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I +would rather that we should not meet. + +'I thought I would sign my name here, and say, "God bless you, Wilfrid; +go!" + +'Oh! why have you done this thing! I must write on. It seems like my +past life laughing at me, that my old friend should have come here in +Italy, to wear the detestable uniform. How can we be friends when we +must act as enemies? We shall soon be in arms, one against the other. +I pity you, for you have chosen a falling side; and when you are beaten +back, you can have no pride in your country, as we Italians have; no +delight, no love. They will call you a mercenary soldier. I remember +that I used to have the fear of your joining our enemies, when we were +in England, but it seemed too much for my reason. + +'You are with a band of butchers. If I could see you and tell you the +story of Giacomo Piaveni, and some other things, I believe you would +break your sword instantly. + +'There is time. Come to Milan on the fifteenth. You will see me then. +I appear at La Scala. Promise me, if you hear me, that you will do +exactly what I make you feel it right to do. Ah, you will not, though +thousands will! But step aside to me, when the curtain falls, and +remain--oh, dear friend! I write in honour to you; we have sworn to free +the city and the country--remain among us: break your sword, tear off +your uniform; we are so strong that we are irresistible. I know what a +hero you can be on the field: then, why not in the true cause? I do not +understand that you should waste your bravery under that ugly flag, +bloody and past forgiveness. + +'I shall be glad to have news of you all, and of England. The bearer of +this is a trusty messenger, and will continue to call at the hotel. A. +is offended that I do not allow my messenger to give my address; but I +must not only be hidden, I must have peace, and forget you all until I +have done my task. Addio. We have both changed names. I am the same. +Can I think that you are? Addio, dear friend. + +'VITTORIA.' + + +Lieutenant Pierson read again and again the letter of her whom he had +loved in England, to get new lights from it, as lovers do when they have +lost the power to take single impressions. He was the bearer of a verbal +despatch from the commandant in Milan to the Marshal in Verona. At that +period great favour was shown to Englishmen in the Austrian service, and +the lieutenant's uncle being a General of distinction, he had a sort of +semi-attachment to the Marshal's staff, and was hurried to and fro, for +the purpose of keeping him out of duelling scrapes, as many of his +friendlier comrades surmised. The right to the distinction of exercising +staff-duties is, of course, only to be gained by stout competitorship in +the Austrian service; but favour may do something for a young man even in +that rigorous school of Arms. He had to turn to Brescia on his way, and +calculated that if luck should put good horses under him, he would enter +Verona gates about sunset. Meantime; there was Vittoria's letter to +occupy him as he went. + +We will leave him to his bronzing ride through the mulberries and the +grapes, and the white and yellow and arid hues of the September plain, +and make acquaintance with some of his comrades of that proud army which +Vittoria thought would stand feebly against the pouring tide of Italian +patriotism. + +The fairest of the cities of the plain had long been a nest of foreign +soldiery. The life of its beauty was not more visible then than now. +Within the walls there are glimpses of it, that belong rather to the +haunting spirit than to the life. Military science has made a mailed +giant of Verona, and a silent one, save upon occasion. Its face grins of +war, like a skeleton of death; the salient image of the skull and +congregating worms was one that Italian lyrists applied naturally to +Verona. + +The old Field-Marshal and chief commander of the Austrian forces in +Lombardy, prompted by the counsels of his sagacious adlatus, the chief of +the staff, was engaged at that period in adding some of those ugly round +walls and flanking bastions to Verona, upon which, when Austria was +thrown back by the first outburst of the insurrection and the advance of +the Piedmontese, she was enabled to plant a sturdy hind-foot, daring her +foes as from a rock of defence. + +A group of officers, of the cavalry, with a few infantry uniforms +skirting them, were sitting in the pleasant cooling evening air, fanned +by the fresh springing breeze, outside one of the Piazza Bra caffes, +close upon the shadow of the great Verona amphitheatre. They were +smoking their attenuated long straw cigars, sipping iced lemonade or +coffee, and talking the common talk of the garrison officers, with +perhaps that additional savour of a robust immorality which a Viennese +social education may give. The rounded ball of the brilliant September +moon hung still aloft, lighting a fathomless sky as well as the fair +earth. It threw solid blackness from the old savage walls almost to a +junction with their indolent outstretched feet. Itinerant street music +twittered along the Piazza; officers walked arm-in-arm; now in moonlight +bright as day, now in a shadow black as night: distant figures twinkled +with the alternation. The light lay like a blade's sharp edge around the +massive circle. Of Italians of a superior rank, Verona sent none to this +resort. Even the melon-seller stopped beneath the arch ending the +Stradone Porta Nuova, as if he had reached a marked limit of his popular +customers. + +This isolation of the rulers of Lombardy had commenced in Milan, but, +owing to particular causes, was not positively defined there as it was in +Verona. War was already rageing between the Veronese ladies and the +officers of Austria. According to the Gallic Terpsichorean code, a lady +who permits herself to make election of her partners and to reject +applicants to the honour of her hand in the dance, when that hand is +disengaged, has no just ground of complaint if a glove should smite her +cheek. The Austrians had to endure this sort of rejection in Ballrooms. +On the promenade their features were forgotten. They bowed to statues. +Now, the officers of Austria who do not belong to a Croat regiment, or to +one drawn from any point of the extreme East of the empire, are commonly +gentlemanly men; and though they can be vindictive after much irritation, +they may claim at least as good a reputation for forbearance in a +conquered country as our officers in India. They are not ill-humoured, +and they are not peevishly arrogant, except upon provocation. The +conduct of the tender Italian dames was vexatious. It was exasperating +to these knights of the slumbering sword to hear their native waltzes +sounding of exquisite Vienna, while their legs stretched in melancholy +inactivity on the Piazza pavement, and their arms encircled no ductile +waists. They tried to despise it more than they disliked it, called +their female foes Amazons, and their male by a less complimentary title, +and so waited for the patriotic epidemic to pass. + +A certain Captain Weisspriess, of the regiment named after a sagacious +monarch whose crown was the sole flourishing blossom of diplomacy, +particularly distinguished himself by insisting that a lady should +remember him in public places. He was famous for skill with his weapons. +He waltzed admirably; erect as under his Field-Marshal's eye. In the +language of his brother officers, he was successful; that is, even as God +Mars when Bellona does not rage. Captain Weisspriess (Johann Nepomuk, +Freiherr von Scheppenhausen) resembled in appearance one in the Imperial +Royal service, a gambling General of Division, for whom Fame had not yet +blown her blast. Rumour declared that they might be relatives; a little- +scrupulous society did not hesitate to mention how. The captain's +moustache was straw-coloured; he wore it beyond the regulation length and +caressed it infinitely. Surmounted by a pair of hot eyes, wavering in +their direction, this grand moustache was a feature to be forgotten with +difficulty, and Weisspriess was doubtless correct in asserting that his +face had endured a slight equal to a buffet. He stood high and square- +shouldered; the flame of the moustache streamed on either side his face +in a splendid curve; his vigilant head was loftily posted to detect what +he chose to construe as insult, or gather the smiles of approbation, to +which, owing to the unerring judgement of the sex, he was more +accustomed. Handsome or not, he enjoyed the privileges of masculine +beauty. + +This captain of a renown to come pretended that a superb Venetian lady of +the Branciani family was bound to make response in public to his private +signals, and publicly to reply to his salutations. He refused to be as a +particle in space floating airily before her invincible aspect. Meeting +her one evening, ere sweet Italy had exiled herself from the Piazza, he +bowed, and stepping to the front of her, bowed pointedly. She crossed +her arms and gazed over him. He called up a thing to her recollection in +resonant speech. Shameful lie, or shameful truth, it was uttered in the +hearing of many of his brother officers, of three Italian ladies, and of +an Italian gentleman, Count Broncini, attending them. The lady listened +calmly. Count Broncini smote him on the face. That evening the lady's +brother arrived from Venice, and claimed his right to defend her. +Captain Weisspriess ran him through the body, and attached a sinister +label to his corpse. This he did not so much from brutality; the man +felt that henceforth while he held his life he was at war with every +Italian gentleman of mettle. Count Broncini was his next victim. There, +for a time, the slaughtering business of the captain stopped. His +brother officers of the better kind would not have excused him at another +season, but the avenger of their irritation and fine vindicator of the +merits of Austrian steel, had a welcome truly warm, when at the +termination of his second duel he strode into mess, or what serves for an +Austrian regimental mess. + +It ensued naturally that there was everywhere in Verona a sharp division +between the Italians of all classes and their conquerors. The great +green-rinded melons were never wheeled into the neighbourhood of the +whitecoats. Damsels were no longer coquettish under the military glance, +but hurried by in couples; and there was much scowling mixed with +derisive servility, throughout the city, hard to be endured without that +hostile state of the spirit which is the military mind's refuge in such +cases. Itinerant musicians, and none but this fry, continued to be +attentive to the dispensers of soldi. + +The Austrian army prides itself upon being a brotherhood. Discipline is +very strict, but all commissioned officers, when off duty, are as free in +their intercourse as big boys. The General accepts a cigar from the +lieutenant, and in return lifts his glass to him. The General takes an +interest in his lieutenant's love-affairs: nor is the latter shy when he +feels it his duty modestly to compliment his superior officer upon a +recent conquest. There is really good fellowship both among the officers +and in the ranks, and it is systematically encouraged. + +The army of Austria was in those days the Austrian Empire. Outside the +army the empire was a jealous congery of intriguing disaffected +nationalities. The same policy which played the various States against +one another in order to reduce all to subserviency to the central Head, +erected a privileged force wherein the sentiment of union was fostered +till it became a nationality of the sword. Nothing more fatal can be +done for a country; but for an army it is a simple measure of wisdom. +Where the password is MARCH, and not DEVELOP, a body of men, to be a +serviceable instrument, must consent to act as one. Hannibal is the +historic example of what a General can accomplish with tribes who are +thus, enrolled in a new citizenship; and (as far as we know of him and +his fortunes) he appears to be an example of the necessity of the fusing +fire of action to congregated aliens in arms. When Austria was fighting +year after year, and being worsted in campaign after campaign, she lost +foot by foot, but she held together soundly; and more than the baptism, +the atmosphere of strife has always been required to give her a healthy +vitality as a centralized empire. She knew it; this (apart from the +famous promptitude of the Hapsburgs) was one secret of her dauntless +readiness to fight. War did the work of a smithy for the iron and steel +holding her together; and but that war costs money, she would have been +an empire distinguished by aggressiveness. The next best medicinal thing +to war is the military occupation of insurgent provinces. The soldiery +soon feel where their home is, and feel the pride of atomies in unitive +power, when they are sneered at, hooted, pelted, stabbed upon a gross +misinterpretation of the slightest of moral offences, shamefully abused +for doing their duty with a considerate sense of it, and too accurately +divided from the inhabitants of the land they hold. In Italy, the +German, the Czech, the Magyar, the Croft, even in general instances the +Italian, clung to the standard for safety, for pay, for glory, and all +became pre-eminently Austrian soldiers; little besides. + +It was against a power thus bound in iron hoops, that Italy, dismembered, +and jealous, and corrupt, with an organization promoted by passion +chiefly, was preparing to rise. In the end, a country true to itself and +determined to claim God's gift to brave men will overmatch a mere army, +however solid its force. But an inspired energy of faith is demanded of +it. The intervening chapters will show pitiable weakness, and such a +schooling of disaster as makes men, looking on the surface of things, +deem the struggle folly. As well, they might say, let yonder scuffling +vagabonds up any of the Veronese side-streets fall upon the patrol +marching like one man, and hope to overcome them! In Vienna there was +often despair: but it never existed in the Austrian camp. Vienna was +frequently double-dealing and time-serving her force in arms was like a +trained man feeling his muscle. Thus, when the Government thought of +temporizing, they issued orders to Generals whose one idea was to strike +the blow of a mallet. + +At this period there was no suspicion of any grand revolt being in +process of development. The abounding dissatisfaction was treated as +nothing more than the Italian disease showing symptoms here and there, +and Vienna counselled measures mildly repressive,--'conciliating,' it was +her pleasure to call them. Her recent commands with respect to turbulent +Venice were the subject of criticism among the circle outside the Piazza +Gaffe. An enforced inactivity of the military legs will quicken the +military wits, it would appear, for some of the younger officers spoke +hotly as to their notion of the method of ruling Venezia. One had bidden +his Herr General to 'look here,' while he stretched forth his hand and +declared that Italians were like women, and wanted--yes, wanted--(their +instinct called for it) a beating, a real beating; as the emphatic would +say in our vernacular, a thundering thrashing, once a month:-'Or so,' the +General added acquiescingly. A thundering thrashing, once a month or so, +to these unruly Italians, because they are like women! It was a youth +who spoke, but none doubted his acquaintance with women, or cared to +suggest that his education in that department of knowledge was an +insufficient guarantee for his fitness to govern Venezia. Two young +dragoon officers had approached during the fervid allocution, and after +the salute to their superior, caught up chairs and stamped them down, +thereupon calling for the loan of anybody's cigar-case. Where it is that +an Austrian officer ordinarily keeps this instrument so necessary to his +comfort, and obnoxious, one would suppose, to the rigid correctness of +his shapely costume, we cannot easily guess. None can tell even where he +stows away his pocket-handkerchief, or haply his purse. However, these +things appear on demand. Several elongated cigar-cases were thrust +forward, and then it