud figure of King Conrad; so that, escaping thither +from the after-dinner dullness of the tapestry parlour, the boy seemed +to pass from the most oppressive solitude to a world of warmth and +fellowship. + + +1.6. + +Odo, who, like all neglected children, was quick to note in the +demeanour of his elders any hint of a change in his own condition, had +been keenly conscious of the effect produced at Donnaz by the news of +the Duchess of Pianura's deliverance. Guided perhaps by his mother's +exclamation, he noticed an added zeal in Don Gervaso's teachings and an +unction in the manner of his aunts and grandmother, who embraced him as +though they were handling a relic; while the old Marquess, though he +took his grandson seldomer on his rides, would sit staring at him with a +frowning tenderness that once found vent in the growl--"Morbleu, but +he's too good for the tonsure!" All this made it clear to Odo that he +was indeed meant for the Church, and he learned without surprise that +the following spring he was to be sent to the seminary at Asti. + +With a view to prepare him for this change, the canonesses suggested his +attending them that year on their annual pilgrimage to the sanctuary of +Oropa. Thither, for every feast of the Assumption, these pious ladies +travelled in their litter; and Odo had heard from them many tales of the +miraculous Black Virgin who drew thousands to her shrine among the +mountains. They set forth in August, two days before the feast, +ascending through chestnut groves to the region of bare rocks; thence +downward across torrents hung with white acacia and along park-like +grassy levels deep in shade. The lively air, the murmur of verdure, the +perfume of mown grass in the meadows and the sweet call of the cuckoos +from every thicket made an enchantment of the way; but Odo's pleasure +redoubled when, gaining the high-road to Oropa, they mingled with the +long train of devotees ascending from the plain. Here were pilgrims of +every condition, from the noble lady of Turin or Asti (for it was the +favourite pilgrimage of the Sardinian court), attended by her physician +and her cicisbeo, to the half-naked goatherd of Val Sesia or Salluzzo; +the cheerful farmers of the Milanese, with their wives, in silver +necklaces and hairpins, riding pillion on plump white asses; sick +persons travelling in closed litters or carried on hand-stretchers; +crippled beggars obtruding their deformities; confraternities of hooded +penitents, Franciscans, Capuchins and Poor Clares in dusty companies; +jugglers, pedlars, Egyptians and sellers of drugs and amulets. From +among these, as the canonesses' litter jogged along, an odd figure +advanced toward Odo, who had obtained leave to do the last mile of the +journey on foot. This was a plump abate in tattered ecclesiastical +dress, his shoes white as a miller's and the perspiration streaking his +face as he laboured along in the dust. He accosted Odo in a soft shrill +voice, begging leave to walk beside the young cavaliere, whom he had +more than once had the honour of seeing at Pianura; and, in reply to the +boy's surprised glance, added, with a swelling of the chest and an +absurd gesture of self-introduction, "But perhaps the cavaliere is not +too young to have heard of the illustrious Cantapresto, late primo +soprano of the ducal theatre of Pianura?" + +Odo being obliged to avow his ignorance, the fat creature mopped his +brow and continued with a gasp--"Ah, your excellency, what is fame? From +glory to obscurity is no farther than from one milestone to another! Not +eight years ago, cavaliere, I was followed through the streets of +Pianura by a greater crowd than the Duke ever drew after him! But what +then? The voice goes--it lasts no longer than the bloom of a flower--and +with it goes everything: fortune, credit, consideration, friends and +parasites! Not eight years ago, sir--would you believe me?--I was +supping nightly in private with the Bishop, who had nearly quarrelled +with his late Highness for carrying me off by force one evening to his +casino; I was heaped with dignities and favours; all the poets in the +town composed sonnets in my honour; the Marquess of Trescorre fought a +duel about me with the Bishop's nephew, Don Serafino; I attended his +lordship to Rome; I spent the villeggiatura at his villa, where I sat at +play with the highest nobles in the land; yet when my voice went, +cavaliere, it was on my knees I had to beg of my heartless patron the +paltry favour of the minor orders!" Tears were running down the abate's +cheeks, and he paused to wipe them with a corner of tattered bands. + +Though Odo had been bred in an abhorrence of the theatre, the strange +creature's aspect so pricked his compassion that he asked him what he +was now engaged in; at which Cantapresto piteously cried, "Alas, what am +I not engaged in, if the occasion offers? For whatever a man's habit, he +will not wear it long if it cover an empty belly; and he that respects +his calling must find food enough to continue in it. But as for me, sir, +I have put a hand to every trade, from composing scenarios for the ducal +company of Pianura, to writing satirical sonnets for noblemen that +desire to pass for wits. I've a pretty taste, too, in compiling +almanacks, and when nothing else served I have played the public +scrivener at the street corner; nay, sir, necessity has even driven me +to hold the candle in one or two transactions I would not more actively +have mixed in; and it was to efface the remembrance of one of these--for +my conscience is still over-nice for my condition--that I set out on +this laborious pilgrimage." + +Much of this was unintelligible to Odo; but he was moved by any mention +of Pianura, and in the abate's first pause he risked the question--"Do +you know the hump-backed boy Brutus?" + +His companion stared and pursed his soft lips. + +"Brutus?" says he. "Brutus? Is he about the Duke's person?" + +"He lives in the palace," said Odo doubtfully. + +The fat ecclesiastic clapped a hand to his thigh. + +"Can it be your excellency has in mind the foundling boy Carlo Gamba? +Does the jackanapes call himself Brutus now? He was always full of his +classical allusions! Why, sir, I think I know him very well; he is even +rumoured to be a brother of Don Lelio Trescorre's, and I believe the +Duke has lately given him to the Marquess of Cerveno, for I saw him not +long since in the Marquess's livery at Pontesordo." + +"Pontesordo?" cried Odo. "It was there I lived." + +"Did you indeed, cavaliere? But I think you will have been at the Duke's +manor of that name; and it was the hunting-lodge on the edge of the +chase that I had in mind. The Marquess uses it, I believe, as a kind of +casino; though not without risk of a distemper. Indeed, there is much +wonder at his frequenting it, and 'tis said he does so against the +Duke's wishes." + +The name of Pontesordo had set Odo's memories humming like a hive of +bees, and without heeding his companion's allusions he asked--"And did +you see the Momola?" + +The other looked his perplexity. + +"She's an Innocent too," Odo hastened to explain. "She is Filomena's +servant at the farm." + +The abate at this, standing still in the road, screwed up his eyelids +and protruded a relishing lip. "Eh, eh," said he, "the girl from the +farm, you say?" And he gave a chuckle. "You've an eye, cavaliere, you've +an eye," he cried, his soft body shaking with enjoyment; but before Odo +could make a guess at his meaning their conversation was interrupted by +a sharp call from the litter. The abate at once disappeared in the +crowd, and a moment later the litter had debouched on the grassy +quadrangle before the outer gates of the monastery. This space was set +in beech-woods, amid which gleamed the white-pillared chapels of the Way +of the Cross; and the devouter pilgrims, dispersed beneath the trees, +were ascending from one chapel to another, preparatory to entering the +church. + +The quadrangle itself was crowded with people, and the sellers of votive +offerings, in their booths roofed with acacia-boughs, were driving a +noisy trade in scapulars and Agnus Deis, images of the Black Virgin of +Oropa, silver hearts and crosses, and phials of Jordan water warranted +to effect the immediate conversion of Jews and heretics. In one corner a +Carmelite missionary had set up his portable pulpit, and, crucifix in +hand, was exhorting the crowd; in another, an improvisatore intoned +canticles to the miraculous Virgin; a barefoot friar sat selling +indulgences at the monastery gate, and pedlars with trays of rosaries +and religious prints pushed their way among the pilgrims. Young women of +less pious aspect solicited the attention of the better-dressed +travellers, and jugglers, mountebanks and quacks of every description +hung on the outskirts of the square. The sight speedily turned Odo's +thought from his late companion, and the litter coming to a halt he was +leaning forward to observe the antics of a tumbler who had spread his +carpet beneath the trees, when the abate's face suddenly rose to the +surface of the throng and his hand thrust a crumpled paper between the +curtains of the litter. Odo was quick-witted enough to capture this +missive without attracting the notice of his grand-aunts, and stealing a +glance at it, he read--"Cavaliere, I starve. When the illustrious ladies +descend, for Christ's sake beg a scudo of them for the unhappy +Cantapresto." + +By this the litter had disengaged itself and was moving toward the outer +gates. Odo, aware of the disfavour with which the theatre was viewed at +Donnaz, and unable to guess how far the soprano's present habit would be +held to palliate the scandal of his former connection, was perplexed how +to communicate his petition to the canonesses. A moment later, however, +the question solved itself; for as the aunts descended at the door of +the rector's lodging, the porter, running to meet them, stumbled on a +black mass under the arcade, and raised the cry that here was a man +dropped dead. A crowd gathering, some one called out that it was an +ecclesiastic had fallen; whereat the great-aunts were hurrying forward +when Odo whispered the eldest, Donna Livia, that the sick man was indeed +an abate from Pianura. Donna Livia immediately bid her servants lift him +into the porter's lodge, where, with the administering of spirits, the +poor soprano presently revived and cast a drowning glance about the +chamber. + +"Eight years ago, illustrious ladies," he gurgled, "I had nearly died +one night of a surfeit of ortolans; and now it is of a surfeit of +emptiness that I am perishing." + +The ladies at this, with exclamations of pity, called on the +lay-brothers for broth and cordials, and bidding the porter enquire more +particularly into the history of the unhappy ecclesiastic, hastened away +with Odo to the rector's parlour. + +Next morning betimes all were afoot for the procession, which the +canonesses were to witness from the monastery windows. The apothecary +had brought word that the abate, whose seizure was indeed the result of +hunger, was still too weak to rise; and Donna Livia, eager to open her +devotions with an act of pity, pressed a sequin in the man's hand, and +bid him spare no care for the sufferer's comfort. + +This sent Odo in a cheerful mood to the red-hung windows, whence, +peering between the folds of his aunts' gala habits, he admired the +great court enclosed in nobly-ordered cloisters and strewn with fresh +herbs and flowers. Thence one of the rector's chaplains conducted them +to the church, placing them, in company with the monastery's other noble +guests, in a tribune constructed above the choir. It was Odo's first +sight of a great religious ceremony, and as he looked down on the church +glimmering with votive offerings and gold-fringed draperies, and seen +through rolling incense in which the altar-candles swam like stars +reflected in a river, he felt an almost sensual thrill of pleasure at +the thought that his life was to be passed amid scenes of such mystic +beauty. The sweet singing of the choir raised his spirit to a higher +view of the scene; and the sight of the huddled misery on the floor of +the church revived in him the old longing for the Franciscan cowl. + +From these raptures he was speedily diverted by the sight awaiting him +at the conclusion of the mass. Hardly had the spectators returned to the +rector's windows when, the doors of the church swinging open, a +procession headed by the rector himself descended the steps and began to +make the circuit of the court. Odo's eyes swam with the splendour of +this burst of banners, images and jewelled reliquaries, surmounting the +long train of tonsured heads and bathed in a light almost blinding after +the mild penumbra of the church. As the monks advanced, the pilgrims, +pouring after them, filled the court with a dark undulating mass through +which the procession wound like a ray of sunlight down the brown bosom +of a torrent. Branches of oleander swung in the air, devout cries hailed +the approach of the Black Madonna's canopy, and hoarse voices swelled to +a roar the measured litanies of the friars. + +The ceremonies over, Odo, with the canonesses, set out to visit the +chapels studding the beech-knoll above the monastic buildings. Passing +out of Juvara's great portico they stood a moment above the grassy +common, which presented a scene in curious contrast to that they had +just quitted. Here refreshment-booths had been set up, musicians were +fiddling, jugglers unrolling their carpets, dentists shouting out the +merits of their panaceas, and light women drinking with the liveried +servants of the nobility. The very cripples who had groaned the loudest +in church now rollicked with the mountebanks and dancers; and no trace +remained of the celebration just concluded but the medals and relics +strung about the necks of those engaged in these gross diversions. + +It was strange to pass from this scene to the solitude of the grove, +where, in a twilight rustling with streams, the chapels lifted their +white porches. Peering through the grated door of each little edifice, +Odo beheld within a group of terra-cotta figures representing some scene +of the Passion--here a Last Supper, with a tigerish Judas and a Saint +John resting his yellow curls on his Master's bosom, there an Entombment +or a group of stricken Maries. These figures, though rudely modelled and +daubed with bright colours, yet, by a vivacity of attitude and gesture +which the mystery of their setting enhanced, conveyed a thrilling +impression of the sacred scenes set forth; and Odo was yet at an age +when the distinction between flesh-and-blood and its plastic +counterfeits is not clearly defined, or when at least the sculptured +image is still a mysterious half-sentient thing, denizen of some strange +borderland between art and life. It seemed to him, as he gazed through +the chapel gratings, that those long-distant episodes of the divine +tragedy had been here preserved in some miraculous state of suspended +animation, and as he climbed from one shrine to another he had the sense +of treading the actual stones of Gethsemane and Calvary. + +As was usual with him, the impressions of the moment had effaced those +preceding it, and it was almost with surprise that, at the rector's +door, he beheld the primo soprano of Pianura totter forth to the litter +and offer his knee as a step for the canonesses. The charitable ladies +cried out on him for this imprudence, and his pallor still giving +evidence of distress, he was bidden to wait on them after supper with +his story. He presented himself promptly in the parlour, and being +questioned as to his condition at once rashly proclaimed his former +connection with the ducal theatre of Pianura. No avowal could have been +more disastrous to his cause. The canonesses crossed themselves with +horror, and the abate, seeing his mistake, hastened to repair it by +exclaiming--"What, ladies, would you punish me for following a vocation +to which my frivolous parents condemned me when I was too young to +resist their purpose? And have not my subsequent sufferings, my penances +and pilgrimages, and the state to which they have reduced me, +sufficiently effaced the record of an involuntary error?" + +Seeing the effect of this appeal the abate made haste to follow up his +advantage. "Ah, illustrious ladies," he cried, "am I not a living +example of the fate of those who leave all to follow righteousness? For +while I remained on the stage, among the most dissolute surroundings, +fortune showered me with every benefit she heaps on her favourites. I +had my seat at every table in Pianura; the Duke's chair to carry me to +the theatre; and more money than I could devise how to spend; while now +that I have resigned my calling to embrace the religious life, you see +me reduced to begging a crust from the very mendicants I formerly +nourished. For," said he, moved to tears by his own recital, "my +superfluity was always spent in buying the prayers of the unfortunate, +and to judge how I was esteemed by those acquainted with my private +behaviour you need only learn that, on my renouncing the stage, 'twas +the Bishop of Pianura who himself accorded me the tonsure." + +This discourse, which Odo admired for its adroitness, visibly excited +the commiseration of the ladies; but at mention of the Bishop, Donna +Livia exchanged a glance with her sister, who enquired, with a quaint +air of astuteness, "But how comes it, abate, that with so powerful a +protector you have been exposed to such incredible reverses?" + +Cantapresto rolled a meaning eye. + +"Alas, madam, it was through my protector that misfortune attacked me; +for his lordship having appointed me secretary to his favourite nephew, +Don Serafino, that imprudent nobleman required of me services so +incompatible with my cloth that disobedience became a duty; whereupon, +not satisfied with dismissing me in disgrace, he punished me by +blackening my character to his uncle. To defend myself was to traduce +Don Serafino; and rather than reveal his courses to the Bishop I sank to +the state in which you see me; a state," he added with emotion, "that I +have travelled this long way to commend to the adorable pity of Her +whose Son had not where to lay His head." + +This stroke visibly touched the canonesses, still soft from the +macerations of the morning; and Donna Livia compassionately asked how he +had subsisted since his rupture with the Bishop. + +"Madam, by the sale of my talents in any service not at odds with my +calling: as the compiling of pious almanacks, the inditing of rhymed +litanies and canticles, and even the construction of theatrical +pieces"--the ladies lifted hands of reprobation--"of theatrical pieces," +Cantapresto impressively repeated, "for the use of the Carmelite nuns of +Pianura. But," said he with a deprecating smile, "the wages of virtue +are less liberal than those of sin, and spite of a versatility I think I +may honestly claim, I have often had to subsist on the gifts of the +pious, and sometimes, madam, to starve on their compassion." + +This ready discourse, and the soprano's evident distress, so worked on +the canonesses that, having little money at their disposal, it was +fixed, after some private consultation, that he should attend them to +Donnaz, where Don Gervaso, in consideration of his edifying conduct in +renouncing the stage, might be interested in helping him to a situation; +and when the little party set forth from Oropa, the abate Cantapresto +closed the procession on one of the baggage-mules, with Odo riding +pillion at his back. Good fortune loosened the poor soprano's tongue, +and as soon as the canonesses' litter was a safe distance ahead he began +to beguile the way with fragments of reminiscence and adventure. Though +few of his allusions were clear to Odo, the glimpse they gave of the +motley theatrical life of the north Italian cities--the quarrels between +Goldoni and the supporters of the expiring commedia dell' arte--the +rivalries of the prime donne and the arrogance of the popular +comedians--all these peeps into a tinsel world of mirth, cabal and +folly, enlivened by the recurring names of the Four Masks, those +lingering gods of the older dispensation, so lured the boy's fancy and +set free his vagrant wonder, that he was almost sorry to see the keep of +Donnaz reddening in the second evening's sunset. + +Such regrets, however, their arrival at the castle soon effaced; for in +the doorway stood the old Marquess, a letter in hand, who springing +forward caught his grandson by the shoulders, and cried with his great +boar-hunting shout, "Cavaliere, you are heir-presumptive of Pianura!" + + +1.7. + +The Marquess of Cerveno had succumbed to the tertian ague contracted at +the hunting-lodge of Pontesordo; and this unforeseen calamity left but +one life, that of the sickly ducal infant, between Odo and the +succession to the throne of Pianura. Such was the news conveyed +post-haste from Turin by Donna Laura; who added the Duke's express wish +that his young kinsman should be fitted for the secular career, and the +information that Count Valdu had already entered his stepson's name at +the Royal Academy of Turin. + +The Duke of Pianura being young and in good health, and his wife having +already given him an heir, the most sanguine imagination could hardly +view Odo as being brought much nearer the succession; yet the change in +his condition was striking enough to excuse the fancy of those about him +for shaping the future to their liking. The priestling was to turn +courtier and perhaps soldier; Asti was to be exchanged for Turin, the +seminary for the academy; and even the old chief of Donnaz betrayed in +his grumbling counsels to the boy a sense of the exalted future in which +they might some day serve him. + +The preparations of departure and the wonder of his new state left Odo +little space wherein to store his thought with impressions of what he +was leaving; and it was only in after years, when the accretion of +superficial incident had dropped from his past, that those last days at +Donnaz gained their full distinctness. He saw them then, heavy with the +warmth of the long summer, from the topmost pine-belt to the bronzed +vineyards turning their metallic clusters to the sun; and in the midst +his small bewildered figure, netted in a web of association, and +seeming, as he broke away, to leave a shred of himself in every corner +of the castle. + +Sharpest of all, there remained with him the vision of his last hour +with Don Gervaso. The news of Odo's changed condition had been received +in silence by the chaplain. He was not the man to waste words and he +knew the futility of asserting the Church's claim to the +heir-presumptive of a reigning house. Therefore if he showed no +enthusiasm he betrayed no resentment; but, the evening before the boy's +departure, led him, still in silence, to the chapel. Here the priest +knelt with Odo; then, raising him, sat on one of the benches facing the +high altar, and spoke a few grave words. + +"You are setting out," said he, "on a way far different from that in +which it has been my care to guide you; yet the high road and the +mountain path may, by diverse windings, lead to the same point; and +whatever walk a man chooses, it will surely carry him to the end that +God has appointed. If you are called to serve Him in the world, the +journey on which you are now starting may lead you to the throne of +Pianura; but even so," he went on, "there is this I would have you +remember: that should this dignity come to you it may come as a calamity +rather than a joy; for when God confers earthly honours on a child of +His predilection, He sometimes deigns to render them as innocuous as +misfortune; and my chief prayer for you is that you should be raised to +this eminence, it may be at a moment when such advancement seems to +thrust you in the dust." + +The words burned themselves into Odo's heart like some mystic writing on +the walls of memory, long afterward to start into fiery meaning. At the +time he felt only that the priest spoke with a power and dignity no +human authority could give; and for a moment all the stored influences +of his faith reached out to him from the dimly-gleaming altar. + +The next sun rose on a new world. He was to set out at daylight, and +dawn found him at the casement, footing it in thought down the road as +yet undistinguishable in a dying glimmer of stars. Bruno was to attend +him to Turin; but one of the women presently brought word that the old +huntsman's rheumatism had caught him in the knee, and that the Marquess, +resolved not to delay his grandson's departure, had chosen Cantapresto +as the boy's companion. The courtyard, when Odo descended, fairly +bubbled with the voluble joy of the fat soprano, who was giving +directions to the servants, receiving commissions and instructions from +the aunts, assuring everybody of his undying devotion to the +heir-presumptive of Pianura, and citing impressive instances of the +responsibilities with which the great of the earth had formerly +entrusted him. + +As a companion for Odo the abate was clearly not to Don Gervaso's taste; +but he stood silent, turning the comment of a cool eye on the soprano's +protestations, and saying only, as Cantapresto swept the company into +the circle of an obsequious farewell:--"Remember, signor abate, it is to +your cloth this business is entrusted." The abate's answer was a rush of +purple to the forehead; but Don Gervaso imperturbably added, "And you +lie but one night on the road." + +Meanwhile the old Marquess, visibly moved, was charging Odo to respect +his elders and superiors, while in the same breath warning him not to +take up with the Frenchified notions of the court, but to remember that +for a lad of his condition the chief virtues were a tight seat in the +saddle, a quick hand on the sword and a slow tongue in counsel. "Mind +your own business," he concluded, "and see that others mind theirs." + +The Marchioness thereupon, with many tears, hung a scapular about Odo's +neck, bidding him shun the theatre and be regular at confession; one of +the canonesses reminded him not to omit a visit to the chapel of the +Holy Winding-sheet, while the other begged him to burn a candle for her +at the Consolata; and the servants pressed forward to embrace and bless +their little master. + +Day was high by this, and as the Marquess's travelling-chariot rumbled +down the valley the shadows seemed to fly before it. Odo at first lay +numb; but presently his senses woke to the call of the brightening +landscape. The scene was such as Salvator might have painted: wild +blocks of stone heaped under walnut-shade; here the white plunge of +water down a wall of granite, and there, in bluer depths, a charcoal +burner's hut sending up its spiral of smoke to the dark raftering of +branches. Though it was but a few hours since Odo had travelled from +Oropa, years seemed to have passed over him, and he saw the world with a +new eye. Each sound and scent plucked at him in passing: the roadside +started into detail like the foreground of some minute Dutch painter; +every pendent mass of fern, dark dripping rock, late tuft of harebell +called out to him: "Look well, for this is your last sight of us!" His +first sight too, it seemed: since he had lived through twelve Italian +summers without sense of the sun-steeped quality of atmosphere that, +even in shade, gives each object a golden salience. He was conscious of +it now only as it suggested fingering a missal stiff with gold-leaf and +edged with a swarming diversity of buds and insects. The carriage moved +so slowly that he was in no haste to turn the pages; and each spike of +yellow foxglove, each clouding of butterflies about a patch of +speedwell, each quiver of grass over a hidden thread of moisture, became +a marvel to be thumbed and treasured. + +From this mood he was detached by the next bend of the road. The way, +hitherto winding through narrow glens, now swung to a ledge overhanging +the last escarpment of the mountains; and far below, the Piedmontese +plain unrolled to the southward its interminable blue-green distances +mottled with forest. A sight to lift the heart; for on those sunny +reaches Ivrea, Novara, Vercelli lay like sea-birds on a summer sea. It +was the future unfolding itself to the boy; dark forests, wide rivers, +strange cities and a new horizon: all the mystery of the coming years +figured to him in that great plain stretching away to the greater +mystery of heaven. + +To all this Cantapresto turned a snoring countenance. The lively air of +the hills, the good fare of Donnaz, and the satisfaction, above all, of +rolling on cushions over a road he had thought to trudge on foot, had +lapped the abate in Capuan slumber. The midday halt aroused him. The +travellers rested at an inn on the edge of the hills, and here +Cantapresto proved to his charge that, as he phrased it, his belly had +as short a memory for food as his heart for injuries. A flask of Asti +put him in the talking mood, and as they drove on he regaled Odo with a +lively picture of the life on which he was about to enter. + +"You are going," said he, "to one of the first cities of Europe; one +that has all the beauty and elegance of the French capital without its +follies and excesses. Turin is blessed with a court where good manners +and a fine tone are more highly prized than the extravagances of genius; +and I have heard it said of his Majesty that he was delighted to see his +courtiers wearing the French fashions outside their heads, provided they +didn't carry the French ideas within. You are too young, doubtless, +cavaliere, to have heard of the philosophers who are raising such a +pother north of the Alps: a set of madmen that, because their birth +doesn't give them the entree of Versailles, are preaching that men +should return to a state of nature, great ladies suckle their young like +animals, and the peasantry own their land like nobles. Luckily you'll +hear little of this infectious talk in Turin: the King stamps out the +philosophers like vermin or packs them off to splutter their heresies in +Milan or Venice. But to a nobleman mindful of the privileges of his +condition there is no more agreeable sojourn in Europe. The wines are +delicious, the women--er--accomplished--and though the sbirri may hug +one a trifle close now and then, why, with money and discretion, a +friend or two in the right quarters, and the wit to stand well with the +Church, there's no city in Europe where a man may have pleasanter sins +to confess." + +The carriage, by this, was descending the last curves above the valley, +and before them, in a hollow of the hills, blinked the warm shimmer of +maize and vine, like some bright vintage brimming its cup. The soprano +waved a convivial hand. + +"Look," he cried, "what Nature has done for this happy region! Where +herself has spread the table so bountifully, should her children hang +back from the feast? I vow, cavaliere, if the mountains were built for +hermits and ascetics, then the plain was made level for dancing, +banqueting and the pleasures of the villeggiatura. If God had meant us +to break our teeth on nuts and roots, why did He hang the vine with +fruit and draw three crops of wheat from this indulgent soil? I protest +when I look on such a scene as this, it is sufficient incentive to +lowliness to remember that the meek shall inherit the earth!" + +This mood held Cantapresto till his after-dinner sleep overtook him; and +when he woke again the chariot was clattering across the bridge of +Chivasso. The Po rolled its sunset crimson between flats that seemed +dull and featureless after the broken scenery of the hills; but beyond +the bridge rose the towers and roofs of the town, with its +cathedral-front catching the last slant of light. In the streets dusk +had fallen and a lamp flared under the arch of the inn before which the +travellers halted. Odo's head was heavy, and he hardly noticed the +figures thronging the caffe into which they were led; but presently +there rose a shout of "Cantapresto!" and a ring of waving arms and +flashing teeth encircled his companion. + +These appendages belonged to a troop of men and women, some masked and +in motley, others in discoloured travel-stained garments, who pressed +about the soprano with cries of joyous recognition. He was evidently an +old favourite of the band, for a duenna in tattered velvet fell on his +neck with genial unreserve, a pert soubrette caught him by the arm the +duenna left free, and a terrific Matamor with a nose like a scimitar +slapped him on the back with a tin sword. + +Odo's glimpse of the square at Oropa told him that here was a band of +strolling players such as Cantapresto had talked of on the ride back to +Donnaz. Don Gervaso's instructions and the old Marchioness's warning +against the theatre were present enough in the boy's mind to add a touch +of awe to the curiosity with which he observed these strange objects of +the Church's reprobation. They struck him, it must be owned, as more +pitiable than alarming, for the duenna's toes were coming through her +shoes, and one or two of the children who hung on the outskirts of the +group looked as lean and hungry under their spangles as the +foundling-girl of Pontesordo. Spite of this they seemed a jolly crew, +and ready (at Cantapresto's expense) to celebrate their encounter with +the ex-soprano in unlimited libations of Asti and Val Pulicello. The +singer, however, hung back with protesting gestures. + +"Gently, then, gently, dear friends--dear companions! When was it we +parted? In the spring of the year--and we meet now in the late summer. +As the seasons change so do our conditions: if the spring is a season of +folly, then is the harvest-time the period for reflection. When we last +met I was a strolling poet, glad to serve your gifted company within the +scope of my talents--now, ladies and gentlemen, now"--he drew himself up +with pride--"now you behold in me the governor and friend of the +heir-presumptive of Pianura." + +Cries of incredulity and derision greeted this announcement, and one of +the girls called out laughingly, "Yet you have the same old cassock to +your back!" + +"And the same old passage from your mouth to your belly," added an +elastic Harlequin, reaching an arm across the women's shoulders. "Come, +Cantapresto, we'll help you line it with good wine, to the health of his +most superlatively serene Highness, the heir-presumptive of Pianura; and +where is that fabulous personage, by the way?" + +Odo at this retreated hastily behind the soprano; but a pretty girl +catching sight of him, he found himself dragged into the centre of the +company, who hailed him with fantastic obeisances. Supper meanwhile was +being laid on the greasy table down the middle of the room. The Matamor, +who seemed the director of the troupe, thundered out his orders for +maccaroni, fried eels and sausages; the inn-servants flanked the plates +with wine-flasks and lumps of black bread, and in a moment the hungry +comedians, thrusting Odo into a high seat at the head of the table, were +falling on the repast with a prodigious clatter of cutlery. + +Of the subsequent incidents of the feast--the banter of the younger +women, the duenna's lachrymose confidences, the incessant interchange of +theatrical jargon and coarse pleasantry--there remained to Odo but a +confused image, obscured by the smoke of guttering candles, the fumes of +wine and the stifling air of the low-ceilinged tavern. Even the face of +the pretty girl who had dragged him from his concealment, and who now +sat at his side, plying him with sweets from her own plate, began to +fade into the general blur; and his last impression was of Cantapresto's +figure dilating to immense proportions at the other end of the table, as +the soprano rose with shaking wine-glass to favour the company with a +song. The chorus, bursting forth in response, surged over Odo's drowning +senses, and he was barely aware, in the tumult of noise and lights, of +an arm slipped about him, a softly-heaving pillow beneath his head, and +the gradual subsidence into dark delicious peace. + +So, on the first night of his new life, the heir-presumptive of Pianura +fell asleep with his head in a dancing-girl's breast. + + +1.8. + +The travellers were to journey by Vettura from Chivasso to Turin; and +when Odo woke next morning the carriage stood ready in the courtyard. + +Cantapresto, mottled and shamefaced, with his bands awry and an air of +tottering dignity, was gathering their possessions together, and the +pretty girl who had pillowed Odo's slumbers now knelt by his bed and +laughingly drew on his stockings. She was a slim brown morsel, not much +above his age, with a glance that flitted like a bird, and round +shoulders slipping out of her kerchief. A wave of shyness bathed Odo to +the forehead as their eyes met: he hung his head stupidly and turned +away when she fetched the comb to dress his hair. + +His toilet completed, she called out to the abate to go below and see +that the cavaliere's chocolate was ready; and as the door closed she +turned and kissed Odo on the lips. + +"Oh, how red you are!" she cried laughing. "Is that the first kiss +you've ever had? Then you'll remember me when you're Duke of +Pianura--Mirandolina of Chioggia, the first girl you ever kissed!" She +was pulling his collar straight while she talked, so that he could not +get away from her. "You will remember me, won't you?" she persisted. "I +shall be a great actress by that time, and you'll appoint me prima +amorosa to the ducal theatre of Pianura, and throw me a diamond bracelet +from your Highness's box and make all the court ladies ready to poison +me for rage!" She released his collar and dropped away from him. "Ah, +no, I shall be a poor strolling player, and you a great prince," she +sighed, "and you'll never, never think of me again; but I shall always +remember that I was the first girl you ever kissed!" + +She hung back in a dazzle of tears, looking so bright and tender that +Odo's bashfulness melted like a spring frost. + +"I shall never be Duke," he cried, "and I shall never forget you!" And +with that he turned and kissed her boldly and then bolted down the +stairs like a hare. And all that day he scorched and froze with the +thought that perhaps she had been laughing at him. + +Cantapresto was torpid after the feast, and Odo detected in him an air +of guilty constraint. The boy was glad enough to keep silence, and they +rolled on without speaking through the wide glowing landscape. Already +the nearness of a great city began to make itself felt. The bright +champaign was scattered over with farm-houses, their red-tiled +pigeon-cots and their granges latticed with openwork terra-cotta +pleasantly breaking the expanse of maize and mulberry; villages lay +along the banks of the canals intersecting the plain; and the hills +beyond the Po were planted with villas and monasteries. + +All the afternoon they drove between umbrageous parks and under the +walls of terraced vineyards. It was a region of delectable shade, with +glimpses here and there of gardens flashing with fountains and villa +roofs decked with statues and vases; and at length, toward sunset, a +bend of the road brought them out on a fair-spreading city, so +flourishing in buildings, so beset with smiling hills, that Odo, +springing from his seat, cried out in sheer joy of the spectacle. + +They had still the suburbs to traverse; and darkness was falling when +they entered the gates of Turin. This brought the fresh amazement of +wide lamplit streets, clean and bright as a ball-room, lined with +palaces and filled with well-dressed loungers: officers in the brilliant +Sardinian uniforms, fine gentlemen in French tie-wigs and narrow-sleeved +coats, merchants hurrying home from business, ecclesiastics in +high-swung carriages, and young bloods dashing by in their curricles. +The tables before the coffee-houses were thronged with idlers taking +their chocolate and reading the gazettes; and here and there the arched +doorway of a palace showed some gay party supping al fresco in a garden +hung with lamps. + +The flashing of lights and the noise of the streets roused Cantapresto, +who sat up with a sudden assumption of dignity. + +"Ah, cavaliere," said he, "you now see a great city, a famous city, a +city aptly called 'the Paris of Italy.' Nowhere else shall you find such +well-lit streets, such fair pavements, shops so full of Parisian wares, +promenades so crowded with fine carriages and horses. What a life a +young gentleman may lead here! The court is hospitable, society amiable, +the theatres are the best-appointed in Italy." + +Here Cantapresto paused with a deprecating cough. + +"Only one thing is necessary," he went on, "to complete enjoyment of the +fruits of this garden of Eden; and that is"--he coughed +again--"discretion. His Majesty, cavaliere, is a father to his subjects; +the Church is their zealous mother; and between two such parents, and +the innumerable delegates of their authority, why, you may fancy, sir, +that a man has to wear his eyes on all sides of his head. Discretion is +a virtue the Church herself commends; it is natural, then, that she +should afford her children full opportunity to practise it. And look +you, cavaliere, it is like gymnastics: the younger you acquire it, the +less effort it costs. Our Maker Himself has taught us the value of +silence by putting us speechless into the world: if we learn to talk +later we do it at our own risk! But for your own part, cavaliere--since +the habit cannot too early be exercised--I would humbly counsel you to +say nothing to your illustrious parents of our little diversion of last +evening." + +The Countess Valdu lived on the upper floor of a rococo palace near the +Piazza San Carlo; and here Odo, led by Cantapresto, presently found +himself shown into an apartment where several ladies and gentlemen sat +at cards. His mother, detaching herself from the group, embraced him +with unusual warmth, and the old Count, more painted and perfumed than +ever, hurried up with an obsequious greeting. Odo for the first time +found himself of consequence in the world; and as he was passed from +guest to guest, questioned about his journey, praised for his good +colour and stout looks, complimented on his high prospects, and +laughingly entreated not to forget his old friends when fortune should +advance him to the duchy, he began to feel himself a reigning potentate +already. + +His mother, as he soon learned, had sunk into a life almost as dull and +restricted as that she had left Donnaz to escape. Count Valdu's position +at court was more ornamental than remunerative, the income from his +estates was growing annually smaller, and he was involved in costly +litigation over the sale of some entailed property. Such conditions were +little to the Countess's humour, and the society to which her narrow +means confined her offered few distractions to her vanity. The +frequenters of the house were chiefly poor relations and hangers-on of +the Count's, the parasites who in those days were glad to subsist on the +crumbs of the slenderest larder. Half-a-dozen hungry Countesses, their +lean admirers, a superannuated abate or two, and a flock of threadbare +ecclesiastics, made up Donna Laura's circle; and even her cicisbeo, +selected in family council under the direction of her confessor, was an +austere gentleman of middle age, who collected ancient coins and was +engaged in composing an essay on the Martellian verse. + +This company, which devoted hours to the new French diversion of the +parfilage, and spent the evenings in drinking lemonade and playing +basset for small stakes, found its chief topic of conversation in the +only two subjects safely discussed in Turin at that day--the doings of +the aristocracy and of the clergy. The fashion of the Queen's headdress +at the last circle, the marked manner in which his Majesty had lately +distinguished the brilliant young cavalry officer, Count Roberto di +Tournanches, the third marriage of the Countess Alfieri of Asti, the +incredibility of the rumour that the court ladies of Versailles had +taken to white muslin and Leghorn hats, the probable significance of the +Vicar-general's visit to Rome, the subject of the next sacred +representation to be given by the nuns of Santa Croce--such were the +questions that engaged the noble frequenters of Casa Valdu. + +This was the only society that Donna Laura saw; for she was too poor to +dress to her taste and too proud to show herself in public without the +appointments becoming her station. Her sole distraction consisted in +visits to the various shrines--the Sudario, the Consolata, the Corpus +Domini--at which the feminine aristocracy offered up its devotions and +implored absolution for sins it had often no opportunity to commit: for +though fashion accorded cicisbei to the fine ladies of Turin, the Church +usually restricted their intercourse to the exchange of the most +harmless amenities. + +Meanwhile the antechamber was as full of duns as the approach to Donna +Laura's apartment at Pianura; and Odo guessed that the warmth of the +maternal welcome sprang less from natural affection than from the hope +of using his expectations as a sop to her creditors. The pittance which +the ducal treasury allowed for his education was scarce large enough to +be worth diverting to other ends; but a potential prince is a shield to +the most vulnerable fortunes. In this character Odo for the first time +found himself flattered, indulged, and made the centre of the company. +The contrast to his life of subjection at Donnaz; the precocious +initiation into motives that tainted the very fount of filial piety; the +taste of this mingled draught of adulation and disillusionment, might +have perverted a nature more self-centred than his. From this +perversion, and from many subsequent perils he was saved by a kind of +imaginative sympathy, a wondering joy in the mere spectacle of life, +that tinged his most personal impressions with a streak of the +philosophic temper. If this trait did not save him from sorrow, it at +least lifted him above pettiness; if it could not solve the difficulties +of life it could arm him to endure them. It was the best gift of the +past from which he sprang; but it was blent with another quality, a deep +moral curiosity that ennobled his sensuous enjoyment of the outward show +of life; and these elements were already tending in him, as in countless +youths of his generation, to the formation of a new spirit, the spirit +that was to destroy one world without surviving to create another. + +Of all this none could have been less conscious than the lad just +preparing to enter on his studies at the Royal Academy of Turin. That +institution, adjoining the royal palace, was a kind of nursery or +forcing-house for the budding nobility of Savoy. In one division of the +sumptuous building were housed his Majesty's pages, a corps of luxurious +indolent young fops; another wing accommodated the regular students of +the Academy, sons of noblemen and gentlemen destined for the secular +life, while a third was set aside for the "forestieri" or students from +foreign countries and from the other Italian states. To this quarter Odo +Valsecca was allotted; though it was understood that on leaving the +Academy he was to enter the Sardinian service. + +It was customary for a young gentleman of Odo's rank to be attended at +the Academy not only by a body-servant but by a private governor or +pedant, whose business it was to overlook his studies, attend him +abroad, and have an eye to the society he frequented. The old Marquess +of Donnaz had sent his daughter, by Odo's hand, a letter recommending +her to select her son's governor with particular care, choosing rather a +person of grave behaviour and assured morality than one of your glib +ink-spatterers who may know the inside of all the folios in the King's +library without being the better qualified for the direction of a young +gentleman's conduct; and to this letter Don Gervaso appended the terse +postcript: "Your excellency is especially warned against according this +or any other position of trust to the merry-andrew who calls himself the +abate Cantapresto." + +Donna Laura, with a shrug, handed the letter to her husband; Count +Valdu, adjusting his glasses, observed it was notorious that people +living in the depths of the country thought themselves qualified to +instruct their city relatives on all points connected with the social +usages; and the cicisbeo suggested that he could recommend an abate who +was proficient in the construction of the Martellian verse, and who +would made no extra charge for that accomplishment. + +"Charges!" the Countess cried. "There's a matter my father doesn't deign +to consider. It's not enough, nowadays, to give the lads a governor, but +they must maintain their servants too, an idle gluttonous crew that prey +on their pockets and get a commission off every tradesman's bill." + +Count Valdu lifted a deprecating hand. + +"My dear, nothing could be more offensive to his Majesty than any +attempt to reduce the way of living of the pupils of the Academy." + +"Of course," she shrugged--"But who's to pay? The Duke's beggarly +pittance hardly clothes him." + +The cicisbeo suggested that the cavaliere Odo had expectations; at which +Donna Laura flushed and turned uneasy; while the Count, part of whose +marital duty it was to intervene discreetly between his lady and her +knight, now put forth the remark that the abate Cantapresto seemed a +shrewd serviceable fellow. + +"Nor do I like to turn him adrift," cried the Countess instantly, "after +he has obliged us by attending my son on his journey." + +"And I understand," added the Count, "that he would be glad to serve the +cavaliere in any capacity you might designate." + +"Why not in all?" said the cicisbeo thoughtfully. "There would be +undoubted advantages to the cavaliere in possessing a servant who would +explain the globes while powdering his hair and not be above calling his +chair when he attended him to a lecture." + +And the upshot of it was that when Odo, a few days later, entered on his +first term at the Academy, he was accompanied by the abate Cantapresto, +who had agreed, for a minimum of pay, to serve him faithfully in the +double capacity of pedagogue and lacquey. + +The considerable liberty accorded the foreign students made Odo's first +year at the Academy at once pleasanter and less profitable than had he +been one of the regular pupils. The companions among whom he found +himself were a set of lively undisciplined young gentlemen, chiefly from +England, Russia and the German principalities; all in possession of more +or less pocket-money and attended by governors either pedantic and +self-engrossed or vulgarly subservient. These young sprigs, whose +ambition it was to ape the dress and manners of the royal pages, led a +life of dissipation barely interrupted by a few hours of attendance at +the academic classes. From the ill-effects of such surroundings Odo was +preserved by an intellectual curiosity that flung him ravening on his +studies. It was not that he was of a bookish habit, or that the drudgery +of the classes was less irksome to him than to the other pupils; but not +even the pedantic methods then prevailing, or the distractions of his +new life, could dull the flush of his first encounter with the past. His +imagination took fire over the dry pages of Cornelius Nepos, glowed with +the mild pastoral warmth of the Georgics and burst into flame at the +first hexameters of the Aeneid. He caught but a fragment of meaning here +and there, but the sumptuous imagery, the stirring names, the glimpses +into a past where Roman senators were mingled with the gods of a +gold-pillared Olympus, filled his mind with a misty pageant of +immortals. These moments of high emotion were interspersed with hours of +plodding over the Latin grammar and the textbooks of philosophy and +logic. Books were unknown ground to Cantapresto, and among masters and +pupils there was not one who could help Odo to the meaning of his task, +or who seemed aware that it might have a meaning. To most of the lads +about him the purpose of the Academy was to fit young gentlemen for the +army or the court; to give them the chance of sweating a shirt every +morning with the fencing-master and of learning to thread the +intricacies of the court minuet. They modelled themselves on the dress +and bearing of the pages, who were always ruffling it about the +quadrangle in court dress and sword, or booted and spurred for a day's +hunting at the King's chase of Stupinigi. To receive a nod or a word +from one of these young demigods on his way to the King's opera-box or +just back from a pleasure-party at her Majesty's villa above the Po--to +hear of their tremendous exploits and thrilling escapades--seemed to put +the whole school in touch with the fine gentleman's world of intrigue, +cards and duelling: the world in which ladies were subjugated, fortunes +lost, adversaries run through and tradesmen ruined with that +imperturbable grace which distinguished the man of quality from the +plebeian. + +Among the privileges of the foreign pupils were frequent visits to the +royal theatre; and here was to Odo a source of unimagined joys. His +superstitious dread of the stage (a sentiment, he soon discovered, that +not even his mother's director shared) made his heart beat oppressively +as he first set foot in the theatre. It was a gala night, boxes and +stalls were thronged, and the audience-hall unfolded its glittering +curves like some poisonous flower enveloping him in rich malignant +fragrance. This impression was dispelled by the rising of the curtain on +a scene of such Claude-like loveliness as it would have been impossible +to associate with the bug-bear tales of Donnaz or with the coarse antics +of the comedians at Chivasso. A temple girt with mysterious shade, +lifting its colonnade above a sunlit harbour; and before the temple, +vine-wreathed nymphs waving their thyrsi through the turns of a +melodious dance--such was the vision that caught up Odo and swept him +leagues away from the rouged and starred assemblage gathered in the +boxes to gossip, flirt, eat ices and chocolates, and incidentally, in +the pauses of their talk, to listen for a moment to the ravishing airs +of Metastasio's Achilles in Scyros. + +The distance between such performances--magic evocations of light and +colour and melody--and the gross buffoonery of the popular stage, still +tainted with the obscenities of the old commedia dell' arte, in a +measure explains the different points from which at that period the +stage was viewed in Italy: a period when in such cities as Milan, +Venice, Turin, actors and singers were praised to the skies and loaded +with wealth and favours, while the tatterdemalion players who set up +their boards in the small towns at market-time or on feast-days were +despised by the people and flung like carrion into unconsecrated graves. +The impression Odo had gathered from Don Gervaso's talk was of the +provincial stage in all its pothouse license; but here was a spectacle +as lofty and harmonious as some great religious pageant. As the action +developed and the beauty of the verse was borne to Odo on the light +hurrying ripples of Caldara's music he turned instinctively to share his +pleasure with those about him. Cantapresto, in a new black coat and +ruffles, was conspicuously taking snuff from the tortoiseshell box which +the Countess's cicisbeo had given him; but Odo saw that he took less +pleasure in the spectacle than in the fact of accompanying the +heir-presumptive of Pianura to a gala performance at the royal theatre; +and the lads about them were for the most part engaged either with their +own dress and appearance, or in exchanging greetings with the royal +pages and the older students. A few of these sat near Odo, disdainfully +superior in their fob-chains and queues; and as the boy glanced about +him he met the fixed stare of one of the number, a tall youth seated at +his elbow, and conspicuous, even in that modish company, for the +exaggerated elegance of his dress. This young man, whose awkward bearing +and long lava-hued face crowned with flamboyant hair contrasted oddly +with his finical apparel, returned Odo's look with a gaze of eager +comprehension. He too, it was clear, felt the thrill and wonder, or at +least re-lived them in the younger lad's emotion; and from that moment +Odo felt himself in mute communion with his neighbour. + +The quick movement of the story--the succession of devices by which the +wily Ulysses lures Achilles to throw off his disguise, while Deidamia +strives to conceal his identity; the scenic beauties of the background, +shifting from sculpture-gallery to pleasance, from pleasance to +banquet-hall; the pomp and glitter of the royal train, the melting +graces of Deidamia and her maidens; seemed, in their multiple appeal, to +develop in Odo new faculties of perception. It was his first initiation +into Italian poetry, and the numbers, now broken, harsh and passionate, +now flowing into liquid sweetness, were so blent with sound and colour +that he scarce knew through which sense they reached him. Deidamia's +strophes thrilled him like the singing-girl's kiss, and at the young +hero's cry-- + + Ma lo so ch' io sono Achille, + E mi sento Achille in sen-- + +his fists tightened and the blood hummed in his ears. + +In the scene of the banquet-hall, where the followers of Ulysses lay +before Lycomedes the offerings of the Greek chieftains, and, while the +King and Deidamia are marvelling at the jewels and the Tyrian robes, +Achilles, unmindful of his disguise, bursts out + +Ah, chi vide finora armi piu belle? + +--at this supreme point Odo again turned to his neighbour. They +exchanged another look, and at the close of the act the youth leaned +forward to ask with an air of condescension: "Is this your first +acquaintance with the divine Metastasio?" + +"I have never been in a play-house before," said Odo reddening. + +The other smiled. "You are fortunate in having so worthy an introduction +to the stage. Many of our operas are merely vulgar and ridiculous; but +Metastasio is a great poet." Odo nodded a breathless assent. "A great +poet," his new acquaintance resumed, "and handling a great theme. But do +you not suffer from the silly songs that perpetually interrupt the flow +of the verse? To me they are intolerable. Metastasio might have been a +great tragic dramatist if Italy would have let him. But Italy does not +want tragedies--she wishes to be sung to, danced to, made eyes at, +flattered and amused! Give her anything, anything that shall help her to +forget her own abasement. Panem et circenses! that is always her cry. +And who can wonder that her sovereigns and statesmen are willing to +humour her, when even her poets stoop to play the mountebank for her +diversion?" The speaker, ruffling his locks with a hand that scattered +the powder, turned on the brilliant audience his strange corrugated +frown. "Fools! simpletons!" he cried, "not to see that in applauding the +Achilles of Metastasio they are smiling at the allegory of their own +abasement! What are the Italians of today but men tricked out in women's +finery, when they should be waiting full-armed to rally at the first +signal of revolt? Oh, for the day when a poet shall arise who dares tell +them the truth, not disguised in sentimental frippery, not ending in a +maudlin reconciliation of love and glory--but the whole truth, naked, +cold and fatal as a patriot's blade; a poet who dares show these +bedizened courtiers they are no freer than the peasants they oppress, +and tell the peasants they are entitled to the same privileges as their +masters!" He paused and drew back with a supercilious smile. "But +doubtless, sir," said he, "I offend you in thus arraigning your sacred +caste; for unless I mistake you belong to the race of demi-gods--the +Titans whose downfall is at hand?" He swept the boxes with a +contemptuous eye. + +Little of this tirade was clear to Odo; but something in the speaker's +tone moved him to answer, with a quick lifting of his head: "My name is +Odo Valsecca, of the Dukes of Pianura;" when, fearing he had seemed to +parade his birth before one evidently of inferior station, he at once +added with a touch of shyness: "And you, sir, are perhaps a poet, since +you speak so beautifully?" + +At which, with a stare and a straightening of his long awkward body, the +other haughtily returned: "A poet, sir? I am the Count Vittorio Alfieri +of Asti." + + +1.9. + +The singular being with whom chance had thus brought him acquainted was +to have a lasting influence on the formation of Odo's character. + +Vittorio Alfieri, then just concluding, at the age of sixteen, his +desultory years of academic schooling, was probably the most +extraordinary youth in Charles Emmanuel's dominion. Of the future +student, of the tragic poet who was to prepare the liberation of Italy +by raising the political ideals of his generation, this moody boy with +his craze for dress and horses, his pride of birth and contempt for his +own class, his liberal theories and insolently aristocratic practice, +must have given small promise to the most discerning observer. It seems +indeed probable that none thought him worth observing and that he passed +among his townsmen merely as one of the most idle and extravagant young +noblemen in a society where idleness and extravagance were held to be +the natural attributes of the great. But in the growth of character the +light on the road to Damascus is apt to be preceded by faint premonitory +gleams; and even in his frivolous days at the Academy Alfieri carried a +Virgil in his pocket and wept and trembled over Ariosto's verse. + +It was the instant response of Odo's imagination that drew the two +together. Odo, as one of the foreign pupils, was quartered in the same +wing of the Academy with the students of Alfieri's class, and enjoyed an +almost equal freedom. Thus, despite the difference of age, the lads +found themselves allied by taste and circumstances. Among the youth of +their class they were perhaps the only two who already felt, however +obscurely, the stirring of unborn ideals, the pressure of that tide of +renovation that was to sweep them, on widely-sundered currents, to the +same uncharted deep. Alfieri, at any rate, represented to the younger +lad the seer who held in his hands the keys of knowledge and beauty. Odo +could never forget the youth who first leant him Annibale Caro's Aeneid +and Metastasio's opera libretti, Voltaire's Zaire and the comedies of +Goldoni; while Alfieri perhaps found in his companion's sympathy with +his own half-dormant tastes the first incentive to a nobler activity. +Certain it is that, in the interchange of their daily comradeship, the +elder gave his friend much that he was himself unconscious of +possessing, and perhaps first saw reflected in Odo's more vivid +sensibility an outline of the formless ideals coiled in the depths of +his own sluggish nature. + +The difference in age, and the possession of an independent fortune, +which the laws of Savoy had left Alfieri free to enjoy since his +fifteenth year, gave him an obvious superiority over Odo; but if +Alfieri's amusements separated him from his young friend, his tastes +were always drawing them together; and Odo was happily of those who are +more engaged in profiting by what comes their way than in pining for +what escapes them. Much as he admired Alfieri, it was somehow impossible +for the latter to condescend to him; and the equality of intercourse +between the two was perhaps its chief attraction to a youth surfeited +with adulation. + +Of the opportunities his new friendship brought him, none became in +after years a pleasanter memory to Odo than his visits with Vittorio to +the latter's uncle, the illustrious architect Count Benedetto Alfieri. +This accomplished and amiable man, who had for many years devoted his +talents to the King's service, was lodged in a palace adjoining the +Academy; and thither, one holiday afternoon, Vittorio conducted his +young friend. + +Ignorant as Odo was of all the arts, he felt on the very threshold the +new quality of his surroundings. These tall bare rooms, where busts and +sarcophagi were ranged as in the twilight of a temple, diffused an +influence that lowered the voice and hushed the step. In the +semi-Parisian capital where French architects designed the King's +pleasure-houses and the nobility imported their boudoir-panellings from +Paris and their damask hangings from Lyons, Benedetto Alfieri +represented the old classic tradition, the tradition of the "grand +manner," which had held its own through all later variations of taste, +running parallel with the barocchismo of the seventeenth century and the +effeminate caprices of the rococo period. He had lived much in Rome, in +the company of men like Winckelmann and Maffei, in that society where +the revival of classical research was being forwarded by the liberality +of Princes and Cardinals and by the indefatigable zeal of the scholars +in their pay. From this centre of aesthetic reaction Alfieri had +returned to the Gallicized Turin, with its preference for the graceful +and ingenious rather than for the large, the noble, the restrained; +bringing to bear on the taste of his native city the influence of a view +raised but perhaps narrowed by close study of the past: the view of a +generation of architects in whom archeological curiosity had stifled the +artistic instinct, and who, instead of assimilating the spirit of the +past like their great predecessors, were engrossed in a sterile +restoration of the letter. It may be said of this school of architects +that they were of more service to posterity than to their +contemporaries; for while they opened the way to modern antiquarian +research, their pedantry checked the natural development of a style +which, if left to itself, might in time have found new and more vigorous +forms of expression. + +To Odo, happily, Count Benedetto's surroundings spoke more forcibly than +his theories. Every object in the calm severe rooms appealed to the boy +with the pure eloquence of form. Casts of the Vatican busts stood +against the walls and a niche at one end of the library contained a +marble copy of the Apollo Belvedere. The sarcophagi with their winged +genii, their garlands and bucranes, and porphyry tazzas, the fragments +of Roman mosaic and Pompeian fresco-painting, roused Odo's curiosity as +if they had been the scattered letters of a new alphabet; and he saw +with astonishment his friend Vittorio's indifference to these wonders. +Count Benedetto, it was clear, was resigned to his nephew's lack of +interest. The old man doubtless knew that he represented to the youth +only the rich uncle whose crotchets must be humoured for the sake of +what his pocket may procure; and such kindly tolerance made Odo regret +that Vittorio should not at least affect an interest in his uncle's +pursuits. + +Odo's eagerness to see and learn filled Count Benedetto with a simple +joy. He brought forth all his treasures for the boy's instruction and +the two spent many an afternoon poring over Piranesi's Roman etchings, +Maffei's Verona Illustrata, and Count Benedetto's own elegant +pencil-drawings of classical remains. Like all students of his day he +had also his cabinet of antique gems and coins, from which Odo obtained +more intimate glimpses of that buried life so marvellously exhumed +before him: hints of traffic in far-off market-places and familiar +gestures of hands on which those very jewels might have sparkled. Nor +did the Count restrict the boy's enquiries to that distant past; and for +the first time Odo heard of the masters who had maintained the great +classical tradition on Latin soil: Sanmichele, Vignola, Sansovino, and +the divine Michael Angelo, whom the old architect never named without +baring his head. From the works of these architects Odo formed his first +conception of the earlier, more virile manner which the first contact +with Graeco-Roman antiquity had produced. The Count told him, too, of +the great painters whose popularity had been lessened, if their fame had +not been dimmed, by the more recent achievements of Correggio, Guido, +Guercino, and the Bolognese school. The splendour of the stanze of the +Vatican, the dreadful majesty of the Sistine ceiling, revealed to Odo +the beauty of that unmatched moment before grandeur broke into bombast. +His early association with the expressive homely art of the chapel at +Pontesordo and with the half-pagan beauty of Luini's compositions had +formed his taste on soberer lines than the fashion of the day affected; +and his imagination breathed freely on the heights of the Latin +Parnassus. Thus, while his friend Vittorio stormed up and down the quiet +rooms, chattering about his horses, boasting of his escapades, or +ranting against the tyranny of the Sardinian government, Odo, at the old +Count's side, was entering on the great inheritance of the past. + +Such an initiation was the more precious to him from the indifference of +those about him to all forms of liberal culture. Among the greater +Italian cities, Turin was at that period the least open to new +influences, the most rigidly bound up in the formulas of the past. While +Milan, under the Austrian rule, was becoming a centre of philosophic +thought; while Naples was producing a group of economists such as +Galiani, Gravina and Filangieri; while ecclesiastical Rome was +dedicating herself to the investigation of ancient art and polity, and +even flighty Venice had her little set of "liberals," who read Voltaire +and Hume and wept over the rights of man, the old Piedmontese capital +lay in the grasp of a bigoted clergy and of a reigning house which was +already preparing to superimpose Prussian militarism on the old feudal +discipline of the border. Generations of hard fighting and rigorous +living had developed in the nobles the qualities which were preparing +them for the great part their country was to play; and contact with the +Waldensian and Calvinist heresies had stiffened Piedmontese piety into a +sombre hatred of schism and a minute observance of the mechanical rules +of the faith. Such qualities could be produced only at the expense of +intellectual freedom; and if Piedmont could show a few nobles like +Massimo d'Azeglio's father, who "made the education of his children his +first and gravest thought" and supplemented the deficiencies of his +wife's conventual training by "consecrating to her daily four hours of +reading, translating and other suitable exercises," the commoner view +was that of Alfieri's own parents, who frequently repeated in their +son's hearing "the old maxim of the Piedmontese nobility" that there is +no need for a gentleman to be a scholar. Such at any rate was the +opinion of the old Marquess of Donnaz, and of all the frequenters of +Casa Valdu. Odo's stepfather was engrossed in the fulfilment of his +duties about the court, and Donna Laura, under the influence of poverty +and ennui, had sunk into a state of rigid pietism; so that the lad, on +his visits to his mother, found himself in a world where art was +represented by the latest pastel-portrait of a court beauty, literature +by Liguori's Glories of Mary or the blessed Battista's Mental Sorrows of +Christ, and history by the conviction that Piedmont's efforts to stamp +out the enemies of the Church had distinguished her above every other +country of Europe. Donna Laura's cicisbeo was indeed a member of the +local Arcadia, and given to celebrating in verse every incident in the +noble household of Valdu, from its lady's name-day to the death of a pet +canary; but his own tastes inclined to the elegant Bettinelli, whose +Lettere Virgiliane had so conclusively shown Dante to be a writer of +barbarous doggerel; and among the dilettanti of the day one heard less +of Raphael than of Carlo Maratta, less of Ariosto and Petrarch than of +the Jesuit poet Padre Cevo, author of the sublime "heroico-comic" poem +on the infancy of Jesus. + +It was in fact mainly to the Jesuits that Italy, in the early part of +the eighteenth century, owed her literature and her art, as well as the +direction of her religious life. Though the reaction against the order +was everywhere making itself felt, though one Italian sovereign after +another had been constrained to purchase popularity or even security by +banishing the Society from his dominions, the Jesuits maintained their +hold on the aristocracy, whose pretentions they flattered, whose tastes +they affected, and to whom they represented the spirit of religious and +political conservatism, against which invisible forces were already felt +to be moving. For the use of their noble supporters, the Jesuits had +devised a religion as elaborate and ceremonious as the social usages of +the aristocracy: a religion which decked its chapels in imitation of +great ladies' boudoirs and prescribed observances in keeping with the +vapid and gossiping existence of their inmates. + +To Odo, fresh from the pure air of Donnaz, where the faith of his +kinsfolk expressed itself in charity, self-denial and a noble decency of +life, there was something stifling in the atmosphere of languishing +pietism in which his mother's friends veiled the emptiness of their +days. Under the instruction of the Countess's director the boy's +conscience was enervated by the casuistries of Liguorianism and his +devotion dulled by the imposition of interminable "pious practices." It +was in his nature to grudge no sacrifice to his ideals, and he might +have accomplished without question the monotonous observances his +confessor exacted, but for the changed aspect of the Deity in whose name +they were imposed. + +As with most thoughtful natures, Odo's first disillusionment was to come +from discovering not what his God condemned, but what He condoned. +Between Cantapresto's coarse philosophy of pleasure and the refined +complaisances of his new confessor he felt the distinction to be one +rather of taste than of principle; and it seemed to him that the +religion of the aristocracy might not unfairly be summed up in the +ex-soprano's cynical aphorism: "As respectful children of our Heavenly +Father it behoves us not to speak till we are spoken to." + +Even the religious ceremonies he witnessed did not console him for that +chill hour of dawn, when, in the chapel at Donnaz, he had served the +mass for Don Gervaso, with a heart trembling at its own unworthiness yet +uplifted by the sense of the Divine Presence. In the churches adorned +like aristocratic drawing-rooms, of which some Madonna, wreathed in +artificial flowers, seemed the amiable and indulgent hostess, and where +the florid passionate music of the mass was rendered by the King's opera +singers before a throng of chattering cavaliers and ladies, Odo prayed +in vain for a reawakening of the old emotion. The sense of sonship was +gone. He felt himself an alien in the temple of this affable divinity, +and his heart echoed no more than the cry which had once lifted him on +wings of praise to the very threshold of the hidden glory-- + +Domine, dilexi decorem domus tuae et locum habitationis gloriae tuae! + +It was in the first reaction from this dimly felt loss that he lit one +day on a volume which Alfieri had smuggled into the Academy--the Lettres +Philosophiques of Francois Arouet de Voltaire. + + + +BOOK II. + +THE NEW LIGHT. + +Zu neuen Ufern lockt ein neuer Tag. + + +2.1. + +One afternoon of April in the year 1774, Odo Valsecca, riding down the +hillside below the church of the Superga, had reined in his horse at a +point where a group of Spanish chestnuts overhung the way. The air was +light and pure, the shady turf invited him, and dismounting he bid his +servant lead the horses to the wayside inn half way down the slope. + +The spot he had chosen, though secluded as some nook above the gorge of +Donnaz, commanded a view of the Po rolling at his feet like a flood of +yellowish metal, and beyond, outspread in clear spring sunshine, the +great city in the bosom of the plain. The spectacle was fair enough to +touch any fancy: brown domes and facades set in new-leaved gardens and +surrounded by vineyards extending to the nearest acclivities; +country-houses glancing through the fresh green of planes and willows; +monastery-walls cresting the higher ridges; and westward the Po winding +in sunlit curves toward the Alps. + +Odo had lost none of his sensitiveness to such impressions; but the sway +of another mood turned his eye from the outstretched beauty of the city +to the vernal solitude about him. It was the season when old memories of +Donnaz worked in his blood; when the banks and hedges of the fresh +hill-country about Turin cheated him with a breath of budding +beech-groves and the fragrance of crushed fern in the glens of the high +Pennine valleys. It was a mere waft, perhaps, from some clod of loosened +earth, or the touch of cool elastic moss as he flung himself face +downward under the trees; but the savour, the contact filled his +nostrils with mountain air and his eyes with dim-branched distances. At +Donnaz the slow motions of the northern spring had endeared to him all +those sweet incipiencies preceding the full choral burst of leaf and +flower: the mauve mist over bare woodlands, the wet black gleams in +frost-bound hollows, the thrust of fronds through withered bracken, the +primrose-patches spreading like pale sunshine along wintry lanes. He had +always felt a sympathy for these delicate unnoted changes; but the +feeling which had formerly been like the blind stir of sap in a plant +was now a conscious sensation that groped for speech and understanding. + +He had grown up among people to whom such emotions were unknown. The old +Marquess's passion for his fields and woods was the love of the +agriculturist and the hunter, not that of the naturalist or the poet; +and the aristocracy of the cities regarded the country merely as so much +soil from which to draw their maintenance. The gentlefolk never absented +themselves from town but for a few weeks of autumn, when they went to +their villas for the vintage, transporting thither all the diversions of +city life and venturing no farther afield than the pleasure-grounds that +were but so many open-air card-rooms, concert-halls and theatres. Odo's +tenderness for every sylvan function of renewal and decay, every +shifting of light and colour on the flying surface of the year, would +have been met with the same stare with which a certain enchanting +Countess had received the handful of wind-flowers that, fresh from a +sunrise on the hills, he had laid one morning among her toilet-boxes. +The Countess Clarice had stared and laughed, and every one of his +acquaintance, Alfieri even, would have echoed her laugh; but one man at +least had felt the divine commotion of nature's touch, had felt and +interpreted it, in words as fresh as spring verdure, in the pages of a +volume that Odo now drew from his pocket. + +"I longed to dream, but some unexpected spectacle continually distracted +me from my musings. Here immense rocks hung their ruinous masses above +my head; there the thick mist of roaring waterfalls enveloped me; or +some unceasing torrent tore open at my very feet an abyss into which the +gaze feared to plunge. Sometimes I was lost in the twilight of a thick +wood; sometimes, on emerging from a dark ravine, my eyes were charmed by +the sight of an open meadow...Nature seemed to revel in unwonted +contrasts; such varieties of aspect had she united in one spot. Here was +an eastern prospect bright with spring flowers, while autumn fruits +ripened to the south and the northern face of the scene was still locked +in wintry frosts...Add to this the different angles at which the peaks +took the light, the chiaroscuro of sun and shade, and the variations of +light resulting from it at morning and evening...sum up the impressions +I have tried to describe and you will be able to form an idea of the +enchanting situation in which I found myself...The scene has indeed a +magical, a supernatural quality, which so ravishes the spirit and senses +that one seems to lose all exact notion of one's surroundings and +identity." + +This was a new language to eighteenth-century readers. Already it had +swept through the length and breadth of France, like a spring storm-wind +bursting open doors and windows, and filling close candle-lit rooms with +wet gusts and the scent of beaten blossoms; but south of the Alps the +new ideas travelled slowly, and the Piedmontese were as yet scarce aware +of the man who had written thus of their own mountains. It was true +that, some thirty years earlier, in one of the very monasteries on which +Odo now looked down, a Swiss vagrant called Rousseau had embraced the +true faith with the most moving signs of edification; but the rescue of +Helvetian heretics was a favourite occupation of the Turinese nobility +and it is doubtful if any recalled the name of the strange proselyte who +had hastened to signalise his conversion by robbing his employers and +slandering an innocent maid-servant. Odo in fact owed his first +acquaintance with the French writers to Alfieri, who, in the intervals +of his wandering over Europe, now and then reappeared in Turin laden +with the latest novelties in Transalpine literature and haberdashery. +What his eccentric friend failed to provide, Odo had little difficulty +in obtaining for himself; for though most of the new writers were on the +Index, and the Sardinian censorship was notoriously severe, there was +never yet a barrier that could keep out books, and Cantapresto was a +skilled purveyor of contraband dainties. Odo had thus acquainted himself +with the lighter literature of England and France; and though he had +read but few philosophical treatises, was yet dimly aware of the new +standpoint from which, north of the Alps, men were beginning to test the +accepted forms of thought. The first disturbance of his childish faith, +and the coincident reading of the Lettres Philosophiques, had been +followed by a period of moral perturbation, during which he suffered +from that sense of bewilderment, of inability to classify the phenomena +of life, that is one of the keenest trials of inexperience. Youth and +nature had their way with him, however, and a wholesome reaction of +indifference set in. The invisible world of thought and conduct had been +the frequent subject of his musings; but the other, tangible world was +close to him too, spreading like a rich populous plain between himself +and the distant heights of speculation. The old doubts, the old +dissatisfactions, hung on the edge of consciousness; but he was too +profoundly Italian not to linger awhile in that atmosphere of careless +acquiescence that is so pleasant a medium for the unhampered enjoyment +of life. Some day, no doubt, the intellectual curiosity and the moral +disquietude would revive; but what he wanted now were books which +appealed not to his reason but to his emotions, which reflected as in a +mirror the rich and varied life of the senses: books that were warm to +the touch, like the little volume in his hand. + +For it was not only of nature that the book spoke. Amid scenes of such +rustic freshness were set human passions as fresh and natural: a great +romantic love, subdued to duty, yet breaking forth again and again as +young shoots spring from the root of a felled tree. To +eighteenth-century readers such a picture of life was as new as its +setting. Duty, in that day, to people of quality, meant the observance +of certain fixed conventions: the correct stepping of a moral minuet; as +an inner obligation, as a voluntary tribute to Diderot's "divinity on +earth," it had hardly yet drawn breath. To depict a personal relation so +much purer and more profound than any form of sentiment then in fashion, +and then to subordinate it, unflinchingly, to the ideal of those larger +relations that link the individual to the group--this was a stroke of +originality for which it would be hard to find a parallel in modern +fiction. Here at last was an answer to the blind impulses agrope in +Odo's breast--the loosening of those springs of emotion that gushed +forth in such fresh contrast to the stagnant rills of the sentimental +pleasure-garden. To renounce a Julie would be more thrilling than-- + +Odo, with a sigh, thrust the book in his pocket and rose to his feet. It +was the hour of the promenade at the Valentino and he had promised the +Countess Clarice to attend her. The old high-roofed palace of the French +princess lay below him, in its gardens along the river: he could figure, +as he looked down on it, the throng of carriages and chairs, the +modishly dressed riders, the pedestrians crowding the footpath to watch +the quality go by. The vision of all that noise and glitter deepened the +sweetness of the woodland hush. He sighed again. Suddenly voices sounded +in the road below--a man's speech flecked with girlish laughter. Odo +hung back listening: the girl's voice rang like a bird-call through his +rustling fancies. Presently she came in sight: a slender black-mantled +figure hung on the arm of an elderly man in the sober dress of one of +the learned professions--a physician or a lawyer, Odo guessed. Their +being afoot, and the style of the man's dress, showed that they were of +the middle class; their demeanour, that they were father and daughter. +The girl moved with a light forward flowing of her whole body that +seemed the pledge of grace in every limb: of her face Odo had but a +bright glimpse in the eclipse of her flapping hat-brim. She stood under +his tree unheeded; but as they rose abreast of him the girl paused and +dropped her companion's arm. + +"Look! The cherry flowers!" she cried, and stretched her arms to a white +gush of blossoms above the wall across the road. The movement tilted +back her hat, and Odo caught her small fine profile, wide-browed as the +head on some Sicilian coin, with a little harp-shaped ear bedded in dark +ripples. + +"Oh," she wailed, straining on tiptoe, "I can't reach them!" + +Her father smiled. "May temptation," said he philosophically, "always +hang as far out of your reach." + +"Temptation?" she echoed. + +"Is it not theft you're bent on?" + +"Theft? This is a monk's orchard, not a peasant's plot." + +"Confiscation, then," he humorously conceded. + +"Since they pay no taxes on their cherries they might at least," she +argued, "spare a few to us poor taxpayers." + +"Ah," said her father, "I want to tax their cherries, not to gather +them." He slipped a hand through her arm. "Come, child," said he, "does +not the philosopher tell us that he who enjoys a thing possesses it? The +flowers are yours already!" + +"Oh, are they?" she retorted. "Then why doesn't the loaf in the baker's +window feed the beggar that looks in at it?" + +"Casuist!" he cried and drew her up the bend of the road. + +Odo stood gazing after them. Their words, their aspect, seemed an echo +of his reading. The father in his plain broadcloth and square-buckled +shoes, the daughter with her unpowdered hair and spreading hat, might +have stepped from the pages of the romance. What a breath of freshness +they brought with them! The girl's cheek was clear as the +cherry-blossoms, and with what lovely freedom did she move! Thus Julie +might have led Saint Preux through her "Elysium." Odo crossed the road +and, breaking one of the blossoming twigs, thrust it in the breast of +his uniform. Then he walked down the hill to the inn where the horses +waited. Half an hour later he rode up to the house where he lodged in +the Piazza San Carlo. + +In the archway Cantapresto, heavy with a nine years' accretion of fat, +laid an admonishing hand on his bridle. + +"Cavaliere, the Countess's black boy--" + +"Well?" + +"Three several times has battered the door down with a missive." + +"Well?" + +"The last time, I shook him off with the message that you would be there +before him." + +"Be where?" + +"At the Valentino; but that was an hour ago!" + +Odo slipped from the saddle. + +"I must dress first. Call a chair; or no--write a letter for me first. +Let Antonio carry it." + +The ex-soprano, wheezing under the double burden of flesh and +consequence, had painfully laboured after Odo up the high stone flights +to that young gentleman's modest lodgings, and they stood together in a +study lined with books and hung with prints and casts from the antique. +Odo threw off his dusty coat and called the servant to remove his boots. + +"Will you read the lady's letters, cavaliere?" Cantapresto asked, +obsequiously offering them on a lacquered tray. + +"No--no: write first. Begin 'My angelic lady'--" + +"You began the last letter in those terms, cavaliere," his scribe +reminded him with suspended pen. + +"The devil! Well, then--wait. 'Throned goddess'--" + +"You ended the last letter with 'throned goddess.'" + +"Curse the last letter! Why did you send it?" Odo sprang up and slipped +his arms into the dress-tunic his servant had brought him. "Write +anything. Say that I am suddenly summoned by--" + +"By the Count Alfieri?" Cantapresto suggested. + +"Count Alfieri? Is he here? He has returned?" + +"He arrived an hour ago, cavaliere. He sent you this Moorish scimitar +with his compliments. I understand he comes recently from Spain." + +"Imbecile, not to have told me before! Quick, Antonio--my gloves, my +sword." Odo, flushed and animated, buckled his sword-belt with impatient +hands. "Write anything--anything to free my evening. Tomorrow +morning--tomorrow morning I shall wait on the lady. Let Antonio carry +her a nosegay with my compliments. Did you see him Cantapresto? Was he +in good health? Does he sup at home? He left no message? Quick, Antonio, +a chair!" he cried with his hand on the door. + +Odo had acquired, at twenty-two, a nobility of carriage not incompatible +with the boyish candour of his gaze, and becomingly set off by the +brilliant dress-uniform of a lieutenant in one of the provincial +regiments. He was tall and fair, and a certain languor of complexion, +inherited from his father's house, was corrected in him by the vivacity +of the Donnaz blood. This now sparkled in his grey eye, and gave a glow +to his cheek, as he stepped across the threshold, treading on a sprig of +cherry-blossom that had dropped unnoticed to the floor. + +Cantapresto, looking after him, caught sight of the flowers and kicked +them aside with a contemptuous toe. "I sometimes think he botanises," he +murmured with a shrug. "The Lord knows what queer notions he gets out of +all these books!" + + +2.2. + +As an infusion of fresh blood to Odo were Alfieri's meteoric returns to +Turin. Life moved languidly in the strait-laced city, even to a young +gentleman a-tiptoe for adventure and framed to elicit it as the +hazel-wand draws water. Not that vulgar distractions were lacking. The +town, as Cantapresto had long since advised him, had its secret +leniencies, its posterns opening on clandestine pleasure; but there was +that in Odo which early turned him from such cheap counterfeits of +living. He accepted the diversions of his age, but with a clear sense of +their worth; and the youth who calls his pleasures by their true name +has learned the secret of resisting them. + +Alfieri's coming set deeper springs in motion. His follies and +extravagances were on a less provincial scale than those of Odo's daily +associates. The breath of a freer life clung to him and his allusions +were so many glimpses into a larger world. His political theories were +but the enlargement of his private grievances, but the mere play of +criticism on accepted institutions was an exercise more novel and +exhilirating than the wildest ride on one of his half-tamed +thorough-breds. Still chiefly a man of pleasure, and the slave, as +always, of some rash infatuation, Alfieri was already shaking off the +intellectual torpor of his youth; and the first stirrings of his +curiosity roused an answering passion in Odo. Their tastes were indeed +divergent, for to that external beauty which was to Odo the very bloom +of life, Alfieri remained insensible; while of its imaginative +counterpart, its prolongation in the realm of thought and emotion, he +had but the most limited conception. But his love of ringing deeds woke +the chivalrous strain in Odo, and his vague celebration of Liberty, that +unknown goddess to whom altars were everywhere building, chimed with the +other's scorn of oppression and injustice. So far, it is true, their +companionship had been mainly one of pleasure; but the temper of both +gave their follies that provisional character which saves them from +vulgarity. + +Odo, who had slept late on the morning after his friend's return, was +waked by the pompous mouthing of certain lines just then on every lip in +Italy:-- + + Meet was it that, its ancient seats forsaking, + An Empire should set forth with dauntless sail, + And braving tempests and the deep's betrayal, + Break down the barriers of inviolate worlds-- + That Cortez and Pizarro should esteem + The blood of man a trivial sacrifice + When, flinging down from their ancestral thrones + Incas and Mexicans of royal line, + They wrecked two kingdoms to refresh thy palate-- + +They were the verses in which the abate Parini, in his satire of The +Morning, apostrophizes the cup of chocolate which the lacquey presents +to his master. Cantapresto had in fact just entered with a cup of this +beverage, and Alfieri, who stood at his friend's bedside with unpowdered +locks and a fashionable undress of Parisian cut, snatching the tray from +the soprano's hands presented it to Odo in an attitude of mock +servility. + +The young man sprang up laughing. It was the fashion to applaud Parini's +verse in the circles at which his satire was aimed, and none recited his +mock heroics with greater zest than the young gentlemen whose fopperies +he ridiculed. Odo's toilet was indeed a rite almost as elaborate as that +of Parini's hero; and this accomplished, he was on his way to fulfil the +very duty the poet most unsparingly derides: the morning visit of the +cicisbeo to his lady; but meanwhile he liked to show himself above the +follies of his class by joining in the laugh against them. When he +issued from the powder-room in his gold-laced uniform, with scented +gloves and carefully-adjusted queue, he presented the image of a young +gentleman so clearly equal to the most flattering emergencies that +Alfieri broke into a smile of half-ironical approval. "I see, my dear +cavaliere, that it were idle to invite you to try one of the new Arabs I +have brought with me from Spain, since it is plain other duties engage +you; but I come to lay claim to your evening." + +Odo hesitated. "The Queen holds a circle this evening," he said. + +"And her lady-in-waiting is in attendance?" returned Alfieri. "And the +lady-in-waiting's gentleman-in-waiting also?" + +Odo made an impatient movement. "What inducements do you offer?" said he +carelessly. + +Alfieri stepped close and tapped him on the sleeve. "Meet me at ten +o'clock at the turn of the lane behind the Corpus Domini. Wear a cloak +and a mask, and leave this gentleman at home with a flask of Asti." He +glanced at Cantapresto. + +Odo hesitated a moment. He knew well enough where such midnight turnings +led, and across the vision evoked by his friend's words a girl's face +flitted suddenly. + +"Is that all?" he said with a shrug. "You find me, I fear, in no humour +for such exploits." + +Alfieri smiled. "And if I say that I have promised to bring you?" + +"Promised--?" + +"To one as chary of exacting such pledges as I of giving them. If I say +that you stake your life on the adventure, and that the stake is not too +great for the reward--?" + +His sallow face had reddened with excitement, and Odo's forehead +reflected the flush. Was it possible--? But the thought set him tingling +with disgust. + +"Why, you say little," he cried lightly, "at the rate at which I value +my life." + +Alfieri turned on him. "If your life is worthless; make it worth +something!" he exclaimed. "I offer you the opportunity tonight." + +"What opportunity?" + +"The sight of a face that men have laid down their lives to see." + +Odo laughed and buckled on his sword. "If you answer for the risk, I +agree to take it," said he. "At ten o'clock then, behind the Corpus +Domini." + +If the ladies whom gallant gentlemen delight to serve could guess what +secret touchstones of worth these same gentlemen sometimes carry into +the adored presence, many a handsome head would be carried with less +assurance, and many a fond exaction less confidently imposed. If, for +instance, the Countess Clarice di Tournanches, whose high-coloured image +reflected itself so complacently in her Venetian toilet-glass, could +have known that the Cavaliere Odo Valsecca's devoted glance saw her +through the medium of a countenance compared to which her own revealed +the most unexpected shortcomings, she might have received him with less +airy petulance of manner. But how could so accomplished a mistress doubt +the permanence of her rule? The Countess Clarice, in singling out young +Odo Valsecca (to the despair of a score of more experienced cavaliers) +had done him an honour that she could no more imagine his resigning than +an adventurer a throne to which he is unexpectedly raised. She was a +finished example of the pretty woman who views the universe as planned +for her convenience. What could go wrong in a world where noble ladies +lived in palaces hung with tapestry and damask, with powdered lacqueys +to wait on them, a turbaned blackamoor to tend their parrots and +monkeys, a coronet-coach at the door to carry them to mass or the +ridotto, and a handsome cicisbeo to display on the promenade? Everything +had combined to strengthen the Countess Clarice's faith in the existing +order of things. Her husband, Count Roberto di Tournanches, was one of +the King's equerries and distinguished for his brilliant career as an +officer of the Piedmontese army--a man marked for the highest favours in +a society where military influences were paramount. Passing at sixteen +from an aristocratic convent to the dreary magnificence of the Palazzo +Tournanches, Clarice had found herself a lady-in-waiting at the dullest +court in Europe and the wife of an army officer engrossed in his +profession, and pledged by etiquette to the service of another lady. Odo +Valsecca represented her escape from this bondage--the dash of romance +and folly in a life of elegant formalities; and the Countess, who would +not have sacrificed to him one of her rights as a court-lady or a nobil +donna of the Golden Book, regarded him as the reward which Providence +accords to a well-regulated conduct. + +Her room, when Odo entered it on taking leave of Alfieri, was crowded, +as usual at that hour, with the hangers-on of the noble lady's lever: +the abatino in lace ruffles, handing about his latest rhymed acrostic, +the jeweller displaying a set of enamelled buckles newly imported from +Paris, and the black-breeched doctor with white bands who concocted +remedies for the Countess's vapours and megrims. These personages, +grouped about the toilet-table where the Countess sat under the hands of +a Parisian hairdresser, were picturesquely relieved against the stucco +panelling and narrow mirrors of the apartment, with its windows looking +on a garden set with mossy statues. To Odo, however, the scene suggested +the most tedious part of his day's routine. The compliments to be +exchanged, the silly verses to be praised, the gewgaws from Paris to be +admired, were all contrasted in his mind with the vision of that other +life which had come to him on the hillside of the Superga. On this mood +the Countess Clarice's sarcasms fell without effect. To be pouted at +because he had failed to attend the promenade of the Valentino was to +Odo but a convenient pretext for excusing himself from the Queen's +circle that evening. He had engaged with little ardour to join Alfieri +in what he guessed to be a sufficiently commonplace adventure; but as he +listened to the Countess's chatter about the last minuet-step, and the +relative merits of sanspareil water and oil-of-lilies, of gloves from +Blois and Vendome, his impatience hailed any alternative as a release. +Meanwhile, however, long hours of servitude intervened. The lady's +toilet completed, to the adjusting of the last patch, he must attend her +to dinner, where, placed at her side, he was awarded the honour of +carving the roast; must sit through two hours of biribi in company with +the abatino, the doctor, and half-a-dozen parasites of the noble table; +and for two hours more must ride in her gilt coach up and down the +promenade of the Valentino. + +Escaping from this ceremonial, with the consciousness that it must be +repeated on the morrow, Odo was seized with that longing for freedom +that makes the first street-corner an invitation to flight. How he +envied Alfieri, whose travelling-carriage stood at the beck of such +moods! Odo's scant means forbade evasion, even had his military duties +not kept him in Turin. He felt himself no more than a puppet dancing to +the tune of Parini's satire, a puny doll condemned, as the strings of +custom pulled, to feign the gestures of immortal passions. + + +2.3. + +The night was moonless, with cold dashes of rain, and though the streets +of Turin were well-lit no lantern-ray reached the windings of the lane +behind the Corpus Domini. + +As Odo, alone under the wall of the church, awaited his friend's +arrival, he wondered what risk had constrained the reckless Alfieri to +such unwonted caution. Italy was at that time a vast network of +espionage, and the Piedmontese capital passed for one of the +best-policed cities in Europe; but even on a moonless night the law +distinguished between the noble pleasure-seeker and the obscure +delinquent whose fate it was to pay the other's shot. Odo knew that he +would probably be followed and his movements reported to the +authorities; but he was almost equally certain that there would be no +active interference in his affairs. What chiefly puzzled him was +Alfieri's insistence that Cantapresto should not be privy to the +adventure. The soprano had long been the confidant of his pupil's +escapades, and his adroitness had often been of service in intrigues +such as that on which Odo now fancied himself engaged. The place, again, +perplexed him: a sober quarter of convents and private dwellings, in the +very eye of the royal palace, scarce seeming the theatre for a light +adventure. These incongruities revived his former wonder; nor was this +dispelled by Alfieri's approach. + +The poet, masked and unattended, rejoined his friend without a word; and +Odo guessed in him an eye and ear alert for pursuit. Guided by the +pressure of his arm, Odo was hurried round the bend of the lane, up a +transverse alley and across a little square lost between high shuttered +buildings. Alfieri, at his first word, gripped his arm with a backward +glance; then urged him on under the denser blackness of an arched +passage-way, at the end of which an oil-light glimmered. Here a gate in +a wall confronted them. It opened at Alfieri's tap and Odo scented wet +box-borders and felt the gravel of a path under foot. The gate was at +once locked behind them and they entered the ground-floor of a house as +dark as the garden. Here a maid-servant of close aspect met them with a +lamp and preceded them upstairs to a bare landing hung with charts and +portulani. On Odo's flushed anticipations this antechamber, which seemed +the approach to some pedant's cabinet, had an effect undeniably +chilling; but Alfieri, heedless of his surprise, had cast off cloak and +mask, and now led the way into a long conventual-looking room lined with +book-shelves. A knot of middle-aged gentlemen of sober dress and manner, +gathered about a cabinet of fossils in the centre of this apartment, +looked up at the entrance of the two friends; then the group divided, +and Odo with a start recognised the girl he had seen on the road to the +Superga. + +She bowed gravely to the young men. "My father," said she, in a clear +voice without trace of diffidence, "has gone to his study for a book, +but will be with you in a moment." + +She wore a dress in keeping with her manner, its black stuff folds and +the lawn kerchief crossed on her bosom giving height and authority to +her slight figure. The dark unpowdered hair drawn back over a cushion +made a severer setting for her face than the fluctuating brim of her +shade-hat; and this perhaps added to the sense of estrangement with +which Odo gazed at her; but she met his look with a smile, and instantly +the rosy girl flashed through her grave exterior. + +"Here is my father," said she; and her companion of the previous day +stepped into the room with several folios under his arm. + +Alfieri turned to Odo. "This, my dear Odo," said he, "is my +distinguished friend, Professor Vivaldi, who has done us the honour of +inviting us to his house." He took the Professor's hand. "I have brought +you," he continued, "the friend you were kind enough to include in your +invitation--the Cavaliere Odo Valsecca." + +Vivaldi bowed. "Count Alfieri's friends," said he, "are always welcome +to my house; though I fear there is here little to interest a young +gentleman of the Cavaliere Valsecca's years." And Odo detected a shade +of doubt in his glance. + +"The Cavaliere Valsecca," Alfieri smilingly rejoined, "is above his +years in wit and learning, and I answer for his interest as I do for his +discretion." + +The Professor bowed again. "Count Alfieri, sir," he said, "has doubtless +explained to you the necessity that obliges me to be so private in +receiving my friends; and now perhaps you will join these gentlemen in +examining some rare fossil fish newly sent me from the Monte Bolca." + +Odo murmured a civil rejoinder; but the wonder into which the sight of +the young girl had thrown him was fast verging on stupefaction. What +mystery was here? What necessity compelled an elderly professor to +receive his scientific friends like a band of political conspirators? +How above all, in the light of the girl's presence, was Odo to interpret +Alfieri's extravagant allusions to the nature of their visit? + +The company having returned to the cabinet of fossils, none seemed to +observe his disorder but the young lady who was its cause; and seeing +him stand apart she advanced with a smile, saying, "Perhaps you would +rather look at some of my father's other curiosities." + +Simple as the words were, they failed to restore Odo's self-possession, +and for a moment he made no answer. Perhaps she partly guessed the cause +of his commotion; yet it was not so much her beauty that silenced him, +as the spirit that seemed to inhabit it. Nature, in general so chary of +her gifts, so prone to use one good feature as the palliation of a dozen +deficiencies, to wed the eloquent lip with the ineffectual eye, had +indeed compounded her of all fine meanings, making each grace the +complement of another and every outward charm expressive of some inward +quality. Here was as little of the convent-bred miss as of the flippant +and vapourish fine lady; and any suggestion of a less fair alternative +vanished before such candid graces. Odo's confusion had in truth sprung +from Alfieri's ambiguous hints; and these shrivelling to nought in the +gaze that encountered his, constraint gave way to a sense of wondering +pleasure. + +"I should like to see whatever you will show me," said he, as simply as +one child speaking to another; and she answered in the same tone, "Then +we'll glance at my father's collections before the serious business of +the evening begins." + +With these words she began to lead him about the room, pointing out and +explaining the curiosities it contained. It was clear that, like many +scholars of his day, Professor Vivaldi was something of an eclectic in +his studies, for while one table held a fine orrery, a cabinet of coins +stood near, and the book-shelves were surmounted by specimens of coral +and petrified wood. Of all these rarities his daughter had a word to +say, and though her explanations were brief and without affectation of +pedantry, they put her companion's ignorance to the blush. It must be +owned, however, that had his learning been a match for hers it would +have stood him in poor stead at the moment; his faculties being lost in +the wonder of hearing such discourse from such lips. To his compliments +on her erudition she returned with a smile that what learning she had +was no merit, since she had been bred in a library; to which she +suddenly added:--"You are not unknown to me, Cavaliere; but I never +thought to see you here." + +The words renewed her hearer's surprise; but giving him no time to +reply, she went on in a lower tone:--"You are young and the world is +fair before you. Have you considered that before risking yourself among +us?" + +She coloured under Odo's wondering gaze, and at his random rejoinder +that it was a risk any man would gladly take without considering, she +turned from him with a gesture in which he fancied a shade of +disappointment. + +By this they had reached the cabinet of fossils, about which the +interest of the other guests still seemed to centre. Alfieri, indeed, +paced the farther end of the room with the air of awaiting the despatch +of some tedious business; but the others were engaged in an animated +discussion necessitating frequent reference to the folios Vivaldi had +brought from his study. + +The latter turned to Odo as though to include him in the group. "I do +not know, sir," said he, "whether you have found leisure to study these +enigmas of that mysterious Sphinx, the earth; for though Count Alfieri +has spoken to me of your unusual acquirements, I understand your tastes +have hitherto lain rather in the direction of philosophy and letters;" +and on Odo's prompt admission of ignorance, he courteously continued: +"The physical sciences seem, indeed, less likely to appeal to the +imaginative and poetical faculty in man, and, on the other hand, +religion has appeared to prohibit their too close investigation; yet I +question if any thoughtful mind can enter on the study of these curious +phenomena without feeling, as it were, an affinity between such +investigations and the most abstract forms of thought. For whether we +regard these figured stones as of terriginous origin, either mere lusus +naturae, or mineral formations produced by a plastic virtue latent in +the earth, or whether as in fact organic substances lapidified by the +action of water; in either case, what speculations must their origin +excite, leading us back into that dark and unexplored period of time +when the breath of Creation was yet moving on the face of the waters!" + +Odo had listened but confusedly to the first words of this discourse; +but his intellectual curiosity was too great not to respond to such an +appeal, and all his perplexities slipped from him in the pursuit of the +Professor's thought. + +One of the other guests seemed struck by his look of attention. "My dear +Vivaldi," said this gentleman, laying down a fossil, and fixing his gaze +on Odo while he addressed the Professor, "why use such superannuated +formulas in introducing a neophyte to a study designed to subvert the +very foundations of the Mosaic cosmogony? I take it the Cavaliere is one +of us, since he is here this evening: why, then, permit him to stray +even for a moment in the labyrinth of theological error?" + +The Professor's deprecating murmur was cut short by an outburst from +another of the learned group, a red-faced spectacled personage in a +doctor's gown. + +"Pardon me for suggesting," he exclaimed, "that the conditional terms in +which our host was careful to present his hypotheses are better suited +to the instruction of the neophyte than our learned friend's positive +assertions. But if the Vulcanists are to claim the Cavaliere Valsecca, +may not the Diluvials also have a hearing? How often must it be repeated +that theology as well as physical science is satisfied by the Diluvial +explanation of the origin of petrified organisms, whereas inexorable +logic compels the Vulcanists to own that their thesis is subversive of +all dogmatic belief?" + +The first speaker answered with a gesture of disdain. "My dear doctor, +you occupy a chair in our venerated University. From that exalted +cathedra the Mosaic theory of Creation must still be expounded; but in +the security of these surroundings--the catacombs of the new faith--why +keep up the forms of an obsolete creed? As long ago as Pythagoras, man +was taught that all things were in a state of flux, without end as +without beginning, and must we still, after more than two thousand +years, pretend to regard the universe as some gigantic toy manufactured +in six days by a Superhuman Artisan, who is presently to destroy it at +his pleasure?" + +"Sir," cried the other, flushing from red to purple at this assault, "I +know not on what ground you insinuate that my private convictions differ +from my public doctrine--" + +But here, with a firmness tempered by the most scrupulous courtesy, +Professor Vivaldi intervened. + +"Gentlemen," said he, "the discussion in which you are engaged, +interesting as it is, must, I fear, distract us from the true purpose of +our meeting. I am happy to offer my house as the asylum of all free +research; but you must remember that the first object of these reunions +is, not the special study of any one branch of modern science, but the +application of physical investigation to the origin and destiny of man. +In other words, we ask the study of nature to lead us to the knowledge +of ourselves; and it is because we approach this great problem from a +point as yet unsanctioned by dogmatic authority, that I am reluctantly +obliged"--and here he turned to Odo with a smile--"to throw a veil of +privacy over these inoffensive meetings." + +Here at last was the key to the enigma. The gentlemen assembled in +Professor Vivaldi's rooms were met there to discuss questions not safely +aired in public. They were conspirators indeed, but the liberation they +planned was intellectual rather than political; though the acuter among +them doubtless saw whither such innovations tended. Meanwhile they were +content to linger in that wide field of speculation which the +development of the physical sciences had recently opened to philosophic +thought. As, at the Revival of Learning, the thinker imprisoned in +mediaeval dialectics suddenly felt under his feet the firm ground of +classic argument, so, in the eighteenth century, philosophy, long +suspended in the void of metaphysic, touched earth again and, +Antaeus-like, drew fresh life from the contact. It was clear that +Professor Vivaldi, whose very name had been unknown to Odo, was an +important figure in the learned world, and one uniting the tact and +firmness necessary to control those dissensions from which philosophy +itself does not preserve its disciples. His words calmed the two +disputants who were preparing to do battle over Odo's unborn scientific +creed, and the talk growing more general, the Professor turned to his +daughter, saying, "My Fulvia, is the study prepared?" + +She signed her assent, and her father led the way to an inner cabinet, +where seats were drawn about a table scattered with pamphlets, gazettes +and dictionaries, and set out with modest refreshments. Here began a +conversation ranging from chemistry to taxation, and from the +perfectibility of man to the secondary origin of the earth's surface. It +was evident to Odo that, though the Professor's guests represented all +shades of opinion, some being clearly loth to leave the safe anchorage +of orthodoxy, while others already braved the seas of free enquiry, yet +all were at one as to the need of unhampered action and discussion. +Odo's dormant curiosity woke with a start at the summons of fresh +knowledge. Here were worlds to explore, or rather the actual world about +him, a region then stranger and more unfamiliar than the lost Atlantis +of fable. Liberty was the word on every lip, and if to some it +represented the right to doubt the Diluvial origin of fossils, to others +that of reforming the penal code, to a third (as to Alfieri) merely +personal independence and relief from civil restrictions; yet these +fragmentary conceptions seemed, to Odo's excited fancy, to blend in the +vision of a New Light encircling the whole horizon of thought. He +understood at last Alfieri's allusion to a face for the sight of which +men were ready to lay down their lives; and if, as he walked home before +dawn, those heavenly lineaments were blent in memory with features of a +mortal cast, yet these were pure and grave enough to stand for the image +of the goddess. + + +2.4. + +Professor Orazio Vivaldi, after filling with distinction the chair of +Philosophy at the University of Turin, had lately resigned his office +that he might have leisure to complete a long-contemplated work on the +Origin of Civilisation. His house was the meeting-place of a society +calling itself of the Honey-Bees and ostensibly devoted to the study of +the classical poets, from whose pages the members were supposed to cull +mellifluous nourishment; but under this guise the so-called literati had +for some time indulged in free discussion of religious and scientific +questions. The Academy of the Honey-Bees comprised among its members all +the independent thinkers of Turin: doctors of law, of philosophy and +medicine, chemists, philologists and naturalists, with one or two +members of the nobility, who, like Alfieri, felt, or affected, an +interest in the graver problems of life, and could be trusted not to +betray the true character of the association. + +These details Odo learned the next day from Alfieri; who went on to say +that, owing to the increased vigilance of the government, and to the +banishment of several distinguished men accused by the Church of +heretical or seditious opinions, the Honey-Bees had of late been obliged +to hold their meetings secretly, it being even rumoured that Vivaldi, +who was their president, had resigned his professorship and withdrawn +behind the shelter of literary employment in order to elude the +observation of the authorities. Men had not yet forgotten the fate of +the Neapolitan historian, Pietro Giannone, who for daring to attack the +censorship and the growth of the temporal power had been driven from +Naples to Vienna, from Vienna back to Venice, and at length, at the +prompting of the Holy See, lured across the Piedmontese frontier by +Charles Emmanuel of Savoy, and imprisoned for life in the citadel of +Turin. The memory of his tragic history--most of all, perhaps, of his +recantation and the "devout ending" to which solitude and persecution +had forced the freest spirit of his day--hovered like a warning on the +horizon of thought and constrained political speculation to hide itself +behind the study of fashionable trifles. Alfieri had lately joined the +association of the Honey-Bees, and the Professor, at his suggestion, had +invited Odo, for whose discretion his friend declared himself ready to +answer. The Honey-Bees were in fact desirous of attracting young men of +rank who felt an interest in scientific or economic problems; for it was +hoped that in this manner the new ideas might imperceptibly permeate the +class whose privileges and traditions presented the chief obstacle to +reform. In France, it was whispered, free-thinkers and political +agitators were the honoured guests of the nobility, who eagerly embraced +their theories and applied them to the remedy of social abuses. Only by +similar means could the ideals of the Piedmontese reformers be realised; +and in those early days of universal illusion none appeared to suspect +the danger of arming inexperienced hands with untried weapons. Utopia +was already in sight; and all the world was setting out for it as for +some heavenly picnic ground. + +Of Vivaldi himself, Alfieri spoke with extravagant admiration. His +affable exterior was said to conceal the moral courage of one of +Plutarch's heroes. He was a man after the antique pattern, ready to lay +down fortune, credit and freedom in the defence of his convictions. "An +Agamemnon," Alfieri exclaimed, "who would not hesitate to sacrifice his +daughter to obtain a favourable wind for his enterprise!" + +The metaphor was perhaps scarcely to Odo's taste; but at least it gave +him the chance for which he had waited. "And the daughter?" he asked. + +"The lovely doctoress?" said Alfieri carelessly. "Oh, she's one of your +prodigies of female learning, such as our topsy-turvy land produces: an +incipient Laura Bassi or Gaetana Agnesi, to name the most distinguished +of their tribe; though I believe that hitherto her father's good sense +or her own has kept her from aspiring to academic honours. The beautiful +Fulvia is a good daughter, and devotes herself, I'm told, to helping +Vivaldi in his work; a far more becoming employment for one of her age +and sex than defending Latin theses before a crew of ribald students." + +In this Odo was of one mind with him; for though Italy was used to the +spectacle of the Improvisatrice and the female doctor of philosophy, it +is doubtful if the character was one in which any admirer cared to see +his divinity figure. Odo, at any rate, felt a distinct satisfaction in +learning that Fulvia Vivaldi had thus far made no public display of her +learning. How much pleasanter to picture her as her father's aid, +perhaps a sharer in his dreams: a vestal cherishing the flame of Liberty +in the secret sanctuary of the goddess! He scarce knew as yet of what +his feeling for the girl was compounded. The sentiment she had roused +was one for which his experience had no name: an emotion in which awe +mingled with an almost boyish sense of fellowship, sex as yet lurking +out of sight as in some hidden ambush. It was perhaps her association +with a world so unfamiliar and alluring that lent her for the moment her +greatest charm. Odo's imagination had been profoundly stirred by what he +had heard and seen at the meeting of the Honey-Bees. That impatience +with the vanity of his own pursuits and with the injustice of existing +conditions, which hovered like a phantom at the feast of life, had at +last found form and utterance. Parini's satires and the bitter mockery +of the "Frusta Letteraria" were but instruments of demolition; but the +arguments of the Professor's friends had that constructive quality so +appealing to the urgent temper of youth. Was the world in ruins? Then +here was a plan to rebuild it. Was humanity in chains? Behold the angel +on the threshold of the prison! + +Odo, too impatient to await the next reunion of the Honey-Bees, sought +out and frequented those among the members whose conversation had +chiefly attracted him. They were grave men, of studious and retiring +habit, leading the frugal life of the Italian middle-class, a life in +dignified contrast to the wasteful and aimless existence of the +nobility. Odo's sensitiveness to outward impressions made him peculiarly +alive to this contrast. None was more open than he to the seducements of +luxurious living, the polish of manners, the tacit exclusion of all that +is ugly or distressing; but it seemed to him that fine living should be +but the flower of fine feeling, and that such external graces, when they +adorned a dull and vapid society, were as incongruous as the royal +purple on a clown. Among certain of his new friends he found a +clumsiness of manner somewhat absurdly allied with an attempt at Roman +austerity; but he was fair-minded enough to see that the middle-class +doctor or lawyer who tries to play the Cicero is, after all, a more +respectable figure than the Marquess who apes Caligula or Commodus. +Still, his lurking dilettantism made him doubly alive to the elegance of +the Palazzo Tournanches when he went thither from a coarse meal in the +stuffy dining-parlour of one of his new acquaintances; as he never +relished the discourse of the latter more than after an afternoon in the +society of the Countess's parasites. + +Alfieri's allusions to the learned ladies for whom Italy was noted made +Odo curious to meet the wives and daughters of his new friends; for he +knew it was only in their class that women received something more than +the ordinary conventual education; and he felt a secret desire to +compare Fulvia Vivaldi with other young girls of her kind. Learned +ladies he met, indeed; for though the women-folk of some of the +philosophers were content to cook and darn for them (and perhaps +secretly burn a candle in their behalf to Saint Thomas Aquinas or Saint +Dominick, refuters of heresy), there were others who aspired to all the +honours of scholarship, and would order about their servant-girls in +Tuscan, and scold their babies in Ciceronian Latin. Among these fair +grammarians, however, he met none that wore her learning lightly. They +were forever tripping in the folds of their doctors' gowns, and +delivering their most trivial views ex cathedra; and too often the poor +philosophers, their lords and fathers, cowered under their harangues +like frightened boys under the tongue of a schoolmaster. + +It was in fact only in the household of Orazio Vivaldi that Odo found +the simplicity and grace of living for which he longed. Alfieri had +warned him not to visit the Professor too often, since the latter, being +under observation, might be compromised by the assiduity of his friends. +Odo therefore waited for some days before presenting himself, and when +he did so it was at the angelus, when the streets were crowded and a +man's comings and goings the less likely to be marked. He found Vivaldi +reading with his daughter in the long library where the Honey-Bees held +their meetings; but Fulvia at once withdrew, nor did she show herself +again during Odo's visit. It was clear that, proud of her as Vivaldi +was, he had no wish to parade her attainments, and that in her daily +life she maintained the Italian habit of seclusion; but to Odo she was +everywhere present in the quiet room with its well-ordered books and +curiosities, and the scent of flowers rising through the shuttered +windows. He was sensible of an influence permeating even the inanimate +objects about him, so that they seemed to reflect the spirit of those +who dwelt there. No room had given him this sense of companionship since +he had spent his boyish holidays in the old Count Benedetto's +apartments; but it was of another, intangible world that his present +surroundings spoke. Vivaldi received him kindly and asked him to repeat +his visit; and Odo returned as often as he thought prudent. + +The Professor's conversation engaged him deeply. Vivaldi's familiarity +with French speculative literature, and with its sources in the +experiential philosophy of the English school, gave Odo his first clear +conception of the origin and tendency of the new movement. This +coordination of scattered ideas was aided by his readings in the +Encyclopaedia, which, though placed on the Index in Piedmont, was to be +found behind the concealed panels of more than one private library. From +his talks with Alfieri, and from the pages of Plutarch, he had gained a +certain insight into the Stoical view of reason as the measure of +conduct, and of the inherent sufficiency of virtue as its own end. He +now learned that all about him men were endeavouring to restore the +human spirit to that lost conception of its dignity; and he longed to +join the band of new crusaders who had set out to recover the tomb of +truth from the forces of superstition. The distinguishing mark of +eighteenth-century philosophy was its eagerness to convert its +acquisitions in every branch of knowledge into instruments of practical +beneficence; and this quality appealed peculiarly to Odo, who had ever +been moved by abstract theories only as they explained or modified the +destiny of man. Vivaldi, pleased by his new pupil's eagerness to learn, +took pains to set before him this aspect of the struggle. + +"You will now see," he said, after one of their long talks about the +Encyclopaedists, "why we who have at heart the mental and social +regeneration of our countrymen are so desirous of making a concerted +effort against the established system. It is only by united action that +we can prevail. The bravest mob of independent fighters has little +chance against a handful of disciplined soldiers, and the Church is +perfectly logical in seeing her chief danger in the Encyclopaedia's +systematised marshalling of scattered truths. As long as the attacks on +her authority were isolated, and as it were sporadic, she had little to +fear even from the assaults of genius; but the most ordinary intellect +may find a use and become a power in the ranks of an organised +opposition. Seneca tells us the slaves in ancient Rome were at one time +so numerous that the government prohibited their wearing a distinctive +dress lest they should learn their strength and discover that the city +was in their power; and the Church knows that when the countless spirits +she has enslaved without subduing have once learned their number and +efficiency they will hold her doctrines at their mercy.--The Church +again," he continued, "has proved her astuteness in making faith the +gift of grace and not the result of reason. By so doing she placed +herself in a position which was well-nigh impregnable till the school of +Newton substituted observation for intuition and his followers showed +with increasing clearness the inability of the human mind to apprehend +anything outside the range of experience. The ultimate claim of the +Church rests on the hypothesis of an intuitive faculty in man. Disprove +the existence of this faculty, and reason must remain the supreme test +of truth. Against reason the fabric of theological doctrine cannot long +hold out, and the Church's doctrinal authority once shaken, men will no +longer fear to test by ordinary rules the practical results of her +teaching. We have not joined the great army of truth to waste our time +in vain disputations over metaphysical subtleties. Our aim is, by +freeing the mind of man from superstition to relieve him from the +practical abuses it entails. As it is impossible to examine any fiscal +or industrial problem without discovering that the chief obstacle to +improvement lies in the Church's countless privileges and exemptions, so +in every department of human activity we find some inveterate wrong +taking shelter under the claim of a divinely-revealed authority. This +claim demolished, the stagnant current of human progress will soon burst +its barriers and set with a mighty rush toward the wide ocean of truth +and freedom..." + +That general belief in the perfectibility of man which cheered the +eighteenth-century thinkers in their struggle for intellectual liberty +coloured with a delightful brightness this vision of a renewed humanity. +It threw its beams on every branch of research, and shone like an +aureole round those who laid down fortune and advancement to purchase +the new redemption of mankind. Foremost among these, as Odo now learned, +were many of his own countrymen. In his talks with Vivaldi he first +explored the course of Italian thought and heard the names of the great +jurists, Vico and Gravina, and of his own contemporaries, Filangieri, +Verri and Beccaria. Vivaldi lent him Beccaria's famous volume and +several numbers of the "Caffe," the brilliant gazette which Verri and +his associates were then publishing in Milan, and in which all the +questions of the day, theological, economic and literary, were discussed +with a freedom possible only under the lenient Austrian rule. + +"Ah," Vivaldi cried, "Milan is indeed the home of the free spirit, and +were I not persuaded that a man's first duty is to improve the condition +of his own city and state, I should long ago have left this unhappy +kingdom; indeed I sometimes fancy I may yet serve my own people better +by proclaiming the truth openly at a distance than by whispering it in +their midst." + +It was a surprise to Odo to learn that the new ideas had already taken +such hold in Italy, and that some of the foremost thinkers on scientific +and economic subjects were among his own countrymen. Like all +eighteenth-century Italians of his class he had been taught to look to +France as the source of all culture, intellectual and social; and he was +amazed to find that in jurisprudence, and in some of the natural +sciences, Italy led the learning of Europe. + +Once or twice Fulvia showed herself for a moment; but her manner was +retiring and almost constrained, and her father always contrived an +excuse for dismissing her. This was the more noticeable as she continued +to appear at the meetings of the Honey-Bees, where she joined freely in +the conversation, and sometimes diverted the guests by playing on the +harpsichord or by recitations from the poets; all with such art and +grace, and withal so much simplicity, that it was clear she was +accustomed to the part. Odo was thus driven to the not unflattering +conclusion that she had been instructed to avoid his company; and after +the first disappointment he was too honest to regret it. He was deeply +drawn to the girl; but what part could she play in the life of a man of +his rank? The cadet of an impoverished house, it was unlikely that he +would marry; and should he do so, custom forbade even the thought of +taking a wife outside of his class. Had he been admitted to free +intercourse with Fulvia, love might have routed such prudent counsels; +but in the society of her father's associates, where she moved, as in a +halo of learning, amid the respectful admiration of middle-aged +philosophers and jurists, she seemed as inaccessible as a young Minerva. + +Odo, at first, had been careful not to visit Vivaldi too often; but the +Professor's conversation was so instructive, and his library so +inviting, that inclination got the better of prudence, and the young man +fell into the habit of turning almost daily down the lane behind the +Corpus Domini. Vivaldi, too proud to betray any concern for his personal +safety, showed no sign of resenting the frequency of these visits; +indeed, he received Odo with an increasing cordiality that, to an older +observer, might have betokened an effort to hide his apprehension. + +One afternoon, escaping later than usual from the Valentino, Odo had +again bent toward the quiet quarter behind the palace. He was afoot, +with a cloak over his laced coat, and the day being Easter Monday the +streets were filled with a throng of pleasure-seekers amid whom it +seemed easy enough for a man to pass unnoticed. Odo, as he crossed the +Piazza Castello, thought it had never presented a gayer scene. Booths +with brightly-striped awnings had been set up under the arcades, which +were thronged with idlers of all classes; court-coaches dashed across +the square or rolled in and out of the palace-gates; and the Palazzo +Madama, lifting against the sunset its ivory-tinted columns and statues, +seemed rather some pictured fabric of Claude's or Bibbiena's than an +actual building of brick and marble. The turn of a corner carried him +from this spectacle into the solitude of a by-street where his own tread +was the only sound. He walked on carelessly; but suddenly he heard what +seemed an echo of his step. He stopped and faced about. No one was in +sight but a blind beggar crouching at the side-door of the Corpus +Domini. Odo walked on, listening, and again he heard the step, and again +turned to find himself alone. He tried to fancy that his ear had tricked +him; but he knew too much of the subtle methods of Italian espionage not +to feel a secret uneasiness. His better judgment warned him back; but +the desire to spend a pleasant hour prevailed. He took a turn through +the neighbouring streets, in the hope of diverting suspicion, and ten +minutes later was at the Professor's gate. + +It opened at once, and to his amazement Fulvia stood before him. She had +thrown a black mantle over her head, and her face looked pale and vivid +in the fading light. Surprise for a moment silenced Odo, and before he +could speak the girl, without pausing to close the gate, had drawn him +toward her and flung her arms about his neck. In the first disorder of +his senses he was conscious only of seeking her lips; but an instant +later he knew it was no kiss of love that met his own, and he felt her +tremble violently in his arms. He saw in a flash that he was on unknown +ground; but his one thought was that Fulvia was in trouble and looked to +him for aid. He gently freed himself from her hold and tried to shape a +soothing question; but she caught his arm and, laying a hand over his +mouth, drew him across the garden and into the house. The lower floor +stood dark and empty. He followed Fulvia up the stairs and into the +library, which was also empty. The shutters stood wide, admitting the +evening freshness and a drowsy scent of jasmine from the garden. + +Odo could not control a thrill of strange anticipation as he found +himself alone in this silent room with the girl whose heart had so +lately beat against his own. She had sunk into a chair, with her face +hidden, and for a moment or two he stood before her without speaking. +Then he knelt at her side and took her hands with a murmur of +endearment. + +At his touch she started up. "And it was I," she cried, "who persuaded +my father that he might trust you!" And she sank back sobbing. + +Odo rose and moved away, waiting for her overwrought emotion to subside. +At length he gently asked, "Do you wish me to leave you?" + +She raised her head. "No," she said firmly, though her lip still +trembled; "you must first hear an explanation of my conduct; though it +is scarce possible," she added, flushing to the brow, "that you have not +already guessed the purpose of this lamentable comedy." + +"I guess nothing," he replied, "save that perhaps I may in some way +serve you." + +"Serve me?" she cried, with a flash of anger through her tears. "It is a +late hour to speak of service, after what you have brought on this +house!" + +Odo turned pale. "Here indeed, madam," said he, "are words that need an +explanation." + +"Oh," she broke forth, "and you shall have it; though I think to any +other it must be writ large upon my countenance." She rose and paced the +floor impetuously. "Is it possible," she began again, "you do not yet +perceive the sense of that execrable scene? Or do you think, by feigning +ignorance, to prolong my humiliation? Oh," she said, pausing before him, +her breast in a tumult, her eyes alight, "it was I who persuaded my +father of your discretion and prudence, it was through my influence that +he opened himself to you so freely; and is this the return you make? +Alas, why did you leave your fashionable friends and a world in which +you are so fitted to shine, to bring unhappiness on an obscure household +that never dreamed of courting your notice?" + +As she stood before him in her radiant anger, it went hard with Odo not +to silence with a kiss a resentment that he guessed to be mainly +directed against herself; but he controlled himself and said quietly: +"Madam, I were a dolt not to perceive that I have had the misfortune to +offend; but when or how, I swear to heaven I know not; and till you +enlighten me I can neither excuse nor defend myself." + +She turned pale, but instantly recovered her composure. "You are right," +she said; "I rave like a foolish girl; but indeed I scarce know if I am +in my waking senses"--She paused, as if to check a fresh rush of +emotion. "Oh, sir," she cried, "can you not guess what has happened? You +were warned, I believe, not to frequent this house too openly; but of +late you have been an almost daily visitor, and you never come here but +you are followed. My father's doctrines have long been under suspicion, +and to be accused of perverting a man of your rank must be his ruin. He +was too proud to tell you this, and profiting today by his absence, and +knowing that if you came the spies would be at your heels, I resolved to +meet you at the gate, and welcome you in such a way that our enemies +should be deceived as to the true cause of your visits." + +Her voice wavered on the last words, but she faced him proudly, and it +was Odo whose gaze fell. Never perhaps had he been conscious of cutting +a meaner figure; yet shame was so blent in him with admiration for the +girl's nobility and courage, that compunction was swept away in the +impulse that flung him at her feet. + +"Ah," he cried, "I have been blind indeed, and what you say abases me to +earth. Yes, I was warned that my visits might compromise your father; +nor had I any pretext for returning so often but my own selfish pleasure +in his discourse; or so at least," he added in a lower voice, "I chose +to fancy--but when we met just now at the gate, if you acted a comedy, +believe me, I did not; and if I have come day after day to this house, +it is because, unknowingly, I came for you." + +The words had escaped him unawares, and he was too sensible of their +untimeliness not to be prepared for the gesture with which she cut him +short. + +"Oh," said she, in a tone of the liveliest reproach, "spare me this last +affront if you wish me to think the harm you have already done was done +unknowingly!" + +Odo rose to his feet, tingling under the rebuke. "If respect and +admiration be an affront, madam," he said, "I cannot remain in your +presence without offending, and nothing is left me but to withdraw; but +before going I would at least ask if there is no way of repairing the +harm that my over-assiduity has caused." + +She flushed high at the question. "Why, that," she said, "is in part, I +trust, already accomplished; indeed," she went on with an effort, "it +was when I learned the authorities suspected you of coming here on a +gallant adventure that I devised the idea of meeting you at the gate; +and for the rest, sir, the best reparation you can make is one that will +naturally suggest itself to a gentleman whose time must already be so +fully engaged." + +And with that she made him a deep reverence, and withdrew to the inner +room. + + +2.5. + +When the Professor's gate closed on Odo night was already falling and +the oil-lamp at the end of the arched passage-way shed its weak circle +of light on the pavement. This light, as Odo emerged, fell on a +retreating figure which resembled that of the blind beggar he had seen +crouching on the steps of the Corpus Domini. He ran forward, but the man +hurried across the little square and disappeared in the darkness. Odo +had not seen his face; but though his dress was tattered, and he leaned +on a beggar's staff, something about his broad rolling back recalled the +well-filled outline of Cantapresto's cassock. + +Sick at heart, Odo rambled on from one street to another, avoiding the +more crowded quarters, and losing himself more than once in the +districts near the river, where young gentlemen of his figure seldom +showed themselves unattended. The populace, however, was all abroad, and +he passed as unregarded as though his sombre thoughts had enveloped him +in actual darkness. + +It was late when at length he turned again into the Piazza Castello, +which was brightly lit and still thronged with pleasure-seekers. As he +approached, the crowd divided to make way for three or four handsome +travelling-carriages, preceded by linkmen and liveried out-riders and +followed by a dozen mounted equerries. The people, evidently in the +humour to greet every incident of the streets as part of a show prepared +for their diversion, cheered lustily as the carriages dashed across the +square; and Odo, turning to a man at his elbow, asked who the +distinguished visitors might be. + +"Why, sir," said the other laughing, "I understand it is only an +Embassage from some neighbouring state; but when our good people are in +their Easter mood they are ready to take a mail-coach for Elijah's +chariot and their wives' scolding for the Gift of Tongues." + +Odo spent a restless night face to face with his first humiliation. +Though the girl's rebuff had cut him to the quick, it was the vision of +the havoc his folly had wrought that stood between him and sleep. To +have endangered the liberty, the very life, perhaps, of a man he loved +and venerated, and who had welcomed him without heed of personal risk, +this indeed was bitter to his youthful self-sufficiency. The thought of +Giannone's fate was like a cold clutch at his heart; nor was there any +balm in knowing that it was at Fulvia's request he had been so freely +welcomed; for he was persuaded that, whatever her previous feeling might +have been, the scene just enacted must render him forever odious to her. +Turn whither it would, his tossing vanity found no repose; and dawn rose +for him on a thorny waste of disillusionment. + +Cantapresto broke in early on this vigil, flushed with the importance of +a letter from the Countess Valdu. The lady summoned her son to dinner, +"to meet an old friend and distinguished visitor"; and a verbal message +bade Odo come early and wear his new uniform. He was too well acquainted +with his mother's exaggerations to attach much importance to the +summons; but being glad of an excuse to escape his daily visit at the +Palazzo Tournanches, he sent Donna Laura word that he would wait on her +at two. + +On the very threshold of Casa Valdu, Odo perceived that unwonted +preparations were afoot. The shabby liveries of the servants had been +refurbished and the marble floor newly scoured; and he found his mother +seated in the drawing-room, an apartment never unshrouded save on the +most ceremonious occasions. As to Donna Laura, she had undergone the +same process of renovation, and with more striking results. It seemed to +Odo, when she met him sparkling under her rouge and powder, as though +some withered flower had been dipped in water, regaining for the moment +a languid semblance of its freshness. Her eyes shone, her hand trembled +under his lips, and the diamonds rose and fell on her eager bosom. + +"You are late!" she tenderly reproached him; and before he had time to +reply, the double doors were thrown open, and the major-domo announced +in an awed voice: "His excellency Count Lelio Trescorre." + +Odo turned with a start. To his mind, already crowded with a confusion +of thoughts, the name summoned a throng of memories. He saw again his +mother's apartments at Pianura, and the handsome youth with lace ruffles +and a clouded amber cane, who came and went among her other visitors +with an air of such superiority, and who rode beside the +travelling-carriage on the first stage of their journey to Donnaz. To +that handsome youth the gentleman just announced bore the likeness of +the finished portrait to the sketch. He was a man of about +two-and-thirty, of the middle height, with a delicate dark face and an +air of arrogance not unbecomingly allied to an insinuating courtesy of +address. His dress of sombre velvet, with a star on the breast, and a +profusion of the finest lace, suggested the desire to add dignity and +weight to his appearance without renouncing the softer ambitions of his +age. + +He received with a smile Donna Laura's agitated phrases of welcome. "I +come," said he kissing her hand, "in my private character, not as the +Envoy of Pianura, but as the friend and servant of the Countess Valdu; +and I trust," he added turning to Odo, "of the Cavaliere Valsecca also." + +Odo bowed in silence. + +"You may have heard," Trescorre continued, addressing him in the same +engaging tone, "that I am come to Turin on a mission from his Highness +to the court of Savoy: a trifling matter of boundary-lines and customs, +which I undertook at the Duke's desire, the more readily, it must be +owned, since it gave me the opportunity to renew my acquaintance with +friends whom absence has not taught me to forget." He smiled again at +Donna Laura, who blushed like a girl. + +The curiosity which Trescorre's words excited was lost to Odo in the +painful impression produced by his mother's agitation. To see her, a +woman already past her youth, and aged by her very efforts to preserve +it, trembling and bridling under the cool eye of masculine indifference, +was a spectacle the more humiliating that he was too young to be moved +by its human and pathetic side. He recalled once seeing a memento mori +of delicately-tinted ivory, which represented a girl's head, one side +all dewy freshness, the other touched with death; and it seemed to him +that his mother's face resembled this tragic toy, the side her mirror +reflected being still rosy with youth, while that which others saw was +already a ruin. His heart burned with disgust as he followed Donna Laura +and Trescorre into the dining-room, which had been set out with all the +family plate, and decked with rare fruits and flowers. The Countess had +excused her husband on the plea of his official duties, and the three +sat down alone to a meal composed of the costliest delicacies. + +Their guest, who ate little and drank less, entertained them with the +latest news of Pianura, touching discreetly on the growing estrangement +between the Duke and Duchess, and speaking with becoming gravity of the +heir's weak health. It was clear that the speaker, without filling an +official position at the court, was already deep in the Duke's counsels, +and perhaps also in the Duchess's; and Odo guessed under his smiling +indiscretions the cool aim of the man who never wastes a shot. + +Toward the close of the meal, when the servants had withdrawn, he turned +to Odo with a graver manner. "You have perhaps guessed, cavaliere," he +said, "that in venturing to claim the Countess's hospitality in so +private a manner, I had in mind the wish to open myself to you more +freely than would be possible at court." He paused a moment, as though +to emphasise his words; and Odo fancied he cultivated the trick of +deliberate speaking to counteract his natural arrogance of manner. "The +time has come," he went on, "when it seems desirable that you should be +more familiar with the state of affairs at Pianura. For some years it +seemed likely that the Duchess would give his Highness another son; but +circumstances now appear to preclude that hope; and it is the general +opinion of the court physicians that the young prince has not many years +to live." He paused again, fixing his eyes on Odo's flushed face. "The +Duke," he continued, "has shown a natural reluctance to face a situation +so painful both to his heart and his ambitions; but his feelings as a +parent have yielded to his duty as a sovereign, and he recognises the +fact that you should have an early opportunity of acquainting yourself +more nearly with the affairs of the duchy, and also of seeing something +of the other courts of Italy. I am persuaded," he added, "that, young as +you are, I need not point out to you on what slight contingencies all +human fortunes hang, and how completely the heir's recovery or the birth +of another prince must change the aspect of your future. You have, I am +sure, the heart to face such chances with becoming equanimity, and to +carry the weight of conditional honours without any undue faith in their +permanence." + +The admonition was so lightly uttered that it seemed rather a tribute to +Odo's good sense than a warning to his inexperience; and indeed it was +difficult for him, in spite of an instinctive aversion to the man, to +quarrel with anything in his address or language. Trescorre in fact +possessed the art of putting younger men at their ease, while appearing +as an equal among his elders: a gift doubtless developed by the +circumstances of court life, and the need of at once commanding respect +and disarming diffidence. + +He took leave upon his last words, declaring, in reply to the Countess's +protests, that he had promised to accompany the court that afternoon to +Stupinigi. "But I hope," he added, turning to Odo, "to continue our talk +at greater length, if you will favour me with a visit tomorrow at my +lodgings." + +No sooner was the door closed on her illustrious visitor than Donna +Laura flung herself on Odo's bosom. + +"I always knew it," she cried, "my dearest; but, oh, that I should live +to see the day!" and she wept and clung to him with a thousand +endearments, from the nature of which he gathered that she already +beheld him on the throne of Pianura. To his laughing reminder of the +distance that still separated him from that dizzy eminence, she made +answer that there was far more than he knew, that the Duke had fallen +into all manner of excesses which had already gravely impaired his +health, and that for her part she only hoped her son, when raised to a +station so far above her own, would not forget the tenderness with which +she had ever cherished him, or the fact that Count Valdu's financial +situation was one quite unworthy the stepfather of a reigning prince. + +Escaping at length from this parody of his own sensations, Odo found +himself in a tumult of mind that solitude served only to increase. +Events had so pressed upon him within the last few days that at times he +was reduced to a passive sense of spectatorship, an inability to regard +himself as the centre of so many converging purposes. It was clear that +Trescorre's mission was mainly a pretext for seeing the Duke's young +kinsman; and that some special motive must have impelled the Duke to +show such sudden concern for his cousin's welfare. Trescorre need hardly +have cautioned Odo against fixing his hopes on the succession. The Duke +himself was a man not above five-and-thirty, and more than one chance +stood between Odo and the duchy; nor was it this contingency that set +his pulses beating, but rather the promise of an immediate change in his +condition. The Duke wished him to travel, to visit the different courts +of Italy: what was the prospect of ruling over a stagnant principality +to this near vision of the world and the glories thereof, suddenly +discovered from the golden height of opportunity? Save for a few weeks +of autumn villeggiatura at some neighbouring chase or vineyard, Odo had +not left Turin for nine years. He had come there a child and had grown +to manhood among the same narrow influences and surroundings. To be +turned loose on the world at two-and-twenty, with such an arrears of +experience to his credit, was to enter on a richer inheritance than any +duchy; and in Odo's case the joy of the adventure was doubled by its +timeliness. That fate should thus break at a stroke the meshes of habit, +should stoop to play the advocate of his secret inclinations, seemed to +promise him the complicity of the gods. Once in a lifetime, chance will +thus snap the toils of a man's making; and it is instructive to see the +poor puppet adore the power that connives at his evasion... + +Trescorre remained a week in Turin; and Odo saw him daily at court, at +his lodgings, or in company. The little sovereignty of Pianura being an +important factor in the game of political equilibrium, her envoy was +sure of a flattering reception from the neighbouring powers; and +Trescorre's person and address must have commended him to the most +fastidious company. He continued to pay particular attention to Odo, and +the rumour was soon abroad that the Cavaliere Valsecca had been sent for +to visit his cousin, the reigning Duke; a rumour which, combined with +Donna Laura's confidential hints, made Odo the centre of much feminine +solicitude, and roused the Countess Clarice to a vivid sense of her +rights. These circumstances, and his own tendency to drift on the +current of sensation, had carried Odo more easily than he could have +hoped past the painful episode of the Professor's garden. He was still +tormented by the sense of his inability to right so grave a wrong; but +he found solace in the thought that his absence was after all the best +reparation he could make. + +Trescorre, though distinguishing Odo by his favours, had not again +referred to the subject of their former conversation; but on the last +day of his visit he sent for Odo to his lodgings and at once entered +upon the subject. + +"His Highness," said he, "does not for the present recommend your +resigning your commission in the Sardinian army; but as he desires you +to visit him at Pianura, and to see something of the neighbouring +courts, he has charged me to obtain for you a two years' leave of +absence from his Majesty's service: a favour the King has already been +pleased to accord. The Duke has moreover resolved to double your present +allowance and has entrusted me with the sum of two hundred ducats, which +he desires you to spend in the purchase of a travelling-carriage, and +such other appointments as are suitable to a gentleman of your rank and +expectations." As he spoke, he unlocked his despatch-box and handed a +purse to Odo. "His Highness," he continued, "is impatient to see you; +and once your preparations are completed, I should advise you to set out +without delay; that is," he added, after one of his characteristic +pauses, "if I am right in supposing that there is no obstacle to your +departure." + +Odo, inferring an allusion to the Countess Clarice, smiled and coloured +slightly. "I know of none," he said. + +Trescorre bowed. "I am glad to hear it," he said, "for I know that a man +of your age and appearance may have other inclinations than his own to +consider. Indeed, I have had reports of a connection that I should not +take the liberty of mentioning, were it not that your interest demands +it." He waited a moment, but Odo remained silent. "I am sure," he went +on, "you will do me the justice of believing that I mean no reflection +on the lady, when I warn you against being seen too often in the quarter +behind the Corpus Domini. Such attachments, though engaging at the +outset to a fastidious taste, are often more troublesome than a young +man of your age can foresee; and in this case the situation is +complicated by the fact that the girl's father is in ill odour with the +authorities, so that, should the motive of your visits be mistaken, you +might find yourself inconveniently involved in the proceedings of the +Holy Office." + +Odo, who had turned pale, controlled himself sufficiently to listen in +silence, and with as much pretence of indifference as he could assume. +It was the peculiar misery of his situation that he could not defend +Fulvia without betraying her father, and that of the two alternatives +prudence bade him reject the one that chivalry would have chosen. It +flashed across him, however, that he might in some degree repair the +harm he had done by finding out what measures were to be taken against +Vivaldi; and to this end he carelessly asked:--"Is it possible that the +Professor has done anything to give offence in such quarters?" + +His assumption of carelessness was perhaps overdone; for Trescorre's +face grew as blank as a shuttered house-front. + +"I have heard rumours of the kind," he rejoined; "but they would +scarcely have attracted my notice had I not learned of your honouring +the young lady with your favours." He glanced at Odo with a smile. "Were +I a father," he added, "with a son of your age, my first advice to him +would be to form no sentimental ties but in his own society or in the +world of pleasure--the only two classes where the rules of the game are +understood." + + +2.6. + +Odo had appointed to leave Turin some two weeks after Trescorre's +departure; but the preparations for a young gentleman's travels were in +those days a momentous business, and one not to be discharged without +vexatious postponements. The travelling-carriage must be purchased and +fitted out, the gold-mounted dressing-case selected and engraved with +the owner's arms, servants engaged and provided with liveries, and the +noble tourist's own wardrobe stocked with an assortment of costumes +suited to the vicissitudes of travel and the requirements of court life. + +Odo's impatience to be gone increased with every delay, and at length he +determined to go forward at all adventure, leaving Cantapresto to +conclude the preparations and overtake him later. It had been agreed +with Trescorre that Odo, on his way to Pianura, should visit his +grandfather, the old Marquess, whose increasing infirmities had for some +years past imprisoned him on his estates, and accordingly about the +Ascension he set out in the saddle for Donnaz, attended only by one +servant, and having appointed that Cantapresto should meet him with the +carriage at Ivrea. + +The morning broke cloudy as he rode out of the gates. Beyond the suburbs +a few drops fell, and as he pressed forward the country lay before him +in the emerald freshness of a spring rain, vivid strips of vineyard +alternating with silvery bands of oats, the domes of the walnut-trees +dripping above the roadside, and the poplars along the water-courses all +slanting one way in the soft continuous downpour. He had left Turin in +that mood of clinging melancholy which waits on the most hopeful +departures, and the landscape seemed an image of anticipations clouded +with regret. He had had a stormy but tender parting with Clarice, whose +efforts to act the forsaken Ariadne were somewhat marred by her +irrepressible pride in her lover's prospects, and whose last word had +charged him to bring her back one of the rare lap-dogs bred by the monks +of Bologna. Seen down the lengthening vista of separation even Clarice +seemed regrettable; and Odo would have been glad to let his mind linger +on their farewells. But another thought importuned him. He had left +Turin without news of Vivaldi or Fulvia, and without having done +anything to conjure the peril to which his rashness had exposed them. +More than once he had been about to reveal his trouble to Alfieri; but +shame restrained him when he remembered that it was Alfieri who had +vouched for his discretion. After his conversation with Trescorre he had +tried to find some way of sending a word of warning to Vivaldi; but he +had no messenger whom he could trust; and would not Vivaldi justly +resent a warning from such a source? He felt himself the prisoner of his +own folly, and as he rode along the wet country roads an invisible +gaoler seemed to spur beside him. + +The clouds lifted at noon; and leaving the plain he mounted into a world +sparkling with sunshine and quivering with new-fed streams. The first +breath of mountain-air lifted the mist from his spirit, and he began to +feel himself a boy again as he entered the high gorges in the cold light +after sunset. It was about the full of the moon, and in his impatience +to reach Donnaz he resolved to push on after nightfall. The forest was +still thinly-leaved, and the rustle of wind in the branches and the +noise of the torrents recalled his first approach to the castle, in the +wild winter twilight. The way lay in darkness till the moon rose, and +once or twice he took a wrong turn and found himself engaged in some +overgrown woodland track; but he soon regained the high-road, and his +servant, a young fellow of indomitable cheerfulness, took the edge off +their solitude by frequent snatches of song. At length the moon rose, +and toward midnight Odo, spurring out of a dark glen, found himself at +the opening of the valley of Donnaz. A cold radiance bathed the familiar +pastures, the houses of the village along the stream, and the turrets +and crenellations of the castle at the head of the gorge. The air was +bitter, and the horses' hoofs struck sharply on the road as they trotted +past the slumbering houses and halted at the gateway through which Odo +had first been carried as a sleepy child. It was long before the +travellers' knock was answered, but a bewildered porter at length +admitted them, and Odo cried out when he recognised in the man's face +the features of one of the lads who had taught him to play pallone in +the castle court. + +Within doors all were abed; but the cavaliere was expected, and supper +laid for him in the very chamber where he had slept as a lad. The sight +of so much that was strange and yet familiar--of the old stone walls, +the banners, the flaring lamps and worn slippery stairs--all so much +barer, smaller, more dilapidated than he had remembered--stirred the +deep springs of his piety for inanimate things, and he was seized with a +fancy to snatch up a light and explore the recesses of the castle. But +he had been in the saddle since dawn, and the keen air and the long +hours of riding were in his blood. They weighted his lids, relaxed his +limbs, and gently divesting him of his hopes and fears, pressed him down +in the deep sepulchre of a dreamless sleep... + +Odo remained a month at Donnaz. His grandfather's happiness in his +presence would in itself have sufficed to detain him, apart from his +natural tenderness for old scenes and associations. It was one of the +compensations of his rapidly travelling imagination that the past, from +each new vantage-ground of sensation, acquired a fascination which to +the more sober-footed fancy only the perspective of years can give. +Life, in childhood, is a picture-book of which the text is +undecipherable; and the youth now revisiting the unchanged setting of +his boyhood was spelling out for the first time the legend beneath the +picture. + +The old Marquess, though broken in body, still ruled his household from +his seat beside the hearth. The failure of bodily activity seemed to +have doubled his moral vigour, and the walls shook with the vehemence of +his commands. The Marchioness was sunk in a state of placid apathy from +which only her husband's outbursts roused her; one of the canonesses was +dead, and the other, drier and more shrivelled than ever, pined in her +corner like a statue whose mate is broken. Bruno was dead too; his old +dog's bones had long since enriched a corner of the vineyard; and some +of the younger lads that Odo had known about the place were grown to +sober-faced men with wives and children. + +Don Gervaso was still chaplain of Donnaz; and Odo saw with surprise that +the grave ecclesiastic who had formerly seemed an old man to him was in +fact scarce past the middle age. In general aspect he was unchanged; but +his countenance had darkened, and what Odo had once taken for harshness +of manner he now perceived to be a natural melancholy. The young man had +not been long at Donnaz without discovering that in that little world of +crystallised traditions the chaplain was the only person conscious of +the new forces abroad. It had never occurred to the Marquess that +anything short of a cataclysm such as it would be blasphemy to predict +could change the divinely established order whereby the territorial lord +took tithes from his peasantry and pastured his game on their crops. The +hierarchy which rested on the bowed back of the toiling serf and +culminated in the figure of the heaven-sent King seemed to him as +immutable as the everlasting hills. The men of his generation had not +learned that it was built on a human foundation and that a sudden +movement of the underlying mass might shake the structure to its +pinnacle. The Marquess, who, like Donna Laura, already beheld Odo on the +throne of Pianura, was prodigal of counsels which showed a touching +inability to discern the new aspect under which old difficulties were +likely to present themselves. That a ruler should be brave, prudent, +personally abstemious, and nobly lavish in his official display; that he +should repress any attempts on the privileges of the Church, while at +the same time protecting his authority from the encroachments of the +Holy See; these axioms seemed to the old man to sum up the sovereign's +duty to the state. The relation, to his mind, remained a distinctly +personal and paternal one; and Odo's attempts to put before him the new +theory of government, as a service performed by the ruler in the +interest of the ruled, resulted only in stirring up the old sediment of +absolutism which generations of feudal power had deposited in the Donnaz +blood. + +Only the chaplain perceived what new agencies were at work; but even he +looked on as a watcher from a distant tower, who sees opposing armies +far below him in the night, without being able to follow their movements +or guess which way the battle goes. + +"The days," he said to Odo, "are evil. The Church's enemies, the +basilisks and dragons of unbelief and license, are stirring in their old +lairs, the dark places of the human spirit. It is time that a fresh +purification by blood should cleanse the earth of its sins. That hour +has already come in France, where the blood of heretics has lately +fertilised the soil of faith; it will come here, as surely as I now +stand before you; and till it comes the faithful can only weary heaven +with their entreaties, if haply thereby they may mitigate the evil. I +shall remain here," he continued, "while the Marquess needs me; but that +task discharged, I intend to retire to one of the contemplative orders, +and with my soul perpetually uplifted like the arms of Moses, wear out +my life in prayer for those whom the latter days shall overtake." + +Odo had listened in silence; but after a moment he said: "My father, +among those who have called in to question the old order of things there +are many animated by no mere desire for change, no idle inclination to +pry into the divine mysteries, but who earnestly long to ease the burden +of mankind and let light into what you have called the dark places of +the spirit. How is it, they ask, that though Christ came to save the +poor and the humble, it is on them that life presses most heavily after +eighteen hundred years of His rule? All cannot be well in a world where +such contradictions exist, and what if some of the worst abuses of the +age have found lodgment in the very ramparts that faith has built +against them?" + +Don Gervaso's face grew stern and his eyes rested sadly on Odo. "You +speak," said he, "of bringing light into dark places; but what light is +there on earth save that which is shed by the Cross, and where shall +they find guidance who close their eyes to that divine illumination?" + +"But is there not," Odo rejoined, "a divine illumination within each of +us, the light of truth which we must follow at any cost--or have the +worst evils and abuses only to take refuge in the Church to find +sanctuary there, as malefactors find it?" + +The chaplain shook his head. "It is as I feared," he said, "and Satan +has spread his subtlest snare for you; for if he tempts some in the +guise of sensual pleasure, or of dark fears and spiritual abandonment, +it is said that to those he most thirsts to destroy he appears in the +likeness of their Saviour. You tell me it is to right the wrongs of the +poor and the humble that your new friends, the philosophers, have +assailed the authority of Christ. I have only one answer to make: +Christ, as you said just now, died for the poor--how many of your +philosophers would do as much? Because men hunger and thirst, is that a +sign that He has forsaken them? And since when have earthly privileges +been the token of His favour? May He not rather have designed that, by +continual sufferings and privations, they shall lay up for themselves +treasures in Heaven such as your eyes and mine shall never see or our +ears hear? And how dare you assume that any temporal advantages could +atone for that of which your teachings must deprive them--the heavenly +consolations of the love of Christ?" + +Odo listened with a sense of deepening discouragement. "But is it +necessary," he urged, "to confound Christ with His ministers, the law +with its exponents? May not men preserve their hope of heaven and yet +lead more endurable lives on earth?" + +"Ah, my child, beware, for this is the heresy of private judgment, which +has already drawn down thousands into the pit. It is one of the most +insidious errors in which the spirit of evil has ever masqueraded; for +it is based on the fallacy that we, blind creatures of a day, and +ourselves in the meshes of sin, can penetrate the counsels of the +Eternal, and test the balances of the heavenly Justice. I tremble to +think into what an abyss your noblest impulses may fling you, if you +abandon yourself to such illusions; and more especially if it pleases +God to place in your hands a small measure of that authority of which He +is the supreme repository.--When I took leave of you here nine years +since," Don Gervaso continued in a gentler tone, "we prayed together in +the chapel; and I ask you, before setting out on your new life, to +return there with me and lay your doubts and difficulties before Him who +alone is able to still the stormy waves of the soul." + +Odo, touched by the appeal, accompanied him to the chapel, and knelt on +the steps whence his young spirit had once soared upward on the heavenly +pleadings of the Mass. The chapel was as carefully tended as ever; and +amid the comely appointments of the altar shone forth that Presence +which speaks to men of an act of love perpetually renewed. But to Odo +the voice was mute, the divinity wrapped in darkness; and he remembered +reading in some Latin author that the ancient oracles had ceased to +speak when their questioners lost faith in them. He knew not whether his +own faith was lost; he felt only that it had put forth on a sea of +difficulties across which he saw the light of no divine command. + +In this mood there was no more help to be obtained from Don Gervaso than +from the Marquess. Odo's last days at Donnaz were clouded by a sense of +the deep estrangement between himself and that life of which the outward +aspect was so curiously unchanged. His past seemed to look at him with +unrecognising eyes, to bar the door against his knock; and he rode away +saddened by that sense of isolation which follows the first encounter +with a forgotten self. + +At Ivrea the sight of Cantapresto and the travelling-carriage roused him +as from a waking dream. Here, at his beck were the genial realities of +life, embodied, humorously enough, in the bustling figure which for so +many years had played a kind of comic accompaniment to his experiences. +Cantapresto was in a fever of expectation. To set forth on the road +again, after nine years of well-fed monotony, and under conditions so +favourable to his physical well-being, was to drink the wine of romance +from a golden cup. Odo was at the age when the spirit lies as naturally +open to the variations of mood as a lake to the shifting of the breeze; +and Cantapresto's exuberant humour, and the novel details of their +travelling equipment, had soon effaced the graver influences of Donnaz. +Life stretched before him alluring and various as the open road; and his +pulses danced to the tune of the postillion's whip as the carriage +rattled out of the gates. + +It was a bright morning and the plain lay beneath them like a planted +garden, in all the flourish and verdure of June; but the roads being +deep in mire, and unrepaired after the ravages of the winter, it was +past noon before they reached the foot of the hills. Here matters were +little better, for the highway was ploughed deep by the wheels of the +numberless vans and coaches journeying from one town to another during +the Whitsun holidays, so that even a young gentleman travelling post +must resign himself to a plebeian rate of progression. Odo at first was +too much pleased with the novelty of the scene to quarrel with any +incidental annoyances; but as the afternoon wore on the way began to +seem long, and he was just giving utterance to his impatience when +Cantapresto, putting his head out of the window, announced in a tone of +pious satisfaction that just ahead of them were a party of travellers in +far worse case than themselves. Odo, leaning out, saw that, a dozen +yards ahead, a modest chaise of antique pattern had in fact come to +grief by the roadside. He called to his postillion to hurry forward, and +they were soon abreast of the wreck, about which several people were +grouped in anxious colloquy. Odo sprang out to offer his services; but +as he alit he felt Cantapresto's hand on his sleeve. + +"Cavaliere," the soprano whispered, "these are plainly people of no +condition, and we have yet a good seven miles to Vercelli, where all the +inns will be crowded for the Whitsun fair. Believe me, it were better to +go forward." + +Odo advanced without heeding this admonition; but a moment later he had +almost regretted his action; for in the centre of the group about the +chaise stood the two persons whom, of all the world, he was at that +moment least wishful of meeting. + + +2.7. + +It was in fact Vivaldi who, putting aside the knot of idlers about the +chaise, stepped forward at Odo's approach. The philosopher's countenance +was perturbed, his travelling-coat spattered with mud, and his daughter, +hooded and veiled, clung to him with an air of apprehension that smote +Odo to the heart. He caught a blush of recognition beneath her veil; and +as he drew near she raised a finger to her lip and faintly shook her +head. + +The mute signal reassured him. "I see, sir," said he, turning +courteously to Vivaldi, "that you are in a bad plight, and I hope that I +or my carriage may be of service to you." He ventured a second glance at +Fulvia, but she had turned aside and was inspecting the wheel of the +chaise with an air of the most disheartening detachment. + +Vivaldi, who had returned Odo's greeting without any sign of ill-will, +bowed slightly and seemed to hesitate a moment. "Our plight, as you +see," he said, "is indeed a grave one; for the wheel has come off our +carriage and my driver here tells me there is no smithy this side +Vercelli, where it is imperative we should lie tonight. I hope, +however," he added, glancing down the road, "that with all the traffic +now coming and going we may soon be overtaken by some vehicle that will +carry us to our destination." + +He spoke calmly, but it was plain some pressing fear underlay his +composure, and the nature of the emergency was but too clear to Odo. + +"Will not my carriage serve you?" he hastily rejoined. "I am for +Vercelli, and if you will honour me with your company we can go forward +at once." + +Fulvia, during this exchange of words, had affected to be engaged with +the luggage, which lay in a heap beside the chaise; but at this point +she lifted her head and shot a glance at her father from under her black +travelling-hood. + +Vivaldi's constraint increased. "This, sir," said he, "is a handsome +offer, and one for which I thank you; but I fear our presence may +incommode you and the additional weight of our luggage perhaps delay +your progress. I have little fear but some van or waggon will overtake +us before nightfall; and should it chance otherwise," he added with a +touch of irresistible pedantry, "why, it behoves us to remember that we +shall be none the worse off, since the sage is independent of +circumstances." + +Odo could hardly repress a smile. "Such philosophy, sir, is admirable in +principle, but in practice hardly applicable to a lady unused to passing +her nights in a rice-field. The region about here is notoriously +unhealthy and you will surely not expose your daughter to the risk of +remaining by the roadside or of finding a lodging in some peasant's +hut." + +Vivaldi drew himself up. "My daughter," said he, "has been trained to +face graver emergencies with an equanimity I have no fear of putting to +the touch--'the calm of a mind blest in the consciousness of its +virtue'; and were it not that circumstances are somewhat pressing--" he +broke off and glanced at Cantapresto, who was fidgeting about Odo's +carriage or talking in undertones with the driver of the chaise. + +"Come, sir," said Odo urgently, "Let my servants put your luggage up and +we'll continue this argument on the road." + +Vivaldi again paused. "Sir," he said at length, "will you first step +aside with me a moment?" he led Odo a few paces down the road. "I make +no pretence," he went on when they were out of Cantapresto's hearing, +"of concealing from you that this offer comes very opportune to our +needs, for it is urgent we should be out of Piedmont by tomorrow. But +before accepting a seat in your carriage, I must tell you that you offer +it to a proscribed man; since I have little reason to doubt that by this +time the sbirri are on my track." + +It was impossible to guess from Vivaldi's manner whether he suspected +Odo of being the cause of his misadventure; and the young man, though +flushing to the forehead, took refuge in the thought of Fulvia's signal +and maintained a self-possessed silence. + +"The motive of my persecution," Vivaldi continued, "I need hardly +explain to one acquainted with my house and with the aims and opinions +of those who frequent it. We live, alas, in an age when it is a moral +offence to seek enlightenment, a political crime to share it with +others. I have long foreseen that any attempt to raise the condition of +my countrymen must end in imprisonment or flight; and though perhaps to +have suffered the former had been a more impressive vindication of my +views, why, sir, the father at the last moment overruled the +philosopher, and thinking of my poor girl there, who but for me stands +alone in the world, I resolved to take refuge in a state where a man may +work for the liberty of others without endangering his own." + +Odo had listened with rising eagerness. Was not here an opportunity, if +not to atone, at least to give practical evidence of his contrition? + +"What you tell me sir," he exclaimed, "cannot but increase my zeal to +serve you. Here is no time to palter. I am on my way to Lombardy, which, +from what you say, I take to be your destination also; and if you and +your daughter will give me your company across the border I think you +need fear no farther annoyance from the police, since my passports, as +the Duke of Pianura's cousin, cover any friends I choose to take in my +company." + +"Why, sir," said Vivaldi, visibly moved by the readiness of the +response, "here is a generosity so far in excess of our present needs +that it encourages me to accept the smaller favour of travelling with +you to Vercelli. There we have friends with whom we shall be safe for +the night, and soon after sunrise I hope we may be across the border." + +Odo at once followed up his advantage by pointing out that it was on the +border that difficulties were most likely to arise; but after a few +moments of debate Vivaldi declared he must first take counsel with his +daughter, who still hung like a mute interrogation on the outskirts of +their talk. + +After a few words with her, he returned to Odo. "My daughter," said he, +"whose good sense puts my wisdom to the blush, wishes me first to +enquire if you purpose returning to Turin; since in that case, as she +points out, your kindness might result in annoyances to which we have no +right to expose you." + +Odo coloured. "Such considerations, I beg your daughter to believe, +would not weigh with me an instant; but as I am leaving Piedmont for two +years I am not so happy as to risk anything by serving you." + +Vivaldi on this assurance at once consented to accept a seat in his +carriage as far as Boffalora, the first village beyond the Sardinian +frontier. It was agreed that at Vercelli Odo was to set down his +companions at an inn whence, alone and privately, they might gain their +friend's house; that on the morrow at daybreak he was to take them up at +a point near the convent of the Umiliati, and that thence they were to +push forward without a halt for Boffalora. + +This agreement reached, Odo was about to offer Fulvia a hand to the +carriage when an unwelcome thought arrested him. + +"I hope, sir," said he, again turning to Vivaldi, and blushing furiously +as he spoke, "that you feel assured of my discretion; but I ought +perhaps to warn you that my companion yonder, though the good-naturedest +fellow alive, is not one to live long on good terms with a secret, +whether his own or another's." + +"I am obliged to you," said Vivaldi, "for the hint; but my daughter and +I are like those messengers who, in time of war, learn to carry their +despatches beneath their tongues. You may trust us not to betray +ourselves; and your friend may, if he chooses, suppose me to be +travelling to Milan to act as governor to a young gentleman of quality." + +The Professor's luggage had by this been put on Odo's carriage, and the +latter advanced to Fulvia. He had drawn a favourable inference from the +concern she had shown for his welfare; but to his mortification she +merely laid two reluctant finger tips in his hand and took her seat +without a word of thanks or so much as a glance at her rescuer. This +unmerited repulse, and the constraint occasioned by Cantapresto's +presence, made the remainder of the drive interminable. Even the +Professor's apposite reflections on rice-growing and the culture of the +mulberry did little to shorten the way; and when at length the +bell-towers of Vercelli rose in sight Odo felt the relief of a man who +has acquitted himself of a tedious duty. He had looked forward with the +most romantic anticipations to the outcome of this chance encounter with +Fulvia; but the unforgiving humour which had lent her a transitory charm +now became as disfiguring as some physical defect; and his heart swelled +with the defiance of youthful disappointment. + +It was near the angelus when they entered the city. Just within the +gates Odo set down his companions, who took leave of him, the one with +the heartiest expressions of gratitude, the other with a hurried +inclination of her veiled head. Thence he drove on to the Three Crowns, +where he designed to lie. The streets were still crowded with +holiday-makers and decked out with festal hangings. Tapestries and +silken draperies adorned the balconies of the houses, innumerable tiny +lamps framed the doors and windows, and the street-shrines were dressed +with a profusion of flowers; while every square and open space in the +city was crowded with booths, with the tents of ambulant comedians and +dentists, and with the outspread carpets of snake-charmers, +posture-makers and jugglers. Among this mob of quacks and pedlars +circulated other fantastic figures, the camp-followers of the army of +hucksters: dwarfs and cripples, mendicant friars, gypsy fortune-tellers, +and the itinerant reciters of Ariosto and Tasso. With these mingled the +towns-people in holiday dress, the well-to-do farmers and their wives, +and a throng of nondescript idlers, ranging from the servants of the +nobility pushing their way insolently through the crowd, to those +sinister vagabonds who lurk, as it were, in the interstices of every +concourse of people. + +It was not long before the noise and animation about him had dispelled +Odo's ill-humour. The world was too fair to be darkened by a girl's +disdain, and a reaction of feeling putting him in tune with the humours +of the market-place, he at once set forth on foot to view the city. It +was now near sunset and the day's decline irradiated the stately front +of the Cathedral, the walls of the ancient Hospital that faced it, and +the groups gathered about the stalls and platforms obstructing the +square. Even in his travelling-dress Odo was not a figure to pass +unnoticed, and he was soon assailed by laughing compliments on his looks +and invitations to visit the various shows concealed behind the flapping +curtains of the tents. There were enough pretty faces in the crowd to +justify such familiarities, and even so modest a success was not without +solace to his vanity. He lingered for some time in the square, answering +the banter of the blooming market-women, inspecting the +filigree-ornaments from Genoa, and watching a little yellow bitch in a +hooped petticoat and lappets dance the furlana to the music of an +armless fiddler who held the bow in his teeth. As he turned from this +show Odo's eye was caught by a handsome girl who, on the arm of a +dashing cavalier in somewhat shabby velvet, was cheapening a pair of +gloves at a neighbouring stall. The girl, who was masked, shot a dark +glance at Odo from under her three-cornered Venetian hat; then, tossing +down a coin, she gathered up the gloves and drew her companion away. The +manoeuvre was almost a challenge, and Odo was about to take it up when a +pretty boy in a Scaramouch habit, waylaying him with various graceful +antics, thrust a play-bill in his hand; and on looking round he found +the girl and her gallant had disappeared. The play-bill, with a wealth +of theatrical rhetoric, invited Odo to attend the Performance to be +given that evening at the Philodramatic Academy by the celebrated Capo +Comico Tartaglia of Rimini and his world-renowned company of Comedians, +who, in the presence of the aristocracy of Vercelli, were to present a +new comedy entitled "Le Gelosie di Milord Zambo," with an Intermezzo of +singing and dancing by the best Performers of their kind. + +Dusk was already falling, and Odo, who had brought no letters to the +gentry of Vercelli, where he intended to stay but a night, began to +wonder how he should employ his evening. He had hoped to spend it in +Vivaldi's company, but the Professor not having invited him, he saw no +prospect but to return to the inn and sup alone with Cantapresto. In the +doorway of the Three Crowns he found the soprano awaiting him. +Cantapresto, who had been as mute as a fish during the afternoon's +drive, now bustled forward with a great show of eagerness. + +"What poet was it," he cried, "that paragoned youth to the Easter +sunshine, which, wherever it touches, causes a flower to spring up? Here +we are scarce alit in a strange city, and already a messenger finds the +way to our inn with a most particular word from his lady to the +Cavaliere Odo Valsecca." And he held out a perfumed billet sealed with a +flaming dart. + +Odo's heart gave a leap at the thought that the letter might be from +Fulvia; but on breaking the seal he read these words, scrawled in an +unformed hand:-- + +"Will the Cavaliere Valsecca accept from an old friend, who desires to +renew her acquaintance with him, the trifling gift of a side-box at Don +Tartaglia's entertainment this evening?" + +Vexed at his credulity, Odo tossed the invitation to Cantapresto; but a +moment later, recalling the glance of the pretty girl in the +market-place, he began to wonder if the billet might not be the prelude +to a sufficiently diverting adventure. It at least offered a way of +passing the evening; and after a hurried supper he set out with +Cantapresto for the Philodramatic Academy. It was late when they entered +their box, and several masks were already capering before the +footlights, exchanging lazzi with the townsfolk in the pit, and +addressing burlesque compliments to the quality in the boxes. The +theatre seemed small and shabby after those of Turin, and there was +little in the old-fashioned fopperies of a provincial audience to +interest a young gentleman fresh from the capital. Odo looked about for +any one resembling the masked beauty of the market-place; but he beheld +only ill-dressed dowagers and matrons, or ladies of the town more +conspicuous for their effrontery than for their charms. + +The main diversion of the evening was by this begun. It was a comedy in +the style of Goldoni's early pieces, representing the actual life of the +day, but interspersed with the antics of the masks, to whose improvised +drolleries the people still clung. A terrific Don Spavento in cloak and +sword played the jealous English nobleman, Milord Zambo, and the part of +Tartaglia was taken by the manager, one of the best-known interpreters +of the character in Italy. Tartaglia was the guardian of the prima +amorosa, whom the enamoured Briton pursued; and in the Columbine, when +she sprang upon the stage with a pirouette that showed her slender +ankles and embroidered clocks, Odo instantly recognised the graceful +figure and killing glance of his masked beauty. Her face, which was now +uncovered, more than fulfilled the promise of her eyes, being indeed as +arch and engaging a countenance as ever flashed distraction across the +foot-lights. She was greeted with an outburst of delight that cost her a +sour glance from the prima amorosa, and presently the theatre was +ringing with her improvised sallies, uttered in the gay staccato of the +Venetian dialect. There was to Odo something perplexingly familiar in +this accent and in the light darting movements of her little head framed +in a Columbine's ruff, with a red rose thrust behind one ear; but after +a rapid glance about the house she appeared to take no notice of him and +he began to think it must be to some one else he owed his invitation. + +From this question he was soon diverted by his increasing enjoyment of +the play. It was not indeed a remarkable example of its kind, being +crudely enough put together, and turning on a series of ridiculous and +disconnected incidents; but to a taste formed on the frigid elegancies +of Metastasio and the French stage there was something refreshing in +this plunge into the coarse homely atmosphere of the old popular +theatre. Extemporaneous comedies were no longer played in the great +cities, and Odo listened with surprise to the swift thrust and parry, +the inexhaustible flow of jest and repartee, the readiness with which +the comedians caught up each other's leads, like dancers whirling +without a false step through the mazes of some rapid contradance. + +So engaged was he that he no longer observed the Columbine save as a +figure in this flying reel; but presently a burst of laughter fixed his +attention and he saw that she was darting across the stage pursued by +Milord Zambo, who, furious at the coquetries of his betrothed, was +avenging himself by his attentions to the Columbine. Half way across, +her foot caught and she fell on one knee. Zambo rushed to the rescue; +but springing up instantly, and feigning to treat his advance as a part +of the play, she cried out with a delicious assumption of outraged +dignity:-- + +"Not a step farther, villain! Know that it is sacrilege for a common +mortal to embrace one who has been kissed by his most illustrious +Highness the Heir-presumptive of Pianura!" + +"Mirandolina of Chioggia!" sprang to Odo's lips. At the same instant the +Columbine turned about and swept him a deep curtsey, to the delight of +the audience, who had no notion of what was going forward, but were in +the humour to clap any whim of their favourite's; then she turned and +darted off the stage, and the curtain fell on a tumult of applause. + +Odo had hardly recovered from his confusion when the door of the box +opened and the young Scaramouch he had seen in the market-place peeped +in and beckoned to Cantapresto. The soprano rose with alacrity, leaving +Odo alone in the dimly-lit box, his mind agrope in a labyrinth of +memories. A moment later Cantapresto returned with that air of furtive +relish that always proclaimed him the bearer of a tender message. The +one he now brought was to the effect that the Signorina Miranda +Malmocco, justly renowned as one of the first Columbines of Italy, had +charged him to lay at the Cavaliere Valsecca's feet her excuses for the +liberty she had taken with his illustrious name, and to entreat that he +would show his magnanimity by supping with her after the play in her +room at the Three Crowns--a request she was emboldened to make by the +fact that she was lately from Pianura, and could give him the last news +of the court. + +The message chimed with Odo's mood, and the play over he hastened back +to the inn with Cantapresto, and bid the landlord send to the Signorina +Miranda's room whatever delicacies the town could provide. Odo on +arriving that afternoon had himself given orders that his carriage +should be at the door the next morning an hour before sunrise; and he +now repeated these instructions to Cantapresto, charging him on his life +to see that nothing interfered with their fulfilment. The soprano +objected that the hour was already late, and that they could easily +perform the day's journey without curtailing their rest; but on Odo's +reiteration of the order he resigned himself, with the remark that it +was a pity old age had no savings-bank for the sleep that youth +squandered. + + +2.8. + +It was something of a disappointment to Odo, on entering the Signorina +Miranda's room, to find that she was not alone. Engaged in feeding her +pet monkey with sugar-plums was the young man who had given her his arm +in the Piazza. This gentleman, whom she introduced to Odo as her cousin +and travelling companion, the Count of Castelrovinato, had the same air +of tarnished elegance as his richly-laced coat and discoloured ruffles. +He seemed, however, of a lively and obliging humour, and Mirandolina +observed with a smile that she could give no better notion of his +amiability than by mentioning that he was known among her friends as the +Cavaliere Frattanto. This praise, Odo thought, seemed scarcely to the +cousin's liking; but he carried it off with the philosophic remark that +it is the mortar between the bricks that holds the building together. + +"At present," said Mirandolina laughing, "he is engaged in propping up a +ruin; for he has fallen desperately in love with our prima amorosa, a +lady who lost her virtue under the Pharaohs, but whom, for his sake, I +have been obliged to include in our little supper." + +This, it was clear, was merely a way of palliating the Count's +infatuation for herself; but he took the second thrust as good-naturedly +as the first, remarking that he had been bred for an archeologist and +had never lost his taste for the antique. + +Odo's servants now appearing with a pasty of beccafichi, some bottles of +old Malaga and a tray of ices and fruits, the three seated themselves at +the table, which Mirandolina had decorated with a number of wax candles +stuck in the cut-glass bottles of the Count's dressing-case. Here they +were speedily joined by the actress's monkey and parrot, who had soon +spread devastation among the dishes. While Miranda was restoring order +by boxing the monkey's ears and feeding the shrieking bird from her +lips, the door opened to admit the prima amorosa, a lady whose mature +charms and mellifluous manner suggested a fine fruit preserved in syrup. +The newcomer was clearly engrossed in captivating the Count, and the +latter amply justified his nick-name by the cynical complaisance with +which he cleared the way for Odo by responding to her advances. + +The tete-a-tete thus established, Miranda at once began to excuse +herself for the means she had taken to attract Odo's attention at the +theatre. She had heard from the innkeeper that the Duke of Pianura's +cousin, the Cavaliere Valsecca, was expected that day in Vercelli; and +seeing in the Piazza a young gentleman in travelling-dress and French +toupet, had at once guessed him to be the distinguished stranger from +Turin. At the theatre she had been much amused by the air of +apprehension with which Odo had appeared to seek, among the dowdy or +vulgar inmates of the boxes, the sender of the mysterious billet; and +the contrast between the elegant gentleman in embroidered coat and +gold-hilted sword, and the sleepy bewildered little boy of the midnight +feast at Chivasso, had seized her with such comic effect that she could +not resist a playful allusion to their former meeting. All this was set +forth with so sprightly an air of mock-contrition that, had Odo felt the +least resentment, it must instantly have vanished. He was, however, in +the humour to be pleased by whatever took his mind off his own affairs, +and none could be more skilled than Mirandolina in profiting by such a +mood. + +He pressed her to tell him something of what had befallen her since they +had met, but she replied by questioning him about his own experiences, +and on learning that he had been called to Pianura on account of the +heir's ill-health she declared it was notorious that the little prince +had not long to live, and that the Duke could not hope for another son. + +"The Duke's life, however," said Odo, "is as good as mine, and in truth +I am far less moved by my remote hopes of the succession than by the +near prospect of visiting so many famous cities and seeing so much that +is novel and entertaining." + +Miranda shrugged her pretty shoulders. "Why, as to the Duke's life," +said she, "there are some that would not give a counterfeit penny for +it; but indeed his Highness lives so secluded from the world, and is +surrounded by persons so jealous to conceal his true condition even from +the court, that the reports of his health are no more to be trusted than +the other strange rumours about him. I was told in Pianura that but four +persons are admitted to his familiarity: his confessor, his mistress, +Count Trescorre, who is already comptroller of finance and will soon be +prime-minister, and a strange German doctor or astrologer that is lately +come to the court. As to the Duchess, she never sees him; and were it +not for Trescorre, who has had the wit to stand well with both sides, I +doubt if she would know more of what goes on about her husband than any +scullion in the ducal kitchens." + +She spoke with the air of one well-acquainted with the subject, and Odo, +curious to learn more, asked her how she came to have such an insight +into the intrigues of the court. + +"Why," said she, "in the oddest way imaginable--by being the guest of +his lordship the Bishop of Pianura; and since you asked me just now to +tell you something of my adventures, I will, if you please, begin by +relating the occurrences that procured me this extraordinary honour. But +first," she added with a smile, "would it not be well to open another +bottle of Malaga?" + + +MIRANDOLINA'S STORY. + +You must know, she continued, when Odo had complied with her request, +that soon after our parting at Chivasso the company with which I was +travelling came to grief through the dishonesty of the Harlequin, who +ran away with the Capo Comico's wife, carrying with him, besides the +lady, the far more irretrievable treasure of our modest earnings. This +brought us to destitution, and the troop was disbanded. I had nothing +but the spangled frock on my back, and thinking to make some use of my +sole possession I set out as a dancer with the flute-player of the +company, a good-natured fellow that had a performing marmozet from the +Indies. We three wandered from one town to another, spreading our carpet +wherever there was a fair or a cattle-market, going hungry in bad +seasons, and in our luckier days attaching ourselves to some band of +strolling posture-makers or comedians. + +One day, after about a year of this life, I had the good fortune, in the +market-place of Parma, to attract the notice of a rich English nobleman +who was engaged in writing a book on the dances of the ancients. This +gentleman, though no longer young, and afflicted with that strange +English malady that obliges a man to wrap his feet in swaddling-clothes +like a new-born infant, was of a generous and paternal disposition, and +offered, if I would accompany him to Florence, to give me a home and a +genteel education. I remained with him about two years, during which +time he had me carefully instructed in music, French and the art of the +needle. In return for this, my principal duties were to perform in +antique dances before the friends of my benefactor--whose name I could +never learn to pronounce--and to read aloud to him the works of the +modern historians and philosophers. + +We lived in a large palace with exceedingly high-ceilinged rooms, which +my friend would never have warmed on account of his plethoric habit, and +as I had to dance at all seasons in the light draperies worn by the +classical goddesses, I suffered terribly from chilblains and contracted +a cruel cough. To this, however, I might have resigned myself; but when +I learned from a young abate who frequented the house that the books I +was compelled to read were condemned by the Church, and could not be +perused without deadly peril to the soul, I at once resolved to fly from +such contaminating influences. Knowing that his lordship would not +consent to my leaving him, I took the matter out of his hands by +slipping out one day during the carnival, carrying with me from that +accursed house nothing but the few jewels that my benefactor had +expressed the intention of leaving me in his will. At the nearest church +I confessed my involuntary sin in reading the prohibited books, and +having received absolution and the sacrament, I joined my friend the +abate at Cafaggiolo, whence we travelled to Modena, where he was +acquainted with a theatrical manager just then in search of a Columbine. +My dancing and posturing at Florence had given me something of a name +among the dilettanti, and I was at once engaged by the manager, who took +me to Venice, where I subsequently joined the company of the excellent +Tartaglia with whom I am now acting. Since then I have been attended by +continued success, which I cannot but ascribe to my virtuous resolve to +face poverty and distress rather than profit a moment longer by the +beneficence of an atheist. + +All this I have related to show you how the poor ignorant girl you met +at Chivasso was able to acquire something of the arts and usages of good +company; but I will now pass on to the incident of my visit to Pianura. +Our manager, then, had engaged some time since to give a series of +performances at Pianura during the last carnival. The Bishop's nephew, +Don Serafino, who has a pronounced taste for the theatre, had been +instrumental in making the arrangement; but at the last moment he wrote +us that, owing to the influence of the Duke's confessor, the Bishop had +been obliged to prohibit the appearance of women on the stage of +Pianura. This was a cruel blow, as we had prepared a number of comedies +in which I was to act the leading part; and Don Serafino was equally +vexed, since he did me the honour of regarding me as the chief ornament +of the company. At length it was agreed that, to overcome the +difficulty, it should be given out that the celebrated Tartaglia of +Rimini would present himself at Pianura with his company of comedians, +among whom was the popular favourite, Mirandolino of Chioggia, twin +brother of the Signorina Miranda Malmocco, and trained by that actress +to play in all her principal parts. + +This satisfied the scruples and interests of all concerned, and soon +afterward I made my first appearance in Pianura. My success was greater +than we had foreseen; for I threw myself into the part with such zest +that every one was taken in, and even Don Serafino required the most +categorical demonstration to convince him that I was not my own brother. +The illusion I produced was, however, not without its inconveniences; +for, among the ladies who thronged to see the young Mirandolino, were +several who desired a closer acquaintance with him; and one of these, as +it happened, was the Duke's mistress, the Countess Belverde. You will +see the embarrassment of my situation. If I failed to respond to her +advances, her influence was sufficient to drive us from the town at the +opening of a prosperous season; if I discovered my sex to her, she might +more cruelly avenge herself by throwing the whole company into prison, +to be dealt with by the Holy Office. Under these circumstances, I +decided to appeal to the Bishop, but without, of course, revealing to +him that I was, so to speak, my own sister. His lordship, who is never +sorry to do the Belverde a bad turn, received me with the utmost +indulgence, and declared that, to protect my innocence from the designs +of this new Potiphar's wife, he would not only give me a lodging in the +Episcopal palace, but confer on me the additional protection of the +minor orders. This was rather more than I had bargained for, but he that +wants the melon is a fool to refuse the rind, and I thanked the Bishop +for his kindness and allowed him to give out that, my heart having been +touched by grace, I had resolved, at the end of the season, to withdraw +from the stage and prepare to enter the Church. + +I now fancied myself safe; for I knew the Countess could not attempt my +removal without risk of having her passion denounced to the Duke. I +spent several days very agreeably in the Episcopal palace, entertained +at his lordship's own table, and favoured with private conversations +during which he told me many curious and interesting things about the +Duke and the court, and delicately abstained from all allusion to my +coming change of vocation. The Countess, however, had not been idle. One +day I received notice that the Holy Office disapproved of the appearance +on the stage of a young man about to enter the Church, and requested me +to withdraw at once to the Barnabite monastery, where I was to remain +till I received the minor orders. Now the Abbot of the Barnabites was +the Belverde's brother, and I saw at once that to obey his order would +place me in that lady's power. I again addressed myself to the Bishop, +but to my despair he declared himself unable to aid me farther, saying +that he dared not offend the Holy Office, and that he had already run +considerable risk in protecting me from the Countess. + +I was accordingly transferred to the monastery, in spite of my own +entreaties and those of the good Tartaglia, who moved heaven and earth +to save his Columbine from sequestration. You may imagine my despair. My +fear of doing Tartaglia an injury kept me from revealing my sex, and for +twenty-four hours I languished in my cell, refusing food and air, and +resisting the repeated attempts of the good monks to alleviate my +distress. At length however I bethought me that the Countess would soon +appear; and it flashed across me that the one person who could protect +me from her was her brother. I at once sought an interview with the +Abbot, who received me with great indulgence. I explained to him that +the distress I suffered was occasioned by the loss that my sequestration +was causing my excellent manager, and begged him to use his influence to +have me released from the monastery. The Abbot listened attentively, and +after a pause replied that there was but one person who could arrange +the matter, and that was his sister the Countess Belverde, whose +well-known piety gave her considerable influence in such matters. I now +saw that no alternative remained but to confess the truth; and with +tears of agitation I avowed my sex, and threw myself on his mercy. + +I was not disappointed in the result. The Abbot listened with the +greatest benevolence to all the details of my adventure. He laughed +heartily at his sister's delusion, but said I had done right in not +undeceiving her, as her dread of ridicule might have led to unpleasant +reprisals. He declared that for the present he could not on any account +consent to let me out of his protection; but he promised if I submitted +myself implicitly to his guidance, not only to preserve me from the +Belverde's machinations, but to ensure my reappearing on the stage +within two days at the latest. Knowing him to be a very powerful +personage I thought it best to accept these conditions, which in any +case it would have been difficult to resist; and the next day he +informed me that the Holy Office had consented to the Signorina Miranda +Malmocco's appearing on the stage of Pianura during the remainder of the +season, in consideration of the financial injury caused to the manager +of the company by the edifying conversion of her twin-brother. + +"In this way," the Abbot was pleased to explain, "you will be quite safe +from my sister, who is a woman of the most unexceptionable morals, and +at the same time you will not expose our excellent Bishop to the charge +of having been a party to a grave infraction of ecclesiastical +discipline.