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Standing at a blunt +angle of the ways converging upon Vittoria's presumed destination, he had +roused up the gendarmerie along the routes to Meran by Trent on one side, +and Bormio on the other; and he soon came to the conclusion that she had +rejected the valley of the Adige for the Valtelline, whence he supposed +that she would be tempted either to cross the Stelvio or one of the +passes into Southernmost Tyrol. He was led to think that she would +certainly bear upon Switzerland, by a course of reasoning connected with +Angelo Guidascarpi, who, fleeing under the cross of blood, might be +calculated on to push for the mountains of the Republic; and he might +judging by the hazards--conduct the lady thither, to enjoy the fruits of +crime and love in security. The captain, when he had discovered Angelo's +crest and name on the betraying handkerchief, had no doubts concerning +the nature of their intimacy, and he was spurred by a new and thrice +eager desire to capture the couple--the criminal for the purposes of +justice, and the other because he had pledged his notable reputation in +the chase of her. The conscience of this man's vanity was extremely +active. He had engaged to conquer the stubborn girl, and he thought it +possible that he might take a mistress from the patriot ranks, with a +loud ha! ha! at revolutionists, and some triumph over his comrades. And +besides, he was the favourite of Countess Anna of Lenkenstein, who yet +refused to bring her estates to him; she dared to trifle; she also was a +woman who required rude lessons. Weisspriess, a poor soldier bearing the +heritage of lusty appetites, had an eye on his fortune, and served +neither Mars alone nor Venus. Countess Anna was to be among that company +assembled at the Castle of Sonnenberg in Meran; and if, while introducing +Vittoria there with a discreet and exciting reserve, he at the same time +handed over the assassin of Count Paul, a fine harvest of praise and +various pleasant forms of female passion were to be looked for--a rich +vista of a month's intrigue; at the end of it possibly his wealthy lady, +thoroughly tamed, for a wife, and redoubled triumph over his comrades. +Without these successes, what availed the fame of the keenest swordsman +in the Austrian army?--The feast as well as the plumes of vanity offered +rewards for the able exercise of his wits. + +He remained at the sub-Alpine inn until his servant Wilhelm (for whom he +had despatched the duchess's chasseur, then in attendance on Vittoria) +arrived from Milan, bringing his uniform. The chasseur was directed on +the Bormio line, with orders that he should cause the arrest of Vittoria +only in the case of her being on the extreme limit of the Swiss frontier. +Keeping his communications alert, Weisspriess bore that way to meet him. +Fortune smiled on his strategy. Jacob Baumwalder Feckelwitz--full of +wine, and discharging hurrahs along the road--met him on the bridge over +the roaring Oglio, just out of Edolo, and gave him news of the fugitives. +'Both of them were at the big hotel in Bormio,' said Jacob; 'and I set up +a report that the Stelvio was watched; and so it is.' He added that he +thought they were going to separate; he had heard something to that +effect; he believed that the young lady was bent upon crossing one of the +passes to Meran. Last night it had devolved on him to kiss away the +tears of the young lady's maid, a Valtelline peasant-girl, who deplored +the idea of an expedition over the mountains, and had, with the usual +cat-like tendencies of these Italian minxes, torn his cheek in return for +his assiduities. Jacob displayed the pretty scratch obtained in the Herr +Captain's service, and got his money for having sighted Vittoria and seen +double. Weisspriess decided in his mind that Angelo had now separated +from her (or rather, she from him) for safety. He thought it very +probable that she would likewise fly to Switzerland. Yet, knowing that +there was the attraction of many friends for her at Meran, he conceived +that he should act more prudently by throwing himself on that line, and +he sped Jacob Baumwalder along the Valtelline by Val Viola, up to Ponte +in the Engadine, with orders to seize her if he could see her, and have +her conveyed to Cles, in Tyrol. Vittoria being only by the gentlest +interpretation of her conduct not under interdict, an unscrupulous +Imperial officer might in those military times venture to employ the +gendarmerie for his own purposes, if he could but give a plausible colour +of devotion to the Imperial interests. + +The chasseur sped lamentingly back, and Weisspriess, taking a guide from +the skirting hamlet above Edolo, quitted the Val Camonica, climbed the +Tonale, and reached Vermiglio in the branch valley of that name, +scientifically observing the features of the country as he went. At +Vermiglio he encountered a brother officer of one of his former +regiments, a fat major on a tour of inspection, who happened to be a week +behind news of the army, and detained him on the pretext of helping him +on his car--a mockery that drove Weisspriess to the perpetual reply, 'You +are my superior officer,' which reduced the major to ask him whether he +had been degraded a step. As usual, Weisspriess was pushed to assert his +haughtiness, backed by the shadow of his sword. 'I am a man with a +family,' said the major, modestly. 'Then I shall call you my superior +officer while they allow you to remain so,' returned Weisspriess, who +scorned a married soldier. + +'I aspired to the Staff once myself,' said the major. 'Unfortunately, I +grew in girth--the wrong way for ambition. I digest, I assimilate with a +fatal ease. Stout men are doomed to the obscurer paths. You may quote +Napoleon as a contrary instance. I maintain positively that his day was +over, his sun was eclipsed, when his valet had to loosen the buckles of +his waistcoat and breech. Now, what do you say?' + +'I say,' Weisspriess replied, 'that if there's a further depreciation of +the paper currency, we shall none of us have much chance of digesting or +assimilating either--if I know at all what those processes mean.' + +'Our good Lombard cow is not half squeezed enough,' observed the major, +confidentially in tone. 'When she makes a noise--quick! the pail at her +udders and work away; that's my advice. What's the verse?--our +Zwitterwitz's, I mean; the Viennese poet:-- + + "Her milk is good-the Lombard cow; + Let her be noisy when she pleases + But if she kicks the pail, I vow, + We'll make her used to sharper squeezes: + We'll write her mighty deeds in CHEESES: + (That is, if she yields milk enow)." + +'Capital! capital!' the major applauded his quotation, and went on to +speak of 'that Zwitterwitz' as having served in a border regiment, after +creating certain Court scandal, and of his carrying off a Wallach lady +from her lord and selling her to a Turk, and turning Turk himself and +keeping a harem. Five years later he reappeared in Vienna with a volume +of what he called 'Black Eagle Poems,' and regained possession of his +barony. 'So far, so good,' said the major; 'but when he applied for his +old commission in the army--that was rather too cool.' + +Weisspriess muttered intelligibly, 'I've heard the remark, that you can't +listen to a man five minutes without getting something out of him.' + +'I don't know; it may be,' said the major, imagining that Weisspriess +demanded some stronger flavours of gossip in his talk. 'There's no stir +in these valleys. They arrested, somewhere close on Trent yesterday +afternoon, a fellow calling himself Beppo, the servant of an Italian +woman--a dancer, I fancy. They're on the lookout for her too, I'm told; +though what sort of capers she can be cutting in Tyrol, I can't even +guess.' + +The major's car was journeying leisurely toward Cles. 'Whip that brute!' +Weisspriess sang out to the driver, and begging the major's pardon, +requested to know whither he was bound. The major informed him that he +hoped to sup in Trent. 'Good heaven! not at this pace,' Weisspriess +shouted. But the pace was barely accelerated, and he concealed his +reasons for invoking speed. They were late in arriving at Trent, where +Weisspriess cast eye on the imprisoned wretch, who declared piteously +that he was the trusted and innocent servant of the Signorina Vittoria, +and had been visiting all the castles of Meran in search of her. The +captain's man Wilhelm had been the one to pounce on poor Beppo while the +latter was wandering disconsolately. Leaving him to howl, Weisspriess +procured the loan of a horse from a colonel of cavalry at the Buon +Consiglio barracks, and mounted an hour before dawn, followed by Wilhelm. +He reached Cles in time to learn that Vittoria and her party had passed +through it a little in advance of him. Breakfasting there, he enjoyed +the first truly calm cigar of many days. Gendarmes whom he had met near +the place came in at his heels. They said that the party would +positively be arrested, or not allowed to cross the Monte Pallade. The +passes to Meran and Botzen, and the road to Trent, were strictly guarded. +Weisspriess hurried them forward with particular orders that they should +take into custody the whole of the party, excepting the lady; her, if +arrested with the others, they were to release: her maid and the three +men were to be marched back to Cles, and there kept fast. + +The game was now his own: he surveyed its pretty intricate moves as on a +map. The character of Herr Johannes he entirely discarded: an Imperial +officer in his uniform, sword in belt, could scarcely continue that meek +performance. 'But I may admire music, and entreat her to give me a +particular note, if she has it,' said the captain, hanging in +contemplation over a coming scene, like a quivering hawk about to close +its wings. His heart beat thick; which astonished him: hitherto it had +never made that sort of movement. + +From Cles he despatched a letter to the fair chatelaine at Meran, telling +her that by dainty and skilful management of the paces, he was bringing +on the intractable heroine of the Fifteenth, and was to be expected in +about two or three days. The letter was entrusted to Wilhelm, who took +the borrowed horse back to Trent. + +Weisspriess was on the mule-track a mile above the last village ascending +to the pass, when he observed the party of prisoners, and climbed up into +covert. As they went by he discerned but one person in female garments; +the necessity to crouch for obscurity prevented him from examining them +separately. He counted three men and beheld one of them between +gendarmes. 'That must be my villain,' he said. + +It was clear that Vittoria had chosen to go forward alone. The captain +praised her spirit, and now pushed ahead with hunter's strides. He +passed an inn, closed and tenantless: behind him lay the Val di Non; in +front the darker valley of the Adige: where was the prey? A storm of +rage set in upon him with the fear that he had been befooled. He lit a +cigar, to assume ease of aspect, whatever the circumstances might be, and +gain some inward serenity by the outer reflection of it--not altogether +without success. 'My lady must be a doughty walker,' he thought; 'at +this rate she will be in the Ultenthal before sunset.' A wooded height +ranged on his left as he descended rapidly. Coming to a roll of grass +dotted with grey rock, he climbed it, and mounting one of the boulders, +beheld at a distance of half-a-dozen stone-throws downward, the figure of +a woman holding her hand cup-shape to a wayside fall of water. The path +by which she was going rounded the height he stood on. He sprang over +the rocks, catching up his clattering steel scabbard; and plunging +through tinted leafage and green underwood, steadied his heels on a +sloping bank, and came down on the path with stones and earth and +brambles, in time to appear as a seated pedestrian when Vittoria turned +the bend of the mountain way. + +Gracefully withdrawing the cigar from his mouth, and touching his breast +with turned-in fingers, he accosted her with a comical operatic effort at +her high notes + +'Italia!' + +She gathered her arms on her bosom and looked swiftly round: then at the +apparition of her enemy. + +It is but an ironical form of respect that you offer to the prey you have +been hotly chasing and have caught. Weisspriess conceived that he had +good reasons for addressing her in the tone best suited to his character: +he spoke with a ridiculous mincing suavity: + +'My pretty sweet! are you not tired? We have not seen one another for +days! Can you have forgotten the enthusiastic Herr Johannes? You have +been in pleasant company, no doubt; but I have been all--all alone. +Think of that! What an exceedingly fortunate chance this is! I was +smoking dolefully, and imagining anything but such a rapture.--No, no, +mademoiselle, be mannerly.' The captain blocked her passage. 'You must +not leave me while I am speaking. A good governess would have taught you +that in the nursery. I am afraid you had an inattentive governess, who +did not impress upon you the duty of recognizing friends when you meet +them! Ha! you were educated in England, I have heard. Shake hands. +It is our custom--I think a better one--to kiss on the right cheek and +the left, but we will shake hands.' + +'In God's name, sir, let me go on,' Vittoria could just gather voice to +utter. + +'But,' cried the delighted captain, 'you address me in the tones of a +basso profundo! It is absurd. Do you suppose that I am to be deceived +by your artifice?--rogue that you are! Don't I know you are a woman? +a sweet, an ecstatic, a darling little woman!' + +He laughed. She shivered to hear the solitary echoes. There was +sunlight on the farthest Adige walls, but damp shade already filled the +East-facing hollows. + +'I beg you very earnestly, to let me go on,' said Vittoria. + +'With equal earnestness, I beg you to let me accompany you,' he replied. +'I mean no offence, mademoiselle; but I have sworn that I and no one but +I shall conduct you to the Castle of Sonnenberg, where you will meet the +Lenkenstein ladies, with whom I have the honour to be acquainted. You +see, you have nothing to fear if you play no foolish pranks, like a +kicking filly in the pasture.' + +'If it is your pleasure,' she said gravely; but he obtruded the bow of an +arm. She drew back. Her first blank despair at sight of the trap she +had fallen into, was clearing before her natural high courage. + +'My little lady! my precious prima donna! do you refuse the most trifling +aid from me? It's because I'm a German.' + +'There are many noble gentlemen who are Germans,' said Vittoria. + +'It 's because I'm a German; I know it is. But, don't you see, Germany +invades Italy, and keeps hold of her? Providence decrees it so--ask the +priests! You are a delicious Italian damsel, and you will take the arm +of a German.' + +Vittoria raised her face. 