was seen that the attire of the gallant youngsters +was in disorder. + +'Did you hunt her to earth?' they were asked. + +The reply trenched on philosophy; and consisted in an inquiry as to who +cared for the whole basketful--of the like description of damsels, being +implied. Immoderate and uproarious laughter burst around them. Both +seemed to have been clawed impartially. Their tightfitting coats bulged +at the breast or opened at the waist, as though buttons were lacking, +and the whiteness of that garment cried aloud for the purification of +pipeclay. Questions flew. The damsel who had been pursued was known as +a pretty girl, the daughter of a blacksmith, and no prolonged resistance +was expected from one of her class. But, as it came out, she had said, +a week past, 'I shall be stabbed if I am seen talking to you'; and +therefore the odd matter was, not that she had, in tripping down the +Piazza with her rogue-eyed cousin from Milan, looked away and declined +all invitation to moderate her pace and to converse, but that, after +doubling down and about lonely streets, the length of which she ran as +swiftly as her feet would carry her, at a corner of the Via Colomba she +allowed herself to be caught--wilfully, beyond a doubt, seeing that she +was not a bit breathed--allowed one quick taste of her lips, and then +shrieked as naturally as a netted bird, and brought a hustling crowd just +at that particular point to her rescue: not less than fifty, and all men. +'Not a woman among them!' the excited young officer repeated. + +A veteran in similar affairs could see that he had the wish to remain +undisturbed in his bewilderment at the damsel's conduct. Profound belief +in her partiality for him perplexed his recent experience rather +agreeably. Indeed, it was at this epoch an article of faith with the +Austrian military that nothing save terror of their males kept sweet +Italian women from the expression of their preference for the broad- +shouldered, thick-limbed, yellow-haired warriors--the contrast to +themselves which is supposed greatly to inspirit genial Cupid in the +selection from his quiver. + +'What became of her? Did you let her go?' came pestering remarks, too +absurd for replies if they had not been so persistent. + +'Let her go? In the devil's name, how was I to keep my hold of her in a +crowd of fifty of the fellows, all mowing, and hustling, and elbowing-- +every rascal stinking right under my nose like the pit?' + +''Hem!' went the General present. 'As long as you did not draw! +Unsheathe, a minute.' + +He motioned for a sight of their naked swords. + +The couple of young officers flushed. + +'Herr General! Pardon!' they remonstrated. + +'No, no. I know how boys talk; I've been one myself. Tutt! You tell +the truth, of course; but the business is for me to know in what! how +far! Your swords, gentlemen.' + +'But, General!' + +'Well? I merely wish to examine the blades.' + +'Do you doubt our words?' + +'Hark at them! Words? Are you lawyers? A soldier deals in acts. I +don't want to know your words, but your deeds, my gallant lads. I want +to look at the blades of your swords, my children. What was the last +order? That on no account were we to provoke, or, if possibly to be +avoided, accept a collision, etc., etc. The soldier in peace is a +citizen, etc. No sword on any account, or for any excuse, to be drawn, +etc. You all heard it? So, good! I receive your denial, my children. +In addition, I merely desire to satisfy curiosity. Did the guard clear a +way for you?' + +The answer was affirmative. + +'Your swords!' + +One of them drew, and proffered the handle. + +The other clasped the haft angrily, and with a resolute smack on it, +settled it in the scabbard. + +'Am I a prisoner, General?' + +'Not at all!' + +'Then I decline to surrender my sword.' + +Another General officer happened to be sauntering by. Applauding with +his hands, and choosing the Italian language as the best form of speech +for the enunciation of ironical superlatives, he said: + +'Eccellentemente! most admirable! of a distinguished loftiness of moral +grandeur: "Then I decline," etc.: you are aware that you are quoting? +"as the drummerboy said to Napoleon." I think you forgot to add that? +It is the same young soldier who utters these immense things, which we +can hardly get out of our mouths. So the little fellow towers! His +moral greatness is as noisy as his drum. What's wrong?' + +'General Pierson, nothing's wrong,' was replied by several voices; and +some explained that Lieutenant Jenna had been called upon by General +Schoneck to show his sword, and had refused. + +The heroic defender of his sword shouted to the officer with whom General +Pierson had been conversing: 'Here! Weisspriess!' + +'What is it, my dear fellow? Speak, my good Jenna!' + +The explanation was given, and full sympathy elicited from Captain +Weisspriess, while the two Generals likewise whispered and nodded. + +'Did you draw?' the captain inquired, yawning. 'You needn't say it +in quite so many words, if you did. I shall be asked by the General +presently; and owing to that duel pending 'twixt you and his nephew, of +which he is aware, he may put a bad interpretation on your pepperiness.' + +'The devil fetch his nephew!' returned the furious Lieutenant Jenna. +'He comes back to-night from Milan, and if he doesn't fight me to-morrow, +I post him a coward. Well, about that business! My good Weisspriess, +the fellows had got into a thick crowd all round, and had begun to knead +me. Do you understand me? I felt their knuckles.' + +'Ah, good, good!' said the captain. 'Then, you didn't draw, of course. +What officer of the Imperial service would, under similar circumstances! +That is my reply to the Emperor, if ever I am questioned. To draw would +be to show that an Austrian officer relies on his good sword in the thick +of his enemies; against which, as you know, my Jenna, the Government have +issued an express injunction button. Did you sell it dear?' + +'A fellow parted with his ear for it.' + +Lieutenant Jenna illustrated a particular cut from a turn of his wrist. + +'That oughtn't to make a noise?' he queried somewhat anxiously. + +'It won't hear one any longer, at all events,' said Captain Weisspriess; +and the two officers entered into the significance of the remark with +enjoyment. + +Meantime General Pierson had concluded an apparently humorous dialogue +with his brother General, and the later, now addressing Lieutenant Jenna, +said: 'Since you prefer surrendering your person rather than your sword-- +it is good! Report yourself at the door of my room to-night, at ten. I +suspect that you have been blazing your steel, sir. They say, 'tis as +ready to flash out as your temper.' + +Several voices interposed: 'General! what if he did draw!' + +'Silence. You have read the recent order. Orlando may have his +Durindarda bare; but you may not. Grasp that fact. The Government wish +to make Christians of you, my children. One cheek being smitten, what +should you do?' + +'Shall I show you, General?' cried a quick little subaltern. + +'The order, my children, as received a fortnight since from our old Wien, +commands you to offer the other cheek to the smiter.' + +'So that a proper balance may be restored to both sides of the face,' +General Pierson appended. + +'And mark me,' he resumed. 'There may be doubts about the policy of +anything, though I shouldn't counsel you to cherish them: but there's no +mortal doubt about the punishment for this thing.' The General spoke +sternly; and then relaxing the severity of his tone, he said, 'The desire +of the Government is to make an army of Christians.' + +'And a precious way of doing it!' interjected two or three of the younger +officers. They perfectly understood how hateful the Viennese domination +was to their chiefs, and that they would meet sympathy and tolerance for +any extreme of irony, provided that they showed a disposition to be +subordinate. For the bureaucratic order, whatever it was, had to be +obeyed. The army might, and of course did, know best: nevertheless it +was bound to be nothing better than a machine in the hands of the dull +closeted men in Vienna, who judged of difficulties and plans of action +from a calculation of numbers, or from foreign journals--from heaven +knows what! + +General Schoneck and General Pierson walked away laughing, and the +younger officers were left to themselves. Half-a-dozen of them +interlaced arms, striding up toward the Porta Nuova, near which, at the +corner of the Via Trinita, they had the pleasant excitement of beholding +a riderless horse suddenly in mid gallop sink on its knees and roll over. +A crowd came pouring after it, and from the midst the voice of a comrade +hailed them. 'It's Pierson,' cried Lieutenant Jenna. The officers drew +their swords, and hailed the guard from the gates. Lieutenant Pierson +dropped in among their shoulders, dead from want of breath. They held +him up, and finding him sound, thumped his back. The blade of his sword +was red. He coughed with their thumpings, and sang out to them to cease; +the idle mob which had been at his heels drew back before the guard could +come up with them. Lieutenant Pierson gave no explanation except that he +had been attacked near Juliet's tomb on his way to General Schoneck's +quarters. Fellows had stabbed his horse, and brought him to the ground, +and torn the coat off his back. He complained in bitter mutterings of +the loss of a letter therein, during the first candid moments of his +anger: and, as he was known to be engaged to the Countess Lena von +Lenkenstein, it was conjectured by his comrades that this lady might have +had something to do with the ravishment of the letter. Great laughter +surrounded him, and he looked from man to man. Allowance is naturally +made for the irascibility of a brother officer coming tattered out of the +hands of enemies, or Lieutenant Jenna would have construed his eye's +challenge on the spot. As it was, he cried out, 'The letter! the letter! +Charge, for the honour of the army, and rescue the letter!' Others echoed +him: 'The letter! the letter! the English letter!' A foreigner in an army +can have as much provocation as he pleases; if he is anything of a +favourite with his superiors, his fellows will task his forbearance. +Wilfrid Pierson glanced at the blade of his sword, and slowly sheathed +it. 'Lieutenant Jenna is a good actor before a mob,' he said. +'Gentlemen, I rely upon you to make no noise about that letter; it is a +private matter. In an hour or so, if any officer shall choose to +question me concerning it, I will answer him.' + +The last remnants of the mob had withdrawn. The officer in command at +the gates threw a cloak over Wilfrid's shoulders; and taking the arm of a +friend Wilfrid hurried to barracks, and was quickly in a position to +report himself to his General, whose first remark, 'Has the dead horse +been removed?' robbed him of his usual readiness to equivocate. 'When +you are the bearer of a verbal despatch, come straight to quarters, if +you have to come like a fig-tree on the north side of the wall in +Winter,' said General Schoneck, who was joined presently by General +Pierson. + +'What 's this I hear of some letter you have been barking about all over +the city?' the latter asked, after returning his nephew's on-duty salute. + +Wilfrid replied that it was a letter of his sister's treating of family +matters. + +The two Generals, who were close friends, discussed the attack to which +he had been subjected. Wilfrid had to recount it with circumstance: how, +as he was nearing General Schoneck's quarters at a military trot, six men +headed by a leader had dashed out on him from a narrow side-street, +unhorsed him after a struggle, rifled the saddlebags, and torn the coat +from his back, and had taken the mark of his sword, while a gathering +crowd looked on, hooting. His horse had fled, and he confessed that he +had followed his horse. General Schoneck spoke the name of Countess Lena +suggestively. 'Not a bit,' returned General Pierson; 'the fellow courts +her too hotly. The scoundrels here want a bombardment; that 's where it +lies. A dose of iron pills will make Verona a healthy place. She must +have it.' + +General Schoneck said, 'I hope not,' and laughed at the heat of Irish +blood. He led Wilfrid in to the Marshal, after which Wilfrid was free to +seek Lieutenant Jenna, who had gained the right to a similar freedom by +pledging his honour not to fight within a stipulated term of days. The +next morning Wilfrid was roused by an orderly coming from his uncle, who +placed in his hands a copy of Vittoria's letter: at the end of it his +uncle had written, 'Rather astonishing. Done pretty well; but by a +foreigner. "Affection" spelt with one "f." An Italian: you will see the +letters are emphatic at "ugly flag"; also "bloody and past forgiveness" +very large; the copyist had a dash of the feelings of a commentator, and +did his (or her) best to add an oath to it. Who the deuce, sir, is this +opera girl calling herself Vittoria? I have a lecture for you. German +women don't forgive diversions during courtship; and if you let this +Countess Lena slip, your chance has gone. I compliment you on your power +of lying; but you must learn to show your right face to me, or the very +handsome feature, your nose, and that useful box, your skull, will come +to grief. The whole business is a mystery. The letter (copy) was +directed to you, brought to me, and opened in a fit of abstraction, +necessary to commanding uncles who are trying to push the fortunes of +young noodles pretending to be related to them. Go to Countess Lena. +Count Paul is with her, from Bologna. Speak to her, and observe her and +him. He knows English--has been attached to the embassy in London; but, +pooh! the hand's Italian. I confess myself puzzled. We shall possibly +have to act on the intimation of the fifteenth, and profess to be wiser +than others. Something is brewing for business. See Countess Lena +boldly, and then come and breakfast with me.' + +Wilfrid read the miserable copy of Vittoria's letter, utterly unable to +resolve anything in his mind, except that he would know among a thousand +the leader of those men who had attacked him, and who bore the mark of +his sword. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE POPE'S MOUTH + +Barto Rizzo had done what he had sworn to do. He had not found it +difficult to outstrip the lieutenant (who had to visit Brescia on his +way) and reach the gates of Verona in advance of him, where he obtained +entrance among a body of grape-gatherers and others descending from the +hills to meet a press of labour in the autumnal plains. With them he +hoped to issue forth unchallenged on the following morning; but Wilfrid's +sword had made lusty play; and, as in the case when the order has been +given that a man shall be spared in life and limb, Barto and his fellow- +assailants suffered by their effort to hold him simply half a minute +powerless. He received a shrewd cut across the head, and lay for a +couple of hours senseless in the wine-shop of one Battista--one of the +many all over Lombardy who had pledged their allegiance to the Great Cat, +thinking him scarcely vulnerable. He read the letter, dizzy with pain, +and with the frankness proper to inflated spirits after loss of blood, he +owned to himself that it was not worth much as a prize. It was worth the +attempt to get possession of it, for anything is worth what it costs, if +it be only as a schooling in resolution, energy, and devotedness:-- +regrets are the sole admission of a fruitless business; they show the bad +tree;--so, according to his principle of action, he deliberated; but he +was compelled to admit that Vittoria's letter was little else than a +repetition of her want of discretion when she was on the Motterone. He +admitted it, wrathfully: his efforts to convict this woman telling him +she deserved some punishment; and his suspicions being unsatisfied, he +resolved to keep them hungry upon her, and return to Milan at once. As +to the letter itself, he purposed, since the harm in it was accomplished, +to send it back honourably to the lieutenant, till finding it blood- +stained, he declined to furnish the gratification of such a sight to any +Austrian sword. For that reason, he copied it, while Battista's wife +held double bandages tight round his head: believing that the letter +stood transcribed in a precisely similar hand, he forwarded it to +Lieutenant Pierson, and then sank and swooned. Two days he lay incapable +and let his thoughts dance as they would. Information was brought to him +that the gates were strictly watched, and that troops were starting for +Milan. This was in the dull hour antecedent to the dawn. 