--My only condition," he added with a truly paternal smile, +"is that, after the Signorina Miranda's performance at the theatre her +twin-brother the Signor Mirandolino shall return every evening to the +monastery: a condition which seems necessary to the preservation of our +secret, and which I trust you will not regard as too onerous, in view of +the service I have been happy enough to render you." + +It would have ill become me to dispute the excellent ecclesiastic's +wishes, and Tartaglia and the rest of the company having been sworn to +secrecy, I reappeared that very evening in one of my favourite parts, +and was afterward carried back to the monastery in the most private +manner. The Signorina Malmocco's successes soon repaired the loss +occasioned by her brother's withdrawal, and if any suspected their +identity all were interested to conceal their suspicions. + +Thus it came about that my visit to Pianura, having begun under the roof +of a Bishop, ended in a monastery of Barnabites--nor have I any cause to +complain of the hospitality of either of my hosts... + + * * * * * + +Odo, charmed by the vivacity with which this artless narrative was +related, pressed Miranda to continue the history of her adventures. The +actress laughingly protested that she must first refresh herself with +one of the ices he had so handsomely provided; and meanwhile she begged +the Count to favour them with a song. + +This gentleman, who seemed glad of any pretext for detaching himself +from his elderly flame, rescued Mirandolina's lute from the inquisitive +fingering of the monkey, and striking a few melancholy chords, sang the +following words, which he said he had learned from a peasant of the +Abruzzi:-- + + Flower of the thyme! + She draws me as your fragrance draws the bees, + She draws me as the cold moon draws the seas, + And summer winter-time. + + Flower of the broom! + Like you she blossoms over dark abysses, + And close to ruin bloom her sweetest kisses, + And on the brink of doom. + + Flower of the rue! + She wore you on her breast when first we met. + I begged your blossom and I wear it yet-- + Flower of regret! + +The song ended, the prima amorosa, overcome by what she visibly deemed +an appeal to her feelings, declared with some agitation that the hour +was late and she must withdraw. Miranda wished the actress an +affectionate goodnight and asked the Count to light her to her room, +which was on the farther side of the gallery surrounding the courtyard +of the inn. Castelrovinato complied with his usual air of resignation, +and the door closing on the couple, Odo and Miranda found themselves +alone. + +"And now," said the good-natured girl, placing herself on the sofa and +turning to her guest with a smile, "if you will take a seat at my side I +will gladly continue the history of my adventures"... + + +2.9. + +Odo woke with a start. He had been trying to break down a great +gold-barred gate, behind which Fulvia, pale and disordered, struggled in +the clutch of the blind beggar of the Corpus Domini... + +He sat up and looked about him. The gate was still there; but as he +gazed it resolved itself into his shuttered window, barred with wide +lines of sunlight. It was day, then! He sprang out of bed and flung open +the shutters. Beneath him lay the piazza of Vercelli, bathed in the +vertical brightness of a summer noon; and as he stared out on this +inexorable scene, the clock over the Hospital struck twelve. + +Twelve o'clock! And he had promised to meet Vivaldi at dawn behind the +Umiliati! As the truth forced itself on Odo he dropped into a chair and +hid his face with a groan. He had failed them again, then--and this time +how cruelly and basely! He felt himself the victim of a conspiracy which +in some occult manner was forever forcing him to outrage and betray the +two beings he most longed to serve. The idea of a conspiracy flashed a +sudden light on his evening's diversion, and he sprang up with a cry. +Yes! It was a plot, and any but a dolt must have traced the soprano's +hand in this vulgar assault upon his senses. He choked with anger at the +thought of having played the dupe when two lives he cherished were +staked upon his vigilance... + +To his furious summons Cantapresto presented a blank wall of ignorance. +Yes, the Cavaliere had given orders that the carriage should be ready +before daybreak; but who was authorised to wake the cavaliere? After +keeping the carriage two hours at the door Cantapresto had ventured to +send it back to the stable; but the horses should instantly be put to, +and within an hour they would be well forward on their journey. +Meanwhile, should the barber be summoned at once? Or would the cavaliere +first refresh himself with an excellent cup of chocolate, prepared under +Cantapresto's own supervision? + +Odo turned on him savagely. "Traitor--spy! In whose pay--?" + +But the words roused him to a fresh sense of peril. Cantapresto, though +he might have guessed Odo's intention, was not privy to his plan of +rejoining Vivaldi and Fulvia; and it flashed across the young man that +his self-betrayal must confirm the others' suspicions. His one hope of +protecting his friends was to affect indifference to what had happened; +and this was made easier, by the reflection that Cantapresto was after +all but a tool in more powerful hands. To be spied on was so natural to +an Italian of that day that the victim's instinct was rather to +circumvent the spy than to denounce him. + +Odo dismissed Cantapresto with the reply that he would give orders about +the carriage later; desiring that meanwhile the soprano should purchase +the handsomest set of filigree ornaments to be found in Vercelli, and +carry them with the Cavaliere Valsecca's compliments to the Signorina +Malmocco. + +Having thus rid himself of observation he dressed as rapidly as +possible, trying the while to devise some means of tracing Vivaldi. But +the longer he pondered the attempt the more plainly he saw its futility. +Vivaldi, doubtless from motives of prudence, had not named the friend +with whom he and Fulvia were to take shelter; nor did Odo even know in +what quarter of the city to seek them. To question the police was to +risk their last chance of safety; and for the same reason he dared not +enquire of the posting-master whether any travellers had set out that +morning for Lombardy. His natural activity of mind was hampered by a +leaden sense of remissness. With what anguish of spirit must Vivaldi and +Fulvia have awaited him in that hour of dawn behind the convent! What +thoughts must have visited the girl's mind as day broadened, the city +woke, and peril pressed on them with every voice and eye! And when at +length they saw that he had failed them, which way did their hunted +footsteps turn? Perhaps they dared not go back to the friend who had +taken them in for the night. Perhaps even now they wandered through the +streets, fearing arrest if they revealed themselves by venturing to +engage a carriage, at every turn of his thoughts Odo was mocked by some +vision of disaster; and an hour of perplexity yielded no happier +expedient than that of repairing to the meeting-place behind the +Umiliati. It was a deserted lane with few passers; and after vainly +questioning the blank wall of the convent and the gates of a +sinister-looking alms-house that faced it, he retraced his steps to the +inn. + +He spent a day of futile research and bitter thoughts, now straying +forth in the hope of meeting Vivaldi, now hastening back to the Three +Crowns on the chance that some message might await him. He dared not let +his mind rest on what might have befallen his friends; yet the +alternative of contemplating his own course was scarcely more endurable. +Nightfall brought the conviction that the Professor and Fulvia had +passed beyond his reach. It was clear that if they were still in +Vercelli they did not mean to make their presence known to him, while in +the event of their escape he was without means of tracing them farther. +He knew indeed that their destination was Milan, but, should they reach +there safely, what hope was there of finding them in a city of +strangers? By a stroke of folly he had cut himself off from all +communication with them, and his misery was enhanced by the discovery of +his weakness. He who had fed his fancy on high visions, cherishing in +himself the latent patriot and hero, had been driven by a girl's caprice +to break the first law of manliness and honour! The event had already +justified her; and in a flash of self-contempt he saw himself as she no +doubt beheld him--the fribble preying like a summer insect on the slow +growths of difficult years... + +In bitterness of spirit he set out the next morning for Pianura. A +half-melancholy interest drew him back to the scene of his lonely +childhood, and he had started early in order to push on that night to +Pontesordo. At Valsecca, the regular posting-station between Vercelli +and Pianura, he sent Cantapresto forward to the capital, and in a stormy +yellow twilight drove alone across the waste land that dipped to the +marshes. On his right the woods of the ducal chase hung black against +the sky; and presently he saw ahead of him the old square keep, with a +flight of swallows circling low about its walls. + +In the muddy farm-yard a young man was belabouring a donkey laden with +mulberry-shoots. He stared for a moment at Odo's approach and then +sullenly returned to his task. + +Odo sprang out into the mud. "Why do you beat the brute?" said he +indignantly. The other turned a dull face on him and he recognised his +old enemy Giannozzo. + +"Giannozzo," he cried, "don't you know me? I am the Cavaliere Valsecca, +whose ears you used to box when you were a lad. Must you always be +pummelling something, that you can't let that poor brute alone at the +end of its day's work?" + +Giannozzo, dropping his staff, stammered out that he craved his +excellency's pardon for not knowing him, but that as for the ass it was +a stubborn devil that would not have carried Jesus Christ without +gibbing. + +"The beast is tired and hungry," cried Odo, his old compassion for the +sufferings of the farm-animals suddenly reviving. "How many hours have +you worked it without rest or food?" + +"No more than I have worked myself," said Giannozzo sulkily; "and as for +its being hungry, why should it fare better than its masters?" + +Their words had called out of the house a lean bent woman, whose +shrivelled skin showed through the rents in her unbleached shift. At +sight of Odo she pushed Giannozzo aside and hurried forward to ask how +she might serve the gentleman. + +"With supper and a bed, my good Filomena," said Odo; and she flung +herself at his feet with a cry. + +"Saints of heaven, that I should not have known his excellency! But I am +half blind with the fever, and who could have dreamed of such an +honour?" She clung to his knees in the mud, kissing his hands and +calling down blessings on him. "And as for you, Giannozzo, you +curd-faced fool, quick, see that his excellency's horses are stabled and +go call your father from the cow-house while I prepare his excellency's +supper. And fetch me in a faggot to light the fire in the bailiff's +parlour." + +Odo followed her into the kitchen, where he had so often crouched in a +corner to eat his polenta out of reach of her vigorous arm. The roof +seemed lower and more smoke-blackened than ever, but the hearth was +cold, and he noticed that no supper was laid. Filomena led him into the +bailiff's parlour, where a mortal chill seized him. Cobwebs hung from +the walls, the window-panes were broken and caked with grime, and the +few green twigs which Giannozzo presently threw on the hearth poured a +cloud of smoke into the cold heavy air. + +There was a long delay while supper was preparing, and when at length +Filomena appeared, it was only to produce, with many excuses, a loaf of +vetch-bread, a bit of cheese and some dried quinces. There was nothing +else in the house, she declared: not so much as a bit of lard to make +soup with, a handful of pasti or a flask of wine. In the old days, as +his excellency might remember, they had eaten a bit of meat on Sundays, +and drunk aquarolle with their supper; but since the new taxes it was as +much as the farmers could do to feed their cattle, without having a +scrap to spare for themselves. Jacopone, she continued, was bent double +with the rheumatism, and had not been able to drive a plough or to work +in the mulberries for over two years. He and the farm-lads sat in the +cow-stables when their work was over, for the sake of the heat, and she +carried their black bread out there to them: a cold supper tasted better +in a warm place, and as his excellency knew, all the windows in the +house were unglazed save in the bailiff's parlour. Her man would be in +presently to pay his duty to his excellency; but he had grown +dull-witted since the rheumatism took him, and his excellency must not +take it ill if his talk was a little childish. + +Thereupon Filomena excused herself, that she might put a clean shirt on +Jacopone, and Odo was left to his melancholy musings. His mind had of +late run much on economic abuses; but what was any philandering with +reform to this close contact with misery? It was as though white hungry +faces had suddenly stared in at the windows of his brightly-lit life. +What did these people care for education, enlightenment, the religion of +humanity? What they wanted was fodder for their cattle, a bit of meat on +Sundays and a faggot on the hearth. + +Filomena presently returned with her husband; but Jacopone had shrunk +into a crippled tremulous old man, who pulled a vague forelock at Odo +without sign of recognition. Filomena, it was clear, was master at +Pontesordo; for though Giannozzo was a man grown, and did a man's work, +he still danced to the tune of his mother's tongue. It was from her that +Odo, shivering over the smoky hearth, gathered the details of their +wretched state. Pontesordo being a part of the ducal domain, they had +led in their old days an easier life than their neighbours; but the new +taxes had stripped them as bare as a mulberry-tree in June. + +"How is a Christian to live, excellency, with the salt-tax doubled, so +that the cows go dry for want of it; with half a zecchin on every pair +of oxen, a stajo of wheat and two fowls to the parish, and not so much +as a bite of grass allowed on the Duke's lands? In his late Highness's +day the poor folk were allowed to graze their cattle on the borders of +the chase; but now a man dare not pluck a handful of weeds there, or so +much as pick up a fallen twig; though the deer may trample his young +wheat, and feed off the patch of beans at his very door. They do say the +Duchess has a kind heart, and gives away money to the towns-folk; but we +country-people who spend our lives raising fodder for her game never +hear of her Highness but when one of her game-keepers comes down on us +for poaching or stealing wood.--Yes, by the saints, and it was her +Highness who sent a neighbour's lad to the galleys last year for felling +a tree in the chase; a good lad as ever dug furrow, but he lacked wood +for a new plough-share, and how in God's name was he to plough his field +without it?" + +So she went on, like a torrent after the spring rains; but when he named +Momola she fell silent, and Giannozzo, looking sideways, drummed with +his heel on the floor. + +Odo glanced from one to the other. "She's dead, then?" he cried. + +Filomena opened deprecating palms. "Can one tell, excellency? It may be +she is off with the gypsies." + +"The gypsies? How long since?" + +"Giannozzo," cried his mother, as he stood glowering, "go see that the +stable is locked and his excellency's horses bedded down." He slunk out +and she began to gather up the remains of Odo's meagre supper. + +"But you must remember when this happened." + +"Holy Mother! It was the year we had frost in April and lost our +hatching for want of leaves. But as for that child of ingratitude, one +day she was here, the next she was gone--clean gone, as a nut drops from +the tree--and I that had given the blood of my veins to nourish her! +Since then, God is my witness, we have had nothing but misfortune. The +next year it was the weevils in the wheat; and so it goes." + +Odo was silent, seeing it was vain to press her. He fancied that the +girl must have died--of neglect perhaps, or ill usage--and that they +feared to own it. His heart swelled, but not against them: they seemed +to him no more accountable than cowed hunger-driven animals. + +He tossed impatiently on the hard bed Filomena had made up for him in +the bailiff's parlour, and was afoot again with the first light. +Stepping out into the farm-yard he looked abroad over the flat grey face +of the land. Around the keep stretched the new-ploughed fields and the +pollarded mulberry orchards; but these, with the clustered hovels of the +village, formed a mere islet in the surrounding waste of marsh and +woodland. The scene symbolised fitly enough of social conditions of the +country: the over-crowded peasantry huddled on their scant patches of +arable ground, while miles of barren land represented the feudal rights +that hemmed them in on every side. + +Odo walked across the yard to the chapel. On the threshold he stumbled +over a heap of mulberry-shoots and a broken plough-share. Twilight held +the place; but as he stood there the frescoes started out in the slant +of the sunrise like dead faces floating to the surface of a river. Dead +faces, yes: plaintive spectres of his childish fears and longings, lost +in the harsh daylight of experience. He had forgotten the very dreams +they stood for: Lethe flowed between and only one voice reached across +the torrent. It was that of Saint Francis, lover of the poor... + +The morning was hot as Odo drove toward Pianura, and limping ahead of +him in the midday glare he presently saw the figure of a hump-backed man +in a decent black dress and three-cornered hat. There was something +familiar in the man's gait, and in the shape of his large head, poised +on narrow stooping shoulders, and as the carriage drew abreast of him, +Odo, leaning from the window, cried out, "Brutus--this must be Brutus!" + +"Your excellency has the advantage of me," said the hunchback, turning +on him a thin face lit by the keen eyes that had once searched his +childish soul. + +Odo met the rebuff with a smile. "Does that," said he, "prevent my +suggesting that you might continue your way more comfortably in my +carriage? The road is hot and dusty, and, as you see, I am in want of +company." + +The pedestrian, who seemed unprepared for this affable rejoinder, had +the sheepish air of a man whose rudeness has missed the mark. + +"Why, sir," said he, recovering himself, "comfort is all a matter of +habit, and I daresay the jolting of your carriage might seem to me more +unpleasant than the heat and dust of the road, to which necessity has +long since accustomed me." + +"In that case," returned Odo with increasing amusement, "you will have +the additional merit of sacrificing your pleasure to add to mine." + +The hunchback stared. "And what have you or yours ever done for me," he +retorted, "that I should sacrifice to your pleasure even the wretched +privilege of being dusted by the wheels of your coach?" + +"Why, that," replied Odo, "is a question I can scarce answer till you +give me the opportunity of naming myself.--If you are indeed Carlo +Gamba," he continued, "I am your old friend and companion Odo Valsecca." + +The hunchback started. "The Cavaliere Valsecca!" he cried. "I had heard +that you were expected." He stood gazing at Odo. "Our next Duke!" he +muttered. + +Odo smiled. "I had rather," he said, "that my past commended me than my +future. It is more than doubtful if I am ever able to offer you a seat +in the Duke's carriage; but Odo Valsecca's is very much at your +service." + +Gamba bowed with a kind of awkward dignity. "I am grateful for a +friend's kindness," he said, "but I do not ride in a nobleman's +carriage." + +"There," returned Odo with perfect good-humour, "you have had advantage +of ME; for I can no more escape doing so than you can escape spending +your life in the company of an ill-tempered man." And courteously +lifting his hat he called to the postillion to drive on. + +The hunchback at this, flushing red, laid a hand on the carriage door. + +"Sir," said he, "I freely own myself in the wrong; but a smooth temper +was not one of the blessings my unknown parents bequeathed to me; and I +confess I had heard of you as one little concerned with your inferiors +except as they might chance to serve your pleasure." + +It was Odo's turn to colour. "Look," said he, "at the fallibility of +rumour; for I had heard of you as something of a philosopher, and here I +find you not only taking a man's character on hearsay but denying him +the chance to prove you mistaken!" + +"I deny it no longer," said Gamba stepping into the coach; "but as to +philosophy, the only claim I can make to it is that of being by birth a +peripatetic." + +His dignity appeased, the hunchback proved himself a most engaging +companion, and as the carriage lumbered slowly toward Pianura he had +time not only to recount his own history but to satisfy Odo as to many +points of the life awaiting him. + +Gamba, it appeared, owed his early schooling to a Jesuit priest who, +visiting the foundling asylum, had been struck by the child's quickness, +and had taken him home and bred him to be a clerk. The priest's death +left his charge adrift, with a smattering of scholarship above his +station, and none to whom he could turn for protection. For a while he +had lived, as he said, like a street-cat, picking up a meal where he +could, and sleeping in church porches and under street-arcades, till one +of the Duke's servants took pity on him and he was suffered to hang +about the palace and earn his keep by doing the lacquey's errands. The +Duke's attention having been called to him as a lad of parts, his +Highness had given him to the Marquess of Cerveno, in whose service he +remained till shortly before that young nobleman's death. The hunchback +passed hastily over this period; but his reticence was lit by the angry +flash of his eyes. After the Marquess's death he had lived for a while +from hand to mouth, copying music, writing poetry for weddings and +funerals, doing pen-and-ink portraits at a scudo apiece, and putting his +hand to any honest job that came his way. Count Trescorre, who now and +then showed a fitful recognition of the tie that was supposed to connect +them, at length heard of the case to which he was come and offered him a +trifling pension. This the hunchback refused, asking instead to be given +some fixed employment. Trescorre then obtained his appointment as +assistant to the Duke's librarian, a good old priest engrossed in +compiling the early history of Pianura from the ducal archives; and this +post Gamba had now filled for two years. + +"It must," said Odo, "be one singularly congenial to you, if, as I have +heard, you are of a studious habit. Though I suppose," he tentatively +added, "the library is not likely to be rich in works of the new +scientific and philosophic schools." + +His companion received this observation in silence; and after a moment +Odo continued: "I have a motive in asking, since I have been somewhat +deeply engaged in the study of these writers, and my dearest wish is to +continue while in Pianura my examination of their theories, and if +possible to become acquainted with any who share their views." + +He was not insensible of the risk of thus opening himself to a stranger; +but the sense of peril made him the more eager to proclaim himself on +the side of the cause he seemed to have deserted. + +Gamba turned as he spoke, and their eyes met in one of those revealing +glances that lay the foundations of friendship. + +"I fear, Cavaliere," said the hunchback with a smile, "that you will +find both branches of investigation somewhat difficult to pursue in +Pianura; for the Church takes care that neither the philosophers nor +their books shall gain a footing in our most Christian state. Indeed," +he added, "not only must the library be free from heretical works, but +the librarian clear of heretical leanings; and since you have honoured +me with your confidence I will own that, the court having got wind of my +supposed tendency to liberalism, I live in daily expectation of +dismissal. For the moment they are content to keep their spies on me; +but were it not for the protection of the good abate, my superior, I +should long since have been turned out." + +"And why," asked Odo, "do you speak of the court and the Church as one?" + +"Because, sir, in our virtuous duchy the terms are interchangeable. The +Duke is in fact so zealous a son of the Church that if the latter showed +any leniency to sinners the secular arm would promptly repair her +negligence. His Highness, as you may have heard, is ruled by his +confessor, an adroit Dominican. The confessor, it is true, has two +rivals, the Countess Belverde, a lady distinguished for her piety, and a +German astrologer or alchemist, lately come to Pianura, and calling +himself a descendant of the Egyptian priesthood and an adept of the +higher or secret doctrines of Neoplatonism. These three, however, though +ostensibly rivals for the Duke's favour, live on such good terms with +one another that they are suspected of having entered into a secret +partnership; while some regard them all as the emissaries of the +Jesuits, who, since the suppression of the Society, are known to have +kept a footing in Pianura, as in most of the Italian states. As to the +Duke, the death of the Marquess of Cerveno, the failing health of the +little prince, and his own strange physical infirmities, have so preyed +on his mind that he is the victim of any who are unscrupulous enough to +trade on the fears of a diseased imagination. His counsellors, however +divided in doctrine, have at least one end in common; and that is, to +keep the light of reason out of the darkened chamber in which they have +confined him; and with such a ruler and such principles of government, +you may fancy that poor philosophy has not where to lay her head." + +"And the people?" Odo pursued. "What of the fiscal administration? In +some states where liberty of thought is forbidden the material welfare +of the subject is nevertheless considered." + +The hunchback shook his head. "It may be so," said he, "though I had +thought the principle of moral tyranny must infect every branch of +public administration. With us, at all events, where the Church party +rules, the privileges and exemptions of the clergy are the chief source +of suffering, and the state of passive ignorance in which they have kept +the people has bred in the latter a dull resignation that is the surest +obstacle to reform. Oh, sir," he cried, his eyes darkening with emotion, +"if you could see, as I do, the blind brute misery on which all the +magnificence of rank and all the refinements of luxury are built, you +would feel, as you drive along this road, that with every turn of the +wheels you are passing over the bodies of those who have toiled without +ceasing that you might ride in a gilt coach, and have gone hungry that +you might feast in Kings' palaces!" + +The touch of rhetoric in this adjuration did not discredit it with Odo, +to whom the words were as caustic on an open wound. He turned to make +some impulsive answer; but as he did so he caught sight of the towers of +Pianura rising above the orchards and market-gardens of the suburbs. The +sight started a new train of feeling, and Gamba, perceiving it, said +quietly: "But this is no time to speak of such things." + +A moment later the carriage had passed under the great battlemented +gates, with their Etruscan bas-reliefs, and the motto of the house of +Valsecca--Humilitas--surmounted by the ducal escutcheon. + +Though the hour was close on noon the streets were as animated as at the +angelus, and the carriage could hardly proceed for the crowd obstructing +its passage. So unusual at that period was such a sight in one of the +lesser Italian cities that Odo turned to Gamba for an explanation. At +the same moment a roar rose from the crowd; and the coach turning into +the Corso which led to the ducal palace and the centre of the town, Odo +caught sight of a strange procession advancing from that direction. It +was headed by a clerk or usher with a black cap and staff, behind whom +marched two bare-foot friars escorting between them a middle-aged man in +the dress of an abate, his hands bound behind him and his head +surmounted by a paste-board mitre inscribed with the title: A Destroyer +of Female Chastity. This man, who was of a simple and decent aspect, was +so dazed by the buffeting of the crowd, so spattered by the mud and +filth hurled at him from a hundred taunting hands, and his countenance +distorted by so piteous a look of animal fear, that he seemed more like +a madman being haled to Bedlam than a penitent making public amends for +his offence. + +"Are such failings always so severely punished in Pianura?" Odo asked, +turning ironically to Gamba as the mob and its victim passed out of +sight. + +The hunchback smiled. "Not," said he, "if the offender be in a position +to benefit by the admirable doctrines of probabilism, the direction of +intention, or any one of the numerous expedients by which an indulgent +Church has smoothed the way of the sinner; but as God does not give the +crop unless man sows the seed, so His ministers bestow grace only when +the penitent has enriched the treasury. The fellow," he added, "is a man +of some learning and of a retired and orderly way of living, and the +charge was brought against him by a jeweller and his wife, who owed him +a sum of money and are said to have chosen this way of evading payment. +The priests are always glad to find a scape-goat of the sort, especially +when there are murmurs against the private conduct of those in high +places, and the woman, having denounced him, was immediately assured by +her confessor that any debt incurred to a seducer was null and void, and +that she was entitled to a hundred scudi of damages for having been led +into sin." + + +2.10. + +At the Duke's express wish, Odo was to lodge in the palace; and when he +entered the courtyard he found Cantapresto waiting to lead him to his +apartment. + +The rooms assigned to him lay at the end of one of the wings overlooking +the gardens; and as he mounted the great stairway and walked down the +corridors with their frescoed walls and busts of Roman emperors he +recalled the far-off night when he had passed through the same scenes as +a frightened awe-struck child. Where he had then beheld a supernatural +fabric, peopled with divinities of bronze and marble, and glowing with +light and colour, he now saw a many-corridored palace, stately indeed, +and full of a faded splendour, but dull and antiquated in comparison +with the new-fangled elegance of the Sardinian court. Yet at every turn +some object thrilled the fibres of old association or pride of race. +Here he traversed a gallery hung with the portraits of his line; there +caught a glimpse of the pages' antechamber through which he and his +mother had been led when they waited on the Duke; and from the windows +of his closet he overlooked the alleys and terraces where he had +wandered with the hunchback. + +One of the Duke's pages came to say that his Highness would receive the +cavaliere when the court rose from dinner; and finding himself with two +hours on his hands, Odo determined to await his kinsman's summons in the +garden. Thither he presently repaired; and was soon, with a mournful +pleasure, retracing the paths he had first explored in such an ecstasy +of wonder. The pleached walks and parterres were in all the freshness of +June. Roses and jasmine mingled on the terrace-walls, citron-trees +ingeniously grafted with red and white carnations stood in Faenza jars +before the lemon-house, and marble nymphs and fauns peeped from thickets +of flowering camellias. A noise of childish voices presently attracted +Odo, and following a tunnel of clipped limes he came out on a theatre +cut in the turf and set about with statues of Apollo and the Muses. A +handful of boys in military dress were performing a series of evolutions +in the centre of this space; and facing them stood a child of about ten +years, in a Colonel's uniform covered with orders, his hair curled and +powdered, a paste-board sword in his hand, and his frail body supported +on one side by a turbaned dwarf, and on the other by an ecclesiastic who +was evidently his governor. The child, as Odo approached, was calling +out his orders to his regiment in a weak shrill voice, moving now here, +now there on his booted tottering legs, as his two supporters guided +him, and painfully trying to flourish the paper weapon that was too +heavy for his nerveless wrist. Behind this strange group stood another +figure, that of a tall heavy man, richly dressed, with a curious +Oriental-looking order on his breast and a veiled somnolent eye which he +kept fixed on the little prince. + +Odo had been about to advance and do homage to his cousin; but a sign +from the man in the background arrested him. The manoeuvres were soon +over, the heir was lifted into a little gilded chariot drawn by white +goats, his regiment formed in line and saluted him, and he disappeared +down one of the alleys with his attendants. + +This ceremony over, the tall man advanced to Odo with a bow and asked +pardon for the liberty he had taken. + +"You are doubtless," said he, "his Highness's cousin, the Cavaliere +Valsecca; and my excuse for intruding between yourself and the prince is +that I am the Duke's physician, Count Heiligenstern, and that the heir +is at present undergoing a course of treatment under my care. His +health, as you probably know, has long been a cause of anxiety to his +illustrious parents, and when I was summoned to Pianura the College of +Physicians had given up all hope of saving him. Since my coming, +however, I flatter myself that a marked change is perceptible. My method +is that of invigorating the blood by exciting the passions most likely +to produce a generous vital ardour. Thus, by organising these juvenile +manoeuvres, I arouse the prince's martial zeal; by encouraging him to +study the history of his ancestors, I evoke his political ambition; by +causing him to be led about the gardens on a pony, accompanied by a +miniature pack of Maltese dogs in pursuit of a tame doe, I stimulate the +passion of the chase; but it is essential to my system that one emotion +should not violently counteract another, and I am therefore obliged to +protect my noble patient from the sudden intrusion of new impressions." + +This explanation, delivered in a sententious tone, and with a strong +German accent, seemed to Odo no more than a learned travesty of the +familiar and pathetic expedient of distracting a sick child by the +pretence of manly diversions. He was struck, however, by the physician's +aspect, and would have engaged him in talk had not one of the Duke's +gentlemen appeared with the announcement that his Highness would be +pleased to receive the Cavaliere Valsecca. + +Like most dwellings of its kind in Italy, the palace of Pianura +resembled one of those shells which reveal by their outer convolutions +the gradual development of the creature housed within. For two or three +generations after Bracciaforte, the terrible founder of the line, had +made himself master of the republic, his descendants had clung to the +old brick fortress or rocca which the great condottiere had held +successfully against the burghers' arquebuses and the battering-rams of +rival adventurers, and which still glassed its battlements in the slow +waters of the Piana beside the city wall. It was Ascanio, the first +Duke, the correspondent of Politian and Castiglione, who, finding the +ancestral lair too cramped for the court of a humanist prince, had +summoned Luciano da Laurana to build a palace better fitted to his +state. Duke Ascanio, in bronze by Verocchio, still looked up with pride +from the palace-square at the brick and terra-cotta facade with its +fruit-wreathed arches crowned by imperial profiles; but a later prince +found the small rooms and intricate passages of Laurana's structure +inadequate to the pomp of an ally of Leo X., and Vignola added the state +apartments, the sculpture gallery and the libraries. + +The palace now passed for one of the wonders of Italy. The Duke's guest, +the witty and learned Aretino, celebrated it in verse, his friend +Cardinal Bembo in prose; Correggio painted the walls of one room, Guilio +Romano the ceiling of another. It seemed that magnificence could go no +farther, till the seventeenth century brought to the throne a Duke who +asked himself how a self-respecting prince could live without a theatre, +a riding-school and an additional wing to lodge the ever-growing train +of court officials who had by this time replaced the feudal men-at-arms. +He answered the question by laying an extra tax on his people and +inviting to Pianura the great Roman architect Carlo Borromini, who +regretfully admitted that his illustrious patron was on the whole less +royally housed than their Highnesses of Mantua and Parma. Within five +years the "cavallerizza," the theatre and the gardens flung defiance at +these aspiring potentates; and again Pianura took precedence of her +rivals. The present Duke's father had expressed the most recent tendency +of the race by the erection of a chapel in the florid Jesuit style; and +the group of buildings thus chronicled in rich durable lines the varying +passions and ambitions of three hundred years of power. + +As Odo followed his guide toward the Duke's apartments he remarked a +change in the aspect of the palace. Where formerly the corridors had +been thronged with pages, lacqueys and gaily-dressed cavaliers and +ladies, only a few ecclesiastics now glided by: here a Monsignore in +ermine and lace rochet, attended by his chaplain and secretaries, there +a cowled Dominican or a sober-looking secular priest. The Duke was +lodged in the oldest portion of the palace, and Odo, who had never +visited these apartments, looked with interest at the projecting +sculptured chimney and vaulted ceiling of the pages' ante-chamber, which +had formerly been the guardroom and was still hung with panoplies. +Thence he was led into a gallery lined with scriptural tapestries and +furnished in the heavy style of the seventeenth century. Here he waited +a few moments, hearing the sound of conversation in the room beyond; +then the door of this apartment opened, and a handsome Dominican passed +out, followed by a page who invited Odo to step into the Duke's cabinet. + +This was a very small room, completely panelled in delicate wood-carving +touched with gold. Over this panelling, regardless of the beauty of its +design, had been hung a mass of reliquaries and small devotional +bas-reliefs and paintings, making the room appear more like the chapel +of a wonder-working saint than a prince's closet. Here again Odo found +himself alone; but the page presently returned to say that his Highness +was not well and begged the cavaliere to wait on him in his bed-chamber. + +The most conspicuous object in this room was a great bedstead raised on +a dais. The plumed posts and sumptuous hangings of the bed gave it an +altar-like air, and the Duke himself, who lay between the curtains, his +wig replaced by a nightcap, a scapular about his neck, and his +shrivelled body wrapped in a brocaded dressing-gown, looked more like a +relic than a man. His heavy under-lip trembled slightly as he offered +his hand to Odo's salute. + +"You find me, cousin," said he after a brief greeting, "much troubled by +a question that has of late incessantly disturbed my rest--can the soul, +after full intuition of God, be polluted by the sins of the body?" he +clutched Odo's hand in his burning grasp. "Is it possible that there are +human beings so heedless of their doom that they can go about their +earthly pleasures with this awful problem unsolved? Oh, why has not some +Pope decided it? Why has God left this hideous uncertainty hanging over +us? You know the doctrine of Plotinus--'he who has access to God leaves +the virtues behind him as the images of the gods are left in the outer +temple.' Many of the fathers believed that the Neoplatonists were +permitted to foreshadow in their teachings the revelation of Christ; but +on these occult points much doubt remains, and though certain of the +great theologians have inclined to this interpretation, there are others +who hold that it leans to the heresy of Quietism." + +Odo, who had inferred in the Duke's opening words an allusion to the +little prince's ill-health, or to some political anxiety, was at a loss +how to reply to this strange appeal; but after a moment he said, "I have +heard that your Highness's director is a man of great learning and +discrimination. Can he not help your Highness to some decision on this +point?" + +The Duke glanced at him suspiciously. "Father Ignazio," said he, "is in +fact well-versed in theology; but there are certain doctrines +inaccessible to all but a few who have received the direct illumination +of heaven, and on this point I cannot feel that his judgment is final." +He wiped the dampness from his sallow forehead and pressed the scapular +to his lips. "May you never know," he cried, "the agony of a father +whose child is dying, of a sovereign who longs to labour for the welfare +of his people, but who is racked by the thought that in giving his mind +to temporal duties and domestic affections while such spiritual +difficulties are still unsolved, he may be preparing for himself an +eternity of torture such as that--" and he pointed to an old and +blackened picture of the Last Judgment that hung on the opposite wall. + +Odo tried to frame a soothing rejoinder; but the Duke passionately +interrupted him. "Alas, cousin, no rest is possible for one who has +attained the rapture of the Beatific Vision, yet who trembles lest the +mere mechanical indulgence of the senses may still subject him to the +common penalty of sin! As a man who has devoted himself to the study of +theology is privileged to argue on questions forbidden to the vulgar, so +surely fasting, maceration and ecstasy must liberate the body from the +bondage of prescribed morality. Shall no distinction be recognised +between my conduct and that of the common sot or debauchee whose soul +lies in blind subjection to his lower instincts? I, who have laboured +early and late to remove temptation from my people--who have punished +offences against conduct as unsparingly as spiritual error--I, who have +not scrupled to destroy every picture in my galleries that contained a +nude figure or a wanton attitude--I, who have been blessed from +childhood by tokens of divine favour and miraculous intervention--can I +doubt that I have earned the privileges of that higher state in which +the soul is no longer responsible for the failings of the body? And +yet--and yet--what if I were mistaken?" he moaned. "What if my advisors +have deceived me? Si autem et sic impius sum, quare frustra laboravi?" +And he sank back on his pillows limp as an empty glove. + +Alarmed at his disorder, Odo stood irresolute whether to call for help; +but as he hesitated the Duke feebly drew from his bosom a gold key +attached to a slender Venetian chain. + +"This," said he, "unlocks the small tortoise-shell cabinet yonder. In it +you will find a phial of clear liquor, a few drops of which will restore +me. 'Tis an essence distilled by the Benedictine nuns of the Perpetual +Adoration and peculiarly effective in accesses of spiritual +disturbance." + +Odo complied, and having poured the liquor into a glass, held it to his +cousin's lips. In a moment the Duke's eye revived and he began to speak +in a weak but composed voice, with an air of dignity in singular +contrast to his previous self-abandonment. "I am," said he, "unhappily +subject to such seizures after any prolonged exertion, and a +conversation I have just had with my director has left me in no fit +state to receive you. The cares of government sit heavy on one who has +scarce health enough for the duties of a private station; and were it +not for my son I should long since have withdrawn to the shelter of the +monastic life." He paused and looked at Odo with a melancholy kindness. +"In you," said he, "the native weakness of our complexion appears to +have been tempered by the blood of your mother's house, and your +countenance gives every promise of health and vivacity." + +He broke off with a sigh and continued in a more authoritative tone: +"You have learned from Count Trescorre my motive in summoning you to +Pianura. My son's health causes me the liveliest concern, my own is +subject to such seizures as you have just witnessed. I cannot think +that, in this age of infidelity and disorder, God can design to deprive +a Christian state of a line of sovereigns uniformly zealous in the +defence of truth; but the purposes of Heaven are inscrutable, as the +recent suppression of the Society of Jesus has most strangely proved; +and should our dynasty be extinguished I am consoled by the thought that +the rule will pass to one of our house. Of this I shall have more to say +to you in future. Meanwhile your first business is to acquaint yourself +with your new surroundings. The Duchess holds a circle this evening, +where you will meet the court; but I must advise you that the persons +her Highness favours with her intimacy are not those best qualified to +guide and instruct a young man in your position. These you will meet at +the house of the Countess Belverde, one of the Duchess's ladies, a woman +of sound judgment and scrupulous piety, who gathers about her all our +most learned and saintly ecclesiastics. Count Trescorre will instruct +you in all that becomes your position at court, and my director, Father +Ignazio, will aid you in the selection of a confessor. As to the Bishop, +a most worthy and conversable prelate, to whom I would have you show all +due regard, his zeal in spiritual matters is not as great as I could +wish, and in private talk he indulges in a laxity of opinion against +which I cannot too emphatically warn you. Happily, however, Pianura +offers other opportunities of edification. Father Ignazio is a man of +wide learning and inflexible doctrine, and in several of our +monasteries, notably that of the Barnabites, you will find examples of +sanctity and wisdom such as a young man may well devoutly consider. Our +convents also are distinguished for the severity of their rule and the +spiritual privileges accorded them. The Carmelites have every reason to +hope for the beatification of their aged Prioress, and among the nuns of +the Perpetual Adoration is one who has recently received the ineffable +grace of the vulnus divinum. In the conversation of these saintly nuns, +and of the holy Abbot of the Barnabites, you will find the surest +safeguard against those errors and temptations that beset your age." He +leaned back with a gesture of dismissal; but added, reddening slightly, +as Odo prepared to withdraw: "You will oblige me, cousin, when you meet +my physician, Count Heiligenstern, by not touching on the matter of the +restorative you have seen me take." + +Odo left his cousin's presence with a feeling of deep discouragement. To +a spirit aware of the new influences abroad, and fresh from contact with +evils rooted in the very foundations of the existing system, there was a +peculiar irony in being advised to seek guidance and instruction in the +society of ecstatic nuns and cloistered theologians. The Duke, with his +sickly soul agrope in a maze of Neoplatonism and probabilism, while his +people groaned under unjust taxes, while knowledge and intellectual +liberty languished in a kind of moral pest-house, seemed to Odo like a +ruler who, in time of famine, should keep the royal granaries locked and +spend his days praying for the succour that his own hand might have +dispensed. + +In the tapestry room one of his Highness's gentlemen waited to reconduct +Odo. Their way lay through the portrait gallery of which he had +previously caught a glimpse, and here he begged his guide to leave him. +He felt a sudden desire to meet his unknown ancestors face to face, and +to trace the tendencies which, from the grim Bracciaforte and the +stately sceptical humanist of Leo's age, had mysteriously forced the +race into its ever-narrowing mould. The dusky canvases, hung high in +tarnished escutcheoned frames, presented a continuous chronicle of the +line, from Bracciaforte himself, with his predatory profile outlined by +some early Tuscan hand against the turrets of his impregnable fortress. +Odo lingered long on this image, but it was not till he stood beneath +Piero della Francesca's portrait of the first Duke that he felt the +thrill of kindred instincts. In this grave face, with its sensuous mouth +and melancholy speculative eyes, he recognised the mingled strain of +impressionability and unrest that had reached such diverse issues in his +cousin and himself. The great Duke of the "Golden Age," in his +Titianesque brocade, the statuette of a naked faun at his elbow, and a +faun-like smile on his own ruddy lips, represented another aspect of the +ancestral spirit: the rounded temperament of an age of Cyrenaicism, in +which every moment was a ripe fruit sunned on all sides. A little +farther on, the shadow of the Council of Trent began to fall on the +ducal faces, as the uniform blackness of the Spanish habit replaced the +sumptuous colours of the Renaissance. Here was the persecuting Bishop, +Paul IV.'s ally against the Spaniards, painted by Caravaggio in hauberk +and mailed gloves, with his motto--Etiam cum gladio--surmounting the +episcopal chair; there the Duke who, after a life of hard warfare and +stern piety, had resigned his office to his son and died in the +"angelica vestis" of the tertiary order; and the "beatified" Duchess who +had sold her jewels to buy corn for the poor during the famine of 1670, +and had worn a hair-shirt under a corset that seemed stiff enough to +serve all the purposes of bodily mortification. So the file descended, +the colours fading, the shadows deepening, till it reached a baby +porporato of the last century, who had donned the cardinal's habit at +four, and stood rigid and a little pale in his red robes and lace, with +a crucifix and a skull on the table to which the top of his berretta +hardly reached. + +It seemed to Odo as he gazed on the long line of faces as though their +owners had entered one by one into a narrowing defile, where the sun +rose later and set earlier on each successive traveller; and in every +countenance, from that of the first Duke to that of his own peruked and +cuirassed grandfather, he discerned the same symptom of decadency: that +duality of will which, in a delicately-tempered race, is the fatal fruit +of an undisturbed pre-eminence. They had ruled too long and enjoyed too +much; and the poor creature he had just left to his dismal scruples and +forebodings seemed the mere empty husk of long-exhausted passions. + + +2.11. + +The Duchess was lodged in the Borromini wing of the palace, and thither +Odo was conducted that evening. + +To eyes accustomed to such ceremonial there was no great novelty in the +troop of powdered servants, the major-domo in his short cloak and chain, +and the florid splendour of the long suite of rooms, decorated in a +style that already appeared over-charged to the more fastidious taste of +the day. Odo's curiosity centred chiefly in the persons peopling this +scene, whose conflicting interests and passions formed, as it were, the +framework of the social structure of Pianura, so that there was not a +labourer in the mulberry-orchards or a weaver in the silk-looms but +depended for his crust of black bread and the leaking roof over his head +on the private whim of some member of that brilliant company. + +The Duchess, who soon entered, received Odo with the flighty good-nature +of a roving mind; but as her deep-blue gaze met his her colour rose, her +eyes lingered on his face, and she invited him to a seat at her side. +Maria Clementina was of Austrian descent, and something in her free and +noble port and the smiling arrogance of her manner recalled the aspect +of her distant kinswoman, the young Queen of France. She plied Odo with +a hundred questions, interrupting his answers with a playful abruptness, +and to all appearances more engaged by his person than his discourse. + +"Have you seen my son?" she asked. "I remember you a little boy scarce +bigger than Ferrante, whom your mother brought to kiss my hand in the +very year of my marriage. Yes--and you pinched my toy spaniel, sir, and +I was so angry with you that I got up and turned my back on the +company--do you remember? But how should you, being such a child at the +time? Ah, cousin how old you make me feel! I would to God my son looked +as you did then; but the Duke is killing him with his nostrums. The +child was healthy enough when he was born; but what with novenas and +touching of relics and animal magnetism and electrical treatment, +there's not a bone in his little body but the saints and the surgeons +are fighting over its possession. Have you read 'Emile,' cousin, by the +new French author--I forget his name? Well, I would have the child +brought up like 'Emile,' allowed to run wild in the country and grow up +sturdy and hard as a little peasant. But what heresies am I talking! The +book is on the Index, I believe, and if my director knew I had it in my +library I should be set up in the stocks in the market-place and all my +court-gowns burnt at the Church door as a warning against the danger of +importing the new fashions from France!--I hope you hunt, cousin?" she +cried suddenly. "'Tis my chief diversion and one I would have my friends +enjoy with me. His Highness has lately seen fit to cut down my stables, +so that I have scarce forty saddle-horses to my name, and the greater +part but sorry nags at that; yet I can still find a mount for any friend +that will ride with me and I hope to see you among the number if the +Duke can spare you now and then from mass and benediction. His Highness +complains that I am always surrounded by the same company; but is it my +fault if there are not twenty persons at court that can survive a day in +the saddle and a night at cards? Have you seen the Belverde, my mistress +of the robes? She follows the hunt in a litter, cousin, and tells her +beads at the death! I hope you like cards too, cousin, for I would have +all my weaknesses shared by my friends, that they may be the less +disposed to criticise them." + +The impression produced on the Duchess by the cavaliere Valsecca was +closely observed by several members of the group surrounding her +Highness. One of these was Count Trescorre, who moved among the +courtiers with an air of ease that seemed to establish without +proclaiming the tie between himself and the Duchess. When Maria +Clementina sat down at play, Trescorre joined Odo and with his usual +friendliness pointed out the most conspicuous figures in the circle. The +Duchess's society, as the Duke had implied, was composed of the livelier +members of the court, chief among whom was the same Don Serafino who had +figured so vividly in the reminiscences of Mirandolina and Cantapresto. +This gentleman, a notorious loose-liver and gamester, with some remains +of good looks and a gay boisterous manner, played the leader of revels +to her Highness's following; and at his heels came the flock of pretty +women and dashing spendthrifts who compose the train of a young and +pleasure-loving princess. On such occasions as the present, however, all +the members of the court were obliged to pay their duty to her Highness; +and conspicuous among these less frequent visitors was the Duke's +director, the suave and handsome Dominican whom Odo had seen leaving his +Highness's closet that afternoon. This ecclesiastic was engaged in +conversation with the Prime Minister, Count Pievepelago, a small feeble +mannikin covered with gold lace and orders. The deference with which the +latter followed the Dominican's discourse excited Odo's attention; but +it was soon diverted by the approach of a lady who joined herself to the +group with an air of discreet familiarity. Though no longer young, she +was still slender and graceful, and her languid eye and vapourish manner +seemed to Odo to veil an uncommon alertness of perception. The rich +sobriety of her dress, the jewelled rosary about her wrist, and most of +all, perhaps, the murderous sweetness of the smile with which the +Duchess addressed her, told him that here was the Countess Belverde; an +inference which Trescorre confirmed. + +"The Countess," said he, "or I should rather say the Marchioness of +Boscofolto, since the Duke has just bestowed on her the fief of that +name, is impatient to make your acquaintance; and since you doubtless +remember the saying of the Marquis de Montesquieu, that to know a ruler +one must know his confessor and his mistress, you will perhaps be glad +to seize both opportunities in one." + +The Countess greeted Odo with a flattering deference and at once drew +him into conversation with Pievepelago and the Dominican. + +"We are discussing," said she, "the details of Prince Ferrante's +approaching visit to the shrine of our Lady of the Mountain. This shrine +lies about half an hour's ride beyond my villa of Boscofolto, where I +hope to have the honour of receiving their Highnesses on their return +from the pilgrimage. The Madonna del Monte, as you doubtless know, has +often preserved the ducal house in seasons of peril, notably during the +great plague of 1630 and during the famine in the Duchess Polixena's +time, when her Highness, of blessed memory, met our Lady in the streets +distributing bread, in the dress of a peasant-woman from the hills, but +with a necklace made of blood-drops instead of garnets. Father Ignazio +has lately counselled the little prince's visiting in state the +protectress of his line, and his Highness's physician, Count +Heiligenstern, does not disapprove the plan. In fact," she added, "I +understand that he thinks all special acts of piety beneficial, as +symbolising the inward act by which the soul incessantly strives to +reunite itself to the One." + +The Dominican glanced at Odo with a smile. "The Count's dialectics," +said he, "might be dangerous were they a little clearer; but we must +hope he distinguishes more accurately between his drugs than his +dogmas." + +"But I am told," the Prime Minister here interposed in a creaking rusty +voice, "that her Highness is set against the pilgrimage and will put +every obstacle in the way of its being performed." + +The Countess sighed and cast down her eyes, the Dominican remained +silent, and Trescorre said quietly to Odo, "Her Highness would be +pleased to have you join her in a game at basset." As they crossed the +room he added in a low tone: "The Duchess, in spite of her remarkable +strength of character, is still of an age to be readily open to new +influences. I observed she was much taken by your conversation, and you +would be doing her a service by engaging her not to oppose this +pilgrimage to Boscofolto. We have Heiligenstern's word that it cannot +harm the prince, it will produce a good impression on the people, and it +is of vital importance to her Highness not to side against the Duke in +such matters." And he withdrew with a smile as Odo approached the +card-table. + +Odo left the Duchess's circle with an increased desire to penetrate more +deeply into the organisation of the little world about him, to trace the +operation of its various parts, and to put his hand on the mainspring +about which they revolved; and he wondered whether Gamba, whose +connection with the ducal library must give him some insight into the +affairs of the court, might not prove as instructive a guide through +this labyrinth as through the mazes of the ducal garden. + +The Duke's library filled a series of rooms designed in the classical +style of the cinque-cento. On the very threshold Odo was conscious of +leaving behind the trivial activities of the palace, with the fantastic +architecture which seemed their natural setting. Here all was based on a +noble permanence of taste, a convergence of accumulated effort toward a +chosen end; and the door was fittingly surmounted by Seneca's definition +of the wise man's state: "Omnia illi secula ut deo serviunt." + +Odo would gladly have lingered among the books which filled the rooms +with an incense-like aroma of old leather. His imagination caressed in +passing the yellowish vellum backs, the worn tooling of Aldine folios, +the heavy silver clasps of ancient chronicles and psalters; but his +first object was to find Gamba and renew the conversation of the +previous day. In this he was disappointed. The only occupant of the +library was the hunchback's friend and protector, the abate Crescenti, a +tall white-haired priest with the roseate gravity and benevolent air of +a donator in some Flemish triptych. The abate, courteously welcoming +Odo, explained that he had despatched his assistant to the Benedictine +monastery to copy certain ancient records of transactions between that +order and the Lords of Valsecca, and added that Gamba, on his return, +should at once be apprised of the cavaliere's wish to see him. + +The abate himself had been engaged, when his visitor entered, in +collating manuscripts, but on Odo's begging him to return to his work, +he said with a smile: "I do not suffer from an excess of interruptions, +for the library is the least visited portion of the palace, and I am +glad to welcome any who are disposed to inspect its treasures. I know +not, cavaliere," he added, "if the report of my humble labours has ever +reached you;" and on Odo's affirmative gesture he went on, with the +eagerness of a shy man who gathers assurance from the intelligence of +his listener: "Such researches into the rude and uncivilised past seem +to me as essential to the comprehension of the present as the mastering +of the major premiss to the understanding of a syllogism; and to those +who reproach me for wasting my life over the chronicles of barbarian +invasions and the records of monkish litigations, instead of +contemplating the illustrious deeds of Greek sages and Roman heroes, I +confidently reply that it is more useful to a man to know his own +father's character than that of a remote ancestor. Even in this quiet +retreat," he went on, "I hear much talk of abuses and of the need for +reform; and I often think that if they who rail so loudly against +existing institutions would take the trouble to trace them to their +source, and would, for instance, compare this state as it is today with +its condition five hundred or a thousand years ago, instead of measuring +it by the standard of some imaginary Platonic republic, they would find, +if not less subject for complaint, yet fuller means of understanding and +remedying the abuses they discover." + +This view of history was one so new in the abate Crescenti's day that it +surprised Odo with the revelation of unsuspected possibilities. How was +it that among the philosophers whose works he had studied, none had +thought of tracing in the social and political tendencies of the race +the germ of wrongs so confidently ascribed to the cunning of priests and +the rapacity of princes? Odo listened with growing interest while +Crescenti, encouraged by his questions, pointed out how the abuses of +feudalism had arisen from the small land-owner's need of protection +against the northern invader, as the concentration of royal prerogative +had been the outcome of the king's intervention between his great +vassals and the communes. The discouragement which had obscured Odo's +outlook since his visit to Pontesordo was cleared away by the discovery +that in a sympathetic study of the past might lie the secret of dealing +with present evils. His imagination, taking the intervening obstacles at +a bound, arrived at once at the general axiom to which such inductions +pointed; and if he afterward learned that human development follows no +such direct line of advance, but must painfully stumble across the +wastes of error, prejudice and ignorance, while the theoriser traverses +the same distance with a stroke of his speculative pinions; yet the +influence of these teachings tempered his judgments with charity and +dignified his very failures by a tragic sense of their inevitableness. + +Crescenti suggested that Gamba should wait on Odo that evening; but the +latter, being uncertain how far he might dispose of his time, enquired +where the hunchback lodged, with a view of sending for him at a +convenient moment. Having dined at the Duchess's table, and soon +wearying of the vapid company of her associates, he yielded to the +desire for contrast that so often guided his course, and set out toward +sunset in search of Gamba's lodging. + +It was his first opportunity of inspecting the town at leisure, and for +a while he let his curiosity lead him as it would. The streets near the +palace were full of noble residences, recording, in their sculptured +doorways, in the wrought-iron work of torch-holders and window-grilles, +and in every architectural detail, the gradual change of taste that had +transformed the machicolations of the mediaeval fighter into the open +cortiles and airy balconies of his descendant. Here and there, amid +these inveterate records of dominion, rose the monuments of a mightier +and more ancient power. Of these churches and monasteries the greater +number, dating only from the ascendancy of the Valseccas, showed an +ordered and sumptuous architecture; but one or two buildings surviving +from the period of the free city stood out among them with the austerity +of desert saints in a throng of court ecclesiastics. The columns of the +Cathedral porch were still supported on featureless porphyry lions worn +smooth by generations of loungers; and above the octagonal baptistery +ran a fantastic basrelief wherein the spirals of the vine framed an +allegory of men and monsters symbolising, in their mysterious conflicts, +the ever-recurring Manicheism of the middle ages. Fresh from his talk +with Crescenti, Odo lingered curiously on these sculptures, which but +the day before he might have passed by as the efforts of ignorant +workmen, but which now seemed full of the significance that belongs to +any incomplete expression of human thought or feeling. Of their relation +to the growth of art he had as yet no clear notion; but as evidence of +sensations that his forefathers had struggled to record, they touched +him like the inarticulate stammerings in which childhood strives to +convey its meaning. + +He found Gamba's lodging on the upper floor of a decayed palace in one +of the by-lanes near the Cathedral. The pointed arcades of this ancient +building enclosed the remains of floriated mouldings, and the walls of +the court showed traces of fresco-painting; but clothes-lines now hung +between the arches, and about the well-head in the centre of the court +sat a group of tattered women with half-naked children playing in the +dirt at their feet. One of these women directed Odo to the staircase +which ascended between damp stone walls to Gamba's door. This was opened +by the hunchback himself, who, with an astonished exclamation, admitted +his visitor to a scantily furnished room littered with books and papers. +A child sprawled on the floor, and a young woman, who had been sewing in +the fading light of the attic window, snatched him up as Odo entered. +Her back being turned to the light, he caught only a slender youthful +outline; but something in the turn of the head, the shrinking curve of +the shoulders, carried him back to the little barefoot figure cowering +in a corner of the kitchen at Pontesordo, while the farm-yard rang with +Filomena's call--"Where are you then, child of iniquity?" + +"Momola--don't you know me?" he exclaimed. + +She hung back trembling, as though the sound of his voice roused an echo +of fear; but Gamba, reddening slightly, took her hand and led her +forward. + +"It is, indeed," said he, "your excellency's old playmate, the Momola of +Pontesordo, who consents to share my poverty and who makes me forget it +by the tenderness of her devotion." + +But Momola, at this, found voice. "Oh, sir," she cried, "it is he who +took me in when I was half-dead and starving, who many a time went +hungry to feed me, and who cares for the child as if it were his own!" + +As she stood there, in her half-wild hollowed-eyed beauty, which seemed +a sickly efflorescence of the marshes, pressing to her breast another +"child of iniquity" as pale and elfish as her former self, she seemed to +Odo the embodiment of ancient wrongs, risen from the wasted soil to +haunt the dreams of its oppressors. + +Gamba shrugged his shoulders. "Why," said he, "a child of my own is a +luxury I am never likely to possess as long as I have wit to remember +the fundamental axiom of philosophy: entia non sunt multiplicanda +praeter necessitatum; so it is natural enough fate should single me out +to repair the negligence of those who have failed to observe that +admirable principle. And now," he added, turning gently to Momola, "it +is time to put the boy to bed." + +When the door had closed on her Odo turned to Gamba. "I could learn +nothing at Pontesordo," he said. "They seemed unwilling to speak of her. +What is her story and where did you first know her?" + +Gamba's face darkened. "You will remember, cavaliere," he said, "that +some time after your departure from Pianura I passed into the service of +the Marquess of Cerveno, then a youth of about twenty, who combined with +graceful manners and a fair exterior a nature so corrupt and cowardly +that he seemed like some such noble edifice as this, designed to house +great hopes and high ambitions, but fallen to base uses and become the +shelter of thieves and prostitutes. Prince Ferrante being sickly from +his birth, the Marquess was always looked on as the Duke's successor, +and to Trescorre, who even then, as Master of the Horse, cherished the +ambitions he has since realised, no prospect could have been more +distasteful. My noble brother, to do him justice, has always hated the +Jesuits, who, as you doubtless know, were all-powerful here before the +recent suppression of the Order. The Marquess of Cerveno was as +completely under their control as the Duke is under that of the +Dominicans, and Trescorre knew that with the Marquess's accession his +own rule must end. He did his best to gain an influence over his future +ruler, but failing in this resolved to ruin him. + +"Cerveno, like all your house, was passionately addicted to the chase, +and spent much time hunting in the forest of Pontesordo. One day the +stag was brought to bay in the farm-yard of the old manor, and there +Cerveno saw Momola, then a girl of sixteen, of a singular wild beauty +which sickness and trouble have since effaced. The young Marquess was +instantly taken; and though hitherto indifferent to women, yielded so +completely to his infatuation that Trescorre, ever on the alert, saw in +it an unexpected means to his end. He instantly married Momola to +Giannozzo, whom she feared and hated; he schooled Giannozzo in the part +of the jealous and vindictive husband, and by the liberal use of money +contrived that Momola, while suffered to encourage the Marquess's +addresses, should be kept so close that Cerveno could not see her save +by coming to Pontesordo. This was the first step in the plan; the next +was to arrange that Momola should lure her lover to the hunting-lodge on +the edge of the chase. This lodge, as your excellency may remember, lies +level with the marsh, and so open to noxious exhalations that a night's +sojourn there may be fatal. The infernal scheme was carried out with the +connivance of the scoundrels at the farm, who had no scruples about +selling the girl for a few ducats; and as to Momola, can you wonder that +her loathing of Giannozzo and of her wretched life at Pontesordo threw +her defenceless into Trescorre's toils? All was cunningly planned to +exasperate Cerveno's passion and Momola's longing to escape; and at +length, pressed by his entreaties and innocently carrying out the +designs of his foe, the poor girl promised to meet him after night-fall +at the hunting-lodge. The secrecy of the adventure, and the peril to +which it exposed him (for Trescorre had taken care to paint Giannozzo +and his father in the darkest colours) were fuel to Cerveno's passion, +and he went night after night to Pontesordo. The time was August, when +the marsh breathes death, and the Duke, apprised of his favourite's +imprudence, forbade his returning to the chase. + +"Nothing could better have served Trescorre; for opposition spurred the +Marquess's languid temper, and he had now the incredible folly to take +up his residence in the lodge. Within three weeks the fever held him. He +was at once taken to Pianura, and on recovering from his seizure was +sent to take the mountain air at the baths of Lucca. But the poison was +in his blood. He never regained more than a semblance of health, and his +madness having run its course, his passion for Momola turned to hate of +the poor girl to whom he ascribed his destruction. Giannozzo, meanwhile, +terrified by the report that the Duke had winded the intrigue, and +fearing to be charged with connivance, thought to prove his innocence by +casting off his wife and disowning her child. + +"What part I played in this grim business I leave your excellency to +conceive. As the Marquess's creature I was forced to assist at the +spectacle without power to stay its consequences; but when the child was +born I carried the news to my master and begged him to come to the +mother's aid. For answer, he had me beaten by his lacqueys and flung out +of his house. I stomached the beating and addressed myself to Trescorre. +My noble brother, whose insight is seldom at fault, saw that I knew +enough to imperil him. The Marquess was dying and his enemy could afford +to be generous. He gave me a little money and the following year +obtained from the Duke my appointment as assistant librarian. In this +way I was able to give Momola a home, and to save her child from the +Innocenti. She and I, cavaliere, are the misshapen offspring of that +cruel foster-parent, who rears more than half the malefactors in the +state; but please heaven the boy shall have a better start in life, and +perhaps grow up to destroy some of the evils on which that cursed +charity thrives." + +This narrative, and the sight of Momola and her child, followed so +strangely on the spectacle of sordid misery he had witnessed at +Pontesordo, that an inarticulate pity held Odo by the throat. Gamba's +anger against the people at the farm seemed as senseless as their own +cruelty to their animals. What were they all--Momola, her child, and her +persecutors--but a sickly growth of the decaying social order? He felt +an almost physical longing for fresh air, light, the rush of a purifying +wind through the atmosphere of moral darkness that surrounded him. + + +2.12. + +To relieve the tension of his thoughts he set forth to Gamba the purpose +of his visit. + +"I am," said he, "much like a stranger at a masked ball, where all the +masks are acquainted with each other's disguises and concerted to +mystify the visitor. Among the persons I have met at court several have +shown themselves ready to guide me through this labyrinth; but, till +they themselves unmask and declare their true characters, I am doubtful +whither they may lead me; nor do I know of any so well fitted as +yourself to give me a clue to my surroundings. As for my own disguise," +he added with a smile, "I believe I removed it sufficiently on our first +meeting to leave you no doubt as to the use to which your information +will be put." + +Gamba, who seemed touched by this appeal, nevertheless hesitated before +replying. At length he said: "I have the fullest trust in your +excellency's honour; but I must remind you that during your stay here +you will be under the closest observation and that any opinions you +express will at once be attributed to the persons you are known to +frequent. I would not," he continued hastily, "say this for myself +alone, but I have two mouths to feed and my views are already under +suspicion." + +Reassured by Odo's protestations, or rather, perhaps, by the more +convincing warrant of his look and manner, Gamba proceeded to give him a +detailed description of the little world in which chance had placed +them. + +"If you have seen the Duke," said he, "I need not tell you that it is +not he who governs the duchy. We are ruled at present by a triumvirate +consisting of the Belverde, the Dominican and Trescorre. Pievepelago, +the Prime Minister, is a dummy put in place by the Jesuits and kept +there by the rivalries of the other three; but he is in his dotage and +the courtiers are already laying wagers as to his successor. Many think +Father Ignazio will replace him, but I stake my faith on Trescorre. The +Duke dislikes him, but he is popular with the middle class, who, since +they have shaken off the yoke of the Jesuits, would not willingly see an +ecclesiastic at the head of the state. The duchess's influence is also +against the Dominican, for her Highness, being, as you know, connected +with the Austrian court, is by tradition unfavourable to the Church +party. The Duchess's preferences would weigh little with the Duke were +it not that she is sole heiress to the old Duke of Monte Alloro, and +that any attempt to bring that principality under the control of the +Holy See might provoke the interference of Austria. + +"In so ticklish a situation I see none but Trescorre to maintain the +political balance. He has been adroit enough to make himself necessary +to the Duchess without alienating the Duke; he has introduced one or two +trifling reforms that have given him a name for liberality in spite of +the heavy taxes with which he has loaded the peasantry; and has in short +so played his cards as to profit by the foibles of both parties. Her +Highness," he continued, in reply to a question of Odo's, "was much +taken by him when she first came to Pianura; and before her feeling had +cooled he had contrived to make himself indispensable to her. The +Duchess is always in debt; and Trescorre, as Comptroller of Finance, +holds her by her besetting weakness. Before his appointment her +extravagance was the scandal of the town. She borrowed from her ladies, +her pages, her very lacqueys; when she went on a visit to her uncle of +Monte Alloro she pocketed the money he bestowed on her servants; nay, +she was even accused of robbing the Marchioness of Pievepelago, who, +having worn one evening a diamond necklace which excited her Highness's +admiration, was waylaid on the way home and the jewels torn from her +neck by a crowd of masked ruffians among whom she is said to have +recognised one of the ducal servants. These are doubtless idle reports; +but it is certain that Trescorre's appointment engaged him still more to +the Duchess by enabling him to protect her from such calumnies; while by +increasing the land taxes he has discharged the worst of her debts and +thus made himself popular with the tradesmen she had ruined. Your +excellency must excuse my attempting to paint the private character of +her Highness. Such facts as I have reported are of public notoriety, but +to exceed them would be an unwarranted presumption. I know she has the +name of being affable to her dependents, capable of a fitful generosity, +and easily moved by distress; and it is certain that her domestic +situation has been one to excite pity and disarm criticism. + +"With regard to his Highness, it is difficult either to detect his +motives or to divine his preferences. His youth was spent in pious +practices; and a curious reason is given for the origin of this habit. +He was educated, as your excellency is doubtless aware, by a French +philosopher of the school of Hobbes; and it is said that in the interval +of his tasks the poor Duke, bewildered by his governor's distinctions +between conception and cognition, and the object and the sentient, used +to spend his time praying the saints to assist him in his atheistical +studies; indeed a satire of the day ascribes him as making a novena to +the Virgin to obtain a clearer understanding of the universality of +matter. Others with more likelihood aver that he frequented the churches +to escape from the tyranny of his pedagogue; and it is certain that from +one cause or another his education threw him into the opposite extreme +of a superstitious and mechanical piety. His marriage, his differences +with the Duchess, and the evil influence of Cerveno, exposed him to new +temptations, and for a time he led a life which seemed to justify the +worst charges of the enemies of materialism. Recent events have flung +him back on the exaggerated devotion of his youth, and now, when his +health permits, he spends his time serving mass, singing in the choir at +benediction and making pilgrimages to the relics of the saints in the +different churches of the duchy. + +"A few years since, at the instigation of his confessor, he destroyed +every picture in the ducal gallery that contained any naked figure or +represented any subject offensive to religion. Among them was Titian's +famous portrait of Duke Ascanio's mistress, known as the Goldsmith's +Daughter, and a Venus by the Venetian painter Giorgione, so highly +esteemed in its day that Pope Leo X. is said to have offered in exchange +for it the gift of a papal benefice, and a Cardinal's hat for Duke +Guidobaldo's younger son. His Highness, moreover, impedes the +administration of justice by resisting all attempts to restrict the +Church's right of sanctuary, and upholds the decree forbidding his +subjects to study at the University of Pavia, where, as you know, the +natural sciences are professed by the ablest scholars of Italy. He +allows no public duties to interfere with his private devotions, and +whatever the urgency of affairs, gives no audience to his ministers on +holydays; and a Cardinal a latere recently passing through the duchy on +his return to Rome was not received at the Duke's table because he +chanced to arrive on a Friday. + +"His Highness's fears for Prince Ferrante's health have drawn a swarm of +quacks to Pianura, and the influence of the Church is sometimes +counteracted by that of the physicians with whom the Duke surrounds +himself. The latest of these, the famous Count Heiligenstern, who is +said to have performed some remarkable cures by means of the electrical +fluid and of animal magnetism, has gained such an ascendancy over the +Duke that some suspect him of being an agent of the Austrian court, +while others declare that he is a Jesuit en robe courte. But just at +present the people scent a Jesuit under every habit, and it is even +rumoured that the Belverde is secretly affiliated to a female branch of +the Society. With such a sovereign and such ministers, your excellency +need not be told how the state is governed. Trescorre, heaven save the +mark! represents the liberal party; but his liberalism is like the +generosity of the unarmed traveller who throws his purse to a foot-pad; +and Father Ignazio is at hand to see that the people are not bettered at +the expense of the Church. + +"As to the Duke, having no settled policy, and being governed only +through his fears, he leans first to one influence and then to another; +but since the suppression of the Jesuits nothing can induce him to +attack any ecclesiastical privileges. The diocese of Pianura holds a +fief known as the Caccia del Vescovo, long noted as the most lawless +district of the duchy. Before the death of the late Pope, Trescorre had +prevailed on the Duke to annex it to the principality; but the dreadful +fate of Ganganelli has checked bolder sovereigns than his Highness in +their attempts on the immunities of the Church, and one of the fairest +regions of our unhappy state remains a barren waste, the lair of outlaws +and assassins, and a menace to the surrounding country. His Highness is +not incapable of generous impulses and his occasional acts of humanity +might endear him to his people were it not that they despise him for +being the creature of his favourites. Thus, the gift of Boscofolto to +the Belverde has excited the bitterest discontent; for the Countess is +notorious for her cruel exactions, and it is certain that at her death +this rich fief will revert to the Church. And now," Gamba ended with a +smile, "I have made known to your excellency the chief characters in the +masque, as rumour depicts them to the vulgar. As to the court, like the +government, it is divided into two parties: the Duke's, headed by the +Belverde, and containing the staider and more conservative members of +the Church and nobility; and the Duchess's, composed of every fribble +and flatterer, every gamester and rake, every intriguing woman and +vulgar parvenu that can worm a way into her favour. In such an +atmosphere you may fancy how knowledge thrives. The Duke's library +consists of a few volumes of theological casuistry, and her Highness +never opens a book unless it be to scandalise her husband by reading +some prohibited pamphlet from France. The University, since the fall of +the Jesuits, has been in charge of the Barnabite order, and, for aught I +know, the Ptolemaic system is still taught there, together with the +dialectic of Aristotle. As to science, it is anathema; and the press +being subject to the restrictions of the Holy Office, and the University +closed to modern thought, but few scholars are to be found in the duchy, +save those who occupy themselves with belles-lettres, or, like the abate +Crescenti, are engaged in historical research. Pianura, even in the late +Duke's day, had its circle of lettered noblemen who patronised the arts +and founded the local Arcadia; but such pursuits are out of fashion, the +Arcadia languishes, and the Bishop of Pianura is the only dignitary that +still plays the Mecaenas. His lordship, whose theological laxity and +coolness toward the Holy Office have put him out of favour with the +Duke, has, I am told, a fine cabinet of paintings (some of them, it is +rumoured, the very pictures that his Highness ordered to be burnt) and +the episcopal palace swarms with rhyming abatini, fashionable +playwrights and musicians, and the travelling archeologists who hawk +their antiques about from one court to another. Here you may assist at +interminable disputes as to the relative merits of Tasso and Ariosto, or +listen to a learned dissertation on the verse engraved on a carnelian +stone; but as to the questions now agitating the world, they are held of +less account than a problem in counterpoint or the construction of a +doubtful line in Ovid. As long as Truth goes naked she can scarce hope +to be received in good company; and her appearance would probably cause +as much confusion among the Bishop's literati as in the councils of the +Holy Office." + +The old analogy likening the human mind to an imperfect mirror, which +modifies the images it reflects, occurred more than once to Odo during +the hunchback's lively delineation. It was impossible not to remember +that the speaker owed his education to the charity of the order he +denounced; and this fact suggested to Odo that the other lights and +shadows in the picture might be disposed with more art than accuracy. +Still, they doubtless embodied a negative truth, and Odo thought it +probable that such intellectual diversion as he could hope for must be +sought in the Bishop's circle. + +It was two days later that he first beheld that prelate, heading the +ducal pilgrimage to the shrine of the mountain Virgin. The day had +opened with a confused flight of chimes from every bell-tower in +Pianura, as though a migratory flock of notes had settled for a moment +on the roofs and steeples of the city. The ducal party set forth early +from the palace, but the streets were already spanned with arches and +garlands of foliage, tapestries and religious paintings decked the +facades of the wealthier houses, and at every street-shrine a cluster of +candle-flames hovered like yellow butterflies above the freshly-gathered +flowers. The windows were packed with spectators, and the crowds who +intended to accompany the pilgrimage were already gathering, with their +painted and gilt candles, from every corner of the town. Each church and +monastery door poured forth its priests or friars to swell the line, and +the various lay confraternities, issuing in their distinctive dress from +their "lodges" or assembly-rooms, formed a link between the secular and +religious divisions of the procession. The market-place was strewn with +sand and sweet herbs; and here, on the doorsteps of the Cathedral, +between the featureless porphyry lions, the Bishop waited with his +red-robed chapter, and the deacons carrying the painted banners of the +diocese. Seen thus, with the cloth-of-gold dalmatic above his pontifical +tunic, the mitre surmounting his clear-cut impassive face, and the +crozier held aloft in his jewelled gloves, he might have stood for a +chryselephantine divinity in the porch of some pagan temple. + +Odo, riding beside the Duke's litter, had leisure to note not only the +diverse features of the procession but their varying effect on the +spectators. It was plain that, as Trescorre had said, the pilgrimage was +popular with the people. That imaginative sensuousness which has +perpetually renewed the Latin Church by giving form and colour to her +dogmatic abstractions, by transforming every successive phase of her +belief into something to be seen and handled, found an irresistible +outlet in a ceremony that seemed to combine with its devotional intent a +secret element of expiation. The little prince was dimly felt to be +paying for the prodigality of his fathers, to be in some way a link of +suffering between the tongue-tied misery of the fields and the insolent +splendour of the court; and a vague faith in the vicarious efficacy of +his devotion drew the crowd into momentary sympathy with its rulers. Yet +this was but an underlying element in the instinctive delight of the +people in the outward forms of their religion. Odo's late experiences +had wakened him to the influences acting on that obscure substratum of +human life that still seemed, to most men of his rank, of no more +account than the brick lining of their marble-coated palaces. As he +watched the mounting excitement of the throng, and pictured to himself +the lives suddenly lit up by this pledge of unseen promises, he wondered +that the enemies of the Church should ascribe her predominance to any +cause but the natural needs of the heart. The people lived in unlit +hovels, for there was a tax on mental as well as on material windows; +but here was a light that could pierce the narrowest crevice and scatter +the darkness with a single ray. + +Odo noted with equal interest the impression produced by the various +members of the court and the Church dignitaries. The Duke's litter was +coldly received, but a pitying murmur widened about the gilt chair in +which Prince Ferrante was seated at his governor's side, and the +approach of Trescorre, mounted on a fine horse and dressed with his +usual sober elegance, woke a shout that made him for a moment the +central figure of the procession. The Bishop was none too warmly +welcomed; but when Crescenti appeared, white-haired and erect among the +parish priests, the crowd swayed toward him like grasses in the suction +of a current; and one of the Duke's gentlemen, seeing Odo's surprise, +said with a smile: "No one does more good in Pianura than our learned +librarian." + +A different and still more striking welcome awaited the Duchess, who +presently appeared on her favourite white hackney, surrounded by the +members of her household. Her reluctance to take part in the pilgrimage +had been overcome by the exhilaration of showing herself to the public, +and as she rode along in her gold-embroidered habit and plumed hat she +was just such an image of radiant and indulgent sovereignty as turns +enforced submission into a romantic allegiance. Her flushing cheek and +kindled eye showed the reaction of the effect she produced, and if her +subjects forgot her debts, her violences and follies, she was perhaps +momentarily transformed into the being their enthusiasm created. She was +at any rate keenly alive to the admiration she excited and eager to +enhance it by those showy impulses of benevolence that catch the public +eye; as when, at the city gates, she stopped her horse to intervene in +behalf of a soldier who had been put under arrest for some slight +infraction of duty, and then rode on enveloped in the passionate +shouting of the crowd. + +The shrine at which the young prince was to pay his devotions stood just +beyond the city, on the summit of one of the low knolls which pass for +hills in the level landscape of Pianura. The white-columned church with +its classical dome and portico had been erected as a thank-offering +after the plague of 1630, and the nave was lined with life-sized votive +figures of Dukes and Duchesses clad in the actual wigs and robes that +had dressed their transient grandeur. As the procession wound into the +church, to the ringing of bells and the chanting of the choir, Odo was +struck by the spectacle of that line of witnesses, watching in +glassy-eyed irony the pomp and display to which their moldering robes +and tarnished insignia seemed to fix so brief a term. Once or twice +already he had felt the shows of human power as no more than vanishing +reflections on the tide of being; and now, as he knelt near the shrine, +with its central glitter of jewels and its nimbus of wavering lights, +and listened to the reiterated ancient wail: + + "Mater inviolata, ora pro nobis! + Virgo veneranda, ora pro nobis! + Speculum justitiae, ora pro nobis!" + +it seemed to him as though the bounds of life and death were merged, and +the sumptuous group of which he formed a part already dusted over with +oblivion. + + +2.13. + +Spite of the Mountain Madonna's much-vaunted powers, the first effect of +the pilgrimage was to provoke a serious indisposition in the Duke. +Exhausted by fasting and emotion, he withdrew to his apartments and for +several days denied himself to all but Heiligenstern, who was suspected +by some of suffering his patient's disorder to run its course with a +view to proving the futility of such remedies. This break in his +intercourse with his kinsman left Odo free to take the measure of his +new surroundings. The company most naturally engaging him was that which +surrounded the Duchess; but he soon wearied of the trivial diversions it +offered. It had ever been necessary to him that his pleasures should +touch the imagination as well as the senses; and with such refinement of +enjoyment the gallants of Pianura were unacquainted. Odo indeed +perceived with a touch of amusement that, in a society where Don +Serafino set the pace, he must needs lag behind his own lacquey. +Cantapresto had, in fact, been hailed by the Bishop's nephew with a +cordiality that proclaimed them old associates in folly; and the +soprano's manner seemed to declare that, if ever he had held the candle +for Don Serafino, he did not grudge the grease that might have dropped +on his cassock. He was soon prime favourite and court buffoon in the +Duchess's circle, organising pleasure-parties, composing scenarios for +her Highness's private theatre, and producing at court any comedian or +juggler the report of whose ability reached him from the market-place. +Indefatigable in the contriving of such diversions, he soon virtually +passed out of Odo's service into that of her Highness: a circumstance +which the young man the less regretted as it left him freer to cultivate +the acquaintance of Gamba and his friends without exposing them to +Cantapresto's espionage. + +Odo had felt himself specially drawn toward the abate Crescenti; and the +afternoon after their first meeting he had repaired to the librarian's +dwelling. Crescenti was the priest of an ancient parish lying near the +fortress; and his tiny house was wedged in an angle of the city walls, +like a bird's nest in the mouth of a disused canon. A long flight of +steps led up to his study, which on the farther side opened level with a +vine-shaded patch of herbs and damask roses in the projection of a +ruined bastion. This interior, the home of studious peace, was as +cheerful and well-ordered as its inmate's mind; and Odo, seated under +the vine pergola in the late summer light, and tasting the abate's Val +Pulicella while he turned over the warped pages of old codes and +chronicles, felt the stealing charm of a sequestered life. + +He had learned from Gamba that Crescenti was a faithful parish priest as +well as an assiduous scholar, but he saw that the librarian's +beneficence took that purely personal form which may coexist with a +serene acceptance of the general evils underlying particular hardships. +His charities were performed in the old unquestioning spirit of the +Roman distribution of corn; and doubtless the good man who carries his +loaf of bread and his word of hope into his neighbour's hovel reaps a +more tangible return than the lonely thinker who schemes to undermine +the strongholds of injustice. Still there was a perplexing contrast +between the superficiality of Crescenti's moral judgments and the +breadth and penetration of his historic conceptions. Odo was too +inexperienced to reflect that a man's sense of the urgency of +improvement lies mainly in the line of his talent: as the merchant is +persuaded that the roads most in need of mending are those on which his +business makes him travel. Odo himself was already conscious of living +in a many-windowed house, with outlooks diverse enough to justify more +than one view of the universe; but he had no conception of that +concentration of purpose that may make the mind's flight to its goal as +direct and unvarying as the course of a homing bird. The talk turning on +Gamba, Crescenti spoke of the help which the hunchback gave him in his +work among the poor. + +"His early hardships," said he, "have given him an insight into +character that my happier circumstances have denied me; and he has more +than once been the means of reclaiming some wretch that I despaired of. +Unhappily, his parts and learning are beyond his station, and will not +let him rest in the performance of his duties. His mind, I often tell +him, is like one of those inn parlours hung with elaborate maps of the +three Heretical Cities; whereas the only topography with which the +virtuous traveller need be acquainted is that of the Heavenly City to +which all our journeyings should tend. The soundness of his heart +reassures me as to this distemper of the reason; but others are less +familiar with his good qualities and I tremble for the risks to which +his rashness may expose him." + +The librarian went on to say that Gamba had a pretty poetical gift which +he was suspected of employing in the composition of anonymous satires on +the court, the government and the Church. At that period every Italian +town was as full of lampoons as a marsh of mosquitoes, and it was as +difficult in the one case as the other for the sufferer to detect the +specific cause of his sting. The moment in Italy was a strange one. The +tide of reform had been turned back by the very act devised to hasten +it: the suppression of the Society of Jesus. The shout of liberation +that rose over the downfall of the order had sunk to a guarded whisper. +The dark legend already forming around Ganganelli's death, the hint of +that secret liquor distilled for the order's use in a certain convent of +Perugia, hung like a menace on the political horizon; and the disbanded +Society seemed to have tightened its hold on the public conscience as a +dying man's clutch closes on his victorious enemy. + +So profoundly had the Jesuits impressed the world with the sense of +their mysterious power that they were felt to be like one of those +animal organisms which, when torn apart, carry on a separate existence +in every fragment. Ganganelli's bull had provided against their exerting +any political influence, or controlling opinion as confessors or as +public educators; but they were known to be everywhere in Italy, either +hidden in other orders, or acting as lay agents of foreign powers, as +tutors in private families, or simply as secular priests. Even the +confiscation of their wealth did not seem to diminish the popular sense +of their strength. Perhaps because that strength had never been +completely explained, even by their immense temporal advantages, it was +felt to be latent in themselves, and somehow capable of withstanding +every kind of external assault. They had moreover benefited by the +reaction which always follows on the breaking up of any great +organisation. Their detractors were already beginning to forget their +faults and remember their merits. The people had been taught to hate the +Society as the possessor of wealth and privileges which should have been +theirs; but when the Society fell its possessions were absorbed by the +other powers, and in many cases the people suffered from abuses and +maladministration which they had not known under their Jesuit landlords. +The aristocracy had always been in sympathy with the order, and in many +states the Jesuits had been banished simply as a measure of political +expediency, a sop to the restless masses. In these cases the latent +power of the order was concealed rather than diminished by the pretence +of a more liberal government, and everywhere, in one form or another, +the unseen influence was felt to be on the watch for those who dared to +triumph over it too soon. + +Such conditions fostered the growth of social satire. Constructive +ambition was forced back into its old disguises, and ridicule of +individual weaknesses replaced the general attack on beliefs and +institutions. Satirical poems in manuscript passed from hand to hand in +coffee-houses, casinos and drawing-rooms, and every conspicuous incident +in social or political life was borne on a biting quatrain to the +confines of the state. The Duke's gift of Boscofolto to the Countess +Belverde had stirred up a swarm of epigrams, and the most malignant +among them, Crescenti averred, were openly ascribed to Gamba. + +"A few more imprudences," he added, "must cost him his post; and if your +excellency has any influence with him I would urge its being used to +restrain him from such excesses." + +Odo, on taking his leave of the librarian, ran across Gamba at the first +street-corner; and they had not proceeded a dozen yards together when +the eye of the Duke's kinsman fell on a snatch of doggerel scrawled in +chalk on an adjacent wall. + + "Beware (the quatrain ran) O virtuous wife or maid, + Our ruler's fondness for the shade, + Lest first he woo thee to the leafy glade + And then into the deeper wood persuade." + +This crude play on the Belverde's former title and the one she had +recently acquired was signed "Carlo Gamba." + +Odo glanced curiously at the hunchback, who met the look with a composed +smile. "My enemies don't do me justice," said he; "I could do better +than that if I tried;" and he effaced the words with a sweep of his +shabby sleeve. + +Other lampoons of the same quality were continually cropping up on the +walls of Pianura, and the ducal police were kept as busy rubbing them +out as a band of weeders digging docks out of a garden. The Duchess's +debts, the Duke's devotions, the Belverde's extortions, Heiligenstern's +mummery, and the political rivalry between Trescorre and the Dominican, +were sauce to the citizen's daily bread; but there was nothing in these +popular satires to suggest the hunchback's trenchant irony. + +It was in the Bishop's palace that Odo read the first lampoon in which +he recognised his friend's touch. In this society of polished dilettanti +such documents were valued rather for their literary merits than for +their political significance; and the pungent lines in which the Duke's +panaceas were hit off (the Belverde figuring among them as a Lenten +diet, a dinner of herbs, and a wonder-working bone) caused a flutter of +professional envy in the episcopal circle. + +The Bishop received company every evening; and Odo soon found that, as +Gamba had said, it was the best company in Pianura. His lordship lived +in great state in the Gothic palace adjoining the Cathedral. The gloomy +vaulted rooms of the original structure had been abandoned to the small +fry of the episcopal retinue. In the chambers around the courtyard his +lordship drove a thriving trade in wines from his vineyards, while his +clients awaited his pleasure in the armoury, where the panoplies of his +fighting predecessors still rusted on the walls. Behind this facade a +later prelate had built a vast wing overlooking a garden which descended +by easy terraces to the Piana. In the high-studded apartments of this +wing the Bishop held his court and lived the life of a wealthy secular +nobleman. His days were agreeably divided between hunting, inspecting +his estates, receiving the visits of antiquarians, artists and literati, +and superintending the embellishments of his gardens, then the most +famous in North Italy; while his evenings were given to the more private +diversions which his age and looks still justified. In religious +ceremonies or in formal intercourse with his clergy he was the most +imposing and sacerdotal of bishops; but in private life none knew better +how to disguise his cloth. He was moreover a man of parts, and from the +construction of a Latin hexameter to the growing of a Holland bulb, had +a word worth hearing on all subjects likely to engage the dilettante. A +liking soon sprang up between Odo and this versatile prelate; and in the +retirement of his lordship's cabinet, or pacing with him the +garden-alleys set with ancient marbles, the young man gathered many +precepts of that philosophy of pleasure which the great churchmen of the +eighteenth century practised with such rare completeness. + +The Bishop had not, indeed, given much thought to the problems which +most deeply engaged his companion. His theory of life took no account of +the future and concerned itself little with social conditions outside +his own class; but he was acquainted with the classical schools of +thought, and, having once acted as the late Duke's envoy to the French +court, had frequented the Baron d'Holbach's drawing-room and +familiarised himself with the views of the Encyclopaedists; though it +was clear that he valued their teachings chiefly as an argument against +asceticism. + +"Life," said he to Odo, as they sat one afternoon in a garden-pavilion +above the river, a marble Mercury confronting them at the end of a vista +of clipped myrtle, "life, cavaliere, is a stock on which we may graft +what fruit or flower we choose. See the orange-tree in that Capo di +Monte jar: in a week or two it will be covered with red roses. Here +again is a citron set with carnations; and but yesterday my gardener +sent me word that he had at last succeeded in flowering a pomegranate +with jasmine. In such cases the gardener chooses as his graft the flower +which, by its colour and fragrance, shall most agreeably contrast with +the original stock; and he who orders his life on the same principle, +grafting it with pleasures that form a refreshing off-set to the +obligations of his rank and calling, may regard himself as justified by +Nature, who, as you see, smiles on such abnormal unions among her +children.--Not long ago," he went on, with a reminiscent smile, "I had +here under my roof a young person who practised to perfection this art +of engrafting life with the unexpected. Though she was only a player in +a strolling company--a sweetheart of my wild nephew's, as you may +guess--I have met few of her sex whose conversation was so instructive +or who so completely justified the Scriptural adage, "the sweetness of +the lips increaseth learning..." He broke off to sip his chocolate. "But +why," he continued, "do I talk thus to a young man whose path is lined +with such opportunities? The secret of happiness is to say with the +great Emperor, 'Everything is fruit to me which thy seasons bring, O +Nature.'" + +"Such a creed, monsignore," Odo ventured to return, "is as flattering to +the intelligence as to the senses; for surely it better becomes a +reasoning being to face fate as an equal than to cower before it like a +slave; but, since you have opened yourself so freely on the subject, may +I carry your argument a point farther and ask how you reconcile your +conception of man's destiny with the authorised teachings of the +Church?" + +The Bishop raised his head with a guarded glance. + +"Cavaliere," said he, "the ancients did not admit the rabble to their +sacred mysteries; nor dare we permit the unlettered to enter the +hollowed precincts of the temple of Reason." + +"True," Odo acquiesced; "but if the teachings of Christianity are the +best safeguard of the people, should not those teachings at least be +stripped of the grotesque excrescences with which the superstitions of +the people and--perhaps--the greed and craft of the priesthood have +smothered the simple precepts of Jesus?" + +The Bishop shrugged his shoulders. "As long," said he, "as the people +need the restraint of a dogmatic religion so long must we do our utmost +to maintain its outward forms. In our market-place on feast-days there +appears the strange figure of a man who carries a banner painted with an +image of Saint Paul surrounded by a mass of writhing serpents. This man +calls himself a descendant of the apostle and sells to our peasants the +miraculous powder with which he killed the great serpent at Malta. If it +were not for the banner, the legend, the descent from Saint Paul, how +much efficacy do you think those powders would have? And how long do you +think the precepts of an invisible divinity would restrain the evil +passions of an ignorant peasant? It is because he is afraid of the +plaster God in his parish church, and of the priest who represents that +God, that he still pays his tithes and forfeitures and keeps his hands +from our throats. By Diana," cried the Bishop, taking snuff, "I have no +patience with those of my calling who go about whining for apostolic +simplicity, and would rob the churches of their ornaments and the +faithful of their ceremonies. + +"For my part," he added, glancing with a smile about the +delicately-stuccoed walls of the pavilion, through the windows of which +climbing roses shed their petals on the rich mosaics transferred from a +Roman bath, "for my part, when I remember that 'tis to Jesus of Nazareth +I owe the good roof over my head and the good nags in my stable; nay, +the very venison and pheasants from my preserves, with the gold plate I +eat them off, and above all the leisure to enjoy as they deserve these +excellent gifts of the Creator--when I consider this, I say, I stand +amazed at those who would rob so beneficent a deity of the least of his +privileges.--But why," he continued again after a moment, as Odo +remained silent, "should we vex ourselves with such questions, when +Providence has given us so fair a world to enjoy and such varied +faculties with which to apprehend its beauties? I think you have not +seen the Venus Callipyge in bronze that I have lately received from +Rome?" And he rose and led the way to the house. + +This conversation revealed to Odo a third conception of the religious +idea. In Piedmont religion imposed itself as a military discipline, the +enforced duty of the Christian citizen to the heavenly state; to the +Duke it was a means of purchasing spiritual immunity from the +consequences of bodily weakness; to the Bishop, it replaced the panem et +circenses of ancient Rome. Where, in all this, was the share of those +whom Christ had come to save? Where was Saint Francis's devotion to his +heavenly bride, the Lady Poverty? Though here and there a good parish +priest like Crescenti ministered to the temporal wants of the peasantry, +it was only the free-thinker and the atheist who, at the risk of life +and fortune, laboured for their moral liberation. Odo listened with a +saddened heart, thinking, as he followed his host through the perfumed +shade of the gardens, and down the long saloon at the end of which the +Venus stood, of those who for the love of man had denied themselves such +delicate emotions and gone forth cheerfully to exile or imprisonment. +These were the true lovers of the Lady Poverty, the band in which he +longed to be enrolled; yet how restrain a thrill of delight as the +slender dusky goddess detached herself against the cool marble of her +niche, looking, in the sun-rippled green penumbra of the saloon, with a +sound of water falling somewhere out of sight, as though she had just +stepped dripping from the wave? + +In the Duchess's company life struck another gait. Here was no waiting +on subtle pleasures, but a headlong gallop after the cruder sort. +Hunting, gaming and masquerading filled her Highness's days; and Odo had +felt small inclination to keep pace with the cavalcade, but for the +flying huntress at its head. To the Duchess's "view halloo" every drop +of blood in him responded; but a vigilant image kept his bosom barred. +So they rode, danced, diced together, but like strangers who cross hands +at a veglione. Once or twice he fancied the Duchess was for unmasking; +but her impulses came and went like fireflies in the dusk, and it suited +his humour to remain a looker-on. + +So life piped to him during his first days at Pianura: a merry tune in +the Bishop's company, a mad one in the Duchess's; but always with the +same sad undertone, like the cry of the wind on a warm threshold. + + +2.14. + +Trescorre too kept open house, and here Odo found a warmer welcome than +he had expected. Though Trescorre was still the Duchess's accredited +lover, it was clear that the tie between them was no longer such as to +make him resent her kindness to her young kinsman. He seemed indeed +anxious to draw Odo into her Highness's circle, and surprised him by a +frankness and affability of which his demeanour at Turin had given no +promise. As leader of the anti-clericals he stood for such liberalism as +dared show its head in Pianura; and he seemed disposed to invite Odo's +confidence in political matters. The latter was, however, too much the +child of his race not to hang back from such an invitation. He did not +distrust Trescorre more than the other courtiers; but it was a time when +every ear was alert for the foot-fall of treachery, and the rashest man +did not care to taste first of any cup that was offered him. + +These scruples Trescorre made it his business to dispel. He was the only +person at court who was willing to discuss politics, and his clear view +of affairs excited Odo's admiration if not his concurrence. Odo's was in +fact one of those dual visions which instinctively see both sides of a +case and take the defence of the less popular. Gamba's principles were +dear to him; but he did not therefore believe in the personal baseness +of every opponent of the cause. He had refrained from mentioning the +hunchback to his supposed brother; but the latter, in one of their +talks, brought forward Gamba's name, without reference to the +relationship, but with high praise for the young librarian's parts. +This, at the moment, put Odo on his guard; but Trescorre having one day +begged him to give Gamba warning of some petty danger that threatened +him from the clerical side, it became difficult not to believe in an +interest so attested; the more so as Trescorre let it be seen that +Gamba's political views were not such as to distract from his sympathy. + +"The fellow's brains," said he, "would be of infinite use to me; but +perhaps he serves us best at a distance. All I ask is that he shall not +risk himself too near Father Ignazio's talons, for he would be a pretty +morsel to throw to the Holy Office, and the weak point of such a man's +position is that, however dangerous in life, he can threaten no one from +the grave." + +Odo reported this to Gamba, who heard with a two-edged smile. "Yes," was +his comment, "he fears me enough to want to see me safe in his fold." + +Odo flushed at the implication. "And why not?" said he. "Could you not +serve the cause better by attaching yourself openly to the liberals than +by lurking in the ditch to throw mud at both parties?" + +"The liberals!" sneered Gamba. "Where are they? And what have they done? +It was they who drove out the Jesuits; but to whom did the Society's +lands go? To the Duke, every acre of them! And the peasantry suffered +far less under the fathers, who were good agriculturists, than under the +Duke, who is too busy with monks and astrologers to give his mind to +irrigation or the reclaiming of waste land. As to the University, who +replaced the Jesuits there? Professors from Padua or Pavia? Heaven +forbid! But holy Barnabites that have scarce Latin enough to spell out +the Lives of the Saints! The Jesuits at least gave a good education to +the upper classes; but now the young noblemen are as ignorant as +peasants." + +Trescorre received at his house, besides the court functionaries, all +the liberal faction and the Duchess's personal friends. He kept a lavish +state, but lacking the Bishop's social gifts, was less successful in +fusing the different elements of his circle. The Duke, for the first few +weeks after his kinsman's arrival, received no company; and did not even +appear in the Belverde's drawing-rooms; but Odo deemed it none the less +politic to show himself there without delay. + +The new Marchioness of Boscofolto lived in one of the finest palaces of +Pianura, but prodigality was the least of her failings, and the +meagreness of her hospitality was an unfailing source of epigram to the +drawing-rooms of the opposition. True, she kept open table for half the +clergy in the town (omitting, of course, those worldly ecclesiastics who +frequented the episcopal palace), but it was whispered that she had +persuaded her cook to take half wages in return for the privilege of +victualling such holy men, and that the same argument enabled her to +obtain her provisions below the market price. In her outer ante-chamber +the servants yawned dismally over a cold brazier, without so much as a +game of cards to divert them, and the long enfilade of saloons leading +to her drawing-room was so scantily lit that her guests could scarce +recognise each other in passing. In the room where she sat, a tall +crucifix of ebony and gold stood at her elbow and a holy-water cup +encrusted with jewels hung on the wall at her side. A dozen or more +ecclesiastics were always gathered in stiff seats about the hearth; and +the aspect of the apartment, and the Marchioness's semi-monastic +costume, justified the nickname of "the sacristy," which the Duchess had +bestowed on her rival's drawing-room. + +Around the small fire on this cheerless hearth the fortunes of the state +were discussed and directed, benefices disposed of, court appointments +debated, and reputations made and unmade in tones that suggested the low +drone of a group of canons intoning the psalter in an empty cathedral. +The Marchioness, who appeared as eager as the others to win Odo to her +party, received him with every mark of consideration and pressed him to +accompany her on a visit to her brother, the Abbot of the Barnabites; an +invitation which he accepted with the more readiness as he had not +forgotten the part played by that religious in the adventure of +Mirandolina of Chioggia. + +He found the Abbot a man with a bland intriguing eye and centuries of +pious leisure in his voice. He received his visitors in a room hung with +smoky pictures of the Spanish school, showing Saint Jerome in the +wilderness, the death of Saint Peter Martyr, and other sanguinary +passages in the lives of the saints; and Odo, seated among such +surroundings, and hearing the Abbot deplore the loose lives and +religious negligence of certain members of the court, could scarce +repress a smile as the thought of Mirandolina flitted through his mind. + +"She must," he reflected, "have found this a sad change from the +Bishop's palace;" and admired with what philosophy she had passed from +one protector to the other. + +Life in Pianura, after the first few weeks, seemed on the whole a tame +business to a youth of his appetite; and he secretly longed for a +pretext to resume his travels. None, however, seemed likely to offer; +for it was clear that the Duke, in the interval of more pressing +concerns, wished to study and observe his kinsman. When sufficiently +recovered from the effects of the pilgrimage, he sent for Odo and +questioned him closely as to the way in which he had spent his time +since coming to Pianura, the acquaintances he had formed and the +churches he had frequented. Odo prudently dwelt on the lofty tone of the +Belverde's circle, and on the privilege he had enjoyed in attending her +on a visit to the holy Abbot of the Barnabites; touching more lightly on +his connection with the Bishop, and omitting all mention of Gamba and +Crescenti. The Duke assumed a listening air, but it was clear that he +could not put off his private thoughts long enough to give an open mind +to other matters; and Odo felt that he was nowhere so secure as in his +cousin's company. He remembered, however, that the Duke had plenty of +eyes to replace his own, and that a secret which was safe in his actual +presence might be in mortal danger on his threshold. + +His Highness on this occasion was pleased to inform his kinsman that he +had ordered Count Trescorre to place at the young man's disposal an +income enabling him to keep a carriage and pair, four saddle-horses and +five servants. It was scant measure for an heir-presumptive, and Odo +wondered if the Belverde had had a hand in the apportionment; but his +indifference to such matters (for though personally fastidious he cared +little for display) enabled him to show such gratitude that the Duke, +fancying he might have been content with less, had nearly withdrawn two +of the saddle-horses. This becoming behaviour greatly advanced the young +man in the esteem of his Highness, who accorded him on the spot the +petites entrees of the ducal apartments. It was a privilege Odo had no +mind to abuse; for if life moved slowly in the Belverde's circle it was +at a standstill in the Duke's. His Highness never went abroad but to +serve mass in some church (his almost daily practice) or to visit one of +the numerous monasteries within the city. From Ash Wednesday to Easter +Monday it was his custom to transact no public or private business. +During this time he received none of his ministers, and saw his son but +for a few moments once a day; while in Holy Week he made a retreat with +the Barnabites, the Belverde withdrawing for the same period to the +convent of the Perpetual Adoration. + +Odo, as his new life took shape, found his chief interest in the society +of Crescenti and Gamba. In the Duchess's company he might have lost all +taste for soberer pleasures, but that his political sympathies wore a +girl's reproachful shape. Ever at his side, more vividly than in the +body, Fulvia Vivaldi became the symbol of his best aims and deepest +failure. Sometimes, indeed, her look drove him forth in the Duchess's +train, but more often, drawing him from the crowd of pleasure-seekers, +beckoned the way to solitude and study. Under Crescenti's tuition he +began the reading of Dante, who just then, after generations of neglect, +was once more lifting his voice above the crowd of minor singers. The +mighty verse swept Odo out to open seas of thought, and from his vision +of that earlier Italy, hapless, bleeding, but alive and breast to breast +with the foe, he drew the presage of his country's resurrection. + +Passing from this high music to the company of Gamba and his friends was +like leaving a church where the penitential psalms are being sung for +the market-place where mud and eggs are flying. The change was not +agreeable to a fastidious taste; but, as Gamba said, you cannot clean +out a stable by waving incense over it. After some hesitation, he had +agreed to make Odo acquainted with those who, like himself, were +secretly working in the cause of progress. These were mostly of the +middle class, physicians, lawyers, and such men of letters as could +subsist on the scant wants of an unliterary town. Ablest among them was +the bookseller, Andreoni, whose shop was the meeting place of all the +literati of Pianura. Andreoni, famous throughout Italy for his editions +of the classics, was a man of liberal views and considerable learning, +and in his private room were to be found many prohibited volumes, such +as Beccaria's Crime and Punishment, Gravina's Hydra Mystica, Concini's +History of Probabilism and the Amsterdam editions of the French +philosophical works. + +The reformers met at various places, and their meetings were conducted +with as much secrecy as those of the Honey-Bees. Odo was at first +surprised that they should admit him to their conferences; but he soon +divined that the gatherings he attended were not those at which the +private designs of the party were discussed. It was plain that they +belonged to some kind of secret association; and before he had been long +in Pianura he learned that the society of the Illuminati, that bugbear +of priests and princes, was supposed to have agents at work in the +duchy. Odo had heard little of this execrated league, but that it was +said to preach atheism, tyrannicide and the complete abolition of +territorial rights; but this, being the report of the enemy, was to be +received with a measure of doubt. He tried to learn from Gamba whether +the Illuminati had a lodge in the city; but on this point he could +extract no information. Meanwhile he listened with interest to +discussions on taxation, irrigation, and such economic problems as might +safely be aired in his presence. + +These talks brought vividly before him the political corruption of the +state and the misery of the unprivileged classes. All the land in the +duchy was farmed on the metayer system, and with such ill results that +the peasants were always in debt to their landlords. The weight of the +evil lay chiefly on the country-people, who had to pay on every pig they +killed, on all the produce they carried to market, on their farm +implements, their mulberry-orchards and their silk-worms, to say nothing +of the tithes to the parish. So oppressive were these obligations that +many of the peasants, forsaking their farms, enrolled themselves in the +mendicant orders, thus actually strengthening the hand of their +oppressors. Of legislative redress there was no hope, and the Duke was +inaccessible to all but his favourites. The previous year, as Odo +learned, eight hundred poor labourers, exasperated by want, had +petitioned his Highness to relieve them of the corvee; but though they +had raised fifteen hundred scudi to bribe the court official who was to +present their address, no reply had ever been received. In the city +itself, the monopoly of corn and tobacco weighed heavily on the +merchants, and the strict censorship of the press made the open +ventilation of wrongs impossible, while the Duke's sbirri and the agents +of the Holy Office could drag a man's thoughts from his bosom and search +his midnight dreams. The Church party, in the interest of their order, +fostered the Duke's fears of sedition and branded every innovator as an +atheist; the Holy Office having even cast grave doubts on the orthodoxy +of a nobleman who had tried to introduce the English system of ploughing +on his estates. It was evident to Odo that the secret hopes of the +reformers centred in him, and the consciousness of their belief was +sweeter than love in his bosom. It diverted him from the follies of his +class, fixed his thoughts at an age when they are apt to range, and thus +slowly shaped and tempered him for high uses. + +In this fashion the weeks passed and summer came. It was the Duchess's +habit to escape the August heats by retiring to the dower-house on the +Piana, a league beyond the gates; but the little prince being still +under the care of the German physician, who would not consent to his +removal, her Highness reluctantly lingered in Pianura. With the first +leafing of the oaks Odo's old love for the budding earth awoke, and he +rode out daily in the forest toward Pontesordo. It was but a flat +stretch of shade, lacking the voice of streams and the cold breath of +mountain-gorges: a wood without humours or surprises; but the mere +spring of the turf was delightful as he cantered down the grass alleys +roofed with level boughs, the outer sunlight just gilding the lip of the +long green tunnel. + +Sometimes he attended the Duchess, but oftener chose to ride alone, +setting forth early after a night at cards or a late vigil in +Crescenti's study. One of these solitary rides brought him without +premeditation to a low building on the fenny edge of the wood. It was a +small house, added, it appeared, to an ancient brick front adorned with +pilasters, perhaps a fragment of some woodland temple. The door-step was +overgrown with a stealthy green moss and tufted with giant fennel; and a +shutter swinging loose on its hinge gave a glimpse of inner dimness. Odo +guessed at once that this was the hunting lodge where Cerveno had found +his death; and as he stood looking out across the oozy secrets of the +marsh, the fever seemed to hang on his steps. He turned away with a +shiver; but whether it were the sullen aspect of the house, or the close +way in which the wood embraced it, the place suddenly laid a detaining +hand upon him. It was as though he had reached the heart of solitude. +Even the faint woodland noises seemed to recede from that dense circle +of shade, and the marsh turned a dead eye to heaven. + +Odo tethered his horse to a bough and seated himself on the doorstep; +but presently his musings were disturbed by the sound of voices, and the +Duchess, attended by her gentlemen, swept by at the end of a long glade. +He fancied she waved her hand to him; but being in no humour to join the +cavalcade, he remained seated, and the riders soon passed out of sight. +As he sat there sombre thoughts came to him, stealing up like +exhalations from the fen. He saw his life stretched out before him, full +of broken purposes and ineffectual effort. Public affairs were in so +perplexed a case that consistent action seemed impossible to either +party, and their chief efforts were bent toward directing the choice of +a regent. It was this, rather than the possibility of his accession, +which fixed the general attention on Odo, and pledged him to +circumspection. While not concealing that in economic questions his +sympathies were with the liberals, he had carefully abstained from +political action, and had hoped, by the strict observance of his +religious duties, to avoid the enmity of the Church party. Trescorre's +undisguised sympathy seemed the pledge of liberal support, and it could +hardly be doubted that the choice of a regent in the Church party would +be unpopular enough to imperil the dynasty. With Austria hovering on the +horizon the Church herself was not likely to take such risks; and thus +all interests seemed to centre in Odo's appointment. + +New elements of uncertainty were, however, perpetually disturbing the +prospect. Among these was Heiligenstern's growing influence over the +Duke. Odo had seen little of the German physician since their first +meeting. Hearsay had it that he was close-pressed by the spies of the +Holy Office, and perhaps for this reason he remained withdrawn in the +Duke's private apartments and rarely showed himself abroad. The little +prince, his patient, was as seldom seen, and the accounts of the +German's treatment were as conflicting as the other rumours of the +court. It was noised on all sides, however, that the Duke was +ill-satisfied with the results of the pilgrimage, and resolved upon less +hallowed measures to assure his heir's recovery. Hitherto, it was +believed, the German had conformed to the ordinary medical treatment; +but the clergy now diligently spread among the people the report that +supernatural agencies were to be employed. This rumour caused such +general agitation that it was said both parties had made secret advances +to the Duchess in the hope of inducing her to stay the scandal. Though +Maria Clementina felt little real concern for the public welfare, her +stirring temper had more than once roused her to active opposition of +the government, and her kinship with the old Duke of Monte Alloro made +her a strong factor in the political game. Of late, however, she seemed +to have wearied of this sport, throwing herself entirely into the +private diversions of her station, and alluding with laughing +indifference to her husband's necromantic researches. + +Such was the conflicting gossip of the hour; but it was in fact idle to +forecast the fortunes of a state dependent on a valetudinary's whims; +and rumour was driven to feed upon her own conjectures. To Odo the state +of affairs seemed a satire on his secret aspirations. In a private +station or as a ruling prince he might have served his fellows: as a +princeling on the edge of power he was no more than the cardboard sword +in a toy armoury. + +Suddenly he heard his name pronounced and starting up saw Maria +Clementina at his side. She rode alone, and held out her hand as he +approached. + +"I have had an accident," said she, breathing quickly. "My girth is +broke and I have lost the rest of my company." + +She was glowing with her quick ride, and as Odo lifted her from the +saddle her loosened hair brushed his face like a kiss. For a moment she +seemed like life's answer to the dreary riddle of his fate. + +"Ah," she sighed, leaning on him, "I am glad I found you, cousin; I +hardly knew how weary I was;" and she dropped languidly to the doorstep. + +Odo's heart was beating hard. He knew it was only the stir of the spring +sap in his veins, but Maria Clementina wore a look of morning brightness +that might have made a soberer judgment blink. He turned away to examine +her saddle. As he did so, he observed that her girth was not torn, but +clean cut, as with sharp scissors. He glanced up in surprise, but she +sat with drooping lids, her head thrown back against the lintel; and +repressing the question on his lips he busied himself with the +adjustment of the saddle. When it was in place he turned to give her a +hand; but she only smiled up at him through her lashes. + +"What!" said she with an air of lovely lassitude, "are you so impatient +to be rid of me? I should have been so glad to linger here a little." +She put her hand in his and let him lift her to her feet. "How cool and +still it is! Look at that little spring bubbling through the moss. Could +you not fetch me a drink from it?" + +She tossed aside her riding-hat and pushed back the hair from her warm +forehead. + +"Your Highness must not drink of the water here," said Odo, releasing +her hand. + +She gave him a quick derisive glance. "Ah, true," she cried; "this is +the house to which that abandoned wretch used to lure poor Cerveno." She +drew back to look at the lodge. "Were you ever in it?" she asked +curiously. "I should like to see how the place looks." + +She laid her hand on the door-latch, and to Odo's surprise it yielded to +her touch. "We're in luck, I vow," she declared with a laugh. "Come +cousin, let us visit the temple of romance together." + +The allusion to Cerveno jarred on Odo, and he followed her in silence. +Within doors, the lodge was seen to consist of a single room, gaily +painted with hunting-scenes framed in garlands of stucco. In the dusk +they could just discern the outlines of carved and gilded furniture, and +a Venice mirror gave back their faces like phantoms in a magic crystal. + +"This is stifling," said Odo impatiently. "Would your Highness not be +better in the open?" + +"No, no," she persisted. "Unbar the shutters and we shall have air +enough. I love a deserted house: I have always fancied that if one came +in noiselessly enough one might catch the ghosts of the people who used +to live in it." + +He obeyed in silence, and the green-filtered forest noon filled the room +with a quiver of light. A chill stole upon Odo as he looked at the +dust-shrouded furniture, the painted harpsichord with green mould +creeping over its keyboard, the consoles set with empty wine flagons and +goblets of Venice glass. The place was like the abandoned corpse of +pleasure. + +But Maria Clementina laughed and clapped her hands. "This is +enchanting," she cried, throwing herself into an arm-chair of threadbare +damask, "and I shall rest here while you refresh me with a glass of +Lacrima Christi from one of those dusty flagons. They are empty, you +say? Never mind, for I have a flask of cordial in my saddle-bag. Fetch +it, cousin, and wash these two glasses in the spring, that we may toast +all the dead lovers that have drunk out of them." + +When Odo returned with the flask and glasses, she had brushed the dust +from a slender table of inlaid wood, and drawn a seat near her own. She +filled the two goblets with cordial and signed to Odo to seat himself +beside her. + +"Why do you pull such a glum face?" she cried, leaning over to touch his +glass before she emptied hers. "Is it that you are thinking of poor +Cerveno? On my soul, I question if he needs your pity! He had his hour +of folly, and was too gallant a gentleman not to pay the shot. For my +part I would rather drink a poisoned draught than die of thirst." + +The wine was rising in waves of colour over her throat and brow, and +setting her glass down she suddenly laid her ungloved hand on Odo's. + +"Cousin," she said in a low voice, "I could help you if you would let +me." + +"Help me?" he said, only half-aware of her words in the warm surprise of +her touch. + +She drew back, but with a look that seemed to leave her hand in his. + +"Are you mad," she murmured, "or do you despise your danger?" + +"Am I in danger?" he echoed smiling. He was thinking how easily a man +might go under in that deep blue gaze of hers. She dropped her lids as +though aware of his thought. + +"Why do you concern yourself with politics?" she went on with a new note +in her voice. "Can you find no diversion more suited to your rank and +age? Our court is a dull one, I own--but surely even here a man might +find a better use for his time." + +Odo's self-possession returned in a flash. "I am not," cried he gaily, +"in a position to dispute it at this moment;" and he leaned over to +recapture her hand. To his surprise she freed herself with an affronted +air. + +"Ah," she said, "you think this a device to provoke a gallant +conversation." She faced him nobly now. "Look," said she, drawing a +folded paper from the breast of her riding-coat. "Have you not +frequented these houses?" + +Suddenly sobered, he ran his eye over the paper. It contained the dates +of the meetings he had attended at the houses of Gamba's friends, with +the designation of each house. He turned pale. + +"I had no notion," said he, with a smile, "that my movements were of +interest in such high places; but why does your Highness speak of danger +in this connection?" + +"Because it is rumoured that the lodge of the Illuminati, which is known +to exist in Pianura, meets secretly at the houses on this list." + +Odo hesitated a moment. "Of that," said he, "I have no report. I am +acquainted with the houses only as the residences of certain learned and +reputable men, who devote their leisure to scientific studies." + +"Oh," she interrupted, "call them by what name you please! It is all one +to your enemies." + +"My enemies?" said he lightly. "And who are they?" + +"Who are they?" she repeated impatiently. "Who are they not? Who is +there at court that has such cause to love you? The Holy Office? The +Duke's party?" + +Odo smiled. "I am perhaps not in the best odour with the Church party," +said he, "but Count Trescorre has shown himself my friend, and I think +my character is safe in his keeping. Nor will it be any news to him that +I frequent the company you name." + +She threw back her head with a laugh. "Boy," she cried, "you are blinder +even than I fancied! Do you know why it was that the Duke summoned you +to Pianura? Because he wished his party to mould you to their shape, in +case the regency should fall into your hands. And what has Trescorre +done? Shown himself your friend, as you say--won your confidence, +encouraged you to air your liberal views, allowed you to show yourself +continually in the Bishop's company, and to frequent the secret +assemblies of free thinkers and conspirators--and all that the Duke may +turn against you and perhaps name him regent in your stead! Believe me, +cousin," she cried with a mounting urgency, "you never stood in greater +need of a friend than now. If you continue on your present course you +are undone. The Church party is resolved to hunt down the Illuminati, +and both sides would rejoice to see you made the scapegoat of the Holy +Office." She sprung up and laid her hand on his arm. "What can I do to +convince you?" she said passionately. "Will you believe me if I ask you +to go away--to leave Pianura on the instant?" + +Odo had risen also, and they faced each other in silence. There was an +unmistakable meaning in her tone: a self-revelation so simple and +ennobling that she seemed to give herself as hostage for her words. + +"Ask me to stay, cousin--not to go," he whispered, her yielding hand in +his. + +"Ah, madman," she cried, "not to believe me NOW! But it is not too late +if you will still be guided." + +"I will be guided--but not away from you." + +She broke away, but with a glance that drew him after. "It is late now +and we must set forward," she said abruptly. "Come to me tomorrow early. +I have much more to say to you." + +The words seemed to be driven out on her quick breathing, and the blood +came and went in her cheek like a hurried messenger. She caught up her +riding-hat and turned to put it on before the Venice mirror. + +Odo, stepping up behind her, looked over her shoulder to catch the +reflection of her blush. Their eyes met for a laughing instant; then he +drew back deadly pale, for in the depths of the dim mirror he had seen +another face. + +The Duchess cried out and glanced behind her. "Who was it? Did you see +her?" she said trembling. + +Odo mastered himself instantly. + +"I saw nothing," he returned quietly. "What can your Highness mean?" + +She covered her eyes with her hands. "A girl's face," she +shuddered--"there in the mirror--behind mine--a pale face with a black +travelling hood over it--" + +He gathered up her gloves and riding-whip and threw open the door of the +pavilion. + +"Your Highness is weary and the air here insalubrious. Shall we not +ride?" he said. + +Maria Clementina heard him with a blank stare. Suddenly she roused +herself and made as though to pass out; but on the threshold she +snatched her whip from him and, turning, flung it full at the mirror. +Her aim was good and the chiselled handle of the whip shattered the +glass to fragments. + +She caught up her long skirt and stepped into the open. + +"I brook no rivals!" said she with a white-lipped smile. "And now, +cousin," she added gaily, "to horse!" + + +2.15. + +Odo, as in duty bound, waited the next morning on the Duchess; but word +was brought that her Highness was indisposed, and could not receive him +till evening. + +He passed a drifting and distracted day. The fear lay much upon him that +danger threatened Gamba and his associates; yet to seek them out in the +present conjuncture might be to play the stalking-horse to their +enemies. Moreover, he fancied the Duchess not incapable of using +political rumours to further her private caprice; and scenting no +immediate danger he resolved to wait upon events. + +On rising from dinner he was surprised by a summons from the Duke. The +message, an unusual one at that hour, was brought by a slender pale lad, +not in his Highness's service, but in that of the German physician +Heiligenstern. The boy, who was said to be a Georgian rescued from the +Grand Signior's galleys, and whose small oval face was as smooth as a +girl's, accosted Odo in one of the remoter garden alleys with the +request to follow him at once to the Duke's apartment. Odo complied, and +his guide loitered ahead with an air of unconcern, as though not wishing +to have his errand guessed. As they passed through the tapestry gallery +preceding the gentlemen's antechamber, footsteps and voices were heard +within. Instantly the boy was by Odo's side and had drawn him into the +embrasure of a window. A moment later Trescorre left the antechamber and +walked rapidly past their hiding-place. As soon as he was out of sight +the Georgian led Odo from his concealment and introduced him by a +private way to the Duke's closet. + +His Highness was in his bed-chamber; and Odo, on being admitted, found +him, still in dressing-gown and night-cap, kneeling with a disordered +countenance before the ancient picture of the Last Judgment that hung on +the wall facing his bed. He seemed to have forgotten that he had asked +for his kinsman; for on the latter's entrance he started up with a +suspicious glance and hastily closed the panels of the picture, which +(as Odo now noticed) appeared to conceal an inner painting. Then, +gathering his dressing-gown about him, he led the way to his closet and +bade his visitor be seated. + +"I have," said he, speaking in a low voice, and glancing apprehensively +about him, "summoned you hither privately to speak on a subject which +concerns none but ourselves.--You met no one on your way?" he broke off +to enquire. + +Odo told him that Count Trescorre had passed, but without perceiving +him. + +The Duke seemed relieved. "My private actions," said he querulously, +"are too jealously spied upon by my ministers. Such surveillance is an +offence to my authority, and my subjects shall learn that it will not +frighten me from my course." He straightened his bent shoulders and +tried to put on the majestic look of his official effigy. "It appears," +he continued, with one of his sudden changes of manner, "that the +Duchess's uncle, the Duke of Monte Alloro, has heard favourable reports +of your wit and accomplishments, and is desirous of receiving you at his +court." He paused, and Odo concealed his surprise behind a profound bow. + +"I own," the Duke went on, "that the invitation comes unseasonably, +since I should have preferred to keep you at my side; but his Highness's +great age, and his close kinship to my wife, through whom the request is +conveyed, make it impossible for me to refuse." The Duke again paused, +as though uncertain how to proceed. At length he resumed:--"I will not +conceal from you that his Highness is subject to the fantastical humours +of his age. He makes it a condition that the length of your stay shall +not be limited; but should you fail to suit his mood you may find +yourself out of favour in a week. He writes of wishing to send you on a +private mission to the court of Naples; but this may be no more than a +passing whim. I see no way, however, but to let you go, and to hope for +a favourable welcome for you. The Duchess is determined upon giving her +uncle this pleasure, and in fact has consented in return to oblige me in +an important matter." He flushed and averted his eyes. "I name this," he +added with an effort, "only that her Highness may be aware that it +depends on herself whether I hold to my side of the bargain. Your papers +are already prepared and you have my permission to set out at your +convenience. Meanwhile it were well that you should keep your +preparations private, at least till you are ready to take leave." And +with the air of dignity he could still assume on occasion, he rose and +handed Odo his passport. + +Odo left the closet with a beating heart. It was clear that his +departure from Pianura was as strongly opposed by some one in high +authority as it was favoured by the Duchess; and why opposed and by whom +he could not so much as hazard a guess. In the web of court intrigues it +was difficult for the wariest to grope his way; and Odo was still new to +such entanglements. His first sensation was one of release, of a future +suddenly enlarged and cleared. The door was open again to opportunity, +and he was of an age to greet the unexpected like a bride. Only one +thought disturbed him. It was clear that Maria Clementina had paid high +for his security; and did not her sacrifice, whatever its nature, +constitute a claim upon his future? In sending him to her uncle, whose +known favourite she was, she did not let him out of her hand. If he +accepted this chance of escape he must hereafter come and go as she +bade. At the thought, his bounding fancy slunk back humbled. He saw +himself as Trescorre's successor, his sovereign's official lover, taking +up again, under more difficult circumstances, and without the zest of +inexperience, the dull routine of his former bondage. No, a thousand +times no; he would fetter himself to no woman's fancy! Better find a +pretext for staying in Pianura, affront the Duchess by refusing her aid, +risk his prospects, his life even, than bow his neck twice to the same +yoke. All her charm vanished in this vision of unwilling +subjection...Disturbed by these considerations, and anxious to compose +his spirits, Odo bethought himself of taking refuge in the Bishop's +company. Here at least the atmosphere was clear of mystery: the Bishop +held aloof from political intrigue and breathed an air untainted by the +odium theologicum. Odo found his lordship seated in the cool tessellated +saloon which contained his chiefest treasures--marble busts ranged on +pedestals between the windows, the bronze Venus Callipyge, and various +tables of pietra commessa set out with vases and tazzas of antique +pattern. A knot of virtuosi gathered about one of these tables were +engaged in examining a collection of engraved gems displayed by a +lapidary of Florence; while others inspected a Greek manuscript which +the Bishop had lately received from Syria. Beyond the windows, a +cedrario or orange-walk stretched its sunlit vista to the terrace above +the river; and the black cassocks of one or two priests who were +strolling in the clear green shade of a pleached alley made pleasant +spots of dimness in the scene. + +Even here, however, Odo was aware of a certain disquietude. The Bishop's +visitors, instead of engaging in animated disputations over his +lordship's treasures, showed a disposition to walk apart, conversing in +low tones; and he himself, presently complaining of the heat, invited +Odo to accompany him to the grot beneath the terrace. In this shaded +retreat, studded with shells and coral and cooled by an artificial wind +forced through the conchs of marble Tritons, his lordship at once began +to speak of the rumours of public disaffection. + +"As you know," said he, "my duties and tastes alike seclude me from +political intrigue, and the scandal of the day seldom travels beyond my +kitchens. But as creaking signboards announce a storm, the hints and +whispers of my household tell me there is mischief abroad. My position +protects me from personal risk, and my lack of ambition from political +enmity; for it is notorious I would barter the highest honours in the +state for a Greek vase or a bronze of Herculanaeum--not to mention the +famous Venus of Giorgione, which, if report be true, his Highness has +burned at Father Ignazio's instigation. But yours, cavaliere, is a less +sheltered walk, and perhaps a friendly warning may be of service. Yet," +he added after a pause, "a warning I can scarce call it, since I know +not from what quarter the danger impends. Proximus ardet Ucalegon; but +there is no telling which way the flames may spread. I can only advise +you that the Duke's growing infatuation for his German magician has bred +the most violent discontent among his subjects, and that both parties +appear resolved to use this disaffection to their advantage. It is said +his Highness intends to subject the little prince to some mysterious +treatment connected with the rites of the Egyptian priesthood, of whose +secret doctrine Heiligenstern pretends to be an adept. Yesterday it was +bruited that the Duchess loudly opposed the experiment; this afternoon +it is given out that she has yielded. What the result may be, none can +foresee; but whichever way the storm blows, the chief danger probably +threatens those who have had any connection with the secret societies +known to exist in the duchy." + +Odo listened attentively, but without betraying any great surprise; and +the Bishop, evidently reassured by his composure, suggested that, the +heat of the day having declined, they should visit the new Indian +pheasants in his volary. + +The Bishop's hints had not helped his listener to a decision. Odo indeed +gave Cantapresto orders to prepare as privately as possible for their +departure; but rather to appear to be carrying out the Duke's +instructions than with any fixed intention of so doing. How to find a +pretext for remaining he was yet uncertain. To disobey the Duke was +impossible; but in the general state of tension it seemed likely enough +that both his Highness and the Duchess might change their minds within +the next twenty-four hours. He was reluctant to appear that evening in +the Duchess's circle; but the command was not to be evaded, and he went +thither resolved to excuse himself early. + +He found her Highness surrounded by the usual rout that attended her. +She was herself in a mood of wild mirth, occasioned by the drolleries of +an automatic female figure which a travelling showman introduced by +Cantapresto had obtained leave to display at court. This lively puppet +performed with surprising skill on the harpsichord, giving the company, +among other novelties, selections from the maestro Piccini's latest +opera and a concerto of the German composer Gluck. + +Maria Clementina seemed at first unaware of her kinsman's presence, and +he began to hope he might avoid any private talk with her; but when the +automaton had been dismissed and the card-tables were preparing, one of +her gentlemen summoned him to her side. As usual, she was highly rouged +in the French fashion, and her cold blue eyes had a light which set off +the extraordinary fairness of her skin. + +"Cousin," said she at once, "have you your papers?" Her tone was haughty +and yet eager, as though she scorned to show herself concerned, yet +would not have had him believe in her indifference. Odo bowed without +speaking. + +"And when do you set out?" she continued. "My good uncle is impatient to +receive you." + +"At the earliest moment, madam," he replied with some hesitation. + +The hesitation was not lost on her and he saw her flush through her +rouge. + +"Ah," said she in a low voice, "the earliest moment is none too +early!--Do you go tomorrow?" she persisted; but just then Trescorre +advanced toward them, and under a burst of assumed merriment she +privately signed to Odo to withdraw. + +He was glad to make his escape, for the sense of walking among hidden +pitfalls was growing on him. That he had acquitted himself awkwardly +with the Duchess he was well aware; but Trescorre's interruption had at +least enabled him to gain time. An increasing unwillingness to leave +Pianura had replaced his former impatience to be gone. The reluctance to +desert his friends was coupled with a boyish desire to stay and see the +game out; and behind all his other impulses lurked the instinctive +resistance to any feminine influence save one. + +The next morning he half-expected another message from the Duchess; but +none came, and he judged her to be gravely offended. Cantapresto +appeared early with the rumour that some kind of magical ceremony was to +be performed that evening in the palace; and toward noon the Georgian +boy again came privately to Odo and requested him to wait on the Duke +when his Highness rose from supper. This increased Odo's fears for +Gamba, Andreoni and the other reformers; yet he dared neither seek them +out in person nor entrust a message to Cantapresto. As the day passed, +however, he began to throw off his apprehensions. It was not the first +time since he had come to Pianura that there had been ominous talk of +political disturbances, and he knew that Gamba and his friends were not +without means of getting under shelter. As to his own risk, he did not +give it a thought. He was not of an age or a temper to weigh personal +danger against the excitement of conflict; and as evening drew on he +found himself wondering with some impatience if after all nothing +unusual would happen. + +He supped alone, and at the appointed hour proceeded to the Duke's +apartments, taking no farther precaution than to carry his passport +about him. The palace seemed deserted. Everywhere an air of apprehension +and mystery hung over the long corridors and dimly-lit antechambers. The +day had been sultry, with a low sky foreboding great heat, and not a +breath of air entered at the windows. There were few persons about, but +one or two beggars lurked as usual on the landings of the great +staircase, and Odo, in passing, felt his sleeve touched by a woman +cowering under the marble ramp in the shadow thrown by a colossal +Caesar. Looking down, he heard a voice beg for alms, and as he gave it +the woman pressed a paper into his hand and slipped away through the +darkness. + +Odo hastened on till he could assure himself of being unobserved; then +he unfolded the paper and read these words in Gamba's hand: "Have no +fear for any one's safety but your own." With a sense of relief he hid +the message and entered the Duke's antechamber. + +Here he was received by Heiligenstern's Oriental servant, who, with a +mute salutation, led him into a large room where the Duke's pages +usually waited. The walls of this apartment had been concealed under +hangings of black silk worked with cabalistic devices. Oil-lamps set on +tripods of antique design shed a faint light over the company seated at +one end of the room, among whom Odo recognised the chief dignitaries of +the court. The ladies looked pale but curious, the men for the most part +indifferent or disapproving. Intense quietness prevailed, broken only by +the soft opening and closing of the door through which the guests were +admitted. Presently the Duke and Duchess emerged from his Highness's +closet. They were followed by Prince Ferrante, supported by his governor +and his dwarf, and robed in a silken dressing-gown which hung in +voluminous folds about his little shrunken body. Their Highnesses seated +themselves in two armchairs in front of the court, and the little prince +reclined beside his mother. + +No sooner had they taken their places than Heiligenstern stepped forth, +wearing a doctor's gown and a quaintly-shaped bonnet or mitre. In his +long robes and strange headdress he looked extraordinarily tall and +pale, and his features had the glassy-eyed fixity of an ancient mask. He +was followed by his two attendants, the Oriental carrying a frame-work +of polished metal, not unlike a low narrow bed, which he set down in the +middle of the room; while the Georgian lad, who had exchanged his +fustanella and embroidered jacket for a flowing white robe, bore in his +hands a crystal globe set in a gold stand. Having reverently placed it +on a small table, the boy, at a signal from his master, drew forth a +phial and dropped its contents into a bronze vat or brazier which stood +at the far end of the room. Instantly clouds of perfumed vapour filled +the air, and as these dispersed it was seen that the black hangings of +the walls had vanished with them, and the spectators found themselves +seated in a kind of open temple through which the eye travelled down +colonnaded vistas set with statues and fountains. This magical prospect +was bathed in sunlight, and Odo observed that, though the lamps had gone +out, the same brightness suffused the room and illuminated the wondering +faces of the audience. The little prince uttered a cry of delight, and +the magician stepped forward, raising a long white wand in his hand. + +"This," said he, in measured accents, "is an evocation of the Temple of +Health, into whose blissful precincts the wisdom of the ancients was +able to lead the sufferer who put his trust in them. This deceptio +visus, or product of rhabdomancy, easily effected by an adept of the +Egyptian mysteries, is designed but to prefigure the reality which +awaits those who seek health through the ministry of the disciples of +Iamblichus. It is no longer denied among men of learning that those who +have been instructed in the secret doctrine of the ancients are able, by +certain correspondences of nature, revealed only to the initiated, to +act on the inanimate world about them, and on the animal economy, by +means beyond the common capabilities of man." He paused a moment, and +then, turning with a low bow to the Duke, enquired whether his Highness +desired the rites to proceed. + +The Duke signed his assent, and Heiligenstern, raising his wand, evoked +another volume of mist. This time it was shot through with green flames, +and as the wild light subsided the room was once more revealed with its +black hangings, and the lamps flickered into life again. + +After another pause, doubtless intended to increase the tension of the +spectators, the magician bade his servant place the crystal before him. +He then raised his hands as if in prayer, speaking in a strange chanting +jargon, in which Odo detected fragments of Greek and Latin, and the +recurring names of the Judaic demons and angels. As this ceased +Heiligenstern beckoned to the Georgian boy, who approached him with +bowed head and reverently folded hands. + +"Your Highness," said Heiligenstern, "and this distinguished company, +are doubtless familiar with the magic crystal of the ancients, in which +the future may be deciphered by the pure in heart. This lad, whom I +rescued from slavery and have bred to my service in the solemn rites of +the priesthood of Isis, is as clear in spirit as the crystal which +stands before you. The future lies open to him in this translucent +sphere and he is prepared to disclose it at your bidding." + +There was a moment's silence; but on the magician's repeating his +enquiry the Duke said: "Let the boy tell me what he sees." + +Heiligenstern at once laid his hands on his acolyte's head and murmured +a few words over him; then the boy advanced and bent devoutly above the +crystal. Almost immediately the globe was seen to cloud, as though +suffused with milk; the cloud gradually faded and the boy began to speak +in a low hesitating tone. + +"I see," he said, "I see a face...a fair face..." He faltered and +glanced up almost apprehensively at Heiligenstern, whose gaze remained +impenetrable. The boy began to tremble. "I see nothing," he said in a +whisper. "There is one here purer than I...the crystal will not speak +for me in that other's presence..." + +"Who is that other?" Heiligenstern asked. + +The boy fixed his eyes on the little prince. An excited murmur ran +through the company and Heiligenstern again advanced to the Duke. "Will +your Highness," he asked, "permit the prince to look into the sacred +sphere?" + +Odo saw the Duchess extend her hand impulsively toward the child; but at +a signal from the Duke the little prince's chair was carried to the +table on which the crystal stood. Instantly the former phenomenon was +repeated, the globe clouding and then clearing itself like a pool after +rain. + +"Speak, my son," said the Duke. "Tell us what the heavenly powers reveal +to you." + +The little prince continued to pore over the globe without speaking. +Suddenly his thin face reddened and he clung more closely to his +companion's arm. + +"I see a beautiful place," he began, his small fluting voice rising like +a bird's pipe in the stillness, "a place a thousand times more beautiful +than this...like a garden...full of golden-haired children...with +beautiful strange toys in their hands...they have wings like +birds...they ARE birds...ah! they are flying away from me...I see them +no more...they vanish through the trees..." He broke off sadly. + +Heiligenstern smiled. "That, your Highness, is a vision of the prince's +own future, when, restored to health, he is able to disport himself with +his playmates in the gardens of the palace." + +"But they were not the gardens of the palace!" the little boy exclaimed. +"They were much more beautiful than our gardens." + +Heiligenstern bowed. "They appeared so to your Highness," he +deferentially suggested, "because all the world seems more beautiful to +those who have regained their health." + +"Enough, my son!" exclaimed the Duchess with a shaken voice. "Why will +you weary the child?" she continued, turning to the Duke; and the +latter, with evident reluctance, signed to Heiligenstern to cover the +crystal. To the general surprise, however, Prince Ferrante pushed back +the black velvet covering which the Georgian boy was preparing to throw +over it. + +"No, no," he exclaimed, in the high obstinate voice of the spoiled +child, "let me look again...let me see some more beautiful things...I +have never seen anything so beautiful, even in my sleep!" It was the +plaintive cry of the child whose happiest hours are those spent in +unconsciousness. + +"Look again, then," said the Duke, "and ask the heavenly powers what +more they have to show you." + +The boy gazed in silence; then he broke out: "Ah, now we are in the +palace...I see your Highness's cabinet...no, it is the bedchamber...it +is night...and I see your Highness lying asleep...very still...very +still...your Highness wears the scapular received last Easter from his +Holiness...It is very dark...Oh, now a light begins to shine...where +does it come from? Through the door? No, there is no door on that side +of the room...It shines through the wall at the foot of the bed...ah! I +see"--his voice mounted to a cry--"The old picture at the foot of the +bed...the picture with the wicked people burning in it...has opened like +a door...the light is shining through it...and now a lady steps out from +the wall behind the picture...oh, so beautiful...she has yellow hair, as +yellow as my mother's...but longer...oh, much longer...she carries a +rose in her hand...and there are white doves flying about her +shoulders...she is naked, quite naked, poor lady! but she does not seem +to mind...she seems to be laughing about it...and your Highness..." + +The Duke started up violently. "Enough--enough!" he stammered. "The +fever is on the child...this agitation is...most pernicious...Cover the +crystal, I say!" + +He sank back, his forehead damp with perspiration. In an instant the +crystal had been removed, and Prince Ferrante carried back to his +mother's side. The boy seemed in nowise affected by his father's +commotion. His eyes burned with excitement, and he sat up eagerly, as +though not to miss a detail of what was going forward. Maria Clementina +leaned over and clasped his hand, but he hardly noticed her. "I want to +see some more beautiful things!" he insisted. + +The Duke sat speechless, a fallen heap in his chair, and the courtiers +looked at each other, their faces shifting spectrally in the faint +light, like phantom travellers waiting to be ferried across some +mysterious river. At length Heiligenstern advanced and with every mark +of deference addressed himself to the Duke. + +"Your Highness," said he quietly, "need be under no apprehension as to +the effect produced upon the prince. The magic crystal, as your Highness +is aware, is under the protection of the blessed spirits, and its +revelations cannot harm those who are pure-minded enough to receive +them. But the chief purpose of this assemblage was to witness the +communication of vital force to the prince, by means of the electrical +current. The crystal, by revealing its secrets to the prince, has +testified to his perfect purity of mind, and thus declared him to be in +a peculiarly fit state to receive what may be designated as the +Sacrament of the new faith." + +A murmur ran through the room, but Heiligenstern continued without +wavering: "I mean thereby to describe that natural religion which, by +instructing its adepts in the use of the hidden potencies of earth and +air, testifies afresh to the power of the unseen Maker of the Universe." + +The murmur subsided, and the Duke, regaining his voice, said with an +assumption of authority: "Let the treatment begin." + +Heiligenstern immediately spoke a word to the Oriental, who bent over +the metal bed which had been set up in the middle of the room. As he did +so the air again darkened and the figures of the magician and his +assistants were discernible only as flitting shades in the obscurity. +Suddenly a soft pure light overflowed the room, the perfume of flowers +filled the air, and music seemed to steal out of the very walls. +Heiligenstern whispered to the governor and between them they lifted the +little prince from his chair and laid him gently on the bed. The +magician then leaned over the boy with a slow weaving motion of the +hands. + +"If your Highness will be pleased to sleep," he said, "I promise your +Highness the most beautiful dreams." + +The boy smiled back at him and he continued to bend above the bed with +flitting hands. Suddenly the little prince began to laugh. + +"What does your Highness feel?" the magician asked. + +"A prickling...such a soft warm prickling...as if my blood were sunshine +with motes dancing in it...or as if that sparkling wine of France were +running all over my body." + +"It is an agreeable sensation, your Highness?" + +The boy nodded. + +"It is well with your Highness?" + +"Very well." + +Heiligenstern began a loud rhythmic chant, and gradually the air +darkened, but with the mild dimness of a summer twilight, through which +sparks could be seen flickering like fire-flies about the reclining +prince. The hush grew deeper; but in the stillness Odo became aware of +some unseen influence that seemed to envelope him in waves of exquisite +sensation. It was as though the vast silence of the night had poured +into the room and, like a dark tepid sea, was lapping about his body and +rising to his lips. His thoughts, dissolved into emotion, seemed to +waver and float on the stillness like sea-weed on the lift of the tide. +He stood spell-bound, lulled, yielding himself to a blissful +dissolution. + +Suddenly he became aware that the hush was too intense, too complete; +and a moment later, as though stretched to the cracking-point, it burst +terrifically into sound. A huge uproar shook the room, crashing through +it like a tangible mass. The sparks whirled in a menacing dance round +the little prince's body, and, abruptly blotted, left a deeper darkness, +in which the confused herding movements of startled figures were +indistinguishably merged. A flash of silence followed; then the +liberated forces of the night broke in rain and thunder on the rocking +walls of the room. + +"Light--light!" some one stammered; and at the same moment a door was +flung open, admitting a burst of candle-light and a group of figures in +ecclesiastical dress, against which the white gown and black hood of +Father Ignazio detached themselves. The Dominican stepped toward the +Duke. + +"Your Highness," said he in a tone of quiet resolution, "must pardon +this interruption; I act at the bidding of the Holy Office." + +Even in that moment of profound disarray the name sent a deeper shudder +through his hearers. The Duke, who stood grasping the arms of his chair, +raised his head and tried to stare down the intruders; but no one heeded +his look. At a signal from the Dominican a servant had brought in a pair +of candelabra, and in their commonplace light the cabalistic hangings, +the magician's appliances and his fantastically-dressed attendants +looked as tawdry as the paraphernalia of a village quack. Heiligenstern +alone survived the test. Erect, at bay as it were, his black robe +falling in hieratic folds, the white wand raised in his hands, he might +have personified the Prince of Darkness drawn up undaunted against the +hosts of the Lord. Some one had snatched the little prince from his +stretcher, and Maria Clementina, holding him to her breast, sat palely +confronting the sorcerer. She alone seemed to measure her strength +against his in some mysterious conflict of the will. But meanwhile the +Duke had regained his voice. + +"My father," said he, "on what information does the Holy Office act?" + +The Dominican drew a parchment from his breast. "On that of the +Inquisitor General, your Highness," he replied, handing the paper to the +Duke, who unfolded it with trembling hands but was plainly unable to +master its contents. Father Ignazio beckoned to an ecclesiastic who had +entered the room in his train. + +"This, your Highness," said he, "is the abate de Crucis of Innsbruck, +who was lately commissioned by the Holy Office to enquire into the +practises and doctrine of the order of the Illuminati, that corrupt and +atheistical sect which has been the cause of so much scandal among the +German principalities. In the course of his investigations he became +aware that the order had secretly established a lodge in Pianura; and +hastening hither from Rome to advise your Highness of the fact, has +discovered in the so-called Count Heiligenstern one of the most +notorious apostles of the order." He turned to the priest. "Signor +abate," he said, "you confirm these facts?" + +The abate de Crucis quietly advanced. He was a slight pale man of about +thirty, with a thoughtful and indulgent cast of countenance. + +"In every particular," said he, bowing profoundly to the Duke, and +speaking in a low voice of singular sweetness. "It has been my duty to +track this man's career from its ignoble beginning to its infamous +culmination, and I have been able to place in the hands of the Holy +Office the most complete proofs of his guilt. The so-called Count +Heiligenstern is the son of a tailor in a small village of Pomerania. +After passing through various vicissitudes with which I need not trouble +your Highness, he obtained the confidence of the notorious Dr. +Weishaupt, the founder of the German order of the Illuminati, and +together this precious couple have indefatigably propagated their +obscene and blasphemous doctrines. That they preach atheism and +tyrannicide I need not tell your Highness; but it is less generally +known that they have made these infamous doctrines the cloak of private +vices from which even paganism would have recoiled. The man now before +me, among other open offences against society, is known to have seduced +a young girl of noble family in Ratisbon and to have murdered her child. +His own wife and children he long since abandoned and disowned; and the +youth yonder, whom he describes as a Georgian slave rescued from the +Grand Signior's galleys, is in fact the wife of a Greek juggler of +Ravenna, and has forsaken her husband to live in criminal intercourse +with an atheist and assassin." + +This indictment, pronounced with an absence of emotion which made each +word cut the air like the separate stroke of a lash, was followed by a +prolonged silence; then one of the Duchess's ladies cried out suddenly +and burst into tears. This was the signal for a general outbreak. The +room was filled with a confusion of voices, and among the groups surging +about him Odo noticed a number of the Duke's sbirri making their way +quietly through the crowd. The notary of the Holy Office advanced toward +Heiligenstern, who had placed himself against the wall, with one arm +flung about his trembling acolyte. The Duchess, her boy still clasped +against her, remained proudly seated; but her eyes met Odo's in a glance +of terrified entreaty, and at the same instant he felt a clutch on his +sleeve and heard Cantapresto's whisper. + +"Cavaliere, a boat waits at the landing below the tanners' lane. The +shortest way to it is through the gardens and your excellency will find +the gate beyond the Chinese pavilion unlocked." + +He had vanished before Odo could look round. The latter still wavered; +but as he did so he caught Trescorre's face through the crowd. The +minister's eye was fixed on him; and the discovery was enough to make +him plunge through the narrow wake left by Cantapresto's retreat. + +Odo made his way unhindered to the ante-room, which was also thronged, +ecclesiastics, servants and even beggars from the courtyard jostling +each other in their struggle to see what was going forward. The +confusion favoured his escape, and a moment later he was hastening down +the tapestry gallery and through the vacant corridors of the palace. He +was familiar with half-a-dozen short-cuts across this network of +passages; but in his bewilderment he pressed on down the great stairs +and across the echoing guard-room that opened on the terrace. A drowsy +sentinel challenged him; and on Odo's explaining that he sought to +leave, and not to enter, the palace, replied that he had his Highness's +orders to let no one out that night. For a moment Odo was at a loss; +then he remembered his passport. It seemed to him an interminable time +before the sentinel had scrutinised it by the light of a guttering +candle, and to his surprise he found himself in a cold sweat of fear. +The rattle of the storm simulated footsteps at his heels and he felt the +blind rage of a man within shot of invisible foes. + +The passport restored, he plunged out into the night. It was pitch-black +in the gardens and the rain drove down with the guttural rush of a +midsummer storm. So fierce was its fall that it seemed to suck up the +earth in its black eddies, and he felt himself swept along over a +heaving hissing surface, with wet boughs lashing out at him as he fled. +From one terrace to another he dropped to lower depths of buffeting +dripping darkness, till he found his hand on the gate-latch and swung to +the black lane below the wall. Thence on a run he wound to the tanners' +quarter by the river: a district commonly as foul-tongued as it was +ill-favoured, but tonight clean-purged of both evils by the vehement +sweep of the storm. Here he groped his way among slippery places and +past huddled out-buildings to the piles of the wharf. The rain was now +subdued to a noiseless vertical descent, through which he could hear the +tap of the river against the piles. Scarce knowing what he fled or +whither he was flying, he let himself down the steps and found the flat +of a boat's bottom underfoot. A boatman, distinguishable only as a black +bulk in the stern, steadied his descent with outstretched hand; then the +bow swung round, and after a labouring stroke or two they caught the +current and were swept down through the rushing darkness. + + + +BOOK III. + +THE CHOICE. + + + The Vision touched him on the lips and said: + Hereafter thou shalt eat me in thy bread, + Drink me in all thy kisses, feel my hand + Steal 'twixt thy palm and Joy's, and see me stand + Watchful at every crossing of the ways, + The insatiate lover of thy nights and days. + + +3.1. + +It was at Naples, some two years later, that the circumstances of his +flight were recalled to Odo Valsecca by the sound of a voice which at +once mysteriously connected itself with the incidents of that wild +night. + +He was seated with a party of gentlemen in the saloon of Sir William +Hamilton's famous villa of Posilipo, where they were sipping the +ambassador's iced sherbet and examining certain engraved gems and +burial-urns recently taken from the excavations. The scene was such as +always appealed to Odo's fancy: the spacious room, luxuriously fitted +with carpets and curtains in the English style, and opening on a +prospect of classical beauty and antique renown; in his hands the rarest +specimens of that buried art which, like some belated golden harvest, +was now everywhere thrusting itself through the Neapolitan soil; and +about him men of taste and understanding, discussing the historic or +mythological meaning of the objects before them, and quoting Homer or +Horace in corroboration of their guesses. + +Several visitors had joined the party since Odo's entrance; and it was +from a group of these later arrivals that the voice had reached him. He +looked round and saw a man of refined and scholarly appearance, dressed +en abbe, as was the general habit in Rome and Naples, and holding in one +hand the celebrated blue vase cut in cameo which Sir William had +recently purchased from the Barberini family. + +"These reliefs," the stranger was saying, "whether cut in the substance +itself, or afterward affixed to the glass, certainly belong to the +Grecian period of cameo-work, and recall by the purity of their design +the finest carvings of Dioskorides." His beautifully-modulated Italian +was tinged by a slight foreign accent, which seemed to connect him still +more definitely with the episode his voice recalled. Odo turned to a +gentleman at his side and asked the speaker's name. + +"That," was the reply, "is the abate de Crucis, a scholar and +cognoscente, as you perceive, and at present attached to the household +of the Papal Nuncio." + +Instantly Odo beheld the tumultuous scene in the Duke's apartments, and +heard the indictment of Heiligenstern falling in tranquil accents from +the very lips which were now, in the same tone, discussing the date of a +Greek cameo vase. Even in that moment of disorder he had been struck by +the voice and aspect of the agent of the Holy Office, and by a singular +distinction that seemed to set the man himself above the coil of +passions in which his action was involved. To Odo's spontaneous yet +reflective temper there was something peculiarly impressive in the kind +of detachment which implies, not obtuseness or indifference, but a +higher sensitiveness disciplined by choice. Now he felt a renewed pang +of regret that such qualities should be found in the service of the +opposition; but the feeling was not incompatible with a wish to be more +nearly acquainted with their possessor. + +The two years elapsing since Odo's departure from Pianura had widened if +they had not lifted his outlook. If he had lost something of his early +enthusiasm he had exchanged it for a larger experience of cities and +men, and for the self-command born of varied intercourse. He had reached +a point where he was able to survey his past dispassionately and to +disentangle the threads of the intrigue in which he had so nearly lost +his footing. The actual circumstances of his escape were still wrapped +in mystery: he could only conjecture that the Duchess, foreseeing the +course events would take, had planned with Cantapresto to save him in +spite of himself. His nocturnal flight down the river had carried him to +Ponte di Po, the point where the Piana flows into the Po, the latter +river forming for a few miles the southern frontier of the duchy. Here +his passport had taken him safely past the customs-officer, and +following the indications of the boatman, he had found, outside the +miserable village clustered about the customs, a travelling-chaise which +brought him before the next night-fall to Monte Alloro. + +Of the real danger from which this timely retreat had removed him, +Gamba's subsequent letters had brought ample proof. It was indeed mainly +against himself that both parties, perhaps jointly, had directed their +attack; designing to take him in the toils ostensibly prepared for the +Illuminati. His evasion known, the Holy Office had contented itself with +imprisoning Heiligenstern in one of the Papal fortresses near the +Adriatic, while his mistress, though bred in the Greek confession, was +confined in a convent of the Sepolte Vive and his Oriental servant sent +to the Duke's galleys. As to those suspected of affiliations with the +forbidden sect, fines and penances were imposed on a few of the least +conspicuous, while the chief offenders, either from motives of policy or +thanks to their superior adroitness, were suffered to escape without a +reprimand. After this, Gamba's letters reported, the duchy had lapsed +into its former state of quiescence. Prince Ferrante had been seriously +ailing since the night of the electrical treatment, but the Pope having +sent his private physician to Pianura, the boy had rallied under the +latter's care. The Duke, as was natural, had suffered an acute relapse +of piety, spending his time in expiatory pilgrimages to the various +votive churches of the duchy, and declining to transact any public +business till he should have compiled with his own hand a calendar of +the lives of the saints, with the initial letters painted in miniature, +which he designed to present to his Holiness at Easter. + +Meanwhile Odo, at Monte Alloro, found himself in surroundings so +different from those he had left that it seemed incredible they should +exist in the same world. The Duke of Monte Alloro was that rare survival +of a stronger age, a cynic. In a period of sentimental optimism, of +fervid enthusiasms and tearful philanthropy, he represented the +pleasure-loving prince of the Renaissance, crushing his people with +taxes but dazzling them with festivities; infuriating them by his +disregard of the public welfare, but fascinating them by his good looks, +his tolerance of old abuses, his ridicule of the monks, and by the +careless libertinage which had founded the fortunes of more than one +middle-class husband and father--for the Duke always paid well for what +he appropriated. He had grown old in his pleasant sins, and these, as +such raiment will, had grown old and dingy with him; but if no longer +splendid he was still splendour-loving, and drew to his court the most +brilliant adventurers of Italy. Spite of his preference for such +company, he had a nobler side, the ruins of a fine but uncultivated +intelligence, and a taste for all that was young, generous and high in +looks and courage. He was at once drawn to Odo, who instinctively +addressed himself to these qualities, and whose conversation and manners +threw into relief the vulgarity of the old Duke's cronies. The latter +was the shrewd enough to enjoy the contrast at the expense of his +sycophants' vanity; and the cavaliere Valsecca was for a while the +reigning favourite. It would have been hard to say whether his patron +was most tickled by his zeal for economic reforms, or by his faith in +the perfectibility of man. Both these articles of Odo's creed drew tears +of enjoyment from the old Duke's puffy eyes; and he was never tired of +declaring that only his hatred for his nephew of Pianura induced him to +accord his protection to so dangerous an enemy of society. + +Odo at first fancied that it was in response to a mere whim of the +Duke's that he had been despatched to Monte Alloro; but he soon +perceived that the invitation had been inspired by Maria Clementina's +wish. Some three months after Odo's arrival, Cantapresto suddenly +appeared with a packet of letters from the Duchess. Among them her +Highness had included a few lines to Odo, whom she briefly adjured not +to return to Pianura, but to comply in all things with her uncle's +desires. Soon after this the old Duke sent for Odo, and asked him how +his present mode of life agreed with his tastes. Odo, who had learned +that frankness was the surest way to the Duke's favour, replied that, +while nothing could be more agreeable than the circumstances of his +sojourn at Monte Alloro, he must own to a wish to travel when the +occasion offered. + +"Why, this is as I fancied," replied the Duke, who held in his hand an +open letter on which Odo recognised Maria Clementina's seal. "We have +always," he continued, "spoken plainly with each other, and I will not +conceal from you that it is for your best interests that you should +remain away from Pianura for the present. The Duke, as you doubtless +divine, is anxious for your return, and her Highness, for that very +reason, is urgent that you should prolong your absence. It is notorious +that the Duke soon wearies of those about him, and that your best chance +of regaining his favour is to keep out of his reach and let your enemies +hang themselves in the noose they have prepared for you. For my part, I +am always glad to do an ill-turn to that snivelling friar, my nephew, +and the more so when I can seriously oblige a friend; and, as you have +perhaps guessed, the Duke dares not ask for your return while I show a +fancy for your company. But this," added he with an ironical twinkle, +"is a tame place for a young man of your missionary temper, and I have a +mind to send you on a visit to that arch-tyrant Ferdinand of Naples, in +whose dominions a man may yet burn for heresy or be drawn and quartered +for poaching on a nobleman's preserves. I am advised that some rare +treasures have lately been taken from the excavations there and I should +be glad if you would oblige me by acquiring a few for my gallery. I will +give you letters to a cognoscente of my acquaintance, who will put his +experience at the disposal of your excellent taste, and the funds at +your service will, I hope, enable you to outbid the English brigands +who, as the Romans say, would carry off the Colosseum if it were +portable." + +In all this Odo discerned Maria Clementina's hand, and an instinctive +resistance made him hang back upon his patron's proposal. But the only +alternative was to return to Pianura; and every letter from Gamba urged +on him (for the very reasons the Duke had given) the duty of keeping out +of reach as the surest means of saving himself and the cause to which he +was pledged. Nothing remained but a graceful acquiescence; and early the +next spring he started for Naples. + +His first impulse had been to send Cantapresto back to the Duchess. He +knew that he owed his escape me grave difficulties to the soprano's +prompt action on the night of Heiligenstern's arrest; but he was equally +sure that such action might not always be as favourable to his plans. It +was plain that Cantapresto was paid to spy on him, and that whenever +Odo's intentions clashed with those of his would-be protectors the +soprano would side with the latter. But there was something in the air +of Monte Alloro which dispelled such considerations, or at least +weakened the impulse to act on them. Cantapresto as usual had attracted +notice at court. His glibness and versatility amused the Duke, and to +Odo he was as difficult to put off as a bad habit. He had become so +accomplished a servant that he seemed a sixth sense of his master's; and +when the latter prepared to start on his travels Cantapresto took his +usual seat in the chaise. + +To a traveller of Odo's temper there could be few more agreeable +journeys than the one on which he was setting out, and the Duke being in +no haste to have his commission executed, his messenger had full leisure +to enjoy every stage of the way. He profited by this to visit several of +the small principalities north of the Apennines before turning toward +Genoa, whence he was to take ship for the South. When he left Monte +Alloro the land had worn the bleached face of February, and it was +amazing to his northern-bred eyes to find himself, on the sea-coast, in +the full exuberance of summer. Seated by this halcyon shore, Genoa, in +its carved and frescoed splendour, just then celebrating with the +customary gorgeous ritual the accession of a new Doge, seemed to Odo +like the richly-inlaid frame of some Renaissance "triumph." But the +splendid houses with their marble peristyles, and the painted villas in +their orange-groves along the shore, housed a dull and narrow-minded +society, content to amass wealth and play biribi under the eyes of their +ancestral Vandykes, without any concern as to the questions agitating +the world. A kind of fat commercial dulness, a lack of that personal +distinction which justifies magnificence, seemed to Odo the prevailing +note of the place; nor was he sorry when his packet set sail for Naples. + +Here indeed he found all the vivacity that Genoa lacked. Few cities +could at first acquaintance be more engaging to the stranger. Dull and +brown as it appeared after the rich tints of Genoa, yet so gloriously +did sea and land embrace it, so lavishly the sun gild and the moon +silver it, that it seemed steeped in the surrounding hues of nature. And +what a nature to eyes subdued to the sober tints of the north! Its +spectacular quality--that studied sequence of effects ranging from the +translucent outline of Capri and the fantastically blue mountains of the +coast, to Vesuvius lifting its torch above the plain--this prodigal +response to fancy's claims suggested the boundless invention of some +great scenic artist, some Olympian Veronese with sea and sky for a +palette. And then the city itself, huddled between bay and mountains, +and seething and bubbling like a Titan's cauldron! Here was life at its +source, not checked, directed, utilised, but gushing forth +uncontrollably through every fissure of the brown walls and reeking +streets--love and hatred, mirth and folly, impudence and greed, going +naked and unashamed as the lazzaroni on the quays. The variegated +surface of it all was fascinating to Odo. It set free his powers of +purely physical enjoyment, keeping all deeper sensations in abeyance. +These, however, presently found satisfaction in that other hidden beauty +of which city and plain were but the sumptuous drapery. It is hardly too +much to say that to the trained eyes of the day the visible Naples +hardly existed, so absorbed were they in the perusal of her buried past. +The fever of excavation was on every one. No social or political problem +could find a hearing while the subject of the last coin or bas-relief +from Pompeii or Herculanaeum remained undecided. Odo, at first an amused +spectator, gradually found himself engrossed in the fierce quarrels +raging over the date of an intaglio or the myth represented on an +amphora. The intrinsic beauty of the objects, and the light they shed on +one of the most brilliant phases of human history, were in fact +sufficient to justify the prevailing ardour; and the reconstructive +habit he had acquired from Crescenti lent a living interest to the +driest discussion between rival collectors. + +Gradually other influences reasserted themselves. At the house of Sir +William Hamilton, then the centre of the most polished society in +Naples, he met not only artists and archeologists, but men of letters +and of affairs. Among these, he was peculiarly drawn to the two +distinguished economists, the abate Galiani and the cavaliere +Filangieri, in whose company he enjoyed for the first time sound +learning unhampered by pedantry. The lively Galiani proved that social +tastes and a broad wit are not incompatible with more serious interests; +and Filangieri threw the charm of a graceful personality over any topic +he discussed. In the latter, indeed, courtly, young and romantic, a +thinker whose intellectual acuteness was steeped in moral emotion, Odo +beheld the type of the new chivalry, an ideal leader of the campaign +against social injustice. Filangieri represented the extremest optimism +of the day. His sense of existing abuses was only equalled by his faith +in their speedy amendment. Love was to cure all evils: the love of man +for man, the effusive all-embracing sympathy of the school of the +Vicaire Savoyard, was to purge the emotions by tenderness and pity. In +Gamba, the victim of the conditions he denounced, the sense of present +hardship prevailed over the faith in future improvement; while +Filangieri's social superiority mitigated his view of the evils and +magnified the efficacy of the proposed remedies. Odo's days passed +agreeably in such intercourse, or in the excitement of excursions to the +ruined cities; and as the court and the higher society of Naples offered +little to engage him, he gradually restricted himself to the small +circle of chosen spirits gathered at the villa Hamilton. To these he +fancied the abate de Crucis might prove an interesting addition; and the +desire to learn something of this problematic person induced him to quit +the villa at the moment when the abate took leave. + +They found themselves together on the threshold; and Odo, recalling to +the other the circumstances of their first meeting, proposed that they +should dismiss their carriages and regain the city on foot. De Crucis +readily consented; and they were soon descending the hill of Posilipo. +Here and there a turn in the road brought them to an open space whence +they commanded the bay from Procida to Sorrento, with Capri afloat in +liquid gold and the long blue shadow of Vesuvius stretching like a +menace toward the city. The spectacle was one of which Odo never +wearied; but today it barely diverted him from the charms of his +companion's talk. The abate de Crucis had that quality of repressed +enthusiasm, of an intellectual sensibility tempered by self-possession, +which exercises the strongest attraction over a mind not yet master of +itself. Though all he said had a personal note he seemed to withhold +himself even in the moment of greatest expansion: like some prince who +should enrich his favourites from the public treasury but keep his +private fortune unimpaired. In the course of their conversation Odo +learned that though of Austrian birth his companion was of mingled +English and Florentine parentage: a fact perhaps explaining the mixture +of urbanity and reserve that lent such charm to his manner. He told Odo +that his connection with the Holy Office had been only temporary, and +that, having contracted a severe cold the previous winter in Germany, he +had accepted a secretaryship in the service of the Papal Nuncio in order +to enjoy the benefits of a mild climate. "By profession," he added, "I +am a pedagogue, and shall soon travel to Rome, where I have been called +by Prince Bracciano to act as governor to his son; and meanwhile I am +taking advantage of my residence here to indulge my taste for +antiquarian studies." + +He went on to praise the company they had just left, declaring that he +knew no better way for a young man to form his mind than by frequenting +the society of men of conflicting views and equal capacity. "Nothing," +said he, "is more injurious to the growth of character than to be +secluded from argument and opposition; as nothing is healthier than to +be obliged to find good reasons for one's beliefs on pain of +surrendering them." + +"But," said Odo, struck with this declaration, "to a man of your cloth +there is one belief which never surrenders to reason." + +The other smiled. "True," he agreed; "but I often marvel to see how +little our opponents know of that belief. The wisest of them seem in the +case of those children at our country fairs who gape at the incredible +things depicted on the curtains of the booths, without asking themselves +whether the reality matches its presentment. The weakness of human +nature has compelled us to paint the outer curtain of the sanctuary in +gaudy colours, and the malicious fancy of our enemies has given a +monstrous outline to these pictures; but what are such vanities to one +who has passed beyond, and beheld the beauty of the King's daughter, all +glorious within?" + +As though unwilling to linger on such grave topics, he turned the talk +to the scene at their feet, questioning Odo as to the impression Naples +had made on him. He listened courteously to the young man's comments on +the wretched state of the peasantry, the extravagances of the court and +nobility and the judicial corruption which made the lower classes submit +to any injustice rather than seek redress through the courts. De Crucis +agreed with him in the main, admitting that the monopoly of corn, the +maintenance of feudal rights and the King's indifference to the graver +duties of his rank placed the kingdom of Naples far below such states as +Tuscany or Venetia; "though," he added, "I think our economists, in +praising one state at the expense of another, too often overlook those +differences of character and climate that must ever make it impossible +to govern different races in the same manner. Our peasants have a blunt +saying: Cut off the dog's tail and he is still a dog; and so I suspect +the most enlightened rule would hardly bring this prompt and choleric +people, living on a volcanic soil amid a teeming vegetation, into any +resemblance with the clear-headed Tuscan or the gentle and dignified +Roman." + +As he spoke they emerged upon the Chiaia, where at that hour the quality +took the air in their carriages, while the lower classes thronged the +footway. A more vivacious scene no city of Europe could present. The +gilt coaches drawn by six or eight of the lively Neapolitan horses, +decked with plumes and artificial flowers and preceded by running +footmen who beat the foot-passengers aside with long staves; the +richly-dressed ladies seated in this never-ending file of carriages, +bejewelled like miraculous images and languidly bowing to their friends; +the throngs of citizens and their wives in holiday dress; the sellers of +sherbet, ices and pastry bearing their trays and barrels through the +crowd with strange cries and the jingling of bells; the friars of every +order in their various habits, the street-musicians, the half-naked +lazzaroni, cripples and beggars, who fringed the throng like the line of +scum edging a fair lake;--this medley of sound and colour, which in fact +resembled some sudden growth of the fiery soil, was an expressive +comment on the abate's words. + +"Look," he continued, as he and Odo drew aside to escape the mud from an +emblazoned chariot, "at the gold-leaf on the panels of that coach and +the gold-lace on the liveries of those lacqueys. Is there any other city +in the world where gold is so prodigally used? Where the monks gild +their relics, the nobility their servants, the apothecaries their pills, +the very butchers their mutton? One might fancy their bright sun had set +them the example! And how cold and grey all soberer tints must seem to +these children of Apollo! Well--so it is with their religion and their +daily life. I wager half those naked wretches yonder would rather attend +a fine religious service, with abundance of gilt candles, music from +gilt organ-pipes, and incense from gilt censers, than eat a good meal or +sleep in a decent bed; as they would rather starve under a handsome +merry King that has the name of being the best billiard-player in Europe +than go full under one of your solemn reforming Austrian Archdukes!" + +The words recalled to Odo Crescenti's theory of the influence of +character and climate on the course of history; and this subject soon +engrossing both speakers, they wandered on, inattentive to their +surroundings, till they found themselves in the thickest concourse of +the Toledo. Here for a moment the dense crowd hemmed them in; and as +they stood observing the humours of the scene, Odo's eye fell on the +thick-set figure of a man in doctor's dress, who was being led through +the press by two agents of the Inquisition. The sight was too common to +have fixed his attention, had he not recognised with a start the +irascible red-faced professor who, on his first visit to Vivaldi, had +defended the Diluvial theory of creation. The sight raised a host of +memories from which Odo would gladly have beaten a retreat; but the +crowd held him in check and a moment later he saw that the doctor's eyes +were fixed on him with an air of recognition. A movement of pity +succeeded his first impulse, and turning to de Crucis he exclaimed:--"I +see yonder an old acquaintance who seems in an unlucky plight and with +whom I should be glad to speak." + +The other, following his glance, beckoned to one of the sbirri, who made +his way through the throng with the alacrity of one summoned by a +superior. De Crucis exchanged a few words with him, and then signed to +him to return to his charge, who presently vanished in some fresh +shifting of the crowd. + +"Your friend," said de Crucis, "has been summoned before the Holy Office +to answer a charge of heresy preferred by the authorities. He has lately +been appointed to the chair of physical sciences in the University here, +and has doubtless allowed himself to publish openly views that were +better expounded in the closet. His offence, however, appears to be a +mild one, and I make no doubt he will be set free in a few days." + +This, however, did not satisfy Odo; and he asked de Crucis if there were +no way of speaking with the doctor at once. + +His companion hesitated. "It can easily be arranged," said he; +"but--pardon me, cavaliere--are you well-advised in mixing yourself in +such matters?" + +"I am well-advised in seeking to serve a friend!" Odo somewhat hotly +returned; and de Crucis, with a faint smile of approval, replied +quietly: "In that case I will obtain permission for you to visit your +friend in the morning." + +He was true to his word; and the next forenoon Odo, accompanied by an +officer of police, was taken to the prison of the Inquisition. Here he +found his old acquaintance seated in a clean commodious room and reading +Aristotle's "History of Animals," the only volume of his library that he +had been permitted to carry with him. He welcomed Odo heartily, and on +the latter's enquiring what had brought him to this plight, replied with +some dignity that he had been led there in the fulfilment of his duty. + +"Some months ago," he continued, "I was summoned hither to profess the +natural sciences in the University; a summons I readily accepted, since +I hoped, by the study of a volcanic soil, to enlarge my knowledge of the +globe's formation. Such in fact was the case, but to my surprise my +researches led me to adopt the views I had formerly combated, and I now +find myself in the ranks of the Vulcanists, or believers in the +secondary origin of the earth: a view you may remember I once opposed +with all the zeal of inexperience. Having firmly established every point +in my argument according to the Baconian method of investigation, I felt +it my duty to enlighten my scholars; and in the course of my last +lecture I announced the result of my investigations. I was of course +aware of the inevitable result; but the servants of Truth have no choice +but to follow where she calls, and many have joyfully traversed stonier +places than I am likely to travel." + +Nothing could exceed the respect with which Odo heard this simple +confession of faith. It was as though the speaker had unconsciously +convicted him of remissness, of cowardice even; so vain and windy his +theorising seemed, judged by the other's deliberate act! Yet placed as +he was, what could he do, how advance their common end, but by passively +waiting on events? At least, he reflected, he could perform the trivial +service of trying to better his friend's case; and this he eagerly +offered to attempt. The doctor thanked him, but without any great +appearance of emotion: Odo was struck by the change which had +transformed a heady and intemperate speaker into a model of philosophic +calm. The doctor, indeed, seemed far more concerned for the safety of +his library and his cabinet of minerals than for his own. "Happily," +said he, "I am not a man of family, and can therefore sacrifice my +liberty with a clear conscience: a fact I am the more thankful for when +I recall the moral distress of our poor friend Vivaldi, when compelled +to desert his post rather than be separated from his daughter." + +The name brought the colour to Odo's brow, and with an embarrassed air +he asked what news the doctor had of their friend. + +"Alas," said the other, "the last was of his death, which happened two +years since in Pavia. The Sardinian government had, as you probably +know, confiscated his small property on his leaving the state, and I am +told he died in great poverty, and in sore anxiety for his daughter's +future." He added that these events had taken place before his own +departure from Turin, and that since then he had learned nothing of +Fulvia's fate, save that she was said to have made her home with an aunt +who lived in a town of the Veneto. + +Odo listened in silence. The lapse of time, and the absence of any links +of association, had dimmed the girl's image in his breast; but at the +mere sound of her name it lived again, and he felt her interwoven with +his deepest fibres. The picture of her father's death and of her own +need filled him with an ineffectual pity, and for a moment he thought of +seeking her out; but the other could recall neither the name of the town +she had removed to nor that of the relative who had given her a home. + +To aid the good doctor was a simpler business. The intervention of de +Crucis and Odo's own influence sufficed to effect his release, and on +the payment of a heavy fine (in which Odo privately assisted him) he was +reinstated in his chair. The only promise exacted by the Holy Office was +that he should in future avoid propounding his own views on questions +already decided by Scripture, and to this he readily agreed, since, as +he shrewdly remarked to Odo, his opinions were now well-known, and any +who wished farther instruction had only to apply to him privately. + +The old Duke having invited Odo to return to Monte Alloro with such +treasures as he had collected for the ducal galleries, the young man +resolved to visit Rome on his way to the North. His acquaintance with de +Crucis had grown into something like friendship since their joint effort +in behalf of the imprisoned sage, and the abate preparing to set out +about the same time, the two agreed to travel together. The road leading +from Naples to Rome was at that time one of the worst in Italy, and was +besides so ill-provided with inns that there was no inducement to linger +on the way. De Crucis, however, succeeded in enlivening even this +tedious journey. He was a good linguist and a sound classical scholar, +besides having, as he had told Odo, a pronounced taste for antiquarian +research. In addition to this, he performed agreeably on the violin, and +was well-acquainted with the history of music. His chief distinction, +however, lay in the ease with which he wore his accomplishments, and in +a breadth of view that made it possible to discuss with him many +subjects distasteful to most men of his cloth. The sceptical or +licentious ecclesiastic was common enough; but Odo had never before met +a priest who united serious piety with this indulgent temper, or who had +learning enough to do justice to the arguments of his opponents. + +On his venturing one evening to compliment de Crucis on these qualities, +the latter replied with a smile: "Whatever has been lately advanced +against the Jesuits, it can hardly be denied that they were good +school-masters; and it is to them I owe the talents you have been +pleased to admire. Indeed," he continued, quietly fingering his violin, +"I was myself bred in the order: a fact I do not often make known in the +present heated state of public opinion, but which I never conceal when +commended for any quality that I owe to the Society rather than to my +own merit." + +Surprise for the moment silenced Odo; for though it was known that Italy +was full of former Jesuits who had been permitted to remain in the +country as secular priests, and even to act as tutors or professors in +private families, he had never thought of de Crucis in this connection. +The latter, seeing his surprise, went on: "Once a Jesuit, always a +Jesuit, I suppose. I at least owe the Society too much not to own my +debt when the occasion offers. Nor could I ever see the force of the +charge so often brought against us: that we