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They conversed +very little on the way. + +'You are a good swordsman?' she asked him abruptly. + +'I have as much skill as belongs to a perfect intimacy with the weapon,' +he answered. + +'Your father was a soldier, Signor Carlo.' + +'He was a General officer in what he believed to be the army of Italy. +We used to fence together every day for two hours.' + +'I love the fathers who do that,' said Vittoria. + +After such speaking Ammiani was not capable of the attempt to preach +peace and safety to her. He postponed it to the next minute and the +next. + +Vittoria's spirit was in one of those angry knots which are half of the +intellect, half of the will, and are much under the domination of one or +other of the passions in the ascendant. She was resolved to go forward; +she felt justified in going forward; but the divine afflatus of +enthusiasm buoyed her no longer, and she required the support of all that +accuracy of insight and that senseless stubbornness which there might be +in her nature. The feeling that it was she to whom it was given to lift +the torch and plant the standard of Italy, had swept her as through the +strings of a harp. Laura, and the horrible little bronze butterfly, and +the 'Sei sospetta,' now made her duty seem dry and miserably fleshless, +imaging itself to her as if a skeleton had been told to arise and walk: +--say, the thing obeys, and fills a ghastly distension of men's eyelids +for a space, and again lies down, and men get their breath: but who is +the rosier for it? where is the glory of it? what is the good? This +Milan, and Verona, Padua, Vicenza, Brescia, Venice, Florence, the whole +Venetian, Tuscan, and Lombardic lands, down to far Sicily, and that Rome +which always lay under the crown of a dead sunset in her idea--they too +might rise; but she thought of them as skeletons likewise. Even the +shadowy vision of Italy Free had no bloom on it, and stood fronting the +blown trumpets of resurrection Lazarus-like. + +At these moments young hearts, though full of sap and fire, cannot do +common nursing labour for the little suckling sentiments and hopes, the +dreams, the languors and the energies hanging about them for nourishment. +Vittoria's horizon was within five feet of her. She saw neither splendid +earth nor ancient heaven; nothing save a breach to be stepped over in +defiance of foes and (what was harder to brave) of friends. Some wayward +activity of old associations set her humming a quaint English tune, by +which she was brought to her consciousness. + +'Dear friend,' she said, becoming aware that there might be a more +troubled depth in Ammiani's absence of speech than in her own. + +'Yes?' said he, quickly, as for a sentence to follow. None came, and he +continued, 'The Signora Laura is also your friend.' + +She rejoined coldly, 'I am not thinking of her.' + +Vittoria had tried to utter what might be a word of comfort for him, and +she found she had not a thought or an emotion. Here she differed from +Laura, who, if the mood to heal a favourite's little sore at any season +came upon her, would shower out lively tendernesses and all cajoleries +possible to the tongue of woman. Yet the irritation of action narrowed +Laura more than it did Vittoria; fevered her and distracted her +sympathies. Being herself a plaything at the time, she could easily play +a part for others. Vittoria had not grown, probably never would grow, to +be so plastic off the stage. She was stringing her hand to strike a blow +as men strike, and women when they do that cannot be quite feminine. + +'How dull the streets are,' she remarked. + +'They are, just now,' said Ammiani, thinking of them on the night to come +convulsed with strife, and of her, tossed perhaps like a weed along the +torrent of bloody deluge waters. Her step was so firm, her face so +assured, that he could not fancy she realized any prospect of the sort, +and it filled him with pity and a wretched quailing. + +If I speak now I shall be talking like a coward, he said to himself: and +he was happily too prudent to talk to her in that strain. So he said +nothing of peace and safety. She was almost at liberty to believe that +he approved the wisdom of her resolution. At the maestro's door she +thanked him for his escort, and begged for it further within an hour. +'And do bring me some chocolate.' She struck her teeth together champing +in a pretty hunger for it. 'I have no chocolate in my pocket, and I +hardly know myself.' + +'What will your Signor Antonio say?' + +Vittoria filliped her fingers. 'His rule is over, and he is my slave: +I am not his. I will not eat much; but some some I must have.' + +Ammiani laughed and promised to obtain it. 'That is, if there's any to +be had.' + +'Break open doors to get it for me,' she said, stamping with fun to +inspirit him. + +No sooner was she standing alone, than her elbow was gently plucked at +on the other side: a voice was sibilating: 'S-s-signorina.' She allowed +herself to be drawn out of the light of the open doorway, having no +suspicion and no fear. 'Signorina, here is chocolate.' She beheld two +hands in cup-shape, surcharged with packets of Turin chocolate. + +'Lugi, it is you?' + +The Motterone spy screwed his eyelids to an expression of the shrewdest +secresy. + +'Hist! signorina. Take some. You shall have all, but wait:--by-and-by. +Aha! you look at my eyes as you did on the Monterone, because one of +them takes the shoulder-view; but, the truth is, my father was a +contrabandist, and had his eye in his ear when the frontier guard sent a +bullet through his back, cotton-bags and cutleries, and all! I inherit +from him, and have been wry-eyed ever since. How does that touch a man's +honesty, signorina? Not at all. Don't even suspect that you won't +appreciate Luigi by-and-by. So, you won't ask me a word, signorina, but +up you go to the maestro:--signorina, I swear I am your faithful servant +--up to the maestro, and down first. Come down first not last:--first. +Let the other one come down after you; and you come down first. Leave +her behind, la Lazzeruola; and here, 'Luigi displayed a black veil, the +common head-dress of the Milanese women, and twisted his fingers round +and round on his forehead to personate the horns of the veil; 'take it, +signorina; you know how to wear it. Luigi and the saints watch over you.' +Vittoria found herself left in possession of the veil and a packet of +chocolate. + +'If I am watched over by the saints and Luigi,' she thought, and bit at +the chocolate. + +When the door had closed upon her, Luigi resumed his station near it, +warily casting his glances along the house-fronts, and moving his springy +little legs like a heath-cock alert. They carried him sharp to an +opposite corner of the street at a noise of some one running exposed to +all eyes right down the middle of the road, straight to the house: in +which foolish person he discerned Beppo, all of whose proceedings Luigi +observed and commented on from the safe obscurity under eaves and +starlight, while Beppo was in the light of the lamps. 'You thunder at +the door, my Beppo. You are a fire-balloon: you are going to burn +yourself up with what you carry. You think you can do something, because +you read books and frequent the talking theatres--fourteen syllables to a +word. Mother of heaven! will you never learn anything from natural +intelligence? There you are, in at the door. And now you will disturb +the signorina, and you will do nothing but make la Lazzeruola's ears +lively. Bounce! you are up the stairs. Bounce! you are on the landing. +Thrum! you drum at the door, and they are singing; they don't hear you. +And now you're meek as a mouse. That's it--if you don't hit the mark +when you go like a bullet, you 're stupid as lead. And they call you a +clever fellow! Luigi's day is to come. When all have paid him all +round, they will acknowledge Luigi's worth. You are honest enough, my +Beppo; but you might as well be a countryman. You are the signorina's +servant, but I know the turnings, said the rat to the cavaliere weazel.' + +In a few minutes Beppo stepped from the house, and flung himself with his +back against the lintel of the doorway. + +'That looks like determination to stop on guard,' said Luigi. + +He knew the exact feeling expressed by it, when one has come violently on +an errand and has done no good. + +'A flea, my feathery lad, will set you flying again.' + +As it was imperative in Luigi's schemes that Beppo should be set flying +again, he slipped away stealthily, and sped fast into the neighbouring +Corso, where a light English closed carriage, drawn by a pair of the +island horses, moved at a slow pace. Two men were on the driver's seat, +one of whom Luigi hailed to come down then he laid a strip of paper on +his knee, and after thumping on the side of his nose to get a notion of +English-Italian, he wrote with a pencil, dancing upon one leg all the +while for a balance:-- + + 'Come, Beppo, daughter sake, now, at once, immediate, + Beppo, signor.' + +'That's to the very extremity how the little signora Inglese would +write,' said Luigi; yet cogitating profoundly in a dubitative twinkle of +a second as to whether it might not be the English habit to wind up a +hasty missive with an expediting oath. He had heard the oath of emphasis +in that island: but he decided to let it go as it stood. The man he had +summoned was directed to take it straightway and deliver it to one who +would be found at the house-door of the Maestro Rocco Ricci. + +'Thus, like a drunken sentinel,' said Luigi, folding his arms, crossing +his legs, and leaning back. 'Forward, Matteo, my cherub.' + +'All goes right?' the coachman addressed Luigi. + +'As honey, as butter, as a mulberry leaf with a score of worms on it! +The wine and the bread and the cream-cheeses are inside, my dainty one, +are they? She must not starve, nor must I. Are our hampers fastened out +side? Good. We shall be among the Germans in a day and a night. I 've +got the route, and I pronounce the name of the chateau very perfectly-- +"Schloss Sonnenberg." Do that if you can.' + +The unpractised Italian coachman declined to attempt it. He and Luigi +compared time by their watches. In three-quarters of an hour he was to +be within hail of the maestro's house. Thither Luigi quietly returned. + +Beppo's place there was vacant. + +'That's better than a draught of Asti,' said Luigi. + +The lighted windows of the maestro's house, and the piano striking +corrective notes, assured him that the special rehearsal was still going +on; and as he might now calculate on two or three minutes to spare, he +threw back his coat-collar, lifted his head, and distended his chest, +apparently to chime in with the singing, but simply to listen to it. For +him, it was imperative that he should act the thing, in order to +apprehend and appreciate it. + +A hurried footing told of the approach of one whom he expected. + +'Luigi!' + +'Here, padrone.' + +'You have the chocolate?' + +'Signor Antonio, I have deposited it in the carriage.' + +'She is in up there?' + +'I beheld her entering.' + +'Good; that is fixed fact.' The Signor Antonio drove at his moustache +right and left. 'I give you, see, Italian money and German money: German +money in paper; and a paper written out by me to explain the value of the +German paper-money. Silence, engine that you are, and not a man! I am +preventive of stupidity, I am? Do I not know that, hein? Am I in need +of the acclamation of you, my friend? On to the Chateau Sonnenberg:-- +drive on, drive on, and one who stops you, you drive over him: the +gendarmes in white will peruse this paper, if there is any question, and +will pass you and the cage, bowing; you hear? It is a pass; the military +pass you when you show this paper. My good friend, Captain Weisspriess, +on the staff of General Pierson, gives it, signed, and it is effectual. +But you lose not the paper: put it away with the paper-money, quite safe. +For yourself, this is half your pay--I give you napoleons; ten. Count. +And now--once at the Chateau Sonnenberg, I repeat, you leave her in +charge of two persons, one a woman, at the gate, and then back--frrrrr..' + +Antonio-Pericles smacked on the flat of his hand, and sounded a rapid +course of wheels. + +'Back, and drop not a crumb upon the road. You have your map. It is, +after Roveredo, straight up the Adige, by Bolzano . . . say "Botzen."' + +'"Botz,"' said Luigi, submissively. + +'"Botz"--"Botz"--ass! fool! double idiot! "Botzon!"' Antonio-Pericles +corrected him furiously, exclaiming to the sovereign skies, 'Though I pay +for brains, can I get them! No. But make a fiasco, Luigi, and not a +second ten for you, my friend: and away, out of my sight, show yourself +no more!' + +Luigi humbly said that he was not the instrument of a fiasco. + +Half spurning him, Antonio-Pericles snarled an end both to his advices +and his prophetic disgust of the miserable tools furnished unto masterly +minds upon this earth. He paced forward and back, murmuring in French, +'Mon Dieu! was there ever such a folly as in the head of this girl? It +is her occasion:--Shall I be a Star? Shall I be a Cinder? It is +tomorrow night her moment of Birth! No; she prefers to be extinguished. +For what? For this thing she calls her country. It is infamous. Yes, +vile little cheat! But, do you know Antonio-Pericles? Not yet. I will +nourish you, I will imprison you: I will have you tortured by love, by +the very devil of love, by the red-hot pincers of love, till you scream. +a music, and die to melt him with your voice, and kick your country to +the gutter, and know your Italy for a birthplace and a cradle of Song, +and no more, and enough! Bah!' + +Having thus delivered himself of the effervescence of his internal +agitation, he turned sharply round upon Luigi, with a military stamp of +the foot and shout of the man's name. + +'It is love she wants,' Antonio-Pericles resumed his savage soliloquy. +'She wants to be kindled on fire. Too much Government of brain; not +sufficient Insurrection of heart! There it is. There it lies. But, +little fool! you shall find people with arms and shots and cannon +running all up and down your body, firing and crying out "Victory for +Love!" till you are beaten, till you gasp "Love! love! love!" and then +comes a beatific--oh! a heaven and a hell to your voice. I will pay,' +the excited connoisseur pursued more deliberately: 'I will pay half my +fortune to bring this about. I am fortified, for I know such a voice was +sent to be sublime.' He exclaimed in an ecstasy: 'It opens the skies!' +and immediately appended: 'It is destined to suffocate the theatres!' + +Pausing as before a splendid vision: 'Money--let it go like dust! I have +an object. Sandra Belloni--you stupid Vittoria Campa!--I have millions +and the whole Austrian Government to back me, and you to be wilful, +little rebel! I could laugh. It is only Love you want. Your voice is +now in a marble chamber. I will put it in a palace of cedarwood. This +Ammiani I let visit you in the hope that he would touch you. + +Bah! he is a patriot--not a man! He cannot make you wince and pine, and +be cold and be hot, and--Bah! I give a chance to some one else who is +not a patriot. He has done mischief with the inflammable little Anna von +Lenkenstein--I know it. Your proper lovers, you women, are the broad, +the business lovers, and Weisspriess is your man.' + +Antonio-Pericles glanced up at the maestro's windows. 