'She is a +traitress!' he exclaimed, and leaping from his bed, as with a brain +striking fire, screamed, 'Traitress! traitress!' Battista and his wife +had to fling themselves on him and gag him, guessing him as mad. He +spoke pompously and theatrically; called himself the Eye of Italy, and +said that he must be in Milan, or Milan would perish, because of the +traitress: all with a great sullen air of composure and an odd distension +of the eyelids. When they released him, he smiled and thanked them, +though they knew, that had he chosen, he could have thrown off a dozen of +them, such was his strength. The woman went down on her knees to him to +get his consent that she should dress and bandage his head afresh. The +sound of the regimental bugles drew him from the house, rather than any +immediate settled scheme to watch at the gates. + +Artillery and infantry were in motion before sunrise, from various points +of the city, bearing toward the Palio and Zeno gates, and the people +turned out to see them, for it was a march that looked like the beginning +of things. The soldiers had green twigs in their hats, and kissed their +hands good-humouredly to the gazing crowd, shouting bits of verses: + +'I'm off! I'm off! Farewell, Mariandl! if I come back a sergeant-major +or a Field-Marshal, don't turn up your nose at me: Swear you will be +faithful all the while; because, when a woman swears, it's a comfort, +somehow: Farewell! Squeeze the cow's udders: I shall be thirsty enough: +You pretty wriggler! don't you know, the first cup of wine and the last, +I shall float your name on it? Luck to the lads we leave behind! +Farewell, Mariandl!' + +The kindly fellows waved their hands and would take no rebuff. The +soldiery of Austria are kindlier than most, until their blood is up. +A Tyrolese regiment passed, singing splendidly in chorus. Songs of +sentiment prevailed, but the traditions of a soldier's experience of the +sex have informed his ballads with strange touches of irony, that help +him to his (so to say) philosophy, which is recklessness. The Tyroler's +'Katchen' here, was a saturnine Giulia, who gave him no response, either +of eye or lip. + +'Little mother, little sister, little sweetheart, 'ade! ade!' My little +sweetheart, your meadow is half-way up the mountain; it's such a green +spot on the eyeballs of a roving boy! and the chapel just above it, I +shall see it as I've seen it a thousand times; and the cloud hangs near +it, and moves to the door and enters, for it is an angel, not a cloud; a +white angel gone in to pray for Katerlein and me: Little mother, little +sister, little sweetheart, 'ade! ade!' Keep single, Katerlein, as long +as you can: as long as you can hold out, keep single: 'ade!'' + +Fifteen hundred men and six guns were counted as they marched on to one +gate. + +Barto Rizzo, with Battista and his wife on each side of him, were among +the spectators. The black cock's feathers of the Tyrolese were still +fluttering up the Corso, when the woman said, 'I 've known the tail of a +regiment get through the gates without having to show paper.' + +Battista thereupon asked Barto whether he would try that chance. The +answer was a vacuous shake of the head, accompanied by an expression of +unutterable mournfulness. 'There's no other way,' pursued Battista, +'unless you jump into the Adige, and swim down half-a-mile under water; +and cats hate water--eh, my comico?' + +He conceived that the sword-cut had rendered Barto imbecile, and pulled +his hat down his forehead, and patted his shoulder, and bade him have +cheer, patronizingly: but women do not so lightly lose their impression +of a notable man. His wife checked him. Barto had shut his eyes, and +hung swaying between them, as in drowsiness or drunkenness. Like his +body, his faith was swaying within him. He felt it borne upon the +reeling brain, and clung to it desperately, calling upon chance to aid +him; for he was weak, incapable of a physical or mental contest, and this +part of his settled creed that human beings alone failed the patriotic +cause as instruments, while circumstances constantly befriended it--was +shocked by present events. The image of Vittoria, the traitress, floated +over the soldiery marching on Milan through her treachery. Never had an +Austrian force seemed to him so terrible. He had to yield the internal +fight, and let his faith sink and be blackened, in order that his mind +might rest supine, according to his remembered system; for the +inspiration which points to the right course does not come during mental +strife, but after it, when faith summons its agencies undisturbed--if +only men will have the faith, and will teach themselves to know that the +inspiration must come, and will counsel them justly. This was a part of +Barto Rizzo's sustaining creed; nor did he lose his grasp of it in the +torment and the darkness of his condition. + +He heard English voices. A carriage had stopped almost in front of him. +A General officer was hat in hand, talking to a lady, who called him +uncle, and said that she had been obliged to decide to quit Verona on +account of her husband, to whom the excessive heat was unendurable. Her +husband, in the same breath, protested that the heat killed him. He +adorned the statement with all kinds of domestic and subterranean +imagery, and laughed faintly, saying that after the fifteenth--on which +night his wife insisted upon going to the Opera at Milan to hear a new +singer and old friend--he should try a week at the Baths of Bormio, and +only drop from the mountains when a proper temperature reigned, he being +something of an invalid. + +'And, uncle, will you be in Milan on the fifteenth?' said the lady; 'and +Wilfrid, too?' + +'Wilfrid will reach Milan as soon as you do, and I shall undoubtedly be +there on the fifteenth,' said the General. + +'I cannot possibly express to you how beautiful I think your army looks,' +said the lady. + +'Fine men, General Pierson, very fine men. I never saw such marching-- +equal to our Guards,' her husband remarked. + +The lady named her Milanese hotel as the General waved his plumes, +nodded, and rode off. + +Before the carriage had started, Barto Rizzo dashed up to it; and 'Dear +good English lady,' he addressed her, 'I am the brother of Luigi, who +carries letters for you in Milan--little Luigi!--and I have a mother +dying in Milan; and here I am in Verona, ill, and can't get to her, poor +soul! Will you allow me that I may sit up behind as quiet as a mouse, +and be near one of the lovely English ladies who are so kind to +unfortunate persons, and never deaf to the name of charity? It's my +mother who is dying, poor soul!' + +The lady consulted her husband's face, which presented the total blank of +one who refused to be responsible for an opinion hostile to the claims of +charity, while it was impossible for him to fall in with foreign habits +of familiarity, and accede to extraordinary petitions. Barto sprang up. +'I shall be your courier, dear lady,' he said, and commenced his +professional career in her service by shouting to the vetturino to drive +on. Wilfrid met them as he was trotting down from the Porta del Palio, +and to him his sister confided her new trouble in having a strange man +attached to her, who might be anything. 'We don't know the man,' said +her husband; and Adela pleaded for him: 'Don't speak to him harshly, +pray, Wilfrid; he says he has a mother dying in Milan.' Barto kept his +head down on his arms and groaned; Adela gave a doleful little grimace. +'Oh, take the poor beggar,' said Wilfrid; and sang out to him in Italian: +'Who are you--what are you, my fine fellow?' Barto groaned louder, and +replied in Swiss-French from a smothering depth: 'A poor man, and the +gracious lady's servant till we reach Milan.' + +'I can't wait,' said Wilfrid; 'I start in half-an-hour. It's all right; +you must take him now you've got him, or else pitch him out--one of the +two. If things go on quietly we shall have the Autumn manoeuvres in a +week, and then you may see something of the army.' He rode away. Barto +passed the gates as one of the licenced English family. + +Milan was more strictly guarded than when he had quitted it. He had +anticipated that it would be so, and tamed his spirit to submit to the +slow stages of the carriage, spent a fiery night in Brescia, and entered +the city of action on the noon of the fourteenth. Safe within the walls, +he thanked the English lady, assuring her that her charitable deed would +be remembered aloft. He then turned his steps in the direction of the +Revolutionary post-office. This place was nothing other than a blank +abutment of a corner house that had long been undergoing repair, and had +a great bank of brick and mortar rubbish at its base. A stationary +melonseller and some black fig and vegetable stalls occupied the +triangular space fronting it. The removal of a square piece of cement +showed a recess, where, chiefly during the night, letters and +proclamation papers were deposited, for the accredited postman to +disperse them. Hither, as one would go to a caffe for the news, Barto +Rizzo came in the broad glare of noon, and flinging himself down like a +tired man under the strip of shade, worked with a hand behind him, and +drew out several folded scraps, of which one was addressed to him by his +initials. He opened it and read: + +'Your house is watched. + +'A corporal of the P . . . ka regiment was seen leaving it this +morning in time for the second bugle. + +'Reply:--where to meet. + +'Spies are doubled, troops coming. + +'The numbers in Verona; who heads them. + +'Look to your wife. + +'Letters are called for every third hour.' + +Barto sneered indolently at this fresh evidence of the small amount of +intelligence which he could ever learn from others. He threw his eyes +all round the vacant space while pencilling in reply:-- + +'V. waits for M., but in a box' (that is, Verona for Milan). + +'We take the key to her. + +'I have no wife, but a little pupil. + +'A Lieutenant Pierson, of the dragoons; Czech white coats, helmets +without plumes; an Englishman, nephew of General Pierson: speaks crippled +Italian; returns from V. to-day. Keep eye on him;--what house, what +hour.' + +Meditating awhile, Barto wrote out Vittoria's name and enclosed it in a +thick black ring. + +Beneath it he wrote + +'The same on all the play-bills. + +'The Fifteenth is cancelled. + +'We meet the day after. + +'At the house of Count M. to-night.' + +He secreted this missive, and wrote Vittoria's name on numbers of slips +to divers addresses, heading them, 'From the Pope's Mouth,' such being +the title of the Revolutionary postoffice, to whatsoever spot it might in +prudence shift. The title was entirely complimentary to his Holiness. +Tangible freedom, as well as airy blessings, were at that time +anticipated, and not without warrant, from the mouth of the successor of +St. Peter. From the Pope's Mouth the clear voice of Italian liberty was +to issue. This sentiment of the period was a natural and a joyful one, +and endowed the popular ebullition with a sense of unity and a stamp of +righteousness that the abstract idea of liberty could not assure to it +before martyrdom. After suffering, after walking in the shades of death +and despair, men of worth and of valour cease to take high personages as +representative objects of worship, even when these (as the good Pope was +then doing) benevolently bless the nation and bid it to have great hope, +with a voice of authority. But, for an extended popular movement a great +name is like a consecrated banner. Proclamations from the Pope's Mouth +exacted reverence, and Barto Rizzo, who despised the Pope (because he was +Pope, doubtless), did not hesitate to make use of him by virtue of his +office. + +Barto lay against the heap of rubbish, waiting for the approach of his +trained lad, Checco, a lanky simpleton, cunning as a pure idiot, who was +doing postman's duty, when a kick, delivered by that youth behind, sent +him bounding round with rage, like a fish in air. The marketplace +resounded with a clapping of hands; for it was here that Checco came +daily to eat figs, and it was known that the 'povero,' the dear half- +witted creature, would not tolerate an intruder in the place where he +stretched his limbs to peel and suck in the gummy morsels twice or thrice +a day. Barto seized and shook him. Checco knocked off his hat; the +bandage about the wound broke and dropped, and Barto put his hand to his +forehead, murmuring: 'What 's come to me that I lose my temper with a +boy--an animal?' + +The excitement all over the triangular space was hushed by an imperious +guttural shout that scattered the groups. Two Austrian officers, +followed by military servants, rode side by side. Dust had whitened +their mustachios, and the heat had laid a brown-red varnish on their +faces. Way was made for them, while Barto stood smoothing his forehead +and staring at Checco. + +'I see the very man!' cried one of the officers quickly. 'Weisspriess, +there's the rascal who headed the attack on me in Verona the other day. +It's the same! + +'Himmel!' returned his companion, scrutinizing the sword-cut, 'if that's +your work on his head, you did it right well, my Pierson! He is very +neatly scored indeed. A clean stroke, manifestly!' + +'But here when I left Milan! at Verona when I entered the North-west gate +there; and the first man I see as I come back is this very brute. He +dogs me everywhere! By the way, there may be two of them.' + +Lieutenant Pierson leaned over his horse's neck, and looked narrowly at +the man Barto Rizzo. He himself was eyed as in retort, and with yet +greater intentness. At first Barto's hand was sweeping the air within a +finger's length of his forehead, like one who fought a giddiness for +steady sight. The mist upon his brain dispersing under the gaze of his +enemy, his eyeballs fixed, and he became a curious picture of passive +malice, his eyes seeming to say: 'It is enough for me to know your +features, and I know them.' Such a look from a civilian is exasperating: +it was scarcely to be endured from an Italian of the plebs. + +'You appear to me to want more,' said the lieutenant audibly to himself; +and he repeated words to the same effect to his companion, in bad German. + +'Eh? You would promote him to another epaulette?' laughed Captain +Weisspriess. 'Come off. Orders are direct against it. And we're in +Milan--not like being in Verona! And my good fellow! remember your bet; +the dozen of iced Rudesheimer. I want to drink my share, and dream I'm +quartered in Mainz--the only place for an Austrian when he quits Vienna. +Come.' + +'No; but if this is the villain who attacked me, and tore my coat from my +back,' cried Wilfrid, screwing in his saddle. + +'And took your letter took your letter; a particular letter; we have +heard of it,' said Weisspriess. + +The lieutenant exclaimed that he should overhaul and examine the man, and +see whether he thought fit to give him into custody. Weisspriess laid +hand on his bridle. + +'Take my advice, and don't provoke a disturbance in the streets. The +truth is, you Englishmen and Irishmen get us a bad name among these +natives. If this is the man who unhorsed you and maltreated you, and +committed the rape of the letter, I'm afraid you won't get satisfaction +out of him, to judge by his look. I'm really afraid not. Try it if you +like. In any case, if you halt, I am compelled to quit your society, +which is sometimes infinitely diverting. Let me remind you that you bear +despatches. The other day they were verbal ones; you are now carrying +paper.' + +'Are you anxious to teach me my duty, Captain Weisspriess?' + +'If you don't know it. I said I would "remind you." I can also teach +you, if you need it.' + +'And I can pay you for the instruction, whenever you are disposed to +receive payment.' + +'Settle your outstanding claims, my good Pierson!' + +'When I have fought Jenna?' + +'Oh! you're a Prussian--a Prussian!' Captain Weisspriess laughed. +'A Prussian, I mean, in your gross way of blurting out everything. +I've marched and messed with Prussians--with oxen.' + +'I am, as you are aware, an Englishman, Captain Weisspriess. I am due to +Lieutenant Jenna for the present. After that you or any one may command +me.' + +'As you please,' said Weisspriess, drawing out one stream of his +moustache. 