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diff --git a/44114.txt b/44114.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 7a034b5..0000000 --- a/44114.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,12027 +0,0 @@ - A JAY OF ITALY - - - - -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 http://www.gutenberg.org/license. - - - -Title: A Jay of Italy -Author: Bernard Capes -Release Date: November 05, 2013 [EBook #44114] -Language: English -Character set encoding: US-ASCII - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A JAY OF ITALY *** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines. - - - - - - A JAY OF ITALY - - - BY - - BERNARD CAPES - - - - '...Some Jay of Italy, -Whose mother was her painting, hath betrayed him.' - CYMBELINE - - - - FOURTH EDITION - - - - METHUEN AND CO. - 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. - LONDON - - - - - First Published . . July 1905 - Second Edition . . August 1905 - Third Edition . . September 1905 - Fourth Edition . . October 1905 - - - - - *A JAY OF ITALY* - - - - *CHAPTER I* - - -On a hot morning, in the year 1476 of poignant memory, there drew up -before an osteria on the Milan road a fair cavalcade of travellers. -These were Messer Carlo Lanti and his inamorata, together with a suite -of tentmen, pages, falconers, bed-carriers, and other personnel of a -migratory lord on his way from the cooling hills to the Indian summer of -the plains. The chief of the little party, halting in advance of his -fellows, lifted his plumed scarlet biretta with one strong young hand, -and with the other, his reins hanging loose, ran a cluster of swarthy -fingers through his black hair. - -'O little host!' he boomed, blaspheming--for all good Catholics, -conscious of their exclusive caste, swore by God prescriptively--'O -little host, by the thirst of Christ's passion, wine!' - -'He will bring you hyssop--by the token, he will,' murmured the lady, -who sat her white palfrey languidly beside him. She was a slumberous, -ivory-faced creature warm and insolent and lazy; and the little bells of -her bridle tinkled sleepily, as her horse pawed, gently rocking her. - -The cavalier grunted ferociously. 'Let me see him!' and, bonneting -himself again, sat with right arm akimbo, glaring for a response to his -cry. He looked on first acquaintance a bully and profligate--which he -was; but, for his times, with some redeeming features. His thigh, in -its close violet hose, and the long blade which hung at it seemed -somehow in a common accord of steel and muscle. His jaw was underhung, -his brows were very thick and black, but the eyes beneath were -good-humored, and he had a great dimple in his cheek. - -A murmur of voices came from the inn, but no answer whatever to the -demand. The building, glaring white as a rock rolled into the plains -from the great mountains to the north, had a little bush of juniper -thrust out on a staff above its door. It looked like a dry tongue -protruded in derision, and awoke the demon in Messer Lanti. He turned -to a Page:--'Ercole!' he roared, pointing; 'set a light there, and give -these hinds a lesson!' - -The lady laughed, and, stirring a little, watched the page curiously. -But the boy had scarcely reached the ground when the landlord appeared -bowing at the door. The cavalier fumed. - -'Ciacco--hog!' he thundered: 'did you not hear us call?' - -'Illustrious, no.' - -'Where were your ears? Nailed to the pillory?' - -'Nay, Magnificent, but to the utterances of the little Parablist of San -Zeno.' - -'O hog! now by the Mass, I say, they had been better pricked to thy -business. O ciacco, I tell thee thy Parablist was like, in another -moment, to have addressed thee out of a burning bush. What! I would -drink, swine! And, harkee, somewhere from those deep vats of thine the -perfume of an old wine of Cana rises to my nostrils. I say no more. -Despatch!' - -The landlord, abasing himself outwardly, took solace of a private curse -as he turned into the shadow of his porch-- - -'These skipjacks of the Sforzas! limbs of a country churl!' - -Something lithe and gripping sprang upon his back as he muttered, making -him roar out; and the chirrup of a great cricket shrilled in his ear-- - -'Biting limbs! clawing, hooking, scoring limbs! ha-ha, hee-hee, -ho-bir-r-r-r!' - -Boniface, sweating with panic, wriggled to shake off his incubus. It -clung to him toe and claw. Slewing his gross head, he saw, squatted -upon his shoulders, a manikin in green livery, a monstrous grasshopper -in seeming. - -'Messer Fool,' he gurgled--'dear my lord's most honoured jester!' (he -was essaying all the time to stagger with his burden out of -earshot)--'prithee spare to damn a poor fellow for a hasty word under -provocation! Prithee, sweet Messer Fool!' - -The little creature, sitting him as a frog a pike, hooked its small -talons into the corners of his eyes. - -'Provocation!' it laughed, rocking--'provocation by his grandness to a -guts! If I fail to baste thee on a spit for it, call me not Cicada!' - -'Mercy!' implored the landlord, staggering and groping. - -'Nothing for nothing. At what price, tunbelly?' - -The landlord clutched in his blindness at the post of a descending -stair. - -'The best in my house.' - -'What best, paunch?' - -'Milan cheese--boiled bacon. Ah, dear Messer Cicada, there is a fat -cold capon, for which I will go fasting to thee.' - -'And what wine, beast?' - -'What thou wilt, indeed.' - -The jester spurred him with a vicious heel. - -'Away, then! Sink, submerge, titubate, and evanish into thy crystal -vaults!' - -'Alas, I cannot see!' - -The rider shifted his clutch to the fat jowls of his victim, who -thereupon, with a groan, descended a rude flight of steps at a run, and -brought up with his burden in a cool grotto. Here were casks and -stoppered jars innumerable; shelves of deep blue flasks; lolling -amphorae, and festoons of cobwebs drunk with must. Cicada leapt with one -spring to a barrel, on which he squatted, rather now like a green frog -than a grasshopper. His face, lean and leathery, looked as if dipped in -a tan-pit; his eyes were as aspish as his tongue; he was a stunted, -grotesque little creature, all vice and whipcord. - -'Despatch!' he shrilled. 'Thy wit is less a desert than my throat.' - -'Anon!' mumbled the landlord, and hurried for a flask. 'Let thy tongue -roll on that,' he said, 'and call me grateful. As to the capon, -prithee, for my bones' sake, let me serve thy masters first.' - -The jester had already the flask at his mouth. The wine sank into him -as into hot sand. - -'Go,' he said, stopping a moment, and bubbling--'go, and damn thy capon; -I ask no grosser aliment than this.' - -The landlord, bustling in a restored confidence, filled a great bottle -from a remote jar, and armed with it and some vessels of twisted glass, -mounted to daylight once more. Messer Lanti, scowling in the sun, -cursed him for a laggard. - -'Magnificent!' pleaded the man, 'the sweetest wine, like the sweetest -meat, is near the bone.' - -'Deep in the ribs of the cellars, meanest, O, ciacco?' - -He took a long draught, and turned to his lady. - -'Trust the rogue, Beatrice; it is, indeed, near the marrow of -deliciousness.' - -She sipped of her glass delicately, and nodded. The cavalier held out -his for more. - -'Malvasia, hog?' - -'Malvasia, most honoured; trod out by the white feet of prettiest -contadina, and much favoured, by the token, of the Abbot of San Zeno -yonder.' - -Messer Lanti looked up with a new good-humour. The party was halted in a -great flat basin among hills, on one of the lowest of which, remote and -austere, sparkled the high, white towers of a monastery. - -'There,' he said, signifying the spot to his companion with a grin; -'hast heard of Giuseppe della Grande, Beatrice, the _father_ of his -people?' - -'And not least of our own little Parablist, Madonna,' put in the -landlord, with a salutation. - -'Plague, man!' cried Lanti; 'who the devil is this Parablist you keep -throwing at us?' - -'They call him Bernardo Bembo, my lord. He was dropped and bred among -the monks--some by-blow of a star, they say, in the year of the great -fall. He was found at the feet of Mary's statue; and, certes, he is -gifted like an angel. He mouths parables as it were prick-songs, and is -esteemed among all for a saint.' - -'A fair saint, i'faith, to be carousing in a tavern.' - -'O my lord! he but lies here an hour from the sun, on his way, this very -morning, to Milan, whither he vouches he has had a call. And for his -carousing, spring water is it all, and the saints to pay, as I know to -my cost.' - -'He should have stopped at the rill, methinks.' - -'He will stop at nothing,' protested the landlord humbly; 'nay, not even -the rebuking by his parables of our most illustrious lord, the Duke -Galeazzo himself.' - -Lanti guffawed. - -'Thou talkest treason, dog. What is to rebuke there?' - -'What indeed, Magnificent? Set a saint, _I_ say, to catch a saint.' - -The other laughed louder. - -'The right sort of saint for that, I trow, from Giuseppe's loins.' - -'Nay, good my lord, the Lord Abbot himself is no less a saint.' - -'What!' roared Lanti, 'saints all around! This is the right hagiolatry, -where I need never despair of a niche for myself. I too am the son of -my father, dear Messer Ciacco, as this Parablist is, I'll protest, of -your Abbot, whose piety is an old story. What! you don't recognise a -family likeness?' - -The landlord abased himself between deference and roguery. - -'It is not for me to say, Magnificent. I am no expert to prove the -common authorship of this picture and the other.' - -He lowered his eyes with a demure leer. Honest Lanti, bending to rally -him, chuckled loudly, and then, rising, brought his whip with a -boisterous smack across his shoulders. The landlord jumped and winced. - -'Spoken like a discreet son of the Church!' cried the cavalier. - -He breathed out his chest, drained his glass, still laughing into it, -and, handing it down, settled himself in his saddle. - -'And so,' he said, 'this saintly whelp of a saint is on his way to -rebuke the lord of Sforza?' - -'With deference, my lord, like a younger Nathan. So he hath been -miscalled--I speak nothing from myself. The young man hath lived all his -days among visions and voices; and at the last, it seems, they've -spelled him out Galeazzo--though what the devil the need is there? as -your Magnificence says. But perhaps they made a mistake in the -spelling. The blessed Fathers themselves teach us that the best -holiness lacks education.' - -Madonna laughed out a little. 'This is a very good fool!' she murmured, -and yawned. - -'I don't know about that,' said Lanti, answering the landlord, and -wagging his sage head. 'I'm not the most pious of men myself. But tell -us, sirrah, how travels his innocence?' - -'On foot, my lord, like a prophet's.' - -''Twill the sooner lie prone.' He turned to my lady. 'Wouldst like to -add him to Cicada and thy monkey, and carry him along with us?' - -'Nay,' she said pettishly, 'I have enough of monstrosities. Will you -keep me in the sun all day?' - -'Well,' said Lanti, gathering his reins, 'it puzzles me only how the -Abbot could part thus with his discretion.' - -'Nay, Illustrious,' answered the landlord, 'he was in a grievous pet, -'tis stated. But, there! prophecy will no more be denied than love. A' -must out or kill. And so he had to let Messer Bembo go his gaits with a -letter only to this monastery and that, in providence of a sanctuary, -and one even, 'tis whispered, to the good Duchess Bona herself. But -here, by the token, he comes.' - -He bowed deferentially, backing apart. Messer Lanti stared, and gave a -profound whistle. - -'O, indeed!' he muttered, showing his strong teeth, 'this Giuseppe -propagates the faith very prettily!' - -Madam Beatrice was staring too. She expressed no further impatience to -be gone for the moment. A young man, followed by some kitchen company -adoring and obsequious, had come out by the door, and stood regarding -her quietly. She had expected some apparition of austerity, some lean, -neurotic friar, wasting between dogmatism and sensuality. And instead -she saw an angel of the breed that wrestled with Jacob. - -He was so much a child in appearance, with such an aspect of wonder and -prettiness, that the first motion of her heart towards him was like the -leap of motherhood. Then she laughed, with a little dye come to her -cheek, and eyed him over the screen of feathers she held in her hand. - -He advanced into the sunlight. - -'Greeting, sweet Madonna,' he said, in his grave young voice, 'and fair -as your face be your way!' and he was offering to pass her. - -She could only stare, the bold jade, at a loss for an answer. The soft -umber eyes of the youth looked into hers. They were round and velvety -as a rabbit's, with high, clean-pencilled brows over. His nose was -short and pretty broad at the bridge, and his mouth was a little mouth, -pouting as a child's, something combative, and with lips like tinted -wax. Like a girl's his jaw was round and beardless, and his hair a -golden fleece, cut square at the neck, and its ends brittle as if they -had been singed in fire. His doublet and hose were of palest pink; his -bonnet, shoes, and mantlet of cypress-green velvet. Rose-coloured -ribbons, knotted into silver buckles, adorned his feet; and over his -shoulder, pendent from a strand of the same hue, was slung a fair lute. -He could not have passed, by his looks, his sixteenth summer. - -Lanti pushed rudely forward. - -'A moment, saint troubadour, a moment!' he cried. 'It will please us, -hearing of your mission, to have a taste of your quality.' - -The youth, looking at him a little, swung his lute forward and smiled. - -'What would you have, gracious sir?' he said. - -'What? Why, prophesy us our case in parable.' - -'I know not your name nor calling.' - -'A pretty prophet, forsooth. But I will enlighten thee. I am Carlo -Lanti, gentleman of the Duke, and this fair lady the wife of him we call -the Count of Casa Caprona.' - -The boy frowned a little, then nodded and touched the strings. And all -in a moment he was improvising the strangest ditty, a sort of cantefable -between prose and song:-- - - 'A lord of little else possessed a jewel, - Of his small state incomparably the crown. - But he, going on a journey once, - To his wife committed it, saying, - "This trust with you I pledge till my return; - See, by your love, that I redeem my trust." - But she, when he was gone, thinking "he will not know," - Procured its exact fellow in green glass, - And sold her lord's gem to one who bid her fair; - Then, conscience-haunted, wasted all those gains - Secretly, without enjoyment, lest he should hear and wonder. - But he returning, she gave him the bauble, - And, deceived, he commended her; and, shortly after, dying, - Left her that precious jewel for all dower, - Bequeathing elsewhere the residue of his estate. - Now, was not this lady very well served, - Inheriting the whole value, as she had appraised it, - Of her lord's dearest possession? - Gentles, Dishonour is a poor estate.' - - -Half-chaunting, half-talking, to an accompaniment of soft-touched -chords, he ended with a little shrug of abandonment, and dropped the -lute from his fingers. His voice had been small and low, but pure; the -sweet thrum of the strings had lifted it to rhapsody. Messer Lanti -scratched his head. - -'Well, if that is a parable!' he puzzled. 'But supposing it aims at our -case, why--Casa Caprona is neither poor nor dead; and as to a jewel----' - -He looked at Madam Beatrice, who was frowning and biting her lip. - -'Why heed the peevish stuff?' she said. 'Will you come? I am sick to -be moving.' - -Carlo was suddenly illuminated. - -'O, to be sure, of course!' he ejaculated--'the jewel----' - -'Hold your tongue!' cried the lady sharply. - -The honest blockhead went into a roar of laughter. - -'He has touched thee, he has touched thee! And these are his means to -convert the Duke! By Saint Ambrose, 'twill be a game to watch! I swear -he shall go with us.' - -'Not with my consent,' cried madam. - -Carlo, chuckling tormentingly, looked at her, then doffed his cap -mockingly to the boy. - -'Sweet Messer Bembo,' he said, 'I take your lesson much to heart, and -pray you gratefully--as we are both for Milan, I understand--to give us -the honour of your company thither. I am in good standing with the -Duke, I say, and you would lose nothing by having a friend at court. -Those half-boots'--he glanced at the pretty pumps--'could as ill afford -the penalties of the road as your innocence its dangers.' - -'I have no more fear than my divine Master,' said the boy boldly, 'in -carrying His gospel of love.' - -'Well for you,' said Carlo, with a grin of approval for his spirit; 'but -a gospel that goes in silken doublet and lovelocks is like to be struck -dumb before it is uttered.' - -'As to my condition, sir,' said the boy, 'I dress as for a feast, our -Master having prepared the board. Are we not redeemed and invited? We -walk in joy since the Resurrection, and Limbo is emptied of its gloom. -The kingdom of man shall be love, and the government thereof. Preach -heresy in rags. 'Twas the Lord Abbot equipped me thus, my own stout -heart prevailing. "Well, they will encounter an angel walking by the -road," quoth he, "and, if they doubt, show 'em thy white shoulder-knobs, -little Bernardino, and they will see the wings sprouting underneath like -the teeth in a baby's gums."' - -He was evidently, if sage or lunatic, an amazing child. The rough -libertine was quite captivated by him. - -'Well, you will come with us, Bernardino?' said he; 'for with a cracked -skull it might go hard with you to prove your shoulder-blades.' - -'I will come, lord, to reap the harvest where I have sowed the grain.' - -He looked with a serene severity at the countess. - -'Shalt take thee pillion, Beatrice,' shouted Lanti. 'Up, pretty -troubadour, and recount her more parables by the way.' - -'May I die but he shall not,' cried the girl. - -'He shall, I say.' - -'I will bite, and rake him with my nails.' - -'The more fool you, to spoil a saint! Reproofs come not often in such a -guise as this. Up, Bernardino, and parable her into submission!' - -She made a show of resisting, in the midst of which Bembo won to his -place deftly on the fore-saddle. At the moment of his success, the fool -Cicada sprang from the tavern door, and, lurching with wild, glazed -eyes, leapt, hooting, upon the crupper of the beast, almost bringing it -upon its haunches. With an oath Lanti brought down his whip with such -fury that the fool rolled in the dust. - -'Drunken dog!' he roared, and would have ridden over the writhing body, -had not Bembo backed the white palfrey to prevent him. - -'Thou strik'st the livery, not the man!' he cried. 'Hast never thyself -been drunk, and without the excuse of this poor fool to make a trade of -folly?' - -Messer Lanti glared, then in a moment laughed. The battered grasshopper -took advantage of the diversion to rise and slink to the rear. The next -moment the whole cavalcade was in motion. - - - - - *CHAPTER II* - - -They travelled on till sundown through the green plains; and, for one -good hour dating from their start, not a word would Madam Beatrice -utter. Then she gave out--Messer Carlo being a distance in advance--but -with no grace at all. - -'You are an ill horseman, Saint. I am near jogged from my seat.' - -'Put thine arms about me.' - -'Nay, I am not holy enough.' - -She was silent again, for five minutes. - -'Your lute bangs my nose.' - -He shifted it. She held her peace during two minutes. - -'Who taught you to play it, Saint?' - -'It was one of the fathers. What would it profit you to know which?' - -'Nothing at all. I trow he was a good master to that and your gospel.' - -'My gospel?' - -'Ay, of love. He has made you worldly-wise for a saint. Hast ever -before been beyond thy walls?' - -'Of course.' - -'And studied this and that? Experience, methinks is the right nurse for -such a creed. What made you accuse me of dishonour?' - -'I did not.' - -'Nay, is that to be a saint?' - -'Whom the shoe fits, let her wear it.' - -'Bernardo! _Where got you the shoe_?' - -'Does it fit, I say?' - -'I fear me 'twas in some bagnio.' - -'Where you had dropped it? For shame!' - -A rather long pause. - -'I will not be angry--just yet. Where got you the shoe, I say? An -eavesdropper is well equipped for a prophet.' - -'I am no eavesdropper.' - -'Who enlightened you?' - -'Your cicisbeo.' - -'Under that title?' - -'Nay; it is not the devil's policy to call himself devil.' - -A shorter pause. - -'But you had heard of me?' - -'Nothing escapes the Church's hearing. Besides, Messer Lanti's summer -lodge is within call, one may say of San Zeno.' - -'You are daring. Dost know in what high favour he stands with the -Duke?' - -'Else how could he have compassed Uriah's dismissal to the wars?' - -Silence, and then a sigh. - -'Whom do you mean by Uriah?' - -'Thy lord, the Count of Casa Caprona.' - -'He is a soldier, and an old man.' - -'Didst covenant with his age in thy marriage vows?' - -'Bernardino, I am very sleepy.' - -'Sleep, then, and forget thyself, and awake, another.' - -She sighed, and put her arms softly about him and her cheek against his -shoulder. Messer Lanti, falling back, saw her thus, with closed eyes; -and laughed, and then frowned, and cried boisterously-- - -'Hast converted her, Parablist? Art a saint indeed?' - -He spurred forward again, with a discontented look, and madam opened her -eyes. - -'What gossips are thine old monks, Bernardino; and what hypocrites, -denouncing the licence they example!' - -'I know not what you mean.' - -'Are they all saints, then, in San Zeno?' - -'That is for Rome to say. It is a good law which lays down this wine of -sanctity to mature. In a hundred years we shall know what stood the -test.' - -'Ah me! And I am but seventeen. Will you speak for your Abbot?' - -'Ay, like a dear son.' - -'Is he your father, Bernardo?' - -'Is he not the father of us all?' - -'Maybe. But 'tis of Benjamin I ask. Now, he is a strange father, -methinks, to bid his Benjamin, thus apparelled, on a wild goose chase.' - -'He could not discount the voices.' - -'What voices?' - -The boy lifted his face and eyes to the heavens, and lowered them again -with no answer but a sigh of rapture. - -'So? And did the voices bid thee wear a velvet mantlet and roses to thy -shoes?' whispered the girl, with a tiny chuckle. - -'They said, "Not in cockle shells, but a plume, goes the Pilgrim of -Love,"' answered Bembo. 'As I am and have been, God finds me fitting in -His sight.' - -'And the Father Abbot, I wot?' - -'Yes: "Since," says he, "Christ bequeathed His Kingdom to beauty."' - -'And you have inherited it? I think I will be your subject, Bernardo.' - -'I hope so, Madonna.' - -He spoke perfectly gravely, and made her a little courtly gesture -backwards. - -'Well,' said she, 'had _I_ been Father Abbot, I had put this pet of my -fancy in a cage.' - -'You know not of what you speak,' he answered seriously. 'God works -great ends with little instruments. The puny bee is yet the very fairy -midwife of the forests, I should have broke my heart had he denied me.' - -'It would have saved others, alack!' - -'What do you mean?' - -'Nothing at all. Will you sing me another parable, Bernardo?' - -'Ay, Madonna; and on what subject? The woman taken in adultery?' - -'If you like; and whom Christ forgave.' - -'_And He said: "Go, and sin no more"_' - -She began to weep softly. - -'It is shocking to be so abused for a little thing. I would you were -back with your monks.' - -He sighed. - -'Ah!' she murmured, still weeping, 'that this bee had been content to -remain a pander to his flowers! To dup hell's door with a reed! You -know not to what you have engaged yourself, my poor boy.' - -'To Christ, His service of Love,' he said simply. - -'Go back, go back!' she cried in pain. 'There are ten thousand -sophisters to interpret that word according to their lusts. Convert -Galeazzo? Convert the brimstone lake from burning! Dost know the -manner of man he is?' - -'Else why am I here?' - -'Ay, but his moods, his passions, his nameless, shameless deeds? He -hath no pity but for his desires; no mercy but through his caprices. To -cross him is to taste the rack, the fire, the living burial. He is -possessed. Some believe him Caligula reincarnate--an atavism of that -dreadful stock. And dost think to quench that furnace with a parable? -Unless, indeed--Go back, little Bembo, and waste thy passion for reform -on thy monks.' - -'Madonna,' he said, 'I obey the voices. I shall not be let to perish, -since Christ died to save His world to loveliness.' - -It was the early rapture of the renaissance, penetrating like an April -song into these newly reclaimed lands. The wind blew from Florence, and -all the peaceful vales, so long trodden into a bloody mire, were -awakening to the ecstasy of the _Promise_. That men interpreted -according to their lights--lights burning fast and passionate in most -places, but in a few quiet and holy. The breed of German bandits, of -foreign mercenaries, was swept away. Gone was the whole warring race of -the Visconti, and in its place the peasant Sforza had set a guard about -the land of his fierce adoption, that he might till and graft and -prosper in peace. Italy had asserted itself the inheritance of its -children, the Court of God's Vicegerent, the chosen land of Love's -gospel. That, too, men interpreted according to their lights. 'We are -all the vineyard of Rome,' said the little Parablist. Alas! he thought -Rome the Holy of Holies, and his father a saint. But his father, who -adored him, had committed him, with his blessing, to this mad romance! -Such were the paradoxes of the Gospel of Love. - -Beatrice spoke no more, and they rode on in silence. About evening they -came into a pleasant dell, where there was a level sward among rocks; -and a little stream, running down a stairway of stones, dropped -laughing, like a child going to bed, into the quiet of a rushy pool. -Great chestnuts clothed the slopes, and made a mantle, powdered with -stars, to the setting sun. It was a very nest for love. - -Messer Lanti, halting, commanded the green tents to be pitched on the -grass. Then, with a stormy scowl and a mockery of courtesy, he came to -dismount his lady. - -'Now,' says he, as he got her aside, 'if I do not show thy saint to be a -petticoat, my hug of thee is like to prove a bear's.' - -'What!' she said, amazed: 'Bernardo?' - -He ground his teeth. - -'I do not mark his pink cheeks for nothing.' - -'Well, an he be,' she retorted coldly, 'I am liker, than if he be not, -to lose my gallant.' - -'That depends,' he growled, 'upon whom your fickleship honours with that -title'; and he strode away, calling roughly to Bembo, 'Art for a bath, -saint, before supper?' - -'Why, gladly, Carlo,' said the boy, 'so we may be private.' - -They went down to the pool together, and stripped and entered. Lanti -saw a Ganymede, and was not pleased thereat. He came to supper in a -very bad humour, which no innocent artifice of his guest could allay. -The kill that day of their falcons--partridges, served in their own -feathers, and stuffed with artichokes and truffles--was tough; the pears -and peaches were sour; the confetti savourless and of stale design. He -rated his cook, cursed his servitors, and drank more than he ate. When -the disagreeable meal was ended, he strode ruffling away, saying he -desired his own sole company, which it were well that all should -respect. Bembo saw him go, with a sigh and a smile. - -'Good, honest soul,' quoth he, 'that already wakes to the reckoning!' - -Madam misunderstood him, and pressed a little closer, with a happy echo -of his sigh. Her eyes were soft with wine and passion. She had no -precedent for doubting her influence on the moment she chose to make her -own. - -'The reckoning!' she murmured. 'But I am wax in thy hands, pretty -saint. Shalt confess me, and take what toll thou wilt of my sins?' - -Her hand settled light as a bird on his. - -'Sing to me, Bernardino,' she whispered wooingly, 'sith the cloud is -gone from our moon, and I am in the will to love.' - -He shot one little startled glance her way; then slowly slung round his -lute, and, touching the strings pensively, melted into the following -reproach:-- - - 'Speak low! What do you ask, false love? Speak low! - Sin cannot speak too low. - The night-wind stealing to thy bosom, - The dead star, dropping like a blossom, - Less voiceless be than thou! - - Low, lower yet, false love, if to confess - What guilt, what shameful need? - God, who can hear the budding grass, - And flake kiss flake in the snowy pass, - Your secret else will heed. - - Ah! thou art silent, not from love, but fear, - And true love knows no fear. - Creeping, soft-footed, in the dust, - It is not love, but conscious lust, - Which dreads that God shall hear.' - - -He rose swiftly beside her, while she sat, dumbly biting a lock of her -own hair. The frown of outraged passion was in her eyes. What had the -fool dared in rejecting her! - -To touch the perfumed essence of sin with a rebuke which was like a -caress--that, _pace_ his monks, was Bernardo's rendering of the Gospel; -and who shall say that, in its girlish tenderness, its earnest -emotionalism, it was not the most dangerous method of all? Not every -adulterous woman is fit to meet the gentle fate of Christ's. It is not -always well to doctor too much kindness with more. Surfeit, surely, is -not safely cured, unless by a God, with sugar-plums. - -'For shame!' he said quietly; 'for shame! Christ weeps for thee!' - -She looked up with a frozen, insolent smile. - -'Yet there is no tear in all the night, prophet.' - -He raised his hand. A star trailed down the sky, and disappeared behind -the trees. It startled her for a moment, and in that moment he was -gone, striding into the moonlight. She saw a sword gleam in the shadow -of the tent. - -'Carlo!' she hissed; 'Carlo! follow and kill him!' - -Messer Lanti came out of his ambush, sheathing his blade. His teeth -grinned in the white glow. He sauntered up to her, and stood looking -down, hand on hip. - -'Not for all the bona-robas in the world,' he said, and struck his hilt -lightly. 'This I dedicate to his service from this day. Let who -crosses my little saint beware it.' - -He burst out laughing, not fierce, but low. - -'Thou art well served in thy confessor, woman. Wert never dealt a -fitter penance.' - -It was significant enough that he had no word but mockery for her -discomfiture. He might have spitted the seduced on a point of -gallantry; for the siren, she was sacred through her calling. - -In the meanwhile Bernardo had left the green, had passed the low, -roistering camp pitched at a respectful distance beyond, and had thrown -himself upon his knees in the wide fields. - -'Sweet Jesus,' he prayed, 'O justify Thy Kingdom before Thy servant! -Already my young footsteps are warned of the bitter pass to come. Be -Thou with me in the rocky ways, lest I faint and slip before my time.' - -He remained long minutes beseeching, while the moon, anchored in a -little stream of clouds, seemed to his excited imagination the very boat -which awaited the coming of One who should walk the waters. He -stretched out his arms to it. - -'Lord save me,' he cried, 'or I sink!' - -He heard a snuffle at his back, and looked round and up to find the fool -Cicada regarding him glassily. - -'Sink!' stuttered the creature, swaying where he stood. 'Lord save me -too! I am under already--drowned in Malmsey!' - -Bembo rose to his feet with a happy sigh. '_Exultate Deo adjutori -nostro!_' he murmured, 'I am answered.' - -His clear, serene young brow confronted the fuddled wrinkles of the -other's like an angel's. - -'Cicada mio,' he said endearingly; 'judge if God is dull of hearing, -when, on the echo of my cry, here is one holding out his hand to me!' - -The Fool, staring stupidly, lifted his own lean right paw, and squinted -to focus his gaze on it. - -'Meaning me?--meaning this?' he said. - -Bembo nodded. - -'A return, with interest, on the little service I was able to render -thee this morning. O, I am grateful, Cicada!' - -The Fool, utterly bemused, squatted him down on the grass in a sudden -inspiration, and so brought his wits to anchor. Bernardo fell on his -knees beside him. - -'What moved you to come and save me?' he said softly. 'What moved you?' - -Cicada, disciplined to seize the worst occasion with an epigram, made a -desperate effort to concentrate his parts on the present one. - -'The wine in my head,' he mumbled, waggling that sage member. ''Tis the -wet-nurse to all valour. I walked but out of the furnace a furlong to -cool myself, and lo! I am a hero without knowing it.' - -He looked up dimly, his face working and twitching in the moonlight. - -'Recount, expound, and enucleate,' said he. 'From what has the Fool -saved the Parablist?' - -'From the deep waters,' said Bembo, 'into which he had entered, -magnifying his height.' - -The Fool fell a-chuckling. - -'There was a hunter once,' said he, 'that thought he would sound his -horn to a hymn, and behold! he was chasing the deer before he had -fingered the first stops. Expound me the parable, Parablist. Thou -preachest universal goodwill, they say?' - -'Ay, do I.' - -'Thou shalt be confuted with thine own text.' - -'How, dear Fool?' - -'Why, shall not every wife be kind to her friend's husband?' - -'Ay, if she would be unkind to her own.' - -The Fool scratched his head, his hood thrown back. - -'And so, in thy wisdom, thou step'st into a puddle, and lo! it is over -thy ears. Will you come out, good Signor Goodwill, and ride home in a -baby's pannier?' - -Bembo caught one of the wrinkled hands in his soft palms. - -'Dear Cicada,' he said, 'are there not tears in your heart the whiles -you mock? Do you not love me, Cicada, as one you have saved from -death?' - -Some sort of emotion startled the harsh features of the Fool. - -'What better love could I show,' he muttered, 'than to warn thee back -from the toils that stretch for thy wings?' - -'Ah, to warn me, to warn me, Cicada!' cried the boy, 'but not home to -the nest. How shall he ever fly that fears to quit it? Be rather like -my mother, Cicada, and advise these my simple wings.' - -The Fool caught his breath in a sudden gasp-- - -'Thy mother! I!' - -A spasm of pain seemed to cross his face. He laughed wildly. - -'An Angel out of a Fool! That were a worthy parent to hold divinity in -leading-strings.' - -'Zitto, Cicca mio!' said Bembo sweetly, pressing a finger to his lips. -'Do I not know what wit goes to the acting of folly--what experience, -what observation? If thou wouldst lend these all to my help and aid!' - -'In what?' - -'In this propaganda to govern men by love.' - -'Thou playest, a child, with the cross-bow.' - -'I know it. I have been warned; direct thou my hand.' - -'I!' exclaimed the Fool once more in a startled cry. And suddenly, -wonder of wonders! he was grovelling at the other's knees, pawing them, -weeping and moaning, hiding his face in the grass. - -'What saint is this?' he cried, 'what saint that claims the Fool to his -guide?' - -'Alas!' said the boy, 'no saint, but a child of the human God.' - -'And He mated with Folly,' cried Cicada, 'and Folly is to direct the -bolt!' - -He sat up, beating his brow in an ecstasy, then all in a moment forbore, -and was as calm as death. - -'So be it,' he said. 'Be thou the divine fool, and I thy mother.' - -With a quick movement Bembo caught the Fool's cheeks between his palms. - -'Ay, mother,' said he, with a little choking laugh, 'but see that thy -hand on mine be steady, lest the quarrel fly wide or rebound upon -ourselves.' - -It was the true mark indeed to which the cunning rascal had all this -time been sighting his bow. He watched anxiously now for the tokens of -a hit. - -The Fool sat very still awhile. - -'Speak clearer,' he muttered; then of a sudden: 'What wouldst ask of -me?' - -'Ah! dear,' sighed Bembo; 'only that thou wouldst justify thyself of -this new compact of ours.' - -'I am clean--as thou readest love. Who but God would consort with -Folly? The Fool is cursed to virginity.' - -'Cicada, dear, but there is no Chastity without Temperance.' - -The Fool tore himself away, and slunk crouching back upon the grass. - -'I renounce thy God!' he chattered hoarsely, 'that would have me false -to my love, my mistress, my one friend! Who has borne me through these -passes, stood by me in pain and madness, dulled the bitter tooth of -shame while it tore my entrails? Cure wantonness in women, gluttony in -wolves, before you ask me to be dastard to my dear.' - -'Alas!' cried Bembo, 'then am I lost indeed!' - -A long pause followed, till in a moment the Fool had flung himself once -more upon his face. - -'Lay not this thing on me,' he cried, clutching at the grass; 'lay it -not! It is to tear my last hope by the roots, to banish me from the -kingdom of dreams, to bury me in the everlasting ice! I will follow -thee in all else, humbly and adoringly; I will try to vindicate this -love which has stooped from heaven to a clown; I will perish in thy -service--only waste not my paradise in the moment of its realisation.' - -Bembo stooped, kneeling, and laid one hand softly on his shoulder. - -'Poor Cicada,' he said, 'poor Cicada! Alas! I am a child where I had -hoped a man, and my head sinks beneath the waters. Tired am I, and fain -to go rest my head in a lap that erst invited me. Return thou to thy -bottle, as I to my love.' - -The Fool, trailing himself up on his knees, caught his hands in a wild, -convulsive clutch. - -'Fiend or angel!' he cried, 'thou shall not!--The woman!--The skirts of -the scarlet woman! Go rest thyself--not there--but in peace. From this -moment I abjure it--dost hear, I abjure it? I kill my love for love's -sake. O! O!' - -And he fell writhing, like a wounded snake, on the grass. - -'_Salve, sancta parens!_' said Bembo, lifting up his hands fervently to -the queen of night. The pious rogue was quite happy in his stratagem, -since it had won him his first convert to cleanness. - - - - - *CHAPTER III* - - -The lady of Casa Caprona had flown her tassel-gentle and missed her -quarry. Outwardly she seemed little disturbed by her failure--as -insolent as indolent--an imperious serenity in a velvet frame. The -occasion which had given, which was still giving, Carlo a tough thought -or two to digest, she had already, on the morning following her -discomfiture, assimilated, apparently without a pang. 'The which doth -demonstrate,' thought Cicada, as he took covert and venomous note of -her, 'a signal point of difference between the sexes. In self-indulgent -wickedness there may be little to distinguish man from woman. In the -reaction from it, there is this: The man is subject to qualms of -conscience; the woman is not. She may be disenchanted, surfeited, -aggrieved against fate or circumstance; she is not offended with -herself. Remorse never yet spoiled her sleep, unless where she desired -and doubted it on her account in another. What she hath done she hath -done; and what she hath failed to do slumbers for her among the -unrealities--among things unborn--seeds in the womb of Romance, which, -though she be the first subject for it, she understands as little as she -does beauty. From the outset hath she been manoeuvring to confuse the -Nature in man by using its distorted image in herself to lure him. Out -upon her crimps and lacings! _He_ would be dressing and thinking to-day -like an Arcadian shepherd, an she had not warped his poor vision with -her sorcery! She wears the vestments of ugliness, and its worship is -her religion.' - -It must be admitted that he offered himself a cross illustration to his -own text. The desperate concession wrung from him last night in a -moment of vinous exaltation, had found his sober morning senses under a -mountain of depression. He was bitterly aggrieved against fate; yet the -only quarrel he had with himself was for that mad vow of temperance, not -for the vice which had exacted it of him. The tongue in his head was -like a heater in an iron. Tantalus draughts lipped and bubbled against -his palate. The parched soil of his heart, he felt, would never again -blossom in little lonely oases--never again know the solace of dreams -aloof from the world. His traffic being by no means with heaven, God, -he supposed, had sent an angel to convert it. And he had succumbed -through the angel's calling him--mother! - -He struck his hollow breast with a wild laugh. He groaned over the -memory of that emotional folly. He damned himself, his trade, his -employer, his aching head--everything and every one, in short, but the -author of his misery. Him he could not curse--not more than if that -preposterous relationship between them had been real. Neither did he -once dream of violating his word to him, since it had been given--absurd -thought--to his child. - -He was none the less savage against circumstance--vicious, desperate, -insolent with his master, as cross all over as a Good Friday bun. -Messer Lanti, himself in a curiously sober mood, indulged his most acrid -sallies with a good-humoured tolerance which, contemptuously oblivious -as it was of any late smart of his own inflicting, was harder than the -blow itself in its implication of a fault overlooked. - -'Rally, Cicca!' said he, as they were preparing to horse; 'look'st as -sour as a green crab. What! if we are to ride with Folly, give us a -fool's text for the journey, man.' - -Cicada dwelt a moment on his stirrup, looking round banefully. - -'And who to illustrate it, lord?' - -'Why, thy lord, if thou wilt,' said Carlo. 'He will be no curmudgeon in -a bid for laughter.' - -The Fool gained his mule's saddle, and digging heels into the beast's -flanks, drove forward. Lanti, with a whoop, spurred alongside of him. -Cicada slowed to a stop. - -'Hast overtaken Folly, master?' said he, with a leer. 'I knew you would -not be long.' - -Carlo scratched his head. The Fool turned and rode back; so did the -other. By the brook-side little Bembo was preparing to mount a steed -with which he had been accommodated, since the lady had peremptorily -declined to ride pillion to him again. Cicada referred to him with a -gesture. - -'For us,' he said, 'we are two fools in a leash, sith Sanctity, stopping -where he was, is at the goal before us.' - -Lanti grumbled: 'O, if this is a text!' and beat his wits desperately. - -'A text, sirrah!' he roared, 'a text for the journey.' - -'I will rhyme it you,' said the Fool imperturbably, pointing his bauble -at Madam Beatrice, who at the moment stepped from the green tent:-- - - 'Nothing is gained to start apace, - After another hath won the race. - -Shall you and I be jogging, master?' - -Lanti raised his whip furiously. Cicada, slipping from his mule, dodged -behind Bembo. - -'Save me!' he squealed, 'save me! I am sound. It is folly to give a -sound man a tonic.' - -Carlo burst into a vexed laugh. - -'Well,' said he, 'go to. I think I am in a rare mood for charity.' - -The little party breakfasted on cups of clear water from the spring, -and, in the fresh of the morning, folded its tents and started leisurely -on the final stages of its journey. Madonna, lazy-lidded, sat her -palfrey like a vine-goddess. Her bosom rose and fell in absolute -tranquillity. She bestirred herself only, when Bembo rode near, to -lavish ostentatious fondness on her Carlo, a regard which her Carlo -repaid with a like ostentation of attention towards his little saint. -It was an open conspiracy of souls, bared to one another, to justify -their nakedness before heaven; only the woman carried off her shame with -an air. Bernardo she ignored loftily; but her heart was busy, under all -its calm exterior, with a poisonous point of vengeance. - -Presently, the sun striking hot, she dismounted and withdrew into her -litter, a miniature long waggon, drawn on rude wheels by a yoke of -sleepy oxen, and having an embroidered tilt opening to the side. A -groom, walking there in attendance, led her palfrey by the bridle. -Lanti and his guest, with the Fool for company, rode a distance ahead. -The young nobleman was thoughtful and silent; yet it was obvious that -he, with the others, felt the relief of that secession. Bernardo broke -into a bright laugh, and rallied Cicada on his glumness. - -'Why should I be merry,' said the jester, with a sour face, 'when I was -invited to a feast, and threatened with a cudgelling for attending?' - -Bernardo looked at him lovingly. He thought this was some allusion to -his self-enforced abstinence. - -'Dear Cicca,' said he, 'the feast was not worth the reckoning.' - -'O, was it not!' cried Cicada with a hoarse crow. 'But I spoke of my -lord's brains, which, by the token, are the right flap-doodle.' - -He put Bembo between himself and Lanti. - -'Judge between us,' he cried, 'judge between us, Messer Parablist. He -offered to serve himself up to me, and, when I had no more than opened -my mouth, was already at my ribs.' - -Carlo, on the further side, laughed loud. - -'It is always the same here,' grumbled the Fool. 'They will have our -stings drawn like snakes' before they will sport with us. They love not -in this Italy the joke which tells against themselves--of that a poor -motley must ware. It muzzles him, muzzles him--drives the poison down -and in; and you wonder at the bile in my face!' - -He fell back, having uttered his snarl, with politic suddenness, and -posted to the rear of the litter. The moment he was away, Bembo turned -upon his host with a kindling look of affection. - -'I am glad to have thee alone one moment,' said he. 'O Carlo, dear! the -base bright metal so to seduce thine eyes. Are they not opened?' - -Now the tale of madam's discomfiture at her amoroso's hands the night -before had not been long in reaching the boy's ears. She had not -deigned, equally in confessing her predilections as her shame, to utter -them out of the common hearing. Modesty in intrigue was a paradox; and, -in any case, one could undress without emotion in the presence of one's -dogs. - -So Cicada, putting two and two together, had gathered the whole story, -and given this spiritual bantling of his a hint as to his wise policy -thereon, scarce a sentence of which had he uttered before he was casting -down his eyes and mumbling inarticulate under the piercing gaze of an -honesty which would have been even less effective had it spoken. Then -had he slunk away, blessing all beatitudes whose innocence entailed such -responsibilities on their worshippers; and, as a result, here was Master -Truth taking his own course with the problem. - -Messer Lanti's eyes opened indeed to hear truth so fearless; but he made -an acrid face. - -'On my soul!' he muttered, glistening, and stopped, and his brow was -shadowed a moment under a devil's wing. Then suddenly, with an oath, he -clapped spurs to his horse, and galloped a furlong, and, circling, came -back at a trot, and falling again alongside, put a quite gentle hand on -the boy's bridle arm. - -'Dear, pretty Messer Truth,' said he, 'I pray you, on my sincerity, turn -your horse's head. Whither, think you, are you making?' - -'Why, for heaven, I hope, Carlo,' said the boy with a smile. - -'Milan is not the gate to it,' answered the rough voice, quite -entreatingly. 'Go back, I advise you. You will break your heart on the -stones. Why, look here: dost think I am so concerned to have this -intrigue proved the common stuff of passion? I care not the feather in -thy cap, Bernardino. Nay, I am the better for it, sith it opens the way -to a change. And so with ten thousand others. There is the measure of -your task. Now, will you go back?' - -'No, by my faith!' - -Lanti growled, and grunted, and smacked his thigh. - -'Then I cannot help thee: and yet I will help thee. Saint Ambrose! To -remodel the world to goodwill, statecraft and all, on the lisp of a red -mouth! Wilt be the fashion for just a year and a day, shouldering us, -every one, poor gallants, to the wall? Why should I love thee for that? -and I love thee nevertheless. There thou goest in a silken doublet, to -whip all hell with a lute-string; and I--I had shown less temerity -horsed and armoured, and with a whole roaring crusade at my back.' - -Bembo smiled very kindly. - -'Christ's love was all _His_ sword and buckler,' said he. - -'And He was crucified,' said Carlo grimly. - -'And died a virgin,' answered the boy, 'that He might make for ever -chaste Love His heir.' - -'Well,' grumbled Lanti, 'there reigns an impostor these fourteen hundred -years or so in His place, that's all. I hope the right heir may prove -his title. 'Tis a long tenure to dispossess. Methinks men have -forgotten.' - -'Yes, they have forgotten,' said the boy; and he began to sing so -sweetly as he rode, that the other, after a grunt or two, sunk into a -mere grudging rapture of listening. - -In the meantime, sombre and taciturn, the Fool rode in the rear. Before -him hulked the great shoulders, stoppered with the little round head, of -Narcisso, the groom who led Madonna's palfrey. Cicada, regarding this -beauty, snarled out a laugh to himself. 'Sure never,' he thought, 'was -parental fondness worse bestowed than in nicknaming such a satyr.' The -creature's small, bony jaw, like a pike's, underhung, black-tufted, -viciousness incarnate; his pursed, overlapping brow, with the dirty -specks of eyes set fixedly in the under-hollows--in all, the mean -smallness of his features, contrasted with the slouching, fleshly bulk -below, suggested one of those antediluvian monsters, whose huge bodies -and little mouths and throttles give one a sense of disproportion that -is almost like an indecency. Nevertheless, Narcisso was madam's chosen -attendant at her curtain side, where occasionally Cicada would detect -some movement, or the shadow of one, which convinced him that the two -were in stealthy communication. Indeed, he had posted himself where he -was, with no other purpose than to watch for such a sign. - -Once he saw the hem of the curtain lift ever so slightly, and Narcisso -at the same instant respond, with a secret movement of his hand, towards -the place. Something glittered momentarily, and was extinguished. -Cicada stretched himself in his saddle, and began to whistle. - -Presently he pushed ahead once more and joined his master. Opening with -some jest, he led him away, and they fell into an amble together. -Afterwards it was apparent to some of Messer Lanti's following that, as -the morning advanced, their lord's brow darkened from its early rude -frankness, and began to exhibit certain tokens of a wakening devil with -which they had plenty of reason to be familiar. Perhaps he wanted his -dinner. Perhaps the near-approaching termination of his summer -idyll--for they were long now in the great Lombardy plain, and the -towers of Milan were growing, low and small, out of the horizon--was -depressing him. Anyhow, his first condescension was all gone by noon, -when they halted, a league short of the city, to rest and dine at the -'Angel and Tower,' a prosperous inn of the suburbs set among mellowing -vineyards. - -Of all the company Bernardo was perhaps the only one unconscious of the -threatening atmosphere. Wonderful thoughts were kindling in him at the -near prospect of this, the goal to all his hopes and ambitions. Milan! -It was Milan at last--the capital of his promised estate of love. Blue -and small, swimming far away in the sun mists of the plains, he felt -that he could clasp it all in his arms, and carry it to the foot of the -Throne. His eyes brightened with clear tears: this salvage of the dark, -dead ages reclaimed to God! '_Domine!_' he exclaimed in ecstasy, -clasping his hands: '_Emitte lucem tuam et veritatem tuam_! O Lord, -touch mine eyes, that they may penetrate even where Thy light shineth -like a glow-worm in deep mosses!' - -Carlo roughly shouted him to their meal. His heart was throbbing with -an emotional rapture as he obeyed. The table was served in a trellised -alley, under hanging stalactites of grapes. Beatrice flagged on a bench -at the end of the board, her shoulders sunk into a bower all crushed of -sunshine and green shadows. It was the vine-goddess come home, soft, -sensual, making a lust of fatigue. Her lids were half-closed; her teeth -showed in a small, indolent smile; light, reflected from the purple -clusters, slept on the warm ivory of her skin. Bernardo, coming -opposite her, stood transfixed before a vision of such utter animal -loveliness. His breath seemed to mount quicker as he gazed. Carlo -drummed on the board, where he sat hunched over it. Looking from one to -the other, he puffed out a little ironic laugh. - -'Wonderest what is passing there, boy?' said he. 'Wilt never know. Not -a hair would she turn though, like Althea, she were to find herself in -child with a firebrand.' - -Bernardo lowered his eyes with a blush. - -'Nay,' said he, 'my thoughts of Madonna were more tempered. I coveted -only her beauty for heaven.' - -'Anon, Messer, anon!' cried the other banteringly: 'be not so free with -my property. I hold her yet about the waist, seest, with a silver -fetter? If there be a prior claim to mine----' - -'Ay, Chastity's,' put in the boy. - -Lanti hooted. - -'Tempt her, if thou wilt, with such a suitor. She will follow him as -she would the hangman. Wilt throw off thy belt, Beatrice? I gave a -thousand scudi for it. See what Chastity here will offer thee in its -room.' - -'I will answer, if I may examine it,' said Bembo gravely. 'Will you -tell her to unclasp it, Carlo, and let me look? I see it is all hinged -of antique coins. There was a Father at San Zeno collected such -things.' - -'What, ladies' girdles!' - -'Now, Carlo! you know I mean the coins. Methinks I recognise a text in -one of them.' - -Beatrice shrugged her shoulders, with a little yawn expressive of -intolerable boredom. - -'Well,' quoth Lanti impatiently, 'let him see it, you and he shall -parable us for grace to meat, while these laggard dogs'--he looked over -his shoulder, growling for his dinner. - -Beatrice unclasped the cincture without a word, and flung it -indifferently across the table. She had lain as impassive throughout -her own discussing by the others as a slave being negotiated in a -market. Not a tremor of her eyelids had acknowledged either her lord's -rudeness or Bembo's provisional compliment. - -The boy took up the belt and examined it. He was conscious of a sweet -perfume that had come into his hands with the trinket. His lips were -parted a little, his cheeks flushed. Presently he put it down softly, -and looked across at Beatrice. - -'It is what I thought,' said he--'the coin, I mean--a denarius of -Tiberius, in the thirty-first year of Our Lord Shall I tell you what it -says to me, Madonna?' - -She did not take the trouble to answer. - -'Yes,' roared Carlo. - -Bembo slung his lute to the front, and began coaxing forth one of those -odd, shy accompaniments of his, into which, a moment later, his voice -melted:-- - - 'When Tiberius was Emperor, - For thirty silver pieces bearing his image - Did Judas betray his Lord; - Then, himself betrayed to blood-guilt, cast them ringing - On the flags of the Temple, and maddened forth and died. - But the Jew elders eyed askance - The sleek, round coins, accurst and yet no whit - Depreciated as currency, - And ogling them and each other, were silent, till one spoke: - "Ill come; well sped. We need a place to bury the dead. - Let the Potter take these, and in return - Change us his field, o'er which we long have haggled. - So shall this outlay bring us two-fold profit, - Yet leave us conscience-clean before the Lord." - - Thus, gentles dear, was bought "The Field of Blood"; - And thus the wicked, damned price returned - Into the veins of traffic, there to circulate - And poison where it ran. - One piece found Hope, and changed was for Despair; - And Charity one led to hoard for self; - And one reached Faith, and Faith became a whore. - But, most of all, what had betrayed Love sore, - Sweet Love was used to betray for evermore.' - - -His voice broke on a long-drawn wailing chord. A little silence -succeeded. Then, like one spent, he took up the belt and offered it to -Beatrice. - -'O Madonna!' he said, 'it is a denarius of the Caesar that betrayed -Love. Take back thy wages.' - -She dragged down a spray of vine-leaves, and fanned herself furiously -with it, making no other response. - -'So! I am Judas!' cried Carlo; and began to bite his moustache, -mouthing and glowering. - -'Love!' he sputtered, 'love! Is there no love in nature? You talk of -the human God, you----' - -Beatrice broke in scornfully:-- - -'It is the world-wisdom of the monastery. He shall sing you love only -by the Litany. His queen shall be a virgin immaculate, and her bosom a -shrine for the white lambs of chastity to fold in. A fine proselyte for -passion's understanding! I would not be so converted for all -Palestine.' - -Carlo laughed, with some fierce recovery to good-humour. - -'Hearest her, Bernardo? Thou shalt not prevail there, unless by -convincing that thou speak'st from experience.' - -Bembo had sunk down upon the bench, where, resting languidly, he still -fingered the strings of his lute. Now suddenly, steadfastly, he looked -across at the girl, and began to sing again:-- - - 'Love kept me an hour - From all hours that pass; - In her breast, like a flower, - She stored it, sweet, fragrant, - Of all time the vagrant, - Alas, and alas! - - Of all time the flower, - Of all hours that pass, - For me was that hour, - When I cared claim it, - And kiss it and shame it, - Alas, and alas! - - I dared not, sweet hour-- - I let thee go pass; - And heaven is my dower. - My crown is stars seven: - I am a saint in heaven, - Alas, and alas!' - - -He never took his eyes, while he sang, off the wondering face opposite -him. It was strangely transformed by the end--flesh startled out of -ivory--the face of a wakened Galatea. Narcisso coming at the moment to -place the first dishes of the meal before the company, she sat up, her -hands to her bosom, with a quick, agitated movement. - -'It is well,' she said. 'I am thy convert, saint in heaven!' She -lifted the dish before her, and held it out with a nervous smile. 'Let -us exchange pledges, by the token. Give me thy meat, and take mine.' - -Carlo, watching and listening, knitted his brow in a sudden frown, and -his hand stole down to his belt. - -'Give me thy dish,' said Beatrice, almost with entreaty. - -Bernardo laughed. With the finish of his madrigal he had pushed his -lute, in a hurry of pink shame, to his shoulder. - -'Nay, Madonna,' he protested. 'Like the simplest doctor, I but spoke my -qualifications. Feeling is half-way to curing, and the best recommended -physician is he who hath practised on himself. I ask no reward but thy -forbearance.' - -'Give it me,' she still said. She was on her feet. She kissed the rim -of the dish. 'Wilt thou refuse now? Bid him to, Carlo.' - -'Not I,' said Lanti. 'Hath not, no more than myself, been whipped into -the classics for nothing? _Quod ali cibus est aliis fuat acre venenum_. -We know what that means, he and I.' - -She seemed to turn very pale. - -'Nay,' said Bernardo, jumping up, 'if Madonna condescends?' and the -exchange was made, and the men fell to. - -In a moment or two Lanti looked up. - -'What ails thee, Beatrice?' - -'I am not hungry.' - -The word had scarcely left her lips before, leaping to his feet, and -sprawling across the table, he had snatched the untasted dish from under -her hands, turned, and dashed it with its contents full in the face of -Narcisso, who waited, with others, behind. Fouled, bleeding, -half-stunned, the man crashed down in a heap, and in the same instant -his master was upon him, poniard in hand. - -'Confess, wretch, before I kill thee!' he roared. 'It was meant for my -guest! Thou wouldst have poisoned him.' - -'Mercy!' shrieked the creature, through his filthy mask. 'O lord, -mercy!' - -The girl, risen in her place, stood panting as if she had been running. -She had voice no more than to gasp across, 'Bernardo! For the love of -God! Bernardo!' and that was all. - -'No mercy, beast!' thundered Carlo. 'Down with thee to hell unshriven!' - -His strenuous lifted arm was caught in a baby grasp. - -'Carlo! forbear! The right is mine! Give me the knife! Nay, I am the -stronger!' - -With the blood-lust halted in him for one moment, the powerful creature -turned upon his puny assailant with a roar:-- - -'The stronger! Thou!' - -Nevertheless he rose, though he held the reptile crushed under his foot, -while the company, landlord and all, stood huddled aghast. His breast -was heaving like the pulse of a volcano. - -'The knife!' he gurgled hoarsely; 'well, the right is thine, as thou -sayest. Take it--under with thee, dog!--and drive in.' - -Bembo seized and flung the dagger into the thick of the vines; then -threw himself on his knees, and, with all his strength, tore the heavy -foot from its victim. - -'Narcisso,' he said, 'is it true? wouldst have slain Love! Ah, fool, -not to know that Love is immortal!' - -'Now, Christ in heaven,' roared Carlo, 'if that shall save him!' - -Bernardo rose, and sprang, and cast himself upon his breast, writhing -his limbs about him. - -'Fly!' he shrieked, 'fly! while I hold him!' Then to Lanti: 'Ah, dear, -do not hurt me, who owe thee so much!' - -The fallen scoundrel was quick to the opportunity. He rose and fled, -bloody and bemired, from the arbour. Madonna, seeing him escape, sunk, -with a fainting sigh, upon her bench. - -Carlo mouthed after his vanishing prey; yet he was tender with his -burden. - -'Love!' he groaned: 'Thou ow'st me? Not this--so damned to folly! -There, let go. He was but the tool--and, for the rest----' - -He glowered round. - -'Hush!' said Bembo. 'It is but the fruits of her teaching. Blame not -thy pupil, Carlo.' - -'_My_ pupil!' - -'Is she Christ's--or art thou? Love gives life, Carlo; and all life is -God's, since Christ redeemed it.' - -'What then?' - -'Why, is not thine honour thy life?' - -'I would die at least to prove it.' - -'Alas! and thou hast dishonoured love, which is life, which is God's. -Wouldst eat thy cake and have it, great schoolboy?' - -'Pish! Art beyond me.' - -'Why, if love is life, and life is honour--ergo, love is honour.' - -'Is it? I dare say.' - -'But thou must know it.' - -'I know nothing but that thou hast balked my vengeance; and with that, -and having exercised thy jaw, let us go back to dinner.' - -'_Domine, emitte tuam lucem!_' sighed Bembo. - - - - - *CHAPTER IV* - - -Galeazzo Maria Sforza, third Duke of Milan of his line, was very -characteristically engaged in a very characteristic room of his -resplendent castello of the Porta Giovia, which dominated the whole city -from the north-east. This room, buried like a captivating lust in the -heart of the Rocca, or inner citadel of the castello, swarmed with those -deft procurers to the great, panders between Art and emotion, who are -satisfied, by contributing, each his share, to the glorification of a -sensual despotism, to partake a rediffused flavour of its sum. They -were poets, painters, and musicians, sculptors and learned doctors, and -every one, despite his independent calling, a sycophant. Before the -power, central and paramount, which alone in their particular orbit -could amass within itself the total of their lesser lights, they -prostrated themselves as before a God. It is so in all ages of man. He -will contribute, of choice, to the prosperous charity; he will lay his -gifts at the opulent shrine. The worldling, says Shakespeare, makes his -testament of more to much. '_Ah! c'est le plus grand roi du monde!