'Hark! it is her +voice,' he said, and drew up his clenched fists with rage, as if pumping. +'Cold as ice! Not a flaw. She is a lantern with no light in it-- +crystal, if you like. Hark now at Irma, the stork-neck. Aie! what a +long way it is from your throat to your head, Mademoiselle Irma! You +were reared upon lemons. The split hair of your mural crown is not +thinner than that voice of yours. It is a mockery to hear you; but you +are good enough for the people, my dear, and you do work, running up and +down that ladder of wires between your throat and your head;--you work, +it is true, you puss! sleek as a puss, bony as a puss, musical as a puss. +But you are good enough for the people. Hola!' + +This exclamation was addressed to a cavalier who was dismounting from his +horse about fifty yards down the street, and who, giving the reins to a +mounted servant, advanced to meet the Signor Antonio. + +'It is you, Herr Captain von Weisspriess!' + +'When he makes an appointment you see him, as a rule, my dear Pericles,' +returned the captain. + +'You are out of uniform--good. We will go up. Remember, you are a +connoisseur, from Bonn--from Berlin--from Leipsic: not of the K.K. army! +Abjure it, or you make no way with this mad thing. You shall see her and +hear her, and judge if she is worth your visit to Schloss Sonnenberg and +a short siege. Good: we go aloft. You bow to the maestro respectfully +twice, as in duty; then a third time, as from a whisper of your soul. +Vanitas, vanitatis! You speak of the 'UT de poitrine.' You remark: +"Albrechtsberger has said---," and you slap your head and stop. They +think, "He is polite, and will not quote a German authority to us": and +they think, "He will not continue his quotation; in truth, he scornfully +considers it superfluous to talk of counterpoint to us poor Italians." +Your Christian name is Johann?--you are Herr Johannes. Look at her well. +I shall not expose you longer than ten minutes to their observation. +Frown meditative; the elbow propped and two fingers in the left cheek; +and walk into the room with a stoop: touch a note of the piano, leaning +your ear to it as in detection of five-fifteenths of a shade of discord. +Frown in trouble as of a tooth. So, when you smile, it is immense praise +to them, and easy for you.' + +The names of the Signor Antonio-Pericles and Herr Johannes were taken up +to the maestro. + +Tormented with curiosity, Luigi saw them enter the house. The face and +the martial or sanguinary reputation of Captain Weisspriess were not +unknown to him. 'What has he to do with this affair?' thought Luigi, and +sauntered down to the captain's servant, who accepted a cigar from him, +but was rendered incorruptible by ignorance of his language. He observed +that the horses were fresh, and were furnished with saddle-bags as for an +expedition. What expedition? To serve as escort to the carriage?--a +nonsensical idea. But the discovery that an idea is nonsensical is not a +satisfactory solution of a difficulty. Luigi squatted on his haunches +beside the doorstep, a little under one of the lower windows of Rocco +Ricci's house. Earlier than he expected, the captain and Signor Antonio +came out; and as soon as the door had closed behind them, the captain +exclaimed, 'I give you my hand on it, my brave Pericles. You have done +me many services, but this is finest of all. She's superb. She's a nice +little wild woman to tame. I shall go to the Sonnenberg immediately. I +have only to tell General Pierson that his nephew is to be prevented from +playing the fool, and I get leave at once, if there's no active work.' + +'His nephew, Lieutenant Pierson, or Pole--hein?' interposed the Greek. + +'That 's the man. He 's on the Marshal's staff. He 's engaged to the +Countess Lena von Lenkenstein. She has fire enough, my Pericles.' + +'The Countess Anna, you say?' The Greek stretched forward his ear, and +was never so near getting it vigorously cuffed. + +'Deafness is an unpardonable offence, my dear Pericles.' + +Antonio-Pericles sniffed, and assented, 'It is the stupidity of the ear.' + +'I said, the Countess Lena.' + +'Von Lenkenstein; but I choose to be further deaf.' + +'To the devil, sir. Do you pretend to be angry?' cried Weisspriess. + +'The devil, sir, with your recommendation, is too black for me to visit +him,' Antonio-Pericles rejoined. + +'By heaven, Pericles, for less than what you allow yourself to say, I've +sent men to him howling!' + +They faced one another, pulling at their moustachios. Weisspriess +laughed. + +'You're not a fighting man, Pericles.' + +The Greek nodded affably. 'One is in my way, I have him put out of my +way. It is easiest.' + +'Ah! easiest, is it?' Captain Weisspriess 'frowned meditative' over this +remarkable statement of a system. 'Well, it certainly saves trouble. +Besides, my good Pericles, none but an ass would quarrel with you. I was +observing that General Pierson wants his nephew to marry the Countess +Lena immediately; and if, as you tell me, this girl Belloni, who is +called la Vittoria--the precious little woman!--has such power over him, +it's quite as well, from the General's point of view, that she should be +out of the way at Sonnenberg. I have my footing at the Duchess of +Graath's. I believe she hopes that I shall some day challenge and kill +her husband; and as I am supposed to have saved Major de Pyrmont's life, +I am also an object of present gratitude. Do you imagine that your +little brown-eyed Belloni scented one of her enemies in me?' + +'I know nothing of imagination,' the Signor Antonio observed frigidly. + +'Till we meet!' Captain Weisspriess kissed his fingers, half as up toward +the windows, and half to the Greek. 'Save me from having to teach love +to your Irma!' + +He ran to join his servant. + +Luigi had heard much of the conversation, as well as the last sentence. + +'It shall be to la Irma if it is to anybody,' Luigi muttered. + +'Let Weisspriess--he will not awake love in her--let him kindle hate, it +will do,' said the Signor Antonio. 'She has seen him, and if he meets +her on the route to Meran, she will think it her fascination.' + +Looking at his watch and at the lighted windows, he repeated his special +injunctions to Luigi. 'It is near the time. I go to sleep. I am +getting old: I grow nervous. Ten-twenty in addition, you shall have, if +all is done right. Your weekly pay runs on. Twenty--you shall have +thirty! Thirty napoleons additional!' + +Ten fingers were flashed thrice. + +Luigi gave a jump. 'Padrone, they are mine.' + +'Animal, that shake your belly-bag and brain-box, stand!' cried the +Greek, who desired to see Luigi standing firm that he might inspire +himself with confidence in his integrity. When Luigi's posture had +satisfied him, he turned and went off at great strides. + +'He does pay,' Luigi reflected, seeing that immense virtue in his patron. +'Yes, he pays; but what is he about? It is this question for me--"Do I +serve my hand? or, Do I serve my heart?" My hand takes the money, and it +is not German money. My heart gives the affection, and the signorina has +my heart. She reached me that cigarette on the Motterone like the +Madonna: it is never to be forgotten! I serve my heart! Now, Beppo, you +may come; come quick for her. I see the carriage, and there are three +stout fellows in it who could trip and muzzle you at a signal from me +before you could count the letters of your father's baptismal name. Oh! +but if the signorina disobeys me and comes out last!--the Signor Antonio +will ask the maestro, who will say, "Yes, la Vittoria was here with me +last of the two"; and I lose my ten, my twenty, my thirty napoleons.' + +Luigi's chest expanded largely with a melancholy draught of air. + +The carriage meantime had become visible at the head of the street, +where it remained within hearing of a whistle. One of the Milanese hired +vehicles drove up to the maestro's door shortly after, and Luigi cursed +it. His worst fears for the future of the thirty napoleons were +confirmed; the door opened and the Maestro Rocco Ricci, bareheaded and in +his black silk dressing-gown, led out Irma di Karski, by some called +rival to la Vittoria; a tall Slavic damsel, whose laughter was not soft +and smooth, whose cheeks were bright, and whose eyes were deep in the +head and dull. But she had vivacity both of lips and shoulders. The +shoulders were bony; the lips were sharp and red, like winter-berries in +the morning-time. Freshness was not absent from her aspect. The critical +objection was that it seemed a plastered freshness and not true bloom; or +rather it was a savage and a hard, not a sweet freshness. Hence perhaps +the name which distinguished her la Lazzeruola (crab apple). It was a +freshness that did not invite the bite; sour to Italian taste. + +She was apparently in vast delight. 'There will be a perfect inundation +to-morrow night from Prague and Vienna to see me even in so miserable a +part as Michiella,' she said. 'Here I am supposed to be a beginner; I am +no debutante there.' + +'I can believe it, I can believe it,' responded Rocco, bowing for her +speedy departure. + +'You are not satisfied with my singing of Michiella's score! Now, tell +me, kind, good, harsh old master! you think that Miss Vittoria would +sing it better. So do I. And I can sing another part better. You do +not know my capacities.' + +'I am sure there is nothing you would not attempt,' said Rocco, bowing +resignedly. + +'There never was question of my courage.' + +'Yes, but courage, courage! away with your courage!' Rocco was spurred +by his personal grievances against her in a manner to make him forget his +desire to be rid of her. 'Your courage sets you flying at once at every +fioritura and bravura passage, to subdue, not to learn: not to +accomplish, but to conquer it. And the ability, let me say, is not +in proportion to the courage, which is probably too great to be easily +equalled; but you have the opportunity to make your part celebrated +to-morrow night, if, as you tell me, the house is to be packed with +Viennese, and, signorina, you let your hair down.' + +The hair of Irma di Karski was of singular beauty, and so dear to her +that the allusion to the triumphant feature of her person passed off +Rocco's irony in sugar. + +'Addio! I shall astonish you before many hours have gone by,' she said; +and this time they bowed together, and the maestro tripped back +hurriedly, and shut his door. + +Luigi's astonishment eclipsed his chagrin when he beheld the lady step +from her place, bidding the driver move away as if he carried a freight, +and indicating a position for him at the end of the street, with an +imperative sway and deflection of her hand. Luigi heard the clear thin +sound of a key dropped to her from one of the upper windows. She was +quick to seize it; the door opened stealthily to her, and she passed out +of sight without casting a look behind. 'That's a woman going to +discover a secret, if she can,' remarked the observer; meaning that he +considered the sex bad Generals, save when they have occasion to preserve +themselves secret; then they look behind them carefully enough. The +situation was one of stringent torment to a professional and natural spy. +Luigi lost count of minutes in his irritation at the mystery, which he +took as a personal offence. Some suspicion or wariness existed in the +lighted room, for the maestro threw up a window, and inspected the street +to right and left. Apparently satisfied he withdrew his head, and the +window was closed. + +In a little while Vittoria's voice rose audible out of the stillness, +though she restrained its volume. + +Its effect upon Luigi was to make him protest to her, whimpering with +pathos as if she heard and must be melted: 'Signorina! signorina, most +dear! for charity's sake! I am one of you; I am a patriot. Every man to +his trade, but my heart is all with you.' And so on, louder by fits, in +a running murmur, like one having his conscience ransacked, from which he +was diverted by a side-thought of Irma di Karski, la Lazzeruola, +listening, taking poison in at her ears; for Luigi had no hesitation in +ascribing her behaviour to jealousy. 'Does not that note drive through +your bosom, excellent lady? I can fancy the tremble going all down your +legs. You are poisoned with honey. How you hate it! If you only had a +dagger!' + +Vittoria sang but for a short space. Simultaneously with the cessation +of her song Ammiani reached the door, but had scarcely taken his stand +there when, catching sight of Luigi, he crossed the street, and +recognizing him, questioned him sternly as to his business opposite the +maestro's house. Luigi pointed to a female figure emerging. 'See! take +her home,' he said. Ammiani released him and crossed back hurriedly, +when, smiting his forehead, Luigi cried in despair, 'Thirty napoleons and +my professional reputation lost!' He blew a whistle; the carriage dashed +down from the head of the street. While Ammiani was following the +swiftly-stepping figure in wonderment (knowing it could not be Vittoria, +yet supposing it must be, without any clear aim of his wits), the +carriage drew up a little in advance of her; three men--men of bulk and +sinew jumped from it; one threw himself upon Ammiani, the others grasped +the affrighted lady, tightening a veil over her face, and the carriage- +door shut sharp upon her. Ammiani's assailant then fell away: Luigi +flung himself on the box and shouted, 'The signorina is behind you!' +And Ammiani beheld Vittoria standing in alarm, too joyful to know that +it was she. In the spasm of joy he kissed her hands. Before they could +intercommunicate intelligibly the carriage was out of their sight, going +at a gallop along the eastern strada of the circumvallation of the city. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +AMMIANI THROUGH THE MIDNIGHT + +Ammiani hurried Vittoria out of the street to make safety sure. 'Home,' +she said, ashamed of her excitement, and not daring to speak more words, +lest the heart in her throat should betray itself. He saw what the +fright had done for her. Perhaps also he guessed that she was trying to +conceal her fancied cowardice from him. 'I have kissed her hands,' he +thought, and the memory of it was a song of tenderness in his blood by +the way. + +Vittoria's dwelling-place was near the Duomo, in a narrow thoroughfare +leading from the Duomo to the Piazza of La Scala, where a confectioner of +local fame conferred upon the happier members of the population most +piquant bocconi and tartlets, and offered by placard to give an emotion +to the nobility, the literati, and the epicures of Milan, and to all +foreigners, if the aforesaid would adventure upon a trial of his art. +Meanwhile he let lodgings. It was in the house of this famous +confectioner Zotti that Vittoria and her mother had lived after leaving +England for Italy. As Vittoria came under the fretted shadow of the +cathedral, she perceived her mother standing with Zotti at the house- +door, though the night was far advanced. She laughed, and walked less +hurriedly. Ammiani now asked her if she had been alarmed. 