'In the meantime, thank me for luring you away from the +chances of a street row.' + +Barto Rizzo was left behind, and they rode on to the Duomo. Glancing up +at its pinnacles, Weisspriess said: + +'How splendidly Flatschmann's jagers would pick them off from there, now, +if the dogs were giving trouble in this part of the city!' + +They entered upon a professional discussion of the ways and means of +dealing with a revolutionary movement in the streets of a city like +Milan, and passed on to the Piazza La Scala. Weisspriess stopped before +the Play-bills. 'To-morrow's the fifteenth of the month,' he said. +'Shall I tell you a secret, Pierson? I am to have a private peep at +the new prima donna this night. They say she's charming, and very pert. +"I do not interchange letters with Germans." Benlomik sent her a neat +little note to the conservatorio--he hadn't seen her only heard of her, +and that was our patriotic reply. She wants taming. I believe I am +called upon for that duty. At least, my friend Antonio-Pericles, who +occasionally assists me with supplies, hints as much to me. You're an +engaged man, or, upon my honour, I wouldn't trust you; but between +ourselves, this Greek--and he's quite right--is trying to get her away +from the set of snuffy vagabonds who are prompting her for mischief, and +don't know how to treat her.' + +While he was speaking Barto Rizzo pushed roughly between them, and with a +black brush painted the circle about Vittoria's name. + +'Do you see that?' said Weisspriess. + +'I see,' Wilfrid retorted, 'that you are ready to meddle with the +reputation of any woman who is likely to be talked about. Don't do it +in my presence.' + +It was natural for Captain Weisspriess to express astonishment at this +outburst, and the accompanying quiver of Wilfrid's lip. + +'Austrian military etiquette, Lieutenant Pierson,' he said, 'precludes +the suspicion that the officers of the Imperial army are subject to +dissension in public. We conduct these affairs upon a different +principle. But I'll tell you what. That fellow's behaviour may be +construed as a more than common stretch of incivility. I'll do you a +service. I'll arrest him, and then you can hear tidings of your precious +letter. We'll have his confession published.' + +Weisspriess drew his sword, and commanded the troopers in attendance to +lay hands on Barto; but the troopers called, and the officer found that +they were surrounded. Weisspriess shrugged dismally. 'The brute must +go, I suppose,' he said. The situation was one of those which were every +now and then occurring in the Lombard towns and cities, when a chance +provocation created a riot that became a revolt or not, according to the +timidity of the ruling powers or the readiness of the disaffected. The +extent and evident regulation of the crowd operated as a warning to the +Imperial officers. Weisspriess sheathed his sword and shouted, 'Way, +there!' Way was made for him; but Wilfrid lingered to scrutinize the man +who, for an unaccountable reason, appeared to be his peculiar enemy. +Barto carelessly threaded the crowd, and Wilfrid, finding it useless +to get out after him, cried, 'Who is he? Tell me the name of that man?' +The question drew a great burst of laughter around him, and exclamations +of 'Englishman! Englishman!' He turned where there was a clear way left +for him in the track of his brother officer. + +Comments on the petty disturbance had been all the while passing at the +Caffe La Scala, where sat Agostino Balderini, with, Count Medole and +others, who, if the order for their arrest had been issued, were as safe +in that place as in their own homes. Their policy, indeed, was to show +themselves openly abroad. Agostino was enjoying the smoke of paper +cigarettes, with all prudent regard for the well-being of an inflammable +beard. Perceiving Wilfrid going by, he said, 'An Englishman! I continue +to hope much from his countrymen. I have no right to do so, only they +insist on it. They have promised, and more than once, to sail a fleet +to our assistance across the plains of Lombardy, and I believe they will +--probably in the watery epoch which is to follow Metternich. Behold my +Carlo approaching. The heart of that lad doth so boil the brain of him, +he can scarcely keep the lid on. What is it now? Speak, my son.' + +Carlo Ammiani had to communicate that he had just seen a black circle +to Vittoria's name on two public playbills. His endeavour to ape a +deliberate gravity while he told the tale, roused Agostino's humouristic +ire. + +'Round her name?' said Agostino. + +'Yes; in every bill.' + +'Meaning that she is suspected!' + +'Meaning any damnable thing you like.' + +'It's a device of the enemy.' + +Agostino, glad of the pretext to recur to his habitual luxurious irony, +threw himself back, repeating 'It 's a device of the enemy. Calculate, +my son, that the enemy invariably knows all you intend to do: determine +simply to astonish him with what you do. Intentions have lungs, Carlo, +and depend on the circumambient air, which, if not designedly +treacherous, is communicative. Deeds, I need not remark, are a different +body. It has for many generations been our Italian error to imagine a +positive blood relationship--not to say maternity itself--existing +between intentions and deeds. Nothing of the sort! There is only the +intention of a link to unite them. You perceive? It's much to be famous +for fine intentions, so we won't complain. Indeed, it's not our business +to complain, but Posterity's; for fine intentions are really rich +possessions, but they don't leave grand legacies; that is all. They mean +to possess the future: they are only the voluptuous sons of the present. +It's my belief, Carlino, from observation, apprehension, and other gifts +of my senses, that our paternal government is not unacquainted with our +intention to sing a song in a certain opera. And it may have learnt our +clumsy method of enclosing names publicly, at the bidding of a non- +appointed prosecutor, so to, isolate or extinguish them. Who can say? +Oh, ay! Yes! the machinery that can so easily be made rickety is to +blame; we admit that; but if you will have a conspiracy like a Geneva +watch, you must expect any slight interference with the laws that govern +it to upset the mechanism altogether. Ah-a! look yonder, but not +hastily, my Carlo. Checco is nearing us, and he knows that he has +fellows after him. And if I guess right, he has a burden to deliver to +one of us.' + +Checco came along at his usual pace, and it was quite evident that he +fancied himself under espionage. On two sides of the square a suspicious +figure threaded its way in the line of shade not far behind him. Checco +passed the cafe looking at nothing but the huge hands he rubbed over and +over. The manifest agents of the polizia were nearing when Checco ran +back, and began mouthing as in retort at something that had been spoken +from the cafe as he shot by. He made a gabbling appeal on either side, +and addressed the pair of apparent mouchards, in what, if intelligible, +should have been the language of earnest entreaty. At the first word +which the caffe was guilty of uttering, a fit of exasperation seized him, +and the exciteable creature plucked at his hat and sent it whirling +across the open-air tables right through the doorway. Then, with a +whine, he begged his followers to get his hat back for him. They +complied. + +'We only called "Illustrissimo!"' said Agostino, as one of the men +returned from the interior of the caffe hat in hand. + +'The Signori should have known better--it is an idiot,' the man replied. +He was a novice: in daring to rebuke he betrayed his office. + +Checco snatched his hat from his attentive friend grinning, and was away +in a flash. Thereupon the caffe laughed, and laughed with an abashing +vehemence that disconcerted the spies. They wavered in their choice of +following Checco or not; one went a step forward, one pulled back; the +loiterer hurried to rejoin his comrade, who was now for a retrograde +movement, and standing together they swayed like two imperfectly jolly +fellows, or ballet bandits, each plucking at the other, until at last the +maddening laughter made them break, reciprocate cat-like hisses of abuse, +and escape as they best could--lamentable figures. + +'It says well for Milan that the Tedeschi can scrape up nothing better +from the gutters than rascals the like of those for their service,' quoth +Agostino. 'Eh, Signor Conte?' + +'That enclosure about La Vittoria's name on the bills is correct,' said +the person addressed, in a low tone. He turned and indicated one who +followed from the interior of the caffe. + +'If Barto is to be trusted she is not safe,' the latter remarked. He +produced a paper that had been secreted in Checco's hat. Under the date +and the superscription of the Pope's Mouth, 'LA VITTORIA' stood out in +the ominous heavily-pencilled ring: the initials of Barto Rizzo were in a +corner. Agostino began smoothing his beard. + +'He has discovered that she is not trustworthy,' said Count Medole, a +young man of a premature gravity and partial baldness, who spoke +habitually with a forefinger pressed flat on his long pointed chin. + +'Do you mean to tell me, Count Medole, that you attach importance to a +communication of this sort?' said Carlo, forcing an amazement to conceal +his anger. + +'I do, Count Ammiani,' returned the patrician conspirator. + +'You really listen to a man you despise?' + +'I do not despise him, my friend.' + +'You cannot surely tell us that you allow such a man, on his sole +authority, to blacken the character of the signorina?' + +'I believe that he has not.' + +'Believe? trust him? Then we are all in his hands. What can you mean? +Come to the signorina herself instantly. Agostino, you now conduct Count +Medole to her, and save him from the shame of subscribing to the +monstrous calumny. I beg you to go with our Agostino, Count Medole. It +is time for you--I honour you for the part you have taken; but it is time +to act according to your own better judgement.' + +Count Medole bowed. + +'The filthy rat!' cried Ammiani, panting to let out his wrath. + +'A serviceable dog,' Agostino remarked correctingly. 'Keep true to the +form of animal, Carlo. He has done good service in his time.' + +'You listen to the man?' Carlo said, now thoroughly amazed. + +'An indiscretion is possible to woman, my lad. She may have been +indiscreet in some way I am compelled to admit the existence of +possibilities.' + +'Of all men, you, Agostino! You call her daughter, and profess to love +her.' + +'You forget,' said Agostino sharply. 'The question concerns the country, +not the girl.' He added in an underbreath, 'I think you are professing +that you love her a little too strongly, and scarce give her much help as +an advocate. The matter must be looked into. If Barto shall be found to +have acted without just grounds, I am certain that Count Medole'--he +turned suavely to the nobleman--'will withdraw confidence from him; and +that will be equivalent to a rope's-end for Barto. We shall see him to- +night at your house?' + +'He will be there,' Medole said. + +'But the harm's done; the mischief's done! And what's to follow if you +shall choose to consider this vile idiot justified?' asked Ammiani. + +'She sings, and there is no rising,' said Medole. + +'She is detached from the patriotic battery, for the moment: it will be +better for her not to sing at all,' said Agostino. 'In fact, Barto has +merely given us warning that--and things look like it--the Fifteenth is +likely to be an Austrian feast-day. Your arm, my son. We will join you +to-night, my dear Count. Now, Carlo, I was observing, it appears to me +that the Austrians are not going to be surprised by us, and it affords +me exquisite comfort. Fellows prepared are never more than prepared for +one day and another day; and they are sure to be in a state of lax +preparation after a first and second disappointment. On the contrary, +fellows surprised'--Agostino had recovered his old smile again--'fellows +surprised may be expected to make use of the inspirations pertaining to +genius. Don't you see?' + +'Oh, cruel! I am sick of you all!' Carlo exclaimed. 'Look at her; think +of her, with her pure dream of Italy and her noble devotion. And you +permit a doubt to be cast on her!' + +'Now, is it not true that you have an idea of the country not being +worthy of her?' said Agostino, slyly. 'The Chief, I fancy, did not take +certain facts into his calculation when he pleaded that the conspiratrix +was the sum and completion of the conspirator. You will come to Medole's +to-night, Carlo. You need not be too sweet to him, but beware of +explosiveness. I, a Republican, am nevertheless a practical exponent +of the sacrifices necessary to unity. I accept the local leadership of +Medole--on whom I can never look without thinking of an unfeathered pie; +and I submit to be assisted by the man Barto Rizzo. Do thou likewise, my +son. Let your enamoured sensations follow that duty, and with a breezy +space between. A conspiracy is an epitome of humanity, with a boiling +power beneath it. You're no more than a bit of mechanism--happy if it +goes at all!' + +Agostino said that he would pay a visit to Vittoria in the evening. +Ammiani had determined to hunt out Barto Rizzo and the heads of the Clubs +before he saw her. It was a relief to him to behold in the Piazza the +Englishman who had exchanged cards with him on the Motterone. Captain +Gambier advanced upon a ceremonious bow, saying frankly, in a more +colloquial French than he had employed at their first interview, that he +had to apologize for his conduct, and to request monsieur's excuse. +'If,' he pursued, 'that lady is the person whom I knew formerly in +England as Mademoiselle Belloni, and is now known as Mademoiselle +Vittoria Campa, may I beg you to inform her that, according to what I +have heard, she is likely to be in some danger to-morrow?' What the +exact nature of the danger was, Captain Gambier could not say. + +Ammiani replied: 'She is in need of all her friends,' and took the +pressure of the Englishman's hand, who would fair have asked more but for +the stately courtesy of the Italian's withdrawing salute. Ammiani could +no longer doubt that Vittoria's implication in the conspiracy was known. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +LAURA PIAVENI + +After dark on the same day antecedent to the outbreak, Vittoria, with her +faithful Beppo at her heels, left her mother to run and pass one +comforting hour in the society of the Signora Laura Piaveni and her +children. + +There were two daughters of a parasitical Italian nobleman, of whom one +had married the patriot Giacomo Piaveni, and one an Austrian diplomatist, +the Commendatore Graf von Lenkenstein. Count Serabiglione was +traditionally parasitical. His ancestors all had moved in Courts. +The children of the House had illustrious sponsors. The House itself +was a symbolical sunflower constantly turning toward Royalty. Great +excuses are to be made for this, the last male descendant, whose father +in his youth had been an Imperial page, and who had been nursed in the +conception that Italy (or at least Lombardy) was a natural fief of +Austria, allied by instinct and by interest to the holders of the Alps. +Count Serabiglione mixed little with his countrymen,--the statement might +be inversed,--but when, perchance, he was among them, he talked willingly +of the Tedeschi, and voluntarily declared them to be gross, obstinate, +offensive-bears, in short. At such times he would intimate in any +cordial ear that the serpent was probably a match for the bear in a game +of skill, and that the wisdom of the serpent was shown in his selection +of the bear as his master, since, by the ordination of circumstances, +master he must have. The count would speak pityingly of the poor +depraved intellects which admitted the possibility of a coming Kingdom of +Italy united: the lunatics who preached of it he considered a sort of +self-elected targets for appointed files of Tyrolese jagers. But he was +vindictive against him whom he called the professional doctrinaire, and +he had vile names for the man. Acknowledging that Italy mourned her +present woes, he charged this man with the crime of originating them:-- +and why? what was his object? He was, the count declared in answer, a +born intriguer, a lover of blood, mad for the smell of it!