'Do you mean that I am your prisoner?' + +'You did not look braver at La Scala'; the captain bowed to her. + +'Ah, I forgot,' said she; 'you saw me there. If, signore, you will do me +the favour to conduct me to the nearest inn, I will sing to you.' + +'It is precisely my desire, signorina. + +You are not married to that man Guidascarpi, I presume? No, no: you are +merely his . . . friend. May I have the felicity of hearing you call +me your friend? Why, you tremble! are you afraid of me?' + +'To tell the truth, you talk too much to please me,' said Vittoria. + +The captain praised her frankness, and he liked it. The trembling of her +frame still fascinated his eyes, but her courage and the absence of all +womanly play and cowering about her manner impressed him seriously. He +stood looking at her, biting his moustache, and trying to provoke her to +smile. + +'Conduct you to the nearest inn; yes,' he said, as if musing. 'To the +nearest inn, where you will sing to me; sing to me. It is not an +objectionable scheme. The inns will not be choice: but the society will +be exquisite. Say first, I am your sworn cavalier?' + +'It does not become me to say that,' she replied, feigning a demure +sincerity, on the verge of her patience. + +'You allow me to say it?' + +She gave him a look of fire and passed him; whereat, following her, he +clapped hands, and affected to regard the movement as part of an operatic +scena. 'It is now time to draw your dagger,' he said. 'You have one, +I'm certain.' + +'Anything but touch me!' cried Vittoria, turning on him. 'I know that I +am safe. You shall teaze me, if it amuses you.' + +'Am I not, now, the object of your detestation?' + +'You are near being so.' + +'You see! You put on no disguise; why should I?' + +This remark struck her with force. + +'My temper is foolish,' she said softly. 'I have always been used to +kindness.' + +He vowed that she had no comprehension of kindness; otherwise would she +continue defiant of him? She denied that she was defiant: upon which he +accused the hand in her bosom of clutching a dagger. She cast the dagger +at his feet. It was nobly done, and he was not insensible to the courage +and inspiration of the act; for it checked a little example of a trial of +strength that he had thought of exhibiting to an armed damsel. + +'Shall I pick it up for you?' he said. + +'You will oblige me,' was her answer; but she could not control a +convulsion of her underlip that her defensive instinct told her was best +hidden. + +'Of course, you know you are safe,' he repeated her previous words, while +examining the silver handle of the dagger. 'Safe? certainly! Here is +C. A. to V. . . . A. neatly engraved: a gift; so that the young +gentleman may be sure the young lady will defend herself from lions and +tigers and wild boars, if ever she goes through forests and over mountain +passes. I will not obtrude my curiosity, but who is V . . . . A. ?' + +The dagger was Carlo's gift to her; the engraver, by singular +misadventure, had put a capital letter for the concluding letter of her +name instead of little a; she remembered the blush on Carlo's face when +she had drawn his attention to the error, and her own blush when she had +guessed its meaning. + +'It spells my name,' she said. + +'Your assumed name of Vittoria. And who is C. A.?' + +'Those are the initials of Count Carlo Ammiani.' + +'Another lover?' + +'He is my sole lover. He is my betrothed. Oh, good God!' she threw her +eyes up to heaven; 'how long am I to endure the torture of this man in my +pathway? Go, sir, or let me go on. You are intolerable. It 's the +spirit of a tiger. I have no fear of you.' + +'Nay, nay,' said Weisspriess, 'I asked the question because I am under an +obligation to run Count Carlo Ammiani through the body, and felt at once +that I should regret the necessity. As to your not fearing me, really, +far from wishing to hurt you--' + +Vittoria had caught sight of a white face framed in the autumnal forest +above her head. So keen was the glad expression of her face, that +Weisspriess looked up. + +'Come, Angelo, come to me;' she said confidently. + +Weisspriess plucked his sword out, and called to him imperiously to +descend. + +Beckoned downward by white hand and flashing blade, Angelo steadied his +feet and hands among drooping chestnut boughs, and bounded to Vittoria's +side. + +'Now march on,' Weisspriess waved his sword; 'you are my prisoners.' + +'You,' retorted Angelo; 'I know you; you are a man marked out for one of +us. I bid you turn back, if you care for your body's safety.' + +'Angelo Guidascarpi, I also know you. Assassin! you double murderer! +Defy me, and I slay you in the sight of your paramour.' + +'Captain Weisspriess, what you have spoken merits death. I implore of my +Maker that I may not have to kill you.' + +'Fool! you are unarmed.' + +Angelo took his stilet in his fist. + +'I have warned you, Captain Weisspriess. Here I stand. I dare you to +advance.' + +'You pronounce my name abominably,' said the captain, dropping his +sword's point. 'If you think of resisting me, let us have no women +looking on.' He waved his left hand at Vittoria. + +Angelo urged her to go. 'Step on for our Carlo's sake.' But it was +asking too much of her. + +'Can you fight this man?' she asked. + +'I can fight him and kill him.' + +'I will not step on,' she said. 'Must you fight him?' + +'There is no choice.' Vittoria walked to a distance at once. + +Angelo directed the captain's eyes to where, lower in the pass, there was +a level plot of meadow. + +Weisspriess nodded. 'The odds are in my favour, so you shall choose the +ground.' + +All three went silently to the meadow. + +It was a circle of green on a projecting shoulder of the mountain, +bounded by woods that sank toward the now shadowy South-flowing Adige +vale, whose Western heights were gathering red colour above a strongly- +marked brown line. Vittoria stood at the border of the wood, leaving the +two men to their work. She knew when speech was useless. + +Captain Weisspriess paced behind Angelo until the latter stopped short, +saying, 'Here!' + +'Wherever you please,' Weisspriess responded. 'The ground is of more +importance to you than to me.' + +They faced mutually; one felt the point of his stilet, the other the +temper of his sword. + +'Killing you, Angelo Guidascarpi, is the killing of a dog. But there +are such things as mad dogs. This is not a duel. It is a righteous +execution, since you force me to it: I shall deserve your thanks for +saving you from the hangman. I think you have heard that I can use my +weapon. There's death on this point for you. Make your peace with your +Maker.' + +Weisspriess spoke sternly. He delayed the lifting of his sword that the +bloody soul might pray. + +Angelo said, 'You are a good soldier: you are a bad priest. Come on.' + +A nod of magnanimous resignation to the duties of his office was the +captain's signal of readiness. He knew exactly the method of fighting +which Angelo must adopt, and he saw that his adversary was supple, and +sinewy, and very keen of eye. But, what can well compensate for even one +additional inch of steel? A superior weapon wielded by a trained wrist +in perfect coolness means victory, by every reasonable reckoning. In the +present instance, it meant nothing other than an execution, as he had +said. His contemplation of his own actual share in the performance was +nevertheless unpleasant; and it was but half willingly that he +straightened out his sword and then doubled his arm. He lessened the +odds in his favour considerably by his too accurate estimation of them. +He was also a little unmanned by the thought that a woman was to see him +using his advantage; but she stood firm in her distant corner, refusing +to be waved out of sight. Weisspriess had again to assure himself that +it was not a duel, but the enforced execution of a criminal who would not +surrender, and who was in his way. Fronting a creature that would vainly +assail him, and temporarily escape impalement by bounding and springing, +dodging and backing, now here now there, like a dangling bob-cherry, his +military gorge rose with a sickness of disgust. He had to remember as +vividly as he could realize it, that this man's life was forfeited, and +that the slaughter of him was a worthy service to Countess Anna; also, +that there were present reasons for desiring to be quit of him. He gave +Angelo two thrusts, and bled him. The skill which warded off the more +vicious one aroused his admiration. + +'Pardon my blundering,' he said; 'I have never engaged a saltimbanque +before.' + +They recommenced. Weisspriess began to weigh the sagacity of his +opponent's choice of open ground, where he could lengthen the discourse +of steel by retreating and retreating, and swinging easily to right or to +left. In the narrow track the sword would have transfixed him after a +single feint. He was amused. Much of the cat was in his combative +nature. An idea of disabling or dismembering Angelo, and forwarding him +to Meran, caused him to trifle further with the edge of the blade. +Angelo took a cut, and turned it on his arm; free of the deadly point, he +rushed in and delivered a stab; but Weisspriess saved his breast. Quick, +they resumed their former positions. + +'I am really so unused to this game!' said Weisspriess, apologetically. + +He was pale: his unsteady breathing, and a deflection of his dripping +sword-wrist, belied his coolness. Angelo plunged full on him, dropped, +and again reached his right arm; they hung, getting blood for blood, with +blazing interpenetrating eyes; a ghastly work of dark hands at half lock +thrusting, and savage eyes reading the fiery pages of the book of hell. +At last the Austrian got loose from the lock and hurled him off. + +'That bout was hotter,' he remarked; and kept his sword-point out on the +whole length of the arm: he would have scorned another for so miserable a +form either of attack or defence. + +Vittoria beheld Angelo circling round the point, which met him +everywhere; like the minute hand of a clock about to sound his hour, she +thought. + +He let fall both his arms, as if beaten, which brought on the attack: by +sheer evasion he got away from the sword's lunge, and essayed a second +trial of the bite of steel at close quarters; but the Austrian backed and +kept him to the point, darting short alluring thrusts, thinking to tempt +him on, or to wind him, and then to have him. Weisspriess was chilled by +a more curious revulsion from this sort of engagement than he at first +experienced. He had become nervously incapable of those proper niceties +of sword-play which, without any indecent hacking or maiming, should have +stretched Angelo, neatly slain, on the mat of green, before he had a +chance. Even now the sight of the man was distressing to an honourable +duellist. Angelo was scored with blood-marks. Feeling that he dared not +offer another chance to a fellow so desperately close-dealing, +Weisspriess thrust fiercely, but delayed his fatal stroke. Angelo +stooped and pulled up a handful of grass and soft earth in his left hand. + +'We have been longer about it than I expected,' said Weisspriess. + +Angelo tightened his fingers about the stringy grasstuft; he stood like a +dreamer, leaning over to the sword; suddenly he sprang on it, received +the point right in his side, sprang on it again, and seized it in his +hand, and tossed it up, and threw it square out in time to burst within +guard and strike his stilet below the Austrian's collar-bone. The blade +took a glut of blood, as when the wolf tears quick at dripping flesh. It +was at a moment when Weisspriess was courteously bantering him with the +question whether he was ready, meaning that the affirmative should open +the gates of death to him. + +The stilet struck thrice. Weisspriess tottered, and hung his jaw like a +man at a spectre: amazement was on his features. + +'Remember Broncini and young Branciani!' + +Angelo spoke no other words throughout the combat. + +Weisspriess threw himself forward on a feeble lunge of his sword, and let +the point sink in the ground, as a palsied cripple supports his frame, +swayed, and called to Angelo to come on, and try another stroke, another +--one more! He fell in a lump: his look of amazement was surmounted by a +strong frown. + +His enemy was hanging above him panting out of wide nostrils, like a +hunter's horse above the long-tongued quarry, when Vittoria came to them. + +She reached her strength to the wounded man to turn his face to heaven. + +He moaned, 'Finish me'; and, as he lay with his back to earth, 'Good- +evening to the old army!' + +A vision of leaping tumbrils, and long marching columns about to deploy, +passed before his eyelids: he thought he had fallen on the battle-field, +and heard a drum beat furiously in the back of his head; and on streamed +the cavalry, wonderfully caught away to such a distance that the figures +were all diminutive, and the regimental colours swam in smoke, and the +enemy danced a plume here and there out of the sea, while his mother and +a forgotten Viennese girl gazed at him with exactly the same unfamiliar +countenance, and refused to hear that they were unintelligible in the +roaring of guns and floods and hurrahs, and the thumping of the +tremendous big drum behind his head--'somewhere in the middle of the +earth': he tried to explain the locality of that terrible drumming noise +to them, and Vittoria conceived him to be delirious; but he knew that he +was sensible; he knew her and Angelo and the mountain-pass, and that he +had a cigar-case in his pocket worked in embroidery of crimson, blue, and +gold, by the hands of Countess Anna. He said distinctly that he desired +the cigar-case to be delivered to Countess Anna at the Castle of +Sonnenberg, and rejoiced on being assured that his wish was comprehended +and should be fulfilled; but the marvel was, that his mother should still +refuse to give him wine, and suppose him to be a boy: and when he was so +thirsty and dry-lipped that though Mina was bending over him, just fresh +from Mariazell, he had not the heart to kiss her or lift an arm to her!