sacrifice everything to the +glory of the order. For what is the glory of the order? Our own motto +has declared it: Ad majorem Dei gloriam--who works for the Society works +for its Master. If our zeal has been sometimes misdirected, our blood +has a thousand times witnessed to its sincerity. In the Indies, in +America, in England during the great persecution, and lately on our own +unnatural coasts, the Jesuits have died for Christ as joyfully as His +first disciples died for Him. Yet these are but a small number in +comparison with the countless servants of the order who, labouring in +far countries among savage peoples, or surrounded by the heretical +enemies of our faith, have died the far bitterer death of moral +isolation: setting themselves to their task with the knowledge that +their lives were but so much indistinguishable dust to be added to the +sum of human effort. What association founded on human interests has +ever commanded such devotion? And what merely human authority could +count on such unquestioning obedience, not in a mob of poor illiterate +monks, but in men chosen for their capacity and trained to the exercise +of their highest faculties? Yet there have never lacked such men to +serve the Order; and as one of our enemies has said--our noblest enemy, +the great Pascal--'je crois volontiers aux histoires dont les temoins se +font egorger.'" + +He did not again revert to his connection with the Jesuits; but in the +farther course of their acquaintance Odo was often struck by the +firmness with which he testified to the faith that was in him, without +using the jargon of piety, or seeming, by his own attitude, to cast a +reflection on that of others. He was indeed master of that worldly +science which the Jesuits excelled in imparting, and which, though it +might sink to hypocrisy in smaller natures, became in a finely-tempered +spirit, the very flower of Christian courtesy. + +Odo had often spoken to de Crucis of the luxurious lives led by many of +the monastic orders in Naples. It might be true enough that the monks +themselves, and even their abbots, fared on fish and vegetables, and +gave their time to charitable and educational work; but it was +impossible to visit the famous monastery of San Martino, or that of the +Carthusians at Camaldoli, without observing that the anchoret's cell had +expanded into a delightful apartment, with bedchamber, library and +private chapel, and his cabbage-plot into a princely garden. De Crucis +admitted the truth of the charge, explaining it in part by the character +of the Neapolitan people, and by the tendency of the northern traveller +to forget that such apparent luxuries as spacious rooms, shady groves +and the like are regarded as necessities in a hot climate. He urged, +moreover, that the monastic life should not be judged by a few isolated +instances; and on the way to Rome he proposed that Odo, by way of seeing +the other side of the question, should visit the ancient foundation of +the Benedictines on Monte Cassino. + +The venerable monastery, raised on its height over the busy vale of +Garigliano, like some contemplative spirit above the conflicting +problems of life, might well be held to represent the nobler side of +Christian celibacy. For nearly a thousand years its fortified walls had +been the stronghold of the humanities, and generations of students had +cherished and added to the treasures of the famous library. But the +Benedictine rule was as famous for good works as for learning, and its +comparative abstention from dogmatic controversy and from the mechanical +devotion of some of the other orders had drawn to it men of superior +mind, who sought in the monastic life the free exercise of the noblest +activities rather than a sanctified refuge from action. This was +especially true of the monastery of Monte Cassino, whither many scholars +had been attracted and where the fathers had long had the highest name +for learning and beneficence. The monastery, moreover, in addition to +its charitable and educational work among the poor, maintained a school +of theology to which students came from all parts of Italy; and their +presence lent an unwonted life to the great labyrinth of courts and +cloisters. + +The abbot, with whom de Crucis was well-acquainted, welcomed the +travellers warmly, making them free of the library and the archives and +pressing them to prolong their visit. Under the spell of these +influences they lingered on from day to day; and to Odo they were the +pleasantest days he had known. To be waked before dawn by the bell +ringing for lauds--to rise from the narrow bed in his white-washed cell, +and opening his casement look forth over the haze-enveloped valley, the +dark hills of the Abruzzi and the remote gleam of sea touched into being +by the sunrise--to hasten through hushed echoing corridors to the +church, where in a grey resurrection-light the fathers were intoning the +solemn office of renewal--this morning ablution of the spirit, so like +the bodily plunge into clear cold water, seemed to attune the mind to +the fullest enjoyment of what was to follow: the hours of study, the +talks with the monks, the strolls through cloister or garden, all +punctuated by the recurring summons to devotion. Yet for all its latent +significance it remained to him a purely sensuous impression, the vision +of a golden leisure: not a solution of life's perplexities, but at best +an honourable escape from them. + + +3.2. + +"To know Rome is to have assisted at the councils of destiny!" This cry +of a more famous traveller must have struggled for expression in Odo's +breast as the great city, the city of cities, laid her irresistible hold +upon him. His first impression, as he drove in the clear evening light +from the Porta del Popolo to his lodgings in the Via Sistina, was of a +prodigious accumulation of architectural effects, a crowding of century +on century, all fused in the crucible of the Roman sun, so that each +style seemed linked to the other by some subtle affinity of colour. +Nowhere else, surely, is the traveller's first sight so crowded with +surprises, with conflicting challenges to eye and brain. Here, as he +passed, was a fragment of the ancient Servian wall, there a new stucco +shrine embedded in the bricks of a medieval palace; on one hand a lofty +terrace crowned by a row of mouldering busts, on the other a tower with +machicolated parapet, its flanks encrusted with bits of Roman sculpture +and the escutcheons of seventeenth-century Popes. Opposite, perhaps, one +of Fuga's golden-brown churches, with windy saints blowing out of their +niches, overlooked the nereids of a barocco fountain, or an old house +propped itself like a palsied beggar against a row of Corinthian +columns; while everywhere flights of steps led up and down to hanging +gardens or under archways, and each turn revealed some distant glimpse +of convent-walls on the slope of a vineyard or of red-brown ruins +profiled against the dim sea-like reaches of the Campagna. + +Afterward, as order was born out of chaos, and he began to thread his +way among the centuries, this first vision lost something of its +intensity; yet it was always, to the last, through the eye that Rome +possessed him. Her life, indeed, as though in obedience to such a +setting, was an external, a spectacular business, from the wild +animation of the cattle-market in the Forum or the hucksters' traffic +among the fountains of the Piazza Navona, to the pompous entertainments +in the cardinals' palaces and the ever-recurring religious ceremonies +and processions. Pius VI., in the reaction from Ganganelli's democratic +ways, had restored the pomp and ceremonial of the Vatican with the +religious discipline of the Holy Office; and never perhaps had Rome been +more splendid on the surface or more silent and empty within. Odo, at +times, as he moved through some assemblage of cardinals and nobles, had +the sensation of walking through a huge reverberating palace, decked out +with all the splendours of art but long since abandoned of men. The +superficial animation, the taste for music and antiquities, all the +dilettantisms of an idle and irresponsible society, seemed to him to +shrivel to dust in the glare of that great past that lit up every corner +of the present. + +Through his own connections, and the influence of de Crucis, he saw all +that was best not only among the nobility, but in that ecclesiastical +life now more than ever predominant in Rome. Here at last he was face to +face with the mighty Sphinx, and with the bleaching bones of those who +had tried to guess her riddle. Wherever he went these "lost adventurers" +walked the streets with him, gliding between the Princes of the Church +in the ceremonies of Saint Peter's and the Lateran, or mingling in the +company that ascended the state staircase at some cardinal's levee. + +He met indeed many accomplished and amiable ecclesiastics, but it seemed +to him that the more thoughtful among them had either acquired their +peace of mind at the cost of a certain sensitiveness, or had taken +refuge in a study of the past, as the early hermits fled to the desert +from the disorders of Antioch and Alexandria. None seemed disposed to +face the actual problems of life, and this attitude of caution or +indifference had produced a stagnation of thought that contrasted +strongly with the animation of Sir William Hamilton's circle in Naples. +The result in Odo's case was a reaction toward the pleasures of his age; +and of these Rome had but few to offer. He spent some months in the +study of the antique, purchasing a few good examples of sculpture for +the Duke, and then, without great reluctance, set out for Monte Alloro. + +Here he found a changed atmosphere. The Duke welcomed him handsomely, +and bestowed the highest praise on the rarities he had collected; but +for the moment the court was ruled by a new favourite, to whom Odo's +coming was obviously unwelcome. This adroit adventurer, whose name was +soon to become notorious throughout Europe, had taken the old prince by +his darling weaknesses, and Odo, having no mind to share in the excesses +of the precious couple, seized the first occasion to set out again on +his travels. + +His course had now become one of aimless wandering; for prudence still +forbade his return to Pianura, and his patron's indifference left him +free to come and go as he chose. He had brought from Rome--that albergo +d'ira--a settled melancholy of spirit, which sought refuge in such +distractions as the moment offered. In such a mood change of scene was a +necessity, and he resolved to employ the next months in visiting several +of the mid-Italian cities. Toward Florence he was specially drawn by the +fact that Alfieri now lived there; but, as often happens after such +separations, the reunion was a disappointment. Alfieri, indeed, warmly +welcomed his friend; but he was engrossed in his dawning passion for the +Countess of Albany, and that lady's pitiable situation excluded all +other interests from his mind. To Odo, to whom the years had brought an +increasing detachment, this self-absorption seemed an arrest in growth; +for Alfieri's early worship of liberty had not yet found its destined +channel of expression, and for the moment his enthusiasms had shrunk to +the compass of a romantic adventure. The friends parted after a few days +of unsatisfying intercourse; and it was under the influence of this +final disenchantment that Odo set out for Venice. + +It was the vintage season, and the travellers descended from the +Apennines on a landscape diversified by the picturesque incidents of the +grape-gathering. On every slope stood some villa with awnings spread, +and merry parties were picnicking among the vines or watching the +peasants at their work. Cantapresto, who had shown great reluctance at +leaving Monte Alloro, where, as he declared, he found himself as snug as +an eel in a pasty, was now all eagerness to press forward; and Odo was +in the mood to allow any influence to decide his course. He had an +invaluable courier in Cantapresto, whose enormous pretensions generally +assured him the best lodging and the fastest conveyance to be obtained, +and who was never happier than when outwitting a rival emissary, or +bribing a landlord to serve up on Odo's table the repast ordered in +advance for some distinguished traveller. His impatience to reach +Venice, which he described as the scene of all conceivable delights, had +on this occasion tripled his zeal, and they travelled rapidly to Padua, +where he had engaged a burchiello for the passage down the Brenta. Here, +however, he found he had been outdone at his own game; for the servant +of an English Duke had captured the burchiello and embarked his noble +party before Cantapresto reached the wharf. This being the season of the +villeggiatura, when the Venetian nobility were exchanging visits on the +mainland, every conveyance was in motion and no other boat to be had for +a week; while as for the "bucentaur" or public bark, which was just then +getting under way, it was already packed to the gunwale with Jews, +pedlars and such vermin, and the captain swore by the three thousand +relics of Saint Justina that he had no room on board for so much as a +hungry flea. + +Odo, who had accompanied Cantapresto to the water-side, was listening to +these assurances and to the soprano's vain invectives, when a +well-dressed young man stepped up to the group. This gentleman, whose +accent and dress showed him to be a Frenchman of quality, told Odo that +he was come from Vicenza, whither he had gone to engage a company of +actors for his friend the Procuratore Bra, who was entertaining a +distinguished company at his villa on the Brenta; that he was now +returning with his players, and that he would be glad to convey Odo so +far on his road to Venice. His friend's seat, he added, was near Oriago, +but a few miles above Fusina, where a public conveyance might always be +found; so that Odo would doubtless be able to proceed the same night to +Venice. + +This civil offer Odo at once accepted, and the Frenchman thereupon +suggested that, as the party was to set out the next day at sunrise, the +two should sup together and pass the intervening hours in such +diversions as the city offered. They returned to the inn, where the +actors were also lodged, and Odo's host having ordered a handsome +supper, proposed, with his guest's permission, to invite the leading +members of the company to partake of it. He departed on this errand; and +great was Odo's wonder, when the door reopened, to discover, among the +party it admitted, his old acquaintance of Vercelli, the Count of +Castelrovinato. The latter, whose dress and person had been refurbished, +and who now wore an air of rakish prosperity, greeted him with evident +pleasure, and, while their entertainer was engaged in seating the ladies +of the company, gave him a brief account of the situation. + +The young French gentleman (whom he named as the Marquis de +Coeur-Volant) had come to Italy some months previously on the grand +tour, and having fallen a victim to the charms of Venice, had declared +that, instead of continuing on his travels, he meant to complete his +education in that famous school of pleasure. Being master of his own +fortune, he had hired a palace on the Grand Canal, had dispatched his +governor (a simple archaeologist) on a mission of exploration to Sicily +and Greece, and had devoted himself to an assiduous study of Venetian +manners. Among those contributing to his instruction was Mirandolina of +Chioggia, who had just completed a successful engagement at the theatre +of San Moise in Venice. Wishing to detain her in the neighbourhood, her +adorer had prevailed on his friend the Procuratore to give a series of +comedies at his villa of Bellocchio and had engaged to provide him with +a good company of performers. Miranda was of course selected as prima +amorosa; and the Marquess, under Castelrovinato's guidance, had then set +out to collect the rest of the company. This he had succeeded in doing, +and was now returning to Bellocchio, where Miranda was to meet them. Odo +was the more diverted at the hazard which had brought him into such +company, as the Procuratore Bra was one of the noblemen to whom the old +Duke had specially recommended him. On learning this, the Marquess urged +him to present his letter of introduction on arriving at Bellocchio, +where the Procuratore, who was noted for hospitality to strangers, would +doubtless insist on his joining the assembled party. This Odo declined +to do; but his curiosity to see Mirandolina made him hope that chance +would soon throw him in the Procuratore's way. + +Meanwhile supper was succeeded by music and dancing, and the company +broke up only in time to proceed to the landing-place where their barge +awaited them. This was a private burchiello of the Procuratore's with a +commodious antechamber for the servants, and a cabin cushioned in +damask. Into this agreeable retreat the actresses were packed with all +their bags and band-boxes; and their travelling-cloaks being rolled into +pillows, they were soon asleep in a huddle of tumbled finery. + +Odo and his host preferred to take the air on deck. The sun was rising +above the willow-clad banks of the Brenta, and it was pleasant to glide +in the clear early light past sleeping gardens and villas, and vineyards +where the peasants were already at work. The wind setting from the sea, +they travelled slowly and had full leisure to view the succession of +splendid seats interspersed with gardens, the thriving villages, and the +poplar-groves festooned with vines. Coeur-Volant spoke eloquently of the +pleasures to be enjoyed in this delightful season of the villeggiatura. +"Nowhere," said he, "do people take their pleasures so easily and +naturally as in Venice. My countrymen claim a superiority in this art, +and it may be they possessed it a generation ago. But what a morose +place is France become since philosophy has dethroned enjoyment! If you +go on a visit to one of our noblemen's seats, what do you find there, I +ask? Cards, comedies, music, the opportunity for an agreeable intrigue +in the society of your equals? No--but a hostess engaged in suckling and +bathing her brats, or in studying chemistry and optics with some dirty +school-master, who is given the seat of honour at table and a pavilion +in the park to which he may retire when weary of the homage of the +great; while as for the host, he is busy discussing education or +political economy with his unfortunate guests, if, indeed, he is not +dragging them through leagues of mud and dust to inspect his latest +experiments in forestry and agriculture, or to hear a pack of snuffling +school-children singing hymns to the God of Nature! And what," he +continued, "is the result of it all? The peasants are starving, the +taxes are increasing, the virtuous landlords are ruining themselves in +farming on scientific principles, the tradespeople are grumbling because +the nobility do not spend their money in Paris, the court is dull, the +clergy are furious, the Queen mopes, the King is frightened, and the +whole French people are yawning themselves to death from Normandy to +Provence." + +"Yes," said Castelrovinato with his melancholy smile, "the test of +success is to have had one's money's worth; but experience, which is +dried pleasure, is at best a dusty diet, as we know. Yonder, in a fold +of those hills," he added, pointing to the cluster of Euganean mountains +just faintly pencilled above the plain, "lies the little fief from which +I take my name. Acre by acre, tree by tree, it has gone to pay for my +experiments, not in agriculture but in pleasure; and whenever I look +over at it from Venice and reflect on what each rood of ground or trunk +of tree has purchased, I wonder to see my life as bare as ever for all +that I have spent on it." + +The young Marquess shrugged his shoulders. "And would your life," he +exclaimed, "have been a whit less bare had you passed it in your +ancestral keep among those windy hills, in the company of swineherds and +charcoal-burners, with a milk-maid for your mistress and the village +priest for your partner at picquet?" + +"Perhaps not," the other agreed. "There is a tale of a man who spent his +life in wishing he had lived differently; and when he died he was +surrounded by a throng of spectral shapes, each one exactly like the +other, who, on his asking what they were, replied: 'We are all the +different lives you might have lived.'" + +"If you are going to tell ghost-stories," cried Coeur-Volant, "I will +call for a bottle of Canary!" + +"And I," rejoined the Count good-humouredly, "will try to coax the +ladies forth with a song;" and picking up his lute, which always lay +within reach, he began to sing in the Venetian dialect:-- + + There's a villa on the Brenta + Where the statues, white as snow, + All along the water-terrace + Perch like sea-gulls in a row. + + There's a garden on the Brenta + Where the fairest ladies meet, + Picking roses from the trellis + For the gallants at their feet. + + There's an arbour on the Brenta + Made of yews that screen the light, + Where I kiss my girl at midday + Close as lovers kiss at night. + +The players soon emerged at this call and presently the deck resounded +with song and laughter. All the company were familiar with the Venetian +bacaroles, and Castelrovinato's lute was passed from hand to hand, as +one after another, incited by the Marquess's Canary, tried to recall +some favourite measure--"La biondina in gondoleta" or "Guarda, che bella +luna." + +Meanwhile life was stirring in the villages and gardens, and groups of +people appearing on the terraces overhanging the water. Never had Odo +beheld a livelier scene. The pillared houses with their rows of statues +and vases, the flights of marble steps descending to the gilded +river-gates, where boats bobbed against the landings and boatmen gasped +in the shade of their awnings; the marble trellises hung with grapes, +the gardens where parterres of flowers and parti-coloured gravel +alternated with the dusk of tunnelled yew-walks; the company playing at +bowls in the long alleys, or drinking chocolate in gazebos above the +river; the boats darting hither and thither on the stream itself, the +travelling-chaises, market-waggons and pannier-asses crowding the +causeway along the bank--all were unrolled before him with as little +effect of reality as the episodes woven in some gaily-tinted tapestry. +Even the peasants in the vineyards seemed as merry and thoughtless as +the quality in their gardens. The vintage-time is the holiday of the +rural year and the day's work was interspersed with frequent intervals +of relaxation. At the villages where the burchiello touched for +refreshments, handsome young women in scarlet bodices came on board with +baskets of melons, grapes, figs and peaches; and under the trellises on +the landings, lads and girls with flowers in their hair were dancing the +monferrina to the rattle of tambourines or the chant of some wandering +ballad-singer. These scenes were so engaging to the comedians that they +could not be restrained from going ashore and mingling in the village +diversions; and the Marquess, though impatient to rejoin his divinity, +was too volatile not to be drawn into the adventure. The whole party +accordingly disembarked, and were presently giving an exhibition of +their talents to the assembled idlers, the Pantaloon, Harlequin and +Doctor enacting a comical intermezzo which Cantapresto had that morning +composed for them, while Scaramouch and Columbine joined the dancers, +and the rest of the company, seizing on a train of donkeys laden with +vegetables for the Venetian market, stripped these patient animals of +their panniers, and mounting them bareback started a Corso around the +village square amid the invectives of the drivers and the applause of +the crowd. + +Day was declining when the Marquess at last succeeded in driving his +flock to their fold, and the moon sent a quiver of brightness across the +water as the burchiello touched at the landing of a villa set amid +close-massed foliage high above the river. Gardens peopled with statues +descended from the portico of the villa to the marble platform on the +water's edge, where a throng of boatmen in the Procuratore's livery +hurried forward to receive the Marquess and his companions. The +comedians, sobered by the magnificence of their surroundings, followed +their leader like awe-struck children. Light and music streamed from the +long facade overhead, but the lower gardens lay hushed and dark, the air +fragrant with unseen flowers, the late moon just burnishing the edges of +the laurel-thickets from which, now and again, a nightingale's song +gushed in a fountain of sound. Odo, spellbound, followed the others +without a thought of his own share in the adventure. Never before had +beauty so ministered to every sense. He felt himself lost in his +surroundings, absorbed in the scent and murmur of the night. + + +3.3. + +On the upper terrace a dozen lacqueys with wax lights hastened out to +receive the travellers. A laughing group followed, headed by a tall +vivacious woman covered with jewels, whom Odo guessed to be the +Procuratessa Bra. The Marquess, hastening forward, kissed the lady's +hand, and turned to summon the actors, who hung back at the farther end +of the terrace. The light from the windows and from the lacquey's tapers +fell full on the motley band, and Odo, roused to the singularity of his +position, was about to seek shelter behind the Pantaloon when he heard a +cry of recognition, and Mirandolina, darting out of the Procuratessa's +circle, fell at that lady's feet with a whispered word. + +The Procuratessa at once advanced with a smile of surprise and bade the +Cavaliere Valsecca welcome. Seeing Odo's embarrassment, she added that +his Highness of Monte Alloro had already apprised her of the cavaliere's +coming, and that she and her husband had the day before despatched a +messenger to Venice to enquire if he were already there to invite him to +the villa. At the same moment a middle-aged man with an air of careless +kindly strength emerged from the house and greeted Odo. + +"I am happy," said he bowing, "to receive at Bellocchio a member of the +princely house of Pianura; and your excellency will no doubt be as +well-pleased as ourselves that accident enables us to make acquaintance +without the formalities of an introduction." + +This, then, was the famous Procuratore Bra, whose house had given three +Doges to Venice, and who was himself regarded as the most powerful if +not the most scrupulous noble of his day. Odo had heard many tales of +his singularities, for in a generation of elegant triflers his figure +stood out with the ruggedness of a granite boulder in a clipped and +gravelled garden. To hereditary wealth and influence he added a love of +power seconded by great political sagacity and an inflexible will. If +his means were not always above suspicion they at least tended to +statesmanlike ends, and in his public capacity he was faithful to the +highest interests of the state. Reports differed as to his private use +of his authority. He was noted for his lavish way of living, and for a +hospitality which distinguished him from the majority of his class, who, +however showy in their establishments, seldom received strangers, and +entertained each other only on the most ceremonious occasions. The +Procuratore kept open house both in Venice and on the Brenta, and in his +drawing-rooms the foreign traveller was welcomed as freely as in Paris +or London. Here, too, were to be met the wits, musicians and literati +whom a traditional morgue still excluded from many aristocratic houses. +Yet in spite of his hospitality (or perhaps because of it) the +Procuratore, as Odo knew, was the butt of the very poets he entertained, +and the worst satirised man in Venice. It was his misfortune to be in +love with his wife; and this state of mind (in itself sufficiently +ridiculous) and the shifts and compromises to which it reduced him, were +a source of endless amusement to the humorists. Nor were graver rumours +wanting; for it was known that the Procuratore, so proof against other +persuasions, was helpless in his wife's hands, and that honest men had +been undone and scoundrels exalted at a nod of the beautiful +Procuratessa. That lady, as famous in her way as her husband, was noted +for quite different qualities; so that, according to one satirist, her +hospitality began where his ended, and the Albergo Bra (the nickname +their palace went by) was advertised in the lampoons of the day as +furnishing both bed and board. In some respects, however, the tastes of +the noble couple agreed, both delighting in music, wit, good company, +and all the adornments of life; while, with regard to their private +conduct, it doubtless suffered by being viewed through the eyes of a +narrow and trivial nobility, apt to look with suspicion on any deviation +from the customs of their class. Such was the household in which Odo +found himself unexpectedly included. He learned that his hosts were in +the act of entertaining the English Duke who had captured his burchiello +that morning; and having exchanged his travelling-dress for a more +suitable toilet he was presently conducted to the private theatre where +the company had gathered to witness an improvised performance by +Mirandolina and the newly-arrived actors. + +The Procuratessa at once beckoned him to the row of gilt armchairs where +she sat with the noble Duke and several ladies of distinction. The +little theatre sparkled with wax-lights reflected in the facets of glass +chandeliers and in the jewels of the richly-habited company, and Odo was +struck by the refined brilliancy of the scene. Before he had time to +look about him the curtains of the stage were drawn back, and +Mirandolina flashed into view, daring and radiant as ever, and dressed +with an elegance which spoke well for the liberality of her new +protector. She was as much at her ease as before the vulgar audience of +Vercelli, and spite of the distinguished eyes fixed upon her, her smiles +and sallies were pointedly addressed to Odo. This made him the object of +the Procuratessa's banter, but had an opposite effect on the Marquess, +who fixed him with an irritated eye and fidgeted restlessly in his seat +as the performance went on. + +When the curtain fell the Procuratessa led the company to the circular +saloon which, as in most villas of the Venetian mainland, formed the +central point of the house. If Odo had been charmed by the graceful +decorations of the theatre, he was dazzled by the airy splendour of this +apartment. Dance-music was pouring from the arched recesses above the +doorways, and chandeliers of coloured Murano glass diffused a soft +brightness over the pilasters of the stuccoed walls, and the floor of +inlaid marbles on which couples were rapidly forming for the +contradance. His eye, however, was soon drawn from these to the ceiling +which overarched the dancers with what seemed like an Olympian revel +reflected in sunset clouds. Over the gilt balustrade surmounting the +cornice lolled the figures of fauns, bacchantes, nereids and tritons, +hovered over by a cloud of amorini blown like rose-leaves across a rosy +sky, while in the centre of the dome Apollo burst in his chariot through +the mists of dawn, escorted by a fantastic procession of the human +races. These alien subjects of the sun--a fur-clad Laplander, a turbaned +figure on a dromedary, a blackamoor and a plumed American Indian--were +in turn surrounded by a rout of Maenads and Silenuses, whose flushed +advance was checked by the breaking of cool green waves, through which +boys wreathed with coral and seaweed disported themselves among shoals +of flashing dolphins. It was as though the genius of Pleasure had poured +all the riches of his inexhaustible realm on the heads of the revellers +below. + +The Procuratessa brought Odo to earth by remarking that it was a +master-piece of the divine Tiepolo he was admiring. She added that at +Bellocchio all formalities were dispensed with, and begged him to +observe that, in the rooms opening into the saloon, recreations were +provided for every taste. In one of these apartments silver trays were +set out with sherbets, cakes, and fruit cooled in snow, while in another +stood gaming-tables around which the greater number of the company were +already gathering for tresette. A third room was devoted to music; and +hither Mirandolina, who was evidently allowed a familiarity of +intercourse not accorded to the other comedians, had withdrawn with the +pacified Marquess, and perched on the arm of a high gilt chair was +pinching the strings of a guitar and humming the first notes of a +boatman's song... + +After completing the circuit of the rooms Odo stepped out on the +terrace, which was now bathed in the whiteness of a soaring moon. The +colonnades detached against silver-misted foliage, the gardens +spectrally outspread, seemed to enclose him in a magic circle of +loveliness which the first ray of daylight must dispel. He wandered on, +drawn to the depths of shade on the lower terraces. The hush grew +deeper, the murmur of the river more mysterious. A yew-arbour invited +him and he seated himself on the bench niched in its inmost dusk. Seen +through the black arch of the arbour the moonlight lay like snow on +parterres and statues. He thought of Maria Clementina, and of the +delight she would have felt in such a scene as he had just left. Then +the remembrance of Mirandolina's blandishments stole over him and spite +of himself he smiled at the Marquess's discomfiture. Though he was in no +humour for an intrigue his fancy was not proof against the romance of +his surroundings, and it seemed to him that Miranda's eyes had never +been so bright or her smile so full of provocation. No wonder Frattanto +followed her like a lost soul and the Marquess abandoned Rome and +Baalbec to sit at the feet of such a teacher! Had not that light +philosopher after all chosen the true way and guessed the Sphinx's +riddle? Why should today always be jilted for tomorrow, sensation +sacrificed to thought? + +As he sat revolving these questions the yew-branches seemed to stir, and +from some deeper recess of shade a figure stole to his side. He started, +but a hand was laid on his lips and he was gently forced back into his +seat. Dazzled by the outer moonlight he could just guess the outline of +the figure pressed against his own. He sat speechless, yielding to the +charm of the moment, till suddenly he felt a rapid kiss and the visitor +vanished as mysteriously as she had come. He sprang up to follow, but +inclination failed with his first step. Let the spell of mystery remain +unbroken! He sank down on the seat again lulled by dreamy musings... + +When he looked up the moonlight had faded and he felt a chill in the +air. He walked out on the terrace. The moon hung low and the tree-tops +were beginning to tremble. The villa-front was grey, with oblongs of +yellow light marking the windows of the ball-room. As he looked up at +it, the dance-music ceased and not a sound was heard but the stir of the +foliage and the murmur of the river against its banks. Then, from a +loggia above the central portico, a woman's clear contralto notes took +flight: + + Before the yellow dawn is up, + With pomp of shield and shaft, + Drink we of Night's fast-ebbing cup + One last delicious draught. + + The shadowy wine of Night is sweet, + With subtle slumbrous fumes + Crushed by the Hours' melodious feet + From bloodless elder-blooms... + +The days at Bellocchio passed in a series of festivities. The mornings +were spent in drinking chocolate, strolling in the gardens and visiting +the fish-ponds, meanders and other wonders of the villa; thence the +greater number of guests were soon drawn to the card-tables, from which +they rose only to dine; and after an elaborate dinner prepared by a +French cook the whole company set out to explore the country or to +exchange visits with the hosts of the adjoining villas. Each evening +brought some fresh diversion: a comedy or an operetta in the miniature +theatre, an al fresco banquet on the terrace or a ball attended by the +principal families of the neighbourhood. Odo soon contrived to reassure +the Marquess as to his designs upon Miranda, and when Coeur-Volant was +not at cards the two young men spent much of their time together. The +Marquess was never tired of extolling the taste and ingenuity with which +the Venetians planned and carried out their recreations. "Nature +herself," said he, "seems the accomplice of their merry-making, and in +no other surroundings could man's natural craving for diversion find so +graceful and poetic an expression." + +The scene on which they looked out seemed to confirm his words. It was +the last evening of their stay at Bellocchio, and the Procuratessa had +planned a musical festival on the river. Festoons of coloured lanterns +wound from the portico to the water; and opposite the landing lay the +Procuratore's Bucentaur, a great barge hung with crimson velvet. In the +prow were stationed the comedians, in airy mythological dress, and as +the guests stepped on board they were received by Miranda, a rosy Venus +who, escorted by Mars and Adonis, recited an ode composed by Cantapresto +in the Procuratessa's honour. A banquet was spread in the deck-house, +which was hung with silk arras and Venetian mirrors, and, while the +guests feasted, dozens of little boats hung with lights and filled with +musicians flitted about the Bucentaur like a swarm of musical +fireflies... + +The next day Odo accompanied the Procuratessa to Venice. Had he been a +traveller from beyond the Alps he could hardly have been more unprepared +for the spectacle that awaited him. In aspect and customs Venice +differed almost as much from other Italian cities as from those of the +rest of Europe. From the fanciful stone embroidery of her churches and +palaces to a hundred singularities in dress and manners--the +full-bottomed wigs and long gowns of the nobles, the black mantles and +head-draperies of the ladies, the white masks worn abroad by both sexes, +the publicity of social life under the arcades of the Piazza, the +extraordinary freedom of intercourse in the casini, gaming-rooms and +theatres--the city proclaimed, in every detail of life and architecture, +her independence of any tradition but her own. This was the more +singular as Saint Mark's square had for centuries been the meeting-place +of East and West, and the goal of artists, scholars and pleasure-seekers +from all parts of the world. Indeed, as Coeur-Volant pointed out, the +Venetian customs almost appeared to have been devised for the +convenience of strangers. The privilege of going masked at almost all +seasons and the enforced uniformity of dress, which in itself provided a +kind of incognito, made the place singularly favourable to every kind of +intrigue and amusement; while the mild temper of the people and the +watchfulness of the police prevented the public disorders that such +license might have occasioned. These seeming anomalies abounded on every +side. From the gaming-table where a tinker might set a ducat against a +prince it was but a few steps to the Broglio, or arcade under the ducal +palace, into which no plebeian might intrude while the nobility walked +there. The great ladies, who were subject to strict sumptuary laws, and +might not display their jewels or try the new French fashions but on the +sly, were yet privileged at all hours to go abroad alone in their +gondolas. No society was more haughty and exclusive in its traditions, +yet the mask leveled all classes and permitted, during the greater part +of the year, an equality of intercourse undreamed of in other cities; +while the nobles, though more magnificently housed than in any other +capital of Europe, generally sought amusement at the public casini or +assembly-rooms instead of receiving company in their own palaces. Such +were but a few of the contradictions in a city where the theatres were +named after the neighbouring churches, where there were innumerable +religious foundations but scarce an ecclesiastic to be met in company, +and where the ladies of the laity dressed like nuns, while the nuns in +the aristocratic convents went in gala habits and with uncovered heads. +No wonder that to the bewildered stranger the Venetians seemed to keep +perpetual carnival and Venice herself to be as it were the mere stage of +some huge comic interlude. + +To Odo the setting was even more astonishing than the performance. Never +had he seen pleasure and grace so happily allied, all the arts of life +so combined in the single effort after enjoyment. Here was not a mere +tendency to linger on the surface, but the essence of superficiality +itself; not an ignoring of what lies beneath, but an elimination of it; +as though all human experience should be beaten thin and spread out +before the eye like some brilliant tenuous plaque of Etruscan gold. And +in this science of pleasure--mere jeweller's work though it were--the +greatest artists had collaborated, each contributing his page to the +philosophy of enjoyment in the form of some radiant allegory flowering +from palace wall or ceiling like the enlarged reflection of the life +beneath it. Nowhere was the mind arrested by a question or an idea. +Thought slunk away like an unmasked guest at the ridotto. Sensation +ruled supreme, and each moment was an iridescent bubble fresh-blown from +the lips of fancy. + +Odo brought to the spectacle the humour best fitted for its enjoyment. +His weariness and discouragement sought refuge in the emotional +satisfaction of the hour. Here at least the old problem of living had +been solved, and from the patrician taking the air in his gondola to the +gondolier himself, gambling and singing on the water-steps of his +master's palace, all seemed equally satisfied with the solution. Now if +ever was the time to cry "halt!" to the present, to forget the travelled +road and take no thought for the morrow... + +The months passed rapidly and agreeably. The Procuratessa was the most +amiable of guides, and in her company Odo enjoyed the best that Venice +had to offer, from the matchless music of the churches and hospitals to +the petits soupers in the private casini of the nobility; while +Coeur-Volant and Castelrovinato introduced him to scenes where even a +lady of the Procuratessa's intrepidity might not venture. + +Such a life left little time for thoughtful pleasures; nor did Odo find +in the society about him any sympathy with his more personal tastes. At +first he yielded willingly enough to the pressure of his surroundings, +glad to escape from thoughts of the past and speculations about the +future; but it was impossible for him to lose his footing in such an +element, and at times he felt the lack of such companionship as de +Crucis had given him. There was no society in Venice corresponding with +the polished circles of Milan or Naples, or with the academic class in +such University towns as Padua and Pavia. The few Venetians destined to +be remembered among those who had contributed to the intellectual +advancement of Italy vegetated in obscurity, suffering not so much from +religious persecution--for the Inquisition had little power in +Venice--as from the incorrigible indifference of a society which ignored +all who did not contribute to its amusement. Odo indeed might have +sought out these unhonoured prophets, but that all the influences about +him set the other way, and that he was falling more and more into the +habit of running with the tide. Now and then, however, a vague ennui +drove him to one of the bookshops which, throughout Italy were the chief +meeting-places of students and authors. On one of these occasions the +dealer invited him into a private room where he kept some rare volumes, +and here Odo was surprised to meet Andreoni, the liberal bookseller of +Pianura. + +Andreoni at first seemed somewhat disconcerted by the meeting; but +presently recovering his confidence, he told Odo that he had been +recently banished from Pianura, the cause of his banishment being the +publication of a book on taxation that was supposed to reflect on the +fiscal system of the duchy. Though he did not name the author, Odo at +once suspected Gamba; but on his enquiring if the latter had also been +banished, Andreoni merely replied that he had been dismissed from his +post, and had left Pianura. The bookseller went on to say that he had +come to Venice with the idea of setting up his press either there or in +Padua, where his wife's family lived. Odo was eager to hear more; but +Andreoni courteously declined to wait on him at his lodgings, on the +plea that it might harm them both to be seen together. They agreed, +however, to meet in San Zaccaria after low mass the next morning, and +here Andreoni gave Odo a fuller report of recent events in the duchy. + +It appeared that in the incessant see-saw of party influences the Church +had once more gained on the liberals. Trescorre was out of favour, the +Dominican had begun to show his hand more openly, and the Duke, more +than ever apprehensive about his health, was seeking to conciliate +heaven by his renewed persecution of the reformers. In the general +upheaval even Crescenti had nearly lost his place; and it was rumoured +that he kept it only through the intervention of the Pope, who had +represented to the Duke that the persecution of a scholar already famous +throughout Europe would reflect little credit on the Church. + +As for Gamba, Andreoni, though unwilling to admit a knowledge of his +exact whereabouts, assured Odo that he was well and had not lost +courage. At court matters remained much as usual. The Duchess, +surrounded by her familiars, had entered on a new phase of mad +expenditure, draining the exchequer to indulge her private whims, +filling her apartments with mountebanks and players, and borrowing from +courtiers and servants to keep her creditors from the door. Trescorre +was no longer able to check her extravagance, and his influence with the +Duke being on the wane, the court was once more the scene of unseemly +scandals and disorders. + +The only new figure to appear there since Odo's departure was that of +the little prince's governor, who had come from Rome a few months +previously to superintend the heir's education, which was found to have +been grievously neglected under his former masters. This was an +ecclesiastic, an ex-Jesuit as some said, but without doubt a man of +parts, and apparently of more tolerant views than the other churchmen +about the court. + +"But," Andreoni added, "your excellency may chance to recall him; for he +is the same abate de Crucis who was sent to Pianura by the Holy Office +to arrest the German astrologer." + +Odo heard him with surprise. He had had no news of de Crucis since their +parting in Rome, where, as he supposed, the latter was to remain for +some years in the service of Prince Bracciano. Odo was at a loss to +conceive how or why the Jesuit had come to Pianura; but, whatever his +reasons for being there, it was certain that his influence must make +itself felt far beyond the range of his immediate duties. Whether this +influence would be exerted for good or ill it was impossible to +forecast; but much as Odo admired de Crucis, he could not forget that +the Jesuit, by his own avowal, was still the servant of the greatest +organised opposition to moral and intellectual freedom that the world +had ever known. That this opposition was not always actively manifested +Odo was well aware. He knew that the Jesuit spirit moved in many +directions and that its action was often more beneficial than that of +its opponents; but it remained an incalculable element in the +composition of human affairs, and one the more to be feared since, in +ceasing to have a material existence, it had acquired the dread +pervasiveness of an idea. + +With the Epiphany the wild carnival-season set in. Nothing could surpass +the excesses of this mad time. All classes seemed bitten by the +tarantula of mirth, every gondola hid an intrigue, the patrician's +tabarro concealed a noble lady, the feminine hood and cloak a young +spark bent on mystification, the friar's habit a man of pleasure and the +nun's veil a lady of the town. The Piazza swarmed with merry-makers of +all degrees. The square itself was taken up by the booths of hucksters, +rope-dancers and astrologers, while promenaders in travesty thronged the +arcades, and the ladies of the nobility, in their white masks and black +zendaletti, surveyed the scene from the windows of the assembly-rooms in +the Procuratie, or, threading the crowd on the arms of their gallants, +visited the various peep-shows and flocked about the rhinoceros +exhibited in a great canvas tent in the Piazzetta. The characteristic +contrasts of Venetian life seemed to be emphasised by the vagaries of +the carnival, and Odo never ceased to be diverted by the sight of a long +line of masqueraders in every kind of comic disguise kneeling devoutly +before the brilliantly-lit shrine of the Virgin under the arches of the +Procuratie, while the friar who led their devotions interrupted his +litany whenever the quack on an adjoining platform began to bawl through +a tin trumpet the praise of his miraculous pills. + +The mounting madness culminated on Giovedi Grasso, the last Thursday +before Lent, when the Piazzetta became the scene of ceremonies in which +the Doge himself took part. These opened with the decapitation of three +bulls: a rite said to commemorate some long-forgotten dispute between +the inveterate enemies, Venice and Aquileia. The bulls, preceded by +halberdiers and trumpeters, and surrounded by armed attendants, were led +in state before the ducal palace, and the executioner, practised in his +bloody work, struck off each head with a single stroke of his huge +sword. This slaughter was succeeded by pleasanter sights, such as the +famous Vola, or flight of a boy from the bell-tower of Saint Mark's to a +window of the palace, where he presented a nosegay to his Serenity and +was caught up again to his airy vaulting-ground. After this ingenious +feat came another called the "Force of Hercules," given by a band of +youths who, building themselves into a kind of pyramid, shifted their +postures with inexhaustible agility, while bursts of fireworks wove +yellow arches through the midday light. Meanwhile the crowds in the +streets fled this way and that as a throng of uproarious young fellows +drove before them the bulls that were to be baited in the open squares; +and wherever a recessed doorway or the angle of a building afforded +shelter from the rout, some posture-maker or ballad-singer had gathered +a crowd about his carpet. + +Ash Wednesday brought about a dramatic transformation. Every travesty +laid aside, every tent and stall swept away, the people again gathered +in the Piazza to receive the ashes of penitence on their heads, the +churches now became the chief centres of interest. Venice was noted for +her sacred music and for the lavish illumination of her favourite +shrines and chapels; and few religious spectacles were more impressive +than the Forty Hours' devotion in the wealthier churches of the city. +All the magic of music, painting and sculpture were combined in the +service of religion, and Odo's sense of the dramatic quality of the +Catholic rites found gratification in the moving scenes where, amid the +imperishable splendours of his own creation, man owned himself but dust. +Never before had he been so alive to the symbolism of the penitential +season, so awed by the beauty and symmetry of that great structure of +the Liturgical Year that leads the soul up, step by step, to the awful +heights of Calvary. The very carelessness of those about him seemed to +deepen the solemnity of the scenes enacted--as though the Church, after +all her centuries of dominion, were still, as in those early days, but a +voice crying in the wilderness. + +The Easter bells ushered in the reign of another spirit. If the carnival +folly was spent, the joy of returning life replaced it. After the winter +diversions of cards, concerts and theatres, came the excursions to the +island-gardens of the lagoon and the evening promenade of the fresca on +the Grand Canal. Now the palace-windows were hung with awnings, the +oleanders in the balconies grew rosy against the sea-worn marble, and +yellow snap-dragons blossomed from the crumbling walls. The market-boats +brought early fruits and vegetables from the Brenta and roses and +gilly-flowers from the Paduan gardens; and when the wind set from shore +it carried with it the scent of lime-blossoms and flowering fields. Now +also was the season when the great civic and religious processions took +place, dyeing the water with sunset hues as they swept from the steps of +the Piazzetta to San Giorgio, the Redentore or the Salute. In the +fashionable convents the nuns celebrated the festivals of their patron +saints with musical and dramatic entertainments to which secular +visitors were invited. These entertainments were a noted feature of +Venetian life, and the subject of much scandalous comment among visitors +from beyond the Alps. The nuns of the stricter orders were as closely +cloistered as elsewhere; but in the convents of Santa Croce, Santa +Chiara, and a few others, mostly filled by the daughters of the +nobility, an unusual liberty prevailed. It was known that the inmates +had taken the veil for family reasons, and to the indulgent Venetian +temper it seemed natural that their seclusion should be made as little +irksome as possible. As a rule the privileges accorded to the nuns +consisted merely in their being allowed to receive visits in the +presence of a lay-sister, and to perform in concerts on the feast-days +of the order; but some few convents had a name for far greater license, +and it was a common thing for the noble libertine returned from Italy to +boast of his intrigue with a Venetian nun. + +Odo, in the Procuratessa's train, had of course visited many of the +principal convents. Whether it were owing to the malicious pleasure of +contrasting their own state with that of their cloistered sisters, or to +the discreet shelter which the parlour afforded to their private +intrigues, the Venetian ladies were exceedingly partial to these visits. +The Procuratessa was no exception to the rule, and as was natural to one +of her complexion, she preferred the convents where the greatest freedom +prevailed. Odo, however, had hitherto found little to tempt him in these +glimpses of forbidden fruit. The nuns, though often young and pretty, +had the insipidity of women secluded from the passions and sorrows of +life without being raised above them; and he preferred the frank +coarseness of the Procuratessa's circle to the simpering graces of the +cloister. + +Even Coeur-Volant's mysterious boast of a conquest he had made among the +sisters failed to excite his friend's curiosity. The Marquess, though +still devoted to Miranda, was too much the child of his race not to seek +variety in his emotions; indeed he often declared that the one fault of +the Italian character was its unimaginative fidelity in love-affairs. + +"Does a man," he asked, "dine off one dish at a gourmet's banquet? And +why should I restrict myself to one course at the most richly-spread +table in Europe? One must love at least two women to appreciate either; +and, did the silly creatures but know it, a rival becomes them like a +patch." + +Sister Mary of the Crucifix, he went on to explain, possessed the very +qualities that Miranda lacked. The daughter of a rich nobleman of +Treviso, she was skilled in music, drawing and all the operations of the +needle, and was early promised in marriage to a young man whose estates +adjoined her father's. The jealousy of a younger sister, who was +secretly in love with the suitor, caused her to accuse Coeur-Volant's +mistress of misconduct and thus broke off the marriage; and the unhappy +girl, repudiated by her bridegroom, was at once despatched to a convent +in Venice. Enraged at her fate, she had repeatedly appealed to the +authorities to release her; but her father's wealth and influence +prevailed against all her efforts. The abbess, however, felt such pity +for her that she was allowed more freedom than the other nuns, with whom +her wit and beauty made her a favourite in spite of her exceptional +privileges. These, as Coeur-Volant hinted, included the liberty of +leaving the convent after night-fall to visit her friends; and he +professed to be one of those whom she had thus honoured. Always eager to +have his good taste ratified by the envy of his friends, he was urgent +with Odo to make the lady's acquaintance, and it was agreed that, on the +first favourable occasion, a meeting should take place at Coeur-Volant's +casino. The weeks elapsed, however, without Odo's hearing further of the +matter, and it had nearly passed from his mind when one August day he +received word that the Marquess hoped for his company that evening. + +He was in that mood of careless acquiescence when any novelty invites, +and the heavy warmth of the summer night seemed the accomplice of his +humour. Cloaked and masked, he stepped into his gondola and was swept +rapidly along the Grand Canal and through winding channels to the +Giudecca. It was close on midnight and all Venice was abroad. Gondolas +laden with musicians and hung with coloured lamps lay beneath the palace +windows or drifted out on the oily reaches of the lagoon. There was no +moon, and the side-canals were dark and noiseless but for the hundreds +of caged nightingales that made every byway musical. As his prow slipped +past garden walls and under the blackness of low-ached bridges Odo felt +the fathomless mystery of the Venetian night: not the open night of the +lagoons, but the secret dusk of nameless waterways between blind windows +and complaisant gates. + +At one of these his gondola presently touched. The gate was cautiously +unbarred and Odo found himself in a strip of garden preceding a low +pavilion in which not a light was visible. A woman-servant led him +indoors and the Marquess greeted him on the threshold. + +"You are late!" he exclaimed. "I began to fear you would not be here to +receive our guests with me." + +"Your guests?" Odo repeated. "I had fancied there was but one." + +The Marquess smiled. "My dear Mary of the Crucifix," he said, "is too +well-born to venture out alone at this late hour, and has prevailed on +her bosom friend to accompany her.--Besides," he added with his +deprecating shrug, "I own I have had too recent an experience of your +success to trust you alone with my enchantress; and she has promised to +bring the most fascinating nun in the convent to protect her from your +wiles." + +As he spoke he led Odo into a room furnished in the luxurious style of a +French boudoir. A Savonnerie carpet covered the floor, the lounges and +easy-chairs were heaped with cushions, and the panels hung with pastel +drawings of a lively or sentimental character. The windows toward the +garden were close-shuttered, but those on the farther side of the room +stood open on a starlit terrace whence the eye looked out over the +lagoon to the outer line of islands. + +"Confess," cried Coeur-Volant, pointing to a table set with delicacies +and flanked by silver wine-coolers, "that I have spared no pains to do +my goddess honour and that this interior must present an agreeable +contrast to the whitewashed cells and dismal refectory of her convent! +No passion," he continued, with his quaint didactic air, "is so +susceptible as love to the influence of its surroundings; and principles +which might have held out against a horse-hair sofa and soupe a l'oignon +have before now been known to succumb to silk cushions and champagne." + +He received with perfect good-humour the retort that if he failed in his +designs his cook and his upholsterer would not be to blame; and the +young men were still engaged in such banter when the servant returned to +say that a gondola was at the water-gate. The Marquess hastened out and +presently reappeared with two masked and hooded figures. The first of +these, whom he led by the hand, entered with the air of one not +unaccustomed to her surroundings; but the other hung back, and on the +Marquess's inviting them to unmask, hurriedly signed to her friend to +refuse. + +"Very well, fair strangers," said Coeur-Volant with a laugh; "if you +insist on prolonging our suspense we shall avenge ourselves by +prolonging yours, and neither my friend nor I will unmask till you are +pleased to set us the example." + +The first lady echoed his laugh. "Shall I own," she cried, "that I +suspect in this unflattering compliance a pretext to conceal your +friend's features from me as long as possible? For my part," she +continued, throwing back her hood, "the mask of hypocrisy I am compelled +to wear in the convent makes me hate every form of disguise, and with +all my defects I prefer to be known as I am." And with that she detached +her mask and dropped the cloak from her shoulders. + +The gesture revealed a beauty of the laughing sensuous type best suited +to such surroundings. Sister Mary of the Crucifix, in her sumptuous gown +of shot-silk, with pearls wound through her reddish hair and hanging on +her bare shoulders, might have stepped from some festal canvas of +Bonifazio's. She had laid aside even the light gauze veil worn by the +nuns in gala habit, and no vestige of her calling showed itself in dress +or bearing. + +"Do you accept my challenge, cavaliere?" she exclaimed, turning on Odo a +glance confident of victory. + +The Marquess meanwhile had approached the other nun with the intention +of inducing her to unmask; but as Sister Mary of the Crucifix advanced +to perform the same service for his friend, his irrepressible jealousy +made him step hastily between them. + +"Come cavaliere," he cried, drawing Odo gaily toward the unknown nun, +"since you have induced one of our fair guests to unmask perhaps you may +be equally successful with the other, who appears provokingly +indifferent to my advances." + +The masked nun had in fact retreated to a corner of the room and stood +there, drawing her cloak about her, rather in the attitude of a +frightened child than in that of a lady bent on a gallant adventure. + +Sister Mary of the Crucifix approached her playfully. "My dear Sister +Veronica," said she, throwing her arm about the other's neck, "hesitates +to reveal charms which she knows must cast mine in the shade; but I am +not to be outdone in generosity, and if the Marquess will unmask his +friend I will do the same by mine." + +As she spoke she deftly pinioned the nun's hands and snatched off her +mask with a malicious laugh. The Marquess, entering into her humour, +removed Odo's at the same instant, and the latter, turning with a laugh, +found himself face to face with Fulvia Vivaldi. He grew white, and Mary +of the Crucifix sprang forward to catch her friend. + +"Good God! What is this?" gasped the Marquess, staring from one to the +other. + +A glance of entreaty from Fulvia checked the answer on Odo's lips, and +for a moment there was silence in the room; then Fulvia, breaking away +from her companion, fled out on the terrace. The other was about to +follow; but Odo, controlling himself, stepped between them. + +"Madam," said he in a low voice, "I recognise in your companion a friend +of whom I have long had no word. Will you pardon me if I speak with her +alone?" + +Sister Mary drew back with a meaning sparkle in her handsome eyes. "Why, +this," she cried, not without a touch of resentment, "is the prettiest +ending imaginable; but what a sly creature, to be sure, to make me think +it was her first assignation!" + +Odo, without answering, hastened out on the terrace. It was so dark +after the brightly lit room that for a moment he did not distinguish the +figure which had sprung to the low parapet above the water; and he +stumbled forward just in time to snatch Fulvia back to safety. + +"This is madness!" he cried, as she hung upon him trembling. + +"The boat," she stammered in a strange sobbing voice--"the boat should +be somewhere below--" + +"The boat lies at the water-gate on the other side," he answered. + +She drew away from him with a gesture of despair. The struggle with +Sister Mary had disordered her hair and it fell on her white neck in +loosened strands. "My cloak--my mask--" she faltered vaguely, clasping +her hands across her bosom; then suddenly dropped to a seat and burst +into tears. Once before--but in how different a case!--he had seen her +thus thrilled with weeping. Then fate had thrown him humbled at her +feet, now it was she who cried him mercy in every line of her bowed head +and shaken breast; and the thought of that other meeting flooded his +heart with pity. + +He knelt before her, seeking her hands. "Fulvia, why do you shrink from +me?" he whispered. But she shook her head and wept on. + +At last her sobs subsided and she rose to her feet. "I must go back," +said she in a low tone, and would have passed him. + +"Back? To the convent?" + +"To the convent," she said after him; but she made no farther effort to +move. + +The question that tortured him sprang forth. "You have taken the vows?" + +"A month since," she answered. + +He hid his face in his hands and for a moment both were silent. "And you +have no other word for me--none?" he faltered at last. + +She fixed him with a hard bright stare. "Yes--one," she cried; "keep a +place for me among your gallant recollections." + +"Fulvia!" he said with sudden strength, and caught her by the arm. + +"Let me pass!" she cried. + +"No, by heaven!" he retorted; "not till you listen to me--not till you +tell me how it is that I come upon you here!--Ah, child," he broke out, +"do you fancy I don't see how little you belong in such scenes? That I +don't know you are here through some dreadful error? Fulvia," he +pleaded, "will you never trust me?" And at the word he burned with +blushes in the darkness. + +His voice, perhaps, rather than what he said, seemed to have struck a +yielding fibre. He felt her arm tremble in his hold; but after a moment +she said with cruel distinctness: "There was no error. I came knowingly. +It was the company and not the place I was deceived in." + +Odo drew back with a start; then, as if in spite of himself, he broke +into a laugh. "By the saints," said he, almost joyously, "I am sorry to +be where I am not wanted; but since no better company offers, will you +not make the best of mine and suffer me to hand you in to supper with +our friends?" And with a low bow he offered her his arm. + +The effect was instantaneous. He saw her catch at the balustrade for +support. + +"Sancta simplicitas!" he exulted, "and did you think to play the part at +such short notice?" He fell at her feet and covered her hands with +kisses. "My Fulvia! My poor child! come with me, come away from here," +he entreated. "I know not what mad hazard has brought us thus together, +but I thank God on my knees for the encounter. You shall tell me all or +nothing, as you please--you shall presently dismiss me at your +convent-gate, and never see me again if you so will it--but till then, I +swear, you are in my charge, and no human power shall come between us!" + +As he ended the Marquess's voice called gaily through the open window: +"Friends, the burgundy is uncorked! Will you not join us in a glass of +good French wine?" + +Fulvia flung herself upon Odo. "Yes--yes; away--take me away from here!" +she cried, clinging to him. She had gathered her cloak about her and +drawn the hood over her disordered hair. "Away! Away!" she repeated. "I +cannot see them again. Good God, is there no other way out?" + +With a gesture he warned her to be silent and drew her along the terrace +in the shadow of the house. The gravel creaked beneath their feet, and +she shook at the least sound; but her hand lay in his like a child's and +he felt himself her master. At the farther end of the terrace a flight +of steps led to a narrow strip of shore. He helped her down and after +listening a moment gave a whistle. Presently they heard a low plash of +oars and saw the prow of a gondola cautiously rounding the angle of the +terrace. The water was shallow and the boatmen proceeded slowly and at +length paused a few yards from the land. + +"We can come no nearer," one of them called; "what is it?" + +"Your mistress is unwell and wishes to return," Odo answered; and +catching Fulvia in his arms he waded out with her to the gondola and +lifted her over the side. "To Santa Chiara!" he ordered, as he laid her +on the cushions beneath the felze; and the boatmen, recognising her as +one of their late fares, without more ado began to row rapidly toward +the city. + + +3.4. + +In the pitying darkness of the gondola she lay beyond speech, her hand +in his, her breath coming fitfully. Odo waited in suspense, not daring +to question her, yet sure that if she did not speak then she would never +do so. All doubt and perplexity of spirit had vanished in the simple +sense of her nearness. The throb of her hand in his was like the +heart-beat of hope. He felt himself no longer a drifting spectator of +life but a sharer in its gifts and renunciations. Which this meeting +would bring he dared not yet surmise: it was enough that he was with +Fulvia and that love had freed his spirit. + +At length she began to speak. Her agitation was so great that he had +difficulty in piecing together the fragments of her story; but for the +moment he was more concerned in regaining her confidence than in seeking +to obtain a clear picture of the past. Before she could end, the gondola +rounded the corner of the narrow canal skirting the garden-wall of Santa +Chiara. Alarmed lest he should lose her again he passionately urged her +to receive him on the morrow; and after some hesitation she consented. A +moment later their prow touched the postern and the boatman gave a low +call which proved him no novice at the business. Fulvia signed to Odo +not to speak or move; and they sat listening intently for the opening of +the gate. As soon as it was unbarred she sprang ashore and vanished in +the darkness of the garden; and with a cold sense of failure Odo heard +the bolt slipping back and the stealthy fall of the oars as the gondola +slid away under the shadow of the convent-wall. Whither was he being +carried and would that bolt ever be drawn for him again? In the sultry +dawn the convent loomed forbiddingly as a prison, and he could hardly +believe that a few hours earlier the very doors now closed against him +had stood open to all the world. They would open again; but whether to +him, who could conjecture? He was resolved to see Fulvia again, but he +shrank from the thought of forcing himself upon her. She had promised to +receive him; but what revulsion of feeling might not the morrow bring? + +Unable to sleep, he bade the boatmen carry him to the Lido. The sun was +just rising above the Friulian Alps and the lagoon lay dull and smooth +as a breathed-on mirror. As he paced the lonely sands he tried to +reconstruct Fulvia's broken story, supplementing it with such details as +his experience of Venetian life suggested. It appeared that after her +father's death she had found herself possessed of a small sum of money +which he had painfully accumulated for her during the two years they had +spent in Pavia. Her only thought was to employ this inheritance in +publishing the great work on the origin of civilisation which Vivaldi +had completed a few days before his last seizure. Through one of the +professors of the University, who had been her father's friend, she +negotiated with a printer of Amsterdam for the production of the book, +and the terms being agreed on, despatched the money and the manuscript +thither by a sure hand. Both were duly delivered and the publisher had +advanced so far in his work as to send Fulvia the proof-sheets of the +first chapters, when he took alarm at the renewed activity of the Holy +Office in France and Italy, declared there would be no market for the +book in the present state of affairs, and refused either to continue +printing it, or to restore the money, which he said had barely covered +the setting-up of the type. Fulvia then attempted to recover the +manuscript; but the publisher refusing to surrender it, she found +herself doubly beggared at a stroke. + +In this extremity she turned to a sister of her father's, who lived near +Treviso; and this excellent woman, though persuaded that her brother's +heretical views had doomed him to everlasting torment, did not scruple +to offer his child a home. Here Fulvia had lived for two years when her +aunt's sudden death left her destitute; for the good lady, to atone for +having given shelter to a niece of doubtful orthodoxy, had left the +whole of her small property to the Church. + +Fulvia's only other relations were certain distant cousins of her +mother's, members of the Venetian nobility, but of the indigent class +called Barnabotti, who lived on the bounty of the state. While in +Treviso she had made the acquaintance of one of these cousins, a +stirring noisy fellow involved in all the political agitations of the +state. It was among the Barnabotti, the class most indebted to the +government, that these seditious movements generally arose; and Fulvia's +cousin was one of the most notorious malcontents of his order. She had +mistaken his revolutionary bluster for philosophic enlightenment; and, +persuaded that he shared in her views, she rashly appealed to him for +help. With the most eloquent expressions of sympathy he offered her a +home under his own roof; but on reaching Venice she was but ill-received +by his wife and family, who made no scruple of declaring that, being but +pensioners themselves, they were in no state to nourish their pauper +relatives. Fulvia could not but own that they were right; for they lived +in the garret of a half-ruined house, pawning their very beds to pay for +ices in the Piazza and sitting at home all the week in dirty shifts and +night-caps that they might go to mass in silk and powder on a Sunday. +After two months of wretchedness with these unfriendly hosts, whom she +vainly tried to conciliate by a hundred little services and attentions +the poor girl resolved to return to Milan, where she hoped to obtain +some menial position in the household of one of her father's friends. +Her cousins, at this, made a great outcry, protesting that none of their +blood should so demean herself, and that they would spare no efforts to +find some better way of providing for her. Their noble connections gave +Fulvia the hope that they might obtain a small pension for her, and she +unsuspiciously yielded to their wishes; but to her dismay she learned a +few weeks later, that, thanks to their exertions, she was to be admitted +as a novice to the convent of Santa Chiara. Though it was the common way +of disposing of portionless girls, the liberal views of her cousins had +reassured Fulvia, and she woke to her fate too late to escape it. She +was to enter on her novitiate on the morrow; but even had delay been +possible she knew that both the civil and religious authorities would +sustain her family in their course. + +Her cousins, knowing her independent spirit, and perhaps fearing an +outcry if they sequestered her too closely, had thought to soften her +resistance by placing her in a convent noted for its leniencies; but to +Fulvia such surroundings were more repugnant than the strictest monastic +discipline. The corruption of the religious orders was a favourite topic +with her father's friends, and the Venetian nuns were noted throughout +Italy for their frivolous and dissipated lives; but nothing that Fulvia +had heard or imagined approached the realities that awaited her. At +first the mere sense of imprisonment, of being cut off forever from the +world of free thought and action which had been her native element, +overwhelmed every other feeling, and she lay numb in the clutch of fate. +But she was too young for this merciful torpor to last, and with the +returning consciousness of her situation came the instinctive effort to +amend it. How she longed then to have been buried in some strict order, +where she might have spent her days in solitary work and meditation! How +she loathed the petty gossip of the nuns, their furtive reaching after +forbidden pleasures! The blindest bigotry would have been less +insufferable than this clandestine commerce with the world, the +strictest sequestration than this open parody of the monastic calling. +She sought in vain among her companions for an answering mind. Many, +like herself, were in open rebellion against their lot; but for reasons +so different that the feeling was an added estrangement. At last the +longing to escape over-mastered every other sensation. It became a fixed +idea, a devouring passion. She did not trust herself to think of what +must follow, but centred every faculty on the effort of evasion. + +At this point in her story her growing distress had made it hard for Odo +to gather more than a general hint of her meaning. It was clear, +however, that she had found her sole hope of escape lay in gaining the +friendship of one of the more favoured nuns. Her own position in the +community was of the humblest, for she had neither rank nor wealth to +commend her; but her skill on the harpsichord had attracted the notice +of the music-mistress and she had been enrolled in the convent orchestra +before her novitiate was over. This had brought her into contact with a +few of the more favoured sisters, and among them she had recognised in +Sister Mary of the Crucifix the daughter of the nobleman who had been +her aunt's landlord at Treviso. Fulvia's name was not unknown to the +handsome nun, and the coincidence was enough to draw them together in a +community where such trivial affinities must replace the ties of nature. +Fulvia soon learned that Mary of the Crucifix was the spoiled darling of +the convent. Her beauty and spirit, as much perhaps as her family +connections, had given her this predominance; and no scruples interfered +with her use of it. Finding herself, as she declared, on the wrong side +of the grate, she determined to gather in all the pleasures she could +reach through it; and her reach was certainly prodigious. Here Odo had +been obliged to fall back on his knowledge of Venetian customs to +conjecture the incidents leading up to the scene of the previous night. +He divined that Fulvia, maddened by having had to pronounce the +irrevocable vows, had resolved to fly at all hazards; that Sister Mary, +unconscious of her designs, had proposed to take her on a party of +pleasure, and that the rash girl, blind to every risk but that of delay, +had seized on this desperate means of escape. What must have followed +had she not chanced on Odo, she had clearly neither the courage nor the +experience to picture; but she seemed to have had some confused idea of +throwing herself on the mercy of the foreign nobleman she believed she +was to meet. + +So much Odo had gathered; and her voice, her gesture, the disorder of +her spirit, supplied what her words omitted. Not for a moment, either in +listening to her or in the soberer period of revision, did he question +the exact truth of her narrative. It was the second time that they had +met under strange circumstances; yet now as before the sense of her +candour was his ruling thought. He concluded that, whatever plight she +found herself in, she would be its immediate justification; and felt +sure he must have reached this conclusion though love had not had a +stake in the verdict. This perhaps but proved him the more deeply taken; +for it is when passion tightens the net that reason flaps her wings most +loudly. + +Day was high when he returned to his lodgings, impatient for a word from +Fulvia. None had come; and as the hours passed he yielded to the most +disheartening fancies. His wretchedness was increased by the thought +that he had once inflicted on her such suspense he was now enduring; and +he went so far as to wonder if this were her revenge for Vercelli. But +if the past was intolerable to consider the future was all baffling +fears. His immediate study was how to see her; and this her continued +silence seemed to refuse him. The extremity of her plight was his best +ally; yet here again anxiety suggested that his having been the witness +of her humiliation must insensibly turn her against him. Never perhaps +does a man show less knowledge of human nature than in speculating on +the conduct of his beloved; and every step in the labyrinth of his +conjectures carried Odo farther from the truth. This rose on him at +nightfall, in the shape of a letter slipped in his hand by a lay-sister +as he crossed the square before his lodgings. He stepped to the light of +the nearest shrine and read the few words in a tumult. "This being +Friday, no visitors are admitted to the convent; but I entreat you to +come to me tomorrow an hour before benediction." A postcript added: "It +is the hour when visitors are most frequent." + +He saw her meaning in a flash: his best chance of speaking with her was +in a crowd, and his heart bounded at the significance of her admission. +Now indeed he felt himself lord of the future. Nothing counted but that +he was to see her. His horizon was narrowed to the bars through which +her hand would greet him; yet never had the world appeared so vast. + +Long before the hour appointed he was at the gate of Santa Chiara. He +asked to speak with Sister Veronica and the portress led him to the +parlour. Several nuns were already behind the grate, chatting with a +group of fashionable ladies and their gallants; but Fulvia was not among +them. In a few moments the portress returned and informed Odo that +Sister Veronica was indisposed and unable to leave her cell. His heart +sank, and he asked if she had sent no message. The portress answered in +the negative, but added that the abbess begged him to come to her +parlour; and at this his hopes took wing again. + +The abbess's parlour was preceded by a handsome antechamber, where Odo +was bidden to wait. It was doubtless the Reverend Mother's hour for +receiving company, for through the door beyond he heard laughter and +music and the sound of lively talk. Presently this door opened and Mary +of the Crucifix entered. In her monastic habit she looked coarse and +overblown: the severe lines and sober tints of the dress did not become +her. Odo felt an insurmountable repugnance at seeing her. He could not +conceive why Fulvia had chosen such an intermediary, and for the first +time a stealing doubt tainted his thoughts of her. + +Sister Mary seemed to read his mind. "You bear me a grudge," said she +gaily; "but I think you will live to own that I do not return it. Come +with me if you wish to speak with Sister Veronica." + +Odo flushed with surprise. "She is not too unwell to receive me?" + +Sister Mary raised her eyebrows in astonishment. "To receive her cousin? +Her nearest male relative, come from Treviso purposely to visit her? The +saints forbid!" she cried. "The poor child is indeed dying--but only to +see her cousin!" And with that she seized his hand and hurried him down +the corridor to a door on which she tapped three times. It opened at +once, and catching Odo by the shoulder she pushed him laughingly over +the threshold and cried out as she vanished: "Be careful not to agitate +the sufferer!" + +Odo found himself in a neat plain cell; but he had no eyes for his +surroundings. All that he saw was Fulvia, dressed in her nun's habit and +seated near the window, through which the afternoon light fell softly on +her white coif and the austere folds of her dress. She rose and greeted +him with a smile. + +"You are not ill, then?" he cried, stupidly, and the colour rose to her +pale face. + +"No," she said, "I am not ill, and at first I was reluctant to make use +of such a subterfuge; but to feign an indisposition was the only way of +speaking with you privately, and, alas, in this school one soon becomes +a proficient in deceit." She paused a moment and then added with an +effort: "Even this favour I could not have obtained save through Sister +Mary of the Crucifix; but she now understands that you are an old friend +of my father's, and that my motive for wishing to see you is not what +she at first supposed." + +This was said with such noble simplicity and so direct a glance, that +Odo, confused by the sense of his own doubts, could only murmur as he +bent over her hand: "Fuoco di quest' incendio non v' assale." + +She drew back gently and signed him to a seat. "I trust not," she said, +answering his citation; "but I think the flame through which Beatrice +walked must have been less contaminating than this morass in which I +flounder." + +She was silent a moment and he had leisure to steal a closer look at +her. It was the first time since their meeting that he had really seen +her face; and he was struck by the touch of awe that had come upon her +beauty. Perhaps her recent suffering had spiritualised a countenance +already pure and lofty; for as he looked at her it seemed to him that +she was transformed into a being beyond earthly contact, and his heart +sank with the sense of her remoteness. Presently she began to speak and +his consciousness of the distance between them was increased by the +composure of her manner. All signs of confusion and distress had +vanished. She faced him with the same innocent freedom as under her +father's roof, and all that had since passed between them seemed to have +slipped from her without a trace. + +She began by thanking him for coming, and then at once reverted to her +desperate situation and to her determination to escape. + +"I am alone and friendless," she said, "and though the length of our +past acquaintance" (and here indeed she blushed) "scarce warrants such a +presumption, yet I believe that in my father's name I may appeal to you. +It may be that with the best will to help me you can discover no way of +doing so, but at least I shall have the benefit of your advice. I now +see," she added, again deeply blushing, but keeping her eyes on his, +"the madness of my late attempt, and the depth of the abyss from which +you rescued me. Death were indeed preferable to such chances; but I do +not mean to die while life holds out a hope of liberation." + +As she spoke there flashed on Odo the reason of her remoteness and +composure. He had come to her as a lover: she received him as a friend. +His longing to aid her was inspired by passion: she saw in it only the +natural impulse of benevolence. So mortifying was the discovery that he +hardly followed her words. All his thoughts were engaged in reviewing +the past; and he now saw that if, as she said, their acquaintance scarce +warranted her appealing to him as a friend, it still less justified his +addressing her as a lover. Only once before had he spoken to her of +love, and that under circumstances which almost forbade a return to the +subject, or at least compelled an added prudence in approaching it. Once +again he found himself the prisoner of his folly, and stood aghast at +the ingenuity of the punishment. To play the part she ascribed to him +was his only portion; and he resolved at least to play it like a man. + +With what composure he might, he assured Fulvia of his desire to serve +her, and asked if she had no hope of obtaining her release from the Holy +See. She answered: none, since enquiry must reveal that she was the +daughter of a man who had been prosecuted for heresy, and that after his +death she had devoted the small sum he had left her to the publication +of his writings. She added that his Holiness, resolved to counteract the +effects of the late Pope's leniency, had greatly enlarged the powers of +the Inquisition, and had taken special measures to prevent those who +entered the religious life from renouncing their calling. + +"Since I have been here," she said, "three nuns have tried to obtain +their release, and one has conclusively proved that she was forced to +take the vows by fraud; but their pleas have been rejected, and mine +would meet the same fate. Indeed, the only result would be to deprive me +of what little liberty I am allowed; for the three nuns I speak of are +now the most closely watched in the convent." + +She went on to explain that, thanks to the connivance of Sister Mary of +the Crucifix, her actual escape might be effected without much +difficulty; but that she was now awake to the madness of taking so +desperate a step without knowing whither it would lead her. + +"To be safe," she said, "I must cross the borders of Switzerland. If I +could reach Geneva I should be beyond the arm of the Holy Office, and at +the University there I should find friends of my father who would surely +take pity on my situation and help me to a living. But the journey is +long and difficult, and not to be safely attempted without some +assurance of shelter on the way." + +It was on Odo's lips to declare that he would provide her with shelter +and escort; but at this moment three warning taps announced the return +of Sister Mary of the Crucifix. + +She entered merrily and at once laid one hand on Fulvia's brow and +caught her wrist in the other. "The patient's pulse has risen," she +declared, "and rest and a lowering treatment are essential. I must ask +the cavaliere to withdraw." + +Fulvia, with an air of constraint, held out her hand to Odo. + +"I shall see you soon again?" he whispered; and Sister Mary, as though +she had guessed his words, cried out, "I think your excellency may count +on a recurrence of the seizure two days hence at the same hour!" + + +3.5. + +With this Odo was forced to be content; and he passed the intervening +time in devising the means of Fulvia's rescue. He was resolved to let no +rashness or negligence hinder the attempt, and to prove, by the +discretion of his course, that he was no longer the light fool who had +once hazarded her safety. He went about his preparations as one that had +no private stake in the venture; but he was therefore the more +punctilious to show himself worthy of her trust and sensible of the +charge it laid upon him. + +At their next meeting he found her in the same open and friendly mood, +and she listened gratefully as he set forth his plan. This was that she +should first write to a doctor of the University in Geneva, who had been +her father's friend, stating her plight and asking if he could help her +to a living should she contrive to reach Geneva. Pending the reply, Odo +was to plan the stages of the journey in such fashion that she might +count on concealment in case of pursuit; and she was not to attempt her +escape till these details were decided. Fulvia was the more ready to +acquiesce in this postponement as she did not wish to involve Sister +Mary in her adventure, but hoped to escape unassisted during an +entertainment which was to take place in the convent on the feast of +Saint Michael, some six weeks later. + +To Odo the delay was still more welcome; for it gave him what he must +needs regard as his last opportunity of being in the girl's company. She +had accepted his companionship on the journey with a readiness in which +he saw only the magnanimity of pardon; but in Geneva they must part, and +what hope had he of seeing her again? The first smart of vanity allayed, +he was glad she chose to treat him as a friend. It was in this character +that he could best prove his disinterestedness, his resolve to make +amends for the past; and in this character only--as he now felt--would +it be possible for him to part from her. + +On his second visit he ventured to discharge his mind of its heaviest +burden by enquiring what had befallen her and her father after he had +lost trace of them at Vercelli. She told him quite simply that, failing +to meet him at the appointed place, they at once guessed that his plan +had been winded by the abate who travelled with him; and that after a +few hours' delay her father had succeeded in securing a chaise which had +taken them safely across the border. She went on to speak of the +hardships they had suffered after reaching Milan. Even under a +comparatively liberal government it was small advantage to be marked by +the Holy Office; and though he received much kindness, and even material +aid, from those of his way of thinking, Vivaldi was unable to obtain the +professorship he had hoped for. + +From Milan they went to Pavia; but in this University, the most liberal +in Italy, the chairs were so sought after that there was no hope of his +receiving a charge worthy of his talents. Here, however, his spirit +breathed its natural air, and reluctant to lose the privileges of such +intercourse he decided to accept the post of librarian to an eccentric +nobleman of the town. If his pay was modest his duties left him leisure +for the work which was his chief concern; for his patron, who had houses +in Milan and Brescia, came seldom to Pavia, and Fulvia and her father +had the vast palace to themselves. They lodged in a corner adjoining the +library, spending their days in studious seclusion, their evenings in +conversation with some of the first scholars of Europe: the learned +botanist Scopoli, Spallanzani, Volta, and Father Fontana, the famous +mathematician. In such surroundings Vivaldi might have pursued his task +contentedly enough, but for the thought of Fulvia's future. This, his +daughter said, continually preyed on him, driving him to labours beyond +his strength; for he hoped by the publication of his book to make good, +at least in part, the loss of the small property which the Sardinian +government had confiscated. All her entreaties could not dissuade him +from over-exertion; and in addition to his regular duties he took on +himself (as she afterward learned) the tedious work of revising proofs +and copying manuscripts for the professors. This drudgery, combined with +severe intellectual effort, exceeded his flagging powers; and the book +was hardly completed when his patron, apprised of its contents, abruptly +removed him from his post. From that day Vivaldi sank in health; but he +ended as became a sage, content to have discharged the task for which he +had given up home and substance, and dying with the great Stoic's words +upon his lips:-- + +Lex non poena mors. + +Vivaldi's friends in Milan came generously to Fulvia's aid, and she +would gladly have remained among them; but after the loss of her small +inheritance and of her father's manuscript she was without means of +repaying their kindness, and nothing remained but to turn to her own +kin. + +As Odo sat in the quiet cell, listening to her story, and hearing again +the great names his youth had reverenced, he felt himself an exile +returning to his own, mounting the familiar heights and breathing the +air that was his birthright. Looking back from this recovered standpoint +he saw how far behind his early hopes had been left. Since his departure +from Naples there had been nothing to remind him of that vast noiseless +labour of the spirit going on everywhere beneath the social surface: +that baffled but undiscouraged endeavour in which he had once so +impatiently claimed his share. Now every word of Fulvia's smote the +bones of some dead purpose, till his bosom seemed a very valley of +Ezekiel. Her own trials had fanned her love of freedom, and the near +hope of release lent an exaltation to her words. Of bitterness, of +resentment she gave no sign; and he was awed by the same serenity of +spirit which had struck him in the imprisoned doctor. But perhaps the +strongest impression she produced was that of increasing his points of +contact with life. His other sentimental ties had been a barrier between +himself and the outer world; but the feeling which drew him to Fulvia +had the effect of levelling the bounds of egoism, of letting into the +circle of his nearest emotions that great tide of human longing and +effort that had always faintly sounded on the shores of self. Perhaps it +was her power of evoking this wider life that gave a sense of +permanence, of security almost, to the stolen moments of their +intercourse, lulling the lover's impatience of actual conditions with +the sense of something that must survive the accidents of fortune. Only +in some such way could he explain, in looking back, the completeness of +each moment spent with her. He was conscious even at the time of a +suspension of the emotional laws, a charmed surrender to the limitations +of his fate. When he was away his impatience reasserted itself; but her +presence was like a soothing hand on his spirit, and he knew that his +quiet hours with her would count among those intervals between the +crises of life that flower in memory when the crises themselves have +faded. + +It was natural that in the course of these visits she in turn should +question him; and as his past rearranged itself beneath her scrutiny he +seemed once more to trace the thread of purpose on which its fragments +hung. He told her of his connection with the liberals of Pianura, of the +situation at court, and of the reason for his prolonged travels. As he +talked her eyes conveyed the exquisite sense of her complete +comprehension. She saw, before he could justify himself, how the +uncertainty of his future, and his inability to act, had cast him adrift +upon a life of superficial enjoyment; and how his latent dissatisfaction +with this life had inevitably resulted in self-distrust and vacillation. +"You wait your hour," she said of him; and he seized on the phrase as a +justification of his inactivity and, when chance should offer, a spur to +fresh endeavour. Her interest in the liberal cause had been intensified +and exalted by her father's death--his martyrdom, as she described it. +Like most women possessed of an abstract idea she had unconsciously +personified the idea and made a religion of it; but it was a religion of +charity and not of vindictiveness. "I should like my father's death +avenged by love and not by hate," she said; "I would have it bring +peace, not a sword." + +On one point only she remained, if not hostile yet unresponsive. This +was when he spoke of de Crucis. Her manner hardened instantly, and he +perceived that, though he dwelt on the Jesuit's tolerant view and +cultivated tastes, she beheld only the priest and not the man. She had +been eager to hear of Crescenti, whom she knew by name as a student of +European repute, and to the praise of whose parochial charities she +listened with outspoken sympathy; but the Jesuits stood for the Holy +Office, and she had suffered too deeply at the hands of the Holy Office +to regard with an open mind any who might be supposed to represent its +principles. It was impossible for Odo to make her understand how +distinctly, in de Crucis's case, the man predominated over the order; +and conscious of the painfulness of the subject, he gave up the attempt +to interest her in his friend. + +Three or four times he was permitted to visit her in her cell: after +that they met almost daily in the parlour, where, about the hour of +benediction, they could talk almost as privately under cover of the +general chatter. In due time Fulvia received an answer from the +Calvinist professor, who assured her of a welcome in Geneva and shelter +under his roof. Odo, meanwhile, had perfected the plan of their journey; +but as Michaelmas approached he began to fear Cantapresto's observation. +He now bitterly regretted that he had not held to his purpose of sending +the soprano back to Pianura; but to do so at this point would be to +challenge observation and he resolved instead on despatching him to +Monte Alloro with a letter to the old Duke. As the way to Geneva lay in +the opposite direction this would at least give the fugitives a three +days' lead; and they had little cause to fear pursuit from any other +quarter. The convent indeed might raise a hue and cry; but the nuns of +Santa Chiara had lately given the devout so much cause for scandal that +the abbess would probably be disposed to hush up any fresh delinquency. +The time too was well-chosen; for the sisters had prevailed on the +Reverend Mother to celebrate the saint's day by a masked ball, and the +whole convent was engrossed in the invention of whimsical disguises. The +nuns indeed were not to take part in the ball; but a number of them were +to appear in an allegorical entertainment with which the evening was to +open. The new Papal Nuncio, who was lately arrived in Venice, had +promised to be present; and as he was known to be a man of pleasure +there was scarce a sister in the convent but had an eye to his conquest. +These circumstances gave to Fulvia's plans the shelter of indifference; +for in the delightful effort of surpassing the other nuns even Mary of +the Crucifix lost interest in her friend's affairs. + +Odo, to preserve the secrecy of his designs, had been obliged to keep up +a pretence of his former habits, showing himself abroad with +Coeur-Volant and Castelrovinato and frequenting the Procuratessa's routs +and card-parties. This lady, though lately returned to the Brenta, had +announced her intention of coming to Venice for the ball at Santa +Chiara; and Coeur-Volant was mightily preoccupied with the +entertainment, at which he purposed his mistress should outshine all her +companions. + +The evening came at last, and Odo found himself entering the gates of +Santa Chiara with a throng of merry-makers. The convent was noted for +its splendid hospitality, and unwonted preparations had been made to +honour the saint. The brightly-illuminated bridge leading to the square +of Santa Chiara was decked with a colonnade of pasteboard and stiffened +linen cunningly painted, and a classical portico masked the entrance +gate. A flourish of trumpets and hautboys, and the firing of miniature +cannon, greeted the arrival of the guests, who were escorted to the +parlour, which was hung with tapestries and glowing with lights like a +Lady Chapel. Here they were received by the abbess, who, on the arrival +of the Nuncio, led the way to the garden, where a stage had been +erected. + +The nuns who were not to take part in the play had been seated directly +under the stage, divided from the rest of the company by a low screen of +foliage. Ranged beneath the footlights, which shone on their bare +shoulders and white gowns, and on the gauze veils replacing their +monastic coifs, they seemed a choir of pagan virgins grouped in the +proscenium of an antique theatre. Everything indeed combined to produce +the impression of some classic festival: the setting of motionless +foliage, the mild autumnal sky in which the stars hung near and vivid, +and the foreground thronged with a motley company lit by the shifting +brightness of torches. + +As Odo, in mask and travesty, stood observing the fantastically-dressed +audience, the pasteboard theatre adorned with statuary, and the nuns +flitting across the stage, his imagination, strung to the highest pitch +by his own impending venture, was thrilled by the contrast between the +outward appearance of the scene and its underlying reality. From where +he stood he looked directly at the abbess, who was seated with the +Nuncio and his suite under the tall crucifix in the centre of the +garden. As if to emphasise the irony of the situation, the torch fixed +behind this noble group cast an enlarged shadow of the cross over the +abbess's white gown and the splendid robes of her companions, who, +though they wore the mask, had not laid aside their clerical dress. To +Odo the juxtaposition had the effect of some supernatural warning, the +shadow of the divine wrath projected on its heedless ministers; an +impression heightened by the fact that, just opposite the cross, a +lively figure of Pan, surmounting the pediment of the theatre, seemed to +fling defiance at the Galilean intruder. + +The nuns, like the rest of the company, were masked; and it had been +agreed between Odo and Fulvia that the latter should wear a wreath of +myrtle above her veil. As almost all her companions had chosen +brightly-coloured flowers this dark green chaplet was easily +distinguished among the clustered heads beneath the stage, and Odo had +no doubt of being able to rejoin Fulvia in the moment of dispersal that +should follow the conclusion of the play. He knew that the sisters were +to precede their guests and be locked behind the grate before the ball +began; but as they passed through the garden and cloisters the barrier +between nuns and visitors would probably not be too strictly maintained. +As he had foreseen, the company, attracted by the graceful procession, +pressed forward regardless of the assistant mistresses' protests, and +the shadowy arcades were full of laughter and whispered snatches of talk +as the white flock was driven back to its fold. + +Odo had withdrawn to the darkest angle of the cloister, close to a door +leading to the pharmacy. It was here that Fulvia had told him to wait; +and though he had lost sight of her when the audience rose, he stood +confidently watching for the reappearance of the myrtle-wreath. +Presently he saw it close at hand; and just then the line of sisters +flowed toward him, driven forward by a group of lively masqueraders, +among whom he seemed to recognise Coeur-Volant's voice and figure. +Nothing could have been more opportune, for the pressure swept the +wearer of the myrtle-wreath almost into his arms; and as the intruders +were dispersed and the nuns laughingly reformed their lines, her hand +lingered in his and he felt himself drawn toward the door. + +It yielded to her touch and Odo followed her down a dark passageway to +the empty room where rows of old Faenza jars and quaintly-shaped flagons +glimmered in the dusk. Beyond the pharmacy was another door, the key of +which hung on the wall with the portress's hood and cloak. Without a +word the girl wrapped herself in the cloak and, fitting the key to the +lock, softly opened the door. All this was done with a rapidity and +assurance for which Odo was unprepared; but, reflecting that Fulvia's +whole future hung on the promptness with which each detail of her plan +was executed, he concluded that her natural force of character enabled +her to assume an ease she could hardly feel. + +The door opened on the kitchen-garden, and brushing the lavender-hedges +with her flying skirts she sped on ahead of Odo to the postern which the +nuns were accustomed to use for their nocturnal escapades. Only the +thickness of an oaken gate stood between Fulvia and the outer world. To +her the opening of the gate meant the first step toward freedom, but to +Odo the passing from their enchanted weeks of fellowship to the inner +loneliness of his former life. He hung back silent while she drew the +bolt. + +A moment later they had crossed the threshold and his gondola was +slipping toward them out of the shadow of the wall. Fulvia sprang on +board and he followed her under the felze. The warm darkness enclosing +them stirred impulses which their daily intercourse had subdued, and in +the sense of her nearness he lost sight of the conditions which had +brought them together. The feeling seemed to communicate itself; for as +the gondola rounded the angle of the convent-wall and swung out on the +open, she drooped toward him with the turn of the boat and their lips +met under the loosened masks. + +At the same instant the light of the Virgin's shrine in the corner of +the convent-wall fell through the window of the felze on the face lifted +to Odo's; and he found himself suddenly confronted by the tender eyes +and malicious smile of Sister Mary of the Crucifix. + +"By Diana," she cried as he started back, "I did but claim my pay in +advance; nor do I think that, when she knows all, Sister Veronica will +grudge me my reward!" + +He continued to stare at her in speechless bewilderment, and she went on +with a kind of tender impatience: "You simpleton, can you not guess that +you were watched, and that but for me your Veronica would at this moment +be lying under lock and key in her cell? Instead of which," she +continued, speaking more slowly, and leaning back as though to enjoy the +full savour of his suspense, "instead of which she now awaits you in a +safe nook of my choosing, where, within half an hour's time, you may +atone to her with interest for the infidelity into which I have betrayed +you." + +"She knows, then?" Odo faltered, not daring to say more in his ignorance +of Sister Mary's share in the secret. + +Sister Mary shook her head with a tantalising laugh. "That you are +coming? Alas, no, poor angel! She fancies that she has been sent from +the convent to avoid you--as indeed she was, and by the Reverend +Mother's own order, who, it seems, had wind of the intrigue this +morning. But, the saints be praised, the excellent sister who was +ordered to attend her is in my pay and instead of conducting her to her +relatives of San Barnado, who were to keep her locked up over night, +has, if I mistake not, taken her to a good woman of my acquaintance--an +old servant, in fact--who will guard her as jealously as the family +plate till you and I come to her release." + +As she spoke she put out her head and gave a whispered order to the +gondolier; and at the word the boat swung round and headed for the city. + +In the violent reaction which this strange encounter produced, Odo was +for the moment incapable of taking any clear note of his surroundings. +Uncertain if he were not once more the victim of some such mischance as +seemed to attend all his efforts to succour Fulvia, he sat in silent +apprehension as the gondola shot across the Grand Canal and entered the +labyrinth of water-ways behind San Moise. Sister Mary took his silence +philosophically. + +"You dare not speak to me, for fear of betraying yourself," she said, +"and I scarce wonder at your distrust; for your plans were so well laid +that I had no notion of what was on foot, and must have remained in +ignorance if Veronica had not been put in Sister Martha's charge. But +you will both live to thank me, and I hope," she added, laughing, "to +own that you would have done better to take me into your confidence from +the first." + +As she spoke the gondola touched at the head of a narrow passage which +lost itself in the blackness of the overhanging houses. Sister Mary +sprang out and drew Odo after her. A few yards down the alley she +entered a plain low-storied house somewhat withdrawn behind its +neighbours. Followed by Odo she groped her way up a dark flight of +stairs and knocked at a door on the upper landing. A vague flutter +within, indicative of whispers and uncertain movements, was followed by +the slipping of the bolt, and a middle-aged woman looked out. She drew +back with an exclamation of welcome, and Sister Mary, seizing Odo by the +shoulders, pushed him across the threshold of a small dimly-lit kitchen. + +Fulvia, in her nun's habit, cowered in the darkest corner; but at sight +of Odo she sprang up, and ran toward him with a happy cry. + + +3.6. + +An hour later the two were well on their way toward Mestre, where a +travelling-chaise awaited them. Odo, having learned that Andreoni was +settled in Padua, had asked him to receive Fulvia in his house till the +next night-fall; and the bookseller, whom he had taken into his +confidence, was eager to welcome the daughter of the revered Vivaldi. + +The extremes of hope and apprehension had left Fulvia too exhausted for +many words, and Odo, after she had confirmed every particular of Sister +Mary's story, refrained from questioning her farther. Thanks to her +friend's resources she had been able to exchange her nun's dress for the +plain gown and travelling-cloak of a young woman of the middle class; +and this dress painfully recalled to Odo the day when he had found her +standing beside the broken-down chaise on the road to Vercelli. + +The recollection was not calculated to put him at his ease; and indeed +it was only now that he began to feel the peculiar constraint of his +position. To Andreoni his explanation of Fulvia's flight had seemed +natural enough; but on the subsequent stages of their journey she must +pass for his mistress or his wife, and he hardly knew in what spirit she +would take the misapprehensions that must inevitably arise. + +At Mestre their carriage waited, and they drove rapidly toward Padua +through the waning night. Andreoni, in his concern for Fulvia's safety, +had prepared for her reception a little farm-house of his wife's, in a +vineyard beyond the town; and here at daybreak it was almost a relief to +Odo to commit his charge to the Signora Andreoni's care. + +The day was spent indoors, and Andreoni having thought it more prudent +to bring no servant from Padua, his wife prepared the meals for their +guests and the bookseller drew a jar of his own wine from the cellar. +Fulvia kept to herself during the day; but at dusk she surprised Odo by +entering the room with a trayful of plates and glasses, and helping +their hostess to set out the supper-table. The few hours of rest had +restored to her not only the serenity of the convent, but a lightness of +step and glance that Odo had not seen in her since the early days of +their friendship. He marvelled to see how the first breath of freedom +had set her blood in motion and fanned her languid eye; but he could not +suppress the accompanying thought that his own presence had failed to +work such miracles. + +They had planned to ride that night to a little village in the hills +beyond Vicenza, where Fulvia's foster-mother, a peasant of the +Vicentine, lived with her son, who was a vine-dresser; and supper was +hardly over when they were told that their horses waited. Their kind +hosts dared not urge them to linger; and after a hurried farewell they +rode forth into the fresh darkness of the September night. + +The new moon was down and they had to thread their way slowly through +the stony lanes between the vineyards. At length they gained the open +country, and growing more accustomed to the darkness put their horses to +a trot. The change of pace, and the exhilaration of traversing an +unknown country in the hush and mystery of night, combined to free their +spirits, and Odo began to be aware that the barrier between them was +lifted. To the charm of their intercourse at Santa Chiara was added that +closer sympathy produced by the sense of isolation. They were enclosed +in their common risk as in some secret meeting-place where no +consciousness of the outer world intruded; and though their talk kept +the safe level of their immediate concerns he felt the change in every +inflection of Fulvia's voice and in the subtler emphasis of her +silences. + +The way was long, and he had feared that she would be taxed beyond her +strength; but the miles seemed to fly beneath their horses' feet, and +they could scarcely believe that the dark hills which rose ahead of them +against a whitening sky marked the limit of their journey. + +With some difficulty they found their way to the vine-dresser's house, a +mere hut in a remote fold of the hills. From motives of prudence they +had not warned the nurse of their coming; but they found the old woman +already at work in her melon-patch and learned from her that her son had +gone down to his day's labour in the valley. She received Fulvia with a +tender wonder, as at some supernatural presence descending into her +life, too much awed, till the first embraces were over, to risk any +conjecture as to Odo's presence. But with the returning sense of +familiarity--the fancied recovery of the nurseling's features in the +girl's definite outline--came the inevitable reaction of curiosity, and +the fugitives felt themselves coupled in the old woman's meaning smiles. +To Odo's surprise Fulvia received these innuendoes with baffling +composure, parrying the questions she seemed to answer, and finally +taking refuge in a plea for rest. But the accord of the previous night +was broken; and when the travellers set out again, starting a little +before sunset to avoid the vine-dresser's return, the constraint of the +day began to weigh upon them. In Fulvia's case physical weariness +perhaps had a share in the change; but whatever the cause, its effect +was to make this stage of the journey strangely tedious to both. + +Their way lay through the country north of Vicenza, whence they hoped by +dawn to gain Peschiera on the lake of Garda, and hire a chaise which +should take them across the border. For the first hour or two they had +the new moon to light them; but as it set the sky clouded and drops of +rain began to fall. Fulvia had hitherto shown a gay indifference to the +discomforts of the journey; but she presently began to complain of the +cold and to question Odo anxiously as to the length of the way. The +hilliness of the country forced them to travel slowly, and it seemed to +Odo that hours had elapsed before they saw lights in the valley below +them. Their plan had been to avoid the towns on their way, and Fulvia, +the night before, had contented herself with a half-hour's rest by the +roadside; but a heavy rain was now falling, and she at once assented to +Odo's tentative proposal that they should take shelter till the storm +was over. + +They dismounted at an inn on the outskirts of the village. The sleepy +landlord stared as he unbarred the door and led them into the kitchen; +but he offered no comment beyond remarking that it was a good night to +be under cover. + +Fulvia sank down on the wooden settle near the chimney, where a fire had +been hastily kindled. She took no notice of Odo when he removed the +dripping cloak from her shoulders, but sat gazing before her in a kind +of apathy. + +"I cannot eat," she said, as Odo pressed her to take her place at the +table. + +The innkeeper turned to him with a confidential nod. "Your lady looks +fairly beaten," he said. "I've a notion that one of my good beds would +be more to her taste than the best supper in the land. Shall I have a +room made ready for your excellencies?" + +"No, no," said Fulvia, starting up. "We must set out again as soon as we +have supped." + +She approached the table and hastily emptied the glass of country wine +that Odo had poured out for her. + +The innkeeper seemed a simple unsuspicious fellow, but at this he put +down the plate of cheese he was carrying and looked at her curiously. + +"Start out again at this hour of the night?" he exclaimed. "By the +saints, your excellencies must be running a race with the sun! Or do you +doubt my being able to provide you with decent lodgings, that you prefer +mud and rain to my good sheets and pillows?" + +"Indeed, no," Odo amicably interposed; "but we are hurrying to meet a +friend who is to rejoin us tomorrow at Peschiera." + +"Ah--at Peschiera," said the other, as though the name had struck him. +He took a dish of eggs from the fire and set it before Fulvia. "Well," +he went on with a shrug, "it is written that none of my beds shall be +slept in tonight. Not two hours since I had a gentleman here that gave +the very same excuse for hurrying forward; though his horses were so +spent that I had to provide him with another pair before he could +continue his journey." He laughed and uncorked a second bottle. + +"That reminds me," he went on, pausing suddenly before Fulvia, "that the +other gentleman was travelling to meet a friend too; a lady, he said--a +young lady. He fancied she might have passed this way and questioned me +closely; but as it happened there had been no petticoat under my roof +for three days.--I wonder, now, if he could have been looking for your +excellencies?" + +Fulvia flushed high at this, but a sign from Odo checked the denial on +her lips. + +"Why," said he, "it is not unlikely, though I had fancied our friend +would come from another direction. What was this gentleman like?" + +The landlord hesitated, evidently not so much from any reluctance to +impart what he knew as from the inability to express it. "Well," said +he, trying to supplement his words by a vaguely descriptive gesture, "he +was a handsome personable-looking man--smallish built, but with a fine +manner, and dressed not unlike your excellency." + +"Ah," said Odo carelessly, "our friend is an ecclesiastic.--And which +way did this gentleman travel?" he went on, pouring himself another +glass. + +The landlord assumed an air of country cunning. "There's the fishy part +of it," said he. "He gave orders to go toward Verona; but my boy, who +chased the carriage down the road, as lads will, says that at the +cross-ways below the old mill the driver took the turn for Peschiera." + +Fulvia at this seemed no longer able to control herself. She came close +to Odo and said in a low urgent tone: "For heaven's sake, let us set +forward!" + +Odo again signed to her to keep silent, and with an effort she resumed +her seat and made a pretence of eating. A moment later he despatched the +landlord to the stable, to see that the horses had been rubbed down; and +as soon as the door closed she broke out passionately. + +"It is my fault," she cried, "it is all my fault for coming here. If I +had had the courage to keep on this would never have happened!" + +"No," said Odo quietly, "and we should have gone straight to Peschiera +and landed in the arms of our pursuer--if this mysterious traveller is +in pursuit of us." + +His tone seemed to steady her. "Oh," she said, and the colour flickered +out of her face. + +"As it happens," he went on, "nothing could have been more fortunate +than our coming here." + +"I see--I see--; but now we must go on at once," she persisted. + +He looked at her gravely. "This is your wish?" + +She seemed seized with a panic fear. "I cannot stay here!" she repeated. + +"Which way shall we go, then? If we continue to Peschiera, and this man +is after us, we are lost." + +"But if he does not find us he may return here--he will surely return +here!" + +"He cannot return before morning. It is close on midnight already. +Meanwhile you can take a few hours' rest while I devise means of +reaching the lake by some mule-track across the mountain." + +It cost him an effort to take this tone with her; but he saw that in her +high-strung mood any other would have been less effective. She rose +slowly, keeping her eyes on him with the look of a frightened child. "I +will do as you wish," she said. + +"Let the landlord prepare a bed for you, then. I will keep watch down +here and the horses shall be saddled at daylight." + +She stood silent while he went to the door to call the innkeeper; but +when the order was given, and the door closed again, she disconcerted +him by a sudden sob. + +"What a burden I am!" she cried. "I had no right to accept this of you." +And she turned and fled up the dark stairs. + +The night passed and toward dawn the rain ceased. Odo rose from his +dreary vigil in the kitchen, and called to the innkeeper to carry up +bread and wine to Fulvia's room. Then he went out to see that the horses +were fed and watered. He had not dared to question the landlord as to +the roads, lest his doing so should excite suspicion; but he hoped to +find an ostler who would give him the information he needed. + +The stable was empty, however; and he prepared to bait the horses +himself. As he stooped to place his lantern on the floor he caught the +gleam of a small polished object at his feet. He picked it up and found +that it was a silver coat-of-arms, such as are attached to the blinders +and saddles of a carriage-harness. His curiosity was aroused, and +holding the light closer he recognised the ducal crown of Pianura +surmounting the "Humilitas" of the Valseccas. + +The discovery was so startling that for some moments he stood gazing at +the small object in his hand without being able to steady his confused +ideas. Gradually they took shape, and he saw that, if the ornament had +fallen from the harness of the traveller who had just preceded them, it +was not Fulvia but he himself who was being pursued. But who was it who +sought him and to what purpose? One fact alone was clear: the traveller, +whoever he was, rode in one of the Duke's carriages, and therefore +presumably upon his sovereign's business. + +Odo was still trying to thread a way through these conjectures when a +yawning ostler pushed open the stable-door. + +"Your excellency is in a hurry to be gone," he said, with a surprised +glance. + +Odo handed him the coat-of-arms. "Can you tell me what this is?" he +asked carelessly. "I picked it up here a moment ago." + +The other turned it over and stared. "Why," said he, "that's off the +harness of the gentleman that supped here last night--the same that went +on later to Peschiera." + +Odo proceeded to question him about the mule-tracks over Monte Baldo, +and having bidden him saddle the horses in half an hour, crossed the +courtyard and re-entered the inn. A grey light was already falling +through the windows, and he mounted the stairs and knocked on the door +which he thought must be Fulvia's. Her voice bade him enter and he found +her seated fully dressed beside the window. She rose with a smile and he +saw that she had regained her usual self-possession. + +"Do we set out at once?" she asked. + +"There is no great haste," he answered. "You must eat first, and by that +time the horses will be saddled." + +"As you please," she returned, with a readiness in which he divined the +wish to make amends for her wilfulness the previous night. Her eyes and +cheeks glowed with an excitement which counterfeited the effects of a +night's rest, and he thought he had never seen her more radiant. She +approached the table on which the wine and bread had been placed, and +drew another chair beside her own. + +"Will you not share with me?" she asked, filling a glass for him. + +He took it from her with a smile. "I have good news for you," he said, +holding out the bit of silver which he had brought from the stable. + +She examined it wonderingly. "What does this mean?" she asked, looking +up at him. + +"That it is I who am being followed--and not you." + +She started and the ornament slipped from her hand. + +"You?" she faltered with a quick change of colour. + +"This coat-of-arms," he explained, "dropped from the harness of the +traveller who left the inn just before our arrival last night." + +"Well--" she said, still without understanding; "and do you know the +coat?" + +Odo smiled. "It is mine," he answered; "and the crown is my cousin's. +The traveller must have been a messenger of the Duke's." + +She stood leaning against the seat from which she had risen, one hand +still grasping it while the other hung inert. Her lips parted but she +did not speak. Her pallor troubled Odo and he went up to her and took +her hand. + +"Do you not understand," he said gently, "that there is no farther cause +for alarm? I have no reason to think that the Duke's messenger is in +pursuit of me; but should he be so, and should he overtake us, he has no +authority over you and no reason for betraying you to your enemies." + +The blood poured back to her face. "Me! My enemies!" she stammered. "It +is not of them I think." She raised her head and faced him in a glow. + +For a moment he stood stupidly gazing at her; then the mist lifted and +through it he saw a great light. + + * * * * * + +The landlord's knock warned them that their horses waited, and they rode +out in the grey morning. The world about them still lay in shade, and as +they climbed the wooded defile above the valley Odo was reminded of the +days at Donnaz when he had ridden up the mountain in the same early +light. Never since then had he felt, as he did now, the boy's easy +kinship with the unexpected, the sense that no encounter could be too +wonderful to fit in with the mere wonder of living. + +To avoid the road to Peschiera they had resolved to cross the Monte +Baldo by a mule-track which should bring them out at one of the villages +on the eastern shore of Garda; and the search for this path led them up +through steep rain-scented woods where they had to part the wet boughs +as they passed. From time to time they regained the highway and rode +abreast, almost silent at first with the weight of their new nearness, +and then breaking into talk that was the mere overflow of what they were +thinking. There was in truth more to be felt between them than to be +said; since, as each was aware, the new light that suffused the present +left the future as obscure as before. But what mattered, when the hour +was theirs? The narrow kingdom of today is better worth ruling over than +the widest past or future; but not more than once does a man hold its +fugitive sceptre. The past, however, was theirs also: a past so +transformed that he must revisit it with her, joyously confronting her +new self with the image of her that met them at each turn. Then he had +himself to trace in her memories, his transfigured likeness to linger +over in the Narcissus-mirror of her faith in him. This interchange of +recollections served them as well as any outspoken expression of +feeling, and the most commonplace allusion was charged with happy +meanings. + +Arabia Petraea had been an Eden to such travellers; how much more the +happy slopes they were now descending! All the afternoon their path +wound down the western incline of Monte Baldo, first under huge olives, +then through thickets of laurel and acacia, to emerge on a lower level +of lemon and orange groves, with the blue lake showing through a diaper +of golden-fruited boughs. Fulvia, to whom this clear-cut southern +foliage was as new as the pure intensity of light that bathed it, seemed +to herself to be moving through the landscape of a dream. It was as +though nature had been remodelled, transformed almost, under the touch +of their love: as though they had found their way to the Hesperian +glades in which poets and painters placed the legendary lovers of +antiquity. + +Such feelings were intensified by the strangeness of the situation. In +Italy the young girls of the middle class, though seemingly allowed a +greater freedom of intercourse than the daughters of noblemen, were in +reality as strictly guarded. Though, like Fulvia, they might converse +with the elderly merchants or scholars frequenting the family table, +they were never alone in the company of men, and the high standard of +conduct prevailing in the bourgeoisie forbade all thought of clandestine +intercourse. This was especially true of the families of men of letters, +where the liberal education of the young girls, and their habit of +associating as equals with men of serious and cultivated minds, gave +them a self-possession disconcerting to the young blood accustomed to +conquer with a glance. These girls as a rule, were married early to men +of their own standing, and though the cicisbeo was not unknown after +marriage he was not an authorised member of the household. Fulvia, +indeed, belonged to the class most inaccessible to men of Odo's rank: +the only class in Italy in which the wife's fidelity was as much +esteemed as the innocence of the girl. Such principles had long been +ridiculed by persons of quality and satirised by poets and playwrights. +From Aristophanes to Beaumarchais the cheated husband and the outwitted +guardian had been the figures on which the dramatist relied for his +comic effects. Even the miser tricked out of his savings was a shade +less ridiculous, less grotesquely deserving of his fate, than the +husband defrauded of his wife's affection. The plausible adulteress and +the adroit seducer had a recognised claim on the sympathy of the public. +But the inevitable reaction was at hand; and the new teachers to whom +Odo's contemporaries were beginning to listen had thrown a strangely +poetic light over the dull figures of the domestic virtues. Faithfulness +to the family sanctities, reverence for the marriage tie, courage to +sacrifice the loftiest passion to the most plodding duty: these were +qualities to touch the fancy of a generation sated with derision. If +love as a sentiment was the discovery of the medieval poets, love as a +moral emotion might be called that of the eighteenth-century +philosophers, who, for all their celebration of free unions and fatal +passions, were really on the side of the angels, were fighting the +battle of the spiritual against the sensual, of conscience against +appetite. + +The imperceptible action of these new influences formed the real barrier +between Odo and Fulvia. The girl stood for the embodiment of the +purifying emotions that were to renew the world. Her candour, her +unapproachableness, her simple trust in him, were a part of the magic +light which the new idealism had shed over the old social structure. His +was, in short, a love large enough to include other emotions: a widening +rather than a contraction of the emotional range. Youth and propinquity +have before now broken down stronger defences; but Fulvia's situation +was an unspoken appeal to her lover's forbearance. The sense that her +safety depended on him kept his sentimental impulses in check and made +the happiness of the moment seem, in its exquisite unreality, a mere +dreamlike interlude between the facts of life. + +Toward sunset they rested in an olive-orchard, tethering their horses to +the low boughs. Overhead, through the thin foliage of tarnished silver, +the sky, as the moon suffused it, melted from steel blue to a clearer +silver. A peasant-woman whose hut stood close by brought them a goat's +cheese on a vine-leaf and a jug of spring-water; and as they supped, a +little goat-herd, driving his flock down the hill, paused to watch them +with furtive woodland eyes. + +Odo, questioning him, learned that at the village on the shore below +they could obtain a boat to carry them across the lake. Fulvia, for lack +of a passport, dared not set foot on Austrian soil; but the Swiss +authorities were less exacting and Odo had hopes of crossing the border +without difficulty. They set out again presently, descending through the +grey dusk of the olives till the path became too steep for riding; then +Odo lifted Fulvia from the saddle and led the two horses after her. Here +and there, between the trees, they caught a momentary glimpse of lights +on the shore and the pale gleam of the lake enclosed in black foliage. +From the village below came snatches of song and the shrill wail of a +pipe; and as the night deepened they saw, far out on the water, the wild +flare of the fish-spearers' torches, like comets in an inverted sky. + +With nightfall the spirits of both had sunk. Fulvia walked ahead in +silence and Odo read a mute apprehension in her drooping outline. Every +step brought them nearer to the point they both feared to face, and +though each knew what lay in the other's thoughts neither dared break +the silence. Odo's mind turned anxiously to the incidents of the +morning, to the finding of the ducal coat-of-arms, and to all the +possibilities it suggested. What errand save one could have carried an +envoy from Pianura to that remote hamlet among the hills? He could +scarcely doubt that it was in pursuit of himself that the ducal +messenger travelled; but with what object was the journey undertaken? +Was he to be recalled in obedience to some new whim of the Duke's? Or +had some unforeseen change--he dared not let his thoughts define +it--suddenly made his presence needful in Pianura? It was more probable +that the possibility of his flight with Fulvia had been suggested to the +Duke by the ecclesiastical authorities, and that the same hand which had +parted them before was again secretly at work. In any case, it was Odo's +first business to see his companion safely across the border; and in +that endeavour he had now little fear of being thwarted. If the Duke's +messenger awaited them at Peschiera he waited in vain; and though their +flight across the lake might be known before dawn it would then be no +easy matter to overtake them. + +In an hour's time, as Odo had hoped, they were putting off from the +shore in a blunt-nosed fishing-boat which was the lightest craft the +village could provide. The lake was stark calm, and the two boatmen, +silhouetted against the moonlight, drove the boat forward with even +vigorous strokes. Fulvia, shivering in the autumnal chill, had drawn her +hood close about her and sat silent, her face in shade. Measured by +their secret apprehensions the boat's progress seemed at first +indescribably slow; but gradually the sounds from the shore grew +fainter, and the fugitives felt themselves alone in a world enclosed by +the moonlit circle of the waters. + +As they advanced this sense of isolation and security grew deeper and +more impressive. The motionless surface of the lake was enclosed in a +wall of mountains which the moonlight seemed to vein with marble. A sky +in which the stars were dissolved in white radiance curved high above +their heads; and not a sail flecked the lake or a cloud the sky. The +boat seemed suspended alone in some ethereal medium. + +Presently one of the boatmen spoke to the other and glanced toward the +north. Then the second silently shipped his oar and hoisted the sail. +Hardly had he made it fast when a fresh of wind came down the lake and +they began to stretch across the bay with spreading canvas. The wind was +contrary, but Odo welcomed it, for he saw at once that it would be +quicker work to tack to the other shore than to depend on the oars. The +scene underwent a sudden change. The silver mirror over which they had +appeared to glide was shivered into sparkling fragments, and in the +enveloping rush and murmur of the night the boat woke to a creaking +straining activity. + +The man at the rudder suddenly pointed to a huddle of lights to the +south. "Peschiera." + +Odo laughed. "We shall soon show it our heels," said he. + +The other boatman shrugged his shoulders. "Even an enemy's roof may +serve to keep out the storm," he observed philosophically. + +"The storm? What storm?" + +The man pointed to the north. Against the sky hung a little black cloud, +the merest flaw in the perfect curve of the night. + +"The lake is shrewish at this season," the boatman continued. "Did your +excellencies burn a candle before starting?" + +Odo sat silent, his eyes fixed on the cloud. It was growing visibly now. +With every moment its outline seemed to shift and spread, till its black +menace dilated to the zenith. The bright water still broke about them in +diamond spray; but as the shadow travelled the lake beneath it turned to +lead. Then the storm dropped on them. It fell suddenly out of +mid-heaven. Sky and water grew black and a long shudder ran through the +boat. For a moment she hung back, staggering under a white fury of +blows; then the gale seemed to lift and swing her about and she shot +forward through a long tunnel of glistening blackness, bows on for +Peschiera. + +"The enemy's roof!" thought Odo. He reached for Fulvia's hand and found +it in the darkness. The rain was driving against them now and he drew +her close and wrapped his cloak about her. She lay still, without a +tremor, as though in that shelter no fears could reach her. The night +roared about them and the waters seemed to divide beneath their keel. +Through the tumult Odo shouted to the boatmen to try to make some +harbour north of Peschiera. They shouted back that they must go where +the wind willed and bless the saints if they made any harbour at all; +and Odo saw that Peschiera was their destiny. + +It was past midnight when they set foot on shore. The rain still fell in +torrents and they could hardly grope their way up the steps of the +landing-stage. Odo's first concern was to avoid the inn; but the +boatmen, exhausted by their efforts and impatient to be under shelter, +could not be bribed to seek out at that hour another lodging for the +travellers. Odo dared not expose Fulvia longer to the storm, and +reluctantly they turned toward the inn, trusting that at that hour their +coming would attract little notice. + +A travelling-carriage stood in the courtyard, and somewhat to Odo's +surprise the landlord was still afoot. He led them into the public +parlour, which was alight, with a good fire on the hearth. A gentleman +in travelling-dress sat near this fire, his back to the door, reading by +a shaded candle. He rose as the travellers entered, and Odo recognised +the abate de Crucis. + +The latter advanced with a smile in which pleasure was more visible than +surprise. He bowed slightly to Fulvia, who had shrunk back into the +shadow of the doorway; then he turned to Odo and said: "Cavaliere, I +have travelled six days to overtake you. The Duke of Pianura is dying +and has named you regent." + + +3.7. + +Odo heard a slight movement behind him. He turned and saw that Fulvia +had vanished. He understood her wish for concealment, but its futility +was written in the glance with which de Crucis followed her flight. + +The abate continued to speak in urgent tones. "I implore you," he said, +"to lose no time in accompanying me to Pianura. The situation there is +critical and before now his Highness's death may have placed the reins +in your hands." He glanced at his watch. "If your excellency is not too +tired to set out at once, my horses can be harnessed within the half +hour." + +Odo's heart sank. To have let his thoughts dwell on such a possibility +seemed to have done little to prepare him for its realisation. He hardly +understood what de Crucis was saying: he knew only that an hour before +he had fancied himself master of his fate and that now he was again in +bonds. His first clear thought was that nothing should part him from +Fulvia. + +De Crucis seemed to read the thought. + +"Cavaliere," he said, "at a moment when time is so valuable you will +pardon my directness. You are accompanying to Switzerland a lady who has +placed herself in your charge--" + +Odo made no reply, and the other went on in the same firm but courteous +tone: "Foreseeing that it would be difficult for you to leave her so +abruptly I provided myself, in Venice, with a passport which will take +her safely across the border." He drew a paper from his coat. "This," +said he, handing it to Odo, "is the Papal Nuncio's authorisation to the +Signorina Fulvia Vivaldi, known in religion as Sister Veronica, to +absent herself from Italy for an indefinite period. With this passport +and a good escort your companion will have no difficulty in joining her +friends." + +Excess of astonishment kept Odo silent for a moment; and in that moment +he had as it were a fugitive glimpse into the workings of the great +power which still strove for predominance in Italy. A safe-conduct from +the Papal Nuncio to Fulvia Vivaldi was equivalent to her release from +her vows; and this in turn implied that, for the moment, religious +discipline had been frankly sacrificed to the pressure of political +necessities. How the invisible hands made and unmade the destinies of +those who came in their way! How boldly the Church swept aside her own +defences when they obstructed her course! He was conscious, even at the +moment, of all that men like de Crucis had to say in defence of this +higher expediency, this avowed discrimination between the factors in +each fresh combination of circumstances. He had himself felt the complex +wonder of thoughtful minds before the Church's perpetual miracle of +change disguised in immutability; but now he saw only the meaner side of +the game, its elements of cruelty and falseness; and he felt himself no +more than a frail bark on the dark and tossing seas of ecclesiastical +intrigue. For a moment his heart shuddered back from its fate. + +"No passport, no safe-conduct," he said at length, "can release me from +my duty to the lady who has placed herself in my care. I shall not leave +her till she has joined her friends." + +De Crucis bowed. "This is the answer I expected," he said, not without +sadness. + +Odo glanced at him in surprise. The two men, hitherto, had addressed +each other as strangers; but now something in the abate's tone recalled +to Odo the familiarity of their former intercourse, their deep community +of thought, the significance of the days they had spent together in the +monastery of Monte Cassino. The association of ideas brought before him +the profound sense of responsibility with which, at that time, he had +looked forward to such an hour as this. + +The abate was watching him gravely. + +"Cavaliere," he said, "every instant counts, all you had once hoped to +do for Pianura is now yours to accomplish. But in your absence your +enemies are not idle. His Highness may revoke your appointment at any +hour. Of late I have had his ear, but I have now been near a week +absent, and you know the Duke is not long constant to one +purpose.--Cavaliere," he exclaimed, "I appeal to you not in the name of +the God whom you have come to doubt, but in that of your fellow-men, +whom you have wished to serve." + +Odo looked at him, not without a confused sense of the irony of such an +appeal on such lips, yet with the distinct consciousness that it was +uttered in all sincerity, and that, whatever their superficial diversity +of view, he and de Crucis were at one on those deeper questions that +gave the moment its real significance. + +"It is impossible," he repeated, "that I should go with you." + +De Crucis was again silent, and Odo was aware of the renewed intentness +of his scrutiny. "If the lady--" broke from him once; but he checked +himself and took a turn in the room. + +Meanwhile a resolve was slowly forming itself in Odo. He would not be +false to the call which, since his boyhood, had so often made itself +heard before the voice of pleasure and self-interest; but he would at +least reserve the right to obey it in his own fashion and under +conditions which left his private inclination free. + +"There may be more than one way of serving one's fellows," he said +quietly. "Go back without me, abate. Tell my cousin that I resign my +rights to the succession. I shall live my own life elsewhere, not +unworthily, I hope, but as a private person." + +De Crucis had turned pale. For a moment his habitual self-command seemed +about to fail him; and Odo could not but see that a sincere personal +regret was mingled with the political agent's consciousness of failure. + +He himself was chiefly aware of a sense of relief, of self-recovery, as +though he had at last solved a baffling enigma and found himself once +more at one with his fate. + +Suddenly he heard a step behind him. Fulvia had re-entered the room. She +had put off her drenched cloak, but the hair lay in damp strands on her +forehead, deepening her pallor and the lines of weariness under her +eyes. She moved across the room, carrying her head high and advancing +tranquilly to Odo's side. Even in that moment of confused emotions he +was struck by the nobility of her gait and gesture. + +She turned to de Crucis, and Odo had the immediate intuition that she +had recognised him. + +"Will you let me speak a word privately to the cavaliere Valsecca?" she +said. + +The other bowed silently and turned away. The door closed on him, and +Odo and Fulvia remained alone. For a moment neither spoke; then she +said: "That was the abate de Crucis?" + +He assented. + +She looked at him sadly. "You still believe him to be your friend?" + +"Yes," he answered frankly, "I still believe him to be my friend, and, +spite of his cloth, the friend of justice and humanity. But he is here +simply as the Duke's agent. He has been for some time the governor of +Prince Ferrante." + +"I knew," she murmured, "I knew--" + +He went up to her and caught her hands. "Why do we waste our time upon +him?" he exclaimed impatiently. "Nothing matters but that I am free at +last." + +She drew back, gently releasing herself. "Free--?" + +"My choice is made. I have resigned my right to the succession. I shall +not return to Pianura." + +She continued to stare at him, leaning against the chair from which de +Crucis had risen. + +"Your choice is made! Your choice is made!" she repeated. "And you have +chosen--" + +"You," he said simply. "Will you go to France with me, Fulvia? Will you +be my wife and work with me at a distance for the cause that, in Italy, +we may not serve together? I have never abandoned the aims your father +taught me to strive for; they are dearer, more sacred to me than ever; +but I cannot strive for them alone. I must feel your hand in mine, I +must know that your heart beats with mine, I must hear the voice of +liberty speak to me in your voice--" He broke off suddenly and went up +to her. "All this is nothing," he said. "I love you. I cannot give you +up. That is all." + +For a moment, as he spoke, her face shone with an extraordinary light. +She looked at him intently, as one who seemed to gaze beyond and through +him, at some mystic vision that his words evoked. Then the brightness +faded. + +"The picture you draw is a beautiful one," she said, speaking slowly, in +sweet deliberate tones, "but it is not for me to look on. What you said +last is not true. If you love me it is because we have thought the same +thoughts, dreamed the same dream, heard the same voice--in each other's +voices, perhaps, as you say, but none the less a real voice, apart from +us and above us, and one which would speak to us as loudly if we were +apart--one which both of us must follow to the end." + +He gazed at her eagerly as she spoke; and while he gazed there came to +him, perversely enough, a vision of the life he was renouncing, not as +it concerned the public welfare but in its merely personal aspect: a +vision of the power, the luxury, the sumptuous background of traditional +state and prerogative in which his artistic and intellectual tastes, as +well as his easy impulses of benevolence, would find unchecked and +immediate gratification. It was the first time that he had been aware of +such lurking influences under his most generous aspirations; but even as +Fulvia ceased to speak the vision faded, leaving only an intenser +longing to bend her will to his. + +"You are right," he rejoined; "we must follow that voice to the end; but +why not together? Your father himself often questioned whether the +patriot could not serve his people better at a distance than in their +midst. In France, where the new ideas are not only tolerated but put in +practice, we shall be able to study their effects and to learn how they +may best be applied to the relief of our own unhappy people; and as a +private person, independent of party and patronage, could I not do more +than as the nominal head of a narrow priest-ridden government, where +every act and word would be used by my enemies to injure me and the +cause I represent?" + +The vigour and rapidity of the attack, and the promptness with which he +converted her argument to his own use, were not without visible effect. +Odo saw his words reflected in the wavering glow of Fulvia's cheek; but +almost at once she regained control of her pulses and faced him with +that serenity which seemed to come to her at such moments. + +"What you say might be true," she answered, "were your opportunities +indeed restricted to the regency. But the little prince's life is known +to hang on a thread: at any moment you may be Duke. And you will not +deny that as Duke of Pianura you can serve your people better than as an +obscure pamphleteer in Paris." + +Odo made an impatient gesture. "Are you so sure?" he said. "Even as Duke +I must be the puppet of powers greater than myself--of Austria, of Rome, +nay, of the wealthy nobles who will always league themselves with their +sovereign's enemies rather than suffer a hand upon their privileges. And +even if I were fortunate enough to outwit my masters and rule indeed, +over what a toy kingdom should I reign! How small a number would be +benefited! How little the cause would be helped by my example! As an +obscure pamphleteer I might reach the hearts of thousands and speak to +great kings on their thrones; as Duke of Pianura, fighting single-handed +to reform the laws of my little state, I should rank at best with the +other petty sovereigns who are amusing themselves all over Italy with +agricultural experiments and improved methods of cheese-making." + +Again the brightness shone in Fulvia's face. "How you love me!" she said +as he paused; and went on, restraining him with a gesture of the +gentlest dignity: "For it is love that speaks thus in you and not +reason; and you know as I do that the duty to which a man is born comes +before any of his own choosing. You are called to serve liberty on a +throne, I in some obscure corner of the private life. We can no more +exchange our duties than our stations; but if our lives divide, our +purpose remains one, and as pious persons recall each other in the +mystery of the Sacrament, so we shall meet in spirit in the new religion +we profess." + +Her voice gained strength and measure as she spoke, and Odo felt that +all that passion could urge must spend itself in vain against such high +security of spirit. + +"Go, cavaliere," she continued, "I implore you to lose no time in +reaching Pianura. Occasion is short-lived, and an hour's lingering may +cost you the regency, and with it the chance of gaining a hold on your +people. I will not expatiate, as some might, on the power and dignities +that await you. You are no adventurer plotting to steal a throne, but a +soldier pledged to his post." She moved close to him and suddenly caught +his hand and raised it to her lips. "Your excellency," said she, "has +deigned to look for a moment on a poor girl that crossed your path. Now +your eyes must be on your people, who will yet have cause to love and +bless you as she does." + +She shone on him with a weeping brightness that dissolved his very soul. + +"Ah," he cried, "you have indeed learned your lesson well! I admire with +what stoic calmness you pronounce my doom, with what readiness you +dispose of my future!" + +"It is not mine to dispose of," she caught him up, "nor yours; but +belongs, as much as any slave's to his master, to the people you are +called to rule. Think for how many generations their unheeded +sufferings, their unrewarded toil, have paid for the pomp and pleasure +of your house! That is the debt you are called on to acquit, the wrong +you are pledged to set right." + +Odo was silent. She had found the unanswerable word. Yes, he was called +on to acquit the accumulated debt of that long unrighteous rule: it was +he who must pay, if need be with the last drop of his blood, for the +savage victories of Bracciaforte, the rapacity of Guidobaldo, the +magnificence of Ascanio, the religious terrors and secret vices of the +poor Duke now nearing his end. All these passions had preyed on the +people, on the tillers and weavers and vine-dressers, obscure servants +of a wasteful greatness: theirs had been the blood that renewed the +exhausted veins of their rulers, through generation after generation of +dumb labour and privation. And the noblest passions, as well as the +basest, had been nourished at the same cost. Every flower in the ducal +gardens, every picture on the palace walls, every honour in the ancient +annals of the house, had been planted, paid for, fought for by the +people. With mute inconscient irony the two powers had faced each other +for generations: the subjects never guessing that their sovereigns were +puppets of their own making, the Dukes that all their pomp and +circumstance were but a borrowed motley. Now the evil wrought in +ignorance remained to be undone in the light of the world's new +knowledge: the discovery of that universal brotherhood which Christ had +long ago proclaimed, and which, after so many centuries, those who +denied Christ were the first to put in practice. Hour by hour, day by +day, at the cost of every personal inclination, of all that endears life +and ennobles failure, Odo must set himself to redeem the credit of his +house. He saw his way straight before him; but in that hour of insight +his heart's instinct of self-preservation made one last effort against +fate. + +He turned to Fulvia. + +"You are right," he said; "I have no choice. You have shown me the way; +but must I travel it alone? You ask me to give up at a stroke all that +makes life desirable: to set forth, without a backward glance, on the +very road that leads me farthest from you! Yesterday I might have +obeyed; but how can I turn today from this near view of my happiness?" + +He paused a moment and she seemed about to answer; but he hurried on +without giving her time. "Fulvia, if you ask this sacrifice of me, is +there none you will make in return? If you bid me go forth and work for +my people, will you not come with me and work for them too?" He +stretched out his hands, in a gesture that seemed to sum up his infinite +need of her, and for a moment they faced each other, silenced by the +nearness of great issues. + +She knew well enough what he offered. According to the code of the day +there was no dishonour in the offer and it did not occur to her to +resent it. But she looked at him sadly and he read her refusal in the +look. + +"The Regent's mistress?" she said slowly. "The key to the treasury, the +back-door to preferment, the secret trafficker in titles and +appointments? That is what I should stand for--and it is not to such +services that you must even appear to owe your power. I will not say +that I have my own work to do; for the dearest service I could perform +would be to help you in yours. But to do this I must stand aside. To be +near you I must go from you. To love you I must give you up." + +She looked him full in the eyes as she spoke; then she went up to him +and kissed him. It was the first kiss she had given him since she had +thrown herself in his arms in her father's garden; but now he felt her +whole being on her lips. + +He would have held her fast, forgetting everything in the sweetness of +her surrender; but she drew back quickly and, before he could guess her +intention, throw open the door of the room to which de Crucis had +withdrawn. + +"Signor abate!" she said. + +The Jesuit came forward. Odo was dimly aware that, for an instant, the +two measured each other; then Fulvia said quietly: + +"His excellency goes with you to Pianura." + +What more she said, or what de Crucis answered, he could never afterward +recall. He had a confused sense of having cried out a last unavailing +protest, faintly, inarticulately, like a man struggling to make himself +heard in a dream; then the room grew dark about him, and in its stead he +saw the old chapel at Donnaz, with its dimly-gleaming shrine, and heard +the voice of the chaplain, harsh and yet strangely shaken:--"My chief +prayer for you is that, should you be raised to this eminence, it may be +at a moment when such advancement seems to thrust you in the dust." + +Odo lifted his head and saw de Crucis standing alone before him. + +"I am ready," he said. + + + +BOOK IV. + +THE REWARD. + +Where are the portraits of those who have perished in spite of their +vows? + + +4.1. + +One bright March day in the year 1783 the bells of Pianura began to ring +at sunrise, and with their first peal the townsfolk were abroad. + +The city was already dressed for a festival. A canopy of crimson velvet, +surmounted by the ducal crown and by the "Humilitas" of the Valseccas, +concealed the columns of the Cathedral porch and fell in royal folds +about the featureless porphyry lions who had seen so many successive +rulers ascend the steps between their outstretched paws. The frieze of +ramping and running animals around the ancient baptistery was concealed +by heavy green garlands alternating with religious banners; and every +church and chapel had draped its doorway with crimson and placed above +the image of its patron saint the ducal crown of Pianura. + +No less sumptuous was the adornment of the private dwellings. The great +families--the Trescorri, the Belverdi, the Pievepelaghi--had outdone +each other in the display of golden-threaded tapestries and Genoese +velvets emblazoned with armorial bearings; and even the sombre facade of +the Boscofolto palace showed a rich drapery surmounted by the +quarterings of the new Marchioness. + +But it was not only the palace-fronts that had put on a holiday dress. +The contagion had spread to the poorer quarters, and in many a narrow +street and crooked lane, where surely no part of the coming pageant +might be expected to pass, the crazy balconies and unglazed windows were +decked out with scraps of finery: a yard or two of velvet filched from +the state hangings of some noble house, a torn and discoloured church +banner, even a cast-off sacque of brocade or a peasant's holiday +kerchief, skilfully draped about the rusty iron and held in place by +pots of clove-pink and sweet basil. The half-ruined palace which had +once housed Gamba and Momola showed a few shreds of colour on its sullen +front, and the abate Crescenti's modest house, wedged in a corner of the +city walls, was dressed like the altar of a Lady Chapel; while even the +tanners' quarter by the river displayed its festoons of coloured paper +and tinsel, ingeniously twisted into the semblance of a crown. + +For the new Duke, who was about to enter his capital in state, was +extraordinarily popular with all classes. His popularity, as yet, was +mainly due to a general detestation of the rule he had replaced; but +such a sentiment gives to a new sovereign an impetus which, if he knows +how to use it, will carry him a long way toward success; and among those +in the Duke's confidence it was rumoured that he was qualified not only +to profit by the expectations he had raised but to fulfil them. The last +months of the late Duke's life had plunged the duchy into such political +and financial disorder that all parties were agreed in welcoming a +change. Even those that had most to lose by the accession of the new +sovereign, or most to fear from the policy he was known to favour, +preferred the possibility of new evils to a continuance of present +conditions. The expertest angler in troubled waters may find waters too +troubled for his sport; and under a government where power is passed +from hand to hand like the handkerchief in a children's game, the most +adroit time-server may find himself grasping the empty air. + +It would indeed have been difficult to say who had ruled during the year +preceding the Duke's death. Prime ministers had succeeded each other +like the clowns in a harlequinade. Just as the Church seemed to have +gained the upper hand some mysterious revulsion of feeling would fling +the Duke toward Trescorre and the liberals; and when these had +attempted, by some trifling concession to popular feeling, to restore +the credit of the government, their sovereign, seized by religious +scruples, would hastily recall the clerical party. So the administration +staggered on, reeling from one policy to another, clutching now at this +support and now at that, while Austria and the Holy See hung on its +steps, awaiting the inevitable fall. + +A cruel winter and a fresh outbreak of the silkworm disease had +aggravated the misery of the people, while the mounting extravagance of +the Duchess had put a last strain on the exhausted treasury. The +consequent increase of the salt-tax roused such popular fury that Father +Ignazio, who was responsible for the measure, was dismissed by the +panic-stricken Duke, and Trescorre, as usual, called in to repair his +rival's mistake. But it would have taken a greater statesman than +Trescorre to reach the root of such evils; and the new minister +succeeded neither in pacifying the people nor in reassuring his +sovereign. + +Meanwhile the Duke was sinking under the mysterious disease which had +hung upon him since his birth. It was hinted that his last hours were +darkened by hallucinations, and the pious pictured him as haunted by +profligate visions, while the free-thinkers maintained that he was the +dupe of priestly jugglery. Toward the end there was the inevitable +rumour of acqua tofana, and the populace cried out that the Jesuits were +at work again. It seems more probable, however, that his Highness, who +had assisted at the annual festival of the Madonna del Monte, and had +mingled on foot with the swarm of devotees thronging thither from all +parts, had contracted a pestilent disorder from one of the pilgrims. +Certain it is that death came in a dreadful form. The Duchess, alarmed +for the health of Prince Ferrante, fled with him to the dower-house by +the Piana; and the strange nature of his Highness's distemper caused +many to follow her example. Even the Duke's servants, and the quacks +that lived on his bounty, were said to have abandoned the death-chamber; +and an English traveller passing through Pianura boasted that, by the +payment of a small fee to the palace porter, he had obtained leave to +enter his Highness's closet and peer through the doorway at the dying +man. However this may be, it would appear that the Duke's confessor--a +monk of the Barnabite order--was not to be found when his Highness +called for him; and the servant sent forth in haste to fetch a priest +returned, strangely enough, with the abate Crescenti, whose suspected +orthodoxy had so long made him the object of the Duke's detestation. He +it was who alone witnessed the end of that tormented life, and knew upon +what hopes or fears it closed. + +Meanwhile it appeared that the Duchess's precautions were not unfounded; +for Prince Ferrante presently sickened of the same malady which had cut +off his father, and when the Regent, travelling post-haste, arrived in +Pianura, he had barely time to pass from the Duke's obsequies to the +death-bed of the heir. + +Etiquette required that a year of mourning should elapse between the +accession of the new sovereign and his state entry into his capital; so +that if Duke Odo's character and intentions were still matter of +conjecture to his subjects, his appearance was already familiar to them. +His youth, his good looks, his open mien, his known affability of +manner, were so many arguments in his favour with an impressionable and +impulsive people; and it was perhaps natural that he should interpret as +a tribute to his principles the sympathy which his person aroused. + +It is certain that he fancied himself, at that time, as well-acquainted +with his subjects as they believed themselves to be with him; and the +understanding supposed to exist was productive of equal satisfaction to +both sides. The new Duke had thrown himself with extraordinary zeal into +the task of loving and understanding his people. It had been his refuge +from a hundred doubts and uncertainties, the one clearly-defined object +in an obscure and troubled fate. And their response had, almost +immediately, turned his task into a pleasure. It was so easy to rule if +one's subjects loved one! And so easy to be loved if only one loved +enough in return! If he did not, like the Pope, describe himself to his +people as the servant of the servants of God, he at least longed to make +them feel that this new gospel of service was the base on which all +sovereignty must henceforth repose. + +It was not that his first year of power had been without moments of +disillusionment. He had had more than one embittering experience of +intrigue and perfidy, more than one glimpse of the pitfalls besetting +his course; but his confidence in his own powers and his faith in his +people remained unshaken, and with two such beliefs to sustain him it +seemed as though no difficulties would prove insurmountable. + +Such at least was the mood in which, on the morning of his entry into +Pianura, he prepared to face his subjects. Strangely enough, the state +entry began at Ponte di Po, the very spot where, on a stormy midnight +some seven years earlier, the new Duke had landed, a fugitive from his +future realm. Here, according to an ancient custom, the sovereign +awaited the arrival of his ministers and court; and then, taking seat in +his state barge, proceeded by water to Pianura, followed by an escort of +galleys. + +A great tent hung with tapestries had been set up on the river-bank; and +here Odo awaited the approach of the barge. As it touched at the +landing-stage he stepped out, and his prime minister, Count Trescorre, +advanced toward him, accompanied by the dignitaries of the court. +Trescorre had aged in the intervening years. His delicate features had +withered like a woman's, and the fine irony of his smile had taken an +edge of cruelty. His face suggested a worn engraving, the lines of which +have been deepened by a too-incisive instrument. + +The functionaries attending him were, with few exceptions, the same who +had figured in a like capacity at the late sovereign's court. With the +passing of the years they had grown heavier or thinner, more ponderous +or stiffer in their movements, and as they advanced, in their splendid +but unwieldy court dress, they seemed to Odo like superannuated +marionettes whose springs and wires have rusted from disuse. + +The barge was a magnificent gilded Bucentaur, presented to the late +Duke's father by the Doge of Venice, and carved by his Serenity's most +famous sculptors in wood. Tritons and sea-goddesses encircled the prow +and throned above the stern, and the interior of the deck-house was +adorned with delicate rilievi and painted by Tiepolo with scenes from +the myth of Amphitrite. Here the new Duke seated himself, surrounded by +his household, and presently the heavy craft, rowed by sixty +galley-slaves, was moving slowly up the river toward Pianura. + +In the clear spring light the old walled city, with its domes and +towers, rose pleasantly among budding orchards and fields. Close at hand +were the crenellations of Bracciaforte's keep, and just beyond, the +ornate cupola of the royal chapel, symbolising in their proximity the +successive ambitions of the ducal race; while the round-arched campanile +of the Cathedral and the square tower of the mediaeval town-hall sprang +up side by side, marking the centre of the free city which the Valseccas +had subjugated. It seemed to the new Duke, who was given to such +reflections, that he could read his race's history in that broken +skyline; but he was soon snatched from its perusal by the cheers of the +crowd who thronged the river-bank to greet his approach. + +As the Bucentaur touched at the landing-stage and Odo stepped out on the +red carpet strewn with flowers, while cannon thundered from the walls +and the bells burst into renewed jubilation, he felt himself for the +first time face to face with his people. The very ceremonial which in +other cases kept them apart was now a means of closer communication; for +it was to show himself to them that he was making a public entry into +his capital, and it was to see him that the city had poured forth her +shouting throngs. The shouts rose and widened as he advanced, enveloping +him in a mounting tide of welcome, in which cannon, bells and +voices--the decreed and the spontaneous acclamations--were +indistinguishably merged. In like manner, approbation of his person was +mingled with a simple enjoyment of the show of which he formed a part; +and it must have taken a more experienced head than Odo's to distinguish +between the two currents of enthusiasm on which he felt himself swept +forward. + +The pageant was indeed brilliant enough to justify the popular +transport; and the fact that the new Duke formed a worthy centre to so +much magnificence was not lost on his splendour-loving subjects. The +late sovereign had so long held himself aloof that the city was +unaccustomed to such shows, and as the procession wound into the square +before the Cathedral, where the thickest of the crowd was massed, the +very pealing of the church-bells was lost in the roar of human voices. + +Don Serafino, the Bishop's nephew, and now Master of the Horse, rode +first, on a splendid charger, preceded by four trumpets and followed by +his esquires; then came the court dignitaries, attended by their pages +and staffieri in gala liveries, the marshals with their staves, the +masters of ceremony, and the clergy mounted on mules trapped with +velvet, each led by two running footmen. The Duke rode next, alone and +somewhat pale. Two pages of arms, helmeted and carrying lances, walked +at his horse's bridle; and behind him came his household and ministers, +with their gentlemen and a long train of servants, followed by the +regiment of light horse which closed the procession. + +The houses surrounding the square afforded the best point of view to +those unwilling to mix with the crowd in the streets; and among the +spectators thronging the windows and balconies, and leaning over the +edge of the leads, were many who, from one motive or another, felt a +personal interest in the new Duke. The Marchioness of Boscofolto had +accepted a seat in the windows of the Pievepelaghi palace, which formed +an angle of the square, and she and her hostess--the same lady who had +been relieved of her diamond necklace by footpads suspected of wearing +the Duchess's livery--sat observing the scene behind the garlanded +balconies of the piano nobile. In the mezzanin windows of a neighbouring +wine-shop the bookseller Andreoni, with half a dozen members of the +philosophical society to which Odo had belonged, peered above the heads +of the crowd thronging the arcade, and through a dormer of the leads +Carlo Gamba, the assistant in the ducal library, looked out on the +triumph of his former patron. Among the Church dignities grouped about +his Highness was Father Ignazio, the late Duke's confessor, now Prior of +the Dominicans, and said to be withdrawn from political life. Seated on +his richly-trapped mule he observed the scene with impassive face; while +from his place in the long line of minor clergy, the abate Crescenti, +with eyes of infinite tenderness and concern, watched the young Duke +solemnly ascending the Cathedral steps. + +In the porch the Bishop waited, impressive as ever in his white and gold +dalmatic, against the red robes of the chapter. Preceded by two +chamberlains Odo mounted the steps amid the sudden silence of the +people. The great bronze portals of the Cathedral, which were never +opened save on occasions of state, swung slowly inward, pouring a wave +of music and incense out upon the hushed sunlit square; then they closed +again, engulphing the brilliant procession--the Duke, the Bishop, the +clergy and the court--and leaving the populace to scatter in search of +the diversions prepared for them at every street-corner. + +It was not till late that night that the new Duke found himself alone. +He had withdrawn at last from the torch-lit balcony overlooking the +square, whither the shouts of his subjects had persistently recalled +him. Silence was falling on the illuminated streets, and the dimness of +midnight upon the sky through which rocket after rocket had torn its +brilliant furrows. In the palace a profounder stillness reigned. Since +his accession Odo, out of respect for the late Duke, had lodged in one +of the wings of the great building; but tradition demanded that he +should henceforth inhabit the ducal apartments, and thither, at the +close of the day's ceremonies, his gentlemen had conducted him. + +Trescorre had asked permission to wait on him before he slept; and he +knew that the prime minister would be kept late by his conference with +the secret police, whose nightly report could not be handed in till the +festivities were over. Meanwhile Odo was in no mood for sleep. He sat +alone in the closet, still hung with saints' images and jewelled +reliquaries, where his cousin had so often given him audience, and +whence, through the open door, he could see the embroidered curtains and +plumed baldachin of the state bed which was presently to receive him. +All day his heart had beat with high ambitions; but now a weight sank +upon his spirit. The reaction from the tumultuous welcome of the streets +to the closely-guarded silence of the palace made him feel how unreal +was the fancied union between himself and his people, how insuperable +the distance that tradition and habit had placed between them. In the +narrow closet where his predecessor had taken refuge from the detested +task of reigning, the new Duke felt the same moral lassitude steal over +him. How was such a puny will as his to contend against the great forces +of greed and prejudice? All the influences arrayed against +him--tradition, superstition, the lust of power, the arrogance of +race--seemed concentrated in the atmosphere of that silent room, with +its guarded threshold, its pious relics, and lying on the desk in the +embrasure of the window, the manuscript litany which the late Duke had +not lived to complete. + +Oppressed by his surroundings, Odo rose and entered the bed-chamber. A +lamp burned before the image of the Madonna at the head of the bed, and +two lighted flambeaux flanked the picture of the Last Judgment on the +opposite wall. Odo remembered the look of terror which the Duke had +fixed on the picture during their first strange conversation. A +praying-stool stood beneath it, and it was said that here, rather than +before the Virgin's image, the melancholy prince performed his private +devotions. The horrors of the scene were depicted with a childish +minuteness of detail, as though the painter had sought to produce an +impression of moral anguish by the accumulation of physical sufferings; +and just such puerile images of the wrath to come may have haunted the +mysterious recesses of the Duke's imagination. Crescenti had told Odo +how the dying man's thoughts had seemed to centre upon this dreadful +subject, and how again and again, amid his ravings, he had cried out +that the picture must be burned, as though the sight of it was become +intolerable to him. + +Odo's own mind, across which the events and emotions of the day still +threw the fantastic shadows of an expiring illumination, was wrought to +the highest state of impressionability. He saw in a flash all that the +picture must have symbolised to his cousin's fancy; and in his desire to +reconstruct that dying vision of fleshly retribution, he stepped close +to the diptych, resting a knee on the stool beneath it. As he did so, +the picture suddenly opened, disclosing the inner panel. Odo caught up +one of the flambeaux, and in its light, as on a sunlit wave, there +stepped forth to him the lost Venus of Giorgione. + +He knew the picture in an instant. There was no mistaking the glow of +the limbs, the midsummer languor of the smile, the magical atmosphere in +which the gold of sunlight, of autumn leaves, of amber grapes, seemed +fused by some lost alchemy of the brush. As he gazed, the scene changed, +and he saw himself in a darkened room with cabalistic hangings. He saw +Heiligenstern's tall figure, towering in supernatural light, the Duke +leaning eagerly forward, the Duchess with set lips and troubled eyes, +the little prince bent wonderingly above the magic crystal... + +A step in the antechamber announced Trescorre's approach. Odo returned +to the cabinet and the minister advanced with a low bow. The two men had +had time to grow accustomed to the new relation in which they stood to +one another, yet there were moments when, to Odo, the past seemed to lie +like fallen leaves beneath Trescorre's steps--Donna Laura, fond and +foolish in her weeds, Gamba, Momola, and the pure featherhead Cerveno, +dying at nineteen of a distemper because he had stood in the other's +way. The impression was strong on him now--but it was only momentary. +Habit reasserted itself, and the minister effaced the man. Odo signed to +Trescorre to seat himself and the latter silently presented his report. + +He was a diligent and capable administrator, and however mixed might be +the motives which attached him to his sovereign, they did not interfere +with the exact performance of his duties. Odo knew this and was grateful +for it. He knew that Trescorre, ambitious of the regency, had intrigued +against him to the last. He knew that an intemperate love of power was +the mainspring of that seemingly dispassionate nature. But death had +crossed Trescorre's schemes; and he was too adroit an opportunist not to +see that his best chance now lay in making himself indispensable to his +new sovereign. Of all this Odo was aware; but his own motives in +appointing Trescorre did not justify his looking for great +disinterestedness in his minister. The irony of circumstances had forced +them upon each other, and each knew that the other understood the +situation and was prepared to make the best of it. + +The Duke presently rose, and handed back to Trescorre the reports of the +secret police. They were the documents he most disliked to handle. + +"You have acquitted yourself admirably of your disagreeable duties," he +said with a smile. "I hope I have done as well. At any rate the day is +over." + +Trescorre returned the smile, with his usual tinge of irony. "Another +has already begun," said he. + +"Ah," said Odo, with a touch of impatience, "are we not to sleep on our +laurels?" + +Trescorre bowed. "Austria, your Highness, never sleeps." + +Odo looked at him with surprise. "What do you mean?" + +"That I have to remind your Highness--" + +"Of what--?" + +Trescorre had one of his characteristic pauses. + +"That the Duke of Monte Alloro is in failing health--and that her +Highness's year of widowhood ended yesterday." + +There was a silence. Odo, who had reseated himself, rose and walked to +the window. The shutters stood open and he looked out over the formless +obscurity of the gardens. Above the intervening masses of foliage the +Borromini wing raised its vague grey bulk. He saw lights in Maria +Clementina's apartments and wondered if she still waked. An hour or two +earlier she had given him her hand in the contra-dance at the state +ball. It was her first public appearance since the late Duke's death, +and with the laying off of her weeds she had regained something of her +former brilliancy. At the moment he had hardly observed her: she had +seemed a mere inanimate part of the pageant of which he formed the +throbbing centre. But now the sense of her nearness pressed upon him. +She seemed close to him, ingrown with his fate; and with the curious +duality of vision that belongs to such moments he beheld her again as +she had first shone on him--the imperious child whom he had angered by +stroking her spaniel, the radiant girl who had welcomed him on his +return to Pianura. Trescorre's voice aroused him. + +"At any moment," the minister was saying, "her Highness may fall heir to +Monte Alloro. It is the moment for which Austria waits. There is always +an Archduke ready--and her Highness is still a young woman." + +Odo turned slowly from the window. "I have told you that this is +impossible," he murmured. + +Trescorre looked down and thoughtfully fingered the documents in his +hands. + +"Your Highness," said he, "is as well-acquainted as your ministers with +the difficulties that beset us. Monte Alloro is one of the richest +states in Italy. It is a pity to alienate such revenues from Pianura." + +The new Duke was silent. His minister's words were merely the audible +expression of his own thoughts. He knew that the future welfare of +Pianura depended on the annexation of Monte Alloro. He owed it to his +people to unite the two sovereignties. + +At length he said: "You are building on an unwarrantable assumption." + +Trescorre raised an interrogative glance. + +"You assume her Highness's consent." + +The minister again paused; and his pause seemed to flash an ironical +light on the poverty of the other's defences. + +"I come straight from her Highness," said he quietly, "and I assume +nothing that I am not in a position to affirm." + +Odo turned on him with a start. "Do I understand that you have +presumed--?" + +His minister raised a deprecating hand. "Sir," said he, "the Archduke's +envoy is in Pianura." + + +4.2. + +Odo, on his return to Pianura, had taken it for granted that de Crucis +would remain in his service. + +There had been little talk between the two on the way. The one was deep +in his own wretchedness, and the other had too fine a tact to intrude on +it; but Odo felt the nearness of that penetrating sympathy which was +almost a gift of divination. He was glad to have de Crucis at his side +at a moment when any other companionship had been intolerable; and in +the egotism of his misery he imagined that he could dispose as he +pleased of his friend's future. + +After the little Prince's death, however, de Crucis had at once asked +permission to leave Pianura. He was perhaps not displeased by Odo's +expressions of surprise and disappointment; but they did not alter his +decision. He reminded the new Duke that he had been called to Pianura as +governor to the late heir, and that, death having cut short his task, he +had now no farther pretext for remaining. + +Odo listened with a strange sense of loneliness. The responsibilities of +his new state weighed heavily on the musing speculative side of his +nature. Face to face with the sudden summons to action, with the +necessity for prompt and not too-curious choice of means and method, he +felt a stealing apathy of the will, an inclination toward the subtle +duality of judgment that had so often weakened and diffused his +energies. At such a crisis it seemed to him that, de Crucis gone, he +remained without a friend. He urged the abate to reconsider his +decision, begging him to choose a post about his person. + +De Crucis shook his head. + +"The offer," said he, "is more tempting to me than your Highness can +guess; but my business here is at an end, and must be taken up +elsewhere. My calling is that of a pedagogue. When I was summoned to +take charge of Prince Ferrante's education I gave up my position in the +household of Prince Bracciano not only because I believed that I could +make myself more useful in training a future sovereign than the son of a +private nobleman, but also," he added with a smile, "because I was +curious to visit a state of which your Highness had so often spoken, and +because I believed that my residence here might enable me to be of +service to your Highness. In this I was not mistaken; and I will gladly +remain in Pianura long enough to give your Highness such counsels as my +experience suggests; but that business discharged, I must ask leave to +go." + +From this position no entreaties could move him; and so fixed was his +resolve that it confirmed the idea that he was still a secret agent of +the Jesuits. Strangely enough, this did not prejudice Odo, who was more +than ever under the spell of de Crucis's personal influence. Though Odo +had been acquainted with many professed philosophers he had never met +among them a character so nearly resembling the old stoical ideal of +temperance and serenity, and he could never be long with de Crucis +without reflecting that the training which could form and nourish so +noble a nature must be other than the world conceived it. + +De Crucis, however, frankly pointed out that his former connection with +the Jesuits was too well known in Pianura not to be an obstacle in the +way of his usefulness. + +"I own," said he, "that before the late Duke's death I exerted such +influence as I possessed to bring about your Highness's appointment as +regent; but the very connections that favoured me with your predecessor +must stand in the way of my serving your Highness. Nothing could be more +fatal to your prospects than to have it said that you had chosen a +former Jesuit as your advisor. In the present juncture of affairs it is +needful that you should appear to be in sympathy with the liberals, and +that whatever reforms you attempt should seem the result of popular +pressure rather than of your own free choice. Such an attitude may not +flatter the sovereign's pride, and is in fact merely a higher form of +expediency; but it is one which the proudest monarchs of Europe are +finding themselves constrained to take if they would preserve their +power and use it effectually." + +Soon afterward de Crucis left Pianura; but before leaving he imparted to +Odo the result of his observations while in the late Duke's service. De +Crucis's view was that of the more thoughtful men of his day who had not +broken with the Church, yet were conscious that the whole social system +of Europe was in need of renovation. The movement of ideas in France, +and their rapid transformation into legislative measures of unforeseen +importance, had as yet made little impression in Italy; and the clergy +in particular lived in serene unconsciousness of any impending change. +De Crucis, however, had been much in France, and had frequented the +French churchmen, who (save in the highest ranks of the hierarchy) were +keenly alive to the need of reform, and ready, in many instances, to +sacrifice their own privileges in the public cause. These men, living in +their provincial cures or abbeys, were necessarily in closer contact +with the people, better acquainted with their needs and more competent +to relieve them, than the city demagogues theorising in Parisian +coffee-houses on the Rights of Man and the Code of Nature. But the voice +of the demagogues carried farther than that of the clergy; and such +revolutionary notions as crossed the Alps had more to do with the +founding of future Utopias than with the remedy of present evils. + +Even in France the temperate counsels of the clergy were being overruled +by the sentimental imprudences of the nobles and by the bluster of the +politicians. It was to put Odo on his guard against these two influences +that de Crucis was chiefly anxious; but the intelligent cooperation of +the clergy was sadly lacking in his administrative scheme. He knew that +Odo could not count on the support of the Church party, and that he must +make what use he could of the liberals in his attempts at reform. The +clergy of Pianura had been in power too long to believe in the necessity +of conceding anything to the new spirit; and since the banishment of the +Society of Jesus the presumption of the other orders had increased +instead of diminishing. The priests, whatever their failings, had +attached the needy by a lavish bounty; and they had a powerful auxiliary +in the Madonna of the Mountain, who drew pilgrims from all parts of +Italy and thus contributed to the material welfare of the state as well +as to its spiritual privileges. To the common people their Virgin was +not only a protection against disease and famine, but a kind of oracle, +who by divers signs and tokens gave evidence of divine approval or +displeasure; and it was naturally to the priests that the faithful +looked for a reading of these phenomena. This gave the clergy a powerful +hold on the religious sensibilities of the people; and more than once +the manifest disapproval of the Mountain Madonna had turned the scales +against some economic measure which threatened the rights of her augurs. + +De Crucis understood the force of these traditional influences; but Odo, +in common with the more cultivated men of his day, had lived too long in +an atmosphere of polite scepticism to measure the profound hold of +religion on the consciousness of the people. Christ had been so long +banished from the drawing-room that it was has hard to believe that He +still ruled in field and vineyard. To men of Odo's stamp the piety of +the masses was a mere superficial growth, a kind of mental mould to be +dried off by the first beams of knowledge. He did not conceive it as a +habit of thought so old that it had become instinctive, so closely +intertwined with every sense that to hope to eradicate it was like +trying to drain all the blood from a man's body without killing him. He +knew nothing of the unwearied workings of that power, patient as a +natural force, which, to reach spirits darkened by ignorance and eyes +dulled by toil, had stooped to a thousand disguises, humble, tender and +grotesque--peopling the earth with a new race of avenging or protecting +deities, guarding the babe in the cradle and the cattle in the stalls, +blessing the good man's vineyard or blighting the crops of the +blasphemer, guiding the lonely traveller over torrents and precipices, +smoothing the sea and hushing the whirlwind, praying with the mother +over her sick child, and watching beside the dead in plague-house and +lazaret and galley--entering into every joy and grief of the obscurest +consciousness, penetrating to depths of misery which no human compassion +ever reached, and redressing by a prompt and summary justice wrongs of +which no human legislation took account. + +Odo's first act after his accession had been to recall the political +offenders banished by his predecessor; and so general was the custom of +marking the opening of a new reign by an amnesty to political exiles, +that Trescorre offered no opposition to the measure. Andreoni and his +friends at once returned to Pianura, and Gamba at the same time emerged +from his mysterious hiding-place. He was the only one of the group who +struck Odo as having any administrative capacity; yet he was more likely +to be of use as a pamphleteer than as an office-holder. As to the other +philosophers, they were what their name implied: thoughtful and +high-minded men, with a generous conception of their civic duties, and a +noble readiness to fulfil them at any cost, but untrained to action, and +totally ignorant of the complex science of government. + +Odo found the hunchback changed. He had withered like Trescorre, but +under the harsher blight of physical privations; and his tongue had an +added bitterness. He replied evasively to all enquiries as to what had +become of him during his absence from Pianura; but on Odo's asking for +news of Momola and the child he said coldly: "They are both dead." + +"Dead?" Odo exclaimed. "Together?" + +"There was scarce an hour between them," Gamba answered. "She said she +must keep alive as long as the boy needed her--after that she turned on +her side and died." + +"But of what disorder? How came they to sicken at the same time?" + +The hunchback stood silent, his eyes on the ground. Suddenly he raised +them and looked full at the Duke. + +"Those that saw them called it the plague." + +"The plague? Good God!" Odo slowly returned his stare. "Is it +possible--" he paused--"that she too was at the feast of the Madonna?" + +"She was there, but it was not there that she contracted the distemper." + +"Not there--?" + +"No; for she dragged herself from her bed to go." + +There was another silence. The hunchback had lowered his eyes. The Duke +sat motionless, resting his head on his hand. Suddenly he made a gesture +of dismissal... + +Two months after his state entry into Pianura Odo married his cousin's +widow. + +It surprised him, in looking back, to see how completely the thought of +Maria Clementina had passed out of his life, how wholly he had ceased to +reckon with her as one of the factors in his destiny. At her child's +death-bed he had seen in her only the stricken mother, centred in her +loss, and recalling, in an agony of tears, the little prince's prophetic +vision of the winged playmates who came to him carrying toys from +Paradise. After Prince Ferrante's death she had gone on a long visit to +her uncle of Monte Alloro; and since her return to Pianura she had lived +in the dower-house, refusing Odo's offer of a palace in the town. She +had first shown herself to the public on the day of the state entry; and +now, her year of widowhood over, she was again the consort of a reigning +Duke of Pianura. + +No one was more ignorant than her husband of the motives determining her +act. As Duchess of Monte Alloro she might have enjoyed the wealth and +independence which her uncle's death had bestowed on her, but in +marrying again she resigned the right to her new possessions, which +became vested in the crown of Pianura. Was it love that had prompted the +sacrifice? As she stood beside him on the altar steps of the Cathedral, +as she rode home beside him between their shouting subjects, Odo asked +himself the question again and again. The years had dealt lightly with +her, and she had crossed the threshold of the thirties with the assured +step of a woman who has no cause to fear what awaits her. But her blood +no longer spoke her thoughts, and the transparence of youth had changed +to a brilliant density. He could not penetrate beneath the surface of +her smile: she seemed to him like a beautiful toy which might conceal a +lacerating weapon. + +Meanwhile between himself and any better understanding of her stood the +remembrance of their talk in the hunting-lodge of Pontesordo. What she +had offered then he had refused to take: was she the woman to forget +such a refusal? Was it not rather to keep its memory alive that she had +married him? Or was she but the flighty girl he had once imagined her, +driven hither and thither by spasmodic impulses, and incapable of +consistent action, whether for good or ill? The barrier of their +past--of all that lay unsaid and undone between them--so completely cut +her off from him that he had, in her presence, the strange sensation of +a man who believes himself to be alone yet feels that he is +watched...The first months of their marriage were oppressed by this +sense of constraint; but gradually habit bridged the distance between +them and he found himself at once nearer to her and less acutely aware +of her. In the second year an heir was born and died; and the hopes and +grief thus shared drew them insensibly into the relation of the ordinary +husband and wife, knitted together at the roots in spite of superficial +divergencies. + +In his passionate need of sympathy and counsel Odo longed to make the +most of this enforced community of interests. Already his first zeal was +flagging, his belief in his mission wavering: he needed the +encouragement of a kindred faith. He had no hope of finding in Maria +Clementina that pure passion for justice which seemed to him the noblest +ardour of the soul. He had read it in one woman's eyes, but these had +long been turned from him. Unconsciously perhaps he counted rather on +his wife's less generous qualities: the passion for dominion, the blind +arrogance of temper that, for the mere pleasure of making her power +felt, had so often drawn her into public affairs. Might not this waste +force--which implied, after all, a certain prodigality of courage--be +used for good as well as evil? Might not his influence make of the +undisciplined creature at his side an unconscious instrument in the +great work of order and reconstruction? + +His first appeal to her brought the answer. At his request his ministers +had drawn up a plan of financial reorganisation, which should include +the two duchies; for Monte Alloro, though wealthier than Pianura, was in +even greater need of fiscal reform. As a first step towards replenishing +the treasury the Duke had declared himself ready to limit his private +expenditure to a fixed sum; and he now asked the Duchess to pledge +herself in the same manner. Maria Clementina, since her uncle's death, +had been in receipt of a third of the annual revenues of Monte Alloro. +This should have enabled her to pay her debts and put some dignity and +order into her establishment; but the first year's income had gone in +the building of a villa on the Piana, in imitation of the country-seats +along the Brenta; the second was spent in establishing a menagerie of +wild animals like that of the French Queen at Versailles; and rumour had +it that the Duchess carried her imitation of her royal cousin so far as +to be involved in an ugly quarrel with her jewellers about a necklace +for which she owed a thousand ducats. + +All these reports had of course reached Odo; but he still hoped that an +appeal to her love of dominion might prove stronger than the habit of +self-indulgence. He said to himself that nothing had ever been done to +rouse her ambition, that hitherto, if she had meddled in politics, it +had been merely from thwarted vanity or the desire to gratify some +personal spite. Now he hoped to take her by higher passions, and by +associating her with his own schemes to utilise her dormant energies. + +For the first moments she listened with the strained fixity of a child; +then her attention flickered and died out. The life-long habit of +referring every question to a personal standpoint made it difficult for +her to follow a general argument, and she leaned back with the resigned +eyelids of piety under the pulpit. Odo, resolved to be patient, and +seeing that the subject was too large for her, tried to take it apart, +putting it before her bit by bit, and at such an angle that she should +catch her own reflection in it. He thought to take her by the Austrian +side, touching on the well-known antagonism between Vienna and Rome, on +the reforms of the Tuscan Grand-Duke, on the Emperor Joseph's open +defiance of the Church's feudal claims. But she scented a personal +application. + +"My cousin the Emperor should be a priest himself," she shrugged, "for +he belongs to the preaching order. He never goes to France but he gives +the poor Queen such a scolding that her eyes are red for a week. Has +Joseph been trying to set our house in order?" + +Discouraged, but more than ever bent on patience, he tried the chord of +vanity, of her love of popularity. The people called her the beautiful +Duchess--why not let history name her the great? But the mention of +history was unfortunate. It reminded her of her lesson-books, and of the +stupid Greeks and Romans, whose dates she could never recall. She hoped +she should never be anything so dull as an historical personage! And +besides, greatness was for the men--it was enough for a princess to be +virtuous. And she looked as edifying as her own epitaph. + +He caught this up and tried to make her distinguish between the public +and the private virtues. But the word "responsibility" slipped from him +and he felt her stiffen. This was preaching, and she hated preaching +even more than history. Her attention strayed again and he rallied his +forces in a last appeal. But he knew it was a lost battle: every +argument broke against the close front of her indifference. He was +talking a language she had never learned--it was all as remote from her +as Church Latin. A princess did not need to know Latin. She let her eye +linger suggestively on the clock. It was a fine hunting morning, and she +had meant to kill a stag in the Caccia del Vescovo. + +When he began to sum up, and the question narrowed to a direct appeal, +her eyes left the clock and returned to him. Now she was listening. He +pressed on to the matter of retrenchment. Would she join him, would she +help to make the great work possible? At first she seemed hardly to +understand; but as his meaning grew clear to her--"Is the money no +longer ours?" she exclaimed. + +He hesitated. "I suppose it is as much ours as ever," he said. + +"And how much is that?" she asked impatiently. + +"It is ours as a trust for our people." + +She stared in honest wonder. These were new signs in her heaven. + +"A trust? A trust? I am not sure that I know what that means. Is the +money ours or theirs?" + +He hesitated. "In strict honour, it is ours only as long as we spend it +for their benefit." + +She turned aside to examine an enamelled patch-box by Van Blarenberghe +which the court jeweller had newly received from Paris. When she raised +her eyes she said: "And if we do not spend it for their benefit--?" + +Odo glanced about the room. He looked at the delicate adornment of the +walls, the curtains of Lyons damask, the crystal girandoles, the toys in +porcelain of Saxony and Sevres, in bronze and ivory and Chinese lacquer, +crowding the tables and cabinets of inlaid wood. Overhead floated a rosy +allegory by Luca Giordano; underfoot lay a carpet of the royal +manufactory of France; and through the open windows he heard the plash +of the garden fountains and saw the alignment of the long green alleys +set with the statues of Roman patriots. + +"Then," said he--and the words sounded strangely in his own ears--"then +they may take it from us some day--and all this with it, to the very toy +you are playing with." + +She rose, and from her fullest height dropped a brilliant smile on him; +then her eyes turned to the portrait of the great fighting Duke set in +the monumental stucchi of the chimney-piece. + +"If you take after your ancestors you will know how to defend it," she +said. + + +4.3. + +The new Duke sat in his closet. The walls had been stripped of their +pious relics and lined with books, and above the fireplace hung the +Venus of Giorgione, liberated at last from her long imprisonment. The +windows stood open, admitting the soft September air. Twilight had +fallen on the gardens, and through it a young moon floated above the +cypresses. + +On just such an evening three years earlier he had ridden down the slope +of the Monte Baldo with Fulvia Vivaldi at his side. How often, since, he +had relived the incidents of that night! With singular precision they +succeeded each other in his thoughts. He felt the wild sweep of the +storm across the lake, the warmth of her nearness, the sense of her +complete trust in him; then their arrival at the inn, the dazzle of +light as they crossed the threshold, and de Crucis confronting them +within. He heard her voice pleading with him in every accent that pride +and tenderness and a noble loyalty could command; he felt her will +slowly dominating his, like a supernatural power forcing him into his +destined path; he felt--and with how profound an irony of spirit!