--an Old Man of +the Mountain; a sheaf of assassins; and more--the curse of Italy! There +should be extradition treaties all over the world to bring this arch- +conspirator to justice. The door of his conscience had been knocked at +by a thousand bleeding ghosts, and nothing had opened to them. What was +Italy in his eyes? A chess-board; and Italians were the chessmen to this +cold player with live flesh. England nourished the wretch, that she +might undermine the peace of the Continent. + +Count Serabiglione would work himself up in the climax of denunciation, +and then look abroad frankly as one whose spirit had been relieved. He +hated bad men; and it was besides necessary for him to denounce somebody, +and get relief of some kind. Italians edged away from him. He was +beginning to feel that he had no country. The detested title 'Young +Italy' hurried him into fits of wrath. 'I am,' he said, 'one of the Old +Italians, if a distinction is to be made.' He assured his listeners that +he was for his commune, his district, and aired his old-Italian +prejudices delightedly; clapping his hands to the quarrels of Milan and +Brescia; Florence and Siena--haply the feuds of villages--and the common +North-Italian jealousy of the chief city. He had numerous capital tales +to tell of village feuds, their date and origin, the stupid effort to +heal them, and the wider consequent split; saying, 'We have, all +Italians, the tenacity, the unforgiveness, the fervent blood of pure +Hebrews; and a little more gaiety, perhaps; together with a love of fair +things. We can outlive ten races of conquerors.' + +In this fashion he philosophized, or forced a kind of philosophy. But he +had married his daughter to an Austrian, which was what his countrymen +could not overlook, and they made him feel it. Little by little, half +acquiescing, half protesting, and gradually denationalized, the count was +edged out of Italian society, save of the parasitical class, which he +very much despised. He was not a happy man. Success at the Imperial +Court might have comforted him; but a remorseless sensitiveness of his +nature tripped his steps. + +Bitter laughter rang throughout Lombardy when, in spite of his efforts to +save his daughter's husband, Giacomo Piaveni suffered death. No harder +blow had ever befallen the count: it was as good as a public proclamation +that he possessed small influence. To have bent the knee was not +afflicting to this nobleman's conscience: but it was an anguish to think +of having bent the knee for nothing. + +Giacomo Piaveni was a noble Italian of the young blood, son of a General +loved by Eugene. In him the loss of Italy was deplorable. He perished +by treachery at the age of twenty-three years. So splendid was this +youth in appearance, of so sweet a manner with women, and altogether so- +gentle and gallant, that it was a widowhood for women to have known him: +and at his death the hearts of two women who had loved him in rivalry +became bound by a sacred tie of friendship. He, though not of +distinguished birth, had the choice of an almost royal alliance in the +first blush of his manhood. He refused his chance, pleading in excuse to +Count Serabiglione, that he was in love with that nobleman's daughter, +Laura; which it flattered the count to hear, but he had ever after a +contempt for the young man's discretion, and was observed to shrug, with +the smooth sorrowfulness of one who has been a prophet, on the day when +Giacomo was shot. The larger estates of the Piaveni family, then in +Giacomo's hands, were in a famous cheese-making district, producing a +delicious cheese:--'white as lambkins!' the count would ejaculate most +dolefully; and in a rapture of admiration, 'You would say, a marble +quarry when you cut into it.' The theme was afflicting, for all the +estates of Giacomo were for the time forfeit, and the pleasant agitation +produced among his senses by the mention of the cheese reminded him at +the same instant that he had to support a widow with two children. The +Signora Piaveni lived in Milan, and the count her father visited her +twice during the summer months, and wrote to her from his fitful Winter +residences in various capital cities, to report progress in the settled +scheme for the recovery of Giacomo's property, as well for his widow as +for the heirs of his body. 'It is a duty,' Count Serabiglione said +emphatically. 'My daughter can entertain no proposal until her children +are duly established; or would she, who is young and lovely and archly +capricious, continue to decline the very best offers of the Milanese +nobility, and live on one flat in an old quarter of the city, instead of +in a bright and handsome street, musical with equipages, and full of the +shows of life?' + +In conjunction with certain friends of the signora, the count worked +diligently for the immediate restitution of the estates. He was ably +seconded by the young princess of Schyll-Weilingen,--by marriage countess +of Fohrendorf, duchess of Graatli, in central Germany, by which title she +passed,--an Austrian princess; she who had loved Giacomo, and would have +given all for him, and who now loved his widow. The extreme and painful +difficulty was that the Signora Piaveni made no concealment of her +abhorrence of the House of Austria, and hatred of Austrian rule in Italy. +The spirit of her dead husband had come to her from the grave, and warmed +a frame previously indifferent to anything save his personal merits. It +had been covertly communicated to her that if she performed due +submission to the authorities, and lived for six months in good legal, +that is to say, nonpatriotic odour, she might hope to have the estates. +The duchess had obtained this mercy for her, and it was much; for +Giacomo's scheme of revolt had been conceived with a subtlety of genius, +and contrived on a scale sufficient to incense any despotic lord of such +a glorious milch-cow as Lombardy. Unhappily the signora was more +inspired by the remembrance of her husband than by consideration for her +children. She received disaffected persons: she subscribed her money +ostentatiously for notoriously patriotic purposes; and she who, in her +father's Como villa, had been a shy speechless girl, nothing more than +beautiful, had become celebrated for her public letters, and the ardour +of declamation against the foreigner which characterized her style. In +the face of such facts, the estates continued to be withheld from her +governance. Austria could do that: she could wreak her spite against the +woman, but she respected her own law even in a conquered land: the +estates were not confiscated, and not absolutely sequestrated; and, +indeed, money coming from them had been sent to her for the education of +her children. It lay in unopened official envelopes, piled one upon +another, quarterly remittances, horrible as blood of slaughter in her +sight. Count Serabiglione made a point of counting the packets always +within the first five minutes of a visit to his daughter. He said +nothing, but was careful to see to the proper working of the lock of the +cupboard where the precious deposits were kept, and sometimes in +forgetfulness he carried off the key. When his daughter reclaimed it, +she observed, 'Pray believe me quite as anxious as yourself to preserve +these documents.' And the count answered, 'They represent the estates, +and are of legal value, though the amount is small. They represent your +protest, and the admission of your claim. They are priceless.' + +In some degree, also, they compensated him for the expense he was put to +in providing for his daughter's subsistence and that of her children. +For there, at all events, visible before his eyes, was the value of the +money, if not the money expended. He remonstrated with Laura for leaving +it more than necessarily exposed. She replied, + +'My people know what that money means!' implying, of course, that no one +in her house would consequently touch it. Yet it was reserved for the +count to find it gone. + +The discovery was made by the astounded nobleman on the day preceding +Vittoria's appearance at La Scala. His daughter being absent, he had +visited the cupboard merely to satisfy an habitual curiosity. The +cupboard was open, and had evidently been ransacked. He rang up the +domestics, and would have charged them all with having done violence to +the key, but that on reflection he considered this to be a way of binding +faggots together, and he resolved to take them one by one, like the +threading Jesuit that he was, and so get a Judas. Laura's return saved +him from much exercise of his peculiar skill. She, with a cool 'Ebbene!' +asked him how long he had expected the money to remain there. Upon +which, enraged, he accused her of devoting the money to the accursed +patriotic cause. And here they came to a curious open division. + +'Be content, my father,' she said; 'the money is my husband's, and is +expended on his behalf.' + +'You waste it among the people who were the cause of his ruin!' her +father retorted. + +'You presume me to have returned it to the Government, possibly?' + +'I charge you with tossing it to your so-called patriots.' + +'Sir, if I have done that, I have done well.' + +'Hear her!' cried the count to the attentive ceiling; and addressing her +with an ironical 'madame,' he begged permission to inquire of her whether +haply she might be the person in the pay of Revolutionists who was about +to appear at La Scala, under the name of the Signorina Vittoria. 'For +you are getting dramatic in your pose, my Laura,' he added, familiarizing +the colder tone of his irony. 'You are beginning to stand easily in +attitudes of defiance to your own father.' + +'That I may practise how to provoke a paternal Government, you mean,' she +rejoined, and was quite a match for him in dialectics. + +The count chanced to allude further to the Signorina Vittoria. + +'Do you know much of that lady?' she asked. + +'As much as is known,' said he. + +They looked at one another; the count thinking, 'I gave to this girl an +excess of brains, in my folly!' + +Compelled to drop his eyes, and vexed by the tacit defeat, he pursued, +'You expect great things from her?' + +'Great,' said his daughter. + +'Well, well,' he murmured acquiescingly, while sounding within himself +for the part to play. 'Well-yes! she may do what you expect.' + +'There is not the slightest doubt of her capacity,' said his daughter, in +a tone of such perfect conviction that the count was immediately and +irresistibly tempted to play the part of sagacious, kindly, tolerant but +foreseeing father; and in this becoming character he exposed the risks +her party ran in trusting anything of weight to a woman. Not that he +decried women. Out of their sphere he did not trust them, and he simply +objected to them when out of their sphere: the last four words being +uttered staccato. + +'But we trust her to do what she has undertaken to do,' said Laura. + +The count brightened prodigiously from his suspicion to a certainty; and +as he was still smiling at the egregious trap his clever but unskilled +daughter had fallen into, he found himself listening incredulously to her +plain additional sentence:-- + +'She has easy command of three octaves.' + +By which the allusion was transformed from politics to Art. Had Laura +reserved this cunning turn a little further, yielding to the natural +temptation to increase the shock of the antithetical battery, she would +have betrayed herself: but it came at the right moment: the count gave up +his arms. He told her that this Signorina Vittoria was suspected. 'Whom +will they not suspect!' interjected Laura. He assured her that if a +conspiracy had ripened it must fail. She was to believe that he abhorred +the part of a spy or informer, but he was bound, since she was reckless, +to watch over his daughter; and also bound, that he might be of service +to her, to earn by service to others as much power as he could reasonably +hope to obtain. Laura signified that he argued excellently well. In a +fit of unjustified doubt of her sincerity, he complained, with a +querulous snap: + +'You have your own ideas; you have your own ideas. You think me this and +that. A man must be employed.' + +'And this is to account for your occupation?' she remarked. + +'Employed, I say!' the count reiterated fretfully. He was unmasking to +no purpose, and felt himself as on a slope, having given his adversary +vantage. + +'So that there is no choice for you, do you mean?' + +The count set up a staggering affirmative, but knocked it over with its +natural enemy as soon as his daughter had said, 'Not being for Italy, you +must necessarily be against her:--I admit that to be the position!' + +'No!' he cried; 'no: there is no question of "for" or "against," as you +are aware. "Italy, and not Revolution": that is my motto.' + +'Or, in other words, "The impossible,"' said Laura. 'A perfect motto!' + +Again the count looked at her, with the remorseful thought: 'I certainly +gave you too much brains.' + +He smiled: 'If you could only believe it not impossible!' + +'Do you really imagine that "Italy without Revolution" does not mean +"Austria"?' she inquired. + +She had discovered how much he, and therefore his party, suspected, and +now she had reasons for wishing him away. Not daring to show symptoms of +restlessness, she offered him the chance of recovering himself on the +crutches of an explanation. He accepted the assistance, praising his +wits for their sprightly divination, and went through a long-winded +statement of his views for the welfare of Italy, quoting his favourite +Berni frequently, and forcing the occasion for that jolly poet. Laura +gave quiet attention to all, and when he was exhausted at the close, said +meditatively, 'Yes. Well; you are older. It may seem to you that I +shall think as you do when I have had a similar, or the same, length of +experience.' + +This provoking reply caused her father to jump up from his chair and spin +round for his hat. She rose to speed him forth. + +'It may seem to me!' he kept muttering. 'It may seem to me that when a +daughter gets married--addio! she is nothing but her husband.' + +'Ay! ay! if it might be so!' the signora wailed out. + +The count hated tears, considering them a clog to all useful machinery. +He was departing, when through the open window a noise of scuffling in +the street below arrested him. + +'Has it commenced?' he said, starting. + +'What?' asked the signora, coolly; and made him pause. + +'But-but-but!' he answered, and had the grace to spare her ears. The +thought in him was: 'But that I had some faith in my wife, and don't +admire the devil sufficiently, I would accuse him point-blank, for, by +Bacchus! you are as clever as he.' + +It is a point in the education of parents that they should learn to +apprehend humbly the compliment of being outwitted by their own +offspring. + +Count Serabiglione leaned out of the window and saw that his horses were +safe and the coachman handy. There were two separate engagements going +on between angry twisting couples. + +'Is there a habitable town in Italy?' the count exclaimed frenziedly. +First he called to his coachman to drive away, next to wait as if nailed +to the spot. He cursed the revolutionary spirit as the mother of vices. +While he was gazing at the fray, the door behind him opened, as he knew +by the rush of cool air which struck his temples. He fancied that his +daughter was hurrying off in obedience to a signal, and turned upon her +just as Laura was motioning to a female figure in the doorway to retire. + +'Who is this?' said the count. + +A veil was over the strange lady's head. She was excited, and breathed +quickly. The count brought forward a chair to her, and put on his best +court manner. Laura caressed her, whispering, ere she replied: 'The +Signorina Vittoria Romana!