-- +His horse was off with him-whither?--He was going down with a company of +infantry in the Gulf of Venice: cards were in his hands, visible, though +he could not feel them, and as the vessel settled for the black plunge, +the cards flushed all honours, and his mother shook her head at him: he +sank, and heard Mina sighing all the length of the water to the bottom, +which grated and gave him two horrid shocks of pain: and he cried for a +doctor, and admitted that his horse had managed to throw him; but wine +was the cure, brandy was the cure, or water, water! Water was sprinkled +on his forehead and put to his lips. + +He thanked Vittoria by name, and imagined himself that General, serving +under old Wurmser, of whom the tale is told that being shot and lying +grievously wounded on the harsh Rivoli ground, he obtained the help of a +French officer in as bad case as himself, to moisten his black tongue and +write a short testamentary document with his blood, and for a way of +returning thanks to the Frenchman, he put down among others, the name of +his friendly enemy's widow; whereupon both resigned their hearts to +death; but the Austrian survived to find the sad widow and espouse her. + +His mutterings were full of gratitude, showing a vividly transient +impression to what was about him, that vanished in a narrow-headed flight +through clouds into lands of memory. It pained him, he said, that he +could not offer her marriage; but he requested that when his chin was +shaved his moustache should be brushed up out of the way of the clippers, +for he and all his family were conspicuous for the immense amount of life +which they had in them, and his father had lain six-and-thirty hours +bleeding on the field of Wagram, and had yet survived to beget a race as +hearty as himself:--'Old Austria! thou grand old Austria!' + +The smile was proud, though faint, which accompanied the apostrophe, +addressed either to his country or to his father's personification of it; +it was inexpressibly pathetic to Vittoria, who understood his +'Oesterreich,' and saw the weak and helpless bleeding man, with his +eyeballs working under the lids, and the palms of his hands stretched out +open-weak as a corpse, but conquering death. + +The arrival of Jacopo and Johann furnished help to carry him onward to +the nearest place of shelter. Angelo would not quit her side until he +had given money and directions to both the trembling fellows, together +with his name, that they might declare the author of the deed at once if +questioned. He then bowed to Vittoria slightly and fled. They did not +speak. + +The last sunbeams burned full crimson on the heights of the Adige +mountains as Vittoria followed the two pale men who bore the wounded +officer between them at a slow pace for the nearest village in the +descent of the pass. + +Angelo watched them out of sight. The far-off red rocks spun round his +eyeballs; the meadow was a whirling thread of green; the brown earth +heaved up to him. He felt that he was diving, and had the thought that +there was but water enough to moisten his red hands when his senses left +him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +A NEW ORDEAL + +The old city of Meran faces Southward to the yellow hills of Italy, +across a broad vale, between two mountain-walls and torrent-waters. +With one hand it takes the bounding green Passeyr, and with the other the +brown-rolling Adige, and plunges them together in roaring foam under the +shadow of the Western wall. It stands on the spur of a lower central +eminence crowned by a grey castle, and the sun has it from every aspect. +The shape of a swan in water may describe its position, for the +Vintschgau and the stony Passeyrthal make a strong curve on two sides as +they descend upon it with their rivers, and the bosom of the city +projects, while the head appears bending gracefully backward. Many +castles are in view of it; the loud and tameless Passeyr girdles it with +an emerald cincture; there is a sea of arched vineyard foliage at his +feet. + +Vittoria reached the Castle of Sonnenberg about noon, and found empty +courts and open doors. She sat in the hall like a supplicant, +disregarded by the German domestics, who beheld a travel-stained humble- +faced young Italian woman, and supposed that their duty was done in +permitting her to rest; but the duchess's maid Aennchen happening to come +by, questioned her in moderately intelligible Italian, and hearing her +name gave a cry, and said that all the company were out hunting, +shooting, and riding, in the vale below or the mountain above. "Ah, +dearest lady, what a fright we have all been in about you! Signora +Piaveni has not slept a wink, and the English gentleman has made great +excursions every day to find you. This morning the soldier Wilhelm +arrived with news that his master was bringing you on." + +Vittoria heard that Laura and her sister and the duchess had gone down to +Meran. Countess Lena von Lenkenstein was riding to see her betrothed +shoot on a neighbouring estate. Countess Anna had disappeared early, +none knew where. Both these ladies, and their sister-in-law, were in +mourning for the terrible death of their brother, Count Paul Aennchen +repeated what she knew of the tale concerning him. + +The desire to see Laura first, and be embraced and counselled by her, and +lie awhile in her arms to get a breath of home, made Vittoria refuse to +go up to her chamber, and notwithstanding Aennchen's persuasions, she +left the castle, and went out and sat in the shaded cart-track. On the +winding ascent she saw a lady in a black riding habit, leading her horse +and talking to a soldier, who seemed to be receiving orders from her, and +presently saluted and turned his steps downward. The lady came on, and +passed her without a glance. After entering the courtyard, where she +left her horse, she reappeared, and stood hesitating, but came up to +Vittoria and said bluntly, in Italian: + +"Are you the signorina Campa, or Belloni, who is expected here?" + +The Austrian character and colouring of her features told Vittoria that +this must be the Countess Anna or her sister. + +"I think I have been expected," she replied. + +"You come alone?" + +"I am alone." + +"I am Countess Anna von Lenkenstein; one of the guests of the castle." + +"My message is to the Countess Anna." + +"You have a message?" + +Vittoria lifted the embroidered cigar-case. Countess Anna snatched it +from her hand. + +"What does this mean? Is it insolence? Have the kindness, if you +please, not to address me in enigmas. Do you"--Anna was deadly pale as +she turned the cigarcase from side to side--"do you imagine that I smoke, +'par hasard?'" She tried to laugh off her intemperate manner of speech; +the laugh broke at sight of a blood-mark on one corner of the case; she +started and said earnestly, "I beg you to let me hear what the meaning of +this may be?" + +"He lies in the Ultenthal, wounded; and his wish was that I should +deliver it to you." Vittoria spoke as gently as the harsh tidings would +allow. + +"Wounded? My God! my God!" Anna cried in her own language. "Wounded?- +in the breast, then! He carried it in his breast. Wounded by what? by +what?" + +"I can tell you no more." + +"Wounded by whom?" + +"It was an honourable duel." + +"Are you afraid to tell me he has been assassinated?" + +"It was an honourable duel." + +"None could match him with the sword." + +"His enemy had nothing but a dagger." + +"Who was his enemy?" + +"It is no secret, but I must leave him to say." + +"You were a witness of the fight?" + +"I saw it all." + +"The man was one of your party! + +"Ah!" exclaimed Vittoria, "lose no time with me, Countess Anna, go to +him at once, for though he lived when I left him, he was bleeding; I +cannot say that he was not dying, and he has not a friend near." + +Anna murmured like one overborne by calamity. "My brother struck down +one day--he the next!" She covered her face a moment, and unclosed it to +explain that she wept for her brother, who had been murdered, stabbed in +Bologna. + +"Was it Count Ammiani who did this?" she asked passionately. + +Vittoria shook her head; she was divining a dreadful thing in relation to +the death of Count Paul. + +"It was not?" said Anna. "They had a misunderstanding, I know. But you +tell me the man fought with a dagger. It could not be Count Ammiani. +The dagger is an assassin's weapon, and there are men of honour in Italy +still." + +She called to a servant in the castle-yard, and sent him down with orders +to stop the soldier Wilhelm. + +"We heard this morning that you were coming, and we thought it curious," +she observed; and called again for her horse to be saddled. "How far is +this place where he is lying? I have no knowledge of the Ultenthal. Has +he a doctor attending him? When was he wounded? It is but common +humanity to see that he is attended by an efficient doctor. My nerves +are unstrung by the recent blow to our family; that is why--Oh, my +father! my holy father!" she turned to a grey priest's head that was +rising up the ascent, "I thank God for you! Lena is away riding; she +weeps constantly when she is within four walls. Come in and give me +tears, if you can; I am half mad for the want of them. Tears first; +teach me patience after." + +The old priest fanned his face with his curled hat, and raised one hand +as he uttered a gentle chiding in reproof of curbless human sorrow. Anna +said to Vittoria, coldly, "I thank you for your message:" she walked into +the castle by his side, and said to him there: "The woman you saw outside +has a guilty conscience. You will spend your time more profitably with +her than with me. I am past all religious duties at this moment. +You know, father, that I can open my heart. Probe this Italian woman; +search her through and through. I believe her to be blood-stained and +abominable. She hates us. She has sworn an oath against us. She is +malignant." + +It was not long before Anna issued forth and rode down to the vale. The +priest beckoned to Vittoria from the gates. He really supposed her to +have come to him with a burdened spirit. + +"My daughter," he addressed her. The chapter on human error was opened:" +We are all of one family--all of us erring children--all of us bound to +abnegate hatred: by love alone are we saved. Behold the Image of Love-- +the Virgin and Child. Alas! and has it been visible to man these more +than eighteen hundred years, and humankind are still blind to it? Are +their ways the ways of comfort and blessedness? Their ways are the ways +of blood; paths to eternal misery among howling fiends. Why have they +not chosen the sweet ways of peace, which are strewn with flowers, which +flow with milk?"--The priest spread his hand open for Vittoria's, which +she gave to his keeping, and he enclosed it softly, smoothing it with his +palms, and retaining it as a worldly oyster between spiritual shells. +"Why, my daughter, why, but because we do not bow to that Image daily, +nightly, hourly, momently! We do not worship it that its seed may be +sown in us. We do not cling to it, that in return it may cling to us." + +He spoke with that sensuous resource of rich feeling which the +contemplation of the Image does inspire. And Vittoria was not led +reluctantly into the oratory of the castle to pray with him; but she +refused to confess. Thereupon followed a soft discussion that was as +near being acerb as nails are near velvet paws. + +Vittoria perceived his drift, and also the dear good heart of the old +man, who meant no harm to her, and believed that he was making use of his +professional weapons for her ultimate good. The inquisitions and the +kindness went musically together; she responded to the kindness, but +rebutted the inquisitions; at which he permitted a shade of discontent to +traverse his features, and asked her with immense tenderness whether she +had not much on her mind; she expressing melodious gratitude for his +endeavours to give her comfort. He could not forbear directing an +admonishment to her stubborn spirit, and was obliged, for the sake of +impressiveness, to speak it harshly; until he saw, that without sweetness +of manner and unction of speech, he left her untouched; so he was driven +back to the form of address better suited to his nature and habits; the +end of which was that both were cooing. + +Vittoria was ashamed to tell herself how much she liked him and his +ghostly brethren, whose preaching was always of peace, while the world +was full of lurid hatred, strife, and division. She begged the baffled +old man to keep her hand in his. He talked in Latinized Italian, and +only appeared to miss the exact meaning of her replies when his +examination of the state of her soul was resumed. They sat in the soft +colour of the consecrated place like two who were shut away from earth. +Often he thought that her tears were about to start and bring her low; +for she sighed heavily; at the mere indication of the displacement of her +hand, she looked at him eagerly, as if entreating him not to let it drop. + +"You are a German, father?" she said. + +"I am of German birth, my daughter." + +"That makes it better. Remain beside me. The silence is sweet music." + +The silence was broken at intervals by his murmur of a call for patience! +patience! + +This strange scene concluded with the entry of the duchess, who retired +partly as soon as she saw them. Vittoria smiled to the old man, and left +him: the duchess gave her a hushed welcome, and took her place. Vittoria +was soon in Laura's arms, where, after a storm of grief, she related the +events of the journey following her flight from Milan. Laura interrupted +her but once to exclaim, "Angelo Guidascarpi!" Vittoria then heard from +her briefly that Milan was quiet, Carlo Ammiani in prison. It had been +for tidings of her lover that she had hastened over the mountains to +Meran. She craved for all that could be told of him, but Laura repeated, +as in a stupefaction, "Angelo Guidascarpi!" She answered Vittoria's +question by saying, "You could not have had so fatal a companion." + +"I could not have