--the +passion of self-dedication in which he had taken up his task. + +He had known moments of happiness since; moments when he believed in +himself and in his calling, and felt himself indeed the man she thought +him. That was in the exaltation of the first months, when his +opportunities had seemed as boundless as his dreams, and he had not yet +learned that the sovereign's power may be a kind of spiritual prison to +the man. Since then, indeed, he had known another kind of happiness, had +been aware of a secret voice whispering within him that she was right +and had chosen wisely for him; but this was when he had realised that he +lived in a prison, and had begun to admire the sumptuous adornment of +its walls. For a while the mere external show of power amused him, and +his imagination was charmed by the historic dignity of his surroundings. +In such a setting, against the background of such a past, it seemed easy +to play the benefactor and friend of the people. His sensibility was +touched by the contrast, and he saw himself as a picturesque figure +linking the new dreams of liberty and equality to the feudal traditions +of a thousand years. But this masquerading soon ceased to divert him. +The round of court ceremonial wearied him, and books and art lost their +fascination. The more he varied his amusements the more monotonous they +became, the more he crowded his life with petty duties the more empty of +achievement it seemed. + +At first he had hoped to bury his personal disappointments in the task +of reconstructing his little state; but on every side he felt a mute +resistance to his efforts. The philosophical faction had indeed poured +forth pamphlets celebrating his reforms, and comparing his reign to the +return of the Golden Age. But it was not for the philosophers that he +laboured; and the benefits of free speech, a free press, a secular +education did not, after all, reach those over whom his heart yearned. +It was the people he longed to serve; and the people were hungry, were +fever-stricken, were crushed with tithes and taxes. It was hopeless to +try to reach them by the diffusion of popular knowledge. They must first +be fed and clothed; and before they could be fed and clothed the chains +of feudalism must be broken. + +Men like Gamba and Andreoni saw this clearly enough; but it was not from +them that help could come. The nobility and clergy must be coaxed or +coerced into sympathy with the new movement; and to accomplish this +exceeded Odo's powers. In France, the revolt from feudalism had found +some of its boldest leaders in the very class that had most to lose by +the change; but in Italy fewer causes were at work to set such +disinterested passions in motion. South of the Alps liberalism was +merely one of the new fashions from France: the men ran after the +pamphlets from Paris as the women ran after the cosmetics; and the +politics went no deeper than the powder. Even among the freest +intellects liberalism resulted in a new way of thinking rather in a new +way of living. Nowhere among the better classes was there any desire to +attack existing institutions. The Church had never troubled the Latin +consciousness. The Renaissance had taught cultivated Italians how to +live at peace with a creed in which they no longer believed; and their +easy-going scepticism was combined with a traditional conviction that +the priest knew better than any one how to deal with the poor, and that +the clergy were of distinct use in relieving the individual conscience +of its obligation to its fellows. + +It was against such deep-seated habits of thought that Odo had to +struggle. Centuries of fierce individualism, or of sullen apathy under a +foreign rule, had left the Italians incapable of any concerted political +action; but suspicion, avarice and vanity, combined with a lurking fear +of the Church, united all parties in a kind of passive opposition to +reform. Thus the Duke's resolve to put the University under lay +direction had excited the enmity of the Barnabites, who had been at its +head since the suppression of the Society of Jesus; his efforts to +partition among the peasantry the Caccia del Vescovo, that great waste +domain of the see of Pianura, had roused a storm of fear among all who +laid claim to feudal rights; and his own personal attempts at +retrenchment, which necessitated the suppression of numerous court +offices, had done more than anything else to increase his unpopularity. +Even the people, in whose behalf these sacrifices were made, looked +askance at his diminished state, and showed a perverse sympathy with the +dispossessed officials who had taken so picturesque a part in the public +ceremonials of the court. All Odo's philosophy could not fortify him +against such disillusionments. He felt the lack of Fulvia's +unquestioning faith not only in the abstract beauty of the new ideals +but in their immediate adaptability to the complex conditions of life. +Only a woman's convictions, nourished on sentiment and self-sacrifice, +could burn with that clear unwavering flame: his own beliefs were at the +mercy of every wind of doubt or ingratitude that blew across his +unsheltered sensibilities. + +It was more than a year since he had had news of Fulvia. For a while +they had exchanged letters, and it had been a consolation to tell her of +his struggles and experiments, of his many failures and few results. She +had encouraged him to continue the struggle, had analysed his various +plans of reform, and had given her enthusiastic support to the +partitioning of the Bishop's fief and the secularisation of the +University. Her own life, she said, was too uneventful to write of; but +she spoke of the kindness of her hosts, the Professor and his wife, of +the simple unceremonious way of living in the old Calvinist city, and of +the number of distinguished persons drawn thither by its atmosphere of +intellectual and social freedom. + +Odo suspected a certain colourlessness in the life she depicted. The +tone of her letters was too uniformly cheerful not to suggest a lack of +emotional variety; and he knew that Fulvia's nature, however much she +fancied it under the rule of reason, was in reality fed by profound +currents of feeling. Something of her old ardour reappeared when she +wrote of the possibility of publishing her father's book. Her friends in +Geneva, having heard of her difficulty with the Dutch publisher, had +undertaken to vindicate her claims; and they had every hope that the +matter would be successfully concluded. The joy of renewed activity with +which this letter glowed would have communicated itself to Odo had he +received it at a different time; but it came on the day of his marriage, +and since then he had never written to her. + +Now he felt a sudden longing to break the silence between them, and +seating himself at his desk he began to write. A moment later there was +a knock on the door and one of his gentlemen entered. The Count Vittorio +Alfieri, with a dozen horses and as many servants, was newly arrived at +the Golden Cross, and desired to know when he might have the honour of +waiting on his Highness. + +Odo felt the sudden glow of pleasure that the news of Alfieri's coming +always brought. Here was a friend at last! He forgot the constraint of +their last meeting in Florence, and remembered only the happy +interchange of ideas and emotions that had been one of the quickening +influences of his youth. + +Alfieri, in the intervening years, was grown to be one of the foremost +figures in Italy. His love for the Countess of Albany, persisting +through the vicissitudes of her tragic marriage, had rallied the +scattered forces of his nature. Ambitious to excel for her sake, to show +himself worthy of such a love, he had at last shaken off the strange +torpor of his youth, and revealed himself as the poet for whom Italy +waited. In ten months of feverish effort he had poured forth fourteen +tragedies--among them the Antigone, the Virginia, and the Conjuration of +the Pazzi. Italy started up at the sound of a new voice vibrating with +passions she had long since unlearned. Since Filicaja's thrilling appeal +to his enslaved country no poet had challenged the old Roman spirit +which Petrarch had striven to rouse. While the literati were busy +discussing Alfieri's blank verse, while the grammarians wrangled over +his syntax and ridiculed his solecisms, the public, heedless of such +niceties, was glowing with the new wine which he had poured into the old +vessels of classic story. "Liberty" was the cry that rang on the lips of +all his heroes, in accents so new and stirring that his audience never +wearied of its repetition. It was no secret that his stories of ancient +Greece and Rome were but allegories meant to teach the love of freedom; +yet the Antigone had been performed in the private theatre of the +Spanish Ambassador at Rome, the Virginia had been received with applause +on the public boards at Turin, and after the usual difficulties with the +censorship the happy author had actually succeeded in publishing his +plays at Siena. These volumes were already in Odo's hands, and a +manuscript copy of the Odes to Free America was being circulated among +the liberals in Pianura, and had been brought to his notice by Andreoni. + +To those hopeful spirits who looked for the near approach of a happier +era, Alfieri was the inspired spokesman of reform, the heaven-sent +prophet who was to lead his country out of bondage. The eyes of the +Italian reformers were fixed with passionate eagerness on the course of +events in England and France. The conclusion of peace between England +and America, recently celebrated in Alfieri's fifth Ode, seemed to the +most sceptical convincing proof that the rights of man were destined to +a speedy triumph throughout the civilised world. It was not of a united +Italy that these enthusiasts dreamed. They were not so much patriots as +philanthropists; for the teachings of Rousseau and his school, while +intensifying the love of man for man, had proportionately weakened the +sense of patriotism, of the interets du clocher. The new man prided +himself on being a citizen of the world, on sympathising as warmly with +the poetic savage of Peru as with his own prosaic and narrow-minded +neighbours. Indeed, the prevalent belief that the savage's mode of life +was much nearer the truth than that of civilised Europeans, made it +appear superfluous to enter into the grievances and difficulties of what +was but a passing phase of human development. To cast off clothes and +codes, and live in a peaceful socialism "under the amiable reign of +Truth and Nature," seemed on the whole much easier than to undertake the +systematic reform of existing abuses. + +To such dreamers--whose ideas were those of the majority of intelligent +men in France and Italy--Alfieri's high-sounding tirades embodied the +noblest of political creeds; and even the soberer judgment of statesmen +and men of affairs was captivated by the grandeur of his verse and the +heroic audacity of his theme. For the first time in centuries the +Italian Muse spoke with the voice of a man; and every man's heart in +Italy sprang up at the call. + +In the midst of these triumphs, fate in the shape of Cardinal York had +momentarily separated Alfieri from his mistress, despatching the +too-tender Countess to a discreet retreat in Alsace, and signifying to +her turbulent adorer that he was not to follow her. Distracted by this +prohibition, Alfieri had resumed the nomadic habits of his youth, now +wandering from one Italian city to another, now pushing as far as Paris, +which he hated but was always revisiting, now dashing across the Channel +to buy thoroughbreds in England--for his passion for horses was +unabated. He was lately returned from such an expedition, having led his +cavalcade across the Alps in person, with a boyish delight in the +astonishment which this fantastic exploit excited. + +The meeting between the two friends was all that Odo could have wished. +Though affecting to scorn the courts of princes, Alfieri was not averse +to showing himself there as the poet of the democracy, and to hearing +his heroes mouth their tyrannicidal speeches on the boards of royal and +ducal stages. He had lately made some stay in Milan, where he had +arrived in time to see his Antigone performed before the vice-regal +court, and to be enthusiastically acclaimed as the high-priest of +liberty by a community living placidly under the Austrian yoke. Alfieri +was not the man to be struck by such incongruities. It was his fate to +formulate creeds in which he had no faith: to recreate the political +ideals of Italy while bitterly opposed to any actual effort at reform, +and to be regarded as the mouthpiece of the Revolution while he +execrated the Revolution with the whole force of his traditional +instincts. As usual he was too deeply engrossed in his own affairs to +feel much interest in any others; but it was enough for Odo to clasp the +hand of the man who had given a voice to the highest aspirations of his +countrymen. The poet gave more than he could expect from the friend; and +he was satisfied to listen to Alfieri's account of his triumphs, +interspersed with bitter diatribes against the public whose applause he +courted, and the Pope to whom, on bended knee, he had offered a copy of +his plays. + +Odo eagerly pressed Alfieri to remain in Pianura, offering to put one of +the ducal villas at his disposal, and suggesting that the Virginia +should be performed before the court on the Duchess's birthday. + +"It is true," he said, "that we can offer you but an indifferent company +of actors; but it might be possible to obtain one or two of the leading +tragedians from Turin or Milan, so that the principal parts should at +least be worthily filled." + +Alfieri replied with a contemptuous gesture. "Your Highness, our leading +tragedians are monkeys trained to dance to the tune of Goldoni and +Metastasio. The best are no better than the worst. We have no tragedians +in Italy because--hitherto--we have had no tragic dramatist." He drew +himself up and thrust a hand in his bosom. "Ah!" he exclaimed, "if I +could see the part of Virginia acted by the lady who recently recited, +before a small company in Milan, my Odes to Free America! There indeed +were fire, sublimity and passion! And the countenance had not lost its +freshness, the eye its lustre. But," he suddenly added, "your Highness +knows of whom I speak. The lady is Fulvia Vivaldi, the daughter of the +philosopher at whose feet we sat in our youth." + +Fulvia Vivaldi! Odo raised his head with a start. She had left Geneva +then, had returned to Italy. The Alps no longer divided them--a scant +day's journey would bring him to her side! It was strange how the mere +thought seemed to fill the room with her presence. He felt her in the +quickened beat of his pulses, in the sudden lightness of the air, in a +lifting and widening of the very bounds of thought. + +From Alfieri he learned that she had lived for some months in the +household of the distinguished naturalist, Count Castiglione, with whose +daughter's education she was charged. In such surroundings her wit and +learning could not fail to attract the best company of Milan, and she +was become one of the most noted figures of the capital. There had been +some talk of offering her the chair of poetry at the Brera; but the +report of her liberal views had deterred the faculty. Meanwhile the very +fact that she represented the new school of thought gave an added zest +to her conversation in a society which made up for its mild servitude +under the Austrian by much talk of liberalism and independence. The +Signorina Vivaldi became the fashion. The literati celebrated her +scholarship, the sonneteers her eloquence and beauty; and no foreigner +on the grand tour was content to leave Milan without having beheld the +fair prodigy and heard her recite Petrarch's Ode to Italy, or the latest +elegy of Pindamonte. + +Odo scarce knew with what feelings he listened. He could not but +acknowledge that such a life was better suited to one of Fulvia's gifts +and ambitions than the humdrum existence of a Swiss town; yet his first +sensation was one of obscure jealousy, of reluctance to think of her as +having definitely broken with the past. He had pictured her as adrift, +like himself, on a dark sea of uncertainties; and to learn that she had +found a safe anchorage was almost to feel himself deserted. + +The court was soon busy with preparations for the coming performance. A +celebrated actress from Venice was engaged to play the part of Virginia, +and the rehearsals went rapidly forward under the noble author's +supervision. At last the great day arrived, and for the first time in +the history of the little theatre, operetta and pastoral were replaced +by the buskined Muse of tragedy. The court and all the nobility were +present, and though it was no longer thought becoming for ecclesiastics +to visit the theatre, the easy-going Bishop appeared in a side-box in +company with his chaplains and the Vicar-general. + +The performance was brilliantly successful. Frantic applause greeted the +tirades of the young Icilius. Every outburst against the abuse of +privileges and the insolence of the patricians was acclaimed by +ministers and courtiers, and the loudest in approval were the Marquess +Pievepelago, the recognised representative of the clericals, the +Marchioness of Boscofolto, whose harsh enforcement of her feudal rights +was among the bitterest grievances of the peasantry, and the good +Bishop, who had lately roused himself from his habitual indolence to +oppose the threatened annexation of the Caccia del Vescovo. One and all +proclaimed their ardent sympathy with the proletariat, their scorn of +tyranny and extortion in high places; and if the Marchioness, on her +return home, ordered one of her linkmen to be flogged for having trod on +her gown; if Pievepelago the next morning refused to give audience to a +poor devil of a pamphleteer that was come to ask his intercession with +the Holy Office; if the Bishop at the same moment concluded the purchase +of six able-bodied Turks from the galleys of his Serenity the Doge of +Genoa--it is probable that, like the illustrious author of the drama, +all were unconscious of any incongruity between their sentiments and +actions. + +As to Odo, seated in the state box, with Maria Clementina at his side, +and the court dignitaries grouped in the background, he had not listened +to a dozen lines before all sense of his surroundings vanished and he +became the passive instrument on which the poet played his mighty +harmonies. All the incidental difficulties of life, all the vacillations +of an unsatisfied spirit, were consumed in that energising emotion which +seemed to leave every faculty stripped for action. Profounder meaning +and more subtle music he had found in the great poets of the past; but +here was an appeal to the immediate needs of the hour, uttered in notes +as thrilling as a trumpet-call, and brought home to every sense by the +vivid imagery of the stage. Once more he felt the old ardour of belief +that Fulvia's nearness had fanned in him. His convictions had flagged +rather than his courage: now they started up as at her summons, and he +heard the ring of her voice in every line. + +He left the theatre still vibrating with this new inrush of life, and +jealous of any interruption that should check it. The Duchess's birthday +was being celebrated by illuminations and fireworks, and throngs of +merry-makers filled the moonlit streets; but Odo, after appearing for a +moment at his wife's side on the balcony above the public square, +withdrew quietly to his own apartments. The casement of his closet stood +wide, and he leaned against the window-frame, looking out on the silent +radiance of the gardens. As he stood there he saw two figures flit +across the farther end of one of the long alleys. The moonlight +surrendered them for a moment, the shade almost instantly reclaiming +them--strayed revellers, doubtless, escaping from the lights and music +of the Duchess's circle. + +A knock roused the Duke and he remembered that he had bidden Gamba wait +on him after the performance. He had been curious to hear what +impression Alfieri's drama had produced upon the hunchback; but now any +interruption seemed unwelcome, and he turned to Gamba with a gesture of +dismissal. + +The latter however remained on the threshold. + +"Your Highness," he said, "the bookseller Andreoni craves the privilege +of an audience." + +"Andreoni? At this hour?" + +"For reasons so urgent that he makes no doubt of your Highness's +consent; and to prove his good faith, and the need of presenting himself +at so undue an hour, and in this private manner, he charged me to give +this to your Highness." + +He laid in the Duke's hand a small object in blackened silver, which on +nearer inspection proved to be the ducal coat-of-arms. + +Odo stood gazing fixedly at this mysterious token, which seemed to come +as an answer to his inmost thoughts. His heart beat high with confused +hopes and fears, and he could hardly control the voice in which he +answered: "Bid Andreoni come to me." + + +4.4. + +The bookseller began by excusing himself for the liberty he had taken. +He explained that the Signorina Fulvia Vivaldi, in whose behalf he came, +was in urgent need of aid, and had begged him to wait on the Duke as +soon as the court had risen from the play. + +"She is in Pianura, then?" Odo exclaimed. + +"Since yesterday, your Highness. Three days since she was ordered by the +police to leave Milan within twenty-four hours, and she came at once to +Pianura, knowing that my wife and I would gladly receive her. But today +we learned that the Holy Office was advised of her presence here, and of +the reason of her banishment from Lombardy; and this fresh danger has +forced her to implore your Highness's protection." + +Andreoni went on to explain that the publication of her father's book +was the immediate cause of Fulvia's persecution. The Origin of +Civilisation, which had been printed some months previously in +Amsterdam, had stirred Italy more profoundly than any book since +Beccaria's great work on Crime and Punishment. The author's historical +investigations were but a pretext for the development of his political +theories, which were set forth with singular daring and audacity, and +supported by all the arguments that his long study of the past +commanded. The temperate and judicial tone which he had succeeded in +preserving enhanced the effect of his arraignment of Church and state, +and while his immense erudition commended his work to the learned, its +directness of style gave it an immediate popularity with the general +reader. It was an age when every book or pamphlet bearing on the great +question of personal liberty was eagerly devoured by an insatiable +public; and a few weeks after Vivaldi's volume had been smuggled into +Italy it was the talk of every club and coffee-house from Calabria to +Piedmont. The inevitable result soon followed. The Holy Office got wind +of the business, and the book was at once put on the Index. In Naples +and Bologna it was publicly burned, and in Modena a professor of the +University who was found to have a copy in his possession was fined and +removed from his chair. + +In Milan, where the strong liberal faction among the nobility, and the +comparative leniency of the Austrian rule, permitted a more unrestrained +discussion of political questions, the Origin of Civilisation was +received with open enthusiasm, and the story of the difficulties that +Fulvia had encountered in its publication made her the heroine of the +moment. She had never concealed her devotion to her father's doctrines, +and in the first glow of filial pride she may have yielded too openly to +the desire to propagate them. Certain it is that she began to be looked +on as having shared in the writing of the book, or as being at least an +active exponent of its principles. Even in Lombardy it was not well to +be too openly associated with the authorship of a condemned book; and +Fulvia was suddenly advised by the police that her presence in Milan was +no longer acceptable to the government. + +The news excited great indignation among her friends, and Count +Castiglione and several other gentlemen of rank hastened to intervene in +her behalf; but the governor declared himself unwilling to take issue +with the Holy Office on a doctrinal point, and privately added that it +would be well for the Signorina Vivaldi to withdraw from Lombardy before +the clergy brought any direct charge against her. To ignore this hint +would have been to risk not only her own safety but that of the +gentlemen who had befriended her; and Fulvia at once set out for +Pianura, the only place in Italy where she could count on friendship and +protection. + +Andreoni and his wife would gladly have given her a home; but on +learning that the Holy Office was on her track, she had refused to +compromise them by remaining under their roof, and had insisted that +Andreoni should wait on the Duke and obtain a safe-conduct for her that +very night. + +Odo listened to this story with an agitation compounded of strangely +contradictory sensations. To learn that Fulvia, at the very moment when +he had pictured her as separated from him by the happiness and security +of her life, was in reality a proscribed wanderer with none but himself +to turn to, filled him with a confused sense of happiness; but the +discovery that, in his own dominions, the political refugee was not safe +from the threats of the Holy Office, excited a different emotion. All +these considerations, however, were subordinate to the thought that he +must see Fulvia at once. It was impossible to summon her to the palace +at that hour, or even to secure her safety till morning, without +compromising Andreoni by calling attention to the fact that a suspected +person was under his roof; and for a moment Odo was at a loss how to +detain her in Pianura without seeming to go counter to her wishes. + +Suddenly he remembered that Gamba was fertile in expedients, and calling +in the hunchback, asked what plan he could devise. Gamba, after a +moment's reflection, drew a key from his pocket. + +"May it please your Highness," he said, "this unlocks the door of the +hunting-lodge at Pontesordo. The place has been deserted these many +years, because of its bad name, and I have more than once found it a +convenient shelter when I had reasons for wishing to be private. At this +season there is no fear of poison from the marshes, and if your Highness +desires I will see that the lady finds her way there before sunrise." + +The sun had hardly risen the next morning when the Duke himself set +forth. He rode alone, dressed like one of his own esquires, and gave the +word unremarked to the sleepy sentinel at the gate. As it closed behind +him and he set out down the long road that led to the chase, it seemed +to him that the morning solitude was thronged with spectral memories. +Melancholy and fanciful they flitted before him, now in the guise of +Cerveno and Momola, now of Maria Clementina and himself. Every detail of +the scene was interwoven with the fibres of early association, from the +far off years when, as a lonely child on the farm at Pontesordo, he had +gazed across the marsh at the mysterious woodlands of the chase, to the +later day when, in the deserted hunting-lodge, the Duchess had flung her +whip at the face in the Venice mirror. + +He pressed forward impatiently, and presently the lodge rose before him +in its grassy solitude. The level sunbeams had not yet penetrated the +surrounding palisade of boughs, and the house lay in a chill twilight +that seemed an emanation from its mouldering walls. As Odo approached, +Gamba appeared from the shadow and took his horse; and the next moment +he had pushed open the door, and stood in Fulvia's presence. + +She was seated at the farther end of the room, and as she rose to meet +him it chanced that her head, enveloped in its black travelling-hood, +was relieved for a moment against the tarnished background of the broken +mirror. The impression struck a chill to his heart; but it was replaced +by a glow of boyish happiness as their eyes met and he felt her hands in +his. + +For a moment all his thoughts were lost in the mere sense of her +nearness. She seemed simply an enveloping atmosphere in which he drew +fresh breath; but gradually her outline emerged from this haze of +feeling, and he found himself looking at her with the wondering gaze of +a stranger. She had been a girl of sixteen when they first met. Twelve +years had passed since then, and she was now a woman of twenty-eight, +belonging to a race in which beauty ripens early and as soon declines. +But some happy property of nature--whether the rare mould of her +features or the gift of the spirit that informed them--had held her +loveliness intact, preserving the clear lines of youth after its bloom +was gone, and making her seem like a lover's memory of herself. So she +appeared at first, a bright imponderable presence gliding toward him out +of the past; but as her hands lay in his the warm current of life was +renewed between them, and the woman dispossessed the shade. + + +4.5. + +Unpublished fragment from Mr. Arthur Young's diary of his travels in +Italy in the year 1789. + +October 1st. + +Having agreed with a vetturino to carry me to Pianura, set out this +morning from Mantua. The country mostly arable, with rows of elm and +maple pollard. Dined at Casal Maggiore, in an infamous filthy inn. At +dinner was joined by a gentleman who had taken the other seat in the +vettura as far as Pianura. We engaged in conversation and I found him a +man of lively intelligence and the most polished address. Though dressed +in the foreign style, en abbe, he spoke English with as much fluency as +myself, and but for the philosophical tone of his remarks I had taken +him for an ecclesiastic. Altogether a striking and somewhat perplexing +character: able, keen, intelligent, evidently used to the best company, +yet acquainted with the condition of the people, the methods of farming, +and other economical subjects such as are seldom thought worthy of +attention among Italians of quality. + +It appeared he was newly from France, where he had been as much struck +as myself by the general state of ferment. Though owning that there was +much reason for discontent, and that the conduct of the court and +ministers was blind and infatuated beyond belief, he yet declared +himself gravely apprehensive of the future, saying that the people knew +not what they wanted, and were unwilling to listen to those that might +have proved their best advisors. Whether by this he meant the clergy I +know not; though I observed he spoke favourably of that body in France, +pointing out that, long before the recent agitations, they had defended +the civil rights of the Third Estate, and citing many cases in which the +country curates had shown themselves the truest friends of the people: a +fact my own observation hath confirmed. + +I remarked to him that I was surprised to find how little talk there was +in Italy of the distracted conditions in France; and this though the +country is overrun with French refugees, or emigres, as they call +themselves, who bring with them reports that might well excite the alarm +of neighbouring governments. He said he had remarked the same +indifference, but that this was consonant with the Italian character, +which never looked to the morrow; and he added that the mild disposition +of the people, and their profound respect for religion, were sufficient +assurance against any political excess. + +To this I could not forbear replying that I could not regard as excesses +the just protests of the poor against the unlawful tyranny of the +privileged classes, nor forbear to hail with joy the dawn of that light +of freedom which hath already shed so sublime an effulgence on the wilds +of the New World. The abate took this in good part, though I could see +he was not wholly of my way of thinking; but he declared that in his +opinion different races needed different laws, and that the sturdy and +temperate American colonists were fitted to enjoy a greater measure of +political freedom than the more volatile French and Italians--as though +liberty were not destined by the Creator to be equally shared by all +mankind! (Footnote: I let this passage stand, though the late unhappy +events in France have, alas! proved that my friend the abate was nearer +right than myself. June, 1794.) + +In the afternoon through a poor country to Ponte di Po, a miserable +village on the borders of the duchy, where we lay, not slept, in our +clothes, at the worst inn I have yet encountered. Here our luggage was +plumbed for Pianura. The impertinence of the petty sovereigns to +travellers in Italy is often intolerable, and the customs officers show +the utmost insolence in the search for seditious pamphlets and other +contraband articles; but here I was agreeably surprised by the courtesy +of the officials and the despatch with which our luggage was examined. +On my remarking this, my companion replied that the Duke of Pianura was +a man of liberal views, anxious to encourage foreigners to visit his +state, and the last to put petty obstacles in the way of travel. I +answered, this was the report I had heard of him; and it was in the hope +of learning something more of the reforms he was said to have effected, +that I had turned aside to visit the duchy. My companion replied that +his Highness had in fact introduced some innovations in the government; +but that changes which seemed the most beneficial in one direction often +worked mischief in another, so that the wisest ruler was perhaps not he +that did the greatest amount of good, but he that was cause of the +fewest evils. + +The 2nd. + +From Ponte di Po to Pianura the most convenient way is by water; but the +river Piana being greatly swollen by the late rains, my friend, who +seems well-acquainted with the country, proposed driving thither: a +suggestion I readily accepted, as it gave me a good opportunity to study +the roads and farms of the duchy. + +Crossing the Piana, drove near four hours over horrible roads across +waste land, thinly wooded, without houses or cultivation. On my +expressing surprise that the territory of so enlightened a prince would +lie thus neglected, the abate said this land was a fief of the see of +Pianura, and that the Duke was desirous of annexing it to the duchy. I +asked if it were true that his Highness had given his people a +constitution modelled on that of the Duke of Tuscany. He said he had +heard the report; but that for his part he must deplore any measure +tending to debar the clergy from the possession of land. Seeing my +surprise, he explained that, in Italy at least, the religious orders +were far better landlords than the great nobles or the petty sovereigns, +who, being for the most part absent from their estates, left their +peasantry to be pillaged by rapacious middlemen and stewards: an +argument I have heard advanced by other travellers, and have myself had +frequent occasion to corroborate. + +On leaving the Bishop's domain, remarked an improvement in the roads. +Flat land, well irrigated, and divided as usual into small holdings. The +pernicious metayer system exists everywhere, but I am told the Duke is +opposed to it, though it is upheld not only by the landed class, but by +the numerous economists that write on agriculture from their closets, +but would doubtless be sorely puzzled to distinguish a beet-root from a +turnip. + +The 3rd. + +Set out early to visit Pianura. The city clean and well-kept. The Duke +has introduced street-lamps, such as are used in Turin, and the pavement +is remarkably fair and even. Few beggars are to be seen and the people +have a thriving look. Visited the Cathedral and Baptistery, in the +Gothic style, more curious than beautiful; also the Duke's picture +gallery. + +Learning that the Duchess was to ride out in the afternoon, had the +curiosity to walk abroad to see her. A good view of her as she left the +palace. Though no longer in her first youth she is one of the handsomest +women I have seen. Remarked a decided likeness to the Queen of France, +though the eye and smile are less engaging. The people in the streets +received her sullenly, and I am told her debts and disorders are the +scandal of the town. She has, of course, her cicisbeo, and the Duke is +the devoted slave of a learned lady, who is said to exert an unlimited +influence over him, and to have done much to better the condition of the +people. A new part for a prince's mistress to play! + +In the evening to the theatre, a handsome building, well-lit with wax, +where Cimarosa's Due Baroni was agreeably sung. + +The 4th. + +My lord Hervey, in Florence, having favoured me with a letter to Count +Trescorre, the Duke's prime minister, I waited on that gentleman +yesterday. His excellency received me politely and assured me that he +knew me by reputation and would do all he could to put me in the way of +investigating the agricultural conditions of the duchy. Contrary to the +Italian custom, he invited me to dine with him the next day. As a rule +these great nobles do not open their doors to foreigners, however well +recommended. + +Visited, by appointment, the press of the celebrated Andreoni, who was +banished during the late Duke's reign for suspected liberal tendencies, +but is now restored to favour and placed at the head of the Royal +Typography. Signor Andreoni received me with every mark of esteem, and +after having shown me some of the finest examples of his work--such as +the Pindar, the Lucretius and the Dante--accompanied me to a +neighbouring coffee-house, where I was introduced to several lovers of +agriculture. Here I learned some particulars of the Duke's attempted +reforms. He has undertaken the work of draining the vast marsh of +Pontesordo, to the west of the city, notorious for its mal'aria; has +renounced the monopoly of corn and tobacco; has taken the University out +of the hands of the Barnabites, and introduced the teaching of the +physical sciences, formerly prohibited by the Church; has spent since +his accession near 200,000 liv. on improving the roads throughout the +duchy, and is now engaged in framing a constitution which shall deprive +the clergy of the greatest part of their privileges and confirm the +sovereign's right to annex ecclesiastical territory for the benefit of +the people. + +In spite of these radical measures, his Highness is not popular with the +masses. He is accused of irreligion by the monks that he has removed +from the University, and his mistress, the daughter of a noted +free-thinker who was driven from Piedmont by the Inquisition, is said to +have an unholy influence over him. I am told these rumours are +diligently fomented by the late Duke's minister, now Prior of the +Dominican monastery, a man of bigoted views but great astuteness. The +truth is, the people are so completely under the influence of the friars +that a word is enough to turn them against their truest benefactors. + +In the afternoon I was setting out to visit the Bishop's gallery when +Count Trescorre's secretary waited on me with an invitation to inspect +the estates of the Marchioness of Boscofolto: an offer I readily +accepted--for what are the masterpieces of Raphael or Cleomenes to the +sight of a good turnip field or of a well-kept dairy? + +I had heard of Boscofolto, which was given by the late Duke to his +mistress, as one of the most productive estates of the duchy; but great +was my disappointment on beholding it. Fine gardens there are, to be +sure, clipt walks, leaden statues, and water-works; but as for the +farms, all is dirt, neglect, disorder. Spite of the lady's wealth, all +are let out alla meta, and farmed on principles that would disgrace a +savage. The spade used instead of the plough, the hedges neglected, +mole-casts in the pastures, good land run to waste, the peasants +starving and indebted--where, with a little thrift and humanity, all had +been smiling plenty! Learned that on the owner's death this great +property reverts to the Barnabites. + +From Boscofolto to the church of the Madonna del Monte, where is one of +their wonder-working images, said to be annually visited by close on +thirty thousand pilgrims; but there is always some exaggeration in such +figures. A fine building, richly adorned, and hung with an extraordinary +number of votive offerings: silver arms, legs, hearts, wax images, and +paintings. Some of these latter are clearly the work of village artists, +and depict the miraculous escape of the peasantry from various +calamities, and the preservation of their crops from floods, drought, +lightning and so forth. These poor wretches had done more to better +their crops by spending their savings in good ploughshares and harrows +than by hanging gew-gaws on a wooden idol. + +The Rector received us civilly and showed us the treasury, full of +jewels and costly plate, and the buildings where the pilgrims are +lodged. Learned that the Giubileo or centenary festival of the Madonna +is shortly to be celebrated with great pomp. The poorer classes delight +in these ceremonies, and I am told this is to surpass all previous ones, +the clergy intending to work on the superstitions of the people and thus +turn them against the new charter. It is said the Duke hopes to +counteract these designs by offering a jewelled diadem to the Virgin; +but this will no doubt do him a bad turn with the esprits libres. These +little states are as full of intrigues as a foul fruit of maggots. + +The 5th. + +To dinner at Count Trescorre's where, as usual, I was the +plainest-dressed man in the company. Have long since ceased to be +concerned by this: why should a mere English farmer compete in elegance +with these Monsignori and Illustrissimi? Surprised to find among the +company my travelling-companion of the other day. Learned that he is the +abate de Crucis, a personal friend of the Duke's. He greeted me +cordially, and on hearing my name, said that he was acquainted with my +works in the translation of Mons. Freville, and now understood how it +was that I had got the better of him in our farming disputations on the +way hither. + +Was surprised to be told by Count Trescorre that the Duke desired me to +wait on him that evening. Though in general not ambitious of such +honours, yet in this case nothing could be more gratifying. + +The 6th. + +Yesterday evening to the palace, where his Highness received me with +great affability. He was in his private apartments, with the abate de +Crucis and several other learned men; among them the famous abate +Crescenti, librarian to his Highness and author of the celebrated +Chronicles of the Italian States. Happy indeed is the prince who +surrounds himself with scholars instead of courtiers! Yet I cannot say +that the impression his Highness produced on me was one of HAPPINESS. +His countenance is sad, almost careworn, though with a smile of engaging +sweetness; his manner affable without condescension, and open without +familiarity. I am told he is oppressed by the cares of his station; and +from a certain irresolution of voice and eye, that bespeaks not so much +weakness as a speculative cast of mind, I can believe him less fitted +for active government than for the meditations of the closet. He +appears, however, zealous to perform his duties; questioned me eagerly +about my impressions of Italy, and showed a flattering familiarity with +my works, and a desire to profit by what he was pleased to call my +exceptional knowledge of agriculture. I thought I perceived in him a +sincere wish to study the welfare of his people; but was disappointed to +find among his chosen associates not one practical farmer or economist, +but only the usual closet-theorists that are too busy planning Utopias +to think of planting turnips. + +The 7th. + +Visited his Highness's estate at Valsecca. Here he has converted a +handsome seat into a school of agriculture, tearing down an immense +orangery to plant mulberries, and replacing costly gardens and statuary +by well-tilled fields: a good example to his wealthy subjects. +Unfortunately his bailiff is not what we should call a practical farmer; +and many acres of valuable ground are given up to a botanic garden, +where exotic plants are grown at great expense, and rather for curiosity +than use: a common error of noble agriculturists. + +In the afternoon with the abate de Crucis to the Benedictine monastery, +a league beyond the city. Here I saw the best farming in the duchy. The +Prior received us politely and conversed with intelligence on drainage, +crops and irrigation. I urged on him the cultivation of turnips and he +appeared struck by my arguments. The tenants on this great estate +appeared better housed and fed than any I have seen in Pianura. The +monks have a school of agriculture, less pretentious but better-managed +than the Duke's. Some of them study physics and chemistry, and there are +good chirurgeons among them, who care for the poor without pay. The aged +and infirm peasants are housed in a neat almshouse, and the sick nursed +in a clean well-built lazaret. Altogether an agreeable picture of rural +prosperity, though I had rather it had been the result of FREE LABOUR +than of MONASTIC BOUNTY. + +The 8th. + +By appointment, to the Duke's Egeria. This lady, the Signorina F.V., +having heard that I was in Pianura, had desired the Signor Andreoni to +bring me to her. + +I had expected a female of the loud declamatory type: something of the +Corilla Olimpica order; but in this was agreeably disappointed. The +Signorina V. is modestly lodged, lives in the frugal style of the middle +class, and refuses to accept a title, though she is thus debarred from +going to court. Were it not indiscreet to speculate on a lady's age, I +should put hers at somewhat above thirty. Though without the Duchess's +commanding elegance she has, I believe, more beauty of a quiet sort: a +countenance at once soft and animated, agreeably tinged with melancholy, +yet lit up by the incessant play of thought and emotion that succeed +each other in her talk. Better conversation I never heard; and can +heartily confirm the assurances of those who had told me that the lady +was as agreeable in discourse as learned in the closet. (Footnote: It +has before now been observed that the FREE and VOLATILE manners of +foreign ladies tend to blind the English traveller to the inferiority of +their PHYSICAL charms. Note by a Female Friend of the Author.) + +On entering, found a numerous company assembled to compliment my hostess +on her recent appointment as doctor of the University. This is an honour +not uncommonly conferred in Italy, where female learning, perhaps from +its rarity, is highly esteemed; but I am told the ladies thus +distinguished seldom speak in public, though their degree entitles them +to a chair in the University. In the Signorina V.'s society I found the +most advanced reformers of the duchy: among others Signor Gamba, the +famous pamphleteer, author of a remarkable treatise on taxation, which +had nearly cost him his liberty under the late Duke's reign. He is a man +of extreme views and sarcastic tongue, with an irritability of manner +that is perhaps the result of bodily infirmities. His ideas, I am told, +have much weight with the fair doctoress; and in the lampoons of the day +the new constitution is said to be the offspring of their amours, and to +have inherited its father's deformity. + +The company presently withdrawing, my hostess pressed me to remain. She +was eager for news from France, spoke admiringly of the new +constitution, and recited in a moving manner an Ode of her own +composition on the Fall of the Bastille. Though living so retired she +makes no secret of her connection with the Duke; said he had told her of +his conversation with me, and asked what I thought of his plan for +draining the marsh of Pontesordo. On my attempting to reply to this in +detail, I saw that, like some of the most accomplished of her sex, she +was impatient of minutiae, and preferred general ideas to particular +instances; but when the talk turned on the rights of the people I was +struck by the energy and justice of her remarks, and by a tone of +resolution and courage that made me to say to myself: "Here is the hand +that rules the state." + +She questioned me earnestly about the state of affairs in France, begged +me to lend her what pamphlets I could procure, and while making no +secret of her republican sympathies, expressed herself with a moderation +not always found in her sex. Of the clergy alone she appeared +intolerant: a fact hardly to be wondered at, considering the persecution +to which she and her father have been subjected. She detained me near +two hours in such discourse, and on my taking leave asked with some show +of feeling what I, as a practical economist, would advise the Duke to do +for the benefit of his people; to which I replied, "Plant turnips, +madam!" and she laughed heartily, and said no doubt I was right. But I +fear all the heads here are too full of fine theories to condescend to +such simple improvements... + + +4.6. + +Fulvia, in the twilight, sat awaiting the Duke. + +The room in which she sat looked out on a stone-flagged cloister +enclosing a plot of ground planted with yews; and at the farther end of +this cloister a door communicated by a covered way with the ducal +gardens. The house had formed a part of the convent of the Perpetual +Adoration, which had been sold by the nuns when they moved to the new +buildings the late Duke had given them. A portion had been torn down to +make way for the Marquess of Cerveno's palace, and in the remaining +fragment, a low building wedged between high walls, Fulvia had found a +lodging. Her whole dwelling consisted of the Abbess's parlour, in which +she now sat, and the two or three adjoining cells. The tall presses in +the parlour had been filled with her father's books, and surmounted by +his globes and other scientific instruments. But for this the apartment +remained as unadorned as in her predecessor's day; and Fulvia, in her +austere black gown, with a lawn kerchief folded over her breast, and the +unpowdered hair drawn back from her pale face, might herself have passed +for the head of a religious community. + +She cultivated with almost morbid care this severity of dress and +surroundings. There were moments when she could hardly tolerate the pale +autumnal beauty which her glass reflected, when even this phantom of +youth and radiance became a stumbling-block to her spiritual pride. She +was not ashamed of being the Duke of Pianura's mistress; but she had a +horror of being thought like the mistresses of other princes. She +loathed all that the position represented in men's minds; she had +refused all that, according to the conventions of the day, it entitled +her to claim: wealth, patronage, and the rank and estates which it was +customary for the sovereign to confer. She had taken nothing from Odo +but his love, and the little house in which he had lodged her. + +Three years had passed since Fulvia's flight to Pianura. From the moment +when she and Odo had stood face to face again, it had been clear to him +that he could never give her up, to her that she could never leave him. +Fate seemed to have thrown them together in derision of their long +struggle, and both felt that lassitude of the will which is the reaction +from vain endeavour. The discovery that he needed her, that the task for +which he had given her up could after all not be accomplished without +her, served to overcome her last resistance. If the end for which both +strove could best be attained together--if he needed the aid of her +unfaltering faith as much as she needed that of his wealth and +power--why should any personal scruple stand between them? Why should +she who had given all else to the cause--ease, fortune, safety, and even +the happiness that lay in her hand--hesitate to make the final sacrifice +of a private ideal? According to the standards of her day there was no +dishonour to a woman in being the mistress of a man whose rank forbade +his marrying her: the dishonour lay in the conduct which had come to be +associated with such relations. Under the old dispensation the influence +of the prince's mistress had stood for the last excesses of moral and +political corruption; why might it not, under the new law, come to +represent as unlimited a power for good? + +So love, the casuist, argued; and during those first months, when +happiness seemed at last its own justification, Fulvia lived in every +fibre. But always, even then, she was on the defensive against that +higher tribunal which her own conception of life had created. In spite +of herself she was a child of the new era, of the universal reaction +against the falseness and egotism of the old social code. A standard of +conduct regulated by the needs of the race rather than by individual +passion, a conception of each existence as a link in the great chain of +human endeavour, had slowly shaped itself out of the wild theories and +vague "codes" of the eighteenth-century moralists; and with this sense +of the sacramental nature of human ties, came a renewed reverence for +moral and physical purity. + +Fulvia was of those who require that their lives shall be an affirmation +of themselves; and the lack of inner harmony drove her to seek some +outward expression of her ideals. She threw herself with renewed passion +into the political struggle. The best, the only justification of her +power, was to use it boldly, openly, for the good of the people. All the +repressed forces of her nature were poured into this single channel. She +had no desire to conceal her situation, to disguise her influence over +Odo. She wished it rather to be so visible a factor in his relations +with his people that she should come to be regarded as the ultimate +pledge of his good faith. But, like all the casuistical virtues, this +position had the rigidity of something created to fit a special case; +and the result was a fixity of attitude, which spread benumbingly over +her whole nature. She was conscious of the change, yet dared not +struggle against it, since to do so was to confess the weakness of her +case. She had chosen to be regarded as a symbol rather than a woman, and +there were moments when she felt as isolated from life as some marble +allegory in its niche above the market-place. + +It was the desire to associate herself with the Duke's public life that +had induced her, after much hesitation, to accept the degree which the +University had conferred on her. She had shared eagerly in the work of +reconstructing the University, and had been the means of drawing to +Pianura several teachers of distinction from Padua and Pavia. It was her +dream to build up a seat of learning which should attract students from +all parts of Italy; and though many young men of good family had +withdrawn from the classes when the Barnabites were dispossessed, she +was confident that they would soon be replaced by scholars from other +states. She was resolved to identify herself openly with the educational +reform which seemed to her one of the most important steps toward civic +emancipation; and she had therefore acceded to the request of the +faculty that, on receiving her degree, she should sustain a thesis +before the University. This ceremony was to take place a few days hence, +on the Duke's birthday; and, as the new charter was to be proclaimed on +the same day, Fulvia had chosen as the subject of her discourse the +Constitution recently promulgated in France. + +She pushed aside the bundle of political pamphlets which she had been +studying, and sat looking out at the strip of garden beyond the arches +of the cloister. The narrow horizon bounded by convent walls symbolised +fitly enough the life she had chosen to lead: a life of artificial +restraints and renunciations, passive, conventual almost, in which even +the central point of her love burned, now, with a calm devotional glow. + +The door in the cloister opened and the Duke crossed the garden. He +walked slowly, with the listless step she had observed in him of late; +and as he entered she saw that he looked pale and weary. + +"You have been at work again," she said. "A cabinet-meeting?" + +"Yes," he answered, sinking into the Abbess's high carved chair. + +He glanced musingly about the dim room, in which the shadow of the +cloister made an early dusk. Its atmosphere of monastic calm, of which +the significance did not escape him, fell soothingly on his spirit. It +simplified his relation to Fulvia by tacitly restricting it within the +bounds of a tranquil tenderness. Any other setting would have seemed +less in harmony with their fate. + +Better, perhaps, than Fulvia, he knew what ailed them both. Happiness +had come to them, but it had come too late; it had come tinged with +disloyalty to their early ideals; it had come when delay and +disillusionment had imperceptibly weakened the springs of passion. For +it is the saddest thing about sorrow that it deadens the capacity for +happiness; and to Fulvia and Odo the joy they had renounced had returned +with an exile's alien face. + +Seeing that he remained silent, she rose and lit the shaded lamp on the +table. He watched her as she moved across the room. Her step had lost +none of its flowing grace, of that harmonious impetus which years ago +had drawn his boyish fancy in its wake. As she bent above the lamp, the +circle of light threw her face into relief against the deepening shadows +of the room. She had changed, indeed, but as those change in whom the +springs of life are clear and abundant: it was a development rather than +a diminution. The old purity of outline remained; and deep below the +surface, but still visible sometimes to his lessening insight, the old +girlish spirit, radiant, tender and impetuous, stirred for a moment in +her eyes. + +The lamplight fell on the pamphlets she had pushed aside. Odo picked one +up. "What are these?" he asked. + +"They were sent to me by the English traveller whom Andreoni brought +here." + +He turned a few pages. "The old story," he said. "Do you never weary of +it?" + +"An old story?" she exclaimed. "I thought it had been the newest in the +world. Is it not being written, chapter by chapter, before our very +eyes?" + +Odo laid the treatise aside. "Are you never afraid to turn the next +page?" he asked. + +"Afraid? Afraid of what?" + +"That it may be written in blood." + +She uttered a quick exclamation; then her face hardened, and she said in +a low tone: "De Crucis has been with you." + +He made the half-resigned, half-impatient gesture of the man who feels +himself drawn into a familiar argument from which there is no issue. + +"He left yesterday for Germany." + +"He was here too long!" she said, with an uncontrollable escape of +bitterness. + +Odo sighed. "If you would but let me bring him to you, you would see +that his influence over me is not what you think it." + +She was silent a moment; then she said: "You are tired tonight. Let us +not talk of these things." + +"As you please," he answered, with an air of relief; and she rose and +went to the harpsichord. + +She played softly, with a veiled touch, gliding from one crepuscular +melody to another, till the room was filled with drifts of sound that +seemed like the voice of its own shadows. There had been times when he +could have yielded himself to this languid tide of music, letting it +loosen the ties of thought till he floated out into the soothing dimness +of sensation; but now the present held him. To Fulvia, too, he knew the +music was but a forced interlude, a mechanical refuge from thought. She +had deliberately narrowed their intercourse to one central idea; and it +was her punishment that silence had come to be merely an intensified +expression of this idea. + +When she turned to Odo she saw the same consciousness in his face. It +was useless for them to talk of other things. With a pang of unreasoning +regret she felt that she had become to him the embodiment of a single +thought--a formula, rather than a woman. + +"Tell me what you have been doing," she said. + +The question was a relief. At once he began to separation of his work. +All his thoughts, all his time, were given to the constitution which was +to define the powers of Church and state. The difficulties increased as +the work advanced; but the gravest difficulty was one of which he dared +not tell her: his own growing distrust of the ideas for which he +laboured. He was too keenly aware of the difference in their mental +operations. With Fulvia, ideas were either rejected or at once converted +into principles; with himself, they remained stored in the mind, serving +rather as commentaries on life than as incentives to action. This +perpetual accessibility to new impressions was a quality she could not +understand, or could conceive of only as a weakness. Her own mind was +like a garden in which nothing is ever transplanted. She allowed for no +intermediate stages between error and dogma, for no shifting of the +bounds of conviction; and this security gave her the singleness of +purpose in which he found himself more and more deficient. + +Odo remembered that he had once thought her nearness would dispel his +hesitations. At first it had been so; but gradually the contact with her +fixed enthusiasms had set up within him an opposing sense of the claims +ignored. The element of dogmatism in her faith showed the discouraging +sameness of the human mind. He perceived that to a spirit like Fulvia's +it might become possible to shed blood in the cause of tolerance. + +The rapid march of events in France had necessarily produced an opposite +effect on minds so differently constituted. To Fulvia the year had been +a year of victory, a glorious affirmation of her political creed. Step +by step she had seen, as in some old allegorical painting, error fly +before the shafts of truth. Where Odo beheld a conflagration she saw a +sunrise; and all that was bare and cold in her own life was warmed and +transfigured by that ineffable brightness. + +She listened patiently while he enlarged on the difficulties of the +case. The constitution was framed in all its details, but with its +completion he felt more than ever doubtful of the wisdom of granting it. +He would have welcomed any postponement that did not seem an admission +of fear. He dreaded the inevitable break with the clergy, not so much +because of the consequent danger to his own authority, as because he was +increasingly conscious of the newness and clumsiness of the instrument +with which he proposed to replace their tried and complex system. He +mentioned to Fulvia the rumours of popular disaffection; but she swept +them aside with a smile. + +"The people mistrust you," she said. "And what does that mean? That you +have given your enemies time to work on their credulity. The longer you +delay the more opposition you will encounter. Father Ignazio would +rather destroy the state than let it be saved by any hand but his." + +Odo reflected. "Of all my enemies," he said, "Father Ignazio is the one +I most respect, because he is the most sincere." + +"He is the most dangerous, then," she returned. "A fanatic is always +more powerful than a knave." + +He was struck with her undiminished faith in the sufficiency of such +generalisations. Did she really think that to solve such a problem it +was only necessary to define it? The contact with her unfaltering +assurance would once have given him a momentary glow; but now it left +him cold. + +She was speaking more urgently. "Surely," she said, "the noblest use a +man can make of his own freedom is to set others free. My father said it +was the only justification of kingship." + +He glanced at her half-sadly. "Do you still fancy that kings are free? I +am bound hand and foot." + +"So was my father," she flashed back at him; "but he had the Promethean +spirit." + +She coloured at her own quickness, but Odo took the thrust tranquilly. + +"Yes," he said, "your father had the Promethean spirit: I have not. The +flesh that is daily torn from me does not grow again." + +"Your courage is as great as his," she exclaimed, her tenderness in +arms. + +"No," he answered, "for his was hopeful." There was a pause, and then he +began to speak of the day's work. + +All the afternoon he had been in consultation with Crescenti, whose vast +historical knowledge was of service in determining many disputed points +in the tenure of land. The librarian was in sympathy with any measures +tending to relieve the condition of the peasantry; yet he was almost as +strongly opposed as Trescorre to any reproduction of the Tuscan +constitution. + +"He is afraid!" broke from Fulvia. She admired and respected Crescenti, +yet she had never fully trusted him. The taint of ecclesiasticism was on +him. + +Odo smiled. "He has never been afraid of facing the charge of +Jansenism," he replied. "All his life he has stood in open opposition to +the Church party." + +"It is one thing to criticise their dogmas, another to attack their +privileges. At such a time he is bound to remember that he is a +priest--that he is one of them." + +"Yet, as you have often pointed out, it is to the clergy that France in +great measure owes her release from feudalism." + +She smiled coldly. "France would have won her cause without the clergy!" + +"This is not France, then," he said with a sigh. After a moment he began +again: "Can you not see that any reform which aims at reducing the power +of the clergy must be more easily and successfully carried out if they +can be induced to take part in it? That, in short, we need them at this +moment as we have never needed them before? The example of France ought +at least to show you that." + +"The example of France shows me that, to gain a point in such a +struggle, any means must be used! In France, as you say, the clergy were +with the people--here they are against them. Where persuasion fails +coercion must be used!" + +Odo smiled faintly. "You might have borrowed that from their own +armoury," he said. + +She coloured at the sarcasm. "Why not?" she retorted. "Let them have a +taste of their own methods! They know the kind of pressure that makes +men yield--when they feel it they will know what to do." + +He looked at her with astonishment. "This is Gamba's tone," he said. "I +have never heard you speak in this way before." + +She coloured again; and now with a profound emotion. "Yes," she said, +"it is Gamba's tone. He and I speak for the same cause and with the same +voice. We are of the people and we speak for the people. Who are your +other counsellors? Priests and noblemen! It is natural enough that they +should wish to make their side of the question heard. Listen to them, if +you will--conciliate them, if you can! We need all the allies we can +win. Only do not fancy they are really speaking for the people. Do not +think it is the people's voice you hear. The people do not ask you to +weigh this claim against that, to look too curiously into the defects +and merits of every clause in their charter. All they ask is that the +charter should be given them!" + +She spoke with the low-voiced passion that possessed her at such +moments. All acrimony had vanished from her tone. The expression of a +great conviction had swept aside every personal animosity, and cleared +the sources of her deepest feeling. Odo felt the pressure of her +emotion. He leaned to her and their hands met. + +"It shall be given them," he said. + +She lifted her face to his. It shone with a great light. Once before he +had seen it so illumined, but with how different a brightness! The +remembrance stirred in him some old habit of the senses. He bent over +and kissed her. + + +4.7. + +Never before had Odo so keenly felt the difference between theoretical +visions of liberty and their practical application. His deepest +heart-searchings showed him as sincerely devoted as ever to the cause +which had enlisted his youth. He still longed above all things to serve +his fellows; but the conditions of such service were not what he had +dreamed. How different a calling it had been in Saint Francis's day, +when hearts inflamed with the new sense of brotherhood had but to set +forth on their simple mission of almsgiving and admonition! To love +one's neighbour had become a much more complex business, one that taxed +the intelligence as much as the heart, and in the course of which +feeling must be held in firm subjection to reason. He was discouraged by +Fulvia's inability to understand the change. Hers was the missionary +spirit; and he could not but reflect how much happier she would have +been as a nun in a charitable order, a unit in some organised system of +beneficence. + +He too would have been happier to serve than to command! But it is not +given to the lovers of the Lady Poverty to choose their special rank in +her household. Don Gervaso's words came back to him with deepening +significance, and he thought how truly the old chaplain's prayer had +been fulfilled. Honour and power had come to him, and they had abased +him to the dust. The "Humilitas" of his fathers, woven, carved and +painted on every side, pursued him with an ironical reminder of his +impotence. + +Fulvia had not been mistaken in attributing his depression of spirit to +de Crucis's visit. It was the first time that de Crucis had returned to +Pianura since the new Duke's accession. Odo had welcomed him eagerly, +had again pressed him to remain; but de Crucis was on his way to +Germany, bound on some business which could not be deferred. Odo, aware +of the renewed activity of the Jesuits, supposed that this business was +connected with the flight of the French refugees, many of whom were gone +to Coblentz; but on this point the abate was silent. Of the state of +affairs in France he spoke openly and despondently. The immoderate haste +with which the reforms had been granted filled him with fears for the +future. Odo knew that Crescenti shared these fears, and the judgment of +these two men, with whom he differed on fundamental principles, weighed +with him far more than the opinions of the party he was supposed to +represent. But he was in the case of many greater sovereigns of his day. +He had set free the waters of reform, and the frail bark of his +authority had been torn from its moorings and swept headlong into the +central current. + +The next morning, to his surprise, the Duchess sent one of her gentlemen +to ask an audience. Odo at once replied that he would wait on her +Highness; and a few moments later he was ushered into his wife's closet. + +She had just left her toilet, and was still in the morning negligee worn +during that prolonged and public ceremonial. Freshly perfumed and +powdered, her eyes bright, her lips set in a nervous smile, she +curiously recalled the arrogant child who had snatched her spaniel away +from him years ago in that same room. And was she not that child, after +all? Had she ever grown beyond the imperious instincts of her youth? It +seemed to him now that he had judged her harshly in the first months of +their marriage. He had felt a momentary impatience when he had tried to +force her roving impulses into the line of his own endeavour: it was +easier to view her leniently now that she had almost passed out of his +life. + +He wondered why she had sent for him. Some dispute with her household, +doubtless; a quarrel with a servant, even--or perhaps some sordid +difficulty with her creditors. But she began in a new key. + +"Your Highness," she said, "is not given to taking my advice." + +Odo looked at her in surprise. "The opportunity is not often accorded +me," he replied with a smile. + +Maria Clementina made an impatient gesture; then her face softened. +Contradictory emotions flitted over it like the reflections cast by a +hurrying sky. She came close to him and then drew away and seated +herself in the high-backed chair where she had throned when he first saw +her. Suddenly she blushed and began to speak. + +"Once," she said in a low, almost inaudible voice, "I was able to give +your Highness warning of an impending danger--" She paused and her eyes +rested full on Odo. + +He felt his colour rise as he returned her gaze. It was her first +allusion to the past. He had supposed she had forgotten. For a moment he +remained awkwardly silent. + +"Do you remember?" she asked. + +"I remember." + +"The danger was a grave one. Your Highness may recall that but for my +warning you would not have been advised of it." + +"I remember," he said again. + +She paused a moment. "The danger," she repeated, "was a grave one; but +it threatened only your Highness's person. Your Highness listened to me +then; will you listen again if I advise you of a greater--a peril +threatening not only your person but your throne?" + +Odo smiled. He could guess now what was coming. She had been drilled to +act as the mouthpiece of the opposition. He composed his features and +said quietly: "These are grave words, madam. I know of no such +peril--but I am always ready to listen to your Highness." + +His smile had betrayed him, and a quick flame of anger passed over her +face. + +"Why should you listen to me, since you never heed what I say?" + +"Your Highness has just reminded me that I did so once--" + +"Once!" she repeated bitterly. "You were younger then--and so was I!" +She glanced at herself in the mirror with a dissatisfied laugh. +Something in her look and movement touched the springs of compassion. + +"Try me again," he said gently. "If I am older, perhaps I am also wiser, +and therefore even more willing to be guided--we all knew that." She +broke off, as though she felt her mistake and wished to make a fresh +beginning. Again her face was full of fluctuating meaning; and he saw, +beneath its shallow surface, the eddy of incoherent impulses. When she +spoke, it was with a noble gravity. + +"Your Highness," she said, "does not take me into your counsels; but it +is no secret at court and in the town that you have in contemplation a +grave political measure." + +"I have made no secret of it," he replied. + +"No--or I should be the last to know it!" she exclaimed, with one of her +sudden lapses into petulance. + +Odo made no reply. Her futility was beginning to weary him. She saw it +and again attempted an impersonal dignity of manner. + +"It has been your Highness's choice," she said, "to exclude me from +public affairs. Perhaps I was not fitted by education or intelligence to +share in the cares of government. Your Highness will at least bear +witness that I have scrupulously respected your decision, and have never +attempted to intrude upon your counsels." + +Odo bowed. It would have been useless to remind her that he had sought +her help and failed to obtain it. + +"I have accepted my position," she continued. "I have led the life to +which it has pleased your Highness to restrict me. But I have not been +able to detach my heart as well as my thoughts from your Highness's +interests. I have not learned to be indifferent to your danger." + +Odo looked up quickly. She ceased to interest him when she spoke by the +book, and he was impatient to make an end. + +"You spoke of danger before," he said. "What danger?" + +"That of forcing on your subjects liberties which they do not desire!" + +"Ah," said he thoughtfully. That was all, then. What a poor tool she +made! He marvelled that, in all these years, Trescorre's skilful hands +should not have fashioned her to better purpose. + +"Your Highness," he said, "has reminded me that since our marriage you +had lived withdrawn from public affairs. I will not pause to dispute by +whose choice this has been; I will in turn merely remind your Highness +that such a life does not afford much opportunity of gauging public +opinion." + +In spite of himself a note of sarcasm had again crept into his voice; +but to his surprise she did not seem to resent it. + +"Ah," she exclaimed, with more feeling than she had hitherto shown, "you +fancy that, because I am kept in ignorance of what you think, I am +ignorant also of what others think of you! Believe me," she said, with a +flash of insight that startled him, "I know more of you than if we stood +closer. But you mistake my purpose. I have not sent for you to force my +counsels on you. I have no desire to appear ridiculous. I do not ask you +to hear what _I_ think of your course, but what others think of it." + +"What others?" + +The question did not disconcert her. "Your subjects," she said quickly. + +"My subjects are of many classes." + +"All are of one class in resenting this charter. I am told you intend to +proclaim it within a few days. I entreat you at least to delay, to +reconsider your course. Oh, believe me when I say you are in danger! Of +what use to offer a crown to our Lady, when you have it in your heart to +slight her servants? But I will not speak of the clergy, since you +despise them--nor of the nobles, since you ignore their claims. I will +speak only of the people--the people, in whose interest you profess to +act. Believe me, in striking at the Church you wound the poor. It is not +their bodily welfare I mean--though Heaven knows how many sources of +bounty must now run dry! It is their faith you insult. First you turn +them against their masters, then against their God. They may acclaim you +for it now--but I tell you they will hate you for it in the end!" + +She paused, flushed with the vehemence of her argument, and eager to +press it farther. But her last words had touched an unexpected fibre in +Odo. He looked at her with his unseeing visionary gaze. + +"The end?" he murmured. "Who knows what the end will be?" + +"Do you still need to be told?" she exclaimed. "Must you always come to +me to learn that you are in danger?" + +"If the state is in danger the danger must be faced. The state exists +for the people; if they do not need it, it has ceased to serve its +purpose." + +She clasped her hands in an ecstasy of wonder. "Oh, fool, madman--but it +is not of the state I speak! It is you who are in +danger--you--you--you--" + +He raised his head with an impatient gesture. + +"I?" he said. "I had thought you meant a graver peril." + +She looked at him in silence. Her pride met his and thrilled with it; +and for a moment the two were one. + +"Odo!" she cried. She sank into a chair, and he went to her and took her +hand. + +"Such fears are worthy neither of us," he said gravely. + +"I am not ashamed of them," she said. Her hand clung to him and she +lifted her eyes to his face. "You will listen to me?" she whispered in a +glow. + +He drew back chilled. If only she had kept the feminine in abeyance! But +sex was her only weapon. + +"I have listened," he said quietly. "And I thank you." + +"But you will not be counselled?" + +"In the last issue one must be one's own counsellor." + +Her face flamed. "If you were but that!" she tossed back at him. + +The taunt struck him full. He knew that he should have let it lie; but +he caught it up in spite of himself. + +"Madam!" he said. + +"I should have appealed to our sovereign, not to her servant!" she +cried, dashing into the breach she had made. + +He stood motionless, stunned almost. For what she had said was true. He +was no longer the sovereign: the rule had passed out of his hands. + +His silence frightened her. With an instinctive jealousy she saw that +her words had started a train of thought in which she had no part. She +felt herself ignored, abandoned; and all her passions rushed to the +defence of her wounded vanity. + +"Oh, believe me," she cried, "I speak as your Duchess, not as your wife. +That is a name in which I should never dream of appealing to you. I have +ever stood apart from your private pleasures, as became a woman of my +house." She faced him with a flash of the Austrian insolence. "But when +I see the state drifting to ruin as the result of your caprice, when I +see your own life endangered, your people turned against you, religion +openly insulted, law and authority made the plaything of +this--this--false atheistical creature, that has robbed me--robbed me of +all--" She broke off helplessly and hid her face with a sob. + +Odo stood speechless, spell-bound. He could not mistake what had +happened. The woman had surged to the surface at last--the real woman, +passionate, self-centred, undisciplined, but so piteous, after all, in +this sudden subjection to the one tenderness that survived in her. She +loved him and was jealous of her rival. That was the instinct which had +swept all others aside. At that moment she cared nothing for her safety +or his. The state might perish if they but fell together. It was the +distance between them that maddened her. + +The tragic simplicity of the revelation left Odo silent. For a fantastic +moment he yielded to the vision of what that waste power might have +accomplished. Life seemed to him a confusion of roving force that met +only to crash in ruins. + +His silence drew her to her feet. She repossessed herself, throbbing but +valiant. + +"My fears for your Highness's safety have led my speech astray. I have +given your Highness the warning it was my duty to give. Beyond that I +had no thought of trespassing." + +And still Odo was silent. A dozen answers struggled to his lips; but +they were checked by the stealing sense of duality that so often +paralysed his action. He had recovered his lucidity of vision, and his +impulses faded before it like mist. He saw life again as it was, an +incomplete and shabby business, a patchwork of torn and ravelled effort. +Everywhere the shears of Atropos were busy, and never could the cut +threads be joined again. + +He took his wife's hand and bent over it ceremoniously. It lay in his +like a stone. + + +4.8. + +The jubilee of the Mountain Madonna fell on the feast of the +Purification. It was mid-November, but with a sky of June. The autumn +rains had ceased for the moment, and fields and orchards glistened with +a late verdure. + +Never had the faithful gathered in such numbers to do honour to the +wonder-working Virgin. A widespread resistance to the influences of free +thought and Jansenism was pouring fresh life into the old formulas of +devotion. Though many motives combined to strengthen this movement, it +was still mainly a simple expression of loyalty to old ideals, an +instinctive rallying around a threatened cause. It is the honest +conviction underlying all great popular impulses that gives them their +real strength; and in this case the thousands of pilgrims flocking on +foot to the mountain shrine embodied a greater moral force than the +powerful ecclesiastics at whose call they had gathered. + +The clergy themselves were come from all sides; while those that were +unable to attend had sent costly gifts to the miraculous Virgin. The +Bishops of Mantua, Modena, Vercelli and Cremona had travelled to Pianura +in state, the people flocking out beyond the gates to welcome them. Four +mitred Abbots, several Monsignori, and Priors, Rectors, Vicars-general +and canons innumerable rode in the procession, followed on foot by the +humble army of parish priests and by interminable confraternities of all +orders. + +The approach of the great dignitaries was hailed with enthusiasm by the +crowds lining the roads. Even the Bishop of Pianura, never popular with +the people, received an unwonted measure of applause, and the +white-cowled Prior of the Dominicans, riding by stern and close-lipped +as a monk of Zurbaran's, was greeted with frenzied acclamations. The +report that the Bishop and the heads of the religious houses in Pianura +were to set free suppers for the pilgrims had doubtless quickened this +outburst of piety; yet it was perhaps chiefly due to the sense of coming +peril that had gradually permeated the dim consciousness of the crowd. + +In the church, the glow of lights, the thrilling beauty of the music and +the glitter of the priestly vestments were blent in a melting harmony of +sound and colour. The shrine of the Madonna shone with unearthly +radiance. Hundreds of candles formed an elongated nimbus about her +hieratic figure, which was surmounted by the canopy of cloth-of-gold +presented by the Duke of Modena. The Bishops of Vercelli and Cremona had +offered a robe of silver brocade studded with coral and turquoises, the +devout Princess Clotilda of Savoy an emerald necklace, the Bishop of +Pianura a marvellous veil of rose-point made in a Flemish convent; while +on the statue's brow rested the Duke's jewelled diadem. + +The Duke himself, seated in his tribune above the choir, observed the +scene with a renewed appreciation of the Church's unfailing dramatic +instinct. At first he saw in the spectacle only this outer and symbolic +side, of which the mere sensuous beauty had always deeply moved him; but +as he watched the effect produced on the great throng filling the +aisles, he began to see that this external splendour was but the veil +before the sanctuary, and to realise what de Crucis meant when he spoke +of the deep hold of the Church upon the people. Every colour, every +gesture, every word and note of music that made up the texture of the +gorgeous ceremonial might indeed seem part of a long-studied and +astutely-planned effect. Yet each had its root in some instinct of the +heart, some natural development of the inner life, so that they were in +fact not the cunningly-adjusted fragments of an arbitrary pattern but +the inseparable fibres of a living organism. It was Odo's misfortune to +see too far ahead on the road along which his destiny was urging him. As +he sat there, face to face with the people he was trying to lead, he +heard above the music of the mass and the chant of the kneeling throng +an echo of the question that Don Gervaso had once put to him:--"If you +take Christ from the people, what have you to give them instead?" + +He was roused by a burst of silver clarions. The mass was over, and the +Duke and Duchess were to descend from their tribune and venerate the +holy image before it was carried through the church. + +Odo rose and gave his hand to his wife. They had not seen each other, +save in public, since their last conversation in her closet. The Duchess +walked with set lips and head erect, keeping her profile turned to him +as they descended the steps and advanced to the choir. None knew better +how to take her part in such a pageant. She had the gift of drawing upon +herself the undivided attention of any assemblage in which she moved; +and the consciousness of this power lent a kind of Olympian buoyancy to +her gait. The richness of her dress and her extravagant display of +jewels seemed almost a challenge to the sacred image blazing like a +rainbow beneath its golden canopy; and Odo smiled to think that his +childish fancy had once compared the brilliant being at his side to the +humble tinsel-decked Virgin of the church at Pontesordo. + +As the couple advanced, stillness fell on the church. The air was full +of the lingering haze of incense, through which the sunlight from the +clerestory poured in prismatic splendours on the statue of the Virgin. +Rigid, superhuman, a molten flamboyancy of gold and gems, the +wonder-working Madonna shone out above her worshippers. The Duke and +Duchess paused, bowing deeply, below the choir. Then they mounted the +steps and knelt before the shrine. As they did so a crash broke the +silence, and the startled devotees saw that the ducal diadem had fallen +from the Madonna's head. + +The hush prolonged itself a moment; then a canon sprang forward to pick +up the crown, and with the movement a murmur rose and spread through the +church. The Duke's offering had fallen to the ground as he approached to +venerate the blessed image. That this was an omen no man could doubt. It +needed no augur to interpret it. The murmur, gathering force as it swept +through the packed aisles, passed from surprise to fear, from fear to a +deep hum of anger;--for the people understood, as plainly as though she +had spoken, that the Virgin of the Valseccas had cast from her the gift +of an unbeliever... + + * * * * * + +The ceremonies over, the long procession was formed again and set out +toward the city. The crowd had surged ahead, and when the Duke rode +through the gates the streets were already thronged. Moving slowly +between the compact mass of people he felt himself as closely observed +as on the day of his state entry; but with far different effect. +Enthusiasm had given way to a cold curiosity. The excitement of the +spectators had spent itself in the morning, and the sight of their +sovereign failed to rouse their flagging ardour. Now and then a cheer +broke out, but it died again without kindling another in the +uninflammable mass. Odo could not tell how much of this indifference was +due to a natural reaction from the emotions of the morning, how much to +his personal unpopularity, how much to the ominous impression produced +by the falling of the Virgin's crown. He rode between his people +oppressed by a sense of estrangement such as he had never known. He felt +himself shut off from them by an impassable barrier of superstition and +ignorance; and every effort to reach them was like the wrong turn in a +labyrinth, drawing him farther away from the issue to which it seemed to +lead. + +As he advanced under this indifferent or hostile scrutiny, he thought +how much easier it would be to face a rain of bullets than this +withering glare of criticism. A sudden longing to escape, to be done +with it all, came over him with sickening force. His nerves ached with +the physical strain of holding himself upright on his horse, of +preserving the statuesque erectness proper to the occasion. He felt like +one of his own ancestral effigies, of which the wooden framework had +rotted under the splendid robes. A congestion at the head of a narrow +street had checked the procession, and he was obliged to rein in his +horse. He looked about and found himself in the centre of the square +near the Baptistery. A few feet off, directly in a line with him, was +the weather-worn front of the Royal Printing-Press. He raised his head +and saw a group of people on the balcony. Though they were close at +hand, he saw them in a blur, against which Fulvia's figure suddenly +detached itself. She had told him that she was to view the procession +with the Andreonis; but through the mental haze which enveloped him her +apparition struck a vague surprise. He looked at her intently, and their +eyes met. A faint happiness stole over her face, but no recognition was +possible, and she continued to gaze out steadily upon the throng below +the balcony. Involuntarily his glance followed hers, and he saw that she +was herself the centre of the crowd's attention. Her plain, almost +Quakerish habit, and the tranquil dignity of her carriage, made her a +conspicuous figure among the animated groups in the adjoining windows, +and Odo, with the acuteness of perception which a public life develops, +was instantly aware that her name was on every lip. At the same moment +he saw a woman close to his horse's feet snatch up her child and make +the sign against the evil eye. A boy who stood staring open-mouthed at +Fulvia caught the gesture and repeated it; a barefoot friar imitated the +boy, and it seemed to Odo that the familiar sign was spreading with +malignant rapidity to the furthest limits of the crowd. The impression +was only momentary; for the cavalcade was again in motion, and without +raising his eyes he rode on, sick at heart... + + * * * * * + +At nightfall a man opened the gate of the ducal gardens below the +Chinese pavilion and stepped out into the deserted lane. He locked the +gate and slipped the key into his pocket; then he turned and walked +toward the centre of the town. As he reached the more populous quarters +his walk slackened to a stroll; and now and then he paused to observe a +knot of merry-makers or look through the curtains of the tents set up in +the squares. + +The man was plainly but decently dressed, like a petty tradesman or a +lawyer's clerk, and the night being chill he wore a cloak, and had drawn +his hat-brim over his forehead. He sauntered on, letting the crowd carry +him, with the air of one who has an hour to kill, and whose +holiday-making takes the form of an amused spectatorship. To such an +observer the streets offered ample entertainment. The shrewd air +discouraged lounging and kept the crowd in motion; but the open +platforms built for dancing were thronged with couples, and every +peep-show, wine-shop and astrologer's booth was packed to the doors. The +shrines and street-lamps being all alight, and booths and platforms hung +with countless lanterns, the scene was as bright as day; but in the +ever-shifting medley of peasant-dresses, liveries, monkish cowls and +carnival disguises, a soberly-clad man might easily go unremarked. + +Reaching the square before the Cathedral, the solitary observer pushed +his way through the idlers gathered about a dais with a curtain at the +back. Before the curtain stood a Milanese quack, dressed like a noble +gentleman, with sword and plumed hat, and rehearsing his cures in +stentorian tones, while his zany, in the short mask and green-and-white +habit of Brighella, cracked jokes and turned hand-springs for the +diversion of the vulgar. + +"Behold," the charlatan was shouting, "the marvellous Egyptian +love-philter distilled from the pearl that the great Emperor Antony +dropped into Queen Cleopatra's cup. This infallible fluid, handed down +for generations in the family of my ancestor, the High Priest of Isis--" +The bray of a neighbouring show-man's trumpet cut him short, and +yielding to circumstances he drew back the curtain, and a tumbling-girl +sprang out and began her antics on the front of the stage. + +"What did he say was the price of that drink, Giannina?" asked a young +maid-servant pulling her neighbour's sleeve. + +"Are you thinking of buying it for Pietrino, my beauty?" the other +returned with a laugh. "Believe me, it is a sound proverb that says: +When the fruit is ripe it falls of itself." + +The girl drew away angrily, and the quack took up his harangue:--"The +same philter, ladies and gentlemen--though in confessing it I betray a +professional secret--the same philter, I declare to you on the honour of +a nobleman, whereby, in your own city, a lady no longer young and no way +remarkable in looks or station, has captured and subjugated the +affections of one so high, so exalted, so above all others in beauty, +rank, wealth, power and dignities--" + +"Oh, oh, that's the Duke!" sniggered a voice in the crowd. + +"Ladies and gentlemen, I name no names!" cried the quack impressively. + +"No need to," retorted the voice. + +"They do say, though, she gave him something to drink," said a young +woman to a youth in a clerk's dress. "The saying is she studied medicine +with the Turks." + +"The Moors, you mean," said the clerk with an air of superiority. + +"Well, they say her mother was a Turkey slave and her father a murderer +from the Sultan's galleys." + +"No, no, she's plain Piedmontese, I tell you. Her father was a physician +in Turin, and was driven out of the country for poisoning his patients +in order to watch their death-agonies." + +"They say she's good to the poor, though," said another voice +doubtfully. + +"Good to the poor? Ay, that's what they said of her father. All I know +is that she heard Stefano the weaver's lad had the falling sickness, and +she carried him a potion with her own hands, and the next day the child +was dead, and a Carmelite friar, who saw the phial he drank from, said +it was the same shape and size as one that was found in a witch's grave +when they were digging the foundations for the new monastery." + +"Ladies and gentlemen," shrieked the quack, "what am I offered for a +drop of this priceless liquor?" + +The listener turned aside and pushed his way toward the farther end of +the square. As he did so he ran against a merry-andrew who thrust a long +printed sheet in his hand. + +"Buy my satirical ballads, ladies and gentlemen!" the fellow shouted. +"Two for a farthing, invented and written by an own cousin of the great +Pasquino of Rome! What will you have, sir? Here's the secret history of +a famous Prince's amours with an atheist--here's the true scandal of an +illustrious lady's necklace--two for a farthing...and my humblest thanks +to your excellency." He pocketed the coin, and the other, thrusting the +broadsheets beneath his cloak, pushed on to the nearest coffee-house. + +Here every table was thronged, and the babble of talk so loud that the +stranger, hopeless of obtaining refreshment, pressed his way into the +remotest corner of the room and seated himself on an empty cask. At +first he sat motionless, silently observing the crowd; then he drew +forth the ballads and ran his eye over them. He was still engaged in +this study when his notice was attracted by a loud discussion going +forward between a party of men at the nearest table. The disputants, +petty tradesman or artisans by their dress, had evidently been warmed by +a good flagon of wine, and their tones were so lively that every word +reached the listener on the cask. + +"Reform, reform!" cried one, who appeared by his dress and manner to be +the weightiest of the company--"it's all very well to cry reform; but +what I say is that most of those that are howling for it no more know +what they're asking than a parrot that's been taught the litany. Now the +first question is: who benefits by your reform? And what's the answer to +that, eh? Is it the tradesmen? The merchants? The clerks, artisans, +household servants, I ask you? I hear some of my fellow-tradesmen +complaining that the nobility don't pay their bills. Will they be better +paid, think you, when the Duke has halved their revenues? Will the +quality keep up as large households, employ as many lacqueys, set as +lavish tables, wear as fine clothes, collect as many rarities, buy as +many horses, give us, in short, as many opportunities of making our +profit out of their pleasure? What I say is, if we're to have new taxes, +don't let them fall on the very class we live by!" + +"That's true enough," said another speaker, a lean bilious man with a +pen behind his ear. "The peasantry are the only class that are going to +profit by this constitution." + +"And what do the peasantry do for us, I should like to know?" the first +speaker went on triumphantly. "As far as the fat friars go, I'm not +sorry to see them squeezed a trifle, for they've wrung enough money out +of our women-folk to lie between feathers from now till doomsday; but I +say, if you care for your pockets, don't lay hands on the nobility!" + +"Gently, gently, my friend," exclaimed a cautious flaccid-looking man +setting down his glass. "Father and son, for four generations, my family +have served Pianura with Church candles, and I can tell you that since +these new atheistical notions came in, the nobility are not the good +patrons they used to be. But as for the friars, I should be sorry to see +them meddled with. It's true they may get the best morsel in the pot and +the warmest seat on the hearth--and one of them, now and then, may take +too long to teach a pretty girl her Pater Noster--but I'm not sure we +shall be better off when they're gone. Formerly, if a child too many +came to poor folk they could always comfort themselves with the thought +that, if there was no room for him at home, the Church was there to +provide for him. But if we drive out the good friars, a man will have to +count mouths before he dares look at his wife too lovingly." + +"Well," said the scribe with a dry smile, "I've a notion the good friars +have always taken more than they gave; and if it were not for the gaping +mouths under the cowl even a poor man might have victuals enough for his +own." + +The first speaker turned on him contentiously. + +"Do I understand you are for this new charter, then?" he asked. + +"No, no," said the other. "Better hot polenta than a cold ortolan. +Things are none too good as they are, but I never care to taste first of +a new dish. And in this case I don't fancy the cook." + +"Ah, that's it," said the soft man. "It's too much like the apothecary's +wife mixing his drugs for him. Men of Roman lineage want no women to +govern them!" He puffed himself out and thrust a hand in his bosom. +"Besides, gentlemen," he added, dropping his voice and glancing +cautiously about the room, "the saints are my witness I'm not +superstitious--but frankly, now, I don't much fancy this business of the +Virgin's crown." + +"What do you mean?" asked a lean visionary-looking youth who had been +drinking and listening. + +"Why, sir, I needn't say I'm the last man in Pianura to listen to +women's tattle; but my wife had it straight from Cino the barber, whose +sister is portress of the Benedictines, that, two days since, one of the +nuns foretold the whole business, precisely as it happened--and what's +more, many that were in the Church this morning will tell you that they +distinctly saw the blessed image raise both arms and tear the crown from +her head." + +"H'm," said the young man flippantly, "what became of the Bambino +meanwhile, I wonder?" + +The scribe shrugged his shoulders. "We all know," said he, "that Cino +the barber lies like a christened Jew; but I'm not surprised the thing +was known in advance, for I make no doubt the priests pulled the wires +that brought down the crown." + +The fat man looked scandalised, and the first speaker waved the subject +aside as unworthy of attention. + +"Such tales are for women and monks," he said impatiently. "But the +business has its serious side. I tell you we are being hurried to our +ruin. Here's this matter of draining the marshes at Pontesordo. Who's to +pay for that? The class that profits by it? Not by a long way. It's we +who drain the land, and the peasants are to live on it." + +The visionary youth tossed back his hair. "But isn't that an inspiration +to you, sir?" he exclaimed. "Does not your heart dilate at the thought +of uplifting the condition of your down-trodden fellows?" + +"My fellows? The peasantry my fellows?" cried the other. "I'd have you +know, my young master, that I come of a long and honourable line of +cloth-merchants, that have had their names on the Guild for two hundred +years and over. I've nothing to do with the peasantry, thank God!" + +The youth had emptied another glass. "What?" he screamed. "You deny the +universal kinship of man? You disown your starving brothers? Proud +tyrant, remember the Bastille!" He burst into tears and began to quote +Alfieri. + +"Well," said the fat man, turning a disgusted shoulder on this display +of emotion, "to my mind this business of draining Pontesordo is too much +like telling the Almighty what to do. If God made the land wet, what +right have we to dry it? Those that begin by meddling with the Creator's +works may end by laying hands on the Creator." + +"You're right," said another. "There's no knowing where these +new-fangled notions may land us. For my part, I was rather taken by them +at first; but since I find that his Highness, to pay for all his good +works, is cutting down his household and throwing decent people out of a +job--like my own son, for instance, that was one of the under-steward's +boys at the palace--why, since then, I begin to see a little farther +into the game." + +A shabby shrewd-looking fellow in a dirty coat and snuff-stained stock +had sauntered up to the table and stood listening with an amused smile. + +"Ah," said the scribe, glancing up, "here's a thoroughgoing reformer, +who'll be asking us all to throw up our hats for the new charter." + +The new-comer laughed contemptuously. "I?" he said. "God forbid! The new +charter's none of my making. It's only another dodge for getting round +the populace--for appearing to give them what they would rise up and +take if it were denied them any longer." + +"Why, I thought you were hot for these reforms?" exclaimed the fat man +with surprise. + +The other shrugged. "You might as well say I was in favour of having the +sun rise tomorrow. It would probably rise at the same hour if I voted +against it. Reform is bound to come, whether your Dukes and Princes are +for it or against it; and those that grant constitutions instead of +refusing them are like men who tie a string to their hats before going +out in a gale. The string may hold for a while--but if it blows hard +enough the hats will all come off in the end." + +"Ay, ay; and meanwhile we furnish the string from our own pockets," said +the scribe with a chuckle. + +The shabby man grinned. "It won't be the last thing to come out of your +pockets," said he, turning to push his way toward another table. + +The others rose and called for their reckoning; and the listener on the +cask slipped out of his corner, elbowed a passage to the door and +stepped forth into the square. + +It was after midnight, a thin drizzle was falling, and the crowd had +scattered. The rain was beginning to extinguish the paper lanterns and +the torches, and the canvas sides of the tents flapped dismally, like +wet sheets on a clothes-line. The man drew his cloak closer, and +avoiding the stragglers who crossed his path, turned into the first +street that led to the palace. He walked fast over the slippery +cobble-stones, buffeted by a rising wind and threading his way between +dark walls and sleeping house-fronts till he reached the lane below the +ducal gardens. He unlocked the door by which he had come forth, entered +the gardens, and paused a moment on the terrace above the lane. + +Behind him rose the palace, a dark irregular bulk, with a lighted window +showing here and there. Before him lay the city, an indistinguishable +huddle of roofs and towers under the rainy night. He stood awhile gazing +out over it; then he turned and walked toward the palace. The garden +alleys were deserted, the pleached walks dark as subterranean passages, +with the wet gleam of statues starting spectrally out of the blackness. +The man walked rapidly, leaving the Borromini wing on his left, and +skirting the outstanding mass of the older buildings. Behind the marble +buttresses of the chapel, he crossed the dense obscurity of a court +between high walls, found a door under an archway, turned a key in the +lock, and gained a spiral stairway as dark as the court. He groped his +way up the stairs and paused a moment on the landing to listen. Then he +opened another door, lifted a heavy hanging of tapestry, and stepped +into the Duke's closet. It stood empty, with a lamp burning low on the +desk. + +The man threw off his cloak and hat, dropped into a chair beside the +desk, and hid his face in his hands. + + +4.9. + +It was the eve of the Duke's birthday. A cabinet council had been called +in the morning, and his Highness's ministers had submitted to him the +revised draft of the constitution which was to be proclaimed on the +morrow. + +Throughout the conference, which was brief and formal, Odo had been +conscious of a subtle change in the ministerial atmosphere. Instead of +the current of resistance against which he had grown used to forcing his +way, he became aware of a tacit yielding to his will. Trescorre had +apparently withdrawn his opposition to the charter, and the other +ministers had followed suit. To Odo's overwrought imagination there was +something ominous in the change. He had counted on the goad of +opposition to fight off the fatal languor which he had learned to expect +at such crises. Now that he found there was to be no struggle he +understood how largely his zeal had of late depended on such factitious +incentives. He felt an irrational longing to throw himself on the other +side of the conflict, to tear in bits the paper awaiting his signature, +and disown the policy which had dictated it. But the tide of +acquiescence on which he was afloat was no stagnant back-water of +indifference, but the glassy reach just above the fall of a river. The +current was as swift as it was smooth, and he felt himself hurried +forward to an end he could no longer escape. He took the pen which +Trescorre handed him, and signed the constitution. + +The meeting over, he summoned Gamba. He felt the need of such +encouragement as the hunchback alone could give. Fulvia's enthusiasms +were too unreal, too abstract. She lived in a region of ideals, whence +ugly facts were swept out by some process of mental housewifery which +kept her world perpetually smiling and immaculate. Gamba at least fed +his convictions on facts. If his outlook was narrow it was direct: no +roseate medium of fancy was interposed between his vision and the truth. + +He stood listening thoughtfully while Odo poured forth his doubts. + +"Your Highness may well hesitate," he said at last. "There are always +more good reasons against a new state of things than for it. I am not +surprised that Count Trescorre appears to have withdrawn his opposition. +I believe he now honestly wishes your Highness to proclaim the +constitution." + +Odo looked up in surprise. "You do not mean that he has come to believe +in it?" + +Gamba smiled. "Probably not in your Highness's sense; but he may have +found a use of his own for it." + +"What do you mean?" Odo asked. + +"If he does not believe it will benefit the state he may think it will +injure your Highness." + +"Ah--" said the Duke slowly. + +There was a pause, during which he was possessed by the same shuddering +reluctance to fix his mind on the facts before him as when he had +questioned the hunchback about Momola's death. He longed to cast the +whole business aside, to be up and away from it, drawing breath in a new +world where every air was not tainted with corruption. He raised his +head with an effort. + +"You think, then, that the liberals are secretly acting against me in +this matter?" + +"I am persuaded of it, your Highness." + +Odo hesitated. "You have always told me," he began again, "that the love +of dominion was your brother's ruling passion. If he really believes +this movement will be popular with the people, why should he secretly +oppose it, instead of making the most of his own share in it as the +minister of a popular sovereign?" + +"For several reasons," Gamba answered promptly. "In the first place, the +reforms your Highness has introduced are not of his own choosing, and +Trescorre has little sympathy with any policy he has not dictated. In +the second place, the powers and opportunities of a constitutional +minister are too restricted to satisfy his appetite for rule; and +thirdly--" he paused a moment, as though doubtful how his words would be +received--"I suspect Trescorre of having a private score against your +Highness, which he would be glad to pay off publicly." + +Odo fell silent, yielding himself to a fresh current of thought. + +"I know not what score he may have against me," he said at length; "but +what injures me must injure the state, and if Trescorre has any such +motive for withdrawing his opposition, it must be because he believes +the constitution will defeat its own ends." + +"He does believe that, assuredly; but he is not the only one of your +Highness's ministers that would ruin the state on the chance of finding +an opportunity among the ruins." + +"That is as it may be," said Odo with a touch of weariness. "I have seen +enough of human ambition to learn how limited and unimaginative a +passion it is. If it saw farther I should fear it more. But if it is +short-sighted it sees clearly at close range; and the motive you ascribe +to Trescorre would imply that he believes the constitution will be a +failure." + +"Without doubt, your Highness. I am convinced that your ministers have +done all they could to prevent the proclamation of the charter, and +failing that, to thwart its workings if it be proclaimed. In this they +have gone hand in hand with the clergy, and their measures have been +well taken. But I do not believe that any state of mind produced by +external influences can long withstand the natural drift of opinion; and +your Highness may be sure that, though the talkers and writers are +mostly against you in this matter, the mass of the people are with you." + +Odo answered with a despairing gesture. "How can I be sure, when the +people have no means of expressing their needs? It is like trying to +guess the wants of a deaf and dumb man!" + +The hunchback flushed suddenly. "The people will not always be deaf and +dumb," he said. "Some day they will speak." + +"Not in my day," said Odo wearily. "And meanwhile we blunder on, without +ever really knowing what incalculable instincts and prejudices are +pitted against us. You and your party tell me the people are sick of the +burdens the clergy lay on them--yet their blind devotion to the Church +is manifest at every turn, and it did not need the business of the +Virgin's crown to show me how little reason and justice can avail +against such influences." + +Gamba replied by an impatient gesture. "As to the Virgin's crown," he +said, "your Highness must have guessed it was one of the friars' tricks: +a last expedient to turn the people against you. I was not bred up by a +priest for nothing; I know what past masters those gentry are in raising +ghosts and reading portents. They know the minds of the poor folk as the +herdsman knows the habits of his cattle; and for generations they have +used that knowledge to bring the people more completely under their +control." + +"And what have we to oppose to such a power?" Odo exclaimed. "We are +fighting the battle of ideas against passions, of reflection against +instinct; and you have but to look in the human heart to guess which +side will win in such a struggle. We have science and truth and +common-sense with us, you say--yes, but the Church has love and fear and +tradition, and the solidarity of nigh two thousand years of dominion." + +Gamba listened in respectful silence; then he replied with a faint +smile: "All that your Highness says is true; but I beg leave to relate +to your Highness a tale which I read lately in an old book of your +library. According to this story it appears that when the early +Christians of Alexandria set out to destroy the pagan idols in the +temples they were seized with great dread at sight of the god Serapis; +for even those that did not believe in the old gods feared them, and +none dared raise a hand against the sacred image. But suddenly a soldier +who was bolder than the rest flung his battle-axe at the figure--and +when it broke in pieces, there rushed out nothing worse than a great +company of rats."... + + * * * * * + +The Duke had promised to visit Fulvia that evening. For several days his +state of indecision had made him find pretexts for avoiding her; but now +that the charter was signed and he had ordered its proclamation, he +craved the contact of her unwavering faith. + +He found her alone in the dusk of the convent parlour; but he had hardly +crossed the threshold before he was aware of an indefinable change in +his surroundings. She advanced with an impulsiveness out of harmony with +the usual tranquillity of their meetings, and he felt her hand tremble +and burn in his. In the twilight it seemed to him that her very dress +had a warmer rustle and glimmer, that there emanated from her glance and +movements some heady fragrance of a long-past summer. He smiled to think +that this phantom coquetry should have risen at the summons of an +academic degree; but some deeper sense in him was stirred as by a vision +of waste riches adrift on the dim seas of chance. + +For a moment she sat silent, as in the days when they had been too near +each other for many words; and there was something indescribably +soothing in this dreamlike return to the past. It was he who roused +himself first. + +"How young you look!" he said, giving involuntary utterance to his +thought. + +"Do I?" she answered gaily. "I am glad of that, for I feel +extraordinarily young tonight. Perhaps it is because I have been +thinking a great deal of the old days--of Venice and Turin--and of the +high-road to Vercelli, for instance." She glanced at him with a smile. + +"Do you know," she went on, moving to a seat at his side, and laying a +hand on the arm of his chair, "that there is one secret of mine you have +never guessed in all these years?" + +Odo returned her smile. "What is it, I wonder?" he said. + +She fixed him with bright bantering eyes. "I knew why you deserted us at +Vercelli." He uttered an exclamation, but she lifted a hand to his lips. +"Ah, how angry I was then--but why be angry now? It all happened so long +ago; and if it had not happened--who knows?--perhaps you would never +have pitied me enough to love me as you did." She laughed softly, +reminiscently, leaning back as if to let the tide of memories ripple +over her. Then she raised her head suddenly, and said in a changed +voice: "Are your plans fixed for tomorrow?" + +Odo glanced at her in surprise. Her mind seemed to move as capriciously +as Maria Clementina's. + +"The constitution is signed," he answered, "and my ministers proclaim it +tomorrow morning." He looked at her a moment, and lifted her hand to his +lips. "Everything has been done according to your wishes," he said. + +She drew away with a start, and he saw that she had turned pale. "No, +no--not as I wish," she murmured. "It must not be because _I_ wish--" +she broke off and her hand slipped from his. + +"You have taught me to wish as you wish," he answered gently. "Surely +you would not disown your pupil now?" + +Her agitation increased. "Do not call yourself that!" she exclaimed. +"Not even in jest. What you have done has been done of your own +choice--because you thought it best for your people. My nearness or +absence could have made no difference." + +He looked at her with growing wonder. "Why this sudden modesty?" he said +with a smile. "I thought you prided yourself on your share in the great +work." + +She tried to force an answering smile, but the curve broke into a quiver +of distress, and she came close to him, with a gesture that seemed to +take flight from herself. + +"Don't say it, don't say it!" she broke out. "What right have they to +call it my doing? I but stood aside and watched you and gloried in +you--is there any guilt to a woman in THAT?" She clung to him a moment, +hiding her face in his breast. + +He loosened her arms gently, that he might draw back and look at her. +"Fulvia," he asked, "what ails you? You are not yourself tonight. Has +anything happened to distress you? Have you been annoyed or alarmed in +any way?--It is not possible," he broke off, "that Trescorre has been +here--?" + +She drew away, flushed and protesting. "No, no," she exclaimed. "Why +should Trescorre come here? Why should you fancy that any one has been +here? I am excited, I know; I talk idly; but it is because I have been +thinking too long of these things--" + +"Of what things?" + +"Of what people say--how can one help hearing that? I sometimes fancy +that the more withdrawn one lives the more distinctly one hears the +outer noises." + +"But why should you heed the outer noises? You have never done so +before." + +"Perhaps I was wrong not to do so before. Perhaps I should have listened +sooner. Perhaps others have seen--understood--sooner than I--oh, the +thought is intolerable!" + +She moved a pace or two away, and then, regaining the mastery of her +lips and eyes, turned to him with a show of calmness. + +"Your heart was never in this charter--" she began. + +"Fulvia!" he cried protestingly; but she lifted a silencing hand. "Ah, I +have seen it--I have felt it--but I was never willing to own that you +were right. My pride in you blinded me, I suppose. I could not bear to +dream any fate for you but the greatest. I saw you always leading +events, rather than waiting on them. But true greatness lies in the man, +not in his actions. Compromise, delay, renunciation--these may be as +heroic as conflict. A woman's vision is so narrow that I did not see +this at first. You have always told me that I looked only at one side of +the question; but I see the other side now--I see that you were right." + +Odo stood silent. He had followed her with growing wonder. A volte-face +so little in keeping with her mental habits immediately struck him as a +feint; yet so strangely did it accord with his own secret reluctances +that these inclined him to let it pass unquestioned. + +Some instinctive loyalty to his past checked the temptation. "I am not +sure that I understand you," he said slowly. "Have you lost faith in the +ideas we have worked for?" + +She hesitated, and he saw the struggle beneath her surface calmness. +"No, no," she exclaimed quickly, "I have not lost faith in them--" + +"In me, then?" + +She smiled with a disarming sadness. "That would be so much simpler!" +she murmured. + +"What do you mean, then?" he urged. "We must understand each other." He +paused, and measured his words out slowly. "Do you think it a mistake to +proclaim the constitution tomorrow?" + +Again her face was full of shadowy contradictions. "I entreat you not to +proclaim it tomorrow," she said in a low voice. + +Odo felt the blood drum in his ears. Was not this the word for which he +had waited? But still some deeper instinct held him back, warning him, +as it seemed, that to fall below his purpose at such a juncture was the +only measurable failure. He must know more before he yielded, see deeper +into her heart and his; and each moment brought the clearer conviction +that there was more to know and see. + +"This is unlike you, Fulvia," he said. "You cannot make such a request +on impulse. You must have a reason." + +She smiled. "You told me once that a woman's reasons are only impulses +in men's clothes." + +But he was not to be diverted by this thrust. "I shall think so now," he +said, "unless you can give me some better account of yours!" + +She was silent, and he pressed on with a persistency for which he +himself could hardly account: "You must have a reason for this request." + +"I have one," she said, dropping her attempts at evasion. + +"And it is--?" + +She paused again, with a look of appeal against which he had to stiffen +himself. + +"I do not believe the time has come," she said at length. + +"You think the people are not ready for the constitution?" + +She answered with an effort: "I think the people are not ready for it." + +He fell silent, and they sat facing each other, but with eyes apart. + +"You have received this impression from Gamba, from Andreoni--from the +members of our party?" he asked. + +She made no reply. + +"Remember, Fulvia," he went on almost sternly, "that this is the end for +which we have worked together all these years--the end for which we +renounced each other and went forth in our youth, you to exile and I to +an unwilling sovereignty. It was because we loved this cause better than +ourselves that we had strength to give up for it our personal hopes of +happiness. If we betray the cause from any merely personal motive we +shall have fallen below our earlier selves." He waited again, but she +was still silent. "Can you swear to me," he went on, "that no such +motive influences you now? That you honestly believe we have been +deceived and mistaken? That our years of faith and labour have been +wasted, and that, if mankind is to be helped, it is to be in other ways +and by other efforts than ours?" + +He stood before her accusingly, almost, the passion of the long fight +surging up in him as he felt the weapon drop from his hand. + +Fulvia had sat motionless under his appeal; but as he paused she rose +with an impulsive gesture. "Oh, why do you torment me with questions?" +she cried, half-sobbing. "I venture to counsel a delay, and you arraign +me as though I stood at the day of judgment!" + +"It IS our day of judgment," he retorted. "It is the day on which life +confronts us with our own actions, and we must justify them or own +ourselves deluded." He went up to her and caught her hands entreatingly. +"Fulvia," he said, "I too have doubted, wavered--and if you will give me +one honest reason that is worthy of us both--" + +She broke from him to hide her weeping. "Reasons! reasons!" she +stammered. "What does the heart know of reasons? I ask a favour--the +first I ever asked of you--and you answer it by haggling with me for +reasons!" + +Something in her voice and gesture was like a lightning-flash over a +dark landscape. In an instant he saw the pit at his feet. + +"Some one has been with you. Those words were not yours," he cried. + +She rallied instantly. "That is a pretext for not heeding them!" she +returned. + +The lightning glared again. He stepped close and faced her. + +"The Duchess has been here," he said. + +She dropped into a chair and hid her face from him. A wave of anger +mounted from his heart, choking back his words and filling his brain +with its fumes. But as it subsided he felt himself suddenly cool, firm, +attempered. There could be no wavering, no self-questioning now. + +"When did this happen?" he asked. + +She shook her head despairingly. + +"Fulvia," he said, "if you will not speak I will speak for you. I can +guess what arguments were used--what threats, even. Were there threats?" +burst from him in a fresh leap of anger. + +She raised her head slowly. "Threats would not have mattered," she said. + +"But your fears were played on--your fears for my safety?--Fulvia, +answer me!" he insisted. + +She rose suddenly and laid her arms about his shoulders, with a gesture +half-tender, half-maternal. + +"Oh," she said, "why will you torture me? I have borne much for our +love's sake, and would have borne this too--in silence, like the +rest--but to speak of it is to relieve it; and my strength fails me!" + +He held her hands fast, keeping his eyes on hers. "No," he said, "for +your strength never failed you when there was any call on it; and our +whole past calls on it now. Rouse yourself, Fulvia: look life in the +face! You were told there might be troubles tomorrow--that I was in +danger, perhaps?" + +"There was worse--there was worse," she shuddered. + +"Worse?" + +"The blame was laid on me--the responsibility. Your love for me, my +power over you, were accused. The people hate me--they hate you for +loving me! Oh, I have destroyed you!" she cried. + +Odo felt a slow cold strength pouring into all his veins. It was as +though his enemies, in thinking to mix a mortal poison, had rendered him +invulnerable. He bent over her with great gentleness. + +"Fulvia, this is madness," he said. "A moment's thought must show you +what passions are here at work. Can you not rise above such fears? No +one can judge between us but ourselves." + +"Ah, but you do not know--you will not understand. Your life may be in +danger!" she cried. + +"I have been told that before," he said contemptuously. "It is a common +trick of the political game." + +"This is no trick," she exclaimed. "I was made to see--to +understand--and I swear to you that the danger is real." + +"And what if it were? Is the Church to have all the martyrs?" said he +gaily. "Come, Fulvia, shake off such fancies. My life is as safe as +yours. At worst there may be a little hissing to be faced. That is easy +enough compared to facing one's own doubts. And I have no doubts +now--that is all past, thank heaven! I see the road straight before +me--as straight as when you showed it to me once before, years ago, in +the inn-parlour at Peschiera. You pointed the way to it then; surely you +would not hold me back from it now?" + +He took her in his arms and kissed her lips to silence. + +"When we meet tomorrow," he said, releasing her, "It will be as teacher +and pupil, you in your doctor's gown and I a learner at your feet. Put +your old faith in me into your argument, and we shall have all Pianura +converted." + +He hastened away through the dim gardens, carrying a boy's heart in his +breast. + + +4.10. + +The University of Pianura was lodged in the ancient Signoria or Town +Hall of the free city; and here, on the afternoon of the Duke's +birthday, the civic dignitaries and the leading men of the learned +professions had assembled to see the doctorate conferred on the +Signorina Fulvia Vivaldi and on several less conspicuous candidates of +the other sex. + +The city was again in gala dress. Early that morning the new +constitution had been proclaimed, with much firing of cannon and display +of official fireworks; but even these great news, and their attendant +manifestations, had failed to enliven the populace, who, instead of +filling the streets with their usual stir, hung massed at certain +points, as though curiously waiting on events. There are few sights more +ominous than that of a crowd thus observing itself, watching in +inconscient suspense for the unknown crisis which its own passions have +engendered. + +It was known that his Highness, after the public banquet at the palace, +was to proceed in state to the University; and the throng was thick +about the palace gates and in the streets betwixt it and the Signoria. +Here the square was close-packed, and every window choked with gazers, +as the Duke's coach came in sight, escorted meagrely by his equerries +and the half-dozen light-horse that preceded him. The small escort, and +the marked absence of military display, perhaps disappointed the +splendour-loving crowd; and from this cause or another, scarce a cheer +was heard as his Highness descended from his coach, and walked up the +steps to the porch of ancient carved stone where the faculty awaited +him. + +The hall was already filled with students and graduates, and with the +guests of the University. Through this grave assemblage the Duke passed +up to the row of armchairs beneath the dais at the farther end of the +room. Trescorre, who was to have attended his Highness, had excused +himself on the plea of indisposition, and only a few +gentlemen-in-waiting accompanied the Duke; but in the brown half-light +of the old Gothic hall their glittering uniforms contrasted brilliantly +with the black gowns of the students, and the sober broadcloth of the +learned professions. A discreet murmur of enthusiasm rose at their +approach, mounting almost to a cheer as the Duke bowed before taking his +seat; for the audience represented the class most in sympathy with his +policy and most confident of its success. + +The meetings of the faculty were held in the great council-chamber where +the Rectors of the old free city had assembled; and such a setting was +regarded as peculiarly appropriate to the present occasion. The fact was +alluded to, with much wealth of historical and mythological analogy, by +the President, who opened the ceremonies with a polysyllabic Latin +oration, in which the Duke was compared to Apollo, Hercules and Jason, +as well as to the flower of sublunary heroes. + +This feat of rhetoric over, the candidates were called on to advance and +receive their degrees. The men came first, profiting by the momentary +advantage of sex, but clearly aware of its inability to confer even +momentary importance in the eyes of the impatient audience. A pause +followed, and then Fulvia appeared. Against the red-robed faculty at the +back of the dais, she stood tall and slender in her black cap and gown. +The high windows of painted glass shed a paleness on her face, but her +carriage was light and assured as she advanced to the President and +knelt to receive her degree. The parchment was placed in her hand, the +furred hood laid on her shoulders; then, after another flourish of +rhetoric, she was led to the lectern from which her discourse was to be +delivered. Odo sat just below her, and as she took her place their eyes +met for an instant. He was caught up in the serene exaltation of her +look, as though she soared with him above wind and cloud to a region of +unshadowed calm; then her eyes fell and she began to speak. + +She had a pretty mastery of Latin, and though she had never before +spoken in public, her poetical recitations, and the early habit of +intercourse with her father's friends, had given her a fair measure of +fluency and self-possession. These qualities were raised to eloquence by +the sweetness of her voice, and by the grave beauty which made the +academic gown seem her natural wear, rather than a travesty of learning. +Odo at first had some difficulty in fixing his attention on what she +said; and when he controlled his thoughts she was in the height of her +panegyric of constitutional liberty. She had begun slowly, almost +coldly; but now her theme possessed her. One by one she evoked the +familiar formulas with which his mind had once reverberated. They woke +no echo in him now; but he saw that she could still set them ringing +through the sensibilities of her hearers. As she stood there, a slight +impassioned figure, warming to her high argument, his sense of irony was +touched by the incongruity of her background. The wall behind her was +covered by an ancient fresco, fast fading under its touches of renewed +gilding, and representing the patron scholars of the mediaeval world: +the theologians, law-givers and logicians under whose protection the +free city had placed its budding liberties. There they sat, rigid and +sumptuous on their Gothic thrones: Origen, Zeno, David, Lycurgus, +Aristotle; listening in a kind of cataleptic helplessness to a +confession of faith that scattered their doctrines to the winds. As he +looked and listened, a weary sense of the reiterance of things came over +him. For what were these ancient manipulators of ideas, prestidigitators +of a vanished world of thought, but the forbears of the long line of +theorists of whom Fulvia was the last inconscient mouthpiece? The new +game was still played with the old counters, the new jugglers repeated +the old tricks; and the very words now poured out in defence of the new +cause were but mercenaries scarred in the service of its enemies. For +generations, for centuries, man had fought on; crying for liberty, +dreaming it was won, waking to find himself the slave of the new forces +he had generated, burning and being burnt for the same beliefs under +different guises, calling his instinct ideas and his ideas revelations; +destroying, rebuilding, falling, rising, mending broken weapons, +championing extinct illusions, mistaking his failures for achievements +and planting his flag on the ramparts as they fell. And as the vision of +this inveterate conflict rose before him, Odo saw that the beauty, the +power, the immortality, dwelt not in the idea but in the struggle for +it. + +His resistance yielded as this sense stole over him, and with an almost +physical relief he felt himself drawn once more into the familiar +current of emotion. Yes, it was better after all to be one of that great +unconquerable army, though, like the Trojans fighting for a phantom +Helen, they might be doing battle for the shadow of a shade; better to +march in their ranks, endure with them, fight with them, fall with them, +than to miss the great enveloping sense of brotherhood that turned +defeat to victory. + +As the conviction grew in him, Fulvia's words regained their lost +significance. Through the set mask of language the living thoughts +looked forth, old indeed as the world, but renewed with the new life of +every heart that bore them. She had left the abstract and dropped to +concrete issues: to the gift of the constitution, the benefits and +obligations it implied, the new relations it established between ruler +and subject and between man and man. Odo saw that she approached the +question without flinching. No trace remained of the trembling woman who +had clung to him the night before. Her old convictions repossessed her +and she soared above human fears. + +So engrossed was he that he had been unaware of a growing murmur of +sound which seemed to be forcing its way from without through the walls +of the ancient building. As Fulvia's oration neared its end the murmur +rose to a roar. Startled faces were turned toward the doors of the +council-chamber, and one of the Duke's gentlemen left his seat and made +his way through the audience. Odo sat motionless, his eyes on Fulvia. He +noticed that her face paled as the sound reached her, but there was no +break in the voice with which she uttered the closing words of her +peroration. As she ended, the noise was momentarily drowned under a loud +burst of clapping; but this died in a hush of apprehension through which +the outer tumult became more ominously audible. The equerry reentered +the hall with a disordered countenance. He hastened to the Duke and +addressed him urgently. + +"Your Highness," he said, "the crowd has thickened and wears an ugly +look. There are many friars abroad, and images of the Mountain Virgin +are being carried in procession. Will your Highness be pleased to remain +here while I summon an escort from the barracks?" + +Odo was still watching Fulvia. She had received the applause of the +audience with a deep reverence, and was now in the act of withdrawing to +the inner room at the back of the dais. Her eyes met Odo's; she smiled +and the door closed on her. He turned to the equerry. + +"There is no need of an escort," he said. "I trust my people if they do +not trust me." + +"But, your Highness, the streets are full of demagogues who have been +haranguing the people since morning. The crowd is shouting against the +constitution and against the Signorina Vivaldi." + +A flame of anger passed over the Duke's face; but he subdued it +instantly. + +"Go to the Signorina Vivaldi," he said, pointing to the door by which +Fulvia had left the hall. "Assure her that there is no danger, but ask +her to remain where she is till the crowd disperses, and request the +faculty in my name to remain with her." + +The equerry bowed, and hurried up the steps of the dais, while the Duke +signed to his other companions to precede him to the door of the hall. +As they walked down the long room, between the close-packed ranks of the +audience, the outer tumult surged threateningly toward them. Near the +doorway, another of the gentlemen-in-waiting was seen to speak with the +Duke. + +"Your Highness," he said, "there is a private way at the back by which +you may yet leave the building unobserved." + +"You appear to forget that I entered it publicly," said Odo. + +"But, your Highness, we cannot answer for the consequences--" + +The Duke signed to the ushers to throw open the doors. They obeyed, and +he stepped out into the stone vestibule preceding the porch. The +iron-barred outer doors of this vestibule were securely bolted, and the +porter hung back in affright at the order to unlock them. + +"Your Highness, the people are raving mad," he said, flinging himself on +his knees. + +Odo turned impatiently to his escort. "Unbar the doors, gentlemen," he +said. The blood was drumming in his ears, but his eye was clear and +steady, and he noted with curious detachment the comic agony of the fat +porter's face, and the strain and swell of the equerry's muscles as he +dragged back the ponderous bolts. + +The doors swung open, and the Duke emerged. Below him, still with that +unimpaired distinctness of vision which seemed a part of his heightened +vitality, he saw a great gesticulating mass of people. They packed the +square so closely that their own numbers held them immovable, save for +their swaying arms and heads; and those whom the square could not +contain had climbed to porticoes, balconies and cornices, and massed +themselves in the neck of the adjoining streets. The handful of +light-horse who had escorted the Duke's carriage formed a single line at +the foot of the steps, so that the approach to the porch was still +clear; but it was plain that the crowd, with its next movement, would +break through this slender barrier and hem in the Duke. + +At Odo's appearance the shouting had ceased and every eye was turned on +him. He stood there, a brilliant target, in his laced coat of +peach-coloured velvet, his breast covered with orders, a hand on his +jewelled sword-hilt. For a moment sovereign and subjects measured each +other; and in that moment Odo drank his deepest draught of life. He was +not thinking now of the constitution or its opponents. His present +business was to get down the steps and into the carriage, returning to +the palace as openly as he had come. He was conscious of neither pity +nor hatred for the throng in his path. For the moment he regarded them +merely as a natural force, to be fought against like storm or flood. His +clearest sensation was one of relief at having at last some material +obstacle to spend his strength against, instead of the impalpable powers +which had so long beset him. He felt, too, a boyish satisfaction at his +own steadiness of pulse and eye, at the absence of that fatal inertia +which he had come to dread. So clear was his mental horizon that it +embraced not only the present crisis, but a dozen incidents leading up +to it. He remembered that Trescorre had urged him to take a larger +escort, and that he had refused on the ground that any military display +might imply a doubt of his people. He was glad now that he had done so. +He would have hated to slink to his carriage behind a barrier of drawn +swords. He wanted no help to see him through this business. The blood +sang in his veins at the thought of facing it alone. + +The silence lasted but a moment; then an image of the Mountain Virgin +was suddenly thrust in air, and a voice cried out: "Down with our Lady's +enemies! We want no laws against the friars!" + +A howl caught up the words and tossed them to and fro above the seething +heads. Images of the Virgin, religious banners, the blue-and-white of +the Madonna's colours, suddenly canopied the crowd. + +"We want the Barnabites back!" sang out another voice. + +"Down with the free-thinkers!" yelled a hundred angry throats. + +A stone or two sped through the air and struck the sculptures of the +porch. + +"Your Highness!" cried the equerry who stood nearest, and would have +snatched the Duke back within doors. + +For all answer, Odo stepped clear of the porch and advanced to the edge +of the steps. As he did so, a shower of missiles hummed about him, and a +stone struck him on the lip. The blood rushed to his head, and he swayed +in the sudden grip of anger; but he mastered himself and raised his lace +handkerchief to the cut. + +His gentlemen had drawn their swords; but he signed to them to sheathe +again. His first thought was that he must somehow make the people hear +him. He lifted his hand and advanced a step; but as he did so a shot +rang out, followed by a loud cry. The lieutenant of the light-horse, +infuriated by the insult to his master, had drawn the pistol from his +holster and fired blindly into the crowd. His bullet had found a mark, +and the throng hissed and seethed about the spot where a man had fallen. +At the same instant Odo was aware of a commotion in the group behind +him, and with a great plunge of the heart he saw Fulvia at his side. She +still wore the academic dress, and her black gown detached itself +sharply against the bright colours of the ducal uniforms. + +Groans and hisses received her, but the mob hung back, as though her +look had checked them. Then a voice shrieked out: "Down with the +atheist! We want no foreign witches!" and another caught it up with the +yell: "She poisoned the weaver's boy! Her father was hanged for +murdering Christian children!" + +The cry set the crowd in motion again, and it rolled toward the line of +mounted soldiers at the foot of the steps. The men had their hands on +their holsters; but the Duke's call rang out: "No firing!" and drawing +their blades, they sat motionless to receive the shock. + +It came, dashed against them and dispersed them. Only a few yards lay +now between the people and their sovereign. But at that moment another +shot was fired. This time it came from the thick of the crowd. The +equerries' swords leapt forth again, and they closed around the Duke and +Fulvia. + +"Save yourself, sir! Back into the building!" one of the gentlemen +shouted; but Odo had no eyes for what was coming. For as the shot was +heard he had seen a change in Fulvia. A moment they had stood together, +smiling, undaunted, hands locked and wedded eyes, then he felt her +dissolve against him and drop between his arms. + +A cry had gone out that the Duke was wounded, and a leaden silence fell +on the crowd. In that silence Odo knelt, lifting Fulvia's head to his +breast. No wound showed through her black gown. She lay as though +smitten by some invisible hand. So deep was the hush that her least +whisper must have reached him; but though he bent close no whisper came. +The invisible hand had struck the very source of life; and to these two, +in their moment of final reunion, with so much unsaid between them that +now at last they longed to say, there was left only the dumb communion +of fast-clouding eyes... + +A clatter of cavalry was heard down the streets that led to the square. +The equerry sent to warn Fulvia had escaped from the back of the +building and hastened to the barracks to summon a regiment. But the +soldiery were no longer needed. The blind fury of the mob had died of +its own excess. The rumour that the Duke was hurt brought a chill +reaction of dismay, and the rioters were already scattering when the +cavalry came in sight. Their approach turned the slow dispersal to a +stampede. A few arrests were made, the remaining groups were charged by +the soldiers, and presently the square lay bare as a storm-swept plain, +though the people still hung on its outskirts, ready to disband at the +first threat of the troops. + +It was on this solitude that the Duke looked out as he regained a sense +of his surroundings. Fulvia had been carried into the audience-chamber +and laid on the dais, her head resting on the velvet cushions of the +ducal chair. She had died instantly, shot through the heart, and the +surgeons summoned in haste had soon ceased from their ineffectual +efforts. For a long time Odo knelt beside her, unconscious of all but +that one wild moment when life at its highest had been dashed into the +gulf of death. Thought had ceased, and neither rage nor grief moved as +yet across the chaos of his being. All his life was in his eyes, as they +drew up, drop by drop, the precious essence of her loveliness. For she +had grown, beneath the simplifying hand of death, strangely yet most +humanly beautiful. Life had fallen from her like the husk from the +flower, and she wore the face of her first hopes. The transition had +been too swift for any backward look, any anguished rending of the +fibres, and he felt himself, not detached by the stroke, but caught up +with her into some great calm within the heart of change. + +He knew not how he found himself once more on the steps above the +square. Below him his state carriage stood in the same place, flanked by +the regiment of cavalry. Down the narrow streets he saw the brooding +cloud of people, and the sight roused his blood. They were his enemies +now--he felt the warm hate in his veins. They were his enemies, and he +would face them openly. No closed chariot guarded by troops--he would +not have so much as a pane of glass between himself and his subjects. He +descended the steps, bade the colonel of the regiment dismount, and +sprang into his saddle. Then, at the head of his soldiers, at a +foot-pace, he rode back through the packed streets to the palace. + +In the palace, courtyard and vestibule were thronged with courtiers and +lacqueys. He walked through them with his head high, the cut on his lip +like the mark of a hot iron in the dead whiteness of his face. At the +head of the great staircase Maria Clementina waited. She sprang forward, +distraught and trembling, her face as blanched as his. + +"You are safe--you are safe--you are not hurt--" she stammered, catching +at his hands. + +A shudder seized him as he put her aside. + +"Odo! Odo!" she cried passionately, and made as though to bar his way. + +He gave her a blind look and passed on down the long gallery to his +closet. + + +4.11. + +The joy of reprisals lasted no longer than a summer storm. To hurt, to +silence, to destroy, was too easy to be satisfying. The passions of his +ancestors burned low in Odo's breast: though he felt Bracciaforte's fury +in his veins he could taste no answering gratification of revenge. And +the spirit on which he would have spent his hatred was not here or +there, as an embodied faction, but everywhere as an intangible +influence. The acqua tofana of his enemies had pervaded every fibre of +the state. + +The mist of anguish lifted, he saw himself alone among ruins. For a +moment Fulvia's glowing faith had hung between him and a final vision of +the truth; and as his convictions weakened he had replaced them with an +immense pity, an all-sufficing hope. Sentimental verbiage: he saw it +clearly now. He had been the dupe of the old word-jugglery which was +forever confounding fact and fancy in men's minds. For it was +essentially an age of words: the world was drunk with them, as it had +once been drunk with action; and the former was the deadlier drug of the +two. He looked about him languidly, letting the facts of life filter +slowly through his faculties. The sources of energy were so benumbed in +him that he felt like a man whom long disease had reduced to +helplessness and who must laboriously begin his bodily education again. +Hate was the only passion which survived, and that was but a deaf +intransitive emotion coiled in his nature's depths. + +Sickness at last brought its obliteration. He sank into gulfs of +weakness and oblivion, and when the rise of the tide floated him back to +life, it was to a life as faint and colourless as infancy. Colourless +too were the boundaries on which he looked out: the narrow enclosure of +white walls, opening on a slit of pale spring landscape. His hands lay +before him, white and helpless on the white coverlet of his bed. He +raised his eyes and saw de Crucis at his side. Then he began to +remember. There had been preceding intervals of consciousness, and in +one of them, in answer perhaps to some vaguely-uttered wish for light +and air, he had been carried out of the palace and the city to the +Benedictine monastery on its wooded knoll beyond the Piana. Then the +veil had dropped again, and his spirit had wandered in a dim place of +shades. There was a faint sweetness in coming back at last to familiar +sights and sounds. They no longer hurt like pressure on an aching nerve: +they seemed rather, now, the touch of a reassuring hand. + +As the contact with life became closer and more sustained he began to +watch himself curiously, wondering what instincts and habits of thought +would survive his long mental death. It was with a bitter, almost +pitiable disappointment that he found the old man growing again in him. +Life, with a mocking hand, brought him the cast-off vesture of his past, +and he felt himself gradually compressed again into the old passions and +prejudices. Yet he wore them with a difference--they were a cramping +garment rather than a living sheath. He had brought back from his lonely +voyagings a sense of estrangement deeper than any surface-affinity with +things. + +As his physical strength returned, and he was able to leave his room and +walk through the long corridors to the outer air, he felt the old spell +which the life of Monte Cassino had cast on him. The quiet garden, with +its clumps of box and lavender between paths converging to the statue of +Saint Benedict; the cloisters paved with the monks' nameless graves; the +traces of devotional painting left here and there on the weather-beaten +walls, like fragments of prayer in a world-worn mind: these formed a +circle of tranquillising influences in which he could gradually +reacquire the habit of living. + +He had never deceived himself as to the cause of the riots. He knew from +Gamba and Andreoni that the liberals and the court, for once working in +unison, had provoked the blind outburst of fanaticism which a rasher +judgment might have ascribed to the clergy. The Dominicans, bigoted and +eager for power, had been ready enough to serve such an end, and some of +the begging orders had furnished the necessary points of contact with +the people; but the movement was at bottom purely political, and +represented the resistance of the privileged classes to any attack on +their inherited rights. + +As such, he could no longer regard it as completely unreasonable. He was +beginning to feel the social and political significance of those old +restrictions and barriers against which his early zeal had tilted. +Certainly in the ideal state the rights and obligations of the different +classes would be more evenly adjusted. But the ideal state was a figment +of the brain. The real one, as Crescenti had long ago pointed out, was +the gradual and heterogeneous product of remote social conditions, +wherein every seeming inconsistency had its roots in some bygone need, +and the character of each class, with its special passions, ignorances +and prejudices, was the sum total of influences so ingrown and +inveterate that they had become a law of thought. All this, however, +seemed rather matter for philosophic musing than for definite action. +His predominant feeling was still that of remoteness from the immediate +issues of life: the soeva indignatio had been succeeded by a great calm. + +The soothing influences of the monastic life had doubtless helped to +tide him over the stormy passage of returning consciousness. His +sensitiveness to these influences inclined him for the first time to +consider them analytically. Hitherto he had regarded the Church as a +skilfully-adjusted engine, the product of human passions scientifically +combined to obtain the greatest sum of tangible results. Now he saw that +he had never penetrated beneath the surface. For the Church which +grasped, contrived, calculated, struggled for temporal possessions and +used material weapons against spiritual foes--this outer Church was +nothing more than the body, which, like any other animal body, had to +care for its own gross needs, nourish, clothe, defend itself, fight for +a footing among the material resistances of life--while the soul, the +inner animating principle, might dwell aloof from all these things, in a +clear medium of its own. + +To this soul of the Church his daily life now brought him close. He felt +it in the ordered beneficence of the great community, in the simplicity +of its external life and the richness and suavity of its inner +relations. No alliance based on material interests, no love of power +working toward a common end, could have created that harmony of thought +and act which was reflected in every face about him. Each of these men +seemed to have FOUND OUT SOMETHING of which he was still ignorant. + +What it was, de Crucis tried to tell him as they paced the cloisters +together or sat in the warm stillness of the budding garden. At the +first news of the Duke's illness the Jesuit had hastened to Pianura. No +companionship could have been so satisfying to Odo. De Crucis's mental +attitude toward mankind might have been defined as an illuminated +charity. To love men, or to understand them, is not as unusual as to do +both together; and it was the intellectual acuteness of his friend's +judgments that made their Christian amenity so seductive to Odo. + +"The highest claim of Christianity," the Jesuit said one morning, as +they sat on a worn stone bench at the end of the sunny vine-walk, "is +that it has come nearer to solving the problem of men's relations to +each other than any system invented by themselves. This, after all, is +the secret principle of the Church's vitality. She gave a spiritual +charter of equality to mankind long before the philosophers thought of +giving them a material one. If, all the while, she has been fighting for +dominion, arrogating to herself special privileges, struggling to +preserve the old lines of social and legal demarcation, it has been +because for nigh two thousand years she has cherished in her breast the +one free city of the spirit, because to guard its liberties she has had +to defend and strengthen her own position. I do not ask you to consider +whence comes this insight into the needs of man, this mysterious power +over him; I ask you simply to confess them in their results. I am not of +those who believe that God permits good to come to mankind through one +channel only, and I doubt not that now and in times past the thinkers +whom your Highness follows have done much to raise the condition of +their fellows; but I would have you observe that, where they have done +so, it has been because, at bottom, their aims coincided with the +Church's. The deeper you probe into her secret sources of power, the +more you find there, in the germ if you will, but still potentially +active, all those humanising energies which work together for the +lifting of the race. In her wisdom and her patience she may have seen +fit to withhold their expression, to let them seek another outlet; but +they are there, stored in her consciousness like the archetypes of the +Platonists in the Universal Mind. It is the knowledge of this, the sure +knowledge of it, which creates the atmosphere of serenity that you feel +about you. From the tilling of the vineyards, or the dressing of a +beggar's sores, to the loftiest and most complicated intellectual labour +imposed on him, each brother knows that his daily task is part of a +great scheme of action, working ever from imperfection to perfection, +from human incompleteness to the divine completion. This sense of being, +not straws on a blind wind of chance, but units in an ordered force, +gives to the humblest Christian an individual security and dignity which +kings on their thrones might envy. + +"But not only does the Church anticipate every tendency of mankind; +alone of all powers she knows how to control and direct the passions she +excites. This it is which makes her an auxiliary that no temporal prince +can well despise. It is in this aspect that I would have your Highness +consider her. Do not underrate her power because it seems based on the +commoner instincts rather than on the higher faculties of man. That is +one of the sources of her strength. She can support her claims by reason +and argument, but it is because her work, like that of her divine +Founder, lies chiefly among those who can neither reason nor argue, that +she chooses to rest her appeal on the simplest and most universal +emotions. As, in our towns, the streets are lit mainly by the tapers +before the shrines of the saints, so the way of life would be dark to +the great multitude of men but for the light of faith burning within +them..." + +Meanwhile the shufflings of destiny had brought to Trescorre the prize +for which he waited. During the Duke's illness he had been appointed +regent of Pianura, and his sovereign's reluctance to take up the cares +of government had now left him for six months in authority. The day +after the proclaiming of the constitution Odo had withdrawn his +signature from it, on the ground that the concessions it contained were +inopportune. The functions of government went on again in the old way. +The old abuses persisted, the old offences were condoned: it was as +though the apathy of the sovereign had been communicated to his people. +Centuries of submission were in their blood, and for two generations +there had been no warfare south of the Alps. + +For the moment men's minds were turned to the great events going forward +in France. It had not yet occurred to the Italians that the recoil of +these events might be felt among themselves. They were simply amused +spectators, roused at last to the significance of the show, but never +dreaming that they might soon be called from the wings to the +footlights. To de Crucis, however, the possibility of such a call was +already present, and it was he who pressed the Duke to return to his +post. A deep reluctance held Odo back. He would have liked to linger on +in the monastery, leading the tranquil yet busy life of the monks, and +trying to read the baffling riddle of its completeness. At that moment +it seemed to him of vastly more importance to discover the exact nature +of the soul--whether it was in fact a metaphysical entity, as these men +believed, or a mere secretion of the brain, as he had been taught to +think--than to go back and govern his people. For what mattered the +rest, if he had been mistaken about the soul? + +With a start he realised that he was going as his cousin had gone--that +this was but another form of the fatal lethargy that hung upon his race. +An effort of the will drew him back to Pianura, and made him resume the +semblance of authority; but it carried him no farther. Trescorre +ostensibly became prime minister, and in reality remained the head of +the state. The Duke was present at the cabinet meetings but took no part +in the direction of affairs. His mind was lost in a maze of metaphysical +speculations; and even these served him merely as some +cunningly-contrived toy with which to trick his leisure. + +His revocation of the charter had necessarily separated him from Gamba +and the advanced liberals. He knew that the hunchback, ever scornful of +expediency, charged him with disloyalty to the people; but such charges +could no longer wound. The events following the Duke's birthday had +served to crystallise the schemes of the little liberal group, and they +now formed a campaign of active opposition to the government, attacking +it by means of pamphlets and lampoons, and by such public speaking as +the police allowed. The new professors of the University, ardently in +sympathy with the constitutional movement, used their lectures as means +of political teaching, and the old stronghold of dogma became the centre +of destructive criticism. But as yet these ideas formed but a single +live point in the general numbness. + +Two years passed in this way. North of the Alps, all Europe was +convulsed, while Italy was still but a sleeper who tosses in his sleep. +In the two Sicilies, the arrogance and perfidy of the government gave a +few martyrs to the cause, and in Bologna there was a brief revolutionary +outbreak; but for the most part the Italian states were sinking into +inanition. Venice, by recalling her fleet from Greece, let fall the +dominion of the sea. Twenty years earlier Genoa had basely yielded +Corsica to France. The Pope condemned the French for their outrages on +religion, and his subjects murdered Basseville, the agent of the new +republic. The sympathies and impulses of the various states were as +contradictory as they were ineffectual. + +Meanwhile, in France, Europe was trying to solve at a stroke the +problems of a thousand years. All the repressed passions which +civilisation had sought, however imperfectly, to curb, stalked abroad +destructive as flood and fire. The great generation of the +Encyclopaedists had passed away, and the teachings of Rousseau had +prevailed over those of Montesquieu and Voltaire. The sober sense of the +economists was swept aside by the sound and fury of the demagogues, and +France was become a very Babel of tongues. The old malady of words had +swept over the world like a pestilence. + +To the little Italian courts, still dozing in fancied security under the +wing of Bourbon and Hapsburg suzerains, these rumours were borne by the +wild flight of emigres--dead leaves loosened by the first blast of the +storm. Month by month they poured across the Alps in ever-increasing +numbers, bringing confused contradictory tales of anarchy and outrage. +Among those whom chance thus carried to Pianura were certain familiars +of the Duke's earlier life--the Count Alfieri and his royal mistress, +flying from Paris, and arriving breathless with the tale of their +private injuries. To the poet of revolt this sudden realisation of his +doctrines seemed in fact a purely personal outrage. It was as though a +man writing an epic poem on an earthquake should suddenly find himself +engulphed. To Alfieri the downfall of the French monarchy and the +triumph of democratic ideas meant simply that his French investments had +shrunk to nothing, and that he, the greatest poet of the age, had been +obliged, at an immense sacrifice of personal dignity, to plead with a +drunken mob for leave to escape from Paris. To the wider aspect of the +"tragic farce," as he called it, his eyes remained obstinately closed. +He viewed the whole revolutionary movement as a conspiracy against his +comfort, and boasted that during his enforced residence in France he had +not so much as exchanged a word with one of the "French slaves, +instigators of false liberty," who, by trying to put into action the +principles taught in his previous works, had so grievously interfered +with the composition of fresh masterpieces. + +The royal pretensions of the Countess of Albany--pretentions affirmed +rather than abated as the tide of revolution rose--made it impossible +that she should be received at the court of Pianura; but the Duke found +a mild entertainment in Alfieri's company. The poet's revulsion of +feeling seemed to Odo like the ironic laughter of the fates. His +thoughts returned to the midnight meetings of the Honey Bees, and to the +first vision of that face which men had lain down their lives to see. +Men had looked on that face since then, and its horror was reflected in +their own. + +Other fugitives to Pianura brought another impression of events--that +comic note which life, the supreme dramatic artist, never omits from her +tragedies. These were the Duke's old friend the Marquis de Coeur-Volant, +fleeing from his chateau as the peasants put the torch to it, and +arriving in Pianura destitute, gouty and middle-aged, but imperturbable +and epigrammatic as ever. With him came his Marquise, a dark-eyed lady, +stout to unwieldiness and much given to devotion, in whom it was +whispered (though he introduced her as the daughter of a Venetian +Senator) that a reminiscent eye might still detect the outline of the +gracefullest Columbine who had ever flitted across the Italian stage. +These visitors were lodged by the Duke's kindness in the Palazzo +Cerveno, near the ducal residence; and though the ladies of Pianura were +inclined to look askance on the Marquise's genealogy, yet his Highness's +condescension, and her own edifying piety, had soon allayed these +scruples, and the salon of Madame de Coeur-Volant became the rival of +Madame d'Albany's. + +It was, in fact, the more entertaining of the two; for, in spite of his +lady's austere views, the Marquis retained that gift of social +flexibility that was already becoming the tradition of a happier day. To +the Marquis, indeed, the revolution was execrable not so much because of +the hardships it inflicted, as because it was the forerunner of social +dissolution--the breaking-up of the regime which had made manners the +highest morality, and conversation the chief end of man. He could have +lived gaily on a crust in good company and amid smiling faces; but the +social deficiencies of Pianura were more difficult to endure than any +material privation. In Italy, as the Marquis had more than once +remarked, people loved, gambled, wrote poetry, and patronised the arts; +but, alas, they did not converse. Coeur-Volant could not conceal from +his Highness that there was no conversation in Pianura; but he did his +best to fill the void by the constant exercise of his own gift in that +direction, and to Odo at least his talk seemed as good as it was +copious. Misfortune had given a finer savour to the Marquis's +philosophy, and there was a kind of heroic grace in his undisturbed +cultivation of the amenities. + +While the Marquis was struggling to preserve the conversational art, and +Alfieri planning the savage revenge of the Misogallo, the course of +affairs in France had gained a wilder impetus. The abolition of the +nobility, the flight and capture of the King, his enforced declaration +of war against Austria, the massacres of Avignon, the sack of the +Tuileries--such events seemed incredible enough till the next had +crowded them out of mind. The new year rose in blood and mounted to a +bloodier noon. All the old defences were falling. Religion, monarchy, +law, were sucked down into the whirlpool of liberated passions. Across +that sanguinary scene passed, like a mocking ghost, the philosophers' +vision of the perfectibility of man. Man was free at last--freer than +his would-be liberators had ever dreamed of making him--and he used his +freedom like a beast. For the multitude had risen--that multitude which +no man could number, which even the demagogues who ranted in its name +had never seriously reckoned with--that dim, grovelling +indistinguishable mass on which the whole social structure rested. It +was as though the very soil moved, rising in mountains or yawning in +chasms about the feet of those who had so long securely battened on it. +The earth shook, the sun and moon were darkened, and the people, the +terrible unknown people, had put in the sickle to the harvest. + +Italy roused herself at last. The emissaries of the new France were +swarming across the Alps, pervading the peninsula as the Jesuits had +once pervaded Europe; and in the mind of a young general of the +republican army visions of Italian conquest were already forming. In +Pianura the revolutionary agents found a strong republican party headed +by Gamba and his friends, and a government weakened by debt and +dissensions. The air was thick with intrigue. The little army could no +longer be counted on, and a prolonged bread-riot had driven Trescorre +out of the ministry and compelled the Duke to appoint Andreoni in his +place. Behind Andreoni stood Gamba and the radicals. There could be no +doubt which way the fortunes of the duchy tended. The Duke's would-be +protectors, Austria and the Holy See, were too busy organising the hasty +coalition of the powers to come to his aid, had he cared to call on +them. But to do so would have been but another way of annihilation. To +preserve the individuality of his state, or to merge it in the vision of +a United Italy, seemed to him the only alternatives worth fighting for. +The former was a futile dream, the latter seemed for a brief moment +possible. Piedmont, ever loyal to the monarchical principle, was calling +on her sister states to arm themselves against the French invasion. But +the response was reluctant and uncertain. Private ambitions and petty +jealousies hampered every attempt at union. Austria, the Bourbons and +the Holy See held the Italian principalities in a network of conflicting +interests and obligations that rendered free action impossible. Sadly +Victor Amadeus armed himself alone against the enemy. + +Under such conditions Odo could do little to direct the course of +events. They had passed into more powerful hands than his. But he could +at least declare himself for or against the mighty impulse which was +behind them. The ideas he had striven for had triumphed at last, and his +surest hold on authority was to share openly in their triumph. A +profound horror dragged him back. The new principles were not those for +which he had striven. The goddess of the new worship was but a bloody +Maenad who had borrowed the attributes of freedom. He could not bow the +knee in such a charnel-house. Tranquilly, resolutely, he took up the +policy of repression. He knew the attempt was foredoomed to failure, but +that made no difference now: he was simply acting out the inevitable. + +The last act came with unexpected suddenness. The Duke woke one morning +to find the citadel in the possession of the people. The impregnable +stronghold of Bracciaforte was in the hands of the serfs whose fathers +had toiled to build it, and the last descendant of Bracciaforte was +virtually a prisoner in his palace. The revolution took place quietly, +without violence or bloodshed. Andreoni waited on the Duke, and a +cabinet-council was summoned. The ministers affected to have yielded +reluctantly to popular pressure. All they asked was a constitution and +the assurance that no resistance would be offered to the French. + +The Duke requested a few hours for deliberation. Left alone, he summoned +the Duchess's chamberlain. The ducal pair no longer met save on +occasions of state: they had not exchanged a word since the death of +Fulvia Vivaldi. Odo sent word to her Highness that he could no longer +answer for her security while she remained in the duchy, and that he +begged her to leave immediately for Vienna. She replied that she was +obliged for his warning, but that while he remained in Pianura her place +was at his side. It was the answer he had expected--he had never doubted +her courage--but it was essential to his course that she should leave +the duchy without delay, and after a moment's reflection he wrote a +letter in which he informed her that he must insist on her obedience. No +answer was returned, but he learned that she had turned white, and +tearing the letter in shreds had called for her travelling-carriage +within the hour. He sent to enquire when he might take leave of her, but +she excused herself on the plea of indisposition, and before nightfall +he heard the departing rattle of her wheels. + +He immediately summoned Andreoni and announced his unconditional refusal +of the terms proposed to him. He would not give a constitution or +promise allegiance to the French. The minister withdrew, and Odo was +left alone. He had dismissed his gentlemen, and as he sat in his closet +a sense of deathlike isolation came over him. Never had the palace +seemed so silent or so vast. He had not a friend to turn to. De Crucis +was in Germany, and Trescorre, it was reported, had privately attended +the Duchess in her flight. The waves of destiny seemed closing over Odo, +and the circumstances of his past rose, poignant and vivid, before his +drowning sight. + +And suddenly, in that moment of failure and abandonment, it seemed to +him again that life was worth the living. His indifference fell from him +like a garment. The old passion of action awoke and he felt a new warmth +in his breast. After all, the struggle was not yet over: though Piedmont +had called in vain on the Italian states, an Italian sword might still +be drawn in her service. If his people would not follow him against +France he could still march against her alone. Old memories hummed in +him at the thought. He recalled how his Piedmontese ancestors had gone +forth against the same foe, and the stout Donnaz blood began to bubble +in his veins. + +A knock roused him and Gamba entered by the private way. His appearance +was not unexpected to Odo, and served only to reinforce his new-found +energy. He felt that the issue was at hand. As he expected, Gamba had +been sent to put before him more forcibly and unceremoniously the veiled +threat of the ministers. But the hunchback had come also to plead with +his master in his own name, and in the name of the ideas for which they +had once laboured together. He could not believe that the Duke's +reaction was more than momentary. He could not calculate the strength of +the old associations which, now that the tide had set the other way, +were dragging Odo back to the beliefs and traditions of his caste. + +The Duke listened in silence; then he said: "Discussion is idle. I have +no answer to give but that which I have already given." He rose from his +seat in token of dismissal. + +The moment was painful to both men. Gamba drew nearer and fell at the +Duke's feet. + +"Your Highness," he said, "consider what this means. We hold the state +in our hands. If you are against us you are powerless. If you are with +us we can promise you more power than you ever dreamed of possessing." + +The Duke looked at him with a musing smile. "It is as though you offered +me gold in a desert island," he said. "Do not waste such poor bribes on +me. I care for no power but the power to wipe out the work of these last +years. Failing that, I want nothing that you or any other man can give." + +Gamba was silent a moment. He turned aside into the embrasure of the +window, and when he spoke again it was in a voice broken with grief. + +"Your Highness," he said, "if your choice is made, ours is made also. It +is a hard choice, but these are fratricidal hours. We have come to the +parting of the ways." + +The Duke made no sign, and Gamba went on with gathering anguish: "We +would have gone to the world's end with your Highness for our leader!" + +"With a leader whom you could lead," Odo interposed. He went up to Gamba +and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Speak out, man," he said. "Say what +you were sent to say. Am I a prisoner?" + +The hunchback burst into tears. Odo, with his arms crossed, stood +leaning against the window. The other's anguish seemed to deepen his +detachment. + +"Your Highness--your Highness--" Gamba stammered. + +The Duke made an impatient gesture. "Come, make an end," he said. + +Gamba fell back with a profound bow. + +"We do not ask the surrender of your Highness's person," he said. + +"Not even that?" Odo returned with a faint sneer. + +Gamba flushed to the temples, but the retort died on his lips. + +"Your Highness," he said, scarce above a whisper, "the gates are +guarded; but the word for tonight is 'Humilitas.'" He knelt and kissed +Odo's hand. Then he rose and passed out of the room... + + * * * * * + +Before dawn the Duke left the palace. The high emotions of the night had +ebbed. He saw himself now, in the ironic light of morning, as a fugitive +too harmless to be worth pursuing. His enemies had let him keep his +sword because they had no cause to fear it. Alone he passed through the +gardens of the palace, and out into the desert darkness of the streets. +Skirting the wall of the Benedictine convent where Fulvia had lodged, he +gained a street leading to the marketplace. In the pallor of the waning +night the ancient monuments of his race stood up mournful and deserted +as a line of tombs. The city seemed a grave-yard and he the ineffectual +ghost of its dead past. He reached the gates and gave the watchword. The +gates were guarded, as he had been advised; but the captain of the watch +let him pass without show of hesitation or curiosity. Though he made no +effort at disguise he went forth unrecognised, and the city closed her +doors on him as carelessly as on any passing wanderer. + +Beyond the gates a lad from the ducal stables waited with a horse. Odo +sprang into the saddle and rode on toward Pontesordo. The darkness was +growing thinner, and the meagre details of the landscape, with its +huddled farm-houses and mulberry-orchards, began to define themselves as +he advanced. To his left the field stretched, grey and sodden; ahead, on +his right, hung the dark woods of the ducal chase. Presently a bend of +the road brought him within sight of the keep of Pontesordo. His way led +past it, toward Valsecca; but some obscure instinct laid a detaining +hand on him, and at the cross-roads he bent to the right and rode across +the marshland to the old manor-house. + +The farmyard lay hushed and deserted. The peasants who lived there would +soon be afoot; but for the moment Odo had the place to himself. He +tethered his horse to a gate-post and walked across the rough +cobble-stones to the chapel. Its floor was still heaped with farm-tools +and dried vegetables, and in the dimness a heavier veil of dust seemed +to obscure the painted walls. Odo advanced, picking his way among broken +ploughshares and stacks of maize, till he stood near the old marble +altar, with its sea-gods and acanthus volutes. The place laid its +tranquillising hush on him, and he knelt on the step beneath the altar. +Something stirred in him as he knelt there--a prayer, yet not a +prayer--a reaching out, obscure and inarticulate, toward all that had +survived of his early hopes and faiths, a loosening of old founts of +pity, a longing to be somehow, somewhere reunited to his old belief in +life. + +How long he knelt he knew not; but when he looked up the chapel was full +of a pale light, and in the first shaft of the sunrise the face of Saint +Francis shone out on him...He went forth into the daybreak and rode away +toward Piedmont. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Valley of Decision, by Edith Wharton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VALLEY OF DECISION *** + +***** This file should be named 4327.txt or 4327.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/2/4327/ + +Produced by Sue Asscher. 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If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END* + + + + + + +Produced by Sue Asscher asschers@dingoblue.net.au + + + + + +THE VALLEY OF DECISION + +BY + +EDITH WHARTON + +Author of "A Gift from the Grave," "Crucial Instances," etc. + + +"Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision." + + +TO + +MY FRIENDS + +PAUL AND MINNIE BOURGET + +IN REMEMBRANCE OF + +ITALIAN DAYS TOGETHER. + + + +CONTENTS. + +BOOK I. THE OLD ORDER. + +BOOK II. THE NEW LIGHT. + +BOOK III. THE CHOICE. + +BOOK IV. THE REWARD. + + + +BOOK I. + +THE OLD ORDER. + + Prima che incontro alla festosa fronte + I lugubri suoi lampi il ver baleni. + +1.1. + +It was very still in the small neglected chapel. The noises of the farm +came faintly through closed doors--voices shouting at the oxen in the +lower fields, the querulous bark of the old house-dog, and Filomena's +angry calls to the little white-faced foundling in the kitchen. + +The February day was closing, and a ray of sunshine, slanting through a +slit in the chapel wall, brought out the vision of a pale haloed head +floating against the dusky background of the chancel like a water-lily +on its leaf. The face was that of the saint of Assisi--a sunken ravaged +countenance, lit with an ecstasy of suffering that seemed not so much to +reflect the anguish of the Christ at whose feet the saint knelt, as the +mute pain of all poor down-trodden folk on earth. + +When the small Odo Valsecca--the only frequenter of the chapel--had been +taunted by the farmer's wife for being a beggar's brat, or when his ears +were tingling from the heavy hand of the farmer's son, he found a +melancholy kinship in that suffering face; but since he had fighting +blood in him too, coming on the mother's side of the rude Piedmontese +stock of the Marquesses di Donnaz, there were other moods when he turned +instead to the stout Saint George in gold armour, just discernible +through the grime and dust of the opposite wall. + +The chapel of Pontesordo was indeed as wonderful a storybook as fate +ever unrolled before the eyes of a neglected and solitary child. For a +hundred years or more Pontesordo, a fortified manor of the Dukes of +Pianura, had been used as a farmhouse; and the chapel was never opened +save when, on Easter Sunday, a priest came from the town to say mass. At +other times it stood abandoned, cobwebs curtaining the narrow windows, +farm tools leaning against the walls, and the dust deep on the sea-gods +and acanthus volutes of the altar. The manor of Pontesordo was very old. +The country people said that the great warlock Virgil, whose +dwelling-place was at Mantua, had once shut himself up for a year in the +topmost chamber of the keep, engaged in unholy researches; and another +legend related that Alda, wife of an early lord of Pianura, had thrown +herself from its battlements to escape the pursuit of the terrible +Ezzelino. The chapel adjoined this keep, and Filomena, the farmer's +wife, told Odo that it was even older than the tower and that the walls +had been painted by early martyrs who had concealed themselves there +from the persecutions of the pagan emperors. + +On such questions a child of Odo's age could obviously have no +pronounced opinion, the less so as Filomena's facts varied according to +the seasons or her mood, so that on a day of east wind or when the worms +were not hatching well, she had been known to affirm that the pagans had +painted the chapel under Virgil's instruction, to commemorate the +Christians they had tortured. In spite of the distance to which these +conflicting statements seemed to relegate them, Odo somehow felt as +though these pale strange people--youths with ardent faces under their +small round caps, damsels with wheat-coloured hair and boys no bigger +than himself, holding spotted dogs in leash--were younger and nearer to +him than the dwellers on the farm: Jacopone the farmer, the shrill +Filomena, who was Odo's foster-mother, the hulking bully their son and +the abate who once a week came out from Pianura to give Odo religious +instruction and who dismissed his questions with the invariable +exhortation not to pry into matters that were beyond his years. Odo had +loved the pictures in the chapel all the better since the abate, with a +shrug, had told him they were nothing but old rubbish, the work of the +barbarians. + +Life at Pontesordo was in truth not very pleasant for an ardent and +sensitive little boy of nine, whose remote connection with the reigning +line of Pianura did not preserve him from wearing torn clothes and +eating black bread and beans out of an earthen bowl on the kitchen +doorstep. + +"Go ask your mother for new clothes!" Filomena would snap at him, when +his toes came through his shoes and the rents in his jacket-sleeves had +spread beyond darning. "These you are wearing are my Giannozzo's, as you +well know, and every rag on your back is mine, if there were any law for +poor folk, for not a copper of pay for your keep or a stitch of clothing +for your body have we had these two years come Assumption--. What's +that? You can't ask your mother, you say, because she never comes here? +True enough--fine ladies let their brats live in cow-dung, but they must +have Indian carpets under their own feet. Well, ask the abate, then--he +has lace ruffles to his coat and a naked woman painted on his snuff +box--What? He only holds his hands up when you ask? Well, then, go ask +your friends on the chapel-walls--maybe they'll give you a pair of +shoes--though Saint Francis, for that matter, was the father of the +discalced, and would doubtless tell you to go without!" And she would +add with a coarse laugh: "Don't you know that the discalced are shod +with gold?" + +It was after such a scene that the beggar-noble, as they called him at +Pontesordo, would steal away to the chapel and, seating himself on an +upturned basket or a heap of pumpkins, gaze long into the face of the +mournful saint. + +There was nothing unusual in Odo's lot. It was that of many children in +the eighteenth century, especially those whose parents were cadets of +noble houses, with an appanage barely sufficient to keep their wives and +themselves in court finery, much less to pay their debts and clothe and +educate their children. All over Italy at that moment, had Odo Valsecca +but known it, were lads whose ancestors, like his own, had been dukes +and crusaders, but who, none the less, were faring, as he fared, on +black bread and hard blows, and the half-comprehended taunts of unpaid +foster-parents. Many, doubtless, there were who cared little enough, as +long as they might play morro with the farmer's lads and ride the colt +bare-back through the pasture and go bird-netting and frog-hunting with +the village children; but some perhaps, like Odo, suffered in a dumb +animal way, without understanding why life was so hard on little boys. + +Odo, for his part, had small taste for the sports in which Gianozzo and +the village lads took pleasure. He shrank from any amusement associated +with the frightening or hurting of animals, and his bosom swelled with +the fine gentleman's scorn of the clowns who got their fun in so coarse +a way. Now and then he found a moment's glee in a sharp tussle with one +of the younger children who had been tormenting a frog or a beetle; but +he was still too young for real fighting, and could only hang on the +outskirts when the bigger boys closed, and think how some day he would +be at them and break their lubberly heads. There were thus many hours +when he turned to the silent consolations of the chapel. So familiar had +he grown with the images on its walls that he had a name for every one: +the King, the Knight, the Lady, the children with guinea-pigs, basilisks +and leopards, and lastly the Friend, as he called Saint Francis. An +almond-faced lady on a white palfrey with gold trappings represented his +mother, whom he had seen too seldom for any distinct image to interfere +with the illusion; a knight in damascened armour and scarlet cloak was +the valiant captain, his father, who held a commission in the ducal +army; and a proud young man in diadem and ermine, attended by a retinue +of pages, stood for his cousin, the reigning Duke of Pianura. + +A mist, as usual at that hour, was rising from the marshes between +Pontesordo and Pianura, and the light soon ebbed from the saint's face, +leaving the chapel in obscurity. Odo had crept there that afternoon with +a keener sense than usual of the fact that life was hard on little boys; +and though he was cold and hungry and half afraid, the solitude in which +he cowered seemed more endurable than the noisy kitchen where, at that +hour, the farm hands were gathering for their polenta, and Filomena was +screaming at the frightened orphan who carried the dishes to the table. +He knew, of course, that life at Pontesordo would not last for +ever--that in time he would grow up and be mysteriously transformed into +a young gentleman with a sword and laced coat, who would go to court and +perhaps be an officer in the Duke's army or in that of some neighbouring +prince; but, viewed from the lowliness of his nine years, that dazzling +prospect was too remote to yield much solace for the cuffs and sneers, +the ragged shoes and sour bread of the present. The fog outside had +thickened, and the face of Odo's friend was now discernible only as a +spot of pallor in the surrounding dimness. Even he seemed farther away +than usual, withdrawn into the fog as into that mist of indifference +which lay all about Odo's hot and eager spirit. The child sat down among +the gourds and medlars on the muddy floor and hid his face against his +knees. + +He had sat there a long time when the noise of wheels and the crack of a +postillion's whip roused the dogs chained in the stable. Odo's heart +began to beat. What could the sounds mean? It was as though the +flood-tide of the unknown were rising about him and bursting open the +chapel door to pour in on his loneliness. It was, in fact, Filomena who +opened the door, crying out to him in an odd Easter Sunday voice, the +voice she used when she had on her silk neckerchief and gold chain or +when she was talking to the bailiff. + +Odo sprang up and hid his face in her lap. She seemed, of a sudden, +nearer to him than any one else--a last barrier between himself and the +mystery that awaited him outside. + +"Come, you poor sparrow," she said, dragging him across the threshold of +the chapel, "the abate is here asking for you;" and she crossed herself, +as though she had named a saint. + +Odo pulled away from her with a last wistful glance at Saint Francis, +who looked back at him in an ecstasy of commiseration. + +"Come, come," Filomena repeated, dropping to her ordinary key as she +felt the resistance of the little boy's hand. "Have you no heart, you +wicked child? But, to be sure, the poor innocent doesn't know! Come +cavaliere, your illustrious mother waits." + +"My mother?" The blood rushed to his face; and she had called him +"cavaliere"! + +"Not here, my poor lamb! The abate is here; don't you see the lights of +the carriage? There, there, go to him. I haven't told him, your +reverence; it's my silly tender-heartedness that won't let me. He's +always been like one of my own creatures to me--" and she confounded Odo +by bursting into tears. + +The abate stood on the doorstep. He was a tall stout man with a hooked +nose and lace ruffles. His nostrils were stained with snuff and he took +a pinch from a tortoise-shell box set with the miniature of a lady; then +he looked down at Odo and shrugged his shoulders. + +Odo was growing sick with apprehension. It was two days before the +appointed time for his weekly instruction and he had not prepared his +catechism. He had not even thought of it--and the abate could use the +cane. Odo stood silent and envied girls, who are not disgraced by +crying. The tears were in his throat, but he had fixed principles about +crying. It was his opinion that a little boy who was a cavaliere might +weep when he was angry or sorry, but never when he was afraid; so he +held his head high and put his hand to his side, as though to rest it on +his sword. + +The abate sneezed and tapped his snuff-box. + +"Come, come, cavaliere, you must be brave--you must be a man; you have +duties, you have responsibilities. It's your duty to console your +mother--the poor lady is plunged in despair. Eh? What's that? You +haven't told him? Cavaliere, your illustrious father is no more." + +Odo stared a moment without understanding; then his grief burst from him +in a great sob, and he hid himself against Filomena's apron, weeping for +the father in damascened armour and scarlet cloak. + +"Come, come," said the abate impatiently. "Is supper laid? for we must +be gone as soon as the mist rises." He took the little boy by the hand. +"Would it not distract your mind to recite the catechism?" he inquired. + +"No, no!" cried Odo with redoubled sobs. + +"Well, then, as you will. What a madman!" he exclaimed to Filomena. "I +warrant it hasn't seen its father three times in its life. Come in, +cavaliere; come to supper." + +Filomena had laid a table in the stone chamber known as the bailiff's +parlour, and thither the abate dragged his charge and set him down +before the coarse tablecloth covered with earthen platters. A tallow dip +threw its flare on the abate's big aquiline face as he sat opposite Odo, +gulping the hastily prepared frittura and the thick purple wine in its +wicker flask. Odo could eat nothing. The tears still ran down his cheeks +and his whole soul was possessed by the longing to steal back and see +whether the figure of the knight in the scarlet cloak had vanished from +the chapel wall. The abate sat in silence, gobbling his food like the +old black pig in the yard. When he had finished he stood up, exclaiming: +"Death comes to us all, as the hawk said to the chicken. You must be a +man, cavaliere." Then he stepped into the kitchen, and called out for +the horses to be put to. + +The farm hands had slunk away to one of the outhouses, and Filomena and +Jacopone stood bowing and curtseying as the carriage drew up at the +kitchen door. In a corner of the big vaulted room the little foundling +was washing the dishes, heaping the scraps in a bowl for herself and the +fowls. Odo ran back and touched her arm. She gave a start and looked at +him with frightened eyes. He had nothing to give her, but he said: +"Good-bye, Momola"; and he thought to himself that when he was grown up +and had a sword he would surely come back and bring her a pair of shoes +and a panettone. The abate was calling him, and the next moment he found +himself lifted into the carriage, amid the blessings and lamentations of +his foster-parents; and with a great baying of dogs and clacking of +whipcord the horses clattered out of the farmyard, and turned their +heads toward Pianura. + +The mist had rolled back and fields and vineyards lay bare to the winter +moon. The way was lonely, for it skirted the marsh, where no one lived; +and only here and there the tall black shadow of a crucifix ate into the +whiteness of the road. Shreds of vapour still hung about the hollows, +but beyond these fold on fold of translucent hills melted into a sky +dewy with stars. Odo cowered in his corner, staring out awestruck at the +unrolling of the strange white landscape. He had seldom been out at +night, and never in a carriage; and there was something terrifying to +him in this flight through the silent moon-washed fields, where no oxen +moved in the furrows, no peasants pruned the mulberries, and not a +goat's bell tinkled among the oaks. He felt himself alone in a ghostly +world from which even the animals had vanished, and at last he averted +his eyes from the dreadful scene and sat watching the abate, who had +fixed a reading-lamp at his back, and whose hooked-nosed shadow, as the +springs jolted him up and down, danced overhead like the huge Pulcinella +at the fair of Pontesordo. + + +1.2. + +The gleam of a lantern woke Odo. The horses had stopped at the gates of +Pianura, and the abate giving the pass-word, the carriage rolled under +the gatehouse and continued its way over the loud cobble-stones of the +ducal streets. These streets were so dark, being lit but by some lantern +projecting here and there from the angle of a wall, or by the flare of +an oil-lamp under a shrine, that Odo, leaning eagerly out, could only +now and then catch a sculptured palace-window, the grinning mask on the +keystone of an archway, or the gleaming yellowish facade of a church +inlaid with marbles. Once or twice an uncurtained window showed a group +of men drinking about a wineshop table, or an artisan bending over his +work by the light of a tallow dip; but for the most part doors and +windows were barred and the streets disturbed only by the watchman's cry +or by a flash of light and noise as a sedan chair passed with its escort +of linkmen and servants. All this was amazing enough to the sleepy eyes +of the little boy so unexpectedly translated from the solitude of +Pontesordo; but when the carriage turned under another arch and drew up +before the doorway of a great building ablaze with lights, the pressure +of accumulated emotions made him fling his arms about his preceptor's +neck. + +"Courage, cavaliere, courage! You have duties, you have +responsibilities," the abate admonished him; and Odo, choking back his +fright, suffered himself to be lifted out by one of the lacqueys grouped +about the door. The abate, who carried a much lower crest than at +Pontesordo, and seemed far more anxious to please the servants than they +to oblige him, led the way up a shining marble staircase where beggars +whined on the landings and powdered footmen in the ducal livery were +running to and fro with trays of refreshments. Odo, who knew that his +mother lived in the Duke's palace, had vaguely imagined that his +father's death must have plunged its huge precincts into silence and +mourning; but as he followed the abate up successive flights of stairs +and down long corridors full of shadow he heard a sound of dance music +below and caught the flash of girandoles through the antechamber doors. +The thought that his father's death had made no difference to any one in +the palace was to the child so much more astonishing than any of the +other impressions crowding his brain, that these were scarcely felt, and +he passed as in a dream through rooms where servants were quarrelling +over cards and waiting-women rummaged in wardrobes full of perfumed +finery, to a bedchamber in which a lady dressed in weeds sat +disconsolately at supper. + +"Mamma! Mamma!" he cried, springing forward in a passion of tears. + +The lady, who was young, pale and handsome, pushed back her chair with a +warning hand. + +"Child," she exclaimed, "your shoes are covered with mud; and, good +heavens, how you smell of the stable! Abate, is it thus you teach your +pupil to approach me?" + +"Madam, I am abashed by the cavaliere's temerity. But in truth I believe +excessive grief has clouded his wits--'tis inconceivable how he mourns +his father!" + +Donna Laura's eyebrows rose in a faint smile. "May he never have worse +to grieve for!" said she in French; then, extending her scented hand to +the little boy, she added solemnly: "My son, we have suffered an +irreparable loss." + +Odo, abashed by her rebuke and the abate's apology, had drawn his heels +together in a rustic version of the low bow with which the children of +that day were taught to approach their parents. + +"Holy Virgin!" said his mother with a laugh, "I perceive they have no +dancing-master at Pontesordo. Cavaliere, you may kiss my hand. +So--that's better; we shall make a gentleman of you yet. But what makes +your face so wet? Ah, crying, to be sure. Mother of God! as for crying, +there's enough to cry about." She put the child aside and turned to the +preceptor. "The Duke refuses to pay," she said with a shrug of despair. + +"Good heavens!" lamented the abate, raising his hands. "And Don Lelio?" +he faltered. + +She shrugged again, impatiently. "As great a gambler as my husband. +They're all alike, abate: six times since last Easter has the bill been +sent to me for that trifle of a turquoise buckle he made such a to-do +about giving me." She rose and began to pace the room in disorder. "I'm +a ruined woman," she cried, "and it's a disgrace for the Duke to refuse +me." + +The abate raised an admonishing finger. "Excellency...excellency..." + +She glanced over her shoulder. + +"Eh? You're right. Everything is heard here. But who's to pay for my +mourning the saints alone know! I sent an express this morning to my +father, but you know my brothers bleed him like leeches. I could have +got this easily enough from the Duke a year ago--it's his marriage has +made him so stiff. That little white-faced fool--she hates me because +Lelio won't look at her, and she thinks it's my fault. As if I cared +whom he looks at! Sometimes I think he has money put away...all I want +is two hundred ducats...a woman of my rank!" She turned suddenly on Odo, +who stood, very small and frightened, in the corner to which she had +pushed him. "What are you staring at, child? Eh! the monkey is dropping +with sleep. Look at his eyes, abate! Here, Vanna, Tonina, to bed with +him; he may sleep with you in my dressing-closet, Tonina. Go with her, +child, go; but for God's sake wake him if he snores. I'm too ill to have +my rest disturbed." And she lifted a pomander to her nostrils. + +The next few days dwelt in Odo's memory as a blur of strange sights and +sounds. The super-acute state of his perceptions was succeeded after a +night's sleep by the natural passivity with which children accept the +improbable, so that he passed from one novel impression to another as +easily and with the same exhilaration as if he had been listening to a +fairy tale. Solitude and neglect had no surprises for him, and it seemed +natural enough that his mother and her maids should be too busy to +remember his presence. + +For the first day or two he sat unnoticed on his little stool in a +corner of his mother's room, while packing-chests were dragged in, +wardrobes emptied, mantua-makers and milliners consulted, and +troublesome creditors dismissed with abuse, or even blows, by the +servants lounging in the ante-chamber. Donna Laura continued to show the +liveliest symptoms of concern, but the child perceived her distress to +be but indirectly connected with the loss she had suffered, and he had +seen enough of poverty at the farm to guess that the need of money was +somehow at the bottom of her troubles. How any one could be in want, who +slept between damask curtains and lived on sweet cakes and chocolate, it +exceeded his fancy to conceive; yet there were times when his mother's +voice had the same frightened angry sound as Filomena's on the days when +the bailiff went over the accounts at Pontesordo. + +Her excellency's rooms, during these days, were always crowded, for +besides the dressmakers and other merchants there was the hairdresser, +or French Monsu--a loud, important figure, with a bag full of cosmetics +and curling-irons--the abate, always running in and out with messages +and letters, and taking no more notice of Odo than if he had never seen +him, and a succession of ladies brimming with condolences, and each +followed by a servant who swelled the noisy crowd of card-playing +lacqueys in the ante-chamber. + +Through all these figures came and went another, to Odo the most +noticeable,--that of a handsome young man with a high manner, dressed +always in black, but with an excess of lace ruffles and jewels, a +clouded amber head to his cane, and red heels to his shoes. This young +gentleman, whose age could not have been more than twenty, and who had +the coldest insolent air, was treated with profound respect by all but +Donna Laura, who was for ever quarrelling with him when he was present, +yet could not support his absence without lamentations and alarm. The +abate appeared to act as messenger between the two, and when he came to +say that the Count rode with the court, or was engaged to sup with the +Prime Minister, or had business on his father's estate in the country, +the lady would openly yield to her distress, crying out that she knew +well enough what his excuses meant: that she was the most cruelly +outraged of women, and that he treated her no better than a husband. + +For two days Odo languished in his corner, whisked by the women's +skirts, smothered under the hoops and falbalas which the dressmakers +unpacked from their cases, fed at irregular hours, and faring on the +whole no better than at Pontesordo. The third morning, Vanna, who seemed +the most good-natured of the women, cried out on his pale looks when she +brought him his cup of chocolate. "I declare," she exclaimed, "the child +has had no air since he came in from the farm. What does your excellency +say? Shall the hunchback take him for a walk in the gardens?" + +To this her excellency, who sat at her toilet under the hair-dresser's +hands, irritably replied that she had not slept all night and was in no +state to be tormented about such trifles, but that the child might go +where he pleased. + +Odo, who was very weary of his corner, sprang up readily enough when +Vanna, at this, beckoned him to the inner ante-chamber. Here, where +persons of a certain condition waited (the outer being given over to +servants and tradesmen), they found a lean humpbacked boy, shabbily +dressed in darned stockings and a faded coat, but with an extraordinary +keen pale face that at once attracted and frightened the child. + +"There, go with him; he won't eat you," said Vanna, giving him a push as +she hurried away; and Odo, trembling a little, laid his hand in the +boy's. "Where do you come from?" he faltered, looking up into his +companion's face. + +The boy laughed and the blood rose to his high cheekbones. "I?