'Not +alarmed,' she said, 'but a little more nervous than I thought I should +be.' + +He was spared from putting any further question by her telling him that +Luigi, the Motterone spy, had in all probability done her a service in +turning one or other f the machinations of the Signor Antonio. 'My +madman,' she called this latter. 'He has got his Irma instead of me. +We shall have to supply her place tomorrow; she is travelling rapidly, +and on my behalf! I think, Signor Carlo, you would do well by going to +the maestro when you leave me, and telling him that Irma has been caught +into the skies. Say, "Jealous that earth should possess such +overpowering loveliness," or "Attracted in spite of themselves by that +combination of genius and beauty which is found united nowhere but in +Irma, the spirits of heaven determined to rob earth of her Lazzeruola." +Only tell it to him seriously, for my dear Rocco will have to work with +one of the singers all day, and I ought to be at hand by them to help +her, if I dared stir out. What do you think?' + +Ammiani pronounced his opinion that it would be perilous for her to go +abroad. + +'I shall in truth, I fear, have a difficulty in getting to La Scala +unseen,' she said; 'except that we are cunning people in our house. We +not only practise singing and invent wonderful confectionery, but we do +conjuring tricks. We profess to be able to deceive anybody whom we +please.' + +'Do the dupes enlist in a regiment?' said Ammiani, with an intonation +that professed his readiness to serve as a recruit. His humour striking +with hers, they smiled together in the bright fashion of young people who +can lose themselves in a ray of fancy at any season. + +Vittoria heard her mother's wailful voice. 'Twenty gnats in one,' she +said. + +Ammiani whispered quickly to know whether she had decided for the morrow. +She nodded, and ran up to her mother, who cried: + +'At this hour! And Beppo has been here after you, and he told me I wrote +for him, in Italian, when not a word can I put to paper: I wouldn't!--and +you are threatened by dreadful dangers, he declares. His behaviour was +mad; they are all mad over in this country, I believe. I have put the +last stitch to your dress. There is a letter or two upstairs for you. +Always letters!' + +'My dear good Zotti,' Vittoria turned to the artist in condiments, 'you +must insist upon my mother going to bed at her proper time when I am +out.' + +'Signorina,' rejoined Zotti, a fat little round-headed man, with +vivacious starting brown eyes, 'I have only to tell her to do a thing-- +I pull a dog by the collar; be it said with reverence.' + +'However, I am very glad to see you both such good friends.' + +'Yes, signorina, we are good friends till we quarrel again. I regret to +observe to you that the respectable lady is incurably suspicious. Of me +--Zotti! Mother of heaven!' + +'It is you that are suspicious of me, sir,' retorted madame. 'Of me, of +all persons! It's "tell me this, tell me that," all day with you; and +because I can't answer, you are angry.' + +'Behold! the signora speaks English; we have quarrelled again,' said +Zotti. + +'My mother thinks him a perfect web of plots,' Vittoria explained the +case between them, laughing, to Ammiani; 'and Zotti is persuaded that she +is an inveterate schemer. They are both entirely innocent, only they are +both excessively timid. Out of that it grows.' + +The pair dramatized her outline on the instant: + +'"Did I not see him speak to an English lady, and he will not tell me a +word about it, though she's my own countrywoman?"' + +'"Is it not true that she received two letters this afternoon, and still +does she pretend to be ignorant of what is going on?"' + +'Happily,' said Vittoria, 'my mother is not a widow, or these quarrels +might some day end in a fearful reconciliation.' + +'My child,' her mother whimpered, 'you know what these autumn nights are +in this country; as sure as you live, Emilia, you will catch cold, and +then you're like a shop with shutters up for the dead.' + +At the same time Zotti whispered: 'Signorina, I have kept the minestra +hot for your supper; come in, come in. And, little things, little dainty +bits!--do you live in Zotti's house for nothing? Sweetest delicacies +that make the tongue run a stream!--just notions of a taste--the palate +smacks and forgets; the soul seizes and remembers!' + +'Oh, such seductions!' Vittoria exclaimed. + +'It is,' Zotti pursued his idea, with fingers picturesquely twirling in a +spider-like distension; 'it is like the damned, and they have but a crumb +of a chance of Paradise, and down swoops St. Peter and has them in the +gates fast! You are worthy of all that a man can do for you, signorina. +Let him study, let him work, let him invent,--you are worthy of all.' + +'I hope I am not too hungry to discriminate! Zotti I see Monte Rosa.' + +'Signorina, you are pleased to say so when you are famishing. It is +because--' the enthusiastic confectioner looked deep and oblique, as one +who combined a remarkable subtlety of insight with profound reflection; +'it is because the lighter you get the higher you mount; up like an eagle +of the peaks! But we'll give that hungry fellow a fall. A dish of hot +minestra shoots him dead. Then, a tart of pistachios and chocolate and +cream--and my head to him who shall reveal to me the flavouring!' + +'When I wake in the morning, I shall have lived a month or two in Arabia, +Zotti. Tell me no more; I will come in,' said Vittoria. + +'Then, signorina, a little crisp filbert--biscuit--a composition! You +crack it, and a surprise! And then, and then my dish; Zotti's dish, that +is not yet christened. Signorina, let Italy rise first; the great +inventor of the dish winked and nodded temperately. 'Let her rise. A +battle or a treaty will do. I have two or three original conceptions, +compositions, that only wait for some brilliant feat of arms, or a +diplomatic triumph, and I send them forth baptized.' + +Vittoria threw large eyes upon Ammiani, and set the underlids humorously +quivering. She kissed her fingers: 'Addio; a rivederla.' He bowed +formally: he was startled to find the golden thread of their +companionship cut with such cruel abruptness. But it was cut; the door +had closed on her. The moment it had closed she passed into his +imagination. By what charm had she allayed the fever of his anxiety? +Her naturalness had perforce given him assurance that peace must surround +one in whom it shone so steadily, and smiling at the thought of Zotti's +repast and her twinkle of subdued humour, he walked away comforted; +which, for a lover in the season of peril means exalted, as in a sudden +conflagration of the dry stock of his intelligence. 'She must have some +great faith in her heart,' he thought, no longer attributing his +exclusion from it to a lover's rivalry, which will show that more than +imagination was on fire within him. For when the soul of a youth can be +heated above common heat, the vices of passion shrivel up and aid the +purer flame. It was well for Ammiani that he did perceive (dimly though +it was perceived) the force of idealistic inspiration by which Vittoria +was supported. He saw it at this one moment, and it struck a light to +light him in many subsequent perplexities; it was something he had never +seen before. He had read Tuscan poetry to her in old Agostino's rooms; +he had spoken of secret preparations for the revolt; he had declaimed +upon Italy,--the poetry was good though the declamation may have been +bad,--but she had always been singularly irresponsive, with a practical +turn for ciphers. A quick reckoning, a sharp display of figures in +Italy's cause, kindled her cheeks and took her breath. Ammiani now +understood that there lay an unspoken depth in her, distinct from her +visible nature. + +He had first an interview with Rocco Ricci, whom he prepared to replace +Irma. + +His way was then to the office of his Journal, where he expected to be +greeted by two members of the Polizia, who would desire him to march +before the central bureau, and exhibit proofs of articles and the items +of news for inspection, for correction haply, and possibly for approval. +There is a partial delight in the contemplated submission to an act of +servitude for the last time. Ammiani stepped in with combative gaiety, +but his stiff glance encountered no enemy. This astonished him. He +turned back into the street and meditated. The Pope's Mouth might, he +thought, hold the key to the riddle. It is not always most comfortable +for a conspirator to find himself unsuspected: he reads the blank +significantly. It looked ill that the authorities should allow anything +whatsoever to be printed on such a morrow: especially ill, if they were +on the alert. The neighbourhood by the Pope's Mouth was desolate under +dark starlight. Ammiani got his fingers into the opening behind the +rubbish of brick, and tore them on six teeth of a saw that had been fixed +therein. Those teeth were as voluble to him as loud tongues. The Mouth +was empty of any shred of paper. They meant that the enemy was ready to +bite, and that the conspiracy had ceased to be active. He perceived that +a stripped ivy-twig, with the leaves scattered around it, stretched at +his feet. That was another and corroborative sign, clearer to him than +printed capitals. The reading of it declared that the Revolt had +collapsed. He wound and unwound his handkerchief about his fingers +mechanically: great curses were in his throat. 'I would start for South +America at dawn, but for her!' he said. The country of Bolivar still had +its attractions for Italian youth. For a certain space Ammiani's soul +was black with passion. He was the son of that fiery Paolo Ammiani who +had cast his glove at Eugene's feet, and bade the viceroy deliver it to +his French master. (The General was preparing to break his sword on his +knee when Eugene rushed up to him and kissed him.) Carlo was of this +blood. Englishmen will hardly forgive him for having tears in his eyes, +but Italians follow the Greek classical prescription for the emotions, +while we take example by the Roman. There is no sneer due from us. He +sobbed. It seemed that a country was lost. + +Ammiani had moved away slowly: he was accidentally the witness of a +curious scene. There came into the irregular triangle, and walking up +to where the fruitstalls stood by day, a woman and a man. The man was +an Austrian soldier. It was an Italian woman by his side. The sight of +the couple was just then like an incestuous horror to Ammiani. She led +the soldier straight up to the Mouth, directing his hand to it, and, what +was far more wonderful, directing it so that he drew forth a packet of +papers from where Ammiani had found none. Ammiani could see the light of +them in his hand. The Austrian snatched an embrace and ran. Ammiani was +moving over to her to seize and denounce the traitress, when he beheld +another figure like an apparition by her side; but this one was not a +whitecoat. Had it risen from the earth? It was earthy, for a cloud of +dust was about it, and the woman gave a stifled scream. 'Barto! Barto!' +she cried, pressing upon her eyelids. A strong husky laugh came from +him. He tapped her shoulder heartily, and his 'Ha! ha!' rang in the +night air. + +'You never trust me,' she whimpered from shaken nerves. + +He called her, 'Brave little woman! rare girl!' + +'But you never trust me!' + +'Do I not lay traps to praise you?' + +'You make a woman try to deceive you.' If she could! If only she +could!' + +Ammiani was up with them. + +'You are Barto Rizzo,' he spoke, half leaning over the man in his +impetuosity. + +Barto stole a defensive rearward step. The thin light of dawn had in a +moment divided the extreme starry darkness, and Ammiani, who knew his +face, had not to ask a second time. It was scored by a recent sword-cut. +He glanced at the woman: saw that she was handsome. It was enough; he +knew she must be Barto's wife, and, if not more cunning than Barto, his +accomplice, his instrument, his slave. + +'Five minutes ago I would have sworn you were a traitress he said to her. + +She was expressionless, as if she had heard nothing; which fact, +considering that she was very handsome, seemed remarkable to the young +man. Youth will not believe that stupidity and beauty can go together. + +'She is the favourite pupil of Bartolommeo Rizzo, Signor Carlo Ammiani,' +quoth Barto, having quite regained his composure. 'She is my pretty +puppet-patriot. I am not in the habit of exhibiting her; but since you +see her, there she is.' + +Barto had fallen into the Southern habit of assuming ease in quasi- +rhetorical sentences, but with wary eyes over them. The peculiar, +contracting, owl-like twinkle defied Ammiani's efforts to penetrate +his look; so he took counsel of his anger, and spoke bluntly. + +'She does your work?' + +'Much of it, Signor Carlo: as the bullet does the work of the rifle.' + +'Beast! was it your wife who pinned the butterfly to the Signorina +Vittoria's dress?' + +'Signor Carlo Ammiani, you are the son of Paolo, the General: you call me +beast? I have dandled you in my arms, my little lad, while the bands +played "There's yet a heart in Italy!" Do you remember it?' Barto sang +out half-a-dozen bars. 'You call me beast? I'm the one man in Milan who +can sing you that.' + +'Beast or man, devil or whatever you are!' cried Ammiani, feeling +nevertheless oddly unnerved, 'you have committed a shameful offence: you, +or the woman, your wife, who serves you, as I see. You have thwarted the +best of plots; you have dared to act in defiance of your Chief--' + +'Eyes to him!' Barto interposed, touching over his eyeballs. + +'And you have thrown your accursed stupid suspicions on the Signorina +Vittoria. You are a mad fool. If I had the power, I would order you to +be shot at five this morning; and that 's the last rising of the light +you should behold. Why did you do it? Don't turn your hellish eyes in +upon one another, but answer at once! Why did you do it?' + +'The Signorina Vittoria,' returned Barto--his articulation came forth +serpent-like--'she is not a spy, you think. She has been in England: I +have been in England. She writes; I can read. She is a thing of whims. +Shall she hold the goblet of Italy in her hand till it overflows? She +writes love-letters to an English whitecoat. I have read them. Who bids +her write? Her whim! She warns her friends not to enter Milan. She-- +whose puppet is she? Not yours; not mine. She is the puppet of an +English Austrian!' + +Barto drew back, for Ammiani was advancing. + +'What is it you mean?' he cried. + +'I mean,' said Ammiani, still moving on him, 'I mean to drag you first +before Count Medole, and next before the signorina; and you shall abjure +your slander in her presence. After that I shall deal with you. Mark +me! I have you: I am swifter on foot, and I am stronger. Come quietly.' + +Barto smiled in grim contempt. + +'Keep your foot fast on that stone, you're a prisoner,' he replied, and +seeing Ammiani coming, 'Net him, my sling-stone! my serpent!' he +signalled to his wife, who threw herself right round Ammiani in a +tortuous twist hard as wire-rope. Stung with irritation, and a sense of +disgrace and ridicule and pitifulness in one, Ammiani, after a struggle, +ceased the attempt to disentwine her arms, and dragged her clinging to +him. He was much struck by hearing her count deliberately, in her +desperation, numbers from somewhere about twenty to one hundred. One +hundred was evidently the number she had to complete, for when she had +reached it she threw her arms apart. Barto was out of sight. Ammiani +waved her on to follow in his steps: he was sick of her presence, and had +the sensations of a shame-faced boy whom a girl has kissed. She went +without uttering a word. + +The dawn had now traversed the length of the streets, and thrown open the +wide spaces of the city. Ammiani found himself singing, 'There's yet a +heart in Italy!' but it was hardly the song of his own heart. He slept +that night on a chair in the private room of his office, preferring not +to go to his mother's house. 