had so devoted a protector." + +"There is such a thing as an evil star. We are all under it at present, +to some degree; but he has been under it from his birth. My Sandra, my +beloved, I think I have pardoned you, if I ever pardon anyone! I doubt +it; but it is certain that I love you. You have seen Countess Anna, or I +would have told you to rest and get over your fatigue. The Lenkensteins +are here--my poor sister among them. You must show yourself. I was +provident enough to call at your mother's for a box of your clothes +before I ran out of wretched Milan." + +Further, the signora stated that Carlo might have to remain in prison. +She made no attempt to give dark or fair colour to the misery of the +situation; telling Vittoria to lie on her bed and sleep, if sleep could +be persuaded to visit her, she went out to consult with the duchess. +Vittoria lay like a dead body on the bed, counting the throbs of her +heart. It helped her to fall into a state of insensibility. When she +awoke, the room was dark; she felt that some one had put a silken cushion +across her limbs. The noise of a storm traversing the vale rang through +the castle, and in the desolation of her soul, that stealthy act of +kindness wrought in her till she almost fashioned a vow upon her lips +that she would leave the world to toss its wrecks, and dedicate her life +to God. + +For, O heaven! of what avail is human effort? She thought of the Chief, +whose life was stainless, but who stood proscribed because his aim was +too high to be attained within compass of a mortal's years. His error +seemed that he had ever aimed at all. He seemed less wise than the old +priest of the oratory. She could not disentangle him from her own +profound humiliation and sense of fallen power. Her lover's imprisonment +accused her of some monstrous culpability, which she felt unrepentingly, +not as we feel a truth, but as we submit to a terrible force of pressure. + +The morning light made her realize Carlo's fate, to whom it would +penetrate through a hideous barred loophole--a defaced and dreadful beam. +She asked herself why she had fled from Milan. It must have been some +cowardly instinct that had prompted her to fly. "Coward, coward! thing +of vanity! you, a mere woman!" she cried out, and succeeded in despising +herself sufficiently to think it possible that she had deserved to +forfeit her lover's esteem. + +It was still early when the duchess's maid came to her, bringing word +that her mistress would be glad to visit her. From the duchess Vittoria +heard of the charge against Angelo. Respecting Captain Weisspriess, +Amalia said that she had perceived his object in wishing to bring the +great cantatrice to the castle; and that it was a well-devised audacious +scheme to subdue Countess Anna:--"We Austrians also can be jealous. The +difference between us is, that it makes us tender, and you Italians +savage." She asked pointedly for an affirmative, that Vittoria was glad +to reply with, when she said: "Captain Weisspriess was perfectly +respectful to you?" She spoke comforting words of Carlo Ammiani, whom +she hoped to see released as soon as the excitement had subsided. The +chief comfort she gave was by saying that he had been originally arrested +in mistake for his cousin Angelo. + +"I will confide what is now my difficulty here frankly to you," said the +duchess. "The Lenkensteins are my guests; I thought it better to bring +them here. Angelo Guidascarpi has slain their brother--a base deed! +It does not affect you in my eyes; you can understand that in theirs it +does. Your being present--Laura has told me everything--at the duel, +or fight, between that young man and Captain Weisspriess, will make you +appear as his accomplice--at least, to Anna it will; she is the most +unreasoning, the most implacable of women. She returned from the +Ultenthal last night, and goes there this morning, which is a sign that +Captain Weisspriess lives. I should be sorry if we lost so good an +officer. As she is going to take Father Bernardus with her, it is +possible that the wound is serious. Do you know you have mystified the +worthy man exceedingly? What tempted you to inform him that your +conscience was heavily burdened, at the same time that you refused to +confess?" + +"Surely he has been deluded about me," said Vittoria. + +"I do but tell you his state of mind in regard to you," the duchess +pursued. "Under all the circumstances, this is what I have to ask: you +are my Laura's guest, therefore the guest of my heart. There is another +one here, an Englishman, a Mr. Powys; and also Lieutenant Pierson, whom, +naughty rebel that you are, you have been the means of bringing into +disgrace; naturally you would wish to see them: but my request is, that +you should keep to these rooms for two or three days: the Lenkensteins +will then be gone. They can hardly reproach me for retaining an invalid. +If you go down among them, it will be a cruel meeting." + +Vittoria thankfully consented to the arrangement. They agreed to act in +accordance with it. + +The signora was a late riser. The duchess had come on a second visit to +Vittoria when Laura joined them, and hearing of the arrangement, spurned +the notion of playing craven before the Lenkensteins, who, she said, +might think as it pleased them to think, but were never to suppose that +there was any fear of confronting them. "And now, at this very moment, +when they have their triumph, and are laughing over Viennese squibs at +her, she has an idea of hiding her head--she hangs out the white flag! +It can't be. We go or we stay; but if we stay, the truth is that we are +too poor to allow our enemies to think poorly of us. You, Amalia, are +victorious, and you may snap your fingers at opinion. It is a luxury +we cannot afford. Besides, I wish her to see my sister and make +acquaintance with the Austrianized-Italian--such a wonder as is nowhere +to be seen out of the Serabiglione and in the Lenkenstein family. +Marriage is, indeed, a tremendous transformation. Bianca was once +declared to be very like me." + +The brow-beaten duchess replied to the outburst that she had considered +it right to propose the scheme for Vittoria's seclusion on account of the +Guidascarpi. + +"Even if that were a good reason, there are better on the other side," +said Laura; adding, with many little backward tosses of the head, "That +story has to be related in full before I denounce Angelo and Rinaldo." + +"It cannot be denied that they are assassins," returned the duchess. + +"It cannot be denied that they have killed one man or more. For you, +Justice drops from the bough: we have to climb and risk our necks for it. +Angelo stood to defend my darling here. Shall she be ashamed of him?" + +"You will never persuade me to tolerate assassination," said the duchess +colouring. + +"Never, never; I shall never persuade you; never persuade--never attempt +to persuade any foreigner that we can be driven to extremes where their +laws do not apply to us--are not good for us--goad a subjected people +till their madness is pardonable. Nor shall I dream of persuading you +that Angelo did right in defending her from that man." + +"I maintain that there are laws applicable to all human creatures," said +the duchess. "You astonish me when you speak compassionately of such a +criminal." + +"No; not of such a criminal, of such an unfortunate youth, and my +countryman, when every hand is turned against him, and all tongues are +reviling him. But let Angelo pass; I pray to heaven he may escape. All +who are worth anything in our country are strained in every fibre, and +it's my trick to be half in love with anyone of them when he is +persecuted. I fancy he is worth more than the others, and is simply +luckless. You must make allowances for us, Amalia--pity captive Judah!" + +"I think, my Laura, you will never be satisfied till I have ceased to be +Babylonian," said the duchess, smiling and fondling Vittoria, to whom she +said, "Am I not a complaisant German?" + +Vittoria replied gently, "If they were like you!" + +"Yes, if they were like the duchess," said Laura, "nothing would be left +for us then but to hate ourselves. Fortunately, we deal with brutes." + +She was quite pitiless in prompting Vittoria to hasten down, and +marvelled at the evident reluctance in doing this slight duty, of one +whose courage she had recently seen rise so high. Vittoria was equally +amazed by her want of sympathy, which was positive coldness, and her +disregard for the sentiments of her hostess. She dressed hesitatingly, +responding with forlorn eyes to Laura's imperious "Come." When at last +she was ready to descend, Laura took her dawn, full of battle. The +duchess had gone in advance to keep the peace. + +The ladies of the Lenkenstein family were standing at one window of the +morning room conversing. Apart from them, Merthyr Powys and Wilfrid were +examining one of the cumbrous antique arms ranged along the wall. The +former of these old English friends stepped up to Vittoria quickly and +kissed her forehead. Wilfrid hung behind him; he made a poor show of +indifference, stammered English and reddened; remembering that he was +under observation he recovered wonderfully, and asked, like a patron, +"How is the voice?" which would have been foolish enough to Vittoria's +more attentive hearing. She thanked him for the service he had rendered +her at La Scala. Countess Lena, who looked hard at both, saw nothing to +waken one jealous throb. + +"Bianca, you expressed a wish to give a salute to my eldest daughter," +said Laura. + +The Countess of Lenkenstein turned her head. "Have I done so?" + +"It is my duty to introduce her," interposed the duchess, and conducted +the ceremony with a show of its embracing these ladies, neither one of +whom changed her cold gaze. + +Careful that no pause should follow, she commenced chatting to the ladies +and gentlemen alternately, keeping Vittoria under her peculiar charge. +Merthyr alone seconded her efforts to weave the web of converse, which is +an armistice if not a treaty on these occasions. + +"Have you any fresh caricatures from Vienna?" Laura continued to address +her sister. + +"None have reached me," said the neutral countess. + +"Have they finished laughing?" + +"I cannot tell." + +"At any rate, we sing still," Laura smiled to Vittoria. "You shall hear +us after breakfast. I regret excessively that you were not in Milan on +the Fifteenth. We will make amends to you as much as possible. You +shall hear us after breakfast. You will sing to please my sister, Sandra +mia, will you not?" + +Vittoria shook her head. Like those who have become passive, she read +faces--the duchess's imploring looks thrown from time to time to the +Lenkenstein ladies, Wilfrid's oppressed forehead, the resolute neutrality +of the countess--and she was not only incapable of seconding Laura's +aggressive war, but shrank from the involvement and sickened at the +indelicacy. Anna's eyes were fixed on her and filled her with dread lest +she should be resolving to demand a private interview. + +"You refuse to sing?" said Laura; and under her breath, "When I bid you +not, you insist!" + +"Can she possibly sing before she grows accustomed to the air of the +place?" said the duchess. + +Merthyr gravely prescribed a week's diet on grapes antecedent to the +issuing of a note. "Have you never heard what a sustained grape-diet +will do for the bullfinches?" + +"Never," exclaimed the duchess. "Is that the secret of their German +education?" + +"Apparently, for we cannot raise them to the same pitch of perfection in +England." + +"I will try it upon mine. Every morning they shall have two big +bunches." + +"Fresh plucked, and with the first sunlight on them. Be careful of the +rules." + +Wilfrid remarked, "To make them exhibit the results, you withdraw the +benefit suddenly, of course?" + +"We imitate the general run of Fortune's gifts as much as we can," said +Merthyr. + +"That is the training for little shrill parrots: we have none in Italy," +Laura sighed, mock dolefully; "I fear the system would fail among us." + +"It certainly would not build Como villas," said Lena. + +Laura cast sharp eyes on her pretty face. + +"It is adapted for caged voices that are required to chirrup to tickle +the ears of boors." + +Anna said to the duchess: "I hope your little birds are all well this +morning." + +"Come to them presently with me and let our ears be tickled," the duchess +laughed in answer; and the spiked dialogue broke, not to revive. + +The duchess had observed the constant direction of Anna's eyes upon +Vittoria during the repast, and looked an interrogation at Anna, who +replied to it firmly. "I must be present," the duchess whispered. She +drew Vittoria away by the hand, telling Merthyr Powys that it was unkind +to him, but that he should be permitted to claim his fair friend from +noon to the dinner-bell. + +Laura and Bianca were discussing the same subject as the one for which +Anna desired an interview with Vittoria. It was to know the conditions +and cause of the duel between Angelo Guidascarpi and Captain Weisspriess, +and whither Angelo had fled. "In other words, you cry for vengeance +under the name of justice," Laura phrased it, and put up a prayer for +Angelo's escape. + +The countess rebuked her. "It is men like Angelo who are a scandal to +Italy." + +"Proclaimed so; but by what title are they judged?" Laura retorted. +"I have heard that his duel with Count Paul was fair, and that the +grounds for it were just. Deplore it; but to condemn an Italian +gentleman without hearing his personal vindication, is infamous; nay, it +is Austrian. I know next to nothing of the story. Countess Ammiani has +assured me that the brothers have a clear defence--not from your Vienna +point of view: Italy and Vienna are different sides of the shield." + +Vittoria spoke most humbly before Anna; her sole irritating remark was, +that even if she were aware of the direction of Angelo's flight, she +would not betray him. + +The duchess did her utmost to induce her to see that he was a criminal, +outlawed from common charity. "These Italians are really like the Jews," +she said to Anna; "they appear to me to hold together by a bond of race: +you cannot get them to understand that any act can be infamous when one +of their blood is guilty of it." + +Anna thought gloomily: "Then, why do you ally yourself to them?" + +The