--From the +Innocenti, if your Excellency knows where that is," said he. + +Odo's face lit up. "Of course I do," he cried, reassured. "I know a girl +who comes from there--the Momola at Pontesordo." + +"Ah, indeed?" said the boy with a queer look. "Well, she's my sister, +then. Give her my compliments when you see her, cavaliere. Oh, we're a +large family, we are!" + +Odo's perplexity was returning. "Are you really Momola's brother?" he +asked. + +"Eh, in a way--we're children of the same house." + +"But you live in the palace, don't you?" Odo persisted, his curiosity +surmounting his fear. "Are you a servant of my mother's?" + +"I'm the servant of your illustrious mother's servants; the abatino of +the waiting-women. I write their love-letters, do you see, cavaliere, I +carry their rubbish to the pawnbroker's when their sweethearts have bled +them of their savings; I clean the birdcages and feed the monkeys, and +do the steward's accounts when he's drunk, and sleep on a bench in the +portico and steal my food from the pantry...and my father very likely +goes in velvet and carries a sword at his side." + +The boy's voice had grown shrill, and his eyes blazed like an owl's in +the dark. Odo would have given the world to be back in his corner, but +he was ashamed to betray his lack of heart; and to give himself courage +he asked haughtily: "And what is your name, boy?" + +The hunchback gave him a gleaming look. "Call me Brutus," he cried, "for +Brutus killed a tyrant." He gave Odo's hand a pull. "Come along," said +he, "and I'll show you his statue in the garden--Brutus's statue in a +prince's garden, mind you!" And as the little boy trotted at his side +down the long corridors he kept repeating under his breath in a kind of +angry sing-song, "For Brutus killed a tyrant." + +The sense of strangeness inspired by his odd companion soon gave way in +Odo's mind to emotions of delight and wonder. He was, even at that age, +unusually sensitive to external impressions, and when the hunchback, +after descending many stairs and winding through endless back-passages, +at length led him out on a terrace above the gardens, the beauty of the +sight swelled his little heart to bursting. + +A Duke of Pianura had, some hundred years earlier, caused a great wing +to be added to his palace by the eminent architect Carlo Borromini, and +this accomplished designer had at the same time replanted and enlarged +the ducal gardens. To Odo, who had never seen plantations more artful +than the vineyards and mulberry orchards about Pontesordo, these +perspectives of clipped beech and yew, these knots of box filled in with +multi-coloured sand, appeared, with the fountains, colonnades and +trellised arbours surmounted by globes of glass, to represent the very +pattern and Paradise of gardens. It seemed indeed too beautiful to be +real, and he trembled, as he sometimes did at the music of the Easter +mass, when the hunchback, laughing at his amazement, led him down the +terrace steps. + +It was Odo's lot in after years to walk the alleys of many a splendid +garden, and to pace, often wearily enough, the paths along which he was +now led; but never after did he renew the first enchanted impression of +mystery and brightness that remained with him as the most vivid emotion +of his childhood. + +Though it was February the season was so soft that the orange and lemon +trees had been put out in their earthen vases before the lemon-house, +and the beds in the parterres were full of violets, daffodils and +auriculas; but the scent of the orange-blossoms and the bright colours +of the flowers moved Odo less than the noble ordonnance of the pleached +alleys, each terminated by a statue or a marble seat; and when he came +to the grotto where, amid rearing sea-horses and Tritons, a cascade +poured from the grove above, his wonder passed into such delicious awe +as hung him speechless on the hunchback's hand. + +"Eh," said the latter with a sneer, "it's a finer garden than we have at +our family palace. Do you know what's planted there?" he asked, turning +suddenly on the little boy. "Dead bodies, cavaliere! Rows and rows of +them; the bodies of my brothers and sisters, the Innocents who die like +flies every year of the cholera and the measles and the putrid fever." +He saw the terror in Odo's face and added in a gentler tone: "Eh, don't +cry, cavaliere; they sleep better in those beds than in any others +they're like to lie on. Come, come, and I'll show your excellency the +aviaries." + +From the aviaries they passed to the Chinese pavilion, where the Duke +supped on summer evenings, and thence to the bowling-alley, the +fish-stew and the fruit-garden. At every step some fresh surprise +arrested Odo; but the terrible vision of that other garden planted with +the dead bodies of the Innocents robbed the spectacle of its brightness, +dulled the plumage of the birds behind their gilt wires and cast a +deeper shade over the beech-grove, where figures of goat-faced men +lurked balefully in the twilight. Odo was glad when they left the +blackness of this grove for the open walks, where gardeners were working +and he had the reassurance of the sky. The hunchback, who seemed sorry +that he had frightened him, told him many curious stories about the +marble images that adorned the walks; and pausing suddenly before one of +a naked man with a knife in his hand, cried out in a frenzy: "This is my +namesake, Brutus!" But when Odo would have asked if the naked man was a +kinsman, the boy hurried him on, saying only: "You'll read of him some +day in Plutarch." + + +1.3. + +Odo, next morning, under the hunchback's guidance, continued his +exploration of the palace. His mother seemed glad to be rid of him, and +Vanna packing him off early, with the warning that he was not to fall +into the fishponds or get himself trampled by the horses, he guessed, +with a thrill, that he had leave to visit the stables. Here in fact the +two boys were soon making their way among the crowd of grooms and +strappers in the yard, seeing the Duke's carriage-horses groomed, and +the Duchess's cream-coloured hackney saddled for her ride in the chase; +and at length, after much lingering and gazing, going on to the +harness-rooms and coach-house. The state-carriages, with their carved +and gilt wheels, their panels gay with flushed divinities and their +stupendous velvet hammer-cloths edged with bullion, held Odo spellbound. +He had a born taste for splendour, and the thought that he might one day +sit in one of these glittering vehicles puffed his breast with pride and +made him address the hunchback with sudden condescension. "When I'm a +man I shall ride in these carriages," he said; whereat the other laughed +and returned good-humouredly: "Eh, that's not so much to boast of, +cavaliere; I shall ride in a carriage one of these days myself." Odo +stared, not over-pleased, and the boy added: "When I'm carried to the +churchyard, I mean," with a chuckle of relish at the joke. + +From the stables they passed to the riding-school, with its open +galleries supported on twisted columns, where the duke's gentlemen +managed their horses and took their exercise in bad weather. Several +rode there that morning; and among them, on a fine Arab, Odo recognised +the young man in black velvet who was so often in Donna Laura's +apartments. + +"Who's that?" he whispered, pulling the hunchback's sleeve, as the +gentleman, just below them, made his horse execute a brilliant balotade. + +"That? Bless the innocent! Why, the Count Lelio Trescorre, your +illustrious mother's cavaliere servente." + +Odo was puzzled, but some instinct of reserve withheld him from further +questions. The hunchback, however, had no such scruples. "They do say, +though," he went on, "that her Highness has her eye on him, and in that +case I'll wager your illustrious mamma has no more chance than a sparrow +against a hawk." + +The boy's words were incomprehensible, but the vague sense that some +danger might be threatening his mother's friend made Odo whisper: "What +would her Highness do to him?" + +"Make him a prime-minister, cavaliere," the hunchback laughed. + +Odo's guide, it appeared, was not privileged to conduct him through the +state apartments of the palace, and the little boy had now been four +days under the ducal roof without catching so much as a glimpse of his +sovereign and cousin. The very next morning, however, Vanna swept him +from his trundle-bed with the announcement that he was to be received by +the Duke that day, and that the tailor was now waiting to try on his +court dress. He found his mother propped against her pillows, drinking +chocolate, feeding her pet monkey and giving agitated directions to the +maidservants on their knees before the open carriage-trunks. Her +excellency informed Odo that she had that moment received an express +from his grandfather, the old Marquess di Donnaz; that they were to +start next morning for the castle of Donnaz, and that he was to be +presented to the Duke as soon as his Highness had risen from dinner. A +plump purse lay on the coverlet, and her countenance wore an air of +kindness and animation which, together with the prospect of wearing a +court dress and travelling to his grandfather's castle in the mountains, +so worked on Odo's spirits that, forgetting the abate's instructions, he +sprang to her with an eager caress. + +"Child, child," was her only rebuke; and she added, with a tap on his +cheek: "It is lucky I shall have a sword to protect me." + +Long before the hour Odo was buttoned into his embroidered coat and +waistcoat. He would have on the sword at once, and when they sat down to +dinner, though his mother pressed him to eat with more concern than she +had before shown, it went hard with him to put his weapon aside, and he +cast longing eyes at the corner where it lay. At length a chamberlain +summoned them and they set out down the corridors, attended by two +servants. Odo held his head high, with one hand leading Donna Laura (for +he would not appear to be led by her) while the other fingered his +sword. The deformed beggars who always lurked about the great staircase +fawned on them as they passed, and on a landing they crossed the +humpbacked boy, who grinned mockingly at Odo; but the latter, with his +chin up, would not so much as glance at him. + +A master of ceremonies in short black cloak and gold chain received them +in the antechamber of the Duchess's apartments, where the court played +lansquenet after dinner; the doors of her Highness's closet were thrown +open, and Odo, now glad enough to cling to his mother's hand, found +himself in a tall room, with gods and goddesses in the clouds overhead +and personages as supra-terrestrial seated in gilt armchairs about a +smoking brazier. Before one of these, to whom Donna Laura swept +successive curtsies in advancing, the frightened cavaliere found himself +dragged with his sword between his legs. He ducked his head like the old +drake diving for worms in the puddle at the farm, and when at last he +dared look up, it was to see an odd sallow face, half-smothered in an +immense wig, bowing back at him with infinite ceremony--and Odo's heart +sank to think that this was his sovereign. + +The Duke was in fact a sickly narrow-faced young man with thick +obstinate lips and a slight lameness that made his walk ungainly; but +though no way resembling the ermine-cloaked king of the chapel at +Pontesordo, he yet knew how to put on a certain majesty with his state +wig and his orders. As for the newly married Duchess, who sat at the +other end of the cabinet caressing a toy spaniel, she was scant fourteen +and looked a mere child in her great hoop and jewelled stomacher. Her +wonderful fair hair, drawn over a cushion and lightly powdered, was +twisted with pearls and roses, and her cheeks excessively rouged, in the +French fashion; so that as she arose on the approach of the visitors she +looked to Odo for all the world like the wooden Virgin hung with votive +offerings in the parish church at Pontesordo. Though they were but three +months married the Duke, it was rumoured, was never with her, preferring +the company of the young Marquess of Cerveno, his cousin and +heir-presumptive, a pale boy scented with musk and painted like a +comedian, whom his Highness would never suffer away from him and who now +leaned with an impertinent air against the back of the ducal armchair. + +On the other side of the brazier sat the dowager Duchess, the Duke's +grandmother, an old lady so high and forbidding of aspect that Odo cast +but one look at her face, which was yellow and wrinkled as a medlar, and +surmounted, in the Spanish style, with black veils and a high coif. What +these alarming personages said and did, the child could never recall; +nor were his own actions clear to him, except for a furtive caress that +he remembered giving the spaniel as he kissed the Duchess's hand; +whereupon her Highness snatched up the pampered animal and walked away +with a pout of anger. Odo noticed that her angry look followed him as he +and Donna Laura withdrew; but the next moment he heard the Duke's voice +and saw his Highness limping after them. + +"You must have a furred cloak for your journey, cousin," said he +awkwardly, pressing something in the hand of Odo's mother, who broke +into fresh compliments and curtsies, while the Duke, with a finger on +his thick lip, withdrew hastily into the closet. + +The next morning early they set out on their journey. There had been +frost in the night and a cold sun sparkled on the palace windows and on +the marble church-fronts as their carriage lumbered through the streets, +now full of noise and animation. It was Odo's first glimpse of the town +by daylight, and he clapped his hands with delight at sight of the +people picking their way across the reeking gutters, the asses laden +with milk and vegetables, the servant-girls bargaining at the +provision-stalls, the shop-keepers' wives going to mass in pattens and +hoods, with scaldini in their muffs, the dark recessed openings in the +palace basements, where fruit sellers, wine-merchants and coppersmiths +displayed their wares, the pedlars hawking books and toys, and here and +there a gentleman in a sedan chair returning flushed and disordered from +a night at bassett or faro. The travelling-carriage was escorted by +half-a-dozen of the Duke's troopers and Don Lelio rode at the door +followed by two grooms. He wore a furred coat and boots, and never, to +Odo, had he appeared more proud and splendid; but Donna Laura had hardly +a word for him, and he rode with the set air of a man who acquits +himself of a troublesome duty. + +Outside the gates the spectacle seemed tame in comparison; for the road +bent toward Pontesordo, and Odo was familiar enough with the look of the +bare fields, set here and there with oak-copses to which the leaves +still clung. As the carriage skirted the marsh his mother raised the +windows, exclaiming that they must not expose themselves to the +pestilent air; and though Odo was not yet addicted to general +reflections, he could not but wonder that she should display such dread +of an atmosphere she had let him breathe since his birth. He knew of +course that the sunset vapours on the marsh were unhealthy: everybody on +the farm had a touch of the ague, and it was a saying in the village +that no one lived at Pontesordo who could buy an ass to carry him away; +but that Donna Laura, in skirting the place on a clear morning of frost, +should show such fear of infection, gave a sinister emphasis to the +ill-repute of the region. + +The thought, he knew not why, turned his mind to Momola, who often on +damp evenings sat shaking and burning in the kitchen corner. He +reflected with a pang that he might never see her again, and leaning +forward he strained his eyes for a glimpse of Pontesordo. They were +passing through a patch of oaks; but where these ended the country +opened, and beyond a belt of osiers and the mottled faded stretches of +the marsh the keep stood up like a beckoning finger. Odo cried out as +though in answer to its call; but that moment the road turned a knoll +and bent across rising ground toward an unfamiliar region. + +"Thank God!" cried his mother, lowering the window, "we're rid of that +poison and can breath the air." + +As the keep vanished Odo reproached himself for not having begged a pair +of shoes for Momola. He had felt very sorry for her since the hunchback +had spoken so strangely of life at the foundling hospital; and he had a +sudden vision of her bare feet, pinched with cold and cut with the +pebbles of the yard, perpetually running across the damp stone floors, +with Filomena crying after her : "Hasten then, child of iniquity! You +are slower than a day without bread!" He had almost resolved to speak of +the foundling to his mother, who still seemed in a condescending humour; +but his attention was unexpectedly distracted by a troop of Egyptians, +who came along the road leading a dancing bear; and hardly had these +passed when the chariot of an itinerant dentist engaged him. The whole +way, indeed, was alive with such surprises; and at Valsecca, where they +dined, they found the yard of the inn crowded with the sumpter-mules and +servants of a cardinal travelling to Rome, who was to lie there that +night and whose bedstead and saucepans had preceded him. + +Here, after dinner, Don Lelio took leave of Odo's mother, with small +show of regret on either side; the lady high and sarcastic, the +gentleman sullen and polite; and both, as it seemed, easier when the +business was despatched and the Count's foot in the stirrup. He had so +far taken little notice of Odo, but he now bent from the saddle and +tapped the boy's cheek, saying in his cold way: "In a few years I shall +see you at court;" and with that rode away toward Pianura. + + +1.4. + +Lying that night at Pavia, the travellers set forward next morning for +the city of Vercelli. The road, though it ran for the most part through +flat mulberry orchards and rice-fields reflecting the pale blue sky in +their sodden channels, would yet have appeared diverting enough to Odo, +had his mother been in the mood to reply to his questions; for whether +their carriage overtook a party of strolling jugglers, travelling in a +roofed-in waggon, with the younger children of the company running +alongside in threadbare tights and trunkhose decked with tinsel; or +whether they drove through a village market-place, where yellow earthen +crocks and gaudy Indian cottons, brass pails and braziers and platters +of bluish pewter, filled the stalls with a medley of colour--at every +turn was something that excited the boy's wonder; but Donna Laura, who +had fallen into a depression of spirits, lamenting the cold, her +misfortunes and the discomfort of the journey, was at no more pains than +the abate to satisfy the promptings of his curiosity. + +Odo had indeed met but one person who cared to listen to him, and that +was the strange hunchback who had called himself Brutus. Remembering how +entertainingly this odd guide had explained all the wonders of the ducal +grounds, Odo began to regret that he had not asked his mother to let him +have Brutus for a body-servant. Meanwhile no one attended to his +questions and the hours were beginning to seem long when, on the third +day, they set out from Vercelli toward the hills. The cold increased as +they rose; and Odo, though he had often wished to see the mountains, was +yet dismayed at the gloomy and menacing aspect of the region on which +they were entering. Leafless woods, prodigious boulders and white +torrents foaming and roaring seemed a poor exchange for the +pleasantly-ordered gardens of Pianura. Here were no violets and cowslips +in bloom; hardly a green blade pierced the sodden roadside, and +snowdrifts lingered in the shaded hollows. + +Donna Laura's loudly expressed fear of robbers seemed to increase the +loneliness of the way, which now traversed tracts of naked moorland, now +plunged again into forest, with no sign of habitation but here and there +a cowherd's hut under the trees or a chapel standing apart on some +grassy eminence. When night fell the waters grew louder, a stinging wind +swept the woods, and the carriage, staggering from rut to rut, seemed +every moment about to land them in some invisible ravine. Fear and cold +at last benumbed the little boy, and when he woke he was being lifted +from his seat and torches were flashing on a high escutcheoned doorway +set in battlemented walls. He was carried into a hall lit with smoky +oil-lamps and hung with armour and torn banners. + +Here, among a group of rough-looking servants, a tall old man in a +nightcap and furred gown was giving orders in a loud passionate voice. +This personage, who was of a choleric complexion, with a face like +mottled red marble, seized Odo by the wrist and led him up a flight of +stairs so worn and slippery that he tripped at every step; thence down a +corridor and into a gloomy apartment where three ladies shivered about a +table set with candles. Bidden by the old gentleman to salute his +grandmother and great-aunts, Odo bowed over three wrinkled hands, one +fat and soft as a toad's stomach, the others yellow and dry as +lemon-skins. His mother embraced the ladies in the same humble manner, +and the Marquess, first furiously calling for supper, thrust Odo down on +a stool in the ingle. + +From this point of observation the child, now vividly awake, noted the +hangings of faded tapestry that heaved in the draught, the ceiling of +beams and the stone floor strewn with rushes. The candle-light +flickering on the faces of his aged relatives showed his grandmother to +be a pale heavy-cheeked person with little watchful black eyes which she +dropped at her husband's approach; while the two great-aunts, seated +side by side in high-backed chairs with their feet on braziers, reminded +Odo of the narrow elongated saints squeezed into the niches of a +church-door. The old Marchioness wore the high coif and veil of the +previous century; the aunts, who, as Odo afterwards learned, were +canonesses of a noble order, were habited in a semi-conventual dress, +with crosses hanging on their bosoms; and none spoke but when the +Marquess addressed them. + +Their timidity appeared to infect Odo's mother, who, from her habitual +volubility of temper, sank to a mood of like submissiveness. A supper of +venison and goat's cheese was not designed to restore her spirits, and +when at length she and Odo had withdrawn to their cavernous bedchamber, +she flung herself weeping on the bed and declared she must die if she +remained long in this prison. + +Falling asleep under such influences, it was the more wonderful to Odo +to wake with the sun on his counterpane, a sweet noise of streams +through the casement and the joyous barking of hounds in the castle +court. From the window-seat he looked out on a scene extraordinarily +novel to his lowland eyes. The chamber commanded the wooded steep below +the castle, with a stream looping its base; beyond, the pastures sloped +pleasantly under walnut trees, with here and there a clearing ploughed +for the spring crops and a sunny ledge or two planted with vines. Above +this pastoral landscape, bare crags upheld a snowpeak; and, as if to +lend a human interest to the scene, the old Marquess, his flintlock on +his shoulder, his dogs and beaters at his heels, now rode across the +valley. + +Wonder succeeded to wonder that first morning; for there was the castle +to be seen, with the kennels and stables roughly kept, but full of dogs +and horses; and Odo, in the Marquess's absence, was left free to visit +every nook of his new home. Pontesordo, though perhaps as ancient as +Donnaz, was but a fortified manor in the plain; but here was the +turreted border castle, bristling at the head of the gorge like the +fangs in a boar's throat: its walls overhung by machicolations, its +portcullis still dropped at nightfall, and the loud stream forming a +natural moat at its base. Through the desert spaces of this great +structure Odo wandered at will, losing himself in its network of bare +chambers, some now put to domestic uses, with smoked meats hanging from +the rafters, cheeses ranged on shelves and farmer's implements stacked +on the floor; others abandoned to bats and spiders, with slit-like +openings choked by a growth of wild cherries, and little animals +scurrying into their holes as Odo opened the unused doors. At the next +turn he mounted by a winding stair to the platform behind the +battlements, whence he could look down on the inner court, where horses +were being groomed, dogs fed, harnesses mended, and platters of smoking +food carried from the kitchen to the pantry; or, leaning another way, +discovered, between the cliff and the rampart a tiny walled garden with +fruit-trees and a sundial. + +The ladies kept to themselves in a corner of the castle, where the rooms +were hung with tapestry and a few straight-backed chairs stood about the +hearth; but even here no fires were suffered till nightfall, nor was +there so much as a carpet in the castle. Odo's grandmother, the old +Marchioness, a heavy woman who would doubtless have enjoyed her ease in +a cushioned seat, was afoot all day attending to her household; for +besides the dairy and the bakehouse and the stillroom where fruits were +stewed and pastes prepared, there was the great spinning-room full of +distaffs and looms, where the women spun and wove all the linen used in +the castle and the coarse stuffs worn by its inmates; with workshops for +the cobbler and tailor who clothed and shod the Marquess and his +household. All these the Marchioness must visit, and attend to her +devotions between; the ladies being governed by a dark-faced priest, +their chaplain and director, who kept them perpetually running along the +cold stone corridors to the chapel in a distant wing, where they knelt +without so much as a brazier to warm them or a cushion to their knees. +As to the chapel, though larger and loftier than that of Pontesordo, +with a fine carved and painted tabernacle and many silver candlesticks, +it seemed to Odo, by reason of its bare walls, much less beautiful than +that deserted oratory; nor did he, amid all the novelty of his +surroundings, cease to regret the companionship of his familiar images. + +His delight was the greater, therefore, when, exploring a part of the +castle now quite abandoned, he came one day on a vaulted chamber used as +a kind of granary, where, under layers of dirt and cobwebs, lovely +countenances flowered from the walls. The scenes depicted differed +indeed from those of Pontesordo, being less animated and homely and more +difficult for a child to interpret; for here were naked laurel-crowned +knights on prancing horses, nimble goat-faced creatures grouped in +adoration round a smoking altar and youths piping to saffron-haired +damsels on grass-banks set with poplars. The very strangeness of the +fable set forth perhaps engaged the child's fancy; or the benignant +mildness of the countenances, so unlike the eager individual faces of +the earlier artist; for he returned again and again to gaze unweariedly +on the inhabitants of that tranquil grassy world, studying every inch of +the walls and with much awe and fruitless speculation deciphering on the +hem of a floating drapery the inscription: Bernardinus Lovinus pinxit. + +His impatience to know more of the history of these paintings led him to +question an old man, half house-servant, half huntsman, now too infirm +for service and often to be found sunning himself in the court with an +old hound's chin on his knee. The old man, whose name was Bruno, told +him the room in question had been painted for the Marquess Gualberto di +Donnaz, who had fought under the Duke of Milan hundreds of years before: +a splendid and hospitable noble, patron of learning and the arts, who +had brought the great Milanese painter to Donnaz and kept him there a +whole summer adorning the banqueting-room. "But I advise you, little +master," Bruno added, "not to talk too loudly of your discovery; for we +live in changed days, do you see, and it seems those are pagan sorcerers +and witches painted on the wall, and because of that, and their +nakedness, the chaplain has forbidden all the young boys and wenches +about the place to set foot there; and the Marchioness herself, I'm +told, doesn't enter without leave." + +This was the more puzzling to Odo that he had seen so many naked pagans, +in colours and marble, at his cousin's palace of Pianura, where they +were praised as the chief ornament of that sumptuous fabric; but he kept +Bruno's warning in mind and so timed his visits that they escaped the +chaplain's observation. Whether this touch of mystery added charm to the +paintings; or whether there was already forming in him what afterward +became an instinctive resistance to many of the dictates of his age; +certain it is that, even after he had been privileged to admire the +stupendous works of the Caracci at Parma and of the immortal Giulio +Romano at Mantua, Odo's fancy always turned with peculiar fondness to +the clear-limbed youths moving in that world of untroubled beauty. + +Odo, the day after his arrival at Donnaz, learned that the chaplain was +to be his governor; and he was not long in discovering that the system +of that ecclesiastic bore no resemblance to the desultory methods of his +former pedagogue. It was not that Don Gervaso was a man of superior +acquirements: in writing, ciphering and the rudiments of Latin he seemed +little likely to carry Odo farther than the other; but in religious +instruction he suffered no negligence or inattention. His piety was of a +stamp so different from the abate's that it vivified the theological +abstractions over which Odo had formerly languished, infusing a +passionate meaning into the formulas of the textbooks. His discourse +breathed the same spirit, and had his religion been warmed by +imagination or tempered by charity the child had been a ductile +substance in his hands; but the shadow of the Council of Trent still +hung over the Church in Savoy, making its approach almost as sombre and +forbidding as that of the Calvinist heresy. As it was, the fascination +that drew Odo to the divine teachings was counteracted by a depressing +awe: he trembled in God's presence almost as much as in his +grandfather's, and with the same despair of discovering what course of +action was most likely to call down the impending wrath. The beauty of +the Church's offices, now for the first time revealed to him in the +well-ordered services of the chapel, was doubly moving in contrast with +the rude life at Donnaz; but his confessions tortured him and the +penances which the chaplain inflicted abased without reforming his +spirit. + +Next to the mass, the books Don Gervaso lent him were his chief +pleasure: the Lives of the Saints, Cardinal Bellarmine's Fables and The +Mirror of true Penitence. The Lives of the Saints fed at once his +imagination and his heart, and over the story of Saint Francis, now +first made known to him, he trembled with delicious sympathy. The +longing to found a hermitage like the Portiuncula among the savage rocks +of Donnaz, and live there in gentle communion with plants and animals, +alternated in him with the martial ambition to ride forth against the +Church's enemies, as his ancestors had ridden against the bloody and +pestilent Waldenses; but whether his piety took the passive or the +aggressive form, it always shrank from the subtleties of doctrine. To +live like the saints, rather than to reason like the fathers, was his +ideal of Christian conduct; if indeed a vague pity for suffering +creatures and animals was not the source of his monastic yearnings, and +a desire to see strange countries the secret of his zeal against the +infidel. + +The chaplain, though reproving his lukewarmness in matters of dogma, +could not but commend his devotion to the saints; and one day his +grandmother, to reward him for some act of piety, informed him with +tears of joy that he was destined for holy orders, and that she had good +hopes of living to see him a bishop. This news had hardly the intended +effect; for Odo's dream was of the saint's halo rather than the bishop's +mitre; and throwing himself on his knees before the old Marquess, who +was present, he besought that he might be allowed to join the Franciscan +order. The Marquess at this flew into so furious a rage, cursing the +meddlesomeness of women and the chaplain's bigotry, that the ladies +burst into tears and Odo's swelling zeal turned small. There was indeed +but one person in the castle who seemed not to regard its master's +violences, and that was the dark-faced chaplain, who, when the Marquess +had paused out of breath, tranquilly returned that nothing could make +him repent of having brought a soul to Christ, and that, as to the +cavaliere Odo, if his maker designed him for a religious, the Pope +himself could not cross his vocation. + +"Ay, ay! vocation," snarled the Marquess. "You and the women here shut +the child up between you and stuff his ears full of monkish stories and +miracles and the Lord knows what, and then talk of the simpleton's +vocation. His vocation, nom de Dieu, is to be an abbot first, and then a +monsignore, and then a bishop, if he can--and to the devil with your +cowls and cloisters!" And he gave orders that Odo should hunt with him +next morning. + +The chaplain smiled. "Hubert was a huntsman," said he, "and yet he died +a saint." + +From that time forth the old Marquess kept Odo oftener at his side, +making his grandson ride with him about his estates and on such +hunting-parties as were not beyond the boy's strength. The domain of +Donnaz included many a mile of vine and forest, over which, till the +fifteenth century, its lords had ruled as sovereign Marquesses. They +still retained a part of their feudal privileges, and Odo's grandfather, +tenacious of these dwindling rights, was for ever engaged in vain +contests with his peasantry. To see these poor creatures cursed and +brow-beaten, their least offences punished, their few claims disputed, +must have turned Odo's fear of his grandfather to hatred, had he not +observed that the old man gave with one hand what he took with the +other, so that, in his dealings with his people, he resembled one of +those torrents which now devastate and now enrich their banks. The +Marquess, in fact, while he held obstinately to his fishing rights, +prosecuted poachers, enforced the corvee and took toll at every ford, +yet laboured to improve his lands, exterminated the wild beasts that +preyed on them, helped his peasants in sickness, nourished them in old +age and governed them with a paternal tyranny doubtless less +insufferable than the negligence of the great land-owners who lived at +court. + +To Odo, however, these rides among the tenantry were less agreeable than +the hunting-expeditions which carried them up the mountain in the +solitude of morning. Here the wild freshness of the scene and the +exhilaration of pursuit roused the fighting strain in the boy's blood, +and so stirred his memory with tales of prowess that sometimes, as they +climbed the stony defiles in the clear shadow before sunrise, he fancied +himself riding forth to exterminate the Waldenses who, according to the +chaplain, still lurked like basilisks and dragons in the recesses of the +mountains. Certain it is that his rides with the old Marquess, if they +inflamed his zeal against heresy, cooled the ardour of his monastic +vocation; and if he pondered on his future, it was to reflect that +doubtless he would some day be a bishop, and that bishops were +territorial lords, we might hunt the wolf and boar in their own domains. + + +1.5. + +Reluctantly, every year about the Epiphany, the old Marquess rode down +from Donnaz to spend two months in Turin. It was a service exacted by +King Charles Emanuel, who viewed with a jealous eye those of his nobles +inclined to absent themselves from court and rewarded their presence +with privileges and preferments. At the same time the two canonesses +descended to their abbey in the plain, and thus with the closing in of +winter the old Marchioness, Odo and his mother were left alone in the +castle. + +To the Marchioness this was an agreeable period of spiritual compunction +and bodily repose; but to Donna Laura a season of despair. The poor +lady, who had been early removed from the rough life at Donnaz to the +luxurious court of Pianura, and was yet in the fulness of youth and +vivacity, could not resign herself to an existence no better, as she +declared, than that of any herdsman's wife upon the mountains. Here was +neither music nor cards, scandal nor love-making; no news of the +fashions, no visits from silk-mercers or jewellers, no Monsu to curl her +hair and tempt her with new lotions, or so much as a strolling +soothsayer or juggler to lighten the dullness of the long afternoons. +The only visitors to the castle were the mendicant friars drawn thither +by the Marchioness's pious repute; and though Donna Laura disdained not +to call these to her chamber and question them for news, yet their +country-side scandals were no more to her fancy than the two-penny wares +of the chapmen who unpacked their baubles on the kitchen hearth. + +She pined for some word of Pianura; but when a young abate, who had +touched there on his way from Tuscany, called for a night at the castle +to pay his duty to Don Gervaso, the word he brought with him of the +birth of an heir to the duchy was so little to Donna Laura's humour that +she sprang up from the supper-table, and crying out to the astonished +Odo, "Ah, now you are for the Church indeed," withdrew in disorder to +her chamber. The abate, who ascribed her commotion to a sudden seizure, +continued to retail the news of Pianura, and Odo, listening with his +elders, learned that Count Lelio Trescorre had been appointed Master of +the Horse, to the indignation of the Bishop, who desired the place for +his nephew, Don Serafino; that the Duke and Duchess were never together; +that the Duchess was suspected of being in secret correspondence with +the Austrians, and that the young Marquess of Cerveno was gone to the +baths of Lucca to recover from an attack of tertian fever contracted the +previous autumn at the Duke's hunting-lodge near Pontesordo. Odo +listened for some mention of his humpbacked friend, or of Momola the +foundling; but the abate's talk kept a higher level and no one less than +a cavaliere figured on his lips. He was the only visitor of quality who +came that winter to Donnaz, and after his departure a fixed gloom +settled on Donna Laura's spirits. Dusk at that season fell early in the +gorge, fierce winds blew off the glaciers, and Donna Laura sat shivering +and lamenting on one side of the hearth, while the old Marchioness, on +the other, strained her eyes over an embroidery in which the pattern +repeated itself like the invocations of a litany, and Don Gervaso, near +the smoking oil-lamp, read aloud from the Glories of Mary or the Way of +Perfection of Saint Theresa. + +On such evenings Odo, stealing from the tapestry parlour, would seek out +Bruno, who sat by the kitchen hearth with the old hound's nose at his +feet. The kitchen, indeed, on winter nights, was the pleasantest place +in the castle. The fire-light from its great stone chimney shone on the +strings of maize and bunches of dried vegetables that hung from the roof +and on the copper kettles and saucepans ranged along the wall. The wind +raged against the shutters of the unglazed windows, and the +maid-servants, distaff in hand, crowded closer to the blaze, listening +to the songs of some wandering fiddler or to the stories of a +ruddy-nosed Capuchin monk who was being regaled, by the steward's +orders, on a supper of tripe and mulled wine. The Capuchin's tales, told +in the Piedmontese jargon, and seasoned with strange allusions and +boisterous laughter, were of little interest to Odo, who would creep +into the ingle beside Bruno and beg for some story of his ancestors. The +old man was never weary of rehearsing the feats and gestures of the +lords of Donnaz, and Odo heard again and again how they had fought the +savage Switzers north of the Alps and the Dauphin's men in the west; how +they had marched with Savoy against Montferrat and with France against +the Republic of Genoa. Better still he liked to hear of the Marquess +Gualberto, who had been the Duke of Milan's ally and had brought home +the great Milanese painter to adorn his banqueting-room at Donnaz. The +lords of Donnaz had never been noted for learning, and Odo's grandfather +was fond of declaring that a nobleman need not be a scholar; but the +great Marquess Gualberto, if himself unlettered, had been the patron of +poets and painters and had kept learned clerks to write down the annals +of his house on parchment painted by the monks. These annals were locked +in the archives, under Don Gervaso's care; but Odo learned from the old +servant that some of the great Marquess's books had lain for years on an +upper shelf in the vestry off the chapel; and here one day, with Bruno's +aid, the little boy dislodged from a corner behind the missals and +altar-books certain sheepskin volumes clasped in blackened silver. The +comeliest of these, which bore on their title-page a dolphin curled +about an anchor, were printed in unknown characters; but on opening the +smaller volumes Odo felt the same joyous catching of the breath as when +he had stepped out on the garden-terrace at Pianura. For here indeed +were gates leading to a land of delectation: the country of the giant +Morgante, the enchanted island of Avillion, the court of the Soldan and +the King's palace at Camelot. + +In this region Odo spent many blissful hours. His fancy ranged in the +wake of heroes and adventurers who, for all he knew, might still be +feasting and fighting north of the Alps, or might any day with a blast +of their magic horns summon the porter to the gates of Donnaz. Foremost +among them, a figure towering above even Rinaldo, Arthur and the Emperor +Frederic, was that Conrad, father of Conradin, whose sayings are set +down in the old story-book of the Cento Novelle, "the flower of gentle +speech." There was one tale of King Conrad that the boy never forgot: +how the King, in his youth, had always about him a company of twelve +lads of his own age; how when Conrad did wrong, his governors, instead +of punishing him, beat his twelve companions; and how, on the young +King's asking what the lads were being punished for, the pedagogues +replied: + +"For your Majesty's offences." + +"And why do you punish my companions instead of me?" + +"Because you are our lord and master," he was told. + +At this the King fell to thinking, and thereafter, it is said, in pity +for those who must suffer in his stead he set close watch on himself, +lest his sinning should work harm to others. This was the story of King +Conrad; and much as Odo loved the clash of arms and joyous feats of +paladins rescuing fair maids in battle, yet Conrad's seemed to him, even +then, a braver deed than these. + +In March of the second year the old Marquess, returning from Turin, was +accompanied, to the surprise of all, by the fantastical figure of an +elderly gentleman in the richest travelling dress, with one of the new +French toupets, a thin wrinkled painted face, and emitting with every +movement a prodigious odour of millefleurs. This visitor, who was +attended by his French barber and two or three liveried servants, the +Marquess introduced as the lord of Valdu, a neighbouring seigneurie of +no great account. Though his lands marched with the Marquess's, it was +years since the Count had visited Donnaz, being one of the King's +chamberlains and always in attendance on his Majesty; and it was amazing +to see with what smirks and grimaces, and ejaculations in Piedmontese +French, he complimented the Marchioness on her appearance, and exclaimed +at the magnificence of the castle, which must doubtless have appeared to +him little better than a cattle-grange. His talk was unintelligible to +Odo, but there was no mistaking the nature of the glances he fixed on +Donna Laura, who, having fled to her room on his approach, presently +descended in a ravishing new sacque, with an air of extreme surprise, +and her hair curled (as Odo afterward learned) by the Count's own +barber. + +Odo had never seen his mother look handsomer. She sparkled at the +Count's compliments, embraced her father, playfully readjusted her +mother's coif, and in the prettiest way made their excuses to the Count +for the cold draughts and bare floors of the castle. "For having lived +at court myself," said she, "I know to what your excellency is +accustomed, and can the better value your condescension in exposing +yourself, at this rigorous season, to the hardships of our +mountain-top." + +The Marquess at this began to look black, but seeing the Count's +pleasure in the compliment, contented himself with calling out for +dinner, which, said he, with all respect to their visitor, would stay +his stomach better than the French kick-shaws at his Majesty's table. +Whether the Count was of the same mind, it was impossible to say, though +Odo could not help observing that the stewed venison and spiced boar's +flesh seemed to present certain obstacles either to his jaws or his +palate, and that his appetite lingered on the fried chicken-livers and +tunny-fish in oil; but he cast such looks at Donna Laura as seemed to +declare that for her sake he would willingly have risked his teeth on +the very cobblestones of the court. Knowing how she pined for company, +Odo was not surprised at his mother's complaisance; yet wondered to see +the smile with which she presently received the Count's half-bantering +disparagement of Pianura. For the duchy, by his showing, was a place of +small consequence, an asylum of superannuated fashions; whereas no +Frenchman of quality ever visited Turin without exclaiming on its +resemblance to Paris, and vowing that none who had the entree of +Stupinigi need cross the Alps to see Versailles. As to the Marquess's +depriving the court of Donna Laura's presence, their guest protested +against it as an act of overt disloyalty to the sovereign; and what most +surprised Odo, who had often heard his grandfather declaim against the +Count as a cheap jackanapes that hung about the court for what he could +make at play, was the indulgence with which the Marquess received his +visitor's sallies. Father and daughter in fact vied in amenities to the +Count. The fire was kept alight all day in his rooms, his Monsu waited +on with singular civility by the steward, and Donna Laura's own woman +sent down by her mistress to prepare his morning chocolate. + +Next day it was agreed the gentlemen should ride to Valdu; but its lord +being as stiff-jointed as a marionette, Donna Laura, with charming tact, +begged to be of the party, and thus enabled him to attend her in her +litter. The Marquess thereupon called on Odo to ride with him; and +setting forth across the mountain they descended by a long defile to the +half-ruined village of Valdu. Here, for the first time, Odo saw the +spectacle of a neglected estate, its last penny wrung from it for the +absent master's pleasure by a bailiff who was expected to extract his +pay from the sale of clandestine concessions to the tenants. Riding +beside the Marquess, who swore under his breath at the ravages of the +undyked stream and the sight of good arable land run wild and choked +with underbrush, the little boy obtained a precocious insight into the +evils of a system which had long outlived its purpose, and the idea of +feudalism was ever afterward embodied for him in his glimpse of the +peasants of Valdu looking up sullenly from their work as their suzerain +and protector thrust an unfamiliar painted smile between the curtains of +his litter. + +What his grandfather thought of Valdu (to which the Count on the way +home referred with smirking apologies as the mountain-lair of his +barbarous ancestors) was patent enough even to Odo's undeveloped +perceptions; but it would have required a more experienced understanding +to detect the motive that led the Marquess, scarce two days after their +visit, to accord his daughter's hand to the Count. Odo felt a shock of +dismay on learning that his beautiful mother was to become the property +of an old gentleman whom he guessed to be of his grandfather's age, and +whose enamoured grimaces recalled the antics of her favourite monkey, +and the boy's face reflected the blush of embarrassment with which Donna +Laura imparted the news; but the children of that day were trained to a +passive acquiescence, and had she informed him that she was to be +chained in the keep on bread and water, Odo would have accepted the fact +with equal philosophy. Three weeks afterward his mother and the old +Count were married in the chapel of Donnaz, and Donna Laura, with many +tears and embraces, set out for Turin, taking her monkey but leaving her +son behind. It was not till later that Odo learned of the social usage +which compelled young widows to choose between remarriage and the +cloister; and his subsequent views were unconsciously tinged by the +remembrance of his mother's melancholy bridal. + +Her departure left no traces but were speedily repaired by the coming of +spring. The sun growing warmer, and the close season putting an end to +the Marquess's hunting, it was now Odo's chief pleasure to carry his +books to the walled garden between the castle and the southern face of +the cliff. This small enclosure, probably a survival of medieval +horticulture, had along the upper ledge of its wall a grass walk +commanding the flow of the stream, and an angle turret that turned one +slit to the valley, the other to the garden lying below like a tranquil +well of scent and brightness: its box trees clipped to the shape of +peacocks and lions, its clove pinks and simples set in a border of +thrift, and a pear tree basking on its sunny wall. These pleasant +spaces, which Odo had to himself save when the canonesses walked there +to recite their rosary, he peopled with the knights and ladies of the +novelle, and the fantastic beings of Pulci's epic: there walked the Fay +Morgana, Regulus the loyal knight, the giant Morgante, Trajan the just +Emperor and the proud figure of King Conrad; so that, escaping thither +from the after-dinner dullness of the tapestry parlour, the boy seemed +to pass from the most oppressive solitude to a world of warmth and +fellowship. + + +1.6. + +Odo, who, like all neglected children, was quick to note in the +demeanour of his elders any hint of a change in his own condition, had +been keenly conscious of the effect produced at Donnaz by the news of +the Duchess of Pianura's deliverance. Guided perhaps by his mother's +exclamation, he noticed an added zeal in Don Gervaso's teachings and an +unction in the manner of his aunts and grandmother, who embraced him as +though they were handling a relic; while the old Marquess, though he +took his grandson seldomer on his rides, would sit staring at him with a +frowning tenderness that once found vent in the growl--"Morbleu, but +he's too good for the tonsure!" All this made it clear to Odo that he +was indeed meant for the Church, and he learned without surprise that +the following spring he was to be sent to the seminary at Asti. + +With a view to prepare him for this change, the canonesses suggested his +attending them that year on their annual pilgrimage to the sanctuary of +Oropa. Thither, for every feast of the Assumption, these pious ladies +travelled in their litter; and Odo had heard from them many tales of the +miraculous Black Virgin who drew thousands to her shrine among the +mountains. They set forth in August, two days before the feast, +ascending through chestnut groves to the region of bare rocks; thence +downward across torrents hung with white acacia and along park-like +grassy levels deep in shade. The lively air, the murmur of verdure, the +perfume of mown grass in the meadows and the sweet call of the cuckoos +from every thicket made an enchantment of the way; but Odo's pleasure +redoubled when, gaining the high-road to Oropa, they mingled with the +long train of devotees ascending from the plain. Here were pilgrims of +every condition, from the noble lady of Turin or Asti (for it was the +favourite pilgrimage of the Sardinian court), attended by her physician +and her cicisbeo, to the half-naked goatherd of Val Sesia or Salluzzo; +the cheerful farmers of the Milanese, with their wives, in silver +necklaces and hairpins, riding pillion on plump white asses; sick +persons travelling in closed litters or carried on hand-stretchers; +crippled beggars obtruding their deformities; confraternities of hooded +penitents, Franciscans, Capuchins and Poor Clares in dusty companies; +jugglers, pedlars, Egyptians and sellers of drugs and amulets. From +among these, as the canonesses' litter jogged along, an odd figure +advanced toward Odo, who had obtained leave to do the last mile of the +journey on foot. This was a plump abate in tattered ecclesiastical +dress, his shoes white as a miller's and the perspiration streaking his +face as he laboured along in the dust. He accosted Odo in a soft shrill +voice, begging leave to walk beside the young cavaliere, whom he had +more than once had the honour of seeing at Pianura; and, in reply to the +boy's surprised glance, added, with a swelling of the chest and an +absurd gesture of self-introduction, "But perhaps the cavaliere is not +too young to have heard of the illustrious Cantapresto, late primo +soprano of the ducal theatre of Pianura?" + +Odo being obliged to avow his ignorance, the fat creature mopped his +brow and continued with a gasp--"Ah, your excellency, what is fame? From +glory to obscurity is no farther than from one milestone to another! Not +eight years ago, cavaliere, I was followed through the streets of +Pianura by a greater crowd than the Duke ever drew after him! But what +then? The voice goes--it lasts no longer than the bloom of a flower--and +with it goes everything: fortune, credit, consideration, friends and +parasites! Not eight years ago, sir--would you believe me?--I was +supping nightly in private with the Bishop, who had nearly quarrelled +with his late Highness for carrying me off by force one evening to his +casino; I was heaped with dignities and favours; all the poets in the +town composed sonnets in my honour; the Marquess of Trescorre fought a +duel about me with the Bishop's nephew, Don Serafino; I attended his +lordship to Rome; I spent the villeggiatura at his villa, where I sat at +play with the highest nobles in the land; yet when my voice went, +cavaliere, it was on my knees I had to beg of my heartless patron the +paltry favour of the minor orders!" Tears were running down the abate's +cheeks, and he paused to wipe them with a corner of tattered bands. + +Though Odo had been bred in an abhorrence of the theatre, the strange +creature's aspect so pricked his compassion that he asked him what he +was now engaged in; at which Cantapresto piteously cried, "Alas, what am +I not engaged in, if the occasion offers? For whatever a man's habit, he +will not wear it long if it cover an empty belly; and he that respects +his calling must find food enough to continue in it. But as for me, sir, +I have put a hand to every trade, from composing scenarios for the ducal +company of Pianura, to writing satirical sonnets for noblemen that +desire to pass for wits. I've a pretty taste, too, in compiling +almanacks, and when nothing else served I have played the public +scrivener at the street corner; nay, sir, necessity has even driven me +to hold the candle in one or two transactions I would not more actively +have mixed in; and it was to efface the remembrance of one of these--for +my conscience is still over-nice for my condition--that I set out on +this laborious pilgrimage." + +Much of this was unintelligible to Odo; but he was moved by any mention +of Pianura, and in the abate's first pause he risked the question--"Do +you know the hump-backed boy Brutus?" + +His companion stared and pursed his soft lips. + +"Brutus?" says he. "Brutus? Is he about the Duke's person?" + +"He lives in the palace," said Odo doubtfully. + +The fat ecclesiastic clapped a hand to his thigh. + +"Can it be your excellency has in mind the foundling boy Carlo Gamba? +Does the jackanapes call himself Brutus now? He was always full of his +classical allusions! Why, sir, I think I know him very well; he is even +rumoured to be a brother of Don Lelio Trescorre's, and I believe the +Duke has lately given him to the Marquess of Cerveno, for I saw him not +long since in the Marquess's livery at Pontesordo." + +"Pontesordo?" cried Odo. "It was there I lived." + +"Did you indeed, cavaliere? But I think you will have been at the Duke's +manor of that name; and it was the hunting-lodge on the edge of the +chase that I had in mind. The Marquess uses it, I believe, as a kind of +casino; though not without risk of a distemper. Indeed, there is much +wonder at his frequenting it, and 'tis said he does so against the +Duke's wishes." + +The name of Pontesordo had set Odo's memories humming like a hive of +bees, and without heeding his companion's allusions he asked--"And did +you see the Momola?" + +The other looked his perplexity. + +"She's an Innocent too," Odo hastened to explain. "She is Filomena's +servant at the farm." + +The abate at this, standing still in the road, screwed up his eyelids +and protruded a relishing lip. "Eh, eh," said he, "the girl from the +farm, you say?" And he gave a chuckle. "You've an eye, cavaliere, you've +an eye," he cried, his soft body shaking with enjoyment; but before Odo +could make a guess at his meaning their conversation was interrupted by +a sharp call from the litter. The abate at once disappeared in the +crowd, and a moment later the litter had debouched on the grassy +quadrangle before the outer gates of the monastery. This space was set +in beech-woods, amid which gleamed the white-pillared chapels of the Way +of the Cross; and the devouter pilgrims, dispersed beneath the trees, +were ascending from one chapel to another, preparatory to entering the +church. + +The quadrangle itself was crowded with people, and the sellers of votive +offerings, in their booths roofed with acacia-boughs, were driving a +noisy trade in scapulars and Agnus Deis, images of the Black Virgin of +Oropa, silver hearts and crosses, and phials of Jordan water warranted +to effect the immediate conversion of Jews and heretics. In one corner a +Carmelite missionary had set up his portable pulpit, and, crucifix in +hand, was exhorting the crowd; in another, an improvisatore intoned +canticles to the miraculous Virgin; a barefoot friar sat selling +indulgences at the monastery gate, and pedlars with trays of rosaries +and religious prints pushed their way among the pilgrims. Young women of +less pious aspect solicited the attention of the better-dressed +travellers, and jugglers, mountebanks and quacks of every description +hung on the outskirts of the square. The sight speedily turned Odo's +thought from his late companion, and the litter coming to a halt he was +leaning forward to observe the antics of a tumbler who had spread his +carpet beneath the trees, when the abate's face suddenly rose to the +surface of the throng and his hand thrust a crumpled paper between the +curtains of the litter. Odo was quick-witted enough to capture this +missive without attracting the notice of his grand-aunts, and stealing a +glance at it, he read--"Cavaliere, I starve. When the illustrious ladies +descend, for Christ's sake beg a scudo of them for the unhappy +Cantapresto." + +By this the litter had disengaged itself and was moving toward the outer +gates. Odo, aware of the disfavour with which the theatre was viewed at +Donnaz, and unable to guess how far the soprano's present habit would be +held to palliate the scandal of his former connection, was perplexed how +to communicate his petition to the canonesses. A moment later, however, +the question solved itself; for as the aunts descended at the door of +the rector's lodging, the porter, running to meet them, stumbled on a +black mass under the arcade, and raised the cry that here was a man +dropped dead. A crowd gathering, some one called out that it was an +ecclesiastic had fallen; whereat the great-aunts were hurrying forward +when Odo whispered the eldest, Donna Livia, that the sick man was indeed +an abate from Pianura. Donna Livia immediately bid her servants lift him +into the porter's lodge, where, with the administering of spirits, the +poor soprano presently revived and cast a drowning glance about the +chamber. + +"Eight years ago, illustrious ladies," he gurgled, "I had nearly died +one night of a surfeit of ortolans; and now it is of a surfeit of +emptiness that I am perishing." + +The ladies at this, with exclamations of pity, called on the +lay-brothers for broth and cordials, and bidding the porter enquire more +particularly into the history of the unhappy ecclesiastic, hastened away +with Odo to the rector's parlour. + +Next morning betimes all were afoot for the procession, which the +canonesses were to witness from the monastery windows. The apothecary +had brought word that the abate, whose seizure was indeed the result of +hunger, was still too weak to rise; and Donna Livia, eager to open her +devotions with an act of pity, pressed a sequin in the man's hand, and +bid him spare no care for the sufferer's comfort. + +This sent Odo in a cheerful mood to the red-hung windows, whence, +peering between the folds of his aunts' gala habits, he admired the +great court enclosed in nobly-ordered cloisters and strewn with fresh +herbs and flowers. Thence one of the rector's chaplains conducted them +to the church, placing them, in company with the monastery's other noble +guests, in a tribune constructed above the choir. It was Odo's first +sight of a great religious ceremony, and as he looked down on the church +glimmering with votive offerings and gold-fringed draperies, and seen +through rolling incense in which the altar-candles swam like stars +reflected in a river, he felt an almost sensual thrill of pleasure at +the thought that his life was to be passed amid scenes of such mystic +beauty. The sweet singing of the choir raised his spirit to a higher +view of the scene; and the sight of the huddled misery on the floor of +the church revived in him the old longing for the Franciscan cowl. + +From these raptures he was speedily diverted by the sight awaiting him +at the conclusion of the mass. Hardly had the spectators returned to the +rector's windows when, the doors of the church swinging open, a +procession headed by the rector himself descended the steps and began to +make the circuit of the court. Odo's eyes swam with the splendour of +this burst of banners, images and jewelled reliquaries, surmounting the +long train of tonsured heads and bathed in a light almost blinding after +the mild penumbra of the church. As the monks advanced, the pilgrims, +pouring after them, filled the court with a dark undulating mass through +which the procession wound like a ray of sunlight down the brown bosom +of a torrent. Branches of oleander swung in the air, devout cries hailed +the approach of the Black Madonna's canopy, and hoarse voices swelled to +a roar the measured litanies of the friars. + +The ceremonies over, Odo, with the canonesses, set out to visit the +chapels studding the beech-knoll above the monastic buildings. Passing +out of Juvara's great portico they stood a moment above the grassy +common, which presented a scene in curious contrast to that they had +just quitted. Here refreshment-booths had been set up, musicians were +fiddling, jugglers unrolling their carpets, dentists shouting out the +merits of their panaceas, and light women drinking with the liveried +servants of the nobility. The very cripples who had groaned the loudest +in church now rollicked with the mountebanks and dancers; and no trace +remained of the celebration just concluded but the medals and relics +strung about the necks of those engaged in these gross diversions. + +It was strange to pass from this scene to the solitude of the grove, +where, in a twilight rustling with streams, the chapels lifted their +white porches. Peering through the grated door of each little edifice, +Odo beheld within a group of terra-cotta figures representing some scene +of the Passion--here a Last Supper, with a tigerish Judas and a Saint +John resting his yellow curls on his Master's bosom, there an Entombment +or a group of stricken Maries. These figures, though rudely modelled and +daubed with bright colours, yet, by a vivacity of attitude and gesture +which the mystery of their setting enhanced, conveyed a thrilling +impression of the sacred scenes set forth; and Odo was yet at an age +when the distinction between flesh-and-blood and its plastic +counterfeits is not clearly defined, or when at least the sculptured +image is still a mysterious half-sentient thing, denizen of some strange +borderland between art and life. It seemed to him, as he gazed through +the chapel gratings, that those long-distant episodes of the divine +tragedy had been here preserved in some miraculous state of suspended +animation, and as he climbed from one shrine to another he had the sense +of treading the actual stones of Gethsemane and Calvary. + +As was usual with him, the impressions of the moment had effaced those +preceding it, and it was almost with surprise that, at the rector's +door, he beheld the primo soprano of Pianura totter forth to the litter +and offer his knee as a step for the canonesses. The charitable ladies +cried out on him for this imprudence, and his pallor still giving +evidence of distress, he was bidden to wait on them after supper with +his story. He presented himself promptly in the parlour, and being +questioned as to his condition at once rashly proclaimed his former +connection with the ducal theatre of Pianura. No avowal could have been +more disastrous to his cause. The canonesses crossed themselves with +horror, and the abate, seeing his mistake, hastened to repair it by +exclaiming--"What, ladies, would you punish me for following a vocation +to which my frivolous parents condemned me when I was too young to +resist their purpose? And have not my subsequent sufferings, my penances +and pilgrimages, and the state to which they have reduced me, +sufficiently effaced the record of an involuntary error?" + +Seeing the effect of this appeal the abate made haste to follow up his +advantage. "Ah, illustrious ladies," he cried, "am I not a living +example of the fate of those who leave all to follow righteousness? For +while I remained on the stage, among the most dissolute surroundings, +fortune showered me with every benefit she heaps on her favourites. I +had my seat at every table in Pianura; the Duke's chair to carry me to +the theatre; and more money than I could devise how to spend; while now +that I have resigned my calling to embrace the religious life, you see +me reduced to begging a crust from the very mendicants I formerly +nourished. For," said he, moved to tears by his own recital, "my +superfluity was always spent in buying the prayers of the unfortunate, +and to judge how I was esteemed by those acquainted with my private +behaviour you need only learn that, on my renouncing the stage, 'twas +the Bishop of Pianura who himself accorded me the tonsure." + +This discourse, which Odo admired for its adroitness, visibly excited +the commiseration of the ladies; but at mention of the Bishop, Donna +Livia exchanged a glance with her sister, who enquired, with a quaint +air of astuteness, "But how comes it, abate, that with so powerful a +protector you have been exposed to such incredible reverses?" + +Cantapresto rolled a meaning eye. + +"Alas, madam, it was through my protector that misfortune attacked me; +for his lordship having appointed me secretary to his favourite nephew, +Don Serafino, that imprudent nobleman required of me services so +incompatible with my cloth that disobedience became a duty; whereupon, +not satisfied with dismissing me in disgrace, he punished me by +blackening my character to his uncle. To defend myself was to traduce +Don Serafino; and rather than reveal his courses to the Bishop I sank to +the state in which you see me; a state," he added with emotion, "that I +have travelled this long way to commend to the adorable pity of Her +whose Son had not where to lay His head." + +This stroke visibly touched the canonesses, still soft from the +macerations of the morning; and Donna Livia compassionately asked how he +had subsisted since his rupture with the Bishop. + +"Madam, by the sale of my talents in any service not at odds with my +calling: as the compiling of pious almanacks, the inditing of rhymed +litanies and canticles, and even the construction of theatrical +pieces"--the ladies lifted hands of reprobation--"of theatrical pieces," +Cantapresto impressively repeated, "for the use of the Carmelite nuns of +Pianura. But," said he with a deprecating smile, "the wages of virtue +are less liberal than those of sin, and spite of a versatility I think I +may honestly claim, I have often had to subsist on the gifts of the +pious, and sometimes, madam, to starve on their compassion." + +This ready discourse, and the soprano's evident distress, so worked on +the canonesses that, having little money at their disposal, it was +fixed, after some private consultation, that he should attend them to +Donnaz, where Don Gervaso, in consideration of his edifying conduct in +renouncing the stage, might be interested in helping him to a situation; +and when the little party set forth from Oropa, the abate Cantapresto +closed the procession on one of the baggage-mules, with Odo riding +pillion at his back. Good fortune loosened the poor soprano's tongue, +and as soon as the canonesses' litter was a safe distance ahead he began +to beguile the way with fragments of reminiscence and adventure. Though +few of his allusions were clear to Odo, the glimpse they gave of the +motley theatrical life of the north Italian cities--the quarrels between +Goldoni and the supporters of the expiring commedia dell' arte--the +rivalries of the prime donne and the arrogance of the popular +comedians--all these peeps into a tinsel world of mirth, cabal and +folly, enlivened by the recurring names of the Four Masks, those +lingering gods of the older dispensation, so lured the boy's fancy and +set free his vagrant wonder, that he was almost sorry to see the keep of +Donnaz reddening in the second evening's sunset. + +Such regrets, however, their arrival at the castle soon effaced; for in +the doorway stood the old Marquess, a letter in hand, who springing +forward caught his grandson by the shoulders, and cried with his great +boar-hunting shout, "Cavaliere, you are heir-presumptive of Pianura!" + + +1.7. + +The Marquess of Cerveno had succumbed to the tertian ague contracted at +the hunting-lodge of Pontesordo; and this unforeseen calamity left but +one life, that of the sickly ducal infant, between Odo and the +succession to the throne of Pianura. Such was the news conveyed +post-haste from Turin by Donna Laura; who added the Duke's express wish +that his young kinsman should be fitted for the secular career, and the +information that Count Valdu had already entered his stepson's name at +the Royal Academy of Turin. + +The Duke of Pianura being young and in good health, and his wife having +already given him an heir, the most sanguine imagination could hardly +view Odo as being brought much nearer the succession; yet the change in +his condition was striking enough to excuse the fancy of those about him +for shaping the future to their liking. The priestling was to turn +courtier and perhaps soldier; Asti was to be exchanged for Turin, the +seminary for the academy; and even the old chief of Donnaz betrayed in +his grumbling counsels to the boy a sense of the exalted future in which +they might some day serve him. + +The preparations of departure and the wonder of his new state left Odo +little space wherein to store his thought with impressions of what he +was leaving; and it was only in after years, when the accretion of +superficial incident had dropped from his past, that those last days at +Donnaz gained their full distinctness. He saw them then, heavy with the +warmth of the long summer, from the topmost pine-belt to the bronzed +vineyards turning their metallic clusters to the sun; and in the midst +his small bewildered figure, netted in a web of association, and +seeming, as he broke away, to leave a shred of himself in every corner +of the castle. + +Sharpest of all, there remained with him the vision of his last hour +with Don Gervaso. The news of Odo's changed condition had been received +in silence by the chaplain. He was not the man to waste words and he +knew the futility of asserting the Church's claim to the +heir-presumptive of a reigning house. Therefore if he showed no +enthusiasm he betrayed no resentment; but, the evening before the boy's +departure, led him, still in silence, to the chapel. Here the priest +knelt with Odo; then, raising him, sat on one of the benches facing the +high altar, and spoke a few grave words. + +"You are setting out," said he, "on a way far different from that in +which it has been my care to guide you; yet the high road and the +mountain path may, by diverse windings, lead to the same point; and +whatever walk a man chooses, it will surely carry him to the end that +God has appointed. If you are called to serve Him in the world, the +journey on which you are now starting may lead you to the throne of +Pianura; but even so," he went on, "there is this I would have you +remember: that should this dignity come to you it may come as a calamity +rather than a joy; for when God confers earthly honours on a child of +His predilection, He sometimes deigns to render them as innocuous as +misfortune; and my chief prayer for you is that you should be raised to +this eminence, it may be at a moment when such advancement seems to +thrust you in the dust." + +The words burned themselves into Odo's heart like some mystic writing on +the walls of memory, long afterward to start into fiery meaning. At the +time he felt only that the priest spoke with a power and dignity no +human authority could give; and for a moment all the stored influences +of his faith reached out to him from the dimly-gleaming altar. + +The next sun rose on a new world. He was to set out at daylight, and +dawn found him at the casement, footing it in thought down the road as +yet undistinguishable in a dying glimmer of stars. Bruno was to attend +him to Turin; but one of the women presently brought word that the old +huntsman's rheumatism had caught him in the knee, and that the Marquess, +resolved not to delay his grandson's departure, had chosen Cantapresto +as the boy's companion. The courtyard, when Odo descended, fairly +bubbled with the voluble joy of the fat soprano, who was giving +directions to the servants, receiving commissions and instructions from +the aunts, assuring everybody of his undying devotion to the +heir-presumptive of Pianura, and citing impressive instances of the +responsibilities with which the great of the earth had formerly +entrusted him. + +As a companion for Odo the abate was clearly not to Don Gervaso's taste; +but he stood silent, turning the comment of a cool eye on the soprano's +protestations, and saying only, as Cantapresto swept the company into +the circle of an obsequious farewell:--"Remember, signor abate, it is to +your cloth this business is entrusted." The abate's answer was a rush of +purple to the forehead; but Don Gervaso imperturbably added, "And you +lie but one night on the road." + +Meanwhile the old Marquess, visibly moved, was charging Odo to respect +his elders and superiors, while in the same breath warning him not to +take up with the Frenchified notions of the court, but to remember that +for a lad of his condition the chief virtues were a tight seat in the +saddle, a quick hand on the sword and a slow tongue in counsel. "Mind +your own business," he concluded, "and see that others mind theirs." + +The Marchioness thereupon, with many tears, hung a scapular about Odo's +neck, bidding him shun the theatre and be regular at confession; one of +the canonesses reminded him not to omit a visit to the chapel of the +Holy Winding-sheet, while the other begged him to burn a candle for her +at the Consolata; and the servants pressed forward to embrace and bless +their little master. + +Day was high by this, and as the Marquess's travelling-chariot rumbled +down the valley the shadows seemed to fly before it. Odo at first lay +numb; but presently his senses woke to the call of the brightening +landscape. The scene was such as Salvator might have painted: wild +blocks of stone heaped under walnut-shade; here the white plunge of +water down a wall of granite, and there, in bluer depths, a charcoal +burner's hut sending up its spiral of smoke to the dark raftering of +branches. Though it was but a few hours since Odo had travelled from +Oropa, years seemed to have passed over him, and he saw the world with a +new eye. Each sound and scent plucked at him in passing: the roadside +started into detail like the foreground of some minute Dutch painter; +every pendent mass of fern, dark dripping rock, late tuft of harebell +called out to him: "Look well, for this is your last sight of us!" His +first sight too, it seemed: since he had lived through twelve Italian +summers without sense of the sun-steeped quality of atmosphere that, +even in shade, gives each object a golden salience. He was conscious of +it now only as it suggested fingering a missal stiff with gold-leaf and +edged with a swarming diversity of buds and insects. The carriage moved +so slowly that he was in no haste to turn the pages; and each spike of +yellow foxglove, each clouding of butterflies about a patch of +speedwell, each quiver of grass over a hidden thread of moisture, became +a marvel to be thumbed and treasured. + +From this mood he was detached by the next bend of the road. The way, +hitherto winding through narrow glens, now swung to a ledge overhanging +the last escarpment of the mountains; and far below, the Piedmontese +plain unrolled to the southward its interminable blue-green distances +mottled with forest. A sight to lift the heart; for on those sunny +reaches Ivrea, Novara, Vercelli lay like sea-birds on a summer sea. It +was the future unfolding itself to the boy; dark forests, wide rivers, +strange cities and a new horizon: all the mystery of the coming years +figured to him in that great plain stretching away to the greater +mystery of heaven. + +To all this Cantapresto turned a snoring countenance. The lively air of +the hills, the good fare of Donnaz, and the satisfaction, above all, of +rolling on cushions over a road he had thought to trudge on foot, had +lapped the abate in Capuan slumber. The midday halt aroused him. The +travellers rested at an inn on the edge of the hills, and here +Cantapresto proved to his charge that, as he phrased it, his belly had +as short a memory for food as his heart for injuries. A flask of Asti +put him in the talking mood, and as they drove on he regaled Odo with a +lively picture of the life on which he was about to enter. + +"You are going," said he, "to one of the first cities of Europe; one +that has all the beauty and elegance of the French capital without its +follies and excesses. Turin is blessed with a court where good manners +and a fine tone are more highly prized than the extravagances of genius; +and I have heard it said of his Majesty that he was delighted to see his +courtiers wearing the French fashions outside their heads, provided they +didn't carry the French ideas within. You are too young, doubtless, +cavaliere, to have heard of the philosophers who are raising such a +pother north of the Alps: a set of madmen that, because their birth +doesn't give them the entree of Versailles, are preaching that men +should return to a state of nature, great ladies suckle their young like +animals, and the peasantry own their land like nobles. Luckily you'll +hear little of this infectious talk in Turin: the King stamps out the +philosophers like vermin or packs them off to splutter their heresies in +Milan or Venice. But to a nobleman mindful of the privileges of his +condition there is no more agreeable sojourn in Europe. The wines are +delicious, the women--er--accomplished--and though the sbirri may hug +one a trifle close now and then, why, with money and discretion, a +friend or two in the right quarters, and the wit to stand well with the +Church, there's no city in Europe where a man may have pleasanter sins +to confess." + +The carriage, by this, was descending the last curves above the valley, +and before them, in a hollow of the hills, blinked the warm shimmer of +maize and vine, like some bright vintage brimming its cup. The soprano +waved a convivial hand. + +"Look," he cried, "what Nature has done for this happy region! Where +herself has spread the table so bountifully, should her children hang +back from the feast? I vow, cavaliere, if the mountains were built for +hermits and ascetics, then the plain was made level for dancing, +banqueting and the pleasures of the villeggiatura. If God had meant us +to break our teeth on nuts and roots, why did He hang the vine with +fruit and draw three crops of wheat from this indulgent soil? I protest +when I look on such a scene as this, it is sufficient incentive to +lowliness to remember that the meek shall inherit the earth!" + +This mood held Cantapresto till his after-dinner sleep overtook him; and +when he woke again the chariot was clattering across the bridge of +Chivasso. The Po rolled its sunset crimson between flats that seemed +dull and featureless after the broken scenery of the hills; but beyond +the bridge rose the towers and roofs of the town, with its +cathedral-front catching the last slant of light. In the streets dusk +had fallen and a lamp flared under the arch of the inn before which the +travellers halted. Odo's head was heavy, and he hardly noticed the +figures thronging the caffe into which they were led; but presently +there rose a shout of "Cantapresto!" and a ring of waving arms and +flashing teeth encircled his companion. + +These appendages belonged to a troop of men and women, some masked and +in motley, others in discoloured travel-stained garments, who pressed +about the soprano with cries of joyous recognition. He was evidently an +old favourite of the band, for a duenna in tattered velvet fell on his +neck with genial unreserve, a pert soubrette caught him by the arm the +duenna left free, and a terrific Matamor with a nose like a scimitar +slapped him on the back with a tin sword. + +Odo's glimpse of the square at Oropa told him that here was a band of +strolling players such as Cantapresto had talked of on the ride back to +Donnaz. Don Gervaso's instructions and the old Marchioness's warning +against the theatre were present enough in the boy's mind to add a touch +of awe to the curiosity with which he observed these strange objects of +the Church's reprobation. They struck him, it must be owned, as more +pitiable than alarming, for the duenna's toes were coming through her +shoes, and one or two of the children who hung on the outskirts of the +group looked as lean and hungry under their spangles as the +foundling-girl of Pontesordo. Spite of this they seemed a jolly crew, +and ready (at Cantapresto's expense) to celebrate their encounter with +the ex-soprano in unlimited libations of Asti and Val Pulicello. The +singer, however, hung back with protesting gestures. + +"Gently, then, gently, dear friends--dear companions! When was it we +parted? In the spring of the year--and we meet now in the late summer. +As the seasons change so do our conditions: if the spring is a season of +folly, then is the harvest-time the period for reflection. When we last +met I was a strolling poet, glad to serve your gifted company within the +scope of my talents--now, ladies and gentlemen, now"--he drew himself up +with pride--"now you behold in me the governor and friend of the +heir-presumptive of Pianura." + +Cries of incredulity and derision greeted this announcement, and one of +the girls called out laughingly, "Yet you have the same old cassock to +your back!" + +"And the same old passage from your mouth to your belly," added an +elastic Harlequin, reaching an arm across the women's shoulders. "Come, +Cantapresto, we'll help you line it with good wine, to the health of his +most superlatively serene Highness, the heir-presumptive of Pianura; and +where is that fabulous personage, by the way?" + +Odo at this retreated hastily behind the soprano; but a pretty girl +catching sight of him, he found himself dragged into the centre of the +company, who hailed him with fantastic obeisances. Supper meanwhile was +being laid on the greasy table down the middle of the room. The Matamor, +who seemed the director of the troupe, thundered out his orders for +maccaroni, fried eels and sausages; the inn-servants flanked the plates +with wine-flasks and lumps of black bread, and in a moment the hungry +comedians, thrusting Odo into a high seat at the head of the table, were +falling on the repast with a prodigious clatter of cutlery. + +Of the subsequent incidents of the feast--the banter of the younger +women, the duenna's lachrymose confidences, the incessant interchange of +theatrical jargon and coarse pleasantry--there remained to Odo but a +confused image, obscured by the smoke of guttering candles, the fumes of +wine and the stifling air of the low-ceilinged tavern. Even the face of +the pretty girl who had dragged him from his concealment, and who now +sat at his side, plying him with sweets from her own plate, began to +fade into the general blur; and his last impression was of Cantapresto's +figure dilating to immense proportions at the other end of the table, as +the soprano rose with shaking wine-glass to favour the company with a +song. The chorus, bursting forth in response, surged over Odo's drowning +senses, and he was barely aware, in the tumult of noise and lights, of +an arm slipped about him, a softly-heaving pillow beneath his head, and +the gradual subsidence into dark delicious peace. + +So, on the first night of his new life, the heir-presumptive of Pianura +fell asleep with his head in a dancing-girl's breast. + + +1.8. + +The travellers were to journey by Vettura from Chivasso to Turin; and +when Odo woke next morning the carriage stood ready in the courtyard. + +Cantapresto, mottled and shamefaced, with his bands awry and an air of +tottering dignity, was gathering their possessions together, and the +pretty girl who had pillowed Odo's slumbers now knelt by his bed and +laughingly drew on his stockings. She was a slim brown morsel, not much +above his age, with a glance that flitted like a bird, and round +shoulders slipping out of her kerchief. A wave of shyness bathed Odo to +the forehead as their eyes met: he hung his head stupidly and turned +away when she fetched the comb to dress his hair. + +His toilet completed, she called out to the abate to go below and see +that the cavaliere's chocolate was ready; and as the door closed she +turned and kissed Odo on the lips. + +"Oh, how red you are!" she cried laughing. "Is that the first kiss +you've ever had? Then you'll remember me when you're Duke of +Pianura--Mirandolina of Chioggia, the first girl you ever kissed!" She +was pulling his collar straight while she talked, so that he could not +get away from her. "You will remember me, won't you?" she persisted. "I +shall be a great actress by that time, and you'll appoint me prima +amorosa to the ducal theatre of Pianura, and throw me a diamond bracelet +from your Highness's box and make all the court ladies ready to poison +me for rage!" She released his collar and dropped away from him. "Ah, +no, I shall be a poor strolling player, and you a great prince," she +sighed, "and you'll never, never think of me again; but I shall always +remember that I was the first girl you ever kissed!" + +She hung back in a dazzle of tears, looking so bright and tender that +Odo's bashfulness melted like a spring frost. + +"I shall never be Duke," he cried, "and I shall never forget you!" And +with that he turned and kissed her boldly and then bolted down the +stairs like a hare. And all that day he scorched and froze with the +thought that perhaps she had been laughing at him. + +Cantapresto was torpid after the feast, and Odo detected in him an air +of guilty constraint. The boy was glad enough to keep silence, and they +rolled on without speaking through the wide glowing landscape. Already +the nearness of a great city began to make itself felt. The bright +champaign was scattered over with farm-houses, their red-tiled +pigeon-cots and their granges latticed with openwork terra-cotta +pleasantly breaking the expanse of maize and mulberry; villages lay +along the banks of the canals intersecting the plain; and the hills +beyond the Po were planted with villas and monasteries. + +All the afternoon they drove between umbrageous parks and under the +walls of terraced vineyards. It was a region of delectable shade, with +glimpses here and there of gardens flashing with fountains and villa +roofs decked with statues and vases; and at length, toward sunset, a +bend of the road brought them out on a fair-spreading city, so +flourishing in buildings, so beset with smiling hills, that Odo, +springing from his seat, cried out in sheer joy of the spectacle. + +They had still the suburbs to traverse; and darkness was falling when +they entered the gates of Turin. This brought the fresh amazement of +wide lamplit streets, clean and bright as a ball-room, lined with +palaces and filled with well-dressed loungers: officers in the brilliant +Sardinian uniforms, fine gentlemen in French tie-wigs and narrow-sleeved +coats, merchants hurrying home from business, ecclesiastics in +high-swung carriages, and young bloods dashing by in their curricles. +The tables before the coffee-houses were thronged with idlers taking +their chocolate and reading the gazettes; and here and there the arched +doorway of a palace showed some gay party supping al fresco in a garden +hung with lamps. + +The flashing of lights and the noise of the streets roused Cantapresto, +who sat up with a sudden assumption of dignity. + +"Ah, cavaliere," said he, "you now see a great city, a famous city, a +city aptly called 'the Paris of Italy.' Nowhere else shall you find such +well-lit streets, such fair pavements, shops so full of Parisian wares, +promenades so crowded with fine carriages and horses. What a life a +young gentleman may lead here! The court is hospitable, society amiable, +the theatres are the best-appointed in Italy." + +Here Cantapresto paused with a deprecating cough. + +"Only one thing is necessary," he went on, "to complete enjoyment of the +fruits of this garden of Eden; and that is"--he coughed +again--"discretion. His Majesty, cavaliere, is a father to his subjects; +the Church is their zealous mother; and between two such parents, and +the innumerable delegates of their authority, why, you may fancy, sir, +that a man has to wear his eyes on all sides of his head. Discretion is +a virtue the Church herself commends; it is natural, then, that she +should afford her children full opportunity to practise it. And look +you, cavaliere, it is like gymnastics: the younger you acquire it, the +less effort it costs. Our Maker Himself has taught us the value of +silence by putting us speechless into the world: if we learn to talk +later we do it at our own risk! But for your own part, cavaliere--since +the habit cannot too early be exercised--I would humbly counsel you to +say nothing to your illustrious parents of our little diversion of last +evening." + +The Countess Valdu lived on the upper floor of a rococo palace near the +Piazza San Carlo; and here Odo, led by Cantapresto, presently found +himself shown into an apartment where several ladies and gentlemen sat +at cards. His mother, detaching herself from the group, embraced him +with unusual warmth, and the old Count, more painted and perfumed than +ever, hurried up with an obsequious greeting. Odo for the first time +found himself of consequence in the world; and as he was passed from +guest to guest, questioned about his journey, praised for his good +colour and stout looks, complimented on his high prospects, and +laughingly entreated not to forget his old friends when fortune should +advance him to the duchy, he began to feel himself a reigning potentate +already. + +His mother, as he soon learned, had sunk into a life almost as dull and +restricted as that she had left Donnaz to escape. Count Valdu's position +at court was more ornamental than remunerative, the income from his +estates was growing annually smaller, and he was involved in costly +litigation over the sale of some entailed property. Such conditions were +little to the Countess's humour, and the society to which her narrow +means confined her offered few distractions to her vanity. The +frequenters of the house were chiefly poor relations and hangers-on of +the Count's, the parasites who in those days were glad to subsist on the +crumbs of the slenderest larder. Half-a-dozen hungry Countesses, their +lean admirers, a superannuated abate or two, and a flock of threadbare +ecclesiastics, made up Donna Laura's circle; and even her cicisbeo, +selected in family council under the direction of her confessor, was an +austere gentleman of middle age, who collected ancient coins and was +engaged in composing an essay on the Martellian verse. + +This company, which devoted hours to the new French diversion of the +parfilage, and spent the evenings in drinking lemonade and playing +basset for small stakes, found its chief topic of conversation in the +only two subjects safely discussed in Turin at that day--the doings of +the aristocracy and of the clergy. The fashion of the Queen's headdress +at the last circle, the marked manner in which his Majesty had lately +distinguished the brilliant young cavalry officer, Count Roberto di +Tournanches, the third marriage of the Countess Alfieri of Asti, the +incredibility of the rumour that the court ladies of Versailles had +taken to white muslin and Leghorn hats, the probable significance of the +Vicar-general's visit to Rome, the subject of the next sacred +representation to be given by the nuns of Santa Croce--such were the +questions that engaged the noble frequenters of Casa Valdu. + +This was the only society that Donna Laura saw; for she was too poor to +dress to her taste and too proud to show herself in public without the +appointments becoming her station. Her sole distraction consisted in +visits to the various shrines--the Sudario, the Consolata, the Corpus +Domini--at which the feminine aristocracy offered up its devotions and +implored absolution for sins it had often no opportunity to commit: for +though fashion accorded cicisbei to the fine ladies of Turin, the Church +usually restricted their intercourse to the exchange of the most +harmless amenities. + +Meanwhile the antechamber was as full of duns as the approach to Donna +Laura's apartment at Pianura; and Odo guessed that the warmth of the +maternal welcome sprang less from natural affection than from the hope +of using his expectations as a sop to her creditors. The pittance which +the ducal treasury allowed for his education was scarce large enough to +be worth diverting to other ends; but a potential prince is a shield to +the most vulnerable fortunes. In this character Odo for the first time +found himself flattered, indulged, and made the centre of the company. +The contrast to his life of subjection at Donnaz; the precocious +initiation into motives that tainted the very fount of filial piety; the +taste of this mingled draught of adulation and disillusionment, might +have perverted a nature more self-centred than his. From this +perversion, and from many subsequent perils he was saved by a kind of +imaginative sympathy, a wondering joy in the mere spectacle of life, +that tinged his most personal impressions with a streak of the +philosophic temper. If this trait did not save him from sorrow, it at +least lifted him above pettiness; if it could not solve the difficulties +of life it could arm him to endure them. It was the best gift of the +past from which he sprang; but it was blent with another quality, a deep +moral curiosity that ennobled his sensuous enjoyment of the outward show +of life; and these elements were already tending in him, as in countless +youths of his generation, to the formation of a new spirit, the spirit +that was to destroy one world without surviving to create another. + +Of all this none could have been less conscious than the lad just +preparing to enter on his studies at the Royal Academy of Turin. That +institution, adjoining the royal palace, was a kind of nursery or +forcing-house for the budding nobility of Savoy. In one division of the +sumptuous building were housed his Majesty's pages, a corps of luxurious +indolent young fops; another wing accommodated the regular students of +the Academy, sons of noblemen and gentlemen destined for the secular +life, while a third was set aside for the "forestieri" or students from +foreign countries and from the other Italian states. To this quarter Odo +Valsecca was allotted; though it was understood that on leaving the +Academy he was to enter the Sardinian service. + +It was customary for a young gentleman of Odo's rank to be attended at +the Academy not only by a body-servant but by a private governor or +pedant, whose business it was to overlook his studies, attend him +abroad, and have an eye to the society he frequented. The old Marquess +of Donnaz had sent his daughter, by Odo's hand, a letter recommending +her to select her son's governor with particular care, choosing rather a +person of grave behaviour and assured morality than one of your glib +ink-spatterers who may know the inside of all the folios in the King's +library without being the better qualified for the direction of a young +gentleman's conduct; and to this letter Don Gervaso appended the terse +postcript: "Your excellency is especially warned against according this +or any other position of trust to the merry-andrew who calls himself the +abate Cantapresto." + +Donna Laura, with a shrug, handed the letter to her husband; Count +Valdu, adjusting his glasses, observed it was notorious that people +living in the depths of the country thought themselves qualified to +instruct their city relatives on all points connected with the social +usages; and the cicisbeo suggested that he could recommend an abate who +was proficient in the construction of the Martellian verse, and who +would made no extra charge for that accomplishment. + +"Charges!" the Countess cried. "There's a matter my father doesn't deign +to consider. It's not enough, nowadays, to give the lads a governor, but +they must maintain their servants too, an idle gluttonous crew that prey +on their pockets and get a commission off every tradesman's bill." + +Count Valdu lifted a deprecating hand. + +"My dear, nothing could be more offensive to his Majesty than any +attempt to reduce the way of living of the pupils of the Academy." + +"Of course," she shrugged-- "But who's to pay? The Duke's beggarly +pittance hardly clothes him." + +The cicisbeo suggested that the cavaliere Odo had expectations; at which +Donna Laura flushed and turned uneasy; while the Count, part of whose +marital duty it was to intervene discreetly between his lady and her +knight, now put forth the remark that the abate Cantapresto seemed a +shrewd serviceable fellow. + +"Nor do I like to turn him adrift," cried the Countess instantly, "after +he has obliged us by attending my son on his journey." + +"And I understand," added the Count, "that he would be glad to serve the +cavaliere in any capacity you might designate." + +"Why not in all?" said the cicisbeo thoughtfully. "There would be +undoubted advantages to the cavaliere in possessing a servant who would +explain the globes while powdering his hair and not be above calling his +chair when he attended him to a lecture." + +And the upshot of it was that when Odo, a few days later, entered on his +first term at the Academy, he was accompanied by the abate Cantapresto, +who had agreed, for a minimum of pay, to serve him faithfully in the +double capacity of pedagogue and lacquey. + +The considerable liberty accorded the foreign students made Odo's first +year at the Academy at once pleasanter and less profitable than had he +been one of the regular pupils. The companions among whom he found +himself were a set of lively undisciplined young gentlemen, chiefly from +England, Russia and the German principalities; all in possession of more +or less pocket-money and attended by governors either pedantic and +self-engrossed or vulgarly subservient. These young sprigs, whose +ambition it was to ape the dress and manners of the royal pages, led a +life of dissipation barely interrupted by a few hours of attendance at +the academic classes. From the ill-effects of such surroundings Odo was +preserved by an intellectual curiosity that flung him ravening on his +studies. It was not that he was of a bookish habit, or that the drudgery +of the classes was less irksome to him than to the other pupils; but not +even the pedantic methods then prevailing, or the distractions of his +new life, could dull the flush of his first encounter with the past. His +imagination took fire over the dry pages of Cornelius Nepos, glowed with +the mild pastoral warmth of the Georgics and burst into flame at the +first hexameters of the Aeneid. He caught but a fragment of meaning here +and there, but the sumptuous imagery, the stirring names, the glimpses +into a past where Roman senators were mingled with the gods of a +gold-pillared Olympus, filled his mind with a misty pageant of +immortals. These moments of high emotion were interspersed with hours of +plodding over the Latin grammar and the textbooks of philosophy and +logic. Books were unknown ground to Cantapresto, and among masters and +pupils there was not one who could help Odo to the meaning of his task, +or who seemed aware that it might have a meaning. To most of the lads +about him the purpose of the Academy was to fit young gentlemen for the +army or the court; to give them the chance of sweating a shirt every +morning with the fencing-master and of learning to thread the +intricacies of the court minuet. They modelled themselves on the dress +and bearing of the pages, who were always ruffling it about the +quadrangle in court dress and sword, or booted and spurred for a day's +hunting at the King's chase of Stupinigi. To receive a nod or a word +from one of these young demigods on his way to the King's opera-box or +just back from a pleasure-party at her Majesty's villa above the Po--to +hear of their tremendous exploits and thrilling escapades--seemed to put +the whole school in touch with the fine gentleman's world of intrigue, +cards and duelling: the world in which ladies were subjugated, fortunes +lost, adversaries run through and tradesmen ruined with that +imperturbable grace which distinguished the man of quality from the +plebeian. + +Among the privileges of the foreign pupils were frequent visits to the +royal theatre; and here was to Odo a source of unimagined joys. His +superstitious dread of the stage (a sentiment, he soon discovered, that +not even his mother's director shared) made his heart beat oppressively +as he first set foot in the theatre. It was a gala night, boxes and +stalls were thronged, and the audience-hall unfolded its glittering +curves like some poisonous flower enveloping him in rich malignant +fragrance. This impression was dispelled by the rising of the curtain on +a scene of such Claude-like loveliness as it would have been impossible +to associate with the bug-bear tales of Donnaz or with the coarse antics +of the comedians at Chivasso. A temple girt with mysterious shade, +lifting its colonnade above a sunlit harbour; and before the temple, +vine-wreathed nymphs waving their thyrsi through the turns of a +melodious dance--such was the vision that caught up Odo and swept him +leagues away from the rouged and starred assemblage gathered in the +boxes to gossip, flirt, eat ices and chocolates, and incidentally, in +the pauses of their talk, to listen for a moment to the ravishing airs +of Metastasio's Achilles in Scyros. + +The distance between such performances--magic evocations of light and +colour and melody--and the gross buffoonery of the popular stage, still +tainted with the obscenities of the old commedia dell' arte, in a +measure explains the different points from which at that period the +stage was viewed in Italy: a period when in such cities as Milan, +Venice, Turin, actors and singers were praised to the skies and loaded +with wealth and favours, while the tatterdemalion players who set up +their boards in the small towns at market-time or on feast-days were +despised by the people and flung like carrion into unconsecrated graves. +The impression Odo had gathered from Don Gervaso's talk was of the +provincial stage in all its pothouse license; but here was a spectacle +as lofty and harmonious as some great religious pageant. As the action +developed and the beauty of the verse was borne to Odo on the light +hurrying ripples of Caldara's music he turned instinctively to share his +pleasure with those about him. Cantapresto, in a new black coat and +ruffles, was conspicuously taking snuff from the tortoiseshell box which +the Countess's cicisbeo had given him; but Odo saw that he took less +pleasure in the spectacle than in the fact of accompanying the +heir-presumptive of Pianura to a gala performance at the royal theatre; +and the lads about them were for the most part engaged either with their +own dress and appearance, or in exchanging greetings with the royal +pages and the older students. A few of these sat near Odo, disdainfully +superior in their fob-chains and queues; and as the boy glanced about +him he met the fixed stare of one of the number, a tall youth seated at +his elbow, and conspicuous, even in that modish company, for the +exaggerated elegance of his dress. This young man, whose awkward bearing +and long lava-hued face crowned with flamboyant hair contrasted oddly +with his finical apparel, returned Odo's look with a gaze of eager +comprehension. He too, it was clear, felt the thrill and wonder, or at +least re-lived them in the younger lad's emotion; and from that moment +Odo felt himself in mute communion with his neighbour. + +The quick movement of the story--the succession of devices by which the +wily Ulysses lures Achilles to throw off his disguise, while Deidamia +strives to conceal his identity; the scenic beauties of the background, +shifting from sculpture-gallery to pleasance, from pleasance to +banquet-hall; the pomp and glitter of the royal train, the melting +graces of Deidamia and her maidens; seemed, in their multiple appeal, to +develop in Odo new faculties of perception. It was his first initiation +into Italian poetry, and the numbers, now broken, harsh and passionate, +now flowing into liquid sweetness, were so blent with sound and colour +that he scarce knew through which sense they reached him. Deidamia's +strophes thrilled him like the singing-girl's kiss, and at the young +hero's cry-- + + Ma lo so ch' io sono Achille, + E mi sento Achille in sen-- + +his fists tightened and the blood hummed in his ears. + +In the scene of the banquet-hall, where the followers of Ulysses lay +before Lycomedes the offerings of the Greek chieftains, and, while the +King and Deidamia are marvelling at the jewels and the Tyrian robes, +Achilles, unmindful of his disguise, bursts out + +Ah, chi vide finora armi piu belle? + +--at this supreme point Odo again turned to his neighbour. They +exchanged another look, and at the close of the act the youth leaned +forward to ask with an air of condescension: "Is this your first +acquaintance with the divine Metastasio?" + +"I have never been in a play-house before," said Odo reddening. + +The other smiled. "You are fortunate in having so worthy an introduction +to the stage. Many of our operas are merely vulgar and ridiculous; but +Metastasio is a great poet." Odo nodded a breathless assent. "A great +poet," his new acquaintance resumed, "and handling a great theme. But do +you not suffer from the silly songs that perpetually interrupt the flow +of the verse? To me they are intolerable. Metastasio might have been a +great tragic dramatist if Italy would have let him. But Italy does not +want tragedies--she wishes to be sung to, danced to, made eyes at, +flattered and amused! Give her anything, anything that shall help her to +forget her own abasement. Panem et circenses! that is always her cry. +And who can wonder that her sovereigns and statesmen are willing to +humour her, when even her poets stoop to play the mountebank for her +diversion?" The speaker, ruffling his locks with a hand that scattered +the powder, turned on the brilliant audience his strange corrugated +frown. "Fools! simpletons!" he cried, "not to see that in applauding the +Achilles of Metastasio they are smiling at the allegory of their own +abasement! What are the Italians of today but men tricked out in women's +finery, when they should be waiting full-armed to rally at the first +signal of revolt? Oh, for the day when a poet shall arise who dares tell +them the truth, not disguised in sentimental frippery, not ending in a +maudlin reconciliation of love and glory--but the whole truth, naked, +cold and fatal as a patriot's blade; a poet who dares show these +bedizened courtiers they are no freer than the peasants they oppress, +and tell the peasants they are entitled to the same privileges as their +masters!" He paused and drew back with a supercilious smile. "But +doubtless, sir," said he, "I offend you in thus arraigning your sacred +caste; for unless I mistake you belong to the race of demi-gods--the +Titans whose downfall is at hand?" He swept the boxes with a +contemptuous eye. + +Little of this tirade was clear to Odo; but something in the speaker's +tone moved him to answer, with a quick lifting of his head: "My name is +Odo Valsecca, of the Dukes of Pianura;" when, fearing he had seemed to +parade his birth before one evidently of inferior station, he at once +added with a touch of shyness: "And you, sir, are perhaps a poet, since +you speak so beautifully?" + +At which, with a stare and a straightening of his long awkward body, the +other haughtily returned: "A poet, sir? I am the Count Vittorio Alfieri +of Asti." + + +1.9. + +The singular being with whom chance had thus brought him acquainted was +to have a lasting influence on the formation of Odo's character. + +Vittorio Alfieri, then just concluding, at the age of sixteen, his +desultory years of academic schooling, was probably the most +extraordinary youth in Charles Emmanuel's dominion. Of the future +student, of the tragic poet who was to prepare the liberation of Italy +by raising the political ideals of his generation, this moody boy with +his craze for dress and horses, his pride of birth and contempt for his +own class, his liberal theories and insolently aristocratic practice, +must have given small promise to the most discerning observer. It seems +indeed probable that none thought him worth observing and that he passed +among his townsmen merely as one of the most idle and extravagant young +noblemen in a society where idleness and extravagance were held to be +the natural attributes of the great. But in the growth of character the +light on the road to Damascus is apt to be preceded by faint premonitory +gleams; and even in his frivolous days at the Academy Alfieri carried a +Virgil in his pocket and wept and trembled over Ariosto's verse. + +It was the instant response of Odo's imagination that drew the two +together. Odo, as one of the foreign pupils, was quartered in the same +wing of the Academy with the students of Alfieri's class, and enjoyed an +almost equal freedom. Thus, despite the difference of age, the lads +found themselves allied by taste and circumstances. Among the youth of +their class they were perhaps the only two who already felt, however +obscurely, the stirring of unborn ideals, the pressure of that tide of +renovation that was to sweep them, on widely-sundered currents, to the +same uncharted deep. Alfieri, at any rate, represented to the younger +lad the seer who held in his hands the keys of knowledge and beauty. Odo +could never forget the youth who first leant him Annibale Caro's Aeneid +and Metastasio's opera libretti, Voltaire's Zaire and the comedies of +Goldoni; while Alfieri perhaps found in his companion's sympathy with +his own half-dormant tastes the first incentive to a nobler activity. +Certain it is that, in the interchange of their daily comradeship, the +elder gave his friend much that he was himself unconscious of +possessing, and perhaps first saw reflected in Odo's more vivid +sensibility an outline of the formless ideals coiled in the depths of +his own sluggish nature. + +The difference in age, and the possession of an independent fortune, +which the laws of Savoy had left Alfieri free to enjoy since his +fifteenth year, gave him an obvious superiority over Odo; but if +Alfieri's amusements separated him from his young friend, his tastes +were always drawing them together; and Odo was happily of those who are +more engaged in profiting by what comes their way than in pining for +what escapes them. Much as he admired Alfieri, it was somehow impossible +for the latter to condescend to him; and the equality of intercourse +between the two was perhaps its chief attraction to a youth surfeited +with adulation. + +Of the opportunities his new friendship brought him, none became in +after years a pleasanter memory to Odo than his visits with Vittorio to +the latter's uncle, the illustrious architect Count Benedetto Alfieri. +This accomplished and amiable man, who had for many years devoted his +talents to the King's service, was lodged in a palace adjoining the +Academy; and thither, one holiday afternoon, Vittorio conducted his +young friend. + +Ignorant as Odo was of all the arts, he felt on the very threshold the +new quality of his surroundings. These tall bare rooms, where busts and +sarcophagi were ranged as in the twilight of a temple, diffused an +influence that lowered the voice and hushed the step. In the +semi-Parisian capital where French architects designed the King's +pleasure-houses and the nobility imported their boudoir-panellings from +Paris and their damask hangings from Lyons, Benedetto Alfieri +represented the old classic tradition, the tradition of the "grand +manner," which had held its own through all later variations of taste, +running parallel with the barocchismo of the seventeenth century and the +effeminate caprices of the rococo period. He had lived much in Rome, in +the company of men like Winckelmann and Maffei, in that society where +the revival of classical research was being forwarded by the liberality +of Princes and Cardinals and by the indefatigable zeal of the scholars +in their pay. From this centre of aesthetic reaction Alfieri had +returned to the Gallicized Turin, with its preference for the graceful +and ingenious rather than for the large, the noble, the restrained; +bringing to bear on the taste of his native city the influence of a view +raised but perhaps narrowed by close study of the past: the view of a +generation of architects in whom archeological curiosity had stifled the +artistic instinct, and who, instead of assimilating the spirit of the +past like their great predecessors, were engrossed in a sterile +restoration of the letter. It may be said of this school of architects +that they were of more service to posterity than to their +contemporaries; for while they opened the way to modern antiquarian +research, their pedantry checked the natural development of a style +which, if left to itself, might in time have found new and more vigorous +forms of expression. + +To Odo, happily, Count Benedetto's surroundings spoke more forcibly than +his theories. Every object in the calm severe rooms appealed to the boy +with the pure eloquence of form. Casts of the Vatican busts stood +against the walls and a niche at one end of the library contained a +marble copy of the Apollo Belvedere. The sarcophagi with their winged +genii, their garlands and bucranes, and porphyry tazzas, the fragments +of Roman mosaic and Pompeian fresco-painting, roused Odo's curiosity as +if they had been the scattered letters of a new alphabet; and he saw +with astonishment his friend Vittorio's indifference to these wonders. +Count Benedetto, it was clear, was resigned to his nephew's lack of +interest. The old man doubtless knew that he represented to the youth +only the rich uncle whose crotchets must be humoured for the sake of +what his pocket may procure; and such kindly tolerance made Odo regret +that Vittorio should not at least affect an interest in his uncle's +pursuits. + +Odo's eagerness to see and learn filled Count Benedetto with a simple +joy. He brought forth all his treasures for the boy's instruction and +the two spent many an afternoon poring over Piranesi's Roman etchings, +Maffei's Verona Illustrata, and Count Benedetto's own elegant +pencil-drawings of classical remains. Like all students of his day he +had also his cabinet of antique gems and coins, from which Odo obtained +more intimate glimpses of that buried life so marvellously exhumed +before him: hints of traffic in far-off market-places and familiar +gestures of hands on which those very jewels might have sparkled. Nor +did the Count restrict the boy's enquiries to that distant past; and for +the first time Odo heard of the masters who had maintained the great +classical tradition on Latin soil: Sanmichele, Vignola, Sansovino, and +the divine Michael Angelo, whom the old architect never named without +baring his head. From the works of these architects Odo formed his first +conception of the earlier, more virile manner which the first contact +with Graeco-Roman antiquity had produced. The Count told him, too, of +the great painters whose popularity had been lessened, if their fame had +not been dimmed, by the more recent achievements of Correggio, Guido, +Guercino, and the Bolognese school. The splendour of the stanze of the +Vatican, the dreadful majesty of the Sistine ceiling, revealed to Odo +the beauty of that unmatched moment before grandeur broke into bombast. +His early association with the expressive homely art of the chapel at +Pontesordo and with the half-pagan beauty of Luini's compositions had +formed his taste on soberer lines than the fashion of the day affected; +and his imagination breathed freely on the heights of the Latin +Parnassus. Thus, while his friend Vittorio stormed up and down the quiet +rooms, chattering about his horses, boasting of his escapades, or +ranting against the tyranny of the Sardinian government, Odo, at the old +Count's side, was entering on the great inheritance of the past. + +Such an initiation was the more precious to him from the indifference of +those about him to all forms of liberal culture. Among the greater +Italian cities, Turin was at that period the least open to new +influences, the most rigidly bound up in the formulas of the past. While +Milan, under the Austrian rule, was becoming a centre of philosophic +thought; while Naples was producing a group of economists such as +Galiani, Gravina and Filangieri; while ecclesiastical Rome was +dedicating herself to the investigation of ancient art and polity, and +even flighty Venice had her little set of "liberals," who read Voltaire +and Hume and wept over the rights of man, the old Piedmontese capital +lay in the grasp of a bigoted clergy and of a reigning house which was +already preparing to superimpose Prussian militarism on the old feudal +discipline of the border. Generations of hard fighting and rigorous +living had developed in the nobles the qualities which were preparing +them for the great part their country was to play; and contact with the +Waldensian and Calvinist heresies had stiffened Piedmontese piety into a +sombre hatred of schism and a minute observance of the mechanical rules +of the faith. Such qualities could be produced only at the expense of +intellectual freedom; and if Piedmont could show a few nobles like +Massimo d'Azeglio's father, who "made the education of his children his +first and gravest thought" and supplemented the deficiencies of his +wife's conventual training by "consecrating to her daily four hours of +reading, translating and other suitable exercises," the commoner view +was that of Alfieri's own parents, who frequently repeated in their +son's hearing "the old maxim of the Piedmontese nobility" that there is +no need for a gentleman to be a scholar. Such at any rate was the +opinion of the old Marquess of Donnaz, and of all the frequenters of +Casa Valdu. Odo's stepfather was engrossed in the fulfilment of his +duties about the court, and Donna Laura, under the influence of poverty +and ennui, had sunk into a state of rigid pietism; so that the lad, on +his visits to his mother, found himself in a world where art was +represented by the latest pastel-portrait of a court beauty, literature +by Liguori's Glories of Mary or the blessed Battista's Mental Sorrows of +Christ, and history by the conviction that Piedmont's efforts to stamp +out the enemies of the Church had distinguished her above every other +country of Europe. Donna Laura's cicisbeo was indeed a member of the +local Arcadia, and given to celebrating in verse every incident in the +noble household of Valdu, from its lady's name-day to the death of a pet +canary; but his own tastes inclined to the elegant Bettinelli, whose +Lettere Virgiliane had so conclusively shown Dante to be a writer of +barbarous doggerel; and among the dilettanti of the day one heard less +of Raphael than of Carlo Maratta, less of Ariosto and Petrarch than of +the Jesuit poet Padre Cevo, author of the sublime "heroico-comic" poem +on the infancy of Jesus. + +It was in fact mainly to the Jesuits that Italy, in the early part of +the eighteenth century, owed her literature and her art, as well as the +direction of her religious life. Though the reaction against the order +was everywhere making itself felt, though one Italian sovereign after +another had been constrained to purchase popularity or even security by +banishing the Society from his dominions, the Jesuits maintained their +hold on the aristocracy, whose pretentions they flattered, whose tastes +they affected, and to whom they represented the spirit of religious and +political conservatism, against which invisible forces were already felt +to be moving. For the use of their noble supporters, the Jesuits had +devised a religion as elaborate and ceremonious as the social usages of +the aristocracy: a religion which decked its chapels in imitation of +great ladies' boudoirs and prescribed observances in keeping with the +vapid and gossiping existence of their inmates. + +To Odo, fresh from the pure air of Donnaz, where the faith of his +kinsfolk expressed itself in charity, self-denial and a noble decency of +life, there was something stifling in the atmosphere of languishing +pietism in which his mother's friends veiled the emptiness of their +days. Under the instruction of the Countess's director the boy's +conscience was enervated by the casuistries of Liguorianism and his +devotion dulled by the imposition of interminable "pious practices." It +was in his nature to grudge no sacrifice to his ideals, and he might +have accomplished without question the monotonous observances his +confessor exacted, but for the changed aspect of the Deity in whose name +they were imposed. + +As with most thoughtful natures, Odo's first disillusionment was to come +from discovering not what his God condemned, but what He condoned. +Between Cantapresto's coarse philosophy of pleasure and the refined +complaisances of his new confessor he felt the distinction to be one +rather of taste than of principle; and it seemed to him that the +religion of the aristocracy might not unfairly be summed up in the +ex-soprano's cynical aphorism: "As respectful children of our Heavenly +Father it behoves us not to speak till we are spoken to." + +Even the religious ceremonies he witnessed did not console him for that +chill hour of dawn, when, in the chapel at Donnaz, he had served the +mass for Don Gervaso, with a heart trembling at its own unworthiness yet +uplifted by the sense of the Divine Presence. In the churches adorned +like aristocratic drawing-rooms, of which some Madonna, wreathed in +artificial flowers, seemed the amiable and indulgent hostess, and where +the florid passionate music of the mass was rendered by the King's opera +singers before a throng of chattering cavaliers and ladies, Odo prayed +in vain for a reawakening of the old emotion. The sense of sonship was +gone. He felt himself an alien in the temple of this affable divinity, +and his heart echoed no more than the cry which had once lifted him on +wings of praise to the very threshold of the hidden glory-- + +Domine, dilexi decorem domus tuae et locum habitationis gloriae tuae! + +It was in the first reaction from this dimly felt loss that he lit one +day on a volume which Alfieri had smuggled into the Academy--the Lettres +Philosophiques of Francois Arouet de Voltaire. + + + +BOOK II. THE NEW LIGHT. + +Zu neuen Ufern lockt ein neuer Tag. + + +2.1. + +One afternoon of April in the year 1774, Odo Valsecca, riding down the +hillside below the church of the Superga, had reined in his horse at a +point where a group of Spanish chestnuts overhung the way. The air was +light and pure, the shady turf invited him, and dismounting he bid his +servant lead the horses to the wayside inn half way down the slope. + +The spot he had chosen, though secluded as some nook above the gorge of +Donnaz, commanded a view of the Po rolling at his feet like a flood of +yellowish metal, and beyond, outspread in clear spring sunshine, the +great city in the bosom of the plain. The spectacle was fair enough to +touch any fancy: brown domes and facades set in new-leaved gardens and +surrounded by vineyards extending to the nearest acclivities; +country-houses glancing through the fresh green of planes and willows; +monastery-walls cresting the higher ridges; and westward the Po winding +in sunlit curves toward the Alps. + +Odo had lost none of his sensitiveness to such impressions; but the sway +of another mood turned his eye from the outstretched beauty of the city +to the vernal solitude about him. It was the season when old memories of +Donnaz worked in his blood; when the banks and hedges of the fresh +hill-country about Turin cheated him with a breath of budding +beech-groves and the fragrance of crushed fern in the glens of the high +Pennine valleys. It was a mere waft, perhaps, from some clod of loosened +earth, or the touch of cool elastic moss as he flung himself face +downward under the trees; but the savour, the contact filled his +nostrils with mountain air and his eyes with dim-branched distances. At +Donnaz the slow motions of the northern spring had endeared to him all +those sweet incipiencies preceding the full choral burst of leaf and +flower: the mauve mist over bare woodlands, the wet black gleams in +frost-bound hollows, the thrust of fronds through withered bracken, the +primrose-patches spreading like pale sunshine along wintry lanes. He had +always felt a sympathy for these delicate unnoted changes; but the +feeling which had formerly been like the blind stir of sap in a plant +was now a conscious sensation that groped for speech and understanding. + +He had grown up among people to whom such emotions were unknown. The old +Marquess's passion for his fields and woods was the love of the +agriculturist and the hunter, not that of the naturalist or the poet; +and the aristocracy of the cities regarded the country merely as so much +soil from which to draw their maintenance. The gentlefolk never absented +themselves from town but for a few weeks of autumn, when they went to +their villas for the vintage, transporting thither all the diversions of +city life and venturing no farther afield than the pleasure-grounds that +were but so many open-air card-rooms, concert-halls and theatres. Odo's +tenderness for every sylvan function of renewal and decay, every +shifting of light and colour on the flying surface of the year, would +have been met with the same stare with which a certain enchanting +Countess had received the handful of wind-flowers that, fresh from a +sunrise on the hills, he had laid one morning among her toilet-boxes. +The Countess Clarice had stared and laughed, and every one of his +acquaintance, Alfieri even, would have echoed her laugh; but one man at +least had felt the divine commotion of nature's touch, had felt and +interpreted it, in words as fresh as spring verdure, in the pages of a +volume that Odo now drew from his pocket. + +"I longed to dream, but some unexpected spectacle continually distracted +me from my musings. Here immense rocks hung their ruinous masses above +my head; there the thick mist of roaring waterfalls enveloped me; or +some unceasing torrent tore open at my very feet an abyss into which the +gaze feared to plunge. Sometimes I was lost in the twilight of a thick +wood; sometimes, on emerging from a dark ravine, my eyes were charmed by +the sight of an open meadow...Nature seemed to revel in unwonted +contrasts; such varieties of aspect had she united in one spot. Here was +an eastern prospect bright with spring flowers, while autumn fruits +ripened to the south and the northern face of the scene was still locked +in wintry frosts...Add to this the different angles at which the peaks +took the light, the chiaroscuro of sun and shade, and the variations of +light resulting from it at morning and evening...sum up the impressions +I have tried to describe and you will be able to form an idea of the +enchanting situation in which I found myself...The scene has indeed a +magical, a supernatural quality, which so ravishes the spirit and senses +that one seems to lose all exact notion of one's surroundings and +identity." + +This was a new language to eighteenth-century readers. Already it had +swept through the length and breadth of France, like a spring storm-wind +bursting open doors and windows, and filling close candle-lit rooms with +wet gusts and the scent of beaten blossoms; but south of the Alps the +new ideas travelled slowly, and the Piedmontese were as yet scarce aware +of the man who had written thus of their own mountains. It was true +that, some thirty years earlier, in one of the very monasteries on which +Odo now looked down, a Swiss vagrant called Rousseau had embraced the +true faith with the most moving signs of edification; but the rescue of +Helvetian heretics was a favourite occupation of the Turinese nobility +and it is doubtful if any recalled the name of the strange proselyte who +had hastened to signalise his conversion by robbing his employers and +slandering an innocent maid-servant. Odo in fact owed his first +acquaintance with the French writers to Alfieri, who, in the intervals +of his wandering over Europe, now and then reappeared in Turin laden +with the latest novelties in Transalpine literature and haberdashery. +What his eccentric friend failed to provide, Odo had little difficulty +in obtaining for himself; for though most of the new writers were on the +Index, and the Sardinian censorship was notoriously severe, there was +never yet a barrier that could keep out books, and Cantapresto was a +skilled purveyor of contraband dainties. Odo had thus acquainted himself +with the lighter literature of England and France; and though he had +read but few philosophical treatises, was yet dimly aware of the new +standpoint from which, north of the Alps, men were beginning to test the +accepted forms of thought. The first disturbance of his childish faith, +and the coincident reading of the Lettres Philosophiques, had been +followed by a period of moral perturbation, during which he suffered +from that sense of bewilderment, of inability to classify the phenomena +of life, that is one of the keenest trials of inexperience. Youth and +nature had their way with him, however, and a wholesome reaction of +indifference set in. The invisible world of thought and conduct had been +the frequent subject of his musings; but the other, tangible world was +close to him too, spreading like a rich populous plain between himself +and the distant heights of speculation. The old doubts, the old +dissatisfactions, hung on the edge of consciousness; but he was too +profoundly Italian not to linger awhile in that atmosphere of careless +acquiescence that is so pleasant a medium for the unhampered enjoyment +of life. Some day, no doubt, the intellectual curiosity and the moral +disquietude would revive; but what he wanted now were books which +appealed not to his reason but to his emotions, which reflected as in a +mirror the rich and varied life of the senses: books that were warm to +the touch, like the little volume in his hand. + +For it was not only of nature that the book spoke. Amid scenes of such +rustic freshness were set human passions as fresh and natural: a great +romantic love, subdued to duty, yet breaking forth again and again as +young shoots spring from the root of a felled tree. To +eighteenth-century readers such a picture of life was as new as its +setting. Duty, in that day, to people of quality, meant the observance +of certain fixed conventions: the correct stepping of a moral minuet; as +an inner obligation, as a voluntary tribute to Diderot's "divinity on +earth," it had hardly yet drawn breath. To depict a personal relation so +much purer and more profound than any form of sentiment then in fashion, +and then to subordinate it, unflinchingly, to the ideal of those larger +relations that link the individual to the group--this was a stroke of +originality for which it would be hard to find a parallel in modern +fiction. Here at last was an answer to the blind impulses agrope in +Odo's breast--the loosening of those springs of emotion that gushed +forth in such fresh contrast to the stagnant rills of the sentimental +pleasure-garden. To renounce a Julie would be more thrilling than-- + +Odo, with a sigh, thrust the book in his pocket and rose to his feet. It +was the hour of the promenade at the Valentino and he had promised the +Countess Clarice to attend her. The old high-roofed palace of the French +princess lay below him, in its gardens along the river: he could figure, +as he looked down on it, the throng of carriages and chairs, the +modishly dressed riders, the pedestrians crowding the footpath to watch +the quality go by. The vision of all that noise and glitter deepened the +sweetness of the woodland hush. He sighed again. Suddenly voices sounded +in the road below--a man's speech flecked with girlish laughter. Odo +hung back listening: the girl's voice rang like a bird-call through his +rustling fancies. Presently she came in sight: a slender black-mantled +figure hung on the arm of an elderly man in the sober dress of one of +the learned professions--a physician or a lawyer, Odo guessed. Their +being afoot, and the style of the man's dress, showed that they were of +the middle class; their demeanour, that they were father and daughter. +The girl moved with a light forward flowing of her whole body that +seemed the pledge of grace in every limb: of her face Odo had but a +bright glimpse in the eclipse of her flapping hat-brim. She stood under +his tree unheeded; but as they rose abreast of him the girl paused and +dropped her companion's arm. + +"Look! The cherry flowers!" she cried, and stretched her arms to a white +gush of blossoms above the wall across the road. The movement tilted +back her hat, and Odo caught her small fine profile, wide-browed as the +head on some Sicilian coin, with a little harp-shaped ear bedded in dark +ripples. + +"Oh," she wailed, straining on tiptoe, "I can't reach them!" + +Her father smiled. "May temptation," said he philosophically, "always +hang as far out of your reach." + +"Temptation?" she echoed. + +"Is it not theft you're bent on?" + +"Theft? This is a monk's orchard, not a peasant's plot." + +"Confiscation, then," he humorously conceded. + +"Since they pay no taxes on their cherries they might at least," she +argued, "spare a few to us poor taxpayers." + +"Ah," said her father, "I want to tax their cherries, not to gather +them." He slipped a hand through her arm. "Come, child," said he, "does +not the philosopher tell us that he who enjoys a thing possesses it? The +flowers are yours already!" + +"Oh, are they?" she retorted. "Then why doesn't the loaf in the baker's +window feed the beggar that looks in at it?" + +"Casuist!" he cried and drew her up the bend of the road. + +Odo stood gazing after them. Their words, their aspect, seemed an echo +of his reading. The father in his plain broadcloth and square-buckled +shoes, the daughter with her unpowdered hair and spreading hat, might +have stepped from the pages of the romance. What a breath of freshness +they brought with them! The girl's cheek was clear as the +cherry-blossoms, and with what lovely freedom did she move! Thus Julie +might have led Saint Preux through her "Elysium." Odo crossed the road +and, breaking one of the blossoming twigs, thrust it in the breast of +his uniform. Then he walked down the hill to the inn where the horses +waited. Half an hour later he rode up to the house where he lodged in +the Piazza San Carlo. + +In the archway Cantapresto, heavy with a nine years' accretion of fat, +laid an admonishing hand on his bridle. + +"Cavaliere, the Countess's black boy--" + +"Well?" + +"Three several times has battered the door down with a missive." + +"Well?" + +"The last time, I shook him off with the message that you would be there +before him." + +"Be where?" + +"At the Valentino; but that was an hour ago!" + +Odo slipped from the saddle. + +"I must dress first. Call a chair; or no--write a letter for me first. +Let Antonio carry it." + +The ex-soprano, wheezing under the double burden of flesh and +consequence, had painfully laboured after Odo up the high stone flights +to that young gentleman's modest lodgings, and they stood together in a +study lined with books and hung with prints and casts from the antique. +Odo threw off his dusty coat and called the servant to remove his boots. + +"Will you read the lady's letters, cavaliere?" Cantapresto asked, +obsequiously offering them on a lacquered tray. + +"No--no: write first. Begin 'My angelic lady'--" + +"You began the last letter in those terms, cavaliere," his scribe +reminded him with suspended pen. + +"The devil! Well, then--wait. 'Throned goddess'--" + +"You ended the last letter with 'throned goddess.'" + +"Curse the last letter! Why did you send it?" Odo sprang up and slipped +his arms into the dress-tunic his servant had brought him. "Write +anything. Say that I am suddenly summoned by--" + +"By the Count Alfieri?" Cantapresto suggested. + +"Count Alfieri? Is he here? He has returned?" + +"He arrived an hour ago, cavaliere. He sent you this Moorish scimitar +with his compliments. I understand he comes recently from Spain." + +"Imbecile, not to have told me before! Quick, Antonio--my gloves, my +sword." Odo, flushed and animated, buckled his sword-belt with impatient +hands. "Write anything--anything to free my evening. Tomorrow +morning--tomorrow morning I shall wait on the lady. Let Antonio carry +her a nosegay with my compliments. Did you see him Cantapresto? Was he +in good health? Does he sup at home? He left no message? Quick, Antonio, +a chair!" he cried with his hand on the door. + +Odo had acquired, at twenty-two, a nobility of carriage not incompatible +with the boyish candour of his gaze, and becomingly set off by the +brilliant dress-uniform of a lieutenant in one of the provincial +regiments. He was tall and fair, and a certain languor of complexion, +inherited from his father's house, was corrected in him by the vivacity +of the Donnaz blood. This now sparkled in his grey eye, and gave a glow +to his cheek, as he stepped across the threshold, treading on a sprig of +cherry-blossom that had dropped unnoticed to the floor. + +Cantapresto, looking after him, caught sight of the flowers and kicked +them aside with a contemptuous toe. "I sometimes think he botanises," he +murmured with a shrug. "The Lord knows what queer notions he gets out of +all these books!" + + +2.2. + +As an infusion of fresh blood to Odo were Alfieri's meteoric returns to +Turin. Life moved languidly in the strait-laced city, even to a young +gentleman a-tiptoe for adventure and framed to elicit it as the +hazel-wand draws water. Not that vulgar distractions were lacking. The +town, as Cantapresto had long since advised him, had its secret +leniencies, its posterns opening on clandestine pleasure; but there was +that in Odo which early turned him from such cheap counterfeits of +living. He accepted the diversions of his age, but with a clear sense of +their worth; and the youth who calls his pleasures by their true name +has learned the secret of resisting them. + +Alfieri's coming set deeper springs in motion. His follies and +extravagances were on a less provincial scale than those of Odo's daily +associates. The breath of a freer life clung to him and his allusions +were so many glimpses into a larger world. His political theories were +but the enlargement of his private grievances, but the mere play of +criticism on accepted institutions was an exercise more novel and +exhilirating than the wildest ride on one of his half-tamed +thorough-breds. Still chiefly a man of pleasure, and the slave, as +always, of some rash infatuation, Alfieri was already shaking off the +intellectual torpor of his youth; and the first stirrings of his +curiosity roused an answering passion in Odo. Their tastes were indeed +divergent, for to that external beauty which was to Odo the very bloom +of life, Alfieri remained insensible; while of its imaginative +counterpart, its prolongation in the realm of thought and emotion, he +had but the most limited conception. But his love of ringing deeds woke +the chivalrous strain in Odo, and his vague celebration of Liberty, that +unknown goddess to whom altars were everywhere building, chimed with the +other's scorn of oppression and injustice. So far, it is true, their +companionship had been mainly one of pleasure; but the temper of both +gave their follies that provisional character which saves them from +vulgarity. + +Odo, who had slept late on the morning after his friend's return, was +waked by the pompous mouthing of certain lines just then on every lip in +Italy:-- + + Meet was it that, its ancient seats forsaking, + An Empire should set forth with dauntless sail, + And braving tempests and the deep's betrayal, + Break down the barriers of inviolate worlds-- + That Cortez and Pizarro should esteem + The blood of man a trivial sacrifice + When, flinging down from their ancestral thrones + Incas and Mexicans of royal line, + They wrecked two kingdoms to refresh thy palate-- + +They were the verses in which the abate Parini, in his satire of The +Morning, apostrophizes the cup of chocolate which the lacquey presents +to his master. Cantapresto had in fact just entered with a cup of this +beverage, and Alfieri, who stood at his friend's bedside with unpowdered +locks and a fashionable undress of Parisian cut, snatching the tray from +the soprano's hands presented it to Odo in an attitude of mock +servility. + +The young man sprang up laughing. It was the fashion to applaud Parini's +verse in the circles at which his satire was aimed, and none recited his +mock heroics with greater zest than the young gentlemen whose fopperies +he ridiculed. Odo's toilet was indeed a rite almost as elaborate as that +of Parini's hero; and this accomplished, he was on his way to fulfil the +very duty the poet most unsparingly derides: the morning visit of the +cicisbeo to his lady; but meanwhile he liked to show himself above the +follies of his class by joining in the laugh against them. When he +issued from the powder-room in his gold-laced uniform, with scented +gloves and carefully-adjusted queue, he presented the image of a young +gentleman so clearly equal to the most flattering emergencies that +Alfieri broke into a smile of half-ironical approval. "I see, my dear +cavaliere, that it were idle to invite you to try one of the new Arabs I +have brought with me from Spain, since it is plain other duties engage +you; but I come to lay claim to your evening." + +Odo hesitated. "The Queen holds a circle this evening," he said. + +"And her lady-in-waiting is in attendance?" returned Alfieri. "And the +lady-in-waiting's gentleman-in-waiting also?" + +Odo made an impatient movement. "What inducements do you offer?" said he +carelessly. + +Alfieri stepped close and tapped him on the sleeve. "Meet me at ten +o'clock at the turn of the lane behind the Corpus Domini. Wear a cloak +and a mask, and leave this gentleman at home with a flask of Asti." He +glanced at Cantapresto. + +Odo hesitated a moment. He knew well enough where such midnight turnings +led, and across the vision evoked by his friend's words a girl's face +flitted suddenly. + +"Is that all?" he said with a shrug. "You find me, I fear, in no humour +for such exploits." + +Alfieri smiled. "And if I say that I have promised to bring you?" + +"Promised--?" + +"To one as chary of exacting such pledges as I of giving them. If I say +that you stake your life on the adventure, and that the stake is not too +great for the reward--?" + +His sallow face had reddened with excitement, and Odo's forehead +reflected the flush. Was it possible--? But the thought set him tingling +with disgust. + +"Why, you say little," he cried lightly, "at the rate at which I value +my life." + +Alfieri turned on him. "If your life is worthless; make it worth +something!" he exclaimed. "I offer you the opportunity tonight." + +"What opportunity?" + +"The sight of a face that men have laid down their lives to see." + +Odo laughed and buckled on his sword. "If you answer for the risk, I +agree to take it," said he. "At ten o'clock then, behind the Corpus +Domini." + +If the ladies whom gallant gentlemen delight to serve could guess what +secret touchstones of worth these same gentlemen sometimes carry into +the adored presence, many a handsome head would be carried with less +assurance, and many a fond exaction less confidently imposed. If, for +instance, the Countess Clarice di Tournanches, whose high-coloured image +reflected itself so complacently in her Venetian toilet-glass, could +have known that the Cavaliere Odo Valsecca's devoted glance saw her +through the medium of a countenance compared to which her own revealed +the most unexpected shortcomings, she might have received him with less +airy petulance of manner. But how could so accomplished a mistress doubt +the permanence of her rule? The Countess Clarice, in singling out young +Odo Valsecca (to the despair of a score of more experienced cavaliers) +had done him an honour that she could no more imagine his resigning than +an adventurer a throne to which he is unexpectedly raised. She was a +finished example of the pretty woman who views the universe as planned +for her convenience. What could go wrong in a world where noble ladies +lived in palaces hung with tapestry and damask, with powdered lacqueys +to wait on them, a turbaned blackamoor to tend their parrots and +monkeys, a coronet-coach at the door to carry them to mass or the +ridotto, and a handsome cicisbeo to display on the promenade? Everything +had combined to strengthen the Countess Clarice's faith in the existing +order of things. Her husband, Count Roberto di Tournanches, was one of +the King's equerries and distinguished for his brilliant career as an +officer of the Piedmontese army--a man marked for the highest favours in +a society where military influences were paramount. Passing at sixteen +from an aristocratic convent to the dreary magnificence of the Palazzo +Tournanches, Clarice had found herself a lady-in-waiting at the dullest +court in Europe and the wife of an army officer engrossed in his +profession, and pledged by etiquette to the service of another lady. Odo +Valsecca represented her escape from this bondage--the dash of romance +and folly in a life of elegant formalities; and the Countess, who would +not have sacrificed to him one of her rights as a court-lady or a nobil +donna of the Golden Book, regarded him as the reward which Providence +accords to a well-regulated conduct. + +Her room, when Odo entered it on taking leave of Alfieri, was crowded, +as usual at that hour, with the hangers-on of the noble lady's lever: +the abatino in lace ruffles, handing about his latest rhymed acrostic, +the jeweller displaying a set of enamelled buckles newly imported from +Paris, and the black-breeched doctor with white bands who concocted +remedies for the Countess's vapours and megrims. These personages, +grouped about the toilet-table where the Countess sat under the hands of +a Parisian hairdresser, were picturesquely relieved against the stucco +panelling and narrow mirrors of the apartment, with its windows looking +on a garden set with mossy statues. To Odo, however, the scene suggested +the most tedious part of his day's routine. The compliments to be +exchanged, the silly verses to be praised, the gewgaws from Paris to be +admired, were all contrasted in his mind with the vision of that other +life which had come to him on the hillside of the Superga. On this mood +the Countess Clarice's sarcasms fell without effect. To be pouted at +because he had failed to attend the promenade of the Valentino was to +Odo but a convenient pretext for excusing himself from the Queen's +circle that evening. He had engaged with little ardour to join Alfieri +in what he guessed to be a sufficiently commonplace adventure; but as he +listened to the Countess's chatter about the last minuet-step, and the +relative merits of sanspareil water and oil-of-lilies, of gloves from +Blois and Vendome, his impatience hailed any alternative as a release. +Meanwhile, however, long hours of servitude intervened. The lady's +toilet completed, to the adjusting of the last patch, he must attend her +to dinner, where, placed at her side, he was awarded the honour of +carving the roast; must sit through two hours of biribi in company with +the abatino, the doctor, and half-a-dozen parasites of the noble table; +and for two hours more must ride in her gilt coach up and down the +promenade of the Valentino. + +Escaping from this ceremonial, with the consciousness that it must be +repeated on the morrow, Odo was seized with that longing for freedom +that makes the first street-corner an invitation to flight. How he +envied Alfieri, whose travelling-carriage stood at the beck of such +moods! Odo's scant means forbade evasion, even had his military duties +not kept him in Turin. He felt himself no more than a puppet dancing to +the tune of Parini's satire, a puny doll condemned, as the strings of +custom pulled, to feign the gestures of immortal passions. + + +2.3. + +The night was moonless, with cold dashes of rain, and though the streets +of Turin were well-lit no lantern-ray reached the windings of the lane +behind the Corpus Domini. + +As Odo, alone under the wall of the church, awaited his friend's +arrival, he wondered what risk had constrained the reckless Alfieri to +such unwonted caution. Italy was at that time a vast network of +espionage, and the Piedmontese capital passed for one of the +best-policed cities in Europe; but even on a moonless night the law +distinguished between the noble pleasure-seeker and the obscure +delinquent whose fate it was to pay the other's shot. Odo knew that he +would probably be followed and his movements reported to the +authorities; but he was almost equally certain that there would be no +active interference in his affairs. What chiefly puzzled him was +Alfieri's insistence that Cantapresto should not be privy to the +adventure. The soprano had long been the confidant of his pupil's +escapades, and his adroitness had often been of service in intrigues +such as that on which Odo now fancied himself engaged. The place, again, +perplexed him: a sober quarter of convents and private dwellings, in the +very eye of the royal palace, scarce seeming the theatre for a light +adventure. These incongruities revived his former wonder; nor was this +dispelled by Alfieri's approach. + +The poet, masked and unattended, rejoined his friend without a word; and +Odo guessed in him an eye and ear alert for pursuit. Guided by the +pressure of his arm, Odo was hurried round the bend of the lane, up a +transverse alley and across a little square lost between high shuttered +buildings. Alfieri, at his first word, gripped his arm with a backward +glance; then urged him on under the denser blackness of an arched +passage-way, at the end of which an oil-light glimmered. Here a gate in +a wall confronted them. It opened at Alfieri's tap and Odo scented wet +box-borders and felt the gravel of a path under foot. The gate was at +once locked behind them and they entered the ground-floor of a house as +dark as the garden. Here a maid-servant of close aspect met them with a +lamp and preceded them upstairs to a bare landing hung with charts and +portulani. On Odo's flushed anticipations this antechamber, which seemed +the approach to some pedant's cabinet, had an effect undeniably +chilling; but Alfieri, heedless of his surprise, had cast off cloak and +mask, and now led the way into a long conventual-looking room lined with +book-shelves. A knot of middle-aged gentlemen of sober dress and manner, +gathered about a cabinet of fossils in the centre of this apartment, +looked up at the entrance of the two friends; then the group divided, +and Odo with a start recognised the girl he had seen on the road to the +Superga. + +She bowed gravely to the young men. "My father," said she, in a clear +voice without trace of diffidence, "has gone to his study for a book, +but will be with you in a moment." + +She wore a dress in keeping with her manner, its black stuff folds and +the lawn kerchief crossed on her bosom giving height and authority to +her slight figure. The dark unpowdered hair drawn back over a cushion +made a severer setting for her face than the fluctuating brim of her +shade-hat; and this perhaps added to the sense of estrangement with +which Odo gazed at her; but she met his look with a smile, and instantly +the rosy girl flashed through her grave exterior. + +"Here is my father," said she; and her companion of the previous day +stepped into the room with several folios under his arm. + +Alfieri turned to Odo. "This, my dear Odo," said he, "is my +distinguished friend, Professor Vivaldi, who has done us the honour of +inviting us to his house." He took the Professor's hand. "I have brought +you," he continued, "the friend you were kind enough to include in your +invitation--the Cavaliere Odo Valsecca." + +Vivaldi bowed. "Count Alfieri's friends," said he, "are always welcome +to my house; though I fear there is here little to interest a young +gentleman of the Cavaliere Valsecca's years." And Odo detected a shade +of doubt in his glance. + +"The Cavaliere Valsecca," Alfieri smilingly rejoined, "is above his +years in wit and learning, and I answer for his interest as I do for his +discretion." + +The Professor bowed again. "Count Alfieri, sir," he said, "has doubtless +explained to you the necessity that obliges me to be so private in +receiving my friends; and now perhaps you will join these gentlemen in +examining some rare fossil fish newly sent me from the Monte Bolca." + +Odo murmured a civil rejoinder; but the wonder into which the sight of +the young girl had thrown him was fast verging on stupefaction. What +mystery was here? What necessity compelled an elderly professor to +receive his scientific friends like a band of political conspirators? +How above all, in the light of the girl's presence, was Odo to interpret +Alfieri's extravagant allusions to the nature of their visit? + +The company having returned to the cabinet of fossils, none seemed to +observe his disorder but the young lady who was its cause; and seeing +him stand apart she advanced with a smile, saying, "Perhaps you would +rather look at some of my father's other curiosities." + +Simple as the words were, they failed to restore Odo's self-possession, +and for a moment he made no answer. Perhaps she partly guessed the cause +of his commotion; yet it was not so much her beauty that silenced him, +as the spirit that seemed to inhabit it. Nature, in general so chary of +her gifts, so prone to use one good feature as the palliation of a dozen +deficiencies, to wed the eloquent lip with the ineffectual eye, had +indeed compounded her of all fine meanings, making each grace the +complement of another and every outward charm expressive of some inward +quality. Here was as little of the convent-bred miss as of the flippant +and vapourish fine lady; and any suggestion of a less fair alternative +vanished before such candid graces. Odo's confusion had in truth sprung +from Alfieri's ambiguous hints; and these shrivelling to nought in the +gaze that encountered his, constraint gave way to a sense of wondering +pleasure. + +"I should like to see whatever you will show me," said he, as simply as +one child speaking to another; and she answered in the same tone, "Then +we'll glance at my father's collections before the serious business of +the evening begins." + +With these words she began to lead him about the room, pointing out and +explaining the curiosities it contained. It was clear that, like many +scholars of his day, Professor Vivaldi was something of an eclectic in +his studies, for while one table held a fine orrery, a cabinet of coins +stood near, and the book-shelves were surmounted by specimens of coral +and petrified wood. Of all these rarities his daughter had a word to +say, and though her explanations were brief and without affectation of +pedantry, they put her companion's ignorance to the blush. It must be +owned, however, that had his learning been a match for hers it would +have stood him in poor stead at the moment; his faculties being lost in +the wonder of hearing such discourse from such lips. To his compliments +on her erudition she returned with a smile that what learning she had +was no merit, since she had been bred in a library; to which she +suddenly added:--"You are not unknown to me, Cavaliere; but I never +thought to see you here." + +The words renewed her hearer's surprise; but giving him no time to +reply, she went on in a lower tone:--"You are young and the world is +fair before you. Have you considered that before risking yourself among +us?" + +She coloured under Odo's wondering gaze, and at his random rejoinder +that it was a risk any man would gladly take without considering, she +turned from him with a gesture in which he fancied a shade of +disappointment. + +By this they had reached the cabinet of fossils, about which the +interest of the other guests still seemed to centre. Alfieri, indeed, +paced the farther end of the room with the air of awaiting the despatch +of some tedious business; but the others were engaged in an animated +discussion necessitating frequent reference to the folios Vivaldi had +brought from his study. + +The latter turned to Odo as though to include him in the group. "I do +not know, sir," said he, "whether you have found leisure to study these +enigmas of that mysterious Sphinx, the earth; for though Count Alfieri +has spoken to me of your unusual acquirements, I understand your tastes +have hitherto lain rather in the direction of philosophy and letters;" +and on Odo's prompt admission of ignorance, he courteously continued: +"The physical sciences seem, indeed, less likely to appeal to the +imaginative and poetical faculty in man, and, on the other hand, +religion has appeared to prohibit their too close investigation; yet I +question if any thoughtful mind can enter on the study of these curious +phenomena without feeling, as it were, an affinity between such +investigations and the most abstract forms of thought. For whether we +regard these figured stones as of terriginous origin, either mere lusus +naturae, or mineral formations produced by a plastic virtue latent in +the earth, or whether as in fact organic substances lapidified by the +action of water; in either case, what speculations must their origin +excite, leading us back into that dark and unexplored period of time +when the breath of Creation was yet moving on the face of the waters!" + +Odo had listened but confusedly to the first words of this discourse; +but his intellectual curiosity was too great not to respond to such an +appeal, and all his perplexities slipped from him in the pursuit of the +Professor's thought. + +One of the other guests seemed struck by his look of attention. "My dear +Vivaldi," said this gentleman, laying down a fossil, and fixing his gaze +on Odo while he addressed the Professor, "why use such superannuated +formulas in introducing a neophyte to a study designed to subvert the +very foundations of the Mosaic cosmogony? I take it the Cavaliere is one +of us, since he is here this evening: why, then, permit him to stray +even for a moment in the labyrinth of theological error?" + +The Professor's deprecating murmur was cut short by an outburst from +another of the learned group, a red-faced spectacled personage in a +doctor's gown. + +"Pardon me for suggesting," he exclaimed, "that the conditional terms in +which our host was careful to present his hypotheses are better suited +to the instruction of the neophyte than our learned friend's positive +assertions. But if the Vulcanists are to claim the Cavaliere Valsecca, +may not the Diluvials also have a hearing? How often must it be repeated +that theology as well as physical science is satisfied by the Diluvial +explanation of the origin of petrified organisms, whereas inexorable +logic compels the Vulcanists to own that their thesis is subversive of +all dogmatic belief?" + +The first speaker answered with a gesture of disdain. "My dear doctor, +you occupy a chair in our venerated University. From that exalted +cathedra the Mosaic theory of Creation must still be expounded; but in +the security of these surroundings--the catacombs of the new faith--why +keep up the forms of an obsolete creed? As long ago as Pythagoras, man +was taught that all things were in a state of flux, without end as +without beginning, and must we still, after more than two thousand +years, pretend to regard the universe as some gigantic toy manufactured +in six days by a Superhuman Artisan, who is presently to destroy it at +his pleasure?" + +"Sir," cried the other, flushing from red to purple at this assault, "I +know not on what ground you insinuate that my private convictions differ +from my public doctrine--" + +But here, with a firmness tempered by the most scrupulous courtesy, +Professor Vivaldi intervened. + +"Gentlemen," said he, "the discussion in which you are engaged, +interesting as it is, must, I fear, distract us from the true purpose of +our meeting. I am happy to offer my house as the asylum of all free +research; but you must remember that the first object of these reunions +is, not the special study of any one branch of modern science, but the +application of physical investigation to the origin and destiny of man. +In other words, we ask the study of nature to lead us to the knowledge +of ourselves; and it is because we approach this great problem from a +point as yet unsanctioned by dogmatic authority, that I am reluctantly +obliged"--and here he turned to Odo with a smile--"to throw a veil of +privacy over these inoffensive meetings." + +Here at last was the key to the enigma. The gentlemen assembled in +Professor Vivaldi's rooms were met there to discuss questions not safely +aired in public. They were conspirators indeed, but the liberation they +planned was intellectual rather than political; though the acuter among +them doubtless saw whither such innovations tended. Meanwhile they were +content to linger in that wide field of speculation which the +development of the physical sciences had recently opened to philosophic +thought. As, at the Revival of Learning, the thinker imprisoned in +mediaeval dialectics suddenly felt under his feet the firm ground of +classic argument, so, in the eighteenth century, philosophy, long +suspended in the void of metaphysic, touched earth again and, +Antaeus-like, drew fresh life from the contact. It was clear that +Professor Vivaldi, whose very name had been unknown to Odo, was an +important figure in the learned world, and one uniting the tact and +firmness necessary to control those dissensions from which philosophy +itself does not preserve its disciples. His words calmed the two +disputants who were preparing to do battle over Odo's unborn scientific +creed, and the talk growing more general, the Professor turned to his +daughter, saying, "My Fulvia, is the study prepared?" + +She signed her assent, and her father led the way to an inner cabinet, +where seats were drawn about a table scattered with pamphlets, gazettes +and dictionaries, and set out with modest refreshments. Here began a +conversation ranging from chemistry to taxation, and from the +perfectibility of man to the secondary origin of the earth's surface. It +was evident to Odo that, though the Professor's guests represented all +shades of opinion, some being clearly loth to leave the safe anchorage +of orthodoxy, while others already braved the seas of free enquiry, yet +all were at one as to the need of unhampered action and discussion. +Odo's dormant curiosity woke with a start at the summons of fresh +knowledge. Here were worlds to explore, or rather the actual world about +him, a region then stranger and more unfamiliar than the lost Atlantis +of fable. Liberty was the word on every lip, and if to some it +represented the right to doubt the Diluvial origin of fossils, to others +that of reforming the penal code, to a third (as to Alfieri) merely +personal independence and relief from civil restrictions; yet these +fragmentary conceptions seemed, to Odo's excited fancy, to blend in the +vision of a New Light encircling the whole horizon of thought. He +understood at last Alfieri's allusion to a face for the sight of which +men were ready to lay down their lives; and if, as he walked home before +dawn, those heavenly lineaments were blent in memory with features of a +mortal cast, yet these were pure and grave enough to stand for the image +of the goddess. + + +2.4. + +Professor Orazio Vivaldi, after filling with distinction the chair of +Philosophy at the University of Turin, had lately resigned his office +that he might have leisure to complete a long-contemplated work on the +Origin of Civilisation. His house was the meeting-place of a society +calling itself of the Honey-Bees and ostensibly devoted to the study of +the classical poets, from whose pages the members were supposed to cull +mellifluous nourishment; but under this guise the so-called literati had +for some time indulged in free discussion of religious and scientific +questions. The Academy of the Honey-Bees comprised among its members all +the independent thinkers of Turin: doctors of law, of philosophy and +medicine, chemists, philologists and naturalists, with one or two +members of the nobility, who, like Alfieri, felt, or affected, an +interest in the graver problems of life, and could be trusted not to +betray the true character of the association. + +These details Odo learned the next day from Alfieri; who went on to say +that, owing to the increased vigilance of the government, and to the +banishment of several distinguished men accused by the Church of +heretical or seditious opinions, the Honey-Bees had of late been obliged +to hold their meetings secretly, it being even rumoured that Vivaldi, +who was their president, had resigned his professorship and withdrawn +behind the shelter of literary employment in order to elude the +observation of the authorities. Men had not yet forgotten the fate of +the Neapolitan historian, Pietro Giannone, who for daring to attack the +censorship and the growth of the temporal power had been driven from +Naples to Vienna, from Vienna back to Venice, and at length, at the +prompting of the Holy See, lured across the Piedmontese frontier by +Charles Emmanuel of Savoy, and imprisoned for life in the citadel of +Turin. The memory of his tragic history--most of all, perhaps, of his +recantation and the "devout ending" to which solitude and persecution +had forced the freest spirit of his day--hovered like a warning on the +horizon of thought and constrained political speculation to hide itself +behind the study of fashionable trifles. Alfieri had lately joined the +association of the Honey-Bees, and the Professor, at his suggestion, had +invited Odo, for whose discretion his friend declared himself ready to +answer. The Honey-Bees were in fact desirous of attracting young men of +rank who felt an interest in scientific or economic problems; for it was +hoped that in this manner the new ideas might imperceptibly permeate the +class whose privileges and traditions presented the chief obstacle to +reform. In France, it was whispered, free-thinkers and political +agitators were the honoured guests of the nobility, who eagerly embraced +their theories and applied them to the remedy of social abuses. Only by +similar means could the ideals of the Piedmontese reformers be realised; +and in those early days of universal illusion none appeared to suspect +the danger of arming inexperienced hands with untried weapons. Utopia +was already in sight; and all the world was setting out for it as for +some heavenly picnic ground. + +Of Vivaldi himself, Alfieri spoke with extravagant admiration. His +affable exterior was said to conceal the moral courage of one of +Plutarch's heroes. He was a man after the antique pattern, ready to lay +down fortune, credit and freedom in the defence of his convictions. "An +Agamemnon," Alfieri exclaimed, "who would not hesitate to sacrifice his +daughter to obtain a favourable wind for his enterprise!" + +The metaphor was perhaps scarcely to Odo's taste; but at least it gave +him the chance for which he had waited. "And the daughter?" he asked. + +"The lovely doctoress?" said Alfieri carelessly. "Oh, she's one of your +prodigies of female learning, such as our topsy-turvy land produces: an +incipient Laura Bassi or Gaetana Agnesi, to name the most distinguished +of their tribe; though I believe that hitherto her father's good sense +or her own has kept her from aspiring to academic honours. The beautiful +Fulvia is a good daughter, and devotes herself, I'm told, to helping +Vivaldi in his work; a far more becoming employment for one of her age +and sex than defending Latin theses before a crew of ribald students." + +In this Odo was of one mind with him; for though Italy was used to the +spectacle of the Improvisatrice and the female doctor of philosophy, it +is doubtful if the character was one in which any admirer cared to see +his divinity figure. Odo, at any rate, felt a distinct satisfaction in +learning that Fulvia Vivaldi had thus far made no public display of her +learning. How much pleasanter to picture her as her father's aid, +perhaps a sharer in his dreams: a vestal cherishing the flame of Liberty +in the secret sanctuary of the goddess! He scarce knew as yet of what +his feeling for the girl was compounded. The sentiment she had roused +was one for which his experience had no name: an emotion in which awe +mingled with an almost boyish sense of fellowship, sex as yet lurking +out of sight as in some hidden ambush. It was perhaps her association +with a world so unfamiliar and alluring that lent her for the moment her +greatest charm. Odo's imagination had been profoundly stirred by what he +had heard and seen at the meeting of the Honey-Bees. That impatience +with the vanity of his own pursuits and with the injustice of existing +conditions, which hovered like a phantom at the feast of life, had at +last found form and utterance. Parini's satires and the bitter mockery +of the "Frusta Letteraria" were but instruments of demolition; but the +arguments of the Professor's friends had that constructive quality so +appealing to the urgent temper of youth. Was the world in ruins? Then +here was a plan to rebuild it. Was humanity in chains? Behold the angel +on the threshold of the prison! + +Odo, too impatient to await the next reunion of the Honey-Bees, sought +out and frequented those among the members whose conversation had +chiefly attracted him. They were grave men, of studious and retiring +habit, leading the frugal life of the Italian middle-class, a life in +dignified contrast to the wasteful and aimless existence of the +nobility. Odo's sensitiveness to outward impressions made him peculiarly +alive to this contrast. None was more open than he to the seducements of +luxurious living, the polish of manners, the tacit exclusion of all that +is ugly or distressing; but it seemed to him that fine living should be +but the flower of fine feeling, and that such external graces, when they +adorned a dull and vapid society, were as incongruous as the royal +purple on a clown. Among certain of his new friends he found a +clumsiness of manner somewhat absurdly allied with an attempt at Roman +austerity; but he was fair-minded enough to see that the middle-class +doctor or lawyer who tries to play the Cicero is, after all, a more +respectable figure than the Marquess who apes Caligula or Commodus. +Still, his lurking dilettantism made him doubly alive to the elegance of +the Palazzo Tournanches when he went thither from a coarse meal in the +stuffy dining-parlour of one of his new acquaintances; as he never +relished the discourse of the latter more than after an afternoon in the +society of the Countess's parasites. + +Alfieri's allusions to the learned ladies for whom Italy was noted made +Odo curious to meet the wives and daughters of his new friends; for he +knew it was only in their class that women received something more than +the ordinary conventual education; and he felt a secret desire to +compare Fulvia Vivaldi with other young girls of her kind. Learned +ladies he met, indeed; for though the women-folk of some of the +philosophers were content to cook and darn for them (and perhaps +secretly burn a candle in their behalf to Saint Thomas Aquinas or Saint +Dominick, refuters of heresy), there were others who aspired to all the +honours of scholarship, and would order about their servant-girls in +Tuscan, and scold their babies in Ciceronian Latin. Among these fair +grammarians, however, he met none that wore her learning lightly. They +were forever tripping in the folds of their doctors' gowns, and +delivering their most trivial views ex cathedra; and too often the poor +philosophers, their lords and fathers, cowered under their harangues +like frightened boys under the tongue of a schoolmaster. + +It was in fact only in the household of Orazio Vivaldi that Odo found +the simplicity and grace of living for which he longed. Alfieri had +warned him not to visit the Professor too often, since the latter, being +under observation, might be compromised by the assiduity of his friends. +Odo therefore waited for some days before presenting himself, and when +he did so it was at the angelus, when the streets were crowded and a +man's comings and goings the less likely to be marked. He found Vivaldi +reading with his daughter in the long library where the Honey-Bees held +their meetings; but Fulvia at once withdrew, nor did she show herself +again during Odo's visit. It was clear that, proud of her as Vivaldi +was, he had no wish to parade her attainments, and that in her daily +life she maintained the Italian habit of seclusion; but to Odo she was +everywhere present in the quiet room with its well-ordered books and +curiosities, and the scent of flowers rising through the shuttered +windows. He was sensible of an influence permeating even the inanimate +objects about him, so that they seemed to reflect the spirit of those +who dwelt there. No room had given him this sense of companionship since +he had spent his boyish holidays in the old Count Benedetto's +apartments; but it was of another, intangible world that his present +surroundings spoke. Vivaldi received him kindly and asked him to repeat +his visit; and Odo returned as often as he thought prudent. + +The Professor's conversation engaged him deeply. Vivaldi's familiarity +with French speculative literature, and with its sources in the +experiential philosophy of the English school, gave Odo his first clear +conception of the origin and tendency of the new movement. This +coordination of scattered ideas was aided by his readings in the +Encyclopaedia, which, though placed on the Index in Piedmont, was to be +found behind the concealed panels of more than one private library. From +his talks with Alfieri, and from the pages of Plutarch, he had gained a +certain insight into the Stoical view of reason as the measure of +conduct, and of the inherent sufficiency of virtue as its own end. He +now learned that all about him men were endeavouring to restore the +human spirit to that lost conception of its dignity; and he longed to +join the band of new crusaders who had set out to recover the tomb of +truth from the forces of superstition. The distinguishing mark of +eighteenth-century philosophy was its eagerness to convert its +acquisitions in every branch of knowledge into instruments of practical +beneficence; and this quality appealed peculiarly to Odo, who had ever +been moved by abstract theories only as they explained or modified the +destiny of man. Vivaldi, pleased by his new pupil's eagerness to learn, +took pains to set before him this aspect of the struggle. + +"You will now see," he said, after one of their long talks about the +Encyclopaedists, "why we who have at heart the mental and social +regeneration of our countrymen are so desirous of making a concerted +effort against the established system. It is only by united action that +we can prevail. The bravest mob of independent fighters has little +chance against a handful of disciplined soldiers, and the Church is +perfectly logical in seeing her chief danger in the Encyclopaedia's +systematised marshalling of scattered truths. As long as the attacks on +her authority were isolated, and as it were sporadic, she had little to +fear even from the assaults of genius; but the most ordinary intellect +may find a use and become a power in the ranks of an organised +opposition. Seneca tells us the slaves in ancient Rome were at one time +so numerous that the government prohibited their wearing a distinctive +dress lest they should learn their strength and discover that the city +was in their power; and the Church knows that when the countless spirits +she has enslaved without subduing have once learned their number and +efficiency they will hold her doctrines at their mercy.--The Church +again," he continued, "has proved her astuteness in making faith the +gift of grace and not the result of reason. By so doing she placed +herself in a position which was well-nigh impregnable till the school of +Newton substituted observation for intuition and his followers showed +with increasing clearness the inability of the human mind to apprehend +anything outside the range of experience. The ultimate claim of the +Church rests on the hypothesis of an intuitive faculty in man. Disprove +the existence of this faculty, and reason must remain the supreme test +of truth. Against reason the fabric of theological doctrine cannot long +hold out, and the Church's doctrinal authority once shaken, men will no +longer fear to test by ordinary rules the practical results of her +teaching. We have not joined the great army of truth to waste our time +in vain disputations over metaphysical subtleties. Our aim is, by +freeing the mind of man from superstition to relieve him from the +practical abuses it entails. As it is impossible to examine any fiscal +or industrial problem without discovering that the chief obstacle to +improvement lies in the Church's countless privileges and exemptions, so +in every department of human activity we find some inveterate wrong +taking shelter under the claim of a divinely-revealed authority. This +claim demolished, the stagnant current of human progress will soon burst +its barriers and set with a mighty rush toward the wide ocean of truth +and freedom..." + +That general belief in the perfectibility of man which cheered the +eighteenth-century thinkers in their struggle for intellectual liberty +coloured with a delightful brightness this vision of a renewed humanity. +It threw its beams on every branch of research, and shone like an +aureole round those who laid down fortune and advancement to purchase +the new redemption of mankind. Foremost among these, as Odo now learned, +were many of his own countrymen. In his talks with Vivaldi he first +explored the course of Italian thought and heard the names of the great +jurists, Vico and Gravina, and of his own contemporaries, Filangieri, +Verri and Beccaria. Vivaldi lent him Beccaria's famous volume and +several numbers of the "Caffe," the brilliant gazette which Verri and +his associates were then publishing in Milan, and in which all the +questions of the day, theological, economic and literary, were discussed +with a freedom possible only under the lenient Austrian rule. + +"Ah," Vivaldi cried, "Milan is indeed the home of the free spirit, and +were I not persuaded that a man's first duty is to improve the condition +of his own city and state, I should long ago have left this unhappy +kingdom; indeed I sometimes fancy I may yet serve my own people better +by proclaiming the truth openly at a distance than by whispering it in +their midst." + +It was a surprise to Odo to learn that the new ideas had already taken +such hold in Italy, and that some of the foremost thinkers on scientific +and economic subjects were among his own countrymen. Like all +eighteenth-century Italians of his class he had been taught to look to +France as the source of all culture, intellectual and social; and he was +amazed to find that in jurisprudence, and in some of the natural +sciences, Italy led the learning of Europe. + +Once or twice Fulvia showed herself for a moment; but her manner was +retiring and almost constrained, and her father always contrived an +excuse for dismissing her. This was the more noticeable as she continued +to appear at the meetings of the Honey-Bees, where she joined freely in +the conversation, and sometimes diverted the guests by playing on the +harpsichord or by recitations from the poets; all with such art and +grace, and withal so much simplicity, that it was clear she was +accustomed to the part. Odo was thus driven to the not unflattering +conclusion that she had been instructed to avoid his company; and after +the first disappointment he was too honest to regret it. He was deeply +drawn to the girl; but what part could she play in the life of a man of +his rank? The cadet of an impoverished house, it was unlikely that he +would marry; and should he do so, custom forbade even the thought of +taking a wife outside of his class. Had he been admitted to free +intercourse with Fulvia, love might have routed such prudent counsels; +but in the society of her father's associates, where she moved, as in a +halo of learning, amid the respectful admiration of middle-aged +philosophers and jurists, she seemed as inaccessible as a young Minerva. + +Odo, at first, had been careful not to visit Vivaldi too often; but the +Professor's conversation was so instructive, and his library so +inviting, that inclination got the better of prudence, and the young man +fell into the habit of turning almost daily down the lane behind the +Corpus Domini. Vivaldi, too proud to betray any concern for his personal +safety, showed no sign of resenting the frequency of these visits; +indeed, he received Odo with an increasing cordiality that, to an older +observer, might have betokened an effort to hide his apprehension. + +One afternoon, escaping later than usual from the Valentino, Odo had +again bent toward the quiet quarter behind the palace. He was afoot, +with a cloak over his laced coat, and the day being Easter Monday the +streets were filled with a throng of pleasure-seekers amid whom it +seemed easy enough for a man to pass unnoticed. Odo, as he crossed the +Piazza Castello, thought it had never presented a gayer scene. Booths +with brightly-striped awnings had been set up under the arcades, which +were thronged with idlers of all classes; court-coaches dashed across +the square or rolled in and out of the palace-gates; and the Palazzo +Madama, lifting against the sunset its ivory-tinted columns and statues, +seemed rather some pictured fabric of Claude's or Bibbiena's than an +actual building of brick and marble. The turn of a corner carried him +from this spectacle into the solitude of a by-street where his own tread +was the only sound. He walked on carelessly; but suddenly he heard what +seemed an echo of his step. He stopped and faced about. No one was in +sight but a blind beggar crouching at the side-door of the Corpus +Domini. Odo walked on, listening, and again he heard the step, and again +turned to find himself alone. He tried to fancy that his ear had tricked +him; but he knew too much of the subtle methods of Italian espionage not +to feel a secret uneasiness. His better judgment warned him back; but +the desire to spend a pleasant hour prevailed. He took a turn through +the neighbouring streets, in the hope of diverting suspicion, and ten +minutes later was at the Professor's gate. + +It opened at once, and to his amazement Fulvia stood before him. She had +thrown a black mantle over her head, and her face looked pale and vivid +in the fading light. Surprise for a moment silenced Odo, and before he +could speak the girl, without pausing to close the gate, had drawn him +toward her and flung her arms about his neck. In the first disorder of +his senses he was conscious only of seeking her lips; but an instant +later he knew it was no kiss of love that met his own, and he felt her +tremble violently in his arms. He saw in a flash that he was on unknown +ground; but his one thought was that Fulvia was in trouble and looked to +him for aid. He gently freed himself from her hold and tried to shape a +soothing question; but she caught his arm and, laying a hand over his +mouth, drew him across the garden and into the house. The lower floor +stood dark and empty. He followed Fulvia up the stairs and into the +library, which was also empty. The shutters stood wide, admitting the +evening freshness and a drowsy scent of jasmine from the garden. + +Odo could not control a thrill of strange anticipation as he found +himself alone in this silent room with the girl whose heart had so +lately beat against his own. She had sunk into a chair, with her face +hidden, and for a moment or two he stood before her without speaking. +Then he knelt at her side and took her hands with a murmur of +endearment. + +At his touch she started up. "And it was I," she cried, "who persuaded +my father that he might trust you!" And she sank back sobbing. + +Odo rose and moved away, waiting for her overwrought emotion to subside. +At length he gently asked, "Do you wish me to leave you?" + +She raised her head. "No," she said firmly, though her lip still +trembled; "you must first hear an explanation of my conduct; though it +is scarce possible," she added, flushing to the brow, "that you have not +already guessed the purpose of this lamentable comedy." + +"I guess nothing," he replied, "save that perhaps I may in some way +serve you." + +"Serve me?" she cried, with a flash of anger through her tears. "It is a +late hour to speak of service, after what you have brought on this +house!" + +Odo turned pale. "Here indeed, madam," said he, "are words that need an +explanation." + +"Oh," she broke forth, "and you shall have it; though I think to any +other it must be writ large upon my countenance." She rose and paced the +floor impetuously. "Is it possible," she began again, "you do not yet +perceive the sense of that execrable scene? Or do you think, by feigning +ignorance, to prolong my humiliation? Oh," she said, pausing before him, +her breast in a tumult, her eyes alight, "it was I who persuaded my +father of your discretion and prudence, it was through my influence that +he opened himself to you so freely; and is this the return you make? +Alas, why did you leave your fashionable friends and a world in which +you are so fitted to shine, to bring unhappiness on an obscure household +that never dreamed of courting your notice?" + +As she stood before him in her radiant anger, it went hard with Odo not +to silence with a kiss a resentment that he guessed to be mainly +directed against herself; but he controlled himself and said quietly: +"Madam, I were a dolt not to perceive that I have had the misfortune to +offend; but when or how, I swear to heaven I know not; and till you +enlighten me I can neither excuse nor defend myself." + +She turned pale, but instantly recovered her composure. "You are right," +she said; "I rave like a foolish girl; but indeed I scarce know if I am +in my waking senses"--She paused, as if to check a fresh rush of +emotion. "Oh, sir," she cried, "can you not guess what has happened? You +were warned, I believe, not to frequent this house too openly; but of +late you have been an almost daily visitor, and you never come here but +you are followed. My father's doctrines have long been under suspicion, +and to be accused of perverting a man of your rank must be his ruin. He +was too proud to tell you this, and profiting today by his absence, and +knowing that if you came the spies would be at your heels, I resolved to +meet you at the gate, and welcome you in such a way that our enemies +should be deceived as to the true cause of your visits." + +Her voice wavered on the last words, but she faced him proudly, and it +was Odo whose gaze fell. Never perhaps had he been conscious of cutting +a meaner figure; yet shame was so blent in him with admiration for the +girl's nobility and courage, that compunction was swept away in the +impulse that flung him at her feet. + +"Ah," he cried, "I have been blind indeed, and what you say abases me to +earth. Yes, I was warned that my visits might compromise your father; +nor had I any pretext for returning so often but my own selfish pleasure +in his discourse; or so at least," he added in a lower voice, "I chose +to fancy--but when we met just now at the gate, if you acted a comedy, +believe me, I did not; and if I have come day after day to this house, +it is because, unknowingly, I came for you." + +The words had escaped him unawares, and he was too sensible of their +untimeliness not to be prepared for the gesture with which she cut him +short. + +"Oh," said she, in a tone of the liveliest reproach, "spare me this last +affront if you wish me to think the harm you have already done was done +unknowingly!" + +Odo rose to his feet, tingling under the rebuke. "If respect and +admiration be an affront, madam," he said, "I cannot remain in your +presence without offending, and nothing is left me but to withdraw; but +before going I would at least ask if there is no way of repairing the +harm that my over-assiduity has caused." + +She flushed high at the question. "Why, that," she said, "is in part, I +trust, already accomplished; indeed," she went on with an effort, "it +was when I learned the authorities suspected you of coming here on a +gallant adventure that I devised the idea of meeting you at the gate; +and for the rest, sir, the best reparation you can make is one that will +naturally suggest itself to a gentleman whose time must already be so +fully engaged." + +And with that she made him a deep reverence, and withdrew to the inner +room. + + +2.5. + +When the Professor's gate closed on Odo night was already falling and +the oil-lamp at the end of the arched passage-way shed its weak circle +of light on the pavement. This light, as Odo emerged, fell on a +retreating figure which resembled that of the blind beggar he had seen +crouching on the steps of the Corpus Domini. He ran forward, but the man +hurried across the little square and disappeared in the darkness. Odo +had not seen his face; but though his dress was tattered, and he leaned +on a beggar's staff, something about his broad rolling back recalled the +well-filled outline of Cantapresto's cassock. + +Sick at heart, Odo rambled on from one street to another, avoiding the +more crowded quarters, and losing himself more than once in the +districts near the river, where young gentlemen of his figure seldom +showed themselves unattended. The populace, however, was all abroad, and +he passed as unregarded as though his sombre thoughts had enveloped him +in actual darkness. + +It was late when at length he turned again into the Piazza Castello, +which was brightly lit and still thronged with pleasure-seekers. As he +approached, the crowd divided to make way for three or four handsome +travelling-carriages, preceded by linkmen and liveried out-riders and +followed by a dozen mounted equerries. The people, evidently in the +humour to greet every incident of the streets as part of a show prepared +for their diversion, cheered lustily as the carriages dashed across the +square; and Odo, turning to a man at his elbow, asked who the +distinguished visitors might be. + +"Why, sir," said the other laughing, "I understand it is only an +Embassage from some neighbouring state; but when our good people are in +their Easter mood they are ready to take a mail-coach for Elijah's +chariot and their wives' scolding for the Gift of Tongues." + +Odo spent a restless night face to face with his first humiliation. +Though the girl's rebuff had cut him to the quick, it was the vision of +the havoc his folly had wrought that stood between him and sleep. To +have endangered the liberty, the very life, perhaps, of a man he loved +and venerated, and who had welcomed him without heed of personal risk, +this indeed was bitter to his youthful self-sufficiency. The thought of +Giannone's fate was like a cold clutch at his heart; nor was there any +balm in knowing that it was at Fulvia's request he had been so freely +welcomed; for he was persuaded that, whatever her previous feeling might +have been, the scene just enacted must render him forever odious to her. +Turn whither it would, his tossing vanity found no repose; and dawn rose +for him on a thorny waste of disillusionment. + +Cantapresto broke in early on this vigil, flushed with the importance of +a letter from the Countess Valdu. The lady summoned her son to dinner, +"to meet an old friend and distinguished visitor"; and a verbal message +bade Odo come early and wear his new uniform. He was too well acquainted +with his mother's exaggerations to attach much importance to the +summons; but being glad of an excuse to escape his daily visit at the +Palazzo Tournanches, he sent Donna Laura word that he would wait on her +at two. + +On the very threshold of Casa Valdu, Odo perceived that unwonted +preparations were afoot. The shabby liveries of the servants had been +refurbished and the marble floor newly scoured; and he found his mother +seated in the drawing-room, an apartment never unshrouded save on the +most ceremonious occasions. As to Donna Laura, she had undergone the +same process of renovation, and with more striking results. It seemed to +Odo, when she met him sparkling under her rouge and powder, as though +some withered flower had been dipped in water, regaining for the moment +a languid semblance of its freshness. Her eyes shone, her hand trembled +under his lips, and the diamonds rose and fell on her eager bosom. + +"You are late!" she tenderly reproached him; and before he had time to +reply, the double doors were thrown open, and the major-domo announced +in an awed voice: "His excellency Count Lelio Trescorre." + +Odo turned with a start. To his mind, already crowded with a confusion +of thoughts, the name summoned a throng of memories. He saw again his +mother's apartments at Pianura, and the handsome youth with lace ruffles +and a clouded amber cane, who came and went among her other visitors +with an air of such superiority, and who rode beside the +travelling-carriage on the first stage of their journey to Donnaz. To +that handsome youth the gentleman just announced bore the likeness of +the finished portrait to the sketch. He was a man of about +two-and-thirty, of the middle height, with a delicate dark face and an +air of arrogance not unbecomingly allied to an insinuating courtesy of +address. His dress of sombre velvet, with a star on the breast, and a +profusion of the finest lace, suggested the desire to add dignity and +weight to his appearance without renouncing the softer ambitions of his +age. + +He received with a smile Donna Laura's agitated phrases of welcome. "I +come," said he kissing her hand, "in my private character, not as the +Envoy of Pianura, but as the friend and servant of the Countess Valdu; +and I trust," he added turning to Odo, "of the Cavaliere Valsecca also." + +Odo bowed in silence. + +"You may have heard," Trescorre continued, addressing him in the same +engaging tone, "that I am come to Turin on a mission from his Highness +to the court of Savoy: a trifling matter of boundary-lines and customs, +which I undertook at the Duke's desire, the more readily, it must be +owned, since it gave me the opportunity to renew my acquaintance with +friends whom absence has not taught me to forget." He smiled again at +Donna Laura, who blushed like a girl. + +The curiosity which Trescorre's words excited was lost to Odo in the +painful impression produced by his mother's agitation. To see her, a +woman already past her youth, and aged by her very efforts to preserve +it, trembling and bridling under the cool eye of masculine indifference, +was a spectacle the more humiliating that he was too young to be moved +by its human and pathetic side. He recalled once seeing a memento mori +of delicately-tinted ivory, which represented a girl's head, one side +all dewy freshness, the other touched with death; and it seemed to him +that his mother's face resembled this tragic toy, the side her mirror +reflected being still rosy with youth, while that which others saw was +already a ruin. His heart burned with disgust as he followed Donna Laura +and Trescorre into the dining-room, which had been set out with all the +family plate, and decked with rare fruits and flowers. The Countess had +excused her husband on the plea of his official duties, and the three +sat down alone to a meal composed of the costliest delicacies. + +Their guest, who ate little and drank less, entertained them with the +latest news of Pianura, touching discreetly on the growing estrangement +between the Duke and Duchess, and speaking with becoming gravity of the +heir's weak health. It was clear that the speaker, without filling an +official position at the court, was already deep in the Duke's counsels, +and perhaps also in the Duchess's; and Odo guessed under his smiling +indiscretions the cool aim of the man who never wastes a shot. + +Toward the close of the meal, when the servants had withdrawn, he turned +to Odo with a graver manner. "You have perhaps guessed, cavaliere," he +said, "that in venturing to claim the Countess's hospitality in so +private a manner, I had in mind the wish to open myself to you more +freely than would be possible at court." He paused a moment, as though +to emphasise his words; and Odo fancied he cultivated the trick of +deliberate speaking to counteract his natural arrogance of manner. "The +time has come," he went on, "when it seems desirable that you should be +more familiar with the state of affairs at Pianura. For some years it +seemed likely that the Duchess would give his Highness another son; but +circumstances now appear to preclude that hope; and it is the general +opinion of the court physicians that the young prince has not many years +to live." He paused again, fixing his eyes on Odo's flushed face. "The +Duke," he continued, "has shown a natural reluctance to face a situation +so painful both to his heart and his ambitions; but his feelings as a +parent have yielded to his duty as a sovereign, and he recognises the +fact that you should have an early opportunity of acquainting yourself +more nearly with the affairs of the duchy, and also of seeing something +of the other courts of Italy. I am persuaded," he added, "that, young as +you are, I need not point out to you on what slight contingencies all +human fortunes hang, and how completely the heir's recovery or the birth +of another prince must change the aspect of your future. You have, I am +sure, the heart to face such chances with becoming equanimity, and to +carry the weight of conditional honours without any undue faith in their +permanence." + +The admonition was so lightly uttered that it seemed rather a tribute to +Odo's good sense than a warning to his inexperience; and indeed it was +difficult for him, in spite of an instinctive aversion to the man, to +quarrel with anything in his address or language. Trescorre in fact +possessed the art of putting younger men at their ease, while appearing +as an equal among his elders: a gift doubtless developed by the +circumstances of court life, and the need of at once commanding respect +and disarming diffidence. + +He took leave upon his last words, declaring, in reply to the Countess's +protests, that he had promised to accompany the court that afternoon to +Stupinigi. "But I hope," he added, turning to Odo, "to continue our talk +at greater length, if you will favour me with a visit tomorrow at my +lodgings." + +No sooner was the door closed on her illustrious visitor than Donna +Laura flung herself on Odo's bosom. + +"I always knew it," she cried, "my dearest; but, oh, that I should live +to see the day!" and she wept and clung to him with a thousand +endearments, from the nature of which he gathered that she already +beheld him on the throne of Pianura. To his laughing reminder of the +distance that still separated him from that dizzy eminence, she made +answer that there was far more than he knew, that the Duke had fallen +into all manner of excesses which had already gravely impaired his +health, and that for her part she only hoped her son, when raised to a +station so far above her own, would not forget the tenderness with which +she had ever cherished him, or the fact that Count Valdu's financial +situation was one quite unworthy the stepfather of a reigning prince. + +Escaping at length from this parody of his own sensations, Odo found +himself in a tumult of mind that solitude served only to increase. +Events had so pressed upon him within the last few days that at times he +was reduced to a passive sense of spectatorship, an inability to regard +himself as the centre of so many converging purposes. It was clear that +Trescorre's mission was mainly a pretext for seeing the Duke's young +kinsman; and that some special motive must have impelled the Duke to +show such sudden concern for his cousin's welfare. Trescorre need hardly +have cautioned Odo against fixing his hopes on the succession. The Duke +himself was a man not above five-and-thirty, and more than one chance +stood between Odo and the duchy; nor was it this contingency that set +his pulses beating, but rather the promise of an immediate change in his +condition. The Duke wished him to travel, to visit the different courts +of Italy: what was the prospect of ruling over a stagnant principality +to this near vision of the world and the glories thereof, suddenly +discovered from the golden height of opportunity? Save for a few weeks +of autumn villeggiatura at some neighbouring chase or vineyard, Odo had +not left Turin for nine years. He had come there a child and had grown +to manhood among the same narrow influences and surroundings. To be +turned loose on the world at two-and-twenty, with such an arrears of +experience to his credit, was to enter on a richer inheritance than any +duchy; and in Odo's case the joy of the adventure was doubled by its +timeliness. That fate should thus break at a stroke the meshes of habit, +should stoop to play the advocate of his secret inclinations, seemed to +promise him the complicity of the gods. Once in a lifetime, chance will +thus snap the toils of a man's making; and it is instructive to see the +poor puppet adore the power that connives at his evasion... + +Trescorre remained a week in Turin; and Odo saw him daily at court, at +his lodgings, or in company. The little sovereignty of Pianura being an +important factor in the game of political equilibrium, her envoy was +sure of a flattering reception from the neighbouring powers; and +Trescorre's person and address must have commended him to the most +fastidious company. He continued to pay particular attention to Odo, and +the rumour was soon abroad that the Cavaliere Valsecca had been sent for +to visit his cousin, the reigning Duke; a rumour which, combined with +Donna Laura's confidential hints, made Odo the centre of much feminine +solicitude, and roused the Countess Clarice to a vivid sense of her +rights. These circumstances, and his own tendency to drift on the +current of sensation, had carried Odo more easily than he could have +hoped past the painful episode of the Professor's garden. He was still +tormented by the sense of his inability to right so grave a wrong; but +he found solace in the thought that his absence was after all the best +reparation he could make. + +Trescorre, though distinguishing Odo by his favours, had not again +referred to the subject of their former conversation; but on the last +day of his visit he sent for Odo to his lodgings and at once entered +upon the subject. + +"His Highness," said he, "does not for the present recommend your +resigning your commission in the Sardinian army; but as he desires you +to visit him at Pianura, and to see something of the neighbouring +courts, he has charged me to obtain for you a two years' leave of +absence from his Majesty's service: a favour the King has already been +pleased to accord. The Duke has moreover resolved to double your present +allowance and has entrusted me with the sum of two hundred ducats, which +he desires you to spend in the purchase of a travelling-carriage, and +such other appointments as are suitable to a gentleman of your rank and +expectations." As he spoke, he unlocked his despatch-box and handed a +purse to Odo. "His Highness," he continued, "is impatient to see you; +and once your preparations are completed, I should advise you to set out +without delay; that is," he added, after one of his characteristic +pauses, "if I am right in supposing that there is no obstacle to your +departure." + +Odo, inferring an allusion to the Countess Clarice, smiled and coloured +slightly. "I know of none," he said. + +Trescorre bowed. "I am glad to hear it," he said, "for I know that a man +of your age and appearance may have other inclinations than his own to +consider. Indeed, I have had reports of a connection that I should not +take the liberty of mentioning, were it not that your interest demands +it." He waited a moment, but Odo remained silent. "I am sure," he went +on, "you will do me the justice of believing that I mean no reflection +on the lady, when I warn you against being seen too often in the quarter +behind the Corpus Domini. Such attachments, though engaging at the +outset to a fastidious taste, are often more troublesome than a young +man of your age can foresee; and in this case the situation is +complicated by the fact that the girl's father is in ill odour with the +authorities, so that, should the motive of your visits be mistaken, you +might find yourself inconveniently involved in the proceedings of the +Holy Office." + +Odo, who had turned pale, controlled himself sufficiently to listen in +silence, and with as much pretence of indifference as he could assume. +It was the peculiar misery of his situation that he could not defend +Fulvia without betraying her father, and that of the two alternatives +prudence bade him reject the one that chivalry would have chosen. It +flashed across him, however, that he might in some degree repair the +harm he had done by finding out what measures were to be taken against +Vivaldi; and to this end he carelessly asked:--"Is it possible that the +Professor has done anything to give offence in such quarters?" + +His assumption of carelessness was perhaps overdone; for Trescorre's +face grew as blank as a shuttered house-front. + +"I have heard rumours of the kind," he rejoined; "but they would +scarcely have attracted my notice had I not learned of your honouring +the young lady with your favours." He glanced at Odo with a smile. "Were +I a father," he added, "with a son of your age, my first advice to him +would be to form no sentimental ties but in his own society or in the +world of pleasure--the only two classes where the rules of the game are +understood." + + +2.6. + +Odo had appointed to leave Turin some two weeks after Trescorre's +departure; but the preparations for a young gentleman's travels were in +those days a momentous business, and one not to be discharged without +vexatious postponements. The travelling-carriage must be purchased and +fitted out, the gold-mounted dressing-case selected and engraved with +the owner's arms, servants engaged and provided with liveries, and the +noble tourist's own wardrobe stocked with an assortment of costumes +suited to the vicissitudes of travel and the requirements of court life. + +Odo's impatience to be gone increased with every delay, and at length he +determined to go forward at all adventure, leaving Cantapresto to +conclude the preparations and overtake him later. It had been agreed +with Trescorre that Odo, on his way to Pianura, should visit his +grandfather, the old Marquess, whose increasing infirmities had for some +years past imprisoned him on his estates, and accordingly about the +Ascension he set out in the saddle for Donnaz, attended only by one +servant, and having appointed that Cantapresto should meet him with the +carriage at Ivrea. + +The morning broke cloudy as he rode out of the gates. Beyond the suburbs +a few drops fell, and as he pressed forward the country lay before him +in the emerald freshness of a spring rain, vivid strips of vineyard +alternating with silvery bands of oats, the domes of the walnut-trees +dripping above the roadside, and the poplars along the water-courses all +slanting one way in the soft continuous downpour. He had left Turin in +that mood of clinging melancholy which waits on the most hopeful +departures, and the landscape seemed an image of anticipations clouded +with regret. He had had a stormy but tender parting with Clarice, whose +efforts to act the forsaken Ariadne were somewhat marred by her +irrepressible pride in her lover's prospects, and whose last word had +charged him to bring her back one of the rare lap-dogs bred by the monks +of Bologna. Seen down the lengthening vista of separation even Clarice +seemed regrettable; and Odo would have been glad to let his mind linger +on their farewells. But another thought importuned him. He had left +Turin without news of Vivaldi or Fulvia, and without having done +anything to conjure the peril to which his rashness had exposed them. +More than once he had been about to reveal his trouble to Alfieri; but +shame restrained him when he remembered that it was Alfieri who had +vouched for his discretion. After his conversation with Trescorre he had +tried to find some way of sending a word of warning to Vivaldi; but he +had no messenger whom he could trust; and would not Vivaldi justly +resent a warning from such a source? He felt himself the prisoner of his +own folly, and as he rode along the wet country roads an invisible +gaoler seemed to spur beside him. + +The clouds lifted at noon; and leaving the plain he mounted into a world +sparkling with sunshine and quivering with new-fed streams. The first +breath of mountain-air lifted the mist from his spirit, and he began to +feel himself a boy again as he entered the high gorges in the cold light +after sunset. It was about the full of the moon, and in his impatience +to reach Donnaz he resolved to push on after nightfall. The forest was +still thinly-leaved, and the rustle of wind in the branches and the +noise of the torrents recalled his first approach to the castle, in the +wild winter twilight. The way lay in darkness till the moon rose, and +once or twice he took a wrong turn and found himself engaged in some +overgrown woodland track; but he soon regained the high-road, and his +servant, a young fellow of indomitable cheerfulness, took the edge off +their solitude by frequent snatches of song. At length the moon rose, +and toward midnight Odo, spurring out of a dark glen, found himself at +the opening of the valley of Donnaz. A cold radiance bathed the familiar +pastures, the houses of the village along the stream, and the turrets +and crenellations of the castle at the head of the gorge. The air was +bitter, and the horses' hoofs struck sharply on the road as they trotted +past the slumbering houses and halted at the gateway through which Odo +had first been carried as a sleepy child. It was long before the +travellers' knock was answered, but a bewildered porter at length +admitted them, and Odo cried out when he recognised in the man's face +the features of one of the lads who had taught him to play pallone in +the castle court. + +Within doors all were abed; but the cavaliere was expected, and supper +laid for him in the very chamber where he had slept as a lad. The sight +of so much that was strange and yet familiar--of the old stone walls, +the banners, the flaring lamps and worn slippery stairs--all so much +barer, smaller, more dilapidated than he had remembered--stirred the +deep springs of his piety for inanimate things, and he was seized with a +fancy to snatch up a light and explore the recesses of the castle. But +he had been in the saddle since dawn, and the keen air and the long +hours of riding were in his blood. They weighted his lids, relaxed his +limbs, and gently divesting him of his hopes and fears, pressed him down +in the deep sepulchre of a dreamless sleep... + +Odo remained a month at Donnaz. His grandfather's happiness in his +presence would in itself have sufficed to detain him, apart from his +natural tenderness for old scenes and associations. It was one of the +compensations of his rapidly travelling imagination that the past, from +each new vantage-ground of sensation, acquired a fascination which to +the more sober-footed fancy only the perspective of years can give. +Life, in childhood, is a picture-book of which the text is +undecipherable; and the youth now revisiting the unchanged setting of +his boyhood was spelling out for the first time the legend beneath the +picture. + +The old Marquess, though broken in body, still ruled his household from +his seat beside the hearth. The failure of bodily activity seemed to +have doubled his moral vigour, and the walls shook with the vehemence of +his commands. The Marchioness was sunk in a state of placid apathy from +which only her husband's outbursts roused her; one of the canonesses was +dead, and the other, drier and more shrivelled than ever, pined in her +corner like a statue whose mate is broken. Bruno was dead too; his old +dog's bones had long since enriched a corner of the vineyard; and some +of the younger lads that Odo had known about the place were grown to +sober-faced men with wives and children. + +Don Gervaso was still chaplain of Donnaz; and Odo saw with surprise that +the grave ecclesiastic who had formerly seemed an old man to him was in +fact scarce past the middle age. In general aspect he was unchanged; but +his countenance had darkened, and what Odo had once taken for harshness +of manner he now perceived to be a natural melancholy. The young man had +not been long at Donnaz without discovering that in that little world of +crystallised traditions the chaplain was the only person conscious of +the new forces abroad. It had never occurred to the Marquess that +anything short of a cataclysm such as it would be blasphemy to predict +could change the divinely established order whereby the territorial lord +took tithes from his peasantry and pastured his game on their crops. The +hierarchy which rested on the bowed back of the toiling serf and +culminated in the figure of the heaven-sent King seemed to him as +immutable as the everlasting hills. The men of his generation had not +learned that it was built on a human foundation and that a sudden +movement of the underlying mass might shake the structure to its +pinnacle. The Marquess, who, like Donna Laura, already beheld Odo on the +throne of Pianura, was prodigal of counsels which showed a touching +inability to discern the new aspect under which old difficulties were +likely to present themselves. That a ruler should be brave, prudent, +personally abstemious, and nobly lavish in his official display; that he +should repress any attempts on the privileges of the Church, while at +the same time protecting his authority from the encroachments of the +Holy See; these axioms seemed to the old man to sum up the sovereign's +duty to the state. The relation, to his mind, remained a distinctly +personal and paternal one; and Odo's attempts to put before him the new +theory of government, as a service performed by the ruler in the +interest of the ruled, resulted only in stirring up the old sediment of +absolutism which generations of feudal power had deposited in the Donnaz +blood. + +Only the chaplain perceived what new agencies were at work; but even he +looked on as a watcher from a distant tower, who sees opposing armies +far below him in the night, without being able to follow their movements +or guess which way the battle goes. + +"The days," he said to Odo, "are evil. The Church's enemies, the +basilisks and dragons of unbelief and license, are stirring in their old +lairs, the dark places of the human spirit. It is time that a fresh +purification by blood should cleanse the earth of its sins. That hour +has already come in France, where the blood of heretics has lately +fertilised the soil of faith; it will come here, as surely as I now +stand before you; and till it comes the faithful can only weary heaven +with their entreaties, if haply thereby they may mitigate the evil. I +shall remain here," he continued, "while the Marquess needs me; but that +task discharged, I intend to retire to one of the contemplative orders, +and with my soul perpetually uplifted like the arms of Moses, wear out +my life in prayer for those whom the latter days shall overtake." + +Odo had listened in silence; but after a moment he said: "My father, +among those who have called in to question the old order of things there +are many animated by no mere desire for change, no idle inclination to +pry into the divine mysteries, but who earnestly long to ease the burden +of mankind and let light into what you have called the dark places of +the spirit. How is it, they ask, that though Christ came to save the +poor and the humble, it is on them that life presses most heavily after +eighteen hundred years of His rule? All cannot be well in a world where +such contradictions exist, and what if some of the worst abuses of the +age have found lodgment in the very ramparts that faith has built +against them?" + +Don Gervaso's face grew stern and his eyes rested sadly on Odo. "You +speak," said he, "of bringing light into dark places; but what light is +there on earth save that which is shed by the Cross, and where shall +they find guidance who close their eyes to that divine illumination?" + +"But is there not," Odo rejoined, "a divine illumination within each of +us, the light of truth which we must follow at any cost--or have the +worst evils and abuses only to take refuge in the Church to find +sanctuary there, as malefactors find it?" + +The chaplain shook his head. "It is as I feared," he said, "and Satan +has spread his subtlest snare for you; for if he tempts some in the +guise of sensual pleasure, or of dark fears and spiritual abandonment, +it is said that to those he most thirsts to destroy he appears in the +likeness of their Saviour. You tell me it is to right the wrongs of the +poor and the humble that your new friends, the philosophers, have +assailed the authority of Christ. I have only one answer to make: +Christ, as you said just now, died for the poor--how many of your +philosophers would do as much? Because men hunger and thirst, is that a +sign that He has forsaken them? And since when have earthly privileges +been the token of His favour? May He not rather have designed that, by +continual sufferings and privations, they shall lay up for themselves +treasures in Heaven such as your eyes and mine shall never see or our +ears hear? And how dare you assume that any temporal advantages could +atone for that of which your teachings must deprive them--the heavenly +consolations of the love of Christ?" + +Odo listened with a sense of deepening discouragement. "But is it +necessary," he urged, "to confound Christ with His ministers, the law +with its exponents? May not men preserve their hope of heaven and yet +lead more endurable lives on earth?" + +"Ah, my child, beware, for this is the heresy of private judgment, which +has already drawn down thousands into the pit. It is one of the most +insidious errors in which the spirit of evil has ever masqueraded; for +it is based on the fallacy that we, blind creatures of a day, and +ourselves in the meshes of sin, can penetrate the counsels of the +Eternal, and test the balances of the heavenly Justice. I tremble to +think into what an abyss your noblest impulses may fling you, if you +abandon yourself to such illusions; and more especially if it pleases +God to place in your hands a small measure of that authority of which He +is the supreme repository.