'There 's yet a heart in Italy!' was on his +lips when he awoke with scattered sensations, all of which collected in +revulsion against the song. 'There's a very poor heart in Italy!' he +said, while getting his person into decent order; 'it's like the bell in +the lunatic's tower between Venice and the Lido: it beats now and then +for meals: hangs like a carrion-lump in the vulture's beak meanwhile!' + +These and some other similar sentiments, and a heat about the brows +whenever he set them frowning over what Barto had communicated concerning +an English Austrian, assured Ammiani that he had no proper command of +himself: or was, as the doctors would have told him, bilious. It seemed +to him that he must have dreamed of meeting the dark and subtle Barto +Rizzo overnight; on realizing that fact he could not realize how the man +had escaped him, except that when he thought over it, he breathed deep +and shook his shoulders. The mind will, as you may know, sometimes +refuse to work when the sensations are shameful and astonished. He +despatched a messenger with a 'good morrow' to his mother, and then went +to a fencing-saloon that was fitted up in the house of Count Medole, +where, among two or three, there was the ordinary shrugging talk of the +collapse of the projected outbreak, bitter to hear. Luciano Romara came +in, and Ammiani challenged him to small-sword and broadsword. Both being +ireful to boiling point, and mad to strike at something, they attacked +one another furiously, though they were dear friends, and the helmet- +wires and the padding rattled and smoked to the thumps. For half an hour +they held on to it, when, their blood being up, they flashed upon the men +present, including the count, crying shame to them for letting a woman +alone be faithful to her task that night. The blood forsook Count +Medole's cheeks, leaving its dead hue, as when blotting-paper is laid on +running-ink. He deliberately took a pair of foils, and offering the +handle of one to Ammiani, broke the button off the end of his own, and +stood to face an adversary. Ammiani followed the example: a streak of +crimson was on his shirt-sleeve, and his eyes had got their hard black +look, as of the flint-stone, before Romara in amazement discovered the +couple to be at it in all purity of intention, on the sharp edge of the +abyss. He knocked up their weapons and stood between them, puffing his +cigarette leisurely. + +'I fine you both,' he said. + +He touched Ammiani's sword-arm, nodded with satisfaction to find that +there was no hurt, and cried, 'You have an Austrian out on the ground by +this time tomorrow morning. So, according to the decree!' + +'Captain Weisspriess is in the city,' was remarked. + +'There are a dozen on the list,' said little Pietro Cardi, drawing out a +paper. + +'If you are to be doing nothing else to-morrow morning,' added Leone +Rufo, 'we may as well march out the whole dozen.' + +These two were boys under twenty. + +'Shall it be the first hit for Captain Weisspriess?' Count Medole said +this while handing a fresh and fairly-buttoned foil to Ammiani. + +Romara laughed: 'You will require to fence the round of Milan city, my +dear count, to win a claim to Captain Weisspriess. In the first place, +I yield him to no man who does not show himself a better man than I. +It's the point upon which I don't pay compliments.' + +Count Medole bowed. + +'But, if you want occupation,' added Luciano, closing his speech with a +merely interrogative tone. + +'I scarcely want that, as those who know me will tell you,' said Medole, +so humbly, that those who knew him felt that he had risen to his high +seat of intellectual contempt. He could indulge himself, having shown +his courage. + +'Certainly not; if you are devising means of subsistence for the widows +and orphans of the men who will straggle out to be slaughtered to-night,' +said Luciano; 'you have occupation in that case.' + +'I will do my best to provide for them,'--the count persisted in his air +of humility, 'though it is a question with some whether idiots should +live.' He paused effectively, and sucked in a soft smile of self- +approbation at the stroke. Then he pursued: 'We meet the day after +to-morrow. The Pope's Mouth is closed. We meet here at nine in the +morning. The next day at eleven at Farugino's, the barber's, in Monza. +The day following at Camerlata, at eleven likewise. Those who attend +will be made aware of the dispositions for the week, and the day we shall +name for the rising. It is known to you all, that without affixing a +stigma on our new prima-donna, we exclude her from any share in this +business. All the Heads have been warned that we yield this night to the +Austrians. Gentlemen, I cannot be more explicit. I wish that I could +please you better.' + +'Oh, by all means,' said Pietro Cardi: 'but patience is the pestilence; I +shall roam in quest of adventure. Another quiet week is a tremendous +trial.' + +He crossed foils with Leone Rufo, but finding no stop to the drawn +'swish' of the steel, he examined the end of his weapon with a +lengthening visage, for it was buttonless. Ammiani burst into laughter +at the spontaneous boyishness in the faces of the pair of ambitious lads. +They both offered him one of the rapiers upon equal terms. Count +Medole's example of intemperate vanity was spoiling them. + +'You know my opinion,' Ammiani said to the count. 'I told you last +night, and I tell you again to-day, that Barto Rizzo is guilty of gross +misconduct, and that you must plead the same to a sort of excuseable +treason. Count Medole, you cannot wind and unwind a conspiracy like a +watch. Who is the head of this one? It is the man Barto Rizzo. He took +proceedings before he got you to sanction them. You may be the vessel, +but he commands, or at least, he steers it.' + +The count waited undemonstratively until Ammiani had come to an end. +'You speak, my good Ammiani, with an energy that does you credit,' he +said, 'considering that it is not in your own interest, but another +person's. Remember, I can bear to have such a word as treason ascribed +to my acts.' + +Fresh visitors, more or less mixed, in the conspiracy, and generally +willing to leave the management of it to Count Medole, now entered the +saloon. These were Count Rasati, Angelo Dovili, a Piedmontese General, a +Tuscan duke, and one or two aristocratic notabilities and historic +nobodies. They were hostile to the Chief whom Luciano and Carlo revered +and obeyed. The former lit a cigarette, and saying to his friend, 'Do +you breakfast with your mother? I will come too,' slipped his hand on +Ammiani's arm; they walked out indolently together, with the smallest +shade of an appearance of tolerating scorn for those whom they left +behind. + +'Medole has money and rank and influence, and a kind of I-don't-know-what +womanishness, that makes him push like a needle for the lead, and he will +have the lead and when he has got the lead, there 's the last chapter of +him,' said Luciano. 'His point of ambition is the perch of the weather- +cock. Why did he set upon you, my Carlo? I saw the big V running up +your forehead when you faced him. If you had finished him no great harm +would have been done.' + +'I saw him for a short time last night, and spoke to him in my father's +style,' said Carlo. 'The reason was, that he defended Barto Rizzo for +putting the ring about the Signorina Vittoria's name, and causing the +black butterfly to be pinned to her dress.' + +Luciano's brows stood up. + +'If she sings to-night, depend upon it there will be a disturbance,' he +said. 'There may be a rising in spite of Medole and such poor sparks, +who're afraid to drop on powder, and twirl and dance till the wind blows +them out. And mind, the chance rising is commonly the luckiest. If I +get a command I march to the Alps. We must have the passes of the Tyrol. +It seems to me that whoever holds the Alps must ride the Lombard mare. +You spring booted and spurred into the saddle from the Alps.' + +Carlo was hurt by his friend's indifference to the base injury done to +Vittoria. + +'I have told Medole that she will sing to-night in spite of him,' he was +saying, with the intention of bringing round some reproach upon Luciano +for his want of noble sympathy, when the crash of an Austrian regimental +band was heard coming up the Corso. It stirred him to love his friend +with all his warmth. 'At any rate, for my sake, Luciano, you will +respect and uphold her.' + +'Yes, while she's true,' said Luciano, unsatisfactorily. The regiment, +in review uniform, followed by two pieces of artillery, passed by. Then +came a squadron of hussars and one of Uhlans, and another foot regiment, +more artillery, fresh cavalry. + +'Carlo, if three generations of us pour out our blood to fertilize +Italian ground, it's not too much to pay to chase those drilled curs.' +Luciano spoke in vehement undertone. + +'We 'll breakfast and have a look at them in the Piazza d'Armi, and show +that we Milanese are impressed with a proper idea of their power,' said +Carlo, brightening as he felt the correction of his morbid lover's anger +in Luciano's reaching view of their duties as Italian citizens. The heat +and whirl of the hour struck his head, for to-morrow they might be +wrestling with that living engine which had marched past, and surely all +the hate he could muster should be turned upon the outer enemy. He +gained his mother's residence with clearer feelings. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +COUNTESS AMMIANI + +Countess Ammiani was a Venetian lady of a famous House, the name of which +is as a trumpet sounding from the inner pages of the Republic. Her face +was like a leaf torn from an antique volume; the hereditary features told +the story of her days. The face was sallow and fireless; life had faded +like a painted cloth upon the imperishable moulding. She had neither +fire in her eyes nor colour on her skin. The thin close multitudinous +wrinkles ran up accurately ruled from the chin to the forehead's centre, +and touched faintly once or twice beyond, as you observe the ocean +ripples run in threads confused to smoothness within a space of the grey +horizon sky. But the chin was firm, the mouth and nose were firm, the +forehead sat calmly above these shows of decay. It was a most noble +face; a fortress face; strong and massive, and honourable in ruin, though +stripped of every flower. + +This lady in her girlhood had been the one lamb of the family dedicated +to heaven. Paolo, the General, her lover, had wrenched her from that +fate to share with him a life of turbulent sorrows till she should behold +the blood upon his grave. She, like Laura Fiaveni, had bent her head +above a slaughtered husband, but, unlike Laura, Marcellina Ammiani had +not buried her heart with him. Her heart and all her energies had been +his while he lived; from the visage of death it turned to her son. She +had accepted the passion for Italy from Paolo; she shared it with Carlo. +Italian girls of that period had as little passion of their own as +flowers kept out of sunlight have hues. She had given her son to her +country with that intensely apprehensive foresight of a mother's love +which runs quick as Eastern light from the fervour of the devotion to the +remote realization of the hour of the sacrifice, seeing both in one. +Other forms of love, devotion in other bosoms, may be deluded, but hers +will not be. She sees the sunset in the breast of the springing dawn. +Often her son Carlo stood a ghost in her sight. With this haunting +prophetic vision, it was only a mother, who was at the same time a +supremely noble woman, that could feel all human to him notwithstanding. +Her heart beat thick and fast when Carlo and Luciano entered the morning- +room where she sat, and stopped to salute her in turn. + +'Well?' she said without betraying anxiety or playing at carelessness. + +Carlo answered, 'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. I think +that's the language of peaceful men.' + +'You are to be peaceful men to-morrow, my Carlo?' + +'The thing is in Count Medole's hands,' said Luciano; 'and he is +constitutionally of our Agostino's opinion that we are bound to wait till +the Gods kick us into action; and, as Agostino says, Medole has raised +himself upon our shoulders so as to be the more susceptible to their +wishes when they blow a gale.' + +He informed her of the momentary thwarting of the conspiracy, and won +Carlo's gratitude by not speaking of the suspicion which had fallen on +Vittoria. + +'Medole,' he said, 'has the principal conduct of the business in Milan, +as you know, countess. Our Chief cannot be everywhere at once; so Medole +undertakes to decide for him here in old Milan. He decided yesterday +afternoon to put off our holiday for what he calls a week. Checco, the +idiot, in whom he confides, gave me the paper signifying the fact at four +o'clock. There was no appeal; for we can get no place of general meeting +under Medole's prudent management. He fears our being swallowed in a +body if we all meet.' + +The news sent her heart sinking in short throbs down to a delicious rest; +but Countess Ammiani disdained to be servile to the pleasure, even as she +had strengthened herself to endure the shocks of pain. It was a +conquered heart that she and every Venetian and Lombard mother had to +carry; one that played its tune according to its nature, shaping no +action, sporting no mask. If you know what is meant by that phrase, a +conquered heart, you will at least respect them whom you call weak women +for having gone through the harshest schooling which this world can show +example of. In such mothers Italy revived. The pangs and the martyrdom +were theirs. Fathers could march to the field or to the grey glacis with +their boys; there was no intoxication of hot blood to cheer those who sat +at home watching the rise and fall of trembling scales which said life or +death for their dearest. Their least shadowy hope could be but a +shrouded contentment in prospect; a shrouded submission in feeling. What +bloom of hope was there when Austria stood like an iron wall, and their +own ones dashing against it were as little feeble waves that left a red +mark and no more? But, duty to their country had become their religion; +sacrifice they accepted as their portion; when the last stern evil befell +them they clad themselves in a veil and walked upon an earth they had +passed from for all purposes save service of hands. Italy revived in +these mothers. Their torture was that of the re-animation of her frame +from the death-trance. + +Carlo and Luciano fell hungrily upon dishes of