_' -once cried Madame de Sevigne of Louis XIV., who had danced with her. -'He is the finest gentleman I have ever seen!' cried Johnson -enthusiastically at a later date, after an interview with Farmer George; -and though--perhaps because--the stout old Colossus was as independent -as reason itself, he spoke the general moral. Professors were here, -too, who did not blush to proclaim the exalted scion of Condottieri, the -blood-lusting monster, the infernal atavism of Caligula, for the first -gentleman in Italy, or to prostitute their erudition in his service. - -It was Madonna Beatrice who had drawn that analogy, and there was plenty -of justification for it; as also, it must be said, plenty of more -immediate precedent for the abominations of this Galeazzo. If, like the -grand-matricidal Roman, he had poisoned his mother, the Visconti, his -predecessors, with their atrocious blood-profanations and exaltations of -bastardy, were responsible for the conditions which had made so dreadful -an act conceivable. If, emulating Caligula's treatment of frail -vestals, he had buried alive some too-accommodating virgin of the -cloister, whom he had first debauched, he could quote the Visconti -precedent of carnality indulged till it became a very ecstasy of -fiend-possession. Between old Rome and modern Milan, indeed, there was -little to prefer. Caligula used to throw spectators in the theatres to -the beasts, having first torn out the tongues of his victims, lest his -ears should be offended by their articulate appeals. Bernabo Visconti -and his brother, with whom he shared the duchy, agreed upon an edict -subjecting State criminals to a scale of tortures which was calculated -to culminate in death in not less than forty days. Giovanni Maria and -Filippo Maria, last of the accursed race, organised man-hunts in the -streets of their capitals, and fed their hounds on human flesh. - -To starve his victims to death, and, when they complained (it was an age -of practical jokes), to stuff their mouths with filth, was a pet sport -with Galeazzo. Once, for a wretch who had killed a hare, a crime -unpardonable, he procured a death of laughable, unspeakable torment by -forcing him to devour the animal, bones and fur and all. - -It is enough. They were all madmen, in fact, moral abortions of that -'breeding-in' of demi-gods which sows the world with chimeras. It is -not good for any man to be subject to no government but his own, and -least of all when a vicious heredity has imposed a sickness on his -reason. Blood affinities on the near side of incest, power -unquestioned, unbridled self-indulgences--these are no progenitors of -temperance and liberality. Amongst savages, generations of -inter-marryings will but refine exquisitely on savagery; and the despots -of this era were little more than the last expressions of a decadent -barbarism. Galeazzo, and such as Galeazzo, were, it is true, to project -the long shadows of their lusts and cruelties over the times -forthcoming; yet it is as certain that with him the limits of the worst -were reached, and hereafter peoples and rulers were to grow to some -common accord of participation in the enlightenments of their ages. - -One might have fancied in him, in his apparent reachings to foreclose on -such a state, to appropriate to himself not its moral but its material -accessories, some uneasy premonition of the truth. He stood on the line -of partition, his sympathies with the past, his greed for the opulent -future, and, hesitating, was presently to drop between. That paradox of -the lusts of savagery and the lusts of intellect hobnobbing in the -individual, which characterised so many of his contemporaries, cried -aloud in him. He was superstitious and a sceptic. Like Malatesta of -Rimini--who could enshrine beneath the shadow of one glorious church the -bones of a favourite mistress and those of an admired heathen -philosopher which he had brought expressly from Greece for the -purpose--he would make a compromise between Paganism and Christianity. -He worshipped God and the devil, as if his arrogance halted at nothing -short of reconciling two equal but antagonistic powers. He surrounded -himself with monks and infidels; acclaimed impartially an illuminated -psalter or a painting for a bagnio, a Roman canticle or a hymn to the -Paphian Venus; sobbed in the soft throbbings of a lute, and went sobbing -to witness a captive's torturing; conceived himself an enlightened -patron of the arts, and, in a mad caprice, ordered his craftsmen, under -penalty of instant death, to paint and hang with portraits of the ducal -family in a single night a hall of the castello. He groped and -grovelled in bestiality; founded a library and peopled a university with -erudition; encouraged profligacy and printing; was covetous and lavish, -and splendid as the clusters of diamonds on a Jewess's unclean fingers. -His palaces swarmed with cutthroats and physicians, philosophers and -empirics, pimps and theologians, heaven-commissioned artists and -pope-commissioned agents for indulgences, who would sell one absolution -beforehand for the foulest excesses in lust or violence. His crowded -halls were the very stage of the ante-renaissance, where the priest, the -poisoner, the romantic hero and the sordid villain, the flaunting doxy -and the white dove of innocence, rubbed shoulders with the scene-painter -and conductor in a disordered rehearsal of the melodrama to come. And so -we alight on him in this Rocca, sinister and lonely, the protagonist of -the piece to which he was in a little to supply the most tragic -denouement. - -He lay sunk back in pillows on a couch set in an alcove high and apart. -One long, jewelled hand caressed the head of a boarhound. Judged by the -swift code of his times, he was already mature, a sage of thirty-one. -His eyes were small and deep-seated under gloomy thatches, his forehead -narrow and receding, his cheeks ravenous, his nose was hooked. But in -contrast with this pinched hunger of feature were the bagging chin and -sensual neck, as well as the grossness of the body, which attenuated -into feeble legs. One could not look on him and gather from crown to -foot the assurance of a single generous youthful impulse. The curse of -an inherited despotism had wrinkled him from his birth. - -An effeminate luxury, which was presently to make Milan a byword among -the austerer principalities, spoke in his dress. His short-skirted -tunic, puff-shouldered, and pinched and pleated at the waist within a -gem-encrusted girdle, was of Damascene silk, rose-coloured and lined -with costliest fur. His hose were of white satin; his slippers, of -crimson velvet, sparkled with rosettes of diamonds and rubies. On his -head he wore a cap of maintenance, also of red velvet, and sewn with -pearls; and a short jewelled dagger hung at his waist. - -By his side, a very foil to his magnificence, stood one in a -sad-coloured cloak. This was Lascaris, a Greek professor, whom he had -invited to Milan for his learning, and used, like Pharaoh, to expound -him his dreams. For he was subject to evil dreams, was this -Galeazzo--hauntings and visions which wrought in him that state that he -would become a very madman if so little as the shadow of an opposition -crossed his imagination. And even now such a mood was working in him, -as he lounged darkly conning the life of the hall from his eyrie. - -That was a deep, semi-domed alcove, approached from the main chamber by -a short avenue of square-sided pillars, and roofed with a mosaic of -ultramarine and gold, into which were wrought the arms of the Sforzas -and Viscontis, the lilies of France and the red cross of Savoy. -Entablatures of white marble carved into bas-reliefs filled the -inter-columniations of this approach; while the pillars themselves, of -dark green panels inlaid on white, were sprayed and flowered with -exquisite mouldings in gold. The capitals, blossoming crowns of gilt -foliage and marble faces, supported a white cornice, which at the -alcove's mouth ran down into twin fluted shafts, between which rose a -shallow flight of steps to a sort of dais or shrine within. And thence, -from a carved marble bench, Galeazzo looked down on the soft surging -motley of the throng in the hall below. - -Every sound there was instinctively subdued to the occasion: the -laughter of girls, the thrum of lutes, the ring of steel and rustle of -silk. Not so much as a misdirected glance, even, would venture to -appropriate to the company's cynic merriment the figure of a solitary -captive, who stood bound and guarded at the foot of the dais. Yet it -was plain that this captive felt the enforced forbearance, and mocked it -with a bitterer cynicism than its own. - -He was a small, ill-formed, harsh-featured man, very soberly dressed, -and with a cropped head--a feature sufficiently disdainful of the bushed -and elaborately waved locks of those by whom he was surrounded. -Lean-throated and short-sighted, his face was a face to scorn falsehood -without loving truth, a face the mouthpiece of dead languages for dead -languages' sake, a face the contemner of the present just because it was -the present and alive. As he stood, loweringly phlegmatic as any caged -hate, his peering eyes and snarling lip would occasionally lift -themselves together, not towards the glittering lord of destinies on the -dais, but towards his henchman, the Greek, who would answer the -challenge with a stare of serene and opulent contempt. And so a long -interval of silence held them opposed. - -Suddenly the Duke stirred from his black reverie, his lips sputtering -little inarticulate blasphemies. His knee peevishly dismissing the -hound, he gripped an arm of the bench, and turning gloomily on Lascaris, -uttered the one impatient word, 'Well?' - -The Greek, temporising for the moment, inclined his smooth, -black-bearded face, so that the oily essence on his hair, which was -foppishly crimped and snooded, was wafted to the Sforza nostrils, -offending their delicacy. Galeazzo, momentarily repelled, rallied to a -harsher frown, and demanded: 'The fruit, man, the fruit of all this -meditation? Jesu! it should be rotten-ripe by its smell!' - -Lascaris expanded his chest, unoffended, and, caressing his beard, -answered impassively:-- - -'Thou questionest of this vision, Theosutos? I answer, How many changes -can be rung on a carillon of eight bells? By such measure shalt thou -imagine, an thou canst, the changes possible to the myriad of particles -that go to the composition of a single human eye. Now, in the -unthinkable dispersements and readjustments of Infinity, shall it not -sometimes happen that two particles, or two thousand particles, or two -billion particles, out of the sum of particles which were that eye, -shall chance together again, and recover, because of that meeting, some -very ancient, very remote impression which they once absorbed in common? -These, Theosutos, be the ghosts, haphazard, indefinable, visible to one -and unseen of all the rest, which make the solitary seer; these be the -lonely hauntings of the ages--dust blown over desolate places, to -commingle a moment at some cross roads, and weave a phantom wreath of -memory, and so again be cast and scattered among the cycles. Thy vision -is but a shadow of old dead years.' - -An ill-repressed stutter of laughter from the prisoner at the foot of -the steps greeted the finish of this exegesis. Lascaris flushed -scarcely perceptibly. The Duke took no more notice of man or sound than -he would have of a whimpering dog. Once or twice he stammered an oath, -gnawing his finger, and frowning up, and down, and up again at the -Greek. Finally he broke out, in a fury:-- - -'Now, by the Host, thou consolest me--now, by the Host! To reconcile to -this spectre by arguing it perpetual! To----' - -Grinding his teeth, he clipped his long fingers on the bench arm, as if -he were about to spring. Lascaris forestalled him with a placid word:-- - -'Not perpetual. The mood invokes these shadows, as the mood shall lay -them.' - -Galeazzo snarled. - -'The mood! What mood, fool? You shift and shift. God! it will be the -mood of the mood next. Hast thou no master-key to all? Go to, then!' - -He sank back into his cushions, glooming and panting. The sleek olive -mask of the face near him yielded no sign of perturbation. - -Gradually a very deadly expression came to usurp in the Duke's eyes that -blinder madness of desperation. An indolent smile relaxed his features. -He yawned, it was because, the soul horror being temporarily withdrawn, -the incontinent devil was supplanting in him the tempestuous one. He -rolled lazily about, addressing his creature once more:-- - -'You doctors--all the same! Big words to little cures. Treat a State's -constitution or a man's--'tis the word's the thing. Ye woo not the -truth, but her raiment. Hear'st me? I had a tutor once, a crabbed -fellow called Montano.' - -He yawned again. The prisoner below (Cola Montano himself) gasped -slightly, and shot one stealthy glance his way. Lascaris sniggered. - -'Surely, lord,' he said, 'we need no reminding while the man himself -keeps his tongue.' - -A half-suppressed snarl broke from the prisoner. Galeazzo, hunched on -his cushions, stared vacantly before him. - -'Ah!' he said, 'he could talk. I remember him, a midwife to the -wind--as ye all be--as ye all be. What of the fellow?' - -Lascaris wondered. - -'Little, in truth, Magnificence, save in so far as your Magnificence was -pleased to introduce his name.' - -'Did I? I had forgot. What was the connection? Empty words, was it -not, and vainglory and presumption?' - -'And discontent. Add it thereto, Illustrious.' - -'Discontent? Of what? The man prospers, I understand, on his school of -all the virtues. Discontent? Why, hath he not risen to that -independence of power that he dares lampoon his prince? Discontent?' - -'Like Alexander, thou standest in his light, Theosutos.' - -'Discontent?' - -'Ay, that he should be twitted with having schooled a despot.' - -'Why, true; he taught me how to score a lesson with a scourge. My -shoulders could tell.' - -'Gods! did he dare?' - -'He dared. 'Twas a fellow of Roman mettle.' - -'He would dare more now.' - -'What?' - -'A republic, so they say.' - -'Ah! he should be the man for visions--a seer, an exorcist.' - -'Short-sighted for a seer, Illustrious. The man cannot see the length -of his own nose.' - -'Yet may he see far. I would he were here.' - -The prisoner, wrought at last beyond self-control, turned on the Greek -and squirted a little shriek of venom-- - -'Yet through and through thee, thou loathsome, envious pimp!' - -Then he whipped upon the other-- - -'And why not a republic, Galeazzo? Thy father Francesco was a -republican at heart, else had he never given his son's leading-strings -into my hands. There was a confederacy dreamed of in his day--Genoa, -Milan, and Venice; Florence, Sienna, and Bologna. One rampart to the -rolling Alps, one wall on which barbarian hordes might burst and waste -themselves in foam. Northwards, a baffled sea; south, all Italy a -tranquil haven, a watered garden, where knowledge with all its flowers -should find space, and breathing-space to grow. Dost thou love Italy? -Then why not a republic, Galeazzo?' - -The Duke, as utterly impassive as if he were deaf, turned musingly to -Lascaris. - -'I heard one talk once,' said he, 'of a confederacy of republics, as who -should say, An army all serfs. Words! The tails must obey the heads. -Every ox knows it.' - -'Saving the frog-ox,' giggled the Greek, 'who bursts himself in -emulation.' - -'Ah!' murmured the Duke, 'the frog-ox: see us tickle his self-puffery.' - -He feigned to catch sight all at once of Montano. His eyes opened wide -in astonishment: he held out his hands. - -'What!' he cried, 'the man of visions! the very man! Come hither, old -friend. I was but now speaking of thee.' - -His guards permitting him, Montano sullenly mounted the steps, and stood -facing the tyrant. His arms hung very plainly fettered before him; but -the other never took his languid, smiling eyes from his face. - -'Galeazzo,' said the scholar, harsh and quick, 'I did not write the -epigrams; but no matter. You seek to make an example; I submit myself. -It is the despot's part to lay hands on order and sobriety. Despatch, -then. Thou wilt serve my ends better than thine own. Every blow to -freedom is a link gone from thy mail.' - -The Duke listened to him as if in bland wonder. - -'Epigrams! An example!' he exclaimed. 'O, surely there is some mistake -here.' - -The thick brows of the prisoner contracted over his leaden eyes. He set -his teeth, breathing between them. Galeazzo appealed to Lascaris:-- - -'Know'st aught of this?' - -The Greek shook his head ineffably, licking his lips. - -'No,' said Galeazzo, 'nor is it conceivable that my old friend and -reprover should condescend to that meaner scourge. Jesu! for one of his -learning and condition to incur the fate of the common lampooner. Why, I -mind me how one was invited to a ragout minced of his own tongue.' - -'Yes, Illustrious.' - -'And another to having his couplets scored in steel on the soles of his -feet.' - -'Yes, Illustrious.' - -'And yet another to boiling eggs under his arm-pits, since he was clever -at hatching those winged epigrams'--he turned smoothly again to the -tutor--'but not clever, as thou art, at reforming constitutions.' - -He fell back, with a sleek and hateful smile; then, sighing suddenly, -advanced his body again. - -'I am troubled, Montano, I am troubled, and, since you chance to be -here----' - -He yielded the explanation to Lascaris. - -'I weary of relating. Tell him of my symptoms, thou'--and he sunk once -more into his cushions. - -The Greek diagnosed, his shifty eyes refusing to encounter the hard -inquisition of the other's:-- - -'His Magnificence is of late ever conscious of a face behind him, -mournful and threatening. And still, if he turns to challenge it, it is -behind him; and still behind, maddening him with a thought of something -he can never overtake.' - -Galeazzo fixed his burning eyes on the prisoner, as if, through all his -mockery, the hunger of a hopeless hope betrayed his soul. - -'Canst _thou_ strike it away,' he whispered hoarsely, 'or at least tell -me what it is?' - -Montano growled:-- - -'Ghosts, and dead years, and eye-particles! This trash of -pseudo-science--a saltimbanco braying in a doctor's skin! Less licence, -Galeazzo, and more exercise--'tis all contained in that. This vision is -but a swimming blot of bile.' - -He was really half-deceived, half-convinced. The Duke seemed to listen -reassured, then slowly rose, and, with an ingratiatory smile, patted his -erst tutor's shoulder. - -'Old honest friend,' he said, 'and ever true to the Roman in thee! Thou -hast spoken as one might expect. Bile, is it--bile? and little wonder in -this upset of constitutions. Ebbene! we will take instant means to -throw it off.' - -He made a sign to the chief of the guard below. - -'Andrea!' - -Lascaris slunk back with a little gloating smile. The officer brought -up his men about Montano. The Duke murmured softly:-- - -'Take good Messer Cola, and--' he paused a little, gazing winningly into -his captive's surprised, splenetic face--'and have him soundly flogged -before the gate-house--to the bone, Andrea, tell Messer Jacopo.' - -Before the luring treachery of this stroke the prisoner stood for one -moment shocked, aghast. The next, as the guard seized him, he broke -into a storm of vituperations and blasphemies, calling upon all the gods -of Rome to protect him from a monster. Andrea crushed his mailed hand -down on his writhing lips; he was dragged away struggling and screaming. -As he disappeared Galeazzo descended mincingly to the hall, bent on -pursuing the show. A cloud of courtiers, male and female flocked, like -rooks following a plough, in his wake. As he left the citadel and was -crossing the outer ward, two ladies--one a young woman in her late -twenties; the other a slim, pale girl of thirteen--broke from a group of -attendants, and came, wreathed in one embrace, to accost him. The -elder, looking in his face with a certain questioning anxiety, spoke him -with a propitiatory smile and sigh:-- - -'Galeazino, O thou little sweetest burden on my heart!' - -The endearment was really an inquiry, a warning; for there was a -foreboding madness in his eyes. He made as if he would have struck her -from his path. Her child companion caught his wrist with a merry cry:-- - -'My little father, whither sportest thou without thy women?' - -He changed the direction of his hand and flipped the younger's cheek. - -'Come, then, chuck,' said he. 'There is a frolic toward that will speed -an idle hour.' - -She caught up her skirts and followed him, as did the other, but less -closely. - -The gatehouse commanded from its battlements an open panorama of the -town as far as the piazza of the duomo. Immediately to its front, in a -bare extended space, stood the whipping-post, a stout beam set on end on -a stage and furnished with hooks and chains. Already on the ground -beside this (by preconcerted arrangement indeed) was a certain -functionary, much respected of Milan. This was Messer Jacopo, the high -court executioner--one, by virtue of his dealings in blood, almost on an -equality with the master herald himself. Immobile and voiceless, he -stood there like a model in an armoury. A short shirt of mail, and over -it a scarlet jerkin with a plain dagger at the waist; hose of sober -grey; a bonnet and shoes of black velvet, the first adorned with a red -quill, the second with red rosettes; gorget and steel gauntlets--such -was the whole of Messer Jacopo, save for the wooden, inessential detail -of his face and its fixed eyes of glass. There was something painfully -human, by contrast, in his understrappers, two or three of whom stood at -hand in leathern aprons--men of a rich, moist physique and greasy palms, -and jocund, slaughter-house expression. These were on bantering terms -with the mob, with all that loose raff of the neighbourhood, which had -come streaming and pushing and chattering to witness the sport. It was -not often that the rats of the quarter Giovia had a master of philosophy -to desert. - -They had not long to wait. Almost simultaneously a little surging group -appeared at the gates, and a throng of gay heads above the ramparts. -The jostle and delighted whisper went among the crowd. What proportion -would the scourging of a prince's tutor bear to the punishment it -avenged? It surely would not be allowed to lose by procrastination. -They craned their necks to catch an early sight of the victim. One of -the assistants whipped experimentally through his fingers a thick, cruel -thong of bullock-hide. It clacked a dry tongue. - -'Be quiet, thirsty one,' he cried boisterously. 'In a moment thou shalt -drink thyself to a sop.' - -Up on the ramparts the ladies, with bright, inquisitive eyes, stood by -their lord. The girl Catherine, petted love-child of her father, hugged -confidingly to his arm. - -'Padre mio,' she said, 'how sweet the world looks from here! I could -fancy we were all Lazaruses, laughing down on that wicked Dives!' - - - - - *CHAPTER V* - - -Messer Lanti and his party entered Milan, in a very subdued mood, by the -Gate of Saint Mark. It had been with an emotion beyond words that Bembo -had found himself approaching the walls of this fair city of his dreams. -The prosperous contado, watered in every direction by broad dykes; the -clustering vines and saintly-hued olive gardens; the busy peasantry; the -richness of the very wayside shrines, had all appeared to speak a -content and holiness with which the perverse passions of men were at -such bitter variance. The discrepancy confounded, as it was presently -upon a fuller experience to inspire, him. Here in one land, incessantly -jostling and reacting on one another, were a devotional and a sensuous -fervour, both exhibiting a lust of beauty at fever-heat; were a gross -superstition and an excellent reason; were a powerful priestcraft and a -jeering scepticism--all drawing from the forehead of a Papacy, which, -latterly pledged to the most unscrupulous temporal self-aggrandisement, -was reverenced for the vicarship of a poor and celibate Christ. -Issuing, equipped with an artless conventual purpose, from the cool -groves of his cloister, he found a land dyed in blood and the blue of -heaven, festering under God's sun, and rejoicing in the colour schemes -of its sores. On what principle could he study to sweeten this paradox -of a constitution, where health was enamoured of disease? '_Deus meus, -in te confido_,' he prayed, with hands clasped fervently upon his -breast; '_Non erubescam, neque irrideant me inimici mei_! O Lord, give -me the vision to find and show to others a path through this beautiful -wilderness!' - -As the long walls of the town, broken at intervals into turrets, -broadened before him, violet against a deep, cloudless sky, his ecstasy -but increased--he held out his arms. - -'O thou,' he murmured, 'that I have hungered for, looking down on thee -from the mountain of myrrh! Until the day break and the shadows flee -away!' - -A little later, in a deep angle of the enceinte, they came upon a -gruesome sight. This was no less than the Montmartre of Milan--a great -stone gallows with dangling chains, and tenanted--faugh! A cloud of -winged creatures rose as they approached, and scattered, dropping -fragments. It was the common repast, stuff of rogues and -pilferers--nothing especial. The ground was trodden underneath, and -Bembo shrieked to see two white, stiff feet sticking from it. Lanti -followed the direction of his hand, and exclaimed with a moody shrug:-- - -'An assassin, Saint--nothing more. We plant them like that, head down.' - -'Alive?' - -'O, of course!' - -Bembo cried out: 'These are not sons of God, but of Belial!' and passed -on, with his head drooping. Carlo turned to Beatrice, where she rode -behind, and, without a word, pointed significantly to the horrible -vision. She laughed, and went by unmoved. - -In a little after they had all entered by the gate, and the city was -before them. Bembo, kindled against his will, rose in his saddle and -uttered an exclamation of delight. Before his eyes was spread a white -town with blue water and upstanding cypresses--wedges of midnight in -midday. There were terraces and broad flagged walks, and palaces and -spacious loggias--fair glooms of marble shaken in the spray of -fountains. From its cold, shadowless bridges to the heaped drift of the -duomo in its midst, there seemed no slur, but those dark cypresses, on -all its candid purity. It looked like a city flushed under a veil of -hoar frost, the glare of its streets and markets and gardens subdued to -one softest harmony of opal. - -Yet in quick contrast with this chill, sweet austerity, glowed the -burning life of it. In the distance, like travelling sparks in wood -ashes; nearer, flashing from roof or balcony in harlequin spots of -light; nearest of all, a very baggage-rout of figures, fantastic, -chameleonic, an endless mutation and interflowing of blues, and -crimsons, and purples--tirelessly that life circulated, the hot arterial -blood which gave their tender hue to those encompassing veins of marble. - -It was on this drift of souls going by him, gay and light, it seemed, as -blown petals, that Bernardo gazed with the most loving fondness. He -pictured them all, eager, passionate, ardent, moving about the business -of the Nature-God, propagating His Gospel of sweetness, adapting to -imperishable works the endlessly varying arabesques of woods, and starry -meadows, and running clouds and waters--epitomising His System. He -admired these works, their beauty, their stability, their triumphant -achievement; though, in truth, his soul of souls could conceive no -achievement for man so ideal as a world of glorious gardens and little -abodes. But the sun was once more in his heart, and heaven in his eyes. - -The swallows stooped in the streets to welcome him: 'Hail, little priest -of the cloistered hills!' The scent of flowers offered itself the -incense to his ritual; the fountains leapt more merrily for his coming. -'Love! love!' sang the birds under the great eaves; 'He will woo this -cruel world to harmlessness. Where men shall lead with charity, all -animals shall follow. The good fruits ripen to be eaten; it is their -love, their lust to be consumed in joy. What lamb ever gave its throat -to the knife? The violet flowers the thicker the more its blossoms are -ravished. What new limb ever budded on a maimed beast?' - -'Ah! the secret,' sang Bembo's soul--'the secret, or the secret -grievance, of the cosmos will yield itself only to love. Useless to try -to wrench forth its confession by torture. Let retaliation spell love, -for once and for ever, and to the infinite sorrows of life will appear -at last their returned Redeemer.' - -His heart was full as they rode by the narrow streets. His eyes and ears -were tranced with colour, the murmur of happy voices, the clash of -melodious bells. He could not think of that late vision of horror but -as a dream. These blithe souls, in all their moods and worships such -true apostles of his gay, sweet God! They could not love or practise -harshness but as a deterrent from things unnameable. The very absence -of sightseers from that pit of scowling death proved it. - -And then, in a moment, they had debouched upon an open place overlooked -by a massive fortress, and in its midst, the cynosure of hundreds of -gloating eyes, was a human thing under the flail--a voice moaning from -the midst of a red jelly. - -His heart sunk under a very avalanche. He uttered a cry so loud as to -attract the attention of the spectators nearest. - -'Who is it? What hath he done?' he roared of one. 'Trampled on the -Host? Defiled a virgin of the mother? Murdered a priest?' - -The face puckered and grinned. - -'Worse, Messer Cavalier. He once whipped the Duke when his tutor.' - -Bembo's whole little body braced itself to the spring. - -'Tutor!' he cried: 'is that, then, Cola Montano?' - -The gross eye winked-- - -'What is left of it.' - -He was answered with a leap and rush. The mob at that point staggered, -and bellowed, and fell away from the hoofs of a furious assailant. -Carlo, pre-admonished, was already on the boy's flank. 'Stop, little -lunatic!' he shouted, sweating and spurring to intervene. He had no -concern for the feet he trampled or the ribs he bruised. He stooped and -snatched at the struggling horse's bridle. 'It is the Duke's vengeance!' -he panted. 'See him there above! Art mad?' - -A face, flushed as the face of Him who scourged the hucksters from the -temple, was turned upon him. - -'Art thou? Strike for retaliation by love, or get behind!' - -'Know'st nothing of his deserts,' cried Carlo. 'Be advised!' - -'By love,' cried the boy. 'He is worthy of it--a good man--I carry a -letter to him from my father. Fall back, I say.' - -He drove in his heels, and the horse plunged and started, tearing the -rein from Lanti's grasp. It was true that Bembo bore this letter, among -others, in his pouch. The Abbot of San Zeno was so long out of the world -as to have miscalculated the durations of court favour. Cola had been an -influence in _his_ time. - -'Devil take him!' growled Carlo; but he followed, scowling and slashing, -in his wake. The mob, authorised of its worst humour, took his -truculence ill. That reduced him to a very devilish sobriety. He began -to strike with an eye to details, 'blazing' his passage through the -throng. The method justified itself in the opening out of a human lane, -at the end of which he saw Bembo spring upon the stage. - -The executioner was cutting deliberately, monotonously on, and as -monotonously the voice went moaning. Messer Jacopo, standing at iron -ease beside, took no thought, it seemed, of anything--least of all of -interference with the Duke's will. It must have been, therefore, no -less than an amazing shock to that functionary to find himself all in an -instant stung and staggered by a bolt from the blue. He may have been, -like some phlegmatic serpent, conscious of a hornet winging his way; but -that the insect should have had it in its mind to pounce on _him_! - -He found himself and his voice in one metallic clang:-- - -'Seize him, men!' - -Carlo panted up, and Jacopo recognised him on the moment. - -'Messer Lanti! Death of the Cross! Is this the Duke's order?' - -'Christ's, old fool!' gasped the cavalier. 'Touch him, I say, and die. -I neither know nor care.' - -His great chest was heaving; he whipped out his sword, and stood glaring -and at bay. Bembo had thrown himself between the upraised thong and its -quivering victim. He, too, faced the stricken mob. - -'Christ is coming! Christ is coming!' he shrieked. 'Prepare ye all to -answer to Him for this!' - -A dead silence fell. Some turned their faces in terror. Here and there -a woman cried out. In the midst, Messer Jacopo raised his eyes to the -battlements, and saw a white hand lifted against the blue. He shrugged -round grumpily on his fellows. - -'Unbind him,' he said; and the whip was lowered. - -The poor body sunk beside the post. Bembo knelt, with a sob of pity, to -whisper to it-- - -'Courage, sad heart! He comes indeed.' - -The livid and suffering face was twisted to view its deliverer. - -'Escape, then,' the blue lips muttered, 'while there is time.' - -Bembo cried out: 'O, thou mistakest who I mean!' - -The face dropped again. - -'Never. Christ or Galeazzo--it is all one.' - -A hand was laid on the boy's shoulder. He looked up to find himself -captive to one of the Duke's guard. A grim little troop, steel-bonneted -and armed with halberts, surrounded the stage. Messer Lanti, -dismounted, had already committed himself to the inevitable. He -addressed himself, with a laugh, to his friend:-- - -'Very well acquitted, little Saint,' said he--'of all but the -reckoning.' - -Bembo lingered a moment, pointing down to the bleeding and shattered -body. - -"'And there passed by a certain priest,"' he cried, '"and likewise a -Levite; but a Samaritan had compassion on him,"' and he bowed his head, -and went down with the soldiers. - -Now, because of his beauty, or of the fear or of the pity he had wrought -in some of his hearers, for whatever reason a woman or two of the people -was emboldened to come and ask the healing of that wounded thing; and -they took it away, undeterred of the executioners, and carried it to -their quarters. And in the meanwhile, Bembo and his comrade were -brought before the Duke. - -Galeazzo had descended from the battlements, and sat in a little room of -the gatehouse, with only a few, including his wife and child, to attend -him. And his brow was wrinkled, and the lust of fury, beyond -dissembling, in his veins. He took no notice of Lanti--though generally -well enough disposed to the bully--but glared, even with some amazement -in his rage, on the boy. - -'Who art thou?' he thundered at length. - -'Bernardo Bembo.' - -The clear voice was like the call of a bird's through tempest. - -'Whence comest thou?' - -'From San Zeno in the hills.' - -'What seek'st thou here?' - -'Thy cure.' - -The Duke started, and seemed actually to crouch for a moment. Then, -while all held their breath in fear, of a sudden he fell back, and -gripped a hand to his heart, and muttered, staring: 'The face!' - -He closed his eyes, and passed a tremulous hand across his brow before -he looked again; and lo! when he did so, the madness was past. - -'Child,' he said hoarsely, almost whispered, 'what said'st thou? Come -nearer: let me look at thee.' - -He rose himself, with the word, stiffly, like an old man, and stood -before the boy, and gazing hungrily for a little into the solemn eyes, -dropped his own as if abashed--half-blinded. In the background, Bona, -his wife, and the child Catherine clung together in a silence of fear -and wonder. - -'Ah, I am haunted!' shuddered the tyrant. 'Who told thee that? It is a -face, child, a face--there--in the dead watches of the night--behind -me--and by day, always the same, a damned clinging bur on my soul--not -to be shaken off--always behind me!' - -He gave a little jerk and motion of repugnance, as if he were trying to -throw something off. Carlo struck in: 'Lord, let him sing to thee! I -say no more.' - -The deep, gloomy eyes of the Duke were lifted one instant to the strange -seraph-gaze fixed silently upon him; then, making an acquiescent motion -with his hand, he turned, and sat himself down again as if exhausted, -and hid his brow under his palm. - -Now the boy, never looking away, slung forward his lute, and like one -that charms a serpent, began softly to finger the strings. And -Galeazzo's head, in very truth like an adder's, swung to the rhythm; and -as the chords rose piercing, he clutched his brow, and as they melted -and sobbed away, so did he sink and moan. And then, suddenly, into that -wild symphony drew the voice, as a spray of sweetbriar is drawn into a -wheel; and all around caught their breath to listen:-- - - 'Two children, a boy and girl, were playing between wood and - meadow. - They pledged their faith, each to the other, with rosy lips on - lips, - He to protect, she to trust--always together for ever and ever. - A storm rose: the dragon of the thunder roared and hissed, - Probing the earth with its keen tongue. - How she cowered, the pretty, fearful thing! - Yet adored her little love to see him dare - That tree-cleaving monster with his sword of lath. - And in the end, because she trusted in her love, her love - prevailed, - And drove the roaring terror from the woods. - She never felt such faith, nor he such pride of virtue in his - strength. - Then shone out the rainbow, - And he bethought him of the jewelled cup hid at its foot. - "Stay here," quoth he, new boldened by his triumph, - "And I'll fetch it ye." - But she cried to him: "Nay, leveling, take me too! - We were to be aye together: O leave me not behind!" - But he was already on his way. - And still, as he pursued, the rainbow fled before, - And the voice of his playmate, faint and fainter, followed in - his wake: - "O leave me not behind!" - Then grew he wild and desperate, clutching at that mirage, - the unattainable, - The lustrous cup that was to bring him happiness in its - possession. - And the voice blew ghostly in his wake, mingling with rain and - the whirl of dead leaves: - "Leave me not behind!" - But now the fire of unfulfilment seared his brain, - And often he staggered in the slough, - Or fell and cut himself on rocks. - And so, pushing on half-blindly, - Knew not at last from the dead rainbow the _ignis fatuus_, - The false witch-light that danced upon his path, - Leading him to destruction. Until, lo! - With a flash and laugh it was not, - And he awoke to a mid-horror of darkness-- - Night in the infernal swamps-- - Blind, crawling, desolate; and for ever in his heart - The weeping shadow of a voice, "O leave me not behind!" - Then at that, like one amazed, he turned, - And cried in agony: "Innocenza, my lost Innocence, - Where art thou? O, little playmate, follow to my call!" - And there answered him only from the gates of the sunset a - heart-broken sigh.' - - -He ended to a deep silence, and, while all stood stricken between tears -and expectancy, moved to within a pace of the Duke. - -'O prince!' he cried, 'haunted of that Innocence! Turn back, turn back, -and find in thy lost playmate's face the ghost that now eludes thee!' - -Carlo gave a little gasp, and his hand shivered down to his sword-hilt. -He must die for his Saint, if provoked to that martyrdom; but he would -take a desperate pledge or two of the sacrifice with him. One of the -women, the younger, watching him, knew what was in his mind, and -breathed a little scornfully. The other's eyes were set in a sort of -rapture upon the singer's face. A minute may have passed, holding them -all thus suspended, when suddenly Galeazzo rose, and, throwing himself -at Bembo's feet, broke into a passion of sobs and moans. - -'Margherita, my little playmate, that liest under the daisies. O, I -will be good, sweet--I will be good again for thy sake.' - - - - - *CHAPTER VI* - - -Many a head in the palace, though accustomed witness of strange things, -tossed on its pillow that night in sleepless review of a scene which had -been as amazing in its singularity as it was potential in its promise. -What were to be the first-fruits of that cataclysmic revulsion of -feeling in a nature so habitually frozen from all tenderness? If no -more than a shy snowdrop or two of reason, mercy, justice, pushing their -way up through a savage soil, the result would be marvel enough. Yet -there seemed somehow in the atmosphere an earnest of that and better. -The hearts of all trod on tiptoe, fearful of waking their souls to -disenchantment--agitated, exultant; wooing them to convalescence from an -ancient sickness. The spring of a joyous hope was rising voiceless -somewhere in the thick of those drear corridors. The f[oe]tid air, -wafted through a healing spray, came charged with an unwonted sweetness. -Whence had he risen, the lovely singing-boy, spirit of change, harbinger -of a new humanity? Whither had he gone? To the Duke's quarters--that -was all they knew. They had seen him carried off, persuaded, fondled, -revered by that very despot whom he had dared divinely to rebuke, and -the doors had clanged and the dream passed. To what phase of its -development, confirming or disillusioning, would they reopen? The -answer to them was at least a respite; and that was an answer sufficient -and satisfying to lives that obtained on a succession of respites. -Alas! as there is no logic in tyranny, so can there be none in those who -endure it. - -The earliest ratification of the promise was to witness in the figure of -the Duke coming radiant from his rooms in company with the stranger -himself, his left arm fondly passed about the boy's neck, his eyes full -of admiration and flattery. He felt no more discomfort, it appeared, -than had Madam Beatrice on a certain occasion, in the thought of his -late self-exposure before his creatures. Such shamelessness is the final -condition of autocracy. He had slept well, untormented of his vision. -As is the case with neurotics, a confident diagnosis of his disease had -proved the shortest means to its cure. Clever the doctor, too, who -could make such a patient's treatment jump with his caprices; and with -an inspired intuition Bernardo had so manoeuvred to reconcile the two. -A whim much indulged may become a habit, and he was determined to -encourage to the top of its bent this whim of reformation in the Duke. -No ungrateful physicking of a soured bile for him; no uncomfortable -philosophy of organic atoms recombined. He just restored to him that -long-lost toy of innocence, trusting that the imagination of the man -would find ever novel resources for play in that of which the invention -of the child had soon tired. So for the present, and until virtue in -his patient should have become a second nature, was he resolved wisely -to eschew all reference to the intermediate state, and only by example -and analogy to win him to consciousness and repentance of the enormities -by which it had been stained. A very profound little missionary, to be -sure. - -The Duke, leaning on his arm as he strolled, had a smile and a word for -many. The only visible token of his familiar self which he revealed was -the arbitrariness with which he exacted from all a fitting deference -towards his protege. This, however, none, not the greatest, was -inclined to withhold, especially on such a morning. Soft-footed -cardinals, princes of the blood, nobles and jingling captains, vied with -one another in obsequious attentions to our little neophyte of love. -The reasons, apart from superstitious reverence, were plentiful: his -sweetness, his beauty, his gifts of song--all warm recommendations to a -sensuous sociality; the whispered romance of his origin, no less a -patent in its eyes because it turned on a title doubly bastard; finally, -and most cogently, no doubt, his political potentialities as a favourite -_in posse_. - -This last reason above any other may have accounted for the -extraordinary complaisance shown him by Messer Ludovico, the Duke's -third younger brother, at present at court, who was otherwise of a -rather inward and withdrawing nature. He, this brother, had come from -Pavia, riding the final stage that morning, and though he had only -gathered by report the story of the last twelve hours, thought it worth -his while to go and ingratiate himself with the stranger. He found him -in the great hall of the castello, awaiting the trial of certain causes, -which, as coming immediately under the ducal jurisdiction, it was -Galeazzo's sport often to preside over in person. Here he saw the boy, -standing at his brother's shoulder by the judgment-seat--the comeliest -figure, between Cupid and angel, he had ever beheld; frank, sweet, -child-eyed--in every feature and quality, it would seem, the antithesis -of himself. Messer Ludovico came up arm in arm, very condescendingly, -with his excellency the Ser Simonetta, Secretary of State, a gentleman -whom he was always at pains to flatter, since he intended by and by to -destroy him. Not that he had any personal spite against this minister, -however much he might suspect him of misrepresenting his motives and -character to the Duchess Bona, his sister-in-law, to whom he, Ludovico, -was in reality, he assured himself, quite attached. His policy, on the -contrary, was always a passionless one; and the point here was simply -that the man, in his humble opinion, affected too much reason and -temperance for a despotic government. - -As he approached the tribune he uncapped, a thought on the near side of -self-abasement, to his brother, whose cavalier acknowledgment of the -salute halted him, however, affable and smiling, on the lowest step of -the dais. He was studious, while there, to inform with the right touch -of pleasant condescension (at least while Galeazzo's regard was fixed on -him) his attitude towards Simonetta, lest the ever-suspicious mind of -the tyrant should discover in it some sign of a corruptive intimacy. -With heirs-possibly-presumptive in Milan, sufficient for the day's life -must be the sleepless diplomacy thereof; and better than any man -Ludovico knew on what small juggleries of the moment the continuance of -his depended. His complexion being of a swarthiness to have earned him -the surname of The Moor, he had acquired a habit of drooping his lids in -company, lest the contrastive effect of white eyeballs moving in a dark, -motionless face should betray him to the subjects of those covert -side-long glances by which he was wont to observe unobserved. Even to -his shoulders, which were slightly rounded by nature, he managed, when -in his brother's presence, to give the suggestion of a self-deprecatory -hump, as though the slight burden of State which they already endured -were too much for them. His voice was low-toned; his expression -generally of a soft and rather apologetic benignity. His manner towards -all was calculated on a graduated scale of propitiation. Paying every -disputant the compliment of deferring outwardly to his opinions, he -would not whip so little as a swineherd without apologising for the -inconvenience to which he was putting him. His dress was rich, but -while always conceived on the subdominant note, so to speak, as implying -the higher ducal standard, was in excellent taste, a quality which he -could afford to indulge with impunity, since it excited no suspicion but -of his simplicity in Galeazzo's crude mind. In point of fact Messer -Ludovico was a born connoisseur, and, equally in his choice of men, -methods, and tools, a first exemplar of the faculty of selection. - -Presently, seeing the Duke's gaze withdrawn from him, he spoke to Messer -Simonetta more intimately, but still out of the twisted corner of his -mouth, while his eyes remained slewed under their lids towards the -throne:-- - -'Indeed, my lord, indeed yes; 'tis a veritable Castalidis, fresh from -Parnassus and the spring. Tell me, now--'tis no uncommon choice of my -brother to favour a fair boy--what differentiates this case from many?' - -The secretary, long caged in office, and worn and toothless from -friction on its bars, had yet his ideals of Government, personal as well -as political. - -'Your Highness,' said he, in his hoarse, thin voice, 'what -differentiates sacramental wine from Malvasia?' - -'Why,' answered Ludovico, 'perhaps a degree or two of headiness.' - -'Nay,' said the secretary, 'is it not rather a degree or two of -holiness?' - -'Ebbene!' said the other, 'I stand excellently corrected. (Your -servant, Messer Tassino,' he said, in parenthesis, to a pert and -confident young exquisite, who held himself arrogantly forward of the -group of spectators. The jay responded to the attention with a -condescending nod. Ludovico readdressed himself to the secretary.) -'How neatly you put things! It is a degree or two, as you say--between -the intoxication of the spirit and the intoxication of the senses. And -is this pretty stranger sacramental wine, and hath Heaven vouchsafed us -the Grael without the Quest? It is a sign of its high favour, Messer -Slmonetta, of which I hope and trust we shall prove ourselves worthy.' - -'And I hope so, Highness,' said the grave secretary. - -'Hush!' whispered Ludovico. 'The court opens.' - -There was a little stir and buzz among the spectators who, thronging the -hall, left a semi-circle of clear space about the dais; and into this, -at the moment, a fellow in a ragged gabardine was haled by a guard of -city officers. The Duke, seated above, stroked his chin with a glance at -the prisoner of sinister relish, which, on the thought, he smoothed, -with a little apologetic cough, into an expression of mild benignancy. -Messer Lanti, planted near at hand amid a very parterre of nobles, -envoys, ecclesiastics, bedizened _cheres amies_ and great officers of -the court who supported their lord on the dais, sniggered under his -breath till his huge shoulders shook. - -The Jew was charged with a very heinous offence--sweating coins, no -less. He was voluble and nasal over his innocence, until one of the -officers flicked him bloodily on the mouth with his mailed hand. - -'Nay,' said Bembo, shrinking; 'that is to give the poor man a dumb -advocate, methinks.' - -The Duke applauded--eliciting some louder applause from Ludovico--and -forbade the fellow sternly to strike again without orders. A sudden -sigh and movement seemed to ripple the congregated faces and to subside. -The prisoner, however, was convicted, on sound enough evidence, and -stood sullen and desperate to hear his sentence. Galeazzo eyed him -covetously a moment; then turning to a clerk of the court who knelt -beside him with his tablets ready, bade that obsequious functionary -proclaim the penalty which by statute obtained against all coiners or -defacers of the ducal image. It was bad enough--breaking on the -wheel--to pass without deadlier revision; yet to such, and to the high -will or caprice of his lord, Master Scrivener humbly submitted it. - -Then, to the dumfoundering of all, did his Magnificence appeal, with a -smile, to the little Parablist at his shoulder:-- - -'Mi' amico; thou hearest? What say'st?' - -'Lord,' answered Bernardo, in the soft, clear young voice that all might -hear like a bird's song in the stillness after rain, 'this wretch hath -defaced thy graven image.' - -'It is true.' - -'What if, in a more impious mood, he had dared to raise his hand against -thyself?' - -'Ha! He would be made to die--not pleasantly.' - -'Is to be broken on the wheel pleasant?' - -'Well, the dog shall hang.' - -'Still for so little? Why, were he Cain he could pay no higher. -Valuest thy life, then, at a pinch of gold dust? This is to put a -premium on regicide.' - -The Duke bit his lip, and frowned, and laughed vexedly. - -'How now, Bernardino?' - -'Lord, I am young--a child, and without comparative experience. I pray -thee put this rogue aside, while we consider.' - -Galeazzo waved his hand, and the Jew, staring and stumbling, was -removed. Another, a creature gaunt and wolfish, took his place. What -had he done? He had trodden on a hare in her form, and, half-killing, -had despatched her. Why? asked Bembo. To still her telltale cries, -intimated the wretched creature. Galeazzo's eyes gleamed; but still he -called upon Heaven to sentence. In such a case? Men glanced at one -another half terrified. Any portent, even of good, is fearful in its -rising. Bembo turned to the kneeling clerk. - -'Come, Master Scrivener! A little offence, in any case, and with -humanity to condone it.' - -The frightened servant shook his head, with a glance at his master. He -murmured the worst he dared--that the law exacted the extremest penalty -from the unauthorised killer of game. Bembo stared a moment -incredulous, then pounced in mock fury at the prisoner:-- - -'Wretch! what didst thou with this hare?' - -The hind had to be goaded to an answer. - -'Master, I ate it.' - -'What!' cried the other--'a monster, to devour thy prince's flesh!' - -'God knows I did not!' - -'Nay, God is nothing to the law, which says you did. Else why should it -draw no distinction between the crimes of harecide and regicide? Thou -hast eaten of thy prince.' - -'Well, if I have I have.' - -'Thou art anthropophagous.' - -'Mercy!' - -'No shame to thee--a lover of thy kind' (the Saint chuckled). 'And no -cannibal neither, since we have made game of thy prince.' He chuckled -again, and turned merrily on the Duke. 'Is the hare to be prince, or -the prince hare? And yet, in either case, O Galeazzo, I see no way for -thee out of this thy loving subject's belly!' - -The tyrant, half captivated, half furious, started forward. - -'Give him,' he roared--and stopped. 'Give him,' he repeated, 'a kick on -his breach and send him flying. Nay!' he snarled, 'even that were too -much honour. Give him a scudo with which to buy an emetic.' - -Bembo smiled and sighed: 'I begin to see daylight'; and Ludovico, after -laughing enjoyingly over his brother's pleasantry, exclaimed audibly to -Simonetta: 'This is the very wedding of human wit and divine. I seem to -see the air full of laughing cherubs having my brother's features.' - -Now there brake into the arena one clad like an artificer in a leathern -apron; a sinewy figure, but eloquent, in his groping hands and bandaged -face, of some sudden blight of ruin seizing prime. And he cried out in -a great voice:-- - -'A boon, lord Duke, a boon! I am one Lupo, an armourer, and thou seest -me!' - -'Certes,' said the Duke. 'Art big enough.' - -'O lord!' cried the shattered thing, 'let me see justice as plain with -these blinded eyes.' - -'Well, on whom?' - -'Lord, on him that took me sleeping, and struck me for ever from the -rolls of daylight, sith I had cursed him for the ruin of my daughter.' - -Galeazzo shrugged his shoulders. - -'This thine assailant--is he noble?' - -'Master, as titles go.' - -'Wert a fool, then, to presume. He were like else to have made it good -to thee. Now, an eye for--' but he checked himself in the midst of the -enormous blasphemy. - -'Judge thou, my guardian angel,' he murmured meekly. - -'What!' answered the boy, with a burning face, 'needs _this_ revision by -Heaven?' And he cried terribly: 'Master armourer, summon thy -transgressor!' - -For a moment the man seemed to shrink. - -'Nay,' cried the Saint, 'thou need'st not. I see the hand of God come -forth and write upon a forehead.' His eyes sparkled, as if in actual -inspiration. 'Tassino!' he cried, in a ringing voice. - -('He heard me address him,' thought Ludovico, curious and watchful.) - -At the utterance of that name, the whole nerve of the audience seemed to -leap and fall like a candle-flame. Galeazzo himself started, and his -lids lifted, and his mouth creased a moment to a little malevolent grin. -For why? This Tassino, while too indifferent a skipjack for his -jealousy, was yet the squire amoroso, the lover _comme il faut_ to his -own correct Duchess, Madam Bona. - -A minute's ticking silence was ended by the stir and pert laugh of the -challenged himself, as he left the ring of spectators and sauntered into -the arena. It was a little showy upstart, to be sure, as ebulliently -curled and groomed as her Grace's lap-dog, and sharing, indeed, with -Messer Tinopino the whole present caprice of their mistress's spoiling. -His own base origin and inherent vulgarity, moreover, seeming to -associate him with the ducal brutishness (an assumption which Galeazzo -rather favoured than resented), confirmed in him a self-confidence which -had early come to see no bounds to its own viciousness or effrontery. - -Now he cocked one arm akimbo, and stared with insufferable insolence on -the pronouncer of his name. - -'Know'st me, Prophet?' bawled he. 'Not more than I thee, methinks. -Wert well coached in this same inspiration.' - -'Well, indeed,' answered Bembo. 'Thou hast said it. It was God spake in -mine ear.' - -Tassino laughed scornfully. It was a study to see these young wits -opposed, the one such plated goods, the other so silver pure. - -'In the name of this lying carle,' he cried, 'what spake He?' - -'He said,' said Bembo quietly, '"Let the false swearer remember -Ananias!"' - -Then in a moment he was all ruffled and combative, like a young eagle. - -'Answer!' he roared. 'Didst thou this thing?' - -Now, a woman-petted, cake-fed belswagger is too much of an anomaly for -the test of nerves. Tassino, shouted at, gave an hysteric jump which -brought him to the very brink of tears. He was really an ill-bred -little coward, made arrogant by spoiling. He had the greatest pity and -tenderness for himself, and to any sense of his being lost would always -respond with a lump in his throat. Now he suddenly realised his -position, alone and baited before all--no petticoat to fly to, no -sympathy to expect from a converted tyrant, none from a mob which, -habitually the butt to his viciousness, would rejoice in his -discomfiture. Actually the little beast began to whimper. - -'Darest thou!' he cried, stamping. - -'Didst thou this thing?' repeated Bernardo. - -'It is no business of thine.' - -'Didst thou this thing?' - -'An oaf's word against----' - -'Didst thou this thing?' - -'Lord Duke!' appealed Tassino. - -'Didst thou this thing?' - -The victim fairly burst into tears. - -'If I say no----' - -'Die, Ananias!' shouted the Duke. His eyes gleamed maniacally. He half -rose in his chair. He seemed as if furious to foreclose on a denouement -his superstition had already anticipated. Tassino fell upon his knees. - -'I did it!' he screamed. - -The Duke sank back, his lips twitching and grinning. Then he glanced -covertly at Bembo, and rubbed his hands together, with a motion part -gloating, part deprecatory. The Ser Ludovico's eyes, shaded under his -palm, were very busy, to and fro. Bembo stood like frowning marble. - -'The law, Master Scrivener?' said he quietly. - -The kneeling clerk murmured from a dry throat-- - -'Holy sir, it takes no cognisance of these accidents. The condescensions -of the great compensate them.' - -The Parablist, his lips pressed together, nodded gravely twice or -thrice. - -'I see,' he said; 'a condescension which ruins two lives.' - -He addressed himself, with a deadly sweetness, to the Duke. - -'I prithee, who standest for God's vicegerent, call up the Jew to -sentence.' - -Jehoshaphat was produced, and placed beside the blubbered, resentful -young popinjay. The Saint addressed him:-- - -'Wretch, thou art convicted of the crime of defacing the Duke's image; -and he at thine elbow of defacing God's image. Shall man dare the awful -impiety to pronounce the greater guilt thine? Yet, if it merits death -and mutilation, what for this other?' - -He paused, and a stir went through the dead stillness of the hall. Then -Bembo addressed one of the tipstaves with ineffable civility:-- - -'Good officer, this rogue hath sweated coins, say'st?' - -'Ay, your worship,' answered the man; 'a hundred gold ducats, if a lire. -Shook 'em in a leathern bag, a' did, like so much rusted harness.' - -Bembo nodded. - -'They are forfeit, by the token; and he shall labour to provide other -hundred, with cost of metal and stamping.' - -Jehoshaphat, secure of his limbs, shrieked derisive-- - -'God of Ishril! O, yes! O, to be sure! I can bleed moneys!' - -'Nay,' said the Saint, 'but sweat them. Go!' - -The coiner was dragged away blaspheming. He would have preferred a -moderate dose of the rack; but the standard set by his sentence elicited -a murmur of popular approval. From all, that is to say, but Tassino, -who saw his own fate looming big by comparison. He rose and looked -about him desperately, as if he contemplated bolting. The spectators -edged together. He whinnied. Suddenly the stranger's voice swooped upon -him like a hawk:-- - -'Man's image shall be restored; restore thou God's.' - -The little wretch screamed in a sudden access of passion:-- - -'I don't know what you mean! Leave me alone. It was his own fault, I -say. Why did he insult me?' - -'Restore thou this image of God his sight,' said Bembo quietly. - -'You know I cannot!' - -'Thou canst not? Then an eye for an eye, as it was spoken. Take ye -this wicked thing, good officers, and blind him even as he blinded the -poor armourer.' - -A vibrant sound went up from the spectators, and died. Messer Ludovico -veiled his sight, and, it might be said, his laughter. Tassino was seen -struggling and crying in the half-fearful clutch of his gaolers. - -'Thou darest not! Dogs! Let me go, I say. What! would ye brave -Madonna? Lord Duke, lord Duke, help me!' - -'To repentance, my poor Tassino,' cried Galeazzo, leaning lustfully -forward. 'I trow thy part on earth is closed.' - -The little monster could not believe it. This instant fall from the -heights! He was flaccid with terror as he fell screeching on his knees. - -'Mercy, good stranger! Mercy, dear lord saint! The terror! the -torture! I could not suffer them and live. O, let me live, I pray -thee!--anywhere, anyhow, and I will do all; make whatever restitution -you impose.' - -As he prayed and wept and grovelled, the Saint looked down with icy pity -on his abasement. - -'Restitution, Tassino!' he cried, 'for that murthered vision, for that -ruined virtue? Wouldst thou even in thine impiousness arrogate to -thyself such divine prerogatives? Yet, in respect of that reason with -which true justice doth hedge her reprisals, the Duke's mercy shall -still allot thee an alternative. Sith thou canst not restore his honour -or his eyes to poor Lupo, thou shalt take his shame to wife, and in her -seek to renew that image of God which thou hast defaced. Do this, and -only doing it, know thyself spared.' - -A silence of stupefaction fell upon the court. What would Bona say to -this arbitrary disposal of her pet, made husband to a common gipsy he -had debauched? True, the sentence, by virtue of its ethical -completeness, seemed an inspiration. But it was a disappointment too. -None doubted but that the popinjay would subscribe to the present letter -in order to evade the practice of it by and by. Already the paltry soul -of the creature was struggling from its submersion, gasping, and -blinking wickedly to see how it could retort upon its judge and -deliverer. It had been better to have trodden it under for once and for -good--better for the moral of the lesson, as for all who foresaw some -hope for themselves in the crushing of an insufferable petty tyranny. -Galeazzo himself frowned and bit his nails. He would have lusted to see -heaven pluck off this vulgar burr for him. Only his brother, sleek and -smiling, applauded the verdict. He had a far-seeing vision, had -Ludovico, and perhaps already it was alotting a more telling role to the -little aristocrat of San Zeno than had ever been played by the cockney -parvenu down in the arena. - -Suddenly the Duke was on his feet, fierce and glaring. - -'Answer, dog!' he roared; 'acceptest thou the condition?' - -Tassino started and sobbed. - -'Yes, yes. I accept. I will marry her.' - -The Duke took a costly chain from his own neck, and hung it about the -shoulders of the Parablist. - -'Wear this,' he said, 'in earnest of our love and duty.' - -Then he turned upon the mob. - -'These judgments stand, and all that shall be spoken hereafter by our -dear monitor and proctor. It is our will. Make way, gentlemen.' - -He took Bernardo's arm and descended the steps. A cloud of courtiers -hovered near, acclaiming the boy Saint and Daniel. Messer Ludovico -saluted him with fervour. He foresaw the millennium in this association -of piety with greatness. Galeazzo sneered. - -'Remember that three spoils company, brother,' said he. 