duchess, with Anna, Lena, and Wilfrid, drove to the Ultenthal. +Vittoria and Merthyr had a long afternoon of companionship. She had been +shyer in meeting him than in meeting Wilfrid, whom she had once loved. +The tie between herself and Wilfrid was broken; but Merthyr had remained +true to his passionless affection, which ennobled him to her so that her +heart fluttered, though she was heavily depressed. He relieved her by +letting her perceive that Carlo Ammiani's merits were not unknown to him. +Merthyr smiled at Carlo for abjuring his patrician birth. He said: +"Count Ammiani will be cured in time of those little roughnesses of his +adopted Republicanism. You must help to cure him. Women are never so +foolish as men in these things." + +When Merthyr had spoken thus, she felt that she might dare to press his +hand. Sharing friendship with this steadfast nature and brotherly +gentleman; who was in the ripe manhood of his years; who loved Italy and +never despaired; who gave great affection, and took uncomplainingly the +possible return for it;--seemed like entering on a great plain open to +boundless heaven. She thought that friendship was sweeter than love. +Merthyr soon left the castle to meet his sister at Coire. Laura and +Vittoria drove some distance up the Vintschgau, on the way to the +Engadine, with him. He affected not to be downcast by the failure of the +last attempt at a rising in Milan. "Keep true to your Art; and don't let +it be subservient to anything," he said, and his final injunction to her +was that she should get a German master and practise rigidly. + +Vittoria could only look at Laura in reply. + +"He is for us, but not of us," said Laura, as she kissed her fingers to +him. + +"If he had told me to weep and pray," Vittoria murmured, "I think I +should by-and-by lift up my head." + +"By-and-by! By-and-by I think I see a convent for me," said Laura. + +Their faces drooped. + +Vittoria cried: "Ah! did he mean that my singing at La Scala was below +the mark?" + +At this, Laura's laughter came out in a volume. "And that excellent +Father Bernardus thinks he is gaining a convert!" she said. + +Vittoria's depression was real, though her strong vitality appeared to +mock it. Letters from Milan, enclosed to the duchess, spoke of Carlo +Ammiani's imprisonment as a matter that might be indefinitely prolonged. +His mother had been subjected to an examination; she had not hesitated to +confess that she had received her nephew in her house, but it could not +be established against her that it was not Carlo whom she had passed off +to the sbirri as her son. Countess Ammiani wrote to Laura, telling her +she scarcely hoped that Carlo would obtain his liberty save upon the +arrest of Angelo:--"Therefore, what I most desire, I dare not pray for!" +That line of intense tragic grief haunted Vittoria like a veiled head +thrusting itself across the sunlight. Countess Ammiani added that she +must give her son what news she could gather;--"Concerning you," said +Laura, interpreting the sentence: "Bitter days do this good, they make +a proud woman abjure the traditions of her caste." A guarded answer +was addressed, according to the countess's directions, to Sarpo the +bookseller, in Milan. For purposes of such a nature, Barto Rizzo +turned the uneasy craven to account. + +It happened that one of the maids at Sonnenberg was about to marry a +peasant, of Meran, part proprietor of a vineyard, and the nuptials were +to be celebrated at the castle. Among those who thronged the courtyard +on the afternoon of the ceremony, Vittoria beheld her faithful Beppo, who +related the story of his pursuit of her, and the perfidy of Luigi;--a +story so lengthy, that his voluble tongue running at full speed could +barely give the outlines of it. He informed her, likewise, that he had +been sent for, while lying in Trent, by Captain Weisspriess, whom he had +seen at an inn of the Ultenthal, weak but improving. Beppo was the +captain's propitiatory offering to Vittoria. Meanwhile the ladies sat +on a terrace, overlooking the court, where a stout fellow in broad green +braces and blue breeches lay half across a wooden table, thrumming a +zither, which set the groups in motion. The zither is a melancholy +little instrument; in range of expression it is to the harp what the +winchat is to the thrush; or to the violin, what that bird is to the +nightingale; yet few instruments are so exciting: here and there along +these mountain valleys you may hear a Tyrolese maid set her voice to its +plaintive thin tones; but when the strings are swept madly there is mad +dancing; it catches at the nerves. "Andreas! Andreas!" the dancers +shouted to encourage the player. Some danced with vine-poles; partners +broke and wandered at will, taking fresh partners, and occasionally +huddling in confusion, when the poles were levelled and tilted at them, +and they dispersed. Beppo, dancing mightily to recover the use of his +legs, met his acquaintance Jacob Baumwalder Feckelwitz, and the pair +devoted themselves to a rivalry of capers; jump, stamp, shuffle, leg +aloft, arms in air, yell and shriek: all took hands around them and +streamed, tramping the measure, and the vine-poles guarded the ring. +Then Andreas raised the song: "Our Lady is gracious," and immediately +the whole assemblage were singing praise to the Lady of the castle. +Following which, wine being brought to Andreas, he drank to his lady, +to his lady's guests, to the bride, to the, bridegroom, to everybody. +He was now ready to improvize, and dashed thumb and finger on the zither, +tossing up his face, swarthy-flushed: "There was a steinbock with a +beard." Half-a-dozen voices repeated it, as to proclaim the theme. + +Alas! a beard indeed, for there is no end to this animal. I know him;" +said the duchess dolefully. + + "There was a steinbock with a beard; + Of no gun was he afeard + Piff-paff left of him: piff-paff right of him + Piff-paff everywhere, where you get a sight of him." + +The steinbock led through the whole course of a mountaineer's emotions +and experiences, with piff-paff continually left of him and right of him +and nothing hitting him. The mountaineer is perplexed; an able man, a +dead shot, who must undo the puzzle or lose faith in his skill, is a +tremendous pursuer, and the mountaineer follows the steinbock ever. A +'sennderin' at a 'sennhutchen' tells him that she admitted the steinbock +last night, and her curled hair frizzled under the steinbock's eyes. The +case is only too clear: my goodness! the steinbock is the----. "Der Teu +. . . !" said Andreas, with a comic stop of horror, the rhyme falling +cleverly to "ai." Henceforth the mountaineer becomes transformed into a +champion of humanity, hunting the wicked bearded steinbock in all +corners; especially through the cabinet of those dark men who decree the +taxes detested in Tyrol. + +The song had as yet but fairly commenced, when a break in the 'piff-paff' +chorus warned Andreas that he was losing influence, women and men were +handing on a paper and bending their heads over it; their responses +hushed altogether, or were ludicrously inefficient. + +"I really believe the poor brute has come to a Christian finish--this +Ahasuerus of steinbocks!" said the duchess. + +The transition to silence was so extraordinary and abrupt, that she +called to her chasseur to know the meaning of it. Feckelwitz fetched the +paper and handed it up. It exhibited a cross done in blood under the +word 'Meran,' and bearing that day's date. One glance at it told Laura +what it meant. The bride in the court below was shedding tears: +the bridegroom was lighting his pipe and consoling her; women were +chattering, men shrugging. Some said they had seen an old grey-haired +hag (hexe) stand at the gates and fling down a piece of paper. A little +boy whose imagination was alive with the tale of the steinbock, declared +that her face was awful, and that she had only the, use of one foot. A +man patted him on the shoulder, and gave him a gulp of wine, saying with +his shrewdest air: "One may laugh at the devil once too often, though!" +and that sentiment was echoed; the women suggested in addition the +possibility of the bride Lisa having something on her conscience, +seeing that she had lived in a castle two years and more. The potential +persuasions of Father Bernardus were required to get the bride to go away +to her husband's roof that evening: when she did make her departure, the +superstitious peasantry were not a merry party that followed at her +heels. + +At the break-up of the festivities Wilfrid received an intimation that +his sister had arrived in Meran from Bormio. He went down to see her, +and returned at a late hour. The ladies had gone to rest. He wrote a +few underlined words, entreating Vittoria to grant an immediate interview +in the library of the castle. The missive was entrusted to Aennchen. +Vittoria came in alarm. + +"My sister is perfectly well," said Wilfrid. "She has heard that Captain +Gambier has been arrested in the mountains; she had some fears concerning +you, which I quieted. What I have to tell you, does not relate to her. +The man Angelo Guidascarpi is in Meran. I wish you to let the signora +know that if he is not carried out of the city before sunset to-morrow, +I must positively inform the superior officer of the district of his +presence there." + +This was their first private interview. Vittoria (for she knew him) had +acceded to it, much fearing that it would lead to her having to put on +her sex's armour. To collect her wits, she asked tremblingly how Wilfrid +had chanced to see Angelo. An old Italian woman, he said, had accosted +him at the foot of the mountain, and hearing that he was truly an +Englishman--"I am out of my uniform," Wilfrid remarked with intentional +bitterness--had conducted him to the house of an Italian in the city, +where Angelo Guidascarpi was lying. + +"Ill?" said Vittoria. + +"Just recovering. After that duel, or whatever it may be called with +Weisspriess, he lay all night out on the mountains. He managed to get +the help of a couple of fellows, who led him at dusk into Meran, saw an +Italian name over a shop, and--I will say for them that the rascals hold +together. There he is, at all events." + +"Would you denounce a sick man, Wilfrid?" + +"I certainly cannot forget my duty upon every point" + +"You are changed!" + +"Changed! Am I the only one who is changed?" + +"He must have supposed that it would be Merthyr. I remember speaking of +Merthyr to him as our unchangeable friend. I told him Merthyr would be +here." + +"Instead of Merthyr, he had the misfortune to see your changeable friend, +if you will have it so." + +"But how can it be your duty to denounce him, Wilfrid. You have quitted +that army." + +"Have I? I have forfeited my rank, perhaps." + +"And Angelo is not guilty of a military offence." + +"He has slain one of a family that I am bound to respect." + +"Certainly, certainly," said Vittoria hurriedly. + +Her forehead showed distress of mind; she wanted Laura's counsel. + +"Wilfrid, do you know the whole story?" + +"I know that he inveigled Count Paul to his house and slew him; either he +or his brother, or both." + +"I have been with him for days, Wilfrid. I believe that he would do no +dishonourable thing. He is related----". + +"He is the cousin of Count Ammiani." + +"Ah! would you plunge us in misery?" + +"How?" + +"Count Ammiani is my lover." + +She uttered it unblushingly, and with tender eyes fixed on him. + +"Your lover!" he exclaimed, with vile emphasis. + +"He will be my husband," she murmured, while the mounting hot colour +burned at her temples. + +"Changed--who is changed?" he said, in a vehement underneath. "For that +reason I am to be false to her who does me the honour to care for me!" + +"I would not have you false to her in thought or deed." + +"You ask me to spare this man on account of his relationship to your +lover, and though he has murdered the brother of the lady whom I esteem. +What on earth is the meaning of the petition? Really, you amaze me." + +"I appeal to your generosity, Wilfrid, I am Emilia." + +"Are you?" + +She gave him her hand. He took it, and felt at once the limit of all +that he might claim. Dropping the hand, he said: + +"Will nothing less than my ruin satisfy you? Since that night at La +Scala, I am in disgrace with my uncle; I expect at any moment to hear +that I am cashiered from the army, if not a prisoner. What is it that +you ask of me now? To conspire with you in shielding the man who has +done a mortal injury to the family of which I am almost one. Your reason +must perceive that you ask too much. I would willingly assist you in +sparing the feelings of Count Ammiani; and, believe me, gratitude is the +last thing I require to stimulate my services. You ask too much; you +must see that you ask too much." + +"I do," said Vittoria. "Good-night, Wilfrid." + +He was startled to find her going, and lost his equable voice in trying +to detain her. She sought relief in Laura's bosom, to whom she +recapitulated the interview. + +"Is it possible," Laura said, looking at her intently, "that you do not +recognize the folly of telling this Lieutenant Pierson that you were +pleading to him on behalf of your lover? Could anything be so monstrous, +when one can see that he is malleable to the twist of your little finger? +Are you only half a woman, that you have no consciousness of your power? +Probably you can allow yourself--enviable privilege!