herb-flavoured cutlets, +and Neapolitan maccaroni, green figs, green and red slices of melon, +chocolate, and a dry red Florentine wine. The countess let them eat, and +then gave her son a letter that been delivered at her door an hour back +by the confectioner Zotti. It proved to be an enclosure of a letter +addressed to Vittoria by the Chief. Genoa was its superscription. From +that place it was forwarded by running relays of volunteer messengers. +There were points of Italy which the Chief could reach four-and-twenty +hours in advance of the Government with all its aids and machinery. +Vittoria had simply put her initials at the foot of the letter. Carlo +read it eagerly and cast it aside. It dealt in ideas and abstract +phraseology; he could get nothing of it between his impatient teeth; he +was reduced to a blank wonder at the reason for her sending it on to him. +It said indeed--and so far it seemed to have a meaning for her: + +'No backward step. We can bear to fall; we cannot afford to draw back.' + +And again: + +'Remember that these uprisings are the manifested pulsations of the heart +of your country, so that none shall say she is a corpse, and knowing that +she lives, none shall say that she deserves not freedom. It is the +protest of her immortal being against her impious violator.' + +Evidently the Chief had heard nothing of the counterstroke of Barto +Rizzo, and of Count Medole's miserable weakness: but how, thought Carlo, +how can a mind like Vittoria's find matter to suit her in such sentences? +He asked himself the question, forgetting that a little time gone by, +while he was aloof from the tumult and dreaming of it, this airy cloudy +language and every symbolism, had been strong sustaining food, a vital +atmosphere, to him. He did not for the moment (though by degrees he +recovered his last night's conception of her) understand that among the +noble order of women there is, when they plunge into strife, a craving +for idealistic truths, which men are apt, under the heat and hurry of +their energies, to put aside as stars that are meant merely for shining. + +His mother perused the letter--holding it out at arm's length--and laid +it by; Luciano likewise. Countess Ammiani was an aristocrat: the tone +and style of the writing were distasteful to her. She allowed her son's +judgement of the writer to stand for her own, feeling that she could +surrender little prejudices in favour of one who appeared to hate the +Austrians so mortally. On the other hand, she defended Count Medole. +Her soul shrank at the thought of the revolution being yielded up to +theorists and men calling themselves men of the people--a class of men +to whom Paolo her soldier-husband's aversion had always been formidably +pronounced. It was an old and a wearisome task for Carlo to explain to +her that the times were changed and the necessities of the hour different +since the day when his father conspired and fought for freedom. Yet he +could not gainsay her when she urged that the nobles should be elected to +lead, if they consented to lead; for if they did not lead, were they not +excluded from the movement? + +'I fancy you have defined their patriotism,' said Carlo. + +'Nay, my son; but you are one of them.' + +'Indeed, my dearest mother, that is not what they will tell you.' + +'Because you have chosen to throw yourself into the opposite ranks.' + +'You perceive that you divide our camp, madame my mother. For me there +is no natural opposition of ranks. What are we? We are slaves: all are +slaves. While I am a slave, shall I boast that I am of noble birth? +"Proud of a coronet with gems of paste!" some one writes. Save me from +that sort of pride! I am content to take my patent of nobility for good +conduct in the revolution. Then I will be count, or marquis, or duke; +I am not a Republican pure blood;--but not till then. And in the +meantime--' + +'Carlo is composing for his newspaper,' the countess said to Luciano. + +'Those are the leaders who can lead,' the latter replied. 'Give the men +who are born to it the first chance. Old Agostino is right--the people +owe them their vantage ground. But when they have been tried and they +have failed, decapitate them. Medole looks upon revolution as a +description of conjuring trick. He shuffles cards and arranges them for +a solemn performance, but he refuses to cut them if you look too serious +or I look too eager; for that gives him a suspicion that you know what +is going to turn up; and his object is above all things to produce a +surprise.' + +'You are both of you unjust to Count Medole,' said the countess. 'He +imperils more than all of you.' + +'Magnificent estates, it is true; but of head or of heart not quite so +much as some of us,' said Luciano, stroking his thick black pendent +moustache and chin-tuft. 'Ah, pardon me; yes! he does imperil a finer +cock's comb. + +'When he sinks, and his vanity is cut in two, Medole will bleed so as to +flood his Lombard flats. It will be worse than death to him.' + +Carlo said: 'Do you know what our Agostino says of Count Medole?' + +'Oh, for ever Agostino with you young men!' the countess exclaimed. +'I believe he laughs at you.' + +'To be sure he does: he laughs at all. But, what he says of Count Medole +holds the truth of the thing, and may make you easier concerning the +count's estates. He says that Medole is vaccine matter which the +Austrians apply to this generation of Italians to spare us the terrible +disease. They will or they won't deal gently with Medole, by-and-by; but +for the present he will be handled tenderly. He is useful. I wish I +could say that we thought so too. And now,' Carlo stooped to her and +took her hand, 'shall we see you at La Scala to-night?' + +The countess, with her hands lying in his, replied: 'I have received an +intimation from the authorities that my box is wanted.' + +'So you claim your right to occupy it!' + +'That is my very humble protest for personal liberty.' + +'Good: I shall be there, and shall much enjoy an introduction to the +gentleman who disputes it with you. Besides, mother, if the Signorina +Vittoria sings . . .' + +Countess Ammiani's gaze fixed upon her son with a level steadiness. His +voice threatened to be unequal. All the pleading force of his eyes was +thrown into it, as he said: 'She will sing: and she gives the signal; +that is certain. We may have to rescue her. If I can place her under +your charge, I shall feel that she is safe, and is really protected.' + +The countess looked at Luciano before she answered: + +'Yes, Carlo, whatever I can do. But you know I have not a scrap of +influence.' + +'Let her lie on your bosom, my mother.' + +'Is this to be another Violetta?' + +'Her name is Vittoria,' said Carlo, colouring deeply. A certain Violetta +had been his boy's passion. + +Further distracting Austrian band-music was going by. This time it was +a regiment of Italians in the white and blue uniform. Carlo and Luciano +leaned over the balcony, smoking, and scanned the marching of their +fellow-countrymen in the livery of servitude. + +'They don't step badly,' said one; and the other, with a smile of +melancholy derision, said, 'We are all brothers!' + +Following the Italians came a regiment of Hungarian grenadiers, tall, +swam-faced, and particularly light-limbed men, looking brilliant in the +clean tight military array of Austria. Then a squadron of blue hussars, +and Croat regiment; after which, in the midst of Czech dragoons and +German Uhlans and blue Magyar light horsemen, with General officers and +aides about him, the veteran Austrian Field-Marshal rode, his easy hand +and erect figure and good-humoured smile belying both his age and his +reputation among Italians. Artillery, and some bravely-clad horse of the +Eastern frontier, possibly Serb, wound up the procession. It gleamed +down the length of the Corso in a blinding sunlight; brass helmets and +hussar feathers, white and violet surcoats, green plumes, maroon capes, +bright steel scabbards, bayonet-points,--as gallant a show as some +portentously-magnified summer field, flowing with the wind, might be; and +over all the banner of Austria--the black double-headed eagle ramping on +a yellow ground. This was the flower of iron meaning on such a field. + +The two young men held their peace. Countess Ammiani had pushed her +chair back into a dark corner of the room, and was sitting there when +they looked back, like a sombre figure of black marble. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +IN THE PIAZZA D'ARMI + +Carlo and Luciano followed the regiments to the Piazza d'Armi, drawn +after them by that irresistible attraction to youths who have as yet had +no shroud of grief woven for them--desire to observe the aspect of a +brilliant foe. + +The Piazza d'Armi was the field of Mars of Milan, and an Austrian review +of arms there used to be a tropical pageant. The place was too narrow +for broad manoeuvres, or for much more than to furnish an inspection of +all arms to the General, and a display (with its meaning) to the +populace. An unusually large concourse of spectators lined the square, +like a black border to a vast bed of flowers, nodding now this way, now +that. Carlo and Luciano passed among the groups, presenting the +perfectly smooth faces of young men of fashion, according to the +universal aristocratic pattern handed down to querulous mortals from +Olympus--the secret of which is to show a triumphant inaction of the +heart and the brain, that are rendered positively subservient to elegance +of limb. They knew the chances were in favour of their being arrested at +any instant. None of the higher members of the Milanese aristocracy were +visible; the people looked sullen. Carlo was attracted by the tall +figure of the Signor Antonio-Pericles, whom he beheld in converse with +the commandant of the citadel, out in the square, among chatting and +laughing General officers. At Carlo's elbow there came a burst of +English tongues; he heard Vittoria's English name spoken with animation. +'Admire those faces,' he said to Luciano, but the latter was +interchanging quiet recognitions among various heads of the crowd; +a language of the eyelids and the eyebrows. When he did look round he +admired the fair island faces with an Italian's ardour: 'Their women are +splendid!' and he no longer pushed upon Carlo's arm to make way ahead. +In the English group were two sunny-haired girls and a blue-eyed lady +with the famous English curls, full, and rounding richly. This lady +talked of her brother, and pointed him out as he rode down the line in +the Marshal's staff. The young officer indicated presently broke away +and galloped up to her, bending over his horse's neck to join the +conversation. Emilia Belloni's name was mentioned. He stared, and +appeared to insist upon a contrary statement. + +Carlo scrutinized his features. While doing so he was accosted, and +beheld his former adversary of the Motter--one, with whom he had +yesterday shaken hands in the Piazza of La Scala. The ceremony was +cordially renewed. Luciano unlinked his arm from Carlo and left him. + +'It appears that you are mistaken with reference to Mademoiselle +Belloni,' said Captain Gambier. 'We hear on positive authority that +she will not appear at La Scala to-night. It's a disappointment; though, +from what you did me the honour to hint to me, I cannot allow myself to +regret it.' + +Carlo had a passionate inward prompting to trust this Englishman with the +secret. It was a weakness that he checked. When one really takes to +foreigners, there is a peculiar impulse (I speak of the people who are +accessible to impulse) to make brothers of them. He bowed, and said, +'She does not appear?' + +'She has in fact quitted Milan. Not willingly. I would have stopped the +business if I had known anything of it; but she is better out of the way, +and will be carefully looked after, where she is. By this time she is in +the Tyrol.' + +'And where?' asked Carlo, with friendly interest. + +'At a schloss near Meran. Or she will be there in a very few hours. +I feared--I may inform you that we were very good friends in England-- +I feared that when she once came to Italy she would get into political +scrapes. I dare say you agree with me that women have nothing to do with +politics. Observe: you see the lady who is speaking to the Austrian +officer?--he is her brother. Like Mademoiselle Belloni he has adopted a +fresh name; it's the name of his uncle, a General Pierson in the Austrian +service. I knew him in England: he has been in our service. +Mademoiselle Belloni lived with his sisters for some years two or three. +As you may suppose, they are all anxious to see her. Shall I introduce. +you? They will be glad to know one of her Italian friends.' + +Carlo hesitated; he longed to hear those ladies talk of Vittoria. 'Do +they speak French?' + +'Oh, dear, yes. That is, as we luckless English people speak it. +Perhaps you will more easily pardon their seminary Italian. See there,' +Captain Gambier pointed at some trotting squadrons; 'these Austrians have +certainly a matchless cavalry. The artillery seems good. The infantry +are fine men--very fine men. They have a "woodeny" movement; but that's +in the nature of the case: tremendous discipline alone gives homogeneity +to all those nationalities. Somehow they get beaten. I doubt whether +anything will beat their cavalry.' + +'They are useless in street-fighting,' said Carlo. + +'Oh, street-fighting!' Captain Gambier vented a soldier's disgust at the +notion. 'They're not in Paris. Will you step forward?' + +Just then the tall Greek approached the party of English. The +introduction was delayed. + +He was addressed by the fair lady, in the island tongue, as +'Mr. Pericles.' She thanked him for his extreme condescension in deigning +to notice them. But whatever his condescension had been, it did not +extend to an admitted acquaintance with the poor speech of the land of +fogs. An exhibition of aching deafness was presented to her so +resolutely, that at last she faltered, 'What! have you forgotten +English, Mr. Pericles? You spoke it the other day.' + +'It is ze language of necessity--of commerce,' he replied. + +'But, surely, Mr. Pericles, you dare not presume to tell me you choose to +be ignorant of it whenever you please?' + +'I do not take grits into ze teeth, madame; no more.' 'But you speak it +perfectly.' + +'Perfect it may be, for ze transactions of commerce. I wish to keep my +teez.' + +'Alas!' said the lady, compelled, 'I must endeavour to swim in French.' + +'At your service, madame,' quoth the Greek, with an immediate doubling of +the length of his body. + +Carlo heard little more than he knew; but the confirmation of what we +know will sometimes instigate us like fresh intelligence, and the lover's +heart was quick to apprehend far more than he knew in one direction. He +divined instantaneously that the English-Austrian spoken of by Barto +Rizzo was the officer sitting on horseback within half-a-dozen yards of +him. The certainty of the thought cramped his muscles. For the rest, +it became clear to him that the attempt of the millionaire connoisseur to +carry off Vittoria had received the tacit sanction of the Austrian +authorities; for reasons quite explicable, Mr. Pericles, as the English +lady called him, distinctly hinted it, while affirming with vehement +self-laudation that his scheme had succeeded for the vindication of Art. + +'The opera you will hear zis night,' he said, 'will be hissed. You will +hear a chorus of screech-owls to each song of that poor Irma, whom the +Italian people call "crabapple." Well; she pleases German ears, and if +they can support her, it is well. But la Vittoria--your Belloni--you +will not hear; and why? She has been false to her Art, false! She has +become a little devil in politics. It is a Guy Fawkes femelle! She has +been guilty of the immense crime of ingratitude. She is dismissed to +study, to penitence, and to the society of her old friends, if they will +visit her.' + +'Of course we will,' said the English lady; 'either before or after our +visit to Venice--delicious Venice!' + +'Which you have not seen--hein?' Mr. Pericles snarled; 'and have not +smelt. There is no music in Venice! But you have nothing but street +tinkle-tinkle! A place to live in! mon Dieu!' + +The lady smiled. 