'Keep thou -thine own confessor, and leave me mine.' - -It was then only that Bernardo learned the rank of his accoster. - -'Alas! sweet lord,' said he, 'is piety such a stranger here that ye must -entertain him like a king?' - -The Duke laughed loudly and drew him on. He was extravagant in his -attentions to him--eager, voluble, feverish. He would point out to him -the lavish decorations of his house--marbles, sculptures, paintings, the -rising fabric of a new era--and ask his opinion on all. A word from the -child at that period would have floored a cardinal or a scaffolding, -have clothed Aphrodite in a cassock, have made a _fete champetre_ of all -Milan, or darkened its walls with mourning. Messer Lanti, following in -their wake, was amazed, and dubious, and savage in turns. Earlier in -the day the Duke had had from him the whole story of his connection with -the Parablist, up to the moment of their interference in Montano's -punishment. - -'_Meschino me!_' he had said, greatly laughing over that episode; 'yet I -cannot but be glad that the old code beat itself out on his back. 'Twas -a reptile well served--a venomous, ungrateful beast. A mercy if it has -broken his fang.' - -That remained to be seen; and in the meantime Carlo, the old auxiliary -in debauch, was taken again into full favour. He accepted the -condescension with reserve. The oddest new attachment had come to -supplant in him some ancient devotions that were the furthest from -devout. He found himself in a very queer mood, between irritable and -gentle. He had never before felt this inclination to hit hard for -virtue, and it bewildered his honest head. But it made him a dangerous -watchdog. - -By and by the Duke carried his protege into the Duchess's privy garden. -There was a necessary economy of ornamental ground about the castello, -though the most was made of what could be spared. In a nest of green -alleys, and falling terraces, and rose-wreathed arches, they came upon -the two ladies whom Bembo had already seen, themselves as pretty, -graceful flowers as any in the borders. The young Catherine sat upon a -fountain edge, fanning herself with a great leaf, and talking to a -flushed, down-looking page, who, it seemed likely, had brought news from -the court of a recent scandal and its sequel. Her shrewd, pretty face -took curious stock of the new comers. She was a pale slip of a girl, -lithe, bosomless, the green plum of womanhood. Her thin, plain dress was -green, fitting her like a sheath its blade of corn, and she wore on her -sleek fair head a cap of green velvet banded with a scroll of beaten -gold. A child she was, yet already for two years betrothed to a Pope's -nephew. His presents on the occasion had included a camera of green -velvet, sewn with pearls as thick as daisies in grass. It seemed -natural to associate her with spring verdure, so sweet and fair she was; -yet never, surely, worked a more politic little brain under its cap of -innocence. - -Hard by, on one of the walks, a woman and a child of seven played at -ball. These were Bona, and her little son Gian-Galeazzo. As the other -was spring, so was she summer, ripe in figure and mellowed in the -passion of motherhood. Her eyes burned with the caress and entreaty of -it--appealed in loveliness to the fathers of her desires. Her beauty, -her stateliness, the very milk of her were all sweet lures to increase. -She loved babies, not men--saw them most lusty, perhaps, in the glossy -eyes of fools, the breeding-grounds of Cupids. She was always a mother -before a wife. - -The Duke led Bernardo to her side. Pale as ivory, she bent and embraced -her boy, and dismissed him to the fountain; then rose to face the -ordeal. - -'Hail, judgments of Solomon!' she said, with a smile that quivered a -little. 'O believe me, sir, thy fame has run before!' - -'Which was the reason thou dismissedst Gian,' said Galeazzo, 'in fears -that Solomon would propose to halve him?' - -He did not doubt her, or wing his shaft with anything but brutality. It -was his coward way, and, having asserted it, he strolled off, grinning -and whistling, to the fountain. - -Bona shivered and drew herself up. Her robe was all of daffodil, with a -writhed golden hem to it that looked like a long flicker of flame. On -her forehead, between wings of auburn hair, burned a great emerald. She -seemed to Bernardo the loveliest, most gracious thing, a vision -personified of fruitfulness, the golden angel of maternity, warm, -fragrant, kind-bosomed. He met the gaze of her eyes with wonderment, -but no fear. - -'Sweet Madonna,' he said, 'hail me nothing, I pray thee, but the clear -herald of our Christ--His mouthpiece and recorder. We may all be played -upon for truth, so we be pure of heart.' - -'And that art thou? No guile? No duplicity? No self-interest?' - -He marvelled. She looked at him earnestly. - -'Bernardo, didst know this Tassino was my servant?' - -'Nay, I knew it not.' - -'Wouldst have spared him hadst thou known?' - -'How could I spare him the truth?' - -'But its shame, its punishment?' - -'Greater shame could no man have than to debauch innocence. His -punishment was his redemption.' - -'Ah! I defend him not. Yet, bethink thee, she may have been the -temptress?' - -'He should have loathed, not loved her, then.' - -'Madreperla, mother-of-pearl,' cried Catherine, with a little shriek of -laughter, from the fountain; 'come and help me! I have caught a -butterfly in my hand, and my father wishes to take it from me and kill -it!' - - - - - *CHAPTER VII* - - -Bernardo wrote to the Abbot of San Zeno:-- - -'MOST DEAR AND HONOURED FATHER,--Many words from me would but dilute the -wonder of my narrative. Also thou lovest brevity in all things but -God's praise. Know, then, how I have surpassed expectation in the early -propagation of our creed, which is by Love to banish Law, that old -engine of necessarianism. [_Here follows a brief recapitulation of the -events which had landed him, a little sweet oracle of light, in the dark -old castello of Milanl._] Man' (he goes on) 'is of all creatures the -most susceptible to his environments. Thou shalt induce him but to feed -on the olive branches of Peace in order that he may take their colour. -O sorrow, then, on the false appetites which have warped his nature! on -the beastly doctrines which, Satan-engendered, have led him half to -believe there is no wrong or right, but only necessity! Is there no -such thing as discord in music, at which even a dog will howl? Harmony -is God--so plain. Yet there is a learned doctor here, one Lascaris who -disputeth this. My father, I do not think that learned doctors seek so -much the intrinsic truth of things as to impress their followers with -their perspicacity in the pursuit. John led James over-the-way by a -"short cut" of three miles, and James thought John a very clever fellow. -Pray for me!... - -'I will speak first of the Duchess, to whom I delivered your letter. -She is a most sweet lady, with eyes, so kind and loving were they, they -made me think of those soft stars which light the flocks to fold. She -asked me did I remember my mother? "That is a strange question," quoth -I, "to a foundling." "Ah!" said she, "poor child! I had forgot how thou -fell'st, a star, into Mary's lap. I would have taken care, for my part, -not so to tumble out of heaven." "Nay," I said, "but if thou, a mother -there, hadst let slip thy baby first?" "What," she said, looking at me -so strange and wistful, "did she follow, then?" My father, thou know'st -my fancies. "I cannot tell," I said. "Sometimes, in a dream, the dim, -sad shadow of a woman's face seems to hang over me lying on that altar." -She held out her arms to me, then withdrew them, and she was weeping. -"We are all wicked," she cried; "there is no heart, nor faith, nor -virtue, in any of us!" and she ran away lamenting. Now, was not that -strange? for she is in truth a lady of great virtue, a pure wife and -mother, and to me most sweet-forgiving for an ill-favour I was forced to -do her upon one of her servants. But not women nor men know their own -hearts. They wear the devil's livery for fashion's sake, when he -introduces it on a pretty sister or young gentleman, and so believe -themselves bound to his service. But it is as easy as talking to make -virtue the mode. Thou shalt see. - -'Does not the beautiful Duomo itself stand in their midst, the fairest -earnest of their true piety? Could intrinsic baseness conceive this -ethereal fabric, or, year by year, graft it with sprigs of new -loveliness? There is that in them yet like a little child that -stretches out its arms to the sky. - -'I have, besides the greatest, two converts, or half-converts, already, -my dear Carlo and his Fool. The former is a great bull gallant, whom a -spark will set roaring and a kiss allay. I love him greatly, and he -bellows and prances, and swearing "I will not" follows to the pipe of -peace. Alas! if I could woo him from a great wrong! It will happen, -when men see honour whole, and not partisanly. In the meantime I have -every reason to be charitable to that lady Beatrice, sith she holds -herself my mortal enemy. And indeed I excuse her for myself, but not -for the honest soul she keeps in thrall. My father, is it not a strange -paradox, that holding the senses such a rich possession and life so -cheap? Here is one would prolong the body's pleasure to eternity, yet -at any moment will risk its destruction for a spite. Nathless she is -warm, loamy soil for the bearing of our right lily of love, and some day -shall be fruitful in cleanliness. - -'Now the Fool--poor Fool! I have won to temperance, and so Carlo -growleth, "A murrain on thee, spoil-sport! What want I with a sober -Fool? Take him, thou, to be valet to thy temperance!" by which gibe he -seeks to cover a gracious act. And, lo! I have a Fool for servant, a -most notable Fool and auxiliary, who, having sworn himself to -abstinence, would unplug and sink to the bottomless abyss every floating -hogshead. In sooth the good soul is my shadow, and so they call him. -"Well," says he, "so be it. But what sort of fool art thou, to cast a -fool for shadow?" "Why, look," says I, for it was sunset on the -grass--"at least not so great a fool as thou." "That may well be," says -he, "for you do not serve Messer Bembo." So caustic is he--a biting -love; yet, as is proper between a man and his shadow, equal attached to -me as I to him. And so, talking of his gift to me, brings me to the -greater gifts of the Duke. - -'O my father! How can I speak my gratitude to heaven and thy teaching, -which brought me so swiftly, so wonderfully, to prevail with that dread -man! I think evil is like the false opal, which needs but the first -touch of pure light to shatter it. I have come with no weapon but my -little lamp of sunshine; and behold! in its flash the base is -discredited and the truth acknowledged. It is all so easy, Christ guard -me! There is a Providence in what men call chance. Only, my father, -pray that thy child be not misled by flattery to usurp its prerogatives. -Men, in this dim world, are all too prone to worship the visible symbols -of Immortality--to accept the prophet for the Master. I am already -feted and caressed as if I were a god. The Duke hath impropriated to me -an income of a thousand ducatos, with free residence in the castello, -and a retinue to befit a prince. At all this I cavil not, sith it -affords me the sinews to a crusade. But what shall I say to his -delegating me to the chief magistracy of Milan during his forthcoming -absence? for he is on the eve of an expedition into Piedmont, touching -the lordship of Vercelli, which he claims through his wife Bona of -Savoy. Carlo, it is true, warns me against this perilous exaltation. -"Seek'st thou," says he, "to depose the devil? Well, the devil, on his -return, will treat thee like any other palace revolutionist." "Nay," -says I, "the devil was never the devil from choice. Restore him to a -converted dukedom, and he will aspire to be the saint of all." "Yes," -he said, "I can imagine Galeazzo endowing a hospital for Magdalenes and -washing the poor's feet. But I will stick to thee." A dear worldling -he is, and only less uncertain than his master in these first infant -steps towards godliness. For vice is very childlike in its -self-plumings upon a little knowledge. Desiring beauty, it tears the -rose-bush or clutches the moth, and so sickens on disillusionment. -Forbearance is the wisdom of the great. - -'The more destructive is a man, the simpler is he. Now, my father, this -destroying Duke covets nothing so much as the applause of the world for -gifts with which, in truth, he is ill-endowed. He cannot sing, or -rhyme, or improvise but with the worst, yet, thinks he, they shall call -me poet and musician, or burn. Well, he might fiddle over the -holocaust, like Nero, and still be first cousin to a peacock. I told -him so, but in gentler words, when he asked me to teach him my method. -"To every soul its capacities," says I, "and mine are not in ruling a -great duchy greatly." "So we are neither of us omnipotent," says he, -with a smile. "Well, I will take the lesson to heart." Now, could so -simple a creature be all corrupt? - -'Of more complicated fibre is his brother, the Signior Ludovico. Very -politic and abiding, he rushes at nothing; yet in the end, I think, most -things come to him. He is gracious to thy child, as indeed are all; -yet, God forgive me, I find something more inhuman in his gentleness -than in Galeazzo's passion. These inexplicable antipathies are surely -the weapons of Satan; whereby it behoves us to overcome them. That same -Lascaris attributes them to an accidental re-fusion of particles, -opposed to other chance re-combinations, in a present body, of particles -similarly antipathetic to us in a former existence--a long "short cut" -over the way again. - -'Now, as for my days in this poignant city--where even the benches and -clothes-chests, not to speak of most walls and ceilings, yea, and the -very stair-posts themselves, are painted with crowded devices of scrolls -and figures in loveliest gold and azure and vermilion--thou mayest -believe they are strange to me. Amidst this wealth I, thy simple -acolyte, am glorified, I say, and courted beyond measure. Yet fear -nothing for me. I appraise this distinction at its right market value. -The higher the Duke's favour, the greater my presumptive influence. -Believe me, dear, my urbanity towards his attentions is an investment -for my Master. I am an honest factor. - -'In a week the Duke sets out. In the meantime, like an ambassador that -must suffer present festival for the sake of future credit, I sit at -feasts and plays; or, perchance, rise to denounce the latter for no -better than whores' saturnalia. (O my father! to see fair ladies, the -Duchess herself, smile on such shameless bawdry!) Whereon the Duke -thunders all to stop, with threats of fury on the actors to mend their -ways, making the poor fools gasp bewildered. For how had _they_ -presumed upon custom? Bad habit is like the moth in fur, so easily -shaken out when first detected; so hardly when established. Once, more -to my liking, we have a mummers' dance, with clowns in rams' heads -butting; and again a harvest ballet, with all the seasons pictured very -pretty. Another day comes a Mantuan who plays on three lutes at once, -more curious than tuneful; and after him one who walks on a rope in the -court, a steel cuirass about his body. Now happens their festival of -the _Bacchidae_, a pagan survival, but certes sweet and graceful, with -its songs and vines and dances. Maybe for my sake they purge it of some -licence. Well, Heaven witness to them what loss or gain thereby to -beauty. - -'Often the court goes hunting the wolf or deer--I care not; or -a-picnicking by the river, which I like, and where we catch trouts and -lampreys to cook and eat on the green; then run we races, perchance, or -play at ball. So merry and light-hearted--how can wickedness be other -than an accident with these children of good-nature? To mark the jokes -they play on one another--mischievous sometimes--suggests to one a -romping nursery, which yet I know not. Father, who was my mother? I -trow we romped somewhere in heaven. Once some gallants of them, being in -collusion with the watch, enter, in the guise of robbers, Messer -Secretary Simonetta's house at midnight, and bind and blindfold that -great man, and placing him on an ass in his night-gear (which is an -excuse for nothing), carry him through the streets as if to their -quarters. Which, having gained, they unbind; and lo! he is in the inner -ward of the castello, the Duke and a great company about him and shouts -of laughter; in which I could not help but join, though it was shameful. -Next day the Duchess herself does not disdain a wrestling match with the -lady Catherine, her adoptive daughter; when the lithe little serpent, -enwreathing that stately Queen, doth pull her sitting on her lap, -whereby she conquers. For all improvising and stories they have as -great a passion as ingenuity; and therein, my gifts by Christ's ensample -lying, comes my opportunity. Dear Father, am I presumptuous in my -feeble might, like the boy Phaeton when he coaxed the Sun's reins from -Ph[oe]bus, and scorched the wry road since called the Milky Way? That is -such an old tale as we tell by moonlight under trees--such as Christ -Himself, the child-God, hath recounted to us, sitting shoulder-deep in -meadow-grass, or by the pretty falling streams. Is He that exacting, -that exotic Deity, lusting only for adoration, eternally gluttonous of -praise and never surfeited, whom squeamish indoor men, making Him the -fetish of their closets, have reared for heaven's type? O, find Him in -the blown trees and running water; in the carol of sweet birds; in the -mines from whose entrails are drawn our ploughshares; yea, in the -pursuit of maid by man! So, in these long walks and rests of life, -shall He be no less our Prince because He is our joyous comrade. For -this I know: Not to a pastor, a lord, a parent himself, doth the soul of -the youth go out as to the companion of his own age and freedom. - -'Christ comes again as He journeyed with His Apostles, the bright wise -comrade, fitting earth to heaven in the puzzle of the spheres. We know -Him Human, my father, feeling the joy of weariness for repose' sake; not -disdaining the cool inn's sanctuary; expounding love by forbearance. He -beareth Beauty redeemed on His brow. Before the clear gaze of His eyes -all heaped sophistries melt away like April snow. He calleth us to the -woods and meadows. _Quasimodo geniti infantes rationabile sine dolo lac -concupiscete_. O, mine eyelids droop! We are seldom at rest here -before two o' the morning. The beds have trellised gratings by day, to -keep the dogs from smirching their coverlets. _Ora pro me_!' - - - - - *CHAPTER VIII* - - -The castle at the Porta Giovia had its glooms as well as its pleasances. -Indeed, it may be questioned if the latter were not rather in proportion -to the former as a tiger's gay hide is to the strength and ferocity it -clothes. Built originally for a great keep, or, as it were, breakwater, -to stem the rush of barbarian seas which were wont to come storming down -from the north-west, its constructors had aimed at nothing less than its -everlastingness. So thick were its bastioned walls, so thick the -curtains which divided its inner and outer wards, a whole warren of -human 'runs' could honeycomb without appreciably weakening them. Hidden -within its screens and massy towers, like the gnawings of a foul and -intricate cancer, ran dark passages which discharged themselves here and -there into dreadful dungeons, or secret-places not guessed at in the -common tally of its rooms. These oubliettes were hideous with blotched -and spotted memories; rotten with the dew of suffering; eloquent in -their terror and corruption and darkness, of that same self-sick, -self-blinded tyranny which, in place of Love and Justice, the trusty -bodyguards, must turn always to cruelty and thick walls for its -security. The hiss and purr of subterranean fire, the grinding of -low-down grated jaws, the flop and echo of stagnant water, oozed from a -stagnant moat into vermin-swarming, human-haunted cellars,--these were -sounds that spoke even less of grief to others than of the hellish -ferment in the soul of him who had raised them for his soul's pacifying. -Himself is for ever the last and maddest victim of a despot's -oppression. - -There had been stories to tell, could the coulter of Time once have cut -into those far-down vaults, and his share laid open. Now this was so -far from promising, that their history and mystery were in process of -being still further overlaid and stifled under accumulations of -superstructure. Francesco, the great Condottiere, the present Duke's -father, had been the first to realise dimly how a tyrant, by converting -his self-prison into a shrine for his aestheticism, might enjoy a -certain amelioration of his condition. It was he who, yielding an older -palace and its grounds to the builders of the cathedral, had transferred -the ducal quarters to the great fortress, which henceforth was to be the -main seat of the Sforzas. Here the first additions and rebuildings had -been his, the first decorations and beautifyings--tentative at the best, -for he was always more a soldier than a connoisseur. The real movement -was inaugurated by his successor, and continued, as cultivation was -impressed on him, on a scale of magnificence which was presently to make -the splendour of Milan a proverb. Galeazzo, an indifferent warrior, to -whose rule but a tithe of the territory once gathered to the Visconti -owned allegiance, contented his ambitions by rallying an army of -painters and sculptors and decorators to the glorification of his houses -at Milan, Cremona, and his ancestral petted Pavia,--after all a worthier -role than the conqueror's for a good man; but then, this man was so bad -that he blighted everything he touched. It is true that the disuse of -secret torture would have been considered, and by men more enlightened -than he, so little expedient a part of any ethical or aesthetical -'improvement' of an existing house, as that a premium would be put -thereby on assassination. Yet Galeazzo's death-pits were never so much a -politic necessity as a resource for cruelty in idleness. He would -descend into them with as much relish as he would reclimb from, to his -halls above, swelling and bourgeoning with growth of loveliness. The -scream of torture was as grateful to his ears as was the love-throb of a -viol; the scum bubbling from his living graves as poignant to his -nostrils as was the scent of floating lilies. He continued to make his -house beautiful, yet never once dreamt, as a first principle of its -reclamation to sweetness, of cutting out of its foundations those old -cesspools of disease and death. - -One night he sat in his closet of the Rocca, a little four-square room -dug out of the armourer's tower, and having a small oratory adjoining. -This eyrie was so high up as to give a comfortable sense of security -against surprise. There was but one window to it--just a deep wedge in -the wall, piercing to the sheer flank of the tower. Sweet rushes -carpeted the floor; the arras was pictured with dim, sacred -subjects--Ambrosius in his cradle, with the swarm of bees settling on -his honeyed lips; Ambrosius elected Bishop of Milan by the people; -Ambrosius imposing penance on Theodosius for his massacre of the -Thessalonicans--and the drowsy odours of a pastile, burning in the -little purple shrine-lamp, robbed the air of its last freshness. - -Another lamp shone on a table, at which the Duke was seated somewhat -preoccupied with a lute, and his tablets propped before him; while, -motionless in the shadows opposite, stood the figure of the provost -marshal, its fixed, unregarding eyes glinting in the flame. - -Intermittently Galeazzo strummed and murmured, self-communing, or -addressing himself, between playfulness and abstraction, to the ear of -Messer Jacopo:-- - -'_The lowliest of all Franciscans was St. Francis, meek mate of beasts -and birds, boasting himself no peer of belted stars_.... Ha! a good -line, Jacopo, a full significant line; I dare say it, our Parablist -despite. Listen.' (He chaunted the words in a harsh, uncertain voice, -to an accompaniment as sorry.) 'Hear'st? Belted stars--those -moon-ringed spheres the aristocracy of the night. Could Messer Bembo -himself have better improvised? What think'st? Be frank.' - -'I think of improvising by book,' said Jacopo, short and gruff. - -Galeazzo said 'Ha!' again, like a snarl, and his brow contracted. - -'Why, thou unconscionable old surly dog!' he said--'why?' - -Jacopo pointed to the tablets. - -'Your saint asks no notes to _his_ piping. A' sings like the birds.' - -'Now,' answered his master, in a deep, offended tone, 'I'm in a mind to -make _thee_ sing on a grill,--ay, and dance too. What, dolt! are not -first thoughts first thoughts, however they may be pricked down? Look -at this, I say; flatten thy bull nose on it. Is it not clean, -untouched, unrevised? Spotless as when issued from Helicon? Beast! -thou shalt call me, too, an improvisatore.' - -The statue was silent. Galeazzo sat glaring and gnawing his fingers. - -'Answer!' he screeched suddenly. - -'I will call thee one,' said Jacopo obstinately, 'but not the best.' - -The Duke fell back in his chair, then presently was muttering and -strumming with his disengaged fingers on the table. - -'No--not the best, not the best--not to rival heaven! Yet, perhaps, it -should be the Duke's privilege.' - -The executioner laughed a little. - -'The Duke should know how to take it.' - -Galeazzo stopped short, quite vacant, staring at him. - -'I've heard tell,' said Jacopo, 'how one Nero, a fiddling emperor, came -to be acknowledged first fiddle of all.' - -He paused, then answered, it seemed, an unspoken invitation: 'He just -silenced the better ones.' - -Galeazzo got hurriedly to his feet. - -'Blasphemer! thou shalt die for the word. What! this Lord's anointed! -A natural songster! no art, no culture in his voice--sweet and wild, -above human understanding. I said nothing. Be damned, and damned -alone! Go hang thyself like Judas!' - -'Well, name my successor first,' said Jacopo. - -The Duke leapt, and with one furious blow shattered his lute to -splinters on the other's steel headpiece, then stamped upon the -fragments, his arms flapping like wing stumps, his teeth sputtering a -foam of inarticulate words. Jacopo, erect under the avalanche, stood -perfectly silent and impassive. Then, as suddenly as it had burst, the -storm ended. Galeazzo sank back on his seat, panting and nerveless. - -'Well, I am no poet--curse thy block head, and mine for trusting to -it--the Muses shall decide--Apollo or Marsyas--the Christian Muses and a -Christian penance--flaying only for heretics. I am no poet nor -musician, say'st? Calf! what know'st thou about such things?' He -roared again: 'What brings thee here, with thy damned butcher's face, -scaring my pretty lambs of song?' - -'Thine order.' - -'Mine?' - -'This astrologer monk, this Fra Capello was it not? I neither know nor -care.' - -'Dost thou not? A faithful dog!' - -'Faithful enough.' - -'O! art thou? By what token?' - -'By the token of the quarry run to earth.' - -'To earth? Thou hast him? Good Jacopo!' - -'This three days past. Had I not told thee so already? Let thine -improvising damn thyself, not me.' - -'The villain! to call himself a Franciscan, a lowly Franciscan, and -pretend to read the stars! How about his prophecy now?' - -'Why, he holds to it.' - -'What! that I have but eleven years in all to reign--less than one to -live?' - -'Just that--no more.' - -'Now, is it not a wicked schism from the plain humility of his founder? -A curse on their spirituals and conventuals! _This_ fellow to claim -kinship with the stars--profess to be in their confidence, to share -heaven's secrets? Dear Jacopo, sweet Jacopo! is it not well to cleanse -this earth of such lying prophets, that truth may have standing-room?' - -'Ask truth, not me.' - -'Nay, not to grieve truth's heart--the onus shall be ours. This same -Franciscan--this soothsaying monk--where hast lodged him?' - -'In the "Hermit's Cell."' - -'Ah, old jester! He shall prove his asceticism thereby. Let practised -abstinence save him in such pass. He shall eat his words--an -everlasting banquet. A fat astrologer, by the token, as I hear.' - -'He went in, fat.' - -'Wretch! wouldst thou starve him? Remember the worms, thy cousins. -Hath he foretold his end?' - -'Ay, by starvation.' - -'He lies, then. Thou shalt take him _in extremis_, and, with thy knife -in his throat, give him the lie. An impostor proved. What sort of -night is it?' - -'Why, it rains and thunders.' - -'Hush! Why should we fear rain and thunder? God put His bow in the -sky. Jacopo, it is a sweet and fearful thing to be chosen minister of -one of His purifications--Noah, and Lot, and now thy prince.' - -'Purification?' said the executioner: 'by what?' - -'By love, thou fool!' whispered Galeazzo, half ecstatic, half furious, -with a nervous glance about him. 'There were the purifications by water -one, one by fire, and a third by blood, to the last of which His -servants yet testify in the spirit of their Redeemer. Blood, Jacopo, -thou little monster--blood flowing, streams of it, the visible token of -the sacrifice. That was our task till yesterday. Now in the end comes -Love, and calleth for a cleansed and fruitful soil. Let us hasten with -the last tares--to cut them down, and let their blood consummate the -fertilising. Quick: we have no time to lose.' - -He flung himself from the statue, and tiptoed, in a sort of gloating -rapture, to the door. - -'Show me this tare, I say.' - -He went down the tower a few paces, with assured steps, then, bethinking -himself, beckoned the other to lead. The flight conducted them to a -private postern, well secured and guarded inside and out. As they -issued from this, the howl of blown rain met and staggered them. Looking -up at the blackened sky from the depths of that well of masonry, it -seemed to crack and split in a rush of fusing stars. The mad soul of -the tyrant leapt to speed the chase. He was one with this mighty -demonstration--as like a chosen instrument of the divine retribution. -His brain danced and flickered with exquisite visions of power. He was -an angel, a destroying angel, commissioned to purge the world of lies. -'Bring me to this monk!' he screamed through the thunder. - -Deep in the foundations of the north-eastern tower the miserable -creature was embedded, in a stone chamber as utterly void and empty as -despair. The walls, the floor, the roof, were all chiselled as smooth -as glass. There was not anywhere foothold for a cat--nor door, nor -trap, nor egress, nor window of any kind, save where, just under the -ceiling, the grated opening by which he had been lowered let in by day a -haggard ghost of light. And even that wretched solace was withdrawn as -night fell--became a phantom, a diluted whisp of memory, sank like water -into the blackness, and left the fancy suddenly naked in -self-consciousness of hell. Then Capello screamed, and threw himself -towards the last flitting of that spectre. He fell and bruised his -limbs horribly: the very pain was a saving occupation. He struck his -skull, and revelled in the agonised dance of lights the blow procured -him. But one by one they blew out; and in a moment dead negation had -him by the throat again, rolling him over and over, choking him under -enormous slabs of darkness. Now, gasping, he cursed his improvidence in -not having glued his vision to the place of the light's going. It would -have been something gained from madness to hold and gloat upon it, to -watch hour by hour for its feeble re-dawn. Among all the spawning -monstrosities of that pit, with only the assured prospect of a lingering -death before him, the prodigy of eternal darkness quite overcrowed that -other of thirst and famine. - -Yet the dawn broke, it would seem, before its due. Had he annihilated -time, and was this death? He rose rapturously to his feet, and stood -staring at the grating, the tears gushing down his fallen cheeks. The -bars were withdrawn; and in their place was a lamp intruded, and a face -looked down. - -'Capello, dost thou hunger and thirst?' - -The voice awoke him to life, and to the knowledge of who out of all the -world could be thus addressing him. He answered, quaveringly: 'I hunger -and thirst, Galeazzo.' - -'It is a beatitude, monk,' said the voice. 'Thou shalt have thy fill of -justice.' - -'Alas!' cried the prisoner: 'justice is with thee, I fear, an empty -phrase.' - -'Comfort thyself,' said the other: 'I shall make a full measure of it. -It shall bubble and sparkle to the brim like a great goblet of Malmsey. -Dost know the wine Malmsey, monk?--a cool, heady, fragrant liquid, that -gurgles down the arid throat, making one o' hot days think of gushing -weirs, and the green of grass under naked feet.' - -The monk fell on his knees, stretching out his arms. - -'I ask no mercy of thee, but to end me without torture.' - -'Torture, quotha!' cried the fiend above--'what torture in the vision of -a wine-cup crushed, or, for the matter of that, a feast on white tables -under trees. Picture it, Capello: the quails in cold jelly; the melting -pasties; the salmon-trout tucked under blankets of whipped cream; the -luscious peaches, and apricots like maiden's cheeks. Why, art not a -Conventual, man, and rich in such experiences of the belly? And to call -'em torture--fie!' - -'Mercy!' gasped the monk. His swollen throat could hardly shape the -word. Galeazzo laughed, and bent over. - -'Answer, then: how long am I to live?' - -'By justice, for ever.' - -'What! live for ever on an empty phrase? Then art thou, too, -provisioned for eternity.' - -He held out his hand:-- - -'Art humbled at last, monk, or monkey? How much for a nut?' - -Leaping at the mad thought of some relenting in the voice and question, -the prisoner ran under the outstretched hand, and held up his own, -abjectly, fulsomely. - -'Master, give it me--one--one only, to dull this living agony!' - -'A sop to thee, then,' cried Galeazzo, and dropped a chestnut. The monk -caught it, and, cracking it between his teeth, roared out and fell -spitting and sputtering. He had crunched upon nothing more savoury than -a shell filled up with river slime. The Duke screamed and hopped with -laughter. - -'Is not that richer than quail, more refreshing than Malmsey?' - -The monk fell on his knees:-- - -'Now hear me, God!' he gabbled awry: 'Let not this man ever again know -surcease from torment, in bed, at board, in his body, or in his mind. -Let his lust consummate in frostbite; let the worm burrow in his -entrails, and the maggot in his brain. May his drink be salt, and his -meat bitter as aloes. May his short lease of wicked life be cancelled, -and death seize him, and damnation wither in the moment of his supreme -impenitence. Darken his vision, so that for evermore it shall see -despair and the mockery of fruitless hope. Let him walk a -self-conscious leper in the sunshine, and strive vainly to propitiate -the loathing in eyes in which he sees himself reflected an abhorred and -filthy ape. May the curse of Assisi----' - -Galeazzo screamed him down:-- - -'Quote him not--beast--vile apostate from his teaching!' - -For a moment the two battled in a war of screeching blasphemy: the next, -the grate was flung into place, the light whisked and vanished, a door -slammed, and the blackness of the cell closed once more upon the moaning -heap in its midst. - -Quaking and ashen, babbling oaths and prayers, Galeazzo flung back to -his closet. - -'Bring wine!' he shook out between his teeth to Jacopo. - -When it came, he tasted, and flung it from him. - -'Salt!' he shrieked. His fancy quite overcrowed his reason. 'O God, I -am poisoned!' - -He rose, staggering, and entered his oratory, and cast himself on his -knees before the little shrine. - -'Not from this man,' he protested, whimpering and writhing; 'Lord, not -from this man--I know him better than Thou--a recusant, a sorcerer! Be -not deceived because of his calling. To curse Thine anointed! kill him, -Lord--kill the blasphemer--I hold him ready to Thy hand! Good sweet St. -Francis, I but weed thy pastures--a wicked false brother, tainting the -fold. How shall love prevail, this poison at its root?--Poison! O my -God, to be stricken for evermore! life's fruit to change to choking -ashes in my mouth! It cannot be--I, Galeazzo the Duke--yet I taunted -him with visions: what if I have caught the infection of mine own -imagination--too fearful, spare me this once. Lord God, consider--as I -put it to Thee--now--like this--listen. To starve with him should be -but a fast enlarged. What then? Some, honest ascetics, no Conventuals, -so push abstinence to ecstasy as that they may cross the lines of death -in a dream, and wake without a pang to heaven gained. If he does not, -should he suffer, he is properly condemned for a gross pampered brother, -false to his vows, unworthy Thine advocacy. Now, call the test a fair -one. Chain back this dog that ravens to tear me. How, so stricken, -made corrupt, could I work Thy will but through corruption? Hush! Thou -mean'st it not--only as a jest? Give me some sign, then. Ah! Thou -laugh'st--very quietly, but I hear Thee. Canst not deceive -Galeazzo--ha-ha! between me and You, Lord, between me and You! Silence, -thou dog monk! What dost thou here? Escaped! by God, get back--the -first word was mine--thou art too late. What! damnation seize thee! -Lord! he scorns Thy judgment--catch him, hold him--he is there by the -door!' - -He sprang to his feet, glaring and gesticulating. - -'Galeazzo!' exclaimed Bembo. The boy had mounted to the closet unheard. -It was his privilege to come unannounced. He stood a moment regarding -the madman in amazement and pity, then hurried softly to his side. - -'What is it? The face again?' - -His tone, his entreaty, dispelled the other's delirium. The tyrant gazed -at him a minute, slow recognition dawning in his eyes; then, of a -sudden, broke into a thick fast flurry of sobs, and cast himself upon -his shoulder. - -'My saint,' he wept adoringly--'my Conscience, my little angel! and I -had thought thee--nay, but the sign for which I prayed art thou given.' - -His emotion gushed inwardly, filling all his channels to gasping. -Presently he looked up, with a passionate murmur and caress. - -'Love, with thy red lips like a girl's! Would that my own were worthy -to marry with them.' - -Bembo withdrew a little:-- - -'What wild words are these? Yet, peradventure, the giddy babble of a -conqueror. O Galeazzo! hast triumphed o'er thyself indeed--casting that -old familiar? chasing him hereout? Why, then, I whom thou hast -appointed to be thy conscience, interpreting thy rule through truth and -love, am the more emboldened to beseech the favour for which I came.' - -'Ask it only, sweet.' His chest still heaved spasmodically to the -catching of his breath. - -'It is,' said the boy steadily, 'that thou wouldst give me, thy -conscience's delegate, a last justification by the sacraments.' - -The Duke smiled faintly, and nodded, and murmured: 'I will confess ere -midnight, and, fasting, receive the Holy Communion before I go -to-morrow. Does it please thee? Come, then.' - -He re-entered his cabinet, reeling a little, and sat himself down, as if -exhausted, by the table. - -'Bernardo,' he said weakly, half apologetically, 'I am overwrought: -there is wine in that jug: I prithee give it me to drink.' - -The boy, unhesitating, handed him the flagon. - -'It is the symbol of joy redeemed,' he said. 'Put thy lips to the -chalice, Galeazzo, and take what thy soul needest--no more.' - -The Duke lifted the cup shakily, stumbled at its brim, steadied himself, -and sipped. His eyes dilated and grew wolfish--'I am vindicated,' he -stuttered: 'O sweet little saint!'--and he drank greedily, ecstatically, -and, smacking his lips, put down the vessel. - -He was himself again from that draught. - -'Bernardo,' he said, in a reassured, half-maudlin confidence, 'canst -thou read the stars?' - -'Nay,' said the other gravely, 'they are the Sibyls' books.' - -'True. Yet some essay.' - -'Ay: then flies a comet, cancelling all their sums.' - -'An impious vanity, is it not?' - -'Truly, I think so.' - -'And deserving of the last chastisement.' - -'Poor fools, they make their own.' - -'What?' - -'Why, taking colds instead of rest--cramps, chills, and agues--immense -pains, and all for nothing; the dead moon for the living sun; nursing -all day that they may starve by night. God gave us level eyes. The -star's best resting place for them is on a hill. We need no more -knowledge than to read beauty through the wise lens Nature hath -proportioned us. Not God Himself can foretell a future.' - -'Not God?' - -'No, for there is no Future, nor ever will be. The Past but eternally -prolongs itself to the Present. Heaven or hell is the road we tread, -and must retrace when we come to the brink of the abyss where Time drops -sheer into nothingness. Joy or woe, then, to him the returning -wanderer, according as he hath provisioned his way. So shall he starve, -or travel in content, or meet with weary retributions. O, in -providence, hold thy hand, thinking on this, whenever thy hand is -tempted!' - -Galeazzo was amazed, discomfited. This unorthodoxy was the last to -accommodate itself to his principles of conduct. The Future to him was -always an unmortgaged reversion, sufficient to pay off all debts to -conscience and leave a handsome residue for income. He could only -exclaim, again, like one aghast: '_No Future_?' - -'Nay,' said Bembo, smiling, 'what is the heresy to reason or religion? -To foresee the issues of to-day were, for Omniscience, to suppress all -strains but the angels'. What irony to accept worship from the -foredoomed! What insensate folly wantonly to multiply the devil's -recruits! O Galeazzo, there is no Future for God or Men? Hope shudders -at the inexorable word: Evil presumes on it: it is the lodestone to all -dogmatism; the bogey, the weapon of the unversed Churchman; the very -bait to acquisition and self-greed. Be what, returning, ye would find -yourselves--no lovelier ambition. See, we walk with Christ, the human -God and comrade, I have but this hour left him bathing his tired feet in -the brook. He will follow anon; and all the pretty birds and insects -and wildflowers he watched while resting will have suggested to him a -thousand tales and reflections gathered of an ancient lore. He can be -full of wonder too, but wiser by many moons than we. There is no -Future. God possesses the Past.' - -The Duke sprang to his feet, and went up and down once or twice. This -view of a self-retaliatory entity--of a returning body condemned by -natural laws to retraverse every point of its upward flight--disturbed -him horribly. He desired no responsibility in things done and gone. -Eternity, timely propitiated, was his golden chance. He stopped and -looked at Bembo, at once inexpressibly cringing and crafty. - -'Bernardino,' murmured he: 'I can never get it out of my head that -whenever thou sayest God thou meanest gods. _The gods possess the -past?_--why, one would fancy somehow it ran glibber than the other.' - -Bembo sighed. - -'Well, why not? Nature, and Love, and the Holy Ghost--_Tria juncta in -Uno_--why not gods?' - -The Duke pressed his hand to his forehead; then ran and clasped the boy -about the shoulders. - -'Adorable little wisdom,' he cried: 'take my conscience, and record on -it what thou wilt!' - -'To-morrow,' said Bembo, with a happy smile: 'when its tablets are -sponged and clean.' - -Galeazzo fawned, showing his teeth. There was something in him -infinitely suggestive of the cat that, in alternate spasms of animalism, -licks and bites the hand that caresses it. This strange new heresy of a -limited omniscience oddly affected him. Could it be possible, after -all, that the soul's responsibility was to itself alone? In any case so -pure a spirit as this could represent him only to his advantage. Still, -at the same time, if God were no more than relatively wiser and stronger -than himself--why, it was not _his_ theory--let the Parablist answer for -it--on Messer Bembo's saintly head fall the onus, if any, of leaving -Capello where he was. For his own part, he told himself, the God of -Moses remaining in his old place in the heavens, he, Galeazzo, would -have been inclined to consider the virtuous policy of releasing the -Monk. - -And so he prepared himself to confess and communicate. - - - - - *CHAPTER IX* - - -The Duke of Milan, confessed, absolved, and his conscience pawned to a -saint, had, on the virtue of that pledge, started in a humour of -unbridled self-righteousness for the territory of Vercelli. With him -went some four thousand troops, horse and footmen, a drain of bristling -splendour from the city; yet the roaring hum of that city's life, and -the flash and sting thereof, were not appreciably lessened in the flying -of its hornet swarm. Rather waxed they poignant in the general sense of -a periodic emancipation from a hideous thralldom. The tyrant was gone, -and for a time the intolerable incubus of him was lifted. - -But, for the moment, there was something more--a consciousness, within -the precincts of the palace and beyond them, of a substituted -atmosphere, in which the spirit experienced a strange -self-expansion--other than mere relief from strain--which was foreign to -its knowledge. Men felt it, and pondered, or laughed, or were sceptical -according as their temperaments induced them. So, in droughty days, the -little errant winds that blow from nowhere, rising and falling on a -thought, affect us with a sense of the unaccountable. There was such a -sweet odd zephyr abroad in Milan. The queer question was, Was the -little gale a little mountebank gale, tumbling ephemerally for its -living, or did it represent a permanent atmospheric change? - -A few days before Galeazzo's departure, Bernardo--by special appointment -_custos conscientiae ducalis_--had, while walking in the outer ward of -the Castello with Cicada, happened upon the vision of a Franciscan monk, -plump and rosy, but with inflammatory eyes, entering with Messer Jacopo -through a private postern in the walls. He had saluted the jocund figure -reverentially, as one necessarily sacred through its calling, and was -standing aside with doffed bonnet, when the other, halting with an -expression of good-humoured curiosity on his face, had greeted him, -puffed and asthmatic, in his turn:-- - -'Peace to thee, my son! Can this be he of whom it might be said, "_Puer -natus est nobis: et vocabitur nomen ejus, Magni Consilii Angelus_"?' - -The Franciscan had rumbled the query at Jacopo, who had shrugged, and -answered shortly: 'Well; 'tis Messer Bembo.' - -'So?' had responded the monk, gratified; 'the David of our later -generation?' and instantly and ingratiatory he had waddled up, and, -putting a prosperous hand on Bernardo's shoulder, had bent to whisper -hoarsely, and quite audibly to Cicada, into the boy's ear:-- - -'Child--I know--I am to thank _thee_ for this summons.' Then, before -Bembo, wondering, could respond: 'Ay, ay; Saul's ears are opened to the -truth. The stars cannot lie. You sent for me, yourself their sainted -emissary, to confirm the verdict. What! I might have failed to answer -else. We know the Duke, eh? But, mum!' - -And with these enigmatic words, and a roguish wink and squeeze, he had -hurried away again, following the impatient summons of Jacopo, who was -beckoning him towards a flight of open stairs niched in the north -curtain, up which the two had thereon gone, and so disappeared among the -battlements. - -Then had Bernardo turned, humour battling with reverence in his -sensorium, and 'Cicca!' had exclaimed, with a little click of laughter. - -The Fool's answer had been prompt and emphatic. - -'Cracked!' he had snapped, like a dog at a fly. - -'Who was he?' - -'Nay, curtail not his short lease. He is yet, and, being, is the Fra -Capello--may I die else.' - -'Well, if he is, _what_ is he?' - -'Why, a short-of-breath monk; yet soon destined, if I read him aright, -to be a breathless monk.' - -'Nay, thou wilt only new-knot a riddle. I will follow and ask the -Provost-Marshal, though I love him not.' - -'Nor he thee, methinks. Hold back. The butcher looks askance at the -pet lamb. Well, what wouldst thou? Of this same monkish rotundity, -this hemisphere of fat, this moon-paunch, this great blob of star-jelly, -this planet-counterfeiting frog, this astronomic globe stuffed out with -pasties and ortolans? Well, 'tis Fra Capello, I tell thee, an -astrologer, a diviner by the stars--do I not aver it, though I have -never set eyes on the man before?' - -'How know'st, then?' - -'Why, true, my perspicacity is only this and that, a poor matter of -inferences. As, for example, the inference of the fingers, that when I -burn them, fire is near; or the inference of the nose, that when I smell -cooking fish, it is a fast day; or the inference of the palate, that -when I drink water, I am a fool.' - -'A dear wise fool.' - -'Ay, a wise fool, to know what one and one make. Dost thou?' - -'Two, to be sure.' - -'Well, God fit thy perspicacity with twins, when thy time comes. One -out of one and one is enough for me.' - -'Peace! How know'st this holy father is an astrologer?' - -'Inference, sir--merely inference. As, for example again, the inference -of the ears, that when I mark the substance of his whisper to thee, I -seem to remember talk of a certain Franciscan, who, having predicted by -the stars short shrift for Galeazzo, and been invited to come and -discuss his reasons, did prove unaccountably coy, though certainly seer -to his own nativity. Imprimis, the astrologer was reported a Conventual -and fat; whereby comes in the inference of the eye. Now, "Ho-ho!" -thinks I, "this same swag-bellied monk who babbles of stars! Surely it -is our Fra Capello? And hooked at last? By what killing bait?"' - -Here he had touched the boy's shoulder swiftly, and as swiftly had -withdrawn his hand, an ineffable expression, shrewd and caustic, -puckering his face. Bembo had looked serious. - -'Cicca! I do believe thou art madder than any astrologer--unless----' - -'No!' had cried the Fool; 'I am sober; wrong me not.' - -Then Bembo had repented lovingly:-- - -'Pardon, dear Cicca. But, indeed, I understand thee not.' - -'Why,' I said, 'what killing bait had tempted the monk's shyness at -length?' - -'What, then?' - -'Thyself.' - -'I?' - -'Art thou not a star-child and Galeazzo's protege? O, pretty, sweet -decoy, to draw the astrologer from his cloister!' - -'Dost mean that the Duke would use me to question the truth of these -predictions? Alas! not I, nor any man, can interpret nothingness into a -text.' - -'Wilt thou tell him so?' - -'Who?' - -'The Duke.' - -'I have told him so.' - -'Thou hast? Then God keep the Franciscan in breath!' - -'Amen!' had said Bembo, in all fervour and innocence. He had thought the -other to mean nothing more than that the Duke was designing, on _his_ -authority, to win a faulty brother from the heresy--as he construed -it--of divination. - -As _he_ construed it. Young and inexperienced as he was, he had yet a -prophet's purpose and vision--the vision which, in despite of all -traditional beliefs, looks backwards. His soft eyes were steadfast to -that end which was the beginning. No sophistries could beguile him from -the essential truth of his kind creed. _He_ was an atavism of something -vastly remoter than Caligula--than any tyranny. He 'threw back' to the -stock of those first angels who knew the daughters of men--to the first -fruits of an amazed and incredible sorrow. By so great a step was he -close to the God his sires had offended; was close to the parting of the -ways between earth and heaven, and with all the lore of the -since-accumulated ages to instruct him in his choice of roads. O, -believe little Bernardo that his was the true insight, the true wisdom! -There is no Future, nor ever will be. The past but prolongs itself to -the present; and all enterprise, all yearning, are but to recover the -ground we have lost. That truth once recognised, the horror of Futurity -shall close its gates; its timeless wastes shall be no more to us; and -we--we shall be wandering back, by aeons of pathetic memories, to trace -to its source the love that gushed in Paradise. - -Three days later the boy--the Duke being gone--was strolling, again with -Cicada his shadow, on the ramparts. It had become something his habit to -take the air, after hearing the morning causes, on these outer walls, -whence the tired vision could stretch itself luxuriantly on leagues of -peaceful plain. He liked then to be left alone, or at the most to the -sole company of his dogged henchman, the erst Fool. Cicada's gruff but -jealous sympathy was an emollient to lacerated sensibilities; his wit -was a tonic; his tact the fruit of long necessity. No one would have -guessed, not gentle Bernardo himself, how the little, ugly, caustic -creature was, when most wilful or eccentric in seeming, watching over -and medicining his moods of inevitable weariness or depression. - -Perhaps he was in such a mood now--induced by that passion of the -irremediable which occasionally must overtake every just judge--as he -leaned upon the battlements, his cheek propped on his palm, and gazed -out dreamily over the shining campagna. - -'Cicca,' he said suddenly, 'what made thee a Fool?' - -'Circumstance,' answered the other promptly. - -'Ah!' sighed Bembo--'that blind brute force of Nature, wavering out of -chaos. No agent of God--His foe, rather, to be anticipated and -circumvented. Providence is the true wise name for our Master. He -_provideth_, of the immensity of His love, for and against. He can do -no further, nor foretell but by analogy the blundering spites of -Circumstance. But always He persuades the monster of his interest lying -more and more in sweet order--dreams of him sleeping caged, a lazy, -satiated chimera, in the mid-gardens of love.' - -'Che allegria!' said Cicada; 'I will go then, and poke him in the ribs, -and ask him why he made a Fool of me.' - -Bembo smiled and sighed. - -'There is a proof of his blindness. What, in truth, was thy origin, -dear Cicca?' - -The Fool came and leaned beside him. - -'Canst look on me and ask? I was born in this dark age of tyranny, and -of it; I shall die in it and of it. I have never known liberty. -Sobriety and reason are empty terms to me. Ask of me no fruit but the -fruit of mine inheritance. A drunken woman in labour will bring forth a -drunken child. I am Cicada the Fool, lower than a slave, curst pimp to -Folly.' - -Soft as a butterfly, Bernardo's hand fluttered to his shoulder and -rested there. The creature's dim eyes were fixed upon the crawling -plain; his face worked with emotion. - -'There was a time,' he said, 'I understand, when governments were loyal -at once to the individual and the state--when they wrought for the -common weal. In those days, it would seem certain, riches--anything -above a specified income--must have disqualified a man for office. It -is the ideal constitution. Corruption will enter else. Wealth, and the -emulation of wealth, are the moth in stored states. That was the age of -the republics and all the virtues. I am born, alack, after my time. I -have held Esau the first saint in the calendar. I am not sure I do not -do so now, Messer Bembo despite.' - -'And I, too, love Esau,' said Bernardo quietly. - -Cicada, amazed, whipped upon him; then suddenly seized him in his arms. - -'Thou dearest, most loving of babes!' he cried rapturously; 'sweet saint -of all to me! What! did I twit thee, mine emancipator, with my curse to -thralldom? Loves Esau, quotha! No cant his creed. Child, thou art -asphodel to that cactus. Put thy foot on this mouth that could so -slander thee!' - -'Poor Cicca!' said Bembo, gently disengaging himself. 'Thou rebukest -sweetly my idle curiosity.' - -'Curiosity!' cried the other. 'Would the angels always showed as much! -Thou art welcome to all of me I can tell:--as, for example, that my -mother--_exitus acta probat_--was a fool, a sweet, pretty, vicious fool; -and yet, after all, not such a fool as, having borne, to acknowledge -me.' - -'Poor wretch! Why not?' - -'Why not? Why, for the reason Pasiphae concealed her share in the -Minotaur. Motley is the labyrinth of Milan. My father was a bull.' - -'Well, I am answered.' - -'Ah! thou think'st I jest. Relatively--relatively only, sir, I assure -thee. Hast ever heard speak of Filippo Maria, the last of the -Visconti?' - -'Little, alas! to his credit.' - -'I will answer in my person to that. He was uglier than any bull--a -monster so hideous as to be attractive to a certain order of frailty. I -inclined his way. Perhaps that was my salvation. The child most -interests the parent whose features it reflects. It is bad-luck to -break a mirror; and so I was spared--for the labyrinth.' - -'O infamous! He made thee his jester?' - -'And fed me. Let that be remembered to him. When the reckoning comes, -the bull, not Pasiphae, shall have my voice.' - -'Hideous! Thy mother?' - -'Let it pass on that. I need say no more, if a word can damn.' - -'Cicca!' - -'He was meat and drink to me, I say.' - -'Drink, alas!' - -'He meant it kindly. When I sparkled, 'twas his own wit he felt himself -applauding. That was my easy time. He died in '47, and my majesty's -Fooldom was appropriated incontinent to the titillation of these -peasants of Cotignola their hairy ears.' - -'Hush, and thou wilt be wise!' - -'In my grave, not sooner. Francesco, our Magnificent's father, was -so-so for humour--a good, blunt soldier, who'd take his cue of laughter -from some quicker wit, then roar it out despotically. No sniggerer, -like his son, who qualifies all praise with envy. Shall I tell thee how -I lost Galeazzo's favour? He wrote a sonnet. 'Twas an achievement. A -Roman triumph has been ceded to less--hardly to worse. Lord, sir! there -was that applause and hand-clapping at Court! But Wisdom looked sour. -"What, fool!" demanded the Duke: "dost question its merit?" "Nay," -quoth Wisdom; "but only the sincerity of the praise. Sign thy next with -my name, and mark its fate." He did--actually. Poor Wisdom! as if it -had been truth the sonneteer desired! Never was poor doxy of a Muse -worse treated. This was exalted like the other; but in a pillory. It -made a day's sport for the mob, at my expense. Was not that pain and -humiliation enough? But Galeazzo must visit upon me the rage of his -mortification. Well, when he was done with me, Messer Lanti, high in -favour, begged the remnant of my folly, and it was thrown to him. The -story leaked out; I had had so many holes cut in me. It had been wiser -to seal my lips with kindness. But the Duke, as you may suppose, loves -me to this day.' - -As he spoke, they turned an angle of the battlements, and saw advancing -towards them, smiling and insinuative, the figure of Tassino. Bernardo -started, in some wonder. He had not set eyes on this dandiprat since -his public condemnation of him, and, if he thought of him at all, had -believed him gone to make the restitution ordered. Now he gazed at him -with an expression in which pity and an instinctive abhorrence fought -for precedence. - -The young man was brilliantly, even what a later generation would have -called 'loudly,' dressed. He had emerged from his temporary pupation a -very tiger-moth; but the soul of the ignoble larva yet obtained between -the gorgeous wings. Truckling, insinuative, and wicked throughout, he -accosted his judge with a servile bow, as he stood cringing before him. -Bembo mastered his antipathy. - -'What! Messer cavalier,' he said, struggling to be gay. 'Art -returned?'--for he guessed nothing of the truth. Then a kind thought -struck him. 'Perchance thou comest as a bridegroom, _bene meritus_.' - -Tassino glanced up an instant, and lowered his eyes. How he coveted the -frank audacity of the Patrician swashbuckler, with which he had been -made acquainted, but which he found impossible to the craven meanness of -his nature. To dare by instinct--how splendid! No doubt there is that -fox of self-conscious pusillanimity gnawing at the ribs of many a -seeming-brazen upstart. He twined and untwined his fingers, and shook -his head, and sobbed out a sigh, with craft and hatred at his heart. -Bernardo looked grave. - -'Alas, Messer Tassino!' said he: 'think how every minute of a delayed -atonement is a peril to thy soul.' - -This sufficed the other for cue. - -'Atone?' he whined: 'wretch that I am! How could a hunted creature do -aught but hide and shake?' - -'Hunted!' - -'O Messer Bembo! 'twas so simple for you to let loose the mad dog, and -blink the consequences for others.' - -'Mad dog!' - -'Now don't, for pity's sake, go quoting my rash simile. Hast not ruined -me enough already?' - -'Alas, good sir! What worth was thine estate so pledged? I had no -thought but to save thee for heaven.' - -'And so let loose the Duke, that Cerberus? O, I am well saved, indeed, -but not for heaven! Had it not been for the good Jacopo taking me in -and hiding me, I had been roasting unhousel'd by now.' - -'Tassino, thou dost the Duke a wrong. 'Twas thy fear distorted thy -peril. He is a changed man, and most inclined to charity and justice.' - -Tassino let his jaw drop, affecting astonishment. - -'Since when?' - -'Since the day of thy disgrace.' - -The other shook his head, with a smile of growing effrontery. - -'Why, look you, Messer Bembo,' he said: 'you represent his conscience, -they tell me, and should know. Yet may not a man and his conscience, -like ill-mated consorts, be on something less than speaking terms?' - -He laughed, half insolent, half nervous, as Bernardo regarded him in -silence with earnest eyes. - -'Supposing,' said he, 'you were to represent, of your holy innocence and -credulity, a little more and a little sweeter than the truth? Think'st -thou I should have dared reissue from my hiding, were Galeazzo still -here to represent his own? If I had ever thought to, there was that -buried a week ago in the walls yonder would have stopped me -effectively.' - -'Buried--in the walls! What?' - -'Dost not know? Then 'tis patent he is not all-confiding in his -conscience. And yet thou shouldst know. 'Tis said thou lead'st him by -the nose, as St. Mark the lion. Well, I am a sinner, properly -persecuted; yet, to my erring perceptives, 'tis hard to reconcile thy -saintship with thy subscribing to his sentence on a poor Franciscan -monk, a crazy dreamer, who came to him with some story of the stars.' - -'O, I cry you mercy! I quote Messer Jacopo, who was present. -"Deserving of the last chastisement"--were not those thy words? And -Omniscience dethroned--a bewildered mortal like ourselves? Anyhow, he -held thy saintship to justify his sentence on the monk.' - -'What sentence?' - -'Wilt thou come and see? I have my host's pass.' - -He staggered under the shock of a sudden leap and clutch. Young -strenuous hands mauled his pretty doublet; sweet glaring eyes devoured -his soul. - -'I see it in thy face! O, inhuman dogs are ye all! Show me, take me to -him!' - -Tassino struggled feebly, and whimpered. - -'Let go: I will take thee: I am not to blame.' - -Shaking, but exultant in his evil little heart, he broke loose and led -the way to a remote angle of the battlements, where the trunk of a great -tower, like the drum of a hinge, connected the northern and eastern -curtains. This was that same massy pile in whose bowels was situate the -dreadful oubliette known as the 'Hermit's Cell': a grim, ironic title -signifying deadness to the world, living entombment, utter abandonment -and self-obliteration. It was delved fathoms deep; quarried out of the -bed-rock; walled in further by a mountain of masonry. Tyranny sees an -Enceladus in the least of its victims. On so exaggerated a scale of -fear must the sum of its deeds be calculated. - -Here the Provost-Marshal had his impregnable quarters. Looking down, -one might see the huge blank bulge of the tower enter the pavement below -unpierced but by an occasional loop or eyelet hole. Its only entrance, -indeed, was from the rampart-walk; its direct approach by way of the -flying stair-way, up which Bembo had seen the monk disappear. His heart -burned in his breast as he thought of him. There was a fury in his -blood, a sickness in his throat. - -A sentry, lounging by the door, offered, as if by preconcert with -Tassino, no bar to his entrance. But, when Cicada would have followed, -he stayed him. - -'Back, Fool!' he said shortly, opposing his halberd. - -Cicada struggled a moment, and desisted. - -'A murrain on thy tongue,' snapped he, 'that calls me one!' - -The sentry laughed, and, having gained his point, produced a flask -leisurely from his belt. - -'What! art thou not a fool?' said he, unstoppering it, and preparing to -drink. - -'Understand, I have forsworn all liquor,' said Cicada, with a wry -twinkle. - -'So art thou certainly a fool,' said the sentry, eye and body guarding -the doorway, as he raised the horn. - -'Hist!' whispered Cicada, staying him: 'this remoteness--that damning -gurgle--come! a ducat for a mouthful! Be quick, before he returns!' - -The soldier, between cupidity and good-nature, laughed and handed over -the flask. 