--to suppose that +he called you down at this late hour simply to inform you that he is +compelled to do something which will cause you unhappiness! I repeat, +it is an enviable privilege. Now, when the real occasion has come for +you to serve us, you have not a single weapon--except these tears, which +you are wasting on my lap. Be sure that if he denounces Angelo, Angelo's +life cries out against you. You have but to quicken your brain to save +him. Did he expose his life for you or not? I knew that he was in +Meran," the signora continued sadly. "The paper which frightened the +silly peasants, revealed to me that he was there, needing help. I told +you Angelo was under an evil star. I thought my day to-morrow would be +a day of scheming. The task has become easy, if you will." + +"Be merciful; the task is dreadful," said Vittoria. + +"The task is simple. You have an instrument ready to your hands. You +can do just what you like with him--make an Italian of him; make him +renounce his engagement to this pert little Lena of Lenkenstein, break +his sword, play Arlecchino, do what you please. He is not required for +any outrageous performance. A week, and Angelo will have recovered his +strength; you likewise may resume the statuesque demeanour which you have +been exhibiting here. For the space of one week you are asked for some +natural exercise of your wits and compliancy. Hitherto what have you +accomplished, pray?" Laura struck spitefully at Vittoria's degraded +estimation of her worth as measured by events. "You have done nothing-- +worse than nothing. It gives me horrors to find it necessary to entreat +you to look your duty in the face and do it, that even three or four +Italian hearts--Carlo among them--may thank you. Not Carlo, you say?" +(Vittoria had sobbed, "No, not Carlo.") "How little you know men! How +little do you think how the obligations of the hour should affect a +creature deserving life! Do you fancy that Carlo wishes you to be for +ever reading the line of a copy-book and shaping your conduct by it? Our +Italian girls do this; he despises them. Listen to me; do not I know +what is meant by the truth of love? I pass through fire, and keep +constant to it; but you have some vile Romance of Chivalry in your head; +a modern sculptor's figure, 'MEDITATION;' that is the sort of bride you +would give him in the stirring days of Italy. Do you think it is only a +statue that can be true? Perceive--will you not--that this Lieutenant +Pierson is your enemy. He tells you as much; surely the challenge is +fair? Defeat him as you best can. Angelo shall not be abandoned." + +"O me! it is unendurable; you are merciless," said Vittoria, shuddering. + +She saw the vile figure of herself aping smirks and tender meanings to +her old lover. It was a picture that she dared not let her mind rest on: +how then could she personate it? All through her life she had been +frank; as a young woman, she was clear of soul; she felt that her, +simplicity was already soiled by the bare comprehension of the abominable +course indicated by Laura. Degradation seemed to have been a thing up to +this moment only dreamed of; but now that it was demanded of her to play +coquette and trick her womanhood with false allurements, she knew the +sentiment of utter ruin; she was ashamed. No word is more lightly spoken +than shame. Vittoria's early devotion to her Art, and subsequently to +her Italy, had carried her through the term when she would otherwise have +showed the natural mild attack of the disease. It came on her now in a +rush, penetrating every chamber of her heart, overwhelming her; she could +see no distinction between being ever so little false and altogether +despicable. She had loathings of her body and her life. With grovelling +difficulty of speech she endeavoured to convey the sense of her +repugnance to Laura, who leaned her ear, wondering at such bluntness of +wit in a woman, and said, "Are you quite deficient in the craft of your +sex, child? You can, and you will, guard yourself ten times better when +your aim is simply to subject him." But this was not reason to a spirit +writhing in the serpent-coil of fiery blushes. + +Vittoria said, "I shall pity him so." + +She meant she would pity Wilfrid in deluding him. It was a taint of the +hypocrisy which comes with shame. + +The signora retorted: "I can't follow the action of your mind a bit." + +Pity being a form of tenderness, Laura supposed that she would +intuitively hate the man who compelled her to do what she abhorred. + +They spent the greater portion of the night in this debate. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE ESCAPE OF ANGELO + +Vittoria knew better than Laura that the task was easy; she had but to +override her aversion to the show of trifling with a dead passion; and +when she thought of Angelo lying helpless in the swarm of enemies, and +that Wilfrid could consent to use his tragic advantage to force her to +silly love-play, his selfishness wrought its reflection, so that she +became sufficiently unjust to forget her marvellous personal influence +over him. Even her tenacious sentiment concerning his white uniform was +clouded. She very soon ceased to be shamefaced in her own fancy. At +dawn she stood at her window looking across the valley of Meran, and felt +the whole scene in a song of her heart, with the faintest recollection of +her having passed through a tempest overnight. The warm Southern glow +of the enfoliaged valley recalled her living Italy, and Italy her voice. +She grew wakefully glad: it was her nature, not her mind, that had +twisted in the convulsions of last night's horror of shame. The chirp +of healthy blood in full-flowing veins dispersed it; and as a tropical +atmosphere is cleared by the hurricane, she lost her depression and went +down among her enemies possessed by an inner delight, that was again of +her nature, not of her mind. She took her gladness for a happy sign that +she had power to rise buoyant above circumstances; and though aware that +she was getting to see things in harsh outlines, she was unconscious of +her haggard imagination. + +The Lenkensteins had projected to escape the blandishments of Vienna by +residing during the winter in Venice, where Wilfrid and his sister were +to be the guests of the countess:--a pleasant prospect that was dashed +out by an official visit from Colonel Zofel of the Meran garrison, +through whom it was known that Lieutenant Pierson, while enjoying his +full liberty to investigate the charms of the neighbourhood, might not +extend his excursions beyond a pedestrian day's limit;--he was, in fact, +under surveillance. The colonel formally exacted his word of honour that +he would not attempt to pass the bounds, and explained to the duchess +that the injunction was favourable to the lieutenant, as implying that he +must be ready at any moment to receive the order to join his regiment. +Wilfrid bowed with a proper soldierly submission. Respecting the +criminal whom his men were pursuing, Colonel Zofel said that he was +sparing no efforts to come on his traces; he supposed, from what he had +heard in the Ultenthal, that Guidascarpi was on his back somewhere within +a short range of Meran. Vittoria strained her ears to the colonel's +German; she fancied his communication to be that he suspected Angelo's +presence in Meran. + +The official part of his visit being terminated, the colonel addressed +some questions to the duchess concerning the night of the famous +Fifteenth at La Scala. He was an amateur, and spoke with enthusiasm of +the reports of the new prima donna. The duchess perceived that he was +asking for an introduction to the heroine of the night, and graciously +said that perhaps that very prima donna would make amends, to him for his +absence on the occasion. Vittoria checked a movement of revolt in her +frame. She cast an involuntary look at Wilfrid. "Now it begins," she +thought, and went to the piano: she had previously refused to sing. +Wilfrid had to bend his head over his betrothed and listen to her +whisperings. He did so, carelessly swaying his hand to the measure of +the aria, with an increasing bitter comparison of the two voices. Lena +persisted in talking; she was indignant at his abandonment of the journey +to Venice; she reproached him as feeble, inconsiderate, indifferent. +Then for an instant she would pause to hear the voice, and renew her +assault. "We ought to be thankful that she is not singing a song of +death and destruction to us! The archduchess is coming to Venice. +If you are presented to her and please her, and get the writs of +naturalization prepared, you will be one of us completely, and your +fortune is made. If you stay here--why should you stay? It is nothing +but your uncle's caprice. I am too angry to care for music. If you +stay, you will earn my contempt. I will not be buried another week in +such a place. I am tired of weeping. We all go to Venice: Captain +Weisspriess follows us. We are to have endless Balls, an opera, a Court +there--with whom am I to dance, pray, when I am out of mourning? Am I to +sit and govern my feet under a chair, and gaze like an imbecile nun? It +is too preposterous. I am betrothed to you; I wish, I wish to behave +like a betrothed. The archduchess herself will laugh to see me chained +to a chair. I shall have to reply a thousand times to 'Where is he?' +What can I answer? 'Wouldn't come,' will be the only true reply." + +During this tirade, Vittoria was singing one of her old songs, well known +to Wilfrid, which brought the vision of a foaming weir, and moonlight +between the branches of a great cedar-tree, and the lost love of his +heart sitting by his side in the noising stillness. He was sure that she +could be singing it for no one but for him. The leap taken by his spirit +from this time to that, was shorter than from the past back to the +present. + +"You do not applaud," said Lena, when the song had ceased. + +He murmured: "I never do, in drawing-rooms." + +"A cantatrice expects it everywhere; these creatures live on it." + +"I'll tell her, if you like, what we thought of it, when I take her down +to my sister, presently." + +"Are you not to take me down?" + +"The etiquette is to hand her up to you." + +"No, no!" Lena insisted, in abhorrence of etiquette; but Wilfrid said +pointedly that his sister's feelings must be spared. "Her husband is an +animal: he is a millionaire city-of-London merchant; conceive him! He +has drunk himself gouty on Port wine, and here he is for the grape-cure." + +"Ah! in that England of yours, women marry for wealth," said Lena. + +"Yes, in your Austria they have a better motive" he interpreted her +sentiment. + +"Say, in our Austria." + +"In our Austria, certainly." + +"And with our holy religion?" + +"It is not yet mine." + +"It will be?" She put the question eagerly. + +Wilfrid hesitated, and by his adept hesitation succeeded in throwing her +off the jealous scent. + +"Say that it will be, my Wilfrid!" + +"You must give me time" + +"This subject always makes you cold." + +"My own Lena!" + +"Can I be, if we are doomed to be parted when we die?" + +There is small space for compunction in a man's heart when he is in +Wilfrid's state, burning with the revival of what seemed to him a +superhuman attachment. He had no design to break his acknowledged +bondage to Countess Lena, and answered her tender speech almost as +tenderly. + +It never occurred to him, as he was walking down to Meran with Vittoria, +that she could suppose him to be bartering to help rescue the life of a +wretched man in return for soft confidential looks of entreaty; nor did +he reflect, that when cast on him, they might mean no more than the +wish to move him for a charitable purpose. The completeness of her +fascination was shown by his reading her entirely by his own emotions, +so that a lowly-uttered word, or a wavering unwilling glance, made him +think that she was subdued by the charm of the old days. + +"Is it here?" she said, stopping under the first Italian name she saw in +the arcade of shops. + +"How on earth have you guessed it?" he asked, astonished. + +She told him to wait at the end of the arcade, and passed in. When she +joined him again, she was downcast. They went straight to Adela's hotel, +where the one thing which gave her animation was the hearing that Mr. +Sedley had met an English doctor there, and had placed himself in his +hands. Adela dressed splendidly for her presentation to the duchess. +Having done so, she noticed Vittoria's depressed countenance and +difficult breathing. She commanded her to see the doctor. Vittoria +consented, and made use of him. She could tell Laura confidently at +night that Wilfrid would not betray Angelo, though she had not spoken +one direct word to him on the subject. + +Wilfrid was peculiarly adept in the idle game he played. One who is +intent upon an evil end is open to expose his plan. But he had none in +view; he lived for the luxurious sensation of being near the woman who +fascinated him, and who was now positively abashed when by his side. +Adela suggested to him faintly--she believed it was her spontaneous idea +--that he might be making his countess jealous. He assured her that the +fancy sprang from scenes which she remembered, and that she could have no +idea of the pride of a highborn Austrian girl, who was incapable of +conceiving jealousy of a person below her class. Adela replied that it +was not his manner so much as Emilia's which might arouse the suspicion; +but she immediately affected to appreciate the sentiments of a highborn +Austrian girl toward a cantatrice, whose gifts we regard simply as an +aristocratic entertainment. Wilfrid induced his sister to relate +Vittoria's early history to Countess Lena; and himself almost wondered, +when he heard it in bare words, at that haunting vision of the glory of +Vittoria at La Scala--where, as he remembered, he would have run against +destruction to cling to her lips. Adela was at first alarmed by the +concentrated wrathfulness which she discovered in the bosom of Countess +Anna, who, as their intimacy waxed, spoke of the intruding opera siren in +terms hardly proper even to married women; but it seemed right, as being +possibly aristocratic. Lena was much more tolerant. "I have just the +same enthusiasm for soldiers that my Wilfrid has for singers," she said; +and it afforded Adela exquisite pleasure to hear her tell how that she +had originally heard of the 'eccentric young Englishman,' General +Pierson's nephew, as a Lustspiel--a comedy; and of his feats on +horseback, and his duels, and his--he was very wicked over here, you +know;" Lena laughed. She assumed the privileges of her four-and-twenty +years and her rank. Her marriage was to take place in the Spring. She +announced it with the simplicity of an independent woman of the world, +adding, "That is, if my Wilfrid will oblige me by not plunging into +further disgrace with the General." + +"No; you will not marry a man who is under a cloud," Anna subjoined. + +"Certainly not a soldier," said Lena. "What it was exactly that he did +at La Scala, I don't know, and don't care to know, but he was then +ignorant that she had touched the hand of that Guidascarpi. I decide by +this--he was valiant; he defied everybody: therefore I forgive him. He +is not in disgrace with me. I will reinstate him." + +"You have your own way of being romantic," said Anna. "A soldier who +forgets his duty is in my opinion only a brave fool." + +"It seems to me that a great many gallant officers are fond of fine +voices," Lena retorted. + +"No doubt it is a fashion among them," said Anna. + +Adela recoiled with astonishment when she began to see the light in which +the sisters regarded Vittoria; and she was loyal enough to hint and +protest on her friend's behalf. The sisters called her a very good soul. +"It may not be in England as over here," said Anna. "We have to submit +to these little social scourges." + +Lena whispered to Adela, "An angry woman will think the worst. I have no +doubt of my Wilfrid. If I had!