'My husband insists upon trying the baths of Bormio, +and then we are to go over a pass for him to try the grape-cure at Meran. +If I can get him to promise me one whole year in Italy, our visit to +Venice may be deferred. Our doctor, monsieur, indicates our route. If +my brother can get leave of absence, we shall go to Bormio and to Meran +with him. He is naturally astonished that Emilia refused to see him; and +she refused to see us too! She wrote a letter, dated from the +Conservatorio to him, he had it in his saddlebag, and was robbed of it +and other precious documents, when the wretched, odious people set upon +him in Verona-poor boy! She said in the letter that she would see him in +a few days after the fifteenth, which is to-day! + +'Ah! a few days after the fifteenth, which is to-day,' Mr. Pericles +repeated. 'I saw you but the day before yesterday, madame, or I could +have brought you together. + +She is now away-off--out of sight--the perfule! Ah false that she is; +speak not of her. You remember her in England. There it was trouble, +trouble; but here, we are a pot on a fire with her; speak not of her. +She has used me ill, madame. I am sick.' + +His violent gesticulation drooped. In a temporary abandonment to +chagrin, he wiped the moisture from his forehead, unwilling or heedless +of the mild ironical mouthing of the ladies, and looked about; for Carlo +had made a movement to retire,--he had heard enough for discomfort. + +'Ah! my dear Ammiani, the youngest editor in Europe! how goes it with +you?' the Greek called out with revived affability. + +Captain Gambier perceived that it was time to present his Italian +acquaintance to the ladies by name, as a friend of Mademoiselle Belloni. + +'My most dear Ammiani,' Antonio-Pericles resumed; he barely attempted to +conceal his acrid delight in casting a mysterious shadow of coming +vexation over the youth; 'I am afraid you will not like the opera +Camilla, or perhaps it is the Camilla you will not like. But, shoulder +arms, march!' (a foot regiment in motion suggested the form of the +recommendation) 'what is not for to-day may be for to-morrow. Let us +wait. I think, my Ammiani, you are to have a lemon and not an orange. +Never mind. Let us wait.' + +Carlo got his forehead into a show of smoothness, and said, 'Suppose, my +dear Signor Antonio, the prophet of dark things were to say to himself, +"Let us wait?"' + +'Hein-it is deep.' Antonio-Pericles affected to sound the sentence, eye +upon earth, as a sparrow spies worm or crumb. 'Permit me,' he added +rapidly; an idea had struck him from his malicious reserve stores,-- +'Here is Lieutenant Pierson, of the staff of the Field-Marshal of +Austria, unattached, an old friend of Mademoiselle Emilia Belloni,-- +permit me,--here is Count Ammiani, of the Lombardia Milanese journal, a +new friend of the Signorina Vittoria Campa-Mademoiselle Belloni the +Signorina Campa--it is the same person, messieurs; permit me to introduce +you.' + +Antonio-Pericles waved his arm between the two young men. + +Their plain perplexity caused him to dash his fingers down each side of +his moustachios in tugs of enjoyment. + +For Lieutenant Pierson, who displayed a certain readiness to bow, had +caught a sight of the repellent stare on Ammiani's face; a still and flat +look, not aggressive, yet anything but inviting; like a shield. + +Nevertheless, the lieutenant's head produced a stiff nod. Carlo's did +not respond; but he lifted his hat and bowed humbly in retirement to the +ladies. + +Captain Gambier stepped aside with him. + +'Inform Lieutenant Pierson, I beg you,' said Ammiani, 'that I am at his +orders, if he should consider that I have insulted him.' + +'By all means,' said Gambier; 'only, you know, it's impossible for me to +guess what is the matter; and I don't think he knows.' + +Luciano happened to be coming near. Carlo went up to him, and stood +talking for half a minute. He then returned to Captain Gambier, and +said, 'I put myself in the hands of a man of honour. You are aware that +Italian gentlemen are not on terms with Austrian officers. If I am seen +exchanging salutes with any one of them, I offend my countrymen; and they +have enough to bear already.' + +Perceiving that there was more in the background, Gambier simply bowed. +He had heard of Italian gentlemen incurring the suspicion of their +fellows by merely being seen in proximity to an Austrian officer. + +As they were parting, Carlo said to him, with a very direct meaning in +his eyes, 'Go to the opera tonight.' + +'Yes, I suppose so,' the Englishman answered, and digested the look and +the recommendation subsequently. + +Lieutenant Pierson had ridden off. The war-machine was in motion from +end to end: the field of flowers was a streaming flood; regiment by +regiment, the crash of bands went by. Outwardly the Italians conducted +themselves with the air of ordinary heedless citizens, in whose bosoms +the music set no hell-broth boiling. Patrician and plebeian, they were +chiefly boys; though here and there a middle-aged workman cast a look of +intelligence upon Carlo and Luciano, when these two passed along the +crowd. A gloom of hoarded hatred was visible in the mass of faces, ready +to spring fierily. + +Arms were in the city. With hatred to prompt the blow, with arms +to strike, so much dishonour to avenge, we need not wonder that these +youths beheld the bit of liberty in prospect magnified by their mighty +obfuscating ardour, like a lantern in a fog. Reason did not act. They +were in such a state when just to say 'Italia! Italia!' gave them nerve +to match an athlete. So, the parading of Austria, the towering athlete, +failed of its complete lesson of intimidation, and only ruffled the +surface of insurgent hearts. It seemed, and it was, an insult to the +trodden people, who read it as a lesson for cravens: their instinct +commonly hits the bell. They felt that a secure supremacy would not +have paraded itself: so they divined indistinctly that there was weakness +somewhere in the councils of the enemy. When the show had vanished, +their spirits hung pausing, like the hollow air emptied of big sound, +and reacted. Austria had gained little more by her display than the +conscientious satisfaction of the pedagogue who lifts the rod to advise +intending juvenile culprits how richly it can be merited and how poor +will be their future grounds of complaint. + +But before Austria herself had been taught a lesson she conceived that +she had but one man and his feeble instruments, and occasional frenzies, +opposed to her, him whom we saw on the Motterone, which was ceasing to be +true; though it was true that the whole popular movement flowed from that +one man. She observed travelling sparks in the embers of Italy, and +crushed them under her heel, without reflecting that a vital heat must be +gathering where the spots of fire run with such a swiftness. It was her +belief that if she could seize that one man, whom many of the younger +nobles and all the people acknowledged as their Chief--for he stood then +without a rival in his task--she would have the neck of conspiracy in her +angry grasp. Had she caught him, the conspiracy for Italian freedom +would not have crowed for many long seasons; the torch would have been +ready, but not the magazine. He prepared it; it was he who preached to +the Italians that opportunity is a mocking devil when we look for it to +be revealed; or, in other words, wait for chance; as it is God's angel +when it is created within us, the ripe fruit of virtue and devotion. He +cried out to Italians to wait for no inspiration but their own; that they +should never subdue their minds to follow any alien example; nor let a +foreign city of fire be their beacon. Watching over his Italy; her wrist +in his meditative clasp year by year; he stood like a mystic leech by the +couch of a fair and hopeless frame, pledged to revive it by the inspired +assurance, shared by none, that life had not forsaken it. A body given +over to death and vultures-he stood by it in the desert. Is it a marvel +to you that when the carrion-wings swooped low, and the claws fixed, and +the beak plucked and savoured its morsel, he raised his arm, and urged +the half-resuscitated frame to some vindicating show of existence? +Arise! he said, even in what appeared most fatal hours of darkness. +The slack limbs moved; the body rose and fell. The cost of the effort +was the breaking out of innumerable wounds, old and new; the gain was the +display of the miracle that Italy lived. She tasted her own blood, and +herself knew that she lived. + +Then she felt her chains. The time was coming for her to prove, by the +virtues within her, that she was worthy to live, when others of her sons, +subtle and adept, intricate as serpents, bold, unquestioning as well- +bestridden steeds, should grapple and play deep for her in the game of +worldly strife. Now--at this hour of which I speak--when Austrians +marched like a merry flame down Milan streets, and Italians stood like +the burnt-out cinders of the fire-grate, Italy's faint wrist was still +in the clutch of her grave leech, who counted the beating of her pulse +between long pauses, that would have made another think life to be +heaving its last, not beginning. + +The Piazza d'Armi was empty of its glittering show. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE NIGHT OF THE FIFTEENTH + +We quit the Piazza d'Armi. Rumour had its home in Milan. On their way +to the caffe La Scala, Luciano and Carlo (who held together, determined +to be taken together if the arrest should come) heard it said that the +Chief was in Milan. A man passed by and uttered it, going. They stopped +a second man, who was known to them, and he confirmed the rumour. Glad +as sunlight once more, they hurried to Count Medole forgivingly. The +count's servant assured them that his master had left the city for Monza. +'Is Medole a coward?' cried Luciano, almost in the servant's hearing. +The fleeing of so important a man looked vile, now that they were +sharpened by new eagerness. Forthwith they were off to Agostino, +believing that he would know the truth. They found him in bed. 'Well, +and what?' said Agostino, replying to their laughter. 'I am old; too old +to stride across a day and night, like you giants of youth. I take my +rest when I can, for I must have it.' + +'But, you know, O conscript father,' said Carlo, willing to fall a little +into his mood, 'you know that nothing will be done to-night.' + +'Do I know so much?' Agostino murmured at full length. + +'Do you know that the Chief is in the city?' said Luciano. + +'A man who is lying in bed knows this,' returned Agostino, 'that he knows +less than those who are up, though what he does know he perhaps digests +better. 'Tis you who are the fountains, my boys, while I am the pool +into which you play. Say on.' + +They spoke of the rumour. He smiled at it. They saw at once that the +rumour was false, for the Chief trusted Agostino. + +'Proceed to Barto, the mole,' he said, 'Barto the miner; he is the father +of daylight in the city: of the daylight of knowledge, you understand, +for which men must dig deep. Proceed to him;--if you can find him.' + +But Carlo brought flame into Agostino's eyes. + +'The accursed beast! he has pinned the black butterfly to the signorina's +dress.' + +Agostino rose on his elbow. He gazed at them. 'We are followers of a +blind mole,' he uttered with an inner voices while still gazing +wrathfully, and then burst out in grief, '"Patria o mea creatrix, patria +o mea genetrix!"' + +'The signorina takes none of his warnings, nor do we. She escaped a plot +last night, and to-night she sings.' + +'She must not,' said Agostino imperiously. + +'She does.' + +'I must stop that.' Agostino jumped out of bed. + +The young men beset him with entreaties to leave the option to her. + +'Fools!' he cried, plunging a rageing leg into his garments. 'Here, +Iris! Mercury! fly to Jupiter and say we are all old men and boys in +Italy, and are ready to accept a few middleaged mortals as Gods, if they +will come and help us. Young fools! Do you know that when you conspire +you are in harness, and yoke-fellows, every one?' + +'Yoked to that Barto Rizzo!' + +'Yes; and the worse horse of the two. Listen, you pair of Nuremberg +puppet-heads! If the Chief were here, I would lie still in my bed. +Medole has stopped the outbreak. Right or wrong, he moves a mass; +we are subordinates--particles. The Chief can't be everywhere. Milan +is too hot for him. Two men are here, concealed--Rinaldo and Angelo +Guidascarpi. The rumour springs from that. They have slain Count Paul +Lenkenstein, and rushed to old Milan for work, with the blood on their +swords. Oh, the tragedy!--when I have time to write it. Let me now go +to my girl, to my daughter! The blood of the Lenkenstein must rust on +the steel. Angelo slew him: Rinaldo gave him the cross to kiss. You +shall have the whole story by-and-by; but this will be a lesson to +Germans not to court our Italian damsels. Lift not that curtain, you +Pannonian burglars! Much do we pardon; but bow and viol meet not, save +that they be of one wood; especially not when signor bow is from +yonderside the Rhoetian Alps, and donzella Viol is a growth of warm +Lombardy. Witness to it, Angelo and Rinaldo Guidascarpi! bravo! You +boys there--you stand like two Tyrolese salad-spoons! I say that my +girl, my daughter, shall never help to fire blank shot. I sent my +paternal commands to her yesterday evening. Does the wanton disobey her +father and look up to a pair of rocket-headed rascals like you? Apes! +if she sings that song to-night, the ear of Italy will be deaf to her for +ever after. There's no engine to stir to-night; all the locks are on it; +she will send half-a-dozen milkings like you to perdition, and there will +be a circle of black blood about her name in the traditions of the +insurrection--do you hear? Have I cherished her for that purpose? to +have her dedicated to a brawl!' + +Agostino fumed up and down the room in a confusion of apparel, savouring +his epithets and imaginative peeps while he stormed, to get a relish out +of something, as beseems the poetic temperament. The youths were +silenced by him; Carlo gladly. + +'Troop!' said the old man, affecting to contrast his attire with theirs; +'two graces and a satyr never yet went together, and we'll not frighten +the classic Government of Milan. I go out alone. No, Signor Luciano, I +am not sworn to Count Medole. I see your sneer contain it. Ah! what a +thing is hurry to a mind like mine. It tears up the trees by the roots, +floods the land, darkens utterly my poor quiet universe. I was composing +a pastoral when you came in. Observe what you have done with my "Lovely +Age of Gold!"' + +Agostino's transfigurement from lymphatic poet to fiery man of action, +lasted till his breath was short, when the necessity for taking a deep +draught of air induced him to fall back upon his idle irony. 