--Biancolla!--Benarriva!' and numerous other +names of inventive endearment. But the count was too sharp to be thrown +off the scent. 'Aha!' he said, 'do I see her one evening before the term +appointed?' and bowed profoundly. 'The Signorina Vittoria!' + +She threw up her veil. + +'Success is certain,' he remarked and applauded, holding one hand as a +snuff-box for the fingers of the other to tap on. + +'Signor Conte, you--must not praise me before you have heard me.' + +'To have seen you!' + +'The voice has a wider dominion, Signor Conte.' + +'The fame of the signorina's beauty will soon be far wider. Was Venus a +cantatrice?' + +She blushed, being unable to continue this sort of Mayfly-shooting +dialogue, but her first charming readiness had affected the proficient +social gentleman very pleasantly, and with fascinated eyes he hummed and +buzzed about her like a moth at a lamp. Suddenly his head dived: +'Nothing, nothing, signorina,' he said, brushing delicately at her dress; +'I thought it might be paint.' He smiled to reassure her, and then he +dived again, murmuring: 'It must be something sticking to the dress. +Pardon me.' With that he went to the bell. 'I will ring up my +daughter's maid. Or Laura--where is Laura?' + +The Signora Piaveni had walked to the window. This antiquated fussiness +of the dilettante little nobleman was sickening to her. + +'Probably you expect to discover a revolutionary symbol in the lines of +the signorina's dress,' she said. + +'A revolutionary symbol!--my dear! my dear!' The count reproved his +daughter. 'Is not our signorina a pure artist, accomplishing easily +three octaves? aha! Three!' and he rubbed his hands. 'But, three good +octaves!' he addressed Vittoria seriously and admonishingly. 'It is a +fortune-millions! It is precisely the very grandest heritage! It is an +army!' + +'I trust that it may be!' said Vittoria, with so deep and earnest a ring +of her voice that the count himself, malicious as his ejaculations had +been, was astonished. At that instant Laura cried from the window: +'These horses will go mad.' + +The exclamation had the desired effect. + +'Eh?--pardon me, signorina,' said the count, moving half-way to the +window, and then askant for his hat. The clatter of the horses' hoofs +sent him dashing through the doorway, at which place his daughter stood +with his hat extended. He thanked and blessed her for the kindly +attention, and in terror lest the signorina should think evil of him as +'one of the generation of the hasty,' he said, 'Were it anything but +horses! anything but horses! one's horses!--ha!' The audible hoofs +called him off. He kissed the tips of his fingers, and tripped out. + +The signora stepped rapidly to the window, and leaning there, cried a +word to the coachman, who signalled perfect comprehension, and +immediately the count's horses were on their hind-legs, chafing and +pulling to right and left, and the street was tumultuous with them. +She flung down the window, seized Vittoria's cheeks in her two hands, +and pressed the head upon her bosom. 'He will not disturb us again,' +she said, in quite a new tone, sliding her hands from the cheeks to the +shoulders and along the arms to the fingers'-ends, which they clutched +lovingly. 'He is of the old school, friend of my heart! and besides, +he has but two pairs of horses, and one he keeps in Vienna. We live in +the hope that our masters will pay us better! Tell me! you are in good +health? All is well with you? Will they have to put paint on her soft +cheeks to-morrow? Little, if they hold the colour as full as now? My +Sandra! amica! should I have been jealous if Giacomo had known you? On +my soul, I cannot guess! But, you love what he loved. He seems to live +for me when they are talking of Italy, and you send your eyes forward as +if you saw the country free. God help me! how I have been containing +myself for the last hour and a half!' + +The signora dropped in a seat and laughed a languid laugh. + +'The little ones? I will ring for them. Assunta shall bring them down +in their night-gowns if they are undressed; and we will muffle the +windows, for my little man will be wanting his song; and did you not +promise him the great one which is to raise Italy-his mother, from the +dead? Do you remember our little fellow's eyes as he tried to see the +picture? I fear I force him too much, and there's no need-not a bit.' + +The time was exciting, and the signora spoke excitedly. Messing and +Reggio were in arms. South Italy had given the open signal. It was +near upon the hour of the unmasking of the great Lombard conspiracy, +and Vittoria, standing there, was the beacon-light of it. Her presence +filled Laura with transports of exultation; and shy of displaying it, and +of the theme itself, she let her tongue run on, and satisfied herself by +smoothing the hand of the brave girl on her chin, and plucking with +little loving tugs at her skirts. In doing this she suddenly gave a cry, +as if stung. + +'You carry pins,' she said. And inspecting the skirts more closely, 'You +have a careless maid in that creature Giacinta; she lets paper stick to +your dress. What is this?' + +Vittoria turned her head, and gathered up her dress to see. + +'Pinned with the butterfly!' Laura spoke under her breath. + +Vittoria asked what it meant. + +'Nothing--nothing,' said her friend, and rose, pulling her eagerly toward +the lamp. + +A small bronze butterfly secured a square piece of paper with clipped +corners to her dress. Two words were written on it:-- + + 'SEI SOSPETTA.' + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE BRONZE BUTTERFLY + +The two women were facing one another in a painful silence when Carlo +Ammiani was announced to them. He entered with a rapid stride, and +struck his hands together gladly at sight of Vittoria. + +Laura met his salutation by lifting the accusing butterfly attached to +Vittoria's dress. + +'Yes; I expected it,' he said, breathing quick from recent exertion. +'They are kind--they give her a personal warning. Sometimes the dagger +heads the butterfly. I have seen the mark on the Play-bills affixed to +the signorina's name.' + +'What does it mean?' said Laura, speaking huskily, with her head bent +over the bronze insect. 'What can it mean?' she asked again, and looked +up to meet a covert answer. + +'Unpin it.' Vittoria raised her arms as if she felt the thing to be +enveloping her. + +The signora loosened the pin from its hold; but dreading lest she thereby +sacrificed some possible clue to the mystery, she hesitated in her +action, and sent an intolerable shiver of spite through Vittoria's frame, +at whom she gazed in a cold and cruel way, saying, 'Don't tremble.' And +again, 'Is it the doing of that 'garritrice magrezza,' whom you call 'la +Lazzeruola?' Speak. Can you trace it to her hand? Who put the plague- +mark upon you?' + +Vittoria looked steadily away from her. + +'It means just this,' Carlo interposed; 'there! now it 's off; and, +signorina, I entreat you to think nothing of it,--it means that any one +who takes a chief part in the game we play, shall and must provoke all +fools, knaves, and idiots to think and do their worst. They can't +imagine a pure devotion. Yes, I see--"Sei sospetta." They would write +their 'Sei sospetta' upon St. Catherine in the Wheel. Put it out of your +mind. Pass it.' + +'But they suspect her; and why do they suspect her?' Laura questioned +vehemently. 'I ask, is it a Conservatorio rival, or the brand of one of +the Clubs? She has no answer.' + +'Observe.' Carlo laid the paper under her eyes. + +Three angles were clipped, the fourth was doubled under. He turned it +back and disclosed the initials B. R. 'This also is the work of our man- +devil, as I thought. I begin to think that we shall be eternally +thwarted, until we first clear our Italy of its vermin. Here is a +weazel, a snake, a tiger, in one. They call him the Great Cat. He +fancies himself a patriot,--he is only a conspirator. I denounce him, +but he gets the faith of people, our Agostino among them, I believe. +The energy of this wretch is terrific. He has the vigour of a fasting +saint. Myself--I declare it to you, signora, with shame, I know what it +is to fear this man. He has Satanic blood, and the worst is, that the +Chief trusts him.' + +'Then, so do I,' said Laura. + +'And I,' Vittoria echoed her. + +A sudden squeeze beset her fingers. 'And I trust you,' Laura said to +her. 'But there has been some indiscretion. My child, wait: give no +heed to me, and have no feelings. Carlo, my friend--my husband's boy-- +brother-in-arms! let her teach you to be generous. She must have been +indiscreet. Has she friends among the Austrians? I have one, and it is +known, and I am not suspected. But, has she? What have you said or done +that might cause them to suspect you? Speak, Sandra mia.' + +It was difficult for Vittoria to speak upon the theme, which made her +appear as a criminal replying to a charge. At last she said, 'English: I +have no foreign friends but English. I remember nothing that I have +done.--Yes, I have said I thought I might tremble if I was led out to be +shot.' + +'Pish! tush!' Laura checked her. 'They flog women, they do not shoot +them. They shoot men.' + +'That is our better fortune,' said Ammiani. + +'But, Sandra, my sister,' Laura persisted now, in melodious coaxing +tones. 'Can you not help us to guess? I am troubled: I am stung. It is +for your sake I feel it so. Can't you imagine who did it, for instance?' + +'No, signora, I cannot,' Vittoria replied. + +'You can't guess?' + +I cannot help you.' + +'You will not!' said the irritable woman. 'Have you noticed no one +passing near you?' + +'A woman brushed by me as I entered this street. I remember no one else. +And my Beppo seized a man who was spying on me, as he said. That is all +I can remember.' + +Vittoria turned her face to Ammiani. + +'Barto Rizzo has lived in England,' he remarked, half to himself. 'Did +you come across a man called Barto Rizzo there, signorina? I suspect him +to be the author of this.' + +At the name of Barto Rizzo, Laura's eyes widened, awakening a memory in +Ammiani; and her face had a spectral wanness. + +'I must go to my chamber,' she said. 'Talk of it together. I will be +with you soon.' + +She left them. + +Ammiani bent over to Vittoria's ear. 'It was this man who sent the +warning to Giacomo, the signora's husband, which he despised, and which +would have saved him. + +It is the only good thing I know of Barto Rizzo. Pardon her.' + +'I do,' said the girl, now weeping. + +'She has evidently a rooted superstitious faith in these revolutionary +sign-marks. They are contagious to her. She loves you, and believes in +you, and will kneel to you for forgiveness by-and-by. Her misery is a +disease. She thinks now, "If my husband had given heed to the warning!" + +'Yes, I see how her heart works,' said Vittoria. 'You knew her husband, +Signor Carlo?' + +'I knew him. I served under him. He was the brother of my love. I +shall have no other.' + +Vittoria placed her hand for Ammiani to take it. He joined his own to +the fevered touch. The heart of the young man swelled most ungovernably, +but the perils of the morrow were imaged by him, circling her as with a +tragic flame, and he had no word for his passion. + +The door opened, when a noble little boy bounded into the room; followed +by a little girl in pink and white, like a streamer in the steps of her +brother. With shouts, and with arms thrown forward, they flung +themselves upon Vittoria, the boy claiming all her lap, and the girl +struggling for a share of the kingdom. Vittoria kissed them, crying, +'No, no, no, Messer Jack, this is a republic, and not an empire, and you +are to have no rights of "first come"; and Amalia sits on one knee, and +you on one knee, and you sit face to face, and take hands, and swear to +be satisfied.' + +'Then I desire not to be called an English Christian name, and you will +call me Giacomo,' said the boy. + +Vittoria sang, in mountain-notes, 'Giacomo!--Giacomo--Giac-giac-giac . . +como!' + +The children listened, glistening up at her, and in conjunction jumped +and shouted for more. + +'More?' said Vittoria; 'but is the Signor Carlo no friend of ours? and +does he wear a magic ring that makes him invisible?' + +'Let the German girl go to him,' said Giacomo, and strained his throat to +reach at kisses. + +'I am not a German girl,' little Amalia protested, refusing to go to +Carlo Ammiani under that stigma, though a delightful haven of open arms +and knees, and filliping fingers, invited her. + +'She is not a German girl, O Signor Giacomo,' said Vittoria, in the +theatrical manner. + +'She has a German name.' + +'It's not a German name!' the little girl shrieked. + +Giacomo set Amalia to a miauling tune. + +'So, you hate the Duchess of Graatli!' said Vittoria. 'Very well. I +shall remember.' + +The boy declared that he did not hate his mother's friend and sister's +godmother: he rather liked her, he really liked her, he loved her; but he +loathed the name 'Amalia,' and could not understand why the duchess would +be a German. He concluded by miauling 'Amalia' in the triumph of +contempt. + +'Cat, begone!' said Vittoria, promptly setting him down on his feet, and +little Amalia at the same time perceiving that practical sympathy only +required a ring at the bell for it to come out, straightway pulled the +wires within herself, and emitted a doleful wail that gave her sole +possession of Vittoria's bosom, where she was allowed to bring her tears +to an end very comfortingly. Giacomo meanwhile, his body bent in an +arch, plucked at Carlo Ammiani's wrists with savagely playful tugs, and +took a stout boy's lesson in the art of despising what he coveted. He +had only to ask for pardon. Finding it necessary, he came shyly up to +Vittoria, who put Amalia in his way, kissing whom, he was himself +tenderly kissed. + +'But girls should not cry!' Vittoria reproved the little woman. + +'Why do you cry?' asked Amalia simply. + +'See! she has been crying.' Giacomo appropriated the discovery, perforce +of loudness, after the fashion of his sex. + +'Why does our Vittoria cry?' both the children clamoured. + +'Because your mother is such a cruel sister to her,' said Laura, passing +up to them from the doorway. She drew Vittoria's head against her +breast, looked into her eyes, and sat down among them. Vittoria sang one +low-toned soft song, like the voice of evening, before they were +dismissed to their beds. She could not obey Giacomo's demand for a +martial air, and had to plead that she was tired. + +When the children had gone, it was as if a truce had ended. The signora +and Ammiani fell to a brisk counterchange of questions relating to the +mysterious suspicion which had fallen upon Vittoria. Despite Laura's +love for her, she betrayed her invincible feeling that there must be some +grounds for special or temporary distrust. + +'The lives that hang on it knock at me here,' she said, touching under +her throat with fingers set like falling arrows. + +But Ammiani, who moved in the centre of conspiracies, met at their +councils, and knew their heads, and frequently combated their schemes, +was not possessed by the same profound idea of their potential command of +hidden facts and sovereign wisdom. He said, 'We trust too much to one +man. We are compelled to trust him, but we trust too much to him. I +mean this man, this devil, Barto Rizzo. Signora, signora, he must be +spoken of. He has dislocated the plot. He is the fanatic of the +revolution, and we are trusting him as if he had full sway of reason. +What is the consequence? The Chief is absent he is now, as I believe, in +Genoa. All the plan for the rising is accurate; the instruments are +ready, and we are paralyzed. I have been to three houses to-night, and +where, two hours previously, there was union and concert, all are +irresolute and divided. I have hurried off a messenger to the Chief. +Until we hear from him, nothing can be done. I left Ugo Corte storming +against us Milanese, threatening, as usual, to work without us, and have +a Bergamasc and Brescian Republic of his own. Count Medole is for a +week's postponement. Agostino smiles and chuckles, and talks his +poetisms.' + +'Until you hear from the Chief, nothing is to be done?' Laura said +passionately. 