--" + +Her eyes flashed. Fire was not wanting in her. + +The difficulties which tasked the amiable duchess to preserve an outward +show of peace among the antagonistic elements she gathered together were +increased by the arrival at the castle of Count Lenkenstein, Bianca's +husband, and head of the family, from Bologna. He was a tall and courtly +man, who had one face for his friends and another for the reverse party; +which is to say, that his manners could be bad. Count Lenkenstein was +accompanied by Count Serabiglione, who brought Laura's children with +their Roman nurse, Assunta. Laura kissed her little ones, and sent them +out of her sight. Vittoria found her home in their play and prattle. +She needed a refuge, for Count Lenkenstein was singularly brutal in his +bearing toward her. He let her know that he had come to Meran to +superintend the hunt for the assassin, Angelo Guidascarpi. He attempted +to exact her promise in precise speech that she would be on the spot to +testify against Angelo when that foul villain should be caught. He +objected openly to Laura's children going about with her. Bitter talk +on every starting subject was exchanged across the duchess's table. +She herself was in disgrace on Laura's account, and had to practise +an overflowing sweetness, with no one to second her efforts. The two +noblemen spoke in accord on the bubble revolution. The strong hand--ay, +the strong hand! The strong hand disposes of vermin. Laura listened to +them, pallid with silent torture. "Since the rascals have taken to +assassination, we know that we have them at the dregs," said Count +Lenkenstein. "A cord round the throats of a few scores of them, and the +country will learn the virtue of docility." + +Laura whispered to her sister: "Have you espoused a hangman?" + +Such dropping of deadly shells in a quiet society went near to scattering +it violently; but the union was necessitous. Count Lenkenstein desired +to confront Vittoria with Angelo; Laura would not quit her side, and +Amalia would not expel her friend. Count Lenkenstein complained roughly +of Laura's conduct; nor did Laura escape her father's reproof. "Sir, you +are privileged to say what you will to me," she responded, with the +humility which exasperated him. + +"Yes, you bend, you bend, that you may be stiff-necked when it suits +you," he snapped her short. + +"Surely that is the text of the sermon you preach to our Italy!" + +"A little more, as you are running on now, madame, and our Italy will be +froth on the lips. You see, she is ruined." + +"Chi lo fa, lo sa," hummed Laura; "but I would avoid quoting you as that +authority." + +"After your last miserable fiasco, my dear!" + +"It was another of our school exercises. We had not been good boys and +girls. We had learnt our lesson imperfectly. We have received our +punishment, and we mean to do better next time." + +"Behave seasonably, fittingly; be less of a wasp; school your tongue." + +"Bianca is a pattern to me, I am aware," said Laura. + +"She is a good wife." + +"I am a poor widow." + +"She is a good daughter." + +"I am a wicked rebel." + +"And you are scheming at something now," said the little nobleman, +sagacious so far; but he was too eager to read the verification of the +tentative remark in her face, and she perceived that it was a guess +founded on her show of spirit. + +"Scheming to contain my temper, which is much tried," she said. "But I +suppose it supports me. I can always keep up against hostility." + +"You provoke it; you provoke it." + +"My instinct, then, divines my medicine." + +"Exactly, my dear; your personal instinct. That instigates you all. And +none are so easily conciliated as these Austrians. Conciliate them, and +you have them." Count Serabiglione diverged into a repetition of his +theory of the policy and mission of superior intelligences, as regarded +his system for dealing with the Austrians. + +Nurse Assunta's jealousy was worked upon to separate the children from +Vittoria. They ran down with her no more to meet the vast bowls of +grapes in the morning and feather their hats with vine leaves. Deprived +of her darlings, the loneliness of her days made her look to Wilfrid for +commiseration. Father Bernardus was too continually exhortative, and +fenced too much to "hit the eyeball of her conscience," as he phrased it, +to afford her repose. Wilfrid could tell himself that he had already +done much for her; for if what he had done were known, his career, social +and military, was ended. This idea being accompanied by a sense of +security delighted him; he was accustomed to inquire of Angelo's +condition, and praise the British doctor who was attending him +gratuitously. "I wish I could get him out of the way," he said, and +frowned as in a mental struggle. Vittoria heard him repeat his "I wish!" +It heightened greatly her conception of the sacrifice he would be making +on her behalf and charity's. She spoke with a reverential tenderness, +such as it was hard to suppose a woman capable of addressing to other +than the man who moved her soul. The words she uttered were pure thanks; +it was the tone which sent them winged and shaking seed. She had spoken +partly to prompt his activity, but her self-respect had been sustained by +his avoidance of the dreaded old themes, and that grateful feeling made +her voice musically rich. + +"I dare not go to him, but the doctor tells me the fever has left him, +Wilfrid; his wounds are healing; but he is bandaged from head to foot. +The sword pierced his side twice, and his arms and hands are cut +horribly. He cannot yet walk. If he is discovered he is lost. Count +Lenkenstein has declared that he will stay at the castle till he has him +his prisoner. The soldiers are all round us. They know that Angelo is +in the ring. They have traced him all over from the Valtellina to this +Ultenthal, and only cannot guess where he is in the lion's jaw. I rise +in the morning, thinking, 'Is this to be the black day?' He is sure to be +caught." + +"If I could hit on a plan," said Wilfrid, figuring as though he had a +diorama of impossible schemes revolving before his eyes. + +"I could believe in the actual whispering of an angel if you did. It was +to guard me that Angelo put himself in peril." + +"Then," said Wilfrid, "I am his debtor. I owe him as much as my life is +worth." + +"Think, think," she urged; and promised affection, devotion, veneration, +vague things, that were too like his own sentiments to prompt him +pointedly. Yet he so pledged himself to her by word, and prepared his +own mind to conceive the act of service, that (as he did not reflect) +circumstance might at any moment plunge him into a gulf. Conduct of this +sort is a challenge sure to be answered. + +One morning Vittoria was gladdened by a letter from Rocco Ricci, who had +fled to Turin. He told her that the king had promised to give her a warm +welcome in his capital, where her name was famous. She consulted with +Laura, and they resolved to go as soon as Angelo could stand on his feet. +Turin was cold--Italy, but it was Italy; and from Turin the Italian army +was to flow, like the Mincio from the Garda lake. "And there, too, is a +stage," Vittoria thought, in a suddenly revived thirst for the stage and +a field for work. She determined to run down to Meran and see Angelo. +Laura walked a little way with her, till Wilfrid, alert for these +occasions, joined them. On the commencement of the zig-zag below, there +were soldiers, the sight of whom was not confusing. Military messengers +frequently came up to the castle where Count Lenkenstein, assisted by +Count Serabiglione, examined their depositions, the Italian in the manner +of a winding lawyer, the German of a gruff judge. Half-way down the zig- +zag Vittoria cast a preconcerted signal back to Laura. The soldiers had +a pair of prisoners between their ranks; Vittoria recognized the men who +had carried Captain Weisspriess from the ground where the duel was +fought. A quick divination told her that they held Angelo's life on +their tongues. They must have found him in the mountain-pass while +hurrying to their homes, and it was they who had led him to Meran. On +the Passeyr bridge, she turned and said to Wilfrid, "Help me now. Send +instantly the doctor in a carriage to the place where he is lying." + +Wilfrid was intent on her flushed beauty and the half-compressed quiver +of her lip. + +She quitted him and hurried to Angelo. Her joy broke out in a cry of +thankfulness at sight of Angelo; he had risen from his bed; he could +stand, and he smiled. + +"That Jacopo is just now the nearest link to me," he said, when she +related her having seen the two men guarded by soldiers; he felt +helpless, and spoke in resignation. She followed his eye about the room +till it rested on the stilet. This she handed to him. "If they think of +having me alive!" he said softly. The Italian and his wife who had +given him shelter and nursed him came in, and approved his going, though +they did not complain of what they might chance to have incurred. He +offered them his purse, and they took it. Minutes of grievous +expectation went by; Vittoria could endure them no longer; she ran out to +the hotel, near which, in the shade of a poplar, Wilfrid was smoking +quietly. He informed her that his sister and the doctor had driven out +to meet Captain Gambier; his brother-in-law was alone upstairs. Her look +of amazement touched him more shrewdly than scorn, and he said, "What on +earth can I do?" + +"Order out a carriage. Send your brother-in-law in it. If you tell him +'for your health,' he will go." + +"On my honour, I don't know where those three words would not send him," +said Wilfrid; but he did not move, and was for protesting that he really +could not guess what was the matter, and the ground for all this urgency. + +Vittoria compelled her angry lips to speak out her suspicions explicitly, +whereupon he glanced at the sun-glare in a meditation, occasionally +blinking his eyes. She thought, "Oh, heaven! can he be waiting for me +to coax him?" It was the truth, though it would have been strange to him +to have heard it. She grew sure that it was the truth; never had she +despised living creature so utterly as when she murmured, "My best +friend! my brother! my noble Wilfrid! my old beloved! help me now, +without loss of a minute." + +It caused his breath to come and go unevenly. + +"Repeat that--once, only once," he said. + +She looked at him with the sorrowful earnestness which, as its meaning +was shut from him, was so sweet. + +"You will repeat it by-and-by?--another time? Trust me to do my utmost. +Old beloved! What is the meaning of 'old beloved'? One word in +explanation. If it means anything, I would die for you! Emilia, do you +hear?--die for you! To me you are nothing old or by-gone, whatever I may +be to you. To me--yes, I will order the carriage you are the Emilia-- +listen! listen! Ah! you have shut your ears against me. I am bound in +all seeming, but I--you drive me mad; you know your power. Speak one +word, that I may feel--that I may be convinced . . , or not a single +word; I will obey you without. I have said that you command my life." + +In a block of carriages on the bridge, Vittoria perceived a lifted hand. +It was Laura's; Beppo was in attendance on her. Laura drove up and said: +"You guessed right; where is he?" The communications between them were +more indicated than spoken. Beppo had heard Jacopo confess to his having +conducted a wounded Italian gentleman into Meran. "That means that the +houses will be searched within an hour," said Laura; "my brother-in-law +Bear is radiant." She mimicked the Lenkenstein physiognomy spontaneously +in the run of her speech. "If Angelo can help himself ever so little, he +has a fair start." A look was cast on Wilfrid; Vittoria nodded--Wilfrid +was entrapped. + +"Englishmen we can trust," said Laura, and requested him to step into her +carriage. He glanced round the open space. Beppo did the same, and +beheld the chasseur Jacob Baumwalder Feckelwitz crossing the bridge on +foot, but he said nothing. Wilfrid was on the step of the carriage, for +what positive object neither he nor the others knew, when his sister and +the doctor joined them. Captain Gambier was still missing. + +"He would have done anything for us," Vittoria said in Wilfrid's hearing. + +"Tell us what plan you have," the latter replied fretfully. + +She whispered: "Persuade Adela to make her husband drive out. The doctor +will go too, and Beppo. They shall take Angelo. Our carriage will +follow empty, and bring Mr. Sedley back." + +Wilfrid cast his eyes up in the air, at the monstrous impudence of the +project. "A storm is coming on," he suggested, to divert her reading of +his grimace; but she was speaking to the doctor, who readily answered her +aloud: "If you are certain of what you say." The remark incited Wilfrid +to be no subordinate in devotion; handing Adela from the carriage, while +the doctor ran up to Mr. Sedley, he drew her away. Laura and Vittoria +watched the motion of their eyes and lips. + +"Will he tell her the purpose?" said Laura. + +Vittoria smiled nervously: "He is fibbing." + +Marking the energy expended by Wilfrid in this art, the wiser woman said: +"Be on your guard the next two minutes he gets you alone." + +"You see his devotion." + +"Does he see his compensation? But he must help us at any hazard." + +Adela broke away from her brother twice, and each time he fixed her to +the spot more imperiously. At last she ran into the hotel; she was +crying. "A bad economy of tears," said Laura, commenting on the dumb +scene, to soothe her savage impatience. "In another twenty minutes we +shall have the city gates locked." + +They heard a window thrown up; Mr. Sedley's head came out, and peered at +the sky. Wilfrid said to Vittoria: "I can do nothing beyond what I have +done, I fear." + +She thought it was a petition for thanks, but Laura knew better; she +said: "I see Count Lenkenstein on his way to the barracks." + +Wilfrid bowed: "I may be able to serve you in that quarter." + +He retired: whereupon Laura inquired how her friend could reasonably +suppose that a man would ever endure being thanked in public. + +"I shall never understand and never care to understand them," said +Vittoria. + +"It is a knowledge that is forced on us, my dear. May heaven make the +minds of our enemies stupid for the next five hours!