'Done on that!' said he. But on the instant he roared out, -as the other snatched and bolted with his property. - -'How, thou bloody filcher! Give me back my wine!' - -Cicada crowed and capered, dangling his spoil. - -'Judas! for a dirty piece of silver to betray temperance!' - -The sentry, with a furious oath, made at him. He dodged; eluded; -finally, under the very hands of his pursuer, threw the flask into a -corner, and, as the other dived for it, slipped by and disappeared into -the tower. The soldier, cursing and panting in his wake, ran into the -arms of an impassive figure--staggered, fell back, and saluted. - -Messer Jacopo eyed the delinquent a long minute without a word. He had -been silent witness, within the guard-room, of all the little scene, and -was considering the penalty meet to such a breach of orders and -discipline. - -There had been something of pre-arrangement in this matter between him -and Messer Tassino. The two were in a common accord as to the loss and -inconvenience to be entailed upon themselves by any reform of existing -institutions--comprehensively, as to the menace this stranger was to -their interests. It would be well to demonstrate to him the unreality -of his influence with Galeazzo. Let him see the starving monk, in -evidence of his power's short limits. It was possible the sight might -kill his presumption for ever: return him disillusioned to obscurity. - -So his presence here had been procured, with orders to the sentry to -debar the Fool. Jacopo wanted no shrewd cricket at the boy's side, to -leaven the horror for him with his song of cheer. The full -impressiveness of the awful scene must be allowed to overbear his soul -in silence. This sentry had erred rather foolishly. - -It abated nothing of the terror of the man that no sign of passion ever -crossed his face, nor word his lips. He turned away, not having uttered -a sound; and left the delinquent collapsed as under a heat-stroke. - -'Now, let it be no worse than the strappado!' prayed the poor wretch to -himself. - -In the meanwhile, Cicada, swift, quivering, alert, was descending, like -a gulped Jonah, into the bowels of the tower. He had no need to pick -his path: the well-stairway, like a screw pinning the upper to the -underworld, transmitted to him every whisper and shuffle of the -footsteps he was pursuing. Sometimes, so deceptive were the echoes in -that winding shaft, he fancied himself treading close upon the heels of -the chase; yet each little loop-lighted landing found him, as he reached -it, audibly no nearer. His mocking mouth was set grim; he dreaded, not -for himself but for his darling, some nameless entrapping wickedness. -'If they design it,' he thought--'if they design it! Hell shall not -hide them from me.' - -Suddenly the sounds below died away and ceased. He listened an instant; -then went down again, turning and turning in a nightmare of blind -horror. The walls grew dank and viscous to his palm. A stumble, and -all might end for him hideously. Then, at the same moment, weak light -and a weaker cry greeted him. He descended, still without pause--and -shot into the glowing mouth of a tiny tunnel, where were the figures he -sought. - -They stood at a low grating in the wall, which was pierced into a -subterranean chamber. The bars were thrown open, and through the -aperture Tassino directed the light of a flaring torch he held upon a -figure lying prostrate on the stones below. Cicada crept, and peered -over his master's shoulder. The thing on the floor was grotesque, -unnatural--a human skeleton emitting noises, heaving in its midst. That -great bulk had become in its shrinkage a monstrous travesty of life. But -existence still preyed upon its indissoluble vestments of flesh. - -'He clings to life, for a monk,' whispered the Fool. - -With the sound of his voice, Bernardo was sprung into a Fury. He lashed -upon Cicada, tooth and claw:-- - -'Thou knew'st, and hid it from me in parables!' - -'Inference, inference!' cried the Fool. 'I would have spared thee.' - -'Spared _me_? Thus?' - -'Ah! thy shame through wicked sophistries! He was foredoomed. Had I -interfered, I had been lying myself there now, and you a loving servant -the less.' - -Bembo flung his arms abroad, as if sweeping all away from him. - -'Love! Let pass!' he shrieked: 'Fiends are ye all, with whom to breathe -is poison!' and he broke by them, and went flying and crying up into the -daylight. He ran, without pause, by the walls, down the notched -stairway, across the ward, and came with flaming colour into the -buttery. - -'Give me wine and bread!' he screamed of the steward there; and the man, -in a flurry of wonder, obeyed him. Then away he raced again, his hands -full, and never stopped until the sentry, a new one, at the tower door -barred his progress. The way was private, quoth the man. He could let -none past but by order. - -'Of whom?' panted Bembo. - -'Why, the Provost-Marshal.' - -Then the boy tried wheedling. - -'Dear soldier: thou art well cared for. There is one within perishes -for a little bread.' - -But the man was adamant. - -'Where, then, is the Provost-Marshal?' cried the other in desperation. - -Within or without--the sentry professed not to know. In any case, it was -death to him to leave his post. - -Bernardo put down his load on the battlements, and, turning, fled away -again. - - - - - *CHAPTER X* - - -Bona sat amongst her maidens. They were all busy as spiders upon a loom -of tapestry, spinning a symbolic web. The subject was as edifying as -their talk over it was free. Their lips and fingers were perpetually at -odds, weaving reputations and pulling them to pieces. Bona herself said -little; but abstraction gave some indulgence to the smile with which she -listened, or seemed to. - -'Whither do her thoughts travel?' whispered one girl of another. - -'Hush!' was the answer. 'Along the Piedmont Road with her lord, of -course. What else would you?' - -The first giggled. - -'Nothing, indeed, if it left a chance for poor little me. But, alack! I -fear her charity stops nearer home.' - -'What then, insignificance? Would your presumption fly at an angel?' - -'Yes, indeed, though it got a peck for its pains. (Mark the Caprona's -ear pricked our way! She knows we are on the eternal subject.) Heigho! -it will be something to share in this promised commonwealth of love, at -least.' - -She spoke loud enough for the little Catherine Sforza, sitting by her -adopted mother, to hear her. - -'Ehi, Carlina,' cried that pert youngster: 'What share do you expect for -your small part?' - -'I thought of Messer Bembo, Madonna,' answered Carlina demurely. - -They crowed her down with enormous laughter. - -'Nay, child,' said Catherine: 'there is to be no talk of exclusiveness -in this Commonwealth. We are all to take alike--Mamma, and I, and the -Countess of Casa Caprona, and whoever else subscribes to the -Purification. For my part I shall be content with becoming very good; -and I have hopes of myself. See the reformation in our dear Countess; -and she was in his company but a day or two.' - -'Peace, thou naughtiness!' cried Bona; while Beatrice's eyes burned dull -fire; and a girl, one who worked near her, a soft and endearing little -piety, looked up and choked in a panic, 'O Madonna!' - -Catherine mimicked her:-- - -'O Biasia! Is the subject too tender for thy conscience? Alas, dear! -but if thy only hope is in this Commonwealth? Angels are not -monogamous.' - -Biasia blushed like a poppy; yet managed to stammer amidst the laughter: -'It is only that he,--that the subject, seems to me too sacred. He -preaches heavenly love--the brotherhood of souls--in all else, one man -one maid.' - -Catherine very gravely got upon a stool, and paraphrased Messer Bembo, -voice and manner:-- - -'I kiss thee, kind Madonna, for thine exposition. A man must put a -fence about his desires, would he be happy. A sweet mate, a cot, -beehives and a garden--he shall find all love's epitome in these. None -can possess the world but in the abstract--a plea for universal -brotherhood. What doth it profit me to own a palace, and live for all -my needs' content in one room of it? Go to and join, and leave -superfluous woman to the preacher.' - -Some tittered, some applauded; Biasia hung her head, and would say no -more. Bona cried, 'Come down, thou wickedness!' but indulgently, as if -she half-dreaded attracting to herself the flicker of the little forked -tongue. - -'O!' cried Catherine, 'I grant you that, with an angel, the manner -spices the lesson. I will tell you, girls, how he rebuked me yesterday -on this same legend of reciprocity. "How could you take sport," says -he, "of witnessing that poor Montano's punishment?" "Why, very well," -says I, "seeing he was a man, and therefore my natural enemy." "How is -man so?" says he. "He makes me bear his children for him," says I. "But -I suppose he will be made to suffer _his_ share of the toil in this new -Commonwealth of love." "You talk like a child," he says. "Then," says -I, "I will sing like a woman," and I extemporised--very clever, you will -admit.' - -She pinched up her skirts, and put out a little foot, and chirruped, in -no voice at all, but with a sauce of impudence:-- - - '"Love is give and take," says he, - "Every gander knows-- - Wear the prickle for my sake; - For thine, I'll wear the rose." - - "_Grazie_, kind and true," says I, - "For that noble dower-- - Only, between me and you, - _I_ should like the flower." - -"And hast thou not it?" cries St. Bernardo, interrupting me; and, would -you believe it, swinging round his lute, his lips and his finger-tips -join issue in the prettiest nonsense ever conceived for a poor wife's -fooling. Wait, and I will recall it.' - -She had the quickest wit and memory, and in a moment was chaunting:-- - - '"Whence did our bird-soft baby come? - How learned to prattle of this for home? - - Some sleepy nurse-angel let her stray, - And she found herself in the world one day. - - She heard nurse calling, and further fled: - She hid herself in our cabbage bed. - - There we came on her fast asleep, - What could we do but take and keep, - - Carry her in and up the stair? - She would have died of cold out there. - - She woke at once in a little fright; - But Love beckoned her from the light. - - Lure we had lit, for dear love fain; - She had seen it shine through the window pane. - - Lure we had kindled of flame and bliss, - To catch such a little ghost-moth as this. - - Ah, me! it shrivelled her pretty wing. - Here she must stay, poor thing, poor thing!"' - - -She ended: 'Faith, St. Charming's lips make that daintiest setting to -his fancies, that I could have kissed 'em while he improved his song -with a homily' (she mimicked again the boy's manner, comically -emphasised). '"Why," saith he, "would you grudge yourself that poignant -privilege of your sex? would ye share the agony and halve the gain? -What gift so careless in all the world makes such sweet possession? -Furs, gowns, and trinkets pall; perishable things grow less by use; the -diamond suffers by its larger peer. Only the gift of love, the wee -babe, takes new delight of time; renews woman's best through herself; is -a perpetual novelty, spring all the year round, flowers fresh burgeoning -through faded blooms. To be sole warden of the quickening soul ye -bore--you, you! to see the lamb-like heaven of its eyes cuddling to your -bosom's fold--all thine, save the spent heat that cast it! O, rather be -the mould than the turbulent metal it shapes! Go to, and thank God for -labours yielding such reward. Go to, and be the mother of saints." -Whereat I curtsied, and "Thank you, sir," says I, "for the offer, but my -bed's already laid for me in Rome," and then----' - -What more she might have quoted or invented none might say, for at the -moment a wild figure burst into the chamber, and ran to its mistress, -and entreated her with lips and hands. - -'Give me thy gage--quick! There is one starves in the "Hermit's Cell," -and they will not let me pass to him without. Thou art the Duke, thou -art the Duke now. Give it me, in mercy, and avert God's vengeance from -this wicked house!' - -Bona had arisen, pale as death, pity and anguish pleading in her eyes. - -'Alas! What say'st thou? Thou, not I, art the Duke.' - -'Give it me,' demanded Bembo feverishly. 'Nay, quibble not, while he -gasps out his agony--a monk--hear'st thou? A monk!' - -She temporised a moment in her pain. - -'There are black sheep in those flocks.' - -'God forgive thee!' - -'Alas! _thou_ wilt not. Indeed I have no talisman will open doors that -my lord has shut.' - -Beatrice, intent, with veiled eyes, from her place, bestirred herself -with an indolent smile. - -'Madonna forgets. Love laughs at locksmiths.' - -The two women faced one another a minute. Some subtle emotion of -antagonism, already born, waxed into a larger consciousness between -them. - -'How, Countess?' said Bona quietly. - -'Madonna wears her bethrothal ring--a very _passepartout_. It is the -talisman will serve her with monks and saints alike.' - -A little flush mantled to the Duchess's brow. Standing erect a moment -she slipped the ring from her finger, and held it out to Bernardo. - -'It should be the pledge through love of Charity. Take it, in my lord's -good name, whose jealous representative I remain. And when thou -return'st it, may it be sanctified of new justice, child, against the -prick of envy and slander and the spite of venomous tongues.' - -She turned away stately and resumed her needle as Bernardo, with a cry -of thanks, ran from the room. A minute or two later he appeared before -the sentry on the ramparts and flourished his token. To his surprise -the man hardly glanced at it as he stepped aside to let him pass. He -thought on this with some shapeless foreboding, as he leapt like a -chamois down the steeps of the tower, the food, which he had snatched -up, in his hands. God pity him and his awakening! There are emotions -too sacred for minuting. Let it suffice that Jacopo had proved too -faithful a prophylactic to superstition. The wretched monk had not been -allowed to justify his own prediction by dying of starvation. In that -last interval, between the Parablist's going and coming, his throat had -been cut. - -A minute later Bernardo leapt like a madman from the tower. His face -was ashy, his hands trembling. At the foot of the curtain he stumbled -over a poor patch, prostrate and moaning. - -'_I am thy Fool, and I shall never make thee smile again_.' - -All quivering and unstrung, he threw himself on his knees by Cicada's -side. - -'Up!' he screamed, 'up! Get you out of this Sodom ere the Lord destroy -it!' - -The Fool bestirred himself, raising eyes full of a sombre, eager -questioning. - -'I am forgiven?' he gasped; but Bernardo only cried frenziedly, 'Up! -up!' - - - - - *CHAPTER XI* - - -There was consternation in the castello, for its angel visitant had -disappeared. The evening following upon the episode of the ring saw his -quarters void of him, his household retinue troubled and anxious, and -some others in the palace at least as perturbed. It was not alone that -the individual sense of stewardship towards so rare a possession filled -each and all with forebodings as to the penalty likely to be exacted -should Galeazzo return to a knowledge of his loss; the loss itself of so -sweet and cleansing a personality was blighting. Now, for the first -time, perhaps, people recognised the real political significance of that -creed which they had been inclined hitherto merely to pet and humour as -the whimsey of a very engaging little propagandist. How sweet and -expansive it was! how progressive by the right blossoming road of -freedom! Where was their silver-tongued guide? And they flew and -buzzed, agitated like a bee-swarm that has lost its queen. - -But, while they scurried aimless, a rumour of the truth rose like a foul -emanation, and, circulating among them, darkened men's brows and drove -women to a whispering gossip of terror. So yet another of the Duke's -inhumanities was at the root of this secession! By degrees the secret -leaked out--of that living entombment, of the boy's interference, of his -bloody forestalling by the executioner, of his flight, accompanied by -his Fool, from the gates. And now he was gone, whither none knew; but -of a certainty leaving the curse of his outraged suit on the house he -had tried to woo from wickedness. - -The story gained nothing in relief as it grew. Whispers of that free -feminine bandying with their Parablist's name, of Catherine's childish -mockery of a sacred sentiment, deepened the common gloom. It mattered -nothing to the general opinion that this little vivacious Sforza had but -echoed its own bantering mood. Every popular joke that spells disaster -must have its scapegoat. And she was not liked. In the absence of her -father there were even venturings of frowning looks her way, which, when -she observed, the shrewd elfin creature did not forget. - -And Bernardo returned not that night, nor during all the following day -was he heard of. Inquiries were set on foot, scouts unleashed, the -sbirri warned: he remained undiscovered. - -Messer Carlo Lanti went about his business with a brow of thunder. -Once, on the second day, traversing, dark in cogitation, a lonely corner -of the castle enceinte, he came upon a figure which, as it were some -apparition of his thoughts suddenly materialised, shocked him to a -stand. The walls in this place met in a sunless, abysmal wedge; and, -gathered into the hollow between, the waters of the canal, welling -through subterranean conduits, made a deep head for the moat. And here, -gazing down at her reflection, it seemed, in that black stone-framed -mirror, stood Beatrice. - -She was plainly conscious, for all her deep abstraction of the moment -before, of his approach, yet neither spoke nor so much as turned her -head as he came and stood beside her. It must have been some startle -more than human that had found her nerves responsive to its shock. Her -languor and indolence seemed impregnable, insensate, revealing no token -of the passion within. Like the warm, rich pastures which sleep over -swelling fires, the placid glow of her cheek and bosom appeared never so -fruitful in desire as when most threatening an outburst. Carlo, for all -his rage of suspicion, could not but be conscious of that appeal to his -senses. He frowned, and shifted, and grunted, while she stood -tranquilly facing him and fanning herself without a word. At length he -broke silence:-- - -'I had wished to see thee alone'--he stared fixedly and significantly at -the water, struggling to bully himself into brutality--'Nay, by God and -St. Ambrose,' he burst out, 'I believe we are well met in this place!' - -Not a tremor shook her. - -'Alone?' she murmured sleepily. 'Why not? there was not used to be this -ceremony between us.' - -'I have done with all that,' he cried fiercely. 'I see thee -now--myself, at least, in the true light. Harlot! wouldst have turned my -hand against the angel that revealed thee! Where is he? Hast struck -surer the second time? I know thee--and if----' - -He seized her wrist and turned her to the water. She did not resist or -cry out, though her cheek flushed in the pain of his cruel clutch. - -'Know me!' she said. 'Didst thou ever know me? Only as the bull knows -the soft heifer--the nearest to his needs. _Thou_ hast done with -me--_thou_! I tell thee, if Fate had made a sacrament of thy passion, -yielding the visible sign, I had brought hither the monstrous pledge and -drowned it like a dog. Do we so treat what we love? I am not guilty of -Bernardo's death, if that is what you mean.' - -He let her go, and retreated a step, glaring at her. Her blood ebbed and -flowed as tranquilly as her low voice had stabbed. - -'This--to my face!' he gasped. Then he broke into furious laughter. -'Art well requited, if it is the truth. Love him! But, dead or alive, -he will not love thee--that saint--a wife dishonoured.' - -'O noble bull--thou king of beasts!' she murmured. - -'Why should I be generous?' he snarled. 'Have I reason to spare thee? -Yet I will be generous, an thou art guiltless of this, Beatrice. I have -loved thee, after my fashion.' - -'Thou hast. Ah! If I might sponge away that memory!' - -'Well, I would fain do the same for his sake.' - -'Dog!' - -'What!' - -'Barest thou talk of love?--thou, who hast rolled me in thine arms, and -waked from sated ecstasy to call me murderess!' - -'Had I not provocation, then? Faith, you bewilder me!' - -'Poor, stupid brute!' - -'Stupid I may be, yet not so blind as woman's folly. Hast borne me once, -Beatrice. Well, it is past: I ask nothing of it but thy trust.' - -'_My trust!_' - -'Ay, when I warn thee. This saint is not for thee. O, I am wide awake! -Stupid? like enough; but when a wife, the queenliest, parts with her -betrothal ring----' - -She made a quick, involuntary gesture, stepping forward; then as -suddenly checked herself, with a soft, mocking laugh. - -'O this bull!' she cried huskily--'this precisian of the new cult! Not -for me, quotha, but for another--a saint to all but the highest bidder!' - -'Not for you nor any one,' he said savagely. - -'What! not Bona either?' she said. 'Be warned by me, rather. Yours is -no wit for this encounter. Love is a coil, dear chuck; no -battering-ram. Not for me nor any? Maybe; but the game is in the -strife. Go, find your saint: I know nothing of him.' - -'No, nor shall. Be warned, I say.' - -'Well, you have said it, and more than once.' - -He hesitated, ground his teeth, clapped his hands together, and turning, -left her. - -Glooming and mumbling, he went back to the palace. A page met him with -the message that the Duchess of Milan desired his attendance. He -frowned, and went, as directed, to her private closet. He found Bona -alone, busy, or affecting to be busy, over a strip of embroidery. She -greeted him chilly; but it was evident that nervousness rather than -hauteur kept her seated. He saluted her coldly and silently, awaiting -her pleasure. She glanced once or twice at the closed portiere; then -braced herself to the ordeal with a rather quivering smile. - -'This is a sad coil, Messer Carlo.' - -He answered gruffly:-- - -'If I understand your Grace.' - -She put the quibble by. - -'We, you and I, are in a manner his guardians--accountable to the Duke.' - -'I can understand your Grace's anxiety,' he said shortly. - -'Nevertheless, it was not I introduced him to the court,' she said. - -'But only to some of its secrets,' he responded. - -'I do not understand you.' - -'It is very plain, Madonna. You gave him the key to that discovery.' - -She rose at once, breathing quickly, her cheeks white. - -'Ah, Messer! in heaven's name procure me the return of my ring!' - -Her voice was quite pitiful, entreating. He looked at her gloomily, -gnawing his upper lip. - -'Madonna commands? I will do my best to find and take it from him, -alive or dead.' - -She fell back with a little crying gasp. - -'Find him--yes.' - -'No more?' he demanded grimly. - -'I thought you loved him?' she gulped. - -'Too well,' he answered, 'to be your go-between.' - -She uttered a fierce exclamation, and clenched her hands. - -'Go, sir!' she said. - -He turned at once. She came after him, fawning. - -'Good Messer Carlo, dear lord,' she breathed weepingly; 'nay, thou art a -loyal and honest friend. Forgive me. We are all in need of -forgiveness.' - -He faced about again. - -'Penitence is blasphemy without reform,' he said. - -'Ah me! it is. How well thou hast caught the sweet preacher's style. -Hast _thou_ reformed?' - -'Ay, in the worst.' - -'Thou hast made an enemy of thy mistress? Poor Bembo, poor child! He -will need a mother.' - -'Wouldst thou be that to him?' - -'What else? Get me my ring.' - -'Beatrice hates him----' - -'She would, the wretch, for his parting you and her.' - -'Or loves him--I don't know which.' - -'Wanton! how dare she?' - -'Well, if you will play the mother to him----' - -'Is he not a child to adore? Ah me! to be foster-parent to that -boon-comrade of the Christ!' - -Carlo looked at her with some satisfaction darkling out of gloom. His -honest hot brain was no Machiavellian possession; his temper was the -travail of a warm heart. He believed this woman meant honestly; and so, -no doubt, she did in her loss, not considering, or choosing not to -consider, the emotionalism of regain. - -'Ay, Madonna,' said he, kindling, ''tis the most covetable relation. -Who but a Potiphar's wife would associate what we call love with this -Joseph? God! a look of him will make me blush as I were a brat caught -stealing sugar. There is that in him, we blurt out the truth in the -very act of hiding it. A child to adore? Is he not, now, the dear put? -and to hearken to and imitate what we can. Ay, and more--to shield with -this arm--let men beware. Only the women harass me, this way and that. -Their loves and hates be like twin babes. None but their dam can tell -each from the other. Therefore, would ye mother him--' - -'Yes--' - -'And cherish and protect--' - -'Yes--' - -'And of your woman's wisdom keep skirts at a distance--' - -'I will promise that most.' - -'Why, I will bring him back to thee, ring and all, though I turn Milan -upside down first.' - -He bowed and was going; but she detained him, with sycophant velvet -eyes. - -'Dear lord, so kind and loyal. Tell him that without him we find -ourselves astray.' - -'Ay.' - -'Tell him that from this moment his Duchess will aid and abet him in all -his reforms.' - -'I will tell him.' - -'Ask him--' she hesitated, and turned away her sweet head--'doth he seek -to retaliate on his mistress's innocent confidence, that, by absenting -himself, he would turn it to her undoing?' - -Carlo grunted. - -'By your Grace's leave, an I find him, I will put it my way.' - -She acquiesced with a meek, lovely smile, and the words of the Mass: -'_Ite, missa est!_' - -And when he was gone, she sighed, and looked in a mirror and murmured to -herself in a semi-comedy of grief: 'Alas! too weak to be Messalina! I -must be good if he asks me.' - -And, being weak, she let her thoughts drift. - - - - - *CHAPTER XII* - - -In a street of the quarter Giovia the armourer Lupo had his smithy. He -had been a notable artisan in a town famous for its steel and niello -work; but in his age, as in any, a plethora of fine production must -cheapen the value of the individual producer. Therefore when a vengeful -caprice blinded him, and his door remained shut and his chimney ceased -to smoke, patronage transferred its custom to the next house or street -without a qualm; and his achievements in his particular business were -forgotten, or confounded with those of fellow-craftsmen, deriving, -perhaps, in their art from him. It was a sample of that banal -heartlessness of society, which in a moral age breeds collectivists, and -desperadoes in an age of lawlessness. And of the two one may pronounce -the latter the more logical. - -In Milan men came quickly to maturity, whether in the art of forging a -blade or using it. Life flamed up and out on swift ideals of passion. -Parental love, high education, the intricate cults of beauty and -chivalry, were all gambling investments in a speculative market. The -odds were always in favour of that old broker Death. Yet the knowledge -abated nothing of the zeal. It was strange to be so fastidious of the -terms of so hazardous a lease. One might be saving, just, -virtuous--one's life-tenancy was not made thereby a whit securer. The -ten commandments lay at the mercy of a dagger-point; wherefore men -hurried to realise themselves timely, and to cram the stores of years -into a rich banquet or two. - -Master Lupo, a sincere workman and a conscientious, was flicked in one -moment off his green leaf into the dust. There, maimed and helpless, -the tears for ever welling in his empty sockets, he cogitated -tremulously, fiercely, the one sentiment left to him, revenge--revenge -not so primarily on the instrument of his ruin, as on Tassino _through_ -the system which had made such a creature possible. He lent his -darkened abode to be the nest to one of those conspiracies, which are -never far to gather in despotic governments, and which opportunity in -his case showed him actually at hand. - -Cola Montano, it has been said, had been borne away after his scourging -by some women of the people. Grace, or pity, or fear was in their -hearts, and they nursed him. Scarcely for his own sake; for, democracy -being impersonal, he was at no trouble to be a grateful patient. He took -their ministries as conceded to a principle, and individually was as -surly and impatient with them as any ill-conditioned cur. - -Recovering betimes (the dog had a tough hide), he learned of neighbour -Lupo's condition, and walked incontinently into that wretched -artificer's existence. He found a blind and hopeless wreck, shelves of -rusting armour, a forge of dead embers, and, brooding sullen beside it, -a girl too plainly witnessing to her own dishonour. He heard the rain -on the roof; he saw the set grey mother creeping about her work; and he -sat himself down by the sightless armourer, and peered hungrily into his -swathed face. - -'Dost know me, Lupo? I am Montano.' - -The miserable man groaned. - -'Master Collegian? Stands yet thy school of philosophy? A' God's name, -lay something of that on this hot bandage!' - -'The school stands in its old place, armourer; but its doors, like -thine, are shut. What then? Its principles remain open to all.' - -The poor wretch put out a hand, feeling. - -'Where art thou? Have thy wounds healed so quickly? Mine are -incurable.' - -'What!' croaked Montano jeeringly, 'with such a salve to allay them! I -heard of it--logic meet to an angel--to renew thine image through her -yonder. Marry, sir! conception runs before the law. Hast chased thy -likeness down and taken it to church? Mistress Lucia there would seem a -sullen bride. Hath her popinjay come and gone again? Well, you must be -content with the legitimising.' - -The armourer writhed in answering. - -'What think you? There has been none. Mock not our misery. Is it the -concern of angels to see their sentences enforced?' - -'No, but to be called angels. Heaven is not easy surfeited with -adulation.' - -'He was glorified in his judgment; and there, for us, the matter ended.' - -'Not quite.' - -The pedagogue bent his evil head to look again into that woful face. - -'Lupo, my school is closed; alumnus loiters in the streets. Shall he -come in here?' - -There was something so significant in his tone that the broken man he -addressed started, as if a hand had been laid on his eyes. - -'For what? Who is he?' he muttered. - -'I will tell you anon,' answered Montano. 'No prelector but hath his -favourite pupils. He, alumnus, is in this case threefold--three dear -homeless scholars of mine, Lupo, needing a rallying-place in which to -meet and mature some long-discussed theory of social cure. I have heard -from them since--since my illness. They chafe to resume their studies -and their mentor--honest, good fellows, confessing, perhaps, to a heresy -or so.' - -'Master,' muttered the armourer, 'you will do no harm to be explicit.' - -'Shall I not? Well, if you will, and by grace of an example, such a -heresy, say, as that, when the devil rules by divine right, the God who -nominated him is best deposed.' - -'Yes, yes, to be sure. That is blasphemy as well as heresy. But I -think of Messer Bembo, who is still His minister, and I believe your -pupils go too far.' - -'Why, what hath this minister done for you?' - -'Very much, in intention.' - -'Well, I thought that was said to pave the other place; but, in truth, -the issues of all things are confounded, since we have an angel for the -Lord's minister and a devil for His vicegerent.' - -'Pity of God! are they not? And ye would resolve them by deposing the -Christ--by knocking out the very keystone of hope?' - -'Nay, by substituting a rock for a crumbling brick.' - -'What rock?' - -'The people.' - -'Might they not, too, elect a tyrant to be their representative?' - -'How could tyranny represent a commonwealth?' - -'A commonwealth! It is out, then! It is not God ye would depose, but -Galeazzo. Commonwealth! Is that a name for keeping all men under a -certain height? But the giant will dictate the standard, and any one may -reach to him who can. Messer Montano, I seem to have heard of a -republican called Caesar.' - -'Then you must have heard of another called Brutus?' - -'Ay, to be sure; and of a third called Octavian.' - -'Those were distracted times, my friend.' - -'And what are these? Have you ever heard of the times when a man's -interest was one with his neighbour's? Besides, the flame of art burns -never so sprightly as under a despot. It finds no fuel in -uniformity--each man equal to his neighbour.' He put out groping hands -pitifully. 'I loved my art,' he quavered. 'They might have spared me to -it!' - -Montano bit his lip scornfully. It was on his tongue to spurn this -spiritless creature. But he suppressed himself. - -'What would you, then?' he demanded; 'you, the wretched victim of the -system you commend?' - -'Ah!' sighed Lupo, 'ideally, Messer, an autocracy, with an angel at its -head.' - -The philosopher laughed harshly. - -'Why,' he sneered, 'there is your ideal come to hand. Be plain. Shall -we depose a tyrant, and elect in his place this new-arrived, this divine -boy, as ye all title him?' - -'Why not?' - -Montano started and stared at the speaker. There was suggestion -here--of a standard for innovation; of a rallying-point for reform. A -republic, like a despotism, might find its telling battle-cry in a -saint. The boy, as representing the liberty of conscience, was already -a subject of popular adoration. Why should they not use him as a -fulcrum to the lever of revolution, and, having done with, return him to -the cloisters from which he drew? There was suggestion here. - -He mused a little, then broke out suddenly:-- - -'Brutus is none the less indispensable.' - -'I do not gainsay it, master.' - -'What! you do not? Then there, at least, we are agreed. Wilt have him -come here?' - -'Who is he, this Brutus? I grope in the dark--O my God, in the dark!' - -During all this time the two women had remained passive and apparently -apathetic listeners. Now, suddenly, the girl rose from her place by the -chimney and came heavily forward, her eyes glaring, her hands clenched -in woe, like some incarnated, fallen pythoness. - -'Tell _me_,' she said hoarsely. 'I haven't _his_ patience for my -wrongs, nor caution neither. What's gained by caution when one stands -on an earthquake? Let me make sure of _him_, my fine lover, and the -world may fall in, for all I care.' - -The pale mother hurried to her husband's side. He put out helpless, -irresolute hands, with a groan. Montano stooping, elbow on knee, and -rubbing his bristly chin, conned the speaker with sinister approval. - -'Spoken like a Roman,' said he. 'Thou art the better vessel. If all -were as you! Tyranny is hatched of the gross corpse of manliness--a -beastly fly. Wilt tell thee my Brutus's name, girl, if thou wilt answer -for these.' - -He pointed peremptorily at her parents. - -'Ay, will I,' she answered scornfully; 'though I have to wrench out -their tongues first.' - -He applauded shrilly, with a triumphant, contemptuous glance at the -cowering couple. - -'That is the right way with cowards. I commit my Brutus to thee. 'Tis -a threefold dog, as I have said--a fanged Cerberus. Noble, too--as -Roman as thou; and, in one part at least, like wounded. He, this third -part, this Carlo Visconti, had a sister. Well, she was a flower which -Galeazzo plucked; and, not content therewith threw into the common road. -Another head is Lampugnani, beggared by the Sforzas; and Girolamo -Olgiati is my third, a dear beardless boy, and instigated only by the -noblest love of liberty.' - -The girl nodded. - -'And are these all?' - -'All, save a fellow called Narcisso--a mere instrument to use and -break--no principles but hate and gain. Was servant to that bully Lanti -and dismissed--hum! for excess of loyalty. Fear him not.' - -'Alas!' broke in the armourer: 'why should we fear him or anybody? -There is no harm in this letting my shop to be thy school's -succedaneum.' - -Lucia laughed like a fury. - -'No harm at all,' sniggered Montano, 'save in these heresies I spoke of. -And what are they?--to reorganise society on a basis of political and -social freedom. No harm in these young Catalines discussing their -drastic remedies, perhaps in the vanity of a hope that some Sallust may -be found to record them.' - -'Nay, have done with all this,' cried the girl witheringly. 'I know -nothing of your Catalines and Sallusts. Ye meet to kill--own it, or ye -meet elsewhere.' - -Her mother cried out: 'O Lucia! per pieta.' - -She made no answer, only fixing Montano with her glittering eyes. He -rose from his stool stiffly, with a snarl for his aching wounds. But -his face brightened towards her like a spark of wintry sun. - -'We meet to kill, Madonna,' he said, 'ruined, crippled, debauched--the -victims of a monster and his system. And thou shalt have thy share, -never fear, when the feast comes to follow the sacrifice.' - - -Bembo had fled, like one distracted, from the walls, his faithful shadow -jumping in his wake. The two, running and following, never slackened in -their pace until a half-mile separated them from the city; and then, in -a gloomy thicket, under a falling sky, the boy threw himself down on the -grass, and buried his face from heaven. Pitiful and distraught, the -Fool stood over, silently regarding him. At length he spoke, panting -and reproachful. - -'Nay, in pity, master, wert thou not advised?' - -The boy writhed. - -'So lying, so wicked cunning, to make me his decoy and seeming abettor! -O, I am punished for my faith! Is Christ dead?' - -The Fool sighed. - -'By thy showing, He lingers behind in the wood.' - -'Tell Him I have gone on to my father.' - -'Thou wilt?' - -Bernardo sat up, a towzled angel. In the interval the tears had come -fast, and his face was wet. - -'God help you all!' he sobbed. 'You, even you, prevaricated to me. -Whither shall I turn? I see everywhere a death-dealing wilderness, lies -and lust and inhumanity.' - -'I prevaricated,' said Cicada mournfully. 'I admit it. You once -claimed my wit and experience to your tutoring. Well, do I not know the -tyrant--the persistent devil in him? He had his teeth in that monk. -Not Christ Himself would have loosened them.' - -'Ah! what shall I do?' - -'What, but go forward steadfast. This is but a jog by the way. Judge -life on the broad lines of action, the ruts which mark the progress of -the wheels. 'Tis a morbid sentiment that wastes itself on the quarrel -between the wheels and the road.' - -'Ah, me! if I could but foresee the end of that bloody mire--the sweet, -crisp path again! I can advance no further. My weak heart fails. I -will go back to the wood.' - -'Then back, a' God's name, so I come too.' - -Bernardo rose and seized the Fool's hand, the tears streaming down his -cheeks. - -'This dreadful race--monsters all!' he cried. 'Is there one kind deed -recorded to its credit--one, one only, one little deed? Tell me, and if -there is, by its memory I will persevere.' - -'Humph! Should I wish thee to? Think again of that wood.' - -'Tell me, kind, good Cicca, my nurse and friend.' - -'Go to! Shalt not put a bone in my throat. Well, they are monsters, -but made by that same brute Circumstance thou decriest. "Wavering out -of chaos," says you? Very like, sir; but, after all, Circumstance is -our head artist in a tuneless world. What a dull sing-song 'twould be -without him--league-long choirs of saints praising God--a universe of -chirping crickets! With respect, sir, I, though his Fool, would not have -him caged in my time.' - -'Alas, dear, for thine understanding! Love, that I would have depose -him, is ten thousand times his superior in art--ay, and in humour. But -go on.' - -'I doubt the humour. However, as things are, I owe to him, as do you, -and Galeazzo--the Fool, the Saint, and the Monster. Could love conceive -such a trio? But to the point. Hast ever heard speak of our Duke's -grand-dad?' - -'Muzio?' - -'So he called himself, or was called, pretending to trace his descent -from Mutius Scaevola the Roman. Flattery, you see, will make a braying -ass of honesty. He was Giacommuzzo--just that; one of a family of -fighting yeomen. But he had points. Hast been told how he began?' - -'No.' - -'Why, he was digging turnips by the evening star in his father's farm at -Cotignola, when the sound of pipes and drums disturbed him. 'Twas some -band of Boldrino of Panicale come to recruit from the fields; and they -halted by the big man. "Be a soldier of fortune like us," says they; -and he tossed his dusty hair from his eyes, and saw the glint of gold in -baldricks. He looked at the evening star, and 'twas pale beside. -Borrowers glean the real heaven of credit in this topsy-turvy world. -Look at any pool of water: what a glittering prospectus it makes of the -moon! Muzzo flung his spade into an oak hard by, leaving the decision -to Circumstance. If it fell, he would resume it; if it stayed, a -soldier he would be. It stuck in the branches.' - -'Cicca!' - -'Peace! I will tell thee. He fought up and down, but never back to -Cotignola. He put his ploughing shoulder to his work, and dug a furrow -to fame. Popes and kings engaged for and against this Condottieri. He -took them all to market like his beans. He knew the values of fear and -money and discipline--bought over honour; wrenched treason by the -joints; flogged slackness for a rusty hinge in its armour; made warriors -of his rabble. Sought letters, too, to spur them on by legend.' - -'All this is nothing.' - -'He went to Mass every day----' - -'Alas!' - -'Cast his true plain wife, and took to bed the widow of Naples----' - -'Alas! Alas!' - -'And lost his life at Pescara, trying to save another.' - -'Ah! How was that?' - -'He had crossed the river on a blown tide, when he saw his page -a-drowning in the stream. "Poor lad," quoth he, "will none help thee?" -And he dashed back, was overwhelmed himself, and sank. They saw his -mailed hands twice rise and clutch the air. A' was never seen again. -The waters were his tomb.' - -Bernardo was silent. - -'Was not that a creditable deed?' quoth the Fool. - -The boy, pressing the tangled hair from his eyes, feverishly seized his -comrade's hands in his own. - -'God forgive me!' he cried; 'am I one to judge him, who have let my -father's friend go under, and never reached a hand?' - -The Fool looked frankly amazed. - -'Montano,' cried Bembo, 'whom, in my pride of place, I have forgotten! -I will go down among the people where he lies, and seek to heal his -wounds, and sing Christ's parables to simple hearts. Love lies not in -palaces. I will seek Montano.' - -'Come, then,' said Cicada. - -'Nay, in a little,' said the boy. 'Let the kind night find us first. I -will flaunt my creed no longer in the sun.' - - -From behind the barred door of Lupo's shop came the sound of muffled -laughter. The tragic incongruity of it in that house of ruin was at -least arresting enough to halt a pedestrian here and there on his -passage along the dark, wet-blown street outside. The mirth broke -gustily, with little snarls at intervals, bestial and worrying; hearing -which, the lingerer would perhaps hurry on his way with a shudder, -crossing himself against, or spitting out like a bad odour, the -influence of the fiend who had evidently got hold of the master -armourer. _Libera nos a malo_! - -The fiend, in fact, in possession was no other than Messer Montano's -Cerberus, and its orgy, had the listener known it, had more than -justified his apprehensions. The mirth which terrified his heart was -perhaps even a degree more deadly in its evocation than anything he -could imagine. It was really laughter so dreadful that, had he guessed -its import, he had rushed, in an agony of self-vindication, to summon -the watch. But guessing nothing, unless it might be Lupo's madness under -the shock of his misfortunes, he simply crossed himself and hurried -away. - -Blood conspiracies are rarely successful. Perhaps a too scrupulous -forethought against contingencies tends to clog the issues. If that is -so, the recklessness of these men may, in a measure, have spelt their -present security. A laugh, after all, is less open to suspicion than a -whisper. Who could imagine a fatal thrust in a guffaw? Nevertheless, -every chuckle uttered here punctuated a stab. - -In rehearsal only at present, it is true; but practice, good practice, -sirs. The victim of the attack was a dummy, contrived suggestively to -represent Galeazzo. At least the habit made the man; and hate and a -stinging imagination supplied the rest. - -It stood in a dusky corner by the dead forge. Not so much light as -would certainly guide a hand was allowed to fall upon it; for deeds of -darkness, to be successful, must be prepared against darkness. Its -stuffed, daubed face, staring from out this gloom, was like nothing -human. To catch sudden sight, within a vista of dim lamp-shine, of its -motionless eyes and features warped with stabs, was to gasp and shrink, -as if one had looked into a glass and seen Death reflected back. Its -suggestion of reality (and it possessed it) was to seek rather in velvet -and satin; in a cunning, familiar disposition of its dress; in the -sombre but profuse sparkle of artificial gems with which it was looped -and hung. Thence came a grotesque and wicked semblance to a doomed -figure. For the rest, in the bloodless slashes, gaping, rag-exuding, -which had taken it cunningly in weak places--through the neck, under the -gorget, between joints of the mail with which Lupo's craft had fitted -it--there was a suggestiveness almost more horrible than truth. - -It was in actual fact a sop to Cerberus, was this grisly-ludicrous doll, -fruit of the decision (which had followed much discussion of ways and -means) to postpone its prototype's murder to some occasion of public -festivity, when the sympathies of the mob might be kindled and a -revolution accomplished at a stroke. Politic Cerberus must nevertheless -have something to stay the gnawing and craving of a delayed revenge -which had otherwise corroded him. He took a ferociously boyish delight -in fashioning this lay-figure, and, having made, in whetting his teeth -on it; in clothing it in purple and fine linen; in addressing it -wheedlingly, or ironically, or brutally, as the mood swayed him. And -to-night his mood, stung by the tempest, perhaps, was unearthly in its -wildness. It rose in fiendish laughter; it mocked the anguish of the -blast, a threefold litany, now blended, now a trifurcating blasphemy. -There were the roaring bass of Visconti, Lampugnani's smooth treble, the -deadly considered baritone of Olgiati. And, punctuating all, like the -tap of a baton, flew the interjections of Messer Montano, the -conductor:-- - -'Su! Gia-gia! Bravo, Carlo! That was a Brutus stroke! Uh-uh, Andrea! -hast bled him there for arrears of wages! a scrap of gold-cloth, by -Socrates! A brave sign, a bright token, Andrea!' - -He chuckled and hugged himself, involuntarily embracing in the action -the long pendant which hung from his roundlet or turban, and -half-pulling the cap from his skull-like forehead. - -'Death!' he screeched in an ecstasy, and Lampugnani, glancing at him, -went off into husky laughter, and sank back, breathed, upon a bench. - -'Cometh in a doctor's gown,' he panted. 'Nay, sir, bonnet! bonnet! or -the dummy will suspect you.' - -He might have, himself, and with a better advantage to his fortunes, -could he have penetrated the vestments of that drear philosophic heart. -There was a secret there would have astounded _his_ self-assurance. -Montano wore his doctor's robe, meetly as a master of rhetoric, not the -least of whose contemplated flights was one timely away from that -political arena, whose gladiators in the meanwhile he was bent only on -inflaming to a contest in which he had no intention of personally -participating. He had a fixed idea, his back and his principles being -still painfully at odds, that the cause would be best served by his -absence, when once the long train to the explosion he was engineering -had been fired at his hand. And so he hugged himself, and Lampugnani -laughed. - -'Look at Master Lupo, with the sound of thy screech in his ears! As if -he thought we contemplated anything but to bring slashed Venetian -doublets into vogue!' - -He was a large, fleshly creature, was this Lampugnani, needing some -fastidious lust to stir him to action, and then suddenly violent. His -face was big and vealy, with a mouth in its midst like a rabbit's, -showing prominently a couple, no more, of sleek teeth. His eyes drooped -under lids so languid as to give him an affectation of fatigue in -lifting them. His voice was soft, but compelling: he never lent it to -platitudes. An intellectual sybarite, a voluptuary by deliberation, he -had tested God and Belial, and pronounced for the less Philistine -lordship of the beast. Quite consistent with his principles, he not -hated, but highly disapproved of Galeazzo, who, as consistently, had -pardoned him some abominable crime which, under Francesco the father, -had procured him the death sentence. But Messer Andrea had looked for a -more sympathetic recognition of his merits at the hands of his deliverer -than was implied in an ill-paid lieutenancy of Guards; and his exclusion -from a share in the central flesh-pots was a conclusive proof to him of -the aesthetic worthlessness of the master it was his humility to serve. - -The Visconti, at whom he breathed his little laugh, was a contrast to -him in every way--a bluff, stout-built man, with fat red chaps flushing -through a skin of red hair, a braggadocio manner, and small eyes red -with daring. There was nothing of his house's emblematic adder about -him, save a readiness with poisons; and after all, that gave him no -particular distinction. He took a great, stertorous pull at a flagon of -wine, and smacked his lips bullyingly, before he answered with a roar:-- - -'Wounds! scarlet scotched on a ground of flesh-tint--a fashion will -please our saint.' - -Montano chuckled again, and more shrilly. - -'Good, good!' he cried: 'scarlet on flesh!' and he squinted roguishly at -the blind smith, who sat beside him on a bench, nervously kneading -together his wasted hands. - -'Messers,' muttered the poor fellow; 'but will this holy boy approve the -means to such a fashion? For Love to exalt himself by blood!' - -He turned his sightless eyes instinctively towards Olgiati, where the -boy stood, a dark, fatalistic young figure, breathing himself by the -forge. He, he guessed, or perhaps knew, was alone of the company -actuated by impersonal motives in this dread conspiracy. But he did not -guess that, by so much as the young man was a pure fanatic of liberty, -his hand and purpose were the most of all to be dreaded. - -Olgiati gave a melancholy smile, and, stirring a little, looked down. -He was habited, as were his two companions, for the occasion--a -recurrent dress-rehearsal--in a coat and hose of mail, and a jerkin of -crimson satin. It was not the least significant part of his undertaking -that he, like the others, was court-bred and court-employed. The fact, -at its smallest, implied in them a certain anatomic-cum-sartorial -acquaintance with their present business. - -'_Offerimus tibi, Domine, Calicem salutaris!_' he quoted from the Mass, -in his sweet, strong voice. 'Hast thou not a first example of that -exaltation, Lupo, in the oblation of the chalice?' - -Revolution knows no blasphemy. - -'Bah!' grumbled Visconti. - -'He died for men: we worship the sacrifice of Himself,' protested the -armourer. - -'And shall not Messer Bembo sacrifice himself, his scruples and his -reluctances, that love may be exalted over hate, mercy over tyranny?' -asked Olgiati. - -'I know not, Messer,' muttered the suffering armourer. 'I cannot trace -the saint in these sophistries, that is all.' - -'True, he is a saint,' conceded Lampugnani, yawning as he lolled. 'Now, -what is a saint, Lupo?' - -'O, Messer! look on his mother's son, and ask!' - -'Why, that is the true squirrel's round. We are all born of women'--he -yawned again. - -'They bear us, and we endure them,' he murmured smilingly, the water in -his eyes. 'It is so we retaliate on their officiousness.' - -Montano tittered. - -'Lupo,' Lampugnani went on, lazily stirring himself, 'you suggest to me -two-thirds of a syllogism: _I_ am my mother's son; therefore I am a -saint.' - -'Ho! ho!' hooted Visconti. - -'Messer,' entreated the bewildered armourer, 'with respect, it turns -upon the question of the mother.' - -'The mother? O dog, to question the repute of mine!' - -'I did not--no, never.' - -'Well, who was his?' - -'None knows. A star, 'tis said.' - -'Venus, of course. And his father?' - -'Some son of God, perchance.' - -'Ay, Mars. He was that twain's by-blow, and fell upon an altar. I know -now how saints are made. Yet shall we, coveting sanctity, wish our -parents bawds? 'Tis a confusing world!' - -He sank back as if exhausted, while Montano chirped, and Visconti roared -with laughter. - -'Saints should be many in it, Andrea,' he applauded. 'Knows how they are -made, quotha!' and he stamped about, holding his sides till, reeling -near to the dummy, he paused, and made a savage lunge at it with his -dagger. His mood changed on the instant. - -'Death!' he snarled, 'I warrant here's one hath propagated some saints -to his undoing!' and he went muttering a rosary of curses under his -breath. - -Lampugnani, smilingly languid, continued:-- - -'Well, Lupo, so Messer Bembo is the son of his mother? It seems like -enough--what with his wheedling and his love-locks. He shall be Saint -Cupid on promotion. I think he will regard scarlet or pink as no -objectionable fashion, does it come to make a god of him.' - -The armourer uttered an exclamation:-- - -'Some think him that already. It is the question of his coming to be -Duke that hips me. I can't see him there.' - -'Nor I,' said Visconti, with a sarcastic laugh. - -Olgiati interposed quietly:-- - -'Have comfort, Lupo. We are all good republicans. The exaltation of -Messer Bembo is to be provisional only, preceding the consummation. He -is to be lifted like the Host, to bring the people to their knees, and -then lowered, and----' - -'Put away,' said Lampugnani blandly. - -The armourer started to his feet in agitation. - -'Messers!' he cried, 'he poured oil into my wounds; I will consent to no -such wickedness.' - -'_You_ won't?' roared Visconti; but Lampugnani soothed him down. - -'When I said "put away," I meant in a tabernacle, like that sacred -bread. I assure you, Lupo, he is the rose of our adoration also; he -shall cultivate his thorn in peace; he shall wax fat like Jeshurun, and -kick.' - -'And in the meantime,' grumbled Visconti, 'we are measuring our fish -before we've hooked him.' - -Lampugnani's face took on a very odd expression. - -'What the devil's behind that?' hectored the bully. - -'O, little!' purred the other. 'I fancy I feel him nibble, that's all. -Perhaps you don't happen to know how he hath cut his connection with the -palace?' - -'What! When?' - -They all jumped to stare at him. - -'This day,' he said, 'in offence of some carrion of Galeazzo's which he -had nosed out. The poor boy is particular in his tastes, for a -shambles--ran like a sheep from the slaughter-house door, taking his -Patch with him, and a ring her Grace had loaned him for a safe-conduct. -I heard it said she would have been ravished of anything rather--by him. -'Twas her lord's troth-gift. The castle is one fume of lamentation.' - -Montano, rubbing his lean hands between his knees, went into a rejoicing -chatter:-- - -'We have him, we have him! Gods! who's here?' - -Their intentness had deafened them some minutes earlier to a more -mouthing note in the thunder of the rain, as if the swell of the tempest -had been opened an instant and shut. The moment, in fact, and a -master-key, had let in a new comer. He had closed the latch behind him, -and now, seeing himself observed, stood ducking and lowering in the -blinking light. The philosopher heaved a tremulous sigh of relief. - -'Narcisso!' - -The hulking creature grinned, and stabbed a thumb over his shoulder. - -'Hist! him you speak of's out there, a-seeking your worship.' - -'Seeking _me_? Messer Bembo?' - -'Why not? A' met him at the town gate half-drowned, with his Patch to -heel. The report of his running was got abroad, and, thinks I to -myself, here's luck to my masters. To take him on the hop of grievance -like----' - -Montano seemed to sip the phrase:-- - -'Exactly: on the hop of grievance. Well?' - -'Why, I spoke him fair: "Whither away, master?" A' spat a saintly -word--'twere a curse in a sinner--and sprang back, a' did, glaring at -me. But the great Fool pushed him by. "You're the man," says he. -"Desperation knows its fellows. Where's Montano?" "Why, what would you -with him?" says I, taken off my guard. "A salve for his wounds," he -answered. And so I considered a bit, and brought 'em on, and there they -wait.' - -Visconti uttered a furious oath, but Lampugnani hushed him down. - -'Didst well, pretty innocence,' he said to Narcisso. 'The hop of -grievance?--never a riper moment. Show in your friends.' - -He was serenely confident of his policy--waved all protest aside. - -'I see my way: the hook is baited: let him bite.' - -'Bite?' growled Visconti. 'And what about our occupation here?' - -'Why, 'tis testing mail, nothing more. Is a lay-figure in an armoury so -strange?' - -'Ay, when 'tis a portrait-model.' - -'O glowing tribute to my art! I designed the doll, true. You make me -look down, sir, and simper and bite my finger. Yet my mind misgives me -thou flatterest. A portrait-model, yes; but will he recognise of whom?' - -'The knave may--the shrewder fool of the pair.' - -'The greater fool will testify to me? O happy artist! Well, if he do, I -will still account him naught. He will take the bait also. The shadow -swims and bites with the fish. Besides, should this befall, 'twill save -mayhap a world of preliminaries. Remember that "hop of grievance." He -comes, it seems, in a mood to jump with ours. Let them in.' - -Like souls salvaged from a wreck they came--the Fool propping the -Saint--staggering in by the door. Grief and storm and weariness had -robbed the boy of speculation, almost of his senses. His drenched hair -hung in ropes, his wild eyes stared beneath like a frightened doe's, his -clothes slopped on his limbs. - -Narcisso struggled with the door and closed it. - -Suddenly Bernardo, lifting his dazed lids, caught sight of the shadowed -lay-figure, recoiled, and shrieking out hoarsely:--'Galeazzo! Thou! O -God, doomed soul!' tottered and slid through Cicada's limp arms upon the -floor. Instantly Narcisso was down by his side, and fumbling with his -hands. - -'A's in a swound,' he was beginning, when, with a rush and heave, the -Fool sent him wallowing. - -'Darest thou, hog! darest thou! Go rub thy filthy hoofs in ambergris -first!' and he squatted, snarling and showing his teeth. - -Narcisso rose, to a chorus of laughter, and stood grinning and rubbing -his head. - -'Well, I never!' he said. - - - - - *CHAPTER XIII* - - -The Countess of Casa Caprona was a widow. The news was waiting to -overwhelm, or transport, her upon her return to the castello after her -interview with Lanti. On the one hand it committed her to dowagery, -that last infirmity of imperious minds; on the other to the freedom of a -glorified spinsterhood. Though she recognised that, on the whole, the -blow was destructive of the real zest of intrigue, she behaved very -handsomely by the memory of the deceased, who had died, like a soldier, -in harness. She caused a solemn requiem mass to be sung for him in the -Duomo; she commissioned a monody, extolling his marital virtues, from an -expensive poet; she distributed liberal alms to the poor of the city. -There is no trollop so righteous in her matronhood as she made timely a -widow. Besides, to this one, the zest of all zests for the moment was -revenge. She withdrew to mature it, and to lament orthodoxly her lord, -to her dower-house in the Via Sforza. - -It was a very pretty spot for melancholy and meditation--cool, large, -secluded, and its smooth, silent walks and bubbling fountains cloistered -in foliage. From its gardens one had glimpses of the castello and of -the candied, biscuit-like pinnacles of the cathedral. Cypresses and -little marble fauns broke between them the flowering intervals, and -peacocks on the gravel made wandering parterres of colour. Sometimes, -musing in the shades, with a lock of her long hair between her lips, she -would pet her frowning fancy with the figure of a youthful Adam, golden -and glorious, approaching her down an avenue of this smiling paradise, -making its mazes something less than scentless; and then, behold! a -lizard, perhaps, would wink on the terrace, and she would snatch and -crush the little palpitating life under her heel, cursing it for a -symbol of the serpent desolating her Eden, and transforming it all into -a mirage of warmth and passion. Not Adam he, that lusted-for, but the -angel at the gate, menacing and awful. She must be more and worse than -Eve to seek to corrupt an angel. - -Perhaps she was, in her most tortured, most animal moods. The sensuous, -by training and heredity, had quite over-swollen and embedded in her -beautiful trunk the small spike of conscience, which as a child had -tormented, and which yet, at odd moments, would gall and tease her like -an ancient wound. She might even have been stung by it into some -devotional self-sacrifice in her present phase of passion, could she -have been assured of, or believed in, its object's inaccessibility to a -higher grace of solicitation. But jealousy kept her ravening. - -On a languorous noon of this week of losses she was lying, a -conventionally social exile, having her hair combed and perfumed, in a -little green pavilion pitched in her grounds, when a heavy step on the -gravel outside aroused her from a dream of voluptuous rumination. The -tread she recognised, yet, though moved by it to a little flutter of -curiosity, would not so far alloy a drowsy ecstasy as to bid the visitor -enter while it lasted. Hypnotised by the soft burrowing of the comb, she -closed her eyes until the perfect moment was passed, when, with a sigh, -she bade the intruder enter, and Narcisso came slouching in by the -opening. - -Beatrice dismissed her attendants with a look. She never spoke to her -servants where a gesture would serve, and could draw hour-long silent -enjoyment from the weary hands of tire-woman or slave, hairdresser or -fanner, without a sign of embarrassment, or indeed understanding. Now -she lay back, restful, impassive--indifferent utterly to any impression -her will for a solitary interview with this gross creature might make -upon them. And, indeed, there was little need for such concern. Hired -assassination, a recognised institution, explained many otherwise -strange conjunctions between the beauties and beasts of Milan. - -The beast, in the present instance, behaved as was habitual with him in -the presence of this Circe. That is to say, he was awkward, -deprecating, and, of stranger significance, devoted to truthfulness. He -adored her, as Caliban Miranda, but more fearfully: was her slave, the -genii of the lamp of her loveliness, with which to be on any familiar -terms, even of debasement, was enough. What did it matter that she paid -him with offence and disdain? Her use of him was as her use of some -necessary organic part of herself. And she might deprecate the -necessity; but the secret of it was, nevertheless, their common -property. Her beauty and his devotion were as near akin as blood and -complexion. Perhaps some day, in the resurrection of the flesh, he -would be able to substantiate that kinship. - -The thought may have been there in him, instinctive, unilluminated, as -he stood fumbling with his cap, and raising and lowering his hang-dog -eyes, and waiting for her to open. Physically, at least, she showed no -shame in implying his close right to her confidence. The noon was a -noon of slumbering fires, and her mood a responsive one. A long white -camisole, of the frailest tissue, rounded on her lower limbs, and, -splitting at the waist, straddled her shoulders clingingly, leaving a -warm breathing-space between. Round her full neck clung one loop of -emeralds; and to the picture her black falling hair made a tenderest -frame, while the sun, penetrating the tilt above, finished all with a -mist of green translucence. A Circe, indeed, to this coarse and animal -rogue, and alive with awful and covetable lusts, to which, nevertheless, -he was an admitted procurer. He had not ceased to be in her pay and -confidence, cursed and repudiated though he had been by his master, her -erst protector. He had not even resented that episode of his betrayal -at her hands, though it had condemned him for a living to the role of -the hired bravo. She might always do with him as she liked; overbid with -one imperious word his fast pledges to others; convert his craft -wheresoever she wished to her own profit. The more she condescended to -him, the more was he claimed a necessary part of her passions' -functions. She discharged through him her hates and desires, and he was -beatified in the choice of himself as their medium. There was a -suggestion of understanding, of a conscious partnership between them, in -the very fulsomeness with which he abased himself before her. - -'Well,' she murmured at last, 'hast drunk thy senses to such surfeit -that they drown in me?' - -'Ay,' he mumbled, 'I could die looking.' - -'A true Narcissus,' she scoffed; 'but I could wish a sweeter. Stand -away, fellow. Your clothes offend me.' - -He backed at once. - -'Now,' she said, 'I can breathe. Deliver yourself!' - -He heaved up his chest, and looked above her, concentrating his wits on -an open loop of the tent, behind which a bird was flickering and -chirping. - -'I come, by Madonna's secret instructions, from privately informing -Messer Lanti where Messer Bembo lies hidden,' he said, speaking as if by -rote. - -She nodded imperiously. - -'What questions did he ask?' - -'How I knew; and I answered, that I knew.' - -'Good. That least was enough. Art a right rogue. Now will he go seek -him, and be drawn by his devotion into this net.' - -Narcisso was silent. - -'Will he not?' she demanded sharply. - -The fellow dropped his eyes to her an instant. - -'Madonna knows. He loves the Messer Saint. No doubt a' will hold by -him.' - -'What then, fool?' - -'They have not caught Messer Bembo yet, they at the forge--that is all.' - -'How!' she cried angrily, 'when thou told'st me----' - -'With humility, Madonna,' he submitted, 'I told thee naught but that he -and this Montano were agreed on the State's disease.' - -'Well?' - -'But I never said on its cure.' - -She frowned, leaning forward and again biting a strand of her hair--a -sullen trick with her in anger. - -'A doctor of rhetoric, and so feeble in persuasion!' she muttered -scornfully. - -'A' starts at a shadow, this saint,' pleaded Narcisso. 