'Heads, +you illustrious young gentlemen!--heads, not legs and arms, move a +conspiracy. Now, you--think what you will of it--are only legs and arms +in this business. And if you are insubordinate, you present the shocking +fabular spirit of the members of the body in revolt; which is not the +revolt we desire to see. I go to my daughter immediately, and we shall +all have a fat sleep for a week, while the Tedeschi hunt and stew and +exhaust their naughty suspicions. Do you know that the Pope's Mouth is +closed? We made it tell a big lie before it shut tight on its teeth--a +bad omen, I admit; but the idea was rapturously neat. Barto, the sinner +--be sure I throttle him for putting that blot on my swan; only, not yet, +not yet: he's a blind mole, a mad patriot; but, as I say, our beast Barto +drew an Austrian to the Mouth last night, and led the dog to take a +letter out of it, detailing the whole plot of tonight, and how men will +be stationed at the vicolo here, ready to burst out on the Corso, and at +the vicolo there, and elsewhere, all over the city, carrying fire and +sword; a systematic map of the plot. It was addressed to Count +Serabiglione--my boys! my boys! what do you think of it? Bravo! though +Barto is a deadly beast if he--'Agostino paused. 'Yes, he went too far! +too far!' + +'Has he only gone too far, do you say?' + +Carlo spoke sternly. His elder was provoked enough by his deadness of +enthusiasm, and that the boy should dare to stalk on a bare egoistical +lover's sentiment to be critical of him, Agostino, struck him as +monstrous. With the treachery of controlled rage, Agostino drew near +him, and whispered some sentences in his ear. + +Agostino then called him his good Spartan boy for keeping brave +countenance. 'Wait till you comprehend women philosophically. All's +trouble with them till then. At La Scala tonight, my sons! We have +rehearsed the fiasco; the Tedeschi perform it. Off with you, that I may +go out alone!' + +He seemed to think it an indubitable matter that he would find Vittoria +and bend her will. + +Agostino had betrayed his weakness to the young men, who read him with +the keen eyes of a particular disapprobation. He delighted in the dark +web of intrigue, and believed himself to be no ordinary weaver of that +sunless work. It captured his imagination, filling his pride with a +mounting gas. Thus he had become allied to Medole on the one hand, and +to Barto Rizzo on the other. The young men read him shrewdly, but +speaking was useless. + +Before Carlo parted from Luciano, he told him the burden of the whisper, +which had confirmed what he had heard on the Piazzi d'Armi. It was this: +Barto Rizzo, aware that Lieutenant Pierson was the bearer of despatches +from the Archduke in Milan to the marshal, then in Verona, had followed, +and by extraordinary effort reached Verona in advance; had there tricked +and waylaid him, and obtained, instead of despatches, a letter of recent +date, addressed to him by Vittoria, which compromised the insurrectionary +project. + +'If that's the case, my Carlo!' said his friend, and shrugged, and spoke +in a very worldly fashion of the fair sex. + +Carlo shook him off. For the rest of the day he was alone, shut up with +his journalistic pen. The pen traversed seas and continents like an old +hack to whom his master has thrown the reins. Apart from the desperate +perturbation of his soul, he thought of the Guidascarpi, whom he knew, +and was allied to, and of the Lenkensteins, whom he knew likewise, or had +known in the days when Giacomo Piaveni lived, and Bianca von Lenkenstein, +Laura's sister, visited among the people of her country. Countess Anna +and Countess Lena von Lenkenstein were the German beauties of Milan, +lively little women, and sweet. Between himself and Countess Lena there +had been tender dealings about the age when sweetmeats have lost their +attraction, and the charm has to be supplied. She was rich, passionate +for Austria, romantic concerning Italy, a vixen in temper, but with a +pearly light about her temples that kept her picture in his memory. And +besides, during those days when women are bountiful to us as Goddesses, +give they never so little, she had deigned to fondle hands with him; had +set the universe rocking with a visible heave of her bosom; jingled all +the keys of mystery; and had once (as to embalm herself in his +recollection), once had surrendered her lips to him. Countess Lena would +have espoused Ammiani, believing in her power to make an Austrian out of +such Italian material. The Piaveni revolt had stopped that and all their +intercourse by the division of the White Hand, as it was called; +otherwise, the hand of the corpse. Ammiani had known also Count Paul von +Lenkenstein. To his mind, death did not mean much, however pleasant life +might be: his father and his friend had gone to it gaily; and he himself +stood ready for the summons: but the contemplation of a domestic judicial +execution, which the Guidascarpi seemed to have done upon Count Paul, +affrighted him, and put an end to his temporary capacity for labour. He +felt as if a spent shot were striking on his ribs; it was the unknown +sensation of fear. Changeing, it became pity. 'Horrible deaths these +Austrians die!' he said. + +For a while he regarded their lot as the hardest. A shaft of sunlight +like blazing brass warned him that the day dropped. He sent to his +mother's stables, and rode at a gallop round Milan, dining alone in one +of the common hotel gardens, where he was a stranger. A man may have +good nerve to face the scene which he is certain will be enacted, who +shrinks from an hour that is suspended in doubt. He was aware of the +pallor and chill of his looks, and it was no marvel to him when two +sbirri in mufti, foreign to Milan, set their eyes on him as they passed +by to a vacant table on the farther side of the pattering gold-fish pool, +where he sat. He divined that they might be in pursuit of the +Guidascarpi, and alive to read a troubled visage. 'Yet neither Rinaldo +nor Angelo would look as I do now,' he thought, perceiving that these men +were judging by such signs, and had their ideas. Democrat as he imagined +himself to be, he despised with a nobleman's contempt creatures who were +so dead to the character of men of birth as to suppose that they were +pale and remorseful after dealing a righteous blow, and that they +trembled! Ammiani looked at his hand: no force of his will could arrest +its palsy. The Guidascarpi were sons of Bologna. The stupidity of +Italian sbirri is proverbial, or a Milanese cavalier would have been +astonished to conceive himself mistaken for a Bolognese. He beckoned to +the waiter, and said, 'Tell me what place has bred those two fellows on +the other side of the fountain.' After a side-glance of scrutiny, the +reply was, 'Neapolitans.' The waiter was ready to make an additional +remark, but Ammiani nodded and communed with a toothpick. He was sure +that those Neapolitans were recruits of the Bolognese Polizia; on the +track of the Guidascarpi, possibly. As he was not unlike Angelo +Guidascarpi in figure, he became uneasy lest they should blunder 'twixt +him and La Scala; and the notion of any human power stopping him short +of that destination, made Ammiani's hand perfectly firm. He drew on his +gloves, and named the place whither he was going, aloud. 'Excellency,' +said the waiter, while taking up and pretending to reckon the money for +the bill: 'they have asked me whether there are two Counts Ammiani in +Milan.' Carlo's eyebrows started. 'Can they be after me?' he thought, +and said: 'Certainly; there is twice anything in this world, and Milan is +the epitome of it.' + +Acting a part gave him Agostino's catching manner of speech. The waiter, +who knew him now, took this for an order to say 'Yes.' He had evidently a +respect for Ammiani's name: Carlo supposed that he was one of Milan's +fighting men. A sort of answer leading to 'Yes' by a circuit and the +assistance of the hearer, was conveyed to the, sbirri. They were true +Neapolitans quick to suspect, irresolute upon their suspicions. He was +soon aware that they were not to be feared more than are the general race +of bunglers, whom the Gods sometimes strangely favour. They perplexed +him: for why were they after him? and what had made them ask whether he +had a brother? He was followed, but not molested, on his way to La +Scala. + +Ammiani's heart was in full play as he looked at the curtain of the +stage. The Night of the Fifteenth had come. For the first few moments +his strong excitement fronting the curtain, amid a great host of hearts +thumping and quivering up in the smaller measures like his own, together +with the predisposing belief that this was to be a night of events, +stopped his consciousness that all had been thwarted; that there was +nothing but plot, plot, counterplot and tangle, disunion, silly subtlety, +jealousy, vanity, a direful congregation of antagonistic elements; +threads all loose, tongues wagging, pressure here, pressure there, like +an uncertain rage in the entrails of the undirected earth, and no master +hand on the spot to fuse and point the intense distracted forces. + +The curtain, therefore, hung like any common opera-screen; big only with +the fate of the new prima donna. He was robbed even of the certainty +that Vittoria would appear. From the blank aspect of the curtain he +turned to the house, which was crowding fast, and was not like listless +Milan about to criticize an untried voice. The commonly empty boxes of +the aristocracy were full of occupants, and for a wonder the white +uniforms were not in excess, though they were to be seen. The first +person whom Ammiani met was Agostino, who spoke gruffly. Vittoria had +been invisible to him. Neither the maestro, nor the impresario, nor the +waiting-woman had heard of her. Uncertainty was behind the curtain, as +well as in front; but in front it was the uncertainty which is tipped +with expectation, hushing the usual noisy chatter, and setting a daylight +of eyes forward. Ammiani spied about the house, and caught sight of +Laura Piaveni with Colonel Corte by her side. The Lenkensteins were in +the Archduke's box. Antonio-Pericles, and the English lady and Captain +Gambier, were next to them. The appearance of a white uniform in his +mother's box over the stage caused Ammiani to shut up his glass. He was +making his way thither for the purpose of commencing the hostilities of +the night, when Countess Ammiani entered the lobby, and took her son's +arm with a grave face and a trembling touch. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE PRIMA DONNA + +'Whover is in my box is my guest,' said the countess, adding a convulsive +imperative pressure on Carlo's arm, to aid the meaning of her deep +underbreath. She was a woman who rarely exacted obedience, and she was +spontaneously obeyed. No questions could be put, no explanations given +in the crash, and they threaded on amid numerous greetings in a place +where Milanese society had habitually ceased to gather, and found itself +now in assembly with unconcealed sensations of strangeness. A card lay +on the table of the countess's private retiring-room: it bore the name +of General Pierson. She threw off her black lace scarf. 'Angelo +Guidascarpi is in Milan,' she said. 'He has killed one of the +Lenkensteins, sword to sword. He came to me an hour after you left; +the sbirri were on his track; he passed for my son. He is now under the +charge of Barto Rizzo, disguised; probably in this house. His brother is +in the city. Keep the cowl on your head as long as possible; if these +hounds see and identify you, there will be mischief.' She said no more, +satisfied that she was understood, but opening the door of the box, +passed in, and returned a stately acknowledgement of the salutations of +two military officers. Carlo likewise bent his head to them; it was like +bending his knee, for in the younger of the two intruders he recognized +Lieutenant Pierson. The countess accepted a vacated seat; the cavity of +her ear accepted the General's apologies. He informed her that he deeply +regretted the intrusion; he was under orders to be present at the opera, +and to be as near the stage as possible, the countess's box being +designated. Her face had the unalterable composure of a painted head +upon an old canvas. The General persisted in tendering excuses. She +replied, 'It is best, when one is too weak to resist, to submit to an +outrage quietly.' General Pierson at once took the position assigned to +him; it was not an agreeable one. Between Carlo and the lieutenant no +attempt at conversation was made. + +The General addressed his nephew in English. 'Did you see the girl +behind the scenes, Wilfrid?' + +The answer was 'No.' + +'Pericles has her fast shut up in the Tyrol: the best habitat for her if +she objects to a whipping. Did you see Irma?' + +'No; she has disappeared too.' + +'Then I suppose we must make up our minds to an opera without head or +tail. As Pat said of the sack of potatoes, "'twould be a mighty fine +beast if it had them."' + +The officers had taken refuge in their opera-glasses, and spoke while +gazing round the house. + +'If neither this girl nor Irma is going to appear, there is no positive +necessity for my presence here,' said the General, reduced to excuse +himself to himself. 'I'll sit through the first scene and then beat a +retreat. I might be off at once; the affair looks harmless enough only, +you know, when there's nothing to see, you must report that you have seen +it, or your superiors are not satisfied.' + +The lieutenant was less able to cover the irksomeness of his situation +with easy talk. His glance rested on Countess Len a von Lenkenstein, a +quick motion of whose hand made him say that he should go over to her. + +'Very well,' said the General; 'be careful that you give no hint of this +horrible business. They will hear of it when they get home: time +enough!' + +Lieutenant Pierson touched at his sister's box on the way. She was very +excited, asked innumerable things,--whether there was danger? whether he +had a whole regiment at hand to protect peaceable persons? 'Otherwise,' +she said, 'I shall not be able to keep that man (her husband) in Italy +another week. He refused to stir out to-night, though we know that +nothing can happen. Your prima donna celestissima is out of harm's way.' + +'Oh, she is safe,--ze minx'; cried Antonio-Pericles, laughing and +saluting the Duchess of Graatli, who presented herself at the front of +her box. Major de Pyrmont was behind her, and it delighted the Greek to +point them out to the English lady, with a simple intimation of the +character of their relationship, at which her curls shook sadly. + +'Pardon, madame,' said Pericles. 