'Are we to remain in suspense? Impossible! I cannot bear +it. We have plenty of arms in the city. Oh, that we had cannon! I +worship cannon! They are the Gods of battle! But if we surprise the +citadel;--one true shock of alarm makes a mob of an army. I have heard +my husband say so. Let there be no delay. That is my word.' + +'But, signora, do you see that all concert about the signal is lost?' + +'My friend, I see something'; Laura nodded a significant half-meaning at +him. 'And perhaps it will be as well. Go at once. See that another +signal is decided upon. Oh! because we are ready--ready. Inaction now +is uttermost anguish--kills the heart. What number of the white butchers +have we in the city to-night?' + +'They are marching in at every gate. I saw a regiment of Hungarians +coming up the Borgo della Stella. Two fresh squadrons of Uhlans in the +Corso Francesco. In the Piazza d'Armi artillery is encamped.' + +'The better for Brescia, for Bergamo, for Padua, for Venice!' exclaimed +Laura. 'There is a limit to their power. We Milanese can match them. +For days and days I have had a dream lying in my bosom that Milan was +soon to breathe. Go, my brother; go to Barto Rizzo; gather him and Count +Medole, Agostino, and Colonel Corte--to whom I kiss my fingers--gather +them together, and squeeze their brains for the one spark of divine fire +in this darkness which must exist where there are so many thorough men +bent upon a sacred enterprise. And, Carlo,'--Laura checked her nervous +voice, 'don't think I am declaiming to you from one of my "Midnight +Lamps."' (She spoke of the title of her pamphlets to the Italian people.) +'You feel among us women very much as Agostino and Colonel Corte feel +when the boy Carlo airs his impetuosities in their presence. Yes, my +fervour makes a philosopher of you. That is human nature. Pity me, +pardon me, and do my bidding.' + +The comparison of Ammiani's present sentiments to those of the elders of +the conspiracy, when his mouth was open in their midst, was severe and +masterful, for the young man rose instantly without a thought in his +head. + +He remarked: 'I will tell them that the signorina does not give the +signal.' + +'Tell them that the name she has chosen shall be Vittoria still; but say, +that she feels a shadow of suspicion to be an injunction upon her at such +a crisis, and she will serve silently and humbly until she is rightly +known, and her time comes. She is willing to appear before them, and +submit to interrogation. She knows her innocence, and knowing that they +work for the good of the country, she, if it is their will, is content to +be blotted out of all participation:--all! She abjures all for the +common welfare. Say that. And say, to-morrow night the rising must be. +Oh! to-morrow night! It is my husband to me.' + +Laura Piaveni crossed her arms upon her bosom. + +Ammiani was moving from them with a downward face, when a bell-note of +Vittoria's voice arrested him. + +'Stay, Signor Carlo; I shall sing to-morrow night.' + +The widow heard her through that thick emotion which had just closed her' +speech with its symbolical sensuous rapture. Divining opposition +fiercely, like a creature thwarted when athirst for the wells, she gave +her a terrible look, and then said cajolingly, as far as absence of +sweetness could make the tones pleasant, 'Yes, you will sing, but you +will not sing that song.' + +'It is that song which I intend to sing, signora.' + +'When it is interdicted?' + +'There is only one whose interdict I can acknowledge.' + +'You will dare to sing in defiance of me?' + +'I dare nothing when I simply do my duty.' + +Ammiani went up to the window, and leaned there, eyeing the lights +leading down to the crowding Piazza. He wished that he were among the +crowd, and might not hear those sharp stinging utterances coming from +Laura, and Vittoria's unwavering replies, less frequent, but firmer, and +gravely solid. Laura spent her energy in taunts, but Vittoria spoke only +of her resolve, and to the point. It was, as his military instincts +framed the simile, like the venomous crackling of skirmishing rifles +before a fortress, that answered slowly with its volume of sound and +sweeping shot. He had the vision of himself pleading to secure her +safety, and in her hearing, on the Motterone, where she had seemed so +simple a damsel, albeit nobly enthusiastic: too fair, too gentle to be +stationed in any corner of the conflict at hand. Partly abased by the +remembrance of his brainless intercessions then, and of the laughter +which had greeted them, and which the signora had recently recalled, it +was nevertheless not all in self-abasement (as the momentary recognition +of a splendid character is commonly with men) that he perceived the +stature of Vittoria's soul. Remembering also what the Chief had spoken +of women, Ammiani thought 'Perhaps he has known one such as she.' The +passion of the young man's heart magnified her image. He did not wonder +to see the signora acknowledge herself worsted in the conflict. + +'She talks like the edge of a sword,' cried Laura, desperately, and +dropped into a chair. 'Take her home, and convince her, if you can, on +the way, Carlo. I go to the Duchess of Graatli to-night. She has a +reception. Take this girl home. She says she will sing: she obeys the +Chief, and none but the Chief. We will not suppose that it is her desire +to shine. She is suspected; she is accused; she is branded; there is no +general faith in her; yet she will hold the torch to-morrow night:--and +what ensues? Some will move, some turn back, some run headlong over to +treachery, some hang irresolute all are for the shambles! The blood is +on her head.' + +'I will excuse myself to you another time,' said Vittoria. 'I love you, +Signora Laura.' + +'You do, you do, or you would not think of excusing yourself to me,' said +Laura. 'But now, go. You have cut me in two. Carlo Ammiani may succeed +where I have failed, and I have used every weapon; enough to make a mean +creature hate me for life and kiss me with transports. Do your best, +Carlo, and let it be your utmost.' + +It remained for Ammiani to assure her that their views were different. + +'The signorina persists in her determination to carry out the programme +indicated by the Chief, and refuses to be diverted from her path by the +false suspicions of subordinates.' He employed a sententious phraseology +instinctively, as men do when they are nervous, as well as when they +justify the cynic's definition of the uses of speech. 'The signorina is, +in my opinion, right. If she draws back, she publicly accepts the blot +upon her name. I speak against my own feelings and my wishes.' + +'Sandra, do you hear?' exclaimed Laura. 'This is a friend's +interpretation of your inconsiderate wilfulness.' + +Vittoria was content to reply, 'The Signor Carlo judges of me +differently.' + +'Go, then, and be fortified by him in this headstrong folly.' Laura +motioned her hand, and laid it on her face. + +Vittoria knelt and enclosed her with her arms, kissing her knees. + +'Beppo waits for me at the house-door,' she said; but Carlo chose not to +hear of this shadow-like Beppo. + +'You have nothing to say for her save that she clears her name by giving +the signal,' Laura burst out on his temperate 'Addio,' and started to her +feet. 'Well, let it be so. Fruitless blood again! A 'rivederla' to you +both. To-night I am in the enemy's camp. They play with open cards. +Amalia tells me all she knows by what she disguises. I may learn +something. Come to me to-morrow. My Sandra, I will kiss you. These +shudderings of mine have no meaning.' + +The signora embraced her, and took Ammiani's salute upon her fingers. + +'Sour fingers!' he said. She leaned her cheek to him, whispering, 'I +could easily be persuaded to betray you.' + +He answered, 'I must have some merit in not betraying myself.' + +'At each elbow!' she laughed. 'You show the thumps of an electric +battery at each elbow, and expect your Goddess of lightnings not to see +that she moves you. Go. You have not sided with me, and I am right, and +I am a woman. By the way, Sandra mia, I would beg the loan of your Beppo +for two hours or less.' + +Vittoria placed Beppo at her disposal. + +'And you run home to bed,' continued Laura. 'Reason comes to you +obstinate people when you are left alone for a time in the dark.' + +She hardly listened to Vittoria's statement that the chief singers in the +new opera were engaged to attend a meeting at eleven at night at the +house of the maestro Rocco Ricci. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE PLOT OF THE SIGNOR ANTONIO + +There was no concealment as to Laura's object in making request for the +services of Beppo. She herself knew it to be obvious that she intended +to probe and cross-examine the man, and in her wilfulness she chose to be +obtuse to opinion. She did not even blush to lean a secret ear above the +stairs that she might judge, by the tones of Vittoria's voice upon her +giving Beppo the order to wait, whether she was at the same time +conveying a hint for guardedness. But Vittoria said not a word: it was +Ammiani who gave the order. 'I am despicable in distrusting her for a +single second,' said Laura. That did not the less encourage her to +question Beppo rigorously forthwith; and as she was not to be deceived by +an Italian's affectation of simplicity, she let him answer two or three +times like a plain fool, and then abruptly accused him of standing +prepared with these answers. Beppo, within his own bosom, immediately +ascribed to his sagacious instinct the mere spirit of opposition and +dislike to serve any one save his own young mistress which had caused him +to irritate the signora and be on his guard. He proffered a candid +admission of the truth of the charge; adding, that he stood likewise +prepared with an unlimited number of statements. 'Questions, illustrious +signora, invariably put me on the defensive, and seem to cry for a return +thrust; and this I account for by the fact that my mother--the blessed +little woman now among the Saints!--was questioned, brows and heels, by a +ferruginously--faced old judge at the momentous period when she carried +me. So that, a question--and I show point; but ask me for a statement, +and, ah, signora!' Beppo delivered a sweep of the arm, as to indicate the +spontaneous flow of his tongue. + +'I think,' said Laura, 'you have been a soldier, and a serving-man.' + +'And a scene-shifter, most noble signora, at La Scala.' + +'You accompanied the Signor Mertyrio to England when he was wounded?' + +'I did.' + +'And there you beheld the Signorina Vittoria, who was then bearing the +name of Emilia Belloni?' + +'Which name she changed on her arrival in Italy, illustrious signora, for +that of Vittoria Campa--"sull' campo dells gloria"--ah! ah!--her own name +being an attraction to the blow-flies in her own country. All this is +true.' + +'It should be a comfort to you! The Signor Mertyrio . . .' + +Beppo writhed his person at the continuance of the questionings, and +obtaining a pause, he rushed into his statement: 'The Signor Mertyrio was +well, and on the point of visiting Italy, and quitting the wave-embraced +island of fog, of beer, of moist winds, and much money, and much +kindness, where great hearts grew. The signorina corresponded with him, +and with him only.' + +'You know that, and will swear to it?' Laura exclaimed. + +Beppo thereby receiving the cue he had commenced beating for, swore to +its truth profoundly, and straightway directed his statement to prove +that his mistress had not been politically (or amorously, if the +suspicion aimed at her in those softer regions) indiscreet or blameable +in any of her actions. The signorina, he said, never went out from her +abode without the companionship of her meritorious mother and his own +most humble attendance. He, Beppo, had a master and a mistress, the +Signor Mertyrio and the Signorina Vittoria. She saw no foreigners: +though--a curious thing!--he had seen her when the English language was +talked in her neighbourhood; and she had a love for that language: it +made her face play in smiles like an infant's after it has had suck and +is full;--the sort of look you perceive when one is dreaming and hears +music. She did not speak to foreigners. She did not care to go to +foreign cities, but loved Milan, and lived in it free and happy as an +earwig in a ripe apricot. The circumvallation of Milan gave her elbow- +room enough, owing to the absence of forts all round--'which knock one's +funny-bone in Verona, signora.' Beppo presented a pure smile upon a +simple bow for acceptance. 'The air of Milan,' he went on, with less +confidence under Laura's steady gaze, and therefore more forcing of his +candour--'the sweet air of Milan gave her a deep chestful, so that she +could hold her note as long as five lengths of a fiddle-bow:--by the body +of Sant' Ambrogio, it was true!' Beppo stretched out his arm, and +chopped his hand edgeways five testificatory times on the shoulder-ridge. +'Ay, a hawk might fly from St. Luke's head (on the Duomo) to the stone on +San Primo over Como, while the signorina held on her note! You listened, +you gasped--you thought of a poet in his dungeon, and suddenly, behold, +his chains are struck off!--you thought of a gold-shelled tortoise making +his pilgrimage to a beatific shrine!--you thought--you knew not what you +thought!' + +Here Beppo sank into a short silence of ecstasy, and wakening from it, as +with an ardent liveliness: 'The signora has heard her sing? How to +describe it! Tomorrow night will be a feast for Milan.' + +'You think that the dilettanti of Milan will have a delight to-morrow +night?' said Laura; but seeing that the man's keen ear had caught note of +the ironic reptile under the flower, and unwilling to lose further time, +she interdicted his reply. + +'Beppo, my good friend, you are a complete Italian--you waste your +cleverness. You will gratify me by remembering that I am your +countrywoman. I have already done you a similar favour by allowing you +to air your utmost ingenuity. The reflection that it has been to no +purpose will neither scare you nor instruct you. Of that I am quite +assured. I speak solely to suit the present occasion. Now, don't seek +to elude me. If you are a snake with friends as well as enemies, you are +nothing but a snake. I ask you--you are not compelled to answer, but I +forbid you to lie--has your mistress seen, or conversed and had +correspondence with any one receiving the Tedeschi's gold, man or woman? +Can any one, man or woman, call her a traitress?' + +'Not twice!' thundered Beppo, with a furrowed red forehead. + +There was a noble look about the fellow as he stood with stiff legs in a +posture, frowning--theatrical, but noble also; partly the look of a +Figaro defending his honour in extremity, yet much like a statue of a +French Marshal of the Empire. + +'That will do,' said Laura, rising. She was about to leave him, when the +Duchess of Graatli's chasseur was ushered in, bearing a missive from +Amalia, her friend. She opened it and read:-- + + 'BEST BELOVED,--Am I soon to be reminded bitterly that there is a + river of steel between my heart and me? + + 'Fail not in coming to-night. Your new Bulbul is in danger. The + silly thing must have been reading Roman history. Say not no! It + intoxicates you all. I watch over her for my Laura's sake: a + thousand kisses I shower on you, dark delicious soul that you are! + Are you not my pine-grove leading to the evening star? Come, that + we may consult how to spirit her away during her season of peril. + Gulfs do not close over little female madcaps, my Laura; so we must + not let her take the leap. Enter the salle when you arrive: pass + down it once and return upon your steps; then to my boudoir. My + maid Aennchen will conduct you. Addio. Tell this messenger that + you come. Laura mine, I am for ever thy + + 'AMALIA.' + +Laura signalled to the chasseur that her answer was affirmative. As he +was retiring, his black-plumed hat struck against Beppo, who thrust him +aside and gave the hat a dexterous kick, all the while keeping a decorous +front toward the signora. She stood meditating. The enraged chasseur +mumbled a word or two for Beppo's ear, in execrable Italian, and went. +Beppo then commenced bowing half toward the doorway, and tried to shoot +through, out of sight and away, in a final droop of excessive servility, +but the signora stopped him, telling him to consider himself her servant +until the morning; at which he manifested a surprising readiness, +indicative of nothing short of personal devotion, and remained for two +minutes after she had quitted the room. So much time having elapsed, he +ran bounding down the stairs and found the hall-door locked, and that he +was a prisoner during the signora's pleasure. The discovery that he was +mastered by superior cunning, instead of disconcerting, quieted him +wonderfully; so he put by the resources of his ingenuity for the next +opportunity, and returned stealthily to his starting-point, where the +signora found him awaiting her with composure. The man was in mortal +terror lest he might be held guilty of a trust betrayed, in leaving his +mistress for an hour, even in obedience to her command, at this crisis: +but it was not in his nature to state the case openly to the signora, +whom he knew to be his mistress's friend, or to think of practising other +than shrewd evasion to accomplish his duty and satisfy his conscience. + +Laura said, without smiling, 'The street-door opens with a key,' and she +placed the key in his hand, also her fan to carry. Once out of the +house, she was sure that he would not forsake his immediate charge of the +fan: she walked on, heavily veiled, confident of his following. The +Duchess of Graatli's house neighboured the Corso Francesco; numerous +carriages were disburdening their freights of fair guests, and now and +then an Austrian officer in full uniform ran up the steps, glittering +under the lamps. 