--When I took leave of you here nine years +since," Don Gervaso continued in a gentler tone, "we prayed together in +the chapel; and I ask you, before setting out on your new life, to +return there with me and lay your doubts and difficulties before Him who +alone is able to still the stormy waves of the soul." + +Odo, touched by the appeal, accompanied him to the chapel, and knelt on +the steps whence his young spirit had once soared upward on the heavenly +pleadings of the Mass. The chapel was as carefully tended as ever; and +amid the comely appointments of the altar shone forth that Presence +which speaks to men of an act of love perpetually renewed. But to Odo +the voice was mute, the divinity wrapped in darkness; and he remembered +reading in some Latin author that the ancient oracles had ceased to +speak when their questioners lost faith in them. He knew not whether his +own faith was lost; he felt only that it had put forth on a sea of +difficulties across which he saw the light of no divine command. + +In this mood there was no more help to be obtained from Don Gervaso than +from the Marquess. Odo's last days at Donnaz were clouded by a sense of +the deep estrangement between himself and that life of which the outward +aspect was so curiously unchanged. His past seemed to look at him with +unrecognising eyes, to bar the door against his knock; and he rode away +saddened by that sense of isolation which follows the first encounter +with a forgotten self. + +At Ivrea the sight of Cantapresto and the travelling-carriage roused him +as from a waking dream. Here, at his beck were the genial realities of +life, embodied, humorously enough, in the bustling figure which for so +many years had played a kind of comic accompaniment to his experiences. +Cantapresto was in a fever of expectation. To set forth on the road +again, after nine years of well-fed monotony, and under conditions so +favourable to his physical well-being, was to drink the wine of romance +from a golden cup. Odo was at the age when the spirit lies as naturally +open to the variations of mood as a lake to the shifting of the breeze; +and Cantapresto's exuberant humour, and the novel details of their +travelling equipment, had soon effaced the graver influences of Donnaz. +Life stretched before him alluring and various as the open road; and his +pulses danced to the tune of the postillion's whip as the carriage +rattled out of the gates. + +It was a bright morning and the plain lay beneath them like a planted +garden, in all the flourish and verdure of June; but the roads being +deep in mire, and unrepaired after the ravages of the winter, it was +past noon before they reached the foot of the hills. Here matters were +little better, for the highway was ploughed deep by the wheels of the +numberless vans and coaches journeying from one town to another during +the Whitsun holidays, so that even a young gentleman travelling post +must resign himself to a plebeian rate of progression. Odo at first was +too much pleased with the novelty of the scene to quarrel with any +incidental annoyances; but as the afternoon wore on the way began to +seem long, and he was just giving utterance to his impatience when +Cantapresto, putting his head out of the window, announced in a tone of +pious satisfaction that just ahead of them were a party of travellers in +far worse case than themselves. Odo, leaning out, saw that, a dozen +yards ahead, a modest chaise of antique pattern had in fact come to +grief by the roadside. He called to his postillion to hurry forward, and +they were soon abreast of the wreck, about which several people were +grouped in anxious colloquy. Odo sprang out to offer his services; but +as he alit he felt Cantapresto's hand on his sleeve. + +"Cavaliere," the soprano whispered, "these are plainly people of no +condition, and we have yet a good seven miles to Vercelli, where all the +inns will be crowded for the Whitsun fair. Believe me, it were better to +go forward." + +Odo advanced without heeding this admonition; but a moment later he had +almost regretted his action; for in the centre of the group about the +chaise stood the two persons whom, of all the world, he was at that +moment least wishful of meeting. + + +2.7. + +It was in fact Vivaldi who, putting aside the knot of idlers about the +chaise, stepped forward at Odo's approach. The philosopher's countenance +was perturbed, his travelling-coat spattered with mud, and his daughter, +hooded and veiled, clung to him with an air of apprehension that smote +Odo to the heart. He caught a blush of recognition beneath her veil; and +as he drew near she raised a finger to her lip and faintly shook her +head. + +The mute signal reassured him. "I see, sir," said he, turning +courteously to Vivaldi, "that you are in a bad plight, and I hope that I +or my carriage may be of service to you." He ventured a second glance at +Fulvia, but she had turned aside and was inspecting the wheel of the +chaise with an air of the most disheartening detachment. + +Vivaldi, who had returned Odo's greeting without any sign of ill-will, +bowed slightly and seemed to hesitate a moment. "Our plight, as you +see," he said, "is indeed a grave one; for the wheel has come off our +carriage and my driver here tells me there is no smithy this side +Vercelli, where it is imperative we should lie tonight. I hope, +however," he added, glancing down the road, "that with all the traffic +now coming and going we may soon be overtaken by some vehicle that will +carry us to our destination." + +He spoke calmly, but it was plain some pressing fear underlay his +composure, and the nature of the emergency was but too clear to Odo. + +"Will not my carriage serve you?" he hastily rejoined. "I am for +Vercelli, and if you will honour me with your company we can go forward +at once." + +Fulvia, during this exchange of words, had affected to be engaged with +the luggage, which lay in a heap beside the chaise; but at this point +she lifted her head and shot a glance at her father from under her black +travelling-hood. + +Vivaldi's constraint increased. "This, sir," said he, "is a handsome +offer, and one for which I thank you; but I fear our presence may +incommode you and the additional weight of our luggage perhaps delay +your progress. I have little fear but some van or waggon will overtake +us before nightfall; and should it chance otherwise," he added with a +touch of irresistible pedantry, "why, it behoves us to remember that we +shall be none the worse off, since the sage is independent of +circumstances." + +Odo could hardly repress a smile. "Such philosophy, sir, is admirable in +principle, but in practice hardly applicable to a lady unused to passing +her nights in a rice-field. The region about here is notoriously +unhealthy and you will surely not expose your daughter to the risk of +remaining by the roadside or of finding a lodging in some peasant's +hut." + +Vivaldi drew himself up. "My daughter," said he, "has been trained to +face graver emergencies with an equanimity I have no fear of putting to +the touch--'the calm of a mind blest in the consciousness of its +virtue'; and were it not that circumstances are somewhat pressing--" he +broke off and glanced at Cantapresto, who was fidgeting about Odo's +carriage or talking in undertones with the driver of the chaise. + +"Come, sir," said Odo urgently, "Let my servants put your luggage up and +we'll continue this argument on the road." + +Vivaldi again paused. "Sir," he said at length, "will you first step +aside with me a moment?" he led Odo a few paces down the road. "I make +no pretence," he went on when they were out of Cantapresto's hearing, +"of concealing from you that this offer comes very opportune to our +needs, for it is urgent we should be out of Piedmont by tomorrow. But +before accepting a seat in your carriage, I must tell you that you offer +it to a proscribed man; since I have little reason to doubt that by this +time the sbirri are on my track." + +It was impossible to guess from Vivaldi's manner whether he suspected +Odo of being the cause of his misadventure; and the young man, though +flushing to the forehead, took refuge in the thought of Fulvia's signal +and maintained a self-possessed silence. + +"The motive of my persecution," Vivaldi continued, "I need hardly +explain to one acquainted with my house and with the aims and opinions +of those who frequent it. We live, alas, in an age when it is a moral +offence to seek enlightenment, a political crime to share it with +others. I have long foreseen that any attempt to raise the condition of +my countrymen must end in imprisonment or flight; and though perhaps to +have suffered the former had been a more impressive vindication of my +views, why, sir, the father at the last moment overruled the +philosopher, and thinking of my poor girl there, who but for me stands +alone in the world, I resolved to take refuge in a state where a man may +work for the liberty of others without endangering his own." + +Odo had listened with rising eagerness. Was not here an opportunity, if +not to atone, at least to give practical evidence of his contrition? + +"What you tell me sir," he exclaimed, "cannot but increase my zeal to +serve you. Here is no time to palter. I am on my way to Lombardy, which, +from what you say, I take to be your destination also; and if you and +your daughter will give me your company across the border I think you +need fear no farther annoyance from the police, since my passports, as +the Duke of Pianura's cousin, cover any friends I choose to take in my +company." + +"Why, sir," said Vivaldi, visibly moved by the readiness of the +response, "here is a generosity so far in excess of our present needs +that it encourages me to accept the smaller favour of travelling with +you to Vercelli. There we have friends with whom we shall be safe for +the night, and soon after sunrise I hope we may be across the border." + +Odo at once followed up his advantage by pointing out that it was on the +border that difficulties were most likely to arise; but after a few +moments of debate Vivaldi declared he must first take counsel with his +daughter, who still hung like a mute interrogation on the outskirts of +their talk. + +After a few words with her, he returned to Odo. "My daughter," said he, +"whose good sense puts my wisdom to the blush, wishes me first to +enquire if you purpose returning to Turin; since in that case, as she +points out, your kindness might result in annoyances to which we have no +right to expose you." + +Odo coloured. "Such considerations, I beg your daughter to believe, +would not weigh with me an instant; but as I am leaving Piedmont for two +years I am not so happy as to risk anything by serving you." + +Vivaldi on this assurance at once consented to accept a seat in his +carriage as far as Boffalora, the first village beyond the Sardinian +frontier. It was agreed that at Vercelli Odo was to set down his +companions at an inn whence, alone and privately, they might gain their +friend's house; that on the morrow at daybreak he was to take them up at +a point near the convent of the Umiliati, and that thence they were to +push forward without a halt for Boffalora. + +This agreement reached, Odo was about to offer Fulvia a hand to the +carriage when an unwelcome thought arrested him. + +"I hope, sir," said he, again turning to Vivaldi, and blushing furiously +as he spoke, "that you feel assured of my discretion; but I ought +perhaps to warn you that my companion yonder, though the good-naturedest +fellow alive, is not one to live long on good terms with a secret, +whether his own or another's." + +"I am obliged to you," said Vivaldi, "for the hint; but my daughter and +I are like those messengers who, in time of war, learn to carry their +despatches beneath their tongues. You may trust us not to betray +ourselves; and your friend may, if he chooses, suppose me to be +travelling to Milan to act as governor to a young gentleman of quality." + +The Professor's luggage had by this been put on Odo's carriage, and the +latter advanced to Fulvia. He had drawn a favourable inference from the +concern she had shown for his welfare; but to his mortification she +merely laid two reluctant finger tips in his hand and took her seat +without a word of thanks or so much as a glance at her rescuer. This +unmerited repulse, and the constraint occasioned by Cantapresto's +presence, made the remainder of the drive interminable. Even the +Professor's apposite reflections on rice-growing and the culture of the +mulberry did little to shorten the way; and when at length the +bell-towers of Vercelli rose in sight Odo felt the relief of a man who +has acquitted himself of a tedious duty. He had looked forward with the +most romantic anticipations to the outcome of this chance encounter with +Fulvia; but the unforgiving humour which had lent her a transitory charm +now became as disfiguring as some physical defect; and his heart swelled +with the defiance of youthful disappointment. + +It was near the angelus when they entered the city. Just within the +gates Odo set down his companions, who took leave of him, the one with +the heartiest expressions of gratitude, the other with a hurried +inclination of her veiled head. Thence he drove on to the Three Crowns, +where he designed to lie. The streets were still crowded with +holiday-makers and decked out with festal hangings. Tapestries and +silken draperies adorned the balconies of the houses, innumerable tiny +lamps framed the doors and windows, and the street-shrines were dressed +with a profusion of flowers; while every square and open space in the +city was crowded with booths, with the tents of ambulant comedians and +dentists, and with the outspread carpets of snake-charmers, +posture-makers and jugglers. Among this mob of quacks and pedlars +circulated other fantastic figures, the camp-followers of the army of +hucksters: dwarfs and cripples, mendicant friars, gypsy fortune-tellers, +and the itinerant reciters of Ariosto and Tasso. With these mingled the +towns-people in holiday dress, the well-to-do farmers and their wives, +and a throng of nondescript idlers, ranging from the servants of the +nobility pushing their way insolently through the crowd, to those +sinister vagabonds who lurk, as it were, in the interstices of every +concourse of people. + +It was not long before the noise and animation about him had dispelled +Odo's ill-humour. The world was too fair to be darkened by a girl's +disdain, and a reaction of feeling putting him in tune with the humours +of the market-place, he at once set forth on foot to view the city. It +was now near sunset and the day's decline irradiated the stately front +of the Cathedral, the walls of the ancient Hospital that faced it, and +the groups gathered about the stalls and platforms obstructing the +square. Even in his travelling-dress Odo was not a figure to pass +unnoticed, and he was soon assailed by laughing compliments on his looks +and invitations to visit the various shows concealed behind the flapping +curtains of the tents. There were enough pretty faces in the crowd to +justify such familiarities, and even so modest a success was not without +solace to his vanity. He lingered for some time in the square, answering +the banter of the blooming market-women, inspecting the +filigree-ornaments from Genoa, and watching a little yellow bitch in a +hooped petticoat and lappets dance the furlana to the music of an +armless fiddler who held the bow in his teeth. As he turned from this +show Odo's eye was caught by a handsome girl who, on the arm of a +dashing cavalier in somewhat shabby velvet, was cheapening a pair of +gloves at a neighbouring stall. The girl, who was masked, shot a dark +glance at Odo from under her three-cornered Venetian hat; then, tossing +down a coin, she gathered up the gloves and drew her companion away. The +manoeuvre was almost a challenge, and Odo was about to take it up when a +pretty boy in a Scaramouch habit, waylaying him with various graceful +antics, thrust a play-bill in his hand; and on looking round he found +the girl and her gallant had disappeared. The play-bill, with a wealth +of theatrical rhetoric, invited Odo to attend the Performance to be +given that evening at the Philodramatic Academy by the celebrated Capo +Comico Tartaglia of Rimini and his world-renowned company of Comedians, +who, in the presence of the aristocracy of Vercelli, were to present a +new comedy entitled "Le Gelosie di Milord Zambo," with an Intermezzo of +singing and dancing by the best Performers of their kind. + +Dusk was already falling, and Odo, who had brought no letters to the +gentry of Vercelli, where he intended to stay but a night, began to +wonder how he should employ his evening. He had hoped to spend it in +Vivaldi's company, but the Professor not having invited him, he saw no +prospect but to return to the inn and sup alone with Cantapresto. In the +doorway of the Three Crowns he found the soprano awaiting him. +Cantapresto, who had been as mute as a fish during the afternoon's +drive, now bustled forward with a great show of eagerness. + +"What poet was it," he cried, "that paragoned youth to the Easter +sunshine, which, wherever it touches, causes a flower to spring up? Here +we are scarce alit in a strange city, and already a messenger finds the +way to our inn with a most particular word from his lady to the +Cavaliere Odo Valsecca." And he held out a perfumed billet sealed with a +flaming dart. + +Odo's heart gave a leap at the thought that the letter might be from +Fulvia; but on breaking the seal he read these words, scrawled in an +unformed hand:-- + +"Will the Cavaliere Valsecca accept from an old friend, who desires to +renew her acquaintance with him, the trifling gift of a side-box at Don +Tartaglia's entertainment this evening?" + +Vexed at his credulity, Odo tossed the invitation to Cantapresto; but a +moment later, recalling the glance of the pretty girl in the +market-place, he began to wonder if the billet might not be the prelude +to a sufficiently diverting adventure. It at least offered a way of +passing the evening; and after a hurried supper he set out with +Cantapresto for the Philodramatic Academy. It was late when they entered +their box, and several masks were already capering before the +footlights, exchanging lazzi with the townsfolk in the pit, and +addressing burlesque compliments to the quality in the boxes. The +theatre seemed small and shabby after those of Turin, and there was +little in the old-fashioned fopperies of a provincial audience to +interest a young gentleman fresh from the capital. Odo looked about for +any one resembling the masked beauty of the market-place; but he beheld +only ill-dressed dowagers and matrons, or ladies of the town more +conspicuous for their effrontery than for their charms. + +The main diversion of the evening was by this begun. It was a comedy in +the style of Goldoni's early pieces, representing the actual life of the +day, but interspersed with the antics of the masks, to whose improvised +drolleries the people still clung. A terrific Don Spavento in cloak and +sword played the jealous English nobleman, Milord Zambo, and the part of +Tartaglia was taken by the manager, one of the best-known interpreters +of the character in Italy. Tartaglia was the guardian of the prima +amorosa, whom the enamoured Briton pursued; and in the Columbine, when +she sprang upon the stage with a pirouette that showed her slender +ankles and embroidered clocks, Odo instantly recognised the graceful +figure and killing glance of his masked beauty. Her face, which was now +uncovered, more than fulfilled the promise of her eyes, being indeed as +arch and engaging a countenance as ever flashed distraction across the +foot-lights. She was greeted with an outburst of delight that cost her a +sour glance from the prima amorosa, and presently the theatre was +ringing with her improvised sallies, uttered in the gay staccato of the +Venetian dialect. There was to Odo something perplexingly familiar in +this accent and in the light darting movements of her little head framed +in a Columbine's ruff, with a red rose thrust behind one ear; but after +a rapid glance about the house she appeared to take no notice of him and +he began to think it must be to some one else he owed his invitation. + +From this question he was soon diverted by his increasing enjoyment of +the play. It was not indeed a remarkable example of its kind, being +crudely enough put together, and turning on a series of ridiculous and +disconnected incidents; but to a taste formed on the frigid elegancies +of Metastasio and the French stage there was something refreshing in +this plunge into the coarse homely atmosphere of the old popular +theatre. Extemporaneous comedies were no longer played in the great +cities, and Odo listened with surprise to the swift thrust and parry, +the inexhaustible flow of jest and repartee, the readiness with which +the comedians caught up each other's leads, like dancers whirling +without a false step through the mazes of some rapid contradance. + +So engaged was he that he no longer observed the Columbine save as a +figure in this flying reel; but presently a burst of laughter fixed his +attention and he saw that she was darting across the stage pursued by +Milord Zambo, who, furious at the coquetries of his betrothed, was +avenging himself by his attentions to the Columbine. Half way across, +her foot caught and she fell on one knee. Zambo rushed to the rescue; +but springing up instantly, and feigning to treat his advance as a part +of the play, she cried out with a delicious assumption of outraged +dignity:-- + +"Not a step farther, villain! Know that it is sacrilege for a common +mortal to embrace one who has been kissed by his most illustrious +Highness the Heir-presumptive of Pianura!" + +"Mirandolina of Chioggia!" sprang to Odo's lips. At the same instant the +Columbine turned about and swept him a deep curtsey, to the delight of +the audience, who had no notion of what was going forward, but were in +the humour to clap any whim of their favourite's; then she turned and +darted off the stage, and the curtain fell on a tumult of applause. + +Odo had hardly recovered from his confusion when the door of the box +opened and the young Scaramouch he had seen in the market-place peeped +in and beckoned to Cantapresto. The soprano rose with alacrity, leaving +Odo alone in the dimly-lit box, his mind agrope in a labyrinth of +memories. A moment later Cantapresto returned with that air of furtive +relish that always proclaimed him the bearer of a tender message. The +one he now brought was to the effect that the Signorina Miranda +Malmocco, justly renowned as one of the first Columbines of Italy, had +charged him to lay at the Cavaliere Valsecca's feet her excuses for the +liberty she had taken with his illustrious name, and to entreat that he +would show his magnanimity by supping with her after the play in her +room at the Three Crowns--a request she was emboldened to make by the +fact that she was lately from Pianura, and could give him the last news +of the court. + +The message chimed with Odo's mood, and the play over he hastened back +to the inn with Cantapresto, and bid the landlord send to the Signorina +Miranda's room whatever delicacies the town could provide. Odo on +arriving that afternoon had himself given orders that his carriage +should be at the door the next morning an hour before sunrise; and he +now repeated these instructions to Cantapresto, charging him on his life +to see that nothing interfered with their fulfilment. The soprano +objected that the hour was already late, and that they could easily +perform the day's journey without curtailing their rest; but on Odo's +reiteration of the order he resigned himself, with the remark that it +was a pity old age had no savings-bank for the sleep that youth +squandered. + + +2.8. + +It was something of a disappointment to Odo, on entering the Signorina +Miranda's room, to find that she was not alone. Engaged in feeding her +pet monkey with sugar-plums was the young man who had given her his arm +in the Piazza. This gentleman, whom she introduced to Odo as her cousin +and travelling companion, the Count of Castelrovinato, had the same air +of tarnished elegance as his richly-laced coat and discoloured ruffles. +He seemed, however, of a lively and obliging humour, and Mirandolina +observed with a smile that she could give no better notion of his +amiability than by mentioning that he was known among her friends as the +Cavaliere Frattanto. This praise, Odo thought, seemed scarcely to the +cousin's liking; but he carried it off with the philosophic remark that +it is the mortar between the bricks that holds the building together. + +"At present," said Mirandolina laughing, "he is engaged in propping up a +ruin; for he has fallen desperately in love with our prima amorosa, a +lady who lost her virtue under the Pharaohs, but whom, for his sake, I +have been obliged to include in our little supper." + +This, it was clear, was merely a way of palliating the Count's +infatuation for herself; but he took the second thrust as good-naturedly +as the first, remarking that he had been bred for an archeologist and +had never lost his taste for the antique. + +Odo's servants now appearing with a pasty of beccafichi, some bottles of +old Malaga and a tray of ices and fruits, the three seated themselves at +the table, which Mirandolina had decorated with a number of wax candles +stuck in the cut-glass bottles of the Count's dressing-case. Here they +were speedily joined by the actress's monkey and parrot, who had soon +spread devastation among the dishes. While Miranda was restoring order +by boxing the monkey's ears and feeding the shrieking bird from her +lips, the door opened to admit the prima amorosa, a lady whose mature +charms and mellifluous manner suggested a fine fruit preserved in syrup. +The newcomer was clearly engrossed in captivating the Count, and the +latter amply justified his nick-name by the cynical complaisance with +which he cleared the way for Odo by responding to her advances. + +The tete-a-tete thus established, Miranda at once began to excuse +herself for the means she had taken to attract Odo's attention at the +theatre. She had heard from the innkeeper that the Duke of Pianura's +cousin, the Cavaliere Valsecca, was expected that day in Vercelli; and +seeing in the Piazza a young gentleman in travelling-dress and French +toupet, had at once guessed him to be the distinguished stranger from +Turin. At the theatre she had been much amused by the air of +apprehension with which Odo had appeared to seek, among the dowdy or +vulgar inmates of the boxes, the sender of the mysterious billet; and +the contrast between the elegant gentleman in embroidered coat and +gold-hilted sword, and the sleepy bewildered little boy of the midnight +feast at Chivasso, had seized her with such comic effect that she could +not resist a playful allusion to their former meeting. All this was set +forth with so sprightly an air of mock-contrition that, had Odo felt the +least resentment, it must instantly have vanished. He was, however, in +the humour to be pleased by whatever took his mind off his own affairs, +and none could be more skilled than Mirandolina in profiting by such a +mood. + +He pressed her to tell him something of what had befallen her since they +had met, but she replied by questioning him about his own experiences, +and on learning that he had been called to Pianura on account of the +heir's ill-health she declared it was notorious that the little prince +had not long to live, and that the Duke could not hope for another son. + +"The Duke's life, however," said Odo, "is as good as mine, and in truth +I am far less moved by my remote hopes of the succession than by the +near prospect of visiting so many famous cities and seeing so much that +is novel and entertaining." + +Miranda shrugged her pretty shoulders. "Why, as to the Duke's life," +said she, "there are some that would not give a counterfeit penny for +it; but indeed his Highness lives so secluded from the world, and is +surrounded by persons so jealous to conceal his true condition even from +the court, that the reports of his health are no more to be trusted than +the other strange rumours about him. I was told in Pianura that but four +persons are admitted to his familiarity: his confessor, his mistress, +Count Trescorre, who is already comptroller of finance and will soon be +prime-minister, and a strange German doctor or astrologer that is lately +come to the court. As to the Duchess, she never sees him; and were it +not for Trescorre, who has had the wit to stand well with both sides, I +doubt if she would know more of what goes on about her husband than any +scullion in the ducal kitchens." + +She spoke with the air of one well-acquainted with the subject, and Odo, +curious to learn more, asked her how she came to have such an insight +into the intrigues of the court. + +"Why," said she, "in the oddest way imaginable--by being the guest of +his lordship the Bishop of Pianura; and since you asked me just now to +tell you something of my adventures, I will, if you please, begin by +relating the occurrences that procured me this extraordinary honour. But +first," she added with a smile, "would it not be well to open another +bottle of Malaga?" + +MIRANDOLINA'S STORY. + +You must know, she continued, when Odo had complied with her request, +that soon after our parting at Chivasso the company with which I was +travelling came to grief through the dishonesty of the Harlequin, who +ran away with the Capo Comico's wife, carrying with him, besides the +lady, the far more irretrievable treasure of our modest earnings. This +brought us to destitution, and the troop was disbanded. I had nothing +but the spangled frock on my back, and thinking to make some use of my +sole possession I set out as a dancer with the flute-player of the +company, a good-natured fellow that had a performing marmozet from the +Indies. We three wandered from one town to another, spreading our carpet +wherever there was a fair or a cattle-market, going hungry in bad +seasons, and in our luckier days attaching ourselves to some band of +strolling posture-makers or comedians. + +One day, after about a year of this life, I had the good fortune, in the +market-place of Parma, to attract the notice of a rich English nobleman +who was engaged in writing a book on the dances of the ancients. This +gentleman, though no longer young, and afflicted with that strange +English malady that obliges a man to wrap his feet in swaddling-clothes +like a new-born infant, was of a generous and paternal disposition, and +offered, if I would accompany him to Florence, to give me a home and a +genteel education. I remained with him about two years, during which +time he had me carefully instructed in music, French and the art of the +needle. In return for this, my principal duties were to perform in +antique dances before the friends of my benefactor--whose name I could +never learn to pronounce--and to read aloud to him the works of the +modern historians and philosophers. + +We lived in a large palace with exceedingly high-ceilinged rooms, which +my friend would never have warmed on account of his plethoric habit, and +as I had to dance at all seasons in the light draperies worn by the +classical goddesses, I suffered terribly from chilblains and contracted +a cruel cough. To this, however, I might have resigned myself; but when +I learned from a young abate who frequented the house that the books I +was compelled to read were condemned by the Church, and could not be +perused without deadly peril to the soul, I at once resolved to fly from +such contaminating influences. Knowing that his lordship would not +consent to my leaving him, I took the matter out of his hands by +slipping out one day during the carnival, carrying with me from that +accursed house nothing but the few jewels that my benefactor had +expressed the intention of leaving me in his will. At the nearest church +I confessed my involuntary sin in reading the prohibited books, and +having received absolution and the sacrament, I joined my friend the +abate at Cafaggiolo, whence we travelled to Modena, where he was +acquainted with a theatrical manager just then in search of a Columbine. +My dancing and posturing at Florence had given me something of a name +among the dilettanti, and I was at once engaged by the manager, who took +me to Venice, where I subsequently joined the company of the excellent +Tartaglia with whom I am now acting. Since then I have been attended by +continued success, which I cannot but ascribe to my virtuous resolve to +face poverty and distress rather than profit a moment longer by the +beneficence of an atheist. + +All this I have related to show you how the poor ignorant girl you met +at Chivasso was able to acquire something of the arts and usages of good +company; but I will now pass on to the incident of my visit to Pianura. +Our manager, then, had engaged some time since to give a series of +performances at Pianura during the last carnival. The Bishop's nephew, +Don Serafino, who has a pronounced taste for the theatre, had been +instrumental in making the arrangement; but at the last moment he wrote +us that, owing to the influence of the Duke's confessor, the Bishop had +been obliged to prohibit the appearance of women on the stage of +Pianura. This was a cruel blow, as we had prepared a number of comedies +in which I was to act the leading part; and Don Serafino was equally +vexed, since he did me the honour of regarding me as the chief ornament +of the company. At length it was agreed that, to overcome the +difficulty, it should be given out that the celebrated Tartaglia of +Rimini would present himself at Pianura with his company of comedians, +among whom was the popular favourite, Mirandolino of Chioggia, twin +brother of the Signorina Miranda Malmocco, and trained by that actress +to play in all her principal parts. + +This satisfied the scruples and interests of all concerned, and soon +afterward I made my first appearance in Pianura. My success was greater +than we had foreseen; for I threw myself into the part with such zest +that every one was taken in, and even Don Serafino required the most +categorical demonstration to convince him that I was not my own brother. +The illusion I produced was, however, not without its inconveniences; +for, among the ladies who thronged to see the young Mirandolino, were +several who desired a closer acquaintance with him; and one of these, as +it happened, was the Duke's mistress, the Countess Belverde. You will +see the embarrassment of my situation. If I failed to respond to her +advances, her influence was sufficient to drive us from the town at the +opening of a prosperous season; if I discovered my sex to her, she might +more cruelly avenge herself by throwing the whole company into prison, +to be dealt with by the Holy Office. Under these circumstances, I +decided to appeal to the Bishop, but without, of course, revealing to +him that I was, so to speak, my own sister. His lordship, who is never +sorry to do the Belverde a bad turn, received me with the utmost +indulgence, and declared that, to protect my innocence from the designs +of this new Potiphar's wife, he would not only give me a lodging in the +Episcopal palace, but confer on me the additional protection of the +minor orders. This was rather more than I had bargained for, but he that +wants the melon is a fool to refuse the rind, and I thanked the Bishop +for his kindness and allowed him to give out that, my heart having been +touched by grace, I had resolved, at the end of the season, to withdraw +from the stage and prepare to enter the Church. + +I now fancied myself safe; for I knew the Countess could not attempt my +removal without risk of having her passion denounced to the Duke. I +spent several days very agreeably in the Episcopal palace, entertained +at his lordship's own table, and favoured with private conversations +during which he told me many curious and interesting things about the +Duke and the court, and delicately abstained from all allusion to my +coming change of vocation. The Countess, however, had not been idle. One +day I received notice that the Holy Office disapproved of the appearance +on the stage of a young man about to enter the Church, and requested me +to withdraw at once to the Barnabite monastery, where I was to remain +till I received the minor orders. Now the Abbot of the Barnabites was +the Belverde's brother, and I saw at once that to obey his order would +place me in that lady's power. I again addressed myself to the Bishop, +but to my despair he declared himself unable to aid me farther, saying +that he dared not offend the Holy Office, and that he had already run +considerable risk in protecting me from the Countess. + +I was accordingly transferred to the monastery, in spite of my own +entreaties and those of the good Tartaglia, who moved heaven and earth +to save his Columbine from sequestration. You may imagine my despair. My +fear of doing Tartaglia an injury kept me from revealing my sex, and for +twenty-four hours I languished in my cell, refusing food and air, and +resisting the repeated attempts of the good monks to alleviate my +distress. At length however I bethought me that the Countess would soon +appear; and it flashed across me that the one person who could protect +me from her was her brother. I at once sought an interview with the +Abbot, who received me with great indulgence. I explained to him that +the distress I suffered was occasioned by the loss that my sequestration +was causing my excellent manager, and begged him to use his influence to +have me released from the monastery. The Abbot listened attentively, and +after a pause replied that there was but one person who could arrange +the matter, and that was his sister the Countess Belverde, whose +well-known piety gave her considerable influence in such matters. I now +saw that no alternative remained but to confess the truth; and with +tears of agitation I avowed my sex, and threw myself on his mercy. + +I was not disappointed in the result. The Abbot listened with the +greatest benevolence to all the details of my adventure. He laughed +heartily at his sister's delusion, but said I had done right in not +undeceiving her, as her dread of ridicule might have led to unpleasant +reprisals. He declared that for the present he could not on any account +consent to let me out of his protection; but he promised if I submitted +myself implicitly to his guidance, not only to preserve me from the +Belverde's machinations, but to ensure my reappearing on the stage +within two days at the latest. Knowing him to be a very powerful +personage I thought it best to accept these conditions, which in any +case it would have been difficult to resist; and the next day he +informed me that the Holy Office had consented to the Signorina Miranda +Malmocco's appearing on the stage of Pianura during the remainder of the +season, in consideration of the financial injury caused to the manager +of the company by the edifying conversion of her twin-brother. + +"In this way," the Abbot was pleased to explain, "you will be quite safe +from my sister, who is a woman of the most unexceptionable morals, and +at the same time you will not expose our excellent Bishop to the charge +of having been a party to a grave infraction of ecclesiastical +discipline.--My only condition," he added with a truly paternal smile, +"is that, after the Signorina Miranda's performance at the theatre her +twin-brother the Signor Mirandolino shall return every evening to the +monastery: a condition which seems necessary to the preservation of our +secret, and which I trust you will not regard as too onerous, in view of +the service I have been happy enough to render you." + +It would have ill become me to dispute the excellent ecclesiastic's +wishes, and Tartaglia and the rest of the company having been sworn to +secrecy, I reappeared that very evening in one of my favourite parts, +and was afterward carried back to the monastery in the most private +manner. The Signorina Malmocco's successes soon repaired the loss +occasioned by her brother's withdrawal, and if any suspected their +identity all were interested to conceal their suspicions. + +Thus it came about that my visit to Pianura, having begun under the roof +of a Bishop, ended in a monastery of Barnabites--nor have I any cause to +complain of the hospitality of either of my hosts... + +*** + +Odo, charmed by the vivacity with which this artless narrative was +related, pressed Miranda to continue the history of her adventures. The +actress laughingly protested that she must first refresh herself with +one of the ices he had so handsomely provided; and meanwhile she begged +the Count to favour them with a song. + +This gentleman, who seemed glad of any pretext for detaching himself +from his elderly flame, rescued Mirandolina's lute from the inquisitive +fingering of the monkey, and striking a few melancholy chords, sang the +following words, which he said he had learned from a peasant of the +Abruzzi:-- + + Flower of the thyme! + She draws me as your fragrance draws the bees, + She draws me as the cold moon draws the seas, + And summer winter-time. + + Flower of the broom! + Like you she blossoms over dark abysses, + And close to ruin bloom her sweetest kisses, + And on the brink of doom. + + Flower of the rue! + She wore you on her breast when first we met. + I begged your blossom and I wear it yet-- + Flower of regret! + +The song ended, the prima amorosa, overcome by what she visibly deemed +an appeal to her feelings, declared with some agitation that the hour +was late and she must withdraw. Miranda wished the actress an +affectionate goodnight and asked the Count to light her to her room, +which was on the farther side of the gallery surrounding the courtyard +of the inn. Castelrovinato complied with his usual air of resignation, +and the door closing on the couple, Odo and Miranda found themselves +alone. + +"And now," said the good-natured girl, placing herself on the sofa and +turning to her guest with a smile, "if you will take a seat at my side I +will gladly continue the history of my adventures"... + + +2.9. + +Odo woke with a start. He had been trying to break down a great +gold-barred gate, behind which Fulvia, pale and disordered, struggled in +the clutch of the blind beggar of the Corpus Domini... + +He sat up and looked about him. The gate was still there; but as he +gazed it resolved itself into his shuttered window, barred with wide +lines of sunlight. It was day, then! He sprang out of bed and flung open +the shutters. Beneath him lay the piazza of Vercelli, bathed in the +vertical brightness of a summer noon; and as he stared out on this +inexorable scene, the clock over the Hospital struck twelve. + +Twelve o'clock! And he had promised to meet Vivaldi at dawn behind the +Umiliati! As the truth forced itself on Odo he dropped into a chair and +hid his face with a groan. He had failed them again, then--and this time +how cruelly and basely! He felt himself the victim of a conspiracy which +in some occult manner was forever forcing him to outrage and betray the +two beings he most longed to serve. The idea of a conspiracy flashed a +sudden light on his evening's diversion, and he sprang up with a cry. +Yes! It was a plot, and any but a dolt must have traced the soprano's +hand in this vulgar assault upon his senses. He choked with anger at the +thought of having played the dupe when two lives he cherished were +staked upon his vigilance... + +To his furious summons Cantapresto presented a blank wall of ignorance. +Yes, the Cavaliere had given orders that the carriage should be ready +before daybreak; but who was authorised to wake the cavaliere? After +keeping the carriage two hours at the door Cantapresto had ventured to +send it back to the stable; but the horses should instantly be put to, +and within an hour they would be well forward on their journey. +Meanwhile, should the barber be summoned at once? Or would the cavaliere +first refresh himself with an excellent cup of chocolate, prepared under +Cantapresto's own supervision? + +Odo turned on him savagely. "Traitor--spy! In whose pay--?" + +But the words roused him to a fresh sense of peril. Cantapresto, though +he might have guessed Odo's intention, was not privy to his plan of +rejoining Vivaldi and Fulvia; and it flashed across the young man that +his self-betrayal must confirm the others' suspicions. His one hope of +protecting his friends was to affect indifference to what had happened; +and this was made easier, by the reflection that Cantapresto was after +all but a tool in more powerful hands. To be spied on was so natural to +an Italian of that day that the victim's instinct was rather to +circumvent the spy than to denounce him. + +Odo dismissed Cantapresto with the reply that he would give orders about +the carriage later; desiring that meanwhile the soprano should purchase +the handsomest set of filigree ornaments to be found in Vercelli, and +carry them with the Cavaliere Valsecca's compliments to the Signorina +Malmocco. + +Having thus rid himself of observation he dressed as rapidly as +possible, trying the while to devise some means of tracing Vivaldi. But +the longer he pondered the attempt the more plainly he saw its futility. +Vivaldi, doubtless from motives of prudence, had not named the friend +with whom he and Fulvia were to take shelter; nor did Odo even know in +what quarter of the city to seek them. To question the police was to +risk their last chance of safety; and for the same reason he dared not +enquire of the posting-master whether any travellers had set out that +morning for Lombardy. His natural activity of mind was hampered by a +leaden sense of remissness. With what anguish of spirit must Vivaldi and +Fulvia have awaited him in that hour of dawn behind the convent! What +thoughts must have visited the girl's mind as day broadened, the city +woke, and peril pressed on them with every voice and eye! And when at +length they saw that he had failed them, which way did their hunted +footsteps turn? Perhaps they dared not go back to the friend who had +taken them in for the night. Perhaps even now they wandered through the +streets, fearing arrest if they revealed themselves by venturing to +engage a carriage, at every turn of his thoughts Odo was mocked by some +vision of disaster; and an hour of perplexity yielded no happier +expedient than that of repairing to the meeting-place behind the +Umiliati. It was a deserted lane with few passers; and after vainly +questioning the blank wall of the convent and the gates of a +sinister-looking alms-house that faced it, he retraced his steps to the +inn. + +He spent a day of futile research and bitter thoughts, now straying +forth in the hope of meeting Vivaldi, now hastening back to the Three +Crowns on the chance that some message might await him. He dared not let +his mind rest on what might have befallen his friends; yet the +alternative of contemplating his own course was scarcely more endurable. +Nightfall brought the conviction that the Professor and Fulvia had +passed beyond his reach. It was clear that if they were still in +Vercelli they did not mean to make their presence known to him, while in +the event of their escape he was without means of tracing them farther. +He knew indeed that their destination was Milan, but, should they reach +there safely, what hope was there of finding them in a city of +strangers? By a stroke of folly he had cut himself off from all +communication with them, and his misery was enhanced by the discovery of +his weakness. He who had fed his fancy on high visions, cherishing in +himself the latent patriot and hero, had been driven by a girl's caprice +to break the first law of manliness and honour! The event had already +justified her; and in a flash of self-contempt he saw himself as she no +doubt beheld him--the fribble preying like a summer insect on the slow +growths of difficult years... + +In bitterness of spirit he set out the next morning for Pianura. A +half-melancholy interest drew him back to the scene of his lonely +childhood, and he had started early in order to push on that night to +Pontesordo. At Valsecca, the regular posting-station between Vercelli +and Pianura, he sent Cantapresto forward to the capital, and in a stormy +yellow twilight drove alone across the waste land that dipped to the +marshes. On his right the woods of the ducal chase hung black against +the sky; and presently he saw ahead of him the old square keep, with a +flight of swallows circling low about its walls. + +In the muddy farm-yard a young man was belabouring a donkey laden with +mulberry-shoots. He stared for a moment at Odo's approach and then +sullenly returned to his task. + +Odo sprang out into the mud. "Why do you beat the brute?" said he +indignantly. The other turned a dull face on him and he recognised his +old enemy Giannozzo. + +"Giannozzo," he cried, "don't you know me? I am the Cavaliere Valsecca, +whose ears you used to box when you were a lad. Must you always be +pummelling something, that you can't let that poor brute alone at the +end of its day's work?" + +Giannozzo, dropping his staff, stammered out that he craved his +excellency's pardon for not knowing him, but that as for the ass it was +a stubborn devil that would not have carried Jesus Christ without +gibbing. + +"The beast is tired and hungry," cried Odo, his old compassion for the +sufferings of the farm-animals suddenly reviving. "How many hours have +you worked it without rest or food?" + +"No more than I have worked myself," said Giannozzo sulkily; "and as for +its being hungry, why should it fare better than its masters?" + +Their words had called out of the house a lean bent woman, whose +shrivelled skin showed through the rents in her unbleached shift. At +sight of Odo she pushed Giannozzo aside and hurried forward to ask how +she might serve the gentleman. + +"With supper and a bed, my good Filomena," said Odo; and she flung +herself at his feet with a cry. + +"Saints of heaven, that I should not have known his excellency! But I am +half blind with the fever, and who could have dreamed of such an +honour?" She clung to his knees in the mud, kissing his hands and +calling down blessings on him. "And as for you, Giannozzo, you +curd-faced fool, quick, see that his excellency's horses are stabled and +go call your father from the cow-house while I prepare his excellency's +supper. And fetch me in a faggot to light the fire in the bailiff's +parlour." + +Odo followed her into the kitchen, where he had so often crouched in a +corner to eat his polenta out of reach of her vigorous arm. The roof +seemed lower and more smoke-blackened than ever, but the hearth was +cold, and he noticed that no supper was laid. Filomena led him into the +bailiff's parlour, where a mortal chill seized him. Cobwebs hung from +the walls, the window-panes were broken and caked with grime, and the +few green twigs which Giannozzo presently threw on the hearth poured a +cloud of smoke into the cold heavy air. + +There was a long delay while supper was preparing, and when at length +Filomena appeared, it was only to produce, with many excuses, a loaf of +vetch-bread, a bit of cheese and some dried quinces. There was nothing +else in the house, she declared: not so much as a bit of lard to make +soup with, a handful of pasti or a flask of wine. In the old days, as +his excellency might remember, they had eaten a bit of meat on Sundays, +and drunk aquarolle with their supper; but since the new taxes it was as +much as the farmers could do to feed their cattle, without having a +scrap to spare for themselves. Jacopone, she continued, was bent double +with the rheumatism, and had not been able to drive a plough or to work +in the mulberries for over two years. He and the farm-lads sat in the +cow-stables when their work was over, for the sake of the heat, and she +carried their black bread out there to them: a cold supper tasted better +in a warm place, and as his excellency knew, all the windows in the +house were unglazed save in the bailiff's parlour. Her man would be in +presently to pay his duty to his excellency; but he had grown +dull-witted since the rheumatism took him, and his excellency must not +take it ill if his talk was a little childish. + +Thereupon Filomena excused herself, that she might put a clean shirt on +Jacopone, and Odo was left to his melancholy musings. His mind had of +late run much on economic abuses; but what was any philandering with +reform to this close contact with misery? It was as though white hungry +faces had suddenly stared in at the windows of his brightly-lit life. +What did these people care for education, enlightenment, the religion of +humanity? What they wanted was fodder for their cattle, a bit of meat on +Sundays and a faggot on the hearth. + +Filomena presently returned with her husband; but Jacopone had shrunk +into a crippled tremulous old man, who pulled a vague forelock at Odo +without sign of recognition. Filomena, it was clear, was master at +Pontesordo; for though Giannozzo was a man grown, and did a man's work, +he still danced to the tune of his mother's tongue. It was from her that +Odo, shivering over the smoky hearth, gathered the details of their +wretched state. Pontesordo being a part of the ducal domain, they had +led in their old days an easier life than their neighbours; but the new +taxes had stripped them as bare as a mulberry-tree in June. + +"How is a Christian to live, excellency, with the salt-tax doubled, so +that the cows go dry for want of it; with half a zecchin on every pair +of oxen, a stajo of wheat and two fowls to the parish, and not so much +as a bite of grass allowed on the Duke's lands? In his late Highness's +day the poor folk were allowed to graze their cattle on the borders of +the chase; but now a man dare not pluck a handful of weeds there, or so +much as pick up a fallen twig; though the deer may trample his young +wheat, and feed off the patch of beans at his very door. They do say the +Duchess has a kind heart, and gives away money to the towns-folk; but we +country-people who spend our lives raising fodder for her game never +hear of her Highness but when one of her game-keepers comes down on us +for poaching or stealing wood.--Yes, by the saints, and it was her +Highness who sent a neighbour's lad to the galleys last year for felling +a tree in the chase; a good lad as ever dug furrow, but he lacked wood +for a new plough-share, and how in God's name was he to plough his field +without it?" + +So she went on, like a torrent after the spring rains; but when he named +Momola she fell silent, and Giannozzo, looking sideways, drummed with +his heel on the floor. + +Odo glanced from one to the other. "She's dead, then?" he cried. + +Filomena opened deprecating palms. "Can one tell, excellency? It may be +she is off with the gypsies." + +"The gypsies? How long since?" + +"Giannozzo," cried his mother, as he stood glowering, "go see that the +stable is locked and his excellency's horses bedded down." He slunk out +and she began to gather up the remains of Odo's meagre supper. + +"But you must remember when this happened." + +"Holy Mother! It was the year we had frost in April and lost our +hatching for want of leaves. But as for that child of ingratitude, one +day she was here, the next she was gone--clean gone, as a nut drops from +the tree--and I that had given the blood of my veins to nourish her! +Since then, God is my witness, we have had nothing but misfortune. The +next year it was the weevils in the wheat; and so it goes." + +Odo was silent, seeing it was vain to press her. He fancied that the +girl must have died--of neglect perhaps, or ill usage--and that they +feared to own it. His heart swelled, but not against them: they seemed +to him no more accountable than cowed hunger-driven animals. + +He tossed impatiently on the hard bed Filomena had made up for him in +the bailiff's parlour, and was afoot again with the first light. +Stepping out into the farm-yard he looked abroad over the flat grey face +of the land. Around the keep stretched the new-ploughed fields and the +pollarded mulberry orchards; but these, with the clustered hovels of the +village, formed a mere islet in the surrounding waste of marsh and +woodland. The scene symbolised fitly enough of social conditions of the +country: the over-crowded peasantry huddled on their scant patches of +arable ground, while miles of barren land represented the feudal rights +that hemmed them in on every side. + +Odo walked across the yard to the chapel. On the threshold he stumbled +over a heap of mulberry-shoots and a broken plough-share. Twilight held +the place; but as he stood there the frescoes started out in the slant +of the sunrise like dead faces floating to the surface of a river. Dead +faces, yes: plaintive spectres of his childish fears and longings, lost +in the harsh daylight of experience. He had forgotten the very dreams +they stood for: Lethe flowed between and only one voice reached across +the torrent. It was that of Saint Francis, lover of the poor... + +The morning was hot as Odo drove toward Pianura, and limping ahead of +him in the midday glare he presently saw the figure of a hump-backed man +in a decent black dress and three-cornered hat. There was something +familiar in the man's gait, and in the shape of his large head, poised +on narrow stooping shoulders, and as the carriage drew abreast of him, +Odo, leaning from the window, cried out, "Brutus--this must be Brutus!" + +"Your excellency has the advantage of me," said the hunchback, turning +on him a thin face lit by the keen eyes that had once searched his +childish soul. + +Odo met the rebuff with a smile. "Does that," said he, "prevent my +suggesting that you might continue your way more comfortably in my +carriage? The road is hot and dusty, and, as you see, I am in want of +company." + +The pedestrian, who seemed unprepared for this affable rejoinder, had +the sheepish air of a man whose rudeness has missed the mark. + +"Why, sir," said he, recovering himself, "comfort is all a matter of +habit, and I daresay the jolting of your carriage might seem to me more +unpleasant than the heat and dust of the road, to which necessity has +long since accustomed me." + +"In that case," returned Odo with increasing amusement, "you will have +the additional merit of sacrificing your pleasure to add to mine." + +The hunchback stared. "And what have you or yours ever done for me," he +retorted, "that I should sacrifice to your pleasure even the wretched +privilege of being dusted by the wheels of your coach?" + +"Why, that," replied Odo, "is a question I can scarce answer till you +give me the opportunity of naming myself.--If you are indeed Carlo +Gamba," he continued, "I am your old friend and companion Odo Valsecca." + +The hunchback started. "The Cavaliere Valsecca!" he cried. "I had heard +that you were expected." He stood gazing at Odo. "Our next Duke!" he +muttered. + +Odo smiled. "I had rather," he said, "that my past commended me than my +future. It is more than doubtful if I am ever able to offer you a seat +in the Duke's carriage; but Odo Valsecca's is very much at your +service." + +Gamba bowed with a kind of awkward dignity. "I am grateful for a +friend's kindness," he said, "but I do not ride in a nobleman's +carriage." + +"There," returned Odo with perfect good-humour, "you have had advantage +of ME; for I can no more escape doing so than you can escape spending +your life in the company of an ill-tempered man." And courteously +lifting his hat he called to the postillion to drive on. + +The hunchback at this, flushing red, laid a hand on the carriage door. + +"Sir," said he, "I freely own myself in the wrong; but a smooth temper +was not one of the blessings my unknown parents bequeathed to me; and I +confess I had heard of you as one little concerned with your inferiors +except as they might chance to serve your pleasure." + +It was Odo's turn to colour. "Look," said he, "at the fallibility of +rumour; for I had heard of you as something of a philosopher, and here I +find you not only taking a man's character on hearsay but denying him +the chance to prove you mistaken!" + +"I deny it no longer," said Gamba stepping into the coach; "but as to +philosophy, the only claim I can make to it is that of being by birth a +peripatetic." + +His dignity appeased, the hunchback proved himself a most engaging +companion, and as the carriage lumbered slowly toward Pianura he had +time not only to recount his own history but to satisfy Odo as to many +points of the life awaiting him. + +Gamba, it appeared, owed his early schooling to a Jesuit priest who, +visiting the foundling asylum, had been struck by the child's quickness, +and had taken him home and bred him to be a clerk. The priest's death +left his charge adrift, with a smattering of scholarship above his +station, and none to whom he could turn for protection. For a while he +had lived, as he said, like a street-cat, picking up a meal where he +could, and sleeping in church porches and under street-arcades, till one +of the Duke's servants took pity on him and he was suffered to hang +about the palace and earn his keep by doing the lacquey's errands. The +Duke's attention having been called to him as a lad of parts, his +Highness had given him to the Marquess of Cerveno, in whose service he +remained till shortly before that young nobleman's death. The hunchback +passed hastily over this period; but his reticence was lit by the angry +flash of his eyes. After the Marquess's death he had lived for a while +from hand to mouth, copying music, writing poetry for weddings and +funerals, doing pen-and-ink portraits at a scudo apiece, and putting his +hand to any honest job that came his way. Count Trescorre, who now and +then showed a fitful recognition of the tie that was supposed to connect +them, at length heard of the case to which he was come and offered him a +trifling pension. This the hunchback refused, asking instead to be given +some fixed employment. Trescorre then obtained his appointment as +assistant to the Duke's librarian, a good old priest engrossed in +compiling the early history of Pianura from the ducal archives; and this +post Gamba had now filled for two years. + +"It must," said Odo, "be one singularly congenial to you, if, as I have +heard, you are of a studious habit. Though I suppose," he tentatively +added, "the library is not likely to be rich in works of the new +scientific and philosophic schools." + +His companion received this observation in silence; and after a moment +Odo continued: "I have a motive in asking, since I have been somewhat +deeply engaged in the study of these writers, and my dearest wish is to +continue while in Pianura my examination of their theories, and if +possible to become acquainted with any who share their views." + +He was not insensible of the risk of thus opening himself to a stranger; +but the sense of peril made him the more eager to proclaim himself on +the side of the cause he seemed to have deserted. + +Gamba turned as he spoke, and their eyes met in one of those revealing +glances that lay the foundations of friendship. + +"I fear, Cavaliere," said the hunchback with a smile, "that you will +find both branches of investigation somewhat difficult to pursue in +Pianura; for the Church takes care that neither the philosophers nor +their books shall gain a footing in our most Christian state. Indeed," +he added, "not only must the library be free from heretical works, but +the librarian clear of heretical leanings; and since you have honoured +me with your confidence I will own that, the court having got wind of my +supposed tendency to liberalism, I live in daily expectation of +dismissal. For the moment they are content to keep their spies on me; +but were it not for the protection of the good abate, my superior, I +should long since have been turned out." + +"And why," asked Odo, "do you speak of the court and the Church as one?" + +"Because, sir, in our virtuous duchy the terms are interchangeable. The +Duke is in fact so zealous a son of the Church that if the latter showed +any leniency to sinners the secular arm would promptly repair her +negligence. His Highness, as you may have heard, is ruled by his +confessor, an adroit Dominican. The confessor, it is true, has two +rivals, the Countess Belverde, a lady distinguished for her piety, and a +German astrologer or alchemist, lately come to Pianura, and calling +himself a descendant of the Egyptian priesthood and an adept of the +higher or secret doctrines of Neoplatonism. These three, however, though +ostensibly rivals for the Duke's favour, live on such good terms with +one another that they are suspected of having entered into a secret +partnership; while some regard them all as the emissaries of the +Jesuits, who, since the suppression of the Society, are known to have +kept a footing in Pianura, as in most of the Italian states. As to the +Duke, the death of the Marquess of Cerveno, the failing health of the +little prince, and his own strange physical infirmities, have so preyed +on his mind that he is the victim of any who are unscrupulous enough to +trade on the fears of a diseased imagination. His counsellors, however +divided in doctrine, have at least one end in common; and that is, to +keep the light of reason out of the darkened chamber in which they have +confined him; and with such a ruler and such principles of government, +you may fancy that poor philosophy has not where to lay her head." + +"And the people?" Odo pursued. "What of the fiscal administration? In +some states where liberty of thought is forbidden the material welfare +of the subject is nevertheless considered." + +The hunchback shook his head. "It may be so," said he, "though I had +thought the principle of moral tyranny must infect every branch of +public administration. With us, at all events, where the Church party +rules, the privileges and exemptions of the clergy are the chief source +of suffering, and the state of passive ignorance in which they have kept +the people has bred in the latter a dull resignation that is the surest +obstacle to reform. Oh, sir," he cried, his eyes darkening with emotion, +"if you could see, as I do, the blind brute misery on which all the +magnificence of rank and all the refinements of luxury are built, you +would feel, as you drive along this road, that with every turn of the +wheels you are passing over the bodies of those who have toiled without +ceasing that you might ride in a gilt coach, and have gone hungry that +you might feast in Kings' palaces!" + +The touch of rhetoric in this adjuration did not discredit it with Odo, +to whom the words were as caustic on an open wound. He turned to make +some impulsive answer; but as he did so he caught sight of the towers of +Pianura rising above the orchards and market-gardens of the suburbs. The +sight started a new train of feeling, and Gamba, perceiving it, said +quietly: "But this is no time to speak of such things." + +A moment later the carriage had passed under the great battlemented +gates, with their Etruscan bas-reliefs, and the motto of the house of +Valsecca--Humilitas--surmounted by the ducal escutcheon. + +Though the hour was close on noon the streets were as animated as at the +angelus, and the carriage could hardly proceed for the crowd obstructing +its passage. So unusual at that period was such a sight in one of the +lesser Italian cities that Odo turned to Gamba for an explanation. At +the same moment a roar rose from the crowd; and the coach turning into +the Corso which led to the ducal palace and the centre of the town, Odo +caught sight of a strange procession advancing from that direction. It +was headed by a clerk or usher with a black cap and staff, behind whom +marched two bare-foot friars escorting between them a middle-aged man in +the dress of an abate, his hands bound behind him and his head +surmounted by a paste-board mitre inscribed with the title: A Destroyer +of Female Chastity. This man, who was of a simple and decent aspect, was +so dazed by the buffeting of the crowd, so spattered by the mud and +filth hurled at him from a hundred taunting hands, and his countenance +distorted by so piteous a look of animal fear, that he seemed more like +a madman being haled to Bedlam than a penitent making public amends for +his offence. + +"Are such failings always so severely punished in Pianura?" Odo asked, +turning ironically to Gamba as the mob and its victim passed out of +sight. + +The hunchback smiled. "Not," said he, "if the offender be in a position +to benefit by the admirable doctrines of probabilism, the direction of +intention, or any one of the numerous expedients by which an indulgent +Church has smoothed the way of the sinner; but as God does not give the +crop unless man sows the seed, so His ministers bestow grace only when +the penitent has enriched the treasury. The fellow," he added, "is a man +of some learning and of a retired and orderly way of living, and the +charge was brought against him by a jeweller and his wife, who owed him +a sum of money and are said to have chosen this way of evading payment. +The priests are always glad to find a scape-goat of the sort, especially +when there are murmurs against the private conduct of those in high +places, and the woman, having denounced him, was immediately assured by +her confessor that any debt incurred to a seducer was null and void, and +that she was entitled to a hundred scudi of damages for having been led +into sin." + + +2.10. + +At the Duke's express wish, Odo was to lodge in the palace; and when he +entered the courtyard he found Cantapresto waiting to lead him to his +apartment. + +The rooms assigned to him lay at the end of one of the wings overlooking +the gardens; and as he mounted the great stairway and walked down the +corridors with their frescoed walls and busts of Roman emperors he +recalled the far-off night when he had passed through the same scenes as +a frightened awe-struck child. Where he had then beheld a supernatural +fabric, peopled with divinities of bronze and marble, and glowing with +light and colour, he now saw a many-corridored palace, stately indeed, +and full of a faded splendour, but dull and antiquated in comparison +with the new-fangled elegance of the Sardinian court. Yet at every turn +some object thrilled the fibres of old association or pride of race. +Here he traversed a gallery hung with the portraits of his line; there +caught a glimpse of the pages' antechamber through which he and his +mother had been led when they waited on the Duke; and from the windows +of his closet he overlooked the alleys and terraces where he had +wandered with the hunchback. + +One of the Duke's pages came to say that his Highness would receive the +cavaliere when the court rose from dinner; and finding himself with two +hours on his hands, Odo determined to await his kinsman's summons in the +garden. Thither he presently repaired; and was soon, with a mournful +pleasure, retracing the paths he had first explored in such an ecstasy +of wonder. The pleached walks and parterres were in all the freshness of +June. Roses and jasmine mingled on the terrace-walls, citron-trees +ingeniously grafted with red and white carnations stood in Faenza jars +before the lemon-house, and marble nymphs and fauns peeped from thickets +of flowering camellias. A noise of childish voices presently attracted +Odo, and following a tunnel of clipped limes he came out on a theatre +cut in the turf and set about with statues of Apollo and the Muses. A +handful of boys in military dress were performing a series of evolutions +in the centre of this space; and facing them stood a child of about ten +years, in a Colonel's uniform covered with orders, his hair curled and +powdered, a paste-board sword in his hand, and his frail body supported +on one side by a turbaned dwarf, and on the other by an ecclesiastic who +was evidently his governor. The child, as Odo approached, was calling +out his orders to his regiment in a weak shrill voice, moving now here, +now there on his booted tottering legs, as his two supporters guided +him, and painfully trying to flourish the paper weapon that was too +heavy for his nerveless wrist. Behind this strange group stood another +figure, that of a tall heavy man, richly dressed, with a curious +Oriental-looking order on his breast and a veiled somnolent eye which he +kept fixed on the little prince. + +Odo had been about to advance and do homage to his cousin; but a sign +from the man in the background arrested him. The manoeuvres were soon +over, the heir was lifted into a little gilded chariot drawn by white +goats, his regiment formed in line and saluted him, and he disappeared +down one of the alleys with his attendants. + +This ceremony over, the tall man advanced to Odo with a bow and asked +pardon for the liberty he had taken. + +"You are doubtless," said he, "his Highness's cousin, the Cavaliere +Valsecca; and my excuse for intruding between yourself and the prince is +that I am the Duke's physician, Count Heiligenstern, and that the heir +is at present undergoing a course of treatment under my care. His +health, as you probably know, has long been a cause of anxiety to his +illustrious parents, and when I was summoned to Pianura the College of +Physicians had given up all hope of saving him. Since my coming, +however, I flatter myself that a marked change is perceptible. My method +is that of invigorating the blood by exciting the passions most likely +to produce a generous vital ardour. Thus, by organising these juvenile +manoeuvres, I arouse the prince's martial zeal; by encouraging him to +study the history of his ancestors, I evoke his political ambition; by +causing him to be led about the gardens on a pony, accompanied by a +miniature pack of Maltese dogs in pursuit of a tame doe, I stimulate the +passion of the chase; but it is essential to my system that one emotion +should not violently counteract another, and I am therefore obliged to +protect my noble patient from the sudden intrusion of new impressions." + +This explanation, delivered in a sententious tone, and with a strong +German accent, seemed to Odo no more than a learned travesty of the +familiar and pathetic expedient of distracting a sick child by the +pretence of manly diversions. He was struck, however, by the physician's +aspect, and would have engaged him in talk had not one of the Duke's +gentlemen appeared with the announcement that his Highness would be +pleased to receive the Cavaliere Valsecca. + +Like most dwellings of its kind in Italy, the palace of Pianura +resembled one of those shells which reveal by their outer convolutions +the gradual development of the creature housed within. For two or three +generations after Bracciaforte, the terrible founder of the line, had +made himself master of the republic, his descendants had clung to the +old brick fortress or rocca which the great condottiere had held +successfully against the burghers' arquebuses and the battering-rams of +rival adventurers, and which still glassed its battlements in the slow +waters of the Piana beside the city wall. It was Ascanio, the first +Duke, the correspondent of Politian and Castiglione, who, finding the +ancestral lair too cramped for the court of a humanist prince, had +summoned Luciano da Laurana to build a palace better fitted to his +state. Duke Ascanio, in bronze by Verocchio, still looked up with pride +from the palace-square at the brick and terra-cotta facade with its +fruit-wreathed arches crowned by imperial profiles; but a later prince +found the small rooms and intricate passages of Laurana's structure +inadequate to the pomp of an ally of Leo X., and Vignola added the state +apartments, the sculpture gallery and the libraries. + +The palace now passed for one of the wonders of Italy. The Duke's guest, +the witty and learned Aretino, celebrated it in verse, his friend +Cardinal Bembo in prose; Correggio painted the walls of one room, Guilio +Romano the ceiling of another. It seemed that magnificence could go no +farther, till the seventeenth century brought to the throne a Duke who +asked himself how a self-respecting prince could live without a theatre, +a riding-school and an additional wing to lodge the ever-growing train +of court officials who had by this time replaced the feudal men-at-arms. +He answered the question by laying an extra tax on his people and +inviting to Pianura the great Roman architect Carlo Borromini, who +regretfully admitted that his illustrious patron was on the whole less +royally housed than their Highnesses of Mantua and Parma. Within five +years the "cavallerizza," the theatre and the gardens flung defiance at +these aspiring potentates; and again Pianura took precedence of her +rivals. The present Duke's father had expressed the most recent tendency +of the race by the erection of a chapel in the florid Jesuit style; and +the group of buildings thus chronicled in rich durable lines the varying +passions and ambitions of three hundred years of power. + +As Odo followed his guide toward the Duke's apartments he remarked a +change in the aspect of the palace. Where formerly the corridors had +been thronged with pages, lacqueys and gaily-dressed cavaliers and +ladies, only a few ecclesiastics now glided by: here a Monsignore in +ermine and lace rochet, attended by his chaplain and secretaries, there +a cowled Dominican or a sober-looking secular priest. The Duke was +lodged in the oldest portion of the palace, and Odo, who had never +visited these apartments, looked with interest at the projecting +sculptured chimney and vaulted ceiling of the pages' ante-chamber, which +had formerly been the guardroom and was still hung with panoplies. +Thence he was led into a gallery lined with scriptural tapestries and +furnished in the heavy style of the seventeenth century. Here he waited +a few moments, hearing the sound of conversation in the room beyond; +then the door of this apartment opened, and a handsome Dominican passed +out, followed by a page who invited Odo to step into the Duke's cabinet. + +This was a very small room, completely panelled in delicate wood-carving +touched with gold. Over this panelling, regardless of the beauty of its +design, had been hung a mass of reliquaries and small devotional +bas-reliefs and paintings, making the room appear more like the chapel +of a wonder-working saint than a prince's closet. Here again Odo found +himself alone; but the page presently returned to say that his Highness +was not well and begged the cavaliere to wait on him in his bed-chamber. + +The most conspicuous object in this room was a great bedstead raised on +a dais. The plumed posts and sumptuous hangings of the bed gave it an +altar-like air, and the Duke himself, who lay between the curtains, his +wig replaced by a nightcap, a scapular about his neck, and his +shrivelled body wrapped in a brocaded dressing-gown, looked more like a +relic than a man. His heavy under-lip trembled slightly as he offered +his hand to Odo's salute. + +"You find me, cousin," said he after a brief greeting, "much troubled by +a question that has of late incessantly disturbed my rest--can the soul, +after full intuition of God, be polluted by the sins of the body?" he +clutched Odo's hand in his burning grasp. "Is it possible that there are +human beings so heedless of their doom that they can go about their +earthly pleasures with this awful problem unsolved? Oh, why has not some +Pope decided it? Why has God left this hideous uncertainty hanging over +us? You know the doctrine of Plotinus--'he who has access to God leaves +the virtues behind him as the images of the gods are left in the outer +temple.' Many of the fathers believed that the Neoplatonists were +permitted to foreshadow in their teachings the revelation of Christ; but +on these occult points much doubt remains, and though certain of the +great theologians have inclined to this interpretation, there are others +who hold that it leans to the heresy of Quietism." + +Odo, who had inferred in the Duke's opening words an allusion to the +little prince's ill-health, or to some political anxiety, was at a loss +how to reply to this strange appeal; but after a moment he said, "I have +heard that your Highness's director is a man of great learning and +discrimination. Can he not help your Highness to some decision on this +point?" + +The Duke glanced at him suspiciously. "Father Ignazio," said he, "is in +fact well-versed in theology; but there are certain doctrines +inaccessible to all but a few who have received the direct illumination +of heaven, and on this point I cannot feel that his judgment is final." +He wiped the dampness from his sallow forehead and pressed the scapular +to his lips. "May you never know," he cried, "the agony of a father +whose child is dying, of a sovereign who longs to labour for the welfare +of his people, but who is racked by the thought that in giving his mind +to temporal duties and domestic affections while such spiritual +difficulties are still unsolved, he may be preparing for himself an +eternity of torture such as that--" and he pointed to an old and +blackened picture of the Last Judgment that hung on the opposite wall. + +Odo tried to frame a soothing rejoinder; but the Duke passionately +interrupted him. "Alas, cousin, no rest is possible for one who has +attained the rapture of the Beatific Vision, yet who trembles lest the +mere mechanical indulgence of the senses may still subject him to the +common penalty of sin! As a man who has devoted himself to the study of +theology is privileged to argue on questions forbidden to the vulgar, so +surely fasting, maceration and ecstasy must liberate the body from the +bondage of prescribed morality. Shall no distinction be recognised +between my conduct and that of the common sot or debauchee whose soul +lies in blind subjection to his lower instincts? I, who have laboured +early and late to remove temptation from my people--who have punished +offences against conduct as unsparingly as spiritual error--I, who have +not scrupled to destroy every picture in my galleries that contained a +nude figure or a wanton attitude--I, who have been blessed from +childhood by tokens of divine favour and miraculous intervention--can I +doubt that I have earned the privileges of that higher state in which +the soul is no longer responsible for the failings of the body? And +yet--and yet--what if I were mistaken?" he moaned. "What if my advisors +have deceived me? Si autem et sic impius sum, quare frustra laboravi?" +And he sank back on his pillows limp as an empty glove. + +Alarmed at his disorder, Odo stood irresolute whether to call for help; +but as he hesitated the Duke feebly drew from his bosom a gold key +attached to a slender Venetian chain. + +"This," said he, "unlocks the small tortoise-shell cabinet yonder. In it +you will find a phial of clear liquor, a few drops of which will restore +me. 'Tis an essence distilled by the Benedictine nuns of the Perpetual +Adoration and peculiarly effective in accesses of spiritual +disturbance." + +Odo complied, and having poured the liquor into a glass, held it to his +cousin's lips. In a moment the Duke's eye revived and he began to speak +in a weak but composed voice, with an air of dignity in singular +contrast to his previous self-abandonment. "I am," said he, "unhappily +subject to such seizures after any prolonged exertion, and a +conversation I have just had with my director has left me in no fit +state to receive you. The cares of government sit heavy on one who has +scarce health enough for the duties of a private station; and were it +not for my son I should long since have withdrawn to the shelter of the +monastic life." He paused and looked at Odo with a melancholy kindness. +"In you," said he, "the native weakness of our complexion appears to +have been tempered by the blood of your mother's house, and your +countenance gives every promise of health and vivacity." + +He broke off with a sigh and continued in a more authoritative tone: +"You have learned from Count Trescorre my motive in summoning you to +Pianura. My son's health causes me the liveliest concern, my own is +subject to such seizures as you have just witnessed. I cannot think +that, in this age of infidelity and disorder, God can design to deprive +a Christian state of a line of sovereigns uniformly zealous in the +defence of truth; but the purposes of Heaven are inscrutable, as the +recent suppression of the Society of Jesus has most strangely proved; +and should our dynasty be extinguished I am consoled by the thought that +the rule will pass to one of our house. Of this I shall have more to say +to you in future. Meanwhile your first business is to acquaint yourself +with your new surroundings. The Duchess holds a circle this evening, +where you will meet the court; but I must advise you that the persons +her Highness favours with her intimacy are not those best qualified to +guide and instruct a young man in your position. These you will meet at +the house of the Countess Belverde, one of the Duchess's ladies, a woman +of sound judgment and scrupulous piety, who gathers about her all our +most learned and saintly ecclesiastics. Count Trescorre will instruct +you in all that becomes your position at court, and my director, Father +Ignazio, will aid you in the selection of a confessor. As to the Bishop, +a most worthy and conversable prelate, to whom I would have you show all +due regard, his zeal in spiritual matters is not as great as I could +wish, and in private talk he indulges in a laxity of opinion against +which I cannot too emphatically warn you. Happily, however, Pianura +offers other opportunities of edification. Father Ignazio is a man of +wide learning and inflexible doctrine, and in several of our +monasteries, notably that of the Barnabites, you will find examples of +sanctity and wisdom such as a young man may well devoutly consider. Our +convents also are distinguished for the severity of their rule and the +spiritual privileges accorded them. The Carmelites have every reason to +hope for the beatification of their aged Prioress, and among the nuns of +the Perpetual Adoration is one who has recently received the ineffable +grace of the vulnus divinum. In the conversation of these saintly nuns, +and of the holy Abbot of the Barnabites, you will find the surest +safeguard against those errors and temptations that beset your age." He +leaned back with a gesture of dismissal; but added, reddening slightly, +as Odo prepared to withdraw: "You will oblige me, cousin, when you meet +my physician, Count Heiligenstern, by not touching on the matter of the +restorative you have seen me take." + +Odo left his cousin's presence with a feeling of deep discouragement. To +a spirit aware of the new influences abroad, and fresh from contact with +evils rooted in the very foundations of the existing system, there was a +peculiar irony in being advised to seek guidance and instruction in the +society of ecstatic nuns and cloistered theologians. The Duke, with his +sickly soul agrope in a maze of Neoplatonism and probabilism, while his +people groaned under unjust taxes, while knowledge and intellectual +liberty languished in a kind of moral pest-house, seemed to Odo like a +ruler who, in time of famine, should keep the royal granaries locked and +spend his days praying for the succour that his own hand might have +dispensed. + +In the tapestry room one of his Highness's gentlemen waited to reconduct +Odo. Their way lay through the portrait gallery of which he had +previously caught a glimpse, and here he begged his guide to leave him. +He felt a sudden desire to meet his unknown ancestors face to face, and +to trace the tendencies which, from the grim Bracciaforte and the +stately sceptical humanist of Leo's age, had mysteriously forced the +race into its ever-narrowing mould. The dusky canvases, hung high in +tarnished escutcheoned frames, presented a continuous chronicle of the +line, from Bracciaforte himself, with his predatory profile outlined by +some early Tuscan hand against the turrets of his impregnable fortress. +Odo lingered long on this image, but it was not till he stood beneath +Piero della Francesca's portrait of the first Duke that he felt the +thrill of kindred instincts. In this grave face, with its sensuous mouth +and melancholy speculative eyes, he recognised the mingled strain of +impressionability and unrest that had reached such diverse issues in his +cousin and himself. The great Duke of the "Golden Age," in his +Titianesque brocade, the statuette of a naked faun at his elbow, and a +faun-like smile on his own ruddy lips, represented another aspect of the +ancestral spirit: the rounded temperament of an age of Cyrenaicism, in +which every moment was a ripe fruit sunned on all sides. A little +farther on, the shadow of the Council of Trent began to fall on the +ducal faces, as the uniform blackness of the Spanish habit replaced the +sumptuous colours of the Renaissance. Here was the persecuting Bishop, +Paul IV.'s ally against the Spaniards, painted by Caravaggio in hauberk +and mailed gloves, with his motto--Etiam cum gladio--surmounting the +episcopal chair; there the Duke who, after a life of hard warfare and +stern piety, had resigned his office to his son and died in the +"angelica vestis" of the tertiary order; and the "beatified" Duchess who +had sold her jewels to buy corn for the poor during the famine of 1670, +and had worn a hair-shirt under a corset that seemed stiff enough to +serve all the purposes of bodily mortification. So the file descended, +the colours fading, the shadows deepening, till it reached a baby +porporato of the last century, who had donned the cardinal's habit at +four, and stood rigid and a little pale in his red robes and lace, with +a crucifix and a skull on the table to which the top of his berretta +hardly reached. + +It seemed to Odo as he gazed on the long line of faces as though their +owners had entered one by one into a narrowing defile, where the sun +rose later and set earlier on each successive traveller; and in every +countenance, from that of the first Duke to that of his own peruked and +cuirassed grandfather, he discerned the same symptom of decadency: that +duality of will which, in a delicately-tempered race, is the fatal fruit +of an undisturbed pre-eminence. They had ruled too long and enjoyed too +much; and the poor creature he had just left to his dismal scruples and +forebodings seemed the mere empty husk of long-exhausted passions. + + +2.11. + +The Duchess was lodged in the Borromini wing of the palace, and thither +Odo was conducted that evening. + +To eyes accustomed to such ceremonial there was no great novelty in the +troop of powdered servants, the major-domo in his short cloak and chain, +and the florid splendour of the long suite of rooms, decorated in a +style that already appeared over-charged to the more fastidious taste of +the day. Odo's curiosity centred chiefly in the persons peopling this +scene, whose conflicting interests and passions formed, as it were, the +framework of the social structure of Pianura, so that there was not a +labourer in the mulberry-orchards or a weaver in the silk-looms but +depended for his crust of black bread and the leaking roof over his head +on the private whim of some member of that brilliant company. + +The Duchess, who soon entered, received Odo with the flighty good-nature +of a roving mind; but as her deep-blue gaze met his her colour rose, her +eyes lingered on his face, and she invited him to a seat at her side. +Maria Clementina was of Austrian descent, and something in her free and +noble port and the smiling arrogance of her manner recalled the aspect +of her distant kinswoman, the young Queen of France. She plied Odo with +a hundred questions, interrupting his answers with a playful abruptness, +and to all appearances more engaged by his person than his discourse. + +"Have you seen my son?" she asked. "I remember you a little boy scarce +bigger than Ferrante, whom your mother brought to kiss my hand in the +very year of my marriage. Yes--and you pinched my toy spaniel, sir, and +I was so angry with you that I got up and turned my back on the +company--do you remember? But how should you, being such a child at the +time? Ah, cousin how old you make me feel! I would to God my son looked +as you did then; but the Duke is killing him with his nostrums. The +child was healthy enough when he was born; but what with novenas and +touching of relics and animal magnetism and electrical treatment, +there's not a bone in his little body but the saints and the surgeons +are fighting over its possession. Have you read 'Emile,' cousin, by the +new French author--I forget his name? Well, I would have the child +brought up like 'Emile,' allowed to run wild in the country and grow up +sturdy and hard as a little peasant. But what heresies am I talking! The +book is on the Index, I believe, and if my director knew I had it in my +library I should be set up in the stocks in the market-place and all my +court-gowns burnt at the Church door as a warning against the danger of +importing the new fashions from France!--I hope you hunt, cousin?" she +cried suddenly. "'Tis my chief diversion and one I would have my friends +enjoy with me. His Highness has lately seen fit to cut down my stables, +so that I have scarce forty saddle-horses to my name, and the greater +part but sorry nags at that; yet I can still find a mount for any friend +that will ride with me and I hope to see you among the number if the +Duke can spare you now and then from mass and benediction. His Highness +complains that I am always surrounded by the same company; but is it my +fault if there are not twenty persons at court that can survive a day in +the saddle and a night at cards? Have you seen the Belverde, my mistress +of the robes? She follows the hunt in a litter, cousin, and tells her +beads at the death! I hope you like cards too, cousin, for I would have +all my weaknesses shared by my friends, that they may be the less +disposed to criticise them." + +The impression produced on the Duchess by the cavaliere Valsecca was +closely observed by several members of the group surrounding her +Highness. One of these was Count Trescorre, who moved among the +courtiers with an air of ease that seemed to establish without +proclaiming the tie between himself and the Duchess. When Maria +Clementina sat down at play, Trescorre joined Odo and with his usual +friendliness pointed out the most conspicuous figures in the circle. The +Duchess's society, as the Duke had implied, was composed of the livelier +members of the court, chief among whom was the same Don Serafino who had +figured so vividly in the reminiscences of Mirandolina and Cantapresto. +This gentleman, a notorious loose-liver and gamester, with some remains +of good looks and a gay boisterous manner, played the leader of revels +to her Highness's following; and at his heels came the flock of pretty +women and dashing spendthrifts who compose the train of a young and +pleasure-loving princess. On such occasions as the present, however, all +the members of the court were obliged to pay their duty to her Highness; +and conspicuous among these less frequent visitors was the Duke's +director, the suave and handsome Dominican whom Odo had seen leaving his +Highness's closet that afternoon. This ecclesiastic was engaged in +conversation with the Prime Minister, Count Pievepelago, a small feeble +mannikin covered with gold lace and orders. The deference with which the +latter followed the Dominican's discourse excited Odo's attention; but +it was soon diverted by the approach of a lady who joined herself to the +group with an air of discreet familiarity. Though no longer young, she +was still slender and graceful, and her languid eye and vapourish manner +seemed to Odo to veil an uncommon alertness of perception. The rich +sobriety of her dress, the jewelled rosary about her wrist, and most of +all, perhaps, the murderous sweetness of the smile with which the +Duchess addressed her, told him that here was the Countess Belverde; an +inference which Trescorre confirmed. + +"The Countess," said he, "or I should rather say the Marchioness of +Boscofolto, since the Duke has just bestowed on her the fief of that +name, is impatient to make your acquaintance; and since you doubtless +remember the saying of the Marquis de Montesquieu, that to know a ruler +one must know his confessor and his mistress, you will perhaps be glad +to seize both opportunities in one." + +The Countess greeted Odo with a flattering deference and at once drew +him into conversation with Pievepelago and the Dominican. + +"We are discussing," said she, "the details of Prince Ferrante's +approaching visit to the shrine of our Lady of the Mountain. This shrine +lies about half an hour's ride beyond my villa of Boscofolto, where I +hope to have the honour of receiving their Highnesses on their return +from the pilgrimage. The Madonna del Monte, as you doubtless know, has +often preserved the ducal house in seasons of peril, notably during the +great plague of 1630 and during the famine in the Duchess Polixena's +time, when her Highness, of blessed memory, met our Lady in the streets +distributing bread, in the dress of a peasant-woman from the hills, but +with a necklace made of blood-drops instead of garnets. Father Ignazio +has lately counselled the little prince's visiting in state the +protectress of his line, and his Highness's physician, Count +Heiligenstern, does not disapprove the plan. In fact," she added, "I +understand that he thinks all special acts of piety beneficial, as +symbolising the inward act by which the soul incessantly strives to +reunite itself to the One." + +The Dominican glanced at Odo with a smile. "The Count's dialectics," +said he, "might be dangerous were they a little clearer; but we must +hope he distinguishes more accurately between his drugs than his +dogmas." + +"But I am told," the Prime Minister here interposed in a creaking rusty +voice, "that her Highness is set against the pilgrimage and will put +every obstacle in the way of its being performed." + +The Countess sighed and cast down her eyes, the Dominican remained +silent, and Trescorre said quietly to Odo, "Her Highness would be +pleased to have you join her in a game at basset." As they crossed the +room he added in a low tone: "The Duchess, in spite of her remarkable +strength of character, is still of an age to be readily open to new +influences. I observed she was much taken by your conversation, and you +would be doing her a service by engaging her not to oppose this +pilgrimage to Boscofolto. We have Heiligenstern's word that it cannot +harm the prince, it will produce a good impression on the people, and it +is of vital importance to her Highness not to side against the Duke in +such matters." And he withdrew with a smile as Odo approached the +card-table. + +Odo left the Duchess's circle with an increased desire to penetrate more +deeply into the organisation of the little world about him, to trace the +operation of its various parts, and to put his hand on the mainspring +about which they revolved; and he wondered whether Gamba, whose +connection with the ducal library must give him some insight into the +affairs of the court, might not prove as instructive a guide through +this labyrinth as through the mazes of the ducal garden. + +The Duke's library filled a series of rooms designed in the classical +style of the cinque-cento. On the very threshold Odo was conscious of +leaving behind the trivial activities of the palace, with the fantastic +architecture which seemed their natural setting. Here all was based on a +noble permanence of taste, a convergence of accumulated effort toward a +chosen end; and the door was fittingly surmounted by Seneca's definition +of the wise man's state: "Omnia illi secula ut deo serviunt." + +Odo would gladly have lingered among the books which filled the rooms +with an incense-like aroma of old leather. His imagination caressed in +passing the yellowish vellum backs, the worn tooling of Aldine folios, +the heavy silver clasps of ancient chronicles and psalters; but his +first object was to find Gamba and renew the conversation of the +previous day. In this he was disappointed. The only occupant of the +library was the hunchback's friend and protector, the abate Crescenti, a +tall white-haired priest with the roseate gravity and benevolent air of +a donator in some Flemish triptych. The abate, courteously welcoming +Odo, explained that he had despatched his assistant to the Benedictine +monastery to copy certain ancient records of transactions between that +order and the Lords of Valsecca, and added that Gamba, on his return, +should at once be apprised of the cavaliere's wish to see him. + +The abate himself had been engaged, when his visitor entered, in +collating manuscripts, but on Odo's begging him to return to his work, +he said with a smile: "I do not suffer from an excess of interruptions, +for the library is the least visited portion of the palace, and I am +glad to welcome any who are disposed to inspect its treasures. I know +not, cavaliere," he added, "if the report of my humble labours has ever +reached you;" and on Odo's affirmative gesture he went on, with the +eagerness of a shy man who gathers assurance from the intelligence of +his listener: "Such researches into the rude and uncivilised past seem +to me as essential to the comprehension of the present as the mastering +of the major premiss to the understanding of a syllogism; and to those +who reproach me for wasting my life over the chronicles of barbarian +invasions and the records of monkish litigations, instead of +contemplating the illustrious deeds of Greek sages and Roman heroes, I +confidently reply that it is more useful to a man to know his own +father's character than that of a remote ancestor. Even in this quiet +retreat," he went on, "I hear much talk of abuses and of the need for +reform; and I often think that if they who rail so loudly against +existing institutions would take the trouble to trace them to their +source, and would, for instance, compare this state as it is today with +its condition five hundred or a thousand years ago, instead of measuring +it by the standard of some imaginary Platonic republic, they would find, +if not less subject for complaint, yet fuller means of understanding and +remedying the abuses they discover." + +This view of history was one so new in the abate Crescenti's day that it +surprised Odo with the revelation of unsuspected possibilities. How was +it that among the philosophers whose works he had studied, none had +thought of tracing in the social and political tendencies of the race +the germ of wrongs so confidently ascribed to the cunning of priests and +the rapacity of princes? Odo listened with growing interest while +Crescenti, encouraged by his questions, pointed out how the abuses of +feudalism had arisen from the small land-owner's need of protection +against the northern invader, as the concentration of royal prerogative +had been the outcome of the king's intervention between his great +vassals and the communes. The discouragement which had obscured Odo's +outlook since his visit to Pontesordo was cleared away by the discovery +that in a sympathetic study of the past might lie the secret of dealing +with present evils. His imagination, taking the intervening obstacles at +a bound, arrived at once at the general axiom to which such inductions +pointed; and if he afterward learned that human development follows no +such direct line of advance, but must painfully stumble across the +wastes of error, prejudice and ignorance, while the theoriser traverses +the same distance with a stroke of his speculative pinions; yet the +influence of these teachings tempered his judgments with charity and +dignified his very failures by a tragic sense of their inevitableness. + +Crescenti suggested that Gamba should wait on Odo that evening; but the +latter, being uncertain how far he might dispose of his time, enquired +where the hunchback lodged, with a view of sending for him at a +convenient moment. Having dined at the Duchess's table, and soon +wearying of the vapid company of her associates, he yielded to the +desire for contrast that so often guided his course, and set out toward +sunset in search of Gamba's lodging. + +It was his first opportunity of inspecting the town at leisure, and for +a while he let his curiosity lead him as it would. The streets near the +palace were full of noble residences, recording, in their sculptured +doorways, in the wrought-iron work of torch-holders and window-grilles, +and in every architectural detail, the gradual change of taste that had +transformed the machicolations of the mediaeval fighter into the open +cortiles and airy balconies of his descendant. Here and there, amid +these inveterate records of dominion, rose the monuments of a mightier +and more ancient power. Of these churches and monasteries the greater +number, dating only from the ascendancy of the Valseccas, showed an +ordered and sumptuous architecture; but one or two buildings surviving +from the period of the free city stood out among them with the austerity +of desert saints in a throng of court ecclesiastics. The columns of the +Cathedral porch were still supported on featureless porphyry lions worn +smooth by generations of loungers; and above the octagonal baptistery +ran a fantastic basrelief wherein the spirals of the vine framed an +allegory of men and monsters symbolising, in their mysterious conflicts, +the ever-recurring Manicheism of the middle ages. Fresh from his talk +with Crescenti, Odo lingered curiously on these sculptures, which but +the day before he might have passed by as the efforts of ignorant +workmen, but which now seemed full of the significance that belongs to +any incomplete expression of human thought or feeling. Of their relation +to the growth of art he had as yet no clear notion; but as evidence of +sensations that his forefathers had struggled to record, they touched +him like the inarticulate stammerings in which childhood strives to +convey its meaning. + +He found Gamba's lodging on the upper floor of a decayed palace in one +of the by-lanes near the Cathedral. The pointed arcades of this ancient +building enclosed the remains of floriated mouldings, and the walls of +the court showed traces of fresco-painting; but clothes-lines now hung +between the arches, and about the well-head in the centre of the court +sat a group of tattered women with half-naked children playing in the +dirt at their feet. One of these women directed Odo to the staircase +which ascended between damp stone walls to Gamba's door. This was opened +by the hunchback himself, who, with an astonished exclamation, admitted +his visitor to a scantily furnished room littered with books and papers. +A child sprawled on the floor, and a young woman, who had been sewing in +the fading light of the attic window, snatched him up as Odo entered. +Her back being turned to the light, he caught only a slender youthful +outline; but something in the turn of the head, the shrinking curve of +the shoulders, carried him back to the little barefoot figure cowering +in a corner of the kitchen at Pontesordo, while the farm-yard rang with +Filomena's call--"Where are you then, child of iniquity?" + +"Momola--don't you know me?" he exclaimed. + +She hung back trembling, as though the sound of his voice roused an echo +of fear; but Gamba, reddening slightly, took her hand and led her +forward. + +"It is, indeed," said he, "your excellency's old playmate, the Momola of +Pontesordo, who consents to share my poverty and who makes me forget it +by the tenderness of her devotion." + +But Momola, at this, found voice. "Oh, sir," she cried, "it is he who +took me in when I was half-dead and starving, who many a time went +hungry to feed me, and who cares for the child as if it were his own!" + +As she stood there, in her half-wild hollowed-eyed beauty, which seemed +a sickly efflorescence of the marshes, pressing to her breast another +"child of iniquity" as pale and elfish as her former self, she seemed to +Odo the embodiment of ancient wrongs, risen from the wasted soil to +haunt the dreams of its oppressors. + +Gamba shrugged his shoulders. "Why," said he, "a child of my own is a +luxury I am never likely to possess as long as I have wit to remember +the fundamental axiom of philosophy: entia non sunt multiplicanda +praeter necessitatum; so it is natural enough fate should single me out +to repair the negligence of those who have failed to observe that +admirable principle. And now," he added, turning gently to Momola, "it +is time to put the boy to bed." + +When the door had closed on her Odo turned to Gamba. "I could learn +nothing at Pontesordo," he said. "They seemed unwilling to speak of her. +What is her story and where did you first know her?" + +Gamba's face darkened. "You will remember, cavaliere," he said, "that +some time after your departure from Pianura I passed into the service of +the Marquess of Cerveno, then a youth of about twenty, who combined with +graceful manners and a fair exterior a nature so corrupt and cowardly +that he seemed like some such noble edifice as this, designed to house +great hopes and high ambitions, but fallen to base uses and become the +shelter of thieves and prostitutes. Prince Ferrante being sickly from +his birth, the Marquess was always looked on as the Duke's successor, +and to Trescorre, who even then, as Master of the Horse, cherished the +ambitions he has since realised, no prospect could have been more +distasteful. My noble brother, to do him justice, has always hated the +Jesuits, who, as you doubtless know, were all-powerful here before the +recent suppression of the Order. The Marquess of Cerveno was as +completely under their control as the Duke is under that of the +Dominicans, and Trescorre knew that with the Marquess's accession his +own rule must end. He did his best to gain an influence over his future +ruler, but failing in this resolved to ruin him. + +"Cerveno, like all your house, was passionately addicted to the chase, +and spent much time hunting in the forest of Pontesordo. One day the +stag was brought to bay in the farm-yard of the old manor, and there +Cerveno saw Momola, then a girl of sixteen, of a singular wild beauty +which sickness and trouble have since effaced. The young Marquess was +instantly taken; and though hitherto indifferent to women, yielded so +completely to his infatuation that Trescorre, ever on the alert, saw in +it an unexpected means to his end. He instantly married Momola to +Giannozzo, whom she feared and hated; he schooled Giannozzo in the part +of the jealous and vindictive husband, and by the liberal use of money +contrived that Momola, while suffered to encourage the Marquess's +addresses, should be kept so close that Cerveno could not see her save +by coming to Pontesordo. This was the first step in the plan; the next +was to arrange that Momola should lure her lover to the hunting-lodge on +the edge of the chase. This lodge, as your excellency may remember, lies +level with the marsh, and so open to noxious exhalations that a night's +sojourn there may be fatal. The infernal scheme was carried out with the +connivance of the scoundrels at the farm, who had no scruples about +selling the girl for a few ducats; and as to Momola, can you wonder that +her loathing of Giannozzo and of her wretched life at Pontesordo threw +her defenceless into Trescorre's toils? All was cunningly planned to +exasperate Cerveno's passion and Momola's longing to escape; and at +length, pressed by his entreaties and innocently carrying out the +designs of his foe, the poor girl promised to meet him after night-fall +at the hunting-lodge. The secrecy of the adventure, and the peril to +which it exposed him (for Trescorre had taken care to paint Giannozzo +and his father in the darkest colours) were fuel to Cerveno's passion, +and he went night after night to Pontesordo. The time was August, when +the marsh breathes death, and the Duke, apprised of his favourite's +imprudence, forbade his returning to the chase. + +"Nothing could better have served Trescorre; for opposition spurred the +Marquess's languid temper, and he had now the incredible folly to take +up his residence in the lodge. Within three weeks the fever held him. He +was at once taken to Pianura, and on recovering from his seizure was +sent to take the mountain air at the baths of Lucca. But the poison was +in his blood. He never regained more than a semblance of health, and his +madness having run its course, his passion for Momola turned to hate of +the poor girl to whom he ascribed his destruction. Giannozzo, meanwhile, +terrified by the report that the Duke had winded the intrigue, and +fearing to be charged with connivance, thought to prove his innocence by +casting off his wife and disowning her child. + +"What part I played in this grim business I leave your excellency to +conceive. As the Marquess's creature I was forced to assist at the +spectacle without power to stay its consequences; but when the child was +born I carried the news to my master and begged him to come to the +mother's aid. For answer, he had me beaten by his lacqueys and flung out +of his house. I stomached the beating and addressed myself to Trescorre. +My noble brother, whose insight is seldom at fault, saw that I knew +enough to imperil him. The Marquess was dying and his enemy could afford +to be generous. He gave me a little money and the following year +obtained from the Duke my appointment as assistant librarian. In this +way I was able to give Momola a home, and to save her child from the +Innocenti. She and I, cavaliere, are the misshapen offspring of that +cruel foster-parent, who rears more than half the malefactors in the +state; but please heaven the boy shall have a better start in life, and +perhaps grow up to destroy some of the evils on which that cursed +charity thrives." + +This narrative, and the sight of Momola and her child, followed so +strangely on the spectacle of sordid misery he had witnessed at +Pontesordo, that an inarticulate pity held Odo by the throat. Gamba's +anger against the people at the farm seemed as senseless as their own +cruelty to their animals. What were they all--Momola, her child, and her +persecutors--but a sickly growth of the decaying social order? He felt +an almost physical longing for fresh air, light, the rush of a purifying +wind through the atmosphere of moral darkness that surrounded him. + + +2.12. + +To relieve the tension of his thoughts he set forth to Gamba the purpose +of his visit. + +"I am," said he, "much like a stranger at a masked ball, where all the +masks are acquainted with each other's disguises and concerted to +mystify the visitor. Among the persons I have met at court several have +shown themselves ready to guide me through this labyrinth; but, till +they themselves unmask and declare their true characters, I am doubtful +whither they may lead me; nor do I know of any so well fitted as +yourself to give me a clue to my surroundings. As for my own disguise," +he added with a smile, "I believe I removed it sufficiently on our first +meeting to leave you no doubt as to the use to which your information +will be put." + +Gamba, who seemed touched by this appeal, nevertheless hesitated before +replying. At length he said: "I have the fullest trust in your +excellency's honour; but I must remind you that during your stay here +you will be under the closest observation and that any opinions you +express will at once be attributed to the persons you are known to +frequent. I would not," he continued hastily, "say this for myself +alone, but I have two mouths to feed and my views are already under +suspicion." + +Reassured by Odo's protestations, or rather, perhaps, by the more +convincing warrant of his look and manner, Gamba proceeded to give him a +detailed description of the little world in which chance had placed +them. + +"If you have seen the Duke," said he, "I need not tell you that it is +not he who governs the duchy. We are ruled at present by a triumvirate +consisting of the Belverde, the Dominican and Trescorre. Pievepelago, +the Prime Minister, is a dummy put in place by the Jesuits and kept +there by the rivalries of the other three; but he is in his dotage and +the courtiers are already laying wagers as to his successor. Many think +Father Ignazio will replace him, but I stake my faith on Trescorre. The +Duke dislikes him, but he is popular with the middle class, who, since +they have shaken off the yoke of the Jesuits, would not willingly see an +ecclesiastic at the head of the state. The duchess's influence is also +against the Dominican, for her Highness, being, as you know, connected +with the Austrian court, is by tradition unfavourable to the Church +party. The Duchess's preferences would weigh little with the Duke were +it not that she is sole heiress to the old Duke of Monte Alloro, and +that any attempt to bring that principality under the control of the +Holy See might provoke the interference of Austria. + +"In so ticklish a situation I see none but Trescorre to maintain the +political balance. He has been adroit enough to make himself necessary +to the Duchess without alienating the Duke; he has introduced one or two +trifling reforms that have given him a name for liberality in spite of +the heavy taxes with which he has loaded the peasantry; and has in short +so played his cards as to profit by the foibles of both parties. Her +Highness," he continued, in reply to a question of Odo's, "was much +taken by him when she first came to Pianura; and before her feeling had +cooled he had contrived to make himself indispensable to her. The +Duchess is always in debt; and Trescorre, as Comptroller of Finance, +holds her by her besetting weakness. Before his appointment her +extravagance was the scandal of the town. She borrowed from her ladies, +her pages, her very lacqueys; when she went on a visit to her uncle of +Monte Alloro she pocketed the money he bestowed on her servants; nay, +she was even accused of robbing the Marchioness of Pievepelago, who, +having worn one evening a diamond necklace which excited her Highness's +admiration, was waylaid on the way home and the jewels torn from her +neck by a crowd of masked ruffians among whom she is said to have +recognised one of the ducal servants. These are doubtless idle reports; +but it is certain that Trescorre's appointment engaged him still more to +the Duchess by enabling him to protect her from such calumnies; while by +increasing the land taxes he has discharged the worst of her debts and +thus made himself popular with the tradesmen she had ruined. Your +excellency must excuse my attempting to paint the private character of +her Highness. Such facts as I have reported are of public notoriety, but +to exceed them would be an unwarranted presumption. I know she has the +name of being affable to her dependents, capable of a fitful generosity, +and easily moved by distress; and it is certain that her domestic +situation has been one to excite pity and disarm criticism. + +"With regard to his Highness, it is difficult either to detect his +motives or to divine his preferences. His youth was spent in pious +practices; and a curious reason is given for the origin of this habit. +He was educated, as your excellency is doubtless aware, by a French +philosopher of the school of Hobbes; and it is said that in the interval +of his tasks the poor Duke, bewildered by his governor's distinctions +between conception and cognition, and the object and the sentient, used +to spend his time praying the saints to assist him in his atheistical +studies; indeed a satire of the day ascribes him as making a novena to +the Virgin to obtain a clearer understanding of the universality of +matter. Others with more likelihood aver that he frequented the churches +to escape from the tyranny of his pedagogue; and it is certain that from +one cause or another his education threw him into the opposite extreme +of a superstitious and mechanical piety. His marriage, his differences +with the Duchess, and the evil influence of Cerveno, exposed him to new +temptations, and for a time he led a life which seemed to justify the +worst charges of the enemies of materialism. Recent events have flung +him back on the exaggerated devotion of his youth, and now, when his +health permits, he spends his time serving mass, singing in the choir at +benediction and making pilgrimages to the relics of the saints in the +different churches of the duchy. + +"A few years since, at the instigation of his confessor, he destroyed +every picture in the ducal gallery that contained any naked figure or +represented any subject offensive to religion. Among them was Titian's +famous portrait of Duke Ascanio's mistress, known as the Goldsmith's +Daughter, and a Venus by the Venetian painter Giorgione, so highly +esteemed in its day that Pope Leo X. is said to have offered in exchange +for it the gift of a papal benefice, and a Cardinal's hat for Duke +Guidobaldo's younger son. His Highness, moreover, impedes the +administration of justice by resisting all attempts to restrict the +Church's right of sanctuary, and upholds the decree forbidding his +subjects to study at the University of Pavia, where, as you know, the +natural sciences are professed by the ablest scholars of Italy. He +allows no public duties to interfere with his private devotions, and +whatever the urgency of affairs, gives no audience to his ministers on +holydays; and a Cardinal a latere recently passing through the duchy on +his return to Rome was not received at the Duke's table because he +chanced to arrive on a Friday. + +"His Highness's fears for Prince Ferrante's health have drawn a swarm of +quacks to Pianura, and the influence of the Church is sometimes +counteracted by that of the physicians with whom the Duke surrounds +himself. The latest of these, the famous Count Heiligenstern, who is +said to have performed some remarkable cures by means of the electrical +fluid and of animal magnetism, has gained such an ascendancy over the +Duke that some suspect him of being an agent of the Austrian court, +while others declare that he is a Jesuit en robe courte. But just at +present the people scent a Jesuit under every habit, and it is even +rumoured that the Belverde is secretly affiliated to a female branch of +the Society. With such a sovereign and such ministers, your excellency +need not be told how the state is governed. Trescorre, heaven save the +mark! represents the liberal party; but his liberalism is like the +generosity of the unarmed traveller who throws his purse to a foot-pad; +and Father Ignazio is at hand to see that the people are not bettered at +the expense of the Church. + +"As to the Duke, having no settled policy, and being governed only +through his fears, he leans first to one influence and then to another; +but since the suppression of the Jesuits nothing can induce him to +attack any ecclesiastical privileges. The diocese of Pianura holds a +fief known as the Caccia del Vescovo, long noted as the most lawless +district of the duchy. Before the death of the late Pope, Trescorre had +prevailed on the Duke to annex it to the principality; but the dreadful +fate of Ganganelli has checked bolder sovereigns than his Highness in +their attempts on the immunities of the Church, and one of the fairest +regions of our unhappy state remains a barren waste, the lair of outlaws +and assassins, and a menace to the surrounding country. His Highness is +not incapable of generous impulses and his occasional acts of humanity +might endear him to his people were it not that they despise him for +being the creature of his favourites. Thus, the gift of Boscofolto to +the Belverde has excited the bitterest discontent; for the Countess is +notorious for her cruel exactions, and it is certain that at her death +this rich fief will revert to the Church. And now," Gamba ended with a +smile, "I have made known to your excellency the chief characters in the +masque, as rumour depicts them to the vulgar. As to the court, like the +government, it is divided into two parties: the Duke's, headed by the +Belverde, and containing the staider and more conservative members of +the Church and nobility; and the Duchess's, composed of every fribble +and flatterer, every gamester and rake, every intriguing woman and +vulgar parvenu that can worm a way into her favour. In such an +atmosphere you may fancy how knowledge thrives. The Duke's library +consists of a few volumes of theological casuistry, and her Highness +never opens a book unless it be to scandalise her husband by reading +some prohibited pamphlet from France. The University, since the fall of +the Jesuits, has been in charge of the Barnabite order, and, for aught I +know, the Ptolemaic system is still taught there, together with the +dialectic of Aristotle. As to science, it is anathema; and the press +being subject to the restrictions of the Holy Office, and the University +closed to modern thought, but few scholars are to be found in the duchy, +save those who occupy themselves with belles-lettres, or, like the abate +Crescenti, are engaged in historical research. Pianura, even in the late +Duke's day, had its circle of lettered noblemen who patronised the arts +and founded the local Arcadia; but such pursuits are out of fashion, the +Arcadia languishes, and the Bishop of Pianura is the only dignitary that +still plays the Mecaenas. His lordship, whose theological laxity and +coolness toward the Holy Office have put him out of favour with the +Duke, has, I am told, a fine cabinet of paintings (some of them, it is +rumoured, the very pictures that his Highness ordered to be burnt) and +the episcopal palace swarms with rhyming abatini, fashionable +playwrights and musicians, and the travelling archeologists who hawk +their antiques about from one court to another. Here you may assist at +interminable disputes as to the relative merits of Tasso and Ariosto, or +listen to a learned dissertation on the verse engraved on a carnelian +stone; but as to the questions now agitating the world, they are held of +less account than a problem in counterpoint or the construction of a +doubtful line in Ovid. As long as Truth goes naked she can scarce hope +to be received in good company; and her appearance would probably cause +as much confusion among the Bishop's literati as in the councils of the +Holy Office." + +The old analogy likening the human mind to an imperfect mirror, which +modifies the images it reflects, occurred more than once to Odo during +the hunchback's lively delineation. It was impossible not to remember +that the speaker owed his education to the charity of the order he +denounced; and this fact suggested to Odo that the other lights and +shadows in the picture might be disposed with more art than accuracy. +Still, they doubtless embodied a negative truth, and Odo thought it +probable that such intellectual diversion as he could hope for must be +sought in the Bishop's circle. + +It was two days later that he first beheld that prelate, heading the +ducal pilgrimage to the shrine of the mountain Virgin. The day had +opened with a confused flight of chimes from every bell-tower in +Pianura, as though a migratory flock of notes had settled for a moment +on the roofs and steeples of the city. The ducal party set forth early +from the palace, but the streets were already spanned with arches and +garlands of foliage, tapestries and religious paintings decked the +facades of the wealthier houses, and at every street-shrine a cluster of +candle-flames hovered like yellow butterflies above the freshly-gathered +flowers. The windows were packed with spectators, and the crowds who +intended to accompany the pilgrimage were already gathering, with their +painted and gilt candles, from every corner of the town. Each church and +monastery door poured forth its priests or friars to swell the line, and +the various lay confraternities, issuing in their distinctive dress from +their "lodges" or assembly-rooms, formed a link between the secular and +religious divisions of the procession. The market-place was strewn with +sand and sweet herbs; and here, on the doorsteps of the Cathedral, +between the featureless porphyry lions, the Bishop waited with his +red-robed chapter, and the deacons carrying the painted banners of the +diocese. Seen thus, with the cloth-of-gold dalmatic above his pontifical +tunic, the mitre surmounting his clear-cut impassive face, and the +crozier held aloft in his jewelled gloves, he might have stood for a +chryselephantine divinity in the porch of some pagan temple. + +Odo, riding beside the Duke's litter, had leisure to note not only the +diverse features of the procession but their varying effect on the +spectators. It was plain that, as Trescorre had said, the pilgrimage was +popular with the people. That imaginative sensuousness which has +perpetually renewed the Latin Church by giving form and colour to her +dogmatic abstractions, by transforming every successive phase of her +belief into something to be seen and handled, found an irresistible +outlet in a ceremony that seemed to combine with its devotional intent a +secret element of expiation. The little prince was dimly felt to be +paying for the prodigality of his fathers, to be in some way a link of +suffering between the tongue-tied misery of the fields and the insolent +splendour of the court; and a vague faith in the vicarious efficacy of +his devotion drew the crowd into momentary sympathy with its rulers. Yet +this was but an underlying element in the instinctive delight of the +people in the outward forms of their religion. Odo's late experiences +had wakened him to the influences acting on that obscure substratum of +human life that still seemed, to most men of his rank, of no more +account than the brick lining of their marble-coated palaces. As he +watched the mounting excitement of the throng, and pictured to himself +the lives suddenly lit up by this pledge of unseen promises, he wondered +that the enemies of the Church should ascribe her predominance to any +cause but the natural needs of the heart. The people lived in unlit +hovels, for there was a tax on mental as well as on material windows; +but here was a light that could pierce the narrowest crevice and scatter +the darkness with a single ray. + +Odo noted with equal interest the impression produced by the various +members of the court and the Church dignitaries. The Duke's litter was +coldly received, but a pitying murmur widened about the gilt chair in +which Prince Ferrante was seated at his governor's side, and the +approach of Trescorre, mounted on a fine horse and dressed with his +usual sober elegance, woke a shout that made him for a moment the +central figure of the procession. The Bishop was none too warmly +welcomed; but when Crescenti appeared, white-haired and erect among the +parish priests, the crowd swayed toward him like grasses in the suction +of a current; and one of the Duke's gentlemen, seeing Odo's surprise, +said with a smile: "No one does more good in Pianura than our learned +librarian." + +A different and still more striking welcome awaited the Duchess, who +presently appeared on her favourite white hackney, surrounded by the +members of her household. Her reluctance to take part in the pilgrimage +had been overcome by the exhilaration of showing herself to the public, +and as she rode along in her gold-embroidered habit and plumed hat she +was just such an image of radiant and indulgent sovereignty as turns +enforced submission into a romantic allegiance. Her flushing cheek and +kindled eye showed the reaction of the effect she produced, and if her +subjects forgot her debts, her violences and follies, she was perhaps +momentarily transformed into the being their enthusiasm created. She was +at any rate keenly alive to the admiration she excited and eager to +enhance it by those showy impulses of benevolence that catch the public +eye; as when, at the city gates, she stopped her horse to intervene in +behalf of a soldier who had been put under arrest for some slight +infraction of duty, and then rode on enveloped in the passionate +shouting of the crowd. + +The shrine at which the young prince was to pay his devotions stood just +beyond the city, on the summit of one of the low knolls which pass for +hills in the level landscape of Pianura. The white-columned church with +its classical dome and portico had been erected as a thank-offering +after the plague of 1630, and the nave was lined with life-sized votive +figures of Dukes and Duchesses clad in the actual wigs and robes that +had dressed their transient grandeur. As the procession wound into the +church, to the ringing of bells and the chanting of the choir, Odo was +struck by the spectacle of that line of witnesses, watching in +glassy-eyed irony the pomp and display to which their moldering robes +and tarnished insignia seemed to fix so brief a term. Once or twice +already he had felt the shows of human power as no more than vanishing +reflections on the tide of being; and now, as he knelt near the shrine, +with its central glitter of jewels and its nimbus of wavering lights, +and listened to the reiterated ancient wail: + + "Mater inviolata, ora pro nobis! + Virgo veneranda, ora pro nobis! + Speculum justitiae, ora pro nobis!" + +it seemed to him as though the bounds of life and death were merged, and +the sumptuous group of which he formed a part already dusted over with +oblivion. + + +2.13. + +Spite of the Mountain Madonna's much-vaunted powers, the first effect of +the pilgrimage was to provoke a serious indisposition in the Duke. +Exhausted by fasting and emotion, he withdrew to his apartments and for +several days denied himself to all but Heiligenstern, who was suspected +by some of suffering his patient's disorder to run its course with a +view to proving the futility of such remedies. This break in his +intercourse with his kinsman left Odo free to take the measure of his +new surroundings. The company most naturally engaging him was that which +surrounded the Duchess; but he soon wearied of the trivial diversions it +offered. It had ever been necessary to him that his pleasures should +touch the imagination as well as the senses; and with such refinement of +enjoyment the gallants of Pianura were unacquainted. Odo indeed +perceived with a touch of amusement that, in a society where Don +Serafino set the pace, he must needs lag behind his own lacquey. +Cantapresto had, in fact, been hailed by the Bishop's nephew with a +cordiality that proclaimed them old associates in folly; and the +soprano's manner seemed to declare that, if ever he had held the candle +for Don Serafino, he did not grudge the grease that might have dropped +on his cassock. He was soon prime favourite and court buffoon in the +Duchess's circle, organising pleasure-parties, composing scenarios for +her Highness's private theatre, and producing at court any comedian or +juggler the report of whose ability reached him from the market-place. +Indefatigable in the contriving of such diversions, he soon virtually +passed out of Odo's service into that of her Highness: a circumstance +which the young man the less regretted as it left him freer to cultivate +the acquaintance of Gamba and his friends without exposing them to +Cantapresto's espionage. + +Odo had felt himself specially drawn toward the abate Crescenti; and the +afternoon after their first meeting he had repaired to the librarian's +dwelling. Crescenti was the priest of an ancient parish lying near the +fortress; and his tiny house was wedged in an angle of the city walls, +like a bird's nest in the mouth of a disused canon. A long flight of +steps led up to his study, which on the farther side opened level with a +vine-shaded patch of herbs and damask roses in the projection of a +ruined bastion. This interior, the home of studious peace, was as +cheerful and well-ordered as its inmate's mind; and Odo, seated under +the vine pergola in the late summer light, and tasting the abate's Val +Pulicella while he turned over the warped pages of old codes and +chronicles, felt the stealing charm of a sequestered life. + +He had learned from Gamba that Crescenti was a faithful parish priest as +well as an assiduous scholar, but he saw that the librarian's +beneficence took that purely personal form which may coexist with a +serene acceptance of the general evils underlying particular hardships. +His charities were performed in the old unquestioning spirit of the +Roman distribution of corn; and doubtless the good man who carries his +loaf of bread and his word of hope into his neighbour's hovel reaps a +more tangible return than the lonely thinker who schemes to undermine +the strongholds of injustice. Still there was a perplexing contrast +between the superficiality of Crescenti's moral judgments and the +breadth and penetration of his historic conceptions. Odo was too +inexperienced to reflect that a man's sense of the urgency of +improvement lies mainly in the line of his talent: as the merchant is +persuaded that the roads most in need of mending are those on which his +business makes him travel. Odo himself was already conscious of living +in a many-windowed house, with outlooks diverse enough to justify more +than one view of the universe; but he had no conception of that +concentration of purpose that may make the mind's flight to its goal as +direct and unvarying as the course of a homing bird. The talk turning on +Gamba, Crescenti spoke of the help which the hunchback gave him in his +work among the poor. + +"His early hardships," said he, "have given him an insight into +character that my happier circumstances have denied me; and he has more +than once been the means of reclaiming some wretch that I despaired of. +Unhappily, his parts and learning are beyond his station, and will not +let him rest in the performance of his duties. His mind, I often tell +him, is like one of those inn parlours hung with elaborate maps of the +three Heretical Cities; whereas the only topography with which the +virtuous traveller need be acquainted is that of the Heavenly City to +which all our journeyings should tend. The soundness of his heart +reassures me as to this distemper of the reason; but others are less +familiar with his good qualities and I tremble for the risks to which +his rashness may expose him." + +The librarian went on to say that Gamba had a pretty poetical gift which +he was suspected of employing in the composition of anonymous satires on +the court, the government and the Church. At that period every Italian +town was as full of lampoons as a marsh of mosquitoes, and it was as +difficult in the one case as the other for the sufferer to detect the +specific cause of his sting. The moment in Italy was a strange one. The +tide of reform had been turned back by the very act devised to hasten +it: the suppression of the Society of Jesus. The shout of liberation +that rose over the downfall of the order had sunk to a guarded whisper. +The dark legend already forming around Ganganelli's death, the hint of +that secret liquor distilled for the order's use in a certain convent of +Perugia, hung like a menace on the political horizon; and the disbanded +Society seemed to have tightened its hold on the public conscience as a +dying man's clutch closes on his victorious enemy. + +So profoundly had the Jesuits impressed the world with the sense of +their mysterious power that they were felt to be like one of those +animal organisms which, when torn apart, carry on a separate existence +in every fragment. Ganganelli's bull had provided against their exerting +any political influence, or controlling opinion as confessors or as +public educators; but they were known to be everywhere in Italy, either +hidden in other orders, or acting as lay agents of foreign powers, as +tutors in private families, or simply as secular priests. Even the +confiscation of their wealth did not seem to diminish the popular sense +of their strength. Perhaps because that strength had never been +completely explained, even by their immense temporal advantages, it was +felt to be latent in themselves, and somehow capable of withstanding +every kind of external assault. They had moreover benefited by the +reaction which always follows on the breaking up of any great +organisation. Their detractors were already beginning to forget their +faults and remember their merits. The people had been taught to hate the +Society as the possessor of wealth and privileges which should have been +theirs; but when the Society fell its possessions were absorbed by the +other powers, and in many cases the people suffered from abuses and +maladministration which they had not known under their Jesuit landlords. +The aristocracy had always been in sympathy with the order, and in many +states the Jesuits had been banished simply as a measure of political +expediency, a sop to the restless masses. In these cases the latent +power of the order was concealed rather than diminished by the pretence +of a more liberal government, and everywhere, in one form or another, +the unseen influence was felt to be on the watch for those who dared to +triumph over it too soon. + +Such conditions fostered the growth of social satire. Constructive +ambition was forced back into its old disguises, and ridicule of +individual weaknesses replaced the general attack on beliefs and +institutions. Satirical poems in manuscript passed from hand to hand in +coffee-houses, casinos and drawing-rooms, and every conspicuous incident +in social or political life was borne on a biting quatrain to the +confines of the state. The Duke's gift of Boscofolto to the Countess +Belverde had stirred up a swarm of epigrams, and the most malignant +among them, Crescenti averred, were openly ascribed to Gamba. + +"A few more imprudences," he added, "must cost him his post; and if your +excellency has any influence with him I would urge its being used to +restrain him from such excesses." + +Odo, on taking his leave of the librarian, ran across Gamba at the first +street-corner; and they had not proceeded a dozen yards together when +the eye of the Duke's kinsman fell on a snatch of doggerel scrawled in +chalk on an adjacent wall. + + "Beware (the quatrain ran) O virtuous wife or maid, + Our ruler's fondness for the shade, + Lest first he woo thee to the leafy glade + And then into the deeper wood persuade." + +This crude play on the Belverde's former title and the one she had +recently acquired was signed "Carlo Gamba." + +Odo glanced curiously at the hunchback, who met the look with a composed +smile. "My enemies don't do me justice," said he; "I could do better +than that if I tried;" and he effaced the words with a sweep of his +shabby sleeve. + +Other lampoons of the same quality were continually cropping up on the +walls of Pianura, and the ducal police were kept as busy rubbing them +out as a band of weeders digging docks out of a garden. The Duchess's +debts, the Duke's devotions, the Belverde's extortions, Heiligenstern's +mummery, and the political rivalry between Trescorre and the Dominican, +were sauce to the citizen's daily bread; but there was nothing in these +popular satires to suggest the hunchback's trenchant irony. + +It was in the Bishop's palace that Odo read the first lampoon in which +he recognised his friend's touch. In this society of polished dilettanti +such documents were valued rather for their literary merits than for +their political significance; and the pungent lines in which the Duke's +panaceas were hit off (the Belverde figuring among them as a Lenten +diet, a dinner of herbs, and a wonder-working bone) caused a flutter of +professional envy in the episcopal circle. + +The Bishop received company every evening; and Odo soon found that, as +Gamba had said, it was the best company in Pianura. His lordship lived +in great state in the Gothic palace adjoining the Cathedral. The gloomy +vaulted rooms of the original structure had been abandoned to the small +fry of the episcopal retinue. In the chambers around the courtyard his +lordship drove a thriving trade in wines from his vineyards, while his +clients awaited his pleasure in the armoury, where the panoplies of his +fighting predecessors still rusted on the walls. Behind this facade a +later prelate had built a vast wing overlooking a garden which descended +by easy terraces to the Piana. In the high-studded apartments of this +wing the Bishop held his court and lived the life of a wealthy secular +nobleman. His days were agreeably divided between hunting, inspecting +his estates, receiving the visits of antiquarians, artists and literati, +and superintending the embellishments of his gardens, then the most +famous in North Italy; while his evenings were given to the more private +diversions which his age and looks still justified. In religious +ceremonies or in formal intercourse with his clergy he was the most +imposing and sacerdotal of bishops; but in private life none knew better +how to disguise his cloth. He was moreover a man of parts, and from the +construction of a Latin hexameter to the growing of a Holland bulb, had +a word worth hearing on all subjects likely to engage the dilettante. A +liking soon sprang up between Odo and this versatile prelate; and in the +retirement of his lordship's cabinet, or pacing with him the +garden-alleys set with ancient marbles, the young man gathered many +precepts of that philosophy of pleasure which the great churchmen of the +eighteenth century practised with such rare completeness. + +The Bishop had not, indeed, given much thought to the problems which +most deeply engaged his companion. His theory of life took no account of +the future and concerned itself little with social conditions outside +his own class; but he was acquainted with the classical schools of +thought, and, having once acted as the late Duke's envoy to the French +court, had frequented the Baron d'Holbach's drawing-room and +familiarised himself with the views of the Encyclopaedists; though it +was clear that he valued their teachings chiefly as an argument against +asceticism. + +"Life," said he to Odo, as they sat one afternoon in a garden-pavilion +above the river, a marble Mercury confronting them at the end of a vista +of clipped myrtle, "life, cavaliere, is a stock on which we may graft +what fruit or flower we choose. See the orange-tree in that Capo di +Monte jar: in a week or two it will be covered with red roses. Here +again is a citron set with carnations; and but yesterday my gardener +sent me word that he had at last succeeded in flowering a pomegranate +with jasmine. In such cases the gardener chooses as his graft the flower +which, by its colour and fragrance, shall most agreeably contrast with +the original stock; and he who orders his life on the same principle, +grafting it with pleasures that form a refreshing off-set to the +obligations of his rank and calling, may regard himself as justified by +Nature, who, as you see, smiles on such abnormal unions among her +children.--Not long ago," he went on, with a reminiscent smile, "I had +here under my roof a young person who practised to perfection this art +of engrafting life with the unexpected. Though she was only a player in +a strolling company--a sweetheart of my wild nephew's, as you may +guess--I have met few of her sex whose conversation was so instructive +or who so completely justified the Scriptural adage, "the sweetness of +the lips increaseth learning..." He broke off to sip his chocolate. "But +why," he continued, "do I talk thus to a young man whose path is lined +with such opportunities? The secret of happiness is to say with the +great Emperor, 'Everything is fruit to me which thy seasons bring, O +Nature.'" + +"Such a creed, monsignore," Odo ventured to return, "is as flattering to +the intelligence as to the senses; for surely it better becomes a +reasoning being to face fate as an equal than to cower before it like a +slave; but, since you have opened yourself so freely on the subject, may +I carry your argument a point farther and ask how you reconcile your +conception of man's destiny with the authorised teachings of the +Church?" + +The Bishop raised his head with a guarded glance. + +"Cavaliere," said he, "the ancients did not admit the rabble to their +sacred mysteries; nor dare we permit the unlettered to enter the +hollowed precincts of the temple of Reason." + +"True," Odo acquiesced; "but if the teachings of Christianity are the +best safeguard of the people, should not those teachings at least be +stripped of the grotesque excrescences with which the superstitions of +the people and--perhaps--the greed and craft of the priesthood have +smothered the simple precepts of Jesus?" + +The Bishop shrugged his shoulders. "As long," said he, "as the people +need the restraint of a dogmatic religion so long must we do our utmost +to maintain its outward forms. In our market-place on feast-days there +appears the strange figure of a man who carries a banner painted with an +image of Saint Paul surrounded by a mass of writhing serpents. This man +calls himself a descendant of the apostle and sells to our peasants the +miraculous powder with which he killed the great serpent at Malta. If it +were not for the banner, the legend, the descent from Saint Paul, how +much efficacy do you think those powders would have? And how long do you +think the precepts of an invisible divinity would restrain the evil +passions of an ignorant peasant? It is because he is afraid of the +plaster God in his parish church, and of the priest who represents that +God, that he still pays his tithes and forfeitures and keeps his hands +from our throats. By Diana," cried the Bishop, taking snuff, "I have no +patience with those of my calling who go about whining for apostolic +simplicity, and would rob the churches of their ornaments and the +faithful of their ceremonies. + +"For my part," he added, glancing with a smile about the +delicately-stuccoed walls of the pavilion, through the windows of which +climbing roses shed their petals on the rich mosaics transferred from a +Roman bath, "for my part, when I remember that 'tis to Jesus of Nazareth +I owe the good roof over my head and the good nags in my stable; nay, +the very venison and pheasants from my preserves, with the gold plate I +eat them off, and above all the leisure to enjoy as they deserve these +excellent gifts of the Creator--when I consider this, I say, I stand +amazed at those who would rob so beneficent a deity of the least of his +privileges.--But why," he continued again after a moment, as Odo +remained silent, "should we vex ourselves with such questions, when +Providence has given us so fair a world to enjoy and such varied +faculties with which to apprehend its beauties? I think you have not +seen the Venus Callipyge in bronze that I have lately received from +Rome?" And he rose and led the way to the house. + +This conversation revealed to Odo a third conception of the religious +idea. In Piedmont religion imposed itself as a military discipline, the +enforced duty of the Christian citizen to the heavenly state; to the +Duke it was a means of purchasing spiritual immunity from the +consequences of bodily weakness; to the Bishop, it replaced the panem et +circenses of ancient Rome. Where, in all this, was the share of those +whom Christ had come to save? Where was Saint Francis's devotion to his +heavenly bride, the Lady Poverty? Though here and there a good parish +priest like Crescenti ministered to the temporal wants of the peasantry, +it was only the free-thinker and the atheist who, at the risk of life +and fortune, laboured for their moral liberation. Odo listened with a +saddened heart, thinking, as he followed his host through the perfumed +shade of the gardens, and down the long saloon at the end of which the +Venus stood, of those who for the love of man had denied themselves such +delicate emotions and gone forth cheerfully to exile or imprisonment. +These were the true lovers of the Lady Poverty, the band in which he +longed to be enrolled; yet how restrain a thrill of delight as the +slender dusky goddess detached herself against the cool marble of her +niche, looking, in the sun-rippled green penumbra of the saloon, with a +sound of water falling somewhere out of sight, as though she had just +stepped dripping from the wave? + +In the Duchess's company life struck another gait. Here was no waiting +on subtle pleasures, but a headlong gallop after the cruder sort. +Hunting, gaming and masquerading filled her Highness's days; and Odo had +felt small inclination to keep pace with the cavalcade, but for the +flying huntress at its head. To the Duchess's "view halloo" every drop +of blood in him responded; but a vigilant image kept his bosom barred. +So they rode, danced, diced together, but like strangers who cross hands +at a veglione. Once or twice he fancied the Duchess was for unmasking; +but her impulses came and went like fireflies in the dusk, and it suited +his humour to remain a looker-on. + +So life piped to him during his first days at Pianura: a merry tune in +the Bishop's company, a mad one in the Duchess's; but always with the +same sad undertone, like the cry of the wind on a warm threshold. + + +2.14. + +Trescorre too kept open house, and here Odo found a warmer welcome than +he had expected. Though Trescorre was still the Duchess's accredited +lover, it was clear that the tie between them was no longer such as to +make him resent her kindness to her young kinsman. He seemed indeed +anxious to draw Odo into her Highness's circle, and surprised him by a +frankness and affability of which his demeanour at Turin had given no +promise. As leader of the anti-clericals he stood for such liberalism as +dared show its head in Pianura; and he seemed disposed to invite Odo's +confidence in political matters. The latter was, however, too much the +child of his race not to hang back from such an invitation. He did not +distrust Trescorre more than the other courtiers; but it was a time when +every ear was alert for the foot-fall of treachery, and the rashest man +did not care to taste first of any cup that was offered him. + +These scruples Trescorre made it his business to dispel. He was the only +person at court who was willing to discuss politics, and his clear view +of affairs excited Odo's admiration if not his concurrence. Odo's was in +fact one of those dual visions which instinctively see both sides of a +case and take the defence of the less popular. Gamba's principles were +dear to him; but he did not therefore believe in the personal baseness +of every opponent of the cause. He had refrained from mentioning the +hunchback to his supposed brother; but the latter, in one of their +talks, brought forward Gamba's name, without reference to the +relationship, but with high praise for the young librarian's parts. +This, at the moment, put Odo on his guard; but Trescorre having one day +begged him to give Gamba warning of some petty danger that threatened +him from the clerical side, it became difficult not to believe in an +interest so attested; the more so as Trescorre let it be seen that +Gamba's political views were not such as to distract from his sympathy. + +"The fellow's brains," said he, "would be of infinite use to me; but +perhaps he serves us best at a distance. All I ask is that he shall not +risk himself too near Father Ignazio's talons, for he would be a pretty +morsel to throw to the Holy Office, and the weak point of such a man's +position is that, however dangerous in life, he can threaten no one from +the grave." + +Odo reported this to Gamba, who heard with a two-edged smile. "Yes," was +his comment, "he fears me enough to want to see me safe in his fold." + +Odo flushed at the implication. "And why not?" said he. "Could you not +serve the cause better by attaching yourself openly to the liberals than +by lurking in the ditch to throw mud at both parties?" + +"The liberals!" sneered Gamba. "Where are they? And what have they done? +It was they who drove out the Jesuits; but to whom did the Society's +lands go? To the Duke, every acre of them! And the peasantry suffered +far less under the fathers, who were good agriculturists, than under the +Duke, who is too busy with monks and astrologers to give his mind to +irrigation or the reclaiming of waste land. As to the University, who +replaced the Jesuits there? Professors from Padua or Pavia? Heaven +forbid! But holy Barnabites that have scarce Latin enough to spell out +the Lives of the Saints! The Jesuits at least gave a good education to +the upper classes; but now the young noblemen are as ignorant as +peasants." + +Trescorre received at his house, besides the court functionaries, all +the liberal faction and the Duchess's personal friends. He kept a lavish +state, but lacking the Bishop's social gifts, was less successful in +fusing the different elements of his circle. The Duke, for the first few +weeks after his kinsman's arrival, received no company; and did not even +appear in the Belverde's drawing-rooms; but Odo deemed it none the less +politic to show himself there without delay. + +The new Marchioness of Boscofolto lived in one of the finest palaces of +Pianura, but prodigality was the least of her failings, and the +meagreness of her hospitality was an unfailing source of epigram to the +drawing-rooms of the opposition. True, she kept open table for half the +clergy in the town (omitting, of course, those worldly ecclesiastics who +frequented the episcopal palace), but it was whispered that she had +persuaded her cook to take half wages in return for the privilege of +victualling such holy men, and that the same argument enabled her to +obtain her provisions below the market price. In her outer ante-chamber +the servants yawned dismally over a cold brazier, without so much as a +game of cards to divert them, and the long enfilade of saloons leading +to her drawing-room was so scantily lit that her guests could scarce +recognise each other in passing. In the room where she sat, a tall +crucifix of ebony and gold stood at her elbow and a holy-water cup +encrusted with jewels hung on the wall at her side. A dozen or more +ecclesiastics were always gathered in stiff seats about the hearth; and +the aspect of the apartment, and the Marchioness's semi-monastic +costume, justified the nickname of "the sacristy," which the Duchess had +bestowed on her rival's drawing-room. + +Around the small fire on this cheerless hearth the fortunes of the state +were discussed and directed, benefices disposed of, court appointments +debated, and reputations made and unmade in tones that suggested the low +drone of a group of canons intoning the psalter in an empty cathedral. +The Marchioness, who appeared as eager as the others to win Odo to her +party, received him with every mark of consideration and pressed him to +accompany her on a visit to her brother, the Abbot of the Barnabites; an +invitation which he accepted with the more readiness as he had not +forgotten the part played by that religious in the adventure of +Mirandolina of Chioggia. + +He found the Abbot a man with a bland intriguing eye and centuries of +pious leisure in his voice. He received his visitors in a room hung with +smoky pictures of the Spanish school, showing Saint Jerome in the +wilderness, the death of Saint Peter Martyr, and other sanguinary +passages in the lives of the saints; and Odo, seated among such +surroundings, and hearing the Abbot deplore the loose lives and +religious negligence of certain members of the court, could scarce +repress a smile as the thought of Mirandolina flitted through his mind. + +"She must," he reflected, "have found this a sad change from the +Bishop's palace;" and admired with what philosophy she had passed from +one protector to the other. + +Life in Pianura, after the first few weeks, seemed on the whole a tame +business to a youth of his appetite; and he secretly longed for a +pretext to resume his travels. None, however, seemed likely to offer; +for it was clear that the Duke, in the interval of more pressing +concerns, wished to study and observe his kinsman. When sufficiently +recovered from the effects of the pilgrimage, he sent for Odo and +questioned him closely as to the way in which he had spent his time +since coming to Pianura, the acquaintances he had formed and the +churches he had frequented. Odo prudently dwelt on the lofty tone of the +Belverde's circle, and on the privilege he had enjoyed in attending her +on a visit to the holy Abbot of the Barnabites; touching more lightly on +his connection with the Bishop, and omitting all mention of Gamba and +Crescenti. The Duke assumed a listening air, but it was clear that he +could not put off his private thoughts long enough to give an open mind +to other matters; and Odo felt that he was nowhere so secure as in his +cousin's company. He remembered, however, that the Duke had plenty of +eyes to replace his own, and that a secret which was safe in his actual +presence might be in mortal danger on his threshold. + +His Highness on this occasion was pleased to inform his kinsman that he +had ordered Count Trescorre to place at the young man's disposal an +income enabling him to keep a carriage and pair, four saddle-horses and +five servants. It was scant measure for an heir-presumptive, and Odo +wondered if the Belverde had had a hand in the apportionment; but his +indifference to such matters (for though personally fastidious he cared +little for display) enabled him to show such gratitude that the Duke, +fancying he might have been content with less, had nearly withdrawn two +of the saddle-horses. This becoming behaviour greatly advanced the young +man in the esteem of his Highness, who accorded him on the spot the +petites entrees of the ducal apartments. It was a privilege Odo had no +mind to abuse; for if life moved slowly in the Belverde's circle it was +at a standstill in the Duke's. His Highness never went abroad but to +serve mass in some church (his almost daily practice) or to visit one of +the numerous monasteries within the city. From Ash Wednesday to Easter +Monday it was his custom to transact no public or private business. +During this time he received none of his ministers, and saw his son but +for a few moments once a day; while in Holy Week he made a retreat with +the Barnabites, the Belverde withdrawing for the same period to the +convent of the Perpetual Adoration. + +Odo, as his new life took shape, found his chief interest in the society +of Crescenti and Gamba. In the Duchess's company he might have lost all +taste for soberer pleasures, but that his political sympathies wore a +girl's reproachful shape. Ever at his side, more vividly than in the +body, Fulvia Vivaldi became the symbol of his best aims and deepest +failure. Sometimes, indeed, her look drove him forth in the Duchess's +train, but more often, drawing him from the crowd of pleasure-seekers, +beckoned the way to solitude and study. Under Crescenti's tuition he +began the reading of Dante, who just then, after generations of neglect, +was once more lifting his voice above the crowd of minor singers. The +mighty verse swept Odo out to open seas of thought, and from his vision +of that earlier Italy, hapless, bleeding, but alive and breast to breast +with the foe, he drew the presage of his country's resurrection. + +Passing from this high music to the company of Gamba and his friends was +like leaving a church where the penitential psalms are being sung for +the market-place where mud and eggs are flying. The change was not +agreeable to a fastidious taste; but, as Gamba said, you cannot clean +out a stable by waving incense over it. After some hesitation, he had +agreed to make Odo acquainted with those who, like himself, were +secretly working in the cause of progress. These were mostly of the +middle class, physicians, lawyers, and such men of letters as could +subsist on the scant wants of an unliterary town. Ablest among them was +the bookseller, Andreoni, whose shop was the meeting place of all the +literati of Pianura. Andreoni, famous throughout Italy for his editions +of the classics, was a man of liberal views and considerable learning, +and in his private room were to be found many prohibited volumes, such +as Beccaria's Crime and Punishment, Gravina's Hydra Mystica, Concini's +History of Probabilism and the Amsterdam editions of the French +philosophical works. + +The reformers met at various places, and their meetings were conducted +with as much secrecy as those of the Honey-Bees. Odo was at first +surprised that they should admit him to their conferences; but he soon +divined that the gatherings he attended were not those at which the +private designs of the party were discussed. It was plain that they +belonged to some kind of secret association; and before he had been long +in Pianura he learned that the society of the Illuminati, that bugbear +of priests and princes, was supposed to have agents at work in the +duchy. Odo had heard little of this execrated league, but that it was +said to preach atheism, tyrannicide and the complete abolition of +territorial rights; but this, being the report of the enemy, was to be +received with a measure of doubt. He tried to learn from Gamba whether +the Illuminati had a lodge in the city; but on this point he could +extract no information. Meanwhile he listened with interest to +discussions on taxation, irrigation, and such economic problems as might +safely be aired in his presence. + +These talks brought vividly before him the political corruption of the +state and the misery of the unprivileged classes. All the land in the +duchy was farmed on the metayer system, and with such ill results that +the peasants were always in debt to their landlords. The weight of the +evil lay chiefly on the country-people, who had to pay on every pig they +killed, on all the produce they carried to market, on their farm +implements, their mulberry-orchards and their silk-worms, to say nothing +of the tithes to the parish. So oppressive were these obligations that +many of the peasants, forsaking their farms, enrolled themselves in the +mendicant orders, thus actually strengthening the hand of their +oppressors. Of legislative redress there was no hope, and the Duke was +inaccessible to all but his favourites. The previous year, as Odo +learned, eight hundred poor labourers, exasperated by want, had +petitioned his Highness to relieve them of the corvee; but though they +had raised fifteen hundred scudi to bribe the court official who was to +present their address, no reply had ever been received. In the city +itself, the monopoly of corn and tobacco weighed heavily on the +merchants, and the strict censorship of the press made the open +ventilation of wrongs impossible, while the Duke's sbirri and the agents +of the Holy Office could drag a man's thoughts from his bosom and search +his midnight dreams. The Church party, in the interest of their order, +fostered the Duke's fears of sedition and branded every innovator as an +atheist; the Holy Office having even cast grave doubts on the orthodoxy +of a nobleman who had tried to introduce the English system of ploughing +on his estates. It was evident to Odo that the secret hopes of the +reformers centred in him, and the consciousness of their belief was +sweeter than love in his bosom. It diverted him from the follies of his +class, fixed his thoughts at an age when they are apt to range, and thus +slowly shaped and tempered him for high uses. + +In this fashion the weeks passed and summer came. It was the Duchess's +habit to escape the August heats by retiring to the dower-house on the +Piana, a league beyond the gates; but the little prince being still +under the care of the German physician, who would not consent to his +removal, her Highness reluctantly lingered in Pianura. With the first +leafing of the oaks Odo's old love for the budding earth awoke, and he +rode out daily in the forest toward Pontesordo. It was but a flat +stretch of shade, lacking the voice of streams and the cold breath of +mountain-gorges: a wood without humours or surprises; but the mere +spring of the turf was delightful as he cantered down the grass alleys +roofed with level boughs, the outer sunlight just gilding the lip of the +long green tunnel. + +Sometimes he attended the Duchess, but oftener chose to ride alone, +setting forth early after a night at cards or a late vigil in +Crescenti's study. One of these solitary rides brought him without +premeditation to a low building on the fenny edge of the wood. It was a +small house, added, it appeared, to an ancient brick front adorned with +pilasters, perhaps a fragment of some woodland temple. The door-step was +overgrown with a stealthy green moss and tufted with giant fennel; and a +shutter swinging loose on its hinge gave a glimpse of inner dimness. Odo +guessed at once that this was the hunting lodge where Cerveno had found +his death; and as he stood looking out across the oozy secrets of the +marsh, the fever seemed to hang on his steps. He turned away with a +shiver; but whether it were the sullen aspect of the house, or the close +way in which the wood embraced it, the place suddenly laid a detaining +hand upon him. It was as though he had reached the heart of solitude. +Even the faint woodland noises seemed to recede from that dense circle +of shade, and the marsh turned a dead eye to heaven. + +Odo tethered his horse to a bough and seated himself on the doorstep; +but presently his musings were disturbed by the sound of voices, and the +Duchess, attended by her gentlemen, swept by at the end of a long glade. +He fancied she waved her hand to him; but being in no humour to join the +cavalcade, he remained seated, and the riders soon passed out of sight. +As he sat there sombre thoughts came to him, stealing up like +exhalations from the fen. He saw his life stretched out before him, full +of broken purposes and ineffectual effort. Public affairs were in so +perplexed a case that consistent action seemed impossible to either +party, and their chief efforts were bent toward directing the choice of +a regent. It was this, rather than the possibility of his accession, +which fixed the general attention on Odo, and pledged him to +circumspection. While not concealing that in economic questions his +sympathies were with the liberals, he had carefully abstained from +political action, and had hoped, by the strict observance of his +religious duties, to avoid the enmity of the Church party. Trescorre's +undisguised sympathy seemed the pledge of liberal support, and it could +hardly be doubted that the choice of a regent in the Church party would +be unpopular enough to imperil the dynasty. With Austria hovering on the +horizon the Church herself was not likely to take such risks; and thus +all interests seemed to centre in Odo's appointment. + +New elements of uncertainty were, however, perpetually disturbing the +prospect. Among these was Heiligenstern's growing influence over the +Duke. Odo had seen little of the German physician since their first +meeting. Hearsay had it that he was close-pressed by the spies of the +Holy Office, and perhaps for this reason he remained withdrawn in the +Duke's private apartments and rarely showed himself abroad. The little +prince, his patient, was as seldom seen, and the accounts of the +German's treatment were as conflicting as the other rumours of the +court. It was noised on all sides, however, that the Duke was +ill-satisfied with the results of the pilgrimage, and resolved upon less +hallowed measures to assure his heir's recovery. Hitherto, it was +believed, the German had conformed to the ordinary medical treatment; +but the clergy now diligently spread among the people the report that +supernatural agencies were to be employed. This rumour caused such +general agitation that it was said both parties had made secret advances +to the Duchess in the hope of inducing her to stay the scandal. Though +Maria Clementina felt little real concern for the public welfare, her +stirring temper had more than once roused her to active opposition of +the government, and her kinship with the old Duke of Monte Alloro made +her a strong factor in the political game. Of late, however, she seemed +to have wearied of this sport, throwing herself entirely into the +private diversions of her station, and alluding with laughing +indifference to her husband's necromantic researches. + +Such was the conflicting gossip of the hour; but it was in fact idle to +forecast the fortunes of a state dependent on a valetudinary's whims; +and rumour was driven to feed upon her own conjectures. To Odo the state +of affairs seemed a satire on his secret aspirations. In a private +station or as a ruling prince he might have served his fellows: as a +princeling on the edge of power he was no more than the cardboard sword +in a toy armoury. + +Suddenly he heard his name pronounced and starting up saw Maria +Clementina at his side. She rode alone, and held out her hand as he +approached. + +"I have had an accident," said she, breathing quickly. "My girth is +broke and I have lost the rest of my company." + +She was glowing with her quick ride, and as Odo lifted her from the +saddle her loosened hair brushed his face like a kiss. For a moment she +seemed like life's answer to the dreary riddle of his fate. + +"Ah," she sighed, leaning on him, "I am glad I found you, cousin; I +hardly knew how weary I was;" and she dropped languidly to the doorstep. + +Odo's heart was beating hard. He knew it was only the stir of the spring +sap in his veins, but Maria Clementina wore a look of morning brightness +that might have made a soberer judgment blink. He turned away to examine +her saddle. As he did so, he observed that her girth was not torn, but +clean cut, as with sharp scissors. He glanced up in surprise, but she +sat with drooping lids, her head thrown back against the lintel; and +repressing the question on his lips he busied himself with the +adjustment of the saddle. When it was in place he turned to give her a +hand; but she only smiled up at him through her lashes. + +"What!" said she with an air of lovely lassitude, "are you so impatient +to be rid of me? I should have been so glad to linger here a little." +She put her hand in his and let him lift her to her feet. "How cool and +still it is! Look at that little spring bubbling through the moss. Could +you not fetch me a drink from it?" + +She tossed aside her riding-hat and pushed back the hair from her warm +forehead. + +"Your Highness must not drink of the water here," said Odo, releasing +her hand. + +She gave him a quick derisive glance. "Ah, true," she cried; "this is +the house to which that abandoned wretch used to lure poor Cerveno." She +drew back to look at the lodge. "Were you ever in it?" she asked +curiously. "I should like to see how the place looks." + +She laid her hand on the door-latch, and to Odo's surprise it yielded to +her touch. "We're in luck, I vow," she declared with a laugh. "Come +cousin, let us visit the temple of romance together." + +The allusion to Cerveno jarred on Odo, and he followed her in silence. +Within doors, the lodge was seen to consist of a single room, gaily +painted with hunting-scenes framed in garlands of stucco. In the dusk +they could just discern the outlines of carved and gilded furniture, and +a Venice mirror gave back their faces like phantoms in a magic crystal. + +"This is stifling," said Odo impatiently. "Would your Highness not be +better in the open?" + +"No, no," she persisted. "Unbar the shutters and we shall have air +enough. I love a deserted house: I have always fancied that if one came +in noiselessly enough one might catch the ghosts of the people who used +to live in it." + +He obeyed in silence, and the green-filtered forest noon filled the room +with a quiver of light. A chill stole upon Odo as he looked at the +dust-shrouded furniture, the painted harpsichord with green mould +creeping over its keyboard, the consoles set with empty wine flagons and +goblets of Venice glass. The place was like the abandoned corpse of +pleasure. + +But Maria Clementina laughed and clapped her hands. "This is +enchanting," she cried, throwing herself into an arm-chair of threadbare +damask, "and I shall rest here while you refresh me with a glass of +Lacrima Christi from one of those dusty flagons. They are empty, you +say? Never mind, for I have a flask of cordial in my saddle-bag. Fetch +it, cousin, and wash these two glasses in the spring, that we may toast +all the dead lovers that have drunk out of them." + +When Odo returned with the flask and glasses, she had brushed the dust +from a slender table of inlaid wood, and drawn a seat near her own. She +filled the two goblets with cordial and signed to Odo to seat himself +beside her. + +"Why do you pull such a glum face?" she cried, leaning over to touch his +glass before she emptied hers. "Is it that you are thinking of poor +Cerveno? On my soul, I question if he needs your pity! He had his hour +of folly, and was too gallant a gentleman not to pay the shot. For my +part I would rather drink a poisoned draught than die of thirst." + +The wine was rising in waves of colour over her throat and brow, and +setting her glass down she suddenly laid her ungloved hand on Odo's. + +"Cousin," she said in a low voice, "I could help you if you would let +me." + +"Help me?" he said, only half-aware of her words in the warm surprise of +her touch. + +She drew back, but with a look that seemed to leave her hand in his. + +"Are you mad," she murmured, "or do you despise your danger?" + +"Am I in danger?" he echoed smiling. He was thinking how easily a man +might go under in that deep blue gaze of hers. She dropped her lids as +though aware of his thought. + +"Why do you concern yourself with politics?" she went on with a new note +in her voice. "Can you find no diversion more suited to your rank and +age? Our court is a dull one, I own--but surely even here a man might +find a better use for his time." + +Odo's self-possession returned in a flash. "I am not," cried he gaily, +"in a position to dispute it at this moment;" and he leaned over to +recapture her hand. To his surprise she freed herself with an affronted +air. + +"Ah," she said, "you think this a device to provoke a gallant +conversation." She faced him nobly now. "Look," said she, drawing a +folded paper from the breast of her riding-coat. "Have you not +frequented these houses?" + +Suddenly sobered, he ran his eye over the paper. It contained the dates +of the meetings he had attended at the houses of Gamba's friends, with +the designation of each house. He turned pale. + +"I had no notion," said he, with a smile, "that my movements were of +interest in such high places; but why does your Highness speak of danger +in this connection?" + +"Because it is rumoured that the lodge of the Illuminati, which is known +to exist in Pianura, meets secretly at the houses on this list." + +Odo hesitated a moment. "Of that," said he, "I have no report. I am +acquainted with the houses only as the residences of certain learned and +reputable men, who devote their leisure to scientific studies." + +"Oh," she interrupted, "call them by what name you please! It is all one +to your enemies." + +"My enemies?" said he lightly. "And who are they?" + +"Who are they?" she repeated impatiently. "Who are they not? Who is +there at court that has such cause to love you? The Holy Office? The +Duke's party?" + +Odo smiled. "I am perhaps not in the best odour with the Church party," +said he, "but Count Trescorre has shown himself my friend, and I think +my character is safe in his keeping. Nor will it be any news to him that +I frequent the company you name." + +She threw back her head with a laugh. "Boy," she cried, "you are blinder +even than I fancied! Do you know why it was that the Duke summoned you +to Pianura? Because he wished his party to mould you to their shape, in +case the regency should fall into your hands. And what has Trescorre +done? Shown himself your friend, as you say--won your confidence, +encouraged you to air your liberal views, allowed you to show yourself +continually in the Bishop's company, and to frequent the secret +assemblies of free thinkers and conspirators--and all that the Duke may +turn against you and perhaps name him regent in your stead! Believe me, +cousin," she cried with a mounting urgency, "you never stood in greater +need of a friend than now. If you continue on your present course you +are undone. The Church party is resolved to hunt down the Illuminati, +and both sides would rejoice to see you made the scapegoat of the Holy +Office." She sprung up and laid her hand on his arm. "What can I do to +convince you?" she said passionately. "Will you believe me if I ask you +to go away--to leave Pianura on the instant?" + +Odo had risen also, and they faced each other in silence. There was an +unmistakable meaning in her tone: a self-revelation so simple and +ennobling that she seemed to give herself as hostage for her words. + +"Ask me to stay, cousin--not to go," he whispered, her yielding hand in +his. + +"Ah, madman," she cried, "not to believe me NOW! But it is not too late +if you will still be guided." + +"I will be guided--but not away from you." + +She broke away, but with a glance that drew him after. "It is late now +and we must set forward," she said abruptly. "Come to me tomorrow early. +I have much more to say to you." + +The words seemed to be driven out on her quick breathing, and the blood +came and went in her cheek like a hurried messenger. She caught up her +riding-hat and turned to put it on before the Venice mirror. + +Odo, stepping up behind her, looked over her shoulder to catch the +reflection of her blush. Their eyes met for a laughing instant; then he +drew back deadly pale, for in the depths of the dim mirror he had seen +another face. + +The Duchess cried out and glanced behind her. "Who was it? Did you see +her?" she said trembling. + +Odo mastered himself instantly. + +"I saw nothing," he returned quietly. "What can your Highness mean?" + +She covered her eyes with her hands. "A girl's face," she +shuddered--"there in the mirror--behind mine--a pale face with a black +travelling hood over it--" + +He gathered up her gloves and riding-whip and threw open the door of the +pavilion. + +"Your Highness is weary and the air here insalubrious. Shall we not +ride?" he said. + +Maria Clementina heard him with a blank stare. Suddenly she roused +herself and made as though to pass out; but on the threshold she +snatched her whip from him and, turning, flung it full at the mirror. +Her aim was good and the chiselled handle of the whip shattered the +glass to fragments. + +She caught up her long skirt and stepped into the open. + +"I brook no rivals!" said she with a white-lipped smile. "And now, +cousin," she added gaily, "to horse!" + + +2.15. + +Odo, as in duty bound, waited the next morning on the Duchess; but word +was brought that her Highness was indisposed, and could not receive him +till evening. + +He passed a drifting and distracted day. The fear lay much upon him that +danger threatened Gamba and his associates; yet to seek them out in the +present conjuncture might be to play the stalking-horse to their +enemies. Moreover, he fancied the Duchess not incapable of using +political rumours to further her private caprice; and scenting no +immediate danger he resolved to wait upon events. + +On rising from dinner he was surprised by a summons from the Duke. The +message, an unusual one at that hour, was brought by a slender pale lad, +not in his Highness's service, but in that of the German physician +Heiligenstern. The boy, who was said to be a Georgian rescued from the +Grand Signior's galleys, and whose small oval face was as smooth as a +girl's, accosted Odo in one of the remoter garden alleys with the +request to follow him at once to the Duke's apartment. Odo complied, and +his guide loitered ahead with an air of unconcern, as though not wishing +to have his errand guessed. As they passed through the tapestry gallery +preceding the gentlemen's antechamber, footsteps and voices were heard +within. Instantly the boy was by Odo's side and had drawn him into the +embrasure of a window. A moment later Trescorre left the antechamber and +walked rapidly past their hiding-place. As soon as he was out of sight +the Georgian led Odo from his concealment and introduced him by a +private way to the Duke's closet. + +His Highness was in his bed-chamber; and Odo, on being admitted, found +him, still in dressing-gown and night-cap, kneeling with a disordered +countenance before the ancient picture of the Last Judgment that hung on +the wall facing his bed. He seemed to have forgotten that he had asked +for his kinsman; for on the latter's entrance he started up with a +suspicious glance and hastily closed the panels of the picture, which +(as Odo now noticed) appeared to conceal an inner painting. Then, +gathering his dressing-gown about him, he led the way to his closet and +bade his visitor be seated. + +"I have," said he, speaking in a low voice, and glancing apprehensively +about him, "summoned you hither privately to speak on a subject which +concerns none but ourselves.--You met no one on your way?" he broke off +to enquire. + +Odo told him that Count Trescorre had passed, but without perceiving +him. + +The Duke seemed relieved. "My private actions," said he querulously, +"are too jealously spied upon by my ministers. Such surveillance is an +offence to my authority, and my subjects shall learn that it will not +frighten me from my course." He straightened his bent shoulders and +tried to put on the majestic look of his official effigy. "It appears," +he continued, with one of his sudden changes of manner, "that the +Duchess's uncle, the Duke of Monte Alloro, has heard favourable reports +of your wit and accomplishments, and is desirous of receiving you at his +court." He paused, and Odo concealed his surprise behind a profound bow. + +"I own," the Duke went on, "that the invitation comes unseasonably, +since I should have preferred to keep you at my side; but his Highness's +great age, and his close kinship to my wife, through whom the request is +conveyed, make it impossible for me to refuse." The Duke again paused, +as though uncertain how to proceed. At length he resumed:--"I will not +conceal from you that his Highness is subject to the fantastical humours +of his age. He makes it a condition that the length of your stay shall +not be limited; but should you fail to suit his mood you may find +yourself out of favour in a week. He writes of wishing to send you on a +private mission to the court of Naples; but this may be no more than a +passing whim. I see no way, however, but to let you go, and to hope for +a favourable welcome for you. The Duchess is determined upon giving her +uncle this pleasure, and in fact has consented in return to oblige me in +an important matter." He flushed and averted his eyes. "I name this," he +added with an effort, "only that her Highness may be aware that it +depends on herself whether I hold to my side of the bargain. Your papers +are already prepared and you have my permission to set out at your +convenience. Meanwhile it were well that you should keep your +preparations private, at least till you are ready to take leave." And +with the air of dignity he could still assume on occasion, he rose and +handed Odo his passport. + +Odo left the closet with a beating heart. It was clear that his +departure from Pianura was as strongly opposed by some one in high +authority as it was favoured by the Duchess; and why opposed and by whom +he could not so much as hazard a guess. In the web of court intrigues it +was difficult for the wariest to grope his way; and Odo was still new to +such entanglements. His first sensation was one of release, of a future +suddenly enlarged and cleared. The door was open again to opportunity, +and he was of an age to greet the unexpected like a bride. Only one +thought disturbed him. It was clear that Maria Clementina had paid high +for his security; and did not her sacrifice, whatever its nature, +constitute a claim upon his future? In sending him to her uncle, whose +known favourite she was, she did not let him out of her hand. If he +accepted this chance of escape he must hereafter come and go as she +bade. At the thought, his bounding fancy slunk back humbled. He saw +himself as Trescorre's successor, his sovereign's official lover, taking +up again, under more difficult circumstances, and without the zest of +inexperience, the dull routine of his former bondage. No, a thousand +times no; he would fetter himself to no woman's fancy! Better find a +pretext for staying in Pianura, affront the Duchess by refusing her aid, +risk his prospects, his life even, than bow his neck twice to the same +yoke. All her charm vanished in this vision of unwilling +subjection...Disturbed by these considerations, and anxious to compose +his spirits, Odo bethought himself of taking refuge in the Bishop's +company. Here at least the atmosphere was clear of mystery: the Bishop +held aloof from political intrigue and breathed an air untainted by the +odium theologicum. Odo found his lordship seated in the cool tessellated +saloon which contained his chiefest treasures--marble busts ranged on +pedestals between the windows, the bronze Venus Callipyge, and various +tables of pietra commessa set out with vases and tazzas of antique +pattern. A knot of virtuosi gathered about one of these tables were +engaged in examining a collection of engraved gems displayed by a +lapidary of Florence; while others inspected a Greek manuscript which +the Bishop had lately received from Syria. Beyond the windows, a +cedrario or orange-walk stretched its sunlit vista to the terrace above +the river; and the black cassocks of one or two priests who were +strolling in the clear green shade of a pleached alley made pleasant +spots of dimness in the scene. + +Even here, however, Odo was aware of a certain disquietude. The Bishop's +visitors, instead of engaging in animated disputations over his +lordship's treasures, showed a disposition to walk apart, conversing in +low tones; and he himself, presently complaining of the heat, invited +Odo to accompany him to the grot beneath the terrace. In this shaded +retreat, studded with shells and coral and cooled by an artificial wind +forced through the conchs of marble Tritons, his lordship at once began +to speak of the rumours of public disaffection. + +"As you know," said he, "my duties and tastes alike seclude me from +political intrigue, and the scandal of the day seldom travels beyond my +kitchens. But as creaking signboards announce a storm, the hints and +whispers of my household tell me there is mischief abroad. My position +protects me from personal risk, and my lack of ambition from political +enmity; for it is notorious I would barter the highest honours in the +state for a Greek vase or a bronze of Herculanaeum--not to mention the +famous Venus of Giorgione, which, if report be true, his Highness has +burned at Father Ignazio's instigation. But yours, cavaliere, is a less +sheltered walk, and perhaps a friendly warning may be of service. Yet," +he added after a pause, "a warning I can scarce call it, since I know +not from what quarter the danger impends. Proximus ardet Ucalegon; but +there is no telling which way the flames may spread. I can only advise +you that the Duke's growing infatuation for his German magician has bred +the most violent discontent among his subjects, and that both parties +appear resolved to use this disaffection to their advantage. It is said +his Highness intends to subject the little prince to some mysterious +treatment connected with the rites of the Egyptian priesthood, of whose +secret doctrine Heiligenstern pretends to be an adept. Yesterday it was +bruited that the Duchess loudly opposed the experiment; this afternoon +it is given out that she has yielded. What the result may be, none can +foresee; but whichever way the storm blows, the chief danger probably +threatens those who have had any connection with the secret societies +known to exist in the duchy." + +Odo listened attentively, but without betraying any great surprise; and +the Bishop, evidently reassured by his composure, suggested that, the +heat of the day having declined, they should visit the new Indian +pheasants in his volary. + +The Bishop's hints had not helped his listener to a decision. Odo indeed +gave Cantapresto orders to prepare as privately as possible for their +departure; but rather to appear to be carrying out the Duke's +instructions than with any fixed intention of so doing. How to find a +pretext for remaining he was yet uncertain. To disobey the Duke was +impossible; but in the general state of tension it seemed likely enough +that both his Highness and the Duchess might change their minds within +the next twenty-four hours. He was reluctant to appear that evening in +the Duchess's circle; but the command was not to be evaded, and he went +thither resolved to excuse himself early. + +He found her Highness surrounded by the usual rout that attended her. +She was herself in a mood of wild mirth, occasioned by the drolleries of +an automatic female figure which a travelling showman introduced by +Cantapresto had obtained leave to display at court. This lively puppet +performed with surprising skill on the harpsichord, giving the company, +among other novelties, selections from the maestro Piccini's latest +opera and a concerto of the German composer Gluck. + +Maria Clementina seemed at first unaware of her kinsman's presence, and +he began to hope he might avoid any private talk with her; but when the +automaton had been dismissed and the card-tables were preparing, one of +her gentlemen summoned him to her side. As usual, she was highly rouged +in the French fashion, and her cold blue eyes had a light which set off +the extraordinary fairness of her skin. + +"Cousin," said she at once, "have you your papers?" Her tone was haughty +and yet eager, as though she scorned to show herself concerned, yet +would not have had him believe in her indifference. Odo bowed without +speaking. + +"And when do you set out?" she continued. "My good uncle is impatient to +receive you." + +"At the earliest moment, madam," he replied with some hesitation. + +The hesitation was not lost on her and he saw her flush through her +rouge. + +"Ah," said she in a low voice, "the earliest moment is none too +early!