'A' must be -coaxed, little by little, like a shy foal. We will have him in the -halter anon. Yet a' be only one out of five, when all's said.' - -'Dolt!' she hissed. 'What are the other four, or their purpose, to me, -save as a lever to my revenge? I foresee it all. Why telled'st me not -before I sent thee? Now this gross lord, instead of himself tangling in -the meshes, will persuade the other back to court and reason and -forgiveness, and I shall be worse than damned. Dolt, I could kill -thee!' - -She rose to her height, furious, and he shrunk cowering before her. - -'Listen, Madonna,' he said, trembling: 'Canst net them all yet at one -swoop. Go tell Messer Ludovico, and certes a' will jump to destroy the -nest and all in it, before a' inquires their degrees of guilt.' - -She stared at him, still threatening. - -'Why?' - -'Why, says Madonna? Listen again, then. Does the Ser Simonetta trust -Messer Ludovico, or Messer Ludovico love the Ser Simonetta? The -secretary clings to the Duchess. If she falls, a' falls with her.' - -'Again, thou tedious rogue, why should the Saint's destruction bring -Bona down?' - -'A' would have his mouth shut from explaining.' - -'Explaining what? I lose patience.' - -'How a' came, a conspirator against the Duke, to be found wi' his wife's -troth ring in his possession. Here it be. I've filched it for thee at -last.' - -She sprang to seize the token, glowing triumphant in a moment, and -putting it on her own finger, pressed the clinched hand that enclosed it -into her bosom. - -She laughed low and rejoicingly, shameless in the quick transition of -her mood. - -'Good Narcisso! It is the Key at last! Let Lanti persuade him back -now--I am content. I hold them, and Bona too, in the hollow of this -hand.' - -She held it out, her right one, palm upwards, and, smiling, bade him -kiss it. - -'Rogue,' she said, 'to tease and vex me, and all the time this talisman -in thy sleeve. Ay, make the most of it: snuffle and root. My dog has -deserved of me.' - -He wiped his lips with the back of his hand, as if he had drunk. - -'Now,' she said, 'how wert successful? how won'st it, sweet put?' - -'Took it from him, that was all.' - -'How?' - -'When a' came tumbling in and staggered in a swound. Had heard Messer -Andrea relating of how 'twas on him as I entered. Ho, ho! thinks I, -here's that, maybe, will pay the filching! and I dropped and got it, all -in a moment like.' - -'You never told me.' - -'You never asked till yesterday. Then I had it not with me. But -to-day, thinks I, I'll bring it up my sleeve for a win-favour--a good -last card.' - -'No matter, since I have got it.' - -She held it out, and gloated on its device and sparkle. She knew it -well: indeed it was a famous gem, the Sforza lion cut in cameo on a deep -pure emerald, and known as the Lion ring. - -'Hath he not missed it?' she murmured. - -'Not by any sign a' gives. The sickness of that night still holds him -half-amazed. A' thinks our fine doll, even, but a bug of it--fancies a' -saw it in a dream like. They'd locked it away when he came to.' - -'Poor worldling! Poor little new-born worldling! He shall cut his -pretty teeth anon. Well--for Messer Lanti? Did he leap to the trail, or -what?' - -'That same moment. Belike they are together now.' - -She stood musing a little: then heaved a sudden sigh. - -'Poor boy,' she murmured, 'poor boy! is it I must seek to destroy thee!' - -Her mood had veered again in a breath. Her eyes were full of a brooding -love and pity. - -'Not for the first time,' muttered Narcisso. - -She seemed not to hear him--to have grown oblivious of his presence. - -'The song he sang to me!' she murmured: 'Ah, me, if that hour could be -mine! A saint in heaven?--not Bona's! she hath a lord--no saint, did he -love her. He looked at me: it came from his heart. If that hour could -be mine! Not then--'twere a sin--but now! That one -hour--cherished--unspent--the seed of the unquickened pledge between us -to all eternity. I could be content, knowing him a saint through that -abstinence. My hour--_mine_--to passion to my breast--the shadow of the -child that would not be born to me. He looked at me--no spectre of a -dead lost love in his eyes--only a hopeless quest--bonds never to be -riven. But now--Ah! I cannot kill him!' - -She hid her eyes, shuddering. Narcisso, vaguely troubled, gloomed at -her. - -'You will not go to Messer Ludovico?' he said. - -She returned to knowledge of him, as to a sense of pain out of oblivion. - -'Go,' she said coldly. 'Leave all to me. You have done well, and been -paid your wages.' - -And he did not demur. It was not in her nature to gild her favours -unnecessarily. Gold came less lavishly from her than kisses. Her -pounds of flesh were her most profitable assets. She was a spendthrift -in everything but money. - - - - - *CHAPTER XIV* - - -'Messer Bembo,' said Montano, between meditative and caustic, 'you do -not agree that our poor Lupo's definition of a perfect government, an -autocracy with an angel at its head, is a practicable definition?' - -He was sitting, as often during the last few days, at talk with the boy, -on subjects civic, political, and theological. They had discussed at -odd times the whole ethics of government, from the constitution of -Lycurgus to the code of Thomas Aquinas: they had expounded, each in his -way, a scheme or a dream of socialism: they had agreed, without -prejudice, to liken the evolution of the simple Church of Peter into the -complicated fabric of the fourth Sixtus to a woodland cottage, bought by -some great princely family, and improved into a summer palace, which was -grown out of harmony with its environments. Somewhat to his amazement, -Montano discovered that the boy was the opposite to a dogmatic -Christian; that his was a religion, which, while conforming or adapting -itself to the orthodox, was in its essence a religion of mysticism. No -doubt the traditions of his origin were, to some extent, to seek for -this. A pledge, so to speak, of spontaneous generation, Bernardo -accounted for himself on a theory of reincarnation from another sphere. -He believed in the possibility of the resurrection of the body, which, -though destroyed, and many times destroyed, could be, in its character -of mere soul-envelope or soul expression, as regularly reconstructed at -the will of its informing spirit. Death, he declared, was just the -beginning of the return of that divested spirit to the spring of -life--to the river welling in the central Eden from the loins of the -Father, the spouse of Nature, the secret, the unspeakable God, of whom -was Christ, his own dear brother and comrade. - -He would tell Messer Montano, with his sweet, frank eyes arraigning that -crabbed philosopher's soul, how this unstained first-born of Nature, -this sinless heir of love, this wise and pitying Christ, moved by an -infinite compassion to see the wounded souls of his brothers--those few -who had not made their backward flight too difficult--come, soiled and -earth-cloyed, to seek their reincarnation in the spring, had descended, -himself, upon earth at last, sacrificing his birthright of divinity, -that he might teach men how to live. And the men his brothers had slain -him, in jealousy, even as Cain slew Abel; yet had his spirit, -imperishably great, continued to dwell in their midst, knowing that, did -it once leave the earth, it must be for ever, and to mankind's eternal -unregeneracy. For, so Bernardo insisted, there was an immutable law in -Nature that no soul reincarnated could re-enter the sphere from which it -was last returned, but must seek new fields of action. Wherefore all -earth-loving spirits, which we call apparitions, were such as after -death clung about the ways of men, in a yearning hopefulness to redeem -them by touching their hearts with sympathy and their eyes with a mist -of sorrow. And, of such gentle ghosts, Christ was but the first in -faith and tenderness. - -A wild, dim theory, peopling woods, and fields, and cities with a mystic -company--phantoms, yet capable of revealing themselves in fitful -glimpses to the sinless and the sympathetic among men--ghosts, weaving -impalpable webs of love across populous ways to catch men's souls in -their meshes. Montano called it all transcendental fustian. It aroused -his most virulent scorn. What had this cloud-moulding, moon-paring -stuff to do with the practical issues of life, with freedom, and -government by popular representation? He even professed to prefer to it -Lascaris, with his metaphysical jargon and apostolic succession of -atoms. - -'He gives you at least something to take hold of,' he snarled. 'Listen -to this'--and he condescended to read an excerpt from a recent treatise -by his hated rival:-- - -'"Life,"' he read, '"is put out at compound interest. We represent, each -in himself, a fraction of the principal, having a direct pedigree _ab -initio_. As a spider will gather the hundred strands of his web into a -little ball which he will swallow, so might we each absorb and claim the -whole vast web of life. Rolled up to include each radiating thread, the -web becomes I; the spider is I; I am the principal of life--not the -principle: that is Prometheus' secret."' - -'"I am a fraction of life's compound interest. The sum of the mental -impressions of all my thread of tendency (which gathers back, taking up -cross threads by the way, to the central origin) is invested in my -paltry being, and lieth there, together with mine own interest on the -vast accumulation, in tail for my next of kin. What can I do in my tiny -span but touch the surface of this huge estate: pluck here and there a -flower of its fields, whose roots are in immemorial time? Imagination -founders in those fathomless depths. Tenuous, dim-forgotten ghosts rise -from them. Who shall say that my dreams, however seeming mad and -grotesque, are not faithful reflexes of states and conditions which were -once realities; memories of forms long extinct; echoes of times when I -flew, or spun, or was gaseous, or vast, or little; when I mingled -intimate with shapes which are chimerical to my present -understanding----"' - -The reader broke off, with an impatient grunt. - -'There!' he said, 'dreams mad and grotesque enough, in good sooth; yet -not so mad as thine.' - -'Well,' said Bernardo, 'well,' with perfect sweetness and good temper. - -'Christ in the world? Fah!' snarled the philosopher. 'I know him. He -sits at Rome under a triple tiara. Quit all this sugared dreaming, boy, -and face the future like a man.' - -'Does the sun shine out of yesterday or to-morrow? It is enough for the -moment to take thought for itself. The future is not.' - -'Pooh! a mere Jesuitry, justifying the moment's abomination.' - -'Nay: for we shall have to retraverse our deeds, and carry back their -burden to our first account--with most, a toilful journey.' - -'They would do better to stop with your Christ, then; and, judged by the -preponderance of evil spirits here, I think most do. No future, say'st? -But how about that heir of the compound interest? Is there not one -waiting to succeed to him? Where? Why, in the future, as surely and -inevitably as this date, which I am going to swallow in a moment, will -be blood and tissue in me to-morrow.' - -He held the fruit up--with a swift movement Bernardo whipped it out of -his hand and ate it himself. - -'How for your future now?' he chuckled, pinking all over. - -Cicada laughed loudly, and Montano swore. His philosophy was not proof -against such practical jokes. But, seeing his fury, the boy put out all -his sweetness to propitiate him. He was his father's friend; he was a -man of learning; he had suffered grievous wrong. The dog was coaxed -presently into opening again upon the angelic principles. It was by -such virulent irony that he thought--so warped was his mental vision--to -corrode the candour of this saint, and bend him to his own views and -uses--a diseased vanity, even had he not reckoned, as will now appear, -without the consideration of another possible factor. - -And 'So,' said he upon a later occasion, in the sentence which opens -this chapter, 'you do not agree with our poor Lupo's practicable -definition of a perfect government?' - -The Saint's steadfast eyes canvassed the speaker's soul, as if in some -shadowy suspicion of an integrity which they were being led, not for the -first time, to probe. - -'Why, Messer,' said he, 'practicable in so far as, by the dear Christ's -influence, grace may come to make an angel even of our Duke.' - -Montano tried to return his steady gaze, but failed meanly. - -'With submission, Messer Bernardo,' he sniggered, 'I can only follow, in -my mind's eye, one certain road to that great man's apotheosis.' - -Bembo was silent. - -''Tis the road,' continued the other, 'taken before by the Emperor -Nero.' - -'He stabbed himself, the most wretched pagan, in fear of a worser -retribution than heaven's,' said Bembo. 'Alas! do you call that an -apotheosis?' - -'There are gods and gods,' said Montano,--'Hades and Olympus. Belike -Nero was welcomed of his kind, as Galeazzo would be. I can scarce see -in the Duke the raw material of your fashion of angel. There's more of -the harpy about him than the harp.' - -It was a heavenly day. Bernardo, still a little hectic and languid from -his fever, sat in the embrasure of a window which gave upon the back -court of the smithy. A muffled tinkling of armourers' hammers reached -his ears pleasantly from the rear of neighbouring premises. There was a -certain happy suggestiveness to him in the sound, evoked, as he hoped it -might be, at his host Lupo's instigation. For his endearing optimism -had so wrought upon that stricken artificer, during the week he had -dwelt in hiding with him, as to persuade the poor man to quit his -self-despairing, and hire out his skill--not practically; that was no -longer possible; but theoretically--to a deserving fellow-craftsman. -Already the sense of touch was curiously refining in the sightless -creature, and the glimmer of a new dawn of interest penetrating him. And -he was at work again elsewhere. - -On the floor at Bembo's feet squatted Cicada, acrid, speaking little, -and spending his long intervals of silence in staring at the girl Lucia, -who, crouching at a distance away by the fireless forge, in the gloom of -the shuttered smithy, seemed given over to an eternal reverie of hate. -She, alone of the household, had remained impervious to all the sweet -influences of sorrow and pity. Her wrong was such as no angel could -remedy. - -Cicada spoke now, with a scowl of significance for Montano:-- - -'Speak plain, master philosopher. Innuendo is the weapon of Fools, and -wisdom shall prevail in candour. Thou canst not picture to thyself this -evangelised Duke?' - -Montano shot a lowering glance at him. - -'No, I confess, master Patch,' said he--'unless,' he added grinning, 'by -Nero's road.' - -'Two whispers do not make one outspokenness,' answered the Fool. 'Hast -hinted Nero once, and once again, and still we lack the application. -Nero was driven to the road, quotha; well, by whom?--one Galba, an my -learning's not a'rust. What then? Is Galba going to drive Galeazzo?' - -'Nay, Love, dear Cicca,' put in Bernardo, but half hearing and half -understanding. - -'Love!' cried the Fool. 'Thou hast hit it. Hear wisdom from the mouths -of babes. Love in the hands of rascals--a tool, a catspaw, to pull them -their chestnuts from the fire, and then be cast burnt aside.' - -He addressed himself, with infinite irony, to Montano. - -'Good master philosopher,' said he, 'there is one fable for you: listen -while I relate another. A certain rogue was stripped and beaten by a -greater, who going on his way, there came a stranger, a mere child, and -marked the fellow groaning. "Poor soul!" quoth he in pity; and knelt -and bound his hurts and gave him wine, and by kind arts restored him. -When shortly the aggressor returning and whistling by that place, his -erst-victim, stung to revenge, yet having no weapon left him, did leap -and incontinent seize up by his heels the ministering angel, and using -his body for flail, knock down his enemy with him, killing both -together. Which having done, and picked their pockets, on his way goes -he rejoicing, "Now do I succeed to mine enemy's purse and roguery!"' - -He ended. Montano, glancing stealthily at Bernardo, wriggled and -tittered uneasily. - -'Patch hath spoken,' he said; 'great is Patch!' - -'I have spoken,' quoth the Fool. 'Dost gather the moral?' - -'Not I, indeed.' - -'Why, sir, 'tis of roguery making himself master of Love's estate; and -yet that is not the full moral neither. For I mind me of a correction; -how, before the blow was struck, Folly stepped between, and snatched -Love from such a fate, and left the rogues to their conclusions.' - -'Well, Folly and Love were well mated. Have you done? I am going to my -books.' - -He yawned, and stretched himself, and rose. - -'I will show you to the door, says Folly,' chirped Cicada, and skipped -about the other as he went, with a mincing affectation of ceremonial. -But when they were got out of immediate sight and hearing of Bernardo -into the front chamber, like a wolf the Fool snapped upon the -philosopher, and pinned him into a corner. - -'Understood'st my fable well enough,' he grated, in a rapid whisper. -'What! I have waited this opportunity a day or two. Now the stopper is -out, let us flow.' - -Montano, taken by surprise, was seized with a tremor of irresolution. -He returned the Fool's gaze with a frown uncertain, sullen, eager all in -one. - -'Flow, then,' he muttered, after a little. - -'I flow,' went on the other, 'oil and verjuice combined. Imprimis, think -not that because I read I would betray thee. Ay, ay--no need to start, -sir. Thou shalt not quit playing with thy doll for me; nay, nor -dressing and goring it, if thou wilt, with triangles of steel. O, I -saw!--the face and the slashes in it, too. I have not since been so -ill, like him there, as to read a phantasy out of fact. What then? -Would ye silence me?' - -'Go on,' whispered Montano hoarsely. - -'Well, I flow,' returned the Fool. 'Did I not tell thee candour was the -best part of wisdom? Learn by it, then. I have marked thee of late; O, -trust me, I have marked thee, thy hints and insinuations. And hereby by -folly I swear, could once I think my master wax to such impressions, I -would kill him where he stands, and damn my soul to send his uncorrupt -to heaven. You sneer? Sneer on. Why, I could have laughed just now to -see you, tortuous, sound his sweet candid shallows, where every pebble's -plain. Do your own work, I'll not speak or care. You shall not have -him to it, that's all. Sooner shall the heavens fall, than he be led by -you to poison Galeazzo. Is that plain?' - -It was so plain, that the philosopher gasped vainly for a retort. - -'Who--who spoke of poison?' he stammered. 'Not I. Dear Messer Fool, -you wrong me. This boy--the protege of della Grande--mine old friend--I -would not so misuse him. Why, he succoured me--an ill requital. If I -sounded him, 'twas in self-justification only. We seek the same end by -different roads--the ancient Gods restored--the return to Nature. Is it -not so? Christ or Hyperion--I will not quarrel with the terms. -"Knowledge," saith he, "is the fool that left his Eden." Well, he harks -back, and so do I.' - -'No further, thou, than to Rome and Regillus; but he to Paradise. Halt -him not, I say. He shall not be thy catspaw. On these terms only is my -silence bought.' - -'Then is it bought. Why, Fool, I could think thee a fool indeed. He -hath forsworn the court: how could we think to employ him there?' - -'You know, as I know, sir, that this secession is a parenthesis, no -more. He came to cure the State--not your way. A little repentance -will win him back. The disease is in the head--he sees it; not in these -warped limbs that the brain governs. He will go back anon.' - -'And reign again by love?' - -'I hope so, as first ministers reign.' - -'No more? Well, we will back him there.' - -'Again, be warned; not your way. Make him no text for the reform which -builds on murder. I have spoken.' - -'Well, we will not. _Vale!_'--and the philosopher, bowing his head, -slunk out by the door which the other opened for him. - -A little later, creeping into a narrow court which was the 'run' to his -burrow, at the entrance he crossed the path of two cavaliers, whom, upon -their exclaiming over the encounter, he drew under an archway. - -They were come from playing pall-mall on the ramparts, and carried over -their shoulders the tools of their sport--thin boxwood mallets, painted -with emblematic devices in scarlet and blue, and having handle-butts of -chased silver. Each gentleman wore red full-hose ending in short-peaked -shoes, a plain red biretta, and a little green bodice coat, tight at the -waist and open at the bosom to leave the arms and shoulders free play. -Montano squinted approval of their flushed faces and strong-breathed -lungs. - -'Well exercised,' quoth he, in his high-pitched whisper; 'well -exercised, and betimes belike.' - -'News?' drawled Lampugnani. 'O, construe thyself!' - -'The Fool,' answered Montano, 'sees through us, that is all.' - -'What!' Visconti's brows came down. - -'Hush! He hath warned me--not finally; only he pledges his silence on -the discontinuance of my practices on his cub.' - -'Well,' said Lampugnani serenely; 'discontinue.' - -'Messer, he looks, with certainty, to the boy being won back to court -anon. How, then! shall we let him go?' - -'No!' rapped out Visconti. - -'Yes,' said Lampugnani. 'I trow his good way is after all our best. -Let him go back, and make the State so fast in love with Love as to -prove Galeazzo impossible. He will sanctify our holocaust for us.' - -'But the Fool, Messer--the Fool!' - -'Will never conspire against his adored master's exaltation.' - -'Exaltation? Would ye let this saint, then, to become the people's -idol?' - -'Ay, that we may discredit him presently for an adulterous idol. No -saint so scorned as he whose sanctity trips on woman.' - -'What! You think----?' - -'Exactly--yes--the Duchess. _Vale_, Messer Montano!'--and he lifted his -cap mockingly, and moved off. - -In the meanwhile Cicada, having watched, through a slit of the unclosed -door, the retreat and disappearance of the philosopher, was about to -shut himself in again, with a muttered objurgation or two, when a rapid -step sounded without, and on the instant the door was flung back against -him, and Messer Lanti strode in. There was no opportunity given him to -temporise: the great creature was there in a moment, and had recognised -him with a 'pouf!' of relief. He just accepted the situation, and -closed the door upon them both. - -'Well,' he said acridly, 'here you be, and whether for good or ill let -the gods answer!' - -Lanti stretched his great chest. - -'It is well, Fool; and I am well if he is well. Where is he?' - -Cicada pointed. The girl by the forge crouched and glared unwinkingly. -The next moment Carlo was in his loved one's arms. - -'Why hast hidden thyself, boy?--ah! it is a long while, boy--good to see -thee again--stand off--I cannot see thee after all--a curse on these -blinking eyes!' - -'Dear Carlo, I have been a little ill; my joints ached.' - -He wept himself, and fondled and clung to his friend. - -'Thou great soft bully! For shame! Why, I love thee, dear. Wert thou -so hurt? O Carlo! I have been most ill in spirit.' - -'Come back, and we will nurse thee.' - -'Alas! What nurses!' - -'The tenderest and most penitent--Bona, first of all.' - -The arms slid from his neck. Sweet angel eyes glowered at him. - -'Bona to heal my spirit? To pour fire into its wounds rather! O, I had -thought her pure till yesterday!' - -And, indeed, Montano, in the furtherance of his corroding policy, had -spared him no evidences of court scandal. - -Carlo hung his bullet head. - -'Lucia!' cried the boy suddenly and sternly. - -The girl, at the word, came slinking to him like a dog, setting her -teeth by the way at the stranger. Bernardo put his hand on her lowered -head. - -'Dost know who this is?' he asked of Carlo. - -'Why, I can guess.' - -'Canst thou, and still talk of Bona's penitence? Here's proof of it--in -this foul deed unexpiated. Was it ever meant it should be?' - -He raised his arm denunciatory. - -'They have used me to justify their abominations; they have made mine -innocence a pander to their lusts. Beware! God's patience nears -exhaustion. We wait for Tassino. Will he come? Not while lewd arms -imprison and protect him. Talk to me of Bona! Go, child.' - -The girl crept back to her former seat. Carlo burst out, low and -urgent:-- - -'Nay, boy, you do the Duchess wrong; now, by Saint Ambrose, I swear you -do! She hath not set eyes on Jackanapes since that day--believe it--nor -knows, more than another, what's become of him.' - -'I could enlighten her. Can she be so fickle?' - -'What! Don't you want her fickle? You make my brain turn.' - -'O Carlo! What can such a woman see in such a man?' - -'God! You have me there. She's just woman, conforming to the -fashions.' - -'Ah, me! the fashions!' - -'Woman's religion.' - -'She was taught a better. The fashions! Her wedding-gown should -suffice her for all.' - -'What! Night and day? But, there, I don't defend her!' - -'No, indeed. Art thyself a fashion.' - -'I don't defend her, I say. I'm worn and cast aside too.' - -'Poor fashion! You'll grace your mistress' tire-woman next; and after -her a kitchen-maid; and last some draggled scarecrow of the streets. O, -for shame, for shame!' - -'Go on. Compare me to Tassino next.' - -'Indeed, I see no difference.' - -'A low-born Ferrarese! A greasy upstart! Was carver to the Duke, no -better; and oiled his fingers in the dish, and sleeked his hair!' - -'Well, he was made first fashion. The Duchess sets them.' - -'Now, by Saint Ambrose! First fashion! this veal-faced scullion, this -fat turnspit promoted to a lap-dog! His fashion was to nurse lusty -babies in his eyes!' - -'What nursed thou in thine?' - -'Go to! I'm a numskull, that I know; but to see no more in me!' - -'I speak not for myself.' - -'Why, these women, true, whom we hold so delicate--coarser feeders than -ourselves--their tastes a fable. There, you're right; I've no right to -talk.' - -'Not yet.' - -'Then, you're wrong. We've parted, I and Beatrice.' - -'Carlo!' - -'Didst think I 'd risk a quarrel with my saint on so small a matter?' - -'Carlo!' - -He flew upon the great creature and hugged him. - -'My dear, my love! O, I went on so! Why did you let me? O, you give -me hope again!' - -'There,' growled the honest fellow, still a little sulkily. ''Twas to -please myself, not you.' - -'Not me!' - -'Well, if I did, please me by returning.' - -Bernardo shook his head. - -'And seem to acquiesce in this?' He signified the girl. - -'No seeming,' said Lanti. 'The Duchess promises to abet you in -everything. I was to say so, an I could find thee.' - -'How did you find me?' - -'Let that pass. Will you come?' - -'Will she hold Tassino to his bond?' - -'She'll try to--I'll answer for it.' - -'Will she excuse the Countess of Casa Caprona from her duties to -her--for your sake, dear?' - -'No need. The lady's a widow, and already self-dismissed.' - -'Alas, a widow! O Carlo, that heavy witness gone before!' - -'I must stand it. Will you come?' - -'Why is this sudden change? I sore misdoubt it for a fashion.' - -'Not sudden. I have her word the court goes all astray without thee. -She pines to mother thee.' - -'Mother!--an adulteress for mother! Alack, I am humbled!' - -'Not so low as she. That touches the last matter. She wants the ring -back she lent thee.' - -'The ring?' - -'Ay, the ring.' - -'Carlo!' - -He searched his clothes and hands in amaze. - -'My God! It's gone!' - -'Gone? Look again.' - -'I had it on my finger. Till this moment I had forgot it clean--my -brain so ached. Cicca!' - -He turned in trouble on his servant. - -'I know nought of it,' growled the Fool. 'If you had but chose to tell -me. I am no gossip. Bona's ring was it, and leased to thee? Mayhap -the rain that night washed it from thy finger.' - -'If it were so--so great a trust abused! O Carlo! What shall I do?' - -'Come back and make thy peace with her.' - -Yet his brow gloomed, and he shook his head. - -'O, O!' choked Bernardo, noting him with anguish. - -'She sent a message--I can't help myself,' grunted Carlo. 'Did you seek -to retaliate on her innocent confidence by ruining her? She meant the -ring--your withholding it--'twas her troth-token from the Duke. Well, -this is like getting a woman into trouble.' - -Bernardo cast himself with a cry upon him. - -'I will go back! I have no longer choice. I must hold myself a hostage -to that loss!' - -Carlo let out his satisfaction in a growl. But Cicada, squinting at the -two, and rasping thoughtfully on his chin, pondered a speculation into a -conviction. - -'Narcisso!' he mused, 'was it he took it? As sure as he is a villain, -it was Narcisso took it!' - - - - - *CHAPTER XV* - - -The astutest of all the six Sforza brothers was, without question, -Messer Ludovico, at present sojourning in the castello of Milan. No -higher than fourth in point of age, policy or premonition had never -ceased to present him to himself for the first in succession. The -uncertainty of life's tenure, unless ameliorated a little by qualities -of tact and conciliation like his own, made him some excuse for this -secret conviction. His eldest brother was a monster of the order which, -in every age, invites tyrannicide; the Lord of Bari, the second, an -ease-loving, good-humoured monster of another kind (he was to die -shortly, in fact, of his own obesity), he valued only as so much gross -bulk of supineness to be surmounted; Filippo, the third, was an -imbecile, whose very existence was already slipping into the obscurity -which was presently to spell obliteration. There remained only, junior -to himself, Ascanio, a nonentity, and Ottaviano, a headstrong, -irresponsible boy, whose possible destiny concerned him as little as -though he foresaw his drowning, within the year, in the Adda river. - -It was true that one other, more shrilly self-assertive, stood between -himself and the light--the Duke's little son, Gian-Galeazzo. Here, most -people would have thought, was his real insuperable barrier. - -He did not regard matters from these popular points of view. He was -very patient and far-seeing. At the outset of his career he had adopted -for his device the mulberry-tree, because he had observed it to be -cautious of putting forth its leaves until the last of winter was -assured. He could picture the fatherless child as the most opportune of -all steps to his exaltation. To climb presently those little shoulders -to the regency! It would go hard with him but they sank gradually -crushed under his weight. This was the wise policy, to get his seat as -proxy, and through merciful and enlightened rule secure its permanency. -There was infinite scope in the reaction he would make from a coarse and -bloody despotism. His nature hated violence; his reason recognised the -eternal insecurity of power built on it. Otherwise there was little -doubt he might, in that first emergency, strike with good chance the -straight usurper's stroke. His name, for graciousness and refinement, -already shone like a star in the gross bog of Milan, revealing to it its -foulness. Men, in the shame of their fulsome bondage to tyranny, looked -up to him for hope and sympathy. He was even _persona grata_ with the -people. - -But he abhorred, and disbelieved in, violence. He would rule, if at -all, in the popular recognition of great qualities: he would prevail -through bounty and tolerance. Bona was his crux--Bona, and the secretary -Simonetta, a fellow incorruptibly devoted to the reigning family. While -these two lived in credit with the duchy, the regency was secure from -him, and the State, he told himself, from progress. For what -woman-regent had ever mothered an era of enlightenment? Good for Milan, -good for Lombardy, could he once discredit and ruin Bona and Simonetta. -They would fall together. The uses of Tassino as an instrument to this -end had occurred to him--only to be rejected. How could he hope so to -disgrace corruption in corruption's eyes? Such puppyish intrigue was -not worth even the Duke's interference. He rated that curly perfumed -head in Bona's lap at exactly the value of a puppy's. - -But, with the advent of the stranger, the little pseudo-oracle, the -child Tiresias, sweet and blind as Cupid, a sounder opportunity offered. -To involve Bona in the defilement of this purity, in the violating of -this holy trust, adored by the people and bequeathed to her by her -lord--that was, in the vernacular, another pair of shoes. He had noted, -with secret gratification, her first coquetting with the pretty toils. -He had heard, with plenteous dismay, of the boy's untimely secession. -But he possessed, almost alone in his tumultuous time, the faculty of -patience; and he was well served by his well-paid spies and agents. -Almost before he could order their reports, almost before he could gauge -the significance of one especial piece of information they gave him, the -boy, won to forgiveness, was back at court again. Thenceforth he saw -his way smoothly, if any term so bland could be applied to such a -devious course of policy. - -That was a matter of cross-roads, leading from, or to, himself, the mute -signpost of direction. One, for instance, pointed to Bona's disgrace -through Bembo; another to Simonetta's disgrace through Bona's disgrace; -a third, to Bembo's downfall; a fourth, and last, to his nephew's -orphaned minority. And the meeting-place, the nucleus, of all these -tendencies was--where he himself stood, on a grave. For did they not -bury suicides at cross-roads, and was not Galeazzo's policy suicidal? -Of all these birds he might kill three, at least, with one stone; and -that stone, he believed, was already in his hand, or nearly. - -Let it not be supposed that Ludovico was a wicked man. He was destined -to bear one of the greatest of the renaissance reputations; but that -reputation was to draw no less from munificence than from magnificence, -from tolerance than from power. He stood, at this time, on the forehead -of an epoch, feeling the promise of his wings, poising and waiting only -for their maturity. His sympathies were all with progress, with moral -emancipation. He was even now, in Milan (if it can be said without -blasphemy), comparable to Christ in Hades. In a filthy age he was -fastidious; precise and delicate in his speech; one of those men before -whom the insolence of moral offences is instinctively silent. -Guicciardini, a grudging Florentine, nevertheless pronounced him when he -came to rule, 'milde and mercifull'; Arluno credited him with a -sublimity of justice and benevolence. Others, less interested, -testified to his wisdom and sagacity, about which there was certainly no -disputing. If at any period the wrong that is ready to perpetrate -itself in order to procure good is justifiable, it was to be justified -in these corrupt years, when conformity with usage spelt putrefaction. -He could foresee no health for the State in patching its disease. He -was the operator predestined by Providence to remove, stock and block, -the cancer. - -Yet, though loving truth, he lied; yet, though hating the sight of -blood, he procured its shedding; yet, though admiring virtue, he did not -hesitate to prostitute it to his ends. There were crimes attributed to -him of which he was no doubt innocent; there were lesser, or worse, -unrecorded, of which he was no doubt guilty. Feeling himself, by -temperament and intellect, the inevitable instrument of a vast -emancipation, recognising his call to be as peremptory as it was -unconsidered, he had no choice, in obeying it, but to cast scruples to -the winds. With him, as with his contemporary the English Richard, a -deep fervour of patriotism was at once the goad and the destruction. -Judgment on the means both took to vindicate their commissions rests -with the gods, who first inspired, then repudiated them. But there is -no logic in Olympus. - -Ludovico was sitting one evening in his private cabinet in the castello, -when a lady was announced to him by the soft-voiced page. Every one -instinctively subdued his speech in the presence of Messer Ludovico, -even the rough venderaccios who occasionally came to make him their -reports or receive his instructions. - -The lady came in, and stood silent as a statue by the heavy portiere, -which, closed, cut off all eavesdropping as effectively as a mattress. -Nevertheless Messer Ludovico waited for full assurance of the page's -withdrawal before he rose, and courteously greeted his visitor. - -'Ave, Madonna Beatrice!' he said. 'You are welcome as the moonlight in -my poor apartment.' - -It was so far from being that, as to make the compliment an -extravagance. Yet the beauty of the woman in her long black robe and -mantle, and little black silk cap dropping wings of muslin, sorted -gravely enough with the slumberous gold of picture frames under the -lamplight, and all the sombre sparkle of gems and glass and silver with -which the chamber was strewed in a considered disorder. - -'You sent for me, Messer, and I have come,' she said. Her low, -untroubled voice was quite in keeping with the rest. - -'Fie, fie!' he answered smoothly. 'I begged a privilege, I begged an -honour--with diffidence, of one so lately stricken. Will you be seated -while I stand?' - -As her subject, he meant to imply. She accepted the condescension for -what it was worth. He bent his heavy eyebrows on her pleasantly. They -were full and shaggy for so young a man. Presently she found the -silence intolerable. - -'You sent for me, Messer,' she repeated coldly. 'Will you say on -account of which of your interests?' - -'See the dangerous intuition of your sex!' he retorted smilingly--'a -weapon wont to cut its wielder's hand. On account of _your_ interest, -purely.' - -She glanced up at him with insolent incredulity. - -'True,' he said. 'I desired only to save you the consequences of an -imprudence. That troth-ring, Madonna, our Duchess's: is it not rather a -perilous toy to play with?' - -She was startled, for all her immobility--so startled, that he could see -the breath jump in her bosom. But, in the very gasp of her fear, she -caught herself to recollection, and stiffened, silent, to the ordeal she -felt was coming. - -'How did I know it was in your possession?' he said, with a little -whisper of a laugh. 'Your beauty is ever more speaking than your lips, -Madonna; but I am an oracle: I can read the unspoken question. There is -a creature, Narcisso his name, once fellow to a loved servant of our -court. You know Messer Lanti? an honest, bluff gentleman. He did well -to part with such a dangerous rogue. Why, the times are complicate: we -should be choice in our confidants. This Narcisso is very well to slit -a throat; but to negotiate a delicate theft----' - -He paused. 'Go on,' she whispered. - -'I will be frank as day,' he purred. ''Twas seen on this rogue's -finger, when making for your house. It was not there when he left.' - -'The gloating fool!' She stabbed out the words. 'Seen! By whom?' - -'By one,' he answered, 'whose business it was to look for it.' - -'Who, I say?' - -'Most high lady, the very predestined man--no other. Would you still ask -who? I had thought you more accomplished. Intrigue, like a statue, is -not carved out with a single tool. The eyes, the ears, the lips, each -demand their separate instrument. Dost thou seek to shape all with one? -O, fie, fie!' - -He shook his finger gaily at her. She sat, frowning, with her hands -clenched before her; but she gave no answer. - -'Why, I am but a tyro,' said the prince; 'yet could I teach thee, it -seems, some first precepts in our craft--as thus: Use things most useful -for their uses; employ not your dagger as a shoe-horn, or it may chance -to cut your heel; an instrument hath its purpose and design; think not -one password will unlock all camps; selection is the cream of -policy--and so on.' - -She started to her feet, in an instant resolution. - -'I have the ring,' she said. - -He bowed suavely. She stared at him. - -'What then, Messer?' - -'Why,' he said, 'only that, do you not think, it were safer in my hands -than in yours?' - -'Safer!' she cried in a suppressed voice; 'for whom?' - -'Yourself,' he answered serenely. - -'Ah!' she cried, 'you would threaten, if I refuse, to destroy me with -it?' - -He made a deprecating motion with his hands. - -'Beware,' she said fiercely; 'I can retort. Where is Tassino?' - -He looked at her kindly. - -'Madonna, do you not know? Nay, do I not know that you know? He lies -hidden in the burrow of this same Narcisso.' - -'At whose instigation? Not yours, Messer--O no, of course, not yours!' - -His lips never changed from their expression of smiling good-humour. - -'Entirely at mine,' he said. - -She gave a little gasp. His subtlety was too chill a thing for her -fire; but she struggled against her quenching by it. - -'Why do you not produce him, then? Do you not know that he is cried for -high and low? that he is wanted to complete his contract with the -armourer's drab? It is an ill thing to cross, this present ecstasy of -conversion. We are all Bernardines now--lunatics--latter-day -Cistercians--raging neophytes of love.' - -'While the ecstasy lasts,' he murmured, unruffled. - -'Ah!' she cried violently, 'yet may it last your time. Fanaticism is no -respecter of rank or service. Standest thou so well with Bona? She -would have racked the racker himself in the first fury of her -contrition--torn confession from Jacopo's sullen throat with iron hooks, -had not her saint rebuked her. Tassino had been last seen by him in the -man's company, but, when they went to look for him, he was gone. When -or whither, the fellow swore he knew not. It was like enough, thou -being the lure. Will you not produce him now, and save your peace?' - -Ludovico, regarding her vehemence from under half-closed lids, exhibited -not the slightest tremor. - -'Madonna,' he said, 'thy mourning beauty becometh thee like Cassandra's. -Hast thou, too, so angered Apollo with thy continence as to make him -nullify in thee his own gift of prophecy? Alas, that lips so moving -must be so discounted in their warnings!' - -She drew back, chilled and baffled. - -'Thou wilt not?' she muttered. 'Well, then, thou wilt not. Take thou -thine own course; I may not know thy purpose.' - -For a moment the cold of him deepened to deadliness, and his voice to an -iron hardness:-- - -'Nor any like thee--self-seekers--dominated by some single lust. _My_ -purpose is a labyrinth of Cnossus. Beware, rash fools, who would seek to -unravel it!' - -Her lips were a little parted; the fine wings of her nostrils quivered. -For all her bravery she felt her heart constricting as in the frost of -some terror which she could neither gauge nor compass. But, in the very -instant of her fear, Ludovico was his own bland self again. - -'Tools, tools!' he said smiling--'for the eyes, the ears, the lips. I -shall take up this one when I need it, not before. Meanwhile it lies -ready to my hand.' - -'I do not doubt thy cunning,' she said faintly. - -'What then, Madonna?' he asked. - -She struggled with herself, swallowing with difficulty. - -'Its adequacy for its purpose--that is all.' - -'What purpose?' - -She looked up, and dared him:-- - -'To destroy the Duchess.' - -He laughed out, tolerantly. - -'Intuition! Intuition! O thou self-wounding impulse! To destroy the -Duchess? Well! What is thy ring for? To destroy Monna Beatrice, -belike. And Monna Beatrice had her instrument too, they will say -afterwards--a blunt, coarse blade, but hers, hers only--as she thought. -Yet, it seems, one Ludovic used something of him, this Narcisso, -also--played him for his ends--marked him down, even, for landlord to a -fribble called Tassino. What, Carissima! He hath not told thee so -much?' - -She shook her head dully. - -'No?' mocked the Prince. 'And ye such sworn allies! O sweet, you shall -learn policy betimes! You will not yield the ring? Well, there is -Tassino, as you say. Play him against it.' - -She knew she dared not. The vague implication of forces and -understandings behind all this banter quite cowed her. She had defied -the serpent, and been struck and overcome. Hate was no match for this -craft. But emotion remained. She dwelt a long minute on his smooth, -impenetrable face; then, all in an instant, yielded up her sex, and -stole towards him, arms and moist eyes entreating. - -'I dared thee; I was wrong. Only----' - -Her palms trembled on his shoulders; her bosom heaved against his hand. - -'I have suffered, what only a woman can. O, Messer, let me keep the -ring!' - -Her voice possessed him like an embrace; the soft pleading of it made -any concession to his kindness possible. He was very sensitive to all -emotions of loveliness, but with the rare gift of reasoning in -temptation. He shook his head. - -'Ah!' she murmured, 'let me. Thou shalt find jealousy a hot ally.' - -She pressed closer to him. He neither resisted nor invited. - -'Most excellent sweetness,' he said gently. 'I melt upon this -confidence. Henceforth we'll bury misunderstanding, and kiss upon his -grave. But truth with sugar is still a drug. A jealous woman is bad in -policy. Trust her always to destroy her betrayer, though through -whatever betrayal of her friends. Besides, forgive me, Messer Bembo may -yet prove accommodating.' - -At that she dropped her hands and stepped back. - -'Is this to bury misunderstanding?' she cried low. 'O, I would _I_ were -Duchess of Milan.' - -'More impossible things might happen,' he said thickly, for all his -self-control. - -She stared at him fascinated a moment; then swiftly advanced again. - -'Let me keep the ring,' she urged hoarsely. 'I could set something -against it--some knowledge--some information.' - -He had mastered himself in the interval; and now stood pondering upon -her and fondling his chin. - -'Yes?' he murmured. 'But it must be something to be worth.' - -She hesitated; then spoke out:-- - -'A plot to kill the Duke--no more.' - -The two stared at one another. She could see a pulse moving in his -throat; but when at last he spoke, it was without emotion. - -'Indeed, Madonna? They are so many. When is this particular one to -be?' - -'Do you not know?' she answered as derisively as she dared. 'I thought -you had a tool for everything. Well, it is to be in Milan.' - -'In Milan--as before,' he repeated ironically. 'And the heads of this -conspiracy, Madonna?' - -'Ah!' she cried, with a sigh of triumph; 'they are yours at the price of -the ring.' - -He canvassed her a little, but profoundly. - -'After all,' he murmured, 'why should I seek to know?' - -'Why?' she said, with a laugh of recovering scorn, 'why but to nip it in -its bud, Messer?' - -He was quick to grasp this implied menace of retaliation. - -'Tell me,' he said, 'why are you so hot to retain this same ring?' - -'For only a woman's reason,' she answered. 'Wouldst thou understand it? -Not though I spoke an hour by St. Ambrose' clock. I would deal the blow -myself, in my own way--that is all.' - -'Thou wouldst ruin Bona?' - -'Ay, and her saint, who robbed me of my love.' - -'By her connivance? Marry, be honest, sweet lady. Was it not rather -Messer Bembo who denied you Messer Bembo?' - -'Will you have the names?' - -'Hold a little. Here's matter black enough, but unsupported. I must -have some proof. Tell me who's your informant?' - -'And have you go and bleed him? Nay, I am learning my tools.' - -'Bravo!' he said, and kissed his hand to her. 'Well, I see, we must -call a truce awhile.' - -'And I will keep the ring,' she said. - -He beamed thoughtfully on her. No doubt he was considering the -possibility of improving the interval by rooting out, on his own -account, details of the secret she held from him. - -'Provisionally,' he said pleasantly--'provisionally, Madonna; so long as -you undertake to make no use of it until you hear from me my decision.' - -'The longer that is delayed, the better for your purpose, Messer,' she -dared to say. - -He smiled blankly at her a little; then courteously advancing, and -raising her hand, imprinted a fervent kiss on it. - -'Though I fail to gather your meaning,' he said, 'it is nevertheless -certain that you would make a very imposing Duchess, Monna Beatrice.' - - - - - *CHAPTER XVI* - - -'Father Abbot, we thank you for your trust. We were less than human to -abuse it. O, it flew with white wings to shelter in our bosom! Shall -we be hawks to such a dove! Take comfort. It hath ruffled its feathers -on our heart; it hath settled itself thereon, and hatched out a winged -love. Pure spirit of the Holy Ghost, whence came it? From a star, they -say, born of some wedlock between earth and sky. I marvel you could -part with it. I could never.... The pretty chuck! What angel heresies -it dares! "Marry," saith the dove, "I have been discussing with Christ -the subtleties of dogmatic definition, and I find he is no Christian." -This for intolerance! He finds honesty in schism--speaks with assurance -of our Saviour, his discourses with Him by the brook, in the garden, -under the trees--but doubtless you know. How can we refute such -evidence, or need to? Alas! we are not on speaking terms with divinity. -But we listen and observe; and we woo our winsome dove with pretty -scarves and tabbards embroidered by our fingers; and some day we too -hope to hear the voices. Not yet; the earth clings to us; but he dusts -it off. "Make not beauty a passion, but passion a beauty," says he. -"Learn that temperance is the true epicurism of life. The palate cloys -on surfeit." O, we believe him, trust me! and never his pretty head is -turned by our adoring.... "By love to make law unnecessary,"--there -runs his creed: the love of Nature's truths--continence, sobriety, mate -bound to mate like birds. Only our season's life. He convinces us -apace. Already Milan sweetens in the sun. We curb all licence, yield -heat to reason, clean out many vanities; have our choirs of pure maidens -in place of the Bacchidae--hymns, too, meet to woo Pan to Christ, of -which I could serve thee an example.... All in all, we prepare for a -great Feast of the Purification which, at the New Year's beginning, is -to symbolise our re-conversion to Nature's straight religion. Then will -be a rare market in doves--let us pray there be at least--which all, -conscious of the true virgin heart, are to bring. Doves! Alack! which -of us would not wish to be worthy to carry one that we know?' - -So wrote the Duchess of Milan to the Abbot of San Zeno, and he -answered:-- - -'Cherish my lamb. The fold yearns for him. He would leave it, despite -us all. My daughter, be gracious to our little dreamer, for of such is -the Kingdom of Heaven.' - -For years after it was become the dimmest of odd memories, men and women -would recall, between laughter and tears, the strange little moral -fantasia which, during a month or two of that glowing autumn of 1476, -all Milan had been tickled into dancing to the pipe of a small shepherd -of a New Arcadia. The measure had certainly seemed inspiring enough at -the time--potential, original, weaving an earnest purpose with joy, -revealing novel raptures of sensation in the seemliness of postures, -which claimed to interpret Nature out of the very centre of her -spiritual heart. David dancing before the ark must have exhibited just -such an orderly abandonment as was displayed by these sober-rollicking -Pantheists of the new cult. Crossness with them was sunk to an -impossible discount. There was no market for gallantry, _epanchements_, -or any billing and cooing whatever but of doves. Instead, there came -into vogue intercourses between Dioneus and Flammetta of sweet unbashful -reasonableness; high-junkettings on chestnut-meal and honey; the most -engaging attentions, in the matter of grapes and sweet biscuits and -infinite bon-bons, towards the little furred and feathered innocents of -the countryside. That temperance really was, according to the angelic -propagandist, the true epicurism, experience no less astonishing than -agreeable came to prove. Then was the festival of beans and bacon -instituted by some jaded palates. Charity and consideration rose on all -sides in a night, like edible and nutritious funguses. From Hallowmas to -Christmas there was scarce a sword whipped from its scabbard but -reflection returned it. It was no longer, with Gregory and Balthazar, -'Sir, do you bite your thumb at me? Sir, the wall to you,' but 'Sir, I -see your jostling of me was unavoidable; Sir, your courtesy turns my -asps to roses.' Nature and the natural decencies were on all tongues; -the licences of eye and ear and lip were rejected for abominations -unpalatable to any taste more refined than yesterday's. Modesty ruled -the fashions and made of Imola an Ippolita, and of Aurelio an Augustine. -The women, as a present result, were all on the side of Nature. -Impudicity with them is never a cause but a consequence. They found an -amazing attractiveness in the pretty dogma which rather encouraged than -denounced in them the graceful arts of self-adornment. 'Naked, like the -birds,' attested their little priest, 'do we come to inherit our -Kingdom. Shall we be more blamed than they for adapting to ourselves -the plumages of that bright succession?' Only he pleaded for a perfect -adaptation to conditions--to form, climate, environments, constitution. -The lines of all true beauty, he declared, were such as both suggested -and defended. Could monstrosities of head furniture, for instance, -appeal to any but a monster? Locks, thereat, were delivered from their -fantastic convolutions, from their ropes of pearls, from their gold-dust -and iris-powder, and were heaped or coiled _di sua natura_, as any girl, -according to circumstances, might naturally dispose of them. There was -a general holocaust of extravagances, with some talk of feeding the -sacrifice with fuel of useless confessional boxes; and, in the -meanwhile, the church took snuff and smiled, and the devil hid his tail -in a reasonable pair of breeches, and endured all the inconveniences of -sitting on it without a murmur. - -Alas! 'How quick bright things come to confusion!' But the moment -while it held gathered the force of an epoch; and no doubt much moral -amendment was to derive from it. Intellect in a sweet presence makes a -positive of an abstract argument; and when little Bembo asserted, in -refutation of the agnostics, that man's dual personality was proved by -the fact of his abhorring in others the viciousnesses which his flesh -condoned in himself, the statement was accepted for the dictum of an -inspired saint. But his strength of the moment lay chiefly in his -undeviating consistency with his own queer creed. He never swerved from -his belief in the soul's responsibility to its past, or of its -commitment to a retrogressive movement after death. 'We drop, fainting, -out of the ranks in a desolate place,' he said. 'We come to, alone and -abandoned. Shall we, poor mercenaries, repudiating a selfish cause, not -turn our faces to the loved home, far back, from which false hopes -beguiled us? Be, then, our way as we have made it, whether by -forbearance or rapine.' Again he would say: 'Take, so thy to-day be -clean, no fearful thought for thy to-morrow, any more than for thy -possible estrangement from thy friend. There is nothing to concern thee -now (which is all that _is_) but thy reason, love, and justice of this -moment. They are the faculty, devotion, and quality to which, blended, -thy soul may trust itself for its fair continuance.' - -There was a little song of his, very popular with the court gentlemen in -these days of their regeneracy, which, as exemplifying the strengths and -weaknesses of his propaganda, is here given:-- - - 'Here's a comrade blithe - To the wild wood hieth-- - Follow and find! - Loving both least and best, - His love takes still a zest - From the song-time of the wind. - - The chuckling birds they greet him, - The does run forth to meet him-- - Follow and find! - Strange visions shall thou see; - Learn lessons new to thee - In the song-time of the wind. - - Couldst, then, the dear bird kill - That kiss'd thee with her bill? - Follow and find - How great, having strength, to spare - That trusting Soft-and-fair - In the song-time of the wind. - - He is both God and Man; - He is both Christ and Pan-- - Follow and find - How, in the lovely sense, - All flesh being grass, wakes thence - The song-time of the wind. - - -It was, I say, popular with the Lotharios. The novelty of this sort of -renunciation tickled their sensoriums famously. It suggested a quite -new and captivating form of self-indulgence, in the rapture to be -gathered from an indefinite postponement of consummations. The sense of -gallantry lies most in contemplation. I do not think it amounted to -much more. Teresa and Elisabetta enjoyed their part in the serio-comic -sport immensely, and were the most cuddlesome lambs, frisking -unconscious under the faltering knife of the butcher. Madonna Caterina -laughed immoderately to see their great mercy-pleading eyes coquetting -with the greatly-withheld blade. But then she had no bump of reverence. -The little wretch disliked sanctity in any form; loved aggressiveness -better than meekness; was always in her heart a little Amazonian -terrier-bitch, full of fight and impudence. It might have gone crossly -with Messer Bembo had she been in her adoptive mother's position of -trustee for him. - -But luckily, or most unluckily for the boy, he was in more accommodating -hands. This was the acute period of his proselytising. He had been -persuaded back to court, and Bona had received him with moist eyes and -open arms, and indeed a very yearning pathos of emotionalism, which had -gathered a fataler influence from the contrition which in the first -instance must be his. He had stood before her not so much rebuking as -rebuked. Knowing her no longer saint, but only erring woman, it added a -poignancy to his remorse that he had led her into further error by his -abuse of her trust. She had answered his confession with a lovely -absolution:-- - -'What is lost is lost. Thou art the faithfullest warrant of my true -observance of my lord's wishes. Only if thou abandon'st me am I -betrayed.' - -Could he do aught after this but love her, accept her, her fervour and -her penitence, for a first factor in the crusade he had made his own? -And, while the soft enchantment held, no general could have wished a -loyaler adjutant, or one more ready to first-example in herself the -sacrifices he demanded. She abetted him, as she had promised, in all -his tactics; lent the full force of an authority, which his sweetness -and modesty could by no means arrogate to himself, to compel the reforms -he sang. She gave, amongst other gifts, her whole present soul to the -righting of the wrong done to the girl Lucia and her father; and when -all her efforts to discover the vanished Tassino had failed, and she, -having sent on her own initiative a compensatory purse of gold to the -blind armourer, had learned how Lucia had banged the gift and the door -in the messenger's face, was readily mollified by Bernardo's tender -remonstrance: 'Ah, sweet Madonna! what gold can give her father eyes, or -her child a name!' - -'What! it is born?' she murmured. - -'I saw it yesterday,' said Bembo. 