'I go in among them,' thought Laura. It rejoiced her +that she had come on foot. Forgetting Beppo, and her black fan, as no +Italian woman would have done but she who paced in an acute quivering of +the anguish of hopeless remembrances and hopeless thirst of vengeance, +she suffered herself to be conducted in the midst of the guests, and +shuddered like one who has taken a fever-chill as she fulfilled the +duchess's directions; she passed down the length of the saloon, through a +light of visages that were not human to her sensations. + +Meantime Beppo, oppressed by his custody of the fan, and expecting that +most serviceable lady's instrument to be sent for at any minute, stood +among a strange body of semi-feudal retainers below, where he was soon +singled out by the duchess's chasseur, a Styrian, who, masking his fury +under jest, in the South-German manner, endeavoured to lead him up to an +altercation. But Beppo was much too supple to be entrapped. He +apologized for any possible offences that he might have committed, +assuring the chasseur that he considered one hat as good as another, and +some hats better than others: in proof of extreme cordiality, he accepted +the task of repeating the chasseur's name, which was 'Jacob Baumwalder +Feckelwitz,' a tolerable mouthful for an Italian; and it was with +remarkable delicacy that Beppo contrived to take upon himself the whole +ridicule of his vile pronunciation of the unwieldy name. Jacob +Baumwalder Feckelwitz offered him beer to refresh him after the effort. +While Beppo was drinking, he seized the fan. 'Good; good; a thousand +thanks,' said Beppo, relinquishing it; 'convey it aloft, I beseech you.' +He displayed such alacrity and lightness of limb at getting rid of it, +that Jacob thrust it between the buttons of his shirtfront, returning it +to his possession by that aperture. Beppo's head sank. A handful of +black lace and cedarwood chained him to the spot! He entreated the men +in livery to take the fan upstairs and deliver it to the Signora Laura +Piaveni; but they, being advised by Jacob, refused. 'Go yourself,' said +Jacob, laughing, and little prepared to see the victim, on whom he +thought that for another hour at least he had got his great paw firmly, +take him at his word. Beppo sprang into the hall and up the stairs. The +duchess's maid, ivory-faced Aennchen, was flying past him. She saw a +very taking dark countenance making eyes at her, leaned her ear shyly, +and pretending to understand all that was said by the rapid foreign +tongue, acted from the suggestion of the sole thing which she did +understand. Beppo had mentioned the name of the Signora Piaveni. 'This +way,' she indicated with her finger, supposing that of course he wanted +to see the signora very urgently. + +Beppo tried hard to get her to carry the fan; but she lifted her fingers +in a perfect Susannah horror of it, though still bidding him to follow. +Naturally she did not go fast through the dark passages, where the game +of the fan was once more played out, and with accompaniments. The +accompaniments she objected to no further than a fish is agitated in +escaping from the hook; but 'Nein, nein!' in her own language, and 'No, +no!' in his, burst from her lips whenever he attempted to transfer the +fan to her keeping. 'These white women are most wonderful!' thought +Beppo, ready to stagger between perplexity and impatience. + +'There; in there!' said Aennchen, pointing to a light that came through +the folds of a curtain. Beppo kissed her fingers as they tugged +unreluctantly in his clutch, and knew by a little pause that the case was +hopeful for higher privileges. What to do? He had not an instant to +spare; yet he dared not offend a woman's vanity. He gave an ecstatic +pressure of her hand upon his breastbone, to let her be sure she was +adored, albeit not embraced. After this act of prudence he went toward +the curtain, while the fair Austrian soubrette flew on her previous +errand. + +It was enough that Beppo found himself in a dark antechamber for him to +be instantly scrupulous in his footing and breathing. As he touched the +curtain, a door opened on the other side of the interior, and a tender +gabble of fresh feminine voices broke the stillness and ran on like a +brook coming from leaps to a level, and again leaping and making noise of +joy. The Duchess of Graatli had clasped the Signora Laura's two hands +and drawn her to an ottoman, and between kissings and warmer claspings, +was questioning of the little ones, Giacomo and her goddaughter Amalia. + +'When, when did I see you last?' she exclaimed. 'Oh! not since we met +that morning to lay our immortelles upon his tomb. My soul's sister! +kiss me, remembering it. I saw you in the gateway--it seemed to me, as +in a vision, that we had both had one warning to come for him, and knock, +and the door would be opened, and our beloved would come forth! That was +many days back. It is to me like a day locked up forever in a casket of +pearl. Was it not an unstained morning, my own! If I weep, it is with +pleasure. But,' she added with precipitation, 'weeping of any kind will +not do for these eyelids of mine.' And drawing forth a tiny gold-framed +pocket-mirror she perceived convincingly that it would not do. + +'They will think it is for the absence of my husband,' she said, as only +a woman can say it who deplores nothing so little as that. + +'When does he return from Vienna?' Laura inquired in the fallen voice of +her thoughtfulness. + +'I receive two couriers a week; I know not any more, my Laura. I believe +he is pushing some connubial complaint against me at the Court. We have +been married seventeen months. I submitted to the marriage because I +could get no proper freedom without, and now I am expected to abstain +from the very thing I sacrificed myself to get! Can he hear that in +Vienna?' She snapped her fingers. 'If not, let him come and behold it in +Milan. Besides, he is harmless. The Archduchess is all ears for the +very man of whom he is jealous. This is my reply: You told me to marry: +I obeyed. My heart 's in the earth, and I must have distractions. My +present distraction is De Pyrmont, a good Catholic and a good Austrian +soldier, though a Frenchman. I grieve to say--it's horrible--that it +sometimes tickles me when I reflect that De Pyrmont is keen with the +sword. But remember, Laura, it was not until after our marriage my +husband told me he could have saved Giacomo by the lifting of a finger. +Away with the man!--if it amuses me to punish him, I do so.' + +The duchess kissed Laura's cheek, and continued:-- + +'Now to the point where we stand enemies! I am for Austria, you are for +Italy. Good. But I am always for Laura. So, there's a river between us +and a bridge across it. My darling, do you know that we are much too +strong for you, if you mean anything serious tomorrow night?' + +'Are you?' Laura said calmly. + +'I know, you see, that something is meant to happen to-morrow night.' + +Laura said, 'Do you?' + +'We have positive evidence of it. More than that: Your Vittoria--but do +you care to have her warned? She will certainly find herself in a +pitfall if she insists on carrying out her design. Tell me, do you care +to have her warned and shielded? A year of fortress-life is not +agreeable, is not beneficial for the voice. Speak, my Laura.' + +Laura looked up in the face of her friend mildly with her large dark +eyes, replying, 'Do you think of sending Major de Pyrmont to her to warn +her?' + +'Are you not wicked?' cried the duchess, feeling that she blushed, and +that Laura had thrown her off the straight road of her interrogation. +'But, play cards with open hands, my darling, to-night. Look:--She is in +danger. I know it; so do you. She will be imprisoned perhaps before she +steps on the boards--who knows? Now, I--are not my very dreams all sworn +in a regiment to serve my Laura?--I have a scheme. Truth, it is hardly +mine. It belongs to the Greek, the Signor Antonio Pericles +Agriolopoulos. It is simply'--the duchess dropped her voice out of +Beppo's hearing--'a scheme to rescue her: speed her away to my chateau +near Meran in Tyrol.' 'Tyrol' was heard by Beppo. In his frenzy at the +loss of the context he indulged in a yawn, and a grimace, and a dance of +disgust all in one; which lost him the next sentence likewise. 'There we +purpose keeping her till all is quiet and her revolutionary fever has +passed. Have you heard of this Signor Antonio? He could buy up the +kingdom of Greece, all Tyrol, half Lombardy. The man has a passion for +your Vittoria; for her voice solely, I believe. He is considered, no +doubt truly, a great connoisseur. He could have a passion for nothing +else, or alas!' (the duchess shook her head with doleful drollery) 'would +he insist on written securities and mortgages of my private property when +he lends me money? How different the world is from the romances, my +Laura! But for De Pyrmont, I might fancy my smile was really incapable +of ransoming an empire; I mean an emperor. Speak; the man is waiting to +come; shall I summon him?' + +Laura gave an acquiescent nod. + +By this time Beppo had taken root to the floor. 'I am in the best place +after all,' he said, thinking of the duties of his service. He was +perfectly well acquainted with the features of the Signor Antonio. He +knew that Luigi was the Signor Antonio's spy upon Vittoria, and that no +personal harm was intended toward his mistress; but Beppo's heart was in +the revolt of which Vittoria was to give the signal; so, without a touch +of animosity, determined to thwart him, Beppo waited to hear the Signor +Antonio's scheme. + +The Greek was introduced by Aennchen. She glanced at the signora's lap, +and seeing her still without her fan, her eye shot slyly up with her +shining temple, inspecting the narrow opening in the curtain furtively. +A short hush of preluding ceremonies passed. + +Presently Beppo heard them speaking; he was aghast to find that he had +no comprehension of what they were uttering. 'Oh, accursed French +dialect!' he groaned; discovering the talk to be in that tongue. The +Signor Antonio warmed rapidly from the frigid politeness of his +introductory manner. A consummate acquaintance with French was required +to understand him. He held out the fingers of one hand in regimental +order, and with the others, which alternately screwed his moustache from +its constitutional droop over the corners of his mouth, he touched the +uplifted digits one by one, buzzing over them: flashing his white eyes, +and shrugging in a way sufficient to madden a surreptitious listener who +was aware that a wealth of meaning escaped him and mocked at him. At +times the Signor Antonio pitched a note compounded half of cursing, half +of crying, it seemed: both pathetic and objurgative, as if he whimpered +anathemas and had inexpressible bitter things in his mind. But there was +a remedy! He displayed the specific on a third finger. It was there. +This being done (number three on the fingers), matters might still be +well. So much his electric French and gesticulations plainly asserted. +Beppo strained all his attention for names, in despair at the riddle of +the signs. Names were pillars of light in the dark unintelligible waste. +The signora put a question. It was replied to with the name of the +Maestro Rocco Ricci. Following that, the Signor Antonio accompanied his +voluble delivery with pantomimic action which seemed to indicate the +shutting of a door and an instantaneous galloping of horses--a flight +into air, any-whither. He whipped the visionary steeds with enthusiastic +glee, and appeared to be off skyward like a mad poet, when the signora +again put a question, and at once he struck his hand flat across his +mouth, and sat postured to answer what she pleased with a glare of polite +vexation. She spoke; he echoed her, and the duchess took up the same +phrase. Beppo was assisted by the triangular recurrence of the words and +their partial relationship to Italian to interpret them: 'This night.' +Then the signora questioned further. The Greek replied: 'Mademoiselle +Irma di Karski.' + +'La Lazzeruola,' she said. + +The Signor Antonio flashed a bit of sarcastic mimicry, as if acquiescing +in the justice of the opprobrious term from the high point of view: but +mademoiselle might pass, she was good enough for the public. + +Beppo heard and saw no more. A tug from behind recalled him to his +situation. He put out his arms and gathered Aennchen all dark in them: +and first kissing her so heartily as to set her trembling on the verge of +a betrayal, before she could collect her wits he struck the fan down the +pretty hollow of her back, between her shoulder-blades, and bounded away. +It was not his intention to rush into the embrace of Jacob Baumwalder +Feckelwitz, but that perambulating chasseur received him in a semi- +darkness where all were shadows, and exclaimed, 'Aennchen!' Beppo gave +an endearing tenderness to the few words of German known to him: +'Gottschaf-donner-dummer!' and slipped from the hold of the astonished +Jacob, sheer under his arm-pit. He was soon in the street, excited he +knew not by what, or for what object. He shuffled the names he +remembered to have just heard--'Rocco Ricci, and 'la Lazzeruola.' Why did +the name of la Lazzeruola come in advance of la Vittoria? And what was +the thing meant by 'this night,' which all three had uttered as in an +agreement?--ay! and the Tyrol! The Tyrol--this night-Rocco Ricci la +Lazzeruola! + +Beppo's legs were carrying him toward the house of the Maestro Rocco +Ricci ere he had arrived at any mental decision upon these imminent +mysteries. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Agostino was enjoying the smoke of paper cigarettes +Anguish to think of having bent the knee for nothing +Art of despising what he coveted +Compliment of being outwitted by their own offspring +Hated tears, considering them a clog to all useful machinery +Intentions are really rich possessions +Italians were like women, and wanted--a real beating +Necessary for him to denounce somebody +Profound belief in her partiality for him + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Vittoria, v2 +by George Meredith + diff --git a/4436.zip b/4436.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..045bd05 --- /dev/null +++ b/4436.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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