--Apropos of what I +was saying, women and men are in two hostile camps. We have a sort of +general armistice and everlasting strife of individuals--Ah!" she +clapped hands on her knees, "here comes your doctor; I could fancy I see +a pointed light on his head. Men of science, my Sandra, are always the +humanest." + +The chill air of wind preceding thunder was driving round the head of the +vale, and Mr. Sedley, wrapped in furs, and feebly remonstrating with his +medical adviser, stepped into his carriage. The doctor followed him, +giving a grave recognition of Vittoria's gaze. Both gentlemen raised +their hats to the ladies, who alighted as soon as they had gone in the +direction of the Vintschgau road. + +"One has only to furnish you with money, my Beppo," said Vittoria, +complimenting his quick apprehensiveness. "Buy bread and cakes at one of +the shops, and buy wine. You will find me where you can, when you have +seen him safe. I have no idea of where my home will be. Perhaps +England." + +"Italy, Italy! faint heart," said Laura. + +Furnished with money, Beppo rolled away gaily. + +The doubt was in Laura whether an Englishman's wits were to be relied on +in such an emergency; but she admitted that the doctor had looked full +enough of serious meaning, and that the Englishman named Merthyr Powys +was keen and ready. They sat a long half-hour, that thumped itself out +like an alarm-bell, under the poplars, by the clamouring Passeyr, +watching the roll and spring of the waters, and the radiant foam, while +band-music played to a great company of visitors, and sounds of thunder +drew near. Over the mountains above the Adige, the leaden fingers of an +advance of the thunder-cloud pushed slowly, and on a sudden a mighty gale +sat heaped blank on the mountain-top and blew. Down went the heads of +the poplars, the river staggered in its leap, the vale was shuddering +grey. It was like the transformation in a fairy tale; Beauty had taken +her old cloak about her, and bent to calamity. The poplars streamed +their length sideways, and in the pauses of the strenuous wind nodded +and dashed wildly and white over the dead black water, that waxed in foam +and hissed, showing its teeth like a beast enraged. Laura and Vittoria +joined hands and struggled for shelter. The tent of a travelling circus +from the South, newly-pitched on a grassplot near the river, was caught +up and whirled in the air and flung in the face of a marching guard of +soldiery, whom it swathed and bore sheer to earth, while on them and +around them a line of poplars fell flat, the wind whistling over them. +Laura directed Vittoria's eyes to the sight. "See," she said, and her +face was set hard with cold and excitement, so that she looked a witch in +the uproar; "would you not say the devil is loose now Angelo is abroad?" +Thunder and lightning possessed the vale, and then a vertical rain. At +the first gleam of sunlight, Laura and Vittoria walked up to the +Laubengasse--the street of the arcades, where they made purchases of +numerous needless articles, not daring to enter the Italian's shop. +A woman at a fruitstall opposite to it told them that no carriage could +have driven up there. During their great perplexity, mud and rain- +stained soldiers, the same whom they had seen borne to earth by the +flying curtain, marched before the shop; the shop and the house were +searched; the Italian and his old liming wife were carried away. + +"Tell me now, that storm was not Angelo's friend!" Laura muttered. + +"Can he have escaped?" said Vittoria. + +"He is 'on horseback.'" Laura quoted the Italian proverb to signify that +he had flown; how, she could not say, and none could inform her. The joy +of their hearts rose in one fountain. + +"I shall feel better blood in my body from this moment," Laura said; and +Vittoria, "Oh! we can be strong, if we only resolve." + +"You want to sing?" + +"I do." + +"I shall find pleasure in your voice now." + +"The wicked voice!" + +"Yes, the very wicked voice! But I shall be glad to hear it. You can +sing to-night, and drown those Lenkensteins." + +"If my Carlo could hear me!" + +"Ah!" sighed the signora, musing. "He is in prison now. I remember +him, the dearest little lad, fencing with my husband for exercise after +they had been writing all day. When Giacomo was imprisoned, Carlo sat +outside the prison walls till it was time for him to enter; his chin and +upper lip were smooth as a girl's. Giacomo said to him, 'May you always +have the power of going out, or not have a wife waiting for you.' Here +they come." (She spoke of tears.) "It's because I am joyful. The +channel for them has grown so dry that they prick and sting. Oh, Sandra! +it would be pleasant to me if we might both be buried for seven days, and +have one long howl of weakness together. A little bite of satisfaction +makes me so tired. I believe there's something very bad for us in our +always being at war, and never, never gaining ground. Just one spark of +triumph intoxicates us. Look at all those people pouring out again. +They are the children of fair weather. I hope the state of their health +does not trouble them too much. Vienna sends consumptive patients here. +If you regard them attentively, you will observe that they have an +anxious air. Their constitutions are not sound; they fear they may die." + +Laura's irony was unforced; it was no more than a subtle discord +naturally struck from the scene by a soul in contrast with it. + +They beheld the riding forth of troopers and a knot of officers hotly +conversing together. At another point the duchess and the Lenkenstein +ladies, Count Lenkenstein, Count Serabiglione, and Wilfrid paced up and +down, waiting for music. Laura left the public places and crossed an +upper bridge over the Passeyr, near the castle, by which route she +skirted vines and dropped over sloping meadows to some shaded boulders +where the Passeyr found a sandy bay, and leaped in transparent green, and +whitened and swung twisting in a long smooth body down a narrow chasm, +and noised below. The thundering torrent stilled their sensations: and +the water, making battle against great blocks of porphyry and granite, +caught their thoughts. So strong was the impression of it on Vittoria's +mind, that for hours after, every image she conceived seemed proper to +the inrush and outpour; the elbowing, the tossing, the foaming, the burst +on stones, and silvery bubbles under and silvery canopy above, the +chattering and huzzaing; all working on to the one-toned fall beneath the +rainbow on the castle-rock. + +Next day, the chasseur Jacob Baumwalder Feckelwitz deposed in full +company at Sonnenberg, that, obeying Count Serabiglione's instructions, +he had gone down to the city, and had there seen Lieutenant Pierson with +the ladies in front of the hotel; he had followed the English carriage, +which took up a man who was standing ready on crutches at the corner of +the Laubengasse, and drove rapidly out of the North-western gate, leading +to Schlanders and Mals and the Engadine. He had witnessed the transfer +of the crippled man from one carriage to another, and had raised shouts +and given hue and cry, but the intervention of the storm had stopped his +pursuit. + +He was proceeding to say what his suppositions were. Count Lenkenstein +lifted his finger for Wilfrid to follow him out of the room. Count +Serabiglione went at their heels. Then Count Lenkenstein sent for his +wife, whom Anna and Lena accompanied. + +"How many persons are you going to ruin in the course of your crusade, my +dear?" the duchess said to Laura. + +"Dearest, I am penitent when I succeed," said Laura. + +"If that young man has been assisting you, he is irretrievably ruined." + +"I am truly sorry for him." + +"As for me, the lectures I shall get in Vienna are terrible to think of. +This is the consequence of being the friend of both parties, and a peace- +maker." + +Count Serabiglione returned alone from the scene at the examination, +rubbing his hands and nodding affably to his daughter. He maliciously +declined to gratify the monster of feminine curiosity in the lump, and +doled out the scene piecemeal. He might state, he observed, that it was +he who had lured Beppo to listen at the door during the examination of +the prisoners; and who had then planted a spy on him--following the +dictation of precepts exceedingly old. "We are generally beaten, +duchess; I admit it; and yet we generally contrive to show the brain. As +I say, wed brains to brute force!--but my Laura prefers to bring about a +contest instead of an union, so that somebody is certain to be struck, +and"--the count spread out his arms and bowed his head--"deserves the +blow." He informed them that Count Lenkenstein had ordered Lieutenant +Pierson down to Meran, and that the lieutenant might expect to be +cashiered within five days. "What does it matter?" he addressed +Vittoria. "It is but a shuffling of victims; Lieutenant Pierson in the +place of Guidascarpi! I do not object." + +Count Lenkenstein withdrew his wife and sisters from Sonnenberg +instantly. He sent an angry message of adieu to the duchess, informing +her that he alone was responsible for the behaviour of the ladies of his +family. The poor duchess wept. "This means that I shall be summoned to +Vienna for a scolding, and have to meet my husband," she said to Laura, +who permitted herself to be fondled, and barely veiled her exultation in +her apology for the mischief she had done. An hour after the departure +of the Lenkensteins, the castle was again officially visited by Colonel +Zofel. Vittoria and Laura received an order to quit the district of +Meran before sunset. The two firebrands dropped no tears. "I really am +sorry for others when I succeed," said Laura, trying to look sad upon her +friend. + +"No; the heart is eaten out of you both by excitement," said the duchess. + +Her tender parting, "Love me," in the ear of Vittoria, melted one heart +of the two. + +Count Serabiglione continued to be buoyed up by his own and his +daughter's recent display of a superior intellectual dexterity until the +carriage was at the door and Laura presented her cheek to him. He said, +"You will know me a wise man when I am off the table." His +gesticulations expressed "Ruin, headlong ruin!" He asked her how she +could expect him to be for ever repairing her follies. He was going to +Vienna; how could he dare to mention her name there? Not even in a +trifle would she consent to be subordinate to authority. Laura checked +her replies--the surrendering, of a noble Italian life to the Austrians +was such a trifle! She begged only that a poor wanderer might depart +with a father's blessing. The count refused to give it; he waved her off +in a fury of reproof; and so got smoothly over the fatal moment when +money, or the promise of money, is commonly extracted from parental +sources, as Laura explained his odd behaviour to her companion. The +carriage-door being closed, he regained his courtly composure; his fury +was displaced by a chiding finger, which he presently kissed. Father. +Bernardus was on the steps beside the duchess, and his blessing had not +been withheld from Vittoria, though he half confessed to her that she was +a mystery in his mind, and would always be one. + +"He can understand robust hostility," Laura said, when Vittoria recalled +the look of his benevolent forehead and drooping eyelids; "but robust +ductility does astonish him. He has not meddled with me; yet I am the +one of the two who would be fair prey for an enterprising spiritual +father, as the destined roan of heaven will find out some day." + +She bent and smote her lap. "How little they know us, my darling! They +take fever for strength, and calmness for submission. Here is the world +before us, and I feel that such a man, were he to pounce on me now, might +snap me up and lock me in a praying-box with small difficulty. And I am +the inveterate rebel! What is it nourishes you and keeps you always +aiming straight when you are alone? Once in Turin, I shall feel that I +am myself. Out of Italy I have a terrible craving for peace. It seems +here as if I must lean down to him, my beloved, who has left me." + +Vittoria was in alarm lest Wilfrid should accost her while she drove from +gate to gate of the city. They passed under the archway of the gate +leading up to Schloss Tyrol, and along the road bordered by vines. An +old peasant woman stopped them with the signal of a letter in her hand. +"Here it is," said Laura, and Vittoria could not help smiling at her +shrewd anticipation of it. + +"May I follow?" + +Nothing more than that was written. + +But the bearer of the missive had been provided with a lead pencil to +obtain the immediate reply. + +"An admirable piece of foresight!" Laura's honest exclamation burst +forth. + +Vittoria had to look in Laura's face before she could gather her will to +do the cruel thing which was least cruel. She wrote firmly:-- + +"Never follow me." + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +An angry woman will think the worst +Be on your guard the next two minutes he gets you alone +No word is more lightly spoken than shame +O heaven! of what avail is human effort? +She thought that friendship was sweeter than love +Taint of the hypocrisy which comes with shame +They take fever for strength, and calmness for submission +Women and men are in two hostile camps + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Vittoria, v5 +by George Meredith + diff --git a/4439.zip b/4439.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7fa1e89 --- /dev/null +++ b/4439.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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