'It lay in her lap, like the billet -that kills a woman's heart.' - -And, indeed, he had not, because of his re-exaltation, ceased to visit -his friends, or to go to occasional discussion with the crabbed Montano; -whose moroseness, nevertheless, was petrifying. Yet had he even sought -to interest the Duchess there; though, for once, without avail; for she -dared not seem to lend her countenance to that banned, if injured, -misanthrope. - -So she led the chorus to his soloing, and helped and mothered him with -an infatuation beyond a mother's. Like the Emperor's jewelled -nightingale, he was the sweetest bird to pet while his tricks were new. -His voice entranced the echoes of those sombre chambers and -blood-stained corridors. The castello was reconsecrated in his breath, -and the miasma from its fearful pits dispelled. His lute was his -psalter and psaltery in one: it interpreted him to others, and himself -to himself. Its sob was his sorrow, and its joy his jubilance. He -could coax from it wings to expression inexpressible by speech alone. -Here is one of his latest parables, or apologues, baldly running, as it -appears, on the familiar theme, which, through that vehicle, he -translated for his hearers into rapture:-- - - 'Down by a stream that muttered under ice-- - Winter's thin wasted voice, straining for air-- - Lo! Antique Pan, gnawing his grizzled beard. - - Chill was the earth, and all the sky one stone, - The shrunk sedge shook with ague; the wild duck, - Squattering in snow, sent out a feeble cry. - Like a stark root the black swan's twisted neck - Writhed in the bank. The hawk shook by the finch; - The stoat and rabbit shivered in one hole; - And Nature, moaning on a bedded drift, - Cried for delivery from her travail:-- - - "O Pan! what dost thou? Long the Spring's delayed! - O Pan! hope sickens. Son, where art thou gone?" - - Thereat he heaved his brows; saw the starved fields, - The waste and horror of a world's eclipse; - And all the wrong and all the pity of it - Rushed from him in a roar:-- - "I'm passed, deposed: call on another Pan! - Call Christ--the ates foretel him--he'll respond. - I'm old; grown impotent; a toothless dog. - New times, new blood: the world forgets my voice. - This Christ supplants me: call on him, I say. - Whence comes he? Whence, if not from off the streets? - Some coxcomb of the Schools, belike--some green, - Anaemic, theoretic verderer, - Shaping his wood-lore from the Herbary, - And Nature from his brazen window-pots. - The Fates these days have gone to live in town-- - Grown doctrinaires--forgot their rustic loves. - Call on their latest nominee--call, call! - He'll ease thee of thy produce, bear it home, - And in alembics test and recompose it. - Call, in thine agony--loud--call on Christ: - He'll hear maybe, and maybe understand!" - - "No Pan," she wailed: "No other Pan than thou!" - - "What!" roared he, mocking: "Christ not understand? - Your loves, your lores, your secrets--will he not? - Not by his books be master of your heart? - Gods! I am old. I speak but by the woods; - And often nowadays to rebel ears. - He'll do you better: fold your fogs in bales; - Redeem your swamps; sweep up your glowing leaves; - People his straight pastures with your broods; - Shape you for man, to be his plain helpmeet; - No toys, no tricks, no mysteries, no sports-- - But sense and science, scorning smiles and tears." - - Raging, he rose: A light broke on the snow: - The ice upon the river cracked and spun: - Long milky-ways of green and starry flowers - Grew from the thaw: the trees nipped forth in bud: - The falcon sleeked the wren; the stoat the hare; - And Nature with a cry delivered was. - - Pan stared: A naked child stood there before him, - Warming a frozen robin in his hands. - Shameless the boy was, fearless, white as milk; - No guile or harm; a sweet rogue in his eyes. - And he looked up and smiled, and lisped a word:-- - - "Brother, _thou_ take and cure him, make him well. - Or teach _me_ of thy lore his present needs." - - "_Brother!_" choked Pan. "_My_ father was a God. - Who art thou?" "Nature's baby," said the child. - "Man was _my_ father; and my name is Christ." - - He slid his hand within the woodman's palm:-- - "Dear elder brother, guide me in my steps. - I bring no gift but love, no tricks but love's-- - To make sweet flowers of frost--locked hearts unfold-- - The coney pledge the weasel in a kiss. - Canst thou do these?" "No, by my beard," said Pan. - - Gaily the child laughed: "Clever brother thou art; - Yet can I teach thee something." "All," said Pan. - - He groaned; the child looked up; flew to his arms:-- - "O, by the womb that bore us both, do love me!" - - A minute sped: the river hushed its song: - The linnet eyed the falcon on its branch: - The bursting bud hung motionless--And Pan - Gave out a cry: "New-rooted, not deposed! - Come, little Christ!" So hand in hand they passed, - Nature's two children reconciled at last.' - - -And what about Messer Lanti and the Fool Cicada during this period of -their loved little saint's apotheosis? Were _they_ more _advocati -diaboli_ than Bona? Alas! they were perhaps the only two, in all that -volatile city, to accept him, with a steadfast and indomitable faith, at -his true worth. There was no angelic attribute, which Carlo, the honest -blaspheming neophyte, would not have claimed for him--with blows, by -choice; no rebuke, nor suggestion, nor ordinance issuing from his lips, -which he would not accept and act upon, after the necessary little show -of self-easing bluster. It was as comical as pathetic to observe the -dear blunderhead's blushing assumptions of offence, when naughtiness -claimed his intimacy; his exaggerated relish of spring water; his stout -upholding, on an empty stomach, of the aesthetic values of abstinence. -But he made a practical virtue of his conversion, and was become -frequent in evidence, with his strong arm and voice and influence, as a -Paladin on behalf of the oppressed. He and Cicada were the boy's -bristling watch-dogs, mastiff and lurcher; and were even drawn, by that -mutual sympathy, into a sort of scolding partnership, defensive and -aggressive, which had for its aim the vindication of their common love. -There, at least, was some odd rough fruit of the reconciliation preached -by little Bembo between the God-man and the man-Nature. Such a -relationship had been impossible in the old days of taskmaster and -clown. Now it was understood between them, without superfluous words, -that each held the other responsible to him for his incorruptible -fidelity to his trust, and himself for a sleepless attention to the duty -tacitly and by implication assigned to be his. That is to say, Messer -Carlo's strength and long sword, and the other's shrewd wit, were -assumed, as it were, for the right and left bucklers to the little -charioteer as he drove upon his foes. - -Carlo had a modest conception of his own abilities; yet once he made the -mistake of appropriating to himself a duty--or he thought it one--rather -appertaining to his fellow buckler. They had been, the Fool and -himself, somewhat savagely making merry on the subject of Bona's -conversion--in the singleness of which, to be candid, they had not much -faith--when his honest brain conceived the sudden necessity of bluntly -warning the little Bernardino of the danger he was courting in playing -with such fire. His charge, no sooner realised than acted upon, took -the boy, so to speak, in the wind. Bembo gasped; and then -counter-buffed with angelic fury:-- - -'Who sleeps with a taper in his bed invites his own destruction? Then -wert thou sevenfold consumed, my Carlo. O, shame! she is my mother!' - -'Nay, but by adoption,' stammered the other abashed. - -'Her assumption of the name should suffice to spare her. O, thou pagan -irreclaimable--right offspring of Vesta and the incestuous Saturn! Is -this my ultimate profit of thee? Go hide thy face from innocence.' - -Lanti, thus bullied, turned dogged. - -'I will hide nothing. Abuse my candour; spit on my love if thou wilt, -it will endure for its own sake,' and he flung away in a rage. - -But he had better have deputed the Fool to a task needing diplomacy. -Cicada laughed over his grievance when it was exploded upon him. - -'Shouldst have warned Bona herself, rather,' he said. - -'How!' growled the other: 'and been cashiered, or worse, for my pains?' - -'Not while her lost ring stands against her; and thou, her private agent -for its recovery.' - -'True; from the mud.' - -'Well, if thou think'st so.' - -'Dost thou not?' - -'Ay; for as mud is mud, Narcisso is Narcisso.' - -'Narcisso!' - -He roared, and stared. - -'Has _he_ got it?' - -'I do not say so.' - -'I will go carve the truth out of him.' - -'Or Monna Beatrice.' - -'What!' - -The great creature fairly gasped; then muttered, in a strangled voice: -'Why should she want it? What profit to her?' - -'What, indeed?' whined the Fool. 'She fancies Messer Bembo too well to -wish to injure him, or through him, Bona--does she not?' - -Carlo's brow slowly blackened. - -'I will go to her,' he said suddenly. The Fool leapt to bar his way. - -'You would do a foolish thing,' he said--'with deference, always with -deference, Messer. This is my part. Leave it to me.' - -Carlo choked, and stood breathing. - -'Why,' said the Fool, 'these are the days of circumspection. God, says -Propriety, made out hands and faces, and whatever else that is not -visible was the devil's work. You would be shown, by Monna Beatrice, -for all her self-acknowledged parts, just clean hands and a smiling -face. She conforms to fashion. For the rest, the devil will attend to -his own secrets.' - -The other groaned:-- - -'I would I could fathom thee. I would I had the ring.' - -'I would thou hadst,' answered Cicada. ''Twould be a good ring to set -in our Duchess's little nose, to persuade her from routling in -consecrated ground: a juster weapon in thy hands than in some other's. -Well, be patient; I may obtain it for thee yet.' - -He meant, at least, to set his last wits to the task. Somehow, he was -darkly and unshakably convinced, this same Lion ring was the pivot upon -which all his darling's fortunes turned. That it was not really lost, -but was being held concealed, by some jealous spirit or spirits, against -the time most opportune for procuring the boy's, and perhaps others', -destruction by its means, he felt sure. All Milan was not in one mind -as to the disinterested motives of its Nathan. Tassino, Narcisso, the -dowager of Casa Caprona, even the urbane Messer Ludovico himself, to -name no others, could hardly be shown their personal profits in the -movement. They might all, as the world's ambitions went, be excused -from coveting the stranger's promotion. And there was no doubt that, at -present, he was paramount in the eyes of the highest. That, in itself, -was enough to make his sweet office the subject of much scepticism and -blaspheming. Tough, wary work for the watch-dogs, Cicada pondered. That -same evening he was walking in the streets, when a voice, Visconti's, -muttered alongside him:-- - -'Good Patch, hast been loyal so far to thy bargain. Hold to it for thy -soul's sake. There are adders in Milan.' Then he bent closer, and -whispered: 'A word in thy ear: is the ring found yet?' - -The Fool's hard features did not twitch. He shook his head. - -'Marry, sir,' answered he, as low, 'the mud is as close a confidant as -I. I have not heard of its blabbing.' - -'So much the better,' murmured the other, and glided away. But he left -Cicada thinking. - -'It was not for them, then, the conspirators, that Narcisso stole it. -And yet he stole it--that I'll be sworn. For whom? Why, for Monna -Beatrice. For why? Why, for a purpose that I'll circumvent--when I -guess it. A passenger going by cursed him under his breath. The oath, -profound and heartfelt, was really a psychologic note in the context of -this history. Cicada heard it, and, looking round, saw, to his -amazement, the form of the very monster of his present deliberations. - -Narcisso, the rancorous mongrel, having snarled his hatred of an old -associate, who, he verily believed, had once betrayed him, slouched, -with a heavier vindictiveness, on his way. The Fool, inspired, skipped -into cover, and peeped. He knew that the coward creature, once secure -of his distance, would turn round to sputter and glower. He was not -wrong there, nor in his surmise that, finding him vanished, Narcisso -would continue his road in reassurance of his fancied security. He saw -him actually turn and glare; distinguished, as plainly as though he -heard it, the villainous oath with which the monster flounced again to -his gait. And then, very cautiously, he came out of his hiding, and -slunk in pursuit. - -It could serve, at least, no bad purpose, he thought, to track the beast -to his lair; and, with infinite circumspection, he set himself to the -task. - -It proved a simple one, after all--the more so as the animal, it -appeared, was tenant in a very swarming warren, where concealment was -easy. It was into a frowzy hole that, in the end, he saw him -disappear--a tunnel, with a grating over it, like a sewer-trap. - -And so, satisfied and not satisfied, he was turning away, when he was -conscious in a moment of a face looking from the grating. - -A minute later, threading his path along a by-alley, he emerged upon a -sweeter province of the town, and stood to disburden himself of a mighty -breath. - -'So!' he muttered: 'He is there, is he! Well, the plot grows -complicate.' - - - - - *CHAPTER XVII* - - -There was a quarter of Milan into which the new light penetrated with -some odd uncalculated effects. It was called, picturesquely enough, -'The Vineyard,' and as such certainly produced a great quantity of -full-blooded fruit. Vines that batten on carrion grow fat; and here was -the mature product of a soil so enriched. There was no disputing its -appetising quality. That derived from the procreant old days of -paganism, before the germ of the first headache had flown out of -Pandora's box into a bung-hole. 'The Vineyard's' body yet owed to -tradition, if centuries of adulteration had demoralised its spirit. -Still, altogether, it was faithfuller of the soil, self-consciously -nearer to the old Nature, than was ever the extrinsic Guelph or -Ghibelline that had usurped its kingdom. Wherefore, it seemed, it had -elected to construe this new reactionism, this _redintegratio amoris_, -this sudden much-acclaiming of Nature, into a special vindication of -itself, its tastes, methods and appetites, as representing the -fundamental truth of things; and, _ex consequenti_, to appropriate -Messer Bembo for its own particular champion and apologist. - -Alas, poor Parablist! There is always that awakening for an enlightened -agitator in any democratic mission. Does he look for some comprehension -by the Demos of the necessity of _radical_ reform, his eyes will be -painfully opened. The pruning, by its leave, shall never be among the -suckers down by the root, but always among the lordly blossoms. Shall -Spartacus once venture openly to stoop with his knife, he shall lose at -a blow the popular suffrage. At a later date, Robespierre, who was not -enlightened, had to subscribe to the misapplication of his own reforms, -or be crushed by the demon he had raised. Here in Milan, 'The Vineyard' -was the first to renounce its champion, when once it found itself to be -intimately included in that champion's neo-Christianising scheme. - -Alas, poor Parablist! Not Reason but Fanaticism is the convincing -reformer! the bigot, not the saint, the effective drover of men. - -In the meanwhile 'The Vineyard' swaggered and held itself a thought more -brazenly than heretofore, on the strength of its visionary election. -Always a clamorous rookery, one might have fancied at this time a -certain increase in the boisterous obscenity of its note, as that might -presage the fulfilment of some plan for its breaking out, and planting -itself in new black colonies all over the city. But as certainly, if -this were so, its illusionment was a very may-fly's dance. - -Now as, on a noon of this late Autumn, we are brought to penetrate its -intricacies, a certain symbolic fitness in its title may or may not -occur to us. Supposing that it does, we will accept this Via -Maladizione where we stand, this gorge of narrow high-flung tenements, -looped between with festoons of glowing rags, for the supports and dead -trailers of a gathered vintage. Below, the vats are full to brimming, -and the merchants of life and death forgathered in the markets. -Half-way down the street a little degraded church suddenly spouts a -friar, who, punch-like, hammers out on the steps his rendering of the -new nature, which is to remember its cash obligations to Christ, and so -vanishes again in a clap of the door. A barber, shaving a customer in -the open street, gapes and misses his stroke, thereby adding a trickle -to the sum of the red harvest. Mendicants pause and grin; oaths rise -and buzz on all sides, like dung-flies momentarily disturbed. And -predominant throughout, the vintagers, the true natives of the soil, -swarm and lounge and discuss, under a rent canopy, the chances of the -season and its likely profits. - -Ivory and nut-brown are they all, these vintagers, with cheeks like -burning leaves, and hair blue-black as grape-clusters, and eloquent -animal eyes, and, in the women, copious bosoms half-veiled in tatters, -like gourds swelling under dead foliage. But the milk that plumps these -gourds is still of the primeval quality. Tessa's passions are of the -ancient dimensions, if her religion is of to-day. Her assault and -surrender borrow nothing from convention. No billing and rhyming for -her, with canzonarists and madrigalists under the lemon trees, in the -days when the awnings are hung over to keep the young fruit from -scorching; but rough pursuit, rather, and capture and fulfilment--all -uncompromising. She is here to eat and drink and love, to enjoy and -still propagate the fruits of her natural appetites. She does not, like -Rosamonda, brush her teeth with crushed pearls; she whets and whitens -them on a bone. She does not powder her hair with gold dust; the sun -bronzes it for her to the scalp. No spikenard and ambergris make her -rags, or perfumed water her body, fragrant for her master's mouthing. -Yet is she desirable, and to know her is to taste something of the -sweetness of the apple that wrought the first discord. She is still a -child of Nature, though Messer Bembo's creed surpasses her best -understanding. She loves burnt almonds and barley-sugar, and crunches -them joyously whenever some public festival gives her the chance; but -the instincts of order and self-control are long vanished from the -category of her qualities, and she survives as she is more by virtue of -her enforced than her voluntary abstinences. For the rest, -civilisation--the civilisation that always encompasses without touching, -without even understanding her--has made her morals a terror, and the -morals of most of her comrades, male or female, of 'The Vineyard.' - -It is, in fact, the sink of Milan, is this vineyard--a very low quarter -indeed; and, it is to be feared, other red juice than grapes' swells the -profits from its vats. Here are to be found, and engaged, a rich -selection of the tagliacantoni, the hired bravos who kill on a sliding -scale of absolution, with fancy terms for the murder which allows no -time for an act of contrition. Here the soldier of fortune, who has -gambled away, with his sword and body-armour, the chances of an -engagement to cut throats honestly, festers for a midnight job, and -countersigns with every vein he opens his own compact with the devil. -Here the oligarchy of beggars has its headquarters, and composes its -budgets of social taxation; and here, finally, in the particular den of -one Narcisso, desperado and ladrone, hides and shivers Messer Tassino, -once a Duchess's favourite. - -He does not know why he is hidden here, or for what purpose Messer -Ludovico beguiled and threatened him from the more sympathetic custody -of his friend Jacopo, to deposit him in this foul burrow. But he feels -himself in the grip of unknown forces, and he fears and shivers greatly. -He is always shivering and snuffling is Messer Tassino; whining out, -too, in rebellious moods, his pitiful resentments and hatreds. His -little garish orbit is in its winter, and he cries vainly for the sun -that had seemed once to claim him to her own warmth and greatness. He -has heard of himself as renounced by her, condemned, and committed, on -his detested rival's warrant, to judgment by default. Yet, though it be -to save his mean skin, he cannot muster the moral courage to come forth -and right the wrong he has done. That, he knows, would spell his last -divorce from privilege; and he has not yet learned to despair. He had -been so petted and caressed, and--and there are no lusty babies to be -gathered from Messer Bembo's eyes. At least, he believes and hopes not; -and, in the meanwhile, he will lie close, and await developments a -little longer. - -Perhaps, after all, there is knowledge if little choice in his decision. -He may be justified, of his experience, in being sceptical of the -disinterestedness of spiritual emotionalism, or at least of the feminine -capacity for accepting its appeal disinterestedly. But of this he is -quite sure--that sanctity itself shall not propitiate, by mere virtue of -its incorruptibility, the woman it has scorned; and, in that certainty, -and by reason of that experience, he nurses the hope of still profiting -by the revulsion of feeling which he foresees will occur in a certain -high lady as a consequence of her rebuff. - -Still, however that may chance, he finds his present state intolerable. -It is not so much its dull and filthy circumstance that appals him, -though that is noxious enough to a boudoir exquisite; it is the shadow -of Messer Ludovico's purpose, shapeless, indistinct, eternally conning -him from the dark corners of his imagination, which takes the knees out -of his soul. Is he really his friend and patron, as he professes to be? -He recalls, with a sick shudder, how once, when in the full-flood of his -arrogance, he had dared to keep that smooth and accommodating prince -waiting in an ante-room while he had his hair dressed. He, Tassino, the -fungus of a night, had ventured to do this! What a fool he had been; -yet how worse than his own folly is the dissimulation which can ignore -for present profit so unforgettable an insult! It is not forgotten; it -cannot be; yet, to all appearances, Ludovico now visits him, on the rare -occasions when he does so, with the sole object of informing him, -sympathetically, of the progress of Bona's new infatuation. Why? He -has not the wit to fathom. Only he has not so much faith in this -disinterestedness as in the probability of its being a blind to some -deadly policy. - -How he hates them all--the Duchess, the Prince, the whole world of -courtly rascals who have flattered him out of his obscurity only to play -with and destroy him! If he can once escape from this trap, he will show -them he can bite their heels yet. But what hope is there of escaping -while Ludovico holds the secret of the spring? Day after day finds him -gnawing the bars, and whimpering out his spite and impotence. - -He has not failed, of course, to question his landlord Narcisso, or to -weep over the futile result. Even if the little wretch's tact and wit -were less negligible quantities, there is that of crafty doggedness in -his gaoler to baffle the shrewdest questioner. Deciding that the man is -in the paid confidence of the 'forces,' Tassino soon desists from -attempting to draw him, and vents on him instead his whole soul of -vengeful and disappointed spite. - -Narcisso, for his part, offers himself quite submissively to the comedy; -waits on him with a sniggering deference; stands while he eats; brings -water, none the most fragrant, for him to dip his fingers in afterwards; -dresses his hair with a broken comb, and takes his own dressing for -pulling it with a grinning impassivity; lends, in short, his huge -carcass in every way to be the other's butt and footstool. This -exercise in overbearance is a certain relief to the prisoner; but, for -all the rest, his time hangs deadlily on his hands. There are no -restrictions placed upon him. He is free to come and go--as he dares. -His terror is held his sufficient gaoler, and it suffices. He never, in -fact, puts his nose outside the door, but contents himself, like the -waspish little eremite he has become, with criticising and cursing from -his solitary grille the limbs and lungs and life of the f[oe]tid world -in which his later fortunes seem cast. So much for Messer Tassino! - -One particular night saw him cowering before the caldano, or little -domestic brazier, which must serve his present need in lieu of hotter -memories; for the season was chilling rapidly, and what freshness had -ever been in him was long since starved out. He was grown a little -grimy and unkempt in these days, and his clothes were stale. The room -in which he sat was, in its meanness and squalor, quite typically -Vineyardish. Its furniture was of the least and rudest; it had not so -much as a solitary cupboard to hold a skeleton; it was as naked to -inspection as honesty. That was its owner's way. Narcisso was a very -Dacoit in carrying all his simple harness on and about him. He cut his -throats and his meat impartially with the same knife; or toasted, as he -was doing now, slices of Bologna sausage on its point. His abortive -scrap of a face puckered humorously, as the other, drawing his cloak -tighter about him, damned the pitiful dimensions of their hearth. - -'I would not curse the fire for its smallness, Messer,' he said. 'Wilt -need all thy breath some day for blowing out a furnace.' - -Tassino wriggled and snarled:-- - -'May'st think so, beast; but I know myself damned as an unbaptized one, -to no lower than the first circle of our Father Dante.' - -'Wert thou not baptized?' - -'Do I not say so? And, therefore, lacking that grace, exonerated.' - -'What's that?' - -'Not responsible for my acts, pig.' - -'Who says so?' - -'Dante.' - -'Who's he? Has a' been there? I would not believe him. What doth a' -say o' me?' - -'_You_? That you shall choke for all eternity in a river of blood.' - -'Anan!' said Narcisso, and blew, scowling, on his sausage, which had -become ignited. 'That's neither sense nor justice, master. I kill by -the decalogue, I do. Did I ever put out a man's eyes for sport?' - -'It's no matter,' answered Tassino. 'Thou wert baptized.' - -'What will they do to thee?' - -'I shall be forbidden the Almighty's countenance, no more--punishment -enough, of course, for a person of taste; but I must e'en make shift to -do without.' - -'It's not fair,' growled Narcisso. 'I had no hand in my own -christening. Do without? Narry penalty in doing without what you've -never asked nor wanted.' - -A figure that had stolen noiselessly into the room as they spoke, and -was standing watching, with its cloak caught to its face, sniggered, -literally, in its sleeve. - -Tassino snapped rebelliously at the knife point, and began to eat -without ceremony. - -'Punishment enough,' he whined, 'if it means such a life in death as -this.' - -He sobbed and munched, quarrelling with his meat. - -'How canst thou understand! The foul fiend betray him who condemned me -to it! That saint; O, that saint! If I could only once trip _his_ soul -by the heels!' - -'No need, my poor Tassino,' murmured a sympathetic voice; 'indeed, I -think, there is no need.' - -The prisoner staggered from his stool, and stood shaking and gulping. - -'Messer Ludovico!' he gasped. 'How----' - -'By the door, my child--plainly, by the door,' interrupted the Prince -smoothly. And then he smiled: 'Alas! thou hast no ante-room here for -the scotching of undesirable suitors.' - -The terrified creature had not a word to say. One could almost hear his -fat heart thumping. - -Ludovico, lowering his cloak a little, made an acrid face. The room -offended his particular nostrils: its atmosphere was nothing less than -sticky. But, reflecting on the choice moral of it, he looked at the -little tarnished clinquant before him, and was content to endure. He -even affected a pleasant envy. - -'This is worth all the glamour of courts,' he said, waving his hand -comprehensively. 'To eat, or lie down; to go in or out as thou will'st. -Never to know that suspicion of thine own shadow on the wall. To waste -no words in empty phrases, nor need the wealth to waste on empty show. -What a rich atmosphere hath this untroubled, irresponsible freedom; it -is a very meal of itself! I would I could say, For ever rest and grow -fat thereon; but, alas! I bring discomforting news. My poor Tassino. I -fear the fortress at last shows signs of yielding.' - -The little wretch opposite him whimpered as if at a whip-cut. - -'Is it so indeed? Then, Messer Ludovico, it is a foul shame of her. -She hath betrayed me--may God requite her!' He snivelled like a grieved -child; then, on a sudden thought, looked up, with a child's cunning. -'At least in that case I shall be forgotten. There can be no object in -my hiding here longer.' - -The Prince lifted his eyebrows, with an inward-drawn whistle. - -'Object? Object?' he protested, acting amazement. 'But more than ever, -my poor simpleton. Thy case is double-damned thereby. Think you the -other would rest on the thought of a rival, and such a rival, at large? -Thy very existence would be a menace to his guilty peace. I come, -indeed, as a friend to warn thee. Lie close; stir not out; the very air -hath knives. Be cautious, even of thy shadow on the wall, of thy hand -in the dish.' - -He said it calmly and distinctly, looking towards Narcisso, who all this -time had stood hunched in the background, his dull brain struggling -bewildered in a maze. But the urgency of this innuendo penetrated even -him; the more so when he saw Tassino leap and fling himself on his knees -at the Prince's feet. - -'What do you mean?' shrieked the young man. 'Is _he_ in their pay? O -Messer, save me! don't let me be poisoned.' - -He pawed and grovelled, looking madly over his shoulder. Ludovico -laughed gently, disregarding him. - -'Nay, I know not,' he cooed. 'It is a dog that serves more masters than -one.' - -Narcisso slouched forward, and ducked a sort of obeisance between sullen -and deferential. - -'What's to-do?' he growled. 'I serve my patron, Messer Duke's son, like -an honest man. What call, I say, to warn 'en of me? Do I not earn my -wages fairly?' - -'Scarcely, fellow,' murmured Ludovico--'unless to betray thine employer -be fair.' - -Narcisso scowled and lowered. - -'Betray!' he protested, but uneasily. 'That is a charge to be proved, -Messer.' - -Ludovico suddenly leapt to a blaze. - -'Dog! Wouldst bandy with me, dog? Beware, I say! Who blabbed my -secrets to the lady of Casa Caprona?' - -He was himself again with the cry. His faculty of instant self-control -was a thing quite fearful. Narcisso cowered before him; shrunk under -the playful wagging of his finger. - -'Messer--in the Lord's name!' he could only stammer--'Messer!' - -'O thou fond knave!' complained the Prince, showing his teeth in a -smile; 'to think to play that double game, one patron against another, -and stake thine empty wits against the reckoning! Well, thou art -confessed and damned.' He drew back a pace. 'But one word more,' he -said, raising his voice. 'What hast thou to plead that I call not up -those that will silence for ever thy false, treacherous tongue?' - -He stood by the door. It was a very reasonable inference that he had -not ventured into such a quarter unattended. Narcisso stood gasping and -intertwining his thick fingers, but he could find no words. - -'What!' smiled Ludovico; 'no excuse, no explanation? No answer of any -kind? Shall I call, then?' He seemed to hesitate. 'Yet perhaps one -loop-hole, though undeserved, I'll lease thee on condition.' He moved -again forward a little, and spoke in a lower tone: 'There's news wanted -of a certain stolen ring. Dog! do I not know who thieved it, and for -whom? Now shalt thou undertake to go yet once again, and, robbing the -receiver, bring the spoil to me--or be damned here and now for thy -villainy.' - -He thought he had netted at last the quarry of his long, patient -stalking; but for once his confidence was at fault. Watching intently -for the effect of his words, he grew conscious of some change -transfiguring, out of terror and astonishment, the face of his victim. -Foul, ignoble, animal beyond redemption as that was in all its features, -its swinish eyes could yet extract and emit, it seemed, from the thin, -dead ashes of some ancient fire, a stubborn spark of self-renunciation. -He could read it in them unmistakably. The man stood straight before -him, for the first and only time in his life, a hero. - -Ludovico gazed in silence. He found, to do him the right justice, this -psychic revelation of acuter interest to him than his own defeat -foreseen in the light of it. But Tassino's subdued whimpering jarred -him out of his abstraction. - -'Well, is it agreed?' he asked with a sigh. For the moment he almost -shrunk in the apprehension of an affirmative reply. - -The rogue drew himself suddenly together. - -'Call, Messer,' he said. 'That is my answer.' - -His chin dropped on his breast. Tassino uttered a cry, and hid his face -in his hands. Not a word or apparent movement followed; but when, -goaded by the fearful stillness, the two dared to look up once more, -they found themselves alone. - -Then, at that, Tassino shrieked and sprang to the grille. - -'My God!' he sobbed; 'he has gone, and left me to my fate!' - -He moved to escape by the door, but Narcisso caught and wrenched him -back. - -'What ails the fool!' he protested in his teeth. 'My orders be to keep, -not kill thee, man!' - -Messer Ludovico, walking enveloped within a little cloud of his -adherents, smiled to himself on his way back to the palace. - -'The fascination of the serpent,' mused he, shaking his head--'the -fascination of the serpent! How could that crude organism be expected -to resist the arts of our Lamia, when I myself could fall near swooning -to them? Hath he betrayed me to others? I think not; yet it were well -to have him silenced betimes. The weakness was to threaten where I -dared not yet perform. Yet it may chance, after all, he shall come to -be prevailed on for the ring.' - -'The ring!' he muttered, as he climbed presently to his chamber--'the -ring! I think it comes to zone the world in my imagination!' - -As he was passing through the ante-room to his private closet, a draped -and voiceless figure moved suddenly out of the shadows to accost him. -He gave the faintest start, then offered his hand, and, without a word, -ushered this strange ghost into his sanctum. The portiere swung back, -the door clanged upon them, and there on the threshold he dwelt, looking -with a silent, smiling inquisition into the eyes of his visitor. - -Hast thou ever seen the dead, leafy surface of a woodland pool stir, -scarce perceptibly, to the movement of some secret thing below? So, as -Beatrice stood like a statue before the Prince, did the soul of her -reveal itself to him, writhing somewhere under the surface of that still -mask. - -Then suddenly, swiftly, passionately, she thrust out a hand. - -'There is the ring,' she said. 'Do what you will with it.' - - - - - *CHAPTER XVIII* - - -That same evening had witnessed, in the dower Casa Caprona, the abortive -finish to a venture long contemplated by its mistress, and at length, in -a moment of desperation, dared. She had wrought herself, or been -wrought at this last, into privately communicating to the little Saint -Magistrate of Milan, how she had certain information where the ring lay, -which if he would learn, he must follow the messenger to her house. She -had claimed his utmost confidence and secrecy, and, on that -understanding alone, had procured herself an interview. And Bernardo -had come, and he had gone--how, her tumbled hair, her self-bruised -bosom, her abandonment to the utter shame and fury of her defeat, were -eloquent witnesses. - -She had not been able to realise her own impotence to disarm an -antagonist already half-demoralised, as she believed this one to be. -For, before ever she had precipitated this end, gossip had been busy -whispering to her how the saint was beginning to melt in the sun of -adulation, to confess the man in the angel, to inform with a more than -filial devotion his attitude towards Bona. To have to cherish yet hate -that thought had been her torture; to anticipate its consummation her -frenzy. She had known him first; he was hers by right. Long wasting in -the passion of her desire, she had conceived of its fruition a savour -out of all proportion with her experiences. She must conquer him or -die. He was hers, not Bona's. - -She had disciplined herself, in order to propitiate his prejudices, into -the enduring of a decent period of retirement. It must end at last. -She never knew when Ludovico might exact from her that security, held by -her conditionally only, against her ruin by him. For the present indeed -she retained the ring, but any moment might see it claimed from her. -Now, if she could only once lure, and overcome by its means, the object -of her passion, the question of its restoration to, or use by another -against, its owner, must necessarily cease of being an acute one with -either her or Bernardo. - -With him, at least--with him, at least. And as for herself? - -Turning where she lay, she had seen her own insolent smile reflected -from a mirror. - -'He said,' she had whispered, pondering some words of Ludovico's, '_More -impossible things might happen_.' - -Then, taking the ring from her bosom, and apostrophising its green -sparkle softly:-- - -'A little star--a little bribe, to win me both love and a throne!' she -had said, and so had sunk back, closing her eyes, and murmuring:-- - -'Let it only prove its power here, and it and the heads of that -conspiracy shall be all Ludovico's. He will not claim the latter, I -think, until their purpose is accomplished. And then----' - -And then Messer Ludovico himself had been announced. He visited her not -infrequently in these days, though never, it seemed, with any purpose of -foreclosing on that little mortgage of the ring. He came in the fashion -of a confidential gossip, to enlighten her as to the doings of the world -outside. They were very pleasant and intimate together, with a hint, no -more, of closer relations to come. The lion rolled in a silken net, and -affected his subjugation, as the lady affected not to notice the -stealthy claws of her capture. It was a pretty little comedy, which -engaged the sympathies of both, each according to its temperament. But -it ended in tragedy. - -Ludovico had, indeed, no interest in dissuading his beautiful gossip's -mind from its tormenting suspicions as to the Messer Saint's gradual -corruption by Bona; a scandal to which, no doubt--the wish in him being -father to the thought--he himself gave ready credence. The report -suited him in every way, both as to his policy and its instruments; and -he only awaited its certain substantiation to let fly the bolt which was -to involve three fortunes in one ruin--under warrant of the ring, if -possible, but timely in any event. - -And in the meanwhile it afforded him, whether from jealousy or pure love -of mischief, some wicked gratification to nip and sting this already -tormented lady in sensitive places, and to do it all under an -affectation of the softest sympathy. - -Yet, while for his own purpose he hugged and fostered the slander, whose -growth and justification he most desired, the slander itself, for some -inexplicable reason, did not grow, but even began to exhibit signs, for -a time almost imperceptible, of attenuating. Ludovico could not -acknowledge this fact to himself, or even consider it. It is difficult, -no doubt, while we are calculating our probable gains, to admit the -possibility of a blight in the harvest of our hopes. A fervid prospect -blinds us to the road between; and this prince, for all his far-seeing, -because of it rather, may have been less open to immediate impressions -than some others about him. - -Yet to souls less acute, there _were_ the signs: the first little shadow -of a smut on the ear--a hitch, just the faintest, in the ecstatic -programme of Nature. Was it that Tassino, the mean worldling, was a -true prophet of his parts, and that the reaction from a starved -continence was already actually threatening? Whispers there certainly -were of a growing impatience of restrictions in the castello; of schisms -from the pure creed of its little priest; of hankerings, even on the -part of the highest, after the old fleshpots. They rose, and died down, -and rose again. There was no melting a certain snow-child, it was said, -into anything but ice water. The Duchess, who had somehow expected to -gather flowers from frost, went about white and smiling, and chafing her -hands as if they were numb. She had once stopped before a new young -courtier, who bore some resemblance to a past favourite, and, while -speaking to him kindly, had been seen to flush as though her cheeks had -caught the sudden warmth of a distant fire. Madam Caterina, it was -certain, waxing bold in impishness, had commisserated her mother on the -bad cold she had caught. 'Madre mia,' she had said, 'you have wandered -too much in the chill woods, and would be the better for a hot brick to -your bed.' - -For such tittle-tattle was this after season of the sowing responsible, -when, against all expectations, tares began to appear amidst the crops. -Messer Ludovico, for his part, would recognise no sinister note in the -laughter. It was just the rocking and babbling of empty vessels. Its -justification in fact would not have suited his book at all; and so he -continued in confidence to plant his little shafts in madam's raw -places. - -Monna Cat'rina, he had told her on the occasion of this particular -visit, had been very saucy to her mother the evening before, advising -her, this cold weather, to make herself a coverlet of angel down. -'Whereat,' said he, 'Madam our Duchess slapped the chit's pink knuckles, -answering, "Shall I wish him, then, to die of cold for me?" to which -Catherine replied: "No; for to die of love is not to die of cold"'; and -the other had blushed and laughed, and turned away. - -And it had been this sting, thrust into the place of a long -inflammation, which had finally goaded Beatrice into writing and sending -her letter. - - VENUS AND ADONIS - -The days were beginning to darken early. It was the season when exotic -flowers of passion luxuriate under glass, in that close coverture which -is the very opposite to the law's understanding of the term. - -Beatrice, like all tropical things, loved this time; basked in the glow -of tapers; hugged her own warm sweetness in the confidence of a -sanctuary for ever besieged by, and for ever impervious to, the forces -of cold and gloom. To fancy herself the desired of night, unattainable -through all its storming, was a commanding ecstasy. She liked to hear -the hail on the roof, trampling and threshing for an opening, and -flinging away baffled. The muffled slam of the thunder was her lullaby; -while the candles shivered in it, she closed her eyes and dreamed. The -thought of wrenched clouds, of crying human shapes, of torn beasts and -birds sobbing and circling without the closed curtains of her shrine, -served her imagination like a hymn. She measured her content against -the strength of such hopeless appeals, like a very nun of incontinence, -shut from the rigour of the world within the scented oratory of her own -worship. She was Venus Anno Domini, the Paphian goddess yet -undethroned, and yet justified of her influence over man and Nature. - - '_About her carven palace walls a thousand blossoming lilies - brake;_ - _Within, a thousand years of love had wrought, for utter - beauty's sake,_ - _Triumphs of art for her blue eyes, and for her feet rich - stained floors,_ - _And ever in her ears sweet moan of music down dim corridors?_ - - -Agapemone was her temple, and its inmost chamber her shrine. Here, -under stained glass windows, ran a frieze in relievo of warm -terra-cotta, thronged with little goat-faced satyrs pursuing nymphs -through groves of pregnant vines. Here, supporting the frieze, were -pilasters of blood-red porphyry, which burst high up into fronds of -gold; while, screening the interspaces on the walls, were panels of -glowing tapestry relating the legend of Adonis, from his first budding -on the enchanted tree to his final shrouding under the winter of love's -grief. Here, also, the faces of dead Capronas, past lords of this House -Beautiful, winked and gloated out of shadowy corners, whenever a log, -toppling over on the hearth, sent up a shower of sparks. Prominent in -one place was a tall massive clock, copper and brass, a -_chef-d'[oe]uvre_ of Dondi the horologist, which thudded the hours -melodiously, like a chime of distant bells, and made the swooning senses -in love with time. Couches there were everywhere, soft and wooing to -the soul of languor; thick rugs and skins upon the marble floor; tables -with clawed legs, of chalcedony or jasper, on which were scattered in -lovely wantonness a hundred toys of Elysium. Lutes, sweets, and goblets -of rich repousse; wine in green flasks, and delicate long-stemmed -glasses; an ivory and silver crucifix, half-hidden under a pile of -raisins; two love-birds in a gilded cage, and a golden salver containing -an aspic of larks' tongues, tilted upon a volume of some French Romaunt -touching the knightly adventures of Messer Roland a troubadour--these -and their like, varied or repeated, returned, in a thousandfold interest -of colour and sparkle, the soft investment of the tapers--enough, but -not too many--in their beauty. One velvet cloth had been swept from its -place, spilling upon a rug, where it sprawled unregarded, its costly -burden of a begemmed chalice, a pair of perfumed gloves, and an -illuminated volume of sonnets in a jewelled cover, dedicated to the -goddess herself, and celebrating, in letters of gold and silver on -vellum, her incomparable seductions. She had pulled them over, no -doubt, when she reached for the orange which now, untasted, filled her -hand, soft and covetous as a child's. - -The warmth and drowsy stillness of the room penetrated her as she lay -holding it. Gradually her lids closed, her bare arm drooped from its -sleeve, and the orange rolled on the floor. Her thoughts and -expectations had been already busy for an hour with, 'Will he come? -Will he come? Will he come?' It had been like counting sheep trotting -through a hedge--one, two, three, four--up to a hundred--and now her -drugged brain confused the tally, and she seemed to herself to swerve -all in a moment into a luminous mist. - -He entered like a pale scented flower into her dream--a soft and shapely -thing, melting into its ecstasy, fulfilling its enchantment. She held -him, and whispered to him: 'The hour, sweet love! Is it mine at -last?'--and, so murmuring, stirred and opened her eyes. - -He was there, close by her, looking down upon her as she lay. How pale -was his face, and how wistful. His walk through the icy dark had but -just tinted it, as when November flaws blow the snow from the rose's -dead cheek. He looked dispirited and tired. The childlike pathos of -his eyes moved her heart-strings no less than did the red, combative -swelling of his lips. She longed to master him in order to be mastered. -Her hedonism's highest moral attainment was always in pleasing herself -by surrendering herself to the pleasure of another; and how, knowing -herself, could she doubt the irresistible persuasiveness of her faith? - -She did not speak for a little, the wine of slumber in her brain -emboldening her in the meanwhile to dare this vision with her beauty, to -seek her response in its eyes. Her cheeks, her half-closed lids, were, -like a baby's, flushed with sleep. Suddenly she stirred, and, smiling -and murmuring, held out white arms to it:-- - -'The hour thou sang'st to me! Bernardo, hast thou come to make that -mine?' - -He stood as if stricken--white, dumfoundered. She stretched her -shoulders a little, and, raising her hands, put their rosy knuckles to -her eyes; and so relaxed all, and drooped. - -'I was dreaming,' she murmured. 'I thought thou camest to me and said: -"Beatrice, I will forego that heaven for thy sake. Give me the hour, to -kiss and shame." She stole a glance at him, and dropped her clasped -hands to her lap, and hung her head. 'And I answered,' she whispered, -'"Take it, and make one woman happy."' - -He gave a little cry. And then, suddenly, before he could move or -speak, she had sat up swiftly, and whipped her arms about his neck, and -pulled him to the couch beside her. - -'Listen,' she urged--'nay, thou shalt not go. I hold thy weakness in a -vice. Struggle, and I will tighten it. Listen, child, while I tell thee -a child's tale. It is about a huntsman that followed a voice; and he -pushed into a thicket, and lo! enchantment seized him beyond. And he -whispered amazed, "What is this?" and the voice answered, "Love--the end -to all thy hunting." O! little huntsman of Nature, be content. Thou -hast traced the voice of thy long longing to its home.' - -She repaid his struggles with kisses, his wild protests with honeyed -words. He set his pretty teeth at her, and she pouted her mouth to -them; he hurled insult at her head, and she bore the sweet ache of it -for the sake of the lips that bruised. When he desisted, exhausted, she -would get in her soft pleas, rebuking him with a tearful meekness:-- - -'Ay, scourge me, set thy teeth in me, only hate me not. Shalt find me -but the tenderer, being whipped. Talk on of Nature. Is it not natural -to want to be loved; and, for a woman, in a woman's way?' - -'Forbear!--O, wicked! O, thou harlot!' he panted, still fighting with -her. - -'Lie still! So a sick infant quarrels with its food,' she answered. 'O -love--dear love, will you not hear reason?' - -'Reason!' he stormed. 'O, thou siren! to beguile me here on that lying -pretext, and thus shame me for my trust!' - -'No lie,' she pleaded. 'Thou shalt have the ring indeed.' - -'At thy price? I will die first.' - -'Bernardo!' - -'_Thou_ to talk of natural love! False to it; false to thy lord; false -even to thy stained bed! Unhand me! Why, I loathe thee.' - -'Not yet.' - -Her eyes were hot waters, all misted over with passion. 'Thou canst not -indeed, so pitiful to the worst. I cry to thee in my need. I knew thee -first. Bernardo! will you forsake your friend?' - -'Friend!' - -'Ay. Only tell me what you would do with the ring?' - -'What but return it to her that trusted me with it,' - -'And for what reward?--Nay, strive not.' - -'My conscience's peace--just that. Unclasp thy hands.' - -'See there! Her gratitude would kill it in thee for ever. As would be -hers to thee, so be thine to me. Art thou for a fall? Fall soft, then, -on my love. She will not let thee down so kindly, who hath a lord and -duchy to consider.' - -He made a supreme effort--her robe tore in his hand--and, breaking from -her, stood panting and disordered. She made no effort to recapture him, -but, flinging herself to abandonment, sobbed and sighed. - -'O, I am undone! Wilt thou forsake me? Kill me first! Nay, I will not -let thee go!' - -She sprang to her feet. He leapt away from her. - -'Beast!' he cried, 'that foulest our garden! I will have thee whipped -out of Milan with a bow-string.' - -Scorn and hatred flashed into her face. She was no longer Venus, but -Ashtoreth, the goddess of unclean frenzy. - -'Thou wilt?' she hissed. 'I thank thee for that warning. Go, sir, and -claim thy doxy to thy vengeance. She will leap, I promise thee, to that -chance. Only, wouldst thou view the sport'--she struck her naked bosom -relentlessly--'by this I advise thee--O, I advise thee like a -lover!--hide well in her skirts--hide well. They will need to be thick -and close to screen thee from a woman scorned. Wilt thou not go? I -have the ring, I tell thee--_I_, myself, no other. Let her know. -She'll bid thee pay the price perchance--too late. A fatal ring to -thee. Why art thou lingering? I would not spare thee now, though thou -knelt'st and prayed to me with tears of blood.' - -She stood up rigid, her hands clenched, as, without another word, -Bernardo turned, and, stalking with high head and glittering eyes, -passed out of the room. - -But, the moment the door had closed upon him, she flung herself face -downwards on the couch, writhing and choking and clutching at her -throat. - -'I must kill him,' she moaned; 'I must kill my love!' - - - - - *CHAPTER XIX* - - -The hitch in the progress of the harvest came ever a little and a little -more into evidence: the smut darkened on the ear; the whisper of a -threatened blight grew from vague to articulate--grew clearer, grew -bolder--until, lo!--all in a moment it was a definite voice. - -This happened on the morning succeeding Bernardo's visit to the Casa -Caprona--a visit of which, it would appear, the Duchess of Milan had -been made somehow cognisant. - -Bona, on this morning, came into the hall of council, her white hand -laid, as she walked, upon the shoulder of Messer Cecco Simonetta, the -State Secretary. That light, caressing touch was an arresting one to -some eyes observing it--Ludovico's among the number. Its like, in that -particular context of confidence and affection, had not been seen for -many weeks--never, indeed, since the secretary had taken it upon himself -to caution his mistress on the subject of a perilous fancy. He would -have had no wish to balk any whim of hers that turned on -self-indulgence. It was this whim of self-renunciation which had -alarmed him. There was a mood which might conceivably vindicate itself -in the sacrifice of a kingdom to a sentiment. Such things had happened; -and saints were men. He would put it to her with all humility. - -And she had listened and answered icily: 'I thank thee, Messer -Secretary. But our faith is commensurate with our purpose, which is to -sweep out our house, not pull it down. What then? Dread'st thou to be -included in the scourings? Fear not. It is no part of our faith to -forget our obligations.' - -Which was a cruel response; but its hauteur silenced Mr. Secretary. And -thenceforth he served in silence, watching, anxiously enough, the -progress of his lady's infatuation, and feeling at last immensely -relieved when on this day, her warm palm settled on his shoulder, -melting the long frost between them. - -She looked rather wistfully into his worn eyes, and smiled a little tale -without words of confidence restored. And he, for his part, spoke of no -matters less commonplace than the State's welfare. - -'The Duke will make Christmas with us, Madonna,' he said; 'I have -advices from him.' - -'He will be most welcome,' she answered, and her face coloured with real -pleasure. But the next moment it was like snow, and its vision hard -crystals of frost. She had seen the Saint Magistrate advancing to -accost her. - -There was a strange look in the boy's eyes as they gazed, unflinchingly -nevertheless, into hers--a look mingled of pain and doubt and fortitude. -She had said no unkind word to him; yet a frost can nip without wind; -and surely here was a plant very sensitive to the human atmosphere. He -questioned her face a little; then spoke out bold, though low--while -Messer Ludovico, turning papers at the table, was very busy--watching. - -'Madonna, wilt thou walk apart? I am fain to crave thy private ear a -moment.' - -She stood like ice. - -'Touching whose shortcomings now?' she asked aloud, and with a little -cold laugh which disdained that implied confidence. - -He gazed at her steadily, though in trouble. - -'Nay, I spoke of none. It is of moment. Madonna, I entreat thee.' - -For an instant the milk of her sweetened to him. He was such a baby -after all. And then she remembered whence he had lately come, and gall -flooded her veins--gall not so much of jealousy, perhaps, as of -contempt. Doubtless, she thought, he could have ventured himself into -that hothouse in the Via Sforza with impunity, since, though spirit he -might be, he was of that uninflammability that his virtue amounted to -little better than the virtue of sexlessness. She felt almost glad, at -last, to have this excuse for dissociating herself from a cause which -had always chilled, and had ceased now for some time even to amuse her. - -Feel no surprise over the seeming suddenness of her revolt. Apart from -her position, this Duchess of Milan was never anything but a typical -woman, common-souled, lacking spiritual sensitiveness, leaning to her -masculine peers. Breeding was her business, and motherhood her passion. -She took no more jar of offence from the intimate custody of babies, -than does a cat in licking open the eyes of its seven-days born. Her -refinements were adventitious, an accident of her condition. She had -felt it no outrage to her stately loveliness to yield it to Tassino's -usings. She had that Madonna-like serenity of face which is the -expression of an inviolable mindlessness; and no impressions other than -physical could long pervade her. Stupidity is the rarest -beauty-preserver; and it is to be feared that Bona was stupid. - -Now, it is to be remembered that Bernardo had not mentioned shortcomings -at all; but her object being to snub rather than answer him, she chose -to take refuge in her sex's prerogative of intuition. Dwelling a moment -in a rising temper, she suddenly flounced on him. - -'If you will seek doubtful company, Messer, you must not cry out to have -your fervour misread by it.' - -He was about to answer; but she stopped him peremptorily. - -'Women will be women, good or bad. We cannot promote a civil war in -Milan to avenge some pin-prick to thy conscience. Indeed, sir, we weary -a little of this precisianism. Is it come to be a sin to laugh, to warm -our hands at a fire, to prefer a fried collop to a wafer? You must -forgive us, like the angel that you are. We are human, after all, and -pledged to human policies. Our State's before the magistracy. There are -things weightier to discuss than a mischief's naughty word. We cannot -hear you now.' - -She turned away, relenting but a little, though flushed and trembling. - -'Come, brother,' she said. 'Shall we not pass to the order of the day?' - -Ludovico responded with smooth and smiling alacrity. One could never -have guessed by his face the consternation which had seized his soul. -Yet, so cleverly had he hoodwinked himself, this sudden leap of light -was near staggering him. Merriment and warmth and fried collops? The -charge in its utter, its laughable irrelevancy, was, he thought, a -little hard on the saint, seeing how the gist of the new creed lay all -in a natural enjoyment of life's bounties. What powder had winged such -a startling shot?--weariness?--disenchantment?--remorseful hankerings, -perhaps, after a discarded suet pudding, which, after all, had been -infinitely more native to this woman's taste than the ethereal souffle, -whose frothy prettiness had for the moment appealed to her meat-fed -satiety? - -The last, most probably. And, in that case---- - -His brain, through all the mazes of council, went tracing out a busy -thread of self-policy. If this were really the end, he must hurry to -foreclose on it ere the split widened into a gulf--before ever the first -whisper of its opening reached Tassino's ears. The time for temporising -was closed. - -'It touches, your Grace,' he purred, 'upon the reception to be accorded -the envoys of Ferrara and Mantua.' - - -The wind of a fall, like the wind of an avalanche, runs before the body -of it. Messer Bembo, passing out, amazed, from his rebuff, found in -himself an illustration of this inevitable human truism. All the -envies, spites, and jealousies which his sweetness, under favour, had -kept at bay, seemed now gathered in his path to hustle and insult him. - -'Good Master Nature,' mocked one, 'hast ever a collop in thy pocket for -a starved woodman?' - -'See how he stumbles, missing his leading-strings!' cackled another. - -A third knocked off his bonnet. - -'Prophesy, who is he that smote thee!' he cried, and ducking, came up -elsewhere. - -'Ay, prophesy!' thundered a fourth voice; and a fist like a rammer -crashed upon the assailant's face, spread-eagling it. The man went down -in a welter. Bembo fled to Lanti's arms, feebly imprisoning them. - -'Thou thing of bloody passions!' he shrieked. 'Wouldst thou so vindicate -me?' - -Carlo roared over his shoulder:-- - -'Help his prophecy, ye vermin, when he's ears to hear; and tell him I -wait to carve them from his head.' - -He bore Bembo with him from the hall, as he might carry a moth -fluttering on his sleeve. Murmurs rose in his wake, seething and -furious; but he heeded them not. In a deserted court beyond, he shook -the pretty spoil from his arm, not roughly but with an air of madness, -and stood breathing like a driven ox. - -'What now?' he groaned at last--'what now?' - -Then all in a moment the boy was sobbing before him. - -'O Carlo! dear Carlo! I would the Duke were returned!' - -His grief and helplessness moved the other to a frenzy. His chest -heaved, he caught at his throat, struggling vainly for utterance of the -fears which had of late been tormenting him without definite reason. -Seeing his state, Bernardo sought to propitiate it with a smile that -trembled out of tears. - -'Nay, mind me not--a child to cry at a shadow.' - -Lanti choked, and found voice at length. - -'The Duke? Monstrous! Call'st thou for him? Forget'st Capello? Art -changed indeed.' - -'Alas!' cried the boy, 'no change in me. I think only of a more ruling -tyranny than mine. Pitiless himself, he made pity sweet in others. -I've converted 'em from deeds to words, that's all.' - -'The Duke!' - -'I begin to see. Thou warned'st me, I remember. The fashion of me -passes, like thy shoe's long beaks. Yesterday they were a span; to-day -they're shrunk by half; to-morrow, mayhap, ye'll trim them from your -feet and run on goat's hooves.' - -'Thou ravest. 'Tis for thee, being Duke-deputy, to trim _us_.' - -'Into what? Cherubs or satyrs? Be quick, lest the fashion change while -you talk.' - -'Go to! Thou art the Duke, I say.' - -'Well, a fine puppet, and great at righting wrongs. There's Lucia to -witness.' - -'She's provided for.' - -'With bread. O, I am a very Mahomet. If I but nod my head, the city -shall crack and crumble to it.' - -'God! What ails thee, boy?' - -'Something mortal, I think. A breath withered me just now!' - -'A breath? Whose breath?' - -'Whose? O Carlo, forgive me! What have I said or done? Look, I'm -myself again. It just fell like a frost in June, killing my young -olives. I had so hung upon it, too--its help and promise. The harvest -seemed so certain.' - -'Ah! She's thrown you over?' - -'Dreams, dreams!' sighed poor little Nathan; 'to live on dreams--a deaf -man's voices, a blind man's vision. I have seen such things, built such -kingdoms out of dreams. Carlo! what have I done?' - -Lanti ground his teeth. - -'Done? Proved woman's constancy a dream--that's all.' - -He clapped his chest, and looked earnestly at Bembo, and cried in a -broken voice:-- - -'Boy--before God--tell me--thou hast not learned to desire her?' - -The child looked up at him, with a pitiful mouth. - -'Ah! I know not what you mean; unless it be that pain with which I see -her melt from out my dream when most possessing it.' - -'Most? She? She to possess thy dream, thy purpose?' cried Lanti, and -drew back in great emotion. - -'She _is_ my purpose,' said the boy--'or _was_, alack!' - -'Is and was,' growled the other. 'Well, 'tis true that for the purpose -of thy purpose _I_ remain; but then I don't count. What am _I_ to -thee?' - -'My love, beyond all women.' - -'I am? That's much. Now will we do without the Duchess.' - -'Alas!' - -'Shall we not?' - -'She hath so nursed my flock to pasture--the kind ewe-mother. The bell -was about her neck. Now, it seems, she will have neither bell nor -shepherd, and the flock must stray.' - -'Hath she in truth cast thee? On what pretext?' - -'Nay, I know not. It seemed the twin-brother of him that once she used -for loving me.' - -'Ay, it is their way. But scorn, for your part, to show caloric as she -cools.' - -'Alas!' - -'Trust me there. What had you said to chill her?' - -'Nothing that I know, but to crave her ear a moment.' - -'It is the sink of slander in a woman--a pink shell with a dead fish -inside. Yet thy whisper might have sweetened it.' - -'Stung it rather. Carlo, I know not what to do.' - -'Tell me.' - -'Shall I, indeed? I fear thee. Wilt thou be gentle?' - -'As a lamb.' - -'Well, then, I'll tell thee--I am so lost. Carlo, dear, I know where -the ring is.' - -'You do? Do you see how calm I am? Where is it?' - -'Beatrice hath it--thy Beatrice.' - -'You know that?' - -'She sent to tell me--last night. God help me, Carlo, for a credulous -fool!' - -'You went to her? Well?' - -'She would give it me, Carlo--O Carlo! on such a condition!' - -'Which if you refused----?' - -'It shall be a fatal ring to me, she ended.' - -'Shall it?