--Do you go tomorrow?" she persisted; but just then Trescorre +advanced toward them, and under a burst of assumed merriment she +privately signed to Odo to withdraw. + +He was glad to make his escape, for the sense of walking among hidden +pitfalls was growing on him. That he had acquitted himself awkwardly +with the Duchess he was well aware; but Trescorre's interruption had at +least enabled him to gain time. An increasing unwillingness to leave +Pianura had replaced his former impatience to be gone. The reluctance to +desert his friends was coupled with a boyish desire to stay and see the +game out; and behind all his other impulses lurked the instinctive +resistance to any feminine influence save one. + +The next morning he half-expected another message from the Duchess; but +none came, and he judged her to be gravely offended. Cantapresto +appeared early with the rumour that some kind of magical ceremony was to +be performed that evening in the palace; and toward noon the Georgian +boy again came privately to Odo and requested him to wait on the Duke +when his Highness rose from supper. This increased Odo's fears for +Gamba, Andreoni and the other reformers; yet he dared neither seek them +out in person nor entrust a message to Cantapresto. As the day passed, +however, he began to throw off his apprehensions. It was not the first +time since he had come to Pianura that there had been ominous talk of +political disturbances, and he knew that Gamba and his friends were not +without means of getting under shelter. As to his own risk, he did not +give it a thought. He was not of an age or a temper to weigh personal +danger against the excitement of conflict; and as evening drew on he +found himself wondering with some impatience if after all nothing +unusual would happen. + +He supped alone, and at the appointed hour proceeded to the Duke's +apartments, taking no farther precaution than to carry his passport +about him. The palace seemed deserted. Everywhere an air of apprehension +and mystery hung over the long corridors and dimly-lit antechambers. The +day had been sultry, with a low sky foreboding great heat, and not a +breath of air entered at the windows. There were few persons about, but +one or two beggars lurked as usual on the landings of the great +staircase, and Odo, in passing, felt his sleeve touched by a woman +cowering under the marble ramp in the shadow thrown by a colossal +Caesar. Looking down, he heard a voice beg for alms, and as he gave it +the woman pressed a paper into his hand and slipped away through the +darkness. + +Odo hastened on till he could assure himself of being unobserved; then +he unfolded the paper and read these words in Gamba's hand: "Have no +fear for any one's safety but your own." With a sense of relief he hid +the message and entered the Duke's antechamber. + +Here he was received by Heiligenstern's Oriental servant, who, with a +mute salutation, led him into a large room where the Duke's pages +usually waited. The walls of this apartment had been concealed under +hangings of black silk worked with cabalistic devices. Oil-lamps set on +tripods of antique design shed a faint light over the company seated at +one end of the room, among whom Odo recognised the chief dignitaries of +the court. The ladies looked pale but curious, the men for the most part +indifferent or disapproving. Intense quietness prevailed, broken only by +the soft opening and closing of the door through which the guests were +admitted. Presently the Duke and Duchess emerged from his Highness's +closet. They were followed by Prince Ferrante, supported by his governor +and his dwarf, and robed in a silken dressing-gown which hung in +voluminous folds about his little shrunken body. Their Highnesses seated +themselves in two armchairs in front of the court, and the little prince +reclined beside his mother. + +No sooner had they taken their places than Heiligenstern stepped forth, +wearing a doctor's gown and a quaintly-shaped bonnet or mitre. In his +long robes and strange headdress he looked extraordinarily tall and +pale, and his features had the glassy-eyed fixity of an ancient mask. He +was followed by his two attendants, the Oriental carrying a frame-work +of polished metal, not unlike a low narrow bed, which he set down in the +middle of the room; while the Georgian lad, who had exchanged his +fustanella and embroidered jacket for a flowing white robe, bore in his +hands a crystal globe set in a gold stand. Having reverently placed it +on a small table, the boy, at a signal from his master, drew forth a +phial and dropped its contents into a bronze vat or brazier which stood +at the far end of the room. Instantly clouds of perfumed vapour filled +the air, and as these dispersed it was seen that the black hangings of +the walls had vanished with them, and the spectators found themselves +seated in a kind of open temple through which the eye travelled down +colonnaded vistas set with statues and fountains. This magical prospect +was bathed in sunlight, and Odo observed that, though the lamps had gone +out, the same brightness suffused the room and illuminated the wondering +faces of the audience. The little prince uttered a cry of delight, and +the magician stepped forward, raising a long white wand in his hand. + +"This," said he, in measured accents, "is an evocation of the Temple of +Health, into whose blissful precincts the wisdom of the ancients was +able to lead the sufferer who put his trust in them. This deceptio +visus, or product of rhabdomancy, easily effected by an adept of the +Egyptian mysteries, is designed but to prefigure the reality which +awaits those who seek health through the ministry of the disciples of +Iamblichus. It is no longer denied among men of learning that those who +have been instructed in the secret doctrine of the ancients are able, by +certain correspondences of nature, revealed only to the initiated, to +act on the inanimate world about them, and on the animal economy, by +means beyond the common capabilities of man." He paused a moment, and +then, turning with a low bow to the Duke, enquired whether his Highness +desired the rites to proceed. + +The Duke signed his assent, and Heiligenstern, raising his wand, evoked +another volume of mist. This time it was shot through with green flames, +and as the wild light subsided the room was once more revealed with its +black hangings, and the lamps flickered into life again. + +After another pause, doubtless intended to increase the tension of the +spectators, the magician bade his servant place the crystal before him. +He then raised his hands as if in prayer, speaking in a strange chanting +jargon, in which Odo detected fragments of Greek and Latin, and the +recurring names of the Judaic demons and angels. As this ceased +Heiligenstern beckoned to the Georgian boy, who approached him with +bowed head and reverently folded hands. + +"Your Highness," said Heiligenstern, "and this distinguished company, +are doubtless familiar with the magic crystal of the ancients, in which +the future may be deciphered by the pure in heart. This lad, whom I +rescued from slavery and have bred to my service in the solemn rites of +the priesthood of Isis, is as clear in spirit as the crystal which +stands before you. The future lies open to him in this translucent +sphere and he is prepared to disclose it at your bidding." + +There was a moment's silence; but on the magician's repeating his +enquiry the Duke said: "Let the boy tell me what he sees." + +Heiligenstern at once laid his hands on his acolyte's head and murmured +a few words over him; then the boy advanced and bent devoutly above the +crystal. Almost immediately the globe was seen to cloud, as though +suffused with milk; the cloud gradually faded and the boy began to speak +in a low hesitating tone. + +"I see," he said, "I see a face...a fair face..." He faltered and +glanced up almost apprehensively at Heiligenstern, whose gaze remained +impenetrable. The boy began to tremble. "I see nothing," he said in a +whisper. "There is one here purer than I...the crystal will not speak +for me in that other's presence..." + +"Who is that other?" Heiligenstern asked. + +The boy fixed his eyes on the little prince. An excited murmur ran +through the company and Heiligenstern again advanced to the Duke. "Will +your Highness," he asked, "permit the prince to look into the sacred +sphere?" + +Odo saw the Duchess extend her hand impulsively toward the child; but at +a signal from the Duke the little prince's chair was carried to the +table on which the crystal stood. Instantly the former phenomenon was +repeated, the globe clouding and then clearing itself like a pool after +rain. + +"Speak, my son," said the Duke. "Tell us what the heavenly powers reveal +to you." + +The little prince continued to pore over the globe without speaking. +Suddenly his thin face reddened and he clung more closely to his +companion's arm. + +"I see a beautiful place," he began, his small fluting voice rising like +a bird's pipe in the stillness, "a place a thousand times more beautiful +than this...like a garden...full of golden-haired children...with +beautiful strange toys in their hands...they have wings like +birds...they ARE birds...ah! they are flying away from me...I see them +no more...they vanish through the trees..." He broke off sadly. + +Heiligenstern smiled. "That, your Highness, is a vision of the prince's +own future, when, restored to health, he is able to disport himself with +his playmates in the gardens of the palace." + +"But they were not the gardens of the palace!" the little boy exclaimed. +"They were much more beautiful than our gardens." + +Heiligenstern bowed. "They appeared so to your Highness," he +deferentially suggested, "because all the world seems more beautiful to +those who have regained their health." + +"Enough, my son!" exclaimed the Duchess with a shaken voice. "Why will +you weary the child?" she continued, turning to the Duke; and the +latter, with evident reluctance, signed to Heiligenstern to cover the +crystal. To the general surprise, however, Prince Ferrante pushed back +the black velvet covering which the Georgian boy was preparing to throw +over it. + +"No, no," he exclaimed, in the high obstinate voice of the spoiled +child, "let me look again...let me see some more beautiful things...I +have never seen anything so beautiful, even in my sleep!" It was the +plaintive cry of the child whose happiest hours are those spent in +unconsciousness. + +"Look again, then," said the Duke, "and ask the heavenly powers what +more they have to show you." + +The boy gazed in silence; then he broke out: "Ah, now we are in the +palace...I see your Highness's cabinet...no, it is the bedchamber...it +is night...and I see your Highness lying asleep...very still...very +still...your Highness wears the scapular received last Easter from his +Holiness...It is very dark...Oh, now a light begins to shine...where +does it come from? Through the door? No, there is no door on that side +of the room...It shines through the wall at the foot of the bed...ah! I +see"--his voice mounted to a cry--"The old picture at the foot of the +bed...the picture with the wicked people burning in it...has opened like +a door...the light is shining through it...and now a lady steps out from +the wall behind the picture...oh, so beautiful...she has yellow hair, as +yellow as my mother's...but longer...oh, much longer...she carries a +rose in her hand...and there are white doves flying about her +shoulders...she is naked, quite naked, poor lady! but she does not seem +to mind...she seems to be laughing about it...and your Highness..." + +The Duke started up violently. "Enough--enough!" he stammered. "The +fever is on the child...this agitation is...most pernicious...Cover the +crystal, I say!" + +He sank back, his forehead damp with perspiration. In an instant the +crystal had been removed, and Prince Ferrante carried back to his +mother's side. The boy seemed in nowise affected by his father's +commotion. His eyes burned with excitement, and he sat up eagerly, as +though not to miss a detail of what was going forward. Maria Clementina +leaned over and clasped his hand, but he hardly noticed her. "I want to +see some more beautiful things!" he insisted. + +The Duke sat speechless, a fallen heap in his chair, and the courtiers +looked at each other, their faces shifting spectrally in the faint +light, like phantom travellers waiting to be ferried across some +mysterious river. At length Heiligenstern advanced and with every mark +of deference addressed himself to the Duke. + +"Your Highness," said he quietly, "need be under no apprehension as to +the effect produced upon the prince. The magic crystal, as your Highness +is aware, is under the protection of the blessed spirits, and its +revelations cannot harm those who are pure-minded enough to receive +them. But the chief purpose of this assemblage was to witness the +communication of vital force to the prince, by means of the electrical +current. The crystal, by revealing its secrets to the prince, has +testified to his perfect purity of mind, and thus declared him to be in +a peculiarly fit state to receive what may be designated as the +Sacrament of the new faith." + +A murmur ran through the room, but Heiligenstern continued without +wavering: "I mean thereby to describe that natural religion which, by +instructing its adepts in the use of the hidden potencies of earth and +air, testifies afresh to the power of the unseen Maker of the Universe." + +The murmur subsided, and the Duke, regaining his voice, said with an +assumption of authority: "Let the treatment begin." + +Heiligenstern immediately spoke a word to the Oriental, who bent over +the metal bed which had been set up in the middle of the room. As he did +so the air again darkened and the figures of the magician and his +assistants were discernible only as flitting shades in the obscurity. +Suddenly a soft pure light overflowed the room, the perfume of flowers +filled the air, and music seemed to steal out of the very walls. +Heiligenstern whispered to the governor and between them they lifted the +little prince from his chair and laid him gently on the bed. The +magician then leaned over the boy with a slow weaving motion of the +hands. + +"If your Highness will be pleased to sleep," he said, "I promise your +Highness the most beautiful dreams." + +The boy smiled back at him and he continued to bend above the bed with +flitting hands. Suddenly the little prince began to laugh. + +"What does your Highness feel?" the magician asked. + +"A prickling...such a soft warm prickling...as if my blood were sunshine +with motes dancing in it...or as if that sparkling wine of France were +running all over my body." + +"It is an agreeable sensation, your Highness?" + +The boy nodded. + +"It is well with your Highness?" + +"Very well." + +Heiligenstern began a loud rhythmic chant, and gradually the air +darkened, but with the mild dimness of a summer twilight, through which +sparks could be seen flickering like fire-flies about the reclining +prince. The hush grew deeper; but in the stillness Odo became aware of +some unseen influence that seemed to envelope him in waves of exquisite +sensation. It was as though the vast silence of the night had poured +into the room and, like a dark tepid sea, was lapping about his body and +rising to his lips. His thoughts, dissolved into emotion, seemed to +waver and float on the stillness like sea-weed on the lift of the tide. +He stood spell-bound, lulled, yielding himself to a blissful +dissolution. + +Suddenly he became aware that the hush was too intense, too complete; +and a moment later, as though stretched to the cracking-point, it burst +terrifically into sound. A huge uproar shook the room, crashing through +it like a tangible mass. The sparks whirled in a menacing dance round +the little prince's body, and, abruptly blotted, left a deeper darkness, +in which the confused herding movements of startled figures were +indistinguishably merged. A flash of silence followed; then the +liberated forces of the night broke in rain and thunder on the rocking +walls of the room. + +"Light--light!" some one stammered; and at the same moment a door was +flung open, admitting a burst of candle-light and a group of figures in +ecclesiastical dress, against which the white gown and black hood of +Father Ignazio detached themselves. The Dominican stepped toward the +Duke. + +"Your Highness," said he in a tone of quiet resolution, "must pardon +this interruption; I act at the bidding of the Holy Office." + +Even in that moment of profound disarray the name sent a deeper shudder +through his hearers. The Duke, who stood grasping the arms of his chair, +raised his head and tried to stare down the intruders; but no one heeded +his look. At a signal from the Dominican a servant had brought in a pair +of candelabra, and in their commonplace light the cabalistic hangings, +the magician's appliances and his fantastically-dressed attendants +looked as tawdry as the paraphernalia of a village quack. Heiligenstern +alone survived the test. Erect, at bay as it were, his black robe +falling in hieratic folds, the white wand raised in his hands, he might +have personified the Prince of Darkness drawn up undaunted against the +hosts of the Lord. Some one had snatched the little prince from his +stretcher, and Maria Clementina, holding him to her breast, sat palely +confronting the sorcerer. She alone seemed to measure her strength +against his in some mysterious conflict of the will. But meanwhile the +Duke had regained his voice. + +"My father," said he, "on what information does the Holy Office act?" + +The Dominican drew a parchment from his breast. "On that of the +Inquisitor General, your Highness," he replied, handing the paper to the +Duke, who unfolded it with trembling hands but was plainly unable to +master its contents. Father Ignazio beckoned to an ecclesiastic who had +entered the room in his train. + +"This, your Highness," said he, "is the abate de Crucis of Innsbruck, +who was lately commissioned by the Holy Office to enquire into the +practises and doctrine of the order of the Illuminati, that corrupt and +atheistical sect which has been the cause of so much scandal among the +German principalities. In the course of his investigations he became +aware that the order had secretly established a lodge in Pianura; and +hastening hither from Rome to advise your Highness of the fact, has +discovered in the so-called Count Heiligenstern one of the most +notorious apostles of the order." He turned to the priest. "Signor +abate," he said, "you confirm these facts?" + +The abate de Crucis quietly advanced. He was a slight pale man of about +thirty, with a thoughtful and indulgent cast of countenance. + +"In every particular," said he, bowing profoundly to the Duke, and +speaking in a low voice of singular sweetness. "It has been my duty to +track this man's career from its ignoble beginning to its infamous +culmination, and I have been able to place in the hands of the Holy +Office the most complete proofs of his guilt. The so-called Count +Heiligenstern is the son of a tailor in a small village of Pomerania. +After passing through various vicissitudes with which I need not trouble +your Highness, he obtained the confidence of the notorious Dr. +Weishaupt, the founder of the German order of the Illuminati, and +together this precious couple have indefatigably propagated their +obscene and blasphemous doctrines. That they preach atheism and +tyrannicide I need not tell your Highness; but it is less generally +known that they have made these infamous doctrines the cloak of private +vices from which even paganism would have recoiled. The man now before +me, among other open offences against society, is known to have seduced +a young girl of noble family in Ratisbon and to have murdered her child. +His own wife and children he long since abandoned and disowned; and the +youth yonder, whom he describes as a Georgian slave rescued from the +Grand Signior's galleys, is in fact the wife of a Greek juggler of +Ravenna, and has forsaken her husband to live in criminal intercourse +with an atheist and assassin." + +This indictment, pronounced with an absence of emotion which made each +word cut the air like the separate stroke of a lash, was followed by a +prolonged silence; then one of the Duchess's ladies cried out suddenly +and burst into tears. This was the signal for a general outbreak. The +room was filled with a confusion of voices, and among the groups surging +about him Odo noticed a number of the Duke's sbirri making their way +quietly through the crowd. The notary of the Holy Office advanced toward +Heiligenstern, who had placed himself against the wall, with one arm +flung about his trembling acolyte. The Duchess, her boy still clasped +against her, remained proudly seated; but her eyes met Odo's in a glance +of terrified entreaty, and at the same instant he felt a clutch on his +sleeve and heard Cantapresto's whisper. + +"Cavaliere, a boat waits at the landing below the tanners' lane. The +shortest way to it is through the gardens and your excellency will find +the gate beyond the Chinese pavilion unlocked." + +He had vanished before Odo could look round. The latter still wavered; +but as he did so he caught Trescorre's face through the crowd. The +minister's eye was fixed on him; and the discovery was enough to make +him plunge through the narrow wake left by Cantapresto's retreat. + +Odo made his way unhindered to the ante-room, which was also thronged, +ecclesiastics, servants and even beggars from the courtyard jostling +each other in their struggle to see what was going forward. The +confusion favoured his escape, and a moment later he was hastening down +the tapestry gallery and through the vacant corridors of the palace. He +was familiar with half-a-dozen short-cuts across this network of +passages; but in his bewilderment he pressed on down the great stairs +and across the echoing guard-room that opened on the terrace. A drowsy +sentinel challenged him; and on Odo's explaining that he sought to +leave, and not to enter, the palace, replied that he had his Highness's +orders to let no one out that night. For a moment Odo was at a loss; +then he remembered his passport. It seemed to him an interminable time +before the sentinel had scrutinised it by the light of a guttering +candle, and to his surprise he found himself in a cold sweat of fear. +The rattle of the storm simulated footsteps at his heels and he felt the +blind rage of a man within shot of invisible foes. + +The passport restored, he plunged out into the night. It was pitch-black +in the gardens and the rain drove down with the guttural rush of a +midsummer storm. So fierce was its fall that it seemed to suck up the +earth in its black eddies, and he felt himself swept along over a +heaving hissing surface, with wet boughs lashing out at him as he fled. +From one terrace to another he dropped to lower depths of buffeting +dripping darkness, till he found his hand on the gate-latch and swung to +the black lane below the wall. Thence on a run he wound to the tanners' +quarter by the river: a district commonly as foul-tongued as it was +ill-favoured, but tonight clean-purged of both evils by the vehement +sweep of the storm. Here he groped his way among slippery places and +past huddled out-buildings to the piles of the wharf. The rain was now +subdued to a noiseless vertical descent, through which he could hear the +tap of the river against the piles. Scarce knowing what he fled or +whither he was flying, he let himself down the steps and found the flat +of a boat's bottom underfoot. A boatman, distinguishable only as a black +bulk in the stern, steadied his descent with outstretched hand; then the +bow swung round, and after a labouring stroke or two they caught the +current and were swept down through the rushing darkness. + + + +BOOK III. THE CHOICE. + + + The Vision touched him on the lips and said: + Hereafter thou shalt eat me in thy bread, + Drink me in all thy kisses, feel my hand + Steal 'twixt thy palm and Joy's, and see me stand + Watchful at every crossing of the ways, + The insatiate lover of thy nights and days. + + +3.1. + +It was at Naples, some two years later, that the circumstances of his +flight were recalled to Odo Valsecca by the sound of a voice which at +once mysteriously connected itself with the incidents of that wild +night. + +He was seated with a party of gentlemen in the saloon of Sir William +Hamilton's famous villa of Posilipo, where they were sipping the +ambassador's iced sherbet and examining certain engraved gems and +burial-urns recently taken from the excavations. The scene was such as +always appealed to Odo's fancy: the spacious room, luxuriously fitted +with carpets and curtains in the English style, and opening on a +prospect of classical beauty and antique renown; in his hands the rarest +specimens of that buried art which, like some belated golden harvest, +was now everywhere thrusting itself through the Neapolitan soil; and +about him men of taste and understanding, discussing the historic or +mythological meaning of the objects before them, and quoting Homer or +Horace in corroboration of their guesses. + +Several visitors had joined the party since Odo's entrance; and it was +from a group of these later arrivals that the voice had reached him. He +looked round and saw a man of refined and scholarly appearance, dressed +en abbe, as was the general habit in Rome and Naples, and holding in one +hand the celebrated blue vase cut in cameo which Sir William had +recently purchased from the Barberini family. + +"These reliefs," the stranger was saying, "whether cut in the substance +itself, or afterward affixed to the glass, certainly belong to the +Grecian period of cameo-work, and recall by the purity of their design +the finest carvings of Dioskorides." His beautifully-modulated Italian +was tinged by a slight foreign accent, which seemed to connect him still +more definitely with the episode his voice recalled. Odo turned to a +gentleman at his side and asked the speaker's name. + +"That," was the reply, "is the abate de Crucis, a scholar and +cognoscente, as you perceive, and at present attached to the household +of the Papal Nuncio." + +Instantly Odo beheld the tumultuous scene in the Duke's apartments, and +heard the indictment of Heiligenstern falling in tranquil accents from +the very lips which were now, in the same tone, discussing the date of a +Greek cameo vase. Even in that moment of disorder he had been struck by +the voice and aspect of the agent of the Holy Office, and by a singular +distinction that seemed to set the man himself above the coil of +passions in which his action was involved. To Odo's spontaneous yet +reflective temper there was something peculiarly impressive in the kind +of detachment which implies, not obtuseness or indifference, but a +higher sensitiveness disciplined by choice. Now he felt a renewed pang +of regret that such qualities should be found in the service of the +opposition; but the feeling was not incompatible with a wish to be more +nearly acquainted with their possessor. + +The two years elapsing since Odo's departure from Pianura had widened if +they had not lifted his outlook. If he had lost something of his early +enthusiasm he had exchanged it for a larger experience of cities and +men, and for the self-command born of varied intercourse. He had reached +a point where he was able to survey his past dispassionately and to +disentangle the threads of the intrigue in which he had so nearly lost +his footing. The actual circumstances of his escape were still wrapped +in mystery: he could only conjecture that the Duchess, foreseeing the +course events would take, had planned with Cantapresto to save him in +spite of himself. His nocturnal flight down the river had carried him to +Ponte di Po, the point where the Piana flows into the Po, the latter +river forming for a few miles the southern frontier of the duchy. Here +his passport had taken him safely past the customs-officer, and +following the indications of the boatman, he had found, outside the +miserable village clustered about the customs, a travelling-chaise which +brought him before the next night-fall to Monte Alloro. + +Of the real danger from which this timely retreat had removed him, +Gamba's subsequent letters had brought ample proof. It was indeed mainly +against himself that both parties, perhaps jointly, had directed their +attack; designing to take him in the toils ostensibly prepared for the +Illuminati. His evasion known, the Holy Office had contented itself with +imprisoning Heiligenstern in one of the Papal fortresses near the +Adriatic, while his mistress, though bred in the Greek confession, was +confined in a convent of the Sepolte Vive and his Oriental servant sent +to the Duke's galleys. As to those suspected of affiliations with the +forbidden sect, fines and penances were imposed on a few of the least +conspicuous, while the chief offenders, either from motives of policy or +thanks to their superior adroitness, were suffered to escape without a +reprimand. After this, Gamba's letters reported, the duchy had lapsed +into its former state of quiescence. Prince Ferrante had been seriously +ailing since the night of the electrical treatment, but the Pope having +sent his private physician to Pianura, the boy had rallied under the +latter's care. The Duke, as was natural, had suffered an acute relapse +of piety, spending his time in expiatory pilgrimages to the various +votive churches of the duchy, and declining to transact any public +business till he should have compiled with his own hand a calendar of +the lives of the saints, with the initial letters painted in miniature, +which he designed to present to his Holiness at Easter. + +Meanwhile Odo, at Monte Alloro, found himself in surroundings so +different from those he had left that it seemed incredible they should +exist in the same world. The Duke of Monte Alloro was that rare survival +of a stronger age, a cynic. In a period of sentimental optimism, of +fervid enthusiasms and tearful philanthropy, he represented the +pleasure-loving prince of the Renaissance, crushing his people with +taxes but dazzling them with festivities; infuriating them by his +disregard of the public welfare, but fascinating them by his good looks, +his tolerance of old abuses, his ridicule of the monks, and by the +careless libertinage which had founded the fortunes of more than one +middle-class husband and father--for the Duke always paid well for what +he appropriated. He had grown old in his pleasant sins, and these, as +such raiment will, had grown old and dingy with him; but if no longer +splendid he was still splendour-loving, and drew to his court the most +brilliant adventurers of Italy. Spite of his preference for such +company, he had a nobler side, the ruins of a fine but uncultivated +intelligence, and a taste for all that was young, generous and high in +looks and courage. He was at once drawn to Odo, who instinctively +addressed himself to these qualities, and whose conversation and manners +threw into relief the vulgarity of the old Duke's cronies. The latter +was the shrewd enough to enjoy the contrast at the expense of his +sycophants' vanity; and the cavaliere Valsecca was for a while the +reigning favourite. It would have been hard to say whether his patron +was most tickled by his zeal for economic reforms, or by his faith in +the perfectibility of man. Both these articles of Odo's creed drew tears +of enjoyment from the old Duke's puffy eyes; and he was never tired of +declaring that only his hatred for his nephew of Pianura induced him to +accord his protection to so dangerous an enemy of society. + +Odo at first fancied that it was in response to a mere whim of the +Duke's that he had been despatched to Monte Alloro; but he soon +perceived that the invitation had been inspired by Maria Clementina's +wish. Some three months after Odo's arrival, Cantapresto suddenly +appeared with a packet of letters from the Duchess. Among them her +Highness had included a few lines to Odo, whom she briefly adjured not +to return to Pianura, but to comply in all things with her uncle's +desires. Soon after this the old Duke sent for Odo, and asked him how +his present mode of life agreed with his tastes. Odo, who had learned +that frankness was the surest way to the Duke's favour, replied that, +while nothing could be more agreeable than the circumstances of his +sojourn at Monte Alloro, he must own to a wish to travel when the +occasion offered. + +"Why, this is as I fancied," replied the Duke, who held in his hand an +open letter on which Odo recognised Maria Clementina's seal. "We have +always," he continued, "spoken plainly with each other, and I will not +conceal from you that it is for your best interests that you should +remain away from Pianura for the present. The Duke, as you doubtless +divine, is anxious for your return, and her Highness, for that very +reason, is urgent that you should prolong your absence. It is notorious +that the Duke soon wearies of those about him, and that your best chance +of regaining his favour is to keep out of his reach and let your enemies +hang themselves in the noose they have prepared for you. For my part, I +am always glad to do an ill-turn to that snivelling friar, my nephew, +and the more so when I can seriously oblige a friend; and, as you have +perhaps guessed, the Duke dares not ask for your return while I show a +fancy for your company. But this," added he with an ironical twinkle, +"is a tame place for a young man of your missionary temper, and I have a +mind to send you on a visit to that arch-tyrant Ferdinand of Naples, in +whose dominions a man may yet burn for heresy or be drawn and quartered +for poaching on a nobleman's preserves. I am advised that some rare +treasures have lately been taken from the excavations there and I should +be glad if you would oblige me by acquiring a few for my gallery. I will +give you letters to a cognoscente of my acquaintance, who will put his +experience at the disposal of your excellent taste, and the funds at +your service will, I hope, enable you to outbid the English brigands +who, as the Romans say, would carry off the Colosseum if it were +portable." + +In all this Odo discerned Maria Clementina's hand, and an instinctive +resistance made him hang back upon his patron's proposal. But the only +alternative was to return to Pianura; and every letter from Gamba urged +on him (for the very reasons the Duke had given) the duty of keeping out +of reach as the surest means of saving himself and the cause to which he +was pledged. Nothing remained but a graceful acquiescence; and early the +next spring he started for Naples. + +His first impulse had been to send Cantapresto back to the Duchess. He +knew that he owed his escape me grave difficulties to the soprano's +prompt action on the night of Heiligenstern's arrest; but he was equally +sure that such action might not always be as favourable to his plans. It +was plain that Cantapresto was paid to spy on him, and that whenever +Odo's intentions clashed with those of his would-be protectors the +soprano would side with the latter. But there was something in the air +of Monte Alloro which dispelled such considerations, or at least +weakened the impulse to act on them. Cantapresto as usual had attracted +notice at court. His glibness and versatility amused the Duke, and to +Odo he was as difficult to put off as a bad habit. He had become so +accomplished a servant that he seemed a sixth sense of his master's; and +when the latter prepared to start on his travels Cantapresto took his +usual seat in the chaise. + +To a traveller of Odo's temper there could be few more agreeable +journeys than the one on which he was setting out, and the Duke being in +no haste to have his commission executed, his messenger had full leisure +to enjoy every stage of the way. He profited by this to visit several of +the small principalities north of the Apennines before turning toward +Genoa, whence he was to take ship for the South. When he left Monte +Alloro the land had worn the bleached face of February, and it was +amazing to his northern-bred eyes to find himself, on the sea-coast, in +the full exuberance of summer. Seated by this halcyon shore, Genoa, in +its carved and frescoed splendour, just then celebrating with the +customary gorgeous ritual the accession of a new Doge, seemed to Odo +like the richly-inlaid frame of some Renaissance "triumph." But the +splendid houses with their marble peristyles, and the painted villas in +their orange-groves along the shore, housed a dull and narrow-minded +society, content to amass wealth and play biribi under the eyes of their +ancestral Vandykes, without any concern as to the questions agitating +the world. A kind of fat commercial dulness, a lack of that personal +distinction which justifies magnificence, seemed to Odo the prevailing +note of the place; nor was he sorry when his packet set sail for Naples. + +Here indeed he found all the vivacity that Genoa lacked. Few cities +could at first acquaintance be more engaging to the stranger. Dull and +brown as it appeared after the rich tints of Genoa, yet so gloriously +did sea and land embrace it, so lavishly the sun gild and the moon +silver it, that it seemed steeped in the surrounding hues of nature. And +what a nature to eyes subdued to the sober tints of the north! Its +spectacular quality--that studied sequence of effects ranging from the +translucent outline of Capri and the fantastically blue mountains of the +coast, to Vesuvius lifting its torch above the plain--this prodigal +response to fancy's claims suggested the boundless invention of some +great scenic artist, some Olympian Veronese with sea and sky for a +palette. And then the city itself, huddled between bay and mountains, +and seething and bubbling like a Titan's cauldron! Here was life at its +source, not checked, directed, utilised, but gushing forth +uncontrollably through every fissure of the brown walls and reeking +streets--love and hatred, mirth and folly, impudence and greed, going +naked and unashamed as the lazzaroni on the quays. The variegated +surface of it all was fascinating to Odo. It set free his powers of +purely physical enjoyment, keeping all deeper sensations in abeyance. +These, however, presently found satisfaction in that other hidden beauty +of which city and plain were but the sumptuous drapery. It is hardly too +much to say that to the trained eyes of the day the visible Naples +hardly existed, so absorbed were they in the perusal of her buried past. +The fever of excavation was on every one. No social or political problem +could find a hearing while the subject of the last coin or bas-relief +from Pompeii or Herculanaeum remained undecided. Odo, at first an amused +spectator, gradually found himself engrossed in the fierce quarrels +raging over the date of an intaglio or the myth represented on an +amphora. The intrinsic beauty of the objects, and the light they shed on +one of the most brilliant phases of human history, were in fact +sufficient to justify the prevailing ardour; and the reconstructive +habit he had acquired from Crescenti lent a living interest to the +driest discussion between rival collectors. + +Gradually other influences reasserted themselves. At the house of Sir +William Hamilton, then the centre of the most polished society in +Naples, he met not only artists and archeologists, but men of letters +and of affairs. Among these, he was peculiarly drawn to the two +distinguished economists, the abate Galiani and the cavaliere +Filangieri, in whose company he enjoyed for the first time sound +learning unhampered by pedantry. The lively Galiani proved that social +tastes and a broad wit are not incompatible with more serious interests; +and Filangieri threw the charm of a graceful personality over any topic +he discussed. In the latter, indeed, courtly, young and romantic, a +thinker whose intellectual acuteness was steeped in moral emotion, Odo +beheld the type of the new chivalry, an ideal leader of the campaign +against social injustice. Filangieri represented the extremest optimism +of the day. His sense of existing abuses was only equalled by his faith +in their speedy amendment. Love was to cure all evils: the love of man +for man, the effusive all-embracing sympathy of the school of the +Vicaire Savoyard, was to purge the emotions by tenderness and pity. In +Gamba, the victim of the conditions he denounced, the sense of present +hardship prevailed over the faith in future improvement; while +Filangieri's social superiority mitigated his view of the evils and +magnified the efficacy of the proposed remedies. Odo's days passed +agreeably in such intercourse, or in the excitement of excursions to the +ruined cities; and as the court and the higher society of Naples offered +little to engage him, he gradually restricted himself to the small +circle of chosen spirits gathered at the villa Hamilton. To these he +fancied the abate de Crucis might prove an interesting addition; and the +desire to learn something of this problematic person induced him to quit +the villa at the moment when the abate took leave. + +They found themselves together on the threshold; and Odo, recalling to +the other the circumstances of their first meeting, proposed that they +should dismiss their carriages and regain the city on foot. De Crucis +readily consented; and they were soon descending the hill of Posilipo. +Here and there a turn in the road brought them to an open space whence +they commanded the bay from Procida to Sorrento, with Capri afloat in +liquid gold and the long blue shadow of Vesuvius stretching like a +menace toward the city. The spectacle was one of which Odo never +wearied; but today it barely diverted him from the charms of his +companion's talk. The abate de Crucis had that quality of repressed +enthusiasm, of an intellectual sensibility tempered by self-possession, +which exercises the strongest attraction over a mind not yet master of +itself. Though all he said had a personal note he seemed to withhold +himself even in the moment of greatest expansion: like some prince who +should enrich his favourites from the public treasury but keep his +private fortune unimpaired. In the course of their conversation Odo +learned that though of Austrian birth his companion was of mingled +English and Florentine parentage: a fact perhaps explaining the mixture +of urbanity and reserve that lent such charm to his manner. He told Odo +that his connection with the Holy Office had been only temporary, and +that, having contracted a severe cold the previous winter in Germany, he +had accepted a secretaryship in the service of the Papal Nuncio in order +to enjoy the benefits of a mild climate. "By profession," he added, "I +am a pedagogue, and shall soon travel to Rome, where I have been called +by Prince Bracciano to act as governor to his son; and meanwhile I am +taking advantage of my residence here to indulge my taste for +antiquarian studies." + +He went on to praise the company they had just left, declaring that he +knew no better way for a young man to form his mind than by frequenting +the society of men of conflicting views and equal capacity. "Nothing," +said he, "is more injurious to the growth of character than to be +secluded from argument and opposition; as nothing is healthier than to +be obliged to find good reasons for one's beliefs on pain of +surrendering them." + +"But," said Odo, struck with this declaration, "to a man of your cloth +there is one belief which never surrenders to reason." + +The other smiled. "True," he agreed; "but I often marvel to see how +little our opponents know of that belief. The wisest of them seem in the +case of those children at our country fairs who gape at the incredible +things depicted on the curtains of the booths, without asking themselves +whether the reality matches its presentment. The weakness of human +nature has compelled us to paint the outer curtain of the sanctuary in +gaudy colours, and the malicious fancy of our enemies has given a +monstrous outline to these pictures; but what are such vanities to one +who has passed beyond, and beheld the beauty of the King's daughter, all +glorious within?" + +As though unwilling to linger on such grave topics, he turned the talk +to the scene at their feet, questioning Odo as to the impression Naples +had made on him. He listened courteously to the young man's comments on +the wretched state of the peasantry, the extravagances of the court and +nobility and the judicial corruption which made the lower classes submit +to any injustice rather than seek redress through the courts. De Crucis +agreed with him in the main, admitting that the monopoly of corn, the +maintenance of feudal rights and the King's indifference to the graver +duties of his rank placed the kingdom of Naples far below such states as +Tuscany or Venetia; "though," he added, "I think our economists, in +praising one state at the expense of another, too often overlook those +differences of character and climate that must ever make it impossible +to govern different races in the same manner. Our peasants have a blunt +saying: Cut off the dog's tail and he is still a dog; and so I suspect +the most enlightened rule would hardly bring this prompt and choleric +people, living on a volcanic soil amid a teeming vegetation, into any +resemblance with the clear-headed Tuscan or the gentle and dignified +Roman." + +As he spoke they emerged upon the Chiaia, where at that hour the quality +took the air in their carriages, while the lower classes thronged the +footway. A more vivacious scene no city of Europe could present. The +gilt coaches drawn by six or eight of the lively Neapolitan horses, +decked with plumes and artificial flowers and preceded by running +footmen who beat the foot-passengers aside with long staves; the +richly-dressed ladies seated in this never-ending file of carriages, +bejewelled like miraculous images and languidly bowing to their friends; +the throngs of citizens and their wives in holiday dress; the sellers of +sherbet, ices and pastry bearing their trays and barrels through the +crowd with strange cries and the jingling of bells; the friars of every +order in their various habits, the street-musicians, the half-naked +lazzaroni, cripples and beggars, who fringed the throng like the line of +scum edging a fair lake;--this medley of sound and colour, which in fact +resembled some sudden growth of the fiery soil, was an expressive +comment on the abate's words. + +"Look," he continued, as he and Odo drew aside to escape the mud from an +emblazoned chariot, "at the gold-leaf on the panels of that coach and +the gold-lace on the liveries of those lacqueys. Is there any other city +in the world where gold is so prodigally used? Where the monks gild +their relics, the nobility their servants, the apothecaries their pills, +the very butchers their mutton? One might fancy their bright sun had set +them the example! And how cold and grey all soberer tints must seem to +these children of Apollo! Well--so it is with their religion and their +daily life. I wager half those naked wretches yonder would rather attend +a fine religious service, with abundance of gilt candles, music from +gilt organ-pipes, and incense from gilt censers, than eat a good meal or +sleep in a decent bed; as they would rather starve under a handsome +merry King that has the name of being the best billiard-player in Europe +than go full under one of your solemn reforming Austrian Archdukes!" + +The words recalled to Odo Crescenti's theory of the influence of +character and climate on the course of history; and this subject soon +engrossing both speakers, they wandered on, inattentive to their +surroundings, till they found themselves in the thickest concourse of +the Toledo. Here for a moment the dense crowd hemmed them in; and as +they stood observing the humours of the scene, Odo's eye fell on the +thick-set figure of a man in doctor's dress, who was being led through +the press by two agents of the Inquisition. The sight was too common to +have fixed his attention, had he not recognised with a start the +irascible red-faced professor who, on his first visit to Vivaldi, had +defended the Diluvial theory of creation. The sight raised a host of +memories from which Odo would gladly have beaten a retreat; but the +crowd held him in check and a moment later he saw that the doctor's eyes +were fixed on him with an air of recognition. A movement of pity +succeeded his first impulse, and turning to de Crucis he exclaimed:--"I +see yonder an old acquaintance who seems in an unlucky plight and with +whom I should be glad to speak." + +The other, following his glance, beckoned to one of the sbirri, who made +his way through the throng with the alacrity of one summoned by a +superior. De Crucis exchanged a few words with him, and then signed to +him to return to his charge, who presently vanished in some fresh +shifting of the crowd. + +"Your friend," said de Crucis, "has been summoned before the Holy Office +to answer a charge of heresy preferred by the authorities. He has lately +been appointed to the chair of physical sciences in the University here, +and has doubtless allowed himself to publish openly views that were +better expounded in the closet. His offence, however, appears to be a +mild one, and I make no doubt he will be set free in a few days." + +This, however, did not satisfy Odo; and he asked de Crucis if there were +no way of speaking with the doctor at once. + +His companion hesitated. "It can easily be arranged," said he; +"but--pardon me, cavaliere--are you well-advised in mixing yourself in +such matters?" + +"I am well-advised in seeking to serve a friend!" Odo somewhat hotly +returned; and de Crucis, with a faint smile of approval, replied +quietly: "In that case I will obtain permission for you to visit your +friend in the morning." + +He was true to his word; and the next forenoon Odo, accompanied by an +officer of police, was taken to the prison of the Inquisition. Here he +found his old acquaintance seated in a clean commodious room and reading +Aristotle's "History of Animals," the only volume of his library that he +had been permitted to carry with him. He welcomed Odo heartily, and on +the latter's enquiring what had brought him to this plight, replied with +some dignity that he had been led there in the fulfilment of his duty. + +"Some months ago," he continued, "I was summoned hither to profess the +natural sciences in the University; a summons I readily accepted, since +I hoped, by the study of a volcanic soil, to enlarge my knowledge of the +globe's formation. Such in fact was the case, but to my surprise my +researches led me to adopt the views I had formerly combated, and I now +find myself in the ranks of the Vulcanists, or believers in the +secondary origin of the earth: a view you may remember I once opposed +with all the zeal of inexperience. Having firmly established every point +in my argument according to the Baconian method of investigation, I felt +it my duty to enlighten my scholars; and in the course of my last +lecture I announced the result of my investigations. I was of course +aware of the inevitable result; but the servants of Truth have no choice +but to follow where she calls, and many have joyfully traversed stonier +places than I am likely to travel." + +Nothing could exceed the respect with which Odo heard this simple +confession of faith. It was as though the speaker had unconsciously +convicted him of remissness, of cowardice even; so vain and windy his +theorising seemed, judged by the other's deliberate act! Yet placed as +he was, what could he do, how advance their common end, but by passively +waiting on events? At least, he reflected, he could perform the trivial +service of trying to better his friend's case; and this he eagerly +offered to attempt. The doctor thanked him, but without any great +appearance of emotion: Odo was struck by the change which had +transformed a heady and intemperate speaker into a model of philosophic +calm. The doctor, indeed, seemed far more concerned for the safety of +his library and his cabinet of minerals than for his own. "Happily," +said he, "I am not a man of family, and can therefore sacrifice my +liberty with a clear conscience: a fact I am the more thankful for when +I recall the moral distress of our poor friend Vivaldi, when compelled +to desert his post rather than be separated from his daughter." + +The name brought the colour to Odo's brow, and with an embarrassed air +he asked what news the doctor had of their friend. + +"Alas," said the other, "the last was of his death, which happened two +years since in Pavia. The Sardinian government had, as you probably +know, confiscated his small property on his leaving the state, and I am +told he died in great poverty, and in sore anxiety for his daughter's +future." He added that these events had taken place before his own +departure from Turin, and that since then he had learned nothing of +Fulvia's fate, save that she was said to have made her home with an aunt +who lived in a town of the Veneto. + +Odo listened in silence. The lapse of time, and the absence of any links +of association, had dimmed the girl's image in his breast; but at the +mere sound of her name it lived again, and he felt her interwoven with +his deepest fibres. The picture of her father's death and of her own +need filled him with an ineffectual pity, and for a moment he thought of +seeking her out; but the other could recall neither the name of the town +she had removed to nor that of the relative who had given her a home. + +To aid the good doctor was a simpler business. The intervention of de +Crucis and Odo's own influence sufficed to effect his release, and on +the payment of a heavy fine (in which Odo privately assisted him) he was +reinstated in his chair. The only promise exacted by the Holy Office was +that he should in future avoid propounding his own views on questions +already decided by Scripture, and to this he readily agreed, since, as +he shrewdly remarked to Odo, his opinions were now well-known, and any +who wished farther instruction had only to apply to him privately. + +The old Duke having invited Odo to return to Monte Alloro with such +treasures as he had collected for the ducal galleries, the young man +resolved to visit Rome on his way to the North. His acquaintance with de +Crucis had grown into something like friendship since their joint effort +in behalf of the imprisoned sage, and the abate preparing to set out +about the same time, the two agreed to travel together. The road leading +from Naples to Rome was at that time one of the worst in Italy, and was +besides so ill-provided with inns that there was no inducement to linger +on the way. De Crucis, however, succeeded in enlivening even this +tedious journey. He was a good linguist and a sound classical scholar, +besides having, as he had told Odo, a pronounced taste for antiquarian +research. In addition to this, he performed agreeably on the violin, and +was well-acquainted with the history of music. His chief distinction, +however, lay in the ease with which he wore his accomplishments, and in +a breadth of view that made it possible to discuss with him many +subjects distasteful to most men of his cloth. The sceptical or +licentious ecclesiastic was common enough; but Odo had never before met +a priest who united serious piety with this indulgent temper, or who had +learning enough to do justice to the arguments of his opponents. + +On his venturing one evening to compliment de Crucis on these qualities, +the latter replied with a smile: "Whatever has been lately advanced +against the Jesuits, it can hardly be denied that they were good +school-masters; and it is to them I owe the talents you have been +pleased to admire. Indeed," he continued, quietly fingering his violin, +"I was myself bred in the order: a fact I do not often make known in the +present heated state of public opinion, but which I never conceal when +commended for any quality that I owe to the Society rather than to my +own merit." + +Surprise for the moment silenced Odo; for though it was known that Italy +was full of former Jesuits who had been permitted to remain in the +country as secular priests, and even to act as tutors or professors in +private families, he had never thought of de Crucis in this connection. +The latter, seeing his surprise, went on: "Once a Jesuit, always a +Jesuit, I suppose. I at least owe the Society too much not to own my +debt when the occasion offers. Nor could I ever see the force of the +charge so often brought against us: that we sacrifice everything to the +glory of the order. For what is the glory of the order? Our own motto +has declared it: Ad majorem Dei gloriam--who works for the Society works +for its Master. If our zeal has been sometimes misdirected, our blood +has a thousand times witnessed to its sincerity. In the Indies, in +America, in England during the great persecution, and lately on our own +unnatural coasts, the Jesuits have died for Christ as joyfully as His +first disciples died for Him. Yet these are but a small number in +comparison with the countless servants of the order who, labouring in +far countries among savage peoples, or surrounded by the heretical +enemies of our faith, have died the far bitterer death of moral +isolation: setting themselves to their task with the knowledge that +their lives were but so much indistinguishable dust to be added to the +sum of human effort. What association founded on human interests has +ever commanded such devotion? And what merely human authority could +count on such unquestioning obedience, not in a mob of poor illiterate +monks, but in men chosen for their capacity and trained to the exercise +of their highest faculties? Yet there have never lacked such men to +serve the Order; and as one of our enemies has said--our noblest enemy, +the great Pascal--'je crois volontiers aux histoires dont les temoins se +font egorger.'" + +He did not again revert to his connection with the Jesuits; but in the +farther course of their acquaintance Odo was often struck by the +firmness with which he testified to the faith that was in him, without +using the jargon of piety, or seeming, by his own attitude, to cast a +reflection on that of others. He was indeed master of that worldly +science which the Jesuits excelled in imparting, and which, though it +might sink to hypocrisy in smaller natures, became in a finely-tempered +spirit, the very flower of Christian courtesy. + +Odo had often spoken to de Crucis of the luxurious lives led by many of +the monastic orders in Naples. It might be true enough that the monks +themselves, and even their abbots, fared on fish and vegetables, and +gave their time to charitable and educational work; but it was +impossible to visit the famous monastery of San Martino, or that of the +Carthusians at Camaldoli, without observing that the anchoret's cell had +expanded into a delightful apartment, with bedchamber, library and +private chapel, and his cabbage-plot into a princely garden. De Crucis +admitted the truth of the charge, explaining it in part by the character +of the Neapolitan people, and by the tendency of the northern traveller +to forget that such apparent luxuries as spacious rooms, shady groves +and the like are regarded as necessities in a hot climate. He urged, +moreover, that the monastic life should not be judged by a few isolated +instances; and on the way to Rome he proposed that Odo, by way of seeing +the other side of the question, should visit the ancient foundation of +the Benedictines on Monte Cassino. + +The venerable monastery, raised on its height over the busy vale of +Garigliano, like some contemplative spirit above the conflicting +problems of life, might well be held to represent the nobler side of +Christian celibacy. For nearly a thousand years its fortified walls had +been the stronghold of the humanities, and generations of students had +cherished and added to the treasures of the famous library. But the +Benedictine rule was as famous for good works as for learning, and its +comparative abstention from dogmatic controversy and from the mechanical +devotion of some of the other orders had drawn to it men of superior +mind, who sought in the monastic life the free exercise of the noblest +activities rather than a sanctified refuge from action. This was +especially true of the monastery of Monte Cassino, whither many scholars +had been attracted and where the fathers had long had the highest name +for learning and beneficence. The monastery, moreover, in addition to +its charitable and educational work among the poor, maintained a school +of theology to which students came from all parts of Italy; and their +presence lent an unwonted life to the great labyrinth of courts and +cloisters. + +The abbot, with whom de Crucis was well-acquainted, welcomed the +travellers warmly, making them free of the library and the archives and +pressing them to prolong their visit. Under the spell of these +influences they lingered on from day to day; and to Odo they were the +pleasantest days he had known. To be waked before dawn by the bell +ringing for lauds--to rise from the narrow bed in his white-washed cell, +and opening his casement look forth over the haze-enveloped valley, the +dark hills of the Abruzzi and the remote gleam of sea touched into being +by the sunrise--to hasten through hushed echoing corridors to the +church, where in a grey resurrection-light the fathers were intoning the +solemn office of renewal--this morning ablution of the spirit, so like +the bodily plunge into clear cold water, seemed to attune the mind to +the fullest enjoyment of what was to follow: the hours of study, the +talks with the monks, the strolls through cloister or garden, all +punctuated by the recurring summons to devotion. Yet for all its latent +significance it remained to him a purely sensuous impression, the vision +of a golden leisure: not a solution of life's perplexities, but at best +an honourable escape from them. + + +3.2. + +"To know Rome is to have assisted at the councils of destiny!" This cry +of a more famous traveller must have struggled for expression in Odo's +breast as the great city, the city of cities, laid her irresistible hold +upon him. His first impression, as he drove in the clear evening light +from the Porta del Popolo to his lodgings in the Via Sistina, was of a +prodigious accumulation of architectural effects, a crowding of century +on century, all fused in the crucible of the Roman sun, so that each +style seemed linked to the other by some subtle affinity of colour. +Nowhere else, surely, is the traveller's first sight so crowded with +surprises, with conflicting challenges to eye and brain. Here, as he +passed, was a fragment of the ancient Servian wall, there a new stucco +shrine embedded in the bricks of a medieval palace; on one hand a lofty +terrace crowned by a row of mouldering busts, on the other a tower with +machicolated parapet, its flanks encrusted with bits of Roman sculpture +and the escutcheons of seventeenth-century Popes. Opposite, perhaps, one +of Fuga's golden-brown churches, with windy saints blowing out of their +niches, overlooked the nereids of a barocco fountain, or an old house +propped itself like a palsied beggar against a row of Corinthian +columns; while everywhere flights of steps led up and down to hanging +gardens or under archways, and each turn revealed some distant glimpse +of convent-walls on the slope of a vineyard or of red-brown ruins +profiled against the dim sea-like reaches of the Campagna. + +Afterward, as order was born out of chaos, and he began to thread his +way among the centuries, this first vision lost something of its +intensity; yet it was always, to the last, through the eye that Rome +possessed him. Her life, indeed, as though in obedience to such a +setting, was an external, a spectacular business, from the wild +animation of the cattle-market in the Forum or the hucksters' traffic +among the fountains of the Piazza Navona, to the pompous entertainments +in the cardinals' palaces and the ever-recurring religious ceremonies +and processions. Pius VI., in the reaction from Ganganelli's democratic +ways, had restored the pomp and ceremonial of the Vatican with the +religious discipline of the Holy Office; and never perhaps had Rome been +more splendid on the surface or more silent and empty within. Odo, at +times, as he moved through some assemblage of cardinals and nobles, had +the sensation of walking through a huge reverberating palace, decked out +with all the splendours of art but long since abandoned of men. The +superficial animation, the taste for music and antiquities, all the +dilettantisms of an idle and irresponsible society, seemed to him to +shrivel to dust in the glare of that great past that lit up every corner +of the present. + +Through his own connections, and the influence of de Crucis, he saw all +that was best not only among the nobility, but in that ecclesiastical +life now more than ever predominant in Rome. Here at last he was face to +face with the mighty Sphinx, and with the bleaching bones of those who +had tried to guess her riddle. Wherever he went these "lost adventurers" +walked the streets with him, gliding between the Princes of the Church +in the ceremonies of Saint Peter's and the Lateran, or mingling in the +company that ascended the state staircase at some cardinal's levee. + +He met indeed many accomplished and amiable ecclesiastics, but it seemed +to him that the more thoughtful among them had either acquired their +peace of mind at the cost of a certain sensitiveness, or had taken +refuge in a study of the past, as the early hermits fled to the desert +from the disorders of Antioch and Alexandria. None seemed disposed to +face the actual problems of life, and this attitude of caution or +indifference had produced a stagnation of thought that contrasted +strongly with the animation of Sir William Hamilton's circle in Naples. +The result in Odo's case was a reaction toward the pleasures of his age; +and of these Rome had but few to offer. He spent some months in the +study of the antique, purchasing a few good examples of sculpture for +the Duke, and then, without great reluctance, set out for Monte Alloro. + +Here he found a changed atmosphere. The Duke welcomed him handsomely, +and bestowed the highest praise on the rarities he had collected; but +for the moment the court was ruled by a new favourite, to whom Odo's +coming was obviously unwelcome. This adroit adventurer, whose name was +soon to become notorious throughout Europe, had taken the old prince by +his darling weaknesses, and Odo, having no mind to share in the excesses +of the precious couple, seized the first occasion to set out again on +his travels. + +His course had now become one of aimless wandering; for prudence still +forbade his return to Pianura, and his patron's indifference left him +free to come and go as he chose. He had brought from Rome--that albergo +d'ira--a settled melancholy of spirit, which sought refuge in such +distractions as the moment offered. In such a mood change of scene was a +necessity, and he resolved to employ the next months in visiting several +of the mid-Italian cities. Toward Florence he was specially drawn by the +fact that Alfieri now lived there; but, as often happens after such +separations, the reunion was a disappointment. Alfieri, indeed, warmly +welcomed his friend; but he was engrossed in his dawning passion for the +Countess of Albany, and that lady's pitiable situation excluded all +other interests from his mind. To Odo, to whom the years had brought an +increasing detachment, this self-absorption seemed an arrest in growth; +for Alfieri's early worship of liberty had not yet found its destined +channel of expression, and for the moment his enthusiasms had shrunk to +the compass of a romantic adventure. The friends parted after a few days +of unsatisfying intercourse; and it was under the influence of this +final disenchantment that Odo set out for Venice. + +It was the vintage season, and the travellers descended from the +Apennines on a landscape diversified by the picturesque incidents of the +grape-gathering. On every slope stood some villa with awnings spread, +and merry parties were picnicking among the vines or watching the +peasants at their work. Cantapresto, who had shown great reluctance at +leaving Monte Alloro, where, as he declared, he found himself as snug as +an eel in a pasty, was now all eagerness to press forward; and Odo was +in the mood to allow any influence to decide his course. He had an +invaluable courier in Cantapresto, whose enormous pretensions generally +assured him the best lodging and the fastest conveyance to be obtained, +and who was never happier than when outwitting a rival emissary, or +bribing a landlord to serve up on Odo's table the repast ordered in +advance for some distinguished traveller. His impatience to reach +Venice, which he described as the scene of all conceivable delights, had +on this occasion tripled his zeal, and they travelled rapidly to Padua, +where he had engaged a burchiello for the passage down the Brenta. Here, +however, he found he had been outdone at his own game; for the servant +of an English Duke had captured the burchiello and embarked his noble +party before Cantapresto reached the wharf. This being the season of the +villeggiatura, when the Venetian nobility were exchanging visits on the +mainland, every conveyance was in motion and no other boat to be had for +a week; while as for the "bucentaur" or public bark, which was just then +getting under way, it was already packed to the gunwale with Jews, +pedlars and such vermin, and the captain swore by the three thousand +relics of Saint Justina that he had no room on board for so much as a +hungry flea. + +Odo, who had accompanied Cantapresto to the water-side, was listening to +these assurances and to the soprano's vain invectives, when a +well-dressed young man stepped up to the group. This gentleman, whose +accent and dress showed him to be a Frenchman of quality, told Odo that +he was come from Vicenza, whither he had gone to engage a company of +actors for his friend the Procuratore Bra, who was entertaining a +distinguished company at his villa on the Brenta; that he was now +returning with his players, and that he would be glad to convey Odo so +far on his road to Venice. His friend's seat, he added, was near Oriago, +but a few miles above Fusina, where a public conveyance might always be +found; so that Odo would doubtless be able to proceed the same night to +Venice. + +This civil offer Odo at once accepted, and the Frenchman thereupon +suggested that, as the party was to set out the next day at sunrise, the +two should sup together and pass the intervening hours in such +diversions as the city offered. They returned to the inn, where the +actors were also lodged, and Odo's host having ordered a handsome +supper, proposed, with his guest's permission, to invite the leading +members of the company to partake of it. He departed on this errand; and +great was Odo's wonder, when the door reopened, to discover, among the +party it admitted, his old acquaintance of Vercelli, the Count of +Castelrovinato. The latter, whose dress and person had been refurbished, +and who now wore an air of rakish prosperity, greeted him with evident +pleasure, and, while their entertainer was engaged in seating the ladies +of the company, gave him a brief account of the situation. + +The young French gentleman (whom he named as the Marquis de +Coeur-Volant) had come to Italy some months previously on the grand +tour, and having fallen a victim to the charms of Venice, had declared +that, instead of continuing on his travels, he meant to complete his +education in that famous school of pleasure. Being master of his own +fortune, he had hired a palace on the Grand Canal, had dispatched his +governor (a simple archaeologist) on a mission of exploration to Sicily +and Greece, and had devoted himself to an assiduous study of Venetian +manners. Among those contributing to his instruction was Mirandolina of +Chioggia, who had just completed a successful engagement at the theatre +of San Moise in Venice. Wishing to detain her in the neighbourhood, her +adorer had prevailed on his friend the Procuratore to give a series of +comedies at his villa of Bellocchio and had engaged to provide him with +a good company of performers. Miranda was of course selected as prima +amorosa; and the Marquess, under Castelrovinato's guidance, had then set +out to collect the rest of the company. This he had succeeded in doing, +and was now returning to Bellocchio, where Miranda was to meet them. Odo +was the more diverted at the hazard which had brought him into such +company, as the Procuratore Bra was one of the noblemen to whom the old +Duke had specially recommended him. On learning this, the Marquess urged +him to present his letter of introduction on arriving at Bellocchio, +where the Procuratore, who was noted for hospitality to strangers, would +doubtless insist on his joining the assembled party. This Odo declined +to do; but his curiosity to see Mirandolina made him hope that chance +would soon throw him in the Procuratore's way. + +Meanwhile supper was succeeded by music and dancing, and the company +broke up only in time to proceed to the landing-place where their barge +awaited them. This was a private burchiello of the Procuratore's with a +commodious antechamber for the servants, and a cabin cushioned in +damask. Into this agreeable retreat the actresses were packed with all +their bags and band-boxes; and their travelling-cloaks being rolled into +pillows, they were soon asleep in a huddle of tumbled finery. + +Odo and his host preferred to take the air on deck. The sun was rising +above the willow-clad banks of the Brenta, and it was pleasant to glide +in the clear early light past sleeping gardens and villas, and vineyards +where the peasants were already at work. The wind setting from the sea, +they travelled slowly and had full leisure to view the succession of +splendid seats interspersed with gardens, the thriving villages, and the +poplar-groves festooned with vines. Coeur-Volant spoke eloquently of the +pleasures to be enjoyed in this delightful season of the villeggiatura. +"Nowhere," said he, "do people take their pleasures so easily and +naturally as in Venice. My countrymen claim a superiority in this art, +and it may be they possessed it a generation ago. But what a morose +place is France become since philosophy has dethroned enjoyment! If you +go on a visit to one of our noblemen's seats, what do you find there, I +ask? Cards, comedies, music, the opportunity for an agreeable intrigue +in the society of your equals? No--but a hostess engaged in suckling and +bathing her brats, or in studying chemistry and optics with some dirty +school-master, who is given the seat of honour at table and a pavilion +in the park to which he may retire when weary of the homage of the +great; while as for the host, he is busy discussing education or +political economy with his unfortunate guests, if, indeed, he is not +dragging them through leagues of mud and dust to inspect his latest +experiments in forestry and agriculture, or to hear a pack of snuffling +school-children singing hymns to the God of Nature! And what," he +continued, "is the result of it all? The peasants are starving, the +taxes are increasing, the virtuous landlords are ruining themselves in +farming on scientific principles, the tradespeople are grumbling because +the nobility do not spend their money in Paris, the court is dull, the +clergy are furious, the Queen mopes, the King is frightened, and the +whole French people are yawning themselves to death from Normandy to +Provence." + +"Yes," said Castelrovinato with his melancholy smile, "the test of +success is to have had one's money's worth; but experience, which is +dried pleasure, is at best a dusty diet, as we know. Yonder, in a fold +of those hills," he added, pointing to the cluster of Euganean mountains +just faintly pencilled above the plain, "lies the little fief from which +I take my name. Acre by acre, tree by tree, it has gone to pay for my +experiments, not in agriculture but in pleasure; and whenever I look +over at it from Venice and reflect on what each rood of ground or trunk +of tree has purchased, I wonder to see my life as bare as ever for all +that I have spent on it." + +The young Marquess shrugged his shoulders. "And would your life," he +exclaimed, "have been a whit less bare had you passed it in your +ancestral keep among those windy hills, in the company of swineherds and +charcoal-burners, with a milk-maid for your mistress and the village +priest for your partner at picquet?" + +"Perhaps not," the other agreed. "There is a tale of a man who spent his +life in wishing he had lived differently; and when he died he was +surrounded by a throng of spectral shapes, each one exactly like the +other, who, on his asking what they were, replied: 'We are all the +different lives you might have lived.'" + +"If you are going to tell ghost-stories," cried Coeur-Volant, "I will +call for a bottle of Canary!" + +"And I," rejoined the Count good-humouredly, "will try to coax the +ladies forth with a song;" and picking up his lute, which always lay +within reach, he began to sing in the Venetian dialect:-- + + There's a villa on the Brenta + Where the statues, white as snow, + All along the water-terrace + Perch like sea-gulls in a row. + + There's a garden on the Brenta + Where the fairest ladies meet, + Picking roses from the trellis + For the gallants at their feet. + + There's an arbour on the Brenta + Made of yews that screen the light, + Where I kiss my girl at midday + Close as lovers kiss at night. + +The players soon emerged at this call and presently the deck resounded +with song and laughter. All the company were familiar with the Venetian +bacaroles, and Castelrovinato's lute was passed from hand to hand, as +one after another, incited by the Marquess's Canary, tried to recall +some favourite measure--"La biondina in gondoleta" or "Guarda, che bella +luna." + +Meanwhile life was stirring in the villages and gardens, and groups of +people appearing on the terraces overhanging the water. Never had Odo +beheld a livelier scene. The pillared houses with their rows of statues +and vases, the flights of marble steps descending to the gilded +river-gates, where boats bobbed against the landings and boatmen gasped +in the shade of their awnings; the marble trellises hung with grapes, +the gardens where parterres of flowers and parti-coloured gravel +alternated with the dusk of tunnelled yew-walks; the company playing at +bowls in the long alleys, or drinking chocolate in gazebos above the +river; the boats darting hither and thither on the stream itself, the +travelling-chaises, market-waggons and pannier-asses crowding the +causeway along the bank--all were unrolled before him with as little +effect of reality as the episodes woven in some gaily-tinted tapestry. +Even the peasants in the vineyards seemed as merry and thoughtless as +the quality in their gardens. The vintage-time is the holiday of the +rural year and the day's work was interspersed with frequent intervals +of relaxation. At the villages where the burchiello touched for +refreshments, handsome young women in scarlet bodices came on board with +baskets of melons, grapes, figs and peaches; and under the trellises on +the landings, lads and girls with flowers in their hair were dancing the +monferrina to the rattle of tambourines or the chant of some wandering +ballad-singer. These scenes were so engaging to the comedians that they +could not be restrained from going ashore and mingling in the village +diversions; and the Marquess, though impatient to rejoin his divinity, +was too volatile not to be drawn into the adventure. The whole party +accordingly disembarked, and were presently giving an exhibition of +their talents to the assembled idlers, the Pantaloon, Harlequin and +Doctor enacting a comical intermezzo which Cantapresto had that morning +composed for them, while Scaramouch and Columbine joined the dancers, +and the rest of the company, seizing on a train of donkeys laden with +vegetables for the Venetian market, stripped these patient animals of +their panniers, and mounting them bareback started a Corso around the +village square amid the invectives of the drivers and the applause of +the crowd. + +Day was declining when the Marquess at last succeeded in driving his +flock to their fold, and the moon sent a quiver of brightness across the +water as the burchiello touched at the landing of a villa set amid +close-massed foliage high above the river. Gardens peopled with statues +descended from the portico of the villa to the marble platform on the +water's edge, where a throng of boatmen in the Procuratore's livery +hurried forward to receive the Marquess and his companions. The +comedians, sobered by the magnificence of their surroundings, followed +their leader like awe-struck children. Light and music streamed from the +long facade overhead, but the lower gardens lay hushed and dark, the air +fragrant with unseen flowers, the late moon just burnishing the edges of +the laurel-thickets from which, now and again, a nightingale's song +gushed in a fountain of sound. Odo, spellbound, followed the others +without a thought of his own share in the adventure. Never before had +beauty so ministered to every sense. He felt himself lost in his +surroundings, absorbed in the scent and murmur of the night. + + +3.3. + +On the upper terrace a dozen lacqueys with wax lights hastened out to +receive the travellers. A laughing group followed, headed by a tall +vivacious woman covered with jewels, whom Odo guessed to be the +Procuratessa Bra. The Marquess, hastening forward, kissed the lady's +hand, and turned to summon the actors, who hung back at the farther end +of the terrace. The light from the windows and from the lacquey's tapers +fell full on the motley band, and Odo, roused to the singularity of his +position, was about to seek shelter behind the Pantaloon when he heard a +cry of recognition, and Mirandolina, darting out of the Procuratessa's +circle, fell at that lady's feet with a whispered word. + +The Procuratessa at once advanced with a smile of surprise and bade the +Cavaliere Valsecca welcome. Seeing Odo's embarrassment, she added that +his Highness of Monte Alloro had already apprised her of the cavaliere's +coming, and that she and her husband had the day before despatched a +messenger to Venice to enquire if he were already there to invite him to +the villa. At the same moment a middle-aged man with an air of careless +kindly strength emerged from the house and greeted Odo. + +"I am happy," said he bowing, "to receive at Bellocchio a member of the +princely house of Pianura; and your excellency will no doubt be as +well-pleased as ourselves that accident enables us to make acquaintance +without the formalities of an introduction." + +This, then, was the famous Procuratore Bra, whose house had given three +Doges to Venice, and who was himself regarded as the most powerful if +not the most scrupulous noble of his day. Odo had heard many tales of +his singularities, for in a generation of elegant triflers his figure +stood out with the ruggedness of a granite boulder in a clipped and +gravelled garden. To hereditary wealth and influence he added a love of +power seconded by great political sagacity and an inflexible will. If +his means were not always above suspicion they at least tended to +statesmanlike ends, and in his public capacity he was faithful to the +highest interests of the state. Reports differed as to his private use +of his authority. He was noted for his lavish way of living, and for a +hospitality which distinguished him from the majority of his class, who, +however showy in their establishments, seldom received strangers, and +entertained each other only on the most ceremonious occasions. The +Procuratore kept open house both in Venice and on the Brenta, and in his +drawing-rooms the foreign traveller was welcomed as freely as in Paris +or London. Here, too, were to be met the wits, musicians and literati +whom a traditional morgue still excluded from many aristocratic houses. +Yet in spite of his hospitality (or perhaps because of it) the +Procuratore, as Odo knew, was the butt of the very poets he entertained, +and the worst satirised man in Venice. It was his misfortune to be in +love with his wife; and this state of mind (in itself sufficiently +ridiculous) and the shifts and compromises to which it reduced him, were +a source of endless amusement to the humorists. Nor were graver rumours +wanting; for it was known that the Procuratore, so proof against other +persuasions, was helpless in his wife's hands, and that honest men had +been undone and scoundrels exalted at a nod of the beautiful +Procuratessa. That lady, as famous in her way as her husband, was noted +for quite different qualities; so that, according to one satirist, her +hospitality began where his ended, and the Albergo Bra (the nickname +their palace went by) was advertised in the lampoons of the day as +furnishing both bed and board. In some respects, however, the tastes of +the noble couple agreed, both delighting in music, wit, good company, +and all the adornments of life; while, with regard to their private +conduct, it doubtless suffered by being viewed through the eyes of a +narrow and trivial nobility, apt to look with suspicion on any deviation +from the customs of their class. Such was the household in which Odo +found himself unexpectedly included. He learned that his hosts were in +the act of entertaining the English Duke who had captured his burchiello +that morning; and having exchanged his travelling-dress for a more +suitable toilet he was presently conducted to the private theatre where +the company had gathered to witness an improvised performance by +Mirandolina and the newly-arrived actors. + +The Procuratessa at once beckoned him to the row of gilt armchairs where +she sat with the noble Duke and several ladies of distinction. The +little theatre sparkled with wax-lights reflected in the facets of glass +chandeliers and in the jewels of the richly-habited company, and Odo was +struck by the refined brilliancy of the scene. Before he had time to +look about him the curtains of the stage were drawn back, and +Mirandolina flashed into view, daring and radiant as ever, and dressed +with an elegance which spoke well for the liberality of her new +protector. She was as much at her ease as before the vulgar audience of +Vercelli, and spite of the distinguished eyes fixed upon her, her smiles +and sallies were pointedly addressed to Odo. This made him the object of +the Procuratessa's banter, but had an opposite effect on the Marquess, +who fixed him with an irritated eye and fidgeted restlessly in his seat +as the performance went on. + +When the curtain fell the Procuratessa led the company to the circular +saloon which, as in most villas of the Venetian mainland, formed the +central point of the house. If Odo had been charmed by the graceful +decorations of the theatre, he was dazzled by the airy splendour of this +apartment. Dance-music was pouring from the arched recesses above the +doorways, and chandeliers of coloured Murano glass diffused a soft +brightness over the pilasters of the stuccoed walls, and the floor of +inlaid marbles on which couples were rapidly forming for the +contradance. His eye, however, was soon drawn from these to the ceiling +which overarched the dancers with what seemed like an Olympian revel +reflected in sunset clouds. Over the gilt balustrade surmounting the +cornice lolled the figures of fauns, bacchantes, nereids and tritons, +hovered over by a cloud of amorini blown like rose-leaves across a rosy +sky, while in the centre of the dome Apollo burst in his chariot through +the mists of dawn, escorted by a fantastic procession of the human +races. These alien subjects of the sun--a fur-clad Laplander, a turbaned +figure on a dromedary, a blackamoor and a plumed American Indian--were +in turn surrounded by a rout of Maenads and Silenuses, whose flushed +advance was checked by the breaking of cool green waves, through which +boys wreathed with coral and seaweed disported themselves among shoals +of flashing dolphins. It was as though the genius of Pleasure had poured +all the riches of his inexhaustible realm on the heads of the revellers +below. + +The Procuratessa brought Odo to earth by remarking that it was a +master-piece of the divine Tiepolo he was admiring. She added that at +Bellocchio all formalities were dispensed with, and begged him to +observe that, in the rooms opening into the saloon, recreations were +provided for every taste. In one of these apartments silver trays were +set out with sherbets, cakes, and fruit cooled in snow, while in another +stood gaming-tables around which the greater number of the company were +already gathering for tresette. A third room was devoted to music; and +hither Mirandolina, who was evidently allowed a familiarity of +intercourse not accorded to the other comedians, had withdrawn with the +pacified Marquess, and perched on the arm of a high gilt chair was +pinching the strings of a guitar and humming the first notes of a +boatman's song... + +After completing the circuit of the rooms Odo stepped out on the +terrace, which was now bathed in the whiteness of a soaring moon. The +colonnades detached against silver-misted foliage, the gardens +spectrally outspread, seemed to enclose him in a magic circle of +loveliness which the first ray of daylight must dispel. He wandered on, +drawn to the depths of shade on the lower terraces. The hush grew +deeper, the murmur of the river more mysterious. A yew-arbour invited +him and he seated himself on the bench niched in its inmost dusk. Seen +through the black arch of the arbour the moonlight lay like snow on +parterres and statues. He thought of Maria Clementina, and of the +delight she would have felt in such a scene as he had just left. Then +the remembrance of Mirandolina's blandishments stole over him and spite +of himself he smiled at the Marquess's discomfiture. Though he was in no +humour for an intrigue his fancy was not proof against the romance of +his surroundings, and it seemed to him that Miranda's eyes had never +been so bright or her smile so full of provocation. No wonder Frattanto +followed her like a lost soul and the Marquess abandoned Rome and +Baalbec to sit at the feet of such a teacher! Had not that light +philosopher after all chosen the true way and guessed the Sphinx's +riddle? Why should today always be jilted for tomorrow, sensation +sacrificed to thought? + +As he sat revolving these questions the yew-branches seemed to stir, and +from some deeper recess of shade a figure stole to his side. He started, +but a hand was laid on his lips and he was gently forced back into his +seat. Dazzled by the outer moonlight he could just guess the outline of +the figure pressed against his own. He sat speechless, yielding to the +charm of the moment, till suddenly he felt a rapid kiss and the visitor +vanished as mysteriously as she had come. He sprang up to follow, but +inclination failed with his first step. Let the spell of mystery remain +unbroken! He sank down on the seat again lulled by dreamy musings... + +When he looked up the moonlight had faded and he felt a chill in the +air. He walked out on the terrace. The moon hung low and the tree-tops +were beginning to tremble. The villa-front was grey, with oblongs of +yellow light marking the windows of the ball-room. As he looked up at +it, the dance-music ceased and not a sound was heard but the stir of the +foliage and the murmur of the river against its banks. Then, from a +loggia above the central portico, a woman's clear contralto notes took +flight: + + Before the yellow dawn is up, + With pomp of shield and shaft, + Drink we of Night's fast-ebbing cup + One last delicious draught. + + The shadowy wine of Night is sweet, + With subtle slumbrous fumes + Crushed by the Hours' melodious feet + From bloodless elder-blooms... + +The days at Bellocchio passed in a series of festivities. The mornings +were spent in drinking chocolate, strolling in the gardens and visiting +the fish-ponds, meanders and other wonders of the villa; thence the +greater number of guests were soon drawn to the card-tables, from which +they rose only to dine; and after an elaborate dinner prepared by a +French cook the whole company set out to explore the country or to +exchange visits with the hosts of the adjoining villas. Each evening +brought some fresh diversion: a comedy or an operetta in the miniature +theatre, an al fresco banquet on the terrace or a ball attended by the +principal families of the neighbourhood. Odo soon contrived to reassure +the Marquess as to his designs upon Miranda, and when Coeur-Volant was +not at cards the two young men spent much of their time together. The +Marquess was never tired of extolling the taste and ingenuity with which +the Venetians planned and carried out their recreations. "Nature +herself," said he, "seems the accomplice of their merry-making, and in +no other surroundings could man's natural craving for diversion find so +graceful and poetic an expression." + +The scene on which they looked out seemed to confirm his words. It was +the last evening of their stay at Bellocchio, and the Procuratessa had +planned a musical festival on the river. Festoons of coloured lanterns +wound from the portico to the water; and opposite the landing lay the +Procuratore's Bucentaur, a great barge hung with crimson velvet. In the +prow were stationed the comedians, in airy mythological dress, and as +the guests stepped on board they were received by Miranda, a rosy Venus +who, escorted by Mars and Adonis, recited an ode composed by Cantapresto +in the Procuratessa's honour. A banquet was spread in the deck-house, +which was hung with silk arras and Venetian mirrors, and, while the +guests feasted, dozens of little boats hung with lights and filled with +musicians flitted about the Bucentaur like a swarm of musical +fireflies... + +The next day Odo accompanied the Procuratessa to Venice. Had he been a +traveller from beyond the Alps he could hardly have been more unprepared +for the spectacle that awaited him. In aspect and customs Venice +differed almost as much from other Italian cities as from those of the +rest of Europe. From the fanciful stone embroidery of her churches and +palaces to a hundred singularities in dress and manners--the +full-bottomed wigs and long gowns of the nobles, the black mantles and +head-draperies of the ladies, the white masks worn abroad by both sexes, +the publicity of social life under the arcades of the Piazza, the +extraordinary freedom of intercourse in the casini, gaming-rooms and +theatres--the city proclaimed, in every detail of life and architecture, +her independence of any tradition but her own. This was the more +singular as Saint Mark's square had for centuries been the meeting-place +of East and West, and the goal of artists, scholars and pleasure-seekers +from all parts of the world. Indeed, as Coeur-Volant pointed out, the +Venetian customs almost appeared to have been devised for the +convenience of strangers. The privilege of going masked at almost all +seasons and the enforced uniformity of dress, which in itself provided a +kind of incognito, made the place singularly favourable to every kind of +intrigue and amusement; while the mild temper of the people and the +watchfulness of the police prevented the public disorders that such +license might have occasioned. These seeming anomalies abounded on every +side. From the gaming-table where a tinker might set a ducat against a +prince it was but a few steps to the Broglio, or arcade under the ducal +palace, into which no plebeian might intrude while the nobility walked +there. The great ladies, who were subject to strict sumptuary laws, and +might not display their jewels or try the new French fashions but on the +sly, were yet privileged at all hours to go abroad alone in their +gondolas. No society was more haughty and exclusive in its traditions, +yet the mask leveled all classes and permitted, during the greater part +of the year, an equality of intercourse undreamed of in other cities; +while the nobles, though more magnificently housed than in any other +capital of Europe, generally sought amusement at the public casini or +assembly-rooms instead of receiving company in their own palaces. Such +were but a few of the contradictions in a city where the theatres were +named after the neighbouring churches, where there were innumerable +religious foundations but scarce an ecclesiastic to be met in company, +and where the ladies of the laity dressed like nuns, while the nuns in +the aristocratic convents went in gala habits and with uncovered heads. +No wonder that to the bewildered stranger the Venetians seemed to keep +perpetual carnival and Venice herself to be as it were the mere stage of +some huge comic interlude. + +To Odo the setting was even more astonishing than the performance. Never +had he seen pleasure and grace so happily allied, all the arts of life +so combined in the single effort after enjoyment. Here was not a mere +tendency to linger on the surface, but the essence of superficiality +itself; not an ignoring of what lies beneath, but an elimination of it; +as though all human experience should be beaten thin and spread out +before the eye like some brilliant tenuous plaque of Etruscan gold. And +in this science of pleasure--mere jeweller's work though it were--the +greatest artists had collaborated, each contributing his page to the +philosophy of enjoyment in the form of some radiant allegory flowering +from palace wall or ceiling like the enlarged reflection of the life +beneath it. Nowhere was the mind arrested by a question or an idea. +Thought slunk away like an unmasked guest at the ridotto. Sensation +ruled supreme, and each moment was an iridescent bubble fresh-blown from +the lips of fancy. + +Odo brought to the spectacle the humour best fitted for its enjoyment. +His weariness and discouragement sought refuge in the emotional +satisfaction of the hour. Here at least the old problem of living had +been solved, and from the patrician taking the air in his gondola to the +gondolier himself, gambling and singing on the water-steps of his +master's palace, all seemed equally satisfied with the solution. Now if +ever was the time to cry "halt!" to the present, to forget the travelled +road and take no thought for the morrow... + +The months passed rapidly and agreeably. The Procuratessa was the most +amiable of guides, and in her company Odo enjoyed the best that Venice +had to offer, from the matchless music of the churches and hospitals to +the petits soupers in the private casini of the nobility; while +Coeur-Volant and Castelrovinato introduced him to scenes where even a +lady of the Procuratessa's intrepidity might not venture. + +Such a life left little time for thoughtful pleasures; nor did Odo find +in the society about him any sympathy with his more personal tastes. At +first he yielded willingly enough to the pressure of his surroundings, +glad to escape from thoughts of the past and speculations about the +future; but it was impossible for him to lose his footing in such an +element, and at times he felt the lack of such companionship as de +Crucis had given him. There was no society in Venice corresponding with +the polished circles of Milan or Naples, or with the academic class in +such University towns as Padua and Pavia. The few Venetians destined to +be remembered among those who had contributed to the intellectual +advancement of Italy vegetated in obscurity, suffering not so much from +religious persecution--for the Inquisition had little power in +Venice--as from the incorrigible indifference of a society which ignored +all who did not contribute to its amusement. Odo indeed might have +sought out these unhonoured prophets, but that all the influences about +him set the other way, and that he was falling more and more into the +habit of running with the tide. Now and then, however, a vague ennui +drove him to one of the bookshops which, throughout Italy were the chief +meeting-places of students and authors. On one of these occasions the +dealer invited him into a private room where he kept some rare volumes, +and here Odo was surprised to meet Andreoni, the liberal bookseller of +Pianura. + +Andreoni at first seemed somewhat disconcerted by the meeting; but +presently recovering his confidence, he told Odo that he had been +recently banished from Pianura, the cause of his banishment being the +publication of a book on taxation that was supposed to reflect on the +fiscal system of the duchy. Though he did not name the author, Odo at +once suspected Gamba; but on his enquiring if the latter had also been +banished, Andreoni merely replied that he had been dismissed from his +post, and had left Pianura. The bookseller went on to say that he had +come to Venice with the idea of setting up his press either there or in +Padua, where his wife's family lived. Odo was eager to hear more; but +Andreoni courteously declined to wait on him at his lodgings, on the +plea that it might harm them both to be seen together. They agreed, +however, to meet in San Zaccaria after low mass the next morning, and +here Andreoni gave Odo a fuller report of recent events in the duchy. + +It appeared that in the incessant see-saw of party influences the Church +had once more gained on the liberals. Trescorre was out of favour, the +Dominican had begun to show his hand more openly, and the Duke, more +than ever apprehensive about his health, was seeking to conciliate +heaven by his renewed persecution of the reformers. In the general +upheaval even Crescenti had nearly lost his place; and it was rumoured +that he kept it only through the intervention of the Pope, who had +represented to the Duke that the persecution of a scholar already famous +throughout Europe would reflect little credit on the Church. + +As for Gamba, Andreoni, though unwilling to admit a knowledge of his +exact whereabouts, assured Odo that he was well and had not lost +courage. At court matters remained much as usual. The Duchess, +surrounded by her familiars, had entered on a new phase of mad +expenditure, draining the exchequer to indulge her private whims, +filling her apartments with mountebanks and players, and borrowing from +courtiers and servants to keep her creditors from the door. Trescorre +was no longer able to check her extravagance, and his influence with the +Duke being on the wane, the court was once more the scene of unseemly +scandals and disorders. + +The only new figure to appear there since Odo's departure was that of +the little prince's governor, who had come from Rome a few months +previously to superintend the heir's education, which was found to have +been grievously neglected under his former masters. This was an +ecclesiastic, an ex-Jesuit as some said, but without doubt a man of +parts, and apparently of more tolerant views than the other churchmen +about the court. + +"But," Andreoni added, "your excellency may chance to recall him; for he +is the same abate de Crucis who was sent to Pianura by the Holy Office +to arrest the German astrologer." + +Odo heard him with surprise. He had had no news of de Crucis since their +parting in Rome, where, as he supposed, the latter was to remain for +some years in the service of Prince Bracciano. Odo was at a loss to +conceive how or why the Jesuit had come to Pianura; but, whatever his +reasons for being there, it was certain that his influence must make +itself felt far beyond the range of his immediate duties. Whether this +influence would be exerted for good or ill it was impossible to +forecast; but much as Odo admired de Crucis, he could not forget that +the Jesuit, by his own avowal, was still the servant of the greatest +organised opposition to moral and intellectual freedom that the world +had ever known. That this opposition was not always actively manifested +Odo was well aware. He knew that the Jesuit spirit moved in many +directions and that its action was often more beneficial than that of +its opponents; but it remained an incalculable element in the +composition of human affairs, and one the more to be feared since, in +ceasing to have a material existence, it had acquired the dread +pervasiveness of an idea. + +With the Epiphany the wild carnival-season set in. Nothing could surpass +the excesses of this mad time. All classes seemed bitten by the +tarantula of mirth, every gondola hid an intrigue, the patrician's +tabarro concealed a noble lady, the feminine hood and cloak a young +spark bent on mystification, the friar's habit a man of pleasure and the +nun's veil a lady of the town. The Piazza swarmed with merry-makers of +all degrees. The square itself was taken up by the booths of hucksters, +rope-dancers and astrologers, while promenaders in travesty thronged the +arcades, and the ladies of the nobility, in their white masks and black +zendaletti, surveyed the scene from the windows of the assembly-rooms in +the Procuratie, or, threading the crowd on the arms of their gallants, +visited the various peep-shows and flocked about the rhinoceros +exhibited in a great canvas tent in the Piazzetta. The characteristic +contrasts of Venetian life seemed to be emphasised by the vagaries of +the carnival, and Odo never ceased to be diverted by the sight of a long +line of masqueraders in every kind of comic disguise kneeling devoutly +before the brilliantly-lit shrine of the Virgin under the arches of the +Procuratie, while the friar who led their devotions interrupted his +litany whenever the quack on an adjoining platform began to bawl through +a tin trumpet the praise of his miraculous pills. + +The mounting madness culminated on Giovedi Grasso, the last Thursday +before Lent, when the Piazzetta became the scene of ceremonies in which +the Doge himself took part. These opened with the decapitation of three +bulls: a rite said to commemorate some long-forgotten dispute between +the inveterate enemies, Venice and Aquileia. The bulls, preceded by +halberdiers and trumpeters, and surrounded by armed attendants, were led +in state before the ducal palace, and the executioner, practised in his +bloody work, struck off each head with a single stroke of his huge +sword. This slaughter was succeeded by pleasanter sights, such as the +famous Vola, or flight of a boy from the bell-tower of Saint Mark's to a +window of the palace, where he presented a nosegay to his Serenity and +was caught up again to his airy vaulting-ground. After this ingenious +feat came another called the "Force of Hercules," given by a band of +youths who, building themselves into a kind of pyramid, shifted their +postures with inexhaustible agility, while bursts of fireworks wove +yellow arches through the midday light. Meanwhile the crowds in the +streets fled this way and that as a throng of uproarious young fellows +drove before them the bulls that were to be baited in the open squares; +and wherever a recessed doorway or the angle of a building afforded +shelter from the rout, some posture-maker or ballad-singer had gathered +a crowd about his carpet. + +Ash Wednesday brought about a dramatic transformation. Every travesty +laid aside, every tent and stall swept away, the people again gathered +in the Piazza to receive the ashes of penitence on their heads, the +churches now became the chief centres of interest. Venice was noted for +her sacred music and for the lavish illumination of her favourite +shrines and chapels; and few religious spectacles were more impressive +than the Forty Hours' devotion in the wealthier churches of the city. +All the magic of music, painting and sculpture were combined in the +service of religion, and Odo's sense of the dramatic quality of the +Catholic rites found gratification in the moving scenes where, amid the +imperishable splendours of his own creation, man owned himself but dust. +Never before had he been so alive to the symbolism of the penitential +season, so awed by the beauty and symmetry of that great structure of +the Liturgical Year that leads the soul up, step by step, to the awful +heights of Calvary. The very carelessness of those about him seemed to +deepen the solemnity of the scenes enacted--as though the Church, after +all her centuries of dominion, were still, as in those early days, but a +voice crying in the wilderness. + +The Easter bells ushered in the reign of another spirit. If the carnival +folly was spent, the joy of returning life replaced it. After the winter +diversions of cards, concerts and theatres, came the excursions to the +island-gardens of the lagoon and the evening promenade of the fresca on +the Grand Canal. Now the palace-windows were hung with awnings, the +oleanders in the balconies grew rosy against the sea-worn marble, and +yellow snap-dragons blossomed from the crumbling walls. The market-boats +brought early fruits and vegetables from the Brenta and roses and +gilly-flowers from the Paduan gardens; and when the wind set from shore +it carried with it the scent of lime-blossoms and flowering fields. Now +also was the season when the great civic and religious processions took +place, dyeing the water with sunset hues as they swept from the steps of +the Piazzetta to San Giorgio, the Redentore or the Salute. In the +fashionable convents the nuns celebrated the festivals of their patron +saints with musical and dramatic entertainments to which secular +visitors were invited. These entertainments were a noted feature of +Venetian life, and the subject of much scandalous comment among visitors +from beyond the Alps. The nuns of the stricter orders were as closely +cloistered as elsewhere; but in the convents of Santa Croce, Santa +Chiara, and a few others, mostly filled by the daughters of the +nobility, an unusual liberty prevailed. It was known that the inmates +had taken the veil for family reasons, and to the indulgent Venetian +temper it seemed natural that their seclusion should be made as little +irksome as possible. As a rule the privileges accorded to the nuns +consisted merely in their being allowed to receive visits in the +presence of a lay-sister, and to perform in concerts on the feast-days +of the order; but some few convents had a name for far greater license, +and it was a common thing for the noble libertine returned from Italy to +boast of his intrigue with a Venetian nun. + +Odo, in the Procuratessa's train, had of course visited many of the +principal convents. Whether it were owing to the malicious pleasure of +contrasting their own state with that of their cloistered sisters, or to +the discreet shelter which the parlour afforded to their private +intrigues, the Venetian ladies were exceedingly partial to these visits. +The Procuratessa was no exception to the rule, and as was natural to one +of her complexion, she preferred the convents where the greatest freedom +prevailed. Odo, however, had hitherto found little to tempt him in these +glimpses of forbidden fruit. The nuns, though often young and pretty, +had the insipidity of women secluded from the passions and sorrows of +life without being raised above them; and he preferred the frank +coarseness of the Procuratessa's circle to the simpering graces of the +cloister. + +Even Coeur-Volant's mysterious boast of a conquest he had made among the +sisters failed to excite his friend's curiosity. The Marquess, though +still devoted to Miranda, was too much the child of his race not to seek +variety in his emotions; indeed he often declared that the one fault of +the Italian character was its unimaginative fidelity in love-affairs. + +"Does a man," he asked, "dine off one dish at a gourmet's banquet? And +why should I restrict myself to one course at the most richly-spread +table in Europe? One must love at least two women to appreciate either; +and, did the silly creatures but know it, a rival becomes them like a +patch." + +Sister Mary of the Crucifix, he went on to explain, possessed the very +qualities that Miranda lacked. The daughter of a rich nobleman of +Treviso, she was skilled in music, drawing and all the operations of the +needle, and was early promised in marriage to a young man whose estates +adjoined her father's. The jealousy of a younger sister, who was +secretly in love with the suitor, caused her to accuse Coeur-Volant's +mistress of misconduct and thus broke off the marriage; and the unhappy +girl, repudiated by her bridegroom, was at once despatched to a convent +in Venice. Enraged at her fate, she had repeatedly appealed to the +authorities to release her; but her father's wealth and influence +prevailed against all her efforts. The abbess, however, felt such pity +for her that she was allowed more freedom than the other nuns, with whom +her wit and beauty made her a favourite in spite of her exceptional +privileges. These, as Coeur-Volant hinted, included the liberty of +leaving the convent after night-fall to visit her friends; and he +professed to be one of those whom she had thus honoured. Always eager to +have his good taste ratified by the envy of his friends, he was urgent +with Odo to make the lady's acquaintance, and it was agreed that, on the +first favourable occasion, a meeting should take place at Coeur-Volant's +casino. The weeks elapsed, however, without Odo's hearing further of the +matter, and it had nearly passed from his mind when one August day he +received word that the Marquess hoped for his company that evening. + +He was in that mood of careless acquiescence when any novelty invites, +and the heavy warmth of the summer night seemed the accomplice of his +humour. Cloaked and masked, he stepped into his gondola and was swept +rapidly along the Grand Canal and through winding channels to the +Giudecca. It was close on midnight and all Venice was abroad. Gondolas +laden with musicians and hung with coloured lamps lay beneath the palace +windows or drifted out on the oily reaches of the lagoon. There was no +moon, and the side-canals were dark and noiseless but for the hundreds +of caged nightingales that made every byway musical. As his prow slipped +past garden walls and under the blackness of low-ached bridges Odo felt +the fathomless mystery of the Venetian night: not the open night of the +lagoons, but the secret dusk of nameless waterways between blind windows +and complaisant gates. + +At one of these his gondola presently touched. The gate was cautiously +unbarred and Odo found himself in a strip of garden preceding a low +pavilion in which not a light was visible. A woman-servant led him +indoors and the Marquess greeted him on the threshold. + +"You are late!" he exclaimed. "I began to fear you would not be here to +receive our guests with me." + +"Your guests?" Odo repeated. "I had fancied there was but one." + +The Marquess smiled. "My dear Mary of the Crucifix," he said, "is too +well-born to venture out alone at this late hour, and has prevailed on +her bosom friend to accompany her.--Besides," he added with his +deprecating shrug, "I own I have had too recent an experience of your +success to trust you alone with my enchantress; and she has promised to +bring the most fascinating nun in the convent to protect her from your +wiles." + +As he spoke he led Odo into a room furnished in the luxurious style of a +French boudoir. A Savonnerie carpet covered the floor, the lounges and +easy-chairs were heaped with cushions, and the panels hung with pastel +drawings of a lively or sentimental character. The windows toward the +garden were close-shuttered, but those on the farther side of the room +stood open on a starlit terrace whence the eye looked out over the +lagoon to the outer line of islands. + +"Confess," cried Coeur-Volant, pointing to a table set with delicacies +and flanked by silver wine-coolers, "that I have spared no pains to do +my goddess honour and that this interior must present an agreeable +contrast to the whitewashed cells and dismal refectory of her convent! +No passion," he continued, with his quaint didactic air, "is so +susceptible as love to the influence of its surroundings; and principles +which might have held out against a horse-hair sofa and soupe a l'oignon +have before now been known to succumb to silk cushions and champagne." + +He received with perfect good-humour the retort that if he failed in his +designs his cook and his upholsterer would not be to blame; and the +young men were still engaged in such banter when the servant returned to +say that a gondola was at the water-gate. The Marquess hastened out and +presently reappeared with two masked and hooded figures. The first of +these, whom he led by the hand, entered with the air of one not +unaccustomed to her surroundings; but the other hung back, and on the +Marquess's inviting them to unmask, hurriedly signed to her friend to +refuse. + +"Very well, fair strangers," said Coeur-Volant with a laugh; "if you +insist on prolonging our suspense we shall avenge ourselves by +prolonging yours, and neither my friend nor I will unmask till you are +pleased to set us the example." + +The first lady echoed his laugh. "Shall I own," she cried, "that I +suspect in this unflattering compliance a pretext to conceal your +friend's features from me as long as possible? For my part," she +continued, throwing back her hood, "the mask of hypocrisy I am compelled +to wear in the convent makes me hate every form of disguise, and with +all my defects I prefer to be known as I am." And with that she detached +her mask and dropped the cloak from her shoulders. + +The gesture revealed a beauty of the laughing sensuous type best suited +to such surroundings. Sister Mary of the Crucifix, in her sumptuous gown +of shot-silk, with pearls wound through her reddish hair and hanging on +her bare shoulders, might have stepped from some festal canvas of +Bonifazio's. She had laid aside even the light gauze veil worn by the +nuns in gala habit, and no vestige of her calling showed itself in dress +or bearing. + +"Do you accept my challenge, cavaliere?" she exclaimed, turning on Odo a +glance confident of victory. + +The Marquess meanwhile had approached the other nun with the intention +of inducing her to unmask; but as Sister Mary of the Crucifix advanced +to perform the same service for his friend, his irrepressible jealousy +made him step hastily between them. + +"Come cavaliere," he cried, drawing Odo gaily toward the unknown nun, +"since you have induced one of our fair guests to unmask perhaps you may +be equally successful with the other, who appears provokingly +indifferent to my advances." + +The masked nun had in fact retreated to a corner of the room and stood +there, drawing her cloak about her, rather in the attitude of a +frightened child than in that of a lady bent on a gallant adventure. + +Sister Mary of the Crucifix approached her playfully. "My dear Sister +Veronica," said she, throwing her arm about the other's neck, "hesitates +to reveal charms which she knows must cast mine in the shade; but I am +not to be outdone in generosity, and if the Marquess will unmask his +friend I will do the same by mine." + +As she spoke she deftly pinioned the nun's hands and snatched off her +mask with a malicious laugh. The Marquess, entering into her humour, +removed Odo's at the same instant, and the latter, turning with a laugh, +found himself face to face with Fulvia Vivaldi. He grew white, and Mary +of the Crucifix sprang forward to catch her friend. + +"Good God! What is this?" gasped the Marquess, staring from one to the +other. + +A glance of entreaty from Fulvia checked the answer on Odo's lips, and +for a moment there was silence in the room; then Fulvia, breaking away +from her companion, fled out on the terrace. The other was about to +follow; but Odo, controlling himself, stepped between them. + +"Madam," said he in a low voice, "I recognise in your companion a friend +of whom I have long had no word. Will you pardon me if I speak with her +alone?" + +Sister Mary drew back with a meaning sparkle in her handsome eyes. "Why, +this," she cried, not without a touch of resentment, "is the prettiest +ending imaginable; but what a sly creature, to be sure, to make me think +it was her first assignation!" + +Odo, without answering, hastened out on the terrace. It was so dark +after the brightly lit room that for a moment he did not distinguish the +figure which had sprung to the low parapet above the water; and he +stumbled forward just in time to snatch Fulvia back to safety. + +"This is madness!" he cried, as she hung upon him trembling. + +"The boat," she stammered in a strange sobbing voice--"the boat should +be somewhere below--" + +"The boat lies at the water-gate on the other side," he answered. + +She drew away from him with a gesture of despair. The struggle with +Sister Mary had disordered her hair and it fell on her white neck in +loosened strands. "My cloak--my mask--" she faltered vaguely, clasping +her hands across her bosom; then suddenly dropped to a seat and burst +into tears. Once before--but in how different a case!--he had seen her +thus thrilled with weeping. Then fate had thrown him humbled at her +feet, now it was she who cried him mercy in every line of her bowed head +and shaken breast; and the thought of that other meeting flooded his +heart with pity. + +He knelt before her, seeking her hands. "Fulvia, why do you shrink from +me?" he whispered. But she shook her head and wept on. + +At last her sobs subsided and she rose to her feet. "I must go back," +said she in a low tone, and would have passed him. + +"Back? To the convent?" + +"To the convent," she said after him; but she made no farther effort to +move. + +The question that tortured him sprang forth. "You have taken the vows?" + +"A month since," she answered. + +He hid his face in his hands and for a moment both were silent. "And you +have no other word for me--none?" he faltered at last. + +She fixed him with a hard bright stare. "Yes--one," she cried; "keep a +place for me among your gallant recollections." + +"Fulvia!" he said with sudden strength, and caught her by the arm. + +"Let me pass!" she cried. + +"No, by heaven!" he retorted; "not till you listen to me--not till you +tell me how it is that I come upon you here!--Ah, child," he broke out, +"do you fancy I don't see how little you belong in such scenes? That I +don't know you are here through some dreadful error? Fulvia," he +pleaded, "will you never trust me?" And at the word he burned with +blushes in the darkness. + +His voice, perhaps, rather than what he said, seemed to have struck a +yielding fibre. He felt her arm tremble in his hold; but after a moment +she said with cruel distinctness: "There was no error. I came knowingly. +It was the company and not the place I was deceived in." + +Odo drew back with a start; then, as if in spite of himself, he broke +into a laugh. "By the saints," said he, almost joyously, "I am sorry to +be where I am not wanted; but since no better company offers, will you +not make the best of mine and suffer me to hand you in to supper with +our friends?" And with a low bow he offered her his arm. + +The effect was instantaneous. He saw her catch at the balustrade for +support. + +"Sancta simplicitas!" he exulted, "and did you think to play the part at +such short notice?" He fell at her feet and covered her hands with +kisses. "My Fulvia! My poor child! come with me, come away from here," +he entreated. "I know not what mad hazard has brought us thus together, +but I thank God on my knees for the encounter. You shall tell me all or +nothing, as you please--you shall presently dismiss me at your +convent-gate, and never see me again if you so will it--but till then, I +swear, you are in my charge, and no human power shall come between us!" + +As he ended the Marquess's voice called gaily through the open window: +"Friends, the burgundy is uncorked! Will you not join us in a glass of +good French wine?" + +Fulvia flung herself upon Odo. "Yes--yes; away--take me away from here!" +she cried, clinging to him. She had gathered her cloak about her and +drawn the hood over her disordered hair. "Away! Away!" she repeated. "I +cannot see them again. Good God, is there no other way out?" + +With a gesture he warned her to be silent and drew her along the terrace +in the shadow of the house. The gravel creaked beneath their feet, and +she shook at the least sound; but her hand lay in his like a child's and +he felt himself her master. At the farther end of the terrace a flight +of steps led to a narrow strip of shore. He helped her down and after +listening a moment gave a whistle. Presently they heard a low plash of +oars and saw the prow of a gondola cautiously rounding the angle of the +terrace. The water was shallow and the boatmen proceeded slowly and at +length paused a few yards from the land. + +"We can come no nearer," one of them called; "what is it?" + +"Your mistress is unwell and wishes to return," Odo answered; and +catching Fulvia in his arms he waded out with her to the gondola and +lifted her over the side. "To Santa Chiara!" he ordered, as he laid her +on the cushions beneath the felze; and the boatmen, recognising her as +one of their late fares, without more ado began to row rapidly toward +the city. + + +3.4. + +In the pitying darkness of the gondola she lay beyond speech, her hand +in his, her breath coming fitfully. Odo waited in suspense, not daring +to question her, yet sure that if she did not speak then she would never +do so. All doubt and perplexity of spirit had vanished in the simple +sense of her nearness. The throb of her hand in his was like the +heart-beat of hope. He felt himself no longer a drifting spectator of +life but a sharer in its gifts and renunciations. Which this meeting +would bring he dared not yet surmise: it was enough that he was with +Fulvia and that love had freed his spirit. + +At length she began to speak. Her agitation was so great that he had +difficulty in piecing together the fragments of her story; but for the +moment he was more concerned in regaining her confidence than in seeking +to obtain a clear picture of the past. Before she could end, the gondola +rounded the corner of the narrow canal skirting the garden-wall of Santa +Chiara. Alarmed lest he should lose her again he passionately urged her +to receive him on the morrow; and after some hesitation she consented. A +moment later their prow touched the postern and the boatman gave a low +call which proved him no novice at the business. Fulvia signed to Odo +not to speak or move; and they sat listening intently for the opening of +the gate. As soon as it was unbarred she sprang ashore and vanished in +the darkness of the garden; and with a cold sense of failure Odo heard +the bolt slipping back and the stealthy fall of the oars as the gondola +slid away under the shadow of the convent-wall. Whither was he being +carried and would that bolt ever be drawn for him again? In the sultry +dawn the convent loomed forbiddingly as a prison, and he could hardly +believe that a few hours earlier the very doors now closed against him +had stood open to all the world. They would open again; but whether to +him, who could conjecture? He was resolved to see Fulvia again, but he +shrank from the thought of forcing himself upon her. She had promised to +receive him; but what revulsion of feeling might not the morrow bring? + +Unable to sleep, he bade the boatmen carry him to the Lido. The sun was +just rising above the Friulian Alps and the lagoon lay dull and smooth +as a breathed-on mirror. As he paced the lonely sands he tried to +reconstruct Fulvia's broken story, supplementing it with such details as +his experience of Venetian life suggested. It appeared that after her +father's death she had found herself possessed of a small sum of money +which he had painfully accumulated for her during the two years they had +spent in Pavia. Her only thought was to employ this inheritance in +publishing the great work on the origin of civilisation which Vivaldi +had completed a few days before his last seizure. Through one of the +professors of the University, who had been her father's friend, she +negotiated with a printer of Amsterdam for the production of the book, +and the terms being agreed on, despatched the money and the manuscript +thither by a sure hand. Both were duly delivered and the publisher had +advanced so far in his work as to send Fulvia the proof-sheets of the +first chapters, when he took alarm at the renewed activity of the Holy +Office in France and Italy, declared there would be no market for the +book in the present state of affairs, and refused either to continue +printing it, or to restore the money, which he said had barely covered +the setting-up of the type. Fulvia then attempted to recover the +manuscript; but the publisher refusing to surrender it, she found +herself doubly beggared at a stroke. + +In this extremity she turned to a sister of her father's, who lived near +Treviso; and this excellent woman, though persuaded that her brother's +heretical views had doomed him to everlasting torment, did not scruple +to offer his child a home. Here Fulvia had lived for two years when her +aunt's sudden death left her destitute; for the good lady, to atone for +having given shelter to a niece of doubtful orthodoxy, had left the +whole of her small property to the Church. + +Fulvia's only other relations were certain distant cousins of her +mother's, members of the Venetian nobility, but of the indigent class +called Barnabotti, who lived on the bounty of the state. While in +Treviso she had made the acquaintance of one of these cousins, a +stirring noisy fellow involved in all the political agitations of the +state. It was among the Barnabotti, the class most indebted to the +government, that these seditious movements generally arose; and Fulvia's +cousin was one of the most notorious malcontents of his order. She had +mistaken his revolutionary bluster for philosophic enlightenment; and, +persuaded that he shared in her views, she rashly appealed to him for +help. With the most eloquent expressions of sympathy he offered her a +home under his own roof; but on reaching Venice she was but ill-received +by his wife and family, who made no scruple of declaring that, being but +pensioners themselves, they were in no state to nourish their pauper +relatives. Fulvia could not but own that they were right; for they lived +in the garret of a half-ruined house, pawning their very beds to pay for +ices in the Piazza and sitting at home all the week in dirty shifts and +night-caps that they might go to mass in silk and powder on a Sunday. +After two months of wretchedness with these unfriendly hosts, whom she +vainly tried to conciliate by a hundred little services and attentions +the poor girl resolved to return to Milan, where she hoped to obtain +some menial position in the household of one of her father's friends. +Her cousins, at this, made a great outcry, protesting that none of their +blood should so demean herself, and that they would spare no efforts to +find some better way of providing for her. Their noble connections gave +Fulvia the hope that they might obtain a small pension for her, and she +unsuspiciously yielded to their wishes; but to her dismay she learned a +few weeks later, that, thanks to their exertions, she was to be admitted +as a novice to the convent of Santa Chiara. Though it was the common way +of disposing of portionless girls, the liberal views of her cousins had +reassured Fulvia, and she woke to her fate too late to escape it. She +was to enter on her novitiate on the morrow; but even had delay been +possible she knew that both the civil and religious authorities would +sustain her family in their course. + +Her cousins, knowing her independent spirit, and perhaps fearing an +outcry if they sequestered her too closely, had thought to soften her +resistance by placing her in a convent noted for its leniencies; but to +Fulvia such surroundings were more repugnant than the strictest monastic +discipline. The corruption of the religious orders was a favourite topic +with her father's friends, and the Venetian nuns were noted throughout +Italy for their frivolous and dissipated lives; but nothing that Fulvia +had heard or imagined approached the realities that awaited her. At +first the mere sense of imprisonment, of being cut off forever from the +world of free thought and action which had been her native element, +overwhelmed every other feeling, and she lay numb in the clutch of fate. +But she was too young for this merciful torpor to last, and with the +returning consciousness of her situation came the instinctive effort to +amend it. How she longed then to have been buried in some strict order, +where she might have spent her days in solitary work and meditation! How +she loathed the petty gossip of the nuns, their furtive reaching after +forbidden pleasures! The blindest bigotry would have been less +insufferable than this clandestine commerce with the world, the +strictest sequestration than this open parody of the monastic calling. +She sought in vain among her companions for an answering mind. Many, +like herself, were in open rebellion against their lot; but for reasons +so different that the feeling was an added estrangement. At last the +longing to escape over-mastered every other sensation. It became a fixed +idea, a devouring passion. She did not trust herself to think of what +must follow, but centred every faculty on the effort of evasion. + +At this point in her story her growing distress had made it hard for Odo +to gather more than a general hint of her meaning. It was clear, +however, that she had found her sole hope of escape lay in gaining the +friendship of one of the more favoured nuns. Her own position in the +community was of the humblest, for she had neither rank nor wealth to +commend her; but her skill on the harpsichord had attracted the notice +of the music-mistress and she had been enrolled in the convent orchestra +before her novitiate was over. This had brought her into contact with a +few of the more favoured sisters, and among them she had recognised in +Sister Mary of the Crucifix the daughter of the nobleman who had been +her aunt's landlord at Treviso. Fulvia's name was not unknown to the +handsome nun, and the coincidence was enough to draw them together in a +community where such trivial affinities must replace the ties of nature. +Fulvia soon learned that Mary of the Crucifix was the spoiled darling of +the convent. Her beauty and spirit, as much perhaps as her family +connections, had given her this predominance; and no scruples interfered +with her use of it. Finding herself, as she declared, on the wrong side +of the grate, she determined to gather in all the pleasures she could +reach through it; and her reach was certainly prodigious. Here Odo had +been obliged to fall back on his knowledge of Venetian customs to +conjecture the incidents leading up to the scene of the previous night. +He divined that Fulvia, maddened by having had to pronounce the +irrevocable vows, had resolved to fly at all hazards; that Sister Mary, +unconscious of her designs, had proposed to take her on a party of +pleasure, and that the rash girl, blind to every risk but that of delay, +had seized on this desperate means of escape. What must have followed +had she not chanced on Odo, she had clearly neither the courage nor the +experience to picture; but she seemed to have had some confused idea of +throwing herself on the mercy of the foreign nobleman she believed she +was to meet. + +So much Odo had gathered; and her voice, her gesture, the disorder of +her spirit, supplied what her words omitted. Not for a moment, either in +listening to her or in the soberer period of revision, did he question +the exact truth of her narrative. It was the second time that they had +met under strange circumstances; yet now as before the sense of her +candour was his ruling thought. He concluded that, whatever plight she +found herself in, she would be its immediate justification; and felt +sure he must have reached this conclusion though love had not had a +stake in the verdict. This perhaps but proved him the more deeply taken; +for it is when passion tightens the net that reason flaps her wings most +loudly. + +Day was high when he returned to his lodgings, impatient for a word from +Fulvia. None had come; and as the hours passed he yielded to the most +disheartening fancies. His wretchedness was increased by the thought +that he had once inflicted on her such suspense he was now enduring; and +he went so far as to wonder if this were her revenge for Vercelli. But +if the past was intolerable to consider the future was all baffling +fears. His immediate study was how to see her; and this her continued +silence seemed to refuse him. The extremity of her plight was his best +ally; yet here again anxiety suggested that his having been the witness +of her humiliation must insensibly turn her against him. Never perhaps +does a man show less knowledge of human nature than in speculating on +the conduct of his beloved; and every step in the labyrinth of his +conjectures carried Odo farther from the truth. This rose on him at +nightfall, in the shape of a letter slipped in his hand by a lay-sister +as he crossed the square before his lodgings. He stepped to the light of +the nearest shrine and read the few words in a tumult. "This being +Friday, no visitors are admitted to the convent; but I entreat you to +come to me tomorrow an hour before benediction." A postcript added: "It +is the hour when visitors are most frequent." + +He saw her meaning in a flash: his best chance of speaking with her was +in a crowd, and his heart bounded at the significance of her admission. +Now indeed he felt himself lord of the future. Nothing counted but that +he was to see her. His horizon was narrowed to the bars through which +her hand would greet him; yet never had the world appeared so vast. + +Long before the hour appointed he was at the gate of Santa Chiara. He +asked to speak with Sister Veronica and the portress led him to the +parlour. Several nuns were already behind the grate, chatting with a +group of fashionable ladies and their gallants; but Fulvia was not among +them. In a few moments the portress returned and informed Odo that +Sister Veronica was indisposed and unable to leave her cell. His heart +sank, and he asked if she had sent no message. The portress answered in +the negative, but added that the abbess begged him to come to her +parlour; and at this his hopes took wing again. + +The abbess's parlour was preceded by a handsome antechamber, where Odo +was bidden to wait. It was doubtless the Reverend Mother's hour for +receiving company, for through the door beyond he heard laughter and +music and the sound of lively talk. Presently this door opened and Mary +of the Crucifix entered. In her monastic habit she looked coarse and +overblown: the severe lines and sober tints of the dress did not become +her. Odo felt an insurmountable repugnance at seeing her. He could not +conceive why Fulvia had chosen such an intermediary, and for the first +time a stealing doubt tainted his thoughts of her. + +Sister Mary seemed to read his mind. "You bear me a grudge," said she +gaily; "but I think you will live to own that I do not return it. Come +with me if you wish to speak with Sister Veronica." + +Odo flushed with surprise. "She is not too unwell to receive me?" + +Sister Mary raised her eyebrows in astonishment. "To receive her cousin? +Her nearest male relative, come from Treviso purposely to visit her? The +saints forbid!" she cried. "The poor child is indeed dying--but only to +see her cousin!" And with that she seized his hand and hurried him down +the corridor to a door on which she tapped three times. It opened at +once, and catching Odo by the shoulder she pushed him laughingly over +the threshold and cried out as she vanished: "Be careful not to agitate +the sufferer!" + +Odo found himself in a neat plain cell; but he had no eyes for his +surroundings. All that he saw was Fulvia, dressed in her nun's habit and +seated near the window, through which the afternoon light fell softly on +her white coif and the austere folds of her dress. She rose and greeted +him with a smile. + +"You are not ill, then?" he cried, stupidly, and the colour rose to her +pale face. + +"No," she said, "I am not ill, and at first I was reluctant to make use +of such a subterfuge; but to feign an indisposition was the only way of +speaking with you privately, and, alas, in this school one soon becomes +a proficient in deceit." She paused a moment and then added with an +effort: "Even this favour I could not have obtained save through Sister +Mary of the Crucifix; but she now understands that you are an old friend +of my father's, and that my motive for wishing to see you is not what +she at first supposed." + +This was said with such noble simplicity and so direct a glance, that +Odo, confused by the sense of his own doubts, could only murmur as he +bent over her hand: "Fuoco di quest' incendio non v' assale." + +She drew back gently and signed him to a seat. "I trust not," she said, +answering his citation; "but I think the flame through which Beatrice +walked must have been less contaminating than this morass in which I +flounder." + +She was silent a moment and he had leisure to steal a closer look at +her. It was the first time since their meeting that he had really seen +her face; and he was struck by the touch of awe that had come upon her +beauty. Perhaps her recent suffering had spiritualised a countenance +already pure and lofty; for as he looked at her it seemed to him that +she was transformed into a being beyond earthly contact, and his heart +sank with the sense of her remoteness. Presently she began to speak and +his consciousness of the distance between them was increased by the +composure of her manner. All signs of confusion and distress had +vanished. She faced him with the same innocent freedom as under her +father's roof, and all that had since passed between them seemed to have +slipped from her without a trace. + +She began by thanking him for coming, and then at once reverted to her +desperate situation and to her determination to escape. + +"I am alone and friendless," she said, "and though the length of our +past acquaintance" (and here indeed she blushed) "scarce warrants such a +presumption, yet I believe that in my father's name I may appeal to you. +It may be that with the best will to help me you can discover no way of +doing so, but at least I shall have the benefit of your advice. I now +see," she added, again deeply blushing, but keeping her eyes on his, +"the madness of my late attempt, and the depth of the abyss from which +you rescued me. Death were indeed preferable to such chances; but I do +not mean to die while life holds out a hope of liberation." + +As she spoke there flashed on Odo the reason of her remoteness and +composure. He had come to her as a lover: she received him as a friend. +His longing to aid her was inspired by passion: she saw in it only the +natural impulse of benevolence. So mortifying was the discovery that he +hardly followed her words. All his thoughts were engaged in reviewing +the past; and he now saw that if, as she said, their acquaintance scarce +warranted her appealing to him as a friend, it still less justified his +addressing her as a lover. Only once before had he spoken to her of +love, and that under circumstances which almost forbade a return to the +subject, or at least compelled an added prudence in approaching it. Once +again he found himself the prisoner of his folly, and stood aghast at +the ingenuity of the punishment. To play the part she ascribed to him +was his only portion; and he resolved at least to play it like a man. + +With what composure he might, he assured Fulvia of his desire to serve +her, and asked if she had no hope of obtaining her release from the Holy +See. She answered: none, since enquiry must reveal that she was the +daughter of a man who had been prosecuted for heresy, and that after his +death she had devoted the small sum he had left her to the publication +of his writings. She added that his Holiness, resolved to counteract the +effects of the late Pope's leniency, had greatly enlarged the powers of +the Inquisition, and had taken special measures to prevent those who +entered the religious life from renouncing their calling. + +"Since I have been here," she said, "three nuns have tried to obtain +their release, and one has conclusively proved that she was forced to +take the vows by fraud; but their pleas have been rejected, and mine +would meet the same fate. Indeed, the only result would be to deprive me +of what little liberty I am allowed; for the three nuns I speak of are +now the most closely watched in the convent." + +She went on to explain that, thanks to the connivance of Sister Mary of +the Crucifix, her actual escape might be effected without much +difficulty; but that she was now awake to the madness of taking so +desperate a step without knowing whither it would lead her. + +"To be safe," she said, "I must cross the borders of Switzerland. If I +could reach Geneva I should be beyond the arm of the Holy Office, and at +the University there I should find friends of my father who would surely +take pity on my situation and help me to a living. But the journey is +long and difficult, and not to be safely attempted without some +assurance of shelter on the way." + +It was on Odo's lips to declare that he would provide her with shelter +and escort; but at this moment three warning taps announced the return +of Sister Mary of the Crucifix. + +She entered merrily and at once laid one hand on Fulvia's brow and +caught her wrist in the other. "The patient's pulse has risen," she +declared, "and rest and a lowering treatment are essential. I must ask +the cavaliere to withdraw." + +Fulvia, with an air of constraint, held out her hand to Odo. + +"I shall see you soon again?" he whispered; and Sister Mary, as though +she had guessed his words, cried out, "I think your excellency may count +on a recurrence of the seizure two days hence at the same hour!" + + +3.5. + +With this Odo was forced to be content; and he passed the intervening +time in devising the means of Fulvia's rescue. He was resolved to let no +rashness or negligence hinder the attempt, and to prove, by the +discretion of his course, that he was no longer the light fool who had +once hazarded her safety. He went about his preparations as one that had +no private stake in the venture; but he was therefore the more +punctilious to show himself worthy of her trust and sensible of the +charge it laid upon him. + +At their next meeting he found her in the same open and friendly mood, +and she listened gratefully as he set forth his plan. This was that she +should first write to a doctor of the University in Geneva, who had been +her father's friend, stating her plight and asking if he could help her +to a living should she contrive to reach Geneva. Pending the reply, Odo +was to plan the stages of the journey in such fashion that she might +count on concealment in case of pursuit; and she was not to attempt her +escape till these details were decided. Fulvia was the more ready to +acquiesce in this postponement as she did not wish to involve Sister +Mary in her adventure, but hoped to escape unassisted during an +entertainment which was to take place in the convent on the feast of +Saint Michael, some six weeks later. + +To Odo the delay was still more welcome; for it gave him what he must +needs regard as his last opportunity of being in the girl's company. She +had accepted his companionship on the journey with a readiness in which +he saw only the magnanimity of pardon; but in Geneva they must part, and +what hope had he of seeing her again? The first smart of vanity allayed, +he was glad she chose to treat him as a friend. It was in this character +that he could best prove his disinterestedness, his resolve to make +amends for the past; and in this character only--as he now felt--would +it be possible for him to part from her. + +On his second visit he ventured to discharge his mind of its heaviest +burden by enquiring what had befallen her and her father after he had +lost trace of them at Vercelli. She told him quite simply that, failing +to meet him at the appointed place, they at once guessed that his plan +had been winded by the abate who travelled with him; and that after a +few hours' delay her father had succeeded in securing a chaise which had +taken them safely across the border. She went on to speak of the +hardships they had suffered after reaching Milan. Even under a +comparatively liberal government it was small advantage to be marked by +the Holy Office; and though he received much kindness, and even material +aid, from those of his way of thinking, Vivaldi was unable to obtain the +professorship he had hoped for. + +From Milan they went to Pavia; but in this University, the most liberal +in Italy, the chairs were so sought after that there was no hope of his +receiving a charge worthy of his talents. Here, however, his spirit +breathed its natural air, and reluctant to lose the privileges of such +intercourse he decided to accept the post of librarian to an eccentric +nobleman of the town. If his pay was modest his duties left him leisure +for the work which was his chief concern; for his patron, who had houses +in Milan and Brescia, came seldom to Pavia, and Fulvia and her father +had the vast palace to themselves. They lodged in a corner adjoining the +library, spending their days in studious seclusion, their evenings in +conversation with some of the first scholars of Europe: the learned +botanist Scopoli, Spallanzani, Volta, and Father Fontana, the famous +mathematician. In such surroundings Vivaldi might have pursued his task +contentedly enough, but for the thought of Fulvia's future. This, his +daughter said, continually preyed on him, driving him to labours beyond +his strength; for he hoped by the publication of his book to make good, +at least in part, the loss of the small property which the Sardinian +government had confiscated. All her entreaties could not dissuade him +from over-exertion; and in addition to his regular duties he took on +himself (as she afterward learned) the tedious work of revising proofs +and copying manuscripts for the professors. This drudgery, combined with +severe intellectual effort, exceeded his flagging powers; and the book +was hardly completed when his patron, apprised of its contents, abruptly +removed him from his post. From that day Vivaldi sank in health; but he +ended as became a sage, content to have discharged the task for which he +had given up home and substance, and dying with the great Stoic's words +upon his lips:-- + +Lex non poena mors. + +Vivaldi's friends in Milan came generously to Fulvia's aid, and she +would gladly have remained among them; but after the loss of her small +inheritance and of her father's manuscript she was without means of +repaying their kindness, and nothing remained but to turn to her own +kin. + +As Odo sat in the quiet cell, listening to her story, and hearing again +the great names his youth had reverenced, he felt himself an exile +returning to his own, mounting the familiar heights and breathing the +air that was his birthright. Looking back from this recovered standpoint +he saw how far behind his early hopes had been left. Since his departure +from Naples there had been nothing to remind him of that vast noiseless +labour of the spirit going on everywhere beneath the social surface: +that baffled but undiscouraged endeavour in which he had once so +impatiently claimed his share. Now every word of Fulvia's smote the +bones of some dead purpose, till his bosom seemed a very valley of +Ezekiel. Her own trials had fanned her love of freedom, and the near +hope of release lent an exaltation to her words. Of bitterness, of +resentment she gave no sign; and he was awed by the same serenity of +spirit which had struck him in the imprisoned doctor. But perhaps the +strongest impression she produced was that of increasing his points of +contact with life. His other sentimental ties had been a barrier between +himself and the outer world; but the feeling which drew him to Fulvia +had the effect of levelling the bounds of egoism, of letting into the +circle of his nearest emotions that great tide of human longing and +effort that had always faintly sounded on the shores of self. Perhaps it +was her power of evoking this wider life that gave a sense of +permanence, of security almost, to the stolen moments of their +intercourse, lulling the lover's impatience of actual conditions with +the sense of something that must survive the accidents of fortune. Only +in some such way could he explain, in looking back, the completeness of +each moment spent with her. He was conscious even at the time of a +suspension of the emotional laws, a charmed surrender to the limitations +of his fate. When he was away his impatience reasserted itself; but her +presence was like a soothing hand on his spirit, and he knew that his +quiet hours with her would count among those intervals between the +crises of life that flower in memory when the crises themselves have +faded. + +It was natural that in the course of these visits she in turn should +question him; and as his past rearranged itself beneath her scrutiny he +seemed once more to trace the thread of purpose on which its fragments +hung. He told her of his connection with the liberals of Pianura, of the +situation at court, and of the reason for his prolonged travels. As he +talked her eyes conveyed the exquisite sense of her complete +comprehension. She saw, before he could justify himself, how the +uncertainty of his future, and his inability to act, had cast him adrift +upon a life of superficial enjoyment; and how his latent dissatisfaction +with this life had inevitably resulted in self-distrust and vacillation. +"You wait your hour," she said of him; and he seized on the phrase as a +justification of his inactivity and, when chance should offer, a spur to +fresh endeavour. Her interest in the liberal cause had been intensified +and exalted by her father's death--his martyrdom, as she described it. +Like most women possessed of an abstract idea she had unconsciously +personified the idea and made a religion of it; but it was a religion of +charity and not of vindictiveness. "I should like my father's death +avenged by love and not by hate," she said; "I would have it bring +peace, not a sword." + +On one point only she remained, if not hostile yet unresponsive. This +was when he spoke of de Crucis. Her manner hardened instantly, and he +perceived that, though he dwelt on the Jesuit's tolerant view and +cultivated tastes, she beheld only the priest and not the man. She had +been eager to hear of Crescenti, whom she knew by name as a student of +European repute, and to the praise of whose parochial charities she +listened with outspoken sympathy; but the Jesuits stood for the Holy +Office, and she had suffered too deeply at the hands of the Holy Office +to regard with an open mind any who might be supposed to represent its +principles. It was impossible for Odo to make her understand how +distinctly, in de Crucis's case, the man predominated over the order; +and conscious of the painfulness of the subject, he gave up the attempt +to interest her in his friend. + +Three or four times he was permitted to visit her in her cell: after +that they met almost daily in the parlour, where, about the hour of +benediction, they could talk almost as privately under cover of the +general chatter. In due time Fulvia received an answer from the +Calvinist professor, who assured her of a welcome in Geneva and shelter +under his roof. Odo, meanwhile, had perfected the plan of their journey; +but as Michaelmas approached he began to fear Cantapresto's observation. +He now bitterly regretted that he had not held to his purpose of sending +the soprano back to Pianura; but to do so at this point would be to +challenge observation and he resolved instead on despatching him to +Monte Alloro with a letter to the old Duke. As the way to Geneva lay in +the opposite direction this would at least give the fugitives a three +days' lead; and they had little cause to fear pursuit from any other +quarter. The convent indeed might raise a hue and cry; but the nuns of +Santa Chiara had lately given the devout so much cause for scandal that +the abbess would probably be disposed to hush up any fresh delinquency. +The time too was well-chosen; for the sisters had prevailed on the +Reverend Mother to celebrate the saint's day by a masked ball, and the +whole convent was engrossed in the invention of whimsical disguises. The +nuns indeed were not to take part in the ball; but a number of them were +to appear in an allegorical entertainment with which the evening was to +open. The new Papal Nuncio, who was lately arrived in Venice, had +promised to be present; and as he was known to be a man of pleasure +there was scarce a sister in the convent but had an eye to his conquest. +These circumstances gave to Fulvia's plans the shelter of indifference; +for in the delightful effort of surpassing the other nuns even Mary of +the Crucifix lost interest in her friend's affairs. + +Odo, to preserve the secrecy of his designs, had been obliged to keep up +a pretence of his former habits, showing himself abroad with +Coeur-Volant and Castelrovinato and frequenting the Procuratessa's routs +and card-parties. This lady, though lately returned to the Brenta, had +announced her intention of coming to Venice for the ball at Santa +Chiara; and Coeur-Volant was mightily preoccupied with the +entertainment, at which he purposed his mistress should outshine all her +companions. + +The evening came at last, and Odo found himself entering the gates of +Santa Chiara with a throng of merry-makers. The convent was noted for +its splendid hospitality, and unwonted preparations had been made to +honour the saint. The brightly-illuminated bridge leading to the square +of Santa Chiara was decked with a colonnade of pasteboard and stiffened +linen cunningly painted, and a classical portico masked the entrance +gate. A flourish of trumpets and hautboys, and the firing of miniature +cannon, greeted the arrival of the guests, who were escorted to the +parlour, which was hung with tapestries and glowing with lights like a +Lady Chapel. Here they were received by the abbess, who, on the arrival +of the Nuncio, led the way to the garden, where a stage had been +erected. + +The nuns who were not to take part in the play had been seated directly +under the stage, divided from the rest of the company by a low screen of +foliage. Ranged beneath the footlights, which shone on their bare +shoulders and white gowns, and on the gauze veils replacing their +monastic coifs, they seemed a choir of pagan virgins grouped in the +proscenium of an antique theatre. Everything indeed combined to produce +the impression of some classic festival: the setting of motionless +foliage, the mild autumnal sky in which the stars hung near and vivid, +and the foreground thronged with a motley company lit by the shifting +brightness of torches. + +As Odo, in mask and travesty, stood observing the fantastically-dressed +audience, the pasteboard theatre adorned with statuary, and the nuns +flitting across the stage, his imagination, strung to the highest pitch +by his own impending venture, was thrilled by the contrast between the +outward appearance of the scene and its underlying reality. From where +he stood he looked directly at the abbess, who was seated with the +Nuncio and his suite under the tall crucifix in the centre of the +garden. As if to emphasise the irony of the situation, the torch fixed +behind this noble group cast an enlarged shadow of the cross over the +abbess's white gown and the splendid robes of her companions, who, +though they wore the mask, had not laid aside their clerical dress. To +Odo the juxtaposition had the effect of some supernatural warning, the +shadow of the divine wrath projected on its heedless ministers; an +impression heightened by the fact that, just opposite the cross, a +lively figure of Pan, surmounting the pediment of the theatre, seemed to +fling defiance at the Galilean intruder. + +The nuns, like the rest of the company, were masked; and it had been +agreed between Odo and Fulvia that the latter should wear a wreath of +myrtle above her veil. As almost all her companions had chosen +brightly-coloured flowers this dark green chaplet was easily +distinguished among the clustered heads beneath the stage, and Odo had +no doubt of being able to rejoin Fulvia in the moment of dispersal that +should follow the conclusion of the play. He knew that the sisters were +to precede their guests and be locked behind the grate before the ball +began; but as they passed through the garden and cloisters the barrier +between nuns and visitors would probably not be too strictly maintained. +As he had foreseen, the company, attracted by the graceful procession, +pressed forward regardless of the assistant mistresses' protests, and +the shadowy arcades were full of laughter and whispered snatches of talk +as the white flock was driven back to its fold. + +Odo had withdrawn to the darkest angle of the cloister, close to a door +leading to the pharmacy. It was here that Fulvia had told him to wait; +and though he had lost sight of her when the audience rose, he stood +confidently watching for the reappearance of the myrtle-wreath. +Presently he saw it close at hand; and just then the line of sisters +flowed toward him, driven forward by a group of lively masqueraders, +among whom he seemed to recognise Coeur-Volant's voice and figure. +Nothing could have been more opportune, for the pressure swept the +wearer of the myrtle-wreath almost into his arms; and as the intruders +were dispersed and the nuns laughingly reformed their lines, her hand +lingered in his and he felt himself drawn toward the door. + +It yielded to her touch and Odo followed her down a dark passageway to +the empty room where rows of old Faenza jars and quaintly-shaped flagons +glimmered in the dusk. Beyond the pharmacy was another door, the key of +which hung on the wall with the portress's hood and cloak. Without a +word the girl wrapped herself in the cloak and, fitting the key to the +lock, softly opened the door. All this was done with a rapidity and +assurance for which Odo was unprepared; but, reflecting that Fulvia's +whole future hung on the promptness with which each detail of her plan +was executed, he concluded that her natural force of character enabled +her to assume an ease she could hardly feel. + +The door opened on the kitchen-garden, and brushing the lavender-hedges +with her flying skirts she sped on ahead of Odo to the postern which the +nuns were accustomed to use for their nocturnal escapades. Only the +thickness of an oaken gate stood between Fulvia and the outer world. To +her the opening of the gate meant the first step toward freedom, but to +Odo the passing from their enchanted weeks of fellowship to the inner +loneliness of his former life. He hung back silent while she drew the +bolt. + +A moment later they had crossed the threshold and his gondola was +slipping toward them out of the shadow of the wall. Fulvia sprang on +board and he followed her under the felze. The warm darkness enclosing +them stirred impulses which their daily intercourse had subdued, and in +the sense of her nearness he lost sight of the conditions which had +brought them together. The feeling seemed to communicate itself; for as +the gondola rounded the angle of the convent-wall and swung out on the +open, she drooped toward him with the turn of the boat and their lips +met under the loosened masks. + +At the same instant the light of the Virgin's shrine in the corner of +the convent-wall fell through the window of the felze on the face lifted +to Odo's; and he found himself suddenly confronted by the tender eyes +and malicious smile of Sister Mary of the Crucifix. + +"By Diana," she cried as he started back, "I did but claim my pay in +advance; nor do I think that, when she knows all, Sister Veronica will +grudge me my reward!" + +He continued to stare at her in speechless bewilderment, and she went on +with a kind of tender impatience: "You simpleton, can you not guess that +you were watched, and that but for me your Veronica would at this moment +be lying under lock and key in her cell? Instead of which," she +continued, speaking more slowly, and leaning back as though to enjoy the +full savour of his suspense, "instead of which she now awaits you in a +safe nook of my choosing, where, within half an hour's time, you may +atone to her with interest for the infidelity into which I have betrayed +you." + +"She knows, then?" Odo faltered, not daring to say more in his ignorance +of Sister Mary's share in the secret. + +Sister Mary shook her head with a tantalising laugh. "That you are +coming? Alas, no, poor angel! She fancies that she has been sent from +the convent to avoid you--as indeed she was, and by the Reverend +Mother's own order, who, it seems, had wind of the intrigue this +morning. But, the saints be praised, the excellent sister who was +ordered to attend her is in my pay and instead of conducting her to her +relatives of San Barnado, who were to keep her locked up over night, +has, if I mistake not, taken her to a good woman of my acquaintance--an +old servant, in fact--who will guard her as jealously as the family +plate till you and I come to her release." + +As she spoke she put out her head and gave a whispered order to the +gondolier; and at the word the boat swung round and headed for the city. + +In the violent reaction which this strange encounter produced, Odo was +for the moment incapable of taking any clear note of his surroundings. +Uncertain if he were not once more the victim of some such mischance as +seemed to attend all his efforts to succour Fulvia, he sat in silent +apprehension as the gondola shot across the Grand Canal and entered the +labyrinth of water-ways behind San Moise. Sister Mary took his silence +philosophically. + +"You dare not speak to me, for fear of betraying yourself," she said, +"and I scarce wonder at your distrust; for your plans were so well laid +that I had no notion of what was on foot, and must have remained in +ignorance if Veronica had not been put in Sister Martha's charge. But +you will both live to thank me, and I hope," she added, laughing, "to +own that you would have done better to take me into your confidence from +the first." + +As she spoke the gondola touched at the head of a narrow passage which +lost itself in the blackness of the overhanging houses. Sister Mary +sprang out and drew Odo after her. A few yards down the alley she +entered a plain low-storied house somewhat withdrawn behind its +neighbours. Followed by Odo she groped her way up a dark flight of +stairs and knocked at a door on the upper landing. A vague flutter +within, indicative of whispers and uncertain movements, was followed by +the slipping of the bolt, and a middle-aged woman looked out. She drew +back with an exclamation of welcome, and Sister Mary, seizing Odo by the +shoulders, pushed him across the threshold of a small dimly-lit kitchen. + +Fulvia, in her nun's habit, cowered in the darkest corner; but at sight +of Odo she sprang up, and ran toward him with a happy cry. + + +3.6. + +An hour later the two were well on their way toward Mestre, where a +travelling-chaise awaited them. Odo, having learned that Andreoni was +settled in Padua, had asked him to receive Fulvia in his house till the +next night-fall; and the bookseller, whom he had taken into his +confidence, was eager to welcome the daughter of the revered Vivaldi. + +The extremes of hope and apprehension had left Fulvia too exhausted for +many words, and Odo, after she had confirmed every particular of Sister +Mary's story, refrained from questioning her farther. Thanks to her +friend's resources she had been able to exchange her nun's dress for the +plain gown and travelling-cloak of a young woman of the middle class; +and this dress painfully recalled to Odo the day when he had found her +standing beside the broken-down chaise on the road to Vercelli. + +The recollection was not calculated to put him at his ease; and indeed +it was only now that he began to feel the peculiar constraint of his +position. To Andreoni his explanation of Fulvia's flight had seemed +natural enough; but on the subsequent stages of their journey she must +pass for his mistress or his wife, and he hardly knew in what spirit she +would take the misapprehensions that must inevitably arise. + +At Mestre their carriage waited, and they drove rapidly toward Padua +through the waning night. Andreoni, in his concern for Fulvia's safety, +had prepared for her reception a little farm-house of his wife's, in a +vineyard beyond the town; and here at daybreak it was almost a relief to +Odo to commit his charge to the Signora Andreoni's care. + +The day was spent indoors, and Andreoni having thought it more prudent +to bring no servant from Padua, his wife prepared the meals for their +guests and the bookseller drew a jar of his own wine from the cellar. +Fulvia kept to herself during the day; but at dusk she surprised Odo by +entering the room with a trayful of plates and glasses, and helping +their hostess to set out the supper-table. The few hours of rest had +restored to her not only the serenity of the convent, but a lightness of +step and glance that Odo had not seen in her since the early days of +their friendship. He marvelled to see how the first breath of freedom +had set her blood in motion and fanned her languid eye; but he could not +suppress the accompanying thought that his own presence had failed to +work such miracles. + +They had planned to ride that night to a little village in the hills +beyond Vicenza, where Fulvia's foster-mother, a peasant of the +Vicentine, lived with her son, who was a vine-dresser; and supper was +hardly over when they were told that their horses waited. Their kind +hosts dared not urge them to linger; and after a hurried farewell they +rode forth into the fresh darkness of the September night. + +The new moon was down and they had to thread their way slowly through +the stony lanes between the vineyards. At length they gained the open +country, and growing more accustomed to the darkness put their horses to +a trot. The change of pace, and the exhilaration of traversing an +unknown country in the hush and mystery of night, combined to free their +spirits, and Odo began to be aware that the barrier between them was +lifted. To the charm of their intercourse at Santa Chiara was added that +closer sympathy produced by the sense of isolation. They were enclosed +in their common risk as in some secret meeting-place where no +consciousness of the outer world intruded; and though their talk kept +the safe level of their immediate concerns he felt the change in every +inflection of Fulvia's voice and in the subtler emphasis of her +silences. + +The way was long, and he had feared that she would be taxed beyond her +strength; but the miles seemed to fly beneath their horses' feet, and +they could scarcely believe that the dark hills which rose ahead of them +against a whitening sky marked the limit of their journey. + +With some difficulty they found their way to the vine-dresser's house, a +mere hut in a remote fold of the hills. From motives of prudence they +had not warned the nurse of their coming; but they found the old woman +already at work in her melon-patch and learned from her that her son had +gone down to his day's labour in the valley. She received Fulvia with a +tender wonder, as at some supernatural presence descending into her +life, too much awed, till the first embraces were over, to risk any +conjecture as to Odo's presence. But with the returning sense of +familiarity--the fancied recovery of the nurseling's features in the +girl's definite outline--came the inevitable reaction of curiosity, and +the fugitives felt themselves coupled in the old woman's meaning smiles. +To Odo's surprise Fulvia received these innuendoes with baffling +composure, parrying the questions she seemed to answer, and finally +taking refuge in a plea for rest. But the accord of the previous night +was broken; and when the travellers set out again, starting a little +before sunset to avoid the vine-dresser's return, the constraint of the +day began to weigh upon them. In Fulvia's case physical weariness +perhaps had a share in the change; but whatever the cause, its effect +was to make this stage of the journey strangely tedious to both. + +Their way lay through the country north of Vicenza, whence they hoped by +dawn to gain Peschiera on the lake of Garda, and hire a chaise which +should take them across the border. For the first hour or two they had +the new moon to light them; but as it set the sky clouded and drops of +rain began to fall. Fulvia had hitherto shown a gay indifference to the +discomforts of the journey; but she presently began to complain of the +cold and to question Odo anxiously as to the length of the way. The +hilliness of the country forced them to travel slowly, and it seemed to +Odo that hours had elapsed before they saw lights in the valley below +them. Their plan had been to avoid the towns on their way, and Fulvia, +the night before, had contented herself with a half-hour's rest by the +roadside; but a heavy rain was now falling, and she at once assented to +Odo's tentative proposal that they should take shelter till the storm +was over. + +They dismounted at an inn on the outskirts of the village. The sleepy +landlord stared as he unbarred the door and led them into the kitchen; +but he offered no comment beyond remarking that it was a good night to +be under cover. + +Fulvia sank down on the wooden settle near the chimney, where a fire had +been hastily kindled. She took no notice of Odo when he removed the +dripping cloak from her shoulders, but sat gazing before her in a kind +of apathy. + +"I cannot eat," she said, as Odo pressed her to take her place at the +table. + +The innkeeper turned to him with a confidential nod. "Your lady looks +fairly beaten," he said. "I've a notion that one of my good beds would +be more to her taste than the best supper in the land. Shall I have a +room made ready for your excellencies?" + +"No, no," said Fulvia, starting up. "We must set out again as soon as we +have supped." + +She approached the table and hastily emptied the glass of country wine +that Odo had poured out for her. + +The innkeeper seemed a simple unsuspicious fellow, but at this he put +down the plate of cheese he was carrying and looked at her curiously. + +"Start out again at this hour of the night?" he exclaimed. "By the +saints, your excellencies must be running a race with the sun! Or do you +doubt my being able to provide you with decent lodgings, that you prefer +mud and rain to my good sheets and pillows?" + +"Indeed, no," Odo amicably interposed; "but we are hurrying to meet a +friend who is to rejoin us tomorrow at Peschiera." + +"Ah--at Peschiera," said the other, as though the name had struck him. +He took a dish of eggs from the fire and set it before Fulvia. "Well," +he went on with a shrug, "it is written that none of my beds shall be +slept in tonight. Not two hours since I had a gentleman here that gave +the very same excuse for hurrying forward; though his horses were so +spent that I had to provide him with another pair before he could +continue his journey." He laughed and uncorked a second bottle. + +"That reminds me," he went on, pausing suddenly before Fulvia, "that the +other gentleman was travelling to meet a friend too; a lady, he said--a +young lady. He fancied she might have passed this way and questioned me +closely; but as it happened there had been no petticoat under my roof +for three days.--I wonder, now, if he could have been looking for your +excellencies?" + +Fulvia flushed high at this, but a sign from Odo checked the denial on +her lips. + +"Why," said he, "it is not unlikely, though I had fancied our friend +would come from another direction. What was this gentleman like?" + +The landlord hesitated, evidently not so much from any reluctance to +impart what he knew as from the inability to express it. "Well," said +he, trying to supplement his words by a vaguely descriptive gesture, "he +was a handsome personable-looking man--smallish built, but with a fine +manner, and dressed not unlike your excellency." + +"Ah," said Odo carelessly, "our friend is an ecclesiastic.--And which +way did this gentleman travel?" he went on, pouring himself another +glass. + +The landlord assumed an air of country cunning. "There's the fishy part +of it," said he. "He gave orders to go toward Verona; but my boy, who +chased the carriage down the road, as lads will, says that at the +cross-ways below the old mill the driver took the turn for Peschiera." + +Fulvia at this seemed no longer able to control herself. She came close +to Odo and said in a low urgent tone: "For heaven's sake, let us set +forward!" + +Odo again signed to her to keep silent, and with an effort she resumed +her seat and made a pretence of eating. A moment later he despatched the +landlord to the stable, to see that the horses had been rubbed down; and +as soon as the door closed she broke out passionately. + +"It is my fault," she cried, "it is all my fault for coming here. If I +had had the courage to keep on this would never have happened!" + +"No," said Odo quietly, "and we should have gone straight to Peschiera +and landed in the arms of our pursuer--if this mysterious traveller is +in pursuit of us." + +His tone seemed to steady her. "Oh," she said, and the colour flickered +out of her face. + +"As it happens," he went on, "nothing could have been more fortunate +than our coming here." + +"I see--I see--; but now we must go on at once," she persisted. + +He looked at her gravely. "This is your wish?" + +She seemed seized with a panic fear. "I cannot stay here!" she repeated. + +"Which way shall we go, then? If we continue to Peschiera, and this man +is after us, we are lost." + +"But if he does not find us he may return here--he will surely return +here!" + +"He cannot return before morning. It is close on midnight already. +Meanwhile you can take a few hours' rest while I devise means of +reaching the lake by some mule-track across the mountain." + +It cost him an effort to take this tone with her; but he saw that in her +high-strung mood any other would have been less effective. She rose +slowly, keeping her eyes on him with the look of a frightened child. "I +will do as you wish," she said. + +"Let the landlord prepare a bed for you, then. I will keep watch down +here and the horses shall be saddled at daylight." + +She stood silent while he went to the door to call the innkeeper; but +when the order was given, and the door closed again, she disconcerted +him by a sudden sob. + +"What a burden I am!" she cried. "I had no right to accept this of you." +And she turned and fled up the dark stairs. + +The night passed and toward dawn the rain ceased. Odo rose from his +dreary vigil in the kitchen, and called to the innkeeper to carry up +bread and wine to Fulvia's room. Then he went out to see that the horses +were fed and watered. He had not dared to question the landlord as to +the roads, lest his doing so should excite suspicion; but he hoped to +find an ostler who would give him the information he needed. + +The stable was empty, however; and he prepared to bait the horses +himself. As he stooped to place his lantern on the floor he caught the +gleam of a small polished object at his feet. He picked it up and found +that it was a silver coat-of-arms, such as are attached to the blinders +and saddles of a carriage-harness. His curiosity was aroused, and +holding the light closer he recognised the ducal crown of Pianura +surmounting the "Humilitas" of the Valseccas. + +The discovery was so startling that for some moments he stood gazing at +the small object in his hand without being able to steady his confused +ideas. Gradually they took shape, and he saw that, if the ornament had +fallen from the harness of the traveller who had just preceded them, it +was not Fulvia but he himself who was being pursued. But who was it who +sought him and to what purpose? One fact alone was clear: the traveller, +whoever he was, rode in one of the Duke's carriages, and therefore +presumably upon his sovereign's business. + +Odo was still trying to thread a way through these conjectures when a +yawning ostler pushed open the stable-door. + +"Your excellency is in a hurry to be gone," he said, with a surprised +glance. + +Odo handed him the coat-of-arms. "Can you tell me what this is?" he +asked carelessly. "I picked it up here a moment ago." + +The other turned it over and stared. "Why," said he, "that's off the +harness of the gentleman that supped here last night--the same that went +on later to Peschiera." + +Odo proceeded to question him about the mule-tracks over Monte Baldo, +and having bidden him saddle the horses in half an hour, crossed the +courtyard and re-entered the inn. A grey light was already falling +through the windows, and he mounted the stairs and knocked on the door +which he thought must be Fulvia's. Her voice bade him enter and he found +her seated fully dressed beside the window. She rose with a smile and he +saw that she had regained her usual self-possession. + +"Do we set out at once?" she asked. + +"There is no great haste," he answered. "You must eat first, and by that +time the horses will be saddled." + +"As you please," she returned, with a readiness in which he divined the +wish to make amends for her wilfulness the previous night. Her eyes and +cheeks glowed with an excitement which counterfeited the effects of a +night's rest, and he thought he had never seen her more radiant. She +approached the table on which the wine and bread had been placed, and +drew another chair beside her own. + +"Will you not share with me?" she asked, filling a glass for him. + +He took it from her with a smile. "I have good news for you," he said, +holding out the bit of silver which he had brought from the stable. + +She examined it wonderingly. "What does this mean?" she asked, looking +up at him. + +"That it is I who am being followed--and not you." + +She started and the ornament slipped from her hand. + +"You?" she faltered with a quick change of colour. + +"This coat-of-arms," he explained, "dropped from the harness of the +traveller who left the inn just before our arrival last night." + +"Well--" she said, still without understanding; "and do you know the +coat?" + +Odo smiled. "It is mine," he answered; "and the crown is my cousin's. +The traveller must have been a messenger of the Duke's." + +She stood leaning against the seat from which she had risen, one hand +still grasping it while the other hung inert. Her lips parted but she +did not speak. Her pallor troubled Odo and he went up to her and took +her hand. + +"Do you not understand," he said gently, "that there is no farther cause +for alarm? I have no reason to think that the Duke's messenger is in +pursuit of me; but should he be so, and should he overtake us, he has no +authority over you and no reason for betraying you to your enemies." + +The blood poured back to her face. "Me! My enemies!" she stammered. "It +is not of them I think." She raised her head and faced him in a glow. + +For a moment he stood stupidly gazing at her; then the mist lifted and +through it he saw a great light. + +*** + +The landlord's knock warned them that their horses waited, and they rode +out in the grey morning. The world about them still lay in shade, and as +they climbed the wooded defile above the valley Odo was reminded of the +days at Donnaz when he had ridden up the mountain in the same early +light. Never since then had he felt, as he did now, the boy's easy +kinship with the unexpected, the sense that no encounter could be too +wonderful to fit in with the mere wonder of living. + +To avoid the road to Peschiera they had resolved to cross the Monte +Baldo by a mule-track which should bring them out at one of the villages +on the eastern shore of Garda; and the search for this path led them up +through steep rain-scented woods where they had to part the wet boughs +as they passed. From time to time they regained the highway and rode +abreast, almost silent at first with the weight of their new nearness, +and then breaking into talk that was the mere overflow of what they were +thinking. There was in truth more to be felt between them than to be +said; since, as each was aware, the new light that suffused the present +left the future as obscure as before. But what mattered, when the hour +was theirs? The narrow kingdom of today is better worth ruling over than +the widest past or future; but not more than once does a man hold its +fugitive sceptre. The past, however, was theirs also: a past so +transformed that he must revisit it with her, joyously confronting her +new self with the image of her that met them at each turn. Then he had +himself to trace in her memories, his transfigured likeness to linger +over in the Narcissus-mirror of her faith in him. This interchange of +recollections served them as well as any outspoken expression of +feeling, and the most commonplace allusion was charged with happy +meanings. + +Arabia Petraea had been an Eden to such travellers; how much more the +happy slopes they were now descending! All the afternoon their path +wound down the western incline of Monte Baldo, first under huge olives, +then through thickets of laurel and acacia, to emerge on a lower level +of lemon and orange groves, with the blue lake showing through a diaper +of golden-fruited boughs. Fulvia, to whom this clear-cut southern +foliage was as new as the pure intensity of light that bathed it, seemed +to herself to be moving through the landscape of a dream. It was as +though nature had been remodelled, transformed almost, under the touch +of their love: as though they had found their way to the Hesperian +glades in which poets and painters placed the legendary lovers of +antiquity. + +Such feelings were intensified by the strangeness of the situation. In +Italy the young girls of the middle class, though seemingly allowed a +greater freedom of intercourse than the daughters of noblemen, were in +reality as strictly guarded. Though, like Fulvia, they might converse +with the elderly merchants or scholars frequenting the family table, +they were never alone in the company of men, and the high standard of +conduct prevailing in the bourgeoisie forbade all thought of clandestine +intercourse. This was especially true of the families of men of letters, +where the liberal education of the young girls, and their habit of +associating as equals with men of serious and cultivated minds, gave +them a self-possession disconcerting to the young blood accustomed to +conquer with a glance. These girls as a rule, were married early to men +of their own standing, and though the cicisbeo was not unknown after +marriage he was not an authorised member of the household. Fulvia, +indeed, belonged to the class most inaccessible to men of Odo's rank: +the only class in Italy in which the wife's fidelity was as much +esteemed as the innocence of the girl. Such principles had long been +ridiculed by persons of quality and satirised by poets and playwrights. +From Aristophanes to Beaumarchais the cheated husband and the outwitted +guardian had been the figures on which the dramatist relied for his +comic effects. Even the miser tricked out of his savings was a shade +less ridiculous, less grotesquely deserving of his fate, than the +husband defrauded of his wife's affection. The plausible adulteress and +the adroit seducer had a recognised claim on the sympathy of the public. +But the inevitable reaction was at hand; and the new teachers to whom +Odo's contemporaries were beginning to listen had thrown a strangely +poetic light over the dull figures of the domestic virtues. Faithfulness +to the family sanctities, reverence for the marriage tie, courage to +sacrifice the loftiest passion to the most plodding duty: these were +qualities to touch the fancy of a generation sated with derision. If +love as a sentiment was the discovery of the medieval poets, love as a +moral emotion might be called that of the eighteenth-century +philosophers, who, for all their celebration of free unions and fatal +passions, were really on the side of the angels, were fighting the +battle of the spiritual against the sensual, of conscience against +appetite. + +The imperceptible action of these new influences formed the real barrier +between Odo and Fulvia. The girl stood for the embodiment of the +purifying emotions that were to renew the world. Her candour, her +unapproachableness, her simple trust in him, were a part of the magic +light which the new idealism had shed over the old social structure. His +was, in short, a love large enough to include other emotions: a widening +rather than a contraction of the emotional range. Youth and propinquity +have before now broken down stronger defences; but Fulvia's situation +was an unspoken appeal to her lover's forbearance. The sense that her +safety depended on him kept his sentimental impulses in check and made +the happiness of the moment seem, in its exquisite unreality, a mere +dreamlike interlude between the facts of life. + +Toward sunset they rested in an olive-orchard, tethering their horses to +the low boughs. Overhead, through the thin foliage of tarnished silver, +the sky, as the moon suffused it, melted from steel blue to a clearer +silver. A peasant-woman whose hut stood close by brought them a goat's +cheese on a vine-leaf and a jug of spring-water; and as they supped, a +little goat-herd, driving his flock down the hill, paused to watch them +with furtive woodland eyes. + +Odo, questioning him, learned that at the village on the shore below +they could obtain a boat to carry them across the lake. Fulvia, for lack +of a passport, dared not set foot on Austrian soil; but the Swiss +authorities were less exacting and Odo had hopes of crossing the border +without difficulty. They set out again presently, descending through the +grey dusk of the olives till the path became too steep for riding; then +Odo lifted Fulvia from the saddle and led the two horses after her. Here +and there, between the trees, they caught a momentary glimpse of lights +on the shore and the pale gleam of the lake enclosed in black foliage. +From the village below came snatches of song and the shrill wail of a +pipe; and as the night deepened they saw, far out on the water, the wild +flare of the fish-spearers' torches, like comets in an inverted sky. + +With nightfall the spirits of both had sunk. Fulvia walked ahead in +silence and Odo read a mute apprehension in her drooping outline. Every +step brought them nearer to the point they both feared to face, and +though each knew what lay in the other's thoughts neither dared break +the silence. Odo's mind turned anxiously to the incidents of the +morning, to the finding of the ducal coat-of-arms, and to all the +possibilities it suggested. What errand save one could have carried an +envoy from Pianura to that remote hamlet among the hills? He could +scarcely doubt that it was in pursuit of himself that the ducal +messenger travelled; but with what object was the journey undertaken? +Was he to be recalled in obedience to some new whim of the Duke's? Or +had some unforeseen change--he dared not let his thoughts define +it--suddenly made his presence needful in Pianura? It was more probable +that the possibility of his flight with Fulvia had been suggested to the +Duke by the ecclesiastical authorities, and that the same hand which had +parted them before was again secretly at work. In any case, it was Odo's +first business to see his companion safely across the border; and in +that endeavour he had now little fear of being thwarted. If the Duke's +messenger awaited them at Peschiera he waited in vain; and though their +flight across the lake might be known before dawn it would then be no +easy matter to overtake them. + +In an hour's time, as Odo had hoped, they were putting off from the +shore in a blunt-nosed fishing-boat which was the lightest craft the +village could provide. The lake was stark calm, and the two boatmen, +silhouetted against the moonlight, drove the boat forward with even +vigorous strokes. Fulvia, shivering in the autumnal chill, had drawn her +hood close about her and sat silent, her face in shade. Measured by +their secret apprehensions the boat's progress seemed at first +indescribably slow; but gradually the sounds from the shore grew +fainter, and the fugitives felt themselves alone in a world enclosed by +the moonlit circle of the waters. + +As they advanced this sense of isolation and security grew deeper and +more impressive. The motionless surface of the lake was enclosed in a +wall of mountains which the moonlight seemed to vein with marble. A sky +in which the stars were dissolved in white radiance curved high above +their heads; and not a sail flecked the lake or a cloud the sky. The +boat seemed suspended alone in some ethereal medium. + +Presently one of the boatmen spoke to the other and glanced toward the +north. Then the second silently shipped his oar and hoisted the sail. +Hardly had he made it fast when a fresh of wind came down the lake and +they began to stretch across the bay with spreading canvas. The wind was +contrary, but Odo welcomed it, for he saw at once that it would be +quicker work to tack to the other shore than to depend on the oars. The +scene underwent a sudden change. The silver mirror over which they had +appeared to glide was shivered into sparkling fragments, and in the +enveloping rush and murmur of the night the boat woke to a creaking +straining activity. + +The man at the rudder suddenly pointed to a huddle of lights to the +south. "Peschiera." + +Odo laughed. "We shall soon show it our heels," said he. + +The other boatman shrugged his shoulders. "Even an enemy's roof may +serve to keep out the storm," he observed philosophically. + +"The storm? What storm?" + +The man pointed to the north. Against the sky hung a little black cloud, +the merest flaw in the perfect curve of the night. + +"The lake is shrewish at this season," the boatman continued. "Did your +excellencies burn a candle before starting?" + +Odo sat silent, his eyes fixed on the cloud. It was growing visibly now. +With every moment its outline seemed to shift and spread, till its black +menace dilated to the zenith. The bright water still broke about them in +diamond spray; but as the shadow travelled the lake beneath it turned to +lead. Then the storm dropped on them. It fell suddenly out of +mid-heaven. Sky and water grew black and a long shudder ran through the +boat. For a moment she hung back, staggering under a white fury of +blows; then the gale seemed to lift and swing her about and she shot +forward through a long tunnel of glistening blackness, bows on for +Peschiera. + +"The enemy's roof!" thought Odo. He reached for Fulvia's hand and found +it in the darkness. The rain was driving against them now and he drew +her close and wrapped his cloak about her. She lay still, without a +tremor, as though in that shelter no fears could reach her. The night +roared about them and the waters seemed to divide beneath their keel. +Through the tumult Odo shouted to the boatmen to try to make some +harbour north of Peschiera. They shouted back that they must go where +the wind willed and bless the saints if they made any harbour at all; +and Odo saw that Peschiera was their destiny. + +It was past midnight when they set foot on shore. The rain still fell in +torrents and they could hardly grope their way up the steps of the +landing-stage. Odo's first concern was to avoid the inn; but the +boatmen, exhausted by their efforts and impatient to be under shelter, +could not be bribed to seek out at that hour another lodging for the +travellers. Odo dared not expose Fulvia longer to the storm, and +reluctantly they turned toward the inn, trusting that at that hour their +coming would attract little notice. + +A travelling-carriage stood in the courtyard, and somewhat to Odo's +surprise the landlord was still afoot. He led them into the public +parlour, which was alight, with a good fire on the hearth. A gentleman +in travelling-dress sat near this fire, his back to the door, reading by +a shaded candle. He rose as the travellers entered, and Odo recognised +the abate de Crucis. + +The latter advanced with a smile in which pleasure was more visible than +surprise. He bowed slightly to Fulvia, who had shrunk back into the +shadow of the doorway; then he turned to Odo and said: "Cavaliere, I +have travelled six days to overtake you. The Duke of Pianura is dying +and has named you regent." + + +3.7. + +Odo heard a slight movement behind him. He turned and saw that Fulvia +had vanished. He understood her wish for concealment, but its futility +was written in the glance with which de Crucis followed her flight. + +The abate continued to speak in urgent tones. "I implore you," he said, +"to lose no time in accompanying me to Pianura. The situation there is +critical and before now his Highness's death may have placed the reins +in your hands." He glanced at his watch. "If your excellency is not too +tired to set out at once, my horses can be harnessed within the half +hour." + +Odo's heart sank. To have let his thoughts dwell on such a possibility +seemed to have done little to prepare him for its realisation. He hardly +understood what de Crucis was saying: he knew only that an hour before +he had fancied himself master of his fate and that now he was again in +bonds. His first clear thought was that nothing should part him from +Fulvia. + +De Crucis seemed to read the thought. + +"Cavaliere," he said, "at a moment when time is so valuable you will +pardon my directness. You are accompanying to Switzerland a lady who has +placed herself in your charge--" + +Odo made no reply, and the other went on in the same firm but courteous +tone: "Foreseeing that it would be difficult for you to leave her so +abruptly I provided myself, in Venice, with a passport which will take +her safely across the border." He drew a paper from his coat. "This," +said he, handing it to Odo, "is the Papal Nuncio's authorisation to the +Signorina Fulvia Vivaldi, known in religion as Sister Veronica, to +absent herself from Italy for an indefinite period. With this passport +and a good escort your companion will have no difficulty in joining her +friends." + +Excess of astonishment kept Odo silent for a moment; and in that moment +he had as it were a fugitive glimpse into the workings of the great +power which still strove for predominance in Italy. A safe-conduct from +the Papal Nuncio to Fulvia Vivaldi was equivalent to her release from +her vows; and this in turn implied that, for the moment, religious +discipline had been frankly sacrificed to the pressure of political +necessities. How the invisible hands made and unmade the destinies of +those who came in their way! How boldly the Church swept aside her own +defences when they obstructed her course! He was conscious, even at the +moment, of all that men like de Crucis had to say in defence of this +higher expediency, this avowed discrimination between the factors in +each fresh combination of circumstances. He had himself felt the complex +wonder of thoughtful minds before the Church's perpetual miracle of +change disguised in immutability; but now he saw only the meaner side of +the game, its elements of cruelty and falseness; and he felt himself no +more than a frail bark on the dark and tossing seas of ecclesiastical +intrigue. For a moment his heart shuddered back from its fate. + +"No passport, no safe-conduct," he said at length, "can release me from +my duty to the lady who has placed herself in my care. I shall not leave +her till she has joined her friends." + +De Crucis bowed. "This is the answer I expected," he said, not without +sadness. + +Odo glanced at him in surprise. The two men, hitherto, had addressed +each other as strangers; but now something in the abate's tone recalled +to Odo the familiarity of their former intercourse, their deep community +of thought, the significance of the days they had spent together in the +monastery of Monte Cassino. The association of ideas brought before him +the profound sense of responsibility with which, at that time, he had +looked forward to such an hour as this. + +The abate was watching him gravely. + +"Cavaliere," he said, "every instant counts, all you had once hoped to +do for Pianura is now yours to accomplish. But in your absence your +enemies are not idle. His Highness may revoke your appointment at any +hour. Of late I have had his ear, but I have now been near a week +absent, and you know the Duke is not long constant to one +purpose.