'In Italy, a husband away, ze friend +takes title: it is no more.' + +'It is very disgraceful,' she said. + +'Ze morales, madame, suit ze sun.' + +Captain Gambier left the box with Wilfrid, expressing in one sentence his +desire to fling Pericles over to the pit, and in another his belief that +an English friend, named Merthyr Powys, was in the house. + +'He won't be in the city four-and-twenty hours,' said Wilfrid. + +'Well; you'll keep your tongue silent.' + +'By heavens! Gambier, if you knew the insults we have to submit to! The +temper of angels couldn't stand it. I'm sorry enough for these fellows, +with their confounded country, but it's desperate work to be civil to +them; upon my honour, it is! I wish they would stand up and let us have +it over. We have to bear more from the women than the men.' + +'I leave you to cool,' said Gambier. + +The delayed absence of the maestro from his post at the head of the +orchestra, where the musicians sat awaiting him, seemed to confirm a +rumour that was now circling among the audience, warning all to prepare +for a disappointment. His baton was brought in and laid on the book of +the new overture. When at last he was seen bearing onward through the +music-stands, a low murmur ran round. Rocco paid no heed to it. His +demeanour produced such satisfaction in the breast of Antonio-Pericles +that he rose, and was guilty of the barbarism of clapping his hands. +Meeting Ammiani in the lobby, he said, 'Come, my good friend, you shall +help me to pull Irma through to-night. She is vinegar--we will mix her +with oil. It is only for to-night, to save that poor Rocco's opera.' + +'Irma!' said Ammiani; 'she is by this time in Tyrol. Your Irma will have +some difficulty in showing herself here within sixty hours.' + +'How!' cried Pericles, amazed, and plucking after Carlo to stop him. 'I +bet you--' + +'How much?' + +'I bet you a thousand florins you do not see la Vittoria to-night.' + +'Good. I bet you a thousand florins you do not see Irma.' + +'No Vittoria, I say!' + +'And I say, no Lazzeruola!' + +Agostino, who was pacing the lobby, sent Pericles distraught with the +same tale of the rape of Irma. He rushed to Signora Piaveni's box and +heard it repeated. There he beheld, sitting in the background, an old +English acquaintance, with whom Captain Gambier was conversing. + +'My dear Powys, you have come all the way from England to see your +favourite's first night. You will be shocked, sir. She has neglected +her Art. She is exiled, banished, sent away to study and to compose her +mind.' + +'I think you are mistaken,' said Laura. 'You will see her almost +immediately.' + +'Signora, pardon me; do I not know best?' + +'You may have contrived badly.' + +Pericles blinked and gnawed his moustache as if it were food for +patience. + +'I would wager a milliard of francs,' he muttered. With absolute pathos +he related to Mr. Powys the aberrations of the divinely-gifted voice, +the wreck which Vittoria strove to become, and from which he alone was +striving to rescue her. He used abundant illustrations, coarse and +quaint, and was half hysterical; flashing a white fist and thumping the +long projection of his knee with a wolfish aspect. His grotesque +sincerity was little short of the shedding of tears. + +'And your sister, my dear Powys?' he asked, as one returning to the +consideration of shadows. + +'My sister accompanies me, but not to the opera.' + +'For another campaign--hein?' + +'To winter in Italy, at all events.' + +Carlo Ammiani entered and embraced Merthyr Powys warmly. The Englishman +was at home among Italians: Pericles, feeling that he was not so, and +regarding them all as a community of fever-patients without hospital, +retired. To his mind it was the vilest treason, the grossest +selfishness, to conspire or to wink at the sacrifice of a voice like +Vittoria's to such a temporal matter as this, which they called +patriotism. He looked on it as one might look on the Hindoo drama of a +Suttee. He saw in it just that stupid action of a whole body of fanatics +combined to precipitate the devotion of a precious thing to extinction. +And worse; for life was common, and women and Hindoo widows were common; +but a Vittorian voice was but one in a generation--in a cycle of years. +The religious belief of the connoisseur extended to the devout conception +that her voice was a spiritual endowment, the casting of which priceless +jewel into the bloody ditch of patriots was far more tragic and +lamentable than any disastrous concourse of dedicated lives. He shook +the lobby with his tread, thinking of the great night this might have +been but for Vittoria's madness. The overture was coming to an end. By +tightening his arms across his chest he gained some outward composure, +and fixed his eyes upon the stage. + +While sitting with Laura Piaveni and Merthyr Powys, Ammiani saw the +apparition of Captain Weisspriess in his mother's box. He forgot her +injunction, and hurried to her side, leaving the doors open. His passion +of anger spurned her admonishing grasp of his arm, and with his glove he +smote the Austrian officer on the face. Weisspriess plucked his sword +out; the house rose; there was a moment like that of a wild beast's show +of teeth. It passed: Captain Weisspriess withdrew in obedience to +General Pierson's command. The latter wrote on a slip of paper that two +pieces of artillery should be placed in position, and a squad of men +about the doors: he handed it out to Weisspriess. + +'I hope,' the General said to Carlo, 'we shall be able to arrange things +for you without the interposition of the authorities.' + +Carlo rejoined, 'General, he has the blood of our family on his hands. +I am ready.' + +The General bowed. He glanced at the countess for a sign of maternal +weakness, saw none, and understood that a duel was down in the morrow's +bill of entertainments, as well as a riot possibly before dawn. The +house had revealed its temper in that short outburst, as a quivering of +quick lightning-flame betrays the forehead of the storm. + +Countess Ammiani bade her son make fast the outer door. Her sedate +energies could barely control her agitation. In helping Angelo +Guidascarpi to evade the law, she had imperilled her son and herself. +Many of the Bolognese sbirri were in pursuit of Angelo. Some knew his +person; some did not; but if those two before whom she had identified +Angelo as being her son Carlo chanced now to be in the house, and to have +seen him, and heard his name, the risks were great and various. + +'Do you know that handsome young Count Ammiani?' Countess Lena said to +Wilfrid. 'Perhaps you do not think him handsome? He was for a short +time a play-fellow of mine. He is more passionate than I am, and that +does not say a little; I warn you! Look how excited he is. No wonder. +He is--everybody knows it--he is la Vittoria's lover.' + +Countess Lena uttered that sentence in Italian. The soft tongue sent it +like a coiling serpent through Wilfrid's veins. In English or in German +it would not have possessed the deadly meaning. + +She may have done it purposely, for she and her sister Countess Anna +studied his face. The lifting of the curtain drew all eyes to the stage. + +Rocco Ricci's baton struck for the opening of one of his spirited +choruses; a chorus of villagers, who sing to the burden that Happiness, +the aim of all humanity, has promised to visit the earth this day, that +she may witness the union of the noble lovers, Camillo and Camilla. Then +a shepherd sings a verse, with his hand stretched out to the impending +castle. There lives Count Orso: will he permit their festivities to pass +undisturbed? The puling voice is crushed by the chorus, which protests +that the heavens are above Count Orso. But another villager tells of +Orso's power, and hints at his misdeeds. The chorus rises in reply, +warning all that Count Orso has ears wherever three are congregated; the +villagers break apart and eye one another distrustfully, reuniting to the +song of Happiness before they disperse. Camillo enters solus. Montini, +as Camillo, enjoyed a warm reception; but as he advanced to deliver his +canzone, it was seen that he and Rocco interchanged glances of desperate +resignation. Camillo has had love passages with Michiella, Count Orso's +daughter, and does not hesitate to declare that he dreads her. The +orphan Camilla, who has been reared in yonder castle with her, as her +sister, is in danger during all these last minutes which still retain her +from his arms. + +'If I should never see her--I who, like a poor ghost upon the shores of +the dead river, have been flattered with the thought that she would fall +upon my breast like a ray of the light of Elysium--if I should never see +her more!' The famous tenore threw his whole force into that outcry of +projected despair, and the house was moved by it: there were many in the +house who shared his apprehension of a foul mischance. + +Thenceforward the opera and the Italian audience were as one. All that +was uttered had a meaning, and was sympathetically translated. Camilla +they perceived to be a grave burlesque with a core to it. The quick- +witted Italians caught up the interpretation in a flash. 'Count Orso' +Austria; 'Michiella' is Austria's spirit of intrigue; 'Camillo' is +indolent Italy, amorous Italy, Italy aimless; 'Camilla' is YOUNG ITALY! + +Their eagerness for sight of Vittoria was now red-hot, and when Camillo +exclaimed 'She comes!' many rose from their seats. + +A scrap of paper was handed to Antonio-Pericles from Captain Weisspriess, +saying briefly that he had found Irma in the carriage instead of the +little 'v,' thanked him for the joke, and had brought her back. Pericles +was therefore not surprised when Irma, as Michiella, came on, breathless, +and looking in an excitement of anger; he knew that he had been tricked. + +Between Camillo and Michiella a scene of some vivacity ensued-- +reproaches, threats of calamity, offers of returning endearment upon her +part; a display of courtly scorn upon his. Irma made her voice claw at +her quondam lover very finely; it was a voice with claws, that entered +the hearing sharp-edged, and left it plucking at its repose. She was +applauded relishingly when, after vainly wooing him, she turned aside and +said-- + + 'What change is this in one who like a reed + Bent to my twisting hands? Does he recoil? + Is this the hound whom I have used to feed + With sops of vinegar and sops of oil?' + +Michiella's further communications to the audience make it known that she +has allowed the progress toward the ceremonies of espousal between +Camillo and Camilla, in order, at the last moment, to show her power over +the youth and to plunge the detested Camilla into shame and wretchedness. + +Camillo retires: Count Orso appears. There is a duet between father and +daughter: she confesses her passion for Camillo, and entreats her father +to stop the ceremony; and here the justice of the feelings of Italians, +even in their heat of blood, was noteworthy. Count Orso says that he +would willingly gratify his daughter, as it would gratify himself, but +that he must respect the law. 'The law is of your own making,' says +Michiella. 'Then, the more must I respect it,' Count Orso replies. + +The audience gave Austria credit for that much in a short murmur. + +Michiella's aside, 'Till anger seizes him I wait!' created laughter; it +came in contrast with an extraordinary pomposity of self-satisfaction +exhibited by Count Orso--the flower-faced, tun-bellied basso, Lebruno. +It was irresistible. He stood swollen out like a morning cock. To make +it further telling, he took off his yellow bonnet with a black-gloved +hand, and thumped the significant colours prominently on his immense +chest--an idea, not of Agostino's, but Lebruno's own; and Agostino cursed +with fury. Both he and Rocco knew that their joint labour would probably +have only one night's display of existence in the Austrian dominions, but +they grudged to Lebruno the chief merit of despatching it to the Shades. + +The villagers are heard approaching. 'My father!' cries Michiella, +distractedly; 'the hour is near: it will be death to your daughter! +Imprison Camillo: I can bring twenty witnesses to prove that he has sworn +you are illegally the lord of this country. You will rue the marriage. +Do as you once did. Be bold in time. The arrow-head is on the string- +cut the string!' + +'As I once did?' replies Orso with frown terrific, like a black crest. +He turns broadly and receives the chorus of countrymen in paternal +fashion--an admirably acted bit of grave burlesque. + +By this time the German portion of the audience had, by one or other of +the senses, dimly divined that the opera was a shadow of something +concealed--thanks to the buffo-basso Lebruno. Doubtless they would have +seen this before, but that the Austrian censorship had seemed so absolute +a safeguard. + +'My children! all are my children in this my gladsome realm!' Count Orso +says, and marches forth, after receiving the compliment of a choric song +in honour of his paternal government. Michiella follows him. + +Then came the deep suspension of breath. For, as upon the midnight you +count bell-note after bell-note of the toiling hour, and know not in the +darkness whether there shall be one beyond it, so that you hang over an +abysm until Twelve is sounded, audience and actors gazed with equal +expectation at the path winding round from the castle, waiting for the +voice of the new prima donna. + +'Mia madre!' It issued tremblingly faint. None could say who was to +appear. + +Rocco Ricci struck twice with his baton, flung a radiant glance across +his shoulders for all friends, and there was joy in the house. Vittoria +stood before them. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A fortress face; strong and massive, and honourable in ruin +Defiance of foes and (what was harder to brave) of friends +Do I serve my hand? or, Do I serve my heart? +Good nerve to face the scene which he is certain will be enacted +Government of brain; not sufficient Insurrection of heart +Had taken refuge in their opera-glasses +He postponed it to the next minute and the next +I hope I am not too hungry to discriminate +I know nothing of imagination +In Italy, a husband away, ze friend takes title +Morales, madame, suit ze sun +No intoxication of hot blood to cheer those who sat at home +Not to be feared more than are the general race of bunglers +Patience is the pestilence +People who can lose themselves in a ray of fancy at any season +Question with some whether idiots should live +Rarely exacted obedience, and she was spontaneously obeyed +The divine afflatus of enthusiasm buoyed her no longer +Too weak to resist, to submit to an outrage quietly +We are good friends till we quarrel again +We can bear to fall; we cannot afford to draw back +Who shrinks from an hour that is suspended in doubt +Whole body of fanatics combined to precipitate the devotion +Youth will not believe that stupidity and beauty can go together + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Vittoria, v3 +by George Meredith + diff --git a/4437.zip b/4437.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1158d19 --- /dev/null +++ b/4437.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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