--or to her? Well, that's said. And now, wilt thou go rest a -little, sweetheart, while I think? I cannot think in company.' - -'I will go, but not to rest.' - -'Pooh! thy Fool shall drug thy folly with his greater.' - -'Alas! he's gone.' - -'Gone?' - -'He too. Nay, blaspheme not. He had his reasons.' - -'For what?' - -'For leaving me awhile. "My folly starves on thine ambrosia," he said. -"I would fain feed it a little on human flesh."' - -'How long's he gone?' - -'Some days.' - -'Let him keep out of my way when he returns.' - -'I'll not love you if you hurt him.' - -'Then I'll not hurt him. Thy love is mine, and thy confidence, look -you. This ring--speak not a word on it, to Bona or another, till I bid -you.' - -'Then I will not.' - -'That's good. God rest you, sweetling.' - -He watched him go, with frowning eyes; then, no message coming to him -from the hall, strode off to his own quarters in the palace, and bided -there all day. - -'These women,' was the burden of his fury--'these women--soulless -beasts! To aim at winning heaven by debauching its angel!--there's -their morality in a nutshell! But I'll send him back there first. So -Beatrice hath the ring! What will she do with it? What shall I with the -knowledge? God! if my wits could run with my rage! To forestall her, -else----' - -His fingers worked, as he tramped, on the jewelled hilt of his poniard. - - -It was Messer Lanti's misfortune that, in knocking down Bernardo's -assailant, he had defaced, literally as well as symbolically, the -escutcheon of a powerful family. The fact was brought to the Duchess's -notice when, shortly after the event, she passed through the hall in -company with her brother-in-law. Hoarse clamour of kinsmen and -partisans greeted her, backed, by way of red evidence, by the condition -of the victim himself. - -Her wrath and emotion knew no bounds. She flushed, and stamped, and -wept, and in the midst collapsed. It was outrageous that her authority -should be so defied (though, indeed, it had not been) by the brute -creature of a creature of her lord's. The Duke had never foreseen or -intended such an arrogation of his prerogatives by his deputy. She -would teach this swashbuckler a lesson. - -Then she broke down and turned, tearful, almost wringing her hands, to -her brother-in-law. Sure never woman was cursed in such a false -position--impotent and responsible in one. What should she do? - -He took her aside. - -'These two,' he said, 'are as yet _persona gratae_ with Galeazzo. At -the same time thou canst not with decency or safety ignore the outrage. -Seize and confine Messer Lanti out of harm's way until the Duke's -return--just a formal and considerate detention, pending his decision. -There's thy wise compromise, sister.' - -And so indeed it seemed. But undoubtedly the best wisdom lay in his own -adroit seizure of a fortuitous situation. He had wanted this Lanti out -of the way; had foreseen him, as it were, lurking in the thickets far -ahead through which his policy sought a road. Here was the fine -opportunity, and without risk to himself, to ambush the ambuscado, and -have it laid by the heels. - -Bona sobbed and fretted, nursing her grievance. - -'Why did this angel come to vex us with his heaven? The world, I think, -would be very well but for its schooling by saints and prophets. -Children grow naughty under inquisition. There, have it as you will, -brother; use or abuse me--it is all one. It is my fate to be persecuted -through my best intentions.' - -Ludovico put force on himself to linger a little and soothe her. His -soul leapt with anxiety to be gone. To instruct Jacopo; to commission -Tassino--to loose his long-straining bolt in fact--here was the moment -sprung inevitable upon him. He had no choice but to seize it; and -then-- - -'Your Grace must excuse me,' he said at length, smiling. 'I have to go -prepare against a journey.' - -'A journey!' she exclaimed, aghast. - -'Surely,' he answered mildly. 'The matter is insignificant enough to -have escaped your burdened memory; but smaller souls must hold to their -engagements. My brother Bari and I are to Christmas with the King of -France in Tours. We sail from Genoa, whither, in a day or two, I must -ride to join him. It is unfortunate, at this pass; but----' - -'Go, sir,' she broke in--'go. I see I am to be the scapegoat of all -your policies,' and she hurried from him, weeping. - - - - - *CHAPTER XX* - - -More and more drearily the burden of his long days pressed upon Tassino. -He was not built for heroic endurance; and to have to suffer Damocles' -fate without the feast was a very death-in-life to him. Here, in this -dingy cabin, was no solace of wine to string his nerves; no charm of -lights to scare away bogies; no outlook but upon beastliness and -squalor. He seemed stranded on a mud-bank amidst the ebbing life of the -city, and he despaired that the tide would ever turn and release him. - -Listening at his grille, he would often curse to hear the name of his -hated rival--'Bembo! Bembe, Bambino!' sing out upon the swarming air. -It was the rallying-cry of the new socialism, the popular catchword of -the moment; and he hugged himself in the thought of what it would spell -to Galeazzo on his return, and by what racking and rending and -stretching of necks he would mark his appreciation of its utterers' -enthusiasm. If the Duke would only come back! Here was the last of -three who desired, it appeared, each for a very different reason, the -re-installation of an ogre in his kingdom. - -But, in the meanwhile, he cowered in an endless apprehension as to his -own safety, which Ludovico's last visit had certainly done nothing to -reassure. On the contrary, it had but served to intensify the gloom of -mystery in which he dwelt. He had since made sundry feeble-artful -attempts to discover from Narcisso what secret attached to the ring, -which, it appeared, that amiable peculator was accused of having -filched, and why Messer Ludovico was so set on possessing it. Needless -to say, his efforts met with no success whatever; and the corrosion of a -new suspicion was all that they added to his already palsied nerves. -The sick flabbiness and demoralisation of him grew positively pitiful, -as he stood day after day at his grille, watching and moping and -snivelling, and sometimes wishing he were dead. - -Well, the thicker the mud, the more productive the tide when it comes; -but he was fairly sunk to his neck before it floated him out. - -One day, gazing down, his attention was attracted to a figure which had -halted near below his coign of espial. As things went, there was nothing -so remarkable in this figure, in its alien speech or apparel, as to make -it arresting otherwise than by reason of its contiguity to himself. It -was simply that of a crinkled hag, swart, snake-locked, cowled, her -dress jingling with sequins, her right hand clawed upon a crutch. She -appeared, in fact, just an old Levantine hoodie-crow, of the breed which -was familiar enough to Milan in these cataclysmic days, when all sorts -of queer, tragic fowl were being driven northwards from overseas before -a tidal wave of Islamism. For half Christendom was writhing at this -time under the embroidered slipper of the Turk, while other half was -fighting and scratching and backing within its own ranks, in a _sauve -qui peut_ from Sultan Mahomet's ever nearer-resounding tread. - -From Bosnia and Servia and Hungary; from Negropont and the islands of -the Greek Archipelago; from new Rome itself, whose desolated houses and -markets weeping Amastris had been emptied to repeople; from Trebizond -and the Crimea, it came endlessly floating, this waste drift of palaces -and temples and antique civilisations, which had been wrecked and -scattered by that ruthless hate. Ruined merchants and traders; -unfrocked satraps; priests of outlandish garb; girl derelicts blooded -and defiled by janissaries; childless mothers and motherless -children--scared immigrants all, they wailed and wandered in the towns, -denouncing in their despair the creed whose jealousies and corruptions -had delivered them to this pass. - -In the first of their coming, a certain indignant sympathy had helped to -the practical amelioration of their bitter lot. Men scowled and -muttered over the histories of their wrongs; took warning for a possible -overthrow of the entire Christian Church; talked big of sinking all -differences in a kingdom-wide crusade; and, finally, fell to fisticuffs -upon the question of a common commander for this problematic host. -After which the immigrants, always flocking in thicker, and making civil -difficulties, fell gradually subject to an indifference, not to say -intolerance, which was at least half as great as that from which they -had fled. Fashion, moreover, began to find in the Ser Mahomet a figure -more and more attractive, in proportion as he approached it, issuing -from the mists of the Orient. It was ravished with, if it did not want -to be ravished by, those adorable Spahis, with their tinkling jackets -and sashes and melancholy, wicked faces. It adapted prettily to itself -the caftan, and the curdee, and the turban; re-read Messer Boccaccio's -most Eastern fables; acted them, too, in drawers of rose-coloured -damask, and little talpoes, which were tiny jewelled caps of velvet, -cocked, and falling over one ear in a tassel. But by that time the cult -of immigrancy was discredited _du haut en das_. - -Many of the unhappy wretches were drawn by natural process into such -sinks as 'The Vineyard.' The poor are good to the poor, and -pitiful--which is strange--towards any fall from prosperity. In the -instance of this old woman, it was notable how she was humoured of the -drifting populace. The very ladroni, who, outside their own rookery, -might have tormented and soused her in the kennel, were content here to -rally and banter her a little, showing their white teeth to one another -in jokes whose bent she was none the worse for misapprehending. For she -had not much Italian, it appeared; though what was hers she was turning -to the best possible advantage in the matter of fortune-telling. - -Tassino saw many brawny palms thrust out for her shrewd conning; echoed -from his eyrie many of the _Eccomi perdutos_ and _O me beatos_ which -greeted her broken sallies. She got a mite here and there, and buzzed -and mumbled over it, clutching it to her lean bosom. Presently some -distraction, of rape or murder, carried her audience elsewhere, and she -was left temporarily alone. Then Tassino, moved by a sudden impulse, -reached down his arm through the grate and tapped her reverend crown. -She started, and ducked, and peered up. He whispered out to her:-- - -'Zitto, old mother! Come up here, and tell me my fortune for money.' - -She seemed to hesitate; he signified the way; and lo! on a thought she -came. He met her at the door, and dragged her in. - -'Tell me my fortune,' he said, and thrust out a dirty palm. - -She pored over it, chuckling and pattering her little incomprehensible -shibboleth. Presently she seemed to pounce triumphantly on a knot. She -leered up, her hand still clutching his, her hair falling over her eyes. - -'Ah-yah!' she muttered. 'Ringa, ringa!' and shook her head. - -He shrugged peevishly:-- - -'What do you mean, old hag?' - -'Ringa!' she repeated: 'no ringa, no fortuna.' - -He snatched his hand away. - -'What ring, thou cursed harridan?' - -She shook her head again. - -'No know. Ringa--I see it--green cat-stone--hold off Fortuna. Get, and -she change.' - -He gnawed his lip, frowning and wondering. There was a ring in -question, certainly. Could it be possible its possession was connected -somehow with his personal fortunes? If that were so, here was a -veritable Pythoness. - -Her eyes stared daemonic: she thrust out a finger, pointing:-- - -'I see, there: green cat-stone: get, and Fortuna change.' - -Superstition mastered him. He trembled before her, quavering:-- - -'How can I? O mother! how can I?' - -A voice in the street startled him. He leapt to the window and back -again. - -'Narcisso!' he gasped, and ran to bundle out his visitor. - -'To-morrow--come again to-morrow--after dark,' he whispered hurriedly. -'I shall be alone--I will pay you--' and he drove her forth. Narcisso -met her, issuing from the court below. He growled out a malediction, -and came growling into the room. - -'You keep nice company, Messer.' - -'That is not my fault, beast,' answered Tassino pertly. 'When I choose -my own, it is to amuse myself.' - -'Well, I hope she amused you?' - -'Not so much as I expected. I saw her telling fortunes down below, and -called her up to read me mine. Acquaint me of the mystery of a certain -ring I asked her; but, _oime_! she could enlighten me nothing.' - -Narcisso leered at him cunningly, and spat. - -'It was as well, perhaps. I see th' art set upon that impertinence; and -I'll only say again, "beware!"' - -'You may say what you like, old yard-dog,' answered the youth. 'It's -your business, chained up here, to snarl.' - -But his fat brain was busy all night with the weird Hecate and her -necromancy. What did this same ring portend to him, and how was his -fate involved in its possession? There _was_ a ring in question, -doubtless; but whose? Then, all in an amazed moment inspiration flashed -upon him. A green cat-stone! Had he not often seen such a ring on -Bona's finger? It might indeed be the Duchess's own troth-ring! - -He shrunk and cowered at first in the thought of the issues involved in -such a possibility. Was it credible that it had been stolen from her? -How could he tell, who had been imprisoned here so long? Only, if it -were true that it had been, and he, Tassino, could secure it from -whatever ravisher, what a weapon indeed it might be made to prove in his -hand! - -He exulted in that dream of retribution; had almost convinced himself by -morning that its realisation lay within his near grasp. She, that old -soothsayer, could surely show him the way to possess himself of what her -art had so easily revealed to him for his fortune's talisman. This -Eastern magic was a strange and terrible thing. He would pay her all he -had for the secret!--make crawling love to her, if necessary. - -All day he was in a simmer of agitated expectancy; and when dusk at last -gathered and swelled he welcomed it as he had never done before. -Fortunately Narcisso went out early, and need not be expected back -betimes. He was engaged, the morrow being the feast of the Conception, -to confess and prepare to communicate himself fasting from midnight; and -it was a matter of religion with him on such occasions to take in an -especial cargo against the ordeal. Before the streets were dark, -Tassino was sitting alone; and so he sat, shuddering and listening, for -another hour. - -A step at last on the shallow stair! He held his breath. No, he was -deceived. Sweating, on tiptoe, he stole to the door and peered out. -All was silent, and dark as pitch. Then suddenly, while he looked, -there came a muffled tramp and shuffle in the street, and on the instant -a figure rose from the well of blackness below, mounting swiftly towards -his door. He had barely time to retreat into the unlighted room before -he felt his visitor upon him. - -'My God!' he quavered; 'who is it? Keep away!' and he backed in ghastly -fear to the wall. - -'Hush!' (Ludovico's voice.) 'Are you alone?' - -The frightened wretch stole forward a step. - -'Messer! I thought you----' - -'Never mind,' interrupted the other impatiently. 'Answer me.' - -'Quite alone.' - -'Humph! I thought you loved the dark less.' - -'I--I was about to light the tapers; I swear I was. Wait only one -moment, Messer.' - -'Stop. No need. The night's the better confidant. Come here.' - -Trembling all through, Tassino obeyed. A smooth hand groped, and -fastening on his wrist, pressed a hard, round object into his palm. He -had much ado not to shriek out. - -'What's this?' he gasped. - -'Be silent. Have you got it? Put it where it's secure. Well?' - -''Tis in the scabbard of my knife, Messer--' (the blade clicked home). - -'A good place; keep it there. Now, listen. There's no other here?' - -'On my oath, no.' - -'Nor on the stair?' - -'How can there be between us and Messer's gentlemen?' - -'Hark well, then. Thy life depends on it. They 've wind of thee, -Tassino.' - -'O, O! God pity me!' - -'He helps those--you know the saw. 'Tis touch and go--come to this at -last; either they destroy you, or you--them.' - -'How? O, I shall die!' - -'Wilt thou, then? Well, then, if thou wilt. Yet not so much as thy -ear-lobe's spark of nerve were needed to forestall and turn the tables -on them. They are very fond together, Tassino.' - -'Curse them! If I could stab him in the back!' - -'Well, why not? Thy scabbard holds the means.' - -'My dagger?' - -'Better.' - -'What?' - -'The Duchess's troth-ring.' - -'Messer! My God!' - -He leapt as if a trigger had clicked at him. Here was to have the -gipsy's prophecy, his own fulsome hope, realised at a flash; but with -what fearful significances for himself. So this had actually been the -ring of contention, and secured at last--he might have known it would -be--by Ludovico. - -He gave an absurd little shaky laugh, desperately playful. - -'How am I to stab with a ring, Messer?' - -'Fool! answer for thyself.' - -He was crushed immediately. - -'By carrying it to the Duke?' he whispered fearfully. - -'It is thy suggestion,' said Ludovico--'not for me to traverse. Well?' - -'Ah! help me, Messer, for the Lord's sake. I turn in a maze.' - -The Prince's thin mouth creased in the dark. - -'Nay, 'tis no affair of mine,' he said. 'I am but friendship's deputy.' - -Tassino almost whimpered, writhing about in helpless protest. - -'He will thunder at me, "Whence reaches me this?"' - -'Likely.' - -'What shall I reply then?' - -'Do you put the case hypothetically? I should answer broadly, on its -merits, somehow as follows: "By the right round of intrigue, O Duke, -completing love's cycle."' - -'O Messer! How am I to understand you?' - -'Why, easily--(I speak as one disinterested). Call it the cycle of the -ring, and thus it runs: _From the husband to the wife; from the wife to -her paramour; from the paramour to his doxy; from the doxy back to the -husband_.' - -'His doxy? O beast! Hath he a second?' - -'Or had. I go by report, which says--but then I 'm no -scandalmonger--that a certain lady, Caprona's widow, finds herself -scorned of late.' - -'And it comes from her--to me? For what? To destroy them both?' - -'A shrewd suggestion. In that case your moods run together.' - -'Monna Beatrice! She sends it?' - -'Does she? Quote me not for it. It were ill so to requite my over-fond -friendship. Thou hast the ring. I wish thee well with it. Dost mark?' - -'I mark, Messer.' - -'Why, so. Thou shouldst suffer after-remorse, having dragged in my -name; and there is hellbane, so they tell me, in remorse.' - -'I will die before I mention thee in it.' - -'Well, I can trust the grave. That's to know a friend. So might I add -something to thy credentials.' - -'If it please you, Messer.' - -'Why, look you, child, love may very well have its procurer--say a State -Secretary, where love is of high standing. And thence may follow the -subversion of a State. There's a pretender in Milan, they tell me, -something an idol of the people--I know not. Only this I ponder: What -if there be, and he that same idol which the Duchess is reported to have -raised? Would Simonetta, in such case, join in the hymn of praise? One -might foresee, if he did, a trinity very strong in the public worship. -His Grace, I can't help thinking, would find himself _de trop_ here at -present. You might put it to him--your own way. When will you set -out?' - -'When?' - -'This moment, I 'd advise. To-morrow might mean never. The Duke's at -Vigevano--less than six leagues away. A good horse might carry thee -there by morning. I've such a one in my stables. He'll honour thee for -this service, trust me.' - -Tassino's little soul spirted into flame. - -'_Viva il duca!_' he piped, and ran to the door. - -He drove it before him--it opened outwards--and, descending the dark -stairs with his patron, passed into the night. - -An hour later he was spurring for Vigevano, while the Prince was engaged -in preparing against his own journey to Genoa on the morrow. - - - - - *CHAPTER XXI* - - -Carlo kept his room all day, gnawing and tramping out his problem, and -extracting nothing from it. Not till it was deep dark did he call for -lights, and then he cursed his page, Ercole, who brought them, because -they dazzled his brain from thinking. Swerving on his heel, he was in -the act of bidding the boy let no one enter, unless it might be Messer -Bembo, when, the door being ajar, there hurried into the chamber the -figure of a fantastic hag, who, upon noting his company, stopped -suddenly, and stood mumbling and sawing the air. - -'Begone!' he roared, astounded, and took a furious step towards her. - -She laughed harshly. His clenched fists dropped to his sides. There -was no mistaking that bitter cackle. He flung his arm to the page, -dismissing him. - -The moment the door was shut upon them, off went the cloak and sequins, -off went the hood and snaky locks, and the Fool Cicada, clean and lithe -in a tight suit of jarnsey, stood revealed. - -Carlo leapt upon him, mouthing. - -'What mummery, beast, and at such a time? Wait while I choke thee.' - -In the tumult of his fury he remembered his promise to Bernardo, and -fell back, breathing. - -'Hast finished?' said Cicada, acrid and unmoved. 'I could retort upon a -fool but for lacking time. Where's the boy?' - -'Renegade! What concerns it thee to know?' - -'I say, where's the boy?' - -'If I might trounce thee! Safe, at present, no thanks to thee.' - -'Have I asked any? You must take horse and ride after the ring.' - -'The ring!' - -'I warn thee, lose not a moment. It may be even now upon the road.' - -'The road!' - -'That echo's a scrivener. Say after me thus, word for word, so thy -skull shall keep the record: _The ring goes this moment to the Duke at -Vigevano, in false witness against our Saint. Narcisso gave it to -Beatrice, Beatrice to Ludovic, Ludovic to Tassino--and Tassino carries -it, wrapped round with fifty damning lies_. Can you fill in the rest?' - -'My God! How know you this?' - -'I know. Why have I been mumming else?' - -'O, thou good Fool!' - -'So beatified in a moment? But stay not. To horse, and after, or by -luck in front of, this ill-omened popinjay. He must be anticipated, -overreached, despoiled, poniarded--anything. I've had my ear to his -door--it smarts yet--Ludovic was with him. I was before the Prince and -heard him coming--"trapped!" I thought. But the fool looked out--door -opens to the stairs--and shut me into its angle against the wall. So -again when they left together, and I slipped away behind their worships, -and presently ran before. There you've the tale. And so, a' God's name -mount and spur, for a minute's delay may kill all. But sith even now it -be too late, why, run after to traverse that foul evidence, and the Lord -speed thee. Remember--Tassino and the Vigevano road.' - -Stunning, bewildering as was the nature of this blast, it served to -clear Carlo's brain as a southerly wind clears stagnant water. It meant -action, and in action lay his _metier_. Prompt and comprehensive -instantly, now that the sum of things had been worked out for him, he -dwelt but on the utterance of a single curse--so black and monstrous -that the candle-flames seemed to duck to it--before he turned and strode -heavily from the room. - -'Mercy!' muttered Cicada, tingling where he stood; 'if Monna Beatrice -isn't blinking smut out of her eyes at this very moment, there's no -virtue in Hell.' - -Ten minutes later, Carlo, booted, spurred, and cloaked, issued hurriedly -from his quarters, and made for a postern in the north wall, on t' other -side of which Ercole, so he had sped his errand well, should be already -in waiting with the cavalier's horse, 'l'Inferno,' saddled and bridled -for the hunt. - -A thin muffle of snow lay on the pavements, choking echo; a thin, still -fog, wreathing upwards from it, made everything loom -fantastic--curtains, towers, the high battlemented spectres of the -sentries. - -He clapped his hand to his hip, in assurance of the firm hilt there, and -was clearing his throat to answer the guard's challenge, when, on the -moment, a whisk of sudden light seemed to overtake and pass him, and he -whipped about, with a catch in his breath, to face an expected onset. - -Nothing was there. Only the ghosts of mist and snow peopled the ward he -had traversed; but, across it, licking and leaping from a high window in -the Armourer's Tower, spat a tongue of flame. - -He dwelt a moment, fascinated. Faint cries and hurried warnings reached -him. The flame shrunk, broke from its curb, and writhed out again. - -'Galeazzo's room!' he muttered; 'a red portent to greet him!' and, -turning to pursue his way--ran into a vice of arms and was in a moment a -prisoner. - -The shock was so stunning, that he found himself bound and helpless -before he could realise its import. And then he roared out like a -lassoed bull:-- - -'Dogs! What's this?' - -The Provost Marshal answered him, waving aside his capturing sbirri. - -'Her Grace's warrant, Messer.' - -Lanterns seemed to have sprung like funguses from the ground, grossly -multiplying the strong company which surrounded him. He stared about -him bewildered; then, all in an instant, drove forward like a -battering-ram. There was a clash of pikes and mail; an arquebus -exploded, luckily without disaster; and Carlo was down in a writhe of -men, pounding with his heels. - -It brought him nothing but a full interest of bruises. Shortly he was on -his feet again, torn and dishevelled; but this time with a thong about -his ankles. - -He found wisdom of his helplessness to temporise. - -'Save thee, Provost Marshal, I have an important errand toward. Spare -me to it, and I'll give my parole to deliver up my person to thee on my -return.' - -The dummy wagged aside the appeal, woodenly. - -'I've my orders.' - -Carlo lost his brief command of temper. - -'Swine! To truss me like a thief?' - -'To hold thy person secure, Messer.' - -'With ropes, dog?' - -'I'll unbind them, on that same parole.' - -For all answer, Carlo dropped and rolled on the ground, bellowing curses -and defiance. It was childish; but then, what was the great creature -but a child? Despair divorced from reason finds its last resource in -kicking; and strength of body was always this poor fellow's convincing -argument. The presumption that, by his own impulsive retort on -Bernardo's assailant, he had brought this cowardly retaliation on -himself, made not the least of his anguish. Why could his thick head -never learn the craftier ways of diplomacy? And here, in consequence, -was he himself scotched, when most required for killing! He bounded -like a madman. - -It took a dozen of them, hauling and swaying and tottering, to convey -him up, and into, and so down again within, the tower of the dungeons. -Jacopo had no orders other than for his safe durance and considerate -keep; but no doubt that 'swine' weighed a little on the human balance -side of the incorruptible blockhead's decision. There was a cell--one -adjoining the 'Hermit's'--very profound and safe indeed, though far less -deadly in its appointments (so to speak, for the other had none) than -its neighbour. And into this cell, by the Provost Marshal's directions, -they carried Master Carlo, still struggling and roaring; and, having -despoiled him of his weapons, and--with some apprehension--uncorded him, -there locked him in incontinent to the enjoyment of his own clamour, -which, it may be said, he made the most of up to midnight. - -And then, quite suddenly, he broke into tears--a thing horrible in such -a man; and casting himself down by the wall, let the flood of despair -pass over his head--literally, it almost seemed, in the near cluck and -rustle of waters moving in the moat outside. - - - - - *CHAPTER XXII* - - -In the fortress of Vigevano the Duke of Milan sat at wine with his -gentlemen, his dark face a core of gloom, blighting the revel. Flushed -cheeks; sparkling cups; hot dyes of silk and velvet, and the starry -splintering of gems; sconces of flaming tapers, and, between, banners of -purple and crimson, like great moths, hanging on the walls above the -heads of shining, motionless men-at-arms, whose staves and helmets -trickled light--all this, the whole rich damasked picture, seemed, while -the sullen eye commanded it, to poise upon its own fall and change, like -the pieces in a kaleidoscope,--the Duke rose and passed out; and -already, with a leap and clatter, it had tumbled into a frolic of -whirling colours. - -This company, in short, conscious of its deserts, had felt any -cold-watering of its spirits at the present pass intolerable. There -were captains in it, raw from the icy plains of Piedmont, whence they -had come after rallying their troops into winter quarters, against a -resumption of hostilities in the spring. Tried men of war, and seasoned -toss-pots all, they claimed to spend after their mood the wages of -valour, vindicated in many a hard-wrung victory. They had stood, -Charles the Bold of Burgundy opposing, for the integrity of Savoy, and -had trounced its invaders well over the border. The sense of triumph -was in them, and, consequently, of grievance that it should be so -discounted by a royal mumps, who till yesterday had been their strutting -and crowing cock of conquest. What had happened in the interval, so to -return him upon his old damned familiar self? - -Something beyond their rude guessing--something which, at a breath, had -re-enveloped him in that cloud of constitutional gloom, which action and -the rush of arms had for a little dispelled. The change had taken him -earlier in the day, when, about the hour of Mass, a little white, -cake-fed Milanese had come whipping into Vigevano on a foam-dropping -jade, and, crying as he clattered over the drawbridge to the castle, 'Ho -there, ho there! Despatches for the Duke!' had been snapped up by the -portcullis, and gulped and disposed of; and was now, no doubt--since no -man had set eyes on him since--in process of being digested. - -It may have been he that was disagreeing with their lord, and sending -the black bile to his cheek; or it may have been that second tale-bearer -who, riding in about midday from the capital, had brought news of the -fire which, the evening before, had gutted his Grace's private closet. -Small matters in any case; and in any case, the death's-head having -withdrawn itself from the feast, hail the bright reaction from that -malign, oppressive gloom! A fresh breeze blows through the hall; the -candle-flames are jigging to the rafters; away with mumps and glumps! -_Via-via_! See the arras blossom into a garden; the sentries, leaning -to it, relax into smiling Gabriels of Paradise; the wine froth and -sparkle at the cup rim! 'Way, way for the Duke's Grace!' the seneschal -had cried at the door; and Galeazzo, clumsily ushered by Messer -Castellan, that blunt old one-eyed Cyclops, had slouched heavily out, -and the curtain had dropped and blotted him from the record. - -He turned sharply to the sound of its thud, and gave a quick little -stoop and start, as if he were dodging something. The face--that -haunting, indefinable ghost--was it behind him again, unlayed, in spite -of all the hope and promise? Why not, since its exorcist had proved -himself a Judas? - -He ground his teeth, and moved on, muttering and maddening. Only -yesterday he had been flattering himself with the thought of returning -to his capital wreathed in all the glamour of conquest. And now! False -fire--false, damning fire. What victor was he, who could not command -himself? What vicegerent of the All-seeing, who could nominate a -traitor and hypocrite to be his proxy? And he had so believed in the -accursed boy! - -The prophecy of the monk Capello stuck like a poisonous burr in his -soul. He could not shake it off. Now, he remembered, was the near -season for its maturing--a superstition aggravated tenfold by the -thought that its ripening had been let to prosper in the sun of his own -credulous trust. And he could not temporise while the moment struck and -passed, for his fate turned upon the moment. Moreover, Christmas was at -hand, a time dear to the traditions of his house; and, rightly or -mistakenly, he believed that upon a maintenance of those traditions -depended his house's prevalence. His acts must continue to compare -royally, in seasonable largesse and bounty, with those of Francesco, its -yet adored founder; and he could not afford to ignore those obligations. -He felt himself trapped, and turning, turning, between the devil and the -deep sea. - -But he was not without a sort of desperado courage; and fury lent him -nerve. - -'Lead on, lead on, Castellano,' he snarled, grinning like a wolf. 'The -calf by now should be in train for his blooding.' - -They found him stalled deep among the foundations of the fortress, in a -stone chamber whose kiln-like conformation shaped itself horribly to the -needs and privacies of the 'question.' He might, this Tassino, have -been a calf indeed, by the deadly pallor of his flesh. From the moment -when, still in the glow of his send-off, he had dared, producing his -_piece de conviction_ before the Duke, to incriminate Bona on its -evidence, and had been gripped by the neck for his pains, and flung, -squealing like a rat, into this sewer, it had never warmed by a degree -from this livid hue. Sickened, rather, since here, dreadfully interned -throughout the day, like a schoolboy locked in with an impossible -imposition, he had been left to writhe and moan, in awful anticipation -of the coming inquisition and its likely consequences to himself. They -were prefigured for him, in order to the sharp-setting of his wits, in a -score or so instruments, all slack and somnolent and unstrung for the -time being, but suggestive of hideous potentialities in their tautening. -The rack riveted to the floor; the pulley pendent from the ceiling; the -stocks in the corner, with the chafing-dish, primed with knobs of -charcoal, ready at its foot-holes; the escalero or chevalet, which was a -trough for strangling recalcitrant hogs in, limb by limb; the iron dice -for forcing into the heels, and the canes for twisting and breaking the -fingers; the water-bag and the thumbscrew and the fanged pincers--such, -and such in twenty variations of hook and stirrup and dangling -monstrosities of block and steel, but all pointing a common moral of -terrific human pain, where the inducements to a calmly thought-out -self-exculpation which had been offered to Tassino's solitary -consideration. No wonder that, when at last the key turned and the -harsh door creaked to admit his inquisitors, he should have screamed out -with the mortal scream of a creature that finds itself cut off from -escape in a burning house. - -The Castellan struck him, judicially, across the mouth, and he was -silent immediately, falling on his knees and softly chattering bloody -teeth. Galeazzo, rubbing his chin, conned him at his smiling leisure; -while, motionless and apathetic in the opening of the door, stood a -couple of dark, aproned figures, one a Nubian. - -'Ebbene, Messer Tassino,' purred the Duke at length; 'has -reconsideration found your indictment open to some revision? Rise, -sir--rise.' - -He waved his hand loftily. The wretch, after a vain attempt or two, -succeeded in getting to his feet, on which he stood like a man palsied. -He essayed the while to answer; but somehow his tongue was at odds with -his palate. - -The Duke, watching him, stealthily lifted his left hand, showing a green -stone on one of its fingers. - -'Mark ye that?' said he, smiling. - -The other's lips moved inaudibly; his glittering eyes were fixed upon -the token. - -'Say again,' said Galeazzo, 'who charged ye with it to this errand?' - -The poor animal mumbled. - -'Now hist, now hist, my lord's Grace,' put in the Castellan, the light -in his solitary eye travelling like a spark in dead tinder: 'there's an -emetic or so here would assist the creature's delivery.' - -Tassino gulped and found his voice--or a mockery of it:-- - -'My lord--spare me--'twas Caprona's widow.' - -'And for what purpose?' - -The fool, lost in terror, garbled his lesson. - -'To destroy the Duchess, whom she hates. I know not: 'twas Messer -Ludovic made himself her agent to me.' - -'Ho!' cried the Duke, and the monosyllable rolled up and round under the -roof, and was returned upon him. 'Here's addition, not subtraction. -What more?' - -Advancing, with set grinning lips, he thumbed the victim's arm, as he -might be a market-wife testing a fowl. - -'Plump, plump,' he said, turning his head about. 'Shall we not singe the -fat capon, Messer Castellan, before trussing him for the spit?' - -At a sign, the two butchers at the door advanced and seized their -victim. He struggled desperately in their grasp. Shriek upon shriek -issued from his lips. Galeazzo thundered down his cries:-- - -'Lay him out,' he roared, 'and bare his ribs.' - -In a moment Tassino was stretched in the rack, an operator, head and -heel, gripping at the spokes of the drums. The Duke came and stood -above, contemplative again now, and ingratiatory. - -'So!' he said; 'we are in train, at last, for the truth. Tassino, my -poor boy, who indeed sent you with this ring to me?' - -'O Messer! before God! It was your brother.' - -'And acting for whom?' - -'The lady, Beatrice.' - -'Who had been given it by?' - -'Messer Bembo.' - -'Ay: and he had received it from----?' - -The poor wretch choked, and was silent. Galeazzo glanced aside: the -winches creaked. - -'Mercy, in God's name! Mercy!' shrieked the miserable creature. 'I -will swear that it was won from her Grace by fraud--that she never -knowingly parted with it to--to----' - -'Ha!' struck in the Duke; and drew himself up, and pondered awhile -blackly. - -'My brother--my brother,' ran his thought. 'It may be; it may well be. -To ruin her in mine eyes--yes: a fond fool. But a loyal fool. She'd -not conspire--not she; nor Simonetta, loyal too--who mistrusts him, and -whom he 'd drag down with her. What, Ludovic!--too crafty, too -overreaching. Yet, conspiracy there may be, and she its unconscious -tool.' - -He looked down again, glooming, grating his chin. - -'Here's some revision, then. Thou whelp, so to have bitten the hand -that stroked thee! Shall I not draw thy teeth for it?' - -'Pity, pity!' moaned Tassino. 'I spoke under compulsion.' - -'And so shall,' snarled the other. 'What! To mend a slander on -compulsion! More physic may bring more cure. Perchance hast made this -Countess too thy cats-paw?' - -'My lord! No! On my soul!' - -'She hates the Duchess?' - -'Yes, poisonously.' - -'Why?' - -'My lord!' - -'Why, I say?' - -'Alas! she covets for herself what the Duchess claims to heaven.' - -'Riddles, swine! Covets! What or whom?' - -'O, O! Your Grace's false deputy, Messer Bembo.' - -'What! false? You'll stick to it?' - -'How can I help?--O! dread my lord, how can I help the truth, unless you -'d wrench from me a travesty of it?' - -His breast heaved and sobbed. The tyrant gloomed upon him. - -'Is it true, then, he's a traitor?' - -'O, the blackest--the most subtle! There can I utter without -prompting.' - -It was true that he believed he could. Remember how, mongrel though he -was, his mind had been fed on slander of our saint. - -Galeazzo dropped into a moody reverie. A long quivering sigh thereat -broke from his prostrate victim. Mean wits are cunning for themselves; -and, looking up into the dark eyes bent above him, Tassino thought he -saw reflected there a first faint ghost of hope. O, to hold, to -materialise it! He must be infinitely cautious. - -He moaned, and wagged his head. The Duke broke out again:-- - -'False! is he false to me? And yet my wife is true, thou sayest? and -yet this woman of Caprona's jealous, thou sayest? Of whom?--O, dog, -beware!' - -'Master, of a shadow. She reads the woman's baseness in the man's.' - -'Ho! Not like thou: what, puppy?' - -'Before God, no. 'Tis Madonna's very innocence helps his designs.' - -'How?' - -'By trusting in, and exalting them for heaven's. She'll wake when it's -too late, and weep and curse herself for having betrayed thee.' - -'She will? Betray? Too late? These be terms meeter to a rebellion -than a schism.' - -'Yet must I speak them, weeping, though I die.' - -The despot gnawed his lip. - -'Hast venom in thee, and with reason, to sting the boy?' - -'Alas! to warn thee rather from his fang.' - -'Ha!' - -'It will lie flat against his palate, till the time when with his subtle -eyes he shall invite thy hand to stroke his head. No rebellion, lord; -no python rearing on his crushing folds. Yet may the little snake be -deadlier.' - -He was gathering confidence hair by hair. There were glints of coming -tempest, well known to him, blooding the corners of Galeazzo's eyes. He -believed, by them, that he should presently ride this storm of his own -evoking. - -'Ah!' he moaned, 'I'm sick. Mercy, lord! Truth 's not itself unless -upright.' - -The tyrant tossed his hand:-- - -'Set the dog on his legs.' - -The dog so far justified his title that, being released, he crawled -abject on all fours to his master's feet, and crouched there ready to -lick them. - -'Bah!' cried the Duke, and spurned him. 'Get on thy hind legs, ape! -The rope's but slackened from thy hanging; the noose yet cuddles to thy -neck. Stand'st there to justify thyself, or answer with a separate rack -and screw for every lie thou 'st uttered.' - -He strode a pace or two like one demented; turned, snarled out a sudden -shocking laugh, and came close up again to the trembling, but still -confident wretch. - -'See, we'll be reasonable,' he said, mockingly insinuative; 'a twin -amity of dialecticians, ardent for the truth, cooing like love-birds. -"Well, on my faith, he's a traitor," says you; and "your faith shall be -mine on vindication, sweet brother," says I. Now, what proves him -traitor? I ask.' - -'He rules the palace.' - -'Why, I set him in my place.' - -'You did indeed; but--ah! dare I say what's whispered?' - -'You 'd better.' - -'Why--O, mercy! Bid me not.' - -'I'll not ask again.' - -'You force me to it--that, being there, he designs to stay.' - -'He'll be Duke?' - -'No, no.' - -'You shall wince with better reason. Dog, you dog my patience. I'll -turn. What then?' - -'Only that he sits for Christ. Let them depose him that are devils' -men.' - -'My men?' - -'O! he's subtle. No word against your Grace; only the dumb pleas of -love and pity courting comparison.' - -'With what?' - -'Your Grace's sharper methods.' - -'Beast! Did I not waive them for his sake? Did I not leave my -conscience in his keeping?' - -'Alas! if thou didst, he's used it, like a false friend, in damning -evidence against thee.' - -'O Judas!' - -'Used it to point the moral of his own large tolerance. The people rise -to him--cry him in the streets: "Down with Galeazzo! Nature's our -God!"' - -'Ha! He's Nature?' - -'As they read him--lord of the slums.' - -'Lord of filthy swine. I'll ring their snouts. Well, goon. God of the -slums, is he?' - -'God of thy palace, too; mends and amends thy laws--sugars them for -sweet palates--gains the women--O, a prince of confectioners! There's -the ring to prove.' - -'What!' - -'I can guess when he wheedled it.' - -'Thou canst?' - -'The moment thy back was turned. So quick he sped to discredit thee--to -reverse thy judgments. The monk thou'd left to starve, a dog -well-served--he'd release him, a fine text to open on. But Jacopo was -obdurate--would not let him pass, neither him nor Cicada----' - -'What! the Fool?' - -'O, they're in one conspiracy--inseparable. He's to be Vizier some -day.' - -'I'll remember that.' - -'So he ran off, and presently returned with a pass-token. I guessed not -what at the time; now I guess. It was the ring he'd coaxed from -Madonna.' - -'And saved the monk thereby?' - -'Ah-ha! Jacopo had forestalled him; the monk was dead.' - -'What did he then?' - -'Cursed thy lord's Grace, and ran; ran and hid himself away among the -people, he and his Fool, and spat his poison in that sewer, to fester -and bear fruit. 'Twas only presently the Duchess heard of him, and -persuaded him on sweet promise of amendment back to the Court. He's -made the most of that concession since, using it to----' - -He checked himself, and whimpered and sprang back. On the instant the -storm which he had dreaded while provoking was burst upon him. -Credulous and irrational like all tyrants, Galeazzo never thought to -analyse interests and motives in any indictment whose pretext was -devotion to himself and his safety. Wrapped in eternal unbelief in all -men, no man was so easily arrested as he by the first hint of a -plausible rogue professing to serve him, or so quick, being inoculated, -to develop the very confluent scab of suspicion. It were well only for -Autolycus to make the most of his fees during his little spell of -favour, and to disappear on the earliest threat of himself falling -victim to the disease he had promoted. - -Now, for this dumb-struck quartette of knaves and butchers, was enacted -one of those little _danses-diaboliques_ in which this fearful man was -wont to vent his periodic frenzies. He shrieked and leapt and foamed, -racing and twisting to and fro within the narrow confines of the -dungeon. Ravings and blasphemies tore and sputtered from his lips; mad -destruction issued at his hands. He spurned whatever blocked his path, -things living or inanimate; nor seemed to feel or recognise how he -bruised himself, but stumbled over, and snatched at, and hurled aside, -all that crossed the red vision of his rage. Struggling for coherence, -he could force his imprecations but by fits and snatches to rise -articulate:-- - -'Subtle!--I'll be subtler--devil unmasked--no Future?--a specious -dog--hell gapes in front--master of my own--to vindicate the -monk?--treason against his lord--ha, ha! Jacopo! good servant! good -refuter of a sacrilegious hound!' - -Then all at once, quite suddenly as it had risen, the tempest passed. -Slack, dribbling, hoarse, unashamed, he stopped beside his death-white -informer and pawed and mouthed upon him:-- - -'Why, Tassino! Why--my little honest carver o' joints! Thou mean'st me -well, I do believe.' - -'O my lord!' cried the trembling rogue, 'if you would but trust me!' - -'Why, so I do, Tassino,' urged the Duke, nervously handling and stroking -the young man's arm. 'So I do, little pretty varlet. I believe thy -story--fie! an impious tale. Deserv'st well of me for that -boldness--good courage--the truth needs it. Wilt serve me yet?' - -'My lord, to the death.' - -'Fie, fie! Not so far, I hope. Yet, listen; 'twere meet this viper -were not let to crawl himself within our laurels, and crown our triumph -with a poisonous bite. Hey?' - -'I understand your Grace.' - -'A hint's enough, then. 'Tis no great matter; but these worms will -sting.' - -'I'll jog Jacopo.' - -'You will? He's true to me?' - -'O yes!' - -'No convert to the other?' - -'He hates him well.' - -'Does he? A viper has no friends but his kind. This one--hark! a word -in your ear. He 'd loose Capello, who damned me, and was damned? Were -it not right then the false prophet should take the false prophet's -place?' - -'Most right.' - -'The word's with thee, little chuck. How about the Fool?' - -'As bad, or worse, my lord.' - -'Hush! Two vipers, do you say?' - -'My lord!' - -'Be circumspect, that's all. 'Tis our will to give great largesse this -Christmastide.' - -'The very sound will jingle out his memory--bury the golden calf under -gold.' - -'Good, little rogue. We'll linger on the Mount meanwhile--just a day or -so, to let the promise work. 'Twere a sleeveless triumph through a -grudging city. Let these thorns be plucked first from our road.' - -'I'll ride at once, saving your Grace.' - -'Do so, and tell Jacopo, "Quietly, mind--without fuss."' - -'Trust me.' - -The Duke flicked his arm and turned, smiling, to the Castellan. - -'You shall provide Messer Tassino,' said he smoothly, 'with his liberty, -and a swift horse.' - - -A week later, Sforza the second of Milan set out for his Capital, in all -the pomp and circumstance of state which befitted a mighty prince -greatly homing after conquest. His path, by all the rules of glory, -should have been a bright one; yet his laurels might have been Death's -own, from the gloom they cast upon his brow. Last night, looking from -his chamber window, he had seen a misty comet cast athwart that track: -to-day, scarce had he started, when three ravens, rising from the -rice-swamps, had come flapping with hoarse crow to cross it. He had -thundered for an arbalest--loosed the quarrel--shot wide--spun the -weapon to the ground. An inexplicable horror had seized him. -Thenceforth he rode with bent head and glassy eyes fixed upon the -crupper. The road of death ran before; behind sat the shadow of his -fear, cutting him from retreat. So he reached the Porta Giovia, passed -over the drawbridge, in silence dismounted, and for the first time -looked up vaguely. - -'Black, black!' he muttered to the page who held his horse. 'Let Mass -be sung in it to-morrow, and for the chaunts be dirges. See to it.' - -Did he hope so to hoodwink heaven, by abasing himself in the vestments -of remorse? Likely enough. He had always been cunning to hold from it -the worst of his confidence. - -But in the thick of the night a voice came to him, blown upon the wind -of dreams:-- - -'No Future, O, no Future! Look to thy Past!' - -And he started up in terror, quavering aloud:-- - -'Who's that that being dead yet speaketh!' - - - - - *CHAPTER XXIII* - - -It is remarkable how quickly the brute genii will adapt himself to his -pint bottle when once the cork is in. Elastic, it must be remembered, -has the two properties of expansion and retraction, the latter being in -corresponding proportion with the former. Wherefore, the greater its -stretching capacity the more compact its compass unstretched. - -So it is with life, which is elastic, and mostly lived at a tension. -Relax that tension, and behold the buoyant temperament rinding roomier -quarters in a straitened confinement than would ever a flaccid one in -the same; and this in defiance of Bonnivard, that fettered Nimrod of the -mountains, whose heart broke early in captivity, and who, nevertheless, -as a matter of fact, did not exist. - -The truth is, a pint pot is over-enough to contain the mind of many an -honest vigorous fellow; and it is the mind, rather than the body, which -struggles for elbow-room. Carlo, in his prison, suffered little from -that mere mental horror of circumscription which, to a more sensitive -soul, had been the infinite worst of his doom. He champed, and stamped, -and raged, sure enough; cursed his fate, his impotence, his -restrictions; but all from a cleaner standpoint than the nerves--from -one (no credit to him for that) less constitutionally personal. That he -should be shut from the possibility of helping in a sore pass the little -friend of his love, of his faith, of his adoration--the pretty child who -had needed, never so much as at this moment, the help and protection of -his strong arm--here was the true madness of his condition. And he bore -it hardly, while the fit possessed him, and until physical exhaustion -made room for the little reserves of reason which all the time had been -waiting on its collapse. - -Then, suddenly, he became very quiet; an amenable, wicked, dangerous -thing; fed greedily; nursed his muscles; spake his gaolers softly when -they visited him; refrained from asking useless questions to elicit -evasive answers; brooded by the hour together when alone. They treated -him with every consideration; answered practically his demands for -books, paper, pens and ink, wine--for all bodily ameliorations of his -lot which he chose to suggest, short of the means to escape it. There, -only, was there no concession--no response to the request of an insulted -cavalier to be returned the weapons of his honour of which he had been -basely mulcted. His fingers must serve his mouth, he was told, and his -teeth his meat--they were sharp enough. At which he would grin, and -click those white knives together, and return to his brooding. - -But not, at last, for long. Very soon he was engaged in exploring his -dungeon, a gloomy cellar, two-thirds of it below the level of the moat, -and lit by a single window, deep-shafted under the massive ceiling. His -search, at first, yielded him no returns but of impenetrable -induracy--no variations, knock where he might, in the echoless -irresponsiveness of dumb-thick walls. Only, with that incessant -tap-tapping of his, the trouble in his brain fell into rhythm, chiming -out eternally, monotonously, the inevitable answer to a fruitless -question with which, from the outset, he had been tormenting himself, -and from which, for all his sickness of its vanity, he could not escape. - -'What hath Cicada done? Concluded me safely sped? Done nothing, -therefore. What hath Cicada done? Concluded me safely sped? Done -nothing, therefore.' - -So, the villainy was working, and he in his dungeon powerless to -counteract it. - -He lived vividly through all these phases--of despair, of -self-concentration, of resourceful hope--during the opening twenty-four -hours of his confinement. And then, once upon a time, very suddenly, -very softly, very remotely, there was borne in upon him the strange -impression that he was not alone in his underworld. - -The first shadow of this conviction came to haunt him during the second -night of his imprisonment, when, having fallen asleep, there presently -stole into his brain, out of a deep sub-consciousness of consciousness, -the knowledge that some voice, extraneous to himself, was moaning and -throbbing into his ear. - -At the outset this voice appealed to him for nothing more than the -emotional soft babble of a dream. It seemed to reach to him from a vast -distance, breathing very faint, and thin, and sweet through aeons of -pathetic memories. He could not identify or interpret it, save in so -far as its burden always hinted of a wistful sadness. But, gradually, as -the spell of it enwrapped and claimed him, out of its inarticulateness -grew form, and out of that form recognition. - -It was Bernardo singing to his lute. How could he not have known it, -when here was the boy actually walking by his side? They trod a smiling -meadow, sweet with narcissus and musical with runnels. The voice made -ecstasy of the Spring; frisked in the blood of little goats; unlocked -the sap of trees, so that they leapt into a spangled spray of blossoms. - -A step--and the turf was dry beneath their feet. The sun smote down -upon the plain; the grasshopper shrieked like a jet of fire; the -full-uddered cattle lowed for evening and the shadowed stall. - -Again, a step--and the leaves of the forest blew abroad like flakes of -burning paper; the vines shed fruit like heavy drops of blood; the sky -grew dark in front, rolling towards them a dun wall of fog--the music -wailed and ceased. - -He turned upon his comrade; and saw the lute swung aside, the pale lips -yet trembling with their song. He knew the truth at once. - -'We part here,' he murmured. 'Is it not? So swiftly run thy seasons. -And you return to Spring; and I--O, I, go on! Whither, sweet angel? O, -wilt thou not linger a little, that, reaching mine allotted end, I may -hurry back to overtake thee?' - -Then, clasping his hands in agony, the tears running down his cheeks, he -saw how the boy bent to whisper in his ear--words of divine solace--nay, -not words, but music--music, music all, of an unutterable pathos. - -And he awoke, to hear the shrunk, inarticulate murmur of it still -whispering to his heart. - -He sat up, panting, in the deep blackness. His hands trembled; his face -was actually wet. But the music had not ended with his dream. Grown -very soft and far and remote, it yet went sounding on in fact--or was it -only in fancy? - -His still-drugged brain surged back into slumber on the thought. -Instantly the voice began to take shape and reality: he caught himself -from the mist--as instantly it fell again into a phantom of itself. - -And thus it always happened. So surely as he listened wakeful, -straining his hearing, the voice would reach him as a far plaintive -murmur, a vague intolerable sweetness, without identity or suggestion -save of some woful loss. So surely did his brain swerve and his aching -eyes seal down, it would begin to gather form, and words out of form, -and expression out of words--expression, of a sorrow so wildly sad and -moving, that his dreaming heart near broke beneath the burden of its -grief. - -A strange experience; yet none so strange but that we must all have -known it, what time our errant soul has leapt back into our waking -consciousness, carrying with it, on the wind of its return, some echo of -the spirit world with which it had been consorting. Who has not known -what it is to wake, in a dumb sleeping house, to the certain knowledge -of a cry just uttered, a sentence just spoken, of a laugh or whisper -stricken silent on the instant, nor felt the darkness of his room -vibrate and settle into blankness as he listened, and, listening, lost -the substance of that phantom utterance? - -But at length for Carlo dream and reality were blended in one -forgetfulness. - -Morning weakened, if it could not altogether dissipate, his -superstitions. Though one be buried in a vault, there's that in the -mere texture of daylight, even if the thinnest and frowziest, to muffle -the fine sense of hearing. If, in truth, those mystic harmonics still -throbbed and sighed, his mind had ceased to be attuned to them. He lent -it to the more practical business of resuming his examination of his -prison. - -At midday, while he was sitting at his dinner, a visitor came and -introduced himself to him, leaping, very bold and impudent, to the table -itself, where he sat up, trimming his whiskers anticipatory. It was a -monstrous brown rat; and self-possessed--Lord! Carlo dropped his fists -on the cloth, and stared, and then fell to grinning. - -'O, you've arrived, have you!' said he. 'Your servant, Messer Topo!' - -It was obviously the gentleman's name. At the sound of it, he lowered -his fore-paws, flopped a step or two nearer, and sat up again. Carlo -considered him delightedly. He was one of those men between whom and -animals is always a sympathetic confidence. - -'Is it, Messer Topo,' said he, 'that you desire to honour me with the -reversion of a former friendship? What! You flip your whiskers in -protest? No friend, you imply, who could educate your palate to cooked -meats, and then betray it, returning you to old husks? Has he deserted -you, then? Alas, Messer! We who frequent these cellars are not masters -of our exits and our entrances. How passed he from your ken, that same -unknown? Feet-first? Face-first? Tell me, and I'll answer for his -faith or faithlessness.' - -The visitor showed some signs of impatience. - -'What!' cried Carlo. 'My grace is overlong? Shall we fall to? Yet, -soft. Fain would I know first the value of this proffered love, which, -to my base mind, seems to smack a little of the cupboard.' - -His hand went into the dish. Messer Topo ceased from preening his -moustache, and stiffened expectant, his paws erect. - -'Ha-ha!' cried Carlo. 'You are there, are you? O, Messer Topo, Messer -Topo! Even prisoners, I find, possess their parasites.' - -He held out a morsel of meat. The big rat took it confidently in his -paws; tested, and approved it; sat up for more. - -'What manners!' admired Carlo. 