--Cavaliere," he exclaimed, "I appeal to you not in the name of +the God whom you have come to doubt, but in that of your fellow-men, +whom you have wished to serve." + +Odo looked at him, not without a confused sense of the irony of such an +appeal on such lips, yet with the distinct consciousness that it was +uttered in all sincerity, and that, whatever their superficial diversity +of view, he and de Crucis were at one on those deeper questions that +gave the moment its real significance. + +"It is impossible," he repeated, "that I should go with you." + +De Crucis was again silent, and Odo was aware of the renewed intentness +of his scrutiny. "If the lady--" broke from him once; but he checked +himself and took a turn in the room. + +Meanwhile a resolve was slowly forming itself in Odo. He would not be +false to the call which, since his boyhood, had so often made itself +heard before the voice of pleasure and self-interest; but he would at +least reserve the right to obey it in his own fashion and under +conditions which left his private inclination free. + +"There may be more than one way of serving one's fellows," he said +quietly. "Go back without me, abate. Tell my cousin that I resign my +rights to the succession. I shall live my own life elsewhere, not +unworthily, I hope, but as a private person." + +De Crucis had turned pale. For a moment his habitual self-command seemed +about to fail him; and Odo could not but see that a sincere personal +regret was mingled with the political agent's consciousness of failure. + +He himself was chiefly aware of a sense of relief, of self-recovery, as +though he had at last solved a baffling enigma and found himself once +more at one with his fate. + +Suddenly he heard a step behind him. Fulvia had re-entered the room. She +had put off her drenched cloak, but the hair lay in damp strands on her +forehead, deepening her pallor and the lines of weariness under her +eyes. She moved across the room, carrying her head high and advancing +tranquilly to Odo's side. Even in that moment of confused emotions he +was struck by the nobility of her gait and gesture. + +She turned to de Crucis, and Odo had the immediate intuition that she +had recognised him. + +"Will you let me speak a word privately to the cavaliere Valsecca?" she +said. + +The other bowed silently and turned away. The door closed on him, and +Odo and Fulvia remained alone. For a moment neither spoke; then she +said: "That was the abate de Crucis?" + +He assented. + +She looked at him sadly. "You still believe him to be your friend?" + +"Yes," he answered frankly, "I still believe him to be my friend, and, +spite of his cloth, the friend of justice and humanity. But he is here +simply as the Duke's agent. He has been for some time the governor of +Prince Ferrante." + +"I knew," she murmured, "I knew--" + +He went up to her and caught her hands. "Why do we waste our time upon +him?" he exclaimed impatiently. "Nothing matters but that I am free at +last." + +She drew back, gently releasing herself. "Free--?" + +"My choice is made. I have resigned my right to the succession. I shall +not return to Pianura." + +She continued to stare at him, leaning against the chair from which de +Crucis had risen. + +"Your choice is made! Your choice is made!" she repeated. "And you have +chosen--" + +"You," he said simply. "Will you go to France with me, Fulvia? Will you +be my wife and work with me at a distance for the cause that, in Italy, +we may not serve together? I have never abandoned the aims your father +taught me to strive for; they are dearer, more sacred to me than ever; +but I cannot strive for them alone. I must feel your hand in mine, I +must know that your heart beats with mine, I must hear the voice of +liberty speak to me in your voice--" He broke off suddenly and went up +to her. "All this is nothing," he said. "I love you. I cannot give you +up. That is all." + +For a moment, as he spoke, her face shone with an extraordinary light. +She looked at him intently, as one who seemed to gaze beyond and through +him, at some mystic vision that his words evoked. Then the brightness +faded. + +"The picture you draw is a beautiful one," she said, speaking slowly, in +sweet deliberate tones, "but it is not for me to look on. What you said +last is not true. If you love me it is because we have thought the same +thoughts, dreamed the same dream, heard the same voice--in each other's +voices, perhaps, as you say, but none the less a real voice, apart from +us and above us, and one which would speak to us as loudly if we were +apart--one which both of us must follow to the end." + +He gazed at her eagerly as she spoke; and while he gazed there came to +him, perversely enough, a vision of the life he was renouncing, not as +it concerned the public welfare but in its merely personal aspect: a +vision of the power, the luxury, the sumptuous background of traditional +state and prerogative in which his artistic and intellectual tastes, as +well as his easy impulses of benevolence, would find unchecked and +immediate gratification. It was the first time that he had been aware of +such lurking influences under his most generous aspirations; but even as +Fulvia ceased to speak the vision faded, leaving only an intenser +longing to bend her will to his. + +"You are right," he rejoined; "we must follow that voice to the end; but +why not together? Your father himself often questioned whether the +patriot could not serve his people better at a distance than in their +midst. In France, where the new ideas are not only tolerated but put in +practice, we shall be able to study their effects and to learn how they +may best be applied to the relief of our own unhappy people; and as a +private person, independent of party and patronage, could I not do more +than as the nominal head of a narrow priest-ridden government, where +every act and word would be used by my enemies to injure me and the +cause I represent?" + +The vigour and rapidity of the attack, and the promptness with which he +converted her argument to his own use, were not without visible effect. +Odo saw his words reflected in the wavering glow of Fulvia's cheek; but +almost at once she regained control of her pulses and faced him with +that serenity which seemed to come to her at such moments. + +"What you say might be true," she answered, "were your opportunities +indeed restricted to the regency. But the little prince's life is known +to hang on a thread: at any moment you may be Duke. And you will not +deny that as Duke of Pianura you can serve your people better than as an +obscure pamphleteer in Paris." + +Odo made an impatient gesture. "Are you so sure?" he said. "Even as Duke +I must be the puppet of powers greater than myself--of Austria, of Rome, +nay, of the wealthy nobles who will always league themselves with their +sovereign's enemies rather than suffer a hand upon their privileges. And +even if I were fortunate enough to outwit my masters and rule indeed, +over what a toy kingdom should I reign! How small a number would be +benefited! How little the cause would be helped by my example! As an +obscure pamphleteer I might reach the hearts of thousands and speak to +great kings on their thrones; as Duke of Pianura, fighting single-handed +to reform the laws of my little state, I should rank at best with the +other petty sovereigns who are amusing themselves all over Italy with +agricultural experiments and improved methods of cheese-making." + +Again the brightness shone in Fulvia's face. "How you love me!" she said +as he paused; and went on, restraining him with a gesture of the +gentlest dignity: "For it is love that speaks thus in you and not +reason; and you know as I do that the duty to which a man is born comes +before any of his own choosing. You are called to serve liberty on a +throne, I in some obscure corner of the private life. We can no more +exchange our duties than our stations; but if our lives divide, our +purpose remains one, and as pious persons recall each other in the +mystery of the Sacrament, so we shall meet in spirit in the new religion +we profess." + +Her voice gained strength and measure as she spoke, and Odo felt that +all that passion could urge must spend itself in vain against such high +security of spirit. + +"Go, cavaliere," she continued, "I implore you to lose no time in +reaching Pianura. Occasion is short-lived, and an hour's lingering may +cost you the regency, and with it the chance of gaining a hold on your +people. I will not expatiate, as some might, on the power and dignities +that await you. You are no adventurer plotting to steal a throne, but a +soldier pledged to his post." She moved close to him and suddenly caught +his hand and raised it to her lips. "Your excellency," said she, "has +deigned to look for a moment on a poor girl that crossed your path. Now +your eyes must be on your people, who will yet have cause to love and +bless you as she does." + +She shone on him with a weeping brightness that dissolved his very soul. + +"Ah," he cried, "you have indeed learned your lesson well! I admire with +what stoic calmness you pronounce my doom, with what readiness you +dispose of my future!" + +"It is not mine to dispose of," she caught him up, "nor yours; but +belongs, as much as any slave's to his master, to the people you are +called to rule. Think for how many generations their unheeded +sufferings, their unrewarded toil, have paid for the pomp and pleasure +of your house! That is the debt you are called on to acquit, the wrong +you are pledged to set right." + +Odo was silent. She had found the unanswerable word. Yes, he was called +on to acquit the accumulated debt of that long unrighteous rule: it was +he who must pay, if need be with the last drop of his blood, for the +savage victories of Bracciaforte, the rapacity of Guidobaldo, the +magnificence of Ascanio, the religious terrors and secret vices of the +poor Duke now nearing his end. All these passions had preyed on the +people, on the tillers and weavers and vine-dressers, obscure servants +of a wasteful greatness: theirs had been the blood that renewed the +exhausted veins of their rulers, through generation after generation of +dumb labour and privation. And the noblest passions, as well as the +basest, had been nourished at the same cost. Every flower in the ducal +gardens, every picture on the palace walls, every honour in the ancient +annals of the house, had been planted, paid for, fought for by the +people. With mute inconscient irony the two powers had faced each other +for generations: the subjects never guessing that their sovereigns were +puppets of their own making, the Dukes that all their pomp and +circumstance were but a borrowed motley. Now the evil wrought in +ignorance remained to be undone in the light of the world's new +knowledge: the discovery of that universal brotherhood which Christ had +long ago proclaimed, and which, after so many centuries, those who +denied Christ were the first to put in practice. Hour by hour, day by +day, at the cost of every personal inclination, of all that endears life +and ennobles failure, Odo must set himself to redeem the credit of his +house. He saw his way straight before him; but in that hour of insight +his heart's instinct of self-preservation made one last effort against +fate. + +He turned to Fulvia. + +"You are right," he said; "I have no choice. You have shown me the way; +but must I travel it alone? You ask me to give up at a stroke all that +makes life desirable: to set forth, without a backward glance, on the +very road that leads me farthest from you! Yesterday I might have +obeyed; but how can I turn today from this near view of my happiness?" + +He paused a moment and she seemed about to answer; but he hurried on +without giving her time. "Fulvia, if you ask this sacrifice of me, is +there none you will make in return? If you bid me go forth and work for +my people, will you not come with me and work for them too?" He +stretched out his hands, in a gesture that seemed to sum up his infinite +need of her, and for a moment they faced each other, silenced by the +nearness of great issues. + +She knew well enough what he offered. According to the code of the day +there was no dishonour in the offer and it did not occur to her to +resent it. But she looked at him sadly and he read her refusal in the +look. + +"The Regent's mistress?" she said slowly. "The key to the treasury, the +back-door to preferment, the secret trafficker in titles and +appointments? That is what I should stand for--and it is not to such +services that you must even appear to owe your power. I will not say +that I have my own work to do; for the dearest service I could perform +would be to help you in yours. But to do this I must stand aside. To be +near you I must go from you. To love you I must give you up." + +She looked him full in the eyes as she spoke; then she went up to him +and kissed him. It was the first kiss she had given him since she had +thrown herself in his arms in her father's garden; but now he felt her +whole being on her lips. + +He would have held her fast, forgetting everything in the sweetness of +her surrender; but she drew back quickly and, before he could guess her +intention, throw open the door of the room to which de Crucis had +withdrawn. + +"Signor abate!" she said. + +The Jesuit came forward. Odo was dimly aware that, for an instant, the +two measured each other; then Fulvia said quietly: + +"His excellency goes with you to Pianura." + +What more she said, or what de Crucis answered, he could never afterward +recall. He had a confused sense of having cried out a last unavailing +protest, faintly, inarticulately, like a man struggling to make himself +heard in a dream; then the room grew dark about him, and in its stead he +saw the old chapel at Donnaz, with its dimly-gleaming shrine, and heard +the voice of the chaplain, harsh and yet strangely shaken:--"My chief +prayer for you is that, should you be raised to this eminence, it may be +at a moment when such advancement seems to thrust you in the dust." + +Odo lifted his head and saw de Crucis standing alone before him. + +"I am ready," he said. + + +BOOK IV. THE REWARD. + +Where are the portraits of those who have perished in spite of their +vows? + + +4.1. + +One bright March day in the year 1783 the bells of Pianura began to ring +at sunrise, and with their first peal the townsfolk were abroad. + +The city was already dressed for a festival. A canopy of crimson velvet, +surmounted by the ducal crown and by the "Humilitas" of the Valseccas, +concealed the columns of the Cathedral porch and fell in royal folds +about the featureless porphyry lions who had seen so many successive +rulers ascend the steps between their outstretched paws. The frieze of +ramping and running animals around the ancient baptistery was concealed +by heavy green garlands alternating with religious banners; and every +church and chapel had draped its doorway with crimson and placed above +the image of its patron saint the ducal crown of Pianura. + +No less sumptuous was the adornment of the private dwellings. The great +families--the Trescorri, the Belverdi, the Pievepelaghi--had outdone +each other in the display of golden-threaded tapestries and Genoese +velvets emblazoned with armorial bearings; and even the sombre facade of +the Boscofolto palace showed a rich drapery surmounted by the +quarterings of the new Marchioness. + +But it was not only the palace-fronts that had put on a holiday dress. +The contagion had spread to the poorer quarters, and in many a narrow +street and crooked lane, where surely no part of the coming pageant +might be expected to pass, the crazy balconies and unglazed windows were +decked out with scraps of finery: a yard or two of velvet filched from +the state hangings of some noble house, a torn and discoloured church +banner, even a cast-off sacque of brocade or a peasant's holiday +kerchief, skilfully draped about the rusty iron and held in place by +pots of clove-pink and sweet basil. The half-ruined palace which had +once housed Gamba and Momola showed a few shreds of colour on its sullen +front, and the abate Crescenti's modest house, wedged in a corner of the +city walls, was dressed like the altar of a Lady Chapel; while even the +tanners' quarter by the river displayed its festoons of coloured paper +and tinsel, ingeniously twisted into the semblance of a crown. + +For the new Duke, who was about to enter his capital in state, was +extraordinarily popular with all classes. His popularity, as yet, was +mainly due to a general detestation of the rule he had replaced; but +such a sentiment gives to a new sovereign an impetus which, if he knows +how to use it, will carry him a long way toward success; and among those +in the Duke's confidence it was rumoured that he was qualified not only +to profit by the expectations he had raised but to fulfil them. The last +months of the late Duke's life had plunged the duchy into such political +and financial disorder that all parties were agreed in welcoming a +change. Even those that had most to lose by the accession of the new +sovereign, or most to fear from the policy he was known to favour, +preferred the possibility of new evils to a continuance of present +conditions. The expertest angler in troubled waters may find waters too +troubled for his sport; and under a government where power is passed +from hand to hand like the handkerchief in a children's game, the most +adroit time-server may find himself grasping the empty air. + +It would indeed have been difficult to say who had ruled during the year +preceding the Duke's death. Prime ministers had succeeded each other +like the clowns in a harlequinade. Just as the Church seemed to have +gained the upper hand some mysterious revulsion of feeling would fling +the Duke toward Trescorre and the liberals; and when these had +attempted, by some trifling concession to popular feeling, to restore +the credit of the government, their sovereign, seized by religious +scruples, would hastily recall the clerical party. So the administration +staggered on, reeling from one policy to another, clutching now at this +support and now at that, while Austria and the Holy See hung on its +steps, awaiting the inevitable fall. + +A cruel winter and a fresh outbreak of the silkworm disease had +aggravated the misery of the people, while the mounting extravagance of +the Duchess had put a last strain on the exhausted treasury. The +consequent increase of the salt-tax roused such popular fury that Father +Ignazio, who was responsible for the measure, was dismissed by the +panic-stricken Duke, and Trescorre, as usual, called in to repair his +rival's mistake. But it would have taken a greater statesman than +Trescorre to reach the root of such evils; and the new minister +succeeded neither in pacifying the people nor in reassuring his +sovereign. + +Meanwhile the Duke was sinking under the mysterious disease which had +hung upon him since his birth. It was hinted that his last hours were +darkened by hallucinations, and the pious pictured him as haunted by +profligate visions, while the free-thinkers maintained that he was the +dupe of priestly jugglery. Toward the end there was the inevitable +rumour of acqua tofana, and the populace cried out that the Jesuits were +at work again. It seems more probable, however, that his Highness, who +had assisted at the annual festival of the Madonna del Monte, and had +mingled on foot with the swarm of devotees thronging thither from all +parts, had contracted a pestilent disorder from one of the pilgrims. +Certain it is that death came in a dreadful form. The Duchess, alarmed +for the health of Prince Ferrante, fled with him to the dower-house by +the Piana; and the strange nature of his Highness's distemper caused +many to follow her example. Even the Duke's servants, and the quacks +that lived on his bounty, were said to have abandoned the death-chamber; +and an English traveller passing through Pianura boasted that, by the +payment of a small fee to the palace porter, he had obtained leave to +enter his Highness's closet and peer through the doorway at the dying +man. However this may be, it would appear that the Duke's confessor--a +monk of the Barnabite order--was not to be found when his Highness +called for him; and the servant sent forth in haste to fetch a priest +returned, strangely enough, with the abate Crescenti, whose suspected +orthodoxy had so long made him the object of the Duke's detestation. He +it was who alone witnessed the end of that tormented life, and knew upon +what hopes or fears it closed. + +Meanwhile it appeared that the Duchess's precautions were not unfounded; +for Prince Ferrante presently sickened of the same malady which had cut +off his father, and when the Regent, travelling post-haste, arrived in +Pianura, he had barely time to pass from the Duke's obsequies to the +death-bed of the heir. + +Etiquette required that a year of mourning should elapse between the +accession of the new sovereign and his state entry into his capital; so +that if Duke Odo's character and intentions were still matter of +conjecture to his subjects, his appearance was already familiar to them. +His youth, his good looks, his open mien, his known affability of +manner, were so many arguments in his favour with an impressionable and +impulsive people; and it was perhaps natural that he should interpret as +a tribute to his principles the sympathy which his person aroused. + +It is certain that he fancied himself, at that time, as well-acquainted +with his subjects as they believed themselves to be with him; and the +understanding supposed to exist was productive of equal satisfaction to +both sides. The new Duke had thrown himself with extraordinary zeal into +the task of loving and understanding his people. It had been his refuge +from a hundred doubts and uncertainties, the one clearly-defined object +in an obscure and troubled fate. And their response had, almost +immediately, turned his task into a pleasure. It was so easy to rule if +one's subjects loved one! And so easy to be loved if only one loved +enough in return! If he did not, like the Pope, describe himself to his +people as the servant of the servants of God, he at least longed to make +them feel that this new gospel of service was the base on which all +sovereignty must henceforth repose. + +It was not that his first year of power had been without moments of +disillusionment. He had had more than one embittering experience of +intrigue and perfidy, more than one glimpse of the pitfalls besetting +his course; but his confidence in his own powers and his faith in his +people remained unshaken, and with two such beliefs to sustain him it +seemed as though no difficulties would prove insurmountable. + +Such at least was the mood in which, on the morning of his entry into +Pianura, he prepared to face his subjects. Strangely enough, the state +entry began at Ponte di Po, the very spot where, on a stormy midnight +some seven years earlier, the new Duke had landed, a fugitive from his +future realm. Here, according to an ancient custom, the sovereign +awaited the arrival of his ministers and court; and then, taking seat in +his state barge, proceeded by water to Pianura, followed by an escort of +galleys. + +A great tent hung with tapestries had been set up on the river-bank; and +here Odo awaited the approach of the barge. As it touched at the +landing-stage he stepped out, and his prime minister, Count Trescorre, +advanced toward him, accompanied by the dignitaries of the court. +Trescorre had aged in the intervening years. His delicate features had +withered like a woman's, and the fine irony of his smile had taken an +edge of cruelty. His face suggested a worn engraving, the lines of which +have been deepened by a too-incisive instrument. + +The functionaries attending him were, with few exceptions, the same who +had figured in a like capacity at the late sovereign's court. With the +passing of the years they had grown heavier or thinner, more ponderous +or stiffer in their movements, and as they advanced, in their splendid +but unwieldy court dress, they seemed to Odo like superannuated +marionettes whose springs and wires have rusted from disuse. + +The barge was a magnificent gilded Bucentaur, presented to the late +Duke's father by the Doge of Venice, and carved by his Serenity's most +famous sculptors in wood. Tritons and sea-goddesses encircled the prow +and throned above the stern, and the interior of the deck-house was +adorned with delicate rilievi and painted by Tiepolo with scenes from +the myth of Amphitrite. Here the new Duke seated himself, surrounded by +his household, and presently the heavy craft, rowed by sixty +galley-slaves, was moving slowly up the river toward Pianura. + +In the clear spring light the old walled city, with its domes and +towers, rose pleasantly among budding orchards and fields. Close at hand +were the crenellations of Bracciaforte's keep, and just beyond, the +ornate cupola of the royal chapel, symbolising in their proximity the +successive ambitions of the ducal race; while the round-arched campanile +of the Cathedral and the square tower of the mediaeval town-hall sprang +up side by side, marking the centre of the free city which the Valseccas +had subjugated. It seemed to the new Duke, who was given to such +reflections, that he could read his race's history in that broken +skyline; but he was soon snatched from its perusal by the cheers of the +crowd who thronged the river-bank to greet his approach. + +As the Bucentaur touched at the landing-stage and Odo stepped out on the +red carpet strewn with flowers, while cannon thundered from the walls +and the bells burst into renewed jubilation, he felt himself for the +first time face to face with his people. The very ceremonial which in +other cases kept them apart was now a means of closer communication; for +it was to show himself to them that he was making a public entry into +his capital, and it was to see him that the city had poured forth her +shouting throngs. The shouts rose and widened as he advanced, enveloping +him in a mounting tide of welcome, in which cannon, bells and +voices--the decreed and the spontaneous acclamations--were +indistinguishably merged. In like manner, approbation of his person was +mingled with a simple enjoyment of the show of which he formed a part; +and it must have taken a more experienced head than Odo's to distinguish +between the two currents of enthusiasm on which he felt himself swept +forward. + +The pageant was indeed brilliant enough to justify the popular +transport; and the fact that the new Duke formed a worthy centre to so +much magnificence was not lost on his splendour-loving subjects. The +late sovereign had so long held himself aloof that the city was +unaccustomed to such shows, and as the procession wound into the square +before the Cathedral, where the thickest of the crowd was massed, the +very pealing of the church-bells was lost in the roar of human voices. + +Don Serafino, the Bishop's nephew, and now Master of the Horse, rode +first, on a splendid charger, preceded by four trumpets and followed by +his esquires; then came the court dignitaries, attended by their pages +and staffieri in gala liveries, the marshals with their staves, the +masters of ceremony, and the clergy mounted on mules trapped with +velvet, each led by two running footmen. The Duke rode next, alone and +somewhat pale. Two pages of arms, helmeted and carrying lances, walked +at his horse's bridle; and behind him came his household and ministers, +with their gentlemen and a long train of servants, followed by the +regiment of light horse which closed the procession. + +The houses surrounding the square afforded the best point of view to +those unwilling to mix with the crowd in the streets; and among the +spectators thronging the windows and balconies, and leaning over the +edge of the leads, were many who, from one motive or another, felt a +personal interest in the new Duke. The Marchioness of Boscofolto had +accepted a seat in the windows of the Pievepelaghi palace, which formed +an angle of the square, and she and her hostess--the same lady who had +been relieved of her diamond necklace by footpads suspected of wearing +the Duchess's livery--sat observing the scene behind the garlanded +balconies of the piano nobile. In the mezzanin windows of a neighbouring +wine-shop the bookseller Andreoni, with half a dozen members of the +philosophical society to which Odo had belonged, peered above the heads +of the crowd thronging the arcade, and through a dormer of the leads +Carlo Gamba, the assistant in the ducal library, looked out on the +triumph of his former patron. Among the Church dignities grouped about +his Highness was Father Ignazio, the late Duke's confessor, now Prior of +the Dominicans, and said to be withdrawn from political life. Seated on +his richly-trapped mule he observed the scene with impassive face; while +from his place in the long line of minor clergy, the abate Crescenti, +with eyes of infinite tenderness and concern, watched the young Duke +solemnly ascending the Cathedral steps. + +In the porch the Bishop waited, impressive as ever in his white and gold +dalmatic, against the red robes of the chapter. Preceded by two +chamberlains Odo mounted the steps amid the sudden silence of the +people. The great bronze portals of the Cathedral, which were never +opened save on occasions of state, swung slowly inward, pouring a wave +of music and incense out upon the hushed sunlit square; then they closed +again, engulphing the brilliant procession--the Duke, the Bishop, the +clergy and the court--and leaving the populace to scatter in search of +the diversions prepared for them at every street-corner. + +It was not till late that night that the new Duke found himself alone. +He had withdrawn at last from the torch-lit balcony overlooking the +square, whither the shouts of his subjects had persistently recalled +him. Silence was falling on the illuminated streets, and the dimness of +midnight upon the sky through which rocket after rocket had torn its +brilliant furrows. In the palace a profounder stillness reigned. Since +his accession Odo, out of respect for the late Duke, had lodged in one +of the wings of the great building; but tradition demanded that he +should henceforth inhabit the ducal apartments, and thither, at the +close of the day's ceremonies, his gentlemen had conducted him. + +Trescorre had asked permission to wait on him before he slept; and he +knew that the prime minister would be kept late by his conference with +the secret police, whose nightly report could not be handed in till the +festivities were over. Meanwhile Odo was in no mood for sleep. He sat +alone in the closet, still hung with saints' images and jewelled +reliquaries, where his cousin had so often given him audience, and +whence, through the open door, he could see the embroidered curtains and +plumed baldachin of the state bed which was presently to receive him. +All day his heart had beat with high ambitions; but now a weight sank +upon his spirit. The reaction from the tumultuous welcome of the streets +to the closely-guarded silence of the palace made him feel how unreal +was the fancied union between himself and his people, how insuperable +the distance that tradition and habit had placed between them. In the +narrow closet where his predecessor had taken refuge from the detested +task of reigning, the new Duke felt the same moral lassitude steal over +him. How was such a puny will as his to contend against the great forces +of greed and prejudice? All the influences arrayed against +him--tradition, superstition, the lust of power, the arrogance of +race--seemed concentrated in the atmosphere of that silent room, with +its guarded threshold, its pious relics, and lying on the desk in the +embrasure of the window, the manuscript litany which the late Duke had +not lived to complete. + +Oppressed by his surroundings, Odo rose and entered the bed-chamber. A +lamp burned before the image of the Madonna at the head of the bed, and +two lighted flambeaux flanked the picture of the Last Judgment on the +opposite wall. Odo remembered the look of terror which the Duke had +fixed on the picture during their first strange conversation. A +praying-stool stood beneath it, and it was said that here, rather than +before the Virgin's image, the melancholy prince performed his private +devotions. The horrors of the scene were depicted with a childish +minuteness of detail, as though the painter had sought to produce an +impression of moral anguish by the accumulation of physical sufferings; +and just such puerile images of the wrath to come may have haunted the +mysterious recesses of the Duke's imagination. Crescenti had told Odo +how the dying man's thoughts had seemed to centre upon this dreadful +subject, and how again and again, amid his ravings, he had cried out +that the picture must be burned, as though the sight of it was become +intolerable to him. + +Odo's own mind, across which the events and emotions of the day still +threw the fantastic shadows of an expiring illumination, was wrought to +the highest state of impressionability. He saw in a flash all that the +picture must have symbolised to his cousin's fancy; and in his desire to +reconstruct that dying vision of fleshly retribution, he stepped close +to the diptych, resting a knee on the stool beneath it. As he did so, +the picture suddenly opened, disclosing the inner panel. Odo caught up +one of the flambeaux, and in its light, as on a sunlit wave, there +stepped forth to him the lost Venus of Giorgione. + +He knew the picture in an instant. There was no mistaking the glow of +the limbs, the midsummer languor of the smile, the magical atmosphere in +which the gold of sunlight, of autumn leaves, of amber grapes, seemed +fused by some lost alchemy of the brush. As he gazed, the scene changed, +and he saw himself in a darkened room with cabalistic hangings. He saw +Heiligenstern's tall figure, towering in supernatural light, the Duke +leaning eagerly forward, the Duchess with set lips and troubled eyes, +the little prince bent wonderingly above the magic crystal... + +A step in the antechamber announced Trescorre's approach. Odo returned +to the cabinet and the minister advanced with a low bow. The two men had +had time to grow accustomed to the new relation in which they stood to +one another, yet there were moments when, to Odo, the past seemed to lie +like fallen leaves beneath Trescorre's steps--Donna Laura, fond and +foolish in her weeds, Gamba, Momola, and the pure featherhead Cerveno, +dying at nineteen of a distemper because he had stood in the other's +way. The impression was strong on him now--but it was only momentary. +Habit reasserted itself, and the minister effaced the man. Odo signed to +Trescorre to seat himself and the latter silently presented his report. + +He was a diligent and capable administrator, and however mixed might be +the motives which attached him to his sovereign, they did not interfere +with the exact performance of his duties. Odo knew this and was grateful +for it. He knew that Trescorre, ambitious of the regency, had intrigued +against him to the last. He knew that an intemperate love of power was +the mainspring of that seemingly dispassionate nature. But death had +crossed Trescorre's schemes; and he was too adroit an opportunist not to +see that his best chance now lay in making himself indispensable to his +new sovereign. Of all this Odo was aware; but his own motives in +appointing Trescorre did not justify his looking for great +disinterestedness in his minister. The irony of circumstances had forced +them upon each other, and each knew that the other understood the +situation and was prepared to make the best of it. + +The Duke presently rose, and handed back to Trescorre the reports of the +secret police. They were the documents he most disliked to handle. + +"You have acquitted yourself admirably of your disagreeable duties," he +said with a smile. "I hope I have done as well. At any rate the day is +over." + +Trescorre returned the smile, with his usual tinge of irony. "Another +has already begun," said he. + +"Ah," said Odo, with a touch of impatience, "are we not to sleep on our +laurels?" + +Trescorre bowed. "Austria, your Highness, never sleeps." + +Odo looked at him with surprise. "What do you mean?" + +"That I have to remind your Highness--" + +"Of what--?" + +Trescorre had one of his characteristic pauses. + +"That the Duke of Monte Alloro is in failing health--and that her +Highness's year of widowhood ended yesterday." + +There was a silence. Odo, who had reseated himself, rose and walked to +the window. The shutters stood open and he looked out over the formless +obscurity of the gardens. Above the intervening masses of foliage the +Borromini wing raised its vague grey bulk. He saw lights in Maria +Clementina's apartments and wondered if she still waked. An hour or two +earlier she had given him her hand in the contra-dance at the state +ball. It was her first public appearance since the late Duke's death, +and with the laying off of her weeds she had regained something of her +former brilliancy. At the moment he had hardly observed her: she had +seemed a mere inanimate part of the pageant of which he formed the +throbbing centre. But now the sense of her nearness pressed upon him. +She seemed close to him, ingrown with his fate; and with the curious +duality of vision that belongs to such moments he beheld her again as +she had first shone on him--the imperious child whom he had angered by +stroking her spaniel, the radiant girl who had welcomed him on his +return to Pianura. Trescorre's voice aroused him. + +"At any moment," the minister was saying, "her Highness may fall heir to +Monte Alloro. It is the moment for which Austria waits. There is always +an Archduke ready--and her Highness is still a young woman." + +Odo turned slowly from the window. "I have told you that this is +impossible," he murmured. + +Trescorre looked down and thoughtfully fingered the documents in his +hands. + +"Your Highness," said he, "is as well-acquainted as your ministers with +the difficulties that beset us. Monte Alloro is one of the richest +states in Italy. It is a pity to alienate such revenues from Pianura." + +The new Duke was silent. His minister's words were merely the audible +expression of his own thoughts. He knew that the future welfare of +Pianura depended on the annexation of Monte Alloro. He owed it to his +people to unite the two sovereignties. + +At length he said: "You are building on an unwarrantable assumption." + +Trescorre raised an interrogative glance. + +"You assume her Highness's consent." + +The minister again paused; and his pause seemed to flash an ironical +light on the poverty of the other's defences. + +"I come straight from her Highness," said he quietly, "and I assume +nothing that I am not in a position to affirm." + +Odo turned on him with a start. "Do I understand that you have +presumed--?" + +His minister raised a deprecating hand. "Sir," said he, "the Archduke's +envoy is in Pianura." + + +4.2. + +Odo, on his return to Pianura, had taken it for granted that de Crucis +would remain in his service. + +There had been little talk between the two on the way. The one was deep +in his own wretchedness, and the other had too fine a tact to intrude on +it; but Odo felt the nearness of that penetrating sympathy which was +almost a gift of divination. He was glad to have de Crucis at his side +at a moment when any other companionship had been intolerable; and in +the egotism of his misery he imagined that he could dispose as he +pleased of his friend's future. + +After the little Prince's death, however, de Crucis had at once asked +permission to leave Pianura. He was perhaps not displeased by Odo's +expressions of surprise and disappointment; but they did not alter his +decision. He reminded the new Duke that he had been called to Pianura as +governor to the late heir, and that, death having cut short his task, he +had now no farther pretext for remaining. + +Odo listened with a strange sense of loneliness. The responsibilities of +his new state weighed heavily on the musing speculative side of his +nature. Face to face with the sudden summons to action, with the +necessity for prompt and not too-curious choice of means and method, he +felt a stealing apathy of the will, an inclination toward the subtle +duality of judgment that had so often weakened and diffused his +energies. At such a crisis it seemed to him that, de Crucis gone, he +remained without a friend. He urged the abate to reconsider his +decision, begging him to choose a post about his person. + +De Crucis shook his head. + +"The offer," said he, "is more tempting to me than your Highness can +guess; but my business here is at an end, and must be taken up +elsewhere. My calling is that of a pedagogue. When I was summoned to +take charge of Prince Ferrante's education I gave up my position in the +household of Prince Bracciano not only because I believed that I could +make myself more useful in training a future sovereign than the son of a +private nobleman, but also," he added with a smile, "because I was +curious to visit a state of which your Highness had so often spoken, and +because I believed that my residence here might enable me to be of +service to your Highness. In this I was not mistaken; and I will gladly +remain in Pianura long enough to give your Highness such counsels as my +experience suggests; but that business discharged, I must ask leave to +go." + +From this position no entreaties could move him; and so fixed was his +resolve that it confirmed the idea that he was still a secret agent of +the Jesuits. Strangely enough, this did not prejudice Odo, who was more +than ever under the spell of de Crucis's personal influence. Though Odo +had been acquainted with many professed philosophers he had never met +among them a character so nearly resembling the old stoical ideal of +temperance and serenity, and he could never be long with de Crucis +without reflecting that the training which could form and nourish so +noble a nature must be other than the world conceived it. + +De Crucis, however, frankly pointed out that his former connection with +the Jesuits was too well known in Pianura not to be an obstacle in the +way of his usefulness. + +"I own," said he, "that before the late Duke's death I exerted such +influence as I possessed to bring about your Highness's appointment as +regent; but the very connections that favoured me with your predecessor +must stand in the way of my serving your Highness. Nothing could be more +fatal to your prospects than to have it said that you had chosen a +former Jesuit as your advisor. In the present juncture of affairs it is +needful that you should appear to be in sympathy with the liberals, and +that whatever reforms you attempt should seem the result of popular +pressure rather than of your own free choice. Such an attitude may not +flatter the sovereign's pride, and is in fact merely a higher form of +expediency; but it is one which the proudest monarchs of Europe are +finding themselves constrained to take if they would preserve their +power and use it effectually." + +Soon afterward de Crucis left Pianura; but before leaving he imparted to +Odo the result of his observations while in the late Duke's service. De +Crucis's view was that of the more thoughtful men of his day who had not +broken with the Church, yet were conscious that the whole social system +of Europe was in need of renovation. The movement of ideas in France, +and their rapid transformation into legislative measures of unforeseen +importance, had as yet made little impression in Italy; and the clergy +in particular lived in serene unconsciousness of any impending change. +De Crucis, however, had been much in France, and had frequented the +French churchmen, who (save in the highest ranks of the hierarchy) were +keenly alive to the need of reform, and ready, in many instances, to +sacrifice their own privileges in the public cause. These men, living in +their provincial cures or abbeys, were necessarily in closer contact +with the people, better acquainted with their needs and more competent +to relieve them, than the city demagogues theorising in Parisian +coffee-houses on the Rights of Man and the Code of Nature. But the voice +of the demagogues carried farther than that of the clergy; and such +revolutionary notions as crossed the Alps had more to do with the +founding of future Utopias than with the remedy of present evils. + +Even in France the temperate counsels of the clergy were being overruled +by the sentimental imprudences of the nobles and by the bluster of the +politicians. It was to put Odo on his guard against these two influences +that de Crucis was chiefly anxious; but the intelligent cooperation of +the clergy was sadly lacking in his administrative scheme. He knew that +Odo could not count on the support of the Church party, and that he must +make what use he could of the liberals in his attempts at reform. The +clergy of Pianura had been in power too long to believe in the necessity +of conceding anything to the new spirit; and since the banishment of the +Society of Jesus the presumption of the other orders had increased +instead of diminishing. The priests, whatever their failings, had +attached the needy by a lavish bounty; and they had a powerful auxiliary +in the Madonna of the Mountain, who drew pilgrims from all parts of +Italy and thus contributed to the material welfare of the state as well +as to its spiritual privileges. To the common people their Virgin was +not only a protection against disease and famine, but a kind of oracle, +who by divers signs and tokens gave evidence of divine approval or +displeasure; and it was naturally to the priests that the faithful +looked for a reading of these phenomena. This gave the clergy a powerful +hold on the religious sensibilities of the people; and more than once +the manifest disapproval of the Mountain Madonna had turned the scales +against some economic measure which threatened the rights of her augurs. + +De Crucis understood the force of these traditional influences; but Odo, +in common with the more cultivated men of his day, had lived too long in +an atmosphere of polite scepticism to measure the profound hold of +religion on the consciousness of the people. Christ had been so long +banished from the drawing-room that it was has hard to believe that He +still ruled in field and vineyard. To men of Odo's stamp the piety of +the masses was a mere superficial growth, a kind of mental mould to be +dried off by the first beams of knowledge. He did not conceive it as a +habit of thought so old that it had become instinctive, so closely +intertwined with every sense that to hope to eradicate it was like +trying to drain all the blood from a man's body without killing him. He +knew nothing of the unwearied workings of that power, patient as a +natural force, which, to reach spirits darkened by ignorance and eyes +dulled by toil, had stooped to a thousand disguises, humble, tender and +grotesque--peopling the earth with a new race of avenging or protecting +deities, guarding the babe in the cradle and the cattle in the stalls, +blessing the good man's vineyard or blighting the crops of the +blasphemer, guiding the lonely traveller over torrents and precipices, +smoothing the sea and hushing the whirlwind, praying with the mother +over her sick child, and watching beside the dead in plague-house and +lazaret and galley--entering into every joy and grief of the obscurest +consciousness, penetrating to depths of misery which no human compassion +ever reached, and redressing by a prompt and summary justice wrongs of +which no human legislation took account. + +Odo's first act after his accession had been to recall the political +offenders banished by his predecessor; and so general was the custom of +marking the opening of a new reign by an amnesty to political exiles, +that Trescorre offered no opposition to the measure. Andreoni and his +friends at once returned to Pianura, and Gamba at the same time emerged +from his mysterious hiding-place. He was the only one of the group who +struck Odo as having any administrative capacity; yet he was more likely +to be of use as a pamphleteer than as an office-holder. As to the other +philosophers, they were what their name implied: thoughtful and +high-minded men, with a generous conception of their civic duties, and a +noble readiness to fulfil them at any cost, but untrained to action, and +totally ignorant of the complex science of government. + +Odo found the hunchback changed. He had withered like Trescorre, but +under the harsher blight of physical privations; and his tongue had an +added bitterness. He replied evasively to all enquiries as to what had +become of him during his absence from Pianura; but on Odo's asking for +news of Momola and the child he said coldly: "They are both dead." + +"Dead?" Odo exclaimed. "Together?" + +"There was scarce an hour between them," Gamba answered. "She said she +must keep alive as long as the boy needed her--after that she turned on +her side and died." + +"But of what disorder? How came they to sicken at the same time?" + +The hunchback stood silent, his eyes on the ground. Suddenly he raised +them and looked full at the Duke. + +"Those that saw them called it the plague." + +"The plague? Good God!" Odo slowly returned his stare. "Is it +possible--" he paused--"that she too was at the feast of the Madonna?" + +"She was there, but it was not there that she contracted the distemper." + +"Not there--?" + +"No; for she dragged herself from her bed to go." + +There was another silence. The hunchback had lowered his eyes. The Duke +sat motionless, resting his head on his hand. Suddenly he made a gesture +of dismissal... + +Two months after his state entry into Pianura Odo married his cousin's +widow. + +It surprised him, in looking back, to see how completely the thought of +Maria Clementina had passed out of his life, how wholly he had ceased to +reckon with her as one of the factors in his destiny. At her child's +death-bed he had seen in her only the stricken mother, centred in her +loss, and recalling, in an agony of tears, the little prince's prophetic +vision of the winged playmates who came to him carrying toys from +Paradise. After Prince Ferrante's death she had gone on a long visit to +her uncle of Monte Alloro; and since her return to Pianura she had lived +in the dower-house, refusing Odo's offer of a palace in the town. She +had first shown herself to the public on the day of the state entry; and +now, her year of widowhood over, she was again the consort of a reigning +Duke of Pianura. + +No one was more ignorant than her husband of the motives determining her +act. As Duchess of Monte Alloro she might have enjoyed the wealth and +independence which her uncle's death had bestowed on her, but in +marrying again she resigned the right to her new possessions, which +became vested in the crown of Pianura. Was it love that had prompted the +sacrifice? As she stood beside him on the altar steps of the Cathedral, +as she rode home beside him between their shouting subjects, Odo asked +himself the question again and again. The years had dealt lightly with +her, and she had crossed the threshold of the thirties with the assured +step of a woman who has no cause to fear what awaits her. But her blood +no longer spoke her thoughts, and the transparence of youth had changed +to a brilliant density. He could not penetrate beneath the surface of +her smile: she seemed to him like a beautiful toy which might conceal a +lacerating weapon. + +Meanwhile between himself and any better understanding of her stood the +remembrance of their talk in the hunting-lodge of Pontesordo. What she +had offered then he had refused to take: was she the woman to forget +such a refusal? Was it not rather to keep its memory alive that she had +married him? Or was she but the flighty girl he had once imagined her, +driven hither and thither by spasmodic impulses, and incapable of +consistent action, whether for good or ill? The barrier of their +past--of all that lay unsaid and undone between them--so completely cut +her off from him that he had, in her presence, the strange sensation of +a man who believes himself to be alone yet feels that he is +watched...The first months of their marriage were oppressed by this +sense of constraint; but gradually habit bridged the distance between +them and he found himself at once nearer to her and less acutely aware +of her. In the second year an heir was born and died; and the hopes and +grief thus shared drew them insensibly into the relation of the ordinary +husband and wife, knitted together at the roots in spite of superficial +divergencies. + +In his passionate need of sympathy and counsel Odo longed to make the +most of this enforced community of interests. Already his first zeal was +flagging, his belief in his mission wavering: he needed the +encouragement of a kindred faith. He had no hope of finding in Maria +Clementina that pure passion for justice which seemed to him the noblest +ardour of the soul. He had read it in one woman's eyes, but these had +long been turned from him. Unconsciously perhaps he counted rather on +his wife's less generous qualities: the passion for dominion, the blind +arrogance of temper that, for the mere pleasure of making her power +felt, had so often drawn her into public affairs. Might not this waste +force--which implied, after all, a certain prodigality of courage--be +used for good as well as evil? Might not his influence make of the +undisciplined creature at his side an unconscious instrument in the +great work of order and reconstruction? + +His first appeal to her brought the answer. At his request his ministers +had drawn up a plan of financial reorganisation, which should include +the two duchies; for Monte Alloro, though wealthier than Pianura, was in +even greater need of fiscal reform. As a first step towards replenishing +the treasury the Duke had declared himself ready to limit his private +expenditure to a fixed sum; and he now asked the Duchess to pledge +herself in the same manner. Maria Clementina, since her uncle's death, +had been in receipt of a third of the annual revenues of Monte Alloro. +This should have enabled her to pay her debts and put some dignity and +order into her establishment; but the first year's income had gone in +the building of a villa on the Piana, in imitation of the country-seats +along the Brenta; the second was spent in establishing a menagerie of +wild animals like that of the French Queen at Versailles; and rumour had +it that the Duchess carried her imitation of her royal cousin so far as +to be involved in an ugly quarrel with her jewellers about a necklace +for which she owed a thousand ducats. + +All these reports had of course reached Odo; but he still hoped that an +appeal to her love of dominion might prove stronger than the habit of +self-indulgence. He said to himself that nothing had ever been done to +rouse her ambition, that hitherto, if she had meddled in politics, it +had been merely from thwarted vanity or the desire to gratify some +personal spite. Now he hoped to take her by higher passions, and by +associating her with his own schemes to utilise her dormant energies. + +For the first moments she listened with the strained fixity of a child; +then her attention flickered and died out. The life-long habit of +referring every question to a personal standpoint made it difficult for +her to follow a general argument, and she leaned back with the resigned +eyelids of piety under the pulpit. Odo, resolved to be patient, and +seeing that the subject was too large for her, tried to take it apart, +putting it before her bit by bit, and at such an angle that she should +catch her own reflection in it. He thought to take her by the Austrian +side, touching on the well-known antagonism between Vienna and Rome, on +the reforms of the Tuscan Grand-Duke, on the Emperor Joseph's open +defiance of the Church's feudal claims. But she scented a personal +application. + +"My cousin the Emperor should be a priest himself," she shrugged, "for +he belongs to the preaching order. He never goes to France but he gives +the poor Queen such a scolding that her eyes are red for a week. Has +Joseph been trying to set our house in order?" + +Discouraged, but more than ever bent on patience, he tried the chord of +vanity, of her love of popularity. The people called her the beautiful +Duchess--why not let history name her the great? But the mention of +history was unfortunate. It reminded her of her lesson-books, and of the +stupid Greeks and Romans, whose dates she could never recall. She hoped +she should never be anything so dull as an historical personage! And +besides, greatness was for the men--it was enough for a princess to be +virtuous. And she looked as edifying as her own epitaph. + +He caught this up and tried to make her distinguish between the public +and the private virtues. But the word "responsibility" slipped from him +and he felt her stiffen. This was preaching, and she hated preaching +even more than history. Her attention strayed again and he rallied his +forces in a last appeal. But he knew it was a lost battle: every +argument broke against the close front of her indifference. He was +talking a language she had never learned--it was all as remote from her +as Church Latin. A princess did not need to know Latin. She let her eye +linger suggestively on the clock. It was a fine hunting morning, and she +had meant to kill a stag in the Caccia del Vescovo. + +When he began to sum up, and the question narrowed to a direct appeal, +her eyes left the clock and returned to him. Now she was listening. He +pressed on to the matter of retrenchment. Would she join him, would she +help to make the great work possible? At first she seemed hardly to +understand; but as his meaning grew clear to her--"Is the money no +longer ours?" she exclaimed. + +He hesitated. "I suppose it is as much ours as ever," he said. + +"And how much is that?" she asked impatiently. + +"It is ours as a trust for our people." + +She stared in honest wonder. These were new signs in her heaven. + +"A trust? A trust? I am not sure that I know what that means. Is the +money ours or theirs?" + +He hesitated. "In strict honour, it is ours only as long as we spend it +for their benefit." + +She turned aside to examine an enamelled patch-box by Van Blarenberghe +which the court jeweller had newly received from Paris. When she raised +her eyes she said: "And if we do not spend it for their benefit--?" + +Odo glanced about the room. He looked at the delicate adornment of the +walls, the curtains of Lyons damask, the crystal girandoles, the toys in +porcelain of Saxony and Sevres, in bronze and ivory and Chinese lacquer, +crowding the tables and cabinets of inlaid wood. Overhead floated a rosy +allegory by Luca Giordano; underfoot lay a carpet of the royal +manufactory of France; and through the open windows he heard the plash +of the garden fountains and saw the alignment of the long green alleys +set with the statues of Roman patriots. + +"Then," said he--and the words sounded strangely in his own ears--"then +they may take it from us some day--and all this with it, to the very toy +you are playing with." + +She rose, and from her fullest height dropped a brilliant smile on him; +then her eyes turned to the portrait of the great fighting Duke set in +the monumental stucchi of the chimney-piece. + +"If you take after your ancestors you will know how to defend it," she +said. + + +4.3. + +The new Duke sat in his closet. The walls had been stripped of their +pious relics and lined with books, and above the fireplace hung the +Venus of Giorgione, liberated at last from her long imprisonment. The +windows stood open, admitting the soft September air. Twilight had +fallen on the gardens, and through it a young moon floated above the +cypresses. + +On just such an evening three years earlier he had ridden down the slope +of the Monte Baldo with Fulvia Vivaldi at his side. How often, since, he +had relived the incidents of that night! With singular precision they +succeeded each other in his thoughts. He felt the wild sweep of the +storm across the lake, the warmth of her nearness, the sense of her +complete trust in him; then their arrival at the inn, the dazzle of +light as they crossed the threshold, and de Crucis confronting them +within. He heard her voice pleading with him in every accent that pride +and tenderness and a noble loyalty could command; he felt her will +slowly dominating his, like a supernatural power forcing him into his +destined path; he felt--and with how profound an irony of spirit!--the +passion of self-dedication in which he had taken up his task. + +He had known moments of happiness since; moments when he believed in +himself and in his calling, and felt himself indeed the man she thought +him. That was in the exaltation of the first months, when his +opportunities had seemed as boundless as his dreams, and he had not yet +learned that the sovereign's power may be a kind of spiritual prison to +the man. Since then, indeed, he had known another kind of happiness, had +been aware of a secret voice whispering within him that she was right +and had chosen wisely for him; but this was when he had realised that he +lived in a prison, and had begun to admire the sumptuous adornment of +its walls. For a while the mere external show of power amused him, and +his imagination was charmed by the historic dignity of his surroundings. +In such a setting, against the background of such a past, it seemed easy +to play the benefactor and friend of the people. His sensibility was +touched by the contrast, and he saw himself as a picturesque figure +linking the new dreams of liberty and equality to the feudal traditions +of a thousand years. But this masquerading soon ceased to divert him. +The round of court ceremonial wearied him, and books and art lost their +fascination. The more he varied his amusements the more monotonous they +became, the more he crowded his life with petty duties the more empty of +achievement it seemed. + +At first he had hoped to bury his personal disappointments in the task +of reconstructing his little state; but on every side he felt a mute +resistance to his efforts. The philosophical faction had indeed poured +forth pamphlets celebrating his reforms, and comparing his reign to the +return of the Golden Age. But it was not for the philosophers that he +laboured; and the benefits of free speech, a free press, a secular +education did not, after all, reach those over whom his heart yearned. +It was the people he longed to serve; and the people were hungry, were +fever-stricken, were crushed with tithes and taxes. It was hopeless to +try to reach them by the diffusion of popular knowledge. They must first +be fed and clothed; and before they could be fed and clothed the chains +of feudalism must be broken. + +Men like Gamba and Andreoni saw this clearly enough; but it was not from +them that help could come. The nobility and clergy must be coaxed or +coerced into sympathy with the new movement; and to accomplish this +exceeded Odo's powers. In France, the revolt from feudalism had found +some of its boldest leaders in the very class that had most to lose by +the change; but in Italy fewer causes were at work to set such +disinterested passions in motion. South of the Alps liberalism was +merely one of the new fashions from France: the men ran after the +pamphlets from Paris as the women ran after the cosmetics; and the +politics went no deeper than the powder. Even among the freest +intellects liberalism resulted in a new way of thinking rather in a new +way of living. Nowhere among the better classes was there any desire to +attack existing institutions. The Church had never troubled the Latin +consciousness. The Renaissance had taught cultivated Italians how to +live at peace with a creed in which they no longer believed; and their +easy-going scepticism was combined with a traditional conviction that +the priest knew better than any one how to deal with the poor, and that +the clergy were of distinct use in relieving the individual conscience +of its obligation to its fellows. + +It was against such deep-seated habits of thought that Odo had to +struggle. Centuries of fierce individualism, or of sullen apathy under a +foreign rule, had left the Italians incapable of any concerted political +action; but suspicion, avarice and vanity, combined with a lurking fear +of the Church, united all parties in a kind of passive opposition to +reform. Thus the Duke's resolve to put the University under lay +direction had excited the enmity of the Barnabites, who had been at its +head since the suppression of the Society of Jesus; his efforts to +partition among the peasantry the Caccia del Vescovo, that great waste +domain of the see of Pianura, had roused a storm of fear among all who +laid claim to feudal rights; and his own personal attempts at +retrenchment, which necessitated the suppression of numerous court +offices, had done more than anything else to increase his unpopularity. +Even the people, in whose behalf these sacrifices were made, looked +askance at his diminished state, and showed a perverse sympathy with the +dispossessed officials who had taken so picturesque a part in the public +ceremonials of the court. All Odo's philosophy could not fortify him +against such disillusionments. He felt the lack of Fulvia's +unquestioning faith not only in the abstract beauty of the new ideals +but in their immediate adaptability to the complex conditions of life. +Only a woman's convictions, nourished on sentiment and self-sacrifice, +could burn with that clear unwavering flame: his own beliefs were at the +mercy of every wind of doubt or ingratitude that blew across his +unsheltered sensibilities. + +It was more than a year since he had had news of Fulvia. For a while +they had exchanged letters, and it had been a consolation to tell her of +his struggles and experiments, of his many failures and few results. She +had encouraged him to continue the struggle, had analysed his various +plans of reform, and had given her enthusiastic support to the +partitioning of the Bishop's fief and the secularisation of the +University. Her own life, she said, was too uneventful to write of; but +she spoke of the kindness of her hosts, the Professor and his wife, of +the simple unceremonious way of living in the old Calvinist city, and of +the number of distinguished persons drawn thither by its atmosphere of +intellectual and social freedom. + +Odo suspected a certain colourlessness in the life she depicted. The +tone of her letters was too uniformly cheerful not to suggest a lack of +emotional variety; and he knew that Fulvia's nature, however much she +fancied it under the rule of reason, was in reality fed by profound +currents of feeling. Something of her old ardour reappeared when she +wrote of the possibility of publishing her father's book. Her friends in +Geneva, having heard of her difficulty with the Dutch publisher, had +undertaken to vindicate her claims; and they had every hope that the +matter would be successfully concluded. The joy of renewed activity with +which this letter glowed would have communicated itself to Odo had he +received it at a different time; but it came on the day of his marriage, +and since then he had never written to her. + +Now he felt a sudden longing to break the silence between them, and +seating himself at his desk he began to write. A moment later there was +a knock on the door and one of his gentlemen entered. The Count Vittorio +Alfieri, with a dozen horses and as many servants, was newly arrived at +the Golden Cross, and desired to know when he might have the honour of +waiting on his Highness. + +Odo felt the sudden glow of pleasure that the news of Alfieri's coming +always brought. Here was a friend at last! He forgot the constraint of +their last meeting in Florence, and remembered only the happy +interchange of ideas and emotions that had been one of the quickening +influences of his youth. + +Alfieri, in the intervening years, was grown to be one of the foremost +figures in Italy. His love for the Countess of Albany, persisting +through the vicissitudes of her tragic marriage, had rallied the +scattered forces of his nature. Ambitious to excel for her sake, to show +himself worthy of such a love, he had at last shaken off the strange +torpor of his youth, and revealed himself as the poet for whom Italy +waited. In ten months of feverish effort he had poured forth fourteen +tragedies--among them the Antigone, the Virginia, and the Conjuration of +the Pazzi. Italy started up at the sound of a new voice vibrating with +passions she had long since unlearned. Since Filicaja's thrilling appeal +to his enslaved country no poet had challenged the old Roman spirit +which Petrarch had striven to rouse. While the literati were busy +discussing Alfieri's blank verse, while the grammarians wrangled over +his syntax and ridiculed his solecisms, the public, heedless of such +niceties, was glowing with the new wine which he had poured into the old +vessels of classic story. "Liberty" was the cry that rang on the lips of +all his heroes, in accents so new and stirring that his audience never +wearied of its repetition. It was no secret that his stories of ancient +Greece and Rome were but allegories meant to teach the love of freedom; +yet the Antigone had been performed in the private theatre of the +Spanish Ambassador at Rome, the Virginia had been received with applause +on the public boards at Turin, and after the usual difficulties with the +censorship the happy author had actually succeeded in publishing his +plays at Siena. These volumes were already in Odo's hands, and a +manuscript copy of the Odes to Free America was being circulated among +the liberals in Pianura, and had been brought to his notice by Andreoni. + +To those hopeful spirits who looked for the near approach of a happier +era, Alfieri was the inspired spokesman of reform, the heaven-sent +prophet who was to lead his country out of bondage. The eyes of the +Italian reformers were fixed with passionate eagerness on the course of +events in England and France. The conclusion of peace between England +and America, recently celebrated in Alfieri's fifth Ode, seemed to the +most sceptical convincing proof that the rights of man were destined to +a speedy triumph throughout the civilised world. It was not of a united +Italy that these enthusiasts dreamed. They were not so much patriots as +philanthropists; for the teachings of Rousseau and his school, while +intensifying the love of man for man, had proportionately weakened the +sense of patriotism, of the interets du clocher. The new man prided +himself on being a citizen of the world, on sympathising as warmly with +the poetic savage of Peru as with his own prosaic and narrow-minded +neighbours. Indeed, the prevalent belief that the savage's mode of life +was much nearer the truth than that of civilised Europeans, made it +appear superfluous to enter into the grievances and difficulties of what +was but a passing phase of human development. To cast off clothes and +codes, and live in a peaceful socialism "under the amiable reign of +Truth and Nature," seemed on the whole much easier than to undertake the +systematic reform of existing abuses. + +To such dreamers--whose ideas were those of the majority of intelligent +men in France and Italy--Alfieri's high-sounding tirades embodied the +noblest of political creeds; and even the soberer judgment of statesmen +and men of affairs was captivated by the grandeur of his verse and the +heroic audacity of his theme. For the first time in centuries the +Italian Muse spoke with the voice of a man; and every man's heart in +Italy sprang up at the call. + +In the midst of these triumphs, fate in the shape of Cardinal York had +momentarily separated Alfieri from his mistress, despatching the +too-tender Countess to a discreet retreat in Alsace, and signifying to +her turbulent adorer that he was not to follow her. Distracted by this +prohibition, Alfieri had resumed the nomadic habits of his youth, now +wandering from one Italian city to another, now pushing as far as Paris, +which he hated but was always revisiting, now dashing across the Channel +to buy thoroughbreds in England--for his passion for horses was +unabated. He was lately returned from such an expedition, having led his +cavalcade across the Alps in person, with a boyish delight in the +astonishment which this fantastic exploit excited. + +The meeting between the two friends was all that Odo could have wished. +Though affecting to scorn the courts of princes, Alfieri was not averse +to showing himself there as the poet of the democracy, and to hearing +his heroes mouth their tyrannicidal speeches on the boards of royal and +ducal stages. He had lately made some stay in Milan, where he had +arrived in time to see his Antigone performed before the vice-regal +court, and to be enthusiastically acclaimed as the high-priest of +liberty by a community living placidly under the Austrian yoke. Alfieri +was not the man to be struck by such incongruities. It was his fate to +formulate creeds in which he had no faith: to recreate the political +ideals of Italy while bitterly opposed to any actual effort at reform, +and to be regarded as the mouthpiece of the Revolution while he +execrated the Revolution with the whole force of his traditional +instincts. As usual he was too deeply engrossed in his own affairs to +feel much interest in any others; but it was enough for Odo to clasp the +hand of the man who had given a voice to the highest aspirations of his +countrymen. The poet gave more than he could expect from the friend; and +he was satisfied to listen to Alfieri's account of his triumphs, +interspersed with bitter diatribes against the public whose applause he +courted, and the Pope to whom, on bended knee, he had offered a copy of +his plays. + +Odo eagerly pressed Alfieri to remain in Pianura, offering to put one of +the ducal villas at his disposal, and suggesting that the Virginia +should be performed before the court on the Duchess's birthday. + +"It is true," he said, "that we can offer you but an indifferent company +of actors; but it might be possible to obtain one or two of the leading +tragedians from Turin or Milan, so that the principal parts should at +least be worthily filled." + +Alfieri replied with a contemptuous gesture. "Your Highness, our leading +tragedians are monkeys trained to dance to the tune of Goldoni and +Metastasio. The best are no better than the worst. We have no tragedians +in Italy because--hitherto--we have had no tragic dramatist." He drew +himself up and thrust a hand in his bosom. "Ah!" he exclaimed, "if I +could see the part of Virginia acted by the lady who recently recited, +before a small company in Milan, my Odes to Free America! There indeed +were fire, sublimity and passion! And the countenance had not lost its +freshness, the eye its lustre. But," he suddenly added, "your Highness +knows of whom I speak. The lady is Fulvia Vivaldi, the daughter of the +philosopher at whose feet we sat in our youth." + +Fulvia Vivaldi! Odo raised his head with a start. She had left Geneva +then, had returned to Italy. The Alps no longer divided them--a scant +day's journey would bring him to her side! It was strange how the mere +thought seemed to fill the room with her presence. He felt her in the +quickened beat of his pulses, in the sudden lightness of the air, in a +lifting and widening of the very bounds of thought. + +From Alfieri he learned that she had lived for some months in the +household of the distinguished naturalist, Count Castiglione, with whose +daughter's education she was charged. In such surroundings her wit and +learning could not fail to attract the best company of Milan, and she +was become one of the most noted figures of the capital. There had been +some talk of offering her the chair of poetry at the Brera; but the +report of her liberal views had deterred the faculty. Meanwhile the very +fact that she represented the new school of thought gave an added zest +to her conversation in a society which made up for its mild servitude +under the Austrian by much talk of liberalism and independence. The +Signorina Vivaldi became the fashion. The literati celebrated her +scholarship, the sonneteers her eloquence and beauty; and no foreigner +on the grand tour was content to leave Milan without having beheld the +fair prodigy and heard her recite Petrarch's Ode to Italy, or the latest +elegy of Pindamonte. + +Odo scarce knew with what feelings he listened. He could not but +acknowledge that such a life was better suited to one of Fulvia's gifts +and ambitions than the humdrum existence of a Swiss town; yet his first +sensation was one of obscure jealousy, of reluctance to think of her as +having definitely broken with the past. He had pictured her as adrift, +like himself, on a dark sea of uncertainties; and to learn that she had +found a safe anchorage was almost to feel himself deserted. + +The court was soon busy with preparations for the coming performance. A +celebrated actress from Venice was engaged to play the part of Virginia, +and the rehearsals went rapidly forward under the noble author's +supervision. At last the great day arrived, and for the first time in +the history of the little theatre, operetta and pastoral were replaced +by the buskined Muse of tragedy. The court and all the nobility were +present, and though it was no longer thought becoming for ecclesiastics +to visit the theatre, the easy-going Bishop appeared in a side-box in +company with his chaplains and the Vicar-general. + +The performance was brilliantly successful. Frantic applause greeted the +tirades of the young Icilius. Every outburst against the abuse of +privileges and the insolence of the patricians was acclaimed by +ministers and courtiers, and the loudest in approval were the Marquess +Pievepelago, the recognised representative of the clericals, the +Marchioness of Boscofolto, whose harsh enforcement of her feudal rights +was among the bitterest grievances of the peasantry, and the good +Bishop, who had lately roused himself from his habitual indolence to +oppose the threatened annexation of the Caccia del Vescovo. One and all +proclaimed their ardent sympathy with the proletariat, their scorn of +tyranny and extortion in high places; and if the Marchioness, on her +return home, ordered one of her linkmen to be flogged for having trod on +her gown; if Pievepelago the next morning refused to give audience to a +poor devil of a pamphleteer that was come to ask his intercession with +the Holy Office; if the Bishop at the same moment concluded the purchase +of six able-bodied Turks from the galleys of his Serenity the Doge of +Genoa--it is probable that, like the illustrious author of the drama, +all were unconscious of any incongruity between their sentiments and +actions. + +As to Odo, seated in the state box, with Maria Clementina at his side, +and the court dignitaries grouped in the background, he had not listened +to a dozen lines before all sense of his surroundings vanished and he +became the passive instrument on which the poet played his mighty +harmonies. All the incidental difficulties of life, all the vacillations +of an unsatisfied spirit, were consumed in that energising emotion which +seemed to leave every faculty stripped for action. Profounder meaning +and more subtle music he had found in the great poets of the past; but +here was an appeal to the immediate needs of the hour, uttered in notes +as thrilling as a trumpet-call, and brought home to every sense by the +vivid imagery of the stage. Once more he felt the old ardour of belief +that Fulvia's nearness had fanned in him. His convictions had flagged +rather than his courage: now they started up as at her summons, and he +heard the ring of her voice in every line. + +He left the theatre still vibrating with this new inrush of life, and +jealous of any interruption that should check it. The Duchess's birthday +was being celebrated by illuminations and fireworks, and throngs of +merry-makers filled the moonlit streets; but Odo, after appearing for a +moment at his wife's side on the balcony above the public square, +withdrew quietly to his own apartments. The casement of his closet stood +wide, and he leaned against the window-frame, looking out on the silent +radiance of the gardens. As he stood there he saw two figures flit +across the farther end of one of the long alleys. The moonlight +surrendered them for a moment, the shade almost instantly reclaiming +them--strayed revellers, doubtless, escaping from the lights and music +of the Duchess's circle. + +A knock roused the Duke and he remembered that he had bidden Gamba wait +on him after the performance. He had been curious to hear what +impression Alfieri's drama had produced upon the hunchback; but now any +interruption seemed unwelcome, and he turned to Gamba with a gesture of +dismissal. + +The latter however remained on the threshold. + +"Your Highness," he said, "the bookseller Andreoni craves the privilege +of an audience." + +"Andreoni? At this hour?" + +"For reasons so urgent that he makes no doubt of your Highness's +consent; and to prove his good faith, and the need of presenting himself +at so undue an hour, and in this private manner, he charged me to give +this to your Highness." + +He laid in the Duke's hand a small object in blackened silver, which on +nearer inspection proved to be the ducal coat-of-arms. + +Odo stood gazing fixedly at this mysterious token, which seemed to come +as an answer to his inmost thoughts. His heart beat high with confused +hopes and fears, and he could hardly control the voice in which he +answered: "Bid Andreoni come to me." + + +4.4. + +The bookseller began by excusing himself for the liberty he had taken. +He explained that the Signorina Fulvia Vivaldi, in whose behalf he came, +was in urgent need of aid, and had begged him to wait on the Duke as +soon as the court had risen from the play. + +"She is in Pianura, then?" Odo exclaimed. + +"Since yesterday, your Highness. Three days since she was ordered by the +police to leave Milan within twenty-four hours, and she came at once to +Pianura, knowing that my wife and I would gladly receive her. But today +we learned that the Holy Office was advised of her presence here, and of +the reason of her banishment from Lombardy; and this fresh danger has +forced her to implore your Highness's protection." + +Andreoni went on to explain that the publication of her father's book +was the immediate cause of Fulvia's persecution. The Origin of +Civilisation, which had been printed some months previously in +Amsterdam, had stirred Italy more profoundly than any book since +Beccaria's great work on Crime and Punishment. The author's historical +investigations were but a pretext for the development of his political +theories, which were set forth with singular daring and audacity, and +supported by all the arguments that his long study of the past +commanded. The temperate and judicial tone which he had succeeded in +preserving enhanced the effect of his arraignment of Church and state, +and while his immense erudition commended his work to the learned, its +directness of style gave it an immediate popularity with the general +reader. It was an age when every book or pamphlet bearing on the great +question of personal liberty was eagerly devoured by an insatiable +public; and a few weeks after Vivaldi's volume had been smuggled into +Italy it was the talk of every club and coffee-house from Calabria to +Piedmont. The inevitable result soon followed. The Holy Office got wind +of the business, and the book was at once put on the Index. In Naples +and Bologna it was publicly burned, and in Modena a professor of the +University who was found to have a copy in his possession was fined and +removed from his chair. + +In Milan, where the strong liberal faction among the nobility, and the +comparative leniency of the Austrian rule, permitted a more unrestrained +discussion of political questions, the Origin of Civilisation was +received with open enthusiasm, and the story of the difficulties that +Fulvia had encountered in its publication made her the heroine of the +moment. She had never concealed her devotion to her father's doctrines, +and in the first glow of filial pride she may have yielded too openly to +the desire to propagate them. Certain it is that she began to be looked +on as having shared in the writing of the book, or as being at least an +active exponent of its principles. Even in Lombardy it was not well to +be too openly associated with the authorship of a condemned book; and +Fulvia was suddenly advised by the police that her presence in Milan was +no longer acceptable to the government. + +The news excited great indignation among her friends, and Count +Castiglione and several other gentlemen of rank hastened to intervene in +her behalf; but the governor declared himself unwilling to take issue +with the Holy Office on a doctrinal point, and privately added that it +would be well for the Signorina Vivaldi to withdraw from Lombardy before +the clergy brought any direct charge against her. To ignore this hint +would have been to risk not only her own safety but that of the +gentlemen who had befriended her; and Fulvia at once set out for +Pianura, the only place in Italy where she could count on friendship and +protection. + +Andreoni and his wife would gladly have given her a home; but on +learning that the Holy Office was on her track, she had refused to +compromise them by remaining under their roof, and had insisted that +Andreoni should wait on the Duke and obtain a safe-conduct for her that +very night. + +Odo listened to this story with an agitation compounded of strangely +contradictory sensations. To learn that Fulvia, at the very moment when +he had pictured her as separated from him by the happiness and security +of her life, was in reality a proscribed wanderer with none but himself +to turn to, filled him with a confused sense of happiness; but the +discovery that, in his own dominions, the political refugee was not safe +from the threats of the Holy Office, excited a different emotion. All +these considerations, however, were subordinate to the thought that he +must see Fulvia at once. It was impossible to summon her to the palace +at that hour, or even to secure her safety till morning, without +compromising Andreoni by calling attention to the fact that a suspected +person was under his roof; and for a moment Odo was at a loss how to +detain her in Pianura without seeming to go counter to her wishes. + +Suddenly he remembered that Gamba was fertile in expedients, and calling +in the hunchback, asked what plan he could devise. Gamba, after a +moment's reflection, drew a key from his pocket. + +"May it please your Highness," he said, "this unlocks the door of the +hunting-lodge at Pontesordo. The place has been deserted these many +years, because of its bad name, and I have more than once found it a +convenient shelter when I had reasons for wishing to be private. At this +season there is no fear of poison from the marshes, and if your Highness +desires I will see that the lady finds her way there before sunrise." + +The sun had hardly risen the next morning when the Duke himself set +forth. He rode alone, dressed like one of his own esquires, and gave the +word unremarked to the sleepy sentinel at the gate. As it closed behind +him and he set out down the long road that led to the chase, it seemed +to him that the morning solitude was thronged with spectral memories. +Melancholy and fanciful they flitted before him, now in the guise of +Cerveno and Momola, now of Maria Clementina and himself. Every detail of +the scene was interwoven with the fibres of early association, from the +far off years when, as a lonely child on the farm at Pontesordo, he had +gazed across the marsh at the mysterious woodlands of the chase, to the +later day when, in the deserted hunting-lodge, the Duchess had flung her +whip at the face in the Venice mirror. + +He pressed forward impatiently, and presently the lodge rose before him +in its grassy solitude. The level sunbeams had not yet penetrated the +surrounding palisade of boughs, and the house lay in a chill twilight +that seemed an emanation from its mouldering walls. As Odo approached, +Gamba appeared from the shadow and took his horse; and the next moment +he had pushed open the door, and stood in Fulvia's presence. + +She was seated at the farther end of the room, and as she rose to meet +him it chanced that her head, enveloped in its black travelling-hood, +was relieved for a moment against the tarnished background of the broken +mirror. The impression struck a chill to his heart; but it was replaced +by a glow of boyish happiness as their eyes met and he felt her hands in +his. + +For a moment all his thoughts were lost in the mere sense of her +nearness. She seemed simply an enveloping atmosphere in which he drew +fresh breath; but gradually her outline emerged from this haze of +feeling, and he found himself looking at her with the wondering gaze of +a stranger. She had been a girl of sixteen when they first met. Twelve +years had passed since then, and she was now a woman of twenty-eight, +belonging to a race in which beauty ripens early and as soon declines. +But some happy property of nature--whether the rare mould of her +features or the gift of the spirit that informed them--had held her +loveliness intact, preserving the clear lines of youth after its bloom +was gone, and making her seem like a lover's memory of herself. So she +appeared at first, a bright imponderable presence gliding toward him out +of the past; but as her hands lay in his the warm current of life was +renewed between them, and the woman dispossessed the shade. + + +4.5. + +Unpublished fragment from Mr. Arthur Young's diary of his travels in +Italy in the year 1789. + +October 1st. + +Having agreed with a vetturino to carry me to Pianura, set out this +morning from Mantua. The country mostly arable, with rows of elm and +maple pollard. Dined at Casal Maggiore, in an infamous filthy inn. At +dinner was joined by a gentleman who had taken the other seat in the +vettura as far as Pianura. We engaged in conversation and I found him a +man of lively intelligence and the most polished address. Though dressed +in the foreign style, en abbe, he spoke English with as much fluency as +myself, and but for the philosophical tone of his remarks I had taken +him for an ecclesiastic. Altogether a striking and somewhat perplexing +character: able, keen, intelligent, evidently used to the best company, +yet acquainted with the condition of the people, the methods of farming, +and other economical subjects such as are seldom thought worthy of +attention among Italians of quality. + +It appeared he was newly from France, where he had been as much struck +as myself by the general state of ferment. Though owning that there was +much reason for discontent, and that the conduct of the court and +ministers was blind and infatuated beyond belief, he yet declared +himself gravely apprehensive of the future, saying that the people knew +not what they wanted, and were unwilling to listen to those that might +have proved their best advisors. Whether by this he meant the clergy I +know not; though I observed he spoke favourably of that body in France, +pointing out that, long before the recent agitations, they had defended +the civil rights of the Third Estate, and citing many cases in which the +country curates had shown themselves the truest friends of the people: a +fact my own observation hath confirmed. + +I remarked to him that I was surprised to find how little talk there was +in Italy of the distracted conditions in France; and this though the +country is overrun with French refugees, or emigres, as they call +themselves, who bring with them reports that might well excite the alarm +of neighbouring governments. He said he had remarked the same +indifference, but that this was consonant with the Italian character, +which never looked to the morrow; and he added that the mild disposition +of the people, and their profound respect for religion, were sufficient +assurance against any political excess. + +To this I could not forbear replying that I could not regard as excesses +the just protests of the poor against the unlawful tyranny of the +privileged classes, nor forbear to hail with joy the dawn of that light +of freedom which hath already shed so sublime an effulgence on the wilds +of the New World. The abate took this in good part, though I could see +he was not wholly of my way of thinking; but he declared that in his +opinion different races needed different laws, and that the sturdy and +temperate American colonists were fitted to enjoy a greater measure of +political freedom than the more volatile French and Italians--as though +liberty were not destined by the Creator to be equally shared by all +mankind! (Footnote: I let this passage stand, though the late unhappy +events in France have, alas! proved that my friend the abate was nearer +right than myself. June, 1794.) + +In the afternoon through a poor country to Ponte di Po, a miserable +village on the borders of the duchy, where we lay, not slept, in our +clothes, at the worst inn I have yet encountered. Here our luggage was +plumbed for Pianura. The impertinence of the petty sovereigns to +travellers in Italy is often intolerable, and the customs officers show +the utmost insolence in the search for seditious pamphlets and other +contraband articles; but here I was agreeably surprised by the courtesy +of the officials and the despatch with which our luggage was examined. +On my remarking this, my companion replied that the Duke of Pianura was +a man of liberal views, anxious to encourage foreigners to visit his +state, and the last to put petty obstacles in the way of travel. I +answered, this was the report I had heard of him; and it was in the hope +of learning something more of the reforms he was said to have effected, +that I had turned aside to visit the duchy. My companion replied that +his Highness had in fact introduced some innovations in the government; +but that changes which seemed the most beneficial in one direction often +worked mischief in another, so that the wisest ruler was perhaps not he +that did the greatest amount of good, but he that was cause of the +fewest evils. + +The 2nd. + +From Ponte di Po to Pianura the most convenient way is by water; but the +river Piana being greatly swollen by the late rains, my friend, who +seems well-acquainted with the country, proposed driving thither: a +suggestion I readily accepted, as it gave me a good opportunity to study +the roads and farms of the duchy. + +Crossing the Piana, drove near four hours over horrible roads across +waste land, thinly wooded, without houses or cultivation. On my +expressing surprise that the territory of so enlightened a prince would +lie thus neglected, the abate said this land was a fief of the see of +Pianura, and that the Duke was desirous of annexing it to the duchy. I +asked if it were true that his Highness had given his people a +constitution modelled on that of the Duke of Tuscany. He said he had +heard the report; but that for his part he must deplore any measure +tending to debar the clergy from the possession of land. Seeing my +surprise, he explained that, in Italy at least, the religious orders +were far better landlords than the great nobles or the petty sovereigns, +who, being for the most part absent from their estates, left their +peasantry to be pillaged by rapacious middlemen and stewards: an +argument I have heard advanced by other travellers, and have myself had +frequent occasion to corroborate. + +On leaving the Bishop's domain, remarked an improvement in the roads. +Flat land, well irrigated, and divided as usual into small holdings. The +pernicious metayer system exists everywhere, but I am told the Duke is +opposed to it, though it is upheld not only by the landed class, but by +the numerous economists that write on agriculture from their closets, +but would doubtless be sorely puzzled to distinguish a beet-root from a +turnip. + +The 3rd. + +Set out early to visit Pianura. The city clean and well-kept. The Duke +has introduced street-lamps, such as are used in Turin, and the pavement +is remarkably fair and even. Few beggars are to be seen and the people +have a thriving look. Visited the Cathedral and Baptistery, in the +Gothic style, more curious than beautiful; also the Duke's picture +gallery. + +Learning that the Duchess was to ride out in the afternoon, had the +curiosity to walk abroad to see her. A good view of her as she left the +palace. Though no longer in her first youth she is one of the handsomest +women I have seen. Remarked a decided likeness to the Queen of France, +though the eye and smile are less engaging. The people in the streets +received her sullenly, and I am told her debts and disorders are the +scandal of the town. She has, of course, her cicisbeo, and the Duke is +the devoted slave of a learned lady, who is said to exert an unlimited +influence over him, and to have done much to better the condition of the +people. A new part for a prince's mistress to play! + +In the evening to the theatre, a handsome building, well-lit with wax, +where Cimarosa's Due Baroni was agreeably sung. + +The 4th. + +My lord Hervey, in Florence, having favoured me with a letter to Count +Trescorre, the Duke's prime minister, I waited on that gentleman +yesterday. His excellency received me politely and assured me that he +knew me by reputation and would do all he could to put me in the way of +investigating the agricultural conditions of the duchy. Contrary to the +Italian custom, he invited me to dine with him the next day. As a rule +these great nobles do not open their doors to foreigners, however well +recommended. + +Visited, by appointment, the press of the celebrated Andreoni, who was +banished during the late Duke's reign for suspected liberal tendencies, +but is now restored to favour and placed at the head of the Royal +Typography. Signor Andreoni received me with every mark of esteem, and +after having shown me some of the finest examples of his work--such as +the Pindar, the Lucretius and the Dante--accompanied me to a +neighbouring coffee-house, where I was introduced to several lovers of +agriculture. Here I learned some particulars of the Duke's attempted +reforms. He has undertaken the work of draining the vast marsh of +Pontesordo, to the west of the city, notorious for its mal'aria; has +renounced the monopoly of corn and tobacco; has taken the University out +of the hands of the Barnabites, and introduced the teaching of the +physical sciences, formerly prohibited by the Church; has spent since +his accession near 200,000 liv. on improving the roads throughout the +duchy, and is now engaged in framing a constitution which shall deprive +the clergy of the greatest part of their privileges and confirm the +sovereign's right to annex ecclesiastical territory for the benefit of +the people. + +In spite of these radical measures, his Highness is not popular with the +masses. He is accused of irreligion by the monks that he has removed +from the University, and his mistress, the daughter of a noted +free-thinker who was driven from Piedmont by the Inquisition, is said to +have an unholy influence over him. I am told these rumours are +diligently fomented by the late Duke's minister, now Prior of the +Dominican monastery, a man of bigoted views but great astuteness. The +truth is, the people are so completely under the influence of the friars +that a word is enough to turn them against their truest benefactors. + +In the afternoon I was setting out to visit the Bishop's gallery when +Count Trescorre's secretary waited on me with an invitation to inspect +the estates of the Marchioness of Boscofolto: an offer I readily +accepted--for what are the masterpieces of Raphael or Cleomenes to the +sight of a good turnip field or of a well-kept dairy? + +I had heard of Boscofolto, which was given by the late Duke to his +mistress, as one of the most productive estates of the duchy; but great +was my disappointment on beholding it. Fine gardens there are, to be +sure, clipt walks, leaden statues, and water-works; but as for the +farms, all is dirt, neglect, disorder. Spite of the lady's wealth, all +are let out alla meta, and farmed on principles that would disgrace a +savage. The spade used instead of the plough, the hedges neglected, +mole-casts in the pastures, good land run to waste, the peasants +starving and indebted--where, with a little thrift and humanity, all had +been smiling plenty! Learned that on the owner's death this great +property reverts to the Barnabites. + +From Boscofolto to the church of the Madonna del Monte, where is one of +their wonder-working images, said to be annually visited by close on +thirty thousand pilgrims; but there is always some exaggeration in such +figures. A fine building, richly adorned, and hung with an extraordinary +number of votive offerings: silver arms, legs, hearts, wax images, and +paintings. Some of these latter are clearly the work of village artists, +and depict the miraculous escape of the peasantry from various +calamities, and the preservation of their crops from floods, drought, +lightning and so forth. These poor wretches had done more to better +their crops by spending their savings in good ploughshares and harrows +than by hanging gew-gaws on a wooden idol. + +The Rector received us civilly and showed us the treasury, full of +jewels and costly plate, and the buildings where the pilgrims are +lodged. Learned that the Giubileo or centenary festival of the Madonna +is shortly to be celebrated with great pomp. The poorer classes delight +in these ceremonies, and I am told this is to surpass all previous ones, +the clergy intending to work on the superstitions of the people and thus +turn them against the new charter. It is said the Duke hopes to +counteract these designs by offering a jewelled diadem to the Virgin; +but this will no doubt do him a bad turn with the esprits libres. These +little states are as full of intrigues as a foul fruit of maggots. + +The 5th. + +To dinner at Count Trescorre's where, as usual, I was the +plainest-dressed man in the company. Have long since ceased to be +concerned by this: why should a mere English farmer compete in elegance +with these Monsignori and Illustrissimi? Surprised to find among the +company my travelling-companion of the other day. Learned that he is the +abate de Crucis, a personal friend of the Duke's. He greeted me +cordially, and on hearing my name, said that he was acquainted with my +works in the translation of Mons. Freville, and now understood how it +was that I had got the better of him in our farming disputations on the +way hither. + +Was surprised to be told by Count Trescorre that the Duke desired me to +wait on him that evening. Though in general not ambitious of such +honours, yet in this case nothing could be more gratifying. + +The 6th. + +Yesterday evening to the palace, where his Highness received me with +great affability. He was in his private apartments, with the abate de +Crucis and several other learned men; among them the famous abate +Crescenti, librarian to his Highness and author of the celebrated +Chronicles of the Italian States. Happy indeed is the prince who +surrounds himself with scholars instead of courtiers! Yet I cannot say +that the impression his Highness produced on me was one of HAPPINESS. +His countenance is sad, almost careworn, though with a smile of engaging +sweetness; his manner affable without condescension, and open without +familiarity. I am told he is oppressed by the cares of his station; and +from a certain irresolution of voice and eye, that bespeaks not so much +weakness as a speculative cast of mind, I can believe him less fitted +for active government than for the meditations of the closet. He +appears, however, zealous to perform his duties; questioned me eagerly +about my impressions of Italy, and showed a flattering familiarity with +my works, and a desire to profit by what he was pleased to call my +exceptional knowledge of agriculture. I thought I perceived in him a +sincere wish to study the welfare of his people; but was disappointed to +find among his chosen associates not one practical farmer or economist, +but only the usual closet-theorists that are too busy planning Utopias +to think of planting turnips. + +The 7th. + +Visited his Highness's estate at Valsecca. Here he has converted a +handsome seat into a school of agriculture, tearing down an immense +orangery to plant mulberries, and replacing costly gardens and statuary +by well-tilled fields: a good example to his wealthy subjects. +Unfortunately his bailiff is not what we should call a practical farmer; +and many acres of valuable ground are given up to a botanic garden, +where exotic plants are grown at great expense, and rather for curiosity +than use: a common error of noble agriculturists. + +In the afternoon with the abate de Crucis to the Benedictine monastery, +a league beyond the city. Here I saw the best farming in the duchy. The +Prior received us politely and conversed with intelligence on drainage, +crops and irrigation. I urged on him the cultivation of turnips and he +appeared struck by my arguments. The tenants on this great estate +appeared better housed and fed than any I have seen in Pianura. The +monks have a school of agriculture, less pretentious but better-managed +than the Duke's. Some of them study physics and chemistry, and there are +good chirurgeons among them, who care for the poor without pay. The aged +and infirm peasants are housed in a neat almshouse, and the sick nursed +in a clean well-built lazaret. Altogether an agreeable picture of rural +prosperity, though I had rather it had been the result of FREE LABOUR +than of MONASTIC BOUNTY. + +The 8th. + +By appointment, to the Duke's Egeria. This lady, the Signorina F.V., +having heard that I was in Pianura, had desired the Signor Andreoni to +bring me to her. + +I had expected a female of the loud declamatory type: something of the +Corilla Olimpica order; but in this was agreeably disappointed. The +Signorina V. is modestly lodged, lives in the frugal style of the middle +class, and refuses to accept a title, though she is thus debarred from +going to court. Were it not indiscreet to speculate on a lady's age, I +should put hers at somewhat above thirty. Though without the Duchess's +commanding elegance she has, I believe, more beauty of a quiet sort: a +countenance at once soft and animated, agreeably tinged with melancholy, +yet lit up by the incessant play of thought and emotion that succeed +each other in her talk. Better conversation I never heard; and can +heartily confirm the assurances of those who had told me that the lady +was as agreeable in discourse as learned in the closet. (Footnote: It +has before now been observed that the FREE and VOLATILE manners of +foreign ladies tend to blind the English traveller to the inferiority of +their PHYSICAL charms. Note by a Female Friend of the Author.) + +On entering, found a numerous company assembled to compliment my hostess +on her recent appointment as doctor of the University. This is an honour +not uncommonly conferred in Italy, where female learning, perhaps from +its rarity, is highly esteemed; but I am told the ladies thus +distinguished seldom speak in public, though their degree entitles them +to a chair in the University. In the Signorina V.'s society I found the +most advanced reformers of the duchy: among others Signor Gamba, the +famous pamphleteer, author of a remarkable treatise on taxation, which +had nearly cost him his liberty under the late Duke's reign. He is a man +of extreme views and sarcastic tongue, with an irritability of manner +that is perhaps the result of bodily infirmities. His ideas, I am told, +have much weight with the fair doctoress; and in the lampoons of the day +the new constitution is said to be the offspring of their amours, and to +have inherited its father's deformity. + +The company presently withdrawing, my hostess pressed me to remain. She +was eager for news from France, spoke admiringly of the new +constitution, and recited in a moving manner an Ode of her own +composition on the Fall of the Bastille. Though living so retired she +makes no secret of her connection with the Duke; said he had told her of +his conversation with me, and asked what I thought of his plan for +draining the marsh of Pontesordo. On my attempting to reply to this in +detail, I saw that, like some of the most accomplished of her sex, she +was impatient of minutiae, and preferred general ideas to particular +instances; but when the talk turned on the rights of the people I was +struck by the energy and justice of her remarks, and by a tone of +resolution and courage that made me to say to myself: "Here is the hand +that rules the state." + +She questioned me earnestly about the state of affairs in France, begged +me to lend her what pamphlets I could procure, and while making no +secret of her republican sympathies, expressed herself with a moderation +not always found in her sex. Of the clergy alone she appeared +intolerant: a fact hardly to be wondered at, considering the persecution +to which she and her father have been subjected. She detained me near +two hours in such discourse, and on my taking leave asked with some show +of feeling what I, as a practical economist, would advise the Duke to do +for the benefit of his people; to which I replied, "Plant turnips, +madam!" and she laughed heartily, and said no doubt I was right. But I +fear all the heads here are too full of fine theories to condescend to +such simple improvements... + + +4.6. + +Fulvia, in the twilight, sat awaiting the Duke. + +The room in which she sat looked out on a stone-flagged cloister +enclosing a plot of ground planted with yews; and at the farther end of +this cloister a door communicated by a covered way with the ducal +gardens. The house had formed a part of the convent of the Perpetual +Adoration, which had been sold by the nuns when they moved to the new +buildings the late Duke had given them. A portion had been torn down to +make way for the Marquess of Cerveno's palace, and in the remaining +fragment, a low building wedged between high walls, Fulvia had found a +lodging. Her whole dwelling consisted of the Abbess's parlour, in which +she now sat, and the two or three adjoining cells. The tall presses in +the parlour had been filled with her father's books, and surmounted by +his globes and other scientific instruments. But for this the apartment +remained as unadorned as in her predecessor's day; and Fulvia, in her +austere black gown, with a lawn kerchief folded over her breast, and the +unpowdered hair drawn back from her pale face, might herself have passed +for the head of a religious community. + +She cultivated with almost morbid care this severity of dress and +surroundings. There were moments when she could hardly tolerate the pale +autumnal beauty which her glass reflected, when even this phantom of +youth and radiance became a stumbling-block to her spiritual pride. She +was not ashamed of being the Duke of Pianura's mistress; but she had a +horror of being thought like the mistresses of other princes. She +loathed all that the position represented in men's minds; she had +refused all that, according to the conventions of the day, it entitled +her to claim: wealth, patronage, and the rank and estates which it was +customary for the sovereign to confer. She had taken nothing from Odo +but his love, and the little house in which he had lodged her. + +Three years had passed since Fulvia's flight to Pianura. From the moment +when she and Odo had stood face to face again, it had been clear to him +that he could never give her up, to her that she could never leave him. +Fate seemed to have thrown them together in derision of their long +struggle, and both felt that lassitude of the will which is the reaction +from vain endeavour. The discovery that he needed her, that the task for +which he had given her up could after all not be accomplished without +her, served to overcome her last resistance. If the end for which both +strove could best be attained together--if he needed the aid of her +unfaltering faith as much as she needed that of his wealth and +power--why should any personal scruple stand between them? Why should +she who had given all else to the cause--ease, fortune, safety, and even +the happiness that lay in her hand--hesitate to make the final sacrifice +of a private ideal? According to the standards of her day there was no +dishonour to a woman in being the mistress of a man whose rank forbade +his marrying her: the dishonour lay in the conduct which had come to be +associated with such relations. Under the old dispensation the influence +of the prince's mistress had stood for the last excesses of moral and +political corruption; why might it not, under the new law, come to +represent as unlimited a power for good? + +So love, the casuist, argued; and during those first months, when +happiness seemed at last its own justification, Fulvia lived in every +fibre. But always, even then, she was on the defensive against that +higher tribunal which her own conception of life had created. In spite +of herself she was a child of the new era, of the universal reaction +against the falseness and egotism of the old social code. A standard of +conduct regulated by the needs of the race rather than by individual +passion, a conception of each existence as a link in the great chain of +human endeavour, had slowly shaped itself out of the wild theories and +vague "codes" of the eighteenth-century moralists; and with this sense +of the sacramental nature of human ties, came a renewed reverence for +moral and physical purity. + +Fulvia was of those who require that their lives shall be an affirmation +of themselves; and the lack of inner harmony drove her to seek some +outward expression of her ideals. She threw herself with renewed passion +into the political struggle. The best, the only justification of her +power, was to use it boldly, openly, for the good of the people. All the +repressed forces of her nature were poured into this single channel. She +had no desire to conceal her situation, to disguise her influence over +Odo. She wished it rather to be so visible a factor in his relations +with his people that she should come to be regarded as the ultimate +pledge of his good faith. But, like all the casuistical virtues, this +position had the rigidity of something created to fit a special case; +and the result was a fixity of attitude, which spread benumbingly over +her whole nature. She was conscious of the change, yet dared not +struggle against it, since to do so was to confess the weakness of her +case. She had chosen to be regarded as a symbol rather than a woman, and +there were moments when she felt as isolated from life as some marble +allegory in its niche above the market-place. + +It was the desire to associate herself with the Duke's public life that +had induced her, after much hesitation, to accept the degree which the +University had conferred on her. She had shared eagerly in the work of +reconstructing the University, and had been the means of drawing to +Pianura several teachers of distinction from Padua and Pavia. It was her +dream to build up a seat of learning which should attract students from +all parts of Italy; and though many young men of good family had +withdrawn from the classes when the Barnabites were dispossessed, she +was confident that they would soon be replaced by scholars from other +states. She was resolved to identify herself openly with the educational +reform which seemed to her one of the most important steps toward civic +emancipation; and she had therefore acceded to the request of the +faculty that, on receiving her degree, she should sustain a thesis +before the University. This ceremony was to take place a few days hence, +on the Duke's birthday; and, as the new charter was to be proclaimed on +the same day, Fulvia had chosen as the subject of her discourse the +Constitution recently promulgated in France. + +She pushed aside the bundle of political pamphlets which she had been +studying, and sat looking out at the strip of garden beyond the arches +of the cloister. The narrow horizon bounded by convent walls symbolised +fitly enough the life she had chosen to lead: a life of artificial +restraints and renunciations, passive, conventual almost, in which even +the central point of her love burned, now, with a calm devotional glow. + +The door in the cloister opened and the Duke crossed the garden. He +walked slowly, with the listless step she had observed in him of late; +and as he entered she saw that he looked pale and weary. + +"You have been at work again," she said. "A cabinet-meeting?" + +"Yes," he answered, sinking into the Abbess's high carved chair. + +He glanced musingly about the dim room, in which the shadow of the +cloister made an early dusk. Its atmosphere of monastic calm, of which +the significance did not escape him, fell soothingly on his spirit. It +simplified his relation to Fulvia by tacitly restricting it within the +bounds of a tranquil tenderness. Any other setting would have seemed +less in harmony with their fate. + +Better, perhaps, than Fulvia, he knew what ailed them both. Happiness +had come to them, but it had come too late; it had come tinged with +disloyalty to their early ideals; it had come when delay and +disillusionment had imperceptibly weakened the springs of passion. For +it is the saddest thing about sorrow that it deadens the capacity for +happiness; and to Fulvia and Odo the joy they had renounced had returned +with an exile's alien face. + +Seeing that he remained silent, she rose and lit the shaded lamp on the +table. He watched her as she moved across the room. Her step had lost +none of its flowing grace, of that harmonious impetus which years ago +had drawn his boyish fancy in its wake. As she bent above the lamp, the +circle of light threw her face into relief against the deepening shadows +of the room. She had changed, indeed, but as those change in whom the +springs of life are clear and abundant: it was a development rather than +a diminution. The old purity of outline remained; and deep below the +surface, but still visible sometimes to his lessening insight, the old +girlish spirit, radiant, tender and impetuous, stirred for a moment in +her eyes. + +The lamplight fell on the pamphlets she had pushed aside. Odo picked one +up. "What are these?" he asked. + +"They were sent to me by the English traveller whom Andreoni brought +here." + +He turned a few pages. "The old story," he said. "Do you never weary of +it?" + +"An old story?" she exclaimed. "I thought it had been the newest in the +world. Is it not being written, chapter by chapter, before our very +eyes?" + +Odo laid the treatise aside. "Are you never afraid to turn the next +page?" he asked. + +"Afraid? Afraid of what?" + +"That it may be written in blood." + +She uttered a quick exclamation; then her face hardened, and she said in +a low tone: "De Crucis has been with you." + +He made the half-resigned, half-impatient gesture of the man who feels +himself drawn into a familiar argument from which there is no issue. + +"He left yesterday for Germany." + +"He was here too long!" she said, with an uncontrollable escape of +bitterness. + +Odo sighed. "If you would but let me bring him to you, you would see +that his influence over me is not what you think it." + +She was silent a moment; then she said: "You are tired tonight. Let us +not talk of these things." + +"As you please," he answered, with an air of relief; and she rose and +went to the harpsichord. + +She played softly, with a veiled touch, gliding from one crepuscular +melody to another, till the room was filled with drifts of sound that +seemed like the voice of its own shadows. There had been times when he +could have yielded himself to this languid tide of music, letting it +loosen the ties of thought till he floated out into the soothing dimness +of sensation; but now the present held him. To Fulvia, too, he knew the +music was but a forced interlude, a mechanical refuge from thought. She +had deliberately narrowed their intercourse to one central idea; and it +was her punishment that silence had come to be merely an intensified +expression of this idea. + +When she turned to Odo she saw the same consciousness in his face. It +was useless for them to talk of other things. With a pang of unreasoning +regret she felt that she had become to him the embodiment of a single +thought--a formula, rather than a woman. + +"Tell me what you have been doing," she said. + +The question was a relief. At once he began to separation of his work. +All his thoughts, all his time, were given to the constitution which was +to define the powers of Church and state. The difficulties increased as +the work advanced; but the gravest difficulty was one of which he dared +not tell her: his own growing distrust of the ideas for which he +laboured. He was too keenly aware of the difference in their mental +operations. With Fulvia, ideas were either rejected or at once converted +into principles; with himself, they remained stored in the mind, serving +rather as commentaries on life than as incentives to action. This +perpetual accessibility to new impressions was a quality she could not +understand, or could conceive of only as a weakness. Her own mind was +like a garden in which nothing is ever transplanted. She allowed for no +intermediate stages between error and dogma, for no shifting of the +bounds of conviction; and this security gave her the singleness of +purpose in which he found himself more and more deficient. + +Odo remembered that he had once thought her nearness would dispel his +hesitations. At first it had been so; but gradually the contact with her +fixed enthusiasms had set up within him an opposing sense of the claims +ignored. The element of dogmatism in her faith showed the discouraging +sameness of the human mind. He perceived that to a spirit like Fulvia's +it might become possible to shed blood in the cause of tolerance. + +The rapid march of events in France had necessarily produced an opposite +effect on minds so differently constituted. To Fulvia the year had been +a year of victory, a glorious affirmation of her political creed. Step +by step she had seen, as in some old allegorical painting, error fly +before the shafts of truth. Where Odo beheld a conflagration she saw a +sunrise; and all that was bare and cold in her own life was warmed and +transfigured by that ineffable brightness. + +She listened patiently while he enlarged on the difficulties of the +case. The constitution was framed in all its details, but with its +completion he felt more than ever doubtful of the wisdom of granting it. +He would have welcomed any postponement that did not seem an admission +of fear. He dreaded the inevitable break with the clergy, not so much +because of the consequent danger to his own authority, as because he was +increasingly conscious of the newness and clumsiness of the instrument +with which he proposed to replace their tried and complex system. He +mentioned to Fulvia the rumours of popular disaffection; but she swept +them aside with a smile. + +"The people mistrust you," she said. "And what does that mean? That you +have given your enemies time to work on their credulity. The longer you +delay the more opposition you will encounter. Father Ignazio would +rather destroy the state than let it be saved by any hand but his." + +Odo reflected. "Of all my enemies," he said, "Father Ignazio is the one +I most respect, because he is the most sincere." + +"He is the most dangerous, then," she returned. "A fanatic is always +more powerful than a knave." + +He was struck with her undiminished faith in the sufficiency of such +generalisations. Did she really think that to solve such a problem it +was only necessary to define it? The contact with her unfaltering +assurance would once have given him a momentary glow; but now it left +him cold. + +She was speaking more urgently. "Surely," she said, "the noblest use a +man can make of his own freedom is to set others free. My father said it +was the only justification of kingship." + +He glanced at her half-sadly. "Do you still fancy that kings are free? I +am bound hand and foot." + +"So was my father," she flashed back at him; "but he had the Promethean +spirit." + +She coloured at her own quickness, but Odo took the thrust tranquilly. + +"Yes," he said, "your father had the Promethean spirit: I have not. The +flesh that is daily torn from me does not grow again." + +"Your courage is as great as his," she exclaimed, her tenderness in +arms. + +"No," he answered, "for his was hopeful." There was a pause, and then he +began to speak of the day's work. + +All the afternoon he had been in consultation with Crescenti, whose vast +historical knowledge was of service in determining many disputed points +in the tenure of land. The librarian was in sympathy with any measures +tending to relieve the condition of the peasantry; yet he was almost as +strongly opposed as Trescorre to any reproduction of the Tuscan +constitution. + +"He is afraid!" broke from Fulvia. She admired and respected Crescenti, +yet she had never fully trusted him. The taint of ecclesiasticism was on +him. + +Odo smiled. "He has never been afraid of facing the charge of +Jansenism," he replied. "All his life he has stood in open opposition to +the Church party." + +"It is one thing to criticise their dogmas, another to attack their +privileges. At such a time he is bound to remember that he is a +priest--that he is one of them." + +"Yet, as you have often pointed out, it is to the clergy that France in +great measure owes her release from feudalism." + +She smiled coldly. "France would have won her cause without the clergy!" + +"This is not France, then," he said with a sigh. After a moment he began +again: "Can you not see that any reform which aims at reducing the power +of the clergy must be more easily and successfully carried out if they +can be induced to take part in it? That, in short, we need them at this +moment as we have never needed them before? The example of France ought +at least to show you that." + +"The example of France shows me that, to gain a point in such a +struggle, any means must be used! In France, as you say, the clergy were +with the people--here they are against them. Where persuasion fails +coercion must be used!" + +Odo smiled faintly. "You might have borrowed that from their own +armoury," he said. + +She coloured at the sarcasm. "Why not?" she retorted. "Let them have a +taste of their own methods! They know the kind of pressure that makes +men yield--when they feel it they will know what to do." + +He looked at her with astonishment. "This is Gamba's tone," he said. "I +have never heard you speak in this way before." + +She coloured again; and now with a profound emotion. "Yes," she said, +"it is Gamba's tone. He and I speak for the same cause and with the same +voice. We are of the people and we speak for the people. Who are your +other counsellors? Priests and noblemen! It is natural enough that they +should wish to make their side of the question heard. Listen to them, if +you will--conciliate them, if you can! We need all the allies we can +win. Only do not fancy they are really speaking for the people. Do not +think it is the people's voice you hear. The people do not ask you to +weigh this claim against that, to look too curiously into the defects +and merits of every clause in their charter. All they ask is that the +charter should be given them!" + +She spoke with the low-voiced passion that possessed her at such +moments. All acrimony had vanished from her tone. The expression of a +great conviction had swept aside every personal animosity, and cleared +the sources of her deepest feeling. Odo felt the pressure of her +emotion. He leaned to her and their hands met. + +"It shall be given them," he said. + +She lifted her face to his. It shone with a great light. Once before he +had seen it so illumined, but with how different a brightness! The +remembrance stirred in him some old habit of the senses. He bent over +and kissed her. + + +4.7. + +Never before had Odo so keenly felt the difference between theoretical +visions of liberty and their practical application. His deepest +heart-searchings showed him as sincerely devoted as ever to the cause +which had enlisted his youth. He still longed above all things to serve +his fellows; but the conditions of such service were not what he had +dreamed. How different a calling it had been in Saint Francis's day, +when hearts inflamed with the new sense of brotherhood had but to set +forth on their simple mission of almsgiving and admonition! To love +one's neighbour had become a much more complex business, one that taxed +the intelligence as much as the heart, and in the course of which +feeling must be held in firm subjection to reason. He was discouraged by +Fulvia's inability to understand the change. Hers was the missionary +spirit; and he could not but reflect how much happier she would have +been as a nun in a charitable order, a unit in some organised system of +beneficence. + +He too would have been happier to serve than to command! But it is not +given to the lovers of the Lady Poverty to choose their special rank in +her household. Don Gervaso's words came back to him with deepening +significance, and he thought how truly the old chaplain's prayer had +been fulfilled. Honour and power had come to him, and they had abased +him to the dust. The "Humilitas" of his fathers, woven, carved and +painted on every side, pursued him with an ironical reminder of his +impotence. + +Fulvia had not been mistaken in attributing his depression of spirit to +de Crucis's visit. It was the first time that de Crucis had returned to +Pianura since the new Duke's accession. Odo had welcomed him eagerly, +had again pressed him to remain; but de Crucis was on his way to +Germany, bound on some business which could not be deferred. Odo, aware +of the renewed activity of the Jesuits, supposed that this business was +connected with the flight of the French refugees, many of whom were gone +to Coblentz; but on this point the abate was silent. Of the state of +affairs in France he spoke openly and despondently. The immoderate haste +with which the reforms had been granted filled him with fears for the +future. Odo knew that Crescenti shared these fears, and the judgment of +these two men, with whom he differed on fundamental principles, weighed +with him far more than the opinions of the party he was supposed to +represent. But he was in the case of many greater sovereigns of his day. +He had set free the waters of reform, and the frail bark of his +authority had been torn from its moorings and swept headlong into the +central current. + +The next morning, to his surprise, the Duchess sent one of her gentlemen +to ask an audience. Odo at once replied that he would wait on her +Highness; and a few moments later he was ushered into his wife's closet. + +She had just left her toilet, and was still in the morning negligee worn +during that prolonged and public ceremonial. Freshly perfumed and +powdered, her eyes bright, her lips set in a nervous smile, she +curiously recalled the arrogant child who had snatched her spaniel away +from him years ago in that same room. And was she not that child, after +all? Had she ever grown beyond the imperious instincts of her youth? It +seemed to him now that he had judged her harshly in the first months of +their marriage. He had felt a momentary impatience when he had tried to +force her roving impulses into the line of his own endeavour: it was +easier to view her leniently now that she had almost passed out of his +life. + +He wondered why she had sent for him. Some dispute with her household, +doubtless; a quarrel with a servant, even--or perhaps some sordid +difficulty with her creditors. But she began in a new key. + +"Your Highness," she said, "is not given to taking my advice." + +Odo looked at her in surprise. "The opportunity is not often accorded +me," he replied with a smile. + +Maria Clementina made an impatient gesture; then her face softened. +Contradictory emotions flitted over it like the reflections cast by a +hurrying sky. She came close to him and then drew away and seated +herself in the high-backed chair where she had throned when he first saw +her. Suddenly she blushed and began to speak. + +"Once," she said in a low, almost inaudible voice, "I was able to give +your Highness warning of an impending danger--" She paused and her eyes +rested full on Odo. + +He felt his colour rise as he returned her gaze. It was her first +allusion to the past. He had supposed she had forgotten. For a moment he +remained awkwardly silent. + +"Do you remember?" she asked. + +"I remember." + +"The danger was a grave one. Your Highness may recall that but for my +warning you would not have been advised of it." + +"I remember," he said again. + +She paused a moment. "The danger," she repeated, "was a grave one; but +it threatened only your Highness's person. Your Highness listened to me +then; will you listen again if I advise you of a greater--a peril +threatening not only your person but your throne?" + +Odo smiled. He could guess now what was coming. She had been drilled to +act as the mouthpiece of the opposition. He composed his features and +said quietly: "These are grave words, madam. I know of no such +peril--but I am always ready to listen to your Highness." + +His smile had betrayed him, and a quick flame of anger passed over her +face. + +"Why should you listen to me, since you never heed what I say?" + +"Your Highness has just reminded me that I did so once--" + +"Once!" she repeated bitterly. "You were younger then--and so was I!" +She glanced at herself in the mirror with a dissatisfied laugh. +Something in her look and movement touched the springs of compassion. + +"Try me again," he said gently. "If I am older, perhaps I am also wiser, +and therefore even more willing to be guided--we all knew that." She +broke off, as though she felt her mistake and wished to make a fresh +beginning. Again her face was full of fluctuating meaning; and he saw, +beneath its shallow surface, the eddy of incoherent impulses. When she +spoke, it was with a noble gravity. + +"Your Highness," she said, "does not take me into your counsels; but it +is no secret at court and in the town that you have in contemplation a +grave political measure." + +"I have made no secret of it," he replied. + +"No--or I should be the last to know it!" she exclaimed, with one of her +sudden lapses into petulance. + +Odo made no reply. Her futility was beginning to weary him. She saw it +and again attempted an impersonal dignity of manner. + +"It has been your Highness's choice," she said, "to exclude me from +public affairs. Perhaps I was not fitted by education or intelligence to +share in the cares of government. Your Highness will at least bear +witness that I have scrupulously respected your decision, and have never +attempted to intrude upon your counsels." + +Odo bowed. It would have been useless to remind her that he had sought +her help and failed to obtain it. + +"I have accepted my position," she continued. "I have led the life to +which it has pleased your Highness to restrict me. But I have not been +able to detach my heart as well as my thoughts from your Highness's +interests. I have not learned to be indifferent to your danger." + +Odo looked up quickly. She ceased to interest him when she spoke by the +book, and he was impatient to make an end. + +"You spoke of danger before," he said. "What danger?" + +"That of forcing on your subjects liberties which they do not desire!" + +"Ah," said he thoughtfully. That was all, then. What a poor tool she +made! He marvelled that, in all these years, Trescorre's skilful hands +should not have fashioned her to better purpose. + +"Your Highness," he said, "has reminded me that since our marriage you +had lived withdrawn from public affairs. I will not pause to dispute by +whose choice this has been; I will in turn merely remind your Highness +that such a life does not afford much opportunity of gauging public +opinion." + +In spite of himself a note of sarcasm had again crept into his voice; +but to his surprise she did not seem to resent it. + +"Ah," she exclaimed, with more feeling than she had hitherto shown, "you +fancy that, because I am kept in ignorance of what you think, I am +ignorant also of what others think of you! Believe me," she said, with a +flash of insight that startled him, "I know more of you than if we stood +closer. But you mistake my purpose. I have not sent for you to force my +counsels on you. I have no desire to appear ridiculous. I do not ask you +to hear what _I_ think of your course, but what others think of it." + +"What others?" + +The question did not disconcert her. "Your subjects," she said quickly. + +"My subjects are of many classes." + +"All are of one class in resenting this charter. I am told you intend to +proclaim it within a few days. I entreat you at least to delay, to +reconsider your course. Oh, believe me when I say you are in danger! Of +what use to offer a crown to our Lady, when you have it in your heart to +slight her servants? But I will not speak of the clergy, since you +despise them--nor of the nobles, since you ignore their claims. I will +speak only of the people--the people, in whose interest you profess to +act. Believe me, in striking at the Church you wound the poor. It is not +their bodily welfare I mean--though Heaven knows how many sources of +bounty must now run dry! It is their faith you insult. First you turn +them against their masters, then against their God. They may acclaim you +for it now--but I tell you they will hate you for it in the end!" + +She paused, flushed with the vehemence of her argument, and eager to +press it farther. But her last words had touched an unexpected fibre in +Odo. He looked at her with his unseeing visionary gaze. + +"The end?" he murmured. "Who knows what the end will be?" + +"Do you still need to be told?" she exclaimed. "Must you always come to +me to learn that you are in danger?" + +"If the state is in danger the danger must be faced. The state exists +for the people; if they do not need it, it has ceased to serve its +purpose." + +She clasped her hands in an ecstasy of wonder. "Oh, fool, madman--but it +is not of the state I speak! It is you who are in +danger--you--you--you--" + +He raised his head with an impatient gesture. + +"I?" he said. "I had thought you meant a graver peril." + +She looked at him in silence. Her pride met his and thrilled with it; +and for a moment the two were one. + +"Odo!" she cried. She sank into a chair, and he went to her and took her +hand. + +"Such fears are worthy neither of us," he said gravely. + +"I am not ashamed of them," she said. Her hand clung to him and she +lifted her eyes to his face. "You will listen to me?" she whispered in a +glow. + +He drew back chilled. If only she had kept the feminine in abeyance! But +sex was her only weapon. + +"I have listened," he said quietly. "And I thank you." + +"But you will not be counselled?" + +"In the last issue one must be one's own counsellor." + +Her face flamed. "If you were but that!" she tossed back at him. + +The taunt struck him full. He knew that he should have let it lie; but +he caught it up in spite of himself. + +"Madam!" he said. + +"I should have appealed to our sovereign, not to her servant!" she +cried, dashing into the breach she had made. + +He stood motionless, stunned almost. For what she had said was true. He +was no longer the sovereign: the rule had passed out of his hands. + +His silence frightened her. With an instinctive jealousy she saw that +her words had started a train of thought in which she had no part. She +felt herself ignored, abandoned; and all her passions rushed to the +defence of her wounded vanity. + +"Oh, believe me," she cried, "I speak as your Duchess, not as your wife. +That is a name in which I should never dream of appealing to you. I have +ever stood apart from your private pleasures, as became a woman of my +house." She faced him with a flash of the Austrian insolence. "But when +I see the state drifting to ruin as the result of your caprice, when I +see your own life endangered, your people turned against you, religion +openly insulted, law and authority made the plaything of +this--this--false atheistical creature, that has robbed me--robbed me of +all--" She broke off helplessly and hid her face with a sob. + +Odo stood speechless, spell-bound. He could not mistake what had +happened. The woman had surged to the surface at last--the real woman, +passionate, self-centred, undisciplined, but so piteous, after all, in +this sudden subjection to the one tenderness that survived in her. She +loved him and was jealous of her rival. That was the instinct which had +swept all others aside. At that moment she cared nothing for her safety +or his. The state might perish if they but fell together. It was the +distance between them that maddened her. + +The tragic simplicity of the revelation left Odo silent. For a fantastic +moment he yielded to the vision of what that waste power might have +accomplished. Life seemed to him a confusion of roving force that met +only to crash in ruins. + +His silence drew her to her feet. She repossessed herself, throbbing but +valiant. + +"My fears for your Highness's safety have led my speech astray. I have +given your Highness the warning it was my duty to give. Beyond that I +had no thought of trespassing." + +And still Odo was silent. A dozen answers struggled to his lips; but +they were checked by the stealing sense of duality that so often +paralysed his action. He had recovered his lucidity of vision, and his +impulses faded before it like mist. He saw life again as it was, an +incomplete and shabby business, a patchwork of torn and ravelled effort. +Everywhere the shears of Atropos were busy, and never could the cut +threads be joined again. + +He took his wife's hand and bent over it ceremoniously. It lay in his +like a stone. + + +4.8. + +The jubilee of the Mountain Madonna fell on the feast of the +Purification. It was mid-November, but with a sky of June. The autumn +rains had ceased for the moment, and fields and orchards glistened with +a late verdure. + +Never had the faithful gathered in such numbers to do honour to the +wonder-working Virgin. A widespread resistance to the influences of free +thought and Jansenism was pouring fresh life into the old formulas of +devotion. Though many motives combined to strengthen this movement, it +was still mainly a simple expression of loyalty to old ideals, an +instinctive rallying around a threatened cause. It is the honest +conviction underlying all great popular impulses that gives them their +real strength; and in this case the thousands of pilgrims flocking on +foot to the mountain shrine embodied a greater moral force than the +powerful ecclesiastics at whose call they had gathered. + +The clergy themselves were come from all sides; while those that were +unable to attend had sent costly gifts to the miraculous Virgin. The +Bishops of Mantua, Modena, Vercelli and Cremona had travelled to Pianura +in state, the people flocking out beyond the gates to welcome them. Four +mitred Abbots, several Monsignori, and Priors, Rectors, Vicars-general +and canons innumerable rode in the procession, followed on foot by the +humble army of parish priests and by interminable confraternities of all +orders. + +The approach of the great dignitaries was hailed with enthusiasm by the +crowds lining the roads. Even the Bishop of Pianura, never popular with +the people, received an unwonted measure of applause, and the +white-cowled Prior of the Dominicans, riding by stern and close-lipped +as a monk of Zurbaran's, was greeted with frenzied acclamations. The +report that the Bishop and the heads of the religious houses in Pianura +were to set free suppers for the pilgrims had doubtless quickened this +outburst of piety; yet it was perhaps chiefly due to the sense of coming +peril that had gradually permeated the dim consciousness of the crowd. + +In the church, the glow of lights, the thrilling beauty of the music and +the glitter of the priestly vestments were blent in a melting harmony of +sound and colour. The shrine of the Madonna shone with unearthly +radiance. Hundreds of candles formed an elongated nimbus about her +hieratic figure, which was surmounted by the canopy of cloth-of-gold +presented by the Duke of Modena. The Bishops of Vercelli and Cremona had +offered a robe of silver brocade studded with coral and turquoises, the +devout Princess Clotilda of Savoy an emerald necklace, the Bishop of +Pianura a marvellous veil of rose-point made in a Flemish convent; while +on the statue's brow rested the Duke's jewelled diadem. + +The Duke himself, seated in his tribune above the choir, observed the +scene with a renewed appreciation of the Church's unfailing dramatic +instinct. At first he saw in the spectacle only this outer and symbolic +side, of which the mere sensuous beauty had always deeply moved him; but +as he watched the effect produced on the great throng filling the +aisles, he began to see that this external splendour was but the veil +before the sanctuary, and to realise what de Crucis meant when he spoke +of the deep hold of the Church upon the people. Every colour, every +gesture, every word and note of music that made up the texture of the +gorgeous ceremonial might indeed seem part of a long-studied and +astutely-planned effect. Yet each had its root in some instinct of the +heart, some natural development of the inner life, so that they were in +fact not the cunningly-adjusted fragments of an arbitrary pattern but +the inseparable fibres of a living organism. It was Odo's misfortune to +see too far ahead on the road along which his destiny was urging him. As +he sat there, face to face with the people he was trying to lead, he +heard above the music of the mass and the chant of the kneeling throng +an echo of the question that Don Gervaso had once put to him:--"If you +take Christ from the people, what have you to give them instead?" + +He was roused by a burst of silver clarions. The mass was over, and the +Duke and Duchess were to descend from their tribune and venerate the +holy image before it was carried through the church. + +Odo rose and gave his hand to his wife. They had not seen each other, +save in public, since their last conversation in her closet. The Duchess +walked with set lips and head erect, keeping her profile turned to him +as they descended the steps and advanced to the choir. None knew better +how to take her part in such a pageant. She had the gift of drawing upon +herself the undivided attention of any assemblage in which she moved; +and the consciousness of this power lent a kind of Olympian buoyancy to +her gait. The richness of her dress and her extravagant display of +jewels seemed almost a challenge to the sacred image blazing like a +rainbow beneath its golden canopy; and Odo smiled to think that his +childish fancy had once compared the brilliant being at his side to the +humble tinsel-decked Virgin of the church at Pontesordo. + +As the couple advanced, stillness fell on the church. The air was full +of the lingering haze of incense, through which the sunlight from the +clerestory poured in prismatic splendours on the statue of the Virgin. +Rigid, superhuman, a molten flamboyancy of gold and gems, the +wonder-working Madonna shone out above her worshippers. The Duke and +Duchess paused, bowing deeply, below the choir. Then they mounted the +steps and knelt before the shrine. As they did so a crash broke the +silence, and the startled devotees saw that the ducal diadem had fallen +from the Madonna's head. + +The hush prolonged itself a moment; then a canon sprang forward to pick +up the crown, and with the movement a murmur rose and spread through the +church. The Duke's offering had fallen to the ground as he approached to +venerate the blessed image. That this was an omen no man could doubt. It +needed no augur to interpret it. The murmur, gathering force as it swept +through the packed aisles, passed from surprise to fear, from fear to a +deep hum of anger;--for the people understood, as plainly as though she +had spoken, that the Virgin of the Valseccas had cast from her the gift +of an unbeliever... + +*** + +The ceremonies over, the long procession was formed again and set out +toward the city. The crowd had surged ahead, and when the Duke rode +through the gates the streets were already thronged. Moving slowly +between the compact mass of people he felt himself as closely observed +as on the day of his state entry; but with far different effect. +Enthusiasm had given way to a cold curiosity. The excitement of the +spectators had spent itself in the morning, and the sight of their +sovereign failed to rouse their flagging ardour. Now and then a cheer +broke out, but it died again without kindling another in the +uninflammable mass. Odo could not tell how much of this indifference was +due to a natural reaction from the emotions of the morning, how much to +his personal unpopularity, how much to the ominous impression produced +by the falling of the Virgin's crown. He rode between his people +oppressed by a sense of estrangement such as he had never known. He felt +himself shut off from them by an impassable barrier of superstition and +ignorance; and every effort to reach them was like the wrong turn in a +labyrinth, drawing him farther away from the issue to which it seemed to +lead. + +As he advanced under this indifferent or hostile scrutiny, he thought +how much easier it would be to face a rain of bullets than this +withering glare of criticism. A sudden longing to escape, to be done +with it all, came over him with sickening force. His nerves ached with +the physical strain of holding himself upright on his horse, of +preserving the statuesque erectness proper to the occasion. He felt like +one of his own ancestral effigies, of which the wooden framework had +rotted under the splendid robes. A congestion at the head of a narrow +street had checked the procession, and he was obliged to rein in his +horse. He looked about and found himself in the centre of the square +near the Baptistery. A few feet off, directly in a line with him, was +the weather-worn front of the Royal Printing-Press. He raised his head +and saw a group of people on the balcony. Though they were close at +hand, he saw them in a blur, against which Fulvia's figure suddenly +detached itself. She had told him that she was to view the procession +with the Andreonis; but through the mental haze which enveloped him her +apparition struck a vague surprise. He looked at her intently, and their +eyes met. A faint happiness stole over her face, but no recognition was +possible, and she continued to gaze out steadily upon the throng below +the balcony. Involuntarily his glance followed hers, and he saw that she +was herself the centre of the crowd's attention. Her plain, almost +Quakerish habit, and the tranquil dignity of her carriage, made her a +conspicuous figure among the animated groups in the adjoining windows, +and Odo, with the acuteness of perception which a public life develops, +was instantly aware that her name was on every lip. At the same moment +he saw a woman close to his horse's feet snatch up her child and make +the sign against the evil eye. A boy who stood staring open-mouthed at +Fulvia caught the gesture and repeated it; a barefoot friar imitated the +boy, and it seemed to Odo that the familiar sign was spreading with +malignant rapidity to the furthest limits of the crowd. The impression +was only momentary; for the cavalcade was again in motion, and without +raising his eyes he rode on, sick at heart... + +*** + +At nightfall a man opened the gate of the ducal gardens below the +Chinese pavilion and stepped out into the deserted lane. He locked the +gate and slipped the key into his pocket; then he turned and walked +toward the centre of the town. As he reached the more populous quarters +his walk slackened to a stroll; and now and then he paused to observe a +knot of merry-makers or look through the curtains of the tents set up in +the squares. + +The man was plainly but decently dressed, like a petty tradesman or a +lawyer's clerk, and the night being chill he wore a cloak, and had drawn +his hat-brim over his forehead. He sauntered on, letting the crowd carry +him, with the air of one who has an hour to kill, and whose +holiday-making takes the form of an amused spectatorship. To such an +observer the streets offered ample entertainment. The shrewd air +discouraged lounging and kept the crowd in motion; but the open +platforms built for dancing were thronged with couples, and every +peep-show, wine-shop and astrologer's booth was packed to the doors. The +shrines and street-lamps being all alight, and booths and platforms hung +with countless lanterns, the scene was as bright as day; but in the +ever-shifting medley of peasant-dresses, liveries, monkish cowls and +carnival disguises, a soberly-clad man might easily go unremarked. + +Reaching the square before the Cathedral, the solitary observer pushed +his way through the idlers gathered about a dais with a curtain at the +back. Before the curtain stood a Milanese quack, dressed like a noble +gentleman, with sword and plumed hat, and rehearsing his cures in +stentorian tones, while his zany, in the short mask and green-and-white +habit of Brighella, cracked jokes and turned hand-springs for the +diversion of the vulgar. + +"Behold," the charlatan was shouting, "the marvellous Egyptian +love-philter distilled from the pearl that the great Emperor Antony +dropped into Queen Cleopatra's cup. This infallible fluid, handed down +for generations in the family of my ancestor, the High Priest of Isis--" +The bray of a neighbouring show-man's trumpet cut him short, and +yielding to circumstances he drew back the curtain, and a tumbling-girl +sprang out and began her antics on the front of the stage. + +"What did he say was the price of that drink, Giannina?" asked a young +maid-servant pulling her neighbour's sleeve. + +"Are you thinking of buying it for Pietrino, my beauty?" the other +returned with a laugh. "Believe me, it is a sound proverb that says: +When the fruit is ripe it falls of itself." + +The girl drew away angrily, and the quack took up his harangue:--"The +same philter, ladies and gentlemen--though in confessing it I betray a +professional secret--the same philter, I declare to you on the honour of +a nobleman, whereby, in your own city, a lady no longer young and no way +remarkable in looks or station, has captured and subjugated the +affections of one so high, so exalted, so above all others in beauty, +rank, wealth, power and dignities--" + +"Oh, oh, that's the Duke!" sniggered a voice in the crowd. + +"Ladies and gentlemen, I name no names!" cried the quack impressively. + +"No need to," retorted the voice. + +"They do say, though, she gave him something to drink," said a young +woman to a youth in a clerk's dress. "The saying is she studied medicine +with the Turks." + +"The Moors, you mean," said the clerk with an air of superiority. + +"Well, they say her mother was a Turkey slave and her father a murderer +from the Sultan's galleys." + +"No, no, she's plain Piedmontese, I tell you. Her father was a physician +in Turin, and was driven out of the country for poisoning his patients +in order to watch their death-agonies." + +"They say she's good to the poor, though," said another voice +doubtfully. + +"Good to the poor? Ay, that's what they said of her father. All I know +is that she heard Stefano the weaver's lad had the falling sickness, and +she carried him a potion with her own hands, and the next day the child +was dead, and a Carmelite friar, who saw the phial he drank from, said +it was the same shape and size as one that was found in a witch's grave +when they were digging the foundations for the new monastery." + +"Ladies and gentlemen," shrieked the quack, "what am I offered for a +drop of this priceless liquor?" + +The listener turned aside and pushed his way toward the farther end of +the square. As he did so he ran against a merry-andrew who thrust a long +printed sheet in his hand. + +"Buy my satirical ballads, ladies and gentlemen!" the fellow shouted. +"Two for a farthing, invented and written by an own cousin of the great +Pasquino of Rome! What will you have, sir? Here's the secret history of +a famous Prince's amours with an atheist--here's the true scandal of an +illustrious lady's necklace--two for a farthing...and my humblest thanks +to your excellency." He pocketed the coin, and the other, thrusting the +broadsheets beneath his cloak, pushed on to the nearest coffee-house. + +Here every table was thronged, and the babble of talk so loud that the +stranger, hopeless of obtaining refreshment, pressed his way into the +remotest corner of the room and seated himself on an empty cask. At +first he sat motionless, silently observing the crowd; then he drew +forth the ballads and ran his eye over them. He was still engaged in +this study when his notice was attracted by a loud discussion going +forward between a party of men at the nearest table. The disputants, +petty tradesman or artisans by their dress, had evidently been warmed by +a good flagon of wine, and their tones were so lively that every word +reached the listener on the cask. + +"Reform, reform!" cried one, who appeared by his dress and manner to be +the weightiest of the company--"it's all very well to cry reform; but +what I say is that most of those that are howling for it no more know +what they're asking than a parrot that's been taught the litany. Now the +first question is: who benefits by your reform? And what's the answer to +that, eh? Is it the tradesmen? The merchants? The clerks, artisans, +household servants, I ask you? I hear some of my fellow-tradesmen +complaining that the nobility don't pay their bills. Will they be better +paid, think you, when the Duke has halved their revenues? Will the +quality keep up as large households, employ as many lacqueys, set as +lavish tables, wear as fine clothes, collect as many rarities, buy as +many horses, give us, in short, as many opportunities of making our +profit out of their pleasure? What I say is, if we're to have new taxes, +don't let them fall on the very class we live by!" + +"That's true enough," said another speaker, a lean bilious man with a +pen behind his ear. "The peasantry are the only class that are going to +profit by this constitution." + +"And what do the peasantry do for us, I should like to know?" the first +speaker went on triumphantly. "As far as the fat friars go, I'm not +sorry to see them squeezed a trifle, for they've wrung enough money out +of our women-folk to lie between feathers from now till doomsday; but I +say, if you care for your pockets, don't lay hands on the nobility!" + +"Gently, gently, my friend," exclaimed a cautious flaccid-looking man +setting down his glass. "Father and son, for four generations, my family +have served Pianura with Church candles, and I can tell you that since +these new atheistical notions came in, the nobility are not the good +patrons they used to be. But as for the friars, I should be sorry to see +them meddled with. It's true they may get the best morsel in the pot and +the warmest seat on the hearth--and one of them, now and then, may take +too long to teach a pretty girl her Pater Noster--but I'm not sure we +shall be better off when they're gone. Formerly, if a child too many +came to poor folk they could always comfort themselves with the thought +that, if there was no room for him at home, the Church was there to +provide for him. But if we drive out the good friars, a man will have to +count mouths before he dares look at his wife too lovingly." + +"Well," said the scribe with a dry smile, "I've a notion the good friars +have always taken more than they gave; and if it were not for the gaping +mouths under the cowl even a poor man might have victuals enough for his +own." + +The first speaker turned on him contentiously. + +"Do I understand you are for this new charter, then?" he asked. + +"No, no," said the other. "Better hot polenta than a cold ortolan. +Things are none too good as they are, but I never care to taste first of +a new dish. And in this case I don't fancy the cook." + +"Ah, that's it," said the soft man. "it's too much like the apothecary's +wife mixing his drugs for him. Men of Roman lineage want no women to +govern them!" He puffed himself out and thrust a hand in his bosom. +"Besides, gentlemen," he added, dropping his voice and glancing +cautiously about the room, "the saints are my witness I'm not +superstitious--but frankly, now, I don't much fancy this business of the +Virgin's crown." + +"What do you mean?" asked a lean visionary-looking youth who had been +drinking and listening. + +"Why, sir, I needn't say I'm the last man in Pianura to listen to +women's tattle; but my wife had it straight from Cino the barber, whose +sister is portress of the Benedictines, that, two days since, one of the +nuns foretold the whole business, precisely as it happened--and what's +more, many that were in the Church this morning will tell you that they +distinctly saw the blessed image raise both arms and tear the crown from +her head." + +"H'm," said the young man flippantly, "what became of the Bambino +meanwhile, I wonder?" + +The scribe shrugged his shoulders. "We all know," said he, "that Cino +the barber lies like a christened Jew; but I'm not surprised the thing +was known in advance, for I make no doubt the priests pulled the wires +that brought down the crown." + +The fat man looked scandalised, and the first speaker waved the subject +aside as unworthy of attention. + +"Such tales are for women and monks," he said impatiently. "But the +business has its serious side. I tell you we are being hurried to our +ruin. Here's this matter of draining the marshes at Pontesordo. Who's to +pay for that? The class that profits by it? Not by a long way. It's we +who drain the land, and the peasants are to live on it." + +The visionary youth tossed back his hair. "But isn't that an inspiration +to you, sir?" he exclaimed. "Does not your heart dilate at the thought +of uplifting the condition of your down-trodden fellows?" + +"My fellows? The peasantry my fellows?" cried the other. "I'd have you +know, my young master, that I come of a long and honourable line of +cloth-merchants, that have had their names on the Guild for two hundred +years and over. I've nothing to do with the peasantry, thank God!" + +The youth had emptied another glass. "What?" he screamed. "You deny the +universal kinship of man? You disown your starving brothers? Proud +tyrant, remember the Bastille!" He burst into tears and began to quote +Alfieri. + +"Well," said the fat man, turning a disgusted shoulder on this display +of emotion, "to my mind this business of draining Pontesordo is too much +like telling the Almighty what to do. If God made the land wet, what +right have we to dry it? Those that begin by meddling with the Creator's +works may end by laying hands on the Creator." + +"You're right," said another. "There's no knowing where these +new-fangled notions may land us. For my part, I was rather taken by them +at first; but since I find that his Highness, to pay for all his good +works, is cutting down his household and throwing decent people out of a +job--like my own son, for instance, that was one of the under-steward's +boys at the palace--why, since then, I begin to see a little farther +into the game." + +A shabby shrewd-looking fellow in a dirty coat and snuff-stained stock +had sauntered up to the table and stood listening with an amused smile. + +"Ah," said the scribe, glancing up, "here's a thoroughgoing reformer, +who'll be asking us all to throw up our hats for the new charter." + +The new-comer laughed contemptuously. "I?" he said. "God forbid! The new +charter's none of my making. It's only another dodge for getting round +the populace--for appearing to give them what they would rise up and +take if it were denied them any longer." + +"Why, I thought you were hot for these reforms?" exclaimed the fat man +with surprise. + +The other shrugged. "You might as well say I was in favour of having the +sun rise tomorrow. It would probably rise at the same hour if I voted +against it. Reform is bound to come, whether your Dukes and Princes are +for it or against it; and those that grant constitutions instead of +refusing them are like men who tie a string to their hats before going +out in a gale. The string may hold for a while--but if it blows hard +enough the hats will all come off in the end." + +"Ay, ay; and meanwhile we furnish the string from our own pockets," said +the scribe with a chuckle. + +The shabby man grinned. "It won't be the last thing to come out of your +pockets," said he, turning to push his way toward another table. + +The others rose and called for their reckoning; and the listener on the +cask slipped out of his corner, elbowed a passage to the door and +stepped forth into the square. + +It was after midnight, a thin drizzle was falling, and the crowd had +scattered. The rain was beginning to extinguish the paper lanterns and +the torches, and the canvas sides of the tents flapped dismally, like +wet sheets on a clothes-line. The man drew his cloak closer, and +avoiding the stragglers who crossed his path, turned into the first +street that led to the palace. He walked fast over the slippery +cobble-stones, buffeted by a rising wind and threading his way between +dark walls and sleeping house-fronts till he reached the lane below the +ducal gardens. He unlocked the door by which he had come forth, entered +the gardens, and paused a moment on the terrace above the lane. + +Behind him rose the palace, a dark irregular bulk, with a lighted window +showing here and there. Before him lay the city, an indistinguishable +huddle of roofs and towers under the rainy night. He stood awhile gazing +out over it; then he turned and walked toward the palace. The garden +alleys were deserted, the pleached walks dark as subterranean passages, +with the wet gleam of statues starting spectrally out of the blackness. +The man walked rapidly, leaving the Borromini wing on his left, and +skirting the outstanding mass of the older buildings. Behind the marble +buttresses of the chapel, he crossed the dense obscurity of a court +between high walls, found a door under an archway, turned a key in the +lock, and gained a spiral stairway as dark as the court. He groped his +way up the stairs and paused a moment on the landing to listen. Then he +opened another door, lifted a heavy hanging of tapestry, and stepped +into the Duke's closet. It stood empty, with a lamp burning low on the +desk. + +The man threw off his cloak and hat, dropped into a chair beside the +desk, and hid his face in his hands. + + +4.9. + +It was the eve of the Duke's birthday. A cabinet council had been called +in the morning, and his Highness's ministers had submitted to him the +revised draft of the constitution which was to be proclaimed on the +morrow. + +Throughout the conference, which was brief and formal, Odo had been +conscious of a subtle change in the ministerial atmosphere. Instead of +the current of resistance against which he had grown used to forcing his +way, he became aware of a tacit yielding to his will. Trescorre had +apparently withdrawn his opposition to the charter, and the other +ministers had followed suit. To Odo's overwrought imagination there was +something ominous in the change. He had counted on the goad of +opposition to fight off the fatal languor which he had learned to expect +at such crises. Now that he found there was to be no struggle he +understood how largely his zeal had of late depended on such factitious +incentives. He felt an irrational longing to throw himself on the other +side of the conflict, to tear in bits the paper awaiting his signature, +and disown the policy which had dictated it. But the tide of +acquiescence on which he was afloat was no stagnant back-water of +indifference, but the glassy reach just above the fall of a river. The +current was as swift as it was smooth, and he felt himself hurried +forward to an end he could no longer escape. He took the pen which +Trescorre handed him, and signed the constitution. + +The meeting over, he summoned Gamba. He felt the need of such +encouragement as the hunchback alone could give. Fulvia's enthusiasms +were too unreal, too abstract. She lived in a region of ideals, whence +ugly facts were swept out by some process of mental housewifery which +kept her world perpetually smiling and immaculate. Gamba at least fed +his convictions on facts. If his outlook was narrow it was direct: no +roseate medium of fancy was interposed between his vision and the truth. + +He stood listening thoughtfully while Odo poured forth his doubts. + +"Your Highness may well hesitate," he said at last. "There are always +more good reasons against a new state of things than for it. I am not +surprised that Count Trescorre appears to have withdrawn his opposition. +I believe he now honestly wishes your Highness to proclaim the +constitution." + +Odo looked up in surprise. "You do not mean that he has come to believe +in it?" + +Gamba smiled. "Probably not in your Highness's sense; but he may have +found a use of his own for it." + +"What do you mean?" Odo asked. + +"If he does not believe it will benefit the state he may think it will +injure your Highness." + +"Ah--" said the Duke slowly. + +There was a pause, during which he was possessed by the same shuddering +reluctance to fix his mind on the facts before him as when he had +questioned the hunchback about Momola's death. He longed to cast the +whole business aside, to be up and away from it, drawing breath in a new +world where every air was not tainted with corruption. He raised his +head with an effort. + +"You think, then, that the liberals are secretly acting against me in +this matter?" + +"I am persuaded of it, your Highness." + +Odo hesitated. "You have always told me," he began again, "that the love +of dominion was your brother's ruling passion. If he really believes +this movement will be popular with the people, why should he secretly +oppose it, instead of making the most of his own share in it as the +minister of a popular sovereign?" + +"For several reasons," Gamba answered promptly. "In the first place, the +reforms your Highness has introduced are not of his own choosing, and +Trescorre has little sympathy with any policy he has not dictated. In +the second place, the powers and opportunities of a constitutional +minister are too restricted to satisfy his appetite for rule; and +thirdly--" he paused a moment, as though doubtful how his words would be +received-- "I suspect Trescorre of having a private score against your +Highness, which he would be glad to pay off publicly." + +Odo fell silent, yielding himself to a fresh current of thought. + +"I know not what score he may have against me," he said at length; "but +what injures me must injure the state, and if Trescorre has any such +motive for withdrawing his opposition, it must be because he believes +the constitution will defeat its own ends." + +"He does believe that, assuredly; but he is not the only one of your +Highness's ministers that would ruin the state on the chance of finding +an opportunity among the ruins." + +"That is as it may be," said Odo with a touch of weariness. "I have seen +enough of human ambition to learn how limited and unimaginative a +passion it is. If it saw farther I should fear it more. But if it is +short-sighted it sees clearly at close range; and the motive you ascribe +to Trescorre would imply that he believes the constitution will be a +failure." + +"Without doubt, your Highness. I am convinced that your ministers have +done all they could to prevent the proclamation of the charter, and +failing that, to thwart its workings if it be proclaimed. In this they +have gone hand in hand with the clergy, and their measures have been +well taken. But I do not believe that any state of mind produced by +external influences can long withstand the natural drift of opinion; and +your Highness may be sure that, though the talkers and writers are +mostly against you in this matter, the mass of the people are with you." + +Odo answered with a despairing gesture. "How can I be sure, when the +people have no means of expressing their needs? It is like trying to +guess the wants of a deaf and dumb man!" + +The hunchback flushed suddenly. "The people will not always be deaf and +dumb," he said. "Some day they will speak." + +"Not in my day," said Odo wearily. "And meanwhile we blunder on, without +ever really knowing what incalculable instincts and prejudices are +pitted against us. You and your party tell me the people are sick of the +burdens the clergy lay on them--yet their blind devotion to the Church +is manifest at every turn, and it did not need the business of the +Virgin's crown to show me how little reason and justice can avail +against such influences." + +Gamba replied by an impatient gesture. "As to the Virgin's crown," he +said, "your Highness must have guessed it was one of the friars' tricks: +a last expedient to turn the people against you. I was not bred up by a +priest for nothing; I know what past masters those gentry are in raising +ghosts and reading portents. They know the minds of the poor folk as the +herdsman knows the habits of his cattle; and for generations they have +used that knowledge to bring the people more completely under their +control." + +"And what have we to oppose to such a power?" Odo exclaimed. "We are +fighting the battle of ideas against passions, of reflection against +instinct; and you have but to look in the human heart to guess which +side will win in such a struggle. We have science and truth and +common-sense with us, you say--yes, but the Church has love and fear and +tradition, and the solidarity of nigh two thousand years of dominion." + +Gamba listened in respectful silence; then he replied with a faint +smile: "All that your Highness says is true; but I beg leave to relate +to your Highness a tale which I read lately in an old book of your +library. According to this story it appears that when the early +Christians of Alexandria set out to destroy the pagan idols in the +temples they were seized with great dread at sight of the god Serapis; +for even those that did not believe in the old gods feared them, and +none dared raise a hand against the sacred image. But suddenly a soldier +who was bolder than the rest flung his battle-axe at the figure--and +when it broke in pieces, there rushed out nothing worse than a great +company of rats."... + +*** + +The Duke had promised to visit Fulvia that evening. For several days his +state of indecision had made him find pretexts for avoiding her; but now +that the charter was signed and he had ordered its proclamation, he +craved the contact of her unwavering faith. + +He found her alone in the dusk of the convent parlour; but he had hardly +crossed the threshold before he was aware of an indefinable change in +his surroundings. She advanced with an impulsiveness out of harmony with +the usual tranquillity of their meetings, and he felt her hand tremble +and burn in his. In the twilight it seemed to him that her very dress +had a warmer rustle and glimmer, that there emanated from her glance and +movements some heady fragrance of a long-past summer. He smiled to think +that this phantom coquetry should have risen at the summons of an +academic degree; but some deeper sense in him was stirred as by a vision +of waste riches adrift on the dim seas of chance. + +For a moment she sat silent, as in the days when they had been too near +each other for many words; and there was something indescribably +soothing in this dreamlike return to the past. It was he who roused +himself first. + +"How young you look!" he said, giving involuntary utterance to his +thought. + +"Do I?" she answered gaily. "I am glad of that, for I feel +extraordinarily young tonight. Perhaps it is because I have been +thinking a great deal of the old days--of Venice and Turin--and of the +high-road to Vercelli, for instance." She glanced at him with a smile. + +"Do you know," she went on, moving to a seat at his side, and laying a +hand on the arm of his chair, "that there is one secret of mine you have +never guessed in all these years?" + +Odo returned her smile. "What is it, I wonder?" he said. + +She fixed him with bright bantering eyes. "I knew why you deserted us at +Vercelli." He uttered an exclamation, but she lifted a hand to his lips. +"Ah, how angry I was then--but why be angry now? It all happened so long +ago; and if it had not happened--who knows?--perhaps you would never +have pitied me enough to love me as you did." She laughed softly, +reminiscently, leaning back as if to let the tide of memories ripple +over her. Then she raised her head suddenly, and said in a changed +voice: "Are your plans fixed for tomorrow?" + +Odo glanced at her in surprise. Her mind seemed to move as capriciously +as Maria Clementina's. + +"The constitution is signed," he answered, "and my ministers proclaim it +tomorrow morning." He looked at her a moment, and lifted her hand to his +lips. "Everything has been done according to your wishes," he said. + +She drew away with a start, and he saw that she had turned pale. "No, +no--not as I wish," she murmured. "It must not be because _I_ wish--" +she broke off and her hand slipped from his. + +"You have taught me to wish as you wish," he answered gently. "Surely +you would not disown your pupil now?" + +Her agitation increased. "Do not call yourself that!" she exclaimed. +"Not even in jest. What you have done has been done of your own +choice--because you thought it best for your people. My nearness or +absence could have made no difference." + +He looked at her with growing wonder. "Why this sudden modesty?" he said +with a smile. "I thought you prided yourself on your share in the great +work." + +She tried to force an answering smile, but the curve broke into a quiver +of distress, and she came close to him, with a gesture that seemed to +take flight from herself. + +"Don't say it, don't say it!" she broke out. "What right have they to +call it my doing? I but stood aside and watched you and gloried in +you--is there any guilt to a woman in THAT?" She clung to him a moment, +hiding her face in his breast. + +He loosened her arms gently, that he might draw back and look at her. +"Fulvia," he asked, "what ails you? You are not yourself tonight. Has +anything happened to distress you? Have you been annoyed or alarmed in +any way?--It is not possible," he broke off, "that Trescorre has been +here--?" + +She drew away, flushed and protesting. "No, no," she exclaimed. "Why +should Trescorre come here? Why should you fancy that any one has been +here? I am excited, I know; I talk idly; but it is because I have been +thinking too long of these things--" + +"Of what things?" + +"Of what people say--how can one help hearing that?" I sometimes fancy +that the more withdrawn one lives the more distinctly one hears the +outer noises." + +"But why should you heed the outer noises? You have never done so +before." + +"Perhaps I was wrong not to do so before. Perhaps I should have listened +sooner. Perhaps others have seen--understood--sooner than I--oh, the +thought is intolerable!" + +She moved a pace or two away, and then, regaining the mastery of her +lips and eyes, turned to him with a show of calmness. + +"Your heart was never in this charter--" she began. + +"Fulvia!" he cried protestingly; but she lifted a silencing hand. "Ah, I +have seen it--I have felt it--but I was never willing to own that you +were right. My pride in you blinded me, I suppose. I could not bear to +dream any fate for you but the greatest. I saw you always leading +events, rather than waiting on them. But true greatness lies in the man, +not in his actions. Compromise, delay, renunciation--these may be as +heroic as conflict. A woman's vision is so narrow that I did not see +this at first. You have always told me that I looked only at one side of +the question; but I see the other side now--I see that you were right." + +Odo stood silent. He had followed her with growing wonder. A volte-face +so little in keeping with her mental habits immediately struck him as a +feint; yet so strangely did it accord with his own secret reluctances +that these inclined him to let it pass unquestioned. + +Some instinctive loyalty to his past checked the temptation. "I am not +sure that I understand you," he said slowly. "Have you lost faith in the +ideas we have worked for?" + +She hesitated, and he saw the struggle beneath her surface calmness. +"No, no," she exclaimed quickly, "I have not lost faith in them--" + +"In me, then?" + +She smiled with a disarming sadness. "That would be so much simpler!" +she murmured. + +"What do you mean, then?" he urged. "We must understand each other." He +paused, and measured his words out slowly. "Do you think it a mistake to +proclaim the constitution tomorrow?" + +Again her face was full of shadowy contradictions. "I entreat you not to +proclaim it tomorrow," she said in a low voice. + +Odo felt the blood drum in his ears. Was not this the word for which he +had waited? But still some deeper instinct held him back, warning him, +as it seemed, that to fall below his purpose at such a juncture was the +only measurable failure. He must know more before he yielded, see deeper +into her heart and his; and each moment brought the clearer conviction +that there was more to know and see. + +"This is unlike you, Fulvia," he said. "You cannot make such a request +on impulse. You must have a reason." + +She smiled. "You told me once that a woman's reasons are only impulses +in men's clothes." + +But he was not to be diverted by this thrust. "I shall think so now," he +said, "unless you can give me some better account of yours!" + +She was silent, and he pressed on with a persistency for which he +himself could hardly account: "You must have a reason for this request." + +"I have one," she said, dropping her attempts at evasion. + +"And it is--?" + +She paused again, with a look of appeal against which he had to stiffen +himself. + +"I do not believe the time has come," she said at length. + +"You think the people are not ready for the constitution?" + +She answered with an effort: "I think the people are not ready for it." + +He fell silent, and they sat facing each other, but with eyes apart. + +"You have received this impression from Gamba, from Andreoni--from the +members of our party?" he asked. + +She made no reply. + +"Remember, Fulvia," he went on almost sternly, "that this is the end for +which we have worked together all these years--the end for which we +renounced each other and went forth in our youth, you to exile and I to +an unwilling sovereignty. It was because we loved this cause better than +ourselves that we had strength to give up for it our personal hopes of +happiness. If we betray the cause from any merely personal motive we +shall have fallen below our earlier selves." He waited again, but she +was still silent. "Can you swear to me," he went on, "that no such +motive influences you now? That you honestly believe we have been +deceived and mistaken? That our years of faith and labour have been +wasted, and that, if mankind is to be helped, it is to be in other ways +and by other efforts than ours?" + +He stood before her accusingly, almost, the passion of the long fight +surging up in him as he felt the weapon drop from his hand. + +Fulvia had sat motionless under his appeal; but as he paused she rose +with an impulsive gesture. "Oh, why do you torment me with questions?" +she cried, half-sobbing. "I venture to counsel a delay, and you arraign +me as though I stood at the day of judgment!" + +"It IS our day of judgment," he retorted. "It is the day on which life +confronts us with our own actions, and we must justify them or own +ourselves deluded." He went up to her and caught her hands entreatingly. +"Fulvia," he said, "I too have doubted, wavered--and if you will give me +one honest reason that is worthy of us both--" + +She broke from him to hide her weeping. "Reasons! reasons!" she +stammered. "What does the heart know of reasons? I ask a favour--the +first I ever asked of you--and you answer it by haggling with me for +reasons!" + +Something in her voice and gesture was like a lightning-flash over a +dark landscape. In an instant he saw the pit at his feet. + +"Some one has been with you. Those words were not yours," he cried. + +She rallied instantly. "That is a pretext for not heeding them!" she +returned. + +The lightning glared again. He stepped close and faced her. + +"The Duchess has been here," he said. + +She dropped into a chair and hid her face from him. A wave of anger +mounted from his heart, choking back his words and filling his brain +with its fumes. But as it subsided he felt himself suddenly cool, firm, +attempered. There could be no wavering, no self-questioning now. + +"When did this happen?" he asked. + +She shook her head despairingly. + +"Fulvia," he said, "if you will not speak I will speak for you. I can +guess what arguments were used--what threats, even. Were there threats?" +burst from him in a fresh leap of anger. + +She raised her head slowly. "Threats would not have mattered," she said. + +"But your fears were played on--your fears for my safety?--Fulvia, +answer me!" he insisted. + +She rose suddenly and laid her arms about his shoulders, with a gesture +half-tender, half-maternal. + +"Oh," she said, "why will you torture me? I have borne much for our +love's sake, and would have borne this too--in silence, like the +rest--but to speak of it is to relieve it; and my strength fails me!" + +He held her hands fast, keeping his eyes on hers. "No," he said, "for +your strength never failed you when there was any call on it; and our +whole past calls on it now. Rouse yourself, Fulvia: look life in the +face! You were told there might be troubles tomorrow--that I was in +danger, perhaps?" + +"There was worse--there was worse," she shuddered. + +"Worse?" + +"The blame was laid on me--the responsibility. Your love for me, my +power over you, were accused. The people hate me--they hate you for +loving me! Oh, I have destroyed you!" she cried. + +Odo felt a slow cold strength pouring into all his veins. It was as +though his enemies, in thinking to mix a mortal poison, had rendered him +invulnerable. He bent over her with great gentleness. + +"Fulvia, this is madness," he said. "A moment's thought must show you +what passions are here at work. Can you not rise above such fears? No +one can judge between us but ourselves." + +"Ah, but you do not know--you will not understand. Your life may be in +danger!" she cried. + +"I have been told that before," he said contemptuously. "It is a common +trick of the political game." + +"This is no trick," she exclaimed. "I was made to see--to +understand--and I swear to you that the danger is real." + +"And what if it were? Is the Church to have all the martyrs?" said he +gaily. "Come, Fulvia, shake off such fancies. My life is as safe as +yours. At worst there may be a little hissing to be faced. That is easy +enough compared to facing one's own doubts. And I have no doubts +now--that is all past, thank heaven! I see the road straight before +me--as straight as when you showed it to me once before, years ago, in +the inn-parlour at Peschiera. You pointed the way to it then; surely you +would not hold me back from it now?" + +He took her in his arms and kissed her lips to silence. + +"When we meet tomorrow," he said, releasing her, "It will be as teacher +and pupil, you in your doctor's gown and I a learner at your feet. Put +your old faith in me into your argument, and we shall have all Pianura +converted." + +He hastened away through the dim gardens, carrying a boy's heart in his +breast. + + +4.10. + +The University of Pianura was lodged in the ancient Signoria or Town +Hall of the free city; and here, on the afternoon of the Duke's +birthday, the civic dignitaries and the leading men of the learned +professions had assembled to see the doctorate conferred on the +Signorina Fulvia Vivaldi and on several less conspicuous candidates of +the other sex. + +The city was again in gala dress. Early that morning the new +constitution had been proclaimed, with much firing of cannon and display +of official fireworks; but even these great news, and their attendant +manifestations, had failed to enliven the populace, who, instead of +filling the streets with their usual stir, hung massed at certain +points, as though curiously waiting on events. There are few sights more +ominous than that of a crowd thus observing itself, watching in +inconscient suspense for the unknown crisis which its own passions have +engendered. + +It was known that his Highness, after the public banquet at the palace, +was to proceed in state to the University; and the throng was thick +about the palace gates and in the streets betwixt it and the Signoria. +Here the square was close-packed, and every window choked with gazers, +as the Duke's coach came in sight, escorted meagrely by his equerries +and the half-dozen light-horse that preceded him. The small escort, and +the marked absence of military display, perhaps disappointed the +splendour-loving crowd; and from this cause or another, scarce a cheer +was heard as his Highness descended from his coach, and walked up the +steps to the porch of ancient carved stone where the faculty awaited +him. + +The hall was already filled with students and graduates, and with the +guests of the University. Through this grave assemblage the Duke passed +up to the row of armchairs beneath the dais at the farther end of the +room. Trescorre, who was to have attended his Highness, had excused +himself on the plea of indisposition, and only a few +gentlemen-in-waiting accompanied the Duke; but in the brown half-light +of the old Gothic hall their glittering uniforms contrasted brilliantly +with the black gowns of the students, and the sober broadcloth of the +learned professions. A discreet murmur of enthusiasm rose at their +approach, mounting almost to a cheer as the Duke bowed before taking his +seat; for the audience represented the class most in sympathy with his +policy and most confident of its success. + +The meetings of the faculty were held in the great council-chamber where +the Rectors of the old free city had assembled; and such a setting was +regarded as peculiarly appropriate to the present occasion. The fact was +alluded to, with much wealth of historical and mythological analogy, by +the President, who opened the ceremonies with a polysyllabic Latin +oration, in which the Duke was compared to Apollo, Hercules and Jason, +as well as to the flower of sublunary heroes. + +This feat of rhetoric over, the candidates were called on to advance and +receive their degrees. The men came first, profiting by the momentary +advantage of sex, but clearly aware of its inability to confer even +momentary importance in the eyes of the impatient audience. A pause +followed, and then Fulvia appeared. Against the red-robed faculty at the +back of the dais, she stood tall and slender in her black cap and gown. +The high windows of painted glass shed a paleness on her face, but her +carriage was light and assured as she advanced to the President and +knelt to receive her degree. The parchment was placed in her hand, the +furred hood laid on her shoulders; then, after another flourish of +rhetoric, she was led to the lectern from which her discourse was to be +delivered. Odo sat just below her, and as she took her place their eyes +met for an instant. He was caught up in the serene exaltation of her +look, as though she soared with him above wind and cloud to a region of +unshadowed calm; then her eyes fell and she began to speak. + +She had a pretty mastery of Latin, and though she had never before +spoken in public, her poetical recitations, and the early habit of +intercourse with her father's friends, had given her a fair measure of +fluency and self-possession. These qualities were raised to eloquence by +the sweetness of her voice, and by the grave beauty which made the +academic gown seem her natural wear, rather than a travesty of learning. +Odo at first had some difficulty in fixing his attention on what she +said; and when he controlled his thoughts she was in the height of her +panegyric of constitutional liberty. She had begun slowly, almost +coldly; but now her theme possessed her. One by one she evoked the +familiar formulas with which his mind had once reverberated. They woke +no echo in him now; but he saw that she could still set them ringing +through the sensibilities of her hearers. As she stood there, a slight +impassioned figure, warming to her high argument, his sense of irony was +touched by the incongruity of her background. The wall behind her was +covered by an ancient fresco, fast fading under its touches of renewed +gilding, and representing the patron scholars of the mediaeval world: +the theologians, law-givers and logicians under whose protection the +free city had placed its budding liberties. There they sat, rigid and +sumptuous on their Gothic thrones: Origen, Zeno, David, Lycurgus, +Aristotle; listening in a kind of cataleptic helplessness to a +confession of faith that scattered their doctrines to the winds. As he +looked and listened, a weary sense of the reiterance of things came over +him. For what were these ancient manipulators of ideas, prestidigitators +of a vanished world of thought, but the forbears of the long line of +theorists of whom Fulvia was the last inconscient mouthpiece? The new +game was still played with the old counters, the new jugglers repeated +the old tricks; and the very words now poured out in defence of the new +cause were but mercenaries scarred in the service of its enemies. For +generations, for centuries, man had fought on; crying for liberty, +dreaming it was won, waking to find himself the slave of the new forces +he had generated, burning and being burnt for the same beliefs under +different guises, calling his instinct ideas and his ideas revelations; +destroying, rebuilding, falling, rising, mending broken weapons, +championing extinct illusions, mistaking his failures for achievements +and planting his flag on the ramparts as they fell. And as the vision of +this inveterate conflict rose before him, Odo saw that the beauty, the +power, the immortality, dwelt not in the idea but in the struggle for +it. + +His resistance yielded as this sense stole over him, and with an almost +physical relief he felt himself drawn once more into the familiar +current of emotion. Yes, it was better after all to be one of that great +unconquerable army, though, like the Trojans fighting for a phantom +Helen, they might be doing battle for the shadow of a shade; better to +march in their ranks, endure with them, fight with them, fall with them, +than to miss the great enveloping sense of brotherhood that turned +defeat to victory. + +As the conviction grew in him, Fulvia's words regained their lost +significance. Through the set mask of language the living thoughts +looked forth, old indeed as the world, but renewed with the new life of +every heart that bore them. She had left the abstract and dropped to +concrete issues: to the gift of the constitution, the benefits and +obligations it implied, the new relations it established between ruler +and subject and between man and man. Odo saw that she approached the +question without flinching. No trace remained of the trembling woman who +had clung to him the night before. Her old convictions repossessed her +and she soared above human fears. + +So engrossed was he that he had been unaware of a growing murmur of +sound which seemed to be forcing its way from without through the walls +of the ancient building. As Fulvia's oration neared its end the murmur +rose to a roar. Startled faces were turned toward the doors of the +council-chamber, and one of the Duke's gentlemen left his seat and made +his way through the audience. Odo sat motionless, his eyes on Fulvia. He +noticed that her face paled as the sound reached her, but there was no +break in the voice with which she uttered the closing words of her +peroration. As she ended, the noise was momentarily drowned under a loud +burst of clapping; but this died in a hush of apprehension through which +the outer tumult became more ominously audible. The equerry reentered +the hall with a disordered countenance. He hastened to the Duke and +addressed him urgently. + +"Your Highness," he said, "the crowd has thickened and wears an ugly +look. There are many friars abroad, and images of the Mountain Virgin +are being carried in procession. Will your Highness be pleased to remain +here while I summon an escort from the barracks?" + +Odo was still watching Fulvia. She had received the applause of the +audience with a deep reverence, and was now in the act of withdrawing to +the inner room at the back of the dais. Her eyes met Odo's; she smiled +and the door closed on her. He turned to the equerry. + +"There is no need of an escort," he said. "I trust my people if they do +not trust me." + +"But, your Highness, the streets are full of demagogues who have been +haranguing the people since morning. The crowd is shouting against the +constitution and against the Signorina Vivaldi." + +A flame of anger passed over the Duke's face; but he subdued it +instantly. + +"Go to the Signorina Vivaldi," he said, pointing to the door by which +Fulvia had left the hall. "Assure her that there is no danger, but ask +her to remain where she is till the crowd disperses, and request the +faculty in my name to remain with her." + +The equerry bowed, and hurried up the steps of the dais, while the Duke +signed to his other companions to precede him to the door of the hall. +As they walked down the long room, between the close-packed ranks of the +audience, the outer tumult surged threateningly toward them. Near the +doorway, another of the gentlemen-in-waiting was seen to speak with the +Duke. + +"Your Highness," he said, "there is a private way at the back by which +you may yet leave the building unobserved." + +"You appear to forget that I entered it publicly," said Odo. + +"But, your Highness, we cannot answer for the consequences--" + +The Duke signed to the ushers to throw open the doors. They obeyed, and +he stepped out into the stone vestibule preceding the porch. The +iron-barred outer doors of this vestibule were securely bolted, and the +porter hung back in affright at the order to unlock them. + +"Your Highness, the people are raving mad," he said, flinging himself on +his knees. + +Odo turned impatiently to his escort. "Unbar the doors, gentlemen," he +said. The blood was drumming in his ears, but his eye was clear and +steady, and he noted with curious detachment the comic agony of the fat +porter's face, and the strain and swell of the equerry's muscles as he +dragged back the ponderous bolts. + +The doors swung open, and the Duke emerged. Below him, still with that +unimpaired distinctness of vision which seemed a part of his heightened +vitality, he saw a great gesticulating mass of people. They packed the +square so closely that their own numbers held them immovable, save for +their swaying arms and heads; and those whom the square could not +contain had climbed to porticoes, balconies and cornices, and massed +themselves in the neck of the adjoining streets. The handful of +light-horse who had escorted the Duke's carriage formed a single line at +the foot of the steps, so that the approach to the porch was still +clear; but it was plain that the crowd, with its next movement, would +break through this slender barrier and hem in the Duke. + +At Odo's appearance the shouting had ceased and every eye was turned on +him. He stood there, a brilliant target, in his laced coat of +peach-coloured velvet, his breast covered with orders, a hand on his +jewelled sword-hilt. For a moment sovereign and subjects measured each +other; and in that moment Odo drank his deepest draught of life. He was +not thinking now of the constitution or its opponents. His present +business was to get down the steps and into the carriage, returning to +the palace as openly as he had come. He was conscious of neither pity +nor hatred for the throng in his path. For the moment he regarded them +merely as a natural force, to be fought against like storm or flood. His +clearest sensation was one of relief at having at last some material +obstacle to spend his strength against, instead of the impalpable powers +which had so long beset him. He felt, too, a boyish satisfaction at his +own steadiness of pulse and eye, at the absence of that fatal inertia +which he had come to dread. So clear was his mental horizon that it +embraced not only the present crisis, but a dozen incidents leading up +to it. He remembered that Trescorre had urged him to take a larger +escort, and that he had refused on the ground that any military display +might imply a doubt of his people. He was glad now that he had done so. +He would have hated to slink to his carriage behind a barrier of drawn +swords. He wanted no help to see him through this business. The blood +sang in his veins at the thought of facing it alone. + +The silence lasted but a moment; then an image of the Mountain Virgin +was suddenly thrust in air, and a voice cried out: "Down with our Lady's +enemies! We want no laws against the friars!" + +A howl caught up the words and tossed them to and fro above the seething +heads. Images of the Virgin, religious banners, the blue-and-white of +the Madonna's colours, suddenly canopied the crowd. + +"We want the Barnabites back!" sang out another voice. + +"Down with the free-thinkers!" yelled a hundred angry throats. + +A stone or two sped through the air and struck the sculptures of the +porch. + +"Your Highness!" cried the equerry who stood nearest, and would have +snatched the Duke back within doors. + +For all answer, Odo stepped clear of the porch and advanced to the edge +of the steps. As he did so, a shower of missiles hummed about him, and a +stone struck him on the lip. The blood rushed to his head, and he swayed +in the sudden grip of anger; but he mastered himself and raised his lace +handkerchief to the cut. + +His gentlemen had drawn their swords; but he signed to them to sheathe +again. His first thought was that he must somehow make the people hear +him. He lifted his hand and advanced a step; but as he did so a shot +rang out, followed by a loud cry. The lieutenant of the light-horse, +infuriated by the insult to his master, had drawn the pistol from his +holster and fired blindly into the crowd. His bullet had found a mark, +and the throng hissed and seethed about the spot where a man had fallen. +At the same instant Odo was aware of a commotion in the group behind +him, and with a great plunge of the heart he saw Fulvia at his side. She +still wore the academic dress, and her black gown detached itself +sharply against the bright colours of the ducal uniforms. + +Groans and hisses received her, but the mob hung back, as though her +look had checked them. Then a voice shrieked out: "Down with the +atheist! We want no foreign witches!" and another caught it up with the +yell: "She poisoned the weaver's boy! Her father was hanged for +murdering Christian children!" + +The cry set the crowd in motion again, and it rolled toward the line of +mounted soldiers at the foot of the steps. The men had their hands on +their holsters; but the Duke's call rang out: "No firing!" and drawing +their blades, they sat motionless to receive the shock. + +It came, dashed against them and dispersed them. Only a few yards lay +now between the people and their sovereign. But at that moment another +shot was fired. This time it came from the thick of the crowd. The +equerries' swords leapt forth again, and they closed around the Duke and +Fulvia. + +"Save yourself, sir! Back into the building!" one of the gentlemen +shouted; but Odo had no eyes for what was coming. For as the shot was +heard he had seen a change in Fulvia. A moment they had stood together, +smiling, undaunted, hands locked and wedded eyes, then he felt her +dissolve against him and drop between his arms. + +A cry had gone out that the Duke was wounded, and a leaden silence fell +on the crowd. In that silence Odo knelt, lifting Fulvia's head to his +breast. No wound showed through her black gown. She lay as though +smitten by some invisible hand. So deep was the hush that her least +whisper must have reached him; but though he bent close no whisper came. +The invisible hand had struck the very source of life; and to these two, +in their moment of final reunion, with so much unsaid between them that +now at last they longed to say, there was left only the dumb communion +of fast-clouding eyes... + +A clatter of cavalry was heard down the streets that led to the square. +The equerry sent to warn Fulvia had escaped from the back of the +building and hastened to the barracks to summon a regiment. But the +soldiery were no longer needed. The blind fury of the mob had died of +its own excess. The rumour that the Duke was hurt brought a chill +reaction of dismay, and the rioters were already scattering when the +cavalry came in sight. Their approach turned the slow dispersal to a +stampede. A few arrests were made, the remaining groups were charged by +the soldiers, and presently the square lay bare as a storm-swept plain, +though the people still hung on its outskirts, ready to disband at the +first threat of the troops. + +It was on this solitude that the Duke looked out as he regained a sense +of his surroundings. Fulvia had been carried into the audience-chamber +and laid on the dais, her head resting on the velvet cushions of the +ducal chair. She had died instantly, shot through the heart, and the +surgeons summoned in haste had soon ceased from their ineffectual +efforts. For a long time Odo knelt beside her, unconscious of all but +that one wild moment when life at its highest had been dashed into the +gulf of death. Thought had ceased, and neither rage nor grief moved as +yet across the chaos of his being. All his life was in his eyes, as they +drew up, drop by drop, the precious essence of her loveliness. For she +had grown, beneath the simplifying hand of death, strangely yet most +humanly beautiful. Life had fallen from her like the husk from the +flower, and she wore the face of her first hopes. The transition had +been too swift for any backward look, any anguished rending of the +fibres, and he felt himself, not detached by the stroke, but caught up +with her into some great calm within the heart of change. + +He knew not how he found himself once more on the steps above the +square. Below him his state carriage stood in the same place, flanked by +the regiment of cavalry. Down the narrow streets he saw the brooding +cloud of people, and the sight roused his blood. They were his enemies +now--he felt the warm hate in his veins. They were his enemies, and he +would face them openly. No closed chariot guarded by troops--he would +not have so much as a pane of glass between himself and his subjects. He +descended the steps, bade the colonel of the regiment dismount, and +sprang into his saddle. Then, at the head of his soldiers, at a +foot-pace, he rode back through the packed streets to the palace. + +In the palace, courtyard and vestibule were thronged with courtiers and +lacqueys. He walked through them with his head high, the cut on his lip +like the mark of a hot iron in the dead whiteness of his face. At the +head of the great staircase Maria Clementina waited. She sprang forward, +distraught and trembling, her face as blanched as his. + +"You are safe--you are safe--you are not hurt--" she stammered, catching +at his hands. + +A shudder seized him as he put her aside. + +"Odo! Odo!" she cried passionately, and made as though to bar his way. + +He gave her a blind look and passed on down the long gallery to his +closet. + + +4.11. + +The joy of reprisals lasted no longer than a summer storm. To hurt, to +silence, to destroy, was too easy to be satisfying. The passions of his +ancestors burned low in Odo's breast: though he felt Bracciaforte's fury +in his veins he could taste no answering gratification of revenge. And +the spirit on which he would have spent his hatred was not here or +there, as an embodied faction, but everywhere as an intangible +influence. The acqua tofana of his enemies had pervaded every fibre of +the state. + +The mist of anguish lifted, he saw himself alone among ruins. For a +moment Fulvia's glowing faith had hung between him and a final vision of +the truth; and as his convictions weakened he had replaced them with an +immense pity, an all-sufficing hope. Sentimental verbiage: he saw it +clearly now. He had been the dupe of the old word-jugglery which was +forever confounding fact and fancy in men's minds. For it was +essentially an age of words: the world was drunk with them, as it had +once been drunk with action; and the former was the deadlier drug of the +two. He looked about him languidly, letting the facts of life filter +slowly through his faculties. The sources of energy were so benumbed in +him that he felt like a man whom long disease had reduced to +helplessness and who must laboriously begin his bodily education again. +Hate was the only passion which survived, and that was but a deaf +intransitive emotion coiled in his nature's depths. + +Sickness at last brought its obliteration. He sank into gulfs of +weakness and oblivion, and when the rise of the tide floated him back to +life, it was to a life as faint and colourless as infancy. Colourless +too were the boundaries on which he looked out: the narrow enclosure of +white walls, opening on a slit of pale spring landscape. His hands lay +before him, white and helpless on the white coverlet of his bed. He +raised his eyes and saw de Crucis at his side. Then he began to +remember. There had been preceding intervals of consciousness, and in +one of them, in answer perhaps to some vaguely-uttered wish for light +and air, he had been carried out of the palace and the city to the +Benedictine monastery on its wooded knoll beyond the Piana. Then the +veil had dropped again, and his spirit had wandered in a dim place of +shades. There was a faint sweetness in coming back at last to familiar +sights and sounds. They no longer hurt like pressure on an aching nerve: +they seemed rather, now, the touch of a reassuring hand. + +As the contact with life became closer and more sustained he began to +watch himself curiously, wondering what instincts and habits of thought +would survive his long mental death. It was with a bitter, almost +pitiable disappointment that he found the old man growing again in him. +Life, with a mocking hand, brought him the cast-off vesture of his past, +and he felt himself gradually compressed again into the old passions and +prejudices. Yet he wore them with a difference--they were a cramping +garment rather than a living sheath. He had brought back from his lonely +voyagings a sense of estrangement deeper than any surface-affinity with +things. + +As his physical strength returned, and he was able to leave his room and +walk through the long corridors to the outer air, he felt the old spell +which the life of Monte Cassino had cast on him. The quiet garden, with +its clumps of box and lavender between paths converging to the statue of +Saint Benedict; the cloisters paved with the monks' nameless graves; the +traces of devotional painting left here and there on the weather-beaten +walls, like fragments of prayer in a world-worn mind: these formed a +circle of tranquillising influences in which he could gradually +reacquire the habit of living. + +He had never deceived himself as to the cause of the riots. He knew from +Gamba and Andreoni that the liberals and the court, for once working in +unison, had provoked the blind outburst of fanaticism which a rasher +judgment might have ascribed to the clergy. The Dominicans, bigoted and +eager for power, had been ready enough to serve such an end, and some of +the begging orders had furnished the necessary points of contact with +the people; but the movement was at bottom purely political, and +represented the resistance of the privileged classes to any attack on +their inherited rights. + +As such, he could no longer regard it as completely unreasonable. He was +beginning to feel the social and political significance of those old +restrictions and barriers against which his early zeal had tilted. +Certainly in the ideal state the rights and obligations of the different +classes would be more evenly adjusted. But the ideal state was a figment +of the brain. The real one, as Crescenti had long ago pointed out, was +the gradual and heterogeneous product of remote social conditions, +wherein every seeming inconsistency had its roots in some bygone need, +and the character of each class, with its special passions, ignorances +and prejudices, was the sum total of influences so ingrown and +inveterate that they had become a law of thought. All this, however, +seemed rather matter for philosophic musing than for definite action. +His predominant feeling was still that of remoteness from the immediate +issues of life: the soeva indignatio had been succeeded by a great calm. + +The soothing influences of the monastic life had doubtless helped to +tide him over the stormy passage of returning consciousness. His +sensitiveness to these influences inclined him for the first time to +consider them analytically. Hitherto he had regarded the Church as a +skilfully-adjusted engine, the product of human passions scientifically +combined to obtain the greatest sum of tangible results. Now he saw that +he had never penetrated beneath the surface. For the Church which +grasped, contrived, calculated, struggled for temporal possessions and +used material weapons against spiritual foes--this outer Church was +nothing more than the body, which, like any other animal body, had to +care for its own gross needs, nourish, clothe, defend itself, fight for +a footing among the material resistances of life--while the soul, the +inner animating principle, might dwell aloof from all these things, in a +clear medium of its own. + +To this soul of the Church his daily life now brought him close. He felt +it in the ordered beneficence of the great community, in the simplicity +of its external life and the richness and suavity of its inner +relations. No alliance based on material interests, no love of power +working toward a common end, could have created that harmony of thought +and act which was reflected in every face about him. Each of these men +seemed to have FOUND OUT SOMETHING of which he was still ignorant. + +What it was, de Crucis tried to tell him as they paced the cloisters +together or sat in the warm stillness of the budding garden. At the +first news of the Duke's illness the Jesuit had hastened to Pianura. No +companionship could have been so satisfying to Odo. De Crucis's mental +attitude toward mankind might have been defined as an illuminated +charity. To love men, or to understand them, is not as unusual as to do +both together; and it was the intellectual acuteness of his friend's +judgments that made their Christian amenity so seductive to Odo. + +"The highest claim of Christianity," the Jesuit said one morning, as +they sat on a worn stone bench at the end of the sunny vine-walk, "is +that it has come nearer to solving the problem of men's relations to +each other than any system invented by themselves. This, after all, is +the secret principle of the Church's vitality. She gave a spiritual +charter of equality to mankind long before the philosophers thought of +giving them a material one. If, all the while, she has been fighting for +dominion, arrogating to herself special privileges, struggling to +preserve the old lines of social and legal demarcation, it has been +because for nigh two thousand years she has cherished in her breast the +one free city of the spirit, because to guard its liberties she has had +to defend and strengthen her own position. I do not ask you to consider +whence comes this insight into the needs of man, this mysterious power +over him; I ask you simply to confess them in their results. I am not of +those who believe that God permits good to come to mankind through one +channel only, and I doubt not that now and in times past the thinkers +whom your Highness follows have done much to raise the condition of +their fellows; but I would have you observe that, where they have done +so, it has been because, at bottom, their aims coincided with the +Church's. The deeper you probe into her secret sources of power, the +more you find there, in the germ if you will, but still potentially +active, all those humanising energies which work together for the +lifting of the race. In her wisdom and her patience she may have seen +fit to withhold their expression, to let them seek another outlet; but +they are there, stored in her consciousness like the archetypes of the +Platonists in the Universal Mind. It is the knowledge of this, the sure +knowledge of it, which creates the atmosphere of serenity that you feel +about you. From the tilling of the vineyards, or the dressing of a +beggar's sores, to the loftiest and most complicated intellectual labour +imposed on him, each brother knows that his daily task is part of a +great scheme of action, working ever from imperfection to perfection, +from human incompleteness to the divine completion. This sense of being, +not straws on a blind wind of chance, but units in an ordered force, +gives to the humblest Christian an individual security and dignity which +kings on their thrones might envy. + +"But not only does the Church anticipate every tendency of mankind; +alone of all powers she knows how to control and direct the passions she +excites. This it is which makes her an auxiliary that no temporal prince +can well despise. It is in this aspect that I would have your Highness +consider her. Do not underrate her power because it seems based on the +commoner instincts rather than on the higher faculties of man. That is +one of the sources of her strength. She can support her claims by reason +and argument, but it is because her work, like that of her divine +Founder, lies chiefly among those who can neither reason nor argue, that +she chooses to rest her appeal on the simplest and most universal +emotions. As, in our towns, the streets are lit mainly by the tapers +before the shrines of the saints, so the way of life would be dark to +the great multitude of men but for the light of faith burning within +them..." + +Meanwhile the shufflings of destiny had brought to Trescorre the prize +for which he waited. During the Duke's illness he had been appointed +regent of Pianura, and his sovereign's reluctance to take up the cares +of government had now left him for six months in authority. The day +after the proclaiming of the constitution Odo had withdrawn his +signature from it, on the ground that the concessions it contained were +inopportune. The functions of government went on again in the old way. +The old abuses persisted, the old offences were condoned: it was as +though the apathy of the sovereign had been communicated to his people. +Centuries of submission were in their blood, and for two generations +there had been no warfare south of the Alps. + +For the moment men's minds were turned to the great events going forward +in France. It had not yet occurred to the Italians that the recoil of +these events might be felt among themselves. They were simply amused +spectators, roused at last to the significance of the show, but never +dreaming that they might soon be called from the wings to the +footlights. To de Crucis, however, the possibility of such a call was +already present, and it was he who pressed the Duke to return to his +post. A deep reluctance held Odo back. He would have liked to linger on +in the monastery, leading the tranquil yet busy life of the monks, and +trying to read the baffling riddle of its completeness. At that moment +it seemed to him of vastly more importance to discover the exact nature +of the soul--whether it was in fact a metaphysical entity, as these men +believed, or a mere secretion of the brain, as he had been taught to +think--than to go back and govern his people. For what mattered the +rest, if he had been mistaken about the soul? + +With a start he realised that he was going as his cousin had gone--that +this was but another form of the fatal lethargy that hung upon his race. +An effort of the will drew him back to Pianura, and made him resume the +semblance of authority; but it carried him no farther. Trescorre +ostensibly became prime minister, and in reality remained the head of +the state. The Duke was present at the cabinet meetings but took no part +in the direction of affairs. His mind was lost in a maze of metaphysical +speculations; and even these served him merely as some +cunningly-contrived toy with which to trick his leisure. + +His revocation of the charter had necessarily separated him from Gamba +and the advanced liberals. He knew that the hunchback, ever scornful of +expediency, charged him with disloyalty to the people; but such charges +could no longer wound. The events following the Duke's birthday had +served to crystallise the schemes of the little liberal group, and they +now formed a campaign of active opposition to the government, attacking +it by means of pamphlets and lampoons, and by such public speaking as +the police allowed. The new professors of the University, ardently in +sympathy with the constitutional movement, used their lectures as means +of political teaching, and the old stronghold of dogma became the centre +of destructive criticism. But as yet these ideas formed but a single +live point in the general numbness. + +Two years passed in this way. North of the Alps, all Europe was +convulsed, while Italy was still but a sleeper who tosses in his sleep. +In the two Sicilies, the arrogance and perfidy of the government gave a +few martyrs to the cause, and in Bologna there was a brief revolutionary +outbreak; but for the most part the Italian states were sinking into +inanition. Venice, by recalling her fleet from Greece, let fall the +dominion of the sea. Twenty years earlier Genoa had basely yielded +Corsica to France. The Pope condemned the French for their outrages on +religion, and his subjects murdered Basseville, the agent of the new +republic. The sympathies and impulses of the various states were as +contradictory as they were ineffectual. + +Meanwhile, in France, Europe was trying to solve at a stroke the +problems of a thousand years. All the repressed passions which +civilisation had sought, however imperfectly, to curb, stalked abroad +destructive as flood and fire. The great generation of the +Encyclopaedists had passed away, and the teachings of Rousseau had +prevailed over those of Montesquieu and Voltaire. The sober sense of the +economists was swept aside by the sound and fury of the demagogues, and +France was become a very Babel of tongues. The old malady of words had +swept over the world like a pestilence. + +To the little Italian courts, still dozing in fancied security under the +wing of Bourbon and Hapsburg suzerains, these rumours were borne by the +wild flight of emigres--dead leaves loosened by the first blast of the +storm. Month by month they poured across the Alps in ever-increasing +numbers, bringing confused contradictory tales of anarchy and outrage. +Among those whom chance thus carried to Pianura were certain familiars +of the Duke's earlier life--the Count Alfieri and his royal mistress, +flying from Paris, and arriving breathless with the tale of their +private injuries. To the poet of revolt this sudden realisation of his +doctrines seemed in fact a purely personal outrage. It was as though a +man writing an epic poem on an earthquake should suddenly find himself +engulphed. To Alfieri the downfall of the French monarchy and the +triumph of democratic ideas meant simply that his French investments had +shrunk to nothing, and that he, the greatest poet of the age, had been +obliged, at an immense sacrifice of personal dignity, to plead with a +drunken mob for leave to escape from Paris. To the wider aspect of the +"tragic farce," as he called it, his eyes remained obstinately closed. +He viewed the whole revolutionary movement as a conspiracy against his +comfort, and boasted that during his enforced residence in France he had +not so much as exchanged a word with one of the "French slaves, +instigators of false liberty," who, by trying to put into action the +principles taught in his previous works, had so grievously interfered +with the composition of fresh masterpieces. + +The royal pretensions of the Countess of Albany--pretentions affirmed +rather than abated as the tide of revolution rose--made it impossible +that she should be received at the court of Pianura; but the Duke found +a mild entertainment in Alfieri's company. The poet's revulsion of +feeling seemed to Odo like the ironic laughter of the fates. His +thoughts returned to the midnight meetings of the Honey Bees, and to the +first vision of that face which men had lain down their lives to see. +Men had looked on that face since then, and its horror was reflected in +their own. + +Other fugitives to Pianura brought another impression of events--that +comic note which life, the supreme dramatic artist, never omits from her +tragedies. These were the Duke's old friend the Marquis de Coeur-Volant, +fleeing from his chateau as the peasants put the torch to it, and +arriving in Pianura destitute, gouty and middle-aged, but imperturbable +and epigrammatic as ever. With him came his Marquise, a dark-eyed lady, +stout to unwieldiness and much given to devotion, in whom it was +whispered (though he introduced her as the daughter of a Venetian +Senator) that a reminiscent eye might still detect the outline of the +gracefullest Columbine who had ever flitted across the Italian stage. +These visitors were lodged by the Duke's kindness in the Palazzo +Cerveno, near the ducal residence; and though the ladies of Pianura were +inclined to look askance on the Marquise's genealogy, yet his Highness's +condescension, and her own edifying piety, had soon allayed these +scruples, and the salon of Madame de Coeur-Volant became the rival of +Madame d'Albany's. + +It was, in fact, the more entertaining of the two; for, in spite of his +lady's austere views, the Marquis retained that gift of social +flexibility that was already becoming the tradition of a happier day. To +the Marquis, indeed, the revolution was execrable not so much because of +the hardships it inflicted, as because it was the forerunner of social +dissolution--the breaking-up of the regime which had made manners the +highest morality, and conversation the chief end of man. He could have +lived gaily on a crust in good company and amid smiling faces; but the +social deficiencies of Pianura were more difficult to endure than any +material privation. In Italy, as the Marquis had more than once +remarked, people loved, gambled, wrote poetry, and patronised the arts; +but, alas, they did not converse. Coeur-Volant could not conceal from +his Highness that there was no conversation in Pianura; but he did his +best to fill the void by the constant exercise of his own gift in that +direction, and to Odo at least his talk seemed as good as it was +copious. Misfortune had given a finer savour to the Marquis's +philosophy, and there was a kind of heroic grace in his undisturbed +cultivation of the amenities. + +While the Marquis was struggling to preserve the conversational art, and +Alfieri planning the savage revenge of the Misogallo, the course of +affairs in France had gained a wilder impetus. The abolition of the +nobility, the flight and capture of the King, his enforced declaration +of war against Austria, the massacres of Avignon, the sack of the +Tuileries--such events seemed incredible enough till the next had +crowded them out of mind. The new year rose in blood and mounted to a +bloodier noon. All the old defences were falling. Religion, monarchy, +law, were sucked down into the whirlpool of liberated passions. Across +that sanguinary scene passed, like a mocking ghost, the philosophers' +vision of the perfectibility of man. Man was free at last--freer than +his would-be liberators had ever dreamed of making him--and he used his +freedom like a beast. For the multitude had risen--that multitude which +no man could number, which even the demagogues who ranted in its name +had never seriously reckoned with--that dim, grovelling +indistinguishable mass on which the whole social structure rested. It +was as though the very soil moved, rising in mountains or yawning in +chasms about the feet of those who had so long securely battened on it. +The earth shook, the sun and moon were darkened, and the people, the +terrible unknown people, had put in the sickle to the harvest. + +Italy roused herself at last. The emissaries of the new France were +swarming across the Alps, pervading the peninsula as the Jesuits had +once pervaded Europe; and in the mind of a young general of the +republican army visions of Italian conquest were already forming. In +Pianura the revolutionary agents found a strong republican party headed +by Gamba and his friends, and a government weakened by debt and +dissensions. The air was thick with intrigue. The little army could no +longer be counted on, and a prolonged bread-riot had driven Trescorre +out of the ministry and compelled the Duke to appoint Andreoni in his +place. Behind Andreoni stood Gamba and the radicals. There could be no +doubt which way the fortunes of the duchy tended. The Duke's would-be +protectors, Austria and the Holy See, were too busy organising the hasty +coalition of the powers to come to his aid, had he cared to call on +them. But to do so would have been but another way of annihilation. To +preserve the individuality of his state, or to merge it in the vision of +a United Italy, seemed to him the only alternatives worth fighting for. +The former was a futile dream, the latter seemed for a brief moment +possible. Piedmont, ever loyal to the monarchical principle, was calling +on her sister states to arm themselves against the French invasion. But +the response was reluctant and uncertain. Private ambitions and petty +jealousies hampered every attempt at union. Austria, the Bourbons and +the Holy See held the Italian principalities in a network of conflicting +interests and obligations that rendered free action impossible. Sadly +Victor Amadeus armed himself alone against the enemy. + +Under such conditions Odo could do little to direct the course of +events. They had passed into more powerful hands than his. But he could +at least declare himself for or against the mighty impulse which was +behind them. The ideas he had striven for had triumphed at last, and his +surest hold on authority was to share openly in their triumph. A +profound horror dragged him back. The new principles were not those for +which he had striven. The goddess of the new worship was but a bloody +Maenad who had borrowed the attributes of freedom. He could not bow the +knee in such a charnel-house. Tranquilly, resolutely, he took up the +policy of repression. He knew the attempt was foredoomed to failure, but +that made no difference now: he was simply acting out the inevitable. + +The last act came with unexpected suddenness. The Duke woke one morning +to find the citadel in the possession of the people. The impregnable +stronghold of Bracciaforte was in the hands of the serfs whose fathers +had toiled to build it, and the last descendant of Bracciaforte was +virtually a prisoner in his palace. The revolution took place quietly, +without violence or bloodshed. Andreoni waited on the Duke, and a +cabinet-council was summoned. The ministers affected to have yielded +reluctantly to popular pressure. All they asked was a constitution and +the assurance that no resistance would be offered to the French. + +The Duke requested a few hours for deliberation. Left alone, he summoned +the Duchess's chamberlain. The ducal pair no longer met save on +occasions of state: they had not exchanged a word since the death of +Fulvia Vivaldi. Odo sent word to her Highness that he could no longer +answer for her security while she remained in the duchy, and that he +begged her to leave immediately for Vienna. She replied that she was +obliged for his warning, but that while he remained in Pianura her place +was at his side. It was the answer he had expected--he had never doubted +her courage--but it was essential to his course that she should leave +the duchy without delay, and after a moment's reflection he wrote a +letter in which he informed her that he must insist on her obedience. No +answer was returned, but he learned that she had turned white, and +tearing the letter in shreds had called for her travelling-carriage +within the hour. He sent to enquire when he might take leave of her, but +she excused herself on the plea of indisposition, and before nightfall +he heard the departing rattle of her wheels. + +He immediately summoned Andreoni and announced his unconditional refusal +of the terms proposed to him. He would not give a constitution or +promise allegiance to the French. The minister withdrew, and Odo was +left alone. He had dismissed his gentlemen, and as he sat in his closet +a sense of deathlike isolation came over him. Never had the palace +seemed so silent or so vast. He had not a friend to turn to. De Crucis +was in Germany, and Trescorre, it was reported, had privately attended +the Duchess in her flight. The waves of destiny seemed closing over Odo, +and the circumstances of his past rose, poignant and vivid, before his +drowning sight. + +And suddenly, in that moment of failure and abandonment, it seemed to +him again that life was worth the living. His indifference fell from him +like a garment. The old passion of action awoke and he felt a new warmth +in his breast. After all, the struggle was not yet over: though Piedmont +had called in vain on the Italian states, an Italian sword might still +be drawn in her service. If his people would not follow him against +France he could still march against her alone. Old memories hummed in +him at the thought. He recalled how his Piedmontese ancestors had gone +forth against the same foe, and the stout Donnaz blood began to bubble +in his veins. + +A knock roused him and Gamba entered by the private way. His appearance +was not unexpected to Odo, and served only to reinforce his new-found +energy. He felt that the issue was at hand. As he expected, Gamba had +been sent to put before him more forcibly and unceremoniously the veiled +threat of the ministers. But the hunchback had come also to plead with +his master in his own name, and in the name of the ideas for which they +had once laboured together. He could not believe that the Duke's +reaction was more than momentary. He could not calculate the strength of +the old associations which, now that the tide had set the other way, +were dragging Odo back to the beliefs and traditions of his caste. + +The Duke listened in silence; then he said: "Discussion is idle. I have +no answer to give but that which I have already given." He rose from his +seat in token of dismissal. + +The moment was painful to both men. Gamba drew nearer and fell at the +Duke's feet. + +"Your Highness," he said, "consider what this means. We hold the state +in our hands. If you are against us you are powerless. If you are with +us we can promise you more power than you ever dreamed of possessing." + +The Duke looked at him with a musing smile. "It is as though you offered +me gold in a desert island," he said. "Do not waste such poor bribes on +me. I care for no power but the power to wipe out the work of these last +years. Failing that, I want nothing that you or any other man can give." + +Gamba was silent a moment. He turned aside into the embrasure of the +window, and when he spoke again it was in a voice broken with grief. + +"Your Highness," he said, "if your choice is made, ours is made also. It +is a hard choice, but these are fratricidal hours. We have come to the +parting of the ways." + +The Duke made no sign, and Gamba went on with gathering anguish: "We +would have gone to the world's end with your Highness for our leader!" + +"With a leader whom you could lead," Odo interposed. He went up to Gamba +and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Speak out, man," he said. "Say what +you were sent to say. Am I a prisoner?" + +The hunchback burst into tears. Odo, with his arms crossed, stood +leaning against the window. The other's anguish seemed to deepen his +detachment. + +"Your Highness--your Highness--" Gamba stammered. + +The Duke made an impatient gesture. "Come, make an end," he said. + +Gamba fell back with a profound bow. + +"We do not ask the surrender of your Highness's person," he said. + +"Not even that?" Odo returned with a faint sneer. + +Gamba flushed to the temples, but the retort died on his lips. + +"Your Highness," he said, scarce above a whisper, "the gates are +guarded; but the word for tonight is 'Humilitas.'" He knelt and kissed +Odo's hand. Then he rose and passed out of the room... + +*** + +Before dawn the Duke left the palace. The high emotions of the night had +ebbed. He saw himself now, in the ironic light of morning, as a fugitive +too harmless to be worth pursuing. His enemies had let him keep his +sword because they had no cause to fear it. Alone he passed through the +gardens of the palace, and out into the desert darkness of the streets. +Skirting the wall of the Benedictine convent where Fulvia had lodged, he +gained a street leading to the marketplace. In the pallor of the waning +night the ancient monuments of his race stood up mournful and deserted +as a line of tombs. The city seemed a grave-yard and he the ineffectual +ghost of its dead past. He reached the gates and gave the watchword. The +gates were guarded, as he had been advised; but the captain of the watch +let him pass without show of hesitation or curiosity. Though he made no +effort at disguise he went forth unrecognised, and the city closed her +doors on him as carelessly as on any passing wanderer. + +Beyond the gates a lad from the ducal stables waited with a horse. Odo +sprang into the saddle and rode on toward Pontesordo. The darkness was +growing thinner, and the meagre details of the landscape, with its +huddled farm-houses and mulberry-orchards, began to define themselves as +he advanced. To his left the field stretched, grey and sodden; ahead, on +his right, hung the dark woods of the ducal chase. Presently a bend of +the road brought him within sight of the keep of Pontesordo. His way led +past it, toward Valsecca; but some obscure instinct laid a detaining +hand on him, and at the cross-roads he bent to the right and rode across +the marshland to the old manor-house. + +The farmyard lay hushed and deserted. The peasants who lived there would +soon be afoot; but for the moment Odo had the place to himself. He +tethered his horse to a gate-post and walked across the rough +cobble-stones to the chapel. Its floor was still heaped with farm-tools +and dried vegetables, and in the dimness a heavier veil of dust seemed +to obscure the painted walls. Odo advanced, picking his way among broken +ploughshares and stacks of maize, till he stood near the old marble +altar, with its sea-gods and acanthus volutes. The place laid its +tranquillising hush on him, and he knelt on the step beneath the altar. +Something stirred in him as he knelt there--a prayer, yet not a +prayer--a reaching out, obscure and inarticulate, toward all that had +survived of his early hopes and faiths, a loosening of old founts of +pity, a longing to be somehow, somewhere reunited to his old belief in +life. + +How long he knelt he knew not; but when he looked up the chapel was full +of a pale light, and in the first shaft of the sunrise the face of Saint +Francis shone out on him...He went forth into the daybreak and rode away +toward Piedmont. + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Etext The Valley Of Decision, by Edith Wharton + diff --git a/old/vldcn10.zip b/old/vldcn10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8aacb1a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/vldcn10.zip |