'Art the very pink of Topos. Come, -then; we'll dine together.' - -Messer Topo acquitted himself with perfect correctness. When satisfied, -he sat down and cleaned himself. Carlo ventured to scratch his head. -He paused, to submit politely to the attention--which, though undesired, -he accepted on its merits--then, the hand being withdrawn, waited a -moment for courtesy's sake, and returned to his scouring. In the midst, -the key grated in the door, and like a flash he was gone. - -'Ehi!' pondered Carlo; 'it is very evident he has been trained to shy at -authority.' - -It seemed so, indeed, and that authority knew nothing of him. -Otherwise, probably, authority would have resented his interference with -its theories of solitary confinement to the extent of trapping and -killing him. - -The prisoner saw no more of his little sedate visitor that evening; but, -with night and sleep, the voice again took up the tale of his haunting; -and this time, somehow, to his dreaming senses, Messer Topo seemed to be -the medium of its piteous conveyance to him. Once more he woke, and -slept, and woke again; and always to hear the faint music gaining or -losing body in opposite ratio with his consciousness. He was troubled -and perplexed; awake by dawn, and harking for confirmation of his -dreams. But daylight plugged his hearing. - -He had expected Messer Topo to breakfast. He did not come. He -called--and there he was. They exchanged confidences and discussed -biscuits. The key grated, and Messer Topo was gone. - -This day Carlo set himself to solve the mystery of his visitor's -lightning disappearances--_Anglice_, to find a rat-hole. Fingering, in -the gloom, along the joint of floor and wall, he presently discovered a -jagged hole which he thought might explain. Without removing his hand, -he called softly: 'Topo! Messer Topo!' Instantly a little sharp snout, -tipped with a chilly nose, touched him and withdrew. He stood up, as -the key turned in the lock once more. - -This time it was Messer Jacopo himself who entered, while his bulldogs -watched at the door. He came to bring the prisoner a volume of Martial, -which Carlo had once had recommended to him, and of which he had since -bethought himself as a possible solace in his gloom. The Provost Marshal -advanced, with the book in his hand, and seeing his captive's -occupation, as he thought, paused, with a dry smile on his lips. Then, -with his free palm, he caressed the wall thereabouts. - -'Strong masonry, Messer,' he said; 'good four feet thick. And what -beyond? A dungeon, deadlier than thine own.' - -Carlo laughed. - -'A heavy task for nails, old hold-fast, sith you have left me nothing -else. _Lasciate ogni speranza_, hey, and all the rest? I know, I know. -Yet, look you, there should have been coming and going here once, to -judge by the tokens.' - -He signified, with a sweep of his hand, a square patch on the stones, -roughly suggestive of a blocked doorway, wherein the mortar certainly -appeared of a date more recent than the rest. - -The other made a grim mouth. - -'Coming, Messer,' he said; 'but little going. Half-way he sticks who -entered, waiting for the last trump. He'll not move until.' - -Carlo recoiled. - -'There's one immured there?' - -'Ay, these ten years----' - -And the wooden creature, laying the book on the table, stalked out like -an automaton. - -He left the prisoner gulping and staring. Here, in sooth, was food for -his fancy, luckily no great possession. But the horror bit him, -nevertheless. Presently he took up the book--tried to forget himself in -it. He found it certainly very funny, and laughed: found it very gross, -and laughed--and then thought of Bernardo, and frowned, and threw the -thing into a corner. Then he started to his feet and went up and down, -nervously, with stealthy glances to the wall. Haunted! No wonder he -was haunted. Did it sob and moan in there o' nights, beating with its -poor blind hands on the stone? Did it---- - -A thought stung him, and he stopped. The rat! Its run broke into that -newer mortar, penetrated, perhaps, as far as the buried horror itself. -Was _there_ the secret of the music? Was it wont, that hapless spectre, -putting its pallid lips to the hole, to sigh nightly through it its -melodious tale of griefs? - -He stood gnawing his thumb-nail. - -What might it be--man or woman? There was that legend of a nun with -child by--Nay, horrible! What might it be? Nothing at this last, -surely--sexless--just a spongy chalk of bones, a soft rubble for rats to -nest in. O, Messer Topo, Messer Topo! on what dust of human tragedy did -you make your bed! Perhaps---- - -No! perish the thought! Messer Topo was a gentleman--descendant of a -long line of gentlemen--no hereditary cannibal. He preferred meats -cooked to raw. An hereditary guardian, rather, of that flagrant tomb. -And yet-- - -He lay down to rest that night, lay rigid for a long while, battling -with a monstrous soul-terror. A burst of perspiration relieved him at -last, and he sank into oblivion. - -Then, lo! swift and instant, it seemed, the unearthly music caught him -in its spell. It was more poignant than he had known it yet--loud, -piercing, leaping like the flame of a blown candle. He awoke, sweating -and trembling. The vibration of that gale of sorrow seemed yet ringing -in his ears--from the walls, from the ceiling, from the glass rim of his -drinking-vessel on the table, which repeated it in a thousand tinkling -chimes. But again the voice itself had attenuated to a ghost of -sound--a mere AEolian thread of sweetness. - -_But it was a voice_. - -Carlo sat up on his litter. He was a man of obdurate will, of a -conquering resolution; and the moment, unnerving as it seized him out of -sleep, found him nevertheless decided. A shaft of green moonlight -struck down from the high grate into his dungeon, spreading like oil -where it fell; floating over floor and table; leaving little dark -objects stranded in its midst. Its upper part, reflecting the moving -waters of the moat outside, seemed to boil and curdle in a frantic dance -of atoms, as though the spirit music were rising thither in soundless -bubbles. - -He listened a minute, scarce breathing; then dropped softly to the -floor, and stole across his chamber, and stooped and listened at the -wall. - -The next moment he had risen and staggered back, panting, glaring with -dilated eyes into the dark. There was no longer doubt. It was by way -of Messer Topo's pierced channel that the music had come welling to him. - -But whence? - -Commanding himself by a tense effort, he bent once more, and listened. -Long now--so long, that one might have heard the passion in his heart -conceive, and writhe, and grow big, and at length deliver itself in a -fierce and woful cry: 'Bernardo! my little, little brother!' - -With the words, he leapt up and away--tore hither and thither like a -madman--mouthed broken imprecations, fought for articulate speech and -self-control. The truth--all the wicked, damnable truth--had burst upon -him in a flash. No ghostly voice was this of a ten years immured; but -one, now recognised, sweet and human beyond compare, the piteous -solution of all his hauntings. The run pierced further than to that -middle tragedy--pierced to a tragedy more intimate and dreadful--pierced -through into the adjoining cell, where lay his child, his little love, -perishing of cold and hunger. He read it all in an instant--the -disastrous consequences of his own disaster. And he could not comfort -or intervene while this, his pretty swan, was singing himself to death -hard by. - -Pity him in that minute. I think, poor wretch, his state was near the -worse--so strong, and yet so helpless. He shrieked, he struck himself, -he blasphemed. Monstrous? it was monstrous beyond all human limits of -malignity. So the ring had sped and wrought! What had this angel done, -but been an angel? What had Cicada, so hide-bound in his own conceit of -folly? Curst watchdogs both, to let themselves be fooled and chained -away while the wolf was ravening their lamb! - -He sobbed, fighting for breath:-- - -'Messer Topo, Messer Topo! Thou art the only gentleman! I crave thy -forgiveness, O, I crave thy forgiveness for that slander! A rat! I'll -love them always--a better gentleman, a better friend, bringing us -together!' - -With the thought, he flung himself down on the floor, and put his ear to -the hole. Still, very faint and remote, the music came leaking by it--a -voice; the throb of a lute. - -He changed his ear for his lips:-- - -'Bernardo!' he screamed; 'Bernardo! Bernardo!' and listened anew. - -The music had ceased--that was certain. It was succeeded by a confused, -indistinguishable murmur, which in its turn died away. - -'Bernardo!' he screeched again, and lay hungering for an answer. - -It came to him, suddenly, in one rapturous soft cry:-- - -'Carlo!' - -No more. The sweet heart seemed to break, the broken spirit to wing on -it. Thereafter was silence, awful and eternal. - -He called again and again--no response. He rose, and resumed his -maddened race, to and fro, praying, weeping, clutching at his throat. -At length worn out, he threw himself once more by the wall, his ear to -the hole, and lying there, sank into a sort of swoon. - -Messer Topo, sniffing sympathetically at his face, awoke him. He sat -up; remembered; stooped down; sought to cry the dear name again, and -found his voice a mere whisper. That crowned his misery. But he could -still listen. - -No sound, however, rewarded him. He spent the day in a dreadful tension -between hope and despair--snarled over the periodic visits of his -gaolers--snarled them from his presence--was for ever crouching and -listening. They fancied his wits going, and nudged one another and -grinned. He never thought to question them; was always one of those -strong souls who find, not ask, the way to their own ends. He knew they -would lie to him, and was only impatient of their company. Seeing his -state, they were at the trouble to take some extra precautions, always -posting a guard on the stairs before entering his cell. Messer Lanti, -normal, was sufficiently formidable; possessed, there was no foretelling -his possibilities. - -But they might have reassured themselves. Escape, at the moment, was -farthest from his thoughts or wishes. He would have stood for his -dungeon against the world; he clung to his wall, like a frozen -ragamuffin to the outside of a baker's oven. - -Presently he bethought himself of an occupation, at once suggestive and -time-killing. He had been wearing his spurs when captured--weapons, of -a sort, overlooked in the removal of deadlier--and these, in view of -vague contingencies, he had taken off and hidden in his bed. His -precaution was justified; he saw a certain use for them now; and so, -procuring them, set to work to enlarge with their rowels the opening of -the rat hole. He wrought busily and energetically. Messer Topo sat by -him a good deal, watching, with courteous and even curious forbearance, -this really insolent desecration of his front door. They dined together -as usual; and then Carlo returned to his work. His plan was to enlarge -the opening into a funnel-like mouth, meeter for receiving and conveying -sounds. It had occurred to him that the point of the tiny passage's -issue into the next cell might be difficult of localisation by one -imprisoned there, especially if the search--as he writhed to picture -it--was to be made in a blinding gloom. If he could only have continued -to help by his voice--to cry 'Here! Here!' in this tragic game of -hide-and-seek! He wrought dumbly, savagely, nursing his lungs against -that moment. But still by night it had not come to be his. - -Then, all in an instant, an inspiration came to him. He sat down, and -wrote upon a slip of paper: '_From Carlo Lanti, prisoner and neighbour. -Mark who brings thee this--whence he issues, and whither returns. -Speak, then, by that road_--' and having summoned Messer Topo, fastened -the billet by a thread about his neck, and, carrying him to his run, -dismissed him into it. Wonder of wonders! the great little beast -disappeared upon his errand. Henceforth kill them for vermin that -called the rat by such a name! - -Messer Topo did not return. What matter, if he had sped his mission? -Only, had he? There was the torture. Hour after hour went by, and still -no sign. - -Carlo fell asleep, with his ear to the funnel. That night the music did -not visit him. He awoke--to daylight, and the knowledge of a sudden cry -in his brain. Tremulous, he turned, and found his voice had come back to -him, and cleared it, and quavered hoarsely into the hole, 'Who speaks? -Who's there?' - -He dwelt in agony on the answer--thin, exhausted, a croaking gasp, it -reached him at length:-- - -'Cicca--the Fool--near sped.' - -'The Fool! Thou--thou and none other?' His cry was like a wolf's at -night; 'none other? Bernardo!' he screeched. - -A pause--then: 'Dead, dead, dead!' came wheezing and pouring from the -hole. - -'Ah!' - -He fell back; swayed in a mortal vertigo; rallied. He was quite calm on -the instant--calm?--a rigid, bloodless devil. He set his mouth and -spoke, picking his words:-- - -'So? Is it so? All trapped together, then? When did he die?' - -'Quick!' clucked the voice; 'quick, and let me pass. When, say'st? -Time's dead and rotten here. I know not. A' heard thee call--and -roused--and shrieked thy name. His heart broke on it. A' spoke never -again. All's said and done. What more? I could not find the hole--till -thy rat came. Speak quick.' - -What more? What more to mend or mar? Nothing, now. Hope was as dead as -Time--a poxed and filthy corpse. Love, Faith, and Charity--dead and -putrid. Only two things remained--two things to hug and fondle: revenge -and Messer Topo. He bent and spoke again:-- - -'Starved to death?' - -'Starved----' - -The queer, far little mutter seemed to reel and swerve into a tinkle--an -echo--was gone. Carlo called, and called again--no answer. Then he set -himself to ruminate--a cud of gall and poison. - - -On the eighth morning of his confinement, Jacopo, in person and alone, -suddenly showed himself at the door, which he threw wide open. - -'Free, Messer,' he said; 'and summoned under urgency to the palace.' - -Carlo nodded, and asked not a single question, receiving even his -weapons back in silence. He had had a certain presentiment that this -moment would arrive. He begged only that the Provost Marshal would -leave him to himself a minute. He had some thanks to offer up, he said, -with a smile, which had been better understood and dreaded by a gentler -soul. - -The master gaoler was a religious man, and acquiesced willingly, going -forward a little up the stairway, that the other might be private. -Carlo, thereupon, stepped across to the wall, and whispered for Messer -Topo. - -The big rat responded at once, coming out and sitting up at attention. -Carlo put his hands under his shoulders, and lifting him (the two were -by now on the closest terms of intimacy), apostrophised him face to -face:-- - -'My true, mine only friend at last,' he said (his voice was thick and -choking). 'I must go, leaving him to thee. Be reverent with him for my -sake--ah! if I return not anon, to carry out and plant that sweet corse -in the daisied grass he loved--not dust to dust, but flower to the dear -flowers. Look to it. Shall I never see him more--nor thee? I know -not. I've that to do first may part us to eternity--yet must I do it. -Come, kiss me God-be-with-ye. Nay, that's a false word. How can He, -and this bloody ensign on my brow? My brain in me doth knell already -like a leper's bell. Canst hear it, red-eyes? No God for me. Why -should I need Him--tell me that? Christ could not save His friend. I -must go alone--quite alone at last. Only remember I loved thee--always -remember that. And so, thou fond and pretty thing, farewell.' - -He put his lips to the little furry head; put the animal gently down; -longed to it a moment; then, as it disappeared into its run, turned with -a wet and burdened sigh. - -But, even with the sound, a black and gripping frost seemed to fall upon -him. He drew himself up, set his face to the door, and passed out and -on to freedom and the woful deed he contemplated. - - - - - *CHAPTER XXIV* - - -A despotism (Messer Bembo invitus) is the only absolute expression of -automatic government. The fly-wheel moves, and every detail of the -machinery, saw, knife, or punch, however distant, responds instantly to -its initiative. Galeazzo, for example, had but to make, in Vigevano, -the tenth part of a revolution, and behold, in Milan! Messer -Jacopo--saw, knife, and punch in one--had 'come down,' automatically, -upon the objectives of that movement. Within a few minutes of Tassino's -return, Bernardo and his Fool, seized quietly and without resistance as -they were taking the air on the battlements, were being lowered with -cords into the 'Hermit's Cell.' - -_Sic itur ad astra_. - - -The Duke of Milan re-entered his capital on the 20th of December. His -Duchess met him with happy smiles and tears, loving complaints over his -long absence, a sweet tongue ready with vindication of her trust, should -that be demanded of her. The last week had done much to reassure her, -in the near return to familiar conditions which it had witnessed; and -she felt herself almost in a position to restore to her Bluebeard the -key, unviolated, of the forbidden chamber. If only he would accept that -earnest of her loyalty without too close a questioning! - -And, to her joy, he did; inasmuch, you see, as he had his own reasons -for a diplomatic silence. It would appear, indeed, that recent great -events had altogether banished from his memory the pious circumstances -of his departure to them. He had returned to find his duchy as to all -moral intents he had left and could have wished to recover it. The -fashion of Nature had shed its petals with the summer brocades, and -Milan was itself again. - -For the exquisite, who had set it, was vanished now some seven days -gone; and that is a long time for the straining out of a popular -fashion. He had departed, carrying his Fool with him, none--save one or -two in the secret--knew whither; but surmise was plentiful, and for the -most part rabid. That he had fallen out of home favour latterly was -obvious and flagrant; now, the report grew that this alienation had -received its first impetus from Piedmont. That whisper in itself was -Nature's very quietus. Eleven out of a dozen presumed upon it, and -themselves, to propitiate tyranny with a very debauch of reactionism to -old licence. Moreover, scandal, in mere self-justification, must run -intolerable riot. Nothing was too gross for it in its accounting for -this secession. The pure love which had striven to redeem it, it -tortured into a text for filthy slanders. The Countess of Caprona had -her windows stoned in retaliation one day by a resentful crowd; the -wretched girl Lucia was dragged from her bed and suffocated in a muddy -ditch. The logic of the mob. - -The most merciful of these tales represented Bembo as having run back to -San Zeno, there to hide in terror and trembling his diminished head. It -was the solution of things most comforting to Bona--one on which her -conscience found repose. She wished the boy no evil; had acted as she -did merely in the interests of the State, she told herself. If, for a -moment, her thoughts ever swerved to Tassino--now returned, as it was -whispered, to his old quarters with the Provost Marshal, and abiding -there a readjustment of affairs--she hid the treason under a lovely -blush, and vowed herself for ever more true wife and incorruptible. - -So for the most part all was satisfactory again; and there remained only -to alienate the popular sympathy from its idol. And that the Church -undertook to do. The moment the false prophet was exposed and deposed, -it rose, shook the crumbs from its lap, and gave him his _coup de grace_ -in the public estimation. - -'He but sought,' it thundered, 'to turn ye over, clods; to cleanse your -gross soil for the fairer growing of his roses.' A parable: but so far -comprehensible to the demos in that it implied its narrow escape from -some cleaning process, a vindication of its prescriptive rights to go -unwashed, and therefore convincing. Down sank the threatening -swine-monster thereon; and, being further played upon with comfits of a -festal Christmas-tide, did yield up incontinent its last breath of -revivalism, and kick in joyful reassurance of its sty. - -So the whole city absolved itself of redemption, and set to making -enthusiastic provision for the devil's entertainment against the season -of peace and goodwill. - -_Si finis bonus est, totum bonum erit_: nor less _Bona bona erit_. Only -there was a rift within the happy wife's lute, which somehow put the -whole orchestra out of tune. She saw, for all her sweet chastened sense -of relief, that the Duke was darkly troubled. The oppression of his -mood communicated itself to hers; and she began to dream--horrible -visions of cloyed fingers, and clinging shrouds, and ropey cobwebs that -would drop and lace her mouth and nostrils, the while she could not -fight free a hand to clear them. - -Then, double-damned in his own depression, by reason of its reacting -through his partner on himself, the Duke one day sent for the Provost -Marshal. - -'The season claims its mercies,' gloomed he. 'Take the boy out and send -him home to his father.' - -'His father!' jeered Jacopo brusquely, grunting in his beard. 'A's been -safe in his bosom these three days.' - -'What!' gasped the tyrant. - -'Dead, Messer, dead, that's all,' said the other impassively; 'passed in -a moment, like a summer shower.' - -There was nothing more to be said, then. As for poor Patch, he was too -cheap a mend-conscience for the ducal mind even to consider. It took -instead to brooding more and more on the drawn whiteness of its -Duchess's face, hating and sickened by it, yet fascinated. The air -seemed full of portents in its ghostly glimmer. His fingers were always -itching to strike the hot blood into it. A loathly suspicion seized him -that perhaps here, after all, was revealed the illusive face of his long -haunting. Constantly he fancied he saw reflected in other faces about -him some shadow of its menacing woe. Once he came near stabbing a -lieutenant of his guards, one Lampugnani, for no better reason than that -he had caught the fellow's eyes fixed upon him. - -So the jovial season sped, and Christmas day was come and gone, bringing -with it and leaving, out of conviviality, some surcease of his -self-torment. - -But, on that holy night, Madonna Bona was visited by a dream, more ugly -and more definite than any that had terrified her hitherto. Groping in -a vast cathedral gloom, she had come suddenly upon a murdered body -prostrate on the stones. Dim, shadowy shapes were thronged around; the -organ thundered, and at its every peal the corpse from a hundred hideous -wounds spouted jets of blood. She turned to run; the gloating stream -pursued her--rose to her hips, her lips--she awoke choking and -screaming. - -That morning--it was St. Stephen's Day--the Duke was to hear Mass in the -private chapel of the castello. He rose to attend it, only to find that, -by some misunderstanding, the court chaplain had already departed, with -the sacred vessels, for the church dedicated to the Saint. The Bishop -of Como, summoned to take his place, declined on the score of illness. -Galeazzo decided to follow his chaplain. - -Bona strove frantically to dissuade him from going. He read some -confirmation of his shapeless suspicions in her urgency, and was the -more determined. She persisted; he came near striking her in his fury, -and finally drove her from his presence, weeping and clamorous. - -She was in despair, turning hither and thither, trusting no one. At -length she bethought herself of an honest fellow, always a loyal friend -and soldier of her lord, of whom, in this distracting pass, she might -make use. She had spoken nothing to the Duke of her disposal of his -favourite, Messer Lanti, leaving the explanation of her conduct to an -auspicious moment. Now, in her emergency, she sent a message for -Carlo's instant release, bidding him repair without delay to the palace. -She had no reason, nor logic, nor any particular morality. She was in -need, and lusting for help--that was enough. - -The messenger sped, and returned, but so did not the prisoner with him. -Bona, sobbing, feverish, at the wit's end of her resources, went from -member to member of her lord's suite, imploring each to intervene. As -well ask the jackalls to reprove the lion for his arrogance. - -At eleven the Duke set out. His valet and chronicler, Bernardino Corio, -relates how, at this pass, his master's behaviour seemed fraught with -indecision and melancholy; how he put on, and then off, his coat of -mail, because it made him look too stout; how he feared, yet was anxious -to go, because 'some of his mistresses' would be expecting him in the -church (the true explanation of his unharnessing, perhaps); how he -halted before descending the stairs; how he called for his children, and -appeared hardly able to tear himself away from them; how Madonna -Catherine rallied him with a kiss and a quip; how at length, -reluctantly, he left the castle on foot, but, finding snow on the -ground, decided upon mounting his horse. - -Viva! Viva! See the fine portly gentleman come forth--tall, handsome, -they called him--in his petti-cote of crimson brocade, costly-furred and -opened in front to reveal the doublet beneath, a blaze of gold-cloth -torrid with rubies; see the flash and glitter that break out all over -him, surface coruscations, as it were, of an inner fire; see his face, -already chilling to ashes, livid beneath the sparkle of its jewelled -berretino! Is it that his glory consumes himself? Viva! Viva!--if -much shouting can frighten away the shadow that lies in the hollow of -his cheek. It is thrown by one, invisible, that mounted behind him when -he mounted, and now sits between his greatness and the sun. Viva! -Viva! So, with the roar of life in his ears, he passes on to the -eternal silence. - -As he rides he whips his head hither and thither, each glance of his -eyes a quick furtive stab, a veritable _coup d'[oe]il_. He is gnawed -and corroded with suspicion, mortally _nervous_--his manner lacks -repose. It shall soon find it. He will make a stately recumbent figure -on a tomb. - -The valet, after releasing his master's bridle, has run on by a short -cut to the church, where, at the door, he comes across Messers -Lampugnani and Olgiati lolling arm in arm. They wear _coats and -stockings of mail, and short capes of red satin_. Corio wonders to see -them there, instead of in their right places among the Duke's escort. -But it is no matter of his. There are some gentlemen will risk a good -deal to assert their independence--or insolence. - -In the meanwhile, the motley crowd gathering, the Duke's progress is -slow. All the better for discussing him and his accompanying -magnificence. He rides between the envoys of Ferrara and Mantua, a -gorgeous nucleus to a brilliant nebula. This, after all, is more -'filling' than Nature. Some one likens him, audibly, to the head of a -comet, trailing glory in his wake. He turns sharply, with a scowl. -'Uh! Come sta duro!' mutters the delinquent. 'Like a thunderbolt, -rather!' - -At length he reaches the church door and dismounts. He throws his reins -to a huge Moor, standing ready, and sets his lips. - -From within burst forth the strains of the choir-- - - '_Sic transit gloria mundi,_' - - -Bowing his head, he passes on to his doom. - - - - - *CHAPTER XXV* - - - '_That being dead yet speaketh_' - - -Through the chiming stars, the romp of wind in woods, the gush of spring -freshets, the cheery drone of bees; through all happy gales--of innocent -frolic, of children's laughter, of sighing, unharmful passion, of joy -and gaiety ungrudging; through the associations of his gentle spirit -with these, the things it had loved, whereby, by those who had listened -and could not altogether forget, came gradually to be vindicated the -truth of his kind religion, Bernardo's voice, though grown a phantom -voice, spoke on and echoed down the ages. Sweet babble at the hill-head, -it was yet the progenitor of the booming flood which came to take the -world with knowledge--knowledge of its own second redemption through the -humanity which is born of Nature. Already Art, life's nurse and tutor, -was, unknown to itself, quickening from the embrace of clouds and -sunlight and tender foliage; while, unconscious of the strange destinies -in its womb, it was scorning and reviling the little priest who had -brought about that union. - -And, alas! it is always so. Nor profit nor credit are ever to the -pioneer who opens out the countries which are to yield his followers -both. - -He perished very soon. Its third night of darkness and starvation saw -the passing of that fragile spirit, gentle, innocuous, uncomplaining as -it had lived. Frail as a bird that dies of the shock of capture, he -broke his heart upon a song. - -I would have no gloomy obsequies attend his fate. In tears, and -strewing of flowers, and pretty plaintive dirges of the fields--in sighs -and lutes of love, such as waited on the sweet Fidele, would I have ye -honour him. Not because I would belittle that piercing tragedy, but -because he would. It was none to him. He but turned his face for home, -sorrowing only for his failure to win to his Christ, his comrade, a -kingdom he should never have the chance to influence again. What had he -else to fear? The star that had mothered, the road that had sped him? -All grass and flowers was the latter; of the first, a fore-ray seemed -already to have pierced the darkness of his cell, linking it to heaven. - - '"Let's sing him to the ground." - "I cannot sing; I'll weep, and word it with thee; - For notes of sorrow, out of tune, are worse - Than priests and fanes that lie."' - - -Bring hither, I say, no passion of a vengeful hate. It is the passing -of a rose in winter. - -At near the end, lying in his Fool's arms, he panted faintly:-- - -'My feet are weary for the turning. Pray ye, kind mother, that this -road end soon.' - -'What! shall I hurry mine own damnation?' gurgled the other (his tongue -by then was clacking in his mouth). 'Trippingly, I warrant, shall ye -take that path, unheeding of the poor wretch that lags a million miles -behind lashed by a storm of scorpions.' - -'Marry, sweet,' whispered the boy, smiling; 'I'll wait thee, never fear, -when once I see my way. How could I forego such witness as thou to my -brave intentions? We'll jog the road together, while I shield thy back.' - -'Well, let be,' said Cicca. 'Better they stung that, than my heart -through thine arm'--whereat Bernardo nipped him feebly in an ecstasy of -tears. - - -In the first hours of their fearful doom he was more full of wonder than -alarm--astounded, in the swooning sense. He had not come yet to realise -the mortal nature of their punishment. How should he, innocent of harm? -Attributing, as he did, this sudden blow to Bona, he marvelled only how -so kind a mother could chastise so sharply for a little offence--or -none. Indeed he was conscious of none; though conscious enough, -latterly, poor child, of an atmosphere of grievance. Well, the -provocation had been his, no doubt--somehow. He had learned enough of -woman in these months to know that the measure of her resentment was not -always the measure of the fault--how she would sometimes stab deeper for -a disappointment than for a wrong. He had disappointed her in some way. -No doubt, his favour being so high, he had presumed upon it. A useful -rebuke, then. He would bear his imposition manly; but he hoped, he did -hope, that not too much of it would be held to have purged his -misconduct. The Duke was returning shortly. Perhaps he would plead for -him. - -So sweetly and so humbly he estimated his own insignificance. Could his -foul slanderers have read his heart then, they had surely raved upon -God, in their horror, to strike them, instant and for ever, from the -rolls of self-conscious existence. - -Cicada listened to him, and gnawed his knotted knuckles in the gloom, -and wondered when and how he should dare to curse him with the truth. -He might at least have spared himself that agony. The truth, to one so -true, could not long fail of revealing itself. And when it came, lo! he -welcomed it, as always, for a friend. - -Small birds, small flowers, small wants perish of a little neglect. His -sun, his sustenance, were scarce withheld a few hours from this -sensitive plant before he began to droop. And ever, with the fading of -his mortal tissues, the glow of the intelligence within seemed to grow -brighter, until verily the veins upon his temples appeared to stand out, -like mystic writing on a lighted porcelain lamp. - -So it happened that, as he and his companion were sitting apart on the -filthy stones late on the noon of the second day of their imprisonment, -he ended a long silence by creeping suddenly to the Fool's knees, and, -looking up into the Fool's face in the dim twilight, appealed to its -despair with a tremulous smile. - -'Cicca,' he whispered, 'my Cicca; wilt thou listen, and not be -frightened?' - -'To what?' muttered the other hoarsely. - -'Hush, dear!' said the boy, fondling him, and whimpering--not for -himself. 'I have been warned--some one hath warned me--that it were -well if we fed not our hearts with delusive hopes of release herefrom.' - -'Why not?' said the Fool. 'It is the only food we are like to have.' - -'Ah!' - -He clung suddenly to his friend in a convulsion of emotion. - -'You have guessed? It is true. Capello. We might have known, being -here; but--O Cicca! are you sorry? We have an angel with us--he spoke to -me just now.' - -'Christ?' - -'Yes, Christ, dearest.' - -The Fool, smitten to intolerable anguish, put him away, and, scrambling -to his feet, went up and down, raving and sobbing:-- - -'The vengeance of God on this wicked race! May it fester in madness, -living; and, dead, go down to torment so unspeakable, that----' - -The boy, sprung erect, white and quivering, struck in:-- - -'Ah, no, no! Think who it is that hears thee!' - -Cicada threw himself at his feet, pawing and lamenting:-- - -'Thou angel! O, woe is me! that ever I were born to see this thing!' - -So they subsided in one grief, rocking and weeping together. - -'O, sweet!' gasped the boy--'that ever I were born to bring this thing -on thee!' - -Then, at that, the Fool wrapped him in his arms, adoring and fondling -him, to a hurry of sighs and broken exclamations. - -'On me!--Child, that I am thought worthy!--too great a joy--mightst have -been alone--yet did I try to save thee--heaven's mercy that, failing, I -am involved!' - -And so, easing himself for the first time, in an ecstasy of emotion he -told all he knew about the fatal ring, and his efforts to recover it. - -Bernardo listened in wonder. - -'This ring!' he whispered at the end. 'Right judgment on me for my -wicked negligence. Why, I deserve to die. Yet--' he clung a little -closer--'Cicca,' he thrilled, 'it is the Duke, then, hath committed us -to this?' - -Cicada moaned, beating his forehead:-- - -'Ay, ay! it is the Duke. So I kill thy last hope!' - -'Nay, thou reviv'st it.' - -'How?' He stared, holding his breath. - -'O, my dear!' murmured the boy rapturously; 'since thou acquittest _her_ -of this unkindness.' - -'Her? Whom? _Unkindness!_' cried the Fool. 'Expect nothing of Bona -but acquiescence in thy fate.' - -'Yet is she guiltless of designing it.' - -'Guiltless? Ay, guiltless as she who, raving, "that my shame should -bear this voice and none to silence it!" accepts the hired midwife's -word that her womb hath dropped dead fruit! O!' he mourned most -bitterly, 'I loved thee, and I love; yet now, I swear I wish thee dead!' - -'Then, indeed, thou lovest me.' - -'Had it come to this, in truth?' - -'Alas! I know not what you mean. My mother is my mother still.' - -'Thy mother! I am thy mother.' - -'Ah!' Laughing and weeping, he caught the gruff creature in his -arms:--'Cicca, that sweet, fond comedy!' - -The other put him away again, but very gently, and rose to his feet. - -'Comedy?' he muttered; 'ay, a comedy--true--a masque of clowns. Yet -I've played the woman for thy sake.' - -Bernardo stared at him, his face twitching. - -'Thou hast, dear--so tragically--and in that garb! I would I could have -seen thee in it. O! a churl to laugh, dear Cicca; but----' - -'But what?' - -'_Thou_, a woman!' - -He fell into a little irresistible chuckle. Strange wafts of tears and -laughter seemed to sing in the drowsy chambers of his brain. - -'_Thou_ a woman!' he giggled hysterically. - -The Fool gave a sudden cry. - -'Why not? Have I betrayed my child?' - -He turned, as if sore stricken, and went up and down, up and down, -wringing his hands and moaning. - -Suddenly he came and threw himself on his knees before the boy, but away -from him, and knelt there, rocking and protesting, his face in his -hands. - -'Ah! let me be myself at last. That disguise--thou mockest--'twas none. -Worn like a fool--mayhap--unpractised--yet could I have kissed its -skirted hem. I am a woman, though a Fool--what's odd in that?--a woman, -dear, a woman, a woman!' - -He bowed himself, lower, lower, as if his shame were crushing him. In -the deep silence that followed, Bernardo, trembling all through, crept a -foot nearer, and paused. - -'Mother?' cried the Fool, still crouching, his head deeper abased; 'no -name for me. Cry on--cry scorn, in thy hunger, on this lying dam! No -drop to cool thy drought in all her withered pastures.' - -He writhed, and struck his chest, in pain intolerable. - -'Mother!' thrilled the boy, loud and sudden. - -The Fool gave a quick gasp, and started, and shrunk away. - -'Not I. Keep off! I am as Filippo made me--after his own image. He -was a God--could name me man or woman. 'Twas but a word; and lo! too -hideous for my sex, I leapt, his male Fool. That, of all jests, was his -first. He spared me for it. I had been strangled else.' - -'Mother!' - -Again that moving, rapturous cry, - -'No, no!' cried the Fool. 'Barren--barren--no woman, even! Still as -God wrought me, and human taste condemned. Let be. Forget what I said. -Let me go on and serve thee--sexless--only to myself confessing, not -thou awarding. I ask no more, nor sweeter--O my babe, my babe!' - -'Mother!' - -'Hush! break not my heart--not yet. This darkness? Speak it once more. -Why, I might be beautiful. Will you think it--will you, letting me ply -you with my conscious sweets? I could try. I've studied in the -markets. Your starving rogue's the best connoisseur of savours. I'll -not come near you--only sigh and soothe. I'll tune myself to speak so -soft--school myself out of your knowledge. Perchance, God helping, you -shall think me fair.' - -'Mother!' - -Once more--and he was in her arms. - - -Surely the loveliest miracle that could have blossomed in that grave--a -breaking of roses from the pilgrim's dead staff! - -Henceforth Bernardo's path was rapture--a song of love and -jubilance--his spirit flamed and trembled out in song. - -They had spared him his lute; and his fingers, strong in their instinct -to the last, were seldom long parted from its strings. He lay much in -his Fool mother's lap; and one had scarcely known when their converse -melted into music, or out of music into speech, so melodious was their -love, so rapt their soul-union, and so triumphant over pain and -darkness, as to evoke of fell circumstance its own balm-breathing, -illuminating spirits. What was this horror of bleak, black burial, when -at a word, a struck chord, one could see it quiver and break into a -garden of splendid fancies! - -Once only was their dying exaltation recalled to earth--to consciousness -of their near escape from all its hate and squalor. It happened in a -moment; and so shall suffer but a moment's record. - -There came a sudden laugh and flare--and there was Tassino, torch in -hand, looking from the grate above. - -'Ehi, Messer Bembo!' yapped the cur; 'art there? And I here? What does -omnipotence in this reverse? Arise, and prove thyself. Lucia's dead; -the Duke's returned; Milan is itself again. The memory of thee rots in -the gutter; and stinks--fah! I go to the Duchess soon. What message to -her, bastard of an Abbot?' - -The boy raised his head. - -'The season's, Tassino,' he whispered, smiling. 'Peace and goodwill.' - -The filthy creature mouthed and snarled. - -'Ay. Most sweet. I'll wait thine agony, though, before I give it. -She'll cry, then; and I shall be by; and, look you, emotion is the -mother of desire. I'll pillow her upon thy corpse, bastard, and quicken -her with new lust of wickedness. She'll never have loved me more. God! -what a use for a saint!' - -Cicada crawled, and rose, from under her sweet burden. - -'Wait,' she hissed; 'the grate's open. A strong leap, and I have him.' - -An idle threat; but enough to make the whelp start, and clap to the -bars, and fly screaming. - -The Fool returned, panting, to her charge. - -'Forget him,' she said. - -'I have forgotten him, my mother. But his lie----' - -'Yes?' - -'Was it a lie?' - -'About Bona? I am a woman now. I'll answer nothing for my sex.' - -'I'll answer for her. About my father, I meant?' - -'As thou'lt answer for her, so will I for him.' - -Bernardo sighed, and lay a long while silent. Suddenly he moaned in her -arms, like a child over-tired, and spoke the words already quoted:--'My -feet are weary for the turning.' - - -'Death is Love's seed--a sweet child quickened of ourselves. He comes -to us, his pink hands full of flowers. "See, father, see, mother," says -he, "the myrtles and the orange blooms which made fragrant your bridal -bed. I am their fruit--the full maturity of Love's promise. Will you not -kiss your little son, and come with him to the wise gardens where he -ripened? 'Tis cold in this dark room!"' - -So, in such rhapsodies, 'in love with tuneful death,' would he often -murmur, or melt, through them, into song as strange. - - 'Love and Forever would wed - Fearless in Heaven's sight. - Life came to them and said, - "Lease ye my house of light!" - - He put them on earth to bed, - All in the noonday bright: - "Sooth," to Forever Love said, - "Here may we prosper right." - - Sudden, day waned and fled: - Truth saw Forever in night. - "We are deceived," he said; - "Who shall pity our plight?" - - Death, winging by o'erhead, - Heard them moan in affright. - "Hold by my hem," he said; - "I go the way to light."' - - -All the last day Cicada held him in her arms, so quiet, so motionless, -that the gradual running down of his pulses was steadily perceptible to -her. She felt Death stealing in, like a ghostly dawn--watched its -growing glimmer with a fierce, hard-held agony. Once, before their -scrap of daylight failed them, she stole her wrist to her mouth, and bit -at it secretly, savagely, drawing a sluggish trickle of red. She had -thought him sunk beyond notice of her; and started, and hid away the -wound, as he put up a gentle, exhausted arm, detaining hers. - -'Sting'st thyself, scorpion?' - -Cicada gave a thick crow--merciful God! it was meant for a laugh--and -began to screak and mumble some legend of a bird that, in difficult -times, would bleed itself to feed its young--a most admirable lesson -from Nature. The child laughed in his turn--poor little croupy -mirth--and answered with a story: how the right and left hands once had -a dispute as to which most loved and served the other, each asserting -that he would cut himself off in proof of his devotion. Which being -impracticable, it was decided that the right should sever the left, and -the left the right; whereof the latter stood the test first without a -wince. But, lo! when it came to the left's turn, there was no right -hand to carve him. - -'Anan?' croaked Cicada sourly. - -'Why,' said Bernardo, 'we will exchange the wine of our veins, if you -like, to prove our mutual devotion; but, if I suck all thine first, -there will be no suck left in thy lips to return the compliment on me.' - -'Need'st not take all; but enough to handicap thee, so that we start -this backward journey on fair terms.' - -'Nay, it were so sweet, I 'd prove a glutton did I once begin. Cicca?' - -'My babe?' - -'Canst thou see Christ?' - -'Ay, in the white mirror of thy face.' - -'I see Him so plain. He stands behind thee now--a boy, mine own age. -Nay, He puts His finger on His sweet lips, and smiles and goes. -"Naughty," that means: "shall I stay to hear thee flatter me?" He -blushes, like a boy, to be praised. He's gone no further than the wall. -Cicca, thy disguise was deep. I never thought thee beautiful before. -O, what an unkind mother, to hide her beauty from her boy!' - -'Am I beautiful?' - -'Dost not know it? As the moon that rises on the night. It was night -just now, and my soul was groping in the dark; and, lo! of a sudden thou -wert looking down.' - -'Let it be night, I say!' - -'What is that in thy voice? I am so happy--always; only not when I -think of Carlo. My dear, dear Carlo! Alas! what have they done with -him? He will often think of us, and wonder where we are, and frown and -gnaw his lip. If I could but hear him speak once more--cry "Bernardo!" -in that voice that made one's eyeballs crack like glass, and tickle in -their veins. O, my sweet Carlo! Mother, have I failed in everything?' - -'Let be! Thou'lt kill me with thy prattle. Thy Christ remains behind. -He'll see thy seed is honoured in its fruits.' - -'Well, wilt thou kiss me good-night? I'm sleepy.' - -He seemed to doze a good deal after that. But, about midnight, it might -be, he suddenly sat up, and was singing strongly to his lute--a sweet, -unearthly song, of home-returning and farewell. Cicada clung and held -him, held to him, pierced all through with the awful rapture of that -moment. - -'Leave me not: wait for me!' she whispered, sobbing. - -Suddenly, in a vibrating pause, a faint far cry was wafted to their -ears:-- - -'Bernardo! Bernardo!' - -The fingers tumbled on the lute, plucking its music into a tangle of -wild discords. A string snapped. - -'Carlo!' he screamed--'it is Carlo!' - -The cry leapt, and fell, and eddied away in a long rosary of echoes. -The Fool fumbled for his lips with hers. - -But who might draw death from that sweet frozen spring! - - -She feared nothing now but that they would come and take him from -her--snarled, holding him, when her one sick glint of day stole in to -cross her vigil--was in love with utter solitude and blind night. Once, -after a little or a long time--it was all one to her--she saw a thread -of ghostly whiteness moving on the floor; watched it with basilisk eyes; -thought, perhaps, it was his soul, lingering for hers according to its -promise. The moving spot came on--stole into the wan, diffused streak -of light cast from the grating;--and it was a great rat, with something -bound about its neck. - -She understood on the instant. Long since, her instinctive wit had told -her--though she had not cared or been concerned to listen to it--that -that sudden voice in the darkness had signified that Carlo was -imprisoned somewhere hard by. Well, he had found this means to -communicate with her--near a miracle, it might be; but miracles -interested her no longer. No harm to let him know at last. _He_ could -not rob her of her dead. - -She coaxed the creature to her; found him tame; read the message; -re-fastened on the paper, and, by its glimmer, marked the way of his -return. - -Then she rose, and spoke, and, speaking, choked and died. - -In the dark all cats are grey, and all women beautiful. But I think the -countenance of this one had no need to fear the dawn. - - - - - *CHAPTER XXVI* - - -Amongst all her costly possessions in the Casa Caprona, there had once -been none so loved, so treasured, so often consulted by Beatrice as a -certain portrait of the little Parablist of San Zeno, which she had -bought straight from the studio of its limner, Messer Antonello da -Messina, at that time temporarily sojourning in Milan. This was the -artist, pupil of Jan Van Eyck, who had been the first to introduce -oil-painting into Italy; and the portrait was executed in the new -medium. It was a work perpetrated _con amore_--one of the many in which -the exaltation of the moment had sought to express itself in pigments, -or marble, or metal. For, indeed, during that short spring of his -promise, Bernardo's flower-face had come to blossom in half the crafts -of the town. - -Technically, perhaps, a little wan and flat, the head owed something, -nevertheless, to inspiration. Through the mere physical beauty of its -features, one might read the sorrow of a spiritual incarnation--the -wistfulness of a Christ-converted Eros of the ancient cosmogonies. Here -were the right faun's eyes, brooding pity out of laughter; the rather -square jaw, and girlish pointed chin; the baby lips that seemed to have -kissed themselves, shape and tint, out of spindle-berries; the little -strutting cap and quill even, so queerly contrasted with the staid -sobriety of the brow beneath. It was the boy, and the soul of the boy, -so far as enthusiasm, working through a strange medium, could interpret -it. - -Beatrice, having secured, had hung the picture in a dim alcove of her -chamber; and had further, to ensure its jealous privacy from all -inquisition but her own, looped a curtain before. Here, then, a dozen -times a day, when alone, had she been wont to pray and confess herself; -lust with her finger-tips to charm the barren contours of the face into -life; lay her hot cheek to the painted flesh, and weep, and woo, and -appeal to it; seek to soften by a hundred passionate artifices the -inflexible continence of its gaze. - -But that had been all before the shock and frenzy of her final repulse. -Not once since had she looked on it, until... - -Came upon her, still crouching self-absorbed, that white morning of the -Duke's tragedy; and, on the vulture wings of it, Narcisso. - -The beast crept to her, fulsome, hoarse, shaken with a heart-ague. She -conned him with a contemptuous curiosity, as he stood unnerved, -trembling all through, before her. - -'Well?' she said at last. - -He grinned and gobbled, gulping for articulation. - -'It's come, Madonna.' - -She half rose on her couch, frowning and impatient. - -'What, thou sick fool?' - -'Sick!' he echoed loudly; and then his voice fell again. 'Ay, sick to -death, I think. The Duke----' - -'What of him?' - -'Rides to San Stefano.' - -'Does he?' - -'He'll not ride home again.' - -She stared at him in silence a moment; then suddenly breathed out a -little wintry laugh. - -'So?' she whispered--'So? Well, thou art not the Duke.' - -He struggled to clear, and could not clear, his throat. His low -forehead, for all the cold, was beaded with sweat. - -'All's one for that,' he muttered thickly. 'There's no class in -carrion.' - -She still conned him, with that frigid smile on her lips. - -'Dost mean they'll seek to kill thee too?' - -He clawed at his head in a frenzy. - -'Ay, I mean it.' - -'Why?' - -'Why? quotha. Why, won't they have held me till this moment for one of -themselves?' - -'Till this moment?' she murmured. 'Ah! I see; this Judas who hath not -the courage to play out his part.' - -'My part!' He almost screamed it at last. 'Was death my part?' He -writhed and snuffled. 'I tell thee, I've but now left them, on pretence -of going before to the church. Shall I be there? God's death! Let but -this stroke win through and gain the people, and my life's not worth a -stinking sprat.' - -She sank back with a sigh. - -'Better, in that case, to have joined thy friends at San Stefano.' - -The rogue, staring at her a moment, uttered a mortal cry:-- - -'Thou say'st it--_thou?_--Judas?--Who made me so?--Show me my thirty -pieces--Judas? Ay; and what for wages?--Thy tool and catspaw--I see it -all at last--thine and Ludovic's--bled, and my carcass thrown to -swine!--Judas? Why, I might have been Judas to some purpose with the -Duke--a made man by now. And all for thee foregone; and in the end by -thee betrayed. I asked nothing--gave all for nothing--ass--goose--cried -quack and quack, as told--decoy to these fine fowl, and, being used, my -neck wrung with the rest. Now----' - -She put up a hand peremptorily. The fury simmered down on his lips. - -'You presume, fellow,' she said. '_I_ betray _thee_?' - -She raised her brows, amazed. Too stupendous an instance of -condescension, indeed. - -He slunk down on his knees before her, cringing and praying. - -'No, Madonna, no! I spake out of my great madness.' - -'Answer me,' she said disdainfully, 'out of thy little reason. What -wouldst thou of me?' - -He lifted his shaking hands. - -'Sanctuary, sanctuary. Let me hide here.' - -He crawled to her, pawing like a beaten dog. - -'Sanctuary,' he reiterated brokenly. 'You owe it me--that at least. -I've bided, bided--and ye made no sign--yielded all for guerdon of a -sweet word, the whiles I thought thyself and Ludovic were stalking that -conspiracy to cut it off betimes. God's death! Not you. And now I know -the reason. Now comes the reckoning, and I'm left to face it as I will. -God's death!' His panic mastered him again. 'What of my substance have -I changed for nothing! There was Bona's ring--I might have lived ten -year on't. And I parted with it--for what? O, you're a serpent, -mistress! You worm your way--and get it too. What! Bona may bide a -little, and Simonetta? They're but the bleeding trunk. The head's -lopped while I talk.' - -His voice rose to a screech--broke--and he grovelled before her. - -'Mercy, Madonna. Spare me to be thy slave. All comes thy way--love, -and revenge, and power. The boy's dead--the Duke's to die----' - -He had roused her at last, and in a flash. She sprang to her feet, -white, hardly breathing. - -'The boy?' she hissed; 'what boy?' - -He whimpered, sprawling:-- - -'God a' mercy! Lady, lady! the boy, the very boy you sped the ring to -kill.' - -'Dead!' she whispered. - -'Ay,' he snivelled from the ground; 'what would you? dead as last -Childermas--starved to death, in the "Hermit's Cell" they call it, by -the Duke's orders.' - -Her fingers battled softly with her throat. - -'Dead!' she said again. 'Narcisso, good Narcisso, who hath gulled thee -with this lie?' - -'No lie,' he answered, squatting, reassured, on his hams. ''Twas Messer -Tassino, no less, that carried thy token to Vigevano. 'Twas no later -than yesternight I met our fine cockerel louping from the stews. A' was -drunk as father Noah--babbled and blabbed, a' did--perked up a's comb, -and cursed me for presuming fellowship with a duke's minion. I plied -him further, e'en to tears and confidence--had it all out of him; how -a'd carried the ring for Messer Ludovic, and brought back the deadly -order. Jacopo nipped the Saint that noon. A's singing in paradise -these days past.' - -Beatrice stood and listened. A dreadful smile was on her lips. But, -when she spoke, it was with wooing softness. - -'Good trust--always the faithful trust. Why, Narcisso, what should I do -betraying thee? We'll work and end together, and take our wages. Dead, -do you say? Why, then, all's said. Now go, and tuck thyself within the -roof till the storm pass. This lightning's all below. Go, comrade, do -you hear?' - -He dwelt a moment only to gasp and mumble out his thanks; then turned -and slouched away. - -For minutes she dwelt as he had left her, rigid, smiling, bloodless. -Presently, still standing motionless, she moved her lips and was -muttering:-- - -'Dead? So swift? Made sure against all chances? Starved? He said -starved. Not to that I betrayed him. Inhuman hound! Thou mightst have -spared him bread!--left sorrow and cold durance to work their lingering -end. What then? Why, Bona then--Bona made widow; free to work her -will. Should _I_ be the better?--Dead? was he not always dead to me? -Starved to death! O, hell heat Lampugnani's dagger scarlet, that it -hiss and bubble in his flesh! Galeazzo! Galeazzo! I'll follow soon to -nurse thy pains to ecstasy!' - -She fell silent; presently began to sway; then, with a sudden shriek, -had leapt upon the picture, and torn aside its curtain. - -'Bernardo!' she moaned and sobbed--'Bernardo, I loved thee! O God! he -eats me with his eyes. Here, here! fasten with thy starved lips. I'll -not speak or cry, though they burrow to my heart. All thine--hold -on--I'll smile and pet mine agony--Bernardo----!' - -In the tumult of her passion she heard a sound at the door; caught her -breath; caught herself to knowledge of herself, and, instinctively -closing the curtain, stood panting, dishevelled, its hem in her hand. - -Someone, something, had entered--a haggard, unshorn ghost of ancient -days. It came very softly, closing the door behind; then, set and -silent, moved upon her. Her pulses seemed to sink and wither. - -'Carlo!' she shuddered softly. - -It was fearful that the thing never spoke as it came on. Nor did she -speak again. Love that has once joined keeps understanding without -words. What has it bred but death? Here was the natural fruit of a sin -matured--she saw it gleam suddenly in his clutch. - -She watched fascinated. As he drew near, without a word she slowly -raised her hands, and rent from her bosom its already desecrated veil. -Then at last she spoke--or whispered:-- - -'I'm ready. Here's where you kissed and sighed. Bloody thy bed.' - -He took her to his remorseless grasp. She had often thrilled to know -her helplessness therein--wondered what it would be to feel it closed in -hate. Now she had her knowledge--and instantly, in an ecstasy of -terror, succumbed to it. - -'No, no!' she gasped. 'Carlo, don't kill me!' - -Voiceless still, he raised his hand. She gave a fearful scream. - -'I never meant it. I'm innocent. Not without a word. Carlo! Carlo!--I -loved him!' - -Writhing in her agony, she tore herself free a moment, and sank at his -feet, rending, as she fell, the curtain from its rings. His back was to -the wall. In a mirror opposite he caught the sudden vision of his -intent, and, looking down upon it, dim and spiritual, the sweet face of -the Saint. - -The dagger dropped from his hand. - -The silence of a minute seemed to draw into an age. - -Suddenly he was groping and stumbling like a drunken man. Words came to -him in a babble:-- - -'Let be!--I'll go--spare her?--Where's thy Christ? He forgave too--I'm -coming--answer for me--here!' - -And he drove a staggering course from the room. - -Tears began to gush from her as she lay prone. Then suddenly, in a -quick impulse, she rose to her feet, and re-veiling the picture, turned -with her back to it. - -'Ludovic remains,' she whispered. - - -Reeling, dancing, to himself it seemed, Carlo passed down the streets. -White was on the ground; his brain was thick with whirling flakes; the -roar of coming waters tingled in his veins. Sometimes he would pause -and look stupidly at his right hand, as if in puzzle of its emptiness. -There should have been something there--what was it?--a knife--a stone -for two birds--Beatrice--and then Galeazzo. What had he omitted? He -must go back and pick up the thread from the beginning. - -The waters came on as he stood, not close yet, but portentous, with a -threatening roar. A crying shape, waving a bloody blade, sped towards -and past him. - -'Arm, arm, for liberty!' it yelled as it ran. 'Tyranny is dead!' - -Carlo chuckled thickly to himself. - -'That was Olgiati. What does he with my dagger? I'll go and take it -from him.' - -He turned, swaying, and in the act was swept upon, enveloped, and washed -over by the torrent. It stranded him against a wall, where he stood -blinking and giggling in the vortex of a multitudinous roar. - -'Murdered! the Duke! Murdered! Close the gates!' - -It thundered on and away. He looked at his hand once more; then turned -for home. - - - - - *CHAPTER XXVII* - - -Murdered? Ay; struck down in a moment on the threshold of God's house, -lest his bloody footsteps entering should desecrate its pavement; -snatched away to perdition from under the very shadows of stone saints, -the gleam of the golden doors fading out of the horror of his fading -eyes. He had had but time for one cry--'O Mother of God!'--a -soul-clutch as wild as when a drowning man grasps at a flowering reed. -In vain; he is under; the fair blossom whisks erect again, dashing the -tears from her eyes; the white face far below is a stone among the -stones. - -'_So passeth the world's glory!_' - -The choir sang, the organ thundered on; and still their blended fervour, -while the dead body was relaxing and settling into the pool itself had -made, rose poignant, sharper, more unearthly, piercing with tragic -utterance its own burden, until at length, flood crashing upon flood, -the roar of human passion below burst and overwhelmed it. - -What had happened? - -This. - -As the Duke entered the church by the west door, a full-bodied -gentleman, dressed all in mail, with a jaque of crimson satin, had -stepped from the crowd to make a way for him; which having affected to -do, he had turned, and raising his velvet beret with his left hand, and -dropping on one knee as if to crave some boon, had swiftly driven a -dagger into Galeazzo's body, and again, as the Duke fell away from the -stroke, freeing the blade, into his throat. Whereat, springing on the -mortal cry that followed, flew other sparks of crimson from the body of -the spectators, and pierced the doomed man with vicious stings, -labouring out cries as they stabbed:-- - -'For my sister!' - -'For liberty!'--until the hilts slipping in their fingers sent their -aims wavering. - -It was all the red act of a moment--the lancing of a ripened -abscess--the gush, the scream, the silence. - -And then, the sudden stun and stupefaction yielding to mad tumult. - -None might know the gross body of this terror; only for the moment red -coats and their partisans seemed paramount. But for the moment. The -next, the scarlet clique seemed to break up and scatter, like a ball of -red clay in a swirl of waters, and, flying on all sides, was caught and -held in isolated particles among the throng. Whereat, for the first -time, authority began to feel its paralysed wits, and to counter-shriek -the desperate appeals of murder to rally and combine for liberty. A -mighty equerry of the Duke, one da Ripa, fought, bellowing and -struggling, to pull out his sword. Francione, a fellow of Visconti's, -stabbed him under the armpit, and he wobbled and dropped amid the -screaming crush, grinning horribly. Lampugnani, smiling and -insinuative, slipped into a wailing group of women, and urged his soft -passage through it, making for the door. He was almost out when, -catching his foot in a skirt plucked sickly from his passing, he -stumbled and rolled; and the spear of a giant Moor, who on the instant -mounted the steps, passed through his throat. - -His body was first-fruits to the frenzied people without. They seized -and bowled it through the streets, whacking it into shreds; then -returned, breathed and blooded, for more. They were in high feather, -ripe for prey and plunder. Galeazzo was dead! Viv' Anarchia! - -They pressed their way into the tumult; snatched gems and trinkets from -the hair and bosoms of girls half mad with terror; took their brief toll -of dainties, and only fell away, pushing and gabbling, before the onset -of the ducal guard. - -Order followed presently; and then the tally and reckoning. The last -fell swift enough to crown an orgy of perfection: screams in the -squares; dismembered limbs; mangled scarecrows tossing in file from the -battlements. Only two principals, Olgiati and Visconti, escaping for -the moment, were reserved for later torments. A conspiracy, like near -all blood conspiracies, abortive; founded on the common error that -slaves abhor their bonds. They do not, in this world of unequal gifts -and taxes. Moreover, it is inconsistent to suppose one can inaugurate -an era of tolerance with murder. - -Olgiati, the last of that dark band to suffer, was also its only martyr. -He had struck for a principle, straight in itself, oblique in its -fanatic workings. Cursed by his father, abandoned by his friends and -relatives, committed to unspeakable tortures, his courage never blenched -or wavered. He gloried in his deed to the last; and, if a prayer -escaped him, it was only that his executioners should vouchsafe him -strength at the end to utter forth his soul in prayer. To Bona he sent -a gentle message, deprecating his own instrumentality in the inevitable -retributions of Providence. She answered, saintly vengeance, with a -priest, urging him to save his soul by penitence. He retorted that, by -God's mercy, his final deed should serve his sins for all atonement; -and, so insisting, was carried to his mortal mangling. At the last -moment a cry escaped him: 'Mors acerba: fama perpetua!' and, with that, -and the shriek of 'Courage, Girolamo!' on his lips, he passed to his -account. - -'The peace of Italy is dead!' cried Pope Sixtus on the day when news of -the crime was brought to him. His prophecy found its first -justification in a fervent appeal from the Duchess of Milan that he -would posthumously absolve of his sins the man whom 'next to God she had -loved above all else in the world.' - -And no doubt, being left to the present mercy of factions, she believed -it. - - - - - *EPILOGUE* - - -Long after the body of that tragedy had been committed to its eternal -sleep, silently and by night, under the pavement of the vast cathedral; -long after, in years so remote that the very bones of it, crumbling into -ashes, might hardly be distinguished from the fibrous weeds of the -golden shroud in which they had first been laid, fit moral to the deadly -irony of human glory; long after, when the rise and fall of Ludovico -Sforza, ripe achievement of his house and race, were already grown a -tale for the wind to sob and whisper through lonely keyholes of a -winter's night, there survived in Lombard legend the story of a -marvellous boy, who, coming to earth and Milan once upon a time with -some strange message of Christ in Arcady, had taken the winter in men's -hearts with a brief St. Martin's summer of delight, and had so, in the -bright morning of his promise, been snatched back to the heaven's -nursery from which he had estrayed, leaving faint echoes of divinity in -his wake. It whispered of a tomb, to which old tyranny had consigned -this embodied angel, found emptied, like its sacred prototype's; and of -the awe thereat which had fallen on its searchers. A fable, scared away -at first in the strenuous roar of Time struggling for the mastery of -great events; yet, in the later days of peace, still to be heard, very -faint and far like a lark's song, dropping from the clouds. - -Sweet music, but a fable; and therefore more potent than reality to move -men's hearts. Beatitudes are pronounced on things less tangible. Had -Bernardo preached a creed more orthodox, he had been at this day a -calendared saint on the strength of it. But he had only interpreted the -human Christ to a people his prince and comrade had wrought to redeem. - -There had been those who--unless crushed under the fall of the tyranny -which had sustained them--might have nipped the legend at its sprouting; -telling how, on the night of that first dark and dire confusion, a -cavalier, taking advantage of the brief anarchy that reigned, had -appeared, with a force of his adherents, before the provost-marshal of -that date, and had demanded of his hands the body of the martyred boy; -how, kissing and wrapping the poor corpse in a costly cloak, this -cavalier had lifted it with giant strength to his pommel, and, -dismissing his silent followers, had ridden forth with his burden into -the snowy darkness of the plains; how, in the ghostly dawn of a winter's -morning, there had broken tears and wailing from a spectral throng -gathered about the portal of an abbey in the distant hills; how, when -presently the spring came with music of birds and gushing waters, there -were no turves so green, no daisies so lush and fearless in all the -monastic God's-acre, as those which the heart-stricken sorrow and -tenderness of a newly received brother had brought to cover the grave of -one, the youngest and most innocent of all the silent community gathered -thereto. - -God rest thee, Carlo! Peace to thy faithful, passionate heart. - -An imperishable love, whose fruits, descended from that ancient stock, -we eat to-day. - -But the body of the Fool, flung into a pit, was the carrion which first -enriched its roots. - - - - - Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty - at the Edinburgh University Press - - - - - - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A JAY OF ITALY *** - - - - -A Word from Project Gutenberg - - -We will update this book if we find any errors. - -This book